In the book, 'Dune,' there's a saying of the Bene Gesserit: "Beginnings are such delicate times." I think that's true for stories as well as people, so I'd love to know what you think of this beginning.
MANGA NOTE: This story is based on the manga version of the Ancient Egypt arc. There are significant differences between the Ancient Egyptian arc in the manga and the anime. The main one is that Kaiba does not appear at all in the Ancient Egypt arc of the manga. He arrives at the very end, just as Yami goes through the door to the after-life. I will outline other differences as they become relevant.
CHAPTER 2: TRADING COWS FOR BEANS
Destiny is an elusive thing… its workings difficult to pin down – even in fairy tales. Take a certain famous (if nameless) prince, approaching a forest of thorns exactly 100 years after the princess within had pricked her equally celebrated finger, and (with exquisite compliance to fate), fallen into a preordained slumber. As the brambles part to speed the prince to his appointed kiss, can anything more clearly reveal the workings of fate?
But what if the prince had decided that the prize was not worth the risk? Or, in keeping with this slightly slashed fairy tale, had discovered that one of his knights was more to his liking? Would another (equally nameless) prince have appeared to take his place? For who would bother to tell the tale of a princess who does nothing but sleep?
And what was the prince searching for anyway? Was he impelled by lust or love to find his perfect, if perfectly somnolent bride? Or was the true lure the challenge of crossing the impenetrable thicket itself? If he had known that he was doomed to succeed in his quest, would he even have made the attempt? Did he fulfill his destiny only because he arrived at the appointed place and time determined to defeat his fate?
ISIS' NARRATIVEI looked at the excavation team that Seto Kaiba had managed to assemble with annoying ease and rapidity. He had already spoken to the team leader. In between monitoring their progress, Seto was busy assembling the gear he had decided he and his comrades would need: sleeping bags, backpacks, food, water, sunblock, and god knows what else. Seto smiled every time he checked an item off on some electronic gadget. It looked like a palm pilot but was much sleeker. Given the ostentatious KC on the lid, it was probably custom-designed. Like his past self, Kaiba was adept at using his advantages in pursuit of his aims. I just wished that once, in either lifetime, he'd stop for a moment to consider whether what he was doing with such single-minded intensity was right.
Even when he had been a High Priest, Seto had always had a natural blasphemy. He never listened, not now, not then. In the past life that Seto refused to acknowledge, he had risked his life for his prince time and again (usually against the pharaoh's wishes, if not his explicit orders) without ever once conceding that the pharaoh was wiser than he. Even as Seto gave his loyalty to the pharaoh, he made it clear it was his to give where he would. It was a trait that made even his obvious devotion suspect. If he was aware that the nature of his allegiance was a matter of debate among us back then, he gave no sign – and it certainly didn't bother him.
In this modern time, Seto was even less inclined to obedience. The only person who had ever managed to influence him, besides the boy at his side, was now gone.
As long as Seto stayed in this world, his recalcitrance didn't matter. But now he was proposing to invade the realm of the spirits.
"You are an ass to meddle in what is beyond our understanding," I told him. "You should accept that it is folly to set yourself against the will of the gods. Even the pharaoh has embraced his destiny,"
"Fate is just another opponent to be defeated," Seto answered, angry enough to be honest with me. "If I had tamely accepted my destiny, Mokuba would have grown up in a state-run orphanage."
"Are you so sure that fighting was the wiser option? It is only by the grace of the gods you deny, that Mokuba did not become a killer by the age of 11. You have only to look into his eyes to see the price he has paid for your battle."
"Nothing in life is free. Look to your own family, Isis, before you start in on mine. Whose brother is the murderer – yours or mine? At least Mokuba doesn't have a mutilated back and a psychotic alter-ego. That's where your blind obedience to destiny landed you. I thought you realized that when I beat you."
"Maybe you were destined to win."
"Then you just keep telling yourself that I'm destined to walk through that door and find Yami – because that's just what I'm going to do."
MOKUBA'S NARRATIVEMy brother supervised the dig with his usual efficiency. I wasn't surprised to see the door standing once more. Everyone could see now that he was right as usual… it had been left ajar this whole time. We grabbed our gear and headed towards it. As Nisama approached it, walking just as calmly as if he was going to his office, it opened. I saw the same blinding light that I had seen from a distance. My brother crossed the threshold without breaking his stride – with me, Yugi, and the rest of the gang (except Isis) running behind him, trying to keep up.
As soon as Nisama, Yugi and me were through though, it closed behind us, cutting us off from Yugi's friends. There was no doubt – it was shut tight this time.
"Well, that was ridiculously easy," my brother snorted.
He was right. It was a bit of an anti-climax. The door hadn't even clanged ominously. It was still there, incongruously large as life in the desert landscape… just like the doors in Noa's world – which was not a comforting comparison.
Nisama grunted in satisfaction, probably at the absence of Yugi's friends. He took in the bleak landscape and muttered, "Some paradise this is."
Nisama toyed with something in his briefcase, before removing his back-up cards. He put them in his pack. Even here, his pack made me smile. For one thing, it was the only item that fit in with the setting. Nisama had been a CGI consultant on Peter Jackson's live action version of 'The Hobbit.' The plot had bored him silly, and he'd been offended by the idea that a dragon could be tricked so easily – but everyone agreed – his dragon and fire imagery stole the show. In addition to his handsome fee, he'd come home loaded with stuff, and a lightweight leather pack to put it all in. He'd taken for using it for overnight trips.
Nisama checked his pack one more time. He stood up and slung it on his back, the strap across his chest. Then Nisama set the nearly-empty briefcase carefully against the door. He checked the compass on his watch and scanned the horizon, noting the spot of green in the distance.
"What are you doing?" Yugi asked curiously.
There's a tracking device in the briefcase. I'm trying to fix our position so we can find our way back. That door is too small to be seen from far away."
"Or we could just use that as a landmark," Yugi said, pointing to the enormous obelisk next to the door.
Nisama glared at it. "Considering it wasn't there a minute ago, we'd be fools to depend on its continued presence."
"Unless it was created in answer to our wishes," Yugi said.
"You can rely on wishing if you want. But if you're going to wish for something, it might as well be something practical, like water."
I had wandered a little ahead. I turned to look at them, and when I turned back, I saw a larger patch of green, much closer. I yelled and pointed. Nisama and Yugi caught up to me easily, and we raced ahead. It was an oasis all right. And someone had left empty skin pouches, obviously meant to store water.
My brother looked, if anything, even more pissed off than ever.
"This is absurd. It's like finding items in a video game," he said furiously. "Am I supposed to believe that heaven is a second-rate video arcade? It's enough to turn anyone into a non-believer."
"A video game… or a fairy tale," Yugi said.
"A fairy-tale?" Nisama sneered. I think he had forgotten that we had just walked through a mystical door into an alternative world.
"Where do you think the story-lines in video games came from?" Yugi asked. "Besides, what are the chances of both wishes coming true like this?"
"Higher than you might think," my brother retorted. "Take a Duel Monster's tournament for example. The chance that any of the other duelists will have the same birthday as you is very small. But of all the duelists assembled, the odds that two of them will share a birthday are very good indeed. So the chance that these two particular coincidences would happen quickly is small. But the chance that somewhere, this type of event would occur, is well within normal parameters."
"Well, just in case this is a fairy tale, and someone is arranging your coincidences – we probably have only one more wish coming – so let's not waste it."
"Why three wishes? Why not four or five… or an unlimited number?" my brother asked.
I don't know. It's one of the rules," Yugi answered.
My brother probably had plenty to say to that observation, but luckily someone else had arrived on the scene.
"You are wise in recognizing the nature of this world, although you are not limited to an artificial number of desires. It is simply that here, as with anywhere else, not all your wishes may be granted."
I must have blinked. We weren't in the desert anymore, but in a forest. The air had grown cooler, with a hint of moisture in it. It didn't look anything like Egypt. But it did look like the proper setting for the Holy Elf.
She was standing before us.
My brother snorted. "Skin that deep a blue definitely looks better on a card than in real, or not-so-real life."
Yugi stared at Nisama. "Dark blue skin…" he mumbled. He looked at Nisama puzzled, before adding, "You see the Holy Elf's Blessing…"
Of course.
Yugi had the Holy Elf in his deck. I'd seen her often enough, the slender body, the downcast eyes, the long blonde hair – the perfect Tolkien Elf… if you could ignore the tinge of pale blue in her skin. My brother's version, the one on the Trap Card, with her intent glare and backlit face was slightly more sinister. Yugi switched his gaze from my brother to the Holy Elf. He squinted as if he could change her into Nisama's demon by narrowing his eyes.
"No," the Holy Elf answered gently. "Even with your gifts you can not truly see the world through another's eyes."
"Please," Yugi said. "Where are my friends? Are they all right?"
"They are here with you," she answered.
Yugi was polite enough to ignore my brother's snort.
"I mean the others, the ones we left on the other side of the door," he explained.
She looked puzzled. "I can only see those who are bound to the cards – wherever they reside. I sense one other – the keeper of the Flaming Swordsman and the Red Eyes Black Dragon. He is where he should be."
"Why isn't he here?" Yugi asked.
"He is your anchor. You are like a triangle with four points."
"A triangle has three points," my brother contradicted.
She smiled. "One is unseen. Just as with the base of a pyramid – it rests on four points, but only three can be seen at any time. So it is with you. Atemu and Yugi stand at the apex of the triangle. You are on Atemu's side, and Jounouchi stands by Yugi. One half in sunlight and the other in shadow. Jounouchi must remain on the other side, to anchor the triangle in the sunlit world."
"Let's hope the mutt doesn't get hungry and wander off in search of food."
"There's no one I'd rather trust," Yugi said at the same time, his relief visible.
"He is worthy of your trust," the Holy Elf agreed. "Anyone not willfully blind can see that."
"Where is my Battle Ox when I need him?" my brother muttered. His fingers twitched as if he was reaching for a card, before he restrained himself. I was glad. Blue or not, she was pretty. I'd really rather that my brother didn't decapitate her again.
"But you need not worry about his leaving," the Holy Elf continued. "Time flows differently in our worlds. What is an eternity here, is a blink of an eye in the world outside, and visa versa."
I guess that made as much sense as anything else. And since she seemed to be handing out answers, I had a question of my own.
"If only people who are part of your triangle could get through the door, how come I'm here?" I asked.
"When Seto rebuilt his heart, he chose to make you its keystone. It was rash, but not fool-hardy."
"Did you come here just to babble on with a bunch of foolish riddles?" Nisama snarled.
"I am afraid that the answer is yes… I have indeed come here to give you a riddle. Of the many things you will find here, you may bring back only one. And only by giving something of yourselves. But there are many kinds of offerings."
"We're only looking for one thing," my brother argued.
"Seeking and finding are two different things. You do not know what you will discover along the way."
"If you've got something to say, just spit it out," Nisama snapped.
"I did."
"Not in a way anyone could understand."
"The answer would become meaningless in the telling. You must find your own answer."
"Are we back to that destiny bullshit again? Are you trying to convince me that we were fated to meet or something?"
"No, although I am in your deck, and would have come when you called. But as it happens, I am here simply because I had a message for you, if you passed this way. The choice of direction however, was yours."
She turned to Yugi and bowed in farewell. "You have kept me in your deck; given me a home and a family. For that I thank you. And you, Seto Kaiba, I am the only card you have ever allowed to increase your life points… the only card that expresses your determination not to win, but to live. I am honored."
There was a shimmer, like sunlight hitting dust, and then she was gone.
"At least she left the water. And the forest. I was getting pretty sick of the desert," my brother observed.
KAIBA'S NARRATIVEWe were probably better off in the woods. There was a greater chance of catching dinner for one thing. I considered the food situation. Once I realized we were going to be setting off into what could only be called the unknown, I had arranged for food, water, and other necessities. We should have enough to last us a couple of days, especially with the extra water skins.
I checked the compass. We had seen some green, possibly a settlement to the North. Lacking any other information, it probably made sense to continue in that direction. And it made even more sense to put some distance between us and that door before stopping.
Luckily no one was in a talkative mood. We walked in silence until it was time to stop for dinner. Yugi and Mokuba chatted through the meal.
"Look at this place. It really is like being in a fairy-tale," Yugi said. He took one look at my face, and added hesitantly, "You've read fairy tales, haven't you?"
I could tell from the way his voice trailed off that he expected the answer to be 'no.'
I grunted. Actually, the answer was 'no', but since Yugi obviously would have considered that a short-coming, I wasn't going to admit it.
"Are we back to that again? I knew it would be too much to expect you to have a helpful comment," I said, in a tone that made the others decide it was time for bed.
Except for Mokuba, of course.
I stared into the softly burning fire, careful to throw twigs on to keep the flames alive. I had read to Mokuba, of course… still did on occasion. He liked to fall asleep to the sound of my voice. But the closest I had ever come to telling him a fairy tale was describing the attributes of the different duel monsters, knowledge that was more relevant at the moment, than any conventional story could be.
I didn't remember any fairy tales anyway… not really. My mother must have told me some, but she had been sick her entire pregnancy; she had usually been asleep before me. My father had been too busy for bedtime chats, and possibly too caught up in his own life to be able to pretend there was going to be a happily ever after. (I did know the formula, although I believed in it as little as my father must have.)
They had read fairy tales at the orphanage, of course – but most nights, either I had chosen to lie in bed planning our escape instead – or I was being punished yet again, for fighting. Although why anyone considered getting an hour of peace and quiet and the room to myself to be a punishment was beyond me.
I had heard bits and pieces of the ridiculous stories that the staff read in their falsely cheerful voices, mainly because no one was going to tell me what I could or couldn't do… until the snatches I overheard convinced me that whatever they were droning on about was unlikely to have any practical application.
And needless to say, Gozaburo had never wasted time on fairy tales.
But Mokuba obviously saw the need to remedy this deficiency in my education, because he sat down next to me, and said with an impish grin, "Once upon a time…"
I growled. He laughed at that and said, "Okay, just listen… there was this boy named Jack who lived with his mother. They had this cow, and they sold the milk to get money for food. One day the cow stopped giving milk, so the mother told Jack to take the cow to the market and sell it."
Great, I thought. She was trying to palm off this worthless cow off on one of her unsuspecting neighbors. Sounded like my kind of story. I knew better than to say so out loud, however.
"On the way to the market Jack met this little man, and traded the cow for six beans."
I could only imagine Gozaburo's reaction if I'd ever done anything half so stupid.
Mokuba took one look at my face and said, hastily, "They were magic beans. Anyway, when he got home…"
"His mother killed him and that's the end of the story?" I said before I could stop myself.
"Of course not," he grinned. "She was his mother. You don't kill people you love just because…" His voice trailed off awkwardly. I don't know what he saw in my carefully neutral face, but suddenly he was in my lap hugging me. I leaned my head on his; breathed in his warm, faintly mammalian scent.
"I'm sorry, Nisama," he said.
I swear, sometimes Mokuba made even less sense than this ridiculous story. I had almost killed him that time – so why was he apologizing to me as if he was the one at fault?
"Don't," I said. It was one of the many subjects we never talked about… and I wasn't going to start now.
"Why don't you finish your story?" I suggested instead.
"His mother threw the beans out the window," he said in a subdued voice, before focusing on his story once more. "And in the morning a giant beanstalk sprang up. Jack climbed all the way up to the top where there was a giant's castle."
What on earth would a castle be doing on top of a beanstalk? I hoped this story had a point.
"The giant liked to eat boys, so Jack hid. And when the giant was asleep, he stole a bag of gold. Jack went back two more times, but on the third time, the giant woke up, and chased him. Jack scrambled down the beanstalk, shouting for his mother to bring his axe. He cut down the beanstalk, and the giant splattered on the ground."
Well, that part I could relate to. I wondered if the giant had looked like Gozaburo. But Mokuba was looking at me expectantly… like he was waiting for me to say something.
"How did they clean up the giant?" I asked awkwardly.
That's when I remembered that fairy tales are supposed to have morals – and Mokuba must be waiting for me to find one in this mess.
"Well," I said slowly, "Jack sneaks into this giant's house, takes his stuff, and then kills the giant when he tries to recover his stolen property."
If this is what fairy tales were like, I'm surprised Gozaburo hadn't told me any. Of course his lessons were usually delivered much more directly.
"But he was a giant," Mokuba explained, staring at me intently. "Giants are always bad. It's a rule. Fairy tales have their own laws."
"And the sooner we figure out what the rules are the better," I agreed. "Because in any battle, you need to learn the lay of the land. But what matters most is being smart and fast… and having a family member ready to hand you an axe when you need one." I stroked his hair. "Got it. You're one hell of a story-teller, Mokuba. Come on, it's time for you to get some sleep. Yami couldn't have been too far ahead of us. We'll probably find him tomorrow."
Mokuba might have been done telling stories, but he left me with a puzzle to mull over.
"Yami's not the one I'm hoping you'll find," he said as he went to lie back down next to Yugi.
Thanks to Bnomiko for betaing this chapter… and for reminding me to put in all the things I left out.