From Pain to Paradise by Lady-M

The End of Misery, part 1

Zine watched with cold silver eyes. Only one of the people in the small cave knew he was there but he also knew that she could say and do nothing about it. The marks on her arms forbade it. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he watched a group of men leave the small enclosure. He knew full well what had happened, where he stood had given him a clear view of everything.

Such disgraceful creatures, he seethed. To call themselves men of any race is an insult but, unfortunately, their kind are more common than not.

For three moons he had watched, waiting for an opportunity to help the women inside. For three moons, he had endured their screams and cries. Their pleas for the pain and torture to stop. For three moons, Zine had planned innumerable ways to slaughter and devour the wolves that tormented the six women he was going to free. He had originally come across them by accident, having been learning the lay of the land his Prince was visiting when he felt the pulse of a weakened Elemental. Being an Elemental himself, he knew to help whoever it was. What he came across infuriated him, especially when he saw what was on each of their arms.

Although he didn't fully understand the language, he recognized the intent in the magic behind them. They were a seal, a seal that would prevent a being of power from accessing their power. Normally used by humans against demons, Muse had explained. Although archaic and forbidden, it seems as though it is still used. It almost completely severs the connection they have to their power, which, in many cases, can be fatal to the individual depending on how old they are and how much they rely on their power. If they solely rely on their power, like many of the lesser demons that roam around, it is fatal. To someone like the people our Prince is visiting, it would be an annoyance and eventually over a period of time it will fade depending on their level of power.

Zine scoffed softly. Although Muse was a fount of knowledge, far beyond what he should have had access to, sometimes he was annoying; but then again, humans were only supposed to live so long and have only a limited amount of knowledge in their mind. Muse had been forced to carry a life longer than he was supposed to and more knowledge that most Gods. Being infused with the blood of a near dead God tends to do that, he sighed.

Once he was sure the men were far enough gone that he could move closer to the women, he did so. The shadows around him had told him that the Elemental had been imprisoned here for nearly three cycles and the little miko had been there for nearly one, and she was the newest. And giving the ferocity the wolves tormented her, she was previously well known to them. The shadows gave him every detail on who each of the women were and he knew that he had to get them out soon but there was a problem. Until he could safely transfer each of their marks to one of his shadow mimics and have their patterns down, he couldn't. So he had watched, begrudgingly. Now though, he smiled darkly. Soon you will be free, he chuckled softly. And then these wolves will pay for their transgression.

*~*0o0o0o0o0*~*

Anvira shivered as she felt the dark presence move again. She knew that it was some type of Dark Elemental, or at least loyal to one, and it had been watching for the last three moons. She had hoped that when she first felt it, that it would be there to help her and the others, especially the miko, but as time continued on, it had only stuck near and done nothing. She hadn't told the others that it was there because she wanted to gauge the intent and when it had only done nothing but linger and fade for days on end, she had come to the conclusion that it wasn't there to help and decided against telling the others.

Once she was sure that the monsters, she refused to call them anything in similarity to men, were gone, she slowly got up from the floor and winced in pain. If she was hurting than the little miko was near broken, again. Those damned beasts don't seem to care that she is human, she thought angrily. She once called them friend for God's sake! How could they do this to her?! She sighed and shook her head, her pale blue hair fluttering with the motion. Sea-foam green eyes watched as the jagged edges flitted passed her gaze.

Her hair had once been long and lush, trailing down her back like a river through sand. Now it was butchered to just above her shoulders. The beasts cut it so that it was shorter than the length the bitch their leader called mate had hers. All of their hair was cut that short. Shaking her head again, she carefully made her way to the others who had begun moving towards the most injured of them all, the little miko.

"Anvira-sama," one of the others called softly. "She's still breathing but it is too shallow......I think they broke some of her ribs again...."

"Damn those monsters," another hissed, though her voice was hoarse. "She's ningen for Kami's sake! They should use such brutality on us not her.....she doesn't have the strength to endure it like we do."

"Enough," Anvira sighed. "We get nowhere arguing. Let's get to the water. I have enough energy to mend the more extensive of the injuries."

The others nodded softly and carefully carried the battered onna to the small pool of water in the back. Anvira watched as two others moved towards a small herb garden kept hidden by some rocks. She smiled softly at them. Those two, Suki and Ami were very good healers. Rabbits from the South, she reminded herself. They had been trapped here for nearly two cycles. Suki and Ami were apprentice healers in the Southern Lord's palace and Anvira had met them on a few occasions when their lord came to visit the East. They asked so many questions and it was nice to see ones so young so interested in the arts of healing. She had felt sorrow when the wolves had dragged them in with the marks on their arms. Apparently the two brown rabbits had been collecting herbs near the boarder when they were grabbed.

She had done everything she could to help them with her limited access to her power. She thought it was ironic that the wolves thought such magic would prevent her from calling on her birth rite. She was an Elemental, not a youkai. She was truly a part of Nature. All the symbols on her arms did was make it so she couldn't merge with the water to escape and even if she could have, she wouldn't have left the others to suffer.

As Suki and Ami returned with some Moss Flowers that had several healing properties in them, Anvira looked towards the two gently washing the little miko. Hikari and Yukari of the Northern Army, daughter of the Northern Lord's General. Falcons. She smiled softly as she though about the hell those two had given the wolves and still gave them. Hikari and Yukari were twin sisters and hand trained by their father in martial combat. They didn't need their youki to kill someone and they nearly came close to killing a few of the mongrels that had grabbed them. The Falcons had been on patrol for their Lord when they had been grabbed. She had been their prisoner for six moons when they had shown up, battered and bruised but still fighting. The rabbits had come six moons after the sisters.

Anvira knelt in the water after stripping out of what was left of her kimono. All six of them couldn't lay down and fit so they had agreed that they would lay to wash one at a time, the more injured being first. Once Suki and Ami were sitting in the pool as well, Anvira closed her eyes and began channeling what healing energy and warmth she could. She touched the miko first and grimaced at the extent of her injuries.

"Suki, Ami," she sighed softly. "She will need the whole flower this time. As well as some stitches."

"Okay," Ami said softly as she got out quickly.

She shivered at the sudden temperature shift. When Anvira began channeling her healing energy into the water, it warmed slightly. She quickly moved towards the small garden she and Suki had been able to maintain without the ookami seeing it. If they knew that they were growing the healing flowers, they would destroy them. As it was, the garden was too small to be of much use but they made it work. She and Suki were trained in the art of healing, like Anvira was, but with the seals on their arms it was impossible to call on their youki. Anvira had taught them how to heal ningen and holy people with their youki even though they were opposite energies.

Power is power, she had explained. It only needs an intent. If you want to kill someone with it, they will die. If you want to heal someone with it, they will heal. Do not let fear be your deciding factor, use reason. Saving a life gains far more friends than ending one does.

Ami and Suki had taken those words to heart and had helped their Lord make peace with the ningen in his lands. Lord Ortomu was feared by many because he was a bear and bears had a tendency to be quite nasty when provoked. Although he was kind to his people, Lord Ortomu had no mercy to those that angered him. The only one that was worse when angered was his mate but then again, female bears were fiercely protective. The only race that would be worse were the inu. While female bears were very protective of their young, inu viciously protected what they had claimed as theirs. If you so much as insulted anything or anyone they called theirs, they would tear into you without remorse.

Shaking her head slightly, Ami looked over her small garden to find a fully bloomed flower. She smiled and gently picked it so that it would regrow it the moist air. Once she had it, Ami put it in her mouth and began chewing it as she walked back over. Sometimes she wished she were an inu instead of a rabbit since the saliva of the inu had just as many, if not more, healing properties than the flower she was chewing. Once it was sufficiently chewed up, she spit it into her hand and stepping in the water. She carefully moved towards the twin falcons and began to rub the chewed up flower into the clean cuts.

Suki climbed out to get the sewing kit she had fashioned out of the small bits of food and clothes they had been given. The needle was made out of some kind of bone and she really didn't want to know what it had come from. Ookami were carnivores so it could have come from anything and the only ones with then that needed meat to gain strength were the Falcons and the little miko. Shaking her head, she grabbed it and the thread she had collected from their torn clothes and made her way back. Once Ami moved away, having rubbed all of the flower she could into the wounds, Suki began to stitch them closed. It was with diligent patience and long practice that she was able to do this without causing the little ningen more pain than she was already in. Once she was done, one of the Falcons carried her over to their huddle of beds and dried her gently to begin wrapping the stitches to keep them clean.

Yukari gently laid the small priestess on the furs they had been given to sleep on. Ever so gently she dried her off and began to bandage the areas that had stitches. When the wolves had grabbed her and her sister, they had used every skill they had to try and get away. They only reason that they were here was because of sheer number. They had fought with all they had but the numbers wore them out. When they were brought in and tortured, eventually getting the marks on their arms, they had raised hell once again. She smirked at the memory of the faces the ookami had when they realized that she and her sister hadn't even used their youki to nearly kill them all. It was sheer skill. Their father had insisted that they learn how to defend themselves without their youki should there come a time when they had none to use.

Both she and her sister had been thankful for that training. It made it so that the blasted wolves focused more of their brutality on them and not the others. She and Hikari were soldiers, trained to endure torture. But no matter how hard they fought, the damned beasts used a majority of their brute force on the little human she was helping mend. Yukari thought it deplorable that these beasts once had the honor of being called her friends and even claimed her as a pack sister. Pack sister my ass, she seethed once she tied the last bit of the makeshift bandages over the stitches. I doubt this event was far in the making from the beginning. Humans are either food or stress relief for wolves during their breeding seasons, or any time to be honest. They are no better than bandits in many regards.

Once the miko was bandaged, Hikari came over and nudged her sister back to the water. Once Yukari was on her way back to the pool, Hikari began to dress the little onna. She had the same thoughts as her sister about the ookami that held them. Even though she and her sister never really thought much of the wolves in the first place, what they had done to her and the others made it so they had borderline hatred for them. The actions of the wolves against her and her sister could have been justified in the fact that the Northern Army had done nothing to help when the monster from the Band of Seven had flushed the ookami from their dens and began eating the wolves it had caught. But doing such to the little rabbits Suki and Ami, and the Elemental Anvira from the Eastern Lord was inexcusable. There were no wolves in the South, Ortomu-sama had never seen a wolf in his lands but knew they had dens near it and Edvir had let them stay where they were as long as they didn't cause any problems. The most deplorable though, was their actions to the onna laying barely conscious in front of her.

The only ones that didn't know much about this ningen were Suki and Ami because her travels never took her very close to the Southern Lands. She was the Shikon Miko, the defeater of the foul half-spider Naraku. Lord Tenkotsu of the North was infuriated when he learned that the dark hanyou was in the North and in such a holy place as Mount Hakurei. He had wanted to send a small contingent to help the Shard Hunters but had to place them somewhere else due to the massive wave of low-level youkai that came streaming out once it collapsed. If he had sent her and her sister, they would have arrived just in time to help. She and Yukari were the fastest fliers in the North. The only one faster than them was their father.

Hikari sighed and made she that the young miko was comfortable before covering her and getting dressed herself. She looked over as the others came to dry off and get dressed.

Anvira knelt next to the miko's head. "Sleep little one," she spoke softly. "You will be safe for tonight. They won't be back."

She got a small nod before deep cobalt eyes closed. Anvira sighed heavily.

"Any idea on how much longer it will take to get rid of these?" Yukari asked as she held up her arm.

"It will take me a little," Anvira sighed. "Mine faded this morning. I am not at full strength yet and my connection hasn't fully returned but I can feel it stronger and stronger each time I enter the small pool."

"You have been slowly siphoning the aura from ours to hide that yours is gone," Hikari stated. "They would be able to sense that it was gone if you weren't."

Anvira nodded. "I will not leave you five to these monsters."

Suki and Ami nodded. Even though the six of them haven't been together all that long, they were as close as kin because of what they had all gone through. They bonded more and more with each time they healed each other, protected each other from the ookami, and curled together to sleep.

All of them tensed when they felt a surge of power around them and looked around. All froze when a pale skinned man walked out of the shadows with hair as pale as his silver eyes and clothes darker than night. Anvira froze further when a soft smile crossed his face. His mouth moved but there was no sound, but all five of them knew the words he spoke and felt hope seep back into their beings for the first time in several moons.

"Come morning you will be free. I have sealed your scars to shadows that will take your place. I have watched for many moons to learn your patterns, as well as theirs. You will be within the safety of my Royal by nightfall. Your rescue is already on their way."

With those silent words and another surge of power that each recognized as a powerful barrier, the man vanished as if he was never even there. In an split moment, each felt the surge of their own youki and the burst of reiki from the young miko. The only fear they had was that the surge would alert the wolves but soon noticed that the room was covered in a deep purple barrier and that their power was being reflected off of it back towards themselves.

"A Void," Anvira whispered. "Only they have enough power to deny any and all around them. The wolves won't know of the surge, as if they could under the onslaught of their breeding heat."

Hikari and Yukari cracked the knuckles as their talons returned to their finger tips. "Those wolves are going to be torn apart when we have the chance."

Suki and Ami begin moving their heads around trying to pickup each and every sound they could. Unfortunately for them, there were too many echos so they couldn't pinpoint where anything was. "Too many echos......we can't find anything solid to pinpoint That would lead us out safely."

"He said that our rescue was on the way," Anvira stated. "Meaning that he is not loyal to these wolves. It begs the question on who he has loyalty to. There are many that could claim the title of Royal."

The others looked down in thought. Anvira had a point. Any of their Lords could be counted as a Royal. So who held the Void?

"It can't be Edvir," Anvira stated first. "I would have known if there was a Void in the castle. Elementals can always feel each other, regardless of element."

"We have never seen him before," Suki stated and Ami nodded. "It is possible that he could be loyal to Ortomu-sama though. We hadn't gotten a chance to meet everyone yet."

"He's not from the North," Hikari added. "We would have come across him. No one sees Lord Tenkotsu without first going through us and chichue."

Yukari nodded.

"Meaning he is either from the South or the West," Anvira sighed. "Either option bodes well. As long as his word holds true."

Unknown to the five women talking, Zine was still near by. The smile he wore grew ever so slightly as they discussed his potential alliances. They weren't even close. He held no loyalty to any of the nobility of the isle. His loyalty was to Prince Ardin of Carmidya, The Ethereal Realm. Although the reasons for Ardin and the others being on the Mortal Plane were not ideal, the nobles of the Isle were honored to have him here. Zine knew that only Ardin knew the names of his guardians, as each of them knew each others. He was called Shadow. It was the name he had given Ardin's brother Tevik when he was first summoned from the Void. Since Zine hadn't given his name to Tevik, he was free to do as he chose. When plans of Ardin's assassination came around, Zine had removed himself from Tevik and chosen to give his loyalty to the young prince. He hadn't regretted it since.

There were three other guardians to the prince. The Huntress of Zer'Kal, Anshira. She was slightly insane due to the trama she had endured at the hands of nearly all of her family and many others. It was further enhanced when people learned that she was the only one capable of using the forbidden sword Day'Ar. Day'Ar was originally a sorcerer that feel to his fear of his own power and went insane. To safe-guard others from falling to his madness, his soul was sealed in to a sword he had demanded be made to hold his power. As a result, whenever Day'Ar cut into something, the blade would begin to absorb flesh, blood and bone. Almost as if Day'Ar himself was trying to remake his body to be free of his prison.It never worked and the sword would pulse with his voice. It had been amusing to hear Anshira argue with him.

The next was a Priest of Zer'Kal, Atara. He smiled softly as he thought about her. Atara was the only member of Anshira's family that didn't outright hate her or try to torment and kill her. In fact it wasn't until Ardin had told both of them that they were siblings did they learn that little fact. Atara was raised in the Temple of Zer'Kal, away from the influence of her family, so she never knew that Anshira existed or what she had endured. Anshira had been surprised but was happy that she had at least one sane member of her depraved family. It was also only known to Ardin that he and Atara were a mated pair. She wore his Void Stone around her neck, his one way home to the Void and she protected it viciously with her radiant light.

The last guardian was Muse. Zine didn't know his true name, only Ardin did. Muse was a human that was forced to carry the blood of a God. In so doing, he nearly went insane. He only maintained his sanity by sheer willpower. Muse had once mentioned that he had a brother that died because of such insanity and had vowed to never end up like him. He controlled the flow of power, not the other way around. Because of that, Zine had seen Muse do wondrous things; as well as horrific. In one display of sheer power, Muse nearly died defending Ardin from one of Tevik's assassins. Ardin, being only a small child at the time, didn't know how else to repay and save Muse other than to tie them together. It had prolonged Muse's life, and given the two a permanent connection that was nearly as strong as a mated pair. The only thing was that Ardin could still have a mate, as could Muse if either so chose.

Once he was sure that the women were asleep, Zine moved over towards the entrance of the small cave and placed another barrier that only those who were chosen to rescue them could get in. His smile darkened as he knew that there would be some of the unmated trying to come here to seek release when they couldn't find a mate this time around. They would never find the door until the women were back at Lord Edvir's palace. Only then would the door reopen but instead of being the women they had imprisoned and raped for several seasons, they would be shadows formed as the women. Fully capable of acting like each woman due to how long he had watched them. The wolves wouldn't notice the difference unless the actual women turned back up. The depraved actions of the wolves would feed the shadows, as such beings thrived on the darkness in each person they touched.

Such fools you are, he chuckled. You began your downfall the moment that you took Anvira from the Eastern capital. It only hastened when you took the others. Now, now it is finalized with the pain and misery you have forced one you once called ally and kin. I know many who will enjoy tearing you apart, as well as those that unintentionally helped you by forgetting their loyalties. I will take great pleasure in eating your souls, as Day'Ar eats your flesh and bones. Nothing will be left of this clan other than the children and the two that changed their loyalties from you long before this took place. Children can be retaught. You however, will not receive that blessing. Even if the little one pleads for it. No, dear Kagome, you must understand that such actions they have taken have a steep price. A price that many will take great joy in making them pay.

With one last glance towards the sleeping women, Zine nodded and vanished. They would be safe with the spells Muse had given him for the door and the shadows wrapped around them. Morning would herald the twin wolves coming to free them. By sunset, his love would have them before her being healed with him helping. He looked forward to eating the misery that haunts their dreams and lives. It would be quite filling and would ensure his form would not fade from his beloved Atara. Zine smiled as he reformed next to her sleeping body. Ever so carefully he touched her pale gold hair with a loving expression. With a soft kiss to her bare shoulder, he slowly made his way towards the pulse of his prince and Lord Edvir. They would be happy to know that Muse's magic had begun taking effect and that the woman knew rescue was coming for them.