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Devotion	By : BlackberryPatch Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 12488 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter List
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14
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Empire

Inuyasha scowled. "You what?"
Afzal smiled, amused. "I invented it," he repeated. "A poison, of both natural and supernatural element, and infused with my own energies to bind it; the base ingredients are easy enough to come by if the creation of it is slightly more taxing, but you must agree there's a certain delicious irony in allowing arrogant purebloods a taste of that which they despise. Humans are an annoyance, but purebloods aren't even worth putting up with." He gave a mock shudder as if at some unfavorable memory then turned to Inuyasha with a frown. "You had some difficulty with the soldiers? They swore to me that they would not try their tricks on half bloods." His frown turned more pronounced. "Far be it for me to believe human promises, but I had thought they were sufficiently cowed in that regard."
He realized he was staring, incredulous, but Inuyasha couldn't stop. "But..."
Afzal wasn't listening. He turned and called out "Jabir!," summoning the page from earlier and
issuing the boy a rapid stream of orders. The boy's eyes were large and he nodded before scurrying
away. Turning back to Inuyasha, Afzal beckoned the other half breed to follow him as he started down a different hallway. "Come. I will deal with them later; we have much to discuss."
Inuyasha followed, dazed. "But," he tried again, though he wasn't sure what exactly he was
planning on saying after that word.
Afzal made a dismissing gesture. "Do not worry; they will wait upon my pleasure. And I will keep
them waiting, hearing about this." He scowled again and Inuyasha followed him, silent now, as his host led the way to a bright, open room.
Seating himself on the comfortable pillows, Inuyasha felt he'd managed to gather enough of his wits to form a complete sentence. "This poison, why the hell would you give it to this army to use as a weapon?"
"As I told you, it keeps the empire amused and keeps the purebloods in their place." He frowned,
annoyed, and waved away further questions with a gesture that was becoming familiar. "It really is not worth discussing. I..."
"I damn well think it's worth discussing!" Inuyasha interrupted him, glaring at the other half
demon darkly.
Afzal paused, looking back at him with sharp eyes. "I am sorry," he said finally. "I realize
that your experience must have been traumatic, but rest assured I will punish them for their transgression."
It was Inuyasha's turn to wave the other's comment into insignificance. "No, that's not what I
meant." Afzal looked him curiously and Inuyasha sighed, feeling his anger drain away into frustration, and he ran his hands through his hair roughly. "Whatever." It was strange to be on the other side of the equation, but he'd seen enough of blood prejudice to know that there was nothing he could say that would change Afzal's mind or opinions. "What were you going to say?"
Afzal watched him a moment, but nodded and continued. "In the search that has lead me to find the balance I have, the greatest time I spent was on the discovery of the knowledge that such a balance was possible." He cocked his head thoughtfully. "I do not think there has ever been a half blood before me who has discovered it; if there has, I have found no trace of him in the research I have conducted over the years."
There was a weight to the last word that made Inuyasha raise his head to look at Afzal more closely. "How old are you?"
The half blood's eyes were distant, as if reading over the catalog of time as it had passed before
his eyes. "Approximately two millennia." There was silence for a moment and Inuyasha felt his eyes widen as the weight of that length of time fell over them. Demons lived a long time if no one
got around to killing them, but now that he thought about it he'd never known a half breed that was any older than himself. "It was... before the age of all things modern," Afzal murmured. "My father was shaman of a nomadic tribe; my mother a demon of elemental power." his eyes were still
distant as he murmured, "I killed her, eventually." Inuyasha stilled, eyes settling on Afzal's face even as his fingers curled around Tetsusaiga's hilt.
It may have been the slight movement of his hand, or a stray thought in the half demon's own head, but something startled Afzal and he fell from his trancelike state to smile at Inuyasha easily and he continued in his earlier vein as if nothing else had passed. "Once I understood what I was attempting to do, the rest came very easily. Of course, that first step is still the key, even with all the decades of research I can save you." His eyes ran over Inuyasha, inspecting him, and he said, "The first step is realizing what you are." He paused, as if waiting for an answer.
Inuyasha shifted slightly where he sat and his ears went back against his head. "I am a half breed."
Afzal smiled secretively. "No. You are not."
Inuyasha stared at him as if Afzal was particularly dense. "Yeah, I think I kind of am. I didn't know him, but my father was a demon lord. My mother was human; I knew her pretty well."
Afzal shook his head. "See, this is what I mean." He leaned forward, reaching with an excited
motion to take Inuyasha's hand and pull the other half demon close to him. He was so close his breath ghosted over Inuyasha's face as he whispered, "It is just words, a name for us because they define the world from themselves. There is a trick to it." He leaned closer, as if imparting a great secret, and his voice was still eager. "The trick is in not thinking of yourself as being made of two
halves. The trick is to know that you are whole." He grinned, dropping a quick kiss on Inuyasha's cheek as the half demon stared at his host in amazement.
"Not... halves?" Inuyasha murmured, turning the idea over in his mind.
Afzal leaned back, nodding. "Do not be too frustrated; it is a way of thought that took me two
hundred years before I understood it fully. But it is only when you comprehend this truth that will you be able to harness the full power that lies within you and shed the imperfections of your parentage."
Inuyasha blinked. "Imperfections?"
Afzal nodded again, his expression serious now. "There are great imperfections in both human and demon, just as there are also impressive and magnificent things in both species." He cupped Inuyasha's cheek. "We are the ultimate product, refined and flawless."
"But..." Inuyasha shook his head. "How am I not a half demon, when I am both human and demon, half of each?"
"You are thinking of these halves as separate things, each keeping to their own side." Afzal shrugged. "If I put flour with yeast and cook it together I have made bread- a new thing, separate from its origins."
Inuyasha shivered. Words brushed his memory: I can smell him in you, even on this night... "I think I see. There isn't a certain part of me that is human while another is demon, but all parts are equally both." Afzal nodded. "But, if I've always been that way, then why do I have nights when I'm human and times when the demon takes over?"
Afzal smiled nostalgically. "Ah yes, my human night... It's been so long, I'd forgotten." He shook his head and returned his attention to Inuyasha. "It is because you do not fully comprehend the wholeness of your self here."
He poked his finger in the center of Inuyasha's forehead. "When you are endangered, your demon self believes that it is more capable of ensuring your survival than your human self is. In the same way, your human self believes that if it does not assert itself on a regular basis it will be consumed by your demon self. This is why you have these instances. What you need to realize is that both these facets of your self are lying."
Inuyasha felt like his head was rolling around in circles even though he knew he was still sitting in
from of Afzal. "So you're saying that when I finish realizing everything you're saying I need to realize, then I not only won't have to worry about the demon taking over, but I won't have my human night anymore either?" He shook his head. "That's crazy," he said, but the words were heavy with doubt and tinged with the first touch of possibility. Afzal smiled.
--
The moon set to his right and Sesshomaru paused, waiting for his escort to catch up to him.
"Is that it?" Sesshomaru asked Badr, and the stumbling half demon glared at him darkly, no
longer even trying to hide his displeasure, as he moved up to stare into the farthest distance at the shadow of grouped trees on the desert sand.
"Yes," Badr muttered, even more displeased. "That is Afzal's oasis."
There was a certain tenor to the way he pronounced the possessive that made Sesshomaru glace to him. "How did he come to possess it?"
The half demon shifted uneasily. "He... created it."
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed and he observed musingly, "Then he is a demon of incredible power, and definitely the one I seek."
Kunya hissed in his own dissatisfaction as he skulked behind them. "Powerful," he murmured, "but no demon. Afzal is a dark spirit, an elemental creature, an evil blight." He moved further away in the darkness, still muttering, and Badr started after him with the fearful distaste he had shown toward the other demon since first meeting him.
Sesshomaru sighed in annoyance and turned to Badr. "You have met him; tell me more about Afzal. Why does Kunya claim that he is not a demon?"
Badr shifted uneasily under Sesshomaru's gaze but answered, "He is a demon. Or... half at least."
His ears were flat against his head in unease and Sesshomaru thought he really should have realized that earlier.
"It explains a few things," he said softly. "Continue."
"Afzal is... very powerful, as you say, even just within himself. But... even more than that, I have seen him gain power from a sandstorm, and I've seen him call a storm just for that purpose; that's why Kunya says he is an elemental, though no elemental demon I've ever met has worked powers quiet like Afzal does."
From what Badr said, elemental demons were common in this area, information which made Sesshomaru frown internally. Purely elemental demons were no stronger than any other type of demon, but they carried power differently, and used it far differently. "And he uses this gathered power to defend the oasis, where he seeks out and holds together other half demons with himself."
Badr shook his head. "No. Or, not mostly." He glanced toward the oasis. "He does take
in half bloods that have nowhere else to go, which most don't. And he does use his power to defend the oasis, against all comers. But mostly what he does with his days is pit the humans against any pureblooded demons he knows about, and pit the humans against each other as well." He rolled his eyes, allowing his exasperation to show through. "He's utterly preoccupied with destroying them both, the idiot."
And again, there was something in the tone of his voice that made Sesshomaru pause. "You care very deeply for him."
Badr flushed and turned away. "How could I? He's a manipulative bastard."
The words were obviously rote, and they were both silent for a moment before Sesshomaru spoke again. "You were being dragged back there by those humans; for what reason?"
Badr shrugged. "They, all the humans, think if they give him what he wants he will leave them
alone." His expression saddened. "They don't know that he's too crazy for that." He glanced after Kunya's muttering shadow, and added softly, mostly to himself, "He's obsessed. He'll never give up persecuting them. He hates humans." He glanced surreptitiously at Sesshomaru. "The only thing he hates more is purebloods."
Arms folded over his chest, Sesshomaru mulled through this information for a moment, his eyes fixed on the distant shadow of the oasis. "Thank you," he said finally. "Your information is appreciated. I do not require anything further from you; you may go."
Badr paused and looked at him for a moment, then shook his head and, muttering again about crazy purebloods, slipped away over the sand. Sesshomaru lost track of him once the half demon passed into the shadow of a dune, but his attention was focused on something else and he didn't much care where Badr went from here or what he did.
--
The already warm and cloudless morning did nothing to improve his mood as Afzal met with the human troops. He'd made them wait overnight, and as he approached the captain he usually dealt with he could see the man was inordinately nervous because of the delay. That did not bode well; for the humans, anyway. Afzal was already aware that they had not brought him any of the information which was the only thing he asked them for in exchange for their precious potion.
Afzal sighed with displeasure as he regarded the human who stood before him. "Captain, I had
thought I made myself clear. If you have nothing to bring to me, then I have nothing to give to you."
The man's face tightened as he bit back some retort. Behind him the ranks of his men shifted their
weight as they watched the exchange. "M'lord," he said instead, "we have scoured our lands for that which you require, but as I told you there are no more half bloods in our territory. I assure you,
should we find evidence of any we will bring it to you immediately."
The half demon's eyes narrowed as he played absently with a small vial of his potion. "Perhaps the
problem is that you simply do not recognize a half demon when you see one. I have just this past day met with a half demon who told me that your soldiers worked their tricks on him." He held up the vial. "Shall I give you this to use against my own people?"
His eyes were dark with hatred and the captain blanched. "M'lord, if I had heard about any such abuse I assure you I would have..."
Afzal silenced him with a dismissing motion, tucking the vial into a pocket. "I am not interested in your excuses. It is as I said: bring me nothing, receive nothing." He turned to leave.
"But, M'lord!" the man called after him frantic, but the call was cut off abruptly as the man realizes
the futility of his attempt.
Afzal smiled. Some humans were capable of learning, though he never had high expectations of
the military specimens which he often dealt with. He left them quickly, far more important things on his mind this morning. In his life he'd met many other half bloods, but few were as interesting as
his most recent guest.
--
Inuyasha peered around the door into the room behind it before he eased his way inside, soft footed. He hadn't exactly been told not to snoop around Afzal's other rooms, but he was pretty sure the other half demon would not be happy to find him here. This looked like the place where Afzal brewed his poison; there were bottles of some strange liquids along one wall and the whole room gave off the most unpleasant sensation. There was a table strewn with pages with dark lines of writing on them, but as he got closer Inuyasha realized all the ones he could see were written in some strange squiggly language he couldn't make out. Should have figured, he thought. He glared around the room, but he wasn't sure what he could do to hinder the distribution of the vile liquid, outside of wholesale destruction- and really all that would achieve would be to piss off his host. He left the room, and the sensation of small insects crawling all over his skin, behind.
The next room was a small storeroom, full of barrels of strange smelling liquids. He moved through it quickly but paused in the next room. It was much like the one where he and Afzal had talked yesterday, only with a slightly different color scheme, and on the other side of the building so that it
caught the morning light instead of the afternoon sun. He paused here a moment, letting the
warmth of the sunlight wash the dark feeling of the other room from him.
"Inuyasha?"
He started to hear his name, and tried to cover the feeling of guilt that was his immediate reaction to
getting caught. "Afzal," he said in reply.
The other half demon came into the room, a small bundle tucked under his arm. He smiled at his guest. "I still have to finish dealing with the idiot humans, but I've brought you something."
He made no mention of the fact that Inuyasha was here alone, and Inuyasha tried to ignore it as well, focusing on the bundle Afzal had placed before him. "What is it?" he asked as he sat across from his host.
"Something to help you," came the reply, as Afzal pulled layers of silk away to reveal a smooth, flat
piece of silver, rounded at the edges and about the size of Inuyasha's spread hands, where it rested easily as Afzal passed it to him.
The surface shone with a soft light and Inuyasha could see his reflection in it. "A mirror?"
Afzal chuckled. "It is more than just a mirror, but I think that is all I will tell you for now. The rest is for you to figure out yourself."
Inuyasha snorted. "Thanks." The word wasn't precisely thankful but he was too engrossed in how the sunlight reflected off the silver disc in his hands to notice Afzal's amused smile.
"You are most welcome." He rose, resting a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "I will leave you to
get better acquainted with it while I attend to my other, unwanted, guests."
Inuyasha glanced up at the last words, ears flicking back in apprehension his host didn't see.
"Right."
--
"Do not think to disappoint me again, Captain." Afzal frowned at the human. "I was informed that you have discovered that you do have something you wish to show me."
The captain bowed. "Yes, M'lord. A patrol of mine just recently returned. They apprehended a half blood in the nearby desert."
Afzal rolled his eyes, arms folded before him in annoyed boredom. "Do not think, Captain, that you can sell me one of my own people to get more of your precious toy." He reached out a hand to show the captain the small vial he held before he flipped the vial in the air and caught it, hiding it in his fist. "I will see what you believe to have caught."
The captain nodded and his lieutenant gestured to two more soldiers. They came forward,
dragging a kicking and swearing form between them.
Afzal laughed. "Badr," he purred. The young half blood stilled at Afzal's recognition, looking up with wild eyes. "How good of you to join us." Afzal knelt down and grasped the other half demon by the back of the neck in a friendly gesture. "You left, Badr. And before I could tell you all the great plans I have. Plans you had seemed to want to share." Badr made no answer and Afzal's mood sobered. He stood and looked at the captain. "Very well, you may have your blood money." He
waved dismissingly. "Now go." He took Badr's arm and pulled the half demon up before him, watching him closely. "What are you doing here, Badr? You cannot have been on your way back to me alone." He searched Badr's face but the other half blood was silent, glaring at him defiantly.
The captain glanced between the pair, and felt it his place to offer, "My men say they saw also tracks, of two others, near the oasis as they were returning." He gestured his men to leave quickly as they gathered up their precious cargo; he knew not to wear out his welcome when visiting this
mysterious place, and he only hoped his little last minute present was enough to leave Afzal in a pleasant mood.
"Others?" Afzal murmured. "Did someone come with you Badr?" Badr scowled and looked away and Afzal smirked. "Simple enough to find out, I suppose." His eyes went empty for a moment; his fingers tightened in their grip until Badr whimpered but Afzal didn't appear to notice. He was reaching out to his oasis- because it was his, every blade of grass and grain of sand in it was his- and he knew every being that dwelled there. It was simple enough to find the unfamiliar presence... Though not as unfamiliar as he'd first thought. He smiled.
--
Sesshomaru slipped under the tall trees of the oasis. The sunlight fell in dappled shadows over him
as he scanned his surroundings for any sign of Inuyasha. Kunya was whining softly from somewhere behind him but Sesshomaru ignored him, only vaguely aware when the other demon started off in a different direction. He rested a hand on Tenseiga, the sword humming directionlessly at his side. He had tried many times before to feel out Inuyasha with the sword, but either his understanding of the connection between Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga was inaccurate, or there was something preventing Tenseiga from telling him where to find his brother. But the humming was louder now, he thought, and a warm excitement threaded through his blood.
There were shapes moving about the oasis; as he slipped closer he could see that all of them were half demons. They didn't notice him, intent on their tasks and conversations, until he saw a group of children playing a game in a cleared space before the building which dominated the landscape of the oasis. He saw one of them look his way and he stopped, looking back at the child. She smiled cautiously, head cocked in interest as she stepped toward him. "I do not know you." Her Arabic was heavily accented. "Are you new here?" She frowned at him, and was suddenly wary as if just remembering something. "You feel funny." She narrowed vertically-slitted eyes and flicked a forked tongue in apprehension.
He considered her carefully. "I am not from around here, no. I am looking for someone."
She regarded him seriously. "Who are you looking for?"
He crouched to be on a level with her eyes and spoke with the same level of seriousness, "I am looking for my brother. He is a half demon like yourself. I am not, which is perhaps why you find that my energy feels strange to you."
Her eyes widened and she started to step away. "Father says I should stay away from demons."
He frowned. "Your father is here, in this place?"
"No." She stopped moving and her eyes were sad. "Not really. Father says our parents didn't
want us, so he brought us here. But I remember a little; Mama yelled a lot."
Sesshomaru sighed. "Your Father is correct; you should stay away from demons. Many of them
will kill you."
Her serious gaze returned to him. "What about you?" she asked boldly.
He gave a slight smile. "I am looking for someone," he repeated. She nodded.
"Demon," a loud voice, seeming louder because of his quiet conversation with the little girl, rang out.
The girl jumped in surprise, then turned and ran to the speaker calling, "Father!"
Sesshomaru rose from his crouch and slowly eyed the half demon standing before him. "Afzal," he
said, knowing that this must be the creature he'd heard so much about.
Afzal smiled, a slow baring of teeth. "You have come here to take my children, haven't you demon?" He gently guided the girl behind him. The other children had abandoned their game and were watching fearfully from near the wall of the building. "You have come thinking you will kill
them, that you can remove their filthy blood from this world." His eyes were dark with unreadable emotion.
Sesshomaru's head came up as he felt the accusation strike him, but his eyes flared with anger and his lip curled. "No. I have come for what you stole from me."
Afzal's smile curved into a snarl. "Such arrogance. Is it a thing so precious that I liberated, that you have come in desperate search of it?"
Sesshomaru scowled. "It is not a thing at all that I search for, but my brother."
"Oh?" Afzal spread his hands. "There are none like you here. And none that would
claim you as kin."
He felt his lip curl, and Sesshomaru suppressed his own snarl. "Enough banter. Inuyasha is here. I will not leave without him."
Afzal's eyes narrowed. "So be it."
He moved faster than Sesshomaru's eyes could follow his movement, but he'd expected that kind of movement and when Afzal's long claws came in close to cut at him he was ready. Afzal looked down in surprise to find Sesshomaru has caught him by the wrist, the demon's own claws buried in his flesh and seeping poison. Afzal's eyes went pitch black and Sesshomaru felt the wind pick up
around him. The half demon pulled free, howling in righteous rage as he reached back and struck Sesshomaru in his fury, sending the demon flying through the air and skidding back over the sand.
Sesshomaru picked himself up off the sand slowly. His teeth were bared and his eyes were red, but
the sand was whipping up around him now, and he felt more than saw Afzal approach. The half demon reached down to seize him by the hair and pull him up, grasping him by the chin and forcing Sesshomaru to look at him. "Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are in any way capable of besting me. I have had thousands of years to learn my powers, and thousands of years to learn yours. You filthy creature, do you think there is anything you can do that will prevent me from having what I want?" Sesshomaru snarled and fought him, but he felt a strange lassitude falling over him as Afzal held him tightly, glaring with such hatred into his eyes. "My words are my will; my
words are a spell," Afzal murmured, the words making no sense to Sesshomaru as the roaring sound of the wind rose in his ears even as he felt it stilling around them. "My spell makes the form of what you desire a shadow; what is, is gone." He gave one last glare and released Sesshomaru, the demon falling limply from his grasp and staring sightlessly at nothing. "What could be, is now what it."
--
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