Chapter 7

Mokuba wasn't sure if he was furious or completely indifferent to his brother forgetting they had lunch plans. But he did know he wasn't going to sit back and take it this time; not after the talk they'd had last night. Okay, so maybe his brother hadn't promised to become more diligent, but he had promised to try. People who promise to try shouldn't fall at the first hurdle.

He made his way into the Kaiba Corp building and stormed his way towards the unmanned front desk. Instantly his body prickled with irritation; the front desk should be manned at all times, whoever was supposed to be on duty was about to be in so much trouble. Mokuba leaned over the desk to reach for the intercom phone, as he did he noticed two of the camera feeds were off. His frown deepened further when he realised they were the feeds for his brother's office and the hallway outside of it.

'Can I help you sir?'

Mokuba jumped and turned round.

'Why weren't you at the desk?' Mokuba folded his arms and tried to act as angry as he'd felt a moment ago.

'I was getting my lunch,' he waved a sandwich in Mokuba's face.

'How long have you been working here for?'

'A few months,' the guy shrugged, 'why?'

'Didn't anyone ever tell you, you're not supposed to leave your station whilst you're on duty?' Mokuba forced the guy to meet his gaze. 'You're lucky my brother didn't catch you gone or else it would be your job. As it is I'm going to issue you with a verbal warning under the understanding it doesn't happen again, got it?'

'Yes sir,' the guy pulled an apologetic face as he made his way back to the desk.

For a few moments there was silence, then Mokuba forced himself to ask the question he needed answering.

'What happened to the feed from my brother's office?'

'Mr Kaiba turned the cameras off; he said he had an important client coming in for confidential talks and wanted to avoid any leaks.'

'Confidential talks?' Mokuba frowned.

'That's what I've been told.'

'Do you know who the client is?'

'No,' the guy shook his head, 'Mr Kaiba said he was letting them in through the back exit, which is why the cameras in the hallway outside his office are off too. Along with several others along the route,' he pointed to other blank feeds Mokuba hadn't noticed before. 'I'm surprised you didn't know about this Master Kaiba, we were all told to prepare for this a week ago after one of Mr Kaiba's trips.'

'Who said I didn't know?' Mokuba gritted his teeth and made his way towards the elevator.

'Ah... sir, Mr Kaiba's orders were very clear,' the guy started towards him, 'no one's to disturb him.'

Mokuba ignored him. If he wasn't sure what he was feeling about his brother standing him up before, he was certain he knew now. Kaiba was keeping something from him, something important. He may not have needed to know the daily ins and outs of Kaiba Corp, but Mokuba was still an important, if inactive, part of his brother's company. His brother had always kept him informed of important decisions, contracts and propositions in the past, what was so different about this time?

It didn't take long for the elevator to reach the floor he needed. Without hesitation he made his way towards his brother's office, but the sound of a familiar voice inside brought him to a stop.

'We can't...' the familiar voice sounded.

'I know,' his brother's voice sighed. 'You should go now; we can't risk you being late. They were reluctant to let you leave as it was, we can't give them any excuse to take you back.'

'As if you care.'

'Maybe I don't, but I'd rather not have wasted all that time and money on you. Besides, even the kid said neither one of us can make things right alone.'

The sound of footsteps approaching the door made Mokuba dart back towards the nearest alcove. He knew from experience he would have a good view of the rest of the hallway from here, but would be hidden enough not to be seen by those coming out of the office. They didn't take long to emerge either. Mokuba felt his heart pounding hard in his chest as the source of the familiar voice was positively identified. He wasn't totally sure what was going on, but he did know something felt very, very wrong with this situation.

He watched as the two of them made their way down the corridor towards the back exit. Mokuba then made his way towards Kaiba's office, looking for some kind of clue to explain what he'd just witnessed. There was nothing obvious, which meant Mokuba would have to force his brother into talking. This situation was too weird to go without explanation; the only problem was a part of Mokuba wasn't completely sure he wanted to know.


'What is it with you Ashmars and that book?'

Catilin jumped and stared up at her surprise visitor. Cayoon was stood with her hands on her hips and an impatient look on her face.

'Cayoon what are you doing here?'

'I was about to ask you the same thing Catilin, I thought we were meeting for lunch.'

'That was today?' Catilin bit her lower lip. 'Sorry, I guess with all the rain I got a little distracted.'

'Yes, well there is something about it I must admit,' Cayoon turned her gaze towards the window for a moment. 'I may not be an Active Calicaccu, but I am descended from the same Desmitus you are, more directly too I might add, and I have never been more aware of my connection to my ancestor than I am right now.'

'It's the rain. It magnifies everything, even those parts of us which are sleeping,' Catilin turned her attention back towards the book in front of her. 'There's never been a storm like this, but I think a couple of my ancestors saw it coming. That's why I got my copy of the Fabled Truths out.'

'Catilin,' Cayoon rolled her eyes and sighed, 'the Fabled Truths is just a collection of pretty little stories designed to entertain each generation of Ashmar, you know that right? You're supposed to coo over them as a child and write your own as a parent. That's how it works.'

'They're not just pretty little stories,' Catilin pouted. 'They're called truths for a reason, every Ashmar knows that.'

'You're not every Ashmar Catilin,' Cayoon placed a hand on her shoulder. 'Now what do you say we go get some lunch, huh?'

'Uh-uh,' Catilin shook her head, 'not till I find what I'm looking for. I know the story's in here somewhere.'

'What story?' Cayoon took a seat next to her, frowning as she did.

'The one about a storm and a howling wolf,' she flipped through the pages. 'I'm sure I've seen it in here somewhere.'

'Why is it so important? It's just a story.'

'They're not just stories, they're more than that. I told you, I think one or two of my ancestors might have predicted a storm like this and I wanna know what they said about it.'

'Does it matter; it's just a bunch of stories anyway.'

'Why can't you open your mind to this,' Catilin sighed and lifted her gaze to meet with Cayoon's. 'You said yourself this storm is making the inactive part of yourself all tingly, so there has to be more to this rain than normal. There've been a lot of Active Calicaccus in my line and each of them added to this book; things they knew their children or children's children or children's children's children's children would need. This book is full of truths. Truths which have been forgotten or truths which are yet to come. I know somewhere in here there's a least one truth about this storm and I will find it.'

'Catilin,' Cayoon placed a hand on her shoulder again as her voice took on the patronising tone which made Catilin wonder why she bothered with the Odraian Queen to begin with, 'we should go for some lunch. Stories are for bedtime, right now is for food; what do you say?'

'I'm going to bed,' Catilin picked up the book, got up from her chair and made her way out of the room, 'see you Cayoon, you can let yourself out, can't you?'