Enemy Palace

Atem lay in his 'new' bed that night, staring up at the ceiling as he wished for the mounds of cushions he usually lay on to sleep. The northern beds were hard slabs of wood or rock, and some had sacks of bird down on them—this one had such a pad, but it was well-used, so it wasn't soft like the cushions in his own room. It was also colder than he was used to, so he was grateful for the thick blankets on the bed, and equally thankful he could at least look out the window and see the same stars.

None of that stopped him from remembering how the fight had ended...

CI

He'd been using everything he had to win, because it was his only real chance to go home unharmed. Assuming the King kept his word. His body hurt, but he gave the fight his all, and he was so, so close to winning—only to find what should have been his last strike being deflected on the tip of the King's sword, and in the next moment, Seto held his sword wrist firmly in his free hand. The other held his sword to Atem's throat. It was clear the Prince had lost.

When he looked up, however, he was surprised to see how shocked and pale the King was, even as the older teen said quietly, "If you had been in peak condition, you would have won. However, as things stand, I won, so you'll abide by your agreement, won't you, Prince Atem?"

Atem couldn't really say 'no' after having been the one to place and modify the terms, so he said, "Yes. I'll behave properly and obey—within reason."

With a nod, the sword went down and Seto let go of his wrist, seizing the sword in the other teen's hand and throwing it back to its owner. "Then, the first thing you need is medical care. My healers will see to your wounds while a room is prepared for you to rest in, and your first priority is to heal. Once you have, I'm going to have you join me in my weapons training, so plan for that around whatever other things you may like to do."

Moments later, Atem was being whisked away by female servants to see the Chief Healer, Kisara, who recognized his injuries and took care of him.

CI

It was like a blow to know he'd been tended equally as well by the northern King's Chief Healer as he would have been by his own, but it was a true fact he couldn't hide from, so he just sighed as he turned his thoughts to another matter of concern.

What kinds of orders would he be given, and why did his room have three doors?

One door was the hall door, so it was perfectly understandable, but the other two were both on the same wall. Those were to the right of the hall door, but he didn't have the strength to get up and find out what they were, and some servants had been waiting on him to take care of him while he was injured. He'd gotten good food and drink, and been given some scrolls and papyrus books written in his own language to read while he otherwise just rested. The rest of the fairly large room contained a large wardrobe, a stack of boxes with a drape hanging in front of it meant to hold under- and sleeping garments and trinkets, the bed (in the corner to the far left from the main door), a window, and a desk and chair. All the walls were flat with the exception of the wall where the two doors were, where about a quarter of that wall next to the outer wall came several feet into the room and the rest was in its proper place. One door was in the normal section of the wall and the other was in the section several feet in. The only thing he knew was that no such walls existed in his own home.

It was still strange to have been taken care of so well by his 'enemy', but the thought of an 'enemy' made him remember the battle, killing, his blind rage—which hadn't been so 'blind' after all...

And suddenly, he burst into tears and began sobbing as he rolled over in his bed to try to muffle his crying.

Everything was just too much, and he had to let out that feeling, so much so that he really knew he'd never be able to stop it until he ran out of tears to cry. First and foremost, rather to his surprise, was how afraid he was of himself for the fury which so easily discarded the lives of others. He'd been trained since he could walk to be able to kill, but until then, he'd never been forced to, and it was surprisingly painful. How could he have lost his control so thoroughly so as to chase and kill men who were running from him? Yes, he'd lost people he'd cared about, but...didn't those he'd killed have people who cared about them, as well?

A hand on his shoulder made him start and look up through his tears—at Seto! The other teen didn't say anything, just sat beside him and put his arms around him to hold him while he cried. His doing so just added complete confusion to his reasons to cry, so he didn't bother to try pulling away from the young King.

Some long time later, Atem drifted into sleep, the warmth at his side comforting...

CI

Waking groggily and knowing he'd cried himself to sleep, the Prince slowly assessed why someone was in his bed with him—and sat up in concern.

A look at the young King sleeping at his side with an arm around his waist showed him they were both still fully clothed, at least, so maybe Seto had just stayed there because he fell asleep while Atem had been crying. Surprisingly, the younger teen felt more calm and refreshed than he had, and his thought processes were working as well as they ever had, rather than being dulled. The pain hadn't gone away, not by a long shot, but it was within manageable levels, so he could work with it. A look around the room showed him that the door in the normal part of the wall to the side of the room was sitting ajar.

Carefully pulling the arm off his waist, he got up quietly and went to check the door—only to look into a room which he was sure was Seto's, given the white and purple color scheme and the overall regal look of it.

Why was there a door linking...?

Atem's questioning thought cut off as he turned flame red and went to the desk to sit and read until Seto woke.

When Seto woke, about half an hour later, Atem asked, without even looking at him, "Is the room on the other side of the door yours?" He felt the King's eyes on him intensely, but there was no answer, so he sighed and asked, "Why? I'm not your wife."

A silence followed the words, then a sigh. "There are people here—quite a few of them—who don't like being told they can't abuse the hostages anymore. I have to keep you close to me so they don't try to harm you while I'm not around to make them regret it." Another pause followed before he added, "Personally, after the shape you were in last night, I don't think you have a right to complain too much." Atem could hear him sitting up and standing. "Anyway, how do you feel, mentally and physically?" Seto finally asked.

He set the book down and turned to look at the other teen, saying, "That...even though I have been training with weapons for a long time, that was my first battle and my first time killing, and my first time being taken hostage. It was just...too much."

To his surprise, the other nodded and said, "I thought it was something along those lines, and all of that was the only reason I won, as much as I hate to say it. Subconsciously, you were pulling back from the thought of possibly killing again."

After pausing to consider that for a minute, Atem went on, "And as much as I hate to say it, your healers took care of me as well as my own would have. I'll have recovered within a week with care like that."

Frowning, Seto said, "No one can heal from wounds like that so fast."

Giving his head a shake, the other teen said, "No, it's just because it's me, and healing—good, proper healing—takes to my body like a bee to nectar. My body drinks it up and allocates it quickly and efficiently, so I heal twice as fast, if not faster, than anyone else getting the same care." He then paused for a moment before asking, "By the way, what do you want me to call you, King Seto?"

"In public, that'll do. In private, you can just call me 'Seto'," the King replied easily. "I'll do the same—it's 'Prince Atem' in public, but just 'Atem' in private."

"That's..." Atem began, going a bit cross-eyed.

"Informal?" the man asked with a smirk. Atem eyed him suspiciously, so he shrugged and said, "Join me for the morning meal—I eat in my own room. You'll see why I'd rather call you informally then. Speaking of which, it should almost be time, and you'll never hear the end of it from the servants if they see me come out of your room this morning. I'm going, and we'll talk more at and after the meal."

With that, he breezed out of the room, shutting the adjacent door on his way. A minute later, the hall door opened and several servants came in to get him out of his sleeping clothes, wash him, and dress him in clean, northern clothes. In his case, however, he was dressed in white pants and shirt with a deep blue, sleeveless robe over it. One of the healers even came in to check on his injuries and reminded him not to do anything too strenuous for the next little while. Finally, he was allowed to go, only for a servant to come from the adjacent door to call him to join the King for the morning meal—and to tell him how lucky he was for being invited to such a private affair.

When he stepped into the room, however, he was shocked to see a younger boy of about eleven sitting beside Seto at a small table which had been placed in the middle of the room. The boy had dark eyes and long, flyaway, black hair, but otherwise looked a lot like Seto, and he dressed in blue pants and shirt with a red device like a tunic-vest. It looked like he was already putting food from the platters on the table on his plate, and besides the chairs for Seto and the boy, there was one other, across from them.

At that moment, Seto looked up and saw him, so invited, "Come sit over here, Atem." As he spoke, he motioned at the free seat, so the other teen sat, even as the black haired boy turned to stare up at him in surprise. "This is my younger brother, Mokuba," the King said, nodding at the boy. He then looked at his brother as he tipped his head at Atem and said, "This is the Crown Prince of Egypt, Atem. He's staying here for awhile, so you'll be seeing him around a lot, Mokuba."

"Yeah, I get that part, Big Brother, but why's he eating with us, why are you calling him just by his name, and why's his room the one connected to yours?" the boy asked shrewdly, and Atem had to chuckle.

"Well, that's one thing you two have in common," Atem said when Seto looked at him in confusion. "I'd have asked, too."

"I told you already, too many people here like torturing people, so I can't leave you alone," Seto replied, snorting as he did. "But sadly, I don't have as much time for Mokuba as I'd like, and too many people here have proven they aren't trustworthy, so I'd like you to look out for him when I'm busy, Atem."

"Ah," the Prince murmured, suddenly understanding. "You don't like to show a lot of your emotions, but it doesn't mean you don't have them. I'm not sure if I should be scared or appreciative." At his wry tone, Mokuba snorted, spraying some of his drink on his plate as he did and earning a glare from Seto at the same time. The glare then turned on Atem.

"Don't you have a brother, too?" Seto asked with a deep frown.

Atem fell silent for a minute, then nodded and said, "Yuugi and I ordered our teachers to give us our lessons at the same times so we'd be able to spend our time outside our lessons together. It's not so easy as that when you're a ruler, since your kingdom and court decide for you when you work. I'll look after Mokuba as much as I can, Seto. Though, I daresay he'll be the one looking after me at first." His wryly amused smile made Seto sigh in relief as Mokuba bounced in his chair.

"Does that mean I get to show you around? Do I have to call you 'Prince Atem', or just 'Atem'? Have you been to anywhere in the Palace, or is there anything you especially want to see?" the boy asked eagerly. "I want to meet your brother! Is Prince Yuugi going to come here, too?"

Atem laughed and held his hands up in a surrender motion, so Mokuba stopped asking questions. "Yes, you can show me around. Right now, I'm injured, so it's probably best to avoid weapons training places, but I'd like to find the library, and I want to study magic, since my lessons there aren't complete—Yuugi is better at that sort of thing than I am. You can call me 'Atem' if you like, and everyone calls Yuugi just by his name—he orders all the servants to call him just 'Yuugi', too. I don't know if he'll come here sometime. We still have a lot of details to work out."

"Aw...Okay," Mokuba agreed. "So, after breakfast?"

"You have to take your inscription lessons, first, Mokuba," Seto answered dryly, and the younger boy looked positively horrified. "When you're done, come back to Atem's room to show him around."

"He can't miss a day of that?" Atem asked curiously.

"Unfortunately, even though he's good at it, he hates it with a passion, and misses far too many days of lessons as it is," Seto replied with a sigh of long suffering as Mokuba made a face. "A new guest isn't cause to just not attend his lessons, and you need some time to rest, anyway—he won't be done until the noon meal, so it'll be after the meal when you get your tour."

The Prince turned his gaze to an embarrassed-looking Mokuba, his brow raised as he asked, "Do you know when the last time Yuugi missed a lesson was?"

"...When?" the boy asked, looking a little worried.

"Three years ago, when he was too sick to get out of bed, let alone leave the room. He was so sick he almost died, and it was the longest three months we ever lived through," Atem said quietly, and Mokuba's eyes went huge. "But, the Gods saw fit to grant our Chief Healer the power to save him, and since then, he has never missed a day of anything, even things he didn't like or want to do. After nearly being taken to the Land of Death, everything meant so much more to him, because it all meant he was still alive, even if it was to feel like he didn't like to do something. It was better than feeling nothing, being unable to do anything, barely existing. Even I miss more lessons than him, and I only miss them a few times in a year."

After a pause, Mokuba looked down at his plate as he bit his lip, then asked tentatively, "So...Not liking something also tells you you're alive?"

"Sure it does. If you're dead, you can't 'like' or 'not like' things related to this world we live in now. Unless you'd prefer to be dead and just not concern yourself with this world at all? That's certainly an option, one my great uncle acted on. But you have to understand that, if you live here, this is the world whose laws and rules you have to live by, while if you live there, it's the laws and rules of that world you have to follow. Which do you prefer?" Atem asked shrewdly.

"Okay, okay, I get it! I'll go to class!" Mokuba finally burst out, jumping up and running out.

Seto sat in his chair, chuckling, as he said, "Well done, Atem! I may have made a concerted effort to bring you here sooner if I'd known you could have such an effect on my errant brother."

"Thanks but no thanks," the Prince sighed, shaking his head. "The only reason I could do it is because I had that very real experience. Without that, it just doesn't have the same impact."

For a moment, the young King was silent, but then he said, "Atem, I was just wondering if you were ever told what was likely to happen if you were captured by an enemy, or at least a non-allied, kingdom."

"I was only told I'd be ransomed off for the kingdom's wealth if I was captured. No one said anything more to me," Atem replied, suddenly feeling nervous. "Why?"

With a sigh, Seto told him, "In other words, they only told you what would be the case if bandits caught you, not another kingdom. There's a few significant differences between the two."

"Like?"

"Land, for one. Civilian population. Infrastructure. Government. Politics and trade, or foreign politics. Atem, you should have been told you wouldn't be traded off for gold if an enemy nation caught you so you'd be prepared."

After a silence, the Prince's eyes widened and he met Seto's gaze worriedly as he asked, "So...what are you going to trade me off for?"

"...It's going to look more like keeping you alive and unharmed rather than ever giving you back to your people. Unless you'd rather Yuugi come take your place here so you can go home?" Seto asked, his gaze showing he knew Atem would refuse.

Sure enough, Atem burst out, "I'd never let Yuugi suffer in captivity!"

"I didn't think so," the King answered. "If it was entirely up to me, I would let you return to your people as long as I had secured official documents stating the terms of your release, but my other ministers are too...cynical to think those documents would be obeyed without you as insurance. It's the reason I was awake late enough last night to hear your—distress. Basically, my own ministers will kill me themselves if I give you back to your people directly, and if they kill me, not only will you be tortured for the rest of your life, but they would also torture Mokuba, and a lot of my own people. That's the position I'm in, Atem, and I can't get out of it. I was right to ask for your obedience if I won the match yesterday, because now I need you to be. Stay calm, behave, as you gave your word. It's going to take a lot of work and manipulation for me to find a way to return you to your people, so you just have to wait and live here quietly until then."

Slowly, as the Prince tried to wrap his brain around the new information, he rested his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands. Finally, he asked in a strangled voice, "What kind of agreement could you make in order to allow me to return home under conditions like your ministers gave you?"

"I don't know yet, but the first thing I have to do is secure our borders and some decent trade. The negotiations for that will take a month or more alone, even with you here to force their hand. You'll have to meet and talk with your own people, so they'll have to come here...and while I know you got here in less than a night, the reality is that the trip from this Palace to yours takes a month. My father set up several portals which lead directly to and from certain key positions, hence the reason you got back here so quickly. Your people can't activate those portals, so they have to take the usual route, but my messenger to them can reach them in less than two days by using the portal. Yes, I'm deliberately going to make it look like we planned this, and would have attacked the Palace if you hadn't conveniently left it just then. I won't have any fault fall on you by making them think you would have been safe if you'd just stayed in the Palace, since that would cause problems on both sides," the King explained.

"But...it's true, isn't it? I would have been safe if I'd stayed in the Palace..." Atem asked mournfully. "Basically, what I did was put my own people on the losing end of a bunch of deals which are going to hurt them...It would be fitting if they cast me aside for being so foolish."

"And then what?" Seto asked quietly, making the Prince look up at him slowly. "I know about you and your brother. For all he's wonderfully kind and intelligent, he's Priest material, not Pharaoh material—he legitimately can't take the role, because his own personality won't let him enforce unpleasant rules, not on anyone. He doesn't have the power or force of will to make others obey. If your kingdom loses you, they lose their rightful ruler. My father would have loved that outcome, but Atem, we aren't desert people, and we can't see anything but sand when we look at it. For us to take that land, or even to destroy it, is pointless and dangerous, because all those people will either become bandits or refugees, and I have no doubt your father and brother would make sure they knew we were the cause of it. All the surrounding lands would be in danger if yours, the strongest of them, fell."

"How could they blame you when I pretty much handed you my head on a platter? And even as it is, you're going to wind up destroying us with trade deals, and probably with that border, even without knowing it. All of that will be my fault."

"I don't want it to be your fault, I want it to be mine, and I want to keep your land there to guard that southern region, Atem. A strong land means more stability for all its neighbors, too. Tell me about your lands, what you can feasibly produce in what kinds of quantities, and what areas on your northern border you need to keep. Give me that information so I can handle both my ministers and your ambassadors in a way which will keep you strong enough to maintain what's needed. Instead of saying 'it's my fault, so I should be discarded and die', say, 'I have knowledge and power even here to help my people, so this is what I have to do.' And don't show your weakness so easily, least of all to an 'enemy' and a 'captor'. If it's me, it isn't such a problem, but to my court, don't show them this, or they'll make you regret it."

Closing his eyes, Atem sighed, then drew in several deep breaths and nodded. "Should I over-compensate so your ministers think they're getting a deal when you set the border?"

"Typically, that would be best. With trade, base it on your worst years, not the best."

"...All right. Have you got a map and some paper for lists?"