Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters.
Alternate Timeline: Priest Seto finds Kisara before Mahado leaves to confront Bakura.
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Mana could break locks with a gesture and open closed doors with a word, and this was probably what first made her fall in love with her.
She sat up cautiously when she heard steps outside of her cell; she could tell it could not be the priest who had found her: the steps were fast, unsteady, light, and impatient. Despite of being in alert, she jumped when she saw the sudden sparkle of a flame outside, thought of fire (someone wanting her to burn, locked up and helpless and far from the sky...!); then there was the sound of metal hitting the stone floor, and the door swung open with a screech.
A voice. She couldn't understand what it said, but it sounded triumphant and happy, and then the door was pushed further open, and the girl jumped inside.
She was smaller than her, and, at first sight at least, seemed younger. Long, dishevelled brown hair was barely kept in check by a scarf. She was dressed way to richly for someone randomly ending up here, in a refined dress that had probably once been white, but had now taken a slightly brownish colour; and she was wearing leather sandals as well, and jewellery. In her right hand, she was holding a small golden staff, which she was spinning absently.
She made two steps inside, and stopped dead were she was; large brown eyes stared at her, mirroring her own surprise.
There was a pause, during which the girl stared at her, apprehension and curiosity fighting in her eyes.
"I thought... this cell was empty," she finally said.
Kisara sat up straighter on her bed; the girl made another step forward, stopped to spin her staff, aware of the irregularity of this situation. But, as Kisara learnt later, Mana had the courage, the level-headness, and the instinctive friendliness of someone who had never truly been hurt, and she didn't flee, didn't call for guards or tried to close the door again. Instead, she let her gaze trail over her in wonder, and asked:
"Who are you?"
It would have been prudent and loyal to stay, despite of the open door; it would have been logical to take the chance to run. But it was irrational and strangely wonderful to let Mana carelessly lead her outside, through the dark corridors of the jails and small passages only she seemed to know, to the warm afternoon sun, and sit down next to her in the grass under a tree and tell her who she was.
"I knew they brought someone back. Shada wouldn't tell me, but..." She paused, and looked her over. "You haven't done anything, have you?"
"He said I'd stay there until I was healed," she said slowly, to defend the priest of what actually seemed to be blame.
She was scared of the priest, but he had saved her, had given her food and a room that was a safe haven as much as a prison, and so she had only bowed her head in acceptance.
Mana shrugged it away.
"He didn't have to lock you in."
"Couldn't you quit earlier?"
Kisara was feeling secure enough to smile at her friend's complaint. It wasn't exactly fair: while she had studied with the high priest the whole morning, Mahado was occupied with preparing for a battle, and Mana was left to her own, to study alone. It was the clearest sign of the strength of her affection for her that she didn't take advantage of this free time to abandon learning, but sat for hours before the closed doors to the dungeons, leant over her spell-book.
It was only later, and only thanks to Mana, that she found out about the turmoil her discovery had caused. Seto defended his action against all accusations, even when Shadi revealed he had had to talk him out of shipping away the whole population of the city to prison without trial; he told Mahado that if he was failing in his duty, it was his duty to find other, effective ways to protect their pharaoh, and then he said the same to the pharaoh himself. It ended with a magical duel, which, of course, Mana added triumphantly, the prince won.
Kisara herself was eventually returned to Seto, who was to teach her to control her Ka – if so she agreed, the pharaoh unexplainably added.
Mana bowed respectfully and put on a contrite expression and apologised when the high priest in person chastised her about practicing her opening spells on prison doors, because showing respect to the high priest was expected from Mahado's student.
She pouted and argued and eventually promised when Mahado later added that she wasn't to practice these spells anywhere without his explicit order: closed doors were closed for a reason.
"Come on then." Mana tugged at her hand impatiently. Kisara followed.
All her insecurity returned when Mana demeanour changed; not on the surface; small things. She would interrupt her sentences, flinch back when their hands touched, only ask questions timidly, and give her strangely fearful looks. Kisara had learnt that nothing was more destructive than fear...
It took her quite a while, and an overhead conversation during which, on reflection, priest Mahado talked louder than absolutely necessary, to understand. And even then, it took all her courage and her shame for having suspected Mana's affection of being nothing but an ephemeral interest in something exotic to go to her friend.
In the end, it was worth all the effort. She found out that Mana could make even the midday sun seem gentler and welcome, and the cold night cosy: she would, with languid gestures, wipe away the sweat from her body or kiss her salty skin, and drape a blanked around them and press her body close to hers.
Mana could make men who were stronger than her and heavily armed stand still and frozen at command; she could turn beer into water; she could call light and wind.
She rarely did these things on purpose, or at least not when and how she had wanted to; Kisara got used to seeing her scanning through her spell-book at impressive speed to find what she had done wrong.
But she was more impressed by her skills than by the way her teacher would, when everything else failed, fix her mistakes in an instant. Just as she didn't feel as endeared and hopeful when the high priest spoke of her dragon and praised the progress she was making – and praise from Seto was rare enough! – than when Mana laid her head on her chest and told her, amazed, that she could feel the dragon within her.
She owed the priest her life, and the knowledge she had gained of her Ka, and she would die for him; but she owed Mana the sight of peaceful sunsets, peaceful sennet games, and timid lotus-flavoured kisses with just a little tongue, and for her she would live, if only the war allowed it.
Mana knew, but she didn't truly realise that they were at war until Mahado left.
When her teacher died, she became adult overnight. Kisara could not be with her during the priest's fight: and she caught herself being jealous of the pharaoh, who could open doors for her. She couldn't be with her when the priests went after him, and when she broke down to tears in front of the stone panel that preserved his Ka, and when she swore she would do everything to become strong enough to see him: the high priest had judged she was not yet ready to fight, and left her in the safety of the palace's walls.
It was only later that she could see her, kiss and hold her as she cried, and find out that her love was not dependant on the enchantment of her cheerfulness.
"You have a strong Ka," Mana eventually said.
They were sitting together on the bed in Mana's own chambers, the window wide open to a bright decreasing moon; near the bed there was a candle, almost burnt down, which's light draped the rest of the room in darkness for them. Mana's cheeks were still wet, but she had stopped crying.
It was the first time she talked to her about the dragon as anything but part of her, akin to the way the high priest did; Kisara nodded unsurely: she had been told so. She didn't know.
"Then..." Mana looked up at her; her eyes were bright from tears. "I'll find you again as well. If..."
She bit her lips. Kisara nodded, understanding. If she died, if they both died, and they wouldn't even be allowed to go together... Mana had to do her best to take the place left by Mahado; and she had to stay with Seto. But she began to realise that maybe, if she wanted Mana to survive, she could not wait and hope until she could control the dragon that was sleeping within her.