Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Empty Sands ❯ Chapter 1

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Title: Empty Sands

Author: Niu Shiy-Ue

Disclaimer: If Yu-Gi-Oh were mine, Tea wouldn't have had a
reincarnation . . . and Mokuba definitely would!

Pairing: Seto/Mokuba

OCs: Probably, but minor

Archive: None

Warnings: None for now. There may be some in later chapters though.

Summary: Mokuba's such an important character in Kaiba's life-AND
THERE ISN'T A SINGLE MENTION OF HIM IN THE ANCIENT EGYPT ARC!!!
(takes a deep breath) What's worse, in the 'Duelist of the Roses'
game, guess who gets incarnations. Not just the usual characters but
Rex Raptor! And Weevil Underwood! So in an attempt to make up for
that, this is the first story in a sort-of 'Reincarnations' Arc.

'Empty Sands' will be dealing with Ancient Egypt, and takes place
after the events seen in the canon.

This first chapter is in Shimon's perspective.

Oh and finally, Sethos is Seto and Moswen is Mokuba.

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Shimon was an optimistic person. He liked to view the cup as
half-full, believe the best of people, look forward to the next day
and be thankful that he need not yet give a full accounting of his
life to Anubis. But even he had to admit the last few months had been
more than a little difficult.

Shimon also liked to believe that Egypt was a fairly good empire, as
empires go; it was fairly prosperous (Nile willing), fairly peacefull
(Hittites and others willing) and people were fairly content (pharoah
willing). When a crisis occured, or someone died there were
procedures for those things. All that was also being put into
question. Although the Nile had thankfully flooded in a timely
fashion everything else was unstable. The hierarchy of Egypt had torn
itself apart from the inside, and he only hoped his nation could hang
on long enough to pull itself back together. Unless some sort of
miracle occured and Sethos had suddenly gained a new social
conciousness, something he even he doubted, Egypt was in for a long,
difficult travail.

"And" he reminded himself. "You're not helping by moping around in
your chambers." As the former Seneschal to Atemu, it was his duty to
assist the new pharoah in adjusting and he would need the help. Two
high priests dead, the pharoah dead and the only sucessor to the
throne didn't even know it. He could mourn later.

Exiting his chamber he was surprised to bump into Isetnofret. "Oh
Shimon, I was looking for you-"

"Yes, yes, I know." he cut her off. "We have to do something about
the current situation. Arrangements need to be made for Bakhura's and
Akunadin's bodies. The Eye and the Ring should obviously be given to
the new Priests appointed. Mahaado had an apprentice, Mana, we should
see to giving his things to her and possibly promoting her to take his
place. I know Akunadin had a successor picked out, although thier
power may be diminished given the sealing of the Shadow Games-"

"Uh, that's all been done."

"What?"

"While you were mourning" He was grateful for her tact. "Sethos took
command of virtually everthing. Bakhura has been given a peasant's
burial; Sethos might have done the same to Akunadin, but he wants to
conceal as much as what's possible from the populace. The seventy day
drying period has already started. He's already appointed Mana as
Mahaado's replacement as High Priestess of the Cult of Thoth and my
brother Masud to Akunadin's place in the Cult of Osiris." She paused
then continued. "He has also decreed that both the Eye and the Ring
be locked away, under the care of Keepers, chosen by myself and
Shadah. And he broke up the puzzle to be buried with Atemu."

Shimon felt his head spin. He hadn't expected Sethos to move so fast,
it was less than three days after Atemu's death! He quickly seized on
the last things Isis had said. "He broke up the Puzzle? Wait, why
isn't he giving the Ring to Mana? Or taking the Puzzle for himself?
And why is Masud being given leadership of the Cult of Osiris? I know
Akunadin already had a sucessor picked out." Sethos had always been
in awe of the power of the Shadow Games and was always pushing for
Atemu to use more of that power, to deprive his own reign of it seemed
odd.

"It was partially under my advisement, given what I had seen with the
Torc. Also, Sethos believes both the Sennen Ring and the Eye to have
been too tainted by their exposure to Bakhura and Akunadin to be
safely handled by anyone. Finally, since Atemu has sealed the games,
the power offered by the Sennen items is much weaker, and he doesn't
think the risks would outweigh the benefits. The Puzzle seems to be
suffering this as well, it is not responding to anything."

"Why is Masud being elevated to High Priest status? You haven't
answered that."

"The same reason the Eye is being hidden. There is a possiblility
that whoever Akunadin chose, that choice might have been under the
influence of Zork Necrophidius and could not be trusted. Sethos
didn't want to wait until the new Pharoah had been found."

"Naturally" sighed Shimon. Sethos was not only arrogant and ruthless,
but impatient as well. He had always been surprised by how well
Sethos had done in his studies, but he supposed Sethos's perfectionism
prevented him from doing anything less than excellence.

"However that still leaves the matter of who is the next Pharoah.
Akunadin always talked about how proud he was of his son, but none of
us know who he is."

'That's right. None of the surviving Priests are old enough to know
who Akunadin's eldest son was.' That led his thoughts to other
matters. 'And no one has told his second what has happened to his
father, other than that he is dead. I'll have to be the one to do
that.'

"I'll take care of it."

"Yes, but we still need to move all of Akunadin's personal effects so
that the Pharoah can go over them and-" He waved her into silence.
"Yes, well, Sethos is waiting for you in Akunadin's quarters."

The first thing they heard when they got there was a crash.
Isetnofret and Shimon quickly burst in, but halted at the sight they
saw.

The scene was exactly as Shimon had feared. Sethos was there, and
cowering at his feet was Moswen, who stared up with wide, fearful eyes
at his half-brother. Shards of pottery were scattered around Moswen's
feet, obviously the crash they had heard out in the hall. Moswen was,
as Shimon was not suprised to find, terrified of his brother, but
Sethos wasn't reacting the way he had expected. Shimon had expected
cold fury and bitter sarcasm to lash at the younger boys mistake.
Instead, Sethos seemed to be struck speechless, as if something about
Moswen had hit a nerve in the detached High Priest of Ra. 'Surely,
Sethos doesn't know about their relationship already?'

Moswen shot a quick glance at them, thenquickly knelt and pressed his
forehead to the floor as a sign of respect. This caused Sethos to
finally notice them. "Shimon" he said in his usual cold tone. "Who
is this?"

"Your excellency, this is Moswen, Akunadin's-" Here Moswen looked up
and quickly shook his head. Shimon hoped that Isetnofret had not seen
that gesture, but his store had long run dry. "Akunadin's assistant.
He was here to arrange Akunadin's possessions for removal." At least,
that's what Shimon hoped he had been doing. If Sethos had walked in
while Moswen was crying over his father's things, a much more
elaborate explanation would be needed.

"His assistant? An apprentice?" When Sethos turned back to look at
Moswen, Moswen had already dropped his head back to the ground.

"No, Moswen is still an Acolyte in the Cult of Osiris. He hasn't even
been assigned to a city yet." Sethos eyed the figure at his feet and
especially the long, loosely braided black hair. "I understood that
all Acolytes shaved their heads; only after they have become priests
are they allowed to regrow thier hair if they choose."

Shimon needed to think fast. "Yes, but Moswen is half-Hebrew.
Akunadin allowed him special dispensation to keep his hair, especially
since it reminds Moswen of his deceased mother."

"Hmmm, well I'll decide what to do with him later. A more pressing
matter is the new Pharoah. Everyone on the Council new that Akunadin
had at least one son, but none of us knew who he was. Since none of
Atemu's sisters have survived, the throne will go to that son. I hope
you know, so that we can present him to the people immediately."

No reprieve here. "Sethos, the new Pharoah . . . is you."

Shimon noted absently this was the first time he had managed to
startle the arrogant High Priest. He would say it was thefirst time
for the priest to be affected by anything, if it wasn't for his
open-mouthed reaction to Moswen. As is, he would have to say he was
only the second person to leave Sethos dumb-founded. "What are you
talking about?"

'I'm sorry Akunadin, but he must know.' Shimon took a deep breath.
"Sethos, you're mother and I lied to you. You're father did not fall
in the defense of Egypt. After he had created the Sennen items,
you're mother asked for a divorce and it was granted."

"Why did you not say anything to me? Why didn't HE say anything to
me?"

"When you entered the priesthood, you spoke so glowingly about your
'father', none of us had the heart to tell you it was a lie. That
your father was an old sorcerer, not some glorious warrior. That
you're mother couldn't stand seeing how he had mutilated himself for
the sake of Egypt." It wasn't a complete lie. Sethos had experienced
so many shocks already: the death of that foreign girl Kisara, the
betrayal of Akunadin, the loss of his fellow priest and finally the
death of Atemu. Shimon could not bring himself to tell Sethos that it
had been him who rejected his own father, viewed Akunadin as a
monster.

Even Moswen was looking up with worry. Sethos, however, quickly
pulled himself back together, and hid whatever he was thinking behind
his usual mask. "At least I won't have to worry about appointing a
new High Priest of Ra. Very well then, I'll start working on
everything we've let slide immediately. Shimon, I'll need you to make
the arrangements for the coronation. Isis, you and Shadah need to
start on those projects I've given you. Also, see if you can get
Karim to help Masud and Mana adjust."

He looked down at Moswen. "Look up" he commanded. He observed his
unknown younger brother for a while. "After you have moved all of
Akunadin's things to the Pharoah's-I mean-my quarter's, I'll go over
what can be given away or sold. I then want you to oversee the
transplant of my personal items. I think I'll also see that you're
allegiance is changed from Osiris to Ra."

Isetnofret, Simon and Moswen blinked at him. "What?" asked Sethos.

Shimon decided to voice the question that was on all their faces.
"Er, why do you need to do that?"

Sethos turned and began to walk out the door. But he did deign to
answer his question before leaving. "Because I will need an assistant
if I'm to take the role of both Pharoah and the High Priest of Ra.
Might as well have someone with some background." The next thing he
said probably wasn't meant to be heard, but Shimon (and probably
Isetnofret) managed to. "Moswen, huh. Appropriate."

Shimon looked at the boy who had just stood up. Moswen was pale, a
result of the fact that the Cult of Osiris spent most of it's time in
tombs underground, the few ceremonies it had above ground were all
conducted at night. He looked unusually pale when measured against
someone like Sethos, who had been conducting ceremonies at high noon
since he was fourteen. Moswen's skin was emphasized by his long black
hair and dark eyes. But why had Sethos even noticed those things?

"Alright Shimon, now is the time to explain things. What was that
whole thing about Moswen being Akunadin's assistant? I know he didn't
have any, and the two of you were communicating behind Sethos's back.
What's going on?"

Fortunately, Moswen decided to explain things. "Priestess Isetnofret,
my name is Moswen . . . second son of Akunadin."

"What?"

"I'm Akunadin's second son, by his second wife. Sethos doesn't know
about me-"

"And you obviously intend to keep it that way. Why? Never mind, the
answer is obvious. You're afraid of him." Moswen looked down again
and nodded. Isetnofret leaned down and hugged him. "I understand
that. Sethos is more than a little intimidating."

Shimon decided to throw in his opinion. "That's why Akunadin allowed
Moswen to keep his hair as it is, in memory of his second wife, who
died in childbirth."

Neither Isetnofret nor Moswen appeared to have heard him. "Since
we'll being seeing a lot of each other from now on, why don't we be
friends? It will help if you have someone you could talk to."

Moswen blushed. "Thank you, High Priestess Isetnofret."

"You can call me Isis. It's much easier."

"Thank you Isis."

#######################

Author's Notes (And boy do I have a lot of them)

Okay, first of all, I'm obviously ignoring parts of the canon, since
Karim, Shadah and Shimon are still around and kicking.

People:

Sethos: I don't like using Set, Seth or Seto. I just can't imagine
anyone naming their child that, it would be like a Viking being named
Loki or a girl Pandora. Not bad, but not exactly a comfortable name
either. Sethos, as far as I can tell means 'prince' so it's sort of
fitting then.

Moswen: Mokuba's incarnation, means 'pale' or 'fair'. The
appropriateness of his name will be expanded on in further chapters.

Isetnofret: Ishizu's incarnation, means 'Isis is beautiful'. Will
almost inevitably be called Isis from now on because her name is just
too long. Same objections as Set, couldn't imagine people being
arrogant enough to give a priestess the same name as a goddess (hey,
do you see anyone around being called 'Hera' or 'Zeus'?)

Masud: Probably Marik's incarnation, but he's not going to actually
show up in the story so it doesn't matter. Means 'lucky'.

Moswen's appearance: Will come up in later chapters, but for those who
need it now, here it is. Moswen's shorter than Sethos (who isn't?),
but taller than Mokuba. He's just a bit shorter than Atemu . . . 's
hair, about 5'4-5'6. He looks like Mokuba (duh!). He's paler than
Sethos and most other Egyptians (will be explained later), but most of
us in temperate climes would probably consider him to be lightly
tanned. His hair is longer than Mokuba, but he keeps it in a very
loose braid. As an acolyte, he doesn't wear any henna, kohl or other
make-up, and instead of the elaborate outfits the Priests wear, he has
a simple tunic, no gold or other decorations. He has dark violet
eyes, similar in shade to Atemu's (they are cousins, after all), but
darker.

Priests:

I'm trying to come up with a working system here, so please bear with
me. Instead of all being priests of the same religion, each priest or
priestess on the council represents the head of thier sect or cult.
That person acts both as leader of their cult, advisor to the pharoah
and holder of a Sennen item (last one no longer true). Thus they are
all 'High Priests'. However, because Ra is the chief God in the
Egyptian mythologies, his Priest or Priestess can be considered the
informal head of the council and thus the others defer to him or her.
Since the Pharoah was considered the living incarnation of Ra (and
would become the incarnation of Osiris after death), sometimes
Pharoahs' would combine the titles, being both Head Priest and
Pharoah. Sethos is doing that here, however neither Akunumkanon nor
Atemu did that (considering their power was based on the Shadow Games,
that would be rather inappropriate).

Here's a quick run down of the priests:

Name(position, modern incarnation)-God, what god is-Sennen item
(Have/Not)

Sethos, Pharoah (Seto)-Ra, Sun God-Rod (H), Puzzle (N)

Masud (Marik)-Osiris, God of Underworld-Eye (N)

Isetnofret (Ishizu)-Isis, Mother Goddess, Osiris's wife-Torc (H) (what
the heck is a Tauk?)

Shadah (Shadi)-Horus, messenger, teacher, truthseeker-Ankh or Key (H)

Mana (DMG)-Thoth, teacher-Ring (N)

Karim-Anubis, Judge of Dead-Scale or Balance (H)

I think that's all that needs to be clarified for now.

Niu Shiy-Ue