Revelations

Chapter 7: The Pieces Find their Places

Valcos stared at his bloody twin, the memories of a broken past now returning. His reflection saw him as he was, not a grimace out of place. Yet behind its mirrored mask lay crimson memories best forgotten.

‘It ended that day…I know it did. I made peace with my ghosts for good’

‘Really?’

The horror within Valcos seemed to have gained voice

‘Really Valcos…You think you can escape me? You remember the day you looked away. Yes you remember it well…hmmmmm…well, look away as much as you want, but whenever you turn back ill be there…and one day…one day soon…’

“How’s the wine Valcos?”

“Gnmph”

Valcos nearly choked on hearing the words…Her voice snapping him out of his dark thoughts.

Reminding himself to keep his guard about him Valcos looked up to the Lady of the castle…wearing his best smile.

“Excellent my lady, excellent. A fine choice if I may say so”

Sesshomaru’s mother looked at him coyly.

“That’s good. I hope you like the meat as well. We know how much you hate our food so I had the cow roasted over a slow fire.”

Valcos nodded a little too vigorously as he tried his level best to concentrate on his food. Satisfied with his muted answer Sesshomaru’s mother turned her attention to her son.

“And you Sesshomaru, how’s you meal”

From across the low table Sesshomaru answered only in silent stares. The food seemed to almost unconsciously enter his mouth.

“Come now Sesshomaru that’s no way to act with your mother”

Valcos jibed as he mockingly waved a chastising finger before him. But soon he returned to concentrating ferociously on his food as Sesshomaru’s icy gaze came to rest upon him.

And so dinner at the Taishou castle continued in its peacefully yet extremely unsettling fashion, so much so that Valcos forgot to breath at times.

Once the meal was over it was no surprise that Valcos was the first to rise from his seat…he was never comfortable with sitting on the floor any way.

But on rising it was Sesshoumaru’s mother who spoke first.

“Now Valcos, you said something about using the archives.”

“Y-yes my lady.”

“Very well then, I shall have someone escort you there tonight.”

“No thank you my lady, um I can find my way around on my own.”

Valcos spoke quickly; he had no mood to be invited to anything else.

Bidding the lady good night Valcos descended several mighty staircases until finally, he reached the subterranean chambers that held the royal archives of the western empire.

Actually there were two archives. The first were at the castle of the late Inu no Taishou-now Sesshomaru's castle-these held all the major economic and diplomatic documents of the empire. This castle held the military documents; these were records of all the wars and opponents of the western lands.

In his early days Valcos spent many months in these archives. The volumes of information had fascinated him.

Descending the final staircase, Valcos entered the vast, all to familiar chamber that housed shelves after shelves of history.

Moving through the isles he saw numerous dog demons tending to the folios. Finally, after what seemed an age he reached the very back of the massive vault; there in the very corner was a small room.

Knocking on the door he waited as an old dog demon appeared at the door. Squinting as he looked up at the man before him a smile of recognition spread across his face.

“Well its been a while…a while since I met the only man who could match my knowledge of these archives, no Valcos.”

Valcos smiled back at the old being.

“It has been a while Aki. Hope the woman isn’t giving you any trouble.”

“The Inu no Taishou respected me and that’s good enough for her”

Aki spoke with a hint of slyness in his voice.

“Now Valcos, what may I do for you.”

Valcos and Aki now began walking through the towering shelves of folders until they reached a large open area. Here the floor was scattered with low tables, candles etc. It was the reading area where people could view the documents of this chamber.

By now Valcos had filled Aki in on all that he had discovered during his journeys to the castle.

“So, you want to know about a demon known as the unseen one. Are you sure it exists.”

Valcos looked at the old demon; the air of challenge evident.

“Of course it exists. It was allegedly reported by a sentry so I’m quite sure it must be in the records.”

“Well what more can you tell me about this demon.”

Aki’s brow was furrowed, his hands rubbing his chin.

“Well, it existed in the time of the late Inu no Taishou that I’m sure of.”

“Good, at least we know what era it came form. Umm did the late Taishou defeat this demon?”

“Wha?!”

The question seemed irrelevant, completely out of context.

“What does that have to do with anything? Just t-”

“It seems its been a while no Valcos. These days we’ve divided the old foes of the western lands into those who were defeated and those who lived on. So tell me, was the thing slain or not.”

Valcos took a moment to think, he didn’t know what ha-

‘Moron!! The demon eventually became part of the jewel! So even if the sentries picked it up it must have survived the encounter whatever happened.’

“I’m quite sure the beast survived any contact with the kingdom…uh…that’s all.”

Valcos quickly added on seeing Aki’s expectant face.

On hearing Valcos’ words Aki immediately sprung into action. With a wave of his hands and a few orders barked out, several wards began scurrying about the place.

“We’ll just have what you want. Personally I’ve never heard f the demon but I’m quite sure he’ll be in here…if he exists.”

Valcos took the jibe in his stride.

“So how’s Kai doing.”

“Ah, well my brother is already training a protégé. Oddly enough that protégé is my son.”

Valcos raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Kai was head of archives in Sesshomaru’s castle.

“That’s not right, I thought Kai had a son.”

Aki smiled.

“Yes he does, but lord Sesshomaru saw him fit for a sword not a brush.”

The two shared a few moments heartily laughing at Kai’s less than intellectual legacy. But soon the several wards returned each carrying huge piles of black folios.

Even Valcos’ eyes widened slightly at the sight of the numerous volumes. Aki continued to smile; indifferent to the chaos.

“I don’t know exactly where this demon is but I can cut down you’re reading time…unless of course you wan-”

“No no, its quite all right, thin away.”

With grunts and no’s as his only indicator to what was going on Valcos watched as Aki skimmed over the covers of the folios. By he end of the whole process the old demon had reduced the pile by more than half.

Thanking Aki and bidding him good night Valcos found himself all alone in the reading area. Sitting down at the nearest table Valcos threw open the first folio and began searching for the mysterious unseen one.

Hours seemed to pass as the pile became ever shorter. Before Valcos’ hope was allowed to waver his eyes caught a glimpse of a creature sitting down at one of the tables just outside the reach of the candle’s light.

On recognition, Valcos cordially bowed his head.

“Greetings my lord Sesshomaru.”

The inu lord didn’t reply. Sitting there, he continued to watch Valcos skim through the piles of parchment. Finally the demon spoke.

“Do you feel it.”

“Huh”

Valcos looked up, surprised to hear the lord’s voice.

“Feel what.”

“Doom is coming…a doom that should have been vanquished long ago. You do remember the battle.”

“Of course, there is no way I can forget…but that was a long time ago. What does it have to do with the present?”

Sesshomaru was silent for a long time.

“At least twice have I encountered the beasts. Several more have been sighted about the lands. They should not be. Something burns upon the near horizons.”

Valcos did not reply. He continued to read through the numerous volumes before him, drawing blanks on every page.

“You must have heard of Kagome, I mean I’m sure you’ve met her.”

Valcos began rambling aimlessly, a weak attempt to clear his mind and set t in order.

“Allegedly she can go to the future through a well, it’s called the bone eaters well. Personally I’ve never heard something more outrageous. Time travel is impossible you and I both know that.”

Valcos paused for a second as he picked up a new folio, propping it open in front of him he reassumed his discourse.

“That’s why I went on this huge treasure hunt. I’m dead sure it all has something to do with the sacred jewel…you know the one. Specifically I’m sure it has something to do with this unseen one, it’s an old demon that was found a-”

“Stop strafing arrows Valcos. There is something far bigger around us.”

Sesshomaru’s tone left no room for evasion…

Valcos was silent for a long time, his eyes glazed over…no longer skimming through the pages before him.

“Of course I’ve heard of the sightings. They are but whispers, mutterings of apocalypse in a misty future. But that’s not for us to worry about is it; Gaugan hasn’t taken any notice so why do we have to worry. A-”

Valcos was cut off mid sentence. The page before him held very little writing, dominating it was a detailed charcoal sketch of a demon.

The writing on the page was a narrated account of the demons contact with the western kingdom.

‘The sun was on the rise when it came to us, fueled by demonic fires it came at us, death its only calling. The battle was hard fought, the beast was a formidable foe but the sentry was able to push it back away from the lands. To afraid to give chase the sentry chose to allow the beast to escape…never to be seen again. For archival purposes the beast was known as the unseen one.’

Valcos stared long and hard at the image of the beast, its skull like face, its skeletal body, its robed armor. No doubt in his mind as to what it was.

His blood turned to ice; his now pale demeanor intrigued even Sesshomaru.

This demon had nothing to do with time travel…that was sure. Words of the angel Galadriel and of Kagome rang through his ears. The significance of all that had come to pass became clear; the visions off all that would come came into focus.

Without giving Sesshomaru the chance to speak Valcos thrust the volume towards him. Immediately Valcos burst into a long-winded narrative of his journeys in search of an answer to Kagome’s chronological exploits through which he had ignorantly found the reason behind the strange demons.

“Lets get some sleep, I’m quite sure I’ve got an early morning ahead of me…what do you say.”

Sesshomaru stared at the man before him…clearly he was still quite shaken by the news…it was after all a fairly large matter.

So, after ensuring that the clerks were able to clean up the mess of folios the two beings silently made their way to the upper chambers of the castle.

Finally, after a long unspoken walk, the two arrived at Valcos’ sleeping chambers.

“So long Sess”

Sesshomaru was barely able to stop his eyebrows from rising…

“I have a few matters to tend to before I call it a day…actually I might just leave tonight. Give my thanks to your mother if I do”

Sesshomaru was silent for a long time.

“It seems like Gaugan overlooked some things. Whispers just became screams did they not Valcos.”

Valcos stood defeated, slowly nodding his head. Slowly he extended one arm in front of him.

“Good night Lord Sesshomaru.”

But Sesshomaru did not return the handshake, nor did he utter a word of good-bye. Noiselessly, he slid the doors of Valcos’ chambers shut and headed up towards his own.

Inside, Valcos recovered fairly quickly from Sesshomaru’s abrupt goodbye. Immediately he sat down at the low table and by the light of a lone candle he began a long letter to an old friend.

‘…Through my wanderings I’ve come across plans which have been moving in our own shadows. I fear these plans look to destroy all we strived to build two hundred and forty years ago. It all begins with the sacred jewel and its creation…’

The letter was no doubt long and as the birds had just begun to sing their morning songs as Valcos saw the end of his long piece.

‘…I need not stress how important it is that you ensure that this information reaches the right powers, we do not know how deep we are and action must be taken.

Your dear friend

Valcos

Oh yes, thank you for the bag, I couldn’t function without it.

More importantly, while you tend to this matter I still feel the need to look into the time traveling girl, I am-as always-working on hunches and hypotheses so please arrange to have a heaven stone for my use at the bone eaters well it in the…’

Heaven stones were very hard to procure, they alone could act as gateways between this world and the heavens. Hopefully his old friend would have the political weight to get the job done.

Mustering his untrained magical abilities, he conjured a white dove from air, on completing his task it would vanish completely.

Rolling up the leaves of parchment and tying it to the phantom bird, he sent it on its way.

“Go on now, get the letter to Vash, he’ll know what to do.”

He knew that Vash would enjoy the white dove; it had been his symbol since his early days. The letter would take about a day to reach. He himself would take about four days by foot to reach the well. Hopefully by then, Vash would have his stone.

Putting out the candles in his room he headed up to bid the lord good day.

Before he could knock the door slid open…Sesshomaru’s hearing was as good as always.

“Ah, looks like your awake. I just came to ask…why are you concerned with this coming doom. I though you didn’t care for such lowly things.”

Sesshomaru stared at Valcos.

“These things are of no care to this Sesshomaru, I was merely curious to hear your words on the subject. For what is the world but earth and water.”

Valcos smiled at the demon lord’s words, disgust hidden in its corners.

“As I thought. You know…arrogance, power can only be measured in mirrors. Seen through the failures and defeats of others. But when the end comes…and it will come, when all is washed away, your naked self will be all that is left to stare back at you.

One day you have to realize…no, my lord already knows all there is to know…one day you must accept…accept that there is a world around you, a world that is far bigger than you and me. Now, I bid you good day…who knows when we shall next meet.”

Valcos once again extended his hand and once again he had a door slammed in his face.

Slightly annoyed, Valcos left the castle without bidding the lady, he left towards the bone eaters well leaving Sesshomaru in the quiet maelstrom that were his thoughts…

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Ahhhhhh that was a fun holiday, it ended at the right time too…just before it began to drag. Well here I am back again. WTF is Gaugan … well like most things in my stories you gotta wait and find out!!! peace