[Eternal] Interlude: Home At Last
Title: Home At Last
Author: Griddlebone (eggplantlady)
Word Count: 640
Rating: T
Summary: In all her years, Kikyou never once thought that Jeiaparan Village could ever seem like home. But that was before.
Warnings: Crossover (InuYasha/Aion)
Notes: Part of Eternal. This piece was written for the April Challenge at hc_bingo (although I participate on Dreamwidth).
In all her years, Kikyou never once thought that Jeiaparan Village, located in the midst of decaying Heiron and smelling unpleasantly of fish and sea, could ever seem like home. But that was before.
Before the interminable years trapped in Asmodae, mistreated at the hands of her captors. In their zeal to learn what she knew, they had interrogated her, beaten and even burned her, but they had never broken her.
When she closed her eyes, she could still hear the grating, deeply accented voices demanding answers she would never give. She could feel the pain of their torture, knowing they would heal her only to hurt her again. And heal and hurt and heal and hurt again until they got what they wanted.
When she opened her eyes, she saw greenish skies and black fog, the remains of a ruined village. She smelled the salt of the sea and the stink of fresh fish. And she knew she was home.
It meant more than she could say, this unexpected rescue. And that it had come from Inuyasha...
Her heart seemed to skip a beat.
She glanced to the man beside her and could not sort out her thoughts. This was the man she had come to love and rely on... but that had been forever ago. Another lifetime. Now he was a stranger to her, and his rough features, so like the Asmodians that had held her captive, were enough to make her shudder.
She knew she should be on her way. From Jeiaparan Village she could take an aether flight to New Heiron Gate, where a teleporter would be waiting to send her to Sanctum. In Sanctum, she would be beyond the reach of any Asmodian. She would be safe, forever, and need never leave again. A Cleric like her could work as a Soul Healer, or even find employment in the Lyceum, training the newly ascended as a Preceptor.
But sitting here in Jeiaparan Village, with a warm fire before her and Inuyasha beside her, Kikyou could not quite bring herself to be on her way so quickly. In fact, she wasn't sure that a life of safety was what she wanted. She wanted the security, yes, and she wanted to live her life without fear of the Asmodians, but she also yearned for the comfort that Inuyasha had provided so many years ago.
His gruff demeanor, his strength, his surety of place and purpose... all of these things worked to make her feel far safer than simply returning to Elysea ever could. But not even for her would he confine himself to life in Sanctum.
And yet even as she yearned for his companionship, as if they could simply pick up where they had left off so many years ago, she could not deny that their situation had changed. For all of these years, Inuyasha had thought her dead, returned to the Aether. He'd moved on. He had a new team and a new quest, a new enemy and a new purpose.
She could sense the members of his new team behind her, watching her, judging her: the Ranger, the Assassin, and the Sorcerer. Although it gratified her somewhat to see that he did not have a new Cleric to replace her, these new and unfamiliar presences filled her with distrust.
So for the moment she was content to linger on the cusp of action, gazing into the fire and considering her options. During her captivity, Kikyou had thought long and hard about what she would do when she regained her freedom. There had been days when such hopes had been all that sustained her. But now that she was home, she found that all of her thoughts and plans had deserted her, and all she could do was stare into the void of uncertainty.