Title: Magic Thief

Author: Tsubasa Kya

Disclaimer: One more story to add to TK's Kingdom of Fanfiction! As if I didn't already have enough, right? Hahaha! I claim ownership of a copy of some of the books, movies and/or manga in relation to Rumiko Takahashi's "Inuyasha" universe, and Tamora Pierce's "Tortall" universe and stay my hand at that.

Note: The story changed tones after I read Beka's Terrier and Bloodhound. I decided I like this tone a lot better for Kagome, fighting with proper speech.

Chapter Five

472 H.E.

The visit with Aly had been a lot of fun. The mot took her into the great city of Corus and showed off her favorite card haunts from when she was a girl. Things had changed, Aly said, since her days visiting her twin in Corus. Places that had once been prosperous were now run-down, and places that had been nothing but a dung-heap had become hugely successful businesses.

With the university built, the city bustled with mages. Any bright mind would try to make a copper or two off the gullible. Money made people stupid; that was all there was to it. Shops had nice window displays of staves and wands and all numbers of items meant to aid a person in channeling their magic. None of it was something Kagome felt the need to buy (if she really wanted it, she could steal it…) but it was fun to look at.

While they walked she kept her eyes to her surroundings. Having grown up in the Copper Isles, she couldn't help but be extra cautious. Children went missing all the time in the Copper Isles, and few would help a mot as lost her child to the slave trade, especially the foreign mots. Kagome's mother was Yamani, so she learned fast to stick to her mother's side. Them raka who were out there, free or slaves, didn't take kindly to foreigners of any kind. They who were luarin only saw Kagome for her skin like a caramel. She was scum for being a halfsies, not all Yamani and not all raka. Her mother had become a successful seamstress, but she was called a whore for making with a native of the isles, and not married to boot. She'd raised Kagome to be better than those people, to accept all races for what they were: just another interesting color of the skin.

But growing up in the Copper Isles, Kagome had also learned even before her father found her that not paying attention to what was around, it was like asking for trouble. Not only were there slavers, there were murderers who got away with it, child molesters, pickpockets just looking to make a living, even the starved mumpers wouldn't think twice at robbing a gixie what couldn't defend herself for a scrap of food if they could get away with it. This city was no different.

After the merchant district, Aly took Kagome down into the Lower City, to the place that would be the most familiar and homelike to her. Living in the castle was all well and good, and she did love to wear the nice clothes like what nobles wore, but down in the slums where the Rogue lived with his lot trying to keep out of Provost's hands on a daily basis or face the consequences was where she was born and raised. These people were as good for her mother to make clothes for as were the occasional noble who asked of her services. These people were good enough for her father to be around, good enough for him to enjoy himself in their company. So that meant they were good enough for Kagome.

Looking around down here, she saw the people that truly made this city prosper; the ones who broke their backs in the fields and farms outside Corus so that the nobles and merchants who lived better could eat every day. Down here a mot or cove was lucky to have what they did, scraping by on long hours. Pickpockets eyed Kagome and Aly up from the shadows, probably thinking two well-dressed mots like they were mightn't be looking to keep their purses. A few gixies approached them with baskets loaded with late bloomed wildflowers or in one gixie's case, flowers so nice they were probably snatched from some noble's garden – not that Kagome was asking! Sometimes not knowing was better still.

Being that Kagome was rather loose with money (she could always pick some irritating noble's pocket up at the castle) and she was on one of her girlish streaks, she bought up a few flowers from each of the gixies that came forward and asked her to. She made a little crown of them and wore it throughout the city, while Aly grinned. Kagome didn't have a problem with stealing in general. She wouldn't steal from people who couldn't afford it, and she wouldn't steal something that might bring the Dogs on her. She was a very careful thief.

"You're being sillier than usual, Kagome. I was right to bring you down here; it's brought a smile to your face. A real smile." Kagome gave the older woman a confused look. "I know you, and I know how I'd be too, if my ma and da tried what your Aunt and Uncle did."

"Well, it isn't fair." Kagome was pouting and she knew it, but she couldn't help it. "It's not like I can't take care of myself."

"As much as I'll love the Trickster, I could have done without him meddling, but Gods will be Gods, and they love meddling most." Aly told her. "Never minding that we'd just as soon not deal with any of it."

"But if he didn't meddle in your life, you'd not have met Nawat."

"Though Nawat is determined to think otherwise, I know you are right there. Still, but for all the annoyances that the Trickster is, and he knows he is too, I'd not change a thing now. I said I could have done without, I didn't say I'd change it now." She grinned crookedly at Kagome, "I suppose it's all worth it when its over with."

"Yeah? So when does it get over with?" Kagome asked the woman who had long been her friend. "The meddling, I mean."

"For you? Probably never." Aly said with dry amusement. Kagome groaned as much at Aly's humor as at her own unfortunate truth.

They continued on into the city, playing cards at a tavern-and-inn called the Dancing Dove, to which Aly claimed had not only family history there ("My great-grandam lived just 'cross the street when it was first founded as the Rogue's headquarters,") but which had been built and repaired and rebuilt over a dozen times after bar fights or some poor looby thought to attack the rogue by burning the place down. They didn't stay long there; Aly was just hungry for a late lunch, and the majority of the card players were off earning their way so very few were even in the tavern.

Kagome had hoped to get a glimpse of the King of the Rogue, see what he was about, but Aly told her the likelihood of seeing that mammering scut was slim. The position of Rogue had changed hands enough since Aly's father George was on the throne. Seemingly in the last two years alone, there had been four Rogues.

"The one who serves as Rogue right now is Lez Feller. Lez's a coward when it comes to pretty much anything. He's got a group of rushers who does all his work for him, claiming that King Jonathon don't fight his own battles; instead anyone who challenges Lez gets a fist full of whoever he chooses to be his champion of the week." Aly explained.

"How do you know all this, when you don't hardly come into the country anymore?" Aly never ceased to amaze a young gixie like Kagome. When she first met Aly, the older woman had put stars in her eyes with all her stories of the war for the Copper Isles freedom. Aly was a mot who knew what she was about, knew her skills, took on older, wiser, stronger foes with daggers and quick wit. She'd been Gifted with the Sight, but that Gift wasn't something Aly depended on in the way most Gifted did.

"I make it my business to know these things. I have the right questions and I ask them." Aly ruffled Kagome's hair. "Come on, you scamp."

Market Square was their next stop. People rushed to and from their business more quickly to get things done before dark, as if staying out late would bring the spooks out, like creatures of the night. Whether they stayed out or not, them as made a living at night time would still come out. If these people were smart, they'd learn that the foists were out on daylight hours, same as them. Kagome caught sight of no less than five picked pockets.

They'd found a dingy pub called The Silver Flask that seemed to serve just shady characters – the rushers, the pickpockets, doxies and spintries – but Aly wanted to have dinner there so that was where they went. They arrived in time to see an arm wrestling tournament starting.

"What's this all about, Mistress Know's-All." Kagome asked Aly. Aly with her 'I'm Spymistress so I know all there is to know'... sheesh! But the older woman did make it easier to learn about the place, being that Kagome didn't particularly have city friends to explain anything.

"Don't get cocky with me; I'll box your ears." Aly warned her.

"I'll duck." Kagome watched a smile spread on her old friend's face. "You're old and slow, I'm young and quick."

"I'm not old! Not even a gray hair in sight!" Aly objected.

"Old enough to get yourself off topic real quick." Kagome grinned as a young serving wench brought over the food. "What's this arm fight for?"

Bristling slightly (ruffling Aly's feathers grew easier for Kagome every year), Aly said, "The Silver Flask used to be a nasty bar up to its ear hairs in brawls. The city Guardsmen and Guardswomen were forever trying to break up fights and stop the killing until finally one day a visit from a mysterious noble changed things."

"Lemme guess." Kagome said in disgust. "That noble was you. Meddlesome as a God."

"Actually, no. It was not me, neither was it anyone who gave up their name. Even I still don't know who it was. I'd bet my da knows, but he'll not be telling any time soon." She pouted a little but then straightened. "They say he sat right where that girl over there is. The little one with scars clawed down her face and all up where you can see. He sat there to eat, and when the brawl started, he bellowed that anyone who wanted a fight would fight him rather than spill his stew. Then them that challenged him got thrown on their ass straight out the door. He came again the next night and told everyone right out, the champion of an arm wrestling tournament gets free meals for a week; he pays their food bill, so long as they eat here. Ever since then, the place holds a tournament on Wednesday."

"You'd think it wouldn't be too hard to find out who such a guy was." Kagome thought aloud. Her own curiosity was perked now but that might have been what Aly's intention was all along. It was a fine line to walk, having the skills of a member of the Rogue and yet not siding with anyone. Being friends and acquainted with Spymasters and Spymistresses and trying to keep entirely neutral was hard.

Of course Aly knew this was the route Kagome had chosen, being unwilling to serve anyone but herself and her own interests. She wouldn't serve her raka Queen any more than she'd serve King Jonathon of Conte, or even the Gods themselves. She was her own person, so she chose her path – not that the Gods listened! Always jabbering on about 'more important things'. Once in a while in talk, Aly had learned she could wheedle out of Kagome what she wanted, because they were friends. Kagome also would do things sometimes if it served her down the line to do it, like the time she left a Rat for the Dogs in Rajmuat after the cove decided to kill a gixie.

"Your food's getting cold, Kagome." Aly told her. Kagome returned to concentrating on her food. "Who the noble was is something I just don't know. None of my people can seem to keep on the trail of the one who picks up the bill for whoever wins for the week. Yes, our mystery noble pays for their feed. Think the owner here really wants to pay for even one great lummox's meat for a week?"

Kagome shook her head. Lower City folk could barely keep food on their own table, much less afford to feed someone else on top. "I wouldn't think an arm wrestling tournament would keep tosspots from brawling."

"When I first found out, I was flummoxed myself trying to figure it out. Then I heard rumors that the Provost's Guard is prepared to shut this place down if there's but one more brawl needing sorting. If that's true, people are being mighty careful not to get the place they have to win a free meal shut down." Aly eyed up the rushers currently in an arm lock. "So every Wednesday at the bell of eight, there's an arm wrestling tournament. One thing my da did say was more and more people have been avoiding the Dancing Dove and frequenting other establishments like this one here. This one in particular, especially. You pick a fight in here," she stopped as a man suddenly landed on the table next to theirs, two men starting to brawl. It was less than five minutes later, both men were tossed right out the door by other patrons to take their fight outside. "See?"

Not too hard to guess why, Kagome thought.

Her eyes fell on that gixie sitting in the corner of the room. She barely looked like she could hold a pair of Yamani chopsticks and she was covered in scars. She was sitting at the table the noble had apparently sat at when he was at the tavern. Her eyes were a chilling ice blue. Aly had once said her great-grandam was said to have ghost eyes, cold as steel and freakish enough that everyone was afraid to look in them. Kagome wondered if this girl got the same reaction from everyone as Aly's great-grandam. Her hair was thick and matted with weeks or maybe years of unwash. Her skin was dark enough to belong to a raka, but that was because she was so dirty. At first, Kagome thought that girl was no older than eight, mayhap nine but the look in her eye said she was older than that. How much older, Kagome didn't really know.

Once they'd eaten dinner, Aly escorted Kagome back to the castle. Aly told her not to get into too much trouble but then added lowly, "And by trouble, I mean the bad kind." And then she winked and left.

Kagome's university masters would be frightfully angry at her, but after visiting with Aly she decided she had the urge to be alone for a while so the next day she skipped classes. By 'alone' she meant she wanted to be away from the glares and stares that her fellow mages gave her, and the snickers over her failed lessons. One of these days her gift would be back and she'd be able to show them all a thing or two of what she knew. Master Hashmire, the man the university employed to keep attendance records and deal with truancy and the delinquent apprentices, would likely be on her tail by noon. That didn't mean she couldn't have fun before then though! Or escape him if he did catch up. The man was definitely good with his mage net spell, but his eyes weren't what they used to be and neither was his body. Miroku had told Kagome that Master Hashmire would as soon net a funny shaped log and drag it back if Miroku draped his apprentice robes on it.

Shifting through her wardrobe, Kagome wondered where exactly she felt like skipping off to. Mostly when she skipped of late, she'd just stay in her room or walk around the castle. If she was in her room when Master Hashmire came around looking for her, she'd just crawl into her wardrobe and wait him out. It didn't feel like a day to be crawling in a wardrobe though.

Pulling out a green gown of silk with short sleeves as was the current trend in Corus, she dressed and then dug in the chest from Aly. She had all manner of Copper Isles cloth now to make clothes, in bright and fantastic colors and textures. She could make herself any sort of garment now! She'd be making herself clothes in the style of the Copper Isles first, but not today. Today she'd do well in this gown. She wrapped a sash Aly had given her around her waist. Aly knew well she liked things that made noise and this sash had copper and silver coins attached to layers that made up the cloth. Taking out the gift from her beloved god, she rubbed the fine cloth against her cheek. The gift was a long strip of cloth that certainly did shine as though made of rainbows, moonshine, and stars. It was two feet wide and ten feet long. With special stones spelled by powerful mages to be attracted to each other attached to ties, it would clasp around her armpits and then each elbow. If she desired, she could clasp it again around her wrists, but she preferred to just let it follow each elbow like a very pretty long train. This special cloth gave her bracelets and anklets and the coins on her waist an even brighter kind of shine.

Petting the fabric as she walked barefooted into the hallway, she felt even prettier than the Queen of Tortall. Thayet of course had nothing on a girl favored by the Trickster (even if she was quite pretty)! Ha. How could she? With no pretty gifts, no skin like caramel candy, no music with each step. So Kagome was vain, but what girl in her right mind wasn't? Kagome would very much like to meet that modest girl and put her back in her right mind.

Half skipping her way along, Kagome made her way noisily toward the nearest known exit route. It took her through a hidden hall, down a secret stair, and out behind a few sheds placed conveniently close to the castle so as to look like they were right against it when truly they were hiding the hidden exit. Kagome wasn't stupid enough to not use secret passages. They were built there for a reason, weren't they? And the more of them that she was able to find, the less she had to use the halls everyone else was frequenting. Kagome could be a ghost here in the castle, sneaking in, spooking people, and slipping out again unseen.

The sheds were used to keep tools for the palace garden which she walked into and marveled at. But of course it would be full of pretty flowers, and only the best for a queen and a king, while some city flower seller had weeds and if she was bold enough to risk immortals or any manner of other thing that might attack a lonesome girl, wildflowers from outside the city (or snatched from some hapless noble's garden).

"Uwah…" Kagome murmured. She'd never taken this exit out before. She only knew of it because Miroku said it was the fastest exit out of the castle, and it was one that Master Hashmire apparently (according to Miroku) hadn't found out about. Kagome moved through the garden walk, bending to smell a particular flower here and there.

She ended up by a large fountain, spraying misty water into the air with the help of magic charms that pumped water continuously upward from its near full basin. The water would then fall down to the basin again from three tiers and return to the cycle. She dipped her hand in, trailing four fingers along the surface and creating more ripples. It was cool on the bright autumn day, a nice change against her warm skin.

"The fountain is powered by old immortal magics," a voice behind her said, startling her almost right into the basin. She caught herself and turned around, looking at the sneaky intruder who'd walked up on her so silent.

"What'd ye want, ya ducknob?" She was so startled, she could hardly speak Common straight. His lips stretched in a grin when he heard her talk. For an older man, he had a really nice smile, not demeaning or mocking like she was beneath him or something like scummer. He had thin lips, but not thin enough that they'd seem like they were in a constant scowl.

"Been a long time since I have heard anyone talk like that! Who taught you common?" He asked. His silver hair was the same color as moonshine, pulled back at the nape of his neck and tied off with a leather thong. It looked very long. Gold eyes didn't seem like they were natural, but then again, Sir Knight Alanna had purple eyes and how natural was that? God gifted, and god touched, clearly this man had to be—whosoever he was. He was so tall too, and not even Sesshoumaru had a head near this giant of a man's height.

Sesshoumaru! That's where she recognized this man. He had to be Sesshoumaru's father. She was half sure she saw him once before to be certain, but then like a stupid gixie she was too busy getting her person attacked by a crow and then fawning at Sir Knight Alanna… or was it the other way around? She wasn't sure; that whole day was very foggy at that point, as exhausted as she'd been.

"My da taught me. Elsewise I'd as not soon be sayin' a word, beggin' yer Lordship's pardon." She told him. "I'd speak Kyprian, like as not, or Yamani, them being what my ma taught to me." She realized her speech was still quite poor and concentrated on proper talk again. Normally she didn't have a problem these days sticking to talking proper Common, but since she had her father's gift, it meant she had a thing for languages. It all sounded the same to her, as if her ears were universal, translating anything she heard into her native tongue – only her tongue didn't work the same way. Her father was old school so the words he taught her, the words that stuck, well, they might just be old as the dirt. It was only after she met Aly that she learned to speak 'proper', and after she joined the university that it started to truly stick.

"I must say it is refreshing for a change. How did you come to be here in this garden?" He didn't sound accusing as he said it, or like he was about to scrape her up from the stone walk and drag her kicking and screaming to Master Hashmire. If he had sounded like that, doubtless she'd have been gone already. He sounded more curious than anything, as if people didn't generally get into this beautiful garden.

Kagome was already quick to form a lie. She didn't generally let loose freely with her knowledge of secret corridors, but after a second look at him – the name Lord Toga seemed to come to mind – she changed her mind. "There's a hidden passageway from the mage apprentice wing right to a door just small enough for a mot like me to get out. That door's behind them, um, those sheds back there." She'd done just fine, or mostly fine speaking the night before! But then again, she normally didn't have a handsome noble staring at her with eyes of warm honey that seemed to capture her eyes and keep them stuck on him.

When she pointed to the sheds she'd left in the distance of the garden, she saw his eyes barely flickered in that direction. "Do the mages no longer hold class on a Thursday?" he inquired. It wasn't any more than an amused inquiry, but it still made her uncomfortable. She didn't want to admit she was skipping to this man, for whatever silly reason her mind wouldn't tell her about. He seemed bright enough to realize she wasn't going to answer that. She shuffled her feet, the rings on her ankles making a greeting of their own to who she was sure was Lord Toga. "This garden is tended by immortal servants. It was my gift to Queen Thayet and her king, Jonathon, this garden and this fountain."

"You say that funny." Kagome pointed out before she could wonder if she ought not use care over how she spoke to him. "I'm told King Jonathon is ruler here, so his name ought be first, right? And why did you give them a garden. I'm sure they already had a bunch. You'd done better if you put one in Lower City so that real people could appreciate it, too."

"That is an idea," he grinned at her again and she felt herself blushing. He almost made it sound like he even valued what she thought. What a new notion! A noble, valuing a street rat's opinions! "But for one such as myself to create an alliance with Queen Thayet and her king,"

"You did it again," she interrupted him. "Made a king sound more like a pet."

"Are all men not simply pets for their wives? Someone to fetch them pretty jewels and tell them what they like to hear?"

Kagome bristled. "Not all mots like hearin' what some mammering scut thinks they want to hear!" He'd given her the okay to talk how she would so far through not scolding her over what free speech she made, so she wasn't going to stop now. She felt as if that was a personal slight to herself. She was one to like gifts, sure, but not if the one she was sweet for was doing it just to get in her haystack or on her good side! If she was mad, damn well they better fix it, but not by trying to buy her. That would only make things worse for them.

"My apologies, Mistress Higurashi. I did not mean to offend you." Her surprise at him knowing her name must have shown on her face because he smiled kindly and explained, "I never forget a name or face."

"Oh…" Feeling rather ridiculous, she turned to look at the fountain. Each tier was delicately crafted to look like flowers opened to the sun. It was amazing how the stone cutters managed to make it look so lifelike. The water glistened in the autumn light like little diamond drops going from one tier to another to the basin and then back to sprinkle up in the air. It was beautiful, sure, but she was of the feeling that kings and queens already had so much; so why was everyone always giving them things. It seemed to Kagome the richer and more powerful a person got, the more gifts they got. Then they forgot those left in the dirt who had given them their power.

"Will you walk with an old man?"

She turned to him. Would he not cease to startle her? He was like Aly in that regard. "You can't be that old!"

"I have a daughter of thirty-two winters with a wife of ninety." Kagome winced. Such a handsome man had a daughter that old? And a wife who was ninety? What a wrinkled mess of bones she must be! But wait, didn't someone mention something possibly key to this strangeness in age?

Oh! Miroku mentioned talk of Sesshoumaru being an immortal! "Are you really an Immortal?"

He merely grinned and took her hand, folding it around his big muscled forearm. Okay, it was official. She was in love with this well-dressed, well-spoken noble. If there was one thing she learned she was weak for, it was a big and powerful figure. Lord Toga had it. Tall with broad shoulders, but still on the leaner side – and yet he didn't look awkward like an ostrich, or like Neiji Crow, all arms and legs and knobby bones.

And of course, the fact that he claimed to have a thirty-two year old daughter didn't phase her. Not if he was as handsome as he was! Married? So what! She could have her own private fantasies! And here she was, walking with him through a garden all sweet-like, with her heart racing and her mind stirring up dust and mental trouble. He was certainly more graceful than Sesshoumaru, especially considering Sesshoumaru was dumb enough to let a street rat get the best of him – and break his arm!

"How did you come to be in Tortall?" she asked him. "Did you come when the Kudarung returned to the Isles?"

"My return was heralded in the year 447. To be truthful, the Divine Realms were of little interest to myself and my people, but I was the lone one whom they chose to pull through."

"So you don't, or you didn't, have your family here even?" Kagome asked. Didn't that just sound like her, feeling closer to someone forced apart from loved ones.

"I did not, until the year 450."

"So you're a noble, but you're an Immortal. How? What made you come through? Who are 'they'? Did whoever-they-are open a portal for your family to come through then? And you don't look a day over twenty, might add, but you're trying to tell me you got a daughter what's half-way to ancient? How old are you? And Sesshoumaru, is he related to you? If he is, he certainly don't take after you – you're nice, and Sessy's a cracknob what need's some sense knocked in 'im." She rambled, and then ducked her head a bit feeling embarrassed.

"You have many questions." He seemed pleased for some reason that she would ask. Lord Toga was also not upset that she spoke so loosely of his own son. "Sesshoumaru is my first son. He was born in 453 during a blizzard; I fear he has been frozen ever since that hard winter."

"That's a load of hogswallow!" She blushed deeper still. "Again, beggin' yer lordship's pardon." She couldn't keep her tongue shielded around this man, could she? Or even half sensible, it seemed.

"You need no pardon from me," he promised her, "I much appreciate a woman who is not afraid to speak up. My son does well here, but does not seem to desire any form of association with those who would be his companions. I must thank you for breaking my son's shell of ice."

Or his bones… She amended, 'Cause that's all I did… "He's not got friends a'cos he don't want them, sir. Like as not, he'll end up alone. I seen pages flirtin' in the halls," okay, apparently her tongue said to hell with it, it didn't want to talk proper, "with them noble ladies, or with mage apprentice gixies. What ye never see's Sesshoumaru bein' one'a them pages. Only he takes pleasure in makin' ya feel a'feared of 'im. That's no way t' treat som'un."

"No, I think you are quite right about that."

"None'a the other pages'll try prankin' Sesshoumaru. They's all too a'feared of 'im to try it. I thought 'bout pullin' somethin' jest a'cos I could. Then Master Hashmire caught me wit' his net spell. Ye don't pluck a rat 'round Master Hashmire." She locked her jaw shut as he stopped walking suddenly to look down at her. Bright red, she was. Then he started grinning, and not long after, he was chuckling. Letting out a little giggle of her own, she added, "What? Well it's true. See Master Hashmire, an' ye best hobble off fast, or he'll be hobblin' yez."

"Then I suppose you had best not get caught, Mistress Higurashi," Lord Toga told her. He placed a warm, large hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently before continuing off down the walk without her. He was a man with no regard for saying goodbye, it seemed, because he was gone before she could react, and she realized her mind was bustling with more and more questions she wanted to ask… meanwhile it seemed more like nothing had been said. Or that she had said a lot and he just added his share to lead the conversation…

But where did he lead it? What was the point to it all? And damn it all, when could she meet him again? She'd enjoyed talking to him, but she had to wonder of all the things he said. Or rather, the little he might have said with meaning.

Sesshoumaru was born in 453, so that made him nineteen years old. He was old for a page, then, since Miroku said the pages started as early as ten if their birthday fell before September first of the year. If it fell after September first, then they would wait another full year before they came, making them eleven by their first Midwinter as a page. Sesshoumaru had said already that he'd sat alone at his page mess hall table "for three years". So then he was in his fourth year of page training? Kagome couldn't imagine a person actually wanting to be Sesshoumaru's Knight-master. He'd probably be one of the unattached squires, or if he did get someone, he'd probably be placed with a desk Knight. Wouldn't that just serve the Immortal right?

But how sad for Lord Toga! Stuck in the mortal realms with no family, no friends... He probably made friends quickly. Three years seemed like a long time to Kagome. Being separated from his wife must have been painful for him. At least she had a scamp for a father who was constantly using her as a wager, so that knowledge eased the pain of the loss. He seemed like the sort who garnered respect not by fear, but by being a kind, yet subtly powerful man. His son hadn't learned that trick yet. Kagome would shave her head the day that happened!

But Toga hadn't actually opposed Kagome when she suggested she might prank his son, did he? No! He'd said she shouldn't get caught. She blatantly ignored the fact that the words might have been geared toward getting caught by Master Hashmire where she oughtn't be.

Well then, time to set to work. Lord Toga clearly didn't mind if she messed around with his son's head, maybe had a few laughs. She got a roll of parchment and folded it up until it made a sizeable bag. Then she visited the page's stables. No one was around but for a hostler who was napping up in the loft.

She found a good sized lump of scummer and scooped it in the bag. She wasn't afraid to be filthy, although she did hate the smell. Still, once it resided in her makeshift parchment baggie, she took out a kerchief and wiped her hand of the scummer. She'd wash up later.

That evening when she was sitting in her window with Kikyou and Miroku settled on her bed, she waited with eyes on Sesshoumaru's shutters. They were closed, indicating he wasn't in. Once he got in, she'd given him a delightful gift.

Miroku said at last, "Kagome, why can't you use your gift?"

Kagome pulled herself into the window. She'd known that question was long overdue; Kikyou was a born and raised Yamani though so she didn't feel it was her place to ask such personal questions. Miroku for all he was at least part Yamani was raised with circus folk for his childhood only getting a break when Lord Raoul took him in. He knew subjects were sensitive, and he was capable of tact, but it seemed when a gixie became his friend, he felt entitled to know. It wasn't like the fact she couldn't use her gift was a huge secret though.

Everyone knew by now.

"I just can't, okay?" she wanted to discourage them from asking again, so she scowled like she was offended and upset that the topic had been broached and stormed to her privy. She wasn't truly offended by the question, but she couldn't answer it. She didn't want to lie to these two who so far had stuck to her side like real friends. The only friends she'd ever had were all so much older than her – Aly, Nawat, Queen Dovasary (they were at least on speaking terms although that wasn't entirely 'friends' material) – and she typically didn't have time to just sit and relax with any of them. She'd helped a little with Aly's triplets, Ochobai, Ulasu, and Junim but they were half her age so there was always that age gap for her. There was always that feeling that she just didn't quite belong there.

It was different with Miroku and Kikyou. Here were two people she liked, that she wanted to trust, but she couldn't. She especially couldn't with Neiji Crow watching over her like she knew he was. Aly would likely drop the subject of how Kagome got covered in bruises because this wasn't the first time it had ever happened. George Cooper on the other hand was a different story. His green-hazel eyes had lit up with a fire and an insatiable curiosity. He'd probably use his resources to spy on her, but Neiji was too careful. George would never learn, and even if he did, he'd never believe it.

Neiji wasn't even the beginning of why she just couldn't talk about her gifts. She had two of them; Headmaster Thom had told her as much. He'd said the only explanation he could come up with why she couldn't do magic all the time would be she had two gifts, and that somehow sometimes one gift would 'bury' or else 'enhance' the other Gift. Essentially, her gift from her da would always be there, but the one from her mother wasn't always.

Thom wanted to tell Headmaster Numair about Kagome's gift problems. After all, Numair trained a wildmage to use her magics, certainly a man of such credentials could figure out how a gixie might end up with two gifts. This wasn't like the gift of both healing and destruction in one person, like Sir Knight Alanna had. Thom had said this was different. Kagome didn't know how it was; it all felt the same to her, but she trusted Thom to know what he was talking about.

Aunt and Uncle of course didn't like her, so they insisted Kagome leave the Copper Isles where people were there who understood that her gift was there sometimes and wasn't other times, because apparently she had two gifts. She'd left behind a handsome cove who gave her pretty gifts just because he wanted to, and liked to. He hadn't been the brightest or wittiest of his lot, but he had a muscular body, a sweet face, and for all he was a Puppy for the Dogs, he was still willing to chase after her even when he saw her lighten a nobleman's load during his days as a Runner. Things had been getting to be real between her and Hojou. Then after an exciting evening that ended a scant hour before he had to muster in at his kennel, her Aunt and Uncle pop in for a very unwelcome visit. If Hojou hadn't been gone already, her poor, simple lover might've popped something important in his head. She certainly popped out a few choice curses when they told her their 'decision'. That very day she was on a ship to Tortall, no chance to say goodbye.

And why was that? Because 'people might want to use her'. The world was full of people like that! People who manipulate, hell, the Gods were the prime example of that! And 'she was not allowed to tell people'. Well, they'd find out sooner or later!

Forcing herself to take a few calming breaths and stop being so angry, she reflected for a moment on that. Auntie was most likely still angry at Kagome's father for being the crook that he was, but he couldn't help the way he was any more than Auntie could stop herself from turning into a royal bitch once a month. At least she veiled her face so that few had to suffer the sight!

But Auntie knew something… That something most likely had to do with Kagome's gifts. That was the reason she was sent away, right? Because people would want to use her and her gifts. Then the question was… what was really so special about her gifts? There were tons of mages more powerful than her; tons of them who could use their gifts without fail. Sure, her gift from her mother was stronger when it was there due to her father's gift, but it wasn't anywhere near Thom's power. It wasn't special at all.

Was it really two gifts? Thom was only making a mage's educated guess when he said that. He could have been wrong. Maybe she only had one gift, the one from her father. But that wouldn't make sense either. The gift from her da was capable of turning her invisible, hiding her scent and body and silencing the noises she made. It was capable of summoning her god-gifted bracelet weapons to her from the target she threw it at. It wasn't really capable of blowing a door off the hinges with a fire blast – was it?

If her gift was so unusual, why didn't her da say anything? Maybe he didn't look hard enough to realize it? Maybe he didn't want to see a flaw in her? Maybe Aunt and Uncle hid that fact just like they hid Kagome's existence for the first eight years of her life.

Maybe… maybe she was looking at it all wrong? The Gift split two ways was not so unusual. Miroku could destroy and heal. These were a part of the same Gift, though. But to have two separate gifts, Thom also once said this should be impossible. A single body couldn't house two entirely separate gifts. He explained that everyone had a core; an essence that made up who they were, and if someone had the Gift, their Gift would wrap around their core, their essence and it was this Gift that shielded them from the Gifts of others. Thom once mentioned that his mother benefited from having the Gift, because it didn't let her be found out to be a girl by magical vision. That Gift shielded her.

The idea of having two gifts would mean two cores, which would mean she'd have to be two people. Except she wasn't. She was just a single person, no twin or second head (she was sure she'd have noticed a second head by now).

So if a single body didn't have two separate essences, they couldn't have two Gifts. Unless her da's Gift was mayhap wrapped around her ma's Gift and…

It was useless brooding. Whether she had a single very odd Gift or two separate ones, it was not for her to know. Not yet, at least.

She gathered up her dung bag from the bathroom and took the candle with her. Kikyou and Miroku were still there. Miroku opened his mouth to apologize no doubt. Kagome beat him to the punch simply by leaving. She wouldn't hear an apology, because he owed her none. He did deserve to know, but she couldn't tell him. Not now.

Making her way through the halls, she went down a floor. She failed to see if Sesshoumaru was in his room from her own window, so she watched and waited around a corner. At long last he came. His eyes were shadowed, his shoulders stooped just slightly. He tried to scratch his arm beneath his cast but then (since there was no one around to see) he winced as he must have hit a sensitive spot and bit his lower lip. His short hair stuck to his head. He might have broken his arm, but he was not allowed to stop training because of that. If her calculations were right, he ought to be coming back from the stables, sweaty, covered in horse hair, and more irritable than his usual irritable self.

Once he was in his room, he shut the door behind him. She seized her chance and hurried to the door. Setting the makeshift parchment bag down, she used the candle to light it on fire, then took out her soiled kerchief and stuck it to the door with a tack. After rapping a hasty sequence on the door, she dashed back around her corner, poking her head out to watch.

Sesshoumaru opened his door to see who was there. He saw her gift, burning merrily on the stone. She had to bite back a whistle at the angry growled swears he let out, and then a groan as he dumped his water crock over it. Seriously? That was no fun! He tore the soiled kerchief off his door, then used the ash shovel from his fireplace tools to scoop up the bag which he then walked purposefully four doors down and dropped it there. It landed with a schlop noise that Kagome heard all the way down the hall. She wondered if Sesshoumaru thought that person had pulled the trick.

Miroku and Kikyou weren't in her room when she returned, which she supposed was just as well. The whole prank had been a flop! She sighed, gathering her things up and making her way to the baths.

She was just returning, opening the door to her room when she was suddenly drenched from a rig placed over her door. She shrieked in outrage, drawing the attention of mages out of their rooms. Some jaws dropped, some snickered. She was covered in urine. A small kerchief that had once been white was drenched in urine and tacked to the bucket. Miroku and Kikyou were there to look at her in concern and ask what happened as she took out a belt knife and cut down the rig. She yanked the kerchief away from the bucket. Her eyes swept the hall up and down. There! She saw a flash of silver hair ducking back.

Hiking her skirts, she stormed after for three long stretches of hall. He lost her, but she knew where he slept! That bastard wouldn't get away with this! Never mind the fact that she started it by putting flaming dung before his door. Somehow he'd known it was her. Maybe it was her green kerchief covered in scummer.

But now she had to take another bath!

Kikyou was kind enough to find her in the baths carrying a clean set of clothes for Kagome. "I had the servants clean the mess, Kagome." She said softly as Kagome tried to scrub her hair. She could feel the urine on her hair, her face, her arms, even though she'd been scrubbing with the soap. It wasn't so much that urine was still there, but more of a mental projection of it being there. "Kagome, will you please tell me what is going on? First you are beat up, now this?"

Kikyou could see the injuries that Kagome's gown normally hid. Kagome didn't answer. She ducked her head under the water to wash off the soap and then crawled out. "Look, Kikyou," Kagome said roughly, taking the clothes from the girl. "I told you. I fell. Ask Shippou; he helped me get a replacement chair because I broke mine."

"Oh really?" brown eyes burned irritably before her face became an unreadable Yamani mask. "Chairs don't talk. Chairs don't leave thumb prints on your neck."

When Kikyou left Kagome there, Kagome felt worse than ever for being such a horrible friend. No one believed her when she told the truth about Neiji Crow. He was such a great crow, one of Nawat's brethren. No one wanted to see his real face. No one was permitted to see it, save for Kagome. Kikyou wouldn't believe it either.

But she couldn't help but feel that this time, the 'I fell' lie was hurting her more than Neiji would if she tried to tell the truth. Still, the idea of the pain he'd inflict was enough to make her keep her silence. She pulled on the clothes Kikyou brought her and bundled the soiled ones in a towel. They'd head straight to her hamper.

When she returned, the mess was cleaned up. She double checked the hall and her door and her room for traps before anything else could be sprung on her and then locked her door.

Feeling miserable, she curled up on her bed, wishing there were someone she could just tell. Things were so much easier when everyone knew everything there was to know about her.

The days passed, but Kikyou did not return. She started to hang back as if to say, "This is what happens when you lie to your friends." Miroku tried to find out what was going on between the two girls. For as much that Kikyou could be a warm-hearted, friendly Yamani, she certainly had pulled on that mask of stone fast, and kept it on. Miroku tried not to have to choose between his friends. He tried to keep up with both. In the end, though, his questions of what happened between her and Kikyou made Kagome push him away. In her mind, it was none of his business, and no doubt when he was off canoodling with Kikyou, she'd already told him anyway.

Kagome sat across from Sesshoumaru in the Page's mess hall every day, daring him to start something without saying anything vocally. His eyes were like molten gold, burning with acceptance to the challenge.

Her next trick on him a few days after that was done in his horse pen after spying on him cleaning in his horse's stable for three hours on a Friday night. He cleaned and oiled his tack with meticulous care to it. A rider's tack was the only thing between a man and his horse, so the extra care Sesshoumaru gave it was clearly something he thought out. He mucked out the pen, gave his horse a thorough brushing (she witnessed the stoic page whispering to his horse), and fixed a broken board on his pen's gate. All of this he had to do one handed because his broken arm was mostly useless in its sling.

When he'd left the stables, she struck. She returned all the muck to his pen that he had painstakingly taken out. She rubbed sand and dirt into his tack. All the while, the dark slate colored mare looked at Kagome with those big black eyes. She didn't make a sound when Kagome came in and started pulling her stunt. Now that Kagome was almost done, however, the mare moved forward and butted her head against Kagome's shoulder.

Kagome turned to the mare and smiled. "This's just a present fer yer master," Kagome told her softly and then tacked a bright blue kerchief on the wall of the pen. She could just leave without sticking something there as a signature, but he'd probably find out she did it anyway as he did for the scummer bag. She figured she might as well leave a signature. Even though it wasn't a green kerchief covered in scummer, he had to be bright enough to figure it out.

She headed back to clean up before supper. That evening, Page Fushiro got three weeks worth of his free time working the stables for his poor care of his tack and poor care of his horse. At breakfast, he clutched that bright blue kerchief like it was a neck he wanted to pop. He said nothing, but his gears were ticking she could see.

Kagome shot him a sweet smile and said, "Beautiful weather out there. You should go out and enjoy a walk in the sun while it lasts." It made her giggle inside; he wouldn't be enjoying much of anything for a few weeks.

Four days later she was beginning to wonder if he'd ever prank her back, or if he threw in the towel. She'd just come back from a late-night practice with her bracelet blades and slowly shifted around in the dark, taking her clothes off and throwing them in the hamper for the servants to collect. They were covered in mud again. It was too hot to bother with sleeping clothes so she just crawled into bed. The bed felt weird… sticky. She blamed the sweat on her body for a few seconds before she felt like something was crawling on her with its tiny legs. She instantly brushed at it, expecting nothing of it.

A few seconds after that she realized there was something there. She shrieked and hurried to get out of the bed. In spite of the fact that Kikyou and Kagome were at odds, Kikyou was the first to respond to her terrified scream, pounding on her locked door.

"Kagome? Kagome, what's wrong?" Kagome was too busy wiping at her skin, trying to get rid of the feel of creepy crawlies. Her door lock clicked. Miroku had opened it using his little 'trick'. They came in with a lantern and saw her naked, flipping out across the room shaking her hair and slapping her skin acting a total fool. Miroku's eyes lingered before Kikyou slapped him and rushed to Kagome's bed, pulling the cover off the bed.

Seeing that blanket come close, Kagome shrieked, "Stay away from me with that!"

Kikyou was startled, but then she looked at the blanket. In the dim light from the lantern Miroku held, they could see a few determined bugs clinging. A glance back at the bed showed the place where she had lain was swarming with bugs.

"Miroku! Stop staring and fetch a servant!" Kikyou ordered him, dropping the blanket and going into the wardrobe. Bugs were all over all the clothes too. Kikyou wasn't going to try to bring one of those to Kagome; she wouldn't stand for it. Kikyou went to her own wardrobe, bringing a robe back and wrapping it around Kagome. "Come. We'll get you cleaned up. You can stay in my room tonight." She pursed her lips and tugged a white kerchief off the door to Kagome's privy. Kikyou would make any bet that Kagome didn't want to go in there, and she wasn't a betting sort either.

The next day, Kagome spoke to Boris, the head servant in charge of the Apprentice Mage's wing about switching rooms. She couldn't even look in there without feeling terrified. At first, Boris confused her for Kikyou because she was in a kimono and it made her look even more like Kikyou than ever. However, after explaining the problem with the bugs, Boris agreed to move her down the hall. She got the special treatment because she was a foreign exchange student.

She'd miss her view going right into Sesshoumaru's bedroom, but she still could look down on that courtyard with the birds. The window across from her room over the courtyard belonged to a Knight on the second floor, and on the first floor was a girl page who other pages were forever pranking and hazing. Down the row, she still could see Sesshoumaru's window, but not directly inside. Kagome realized that the door that Sesshoumaru left the scummer bag must have been that female page's door, because it was four windows down from Sesshoumaru's.

This made her more angry at him.

Her trunk was delivered, as well as the lockbox she'd kept on her mantle. The servants tried to bring her clothes, but she pushed them away. "Give 'em to the Lower City mots! I don't want 'em!" she said.

Sesshoumaru had clearly broken the lock, but there was not a single bug in there, or even a smudge. For that, she was grateful. She hadn't mucked up his horse and so this must have been his one restraint. If her reams of cloth from the Copper Isles had been contaminated, she'd never, ever have gotten over it. She took everything out of the trunk and checked the hidden space beneath the faux bottom. Here were the things she'd asked for from Aly, safe and sound. Daggers of all sizes, ones with flat hilts the better to hide them or ones with round hilts. Needles made of wood and needles made of steel, of a size that no one would mistake them for sewing tools. Oils for polishing and maintaining these weapons. A thin wire made of the metal from stormwing feathers after it had been melted down. Rope, and leather hobbles.

There was one thing missing from the bottom of her trunk, however, something that ought to be there but just wasn't. It proved Sesshoumaru had found the bottom to be fake, and he'd gotten in. He'd taken a trophy. Out of all the things he could pick to take, he chose to take Kagome's lucky fork! She'd requested that her very special fork be brought from the university. She'd been so rushed to get packed up that she figured she must have knocked it behind her desk and she'd been right.

What was so special about this fork? It was made of silver and it had two round red garnets, two round peridots, and two round blue topaz cut stones surrounding a beautiful round white diamond on the handle of it. What made this even more unique (she didn't hide it just because it was worth a fortune) was the fact that it was a fork… but it was also a spoon. It was a fpoon. Or it was… a spork! Yes, a spork. She liked that better than fpoon.

She'd broken into a noble's home and taken it when this noble had cheated her mother. She took more than just the spork; two solid gold goblets, a silver candle holder, six colorful wax candles, emerald drop earrings, a pearl necklace… She might have been seven, but she took all the pretties she could fit in her loot bag. The Lady and Lord of the house had been out so she struck. Even when the lord's dogs came, they didn't make a fuss. They were supposed to be ruthless, attacking thieves, but instead she just took their jewel encrusted collars, pet them, and then snuck out.

Her mother had found Kagome's bag of loot and spanked her good and solid, but she then gave Kagome the spork and told her to never let anyone catch her with it. The rest of the things Kagome stole disappeared never to be seen again, but a brighter array of cloth arrived days later and Kagome's mother went to work on clothes yet again.

When Kagome was eight, her mother had been injured grievously in a riot just months after Dovasary took her throne. The wounds festered for a month, and Kagome's mother prayed to heal but never went to see a healer. She said that money was needed to put food in Kagome's belly. So instead, Kagome's mother rotted in pain until at last she passed into the hands of the Black God. Kagome was terrified when she went to wake her mother, only to find bugs feasting away at flesh. Ever since then, she'd been terrified of bugs.

The spork was all she had left to remember her mother by. And Sesshoumaru had taken that as a trophy.

He would pay, and pay well for this.

END CHAPTER.