Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Love of a Priestess ❯ Breaking the Seal ( Chapter 36 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it's taken me so long to update… I was out last week on college visits and this week I was madly trying to catch up with schoolwork and pick a college.

I'm going on hiatus for 3-4 weeks while I catch up with life. I've been neglecting it quite a bit over the past 2 months, what with college decisions and fanficing. I should be back the week after APs or the next week.

Thank you Phersule, AMK, and Jenny Galaxie for your reviews! I'll be thinking about you during my break!

Chapter 36: Breaking the Seal

He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me gently off the ground. I stood, trembling in his brotherly embrace, too scared to even look either of them in the eye.

“Come. You are exhausted and scared.”

He led me to the living room, where he laid me on the couch and wrapped me in a blanket. I hadn't realized I was shivering until then. She came in with a cup of strong coffee, and offered it to me.

“Drink it. It will help stabilize your mind,” he ordered. I almost wanted to laugh. Coffee? Stabilize my mind? It just makes most people hyperactive. I gulped down the scalding hot drink nonetheless, ignoring the burning of my throat and concentrating on the new warmth that spread through me.

He took a deep breath, and began.

“Do you know who you are?”

I shook my head. “I know… that I am 5000 years old. That I am some remnant of the last Pharaoh's reign. But beyond that… I know nothing.”

He nodded. “When you are stronger, there is something you must see to fully understand.”

“We cannot tell you,” she cut in. “We are forbidden.”

“I don't understand,” I said shakily. “How can you be forbidden from telling me? Aren't you my guardians? Don't you know? And wouldn't it be easier—and safer—to just tell me?” I realized I had become short of breath as the questions came tumbling out. “Because if I have to find out from memories like that one—“ my voice had become fevered, and I was almost yelling—“then I may not ever figure out who I am.” My voice dropped to barely a whisper as I wrapped myself tighter in the blanket.

“Yes. It would be. The memory you saw… should have disturbed you. I am sorry—truly sorry—we could give you no warning. We are forbidden from doing very much. The rules are strange, strict, yet oddly flexible. None of us fully understand them. We can only abide by them.”

“Who sets the rules?”

She answered. “You do.”

“What? I can't! I wouldn't do a stupid thing like this!” Tears were threatening to come out the corner of my eyes, and I hurriedly wiped them away.

“You do. Inadvertently and unintentionally perhaps, but you do. More specifically,” he said slowly, eyes traveling up my forehead, “that does.” His long finger pointed to the center of my forehead, where my hair fell low.

“This?” I whispered, parting my hair and fingering the Crown.

She nodded. “It makes all the rules… You know it governs your life, your death, your past, your Destiny. Thus it governs us. We were chosen by it to wield these Items, and we were chosen by it to be the trinity and be your guardians. We must abide by its limitations.”

I said nothing, waiting for them to continue. “That is all we can tell you,” he said finally, almost dejectedly.

“But,” she said quickly. “When you become stronger, we can tell you more.”

“How can I become stronger? Why must I become stronger?”

“I will train you to be stronger. Strong enough to go on your own, at least.”

My head was pounding from the riddles they were speaking in. And I was still scared…

She rested a reassuring hand on my knee. She, at least, seemed to have regained some composure, and was looking at me with dark eyes. “As for the second part… the why is the most difficult part. All I can tell you is that a great evil is rising, and you must stop it.”

“That's it?” I asked dully. “Then why did you need me to marry Kaiba?”

“The power of the Rod and Puzzle must be joined. They are the final pieces.” He said, back to his old, cryptic self.

“Yami… and Kaiba?”

“Yes. The Pharaoh and the Priest. And you are the one who will join them. Are you not?” she asked directly, daring me to contradict her.

“I suppose…”

“Their power is part of this just as much as yours. The other Items are paltry nothings compared to what is possible with those two—and yours.”

“But if there are only seven Items…”

“That is something we cannot tell you.” He looked almost apologetically at me, and I looked away.

“I must be going. I must find my brother and bring him back here to complete the trinity.” She stood and walked out the door. “Remember,” she said to me, as she stepped through the doorway, “be strong. Your wings are yet weak, but they are not useless. What you saw is just a memory. There is nothing yet in this world to fear.”

As soon as she was gone he turned to me, gazing impassively at me. With a sigh his eyes fell closed in something close to meditation.

“You need to get back to the Kaiba mansion,” he said finally. “Your friends—and husband—are waiting for you.”

“And then…?” I prompted.

“And then you must wait for word from me. When I am ready to begin training you, I will bring you back here. Kaiba's Duel Monsters Tournament is starting. He, Joey, Yugi, Mai—all the others will be preoccupied. It will be easy for you to train undistracted. And they will suspect nothing,” he finished, with some note of satisfaction.

I nodded. “All right.” I stood, placing the mug on the table and folding the blanket up. I walked to the door and gazed outside at the bright sunlight. It was only three in the afternoon, yet it felt like midnight.

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Indeed, the Duel Monsters Tournament proved useful beyond belief. It kept Kaiba constantly busy, too busy even to attend to our honeymoon. That was fine with me. They had made clear that whatever training I needed to do was urgent, and the memory had scared me into agreeing with them.

Joey, Yugi, and Mai were all participating, which effectively kept them from worrying too much about me. And their fan club inevitably followed them. Mokuba was always out with Kaiba monitoring the tournament, so I was left alone. I promised to come watch them duel, and did so only to reassure them that I was still alive.

Otherwise, I spent my time training with him. The first time I went to the house, I saw the protective and shielding spells around it, and frowned. Whatever we were doing, he was trying to make sure that nothing happened to the house, and that the neighbors didn't see anything. I wondered what we could possibly be doing.

“Stand there,” he ordered, pointing to a spot across the room from him. He'd moved all the furniture in the living room to make room for us. I obediently stood in the spot and waited nervously.

He held up a tiny green stone and told me to look at it. I studied it carefully, noting its glass-like quality and its sea green color. I frowned, though, as I began to see magic glimmer at its edges.

“It is a mere sliver of stone, broken from a much larger, more dangerous piece.”

“I don't like it,” I said quickly. I was becoming slightly nauseous, and the Crown was growing warm on my forehead.

“You shouldn't. The Crown and the parent stone are not compatible. It is called the Orichalcos stone, and there is a long history behind it. You must discover it yourself, but I am here to try to prepare you against it.”

“What do I do?”

“When I release the magic, a magic circle will form on the ground. Normally, one would need a Duel Monsters card to do this—“

“What? This has to do with Duel Monsters too?”

He nodded. “Everything is connected, my child. As I was saying, normally I'd need a card, but this piece is small and weak, and I have some magical power. But be warned, even though the piece is small and its magic weak, it is still very strong.”

“Okay.”

“When the circle, or seal, forms on the ground, I want you to focus your power on destroying it.”

“What?” I'd never done anything other than Channel with my power…

“The Crown's power can do much more than Channel with ancient memories, my dear. You must know that—do you think you would still be here if all you were meant to do was Channel for all eternity?” I didn't answer the question. It didn't warrant one.

“Don't worry. It's just an experiment. And I can banish the Seal myself, if you cannot.”

“All right,” I finally agreed, bracing myself for what was to come.

His eyes closed and he held the stone out before him, and began chanting. I narrowed my eyes and focused on the tiny sliver held between his forefinger and thumb. As he chanted, I watched the green magic seep out of the stone and over his hand, dripping to the floor. My stomach clenched as the magic spread over the carpet, flowing down invisible pathways in an intricate pattern.

Before I knew it, the Seal had appeared on the floor around me. I began shivering as I felt its power push at the edges of my consciousness, and I struggled to shove it back. I realized that I had no idea how to do it, no idea how to harness my power and make it do my will. The realization frightened me, and I felt whatever control I had slip away. The sickly green magic wormed its way into my mind, and I felt its searing presence.

I cried out and collapsed to the floor, hands clenching into fists. Some small, stubborn part of me fought to stand, and I managed to make it into a crouch, one knee up, the other down. My shoulders were hunched over, bent by some invisible force over me.

Suddenly, it was gone, and I realized that he had banished the Seal on his own. He was standing over me, arms around my shoulders, forcing warm magic into my body. I hadn't realized I was crying, either.

“Let me try again,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

“Are you sure?” he asked quietly, still massaging my shoulders.

“Positive,” I snapped.

As he walked away and let me stand, I began clearing my mind. Think of it as modified Channeling, I told myself. When my mind was blank, and raised my head and looked straight at him. He nodded, and unleashed the stone's power.

The green magic returned, but this time I felt more ready. I searched for my power, buried deep somewhere within me. I unconsciously reached for it every time I Channeled, so shouldn't I be able to reach it now, when I needed it?

Of course, it didn't help that I didn't know where it was. As I felt the green magic push against my consciousness I began to panic, frantically shuttling through my mind looking for my power—whatever it was. This time, there wasn't even any warning—the green magic flooded my mind, clouded my vision, and when I was able to blink and clear my eyes he was laying me down on the couch and covering me.

“Let me get you some coffee,” he murmured, hurrying away.

I sighed, aggravated. I wanted to do this—I didn't want to screw up again, and start the cycle all over. I couldn't take indefinite immortality for much longer.

But then again… did I really want to leave them all behind—forever?

I shook the thought away violently. If you stay, I reminded myself, then they die. That's the way it works. So don't even think it.

As I relaxed my body against the soft cushions and lowered my eyelids, an image flashed before my eyes. A small, glowing sphere of gold light. My eyes shot open, and I blinked rapidly. Yet still it floated before me, a vision just beyond my reach, haunting me, trying to tell me something.

Could that be… the Crown's power? I frowned, closing my eyes, hoping for more. But nothing more came, just that soft, comforting glow. Involuntarily, though, I shuddered—it reminded me of the vision in the memory, the beautiful gold light being consumed by the inky darkness.

Timidly, I began searching my mind again for the image I'd seen. Slowly, like the sun rising in the east, the gold sphere came into view in my mind. It was small, smaller than I'd thought, and hidden in a stone chamber. Its soft light illuminated the carvings on the walls, and I was there long enough to make out just one.

The Dark Magician Girl.

The vision was gone as quickly as it had come, and all that remained before my eyes was the shimmering globe of light. It spun hypnotically before me, entrancing and captivating me. As I gazed, the soft gold light began to unravel, like a ball of yarn. The shimmering thread stretched out to me, snaking towards me, dancing lightly to a soundless tune.

Slowly, I reached my hand out to it, letting it wrap around and caress my fingers. It wound its way around my fingers, then slowly began moving up my arm. It bathed me in its warmth as it reached my shoulder, then went over my back to reach the other shoulder and arm. After it had wound its way down my other arm, it stopped moving and lay heavily over my arms. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, reveling in the comforting weight of the light that shrouded me.

As I inhaled, the magic sank into my flesh, mixing and melding itself with it, until the golden light lay just below the surface of my mortal flesh, a new layer of light for my immortal spirit.

I opened my eyes, and blinked carefully. He was sitting beside me, on the edge of the couch, holding out the white ceramic mug. Gratefully, I took the steaming dark coffee and sipped it, thinking. When I'd drunk less than half the cup, I set it down on the glass coffee table and stood.

“Let me try again,” I said coolly, stalking away to the end of the room.

“You are too weak,” he murmured, not standing. “This method of training will not work. I had not realized you were so unprepared. It is our fault, I suppose.”

“Just one more try,” I demanded, leaving no room for argument. I lifted my right hand and held it out, fingers spread and waiting. He sighed quietly but stood nonetheless, and took his place opposite me.

The green magic rose again from the ground, casting its toxic glow on the walls. I took a deep breath, and waited for it to come at me. This time, I felt confident that I would not fall.

I closed my eyes and blinked slowly; as my eyelids parted, I released the energy waiting at the edge of my fingertips. The gold light flowed and streamed from my palm and pads of my fingers, twisting and swirling along. The multiple strands of light finally coalesced into one strong, true beam, and it radiated outward from my palm. It shattered through the green magic like glass, and the entire Seal crumbled around me.

I smiled weakly in triumph as the green magic disappeared, completely drowned out by gold light. My knees buckled and my head began to spin as the world went dark.

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“Feeling better?” he asked, as I blinked rapidly to clear my hazy vision. I mumbled incoherently as I sat up in my old bed, rubbing my eyes like a child.

“You over-exerted yourself today,” he chided gently, placing a cup of coffee and a plate of steaming casserole before me. “But not without reward,” he added, a slight smile on his lips.

I grinned weakly and began eating. “What now?” I asked between mouthfuls.

“We try to improve on what you've already learned. Once you master breaking and banishing the Seal, we will slowly increase the strength of the Seal. I don't know how far we can train you that way, though, since one of us must always be able to banish it.”

I nodded and continued eating. “I have a feeling there's more to it than that.”

“Of course. But we shouldn't worry about that part now. What you can do is learn how to play Duel Monsters.”

“I already know how, a little,” I said, remembering the day in the restaurant, when I'd beat Mai so easily.

“You must learn the tricks and skills from the Pharaoh, the Priest, and the final warrior.”

“Yami, Kaiba, and… Joey?”

He nodded. “You must become better than all of them. The Crown will aid you somewhat, but you'll have to do a great deal of it on your own. As you become a better duelist you should be able to unlock more memories, which will help you construct the perfect deck—the deck needed to end the cycle.”

My head was beginning to spin, but I said nothing. I would have to get lessons, somehow, from the three, in between all of their other Duel Monsters commitments. I pushed aside my now empty plate and swung my legs out of the bed. I stretched luxuriously and prepared to go.

“Be careful,” he warned perfunctorily.

“Of course,” I replied, skipping down the stairs. He watched me as I shrugged on my coat and hurried out into the dark night.