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The Tale of the Demon Lord	By : Arianawray Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 56279 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
VII: Enlightenment
Before dawn, the half-demon prince slipped out of Sesshomaru's bed like a silver-white shadow, pulled on his clothes and left the room. He nodded to the guards, and again to the pair outside his own chambers. As he entered his room and closed his door with a feeling of relief at being left alone at last, he wondered what the guards must think. Sesshomaru had chosen those allowed to work most closely to him for their discretion and loyalty as well as their competence, so these individuals revealed nothing of their thoughts on their faces.
It was fairly common in demon society for siblings to also be lovers and mates. Even parent-child pairings were not unknown, although their incidence was far rarer, and normally discouraged for a variety of historical, social and cultural reasons. While his being with Sesshomaru felt strange and wrong to Inuyasha after so many years in human communities, perhaps it was not unusual to the guards and servants, who were themselves demons and might well be sleeping with their own sisters or brothers.
Besides, to all the individuals permitted to enter this wing, Sesshomaru's long-established readiness to use the servants and occasionally his guests to satisfy his needs meant all kinds of bedtime and bathtime goings-on that they were well accustomed to.
But he was sure no one had been allowed to stay overnight in the royal chambers while he had lived here as a child, and he had gathered from Natsumi and Jaken that that hadn't changed in his years away from the castle. Knowing that Sesshomaru had not only permitted, but wanted, him to stay only increased the pressure on him.
He was a little angry with himself for having allowed his body to be so easily controlled by Sesshomaru last night, and felt embarrassed that he had found the physical sensations not entirely unenjoyable. If it came down to a choice between being locked up, beaten and kicked but never yielding an ounce of himself, and being caressed and kissed but surrendering his spirit and soul, which would he choose, he wondered? Or had he already made that choice?
He wasn't sure, but he knew for certain that it was nice right here and now not to have that maniac of a brother breathing down his neck and pressing up against him while he was trying to rest. He shed his evening clothes, pulled on the sleepwear laid out at the foot of his bed, and sank under his own covers for the hour or so that he had to himself before Natsumi came in.
He had closed his eyes and fallen asleep by the time the racoon demon entered as quietly as she could, so as not to disturb him. But he heard her, and sat up sleepily while she prepared his washcloths and basins before ushering him to the bathroom while she made a carefully considered selection of garments from his wardrobe. Lord Sesshomaru had left Inuyasha's choice of attire to her for the foreseeable future, and she wanted to ensure that the prince would be properly turned out.
When Inuyasha emerged from the bathroom, yawning, she had chosen something in a russet-and-gold design that brought out the colour of his amber-gold eyes. Once it was on, he looked very well in it, and his eyes seemed enormous and even brighter than usual despite their sleepiness, so she decided that it was a good choice, and secured it with a cream-coloured sash to her satisfaction.
He had obviously fallen asleep with wet hair, she thought, as she moved on to combing and tidying his silver mane. Locks of it were clumped together, shining dully, in the way hair did when it was slept on while damp, so she carefully combed out the tangles, separated the strands, and added a light touch of oil to make it gleam in a more pleasing way.
"Thank you," Inuyasha said, when she was done.
"You are most welcome, Your Highness," she replied, her surprise at being thanked shining out through her soft, brown eyes. Lord Sesshomaru never thanked his servants – of course he did not, when they were simply doing their jobs – and she had not expected his brother to be any different. Also, they had not had a good start yesterday, when he had been nearly frantic over his fire rat robe, and the demon lord had had to intervene. But he was calmer now, and this must be more like his normal personality under less trying circumstances.
She liked it that he had not attempted to molest her or grab her in sensitive places, unlike so many of the lords, kings, princes and ambassadors she had served. Natsumi had a lover of her own, another racoon demon who worked in the castle kitchens, and she preferred to be touched in a sexual way only by him, although they both understood that there was no refusing a member of the royal family, or an important guest, who wanted a bit of amusement with a servant – at least not without causing more trouble than the principled stand would be worth.
Lord Sesshomaru was the highest-ranking demon she had ever served – although he was called a lord, that was a reflection of the traditional titles and hierarchy of his dog demon tribe, and everyone in the world knew that he was in fact a king, and that he outranked every other demon and human monarch for several kingdoms in every direction.
He had used Natsumi on occasion, when she had been among his bath servants; but as she had mentioned to Inuyasha yesterday, he had not demanded much from them in fifty years, and she had worked in this castle for only fifty-five. She guessed that he must have assigned her to his rather shy younger brother because she was quiet and discreet and gentler than most of the other servants, and most importantly, had little appreciation for bathtime orgies.
And she could tell that Prince Inuyasha, even in the brief two days she had known him, was not one to get fresh with his attendants just for the fun of it.
~ - ~
Sesshomaru reached for Inuyasha at dawn, to find him gone from his bed. He was surprised not to have heard or felt him leave the room, for not only did the demon lord not require sleep for days at a time, but whenever he did sleep, it was very lightly.
That he had remained in slumber while Inuyasha slipped out from under his arm and returned to his own room revealed to him how much he must instinctively trust his little brother not to harm him in any underhanded way. He had no doubt that Inuyasha would cheerfully skewer him through the gut if he ever got the better of him in a fair fight – but deep in his heart and soul, he knew that the half-demon would never resort to ignoble stealth and stabbing his enemies in the back.
Upon confirming with the guards that the prince had returned to his room just before dawn, Sesshomaru washed and dressed and put away his glove of jade in the drawer of his bedside table, and went downstairs to the dining hall for breakfast.
He rarely needed to eat, but this morning, he felt the desire for food. Upon finding out from the servants that they had ready the same kind of rice porridge with minced meat and eggs that Inuyasha had had yesterday, he decided that would do quite well for himself too.
He sat at the head of the table drinking tea until Inuyasha appeared, looking a little sleepy but otherwise very well in a robe brilliant with the hues of burnt earth and muted gold. The female racoon demon who had always been so passive about serving him and his guests with her body had a good eye for colour and dress, and from the moment he brought his half-brother home and assessed his personality and nature, he had decided that Natsumi should see to his grooming needs, as her quiet character would suit him better than that of any of the other fawning servants who voraciously sought favour with their betters in every way they could.
He wanted to get his hands on Inuyasha again and unwrap him from that beautiful robe like a gift to himself. That wet, responsive mouth pleasuring him under the blanket – that taut little ass he couldn't wait to penetrate again… the memory from last night teased him as he ate his porridge and thought about what was under those clothes, and watched Inuyasha spooning food past his lips, his pink tongue flicking out occasionally to catch a drop or lick a morsel off the corner of his mouth.
Inuyasha, meanwhile, was not paying his brother any attention. He had barely looked at Sesshomaru after the moment he had given him his usual respectful half-bow before taking his seat beside him. At first he had avoided meeting Sesshomaru's eye out of embarrassment for the pleasure he had given him last night; but he quickly became distracted by puzzling over something he thought he had noticed was different about the dining hall when he had been here for breakfast yesterday, except that he was so put off by Sesshomaru's stroking his hair then that he had ceased to think about it.
This morning, he tried his best to remember what it was he thought he had observed. And finally, he knew. It was not only the dining hall, he realised now, but also the corridors and rooms he had entered yesterday, that were different. The structure of the great building hadn't changed, but the place looked… brighter. Yes, the windows were open now, and where they were not open, they were paned with clear glass, and the daylight streamed through freely.
He put down his spoon and stopped eating.
In his childhood, the castle had been dark and miserable, all the windows shaded with thick blinds and heavy curtains. His poor mother, who was fully human, had hardly dared to move for fear of stumbling over things she could not see. Too embarrassed to trouble the unfriendly servants to fetch some candles, she had often just sat in her room or tried to make her way outdoors in the daytime for a walk, or to read, if the weather permitted.
Inuyasha, with his half-demon eyes that could see perfectly in the dark, had frequently led her around by the hand when she needed to go to any other part of the castle from the time he could walk.
"Here, Mama," he remembered whispering to her on many occasions. "There's a step here – don't trip over it. The door, Mama – the handle is on your right – it's too high for me to reach."
He would lead her through the rooms as if she were a blind woman, while the servants sniggered and sneered from corners at the useless human female and her worthless half-demon child.
The worst memory now came to him of that stretch of a few months when he was still young and foolish enough to think that if he disassociated himself from his mother, the other demons in the castle would like him better – and he had run away from her many times during those months, once he heard her calling for him to help her get around.
"Inuyasha?" he would hear her call from her room as he slipped quietly away on silent little feet. "Inuyasha, where are you?" And he would hide himself until she had finally left the wing, feeling her way out with one hand on the walls and the other held out in front of her.
Only when he learnt, painfully, that no matter how close or distant he was from his mother, no one would ever treat him better or be kinder to him, and that she alone in all the world loved him even when he had been naughty or had ignored her calls, did he realise how badly he had behaved towards her.
"Mama, I'm so sorry," he had sobbed out to her after learning the truth, and laid his head in her warm lap to cry. "Please forgive me – I'll lead you anywhere you want to go from now, whenever you want."
She had stroked his hair lovingly and whispered to him: "Don't be sorry, my darling – I'm the one who's sorry that I can't protect you as a mother should protect her little one."
She had told him that in the days when his father had been alive, the castle had been bright and airy in the summer, and warm and well-lit in the winter, and she had loved exploring it. But once his father died and she came back here, the servants had draped the windows in black and sealed off the daylight. At first it was meant to mourn the passing of their lord; but as time went by, it became a way of mocking the human wife for whom he had died. And Sesshomaru had not intervened.
Now, as he looked up at the high windows of the dining hall glowing with sunlight, the bitterness in his heart rankled, asking why his mother had had to live ten whole years of her mortal life in darkness.
Sesshomaru observed the change in Inuyasha's demeanour. At least the boy had finished his bowl of porridge this morning and not left it half-eaten as he had yesterday, but it was a small bowl, and he could surely have had another helping, or eaten something else on the table.
"Don't you like the food?" he asked.
"It's lost its taste," came the sullen answer.
"What is the matter?" Sesshomaru questioned, putting his hand over Inuyasha's.
But Inuyasha slipped his hand out from under his brother's and pushed his chair back. "It's time for my lessons. May I go now?"
Sesshomaru was sure that there was still some time to go before his lessons were due to start, but he gave a nod, and Inuyasha rose from the table and left the hall at once.
Sesshomaru noticed that it had been the windows that had seemed to seize Inuyasha's attention while he was finishing his porridge, so after the boy left, he sat back in his chair and looked up at the tall, glass-paned openings himself, trying to see what it was about them that had upset his brother so.
~ - ~
"Good decisions made on the battlefield are arrived at in a very different way from good decisions made in peacetime," Jaken told Inuyasha, as they explored and discussed the philosophies of ancient rulers and statespersons. "In battle, if you do not kill the instant you see an opportunity, you will yourself be killed, and your friends will be endangered because they may try to save you, or will be left exposed by your sudden absence. But in talks between kingdoms and states, or when you come up against opposition in discussions, meetings or commercial dealings, never act hastily. Never destroy one you consider an enemy until you have made very certain that there is nothing better to be gained through cooperation with him than by eliminating him."
"But all enemies should be eliminated, or they will destroy you in the end," Inuyasha said.
"Not if you can both benefit by agreeing to terms of peace. Or if instead of destroying an enemy, you instead nurture a loyal future ally. There are many enemies in this world whose destruction would only feed our pride, but not do any other good to ourselves."
"What if others mock you for not killing off your enemy when you could? Or think that it's a sign of weakness in you?" Inuyasha asked.
"First, ask yourself why you consider this kingdom or state an enemy. Has it invaded your lands or threatened your subjects? Has it sent out assassins against you or aided those who have murdered your people? Has it perhaps refused to bow to your superior might when you feel it ought to? Or has it declined to cooperate with you on a matter on which you require its help?
"In cases of invasions, threats and assassination attempts, you are in conditions very close to those of wartime. Even so, be cautious. Has there been a misunderstanding between the states that could be cleared up by trusted ambassadors invested with the right authority? If you can avert war, that must always be done for the sake of the people. But if careful investigations reveal nothing but hostility, aggression and ambition behind the other state's actions, then you must move swiftly and decisively against them to prevent your people and yourself from being slaughtered and seized as slaves. No one will mock you then – unless you lose the war – so you had better be sure before you take them on that you can win. If you do not think you can win by attacking, then move swiftly and decisively to secure your own borders and defend your territory, while exploring means of taking down the head of the opposing force through your own assassins or with help from your allies.
"In the case of a state too proud to bow to your might when it ought to acknowledge you as superior, it would be wise to alter your methods of gaining its respect, for such a state can be a powerful friend in times of need. If it is too proud to bow to you, it will also be too proud to bow to your enemies – unless your enemies seduce it. So you must be the first to complete your act of sincere seduction by treating that state with respect, dealing honourably with it in all things, and making personal contact with its head to demonstrate your interest in growing to understand him or her as an individual ruler. If you earn the respect of the other state, you will also earn the respect of your people when they see what you have achieved.
"In the case of lack of cooperation, you may feel inclined to smite them in arrogance, to show that no one can refuse you without suffering the consequences. But if you required their cooperation to begin with, it means that you need or want something from them. Even if you do not get what you want from them now, perhaps you will again want something from them in the future. If so, destroying them does neither you nor them any good. Instead, the idea is to continue treating them with respect, and to accept their decision not to work with you on this occasion. But show them through your polite communications, and tell them through facts and figures, what they have missed out on for themselves by not cooperating. Instead of being angry and destructive, you can be wise and constructive, and show them exactly why they would want to be your partners on a future occasion, when you may have need of their talent, strength or resources again. Both sides will win, and you will lose no respect from them or your own people."
"I'm sure my father knew all that shit, but it didn't stop him from getting killed," Inuyasha grumbled.
Jaken looked sober as he replied: "Your Highness, what happened to your father was a once-in-a-demon-lifetime event, one that we are likely never to see again. Your late sire was a great ruler, but he had established his kingdom by the sword – a necessary method in those days of chaos. He was a wonderful king to his subjects, but he made numerous enemies beyond his lands – although he was without a doubt the most powerful of all. When they rose in concert against him, none of the usual rules and philosophies applied. He had to face them and destroy them, or he and your brother, your mother and yourself, along with all the people of these lands, would have been enslaved or slaughtered. He took on half of them himself, and most successfully, but at the cost of his life. That was an event we shall probably never see again, and in most normal situations, the guidelines we went through earlier are largely applicable."
Inuyasha heard his kappa tutor out, considered the different ways of thinking that he had summarised from a host of philosophers and generals of war for this lesson, and accepted that sometimes, it was wiser to try and make peace. However, having lived a life as hard as his had been, he could see why he might not want peace in all situations – even off the battlefield.
"Yeah, I can see what you're saying," he murmured, before a sharp gleam came into his eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched up mischievously. "But sometimes, even when you know you're better off cooperating, you're simply dealing with an absolute bastard whose smug face you want to smash in, just for the sake of seeing it smashed – and believe me, that can make you feel pretty damn good too – not that you would know, I suppose, as you're too small to smash anyone in the face!"
"I see you are living up to the name your father gave you," Jaken remarked tartly.
"What? That I was a pup who pierced the night by squalling so damn loudly that it could have woken the dead on the battlefield all around my parents and me?" Inuyasha asked cheekily.
"Well, that is one interpretation. But as I am sure you know, names in our world can be read in more than one way," Jaken told him, softening his tone again. "A yasha is a fierce warrior of the spirit world, so I believe your father chose your name not only for all the noise you were making, but also because it would tell everyone you were a 'fierce dog warrior', or a 'dog who is a fierce protector' – appropriate, certainly, for the son of a great dog demon."
"Right!" Inuyasha exclaimed, grinning and bringing his hands together in a resounding clap. "So that's why I often want to thwack people! My name has predestined my nature!"
Jaken sighed, shook his head, closed his books for the morning, and thanked the gods that his new academic charge would most likely never be required to rule a kingdom.
However, Inuyasha did process the philosophies and ideas he had been exposed to, and concluded that little good was to be achieved by hurting those who had made his mother's stay at the castle miserable. His kind, gentle mother had never spoken a harsh word against the demon servants, or against Sesshomaru, even long after they had left the castle. Neither had she railed against the human relations she sought refuge with after that, who despised her for bearing a demon's son. The spirit of such a loving being would not be made happier to see her child doing harm to those who had tormented her. He knew that her soul must have attained enlightenment long ago, and now perhaps she would light the way for the son who had guided her through ten years of darkness.
So he put his bitterness aside and calmed his simmering anger. When he ran into Sesshomaru along one of the passageways near his office, he was able to bow and utter a quiet, formal apology for leaving the dining hall so abruptly that morning.
Sesshomaru, who had through much private contemplation figured out that his little brother had been upset by the windows looking so bright now when they had always been draped, and deduced that it had something to do with his mother, had dug about his father's old room until he found a hairpin that his human stepmother had worn, and he now pressed it into Inuyasha's hand, saying: "I thought you might like to keep this."
He kissed him on the forehead and reminded him not to be late for dinner, then walked away before the boy needed to hide his tears from him.
- 6
- 7
- 8
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The Tale of the Demon Lord