Eclipsed Souls; To Know The Man by OnyxIvyStone

Prologue; Death

I do not own Inuyasha. Not mine. Never will be.

Eclipsed Souls;

To Know The Man

Prologue;

Death

The leather binding that held centuries of history was beginning to flake away. Loving hands had recopied the words several times in order to preserve what had come before. The story had to be remembered and her words, his mother's words, carried the chronicle of their past in ways that no other voice could. Her heart was their heart and, for each of them that had crossed through the centuries beside her, her view of their journey meant more than how they saw their way in retrospect. Kagome made even the smallest trial and conquest sparkle with meaning. It was her gift. She gave hearts purpose when their souls, road weary and aching, would have given up long before.

Gently he opened the thick book to the first page where delicate script had been recopied by himself nearly a century before. His mother had not asked him to. Every copy of her journal had been made by him when the previous one began to threaten disintegration as this one did presently. He smiled faintly as he read the words. It had all began with this first page, scrawled the morning after her wish had been made and Miyoko had been saved.

The wish was made to save her life. It was made with the greatest love laced within each word. Love for my mate and his brother, his mother and his sister and the tiny boy Satori held so close. It was made with the knowledge that it would forever change the world. I was born in a time devoured by banality. Magic is dead. Faith is a word that is slowly losing its meaning. No one believes anything any more. Not really. Is it any wonder I did not mourn my choice to leave that world behind? And now I realize that I will never see it again. My lover is mortal. We are all mortal. The Shikon no Tama turned to sand in my palms and I felt the gateways that had been open to us slam shut all through the world. I never knew why magic was so bountiful in this time and so completely lacking in my own. Now I know. I am the reason. My love and devotion to my family is the reason. And I do not regret. I cannot regret. I will never regret and I know there is no blame.

When Miyoko woke, she stared at me and smiled. She stood with her brother's help and she embraced me tightly and whispered a prophecy into my ear before she slipped into a deep sleep she has not yet woken from. "The crescent will shed its shadows when the eclipsed souls regain their immortal forms. The jewel of memory will forget and remember again in the hands of the timeless wanderer. All that was will be again and the time of man shall end to restore the balance between heaven and earth." It seems so strange to me. Her first words after so long sleeping, but I grasp onto these words with desperation. I know Miyoko could see the future. When she came to me in my visions of her before and after the battle with Naraku, she spoke of what would be. What would come that she could not tell me. She knew, somehow, that all of this would happen. Even more, she knew what would happen. I do not know if she will remember when she wakes. If it is anything like Rin's visions, she might never unless it is in fragments. In any event, the prophecy she breathed into my ear gives me hope. I see my future there and part of aches to believe that maybe the magic wasn't destroyed. Maybe, in my time, the magic is still there, only hidden. Sleeping deeply until the prophecy comes true. Maybe someday in the future, youkai will walk beside humanity again and the world will shimmer with the divine. I can only hope. I can only dream that I will be there to see it standing still beside my dearest beloved.

He smiled faintly and ran his fingers through his hair. A few silver strands had slipped into his face while he had bowed his head to read his mother's words in his own hand. "Do you think she even grasped then that she... That she wouldn't see her dream come true?"

"I think there are many things Kagome understood and knew that we will never even begin to see the shadows of." She sat beside him and placed her clawed hand over his and smiled faintly at how closely the young man before her resembled his father, even with the canine ears perched upon the crown of his head. "It needs to be recopied... Maybe you could even continue the story where she left off. She would be proud if you took up her mantle, Maru."

He smirked and looked to Miyoko. "Do you think he would be proud of me too?"

"You are his son."

"That isn't an answer, Miyoko." He said, some of his annoyance slipping into his voice. She was a sage. Eternal and mysterious. Even before they had reverted to their natural forms, she had spoken in riddles. He didn't know how Souta put up with it.

"Yes it is. Just not the answer you wanted." She almost laughed at the scowl that adorned his handsome face. "Listen to me, alright? My brother loved you. He loves you still from the vantage he sees you from now along with Kagome. You could have done anything and he would have been proud of you. You are his son, Sesshomaru. He... He did what he did knowing you would take his place and he trusted you to be strong enough. He knew you would be strong enough."

"They could have had eternity as we all were. We could have survived it..."

"Perhaps. But the world wouldn't have. Neither your father nor your mother have ever run from a fight."

"They didn't fight, they... They gave up."

She growled faintly and gripped his ear, pinching as hard as she could until the stubborn hanyou yelped in submission. "Never say that, never. If you do, I promise more than your ear will smart for it. They didn't give up. There is more than one way to fight the darkness. Not every battle must resort to drawn blades and spilled blood."

He sighed and fought back his snarl. He closed the leather binding and caressed the thick volume, one of twenty. He was now the Taiyoukai of the Western Lands. The old boundaries had been reformed upon the reverting of the youkai throughout the world. For centuries they had been left ignored in favor of survival beside the humans. Now, as old power poured through the lay lines that pulsed like veins coursing with the earth's spiritual blood, humanity found itself having to rely upon creatures they had long believed only myths, legends and fairy tales. And, like an old song left unsung, the notes of humanity's faith in the unseen, their belief in the powers of the divine and their ability to embrace the magic of their world came in slow, hesitant sounds gradually gaining confidence until the melody's broken and halting motion returned to the smooth and powerful sound of a world in harmony with itself.

Still, they were not there to see it and he found himself pained. His sister was so young. She had only known slightly over a decade with their love and he had known five centuries. How was he supposed to raise her? How could he emulate the kind of love he'd known growing up? He felt lost and only Miyoko had taken any notice of his gradually growing fear.

"What am I supposed to do now, Miyoko? Kaia..."

"She'll know, Maru. She was as much their delight as you have always been."

"How could they just abandon her, though? How could they abandon us?"

She sighed and shook her head. "There is a difference between being abandoned and being sacrificed for, Maru. My mother abandoned my father and your father. In a way, she even abandoned me. My father abandoned his son to fate. Even then, there was love. Such deep and complete love. Kagome and Sesshomaru didn't abandon you and Kaia, Maru. They couldn't abandon their children. They wouldn't. They sacrificed themselves, but they didn't leave you. Don't you see, they can't leave you? They ensured it to be an impossibility."

"They cursed the whole world again, Miyoko. Don't lecture me about sacrifice and love when all they left was a curse..."

"What was forged in love and sacrifice is not the same as what was forged in war and wrath. You have to see that or else you will be blinded forever." She stood slowly and walked to the bay window. Her eyes fell on a distant form that was slowly being built around with steel, glass and marble in the shape of a shrine. Every now and then, the light hit and rainbows shimmered across the horizon. She felt a warm course of salt slip down her cheek and she trembled, brushing away her tear. "So much light and color from so much loss... Maru, please don't become bitter. Please. Your father lost so much of what he could have had because of bitterness toward our parents. Kaia and you have each other and you have us... You have your family. We will stand beside you. We won't walk away, I swear it. But this is your time now. This is where your story begins." She turned and smiled sadly at the young man before her. His eyes were his mothers as was the soul behind the deep blue orbs. "Those volumes are going to crumble in a few years... Perhaps its time to put the story down again in a more lasting way, Maru. Maybe then you can put your pain to rest."

He nodded faintly and caressed the leather binding again. His eyes fell on the computer screen across the room and smirked. "Check on Kaia for me. Keep her busy for a few days."

Miyoko smiled and bowed slightly. "What should I tell her?"

"That her silly brother is making a present for her and that, if she really wants it, she should find me something of equal value."

She chuckled and shook her head. "You two..."

"She'll understand, Miyoko." He looked up and met his aunt's eyes. Her beautiful amber eyes filled with so much emotion and love. "She always understands."

The ancient inuyoukai smiled faintly and nodded again before leaving and closing the door behind her. Sesshomaru looked back onto his mother's journals and lifted the first one carefully, carrying it to lay it beside his computer. He could scribe the whole story from memory, if he needed to. But sometimes, when one is replaying memories of times long gone, it is helpful to have the original voice nearby if only to ensure nothing is forgotten.

~

FOR YOU! As I have warned, this is gonna be LONG and won't be posted with the quick frequency of my other stories. Half of that is that I am a perfectionist and I want to get the history right. My grandfather was a history professor specializing in Asian history. He'd haunt me if I did it half-assed. Not that it would be a bad thing, but he'd probably chew me out while he haunted me and, if my Grandpopop is going to come and see me from the great beyond, I'd rather have an amiable discussion rather than one that will give me a headache and guilt. The other half of my reasoning is based entirely on selfish reasons. I'm picking up work on my novel again and I have a goal of completing it by September, if not sooner, so I can send it in for publishing consideration. While I love you guys and I love this story, I want to do it well and the longer I take writing it, the more perfect it will be and the more time I will have for my own things that might (Cross your fingers.) actually provide me with currency. Mmmm, currency... Maybe no need to work unless I want to... Yay for the thought and possible reality. In any case, I hope you enjoy and take care.

Peace.

Ivy