A/N: If you haven't read "Gold and Rubies" please read that first. I'm thinking I might make it sort of a series now. I might change the first one's title to "The House of the West: Gold and Rubies" and then have this one be "The House of the West: Blind Seeker" and then maybe right more, so they'd all be connected by that main title "The House of the West". Opinions?

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to break any copyrights, I acknowledge all the owners of any recognizable material, I'm not making any money off of this, etc, etc…

Prologue: (End of "Gold and Rubies")

Kagura moved back into the house, shooting her mate a seductive look over one shoulder. He followed her. Takara, who was accompanying Kagura, gave a quiet groan and whispered to Kagura.

"But Milady, we just got you dressed!"

Sesshoumaru was instantly ready to kill, but Kagura laughed melodiously, so he forced himself to relax. Still he gave Takara a sharp glare and sent her away when they reached the door to their wing. Kagura was still snickering quietly as, within their chambers once again, he began to expertly undo all the maids' hard work.

………

Takara stood before her mirror, eyeing herself critically. She was beautiful. She was the daughter of a lord. She was intelligent and strong willed. Yet her father, instead of offering her to Sesshoumaru-sama, which had been her secret dream since childhood, had offered her to a fat minor lord. What was she supposed to do, other than insult him? She had seen perfection in golden eyes and silver hair; there was no way she would settle for that disgusting horse Youkai father had matched her to. Her punishment had been to be assigned as a maid in Sesshoumaru-sama's household. It was, she had thought, her great opportunity. If only he would spend more time at the palace, she would have found an opportunity to slip into his bed, to seduce him. She would have manipulated herself into being the lady of this keep.

Instead, he had brought home that crimson-eyed whore, the daughter of his enemy, and made her his lady. Worse, he had assigned Takara as Kagura's maid.

So in the darkness of her small room at the end of the hallway, her sharp hearing unable to block out the sounds of pleasure from down the corridor, Takara sulked and schemed, and determined that, one way or another, she would have the title and the riches of the House of the West.

………

Many leagues away, a man in black clothing, hooded, stood on a high hill looking towards the West. It was there that his goal lay.

It was there that he would find his inheritance.