Ties to Nowhere

Kagome walked a few paces behind her mother as her family passed through the gates of the council meeting grounds. It was early morning, and a light fog seemed to hang over everything. While her face showed no expression, nervousness was making her stomach incredibly upset. Besides the circumstances behind the meeting, Kagome had never attended a council meeting before, and from what her mother had told her, it would test her ability to keep her cool in the worst way.

Kagome and her mother were shown to a small sitting room, though Kagome had no idea what they were waiting for. She had to focus all of her concentration on drinking her tea without letting her hands shake. She was sure that her mother was picking apart her movements by the sidelong glances she was throwing her. Startled when her mother cleared her throat and almost dropping her tea cup, Kagome turned to her when she spoke. “Kagome,” she started, her eyes sternly boring into her daughter’s, “you are probably aware that Sesshomaru’s father was eventually going to expose you to Sesshomaru’s poison to ensure that you are immune to it. That will be done in just a few moments from now.” Kagome felt the blood immediately drain from her face. Now? But… Kagome’s left hand balled into a fist on her lap. How can they do this now? I don’t think I’m ready!

Without any time left to run through the million reasons why this couldn’t be happening right now, a moment after her mother had stopped speaking Kagome’s father slid open the door to the room and stepped in, followed by the General and Sesshomaru. Kagome’s eyes remained fixed on the table in front of her until her mother cleared her throat. Kagome quickly turned on her knees and knelt to the lords, keeping her eyes on the floor. I’m not timid, I’m not afraid of this…I’m not afraid of HIM…look up, Kagome, you idiot, she thought, slowly raising her eyes to the lords in front of her. Her father, looking down at her sternly, was the first to speak when her eyes met his.

“Kagome, your mother has no doubt told you that you will now be given some of Lord Sesshomaru’s poison. Prepare yourself.” Kagome nodded, swallowing hard and moved a few feet away from the table and waited while Sesshomaru approached her. She did not catch the angry glance that Sesshomaru threw at his father. She remained seated perfectly still, having no idea of what was about to happen.

Inwardly, Sesshomaru was seething with anger at his father, his emotions getting higher by the second. In this room full of simpletons was the last place he wanted to be. He looked down at the girl before him that *he* had paired him with, his eyes wandering over her form in thinly veiled disgust. Leave it up to him to find a creature such as this for this Sesshomaru. She will probably die from this anyway, she is so weak.

Then suddenly it hit him – I can have my revenge…I’ll never give him what he wants. This girl *will* be too weak for this Sesshomaru’s poison. I won’t let him or her weaken me any longer. He knelt quickly beside Kagome and grasped her left arm, pushing up the sleeve and holding her wrist tightly between his thumb and fingers. As soon as her eyes landed on his face and saw the slight smirk on his lips, she tried in vain to pull her arm from his grasp. His fingertips glowing bright green with his poison, he dug three of them almost all the way through her thin wrist, and in a long sweep left three deep slashes up the underside of her lower arm. Releasing her, his smirk widening in satisfaction, he watched as her eyes rolled back in her head and her limp form fell forward onto the floor, the acrid smell of blood and poison filling the air. He felt his father move behind him, and then everything went black.

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Kagome’s mother sat silently next to her daughter’s futon, watching the beads of sweat drip slowly down the sides of her face. Occasionally the nursemaid on the other side of the futon would dab at Kagome’s face with a wet rag; otherwise, the room was as silent as a grave. She felt…well…almost proud that her daughter was not dead. From the amount of poison that had been seeping out of Kagome’s wounds, she surely should have been dead three times over.

After the General had not-so-gently dragged the limp form of his son from the room by his hair, servants had quickly carried Kagome’s body to her chambers, and were surprised to find that she was still breathing. Not knowing what to do with her wounds, they had placed her arm on a pile of bandages to absorb the blood, and had left her alone to either bleed to death or die from the poison. After monitoring her for a few hours, Kagome’s mother was convinced that she would not die; much of the poison seemed to have bled out and the slashes seemed to be repairing themselves. Her blood seemed to be diluting the poison, as it did not eat through the bandages as it bled out.

Kagome’s mother’s eyes slowly began to droop. The early journey and “excitement” of the day had taken its toll on her. She angrily batted the servant’s hand away when she touched her arm. “My lady!” the servant exclaimed a little too loudly and a little too close to her sensitive ears. “She’s awaken!” Kagome’s mother blinked rapidly a few times and glanced down at her daughter. I guess I fell asleep...So she is awake now.

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Why do my eyelids hurt? Why does *everything* hurt? What… Kagome’s eyes tried to focus under her heavily drooping eyelids. She sensed her mother beside her, and it took several seconds of straining to get her head to roll to the side so she could look at her. “Mother? What…?” Her throat was entirely too dry, and her voice cracked. When her mother spoke, the words hardly registered. “When you are recovered, we shall attend the next scheduled meeting. Servant girl, get her some water and some clean clothes.”

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Thank you for asking, Megan! I will be writing more chapters.