Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Tales of Hierakon's Empire ❯ Chapter 9

Author's Notes: -runs around like a wild chicken- sorry about the delay in update, peeps. I got addicted to a few things and ignored it for awhile. My final time at college has started up, and I am desperate on getting on the Dean's List—it is a desire. XP enjoy

 

-Oreana

 

Everyone knows I'm in the same hole only not finished with college yet. So yeah, we're both busy with our lives so pardon the slowness xD

 

-Raist

 

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The commotion at the palace could be heard from all over the city. Citizens of all classes lit their torches to look outside their window or door to try and catch a glimpse at what could possibly be going on at the Egyptian palace. Many women could be heard screaming and crying loudly in the streets with men roaring in anger with a shake of their fist. The sound of the screaming and weeping roused Touya from his slumber.

 

His bare feet making it to the cold flooring, he wrapped up in his blanket while searching for a candlestick he could use to light. His pallid fingers stumbling upon a white candlestick from the table in the middle of their bedroom, he managed to light it in the kitchen so as not to disturb the snoring Jin. Walking slowly to the door, he moved the hanging tarp out of his way to make it outside only to have a guard point his sword at him.

 

“You, get back inside, now!” The man demanded angrily before hurrying away from the house towards the palace with a few others behind him.

 

Touya wasn't given a chance to ask what was going on as a few more guards on Arabian Stallions tore past him at a blinding speed. The candle went out thanks to the horses breezing by at such an incredible pace. Left in the dark, Touya turned back around towards the house to wake up the slumbering redhead. Placing the candle down on the wooden table in the center of their bedroom, he relit it before hurrying over to Jin to shake him awake.

 

“Jin,” he called in the man's tanned ear. “Jin, Jin, wake up.”

 

Jin snorted slightly in his sleep when he finally woke up from the shaking of his body. “What…what is it?” He asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Touya, what time is it?”

 

“That doesn't matter,” Touya whispered, grabbing Jin's wrist to pull him up from where he was sleeping. “Come on—something is going on at the palace.”

 

Jin could now clearly hear the screaming and sorrowful cries echoing throughout Hierakon's soil. It sent a disturbing tingle down his spine as he pushed the covers off of his body to get to his feet—bare from head to toe. “Alright, let me slip something on first, and then we can see what is going on.”

 

“Yes, please do,” Touya insisted not wishing for him to walk outside naked though it would possibly bother very little seeing as prostitutes often walked the streets as such.

 

Once Jin managed to find the cloth, which hung down in between his legs and caressed his buttocks, he put it on good and tight with a few loops of the thick string he had to keep it up on his broad hips. With a few quick motions, he made a perfect knot in the front to keep it from falling. As he was about to leave the house with Touya, he spied the phoenix necklace he had promised to make for the youngest princess and had completed. He quickly grabbed it up before tearing out the front door with Touya in the lead.

 

The two lower classmen hurried towards the palace's large, marble steps, pushing their way through the crowd to get a better view. As Jin did so with Touya at his side, he noticed one of the slaves he usually saw around working on the wall with him and his friend. “Hakeem,” Jin called through the tearful crowd as he made his way towards the young man. “What is going on here?” He exclaimed in a high whisper.

 

Hakeem looked over at Jin through his black, unkempt strands of hair, which cascaded from the ponytail he kept it in. “The Pharaoh has been poisoned! The slaves held responsible have been captured and are going to be beheaded at dawn.”

 

Jin and Touya both inhaled sharply at the news, looking at the entrance of the palace, which was heavily guarded. The redheaded Egyptian slave placed his hands on the pallid skin of his partner to excuse himself from Touya's side. Touya remained near Hakeem to get more information on the situation as Jin darted through the crowd to get closer to the palace stairs.

 

Rehema cried hysterically within her elder sister's chest, dampening her attire with her endless tears, upon the top of the palace stairs. She had to be pulled from her deceased father with Omorose and Darwishi's help.

 

The towering priest kept the two young heirs close to his robes, which showed his status as the High Priest. He felt that it would be best that the two were removed from the scene given how horrible the pharaoh appeared in his lifeless state. Leaning down, he whispered to the two distraught girls. “Come, it is best we head to Horus' Temple to pray,” Darwishi suggested, helping them down the stairs with two guards to occupy them.

 

The three making it to the bottom of the stairs, mayhem nearly ensued as citizens tried to reach out for them to give their blessings. The guards, however, would not allow it as they demanded everyone to return to their housing for the night.

 

Jin pushed through the crowd, regardless, spying the two princesses and the High Priest from where he was located in the angered group of people. He had to get to the daughters of the former Pharaoh regardless of what it took. His hand grasping tightly onto the phoenix pendent he had crafted and managed to finish, he hurried for the temple, low to the ground so he couldn't be seen.

 

Omorose kept her hands upon her young sister's shoulders, resting her cheek stained with her warm tears against Rehema's. “Let's pray together, Rehema,” she suggested softly to her sister as they headed beyond the hypostyle hall filled with relics dealing with the falcon headed god. “Father will need every prayer we can give him in hopes of his journey in the Afterlife being a pleasant one…”

 

Rehema nodded as she was guided into the back with her sister where the 60 cm tall, wooden Horus statue was located. She knelt down in the cold sand with her sister, but she was unable to find the words to say whether aloud or to herself as her sadness overwhelmed her entire form. “I can't do this,” Rehema said through her heaping sobs.

 

Looking sorrowfully at her younger sibling, Omorose pulled her hands from prayer to place them upon Rehema's shoulders. “Why don't you wait outside where Horus' barge is located? I will come and get you later…”

 

Pulling from Omorose, Rehema walked to the open area where a ceremonial barge was located—holding a statue of Horus upon it in his falcon form. The scones lit and crackling within tune with the chirping crickets, she didn't hear the redheaded slave tiptoeing up behind her.

 

“Princess Rehema,” Jin whispered from where he stood, respectfully, a few feet away from her. When she spun around quickly, he lowered himself a bit in attempts for a bow so as not to seem too informal given his class. “I am sorry to bother you, but I heard of what happened to your father.”

 

Being reminded once more, Rehema broke down crying again as she made her way over towards the abused slave to bury her face into his sweaty, tanned abdomen. Regardless of how much he was perspiring, she found the scent to be calming as she kept her arms about his body tightly. “Why would this happen…?” She asked, sniffling back her flowing tears.

 

Jin was a bit hesitant to embrace her, but he eventually did so to try and console her. “I am sorry this happened, Princess Rehema,” he whispered in return so as not to alert the guards patrolling the area. “I know it was unfair.” He opened his hand, which was clasping the item he had crafted. Jin gently pushed the princess back to kneel down before her, so he could be eye to eye with her. “I managed to finish this for you.” The slave let the crafted phoenix slide from his palm to hang there upon the chain he kept tightly in his hands. The phoenix was soaring upwards with its wings spread out to its sides to show the intricate designs upon each feather.

 

A smile was finally expressed, if only for a moment, on her face as she accepted the necklace. “Thank you,” she sniffled, rubbing her nose with her arm.

 

“You are welcome, princess,” Jin respectively replied, smiling softly. Taking a cautious look around him in the darkness, he placed his child-like, cobalt orbs upon her once again. “Do you want me to help you put it on?”

 

Merely giving a nod, she held the necklace out to the slave to let him take it, grabbing her hair to pull it up so it wouldn't get caught in the clasp. Allowing the hesitant slave to reach his arms around her neck and shoulders to complete the task of fastening the clasp to the necklace, a stare caught him off guard, followed by the sound of sand seeping footsteps.

 

“Rehema! Get away from him!” The once fully compassionate voice of her elder sister raped the chirping crickets of their symphony with a tinge of anger, even if it was a hushed whisper. “We cannot trust him as you once did.” It pained Omorose to say so, but with her mixed emotions so jumbled after whom killed their father; she wasn't sure who to trust.

 

Pulling his hands away after fastening the clasp of the phoenix necklace, Jin lowered considerable, trying to duck further back into the shadows. “I meant her no harm, princess. After taking care of me, I think you know I am no jackal waiting for a kill.”

 

Stepping in front of her younger sister, Omorose sneered lightly, tears rimming her eyes. “You expect me to believe that after what happened tonight? Two slaves conspired against our father and killed him. They took his life for their own greed!”

 

“Omorose, stop!” Rehema begged, broken into tears again. “He made this necklace for me. It means a lot in such a depressing time. Please don't hurt him or send him away!” The last of her words were drowned by her hiccupping sobs as her diminutive hands grasped the white see-through skirt of Omorose, rewetting the salty trails that started to dry along her ivory cheeks.

 

Jin furrowed his brows; disliking the fact the princess blamed a whole minority over the mistake of two following the lower classes. “So now you're going to smite all of the lower classes in the back after showing great empathy? You had my living partner healed the day you saw him beaten into a bloody pulp, yet now, you give a stare that stings like asp venom,” the redheaded slave snapped, disappointed.

 

The lurch in her heart came at the thought of the whip, the blood, the torn skin from the fair skinned slave on the day her father took her and her younger sister out to see the vile behavior placed upon the lower working class. Not too long ago, the redheaded slave appeared in the same condition, if not worse, showing another reputed attack on the serving slaves. Her angered gaze softening, she averted her sapphire orbs to the opposite side, biting her lower lip to hold the tears back that wanted to badly spill forth.

 

“Go,” she commanded softly, her voice quivering. “Just go back to where you came from and stay away from the palace.” Swallowing the lump gathered within her throat, she felt Rehema's form move at her chest level, possibly to look up at her in saddened relief. “If you want your life saved, you will leave as I asked,” she reminded once more, turning her back upon the shadow clad, redheaded slave, bringing her sister around with her.

 

Jin felt he placed the right words upon the confused princess to remind her of her soft heart, in which he hoped she still had. He still had to prove to Touya that not all royals were deceiving killers of the blind below their own levels. They were all children of Horus, just dressed in different skins; a soft, though worried grin shown upon the talented slave, Jin scurried off back towards the lower alleys to get back home, thankful.

 

“Omorose?” Rehema sniffled in question; looking up at her sister as they slowly sauntered back inside of the temple built in the honor of Horus.

 

“Hm?” she hummed back, numbed by all the events that had taken place.

 

“Thanks for letting him go,” she said softly, hugging her elder sister around the waist. “It means a lot to me.”

 

Pausing in her steps, the sapphire oculars belonging to Omorose peered down into the watery emerald pools of innocence locked upon her from below her bosom, lifting a shaky hand up to grace the russet tresses atop her sister's head.

 

“It hurts me to see you upset. I couldn't keep my anger towards him after remembering later events he mentioned. I…don't want to be a cold-hearted beast,” she explained softly, directing Rehema over to two wicker seats padded with feather filled pillows. Sitting upon one after Rehema sat upon the other; Omorose looked up at the statue erected of the falcon god.

 

Rehema looked, too, trying to figure out what her sister was trying to point out. Wiping the glare from her green orbs due to the residue left over from her tears, she blinked a few times, gasping at the small bird perched upon the beak of the statue.

 

“Omorose--!”

 

“Ssh, you'll scare him!” she shushed, bringing her younger sister closer to her. “Maybe father will pass into the Afterlife with good blessing after all,” she admitted, smiling softly, the falcon bringing a ray of hope to both of the fatherless sisters.

 

 

 

 

“I am deeply sorry for your loss, Queen Este,” prince Djoser sympathized, bowing to the distraught widow. “You have no male heirs to resume his order. This could create a problem for power.” If anyone wore a hidden façade, it was Djoser; able to fool any person into his trickery when they were in their lowest of ruts. His heart was as dark as his own father's when it came to expanding power, wanting nothing more but to have the empty throne to himself with the princess he had been trying to woo sitting beside him to make the empire into what he dreamed it to be.

 

However, Omorose was proving to be conniving in her own ways of hating him to shun him, making his blood boil within his veins at the mere thought of her treachery towards him. Breaking her would take longer than he thought. Another close visit after his leave within a day would clear things for a fresh start to try and take back over where he left off.

 

After all, one cannot plow a vast field to perfection in one day. It took time and patience, both of which he held, though he wished it easier.

 

“Your condolences are appreciated,” Este replied somberly, keeping her arms stretched out over the golden arms of her throne. Her sapphire orbs looked no where of great significance, both heart broken and burdened on what to do next after her husband's funeral in a day or so. “I know of the struggle that may come, however, I am not afraid.” Her regal head turned to the left, the sun rays glinting off the golden cattle horns with a red jewel in the center adorning her crown in honor of Hathor. She stared at the empty throne beside her, sighing through her nostrils sadly, lidding her orbs sorrowfully.

 

“Djoser?”

 

Looking up abruptly, the Maladraad prince peered through his long, ebony bangs. “My Queen?”

 

“I request you come back after two months when you depart tomorrow to return to Maladraad.” She traced her pedicured nail over the etched hieroglyphs spelling out her husband's name on the cartouche resting slack upon the arm of his lifeless throne. “By then, things will be somewhat back in order, and a high-blooded male will need to keep the girls in line.” She paused, directing her powerful gaze down upon the prince. “Even if one of them is to be your future wife; they are still young.”

 

Lowering his chocolate gaze respectively, Djoser nodded silently, hiding his pleased smirk. “Anything for you and your family, my Queen. I am sure father will have no problem with that request.”

 

“Good,” she proceeded singly, practically ending the conversation. “Please leave me in peace. I need to think to myself for a while.”

 

“Of course,” he purred softly, lifting to his full height to turn with a swish of his ruby cape, the fabric trailing out behind him as he made his way out of the spacious and elaborate throne room.

 

He was satisfied. For now.

 

 

 

The moon almost refused to move that night as it remained stationed high within the desert sky for what felt too long to many people. Jin had made his way back to the house he shared with Touya to try and sit to think for the night. He knew the slaves would be halted in their workings being the Pharaoh would have to be buried and remembered come the rise of Ra's sun, so he had no reason to dive under the covers and attempt to sleep once more just yet. Pulling the flap of their entranceway to the left, he made it inside to find it dimly lit by candlelight and with Touya sitting at the small table they often ate at.

 

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Jin asked making his way over to the empty, wooden chair opposite to the pallid skinned, Egyptian slave. The chair's legs moaned against the ground slightly as the redhead moved it back so he could sit within it.

 

Touya lifted his head off of his fingers to look at the drink in his cup. “I am feeling alright. I am having mixed feelings about the whole situation.”

 

Jin didn't pry. He looked down at the table, nodding at his friend's words to show he was listening.

 

“Jin, is it so bad to be relieved when someone you fear dies?” Touya asked with a slight sigh. His fingers dug into the side of the cup he was holding, almost threatening to break it with the force he put on it.

 

“The man was threatening your life, Touya,” Jin explained quietly within the candlelight flickering off of them both. “It is only human nature to want to fight for ones life or those he cares for.” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling it tense for a moment. “I have to admit, I too am slightly relieved he is gone. While upper class citizens find the Pharaoh to be a great man…he was much too wicked to those who served him.”

 

Touya took another sip of the drink in his hands with a brief nod. “Do you think this will affect the coming ruling styles? The girls do seem a lot tenderer in heart than their father.”

 

The redhead shook his wild hair, gazing off to the side. “I don't know,” he almost mumbled. “It's that Prince Djoser I am worried about, really. His soul…” Jin shivered at the mere thought. “…it really chills me through to the bone whenever I come across him. There is just something about him that doesn't sit right with me.”

 

“Well, nothing we can do but wait,” Touya whispered in return. Carefully he picked up the lit candle, guarding it with his hand as he made it into the bedroom the two shared. Some of the guards could be heard wandering around outside of their house, causing Touya to blow out the candle quickly knowing it was time for the lights to go out. He wasn't above having the guards swarming their house under suspicion.

 

His eyes adjusting to the dim lighting of their house, Jin made his way over to his bed to listen as the guards moved onwards once the candle within their home was blown out. “Apparently everyone is on edge,” he whispered to Touya, moving the covers so he could slip under them to get warm.

 

“I can't say I blame them given the circumstances.” Touya placed the candle on the table in the center of the bedroom before heading back to his own bed to sit upon the side of it to think once more on the surprising wakeup call. “It's hard to believe he is gone.”

 

“It is a shock, isn't it?” Jin whispered from where he was lying upon his back to gaze up at the ceiling.

 

“I guess I best try to sleep,” Touya sighed as he covered himself up under the covers of his bedding. “Goodnight, Jin, and sleep well.”

 

“Goodnight, Touya—same to you,” Jin called back, overlapping his arms behind his head. He knew a good night's sleep would be impossible. So many thoughts were running through his mind, and he couldn't deny he was eager to know what the new day would bring without the Pharaoh alive and on the throne. The sound of thunder could be heard in the distance, thanks to Jin's excellent hearing. He turned his head slightly towards the window above his bed to watch lightening rip through the clouds above.

 

Rain came pouring down to kiss the desert sand soon enough, making the night all the more complete with the sorrowful mood, which surrounded the empire. Omorose made her way to the throne room where her mother and passed father's royal seats lit dimly within the torch light and the flash of lighting. Embracing herself, she slowly walked towards the chair, which would remain bare of her father's form from years to come. She ascended the marble staircase before them to make it to his empty chair to touch the finely crafted seat.

 

Omorose pulled herself into the throne, bringing her knees up to her chest to bury her forehead upon them to hide her tears from the empty room she, regardless, felt was being watched within. The palace seemed much larger than before with one of her parents no longer at her side. She remained there to cry out her sadness and anger not wishing any of it to be true.