Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Horse ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

JG-chan: As seen on adultfanfiction.net, here it is, yet another fic that wouldn't stop nagging me to be written… So without further ado, here's chapter one! XD

 

“Dark Horse”

Rating: NC17

Genre: Drama, Romance, Hentai.

Written and edited by: JoeysGal (or Phantom_Panther, on aff.net)

Credits: Lori, and the many websites and books providing me with information on Ancient Egypt.

Warnings: This fic will contain shoujo-ai, yuri and possible het, shounen-ai and yaoi in later chapters.

 

Chapter One
**~***~**

 

 

Isis stared idly out her hollow sandstone compartment window. Ever since the news of the strange young woman's arrival in Egypt, the town had been in a spiteful political uproar. She had white skin, therefore she was bad luck. Isis rolled her eyes. How could her people be so vulgar? The kind, loving, welcoming people of Egypt. It was shameful. It made the Pharaoh's people look bad, all because this mysterious woman had white skin and long, beautiful pale hair. Who would want to come to Egypt now? After this? The whole middle-eastern world knew about it, now, after only a moon cycle passed.

 

They had even tried to kill her.

 

A mob of villagers, possessed with their own sick and twisted conspiracy, had ambushed her with weapons and torches in the streets of present-day Memphis. They had even brainwashed the whole city into thinking she was bad luck, all because she looked different. How terrified she must have been, Isis thought. A group of strange people running after you, screaming death threats and curses, not knowing what you had done wrong.

 

Isis had known she was coming, but what could she have done about it? Tell the Pharaoh of her coming? He would have gone with the beliefs of his people, would have cast her out of their society. He may have even had her killed. She couldn't have told him. Couldn't have told anyone.

 

“Didn't you know this was going to happen?” Priest Shada had questioned the evening after Kisara's arrival.

 

“Yes, but what was I supposed to say, Shada? Pharaoh would have taken the sides of his people, and Seth would never have found love otherwise.” Isis replied, with a stubborn lift of her chin.

 

Shada had nothing more to say after that statement. Isis had a way with words, and could have any man stuck for words at the best of times. Even Pharaoh Atemu. Although most of it was all in good nature.

 

The High Priest Seth had saved Kisara from the commoners that were maddened with the belief that she had cursed their city. He had seen her running from them, stricken with fear, and was entranced by her rare and exotic beauty. He could see she was terrified, running for her life. Had she not been so beautiful he wouldn't have done anything about it. But something about her had had him hypnotized, and he knew he had to protect her. Under royal orders, the villagers yielded at his feet, and left Kisara alone. Seth took her away, explained what had happened to Pharaoh Atemu, and here they were, promised to each other, living in Seth's palace quarters.

 

Every night Isis heard them. She heard their sounds of making love, of the passion that Seth had for her, knowing he couldn't, and wouldn't, go on without her. She had never known him this happy before. She didn't even know he was capable of such joy in another. Kisara couldn't even speak the Egyptian language properly, yet they communicated with a bond that puzzled even the wisest of Egyptian shamans. The Pharaoh had learned of Seth's love for the girl, and demanded to know everything about her. He brought in Memphis' finest spiritualists and philosophers, even translators. But, alas, nobody could work out or understand her native tongue, or which lands she had traveled from. 

 

Kisara was learning the hieroglyphic script fast. That was Isis' job - teaching her. Pharaoh Atemu knew that Isis was patient and tolerant, and would make for a good tutor for the young woman. Mahado would have offered had he not been so busy teaching Mana his skill in the art of fine magic. He had been teaching her since she was a small girl of about ten years, and she could now count fifteen years. Mahado was pleased with her progress, and had taken notice of the way her body was changing from a juvenile, shapeless child into a curvy, full-breasted young woman.

 

Not that Mahado hadn't been attracted to Isis at one stage, either. In fact, a lot of the men of the palace, including priests, servants, soldiers, kitchen-hands - even prisoners - had found an eye-catching factor in the young blue-eyed woman. Isis, however, was not interested. Not even in the slightest. She never took an interest in men at all, in fact. After seeing her mother being repeatedly raped by her father - resulting in the birth of Malik - she vowed never to commit herself to a man, no matter how different from her father he might be. Rishid had always told her that not all men were like her father. She begged to differ.

 

Isis never had a problem with knowing her true sexuality. Men in her eyes were brutes; they did nothing except for work, come home, get drunk, have their way with their women, and go to sleep, preparing to do it all over again the next day. Women of Egypt birthed and raised children, provided for them, made clothes and food, and comforted and loved them. The love for a child was beyond price. Isis of all women should know; she cared for Malik like her own son after their mother died during his birth.

 

Despite her revolt for men - or the thought of being with one, at least. Not all of them were bad, like the priests she worked with - Isis took great pleasure in being around the women of the palace. Although Mana was around four to five years younger than her, Isis got along with her well, and they bathed and ate together on a regular basis. Mana shared her secrets about Mahado to her, resulting in fits of furious laughter from the two females. Nobody exactly knew of her chosen sexuality, but that's the way she wanted to keep it: to a minimum. It was best that nobody knew, especially not Pharaoh Atemu.

 

It was no secret that Atemu had had steamy love affairs, too, and not only with women. But low and behold, he was the king, and could do whatever he desired without being frowned upon like the rest of the society. It was also a fact of life that the Pharaoh must soon choose a bride, and Isis wasn't sure what would happen if he fell for another man. Who would be the heir to the throne if he produced no children? Isis knew that she would never have any children if she didn't become impregnated by a man at least once. The thought pained her, for she loved children, but there were so many abandoned, starving children in Memphis that she could take one - or more - under her wing at any time.

 

Looking down into the palace gardens, watching Seth and Kisara, Isis could tell there was something even more mysterious to Kisara than anyone else could guess. Isis was almost too scared to look into her future and find out what it was. She didn't want to make anymore trouble for Kisara than she knew already. But she knew that there was something Kisara was hiding, and desperately needed to tell someone… Isis in particular. Isis came to a decision about her lesson with Kisara tomorrow, stripped off her clothing, and went to bed.

 

**~***~**

 

Isis awoke from a troubled sleep, misted by strange dreams. She remembered nothing more than seeing Kisara's face in a cold land blanketed in white. She rubbed her eyes and pulled her cotton coverings off of her naked form and moved across to her window, pulling the zebra skin flaps across to let in the sunlight. Momentarily blinded by the bright Egyptian sun, the priestess looked out across her desert homeland and the invisible heat-shimmer that floated above it. The great pyramids in the distance looked magnificent in the early morning light. Looking at the desert reminded Isis of her home as a child. Her heart burned in the pain of thinking of her younger brother, and knowing what might have become of him.

 

He was dark, and troubled beyond repair. Isis pained to think of where he might be by now, or what he might be doing with his life. If he was still alive… She shuddered, although there was no breeze. Malik, where are you, now? Isis wondered in despair. Why did you have to leave so young? You could have lived here, with me… You would have finished your training by now. Could have been a soldier, or even a priest. But no, you chose the streets over a life worth living, instead.

 

Malik had respect for no one but himself, and certainly not the Pharaoh. He blamed himself for his mother's death. Raised by Rishid and Isis, Malik became dark and full of hatred for the world. The fact that his father split after he was born was enough to fill him with repugnance. When he reached his young manhood years, he would be gone for days at a time, and come home reeking of potent Egyptian wine or beer, with bruises and lumps all over his body. Isis, still being young, cried every time he came home in this state. There was nothing she could do, nothing anyone could do. Malik had flown off of the rails and spent less and less time at home, until one day, he never returned.

 

The ebony-haired woman shook her head and sighed inwardly, still full of grief for the brother whom she loved - and still did - so much. Sweat glistened on her body from the warm night temperature that had only dropped a few degrees from the previous day. She wrapped a cotton robe around her body and moved soundlessly across her private chamber to retrieve her headdress and other necessary clothing and accessories. Pulling back the leopard skin drapes that hung across her doorway, she made her way down to the ground floor of the palace where the bathing rooms were. She always liked to wash herself early in the morning when none of the other priests or palace residents were awake.

 

Isis let her thin white wrap drop to the ground as she walked down the steps into the in-ground bath, a rectangle hole carved into the stone ground fed by an underground tributary of the Nile. The water in the baths of the bathhouse stayed level mostly throughout the year, dropping slightly during the dry season, and flooding during the wet. Only every so often did they get little surprises such as baby crocodiles coming up through the channels into the baths. A servant girl came by with jugs of water and clay containers of a cleansing crème made of oil, lime and perfume, and began to wash Isis with the soft cured skin of a hare.

 

The black haired woman sighed and let the girl do her work, letting the cool refreshing water shroud her, leaning back into its velvety touch. She purified herself every day, like a morning ritual. It was considered offensive if a woman did not - yet another rule restricting the women of Egypt. Despite Isis' highly-ranked position in the palace, she was still treated as a woman of Egypt, only with a little more respect, due to the fact that she was favoured by the Pharaoh, and named after one of the most renowned goddesses of the land of Egypt.

 

**~***~**

 

“Isis, I must speak with you, soon, before Kisara's lesson today.”

 

After making her daily offerings and prayers at the temple of Amun-Ra, Isis went to the dining hall to have her breakfast. She had felt tension in the air ever since she sat down, and it was radiating from none other than the High Priest, Seth. She had an eerie feeling that she knew what he wanted to speak with her about, and a knot of concern started to swell in the pit of her stomach. Pharaoh Atemu narrowed his eyes suspiciously, flicking his glances between Isis and Seth. He, along with the other priests, had picked up something shady since Kisara had come to them. The silence was awkward, so Atemu spoke up.

 

“We will be holding a banquet tonight, priests. Nobles of the town will be joining us in celebration of Sopdet*. Maids and servants will be preparing the feast, and they will also help you dress. The celebration will begin at sunset.”

 

Atemu's trivial speech did not deter Isis' thoughts. She knew of the banquet already, of course. She was thinking of none other than Seth's dark looks, and knew it had to be something to do with Kisara. They knew as much that she was foreign, possibly bad luck to the city, spoke a different language that baffled even the highest-ranked interpreters, and that Seth had discovered not only a fulfilling love in her, but also a very powerful Ka. There was something else, though. Something that was bothering Seth greatly. Kisara always seemed miserable. Nothing he did could please her, and it frustrated him that he couldn't understand her when she abstractedly slipped into her native dialect.

 

He was promised to her, was he not? Why did she accept his proposal if she wasn't happy with him? Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe she didn't understand what he was asking. But if it wasn't him, what was it? Or who? Questions and thoughts swirled in Seth's head. He was about to wed to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and loved, but something wasn't right, and he was determined to find out why. Isis, with the Sennen Tauk, was the only answer.

 

Shortly after breakfast - which consisted of a cup of wine, bread, figs and grapes - Isis and Seth met outside on the steps outside the dining hall. The colossal sandstone pillars were the only barriers between the inside of the palace, and the gardens. Of course, guards and army generals were stationed around the palace walls to protect the nobles from thieves and robbers. Standing there, Isis felt somewhat unnerved under the scrutinizing gaze of the much-respected High Priest.

 

“I need your help, Isis.” Seth said quietly, gazing seriously into her knowing blue eyes. “I need you to look into your tauk for me.”

 

Isis only ever used her tauk when it was absolutely necessary, but she knew that she had no say in this matter. Seth had a more superior title than she, so she had to obey. “What do you need me to find, Seth?”

 

“I have to know what's bothering Kisara. There is no point going through with the matrimony if it's not what she wants…” Seth said, dropping his head in anguish, clenching his fists. “It's out of my hands now, Isis. Even the greatest shamans of the country are in turmoil over her mystery. If only I could understand what she is saying…”

 

Isis could see Seth's misery over the issue, and she knew that she was the only one capable of finding out what fate had in store. “I cannot promise anything, Seth, but I will try.”

 

Seth waited patiently, watching the divine woman with eyes closed tap into her object of great magic. Isis trembled nervously and felt the strong pull of otherworldly forces lead her into the future…

 

Isis looked around at the world before her; a desolate city of deserted buildings, whirlwinds blowing about the streets, malnourished children begging for food. The hustle and bustle of people in the marketplace made Isis feel nostalgic, and she soon realized why. Why wasn't she inside the palace walls? Where was her beautiful golden headdress, and why was she dressed in rags? Torn, tattered old white rags… She started to walk further down the dusty street, squinting as sand got caught up in her eyes. Her eyesight blurred, and for a moment she thought she saw a pair of very familiar eyes…

 

“Malik?!” she shrieked, “Malik! Is that you? Brother! Come back!”

 

She ran hard, feeling jagged stones and coarse sand beneath her bare feet. She winced, trying to ignore the jolting pains, but continued to run. “Malik!”

 

“Isis, what are you doing?”

 

Isis felt someone grab hold of her, holding her back. She was startled by the deep, dark eyes the colour of lapis lazuli. Her head and most of her face was veiled in white cotton. “Kisara…?”

 

“We must run. This way,”

 

Confused beyond anything, the young woman ran after the veiled girl, not even sure where she was running to or why. They rounded a corner and slipped down a narrow alley behind a crumbling old building. The girl pulled down her veil, breathing hard, revealing her foreign white skin. Isis didn't know where to start.

 

“What is going on?”

 

Kisara had no chance to speak before two tall figures emerged from the darkness a short distance away. They both appeared to be male, a few years younger, if not the same age, as her and Kisara. Isis knew those eyes. She had only ever known one person with eyes as vivid as those. Her heart throbbed in her throat and burning tears stood at the corners of her eyes.

 

She reached out to the cloaked figure and sobbed, “Malik…”

 

“Oh!” Isis shrieked, jolting back to reality, feeling a sudden wave of nausea. “Oh, great Amun-Ra!”

 

Seth was startled as she returned from her vision. “Isis!” He said, grabbing her petite frame before her knees gave out on her. He led her to a small marble bench in the garden and sat her down on it. Kneeling before her, he said, “Isis… What did you see? Tell me,”

 

Isis breathed deeply for a few moments before regaining composure. “It wasn't all clear… Kisara and I were… some place. I saw my brother…”

 

Seth frowned. “Is that all, Isis? Nothing about what might be causing Kisara's dismay?”

 

Isis shook her head, knowing she hadn't been of much help. “I'm sorry, Seth. It was mostly a haze. I am sorry.”

 

Seth sighed and shook his head. “It's not your fault… Maybe you should try talking to her about it in your class with her today,”

 

“I will try.”

 

Seth nodded his approval, and turned to go, leaving Isis sitting alone in the garden by the edge of the Nile. Her mental vision had got her heart racing, sending a thrilling rush of determination through her. She knew one thing, at least, and that was that Malik was still alive. The fact that she and Kisara were running through the township of Memphis, hiding their identities, still puzzled her. Now she knew she had to talk to Kisara, in the limited conversation she could hold with her. Isis stood up, brushed herself down, adjusted her headdress, and started back toward the palace steps where Kisara was eagerly awaiting.

 

**~***~**

 

* Sopdet= Sopdet is the name of a star that appears in the night sky over Egypt when the wet season is coming. Whether they celebrated it or not, I am not sure.

 

JG-chan: Sooo… what did you think for a first chapter? Tell me what you think! I appreciate your ideas and comments, and will leave reviewer responses too. Ja! ^^