A/N: This is my contribution to the Alchemy of Thiefshipping project organized on Tumblr and collected on A03. I'm cross-posting it here for archival purposes. I *strongly encourage* readers to go find me on Tumblr or A03 under the same username. Uploading is much more reliable on those sites and it's SO MUCH EASIER to reply to your reviews! I will still do my best to keep up here. The story is complete, and will post a chapter or two a week until complete. :)

Prologue - In which an ill-advised spell is cast

~ o ~ o ~ o ~

Ryou stared around his living room in satisfaction. This should work. Probably. He eyed the chalk marks critically, and squinted at the positioning of the candles. Yes, this should work.

Realistically, he knew there was no way to be sure he could contact the ring spirit again. Or whether Bakura would be a proper spirit or just a wisp of leftover Egyptian magic at this point, for that matter. But he hadn't let that stop him from finding a spell that should – at least in theory – let him check up on the thief. After all, the whole memory world… thing… had been such a confusing mess that he'd been left with more questions than when he started, and that just wouldn't do. He'd put far too much time and energy into figuring out the Millennium Items to just let it end there. A few weeks and a handful of questionable online purchases later here he stood, ready to summon up the spirit for a chat.

Ryou ran his fingers along the pendant he'd purchased for the ritual. He'd considered just using a Ouija board or something, but he wanted to be sure he had found the right person, or whatever might be left of him. The pendant was supposed to let them speak more directly, like they had with the Ring, only without the whole ordeal of being possessed at the time. That would be a nice change, all things considered. He'd become fond of having a body all to himself.

He'd thought about calling Marik up to join in on this little adventure of his, but it had seemed a little out of place, somehow. True, after the ceremonial duel they'd bonded over their experiences with the spirit of the ring, but Marik had seemed strangely eager to leave that past firmly behind them. Ryou couldn't understand why he was content to leave so much unanswered. The ring had been fascinating.

Maybe if this worked well, he'd give Marik a call and cast the spell again for him later. He had a feeling there had been more to Marik's time with the spirit than he let on, but he could never quite put his finger on it. Another mystery to be solved, he supposed.

He took a deep breath as he hung the pendant in the middle of the circle and got ready to cast the spell. Here goes nothing.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~