In The Shadows
Episode 8
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters. Egyptology1996 owns Sanura, Kissa and Hasani. I own Sharifa, Panya, Akhom, Bomani and my version of the Egyptian gods
Last Time: "We're being followed!" He said loudly, "Pick up the speed or you'll be left behind!" He turned back around and took off in a canter. The rest of the men followed. 'Oh no' Sanura thought.
"Not…" Sanura began as the horse tied to her camel took off behind everyone else, "RUNNING!!!!" Sanura screeched as she lunged forward to grab the camel's neck and keep from falling. She couldn't even look back to see who was following them. It was a while before they finally slowed down. Sanura couldn't even tell. Whoever was following them would surely have been lost in their dust. She lifted up her head, not daring to let go of the camel's neck, to see a cluster of houses that made up the village where Hasani and his gang lived. Just beyond the village she saw and open oasis. It was lined with trees and tall grass. The only thing that no one realized was that the one who was following them, was not far behind…
Now:
Everyone dismounted except Sanura who continued to grip the camel's neck. When Hasani came over to help her off it's back, Sanura gracelessly fell off with a screech and landed flat on her back. Hasani was laughing as he helped her up.
"I have an idea, let's NEVER do that again." Sanura said, rubbing her aching behind. Hasani chuckled again and allowed his mother to lean on him while she tried to regain her balance. The village was a fair size. If anyone were to be traveling through, they would never guess that it belonged to a band of thieves.
The men proceeded to unload the goods and put the horses in the stables near the edge of the village. There were several women and children waiting for their husbands to return. Seeing the families together made Sanura think about Bakura and her other child, Kissa, back at the palace. She hoped that he wasn't getting in to too much trouble. She thought about it for a moment. Who was she kidding? Of course he was!
"Well then, come. Tonight you are our guest." Hasani's words jolted her from her thoughts. He grabbed her wrist, guiding her to a larger building. The both of them entered. The inside was made up of three rooms and two floors. The main room was a sort of large dining room with several tables and clusters of chairs. It was a room meant for larger gatherings. The room next door was a sort of a kitchen. It had a stove with pots and knives and other various cooking materials. The wooden shelves were littered with a variety of spices and smaller dry ingredients. A counter sat in the middle of the room. The second floor was one large room, which served as a storage room for most of the food and a few other supplies.
"The building is used to house supplies and for when we eat. Each house has its own eating area of course, but most of the time we all come here to eat since we pretty much consider everyone here family." Hasani said.
"Sanura!" Sharifa popped out of nowhere, "Come, come." She came over to Sanura and pulled her towards the kitchen. Sanura looked back at Hasani, silently asking whether or not she was going to survive this encounter. He smiled and gave her a mocking gesture, placing his hands chest, as if praying and he looked down, as if in mourning. This made Sanura look back towards Sharifa with fear in her eyes.
Sanura was nearly dragged to the back room. Once the two girls entered the room Sanura noticed several other women. Working around in the kitchen, carrying things in or preparing to cook. They were all chatting happily and laughing among themselves. Sharifa introduced Sanura to the other women. They were all wives of some of the men in the group of thieves. Sanura noticed how laid back and energetic everyone seemed. It made her think back to when she was still a slave under Bakura (A/N: See "Sent Down" by Egyptology1996).
It wasn't long before Sanura could hear talking and laughter in the next room. Sanura, Sharifa and 3 of the other women brought out the food and alcohol for everyone. The children were on an opposite corner of the room, playing and chatting among themselves. The women divided their attention between checking on the children every so often and spending time with their husbands.
Currently, Hasani and two other men had their arms around each other's shoulders. All three were swaying back and forth in their seats and were singing to a tuneless song. They had giddy smiles and seemed to be having the time of their lives. Sanura laughed lightly as one of them fell off of his chair, landing on the floor, laughing hysterically. The others began having laughing fits themselves. Sanura turned to Sharifa.
"Is he always like this?" She asked
"Only when he gets drunk." Sharifa replied with a giggle, "He rarely drinks this much unless it's a special occasion."
Throughout the rest of the night, Sanura's mind kept wandering back to everything that's been happening so far. It was hard to believe that all of this had started by a few attacks on some villages along the border.
Sanura yawned and excused herself. It was late, and she was tired. She wasn't all that surprised that Anput had not come to get her. Sanura was getting used to being left behind. After all, Anput didn't really want her there in the first place.
Sharifa and Hasani offered her a place to sleep and she accepted, not really awake enough to protest that she was being a burden and would rather sleep somewhere where she wouldn't be a hindrance. Hasani would insist that she stay at his house and he would win since he inherited his father's stubborn personality. When she arrived to their house, she headed towards the roof where everyone slept and noticed that there was an extra bed laid out for her. Sanura guessed that Hasani put it there when she was in the kitchen with Sharifa. Sanura laid down pulling the simple woven blanket over her. At some point as she was staring up at the stars, she was lulled to sleep.
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Sanura awoke to someone shaking her furiously.
"Sanura! Sanura!" A voice called out. Sanura simply swatted away what ever was bugging her. With a huff the intruder seemed to give up and walked away. Sanura snuggled under the blanket even more, trying to fall asleep again. With the last bit of consciousness she had left, Sanura heard footsteps rushing back towards her before stopping nearby.
Sanura's eyes shot open and her mouth opened to let out a screech as her world turned and she went tumbling onto the cold stone floor.
"Ugh! Hasani!" Sanura yelled out as she scrambled to get off the floor.
"Huh? Who's Hasani?"
Sanura stopped what she was doing and looked up. She saw two that she didn't recognize. There was a man who was about 6'0" tall and a much smaller woman about 5'2". The man was muscular but not overly so. He had tan skin, brown eyes, curly black hair and a little black beard just under his lower lip. The woman also had tan skin and brown eyes. Her black hair consisted of micro-braids and was pulled back into a ponytail. At the end of each braid was a small golden tube holding the ends together so the braids didn't come undone.
The woman giggled, "I think you caused her to hit her head, Bomani."
"You're the one who asked me to do it, Panya." The man said, mocking her tone of voice.
"Anyway!" Panya turned her attention away from Bomani, " Sanura, shame on you! You should've been up hours ago! Your orientation is only an hour from now and you need to get ready!" Panya ushered Sanura up and towards a chair with folded clothes. She then went over and shooed Bomani out of the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Sanura saw a glint of light. She turned quickly. Being the wife of the thief king had made her reflexes much sharper. She relaxed when she realized that it was only a mirror. It wasn't until she really looked at what was being reflected in the mirror that she freaked out. First of all, she wasn't wearing the white sloth dress that she went to bed with. She was wearing a much shorter dress that reached to her knees. It was only a plain linen dress designed for sleeping however and wasn't much different in design. There were two things that really startled her. The first thing was that there were now bandages on her hands, wrists, legs, and a couple on her face for smaller cuts. The second was that there were now two feathery wings protruding from her back. They were a brilliant white. She hadn't noticed them before. They felt so natural to her, but when did she get them? Was she… dead? She didn't remember dying.
"Sanura!" Panya was waving a hand in front of Sanura's face. "You awake?" Sanura snapped out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" Came Sanura's intelligent response.
"Guess not." Panya said. She pulled Sanura over to the pile of clothes and behind a screen. She threw the clothes to Sanura and told her to dress and meet her outside.
Sanura quickly redressed and took off the bandages and was about to go meet Panya outside when she saw herself in the mirror once more. The new clothes looked quite nice on her. They consisted of a white skirt that ended just at her knees and white sleeveless shirt that cut off before her belly button. Both made of linen. They were fairly simple yet they were also some of the finest clothes that Sanura had ever seen. A simple belt held her skirt together with the ends of the belt hung down the center, which accented the skirt even more. She was also given a small collection of gold jewelry, which consisted of two armbands, two bracelets, two small ankh earrings and a collar. Finally, on her feet was a pair of plain, woven sandals. All in all she looked quite impressive. Bakura would've been proud.
After realizing that she was staring at herself again, Sanura quickly headed towards the door where Panya was waiting.
"Oh, wow! You look gorgeous! Not that you weren't gorgeous before." Panya said, "But! No time to stare, we need to get you to your orientation." She pulled Sanura down the hall.
"Orientation?"
"Duh! To become an archangel under Lady Pachet. She already gave you your wings but there's an official ceremony for your orientation, remember?" Panya frowned, "Geez, you must be still asleep."
Panya dragged Sanura through a maze of hallways before arriving at a large room. Like the rest of the building, the room was made out of stone. There were no open areas letting light in from the outside so torches had been lit to illuminate the interior. Various paintings and hieroglyphics littered the walls. In the back of the room there was a table with various items on the top, and in front of the table was a shorter stone block with a bowl, filled with some dark red liquid, set on top. There were several people in the room already. Three of them had wings like Sanura but there were four others that were unlike anything she had ever seen before. (A/N: Can you guess who they are?)
One looked relatively human, except she had a pair of cat ears and a long furry tail. She had blonde hair and wore a sun disk as a headpiece. She had a soft expression on her face.
The second was a humanoid but also had a lot of Deeb characteristics with short black fur covering his body and a long muzzle. He had longer hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail beginning at the nape of his neck.
The third one was also humanoid but had feathers covering his body and had the head of a falcon. Large brown and white wings burst from his back. He stood proudly behind the others, as if he was watching over them rather than actually participating.
The last one was apparently human but he had green skin, and bandages wrapped partially around his limbs. He wore a white crown and carried a crook and flail.
"Lady Pachet" Panya came in front of Sanura and bowed low. "I have brought Sanura as you requested." The woman with the cat ears turned and the rest of the people in the room looked up.
The woman smiled, "Ah, Sanura, you've finally woken up I see. Please take your place so that we can start the ceremony." She motioned for Sanura to stand next to the three others that had wings. Panya left quickly. Sanura followed Pachet's order and stood up next to the table. Sanura was blushing in embarrassment. She was nervous. She didn't even know what she was doing.
The event took quite some time. Sanura wasn't really sure exactly how long. Half of it was Ra talking and the soon-to-be-archangels taking their oaths. Sanura didn't know why, but she seemed to know exactly what to say and what to do. She simply allowed herself to talk without thinking. After Sanura finished speaking, Pachet picked up the bowl of red liquid. She dipped two fingers into the liquid and drew a pattern with it on the table's surface.
Pachet explained what it was for. The red liquid was Ra's blood and represented the blood of all the gods. Pachet then told the four to take a dagger from the table and slit their palms. It didn't need to be deep, but just enough to cause the wound to bleed. Because the four were dead, however, the "blood" was not actually blood but a spiritual representation that the free spirit creates in order to recreate a body in the spirit world or the 'afterlife' as most called it.
The four did as they were told and cut their palms. They then had to place their palms onto the symbol that Pachet had drawn on the tabletop. The symbol glowed a brilliant blue and the symbol slowly disappeared from the woodwork. The symbol reappeared on their foreheads. There were also smaller designs, which appeared on their arms. Each person had his/her own individual design, representing his/her spirit. Sanura's was a simple cat-like design. The symbol on their foreheads was there to let others know of their status. It was the symbol of the archangels.
The ritual ended and Sanura followed everyone to a much larger room that could fill at least one hundred people. There were several long tables that were low to the floor. Cushions were set along the edge so someone could sit comfortably next to the table. There were already others there. They were all either Gods or archangels.
"This is where the archangels eat or come to relax since they live here in the palace. Gods usually don't even bother with eating but since we don't conduct an archangel ritual for another 100 years we consider this a special occasion." Sanura jumped. Pachet had come up behind Sanura, explaining the purpose of the room. Because they were already dead, the people in the afterlife never actually needed food but it was one of those simple pleasures that the people kept from the living world.
The afterlife was divided into many sections in order to contain all the souls in the world. The palace was where the gods, archangels and their servants resided. It was the only building that existed on all planes of the afterlife. Gods and archangels were also the only ones who could open portals that took them to different planes. It made things easier when archangels had to go out to settle disputes or send messages among other gods or whatever else they were asked to do.
Sanura sat next to Pachet near the end of one table. Ra sat the head. Sanura was able to recognize the Gods without even realizing it. The Deeb was Anpu. The green man was Osiris. There was a woman wearing a navy blue dress with sparkling crystals embedded in the fabric. That was Nut, the god of the sky. There was a dwarf wearing a lion's skin. That was Bes, the protector of pregnant women, newborn babies and the family. There were two large cats curled up in a corner of the room, sleeping. The blonde one was Sekhmet and the black one was Bastet. Most of the gods preferred their natural forms (either animalistic, human, or another form such as sky or earth) but for occasions such as this it was easier to appear as humans or as humanoids.
Anpu was sitting across from Sanura and Pachet with one of the new archangels that Sanura had had the ritual with. There were many other archangels, who Sanura did not recognize, who had come to join the celebration.
Right after the food was served Ra stood up and gave a toast. Sanura raised her glass with everyone else. She didn't like alcohol and decided to stick with juice. After everyone lowered his/her glasses. The room then broke out into loud chatter and laughing. A male archangel, who was sitting next to Sanura, turned towards Anpu.
"Lord Anpu, have you forgotten about the last time you drank alcohol? Do you really think it wise to do so now?" The man asked.
"No, I have not forgotten, my dear Akhom, and as far as my wife is concerned, I have not been drinking at all. She not too hard to trick" Anpu stated smartly. He drank from his cup smugly, confident in his ability to keep things from his wife.
Akhom looked up and past Anput, "Well, I hope for your sake that she assumes that everything you just said is the drink talking and not you."
"Geez, you worry too much my friend. My wife may have beauty but she isn't always the brightest one on the block." Anpu chuckled drunkenly before taking another large gulp of his drink. All of a sudden everyone in the room became silent.
"Oh? Is that so?" A voice from behind Anpu spoke up causing Anpu to choke on his drink. He looked over his shoulder cautiously, with a look of horror on his face. Standing behind the god was a woman dressed in fine clothing and jewelry. She had a pair of Deeb ears and tail. Her eyes were a petrifying red. Her arms were crossed and her face was distorted into a scowl. Sanura recognized the woman immediately. Anput. The archangels around Anpu scooted away from him as fast as they could and Anpu himself was trying to back away from the obviously angry god hovering over him, but the table was blocking his retreat. Everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing to watch the events unfold.
"N-now dear… don't be unreasonable…." Anpu sputtered out nervously. Sanura could almost see the malicious intent that was resonating from Anput in waves. She was sure that she saw flames surrounding the god. Anput's eyes were fixated in a glare that was aimed towards Anpu. The anger that she was showing was even making Ra uncomfortable, although he did well to not show it. Anput grabbed Anpu's collar* (A/N: NOT a dog collar people! It's the neckpiece that Egyptians used to wear. Now back to the action.) and pulled him up so that his face was only inches from hers. Anpu swallowed loudly.
"Did you honestly think that you would get away with it this time?" Anput growled out.
"N-No?" Anpu squeaked. It was more of a question than an actual statement. The gatekeeper seemed rather pathetic at this moment as he as he cowered in the face of his wife.
"Really?" Anput asked suspiciously, "Well then, I guess I'll just have to show you no mercy since you obviously knew the consequences of your actions." Anput turned and began walking away from the table dragging the pleading gatekeeper behind her.
Anpu had one hand clasped onto his collar preventing himself from being choked. He reached out with his other hand in desperation, "Ra! Help me!" He pleaded.
"No way. You are not dragging me down with you." Ra sighed. Anput had opened a portal and walked through it with Anpu.
The night dragged on. Everyone partied happily, joking and chatting amongst them selves. Even Sanura had a wonderful time, laughing at Akhom's ridiculous antics and listening to older archangels stories of their experiences, much to the gods' dismay. Slowly, the hall got quieter and quieter as the crowd began to dwindle and the only ones who were left were Sanura, Akhom, and a couple of other veteran archangels she had the pleasure of meeting. It was getting late however and Sanura let out large yawn and had to rub her eyes to keep herself awake. It wasn't long before she excused herself from the table. Akhom decided to follow suit and said goodnight to the others before offering to show Sanura her room. Sanura laughed at his attempts to be a gentleman.
They soon arrived at her room and they bid each other goodnight.
"Now, young archangel," Akhom patted her on the head, which earned him a blush on Sanura part, "I'm afraid we must part ways but don't worry," He smiled goofily and pointed to himself smugly, "I know it can be tough, so just remember, I'll always be there if you need a shoulder to ball your eyes out on." He laughed when Sanura hit his arm playfully at his statement.
"I'm not THAT weak, thank you very much! And don't treat me like a child!" She called after him as he trotted down the hall. He waved and smiled back at her before turning the corner to go to his own room for the night.
Sanura entered her room and looked around. She was on an upper level and was lucky enough to get an open room. The entire right wall was missing with pillars holding up the ceiling. She could look out and see the courtyard if she wanted to and the breeze was very nice. It reminded her of when she and Bakura would sleep out on the rooftop on those cool summer nights and would stare up at the stars together. The rest of the room was fairly simple as it was used for mostly sleeping and privacy. The bed was in the back with a veil over it to keep bugs away while she was sleeping. There was a desk against the left wall with a small stool to sit on. A long lounging couch was in the middle of the room for her to relax on. The walls were covered in gorgeous paintings and hieroglyphics, like the rest of the palace. There were stands in various places around the room that held candles in a shallow bowl at the top. They weren't lit right now but when they were they created an ethereal glow to the room that added to its beauty.
It had been a long night and everything that had happened made Sanura forget about Egypt for a couple hours. She was now able to relax and think about what has happened and about the past that she had left behind when she met Bakura. All her memories began to flood back to her and she began to realize why everything happened the way it did.
It had been 200 years since her orientation, 250 years since she had first died. She did not have a family in life and had died a lonely death due to illness. Panya and Bomani were friends of hers from when she first came to the afterlife. They were servants in the palace and came to market every once in a while. That's where they had first met Sanura. They became a sort of surrogate family for Sanura and they had been the ones that suggested that she try to become an archangel. She decided to follow under Pachet after seeing her kindness towards the other spirits in the city. Sanura underwent very difficult training in order to gain the power of an archangel. It took about 45 years to complete the training and finally gained the right to become an archangel. After her orientation she had met Akhom and they became close friends soon after. It turned out that Akhom was 15 years her senior (in human years) and had been dead for nearly 800 years, giving up the option for life 3 times. Every soul in the afterlife is, in a sense, recycled back into the life stream. However rebirth and reincarnation are two different things. Rebirth is merely the soul being 'repaired' and sent back into the body of a fetus and being born back into the world. In a rebirth the soul retains little to no likeness of what it once was before it entered the living world. A reincarnation, however, is when the soul is placed back into the world of the living with everything it had in the previous life, with the exception of its memories. This could mean spiritual power, appearance, and thought process would all be the same. Most souls are merely reborn since reincarnation is a difficult and lengthy process. An archangel has the choice of being reborn or letting another soul go in his/her place (souls are only allowed to be reborn after a certain period of time in order to keep from overpopulation in the living world). Akhom gave up the chance to be reborn and decided to stay as an archangel claiming that 'his place was here'. He and Sanura had become very close and he became a sort of ridiculous father figure to her, always looking out for her well being and cheering her up when she needed it. Between Pachet, Panya, Bomani and Akhom, she felt like she had a home here and gave up rebirth once before. She wouldn't get another chance at it for another 200 years but she was happy in the afterlife, serving under Pachet. That is… until she met Bakura.
Sanura walked over the large pillars and leaned against one, sliding down until she was sitting with her knees up to her chest. Her arms crossed over her as if to keep the chill that was riding up her back away. She looked up at the stars. It was a simple assignment. To watch over Bakura, become close to him and keep him from destroying Egypt. She was to become his guardian angel in a way. However, it was never planned that she'd fall in love with him or even marry him. Technically she was still dead. She hadn't gone through the proper procedure for rebirth due to the circumstances. But then, why didn't anyone tell her or come get her? Her task had been completed, why keep her there on the living plane?
"Why…?" Tears welled up in her eyes. Was it all a sick joke to everyone? Was she there for the amusement of the gods? To watch and wait to see how long it would take her to figure out that it was all a lie? The angel that fell in love with her assignment, unheard of!
"Now you know that's not true…" A mysterious voice called out. Sanura turned her head swiftly. Standing up she wandered back into the room, looking around cautiously.
"Who, who's there?" She asked timidly.
"Over here." Sanura turned back around and looked at where she was sitting before. In her place was a black deeb staring at her with intense red eyes.
"A-Anput? What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Talking to you." The deeb said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I do believe, however, that we continue this talk when you are awake."
"Awake? What are you talking about? I am awa-" There was a bright flash and Sanura felt a slight pulling sensation. Her eyes opened and she sat up with a start, realizing that she was in the bed on Hasani's roof, where she had originally fallen asleep. So it was all a dream. Well, a dream of a past that was real anyway. It was still in the wee hours of the morning. Only about two hours had passed at most.
"You weren't supposed to find out you know." Sanura snapped her head to her left. Anput was leaning casually against the raised edge of the roof.
"Why? Why didn't you tell me? You could have told me not to! You could have kept me from finding out!" Tears were beginning to collect in Sanura's eyes once again.
"Would telling you not to kept you from trying anyway?" Anput sighed, "And besides, I couldn't tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as you know, you really aren't supposed to be here in the world of the living but Ra made an exception with you after Pachet pleaded endlessly with him to let you stay. Originally you were supposed to finish your mission and come back, however, Pachet saw how you fell in love with Bakura and soon Bakura began to gain feelings for you as well. She couldn't stand to pull you two apart after seeing how happy you two were with each other. She didn't want to take your family away from you. The only problem was that no mortal can have knowledge of the afterlife, and especially not the knowledge of an archangel. If you had regained your memories then you would have not been allowed to stay.
"When I was leaving for the living world, Pachet came to me. She made me promise that I would not tell you or remind you of anything from the afterlife. This was so that you could remain here with the ones you love." By the time Anput was done, Sanura had curled up again with her knees to her chest. She was looking towards the ground, avoiding eye contact as tears flowed down her cheeks.
"I have to go back now don't I?" Sanura asked shakily. To tell you the truth, she did not want to know the answer to that question. She was afraid that it would be true. And, of course, it was. Anput nodded solemnly.
"Will I… have time to say goodbye?" Sanura asked.
Anput nodded, "You won't be going right away. I must finish my own mission before opening the gates to the spirit world. If you would like, you can head back to Thebes and I will come to retrieve you when the time is right. You do not need to go any farther with me." Sanura nodded numbly. Anput decided to take her leave, allowing Sanura to think about what to do. What to say. She left Anat in one of the stables and rode out of the village. Many of the villagers were still in the tavern so no one noticed as her silhouette faded in the distance.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Mwahahahahahahahahahaha, I'm so evil :) Anyways… what do you think will happen next? That was unexpected huh? Just one thing after another! And where's Bakura damn it? I forgot all about our favorite white-haired thief king. He's somewhere traveling the sandy desert on a pathetic horse from the palace XD Well; I guarantee that we'll meet him again in the next chapter. Which reminds me, only three chapters to go (I think), the meeting of the evil mastermind along with the super special awesome fight scene!!! (Forgive my abridged reference there), the super climatic ending! And finally, the epilogue which will lead right up into the next story in the series, courtesy of egyptology1996 :)
