Chapter 9: Visitation
Warning: this sucker is going to be loooonnng... just saying XD
The small piece of clay trembled as Katrina tried to place the piece on her latest sculpture, a miniature dragon preparing to leap into flight. It was a difficult piece, requiring Katrina to concentrate of getting the piece placed absolutely right since it was delicate and ready to topple over at any minute. She had been working with polymer clay since she had graduated from her high school a year and a half ago. She enjoyed working with the medium a lot taking her personal supplies with her when she traveled to Egypt. However, it was a pain in the next to get through customs since the medium had a chemical structure as certain plastics and thus mistaken for some sort of explosive device.
"That was a fun time in custody," she recalled, smiling at the memory. Her professor had to come to the interrogation room and explain that she was his student and merely brought some of her art supplies with her. "Good thing I didn't bring my paint box with all my acrylic tubes of paint. Security would have had a litter of kittens right then and there," Katrina giggled at the thought. She slowly moved the piece closer careful to not bump her desk, wincing as the skin on her hands pulled. Her hands were perhaps the most damaged from the sandstorm, rubbed raw from the gritty sand, there were even some parts in which the outer layer of skin was gone. However, she refused to let them wrap her hands, she needed them too much. In a way, her hands were her lively hood.
"Maybe I should get them insured, like how Heidi Klum has her legs and J. Lo has her tush. Well, I think her tush is insured. Hmm, I going to have to look that up now."
"Look what up?" Kaiba asked as he strode into the tent. He wasn't as hurt as she was due to the fact that he was wearing longer sleeves. He only had a few places where the skin was red and raw.
"Gah!" She shouted, dropping the piece she had and it fell to the dirt floor, to be lost forever in the sand. "Geez man, you scared the crap out of me!"
"Maybe you be more aware of your surroundings and it wouldn't happen again."
She ducked her head under her desk, hoping that she could could find the piece and salvage, but her search was futile. "Dang it," she muttered under the desk. "I lost it."
Kaiba went over to her desk and picked up one of Katrina's finished sculptures, a miniature replica of Slifer the Sky Dragon, about six inches tall and able to fit snugly in his hand. "Is this what you do in your free time?" he asked. "Sculpt Duel Monsters?"
Katrina plucked Slifer from Seto's hand. "If it gets me extra cash, then yes. Duel monsters are very popular you know."
"I know, I play the game remember? Do you even play the game?"
"Tried it and failed it miserably. I'm the ninja master at checkers though," she joked.
Seto ignored the joke and continued to inspect her pieces. They were incredibly detailed, he had to admit, down to the painted eyes and claws. One of the sculptures even had tiny feathered wings. "The colors are rather childish," he remarked.
"Blame the clay, they're very bright. And would it kill you to make a compliment once in a while?"
"Why?"
"Because it's a nice thing to do. It's polite and it makes people feel better about themselves."
"Uh-huh." Kaiba watched her work for a few moments, then went to his cot, flipping open his laptop as he did so. "Tell me when you've made a Blue-Eyes, then I might just give you a so called 'compliment'."
"Would you buy it if I did?"
"If it's actually decent."
Katrina growled and went back to the sculpture, a new idea springing in her head.
The tent was quiet for a while, the only sound coming from Seto's keyboard. He coughed and then spoke. "Thank you," he said.
"For what?" Katrina asked.
"You saved us during the sandstorm. You thought quickly enough to get us to shelter in time."
"At a price though," she murmured sadly looking at her hands; they would heal, but the fact that they could possibly be scared upset her. She never liked having scars, even though she had a few anyways. "Well, I didn't feel like dying in the middle of nowhere," she said to him.
"Nor did I,"
"Soo, do I get some sort of award for saving the keyster of Seto Kaiba?"
"I didn't think that people used the word 'keyster' anymore and no, you do not get some sort of monetary award. The only award you get is being spared from being eviscerated by my wit."
"Ooh, look, another joke from the Iceman. Congrats, maybe you should become a comedian." Seto was quiet, leaving Katrina with the feeling that she won that round of verbal sparing. She yawned and then realized that it was late again. "Well, I'm going to bed, night." She climbed into her cot and promptly fell asleep, the day's events wearing her out.
Kaiba continued to type, occasionally glancing at the sleeping Katrina. She slept with her mouth slightly open, her full lips parted just a little. She probably drooled a little bit he thought, thus making her attraction level drop a little bit, but not by much. She was pretty, not jaw-droppingly beautiful, but she had her own sense of beauty about her, coupled with her fierce independence and temper. A strand of her hair covered her face.
"Why am I so drawn to her?" he wondered. "She's not gorgeous like some people I've met, but why her?" The dream came back to him in a flash. "No, I will not be duped into thinking that I have to fall in love with her. Destiny or any sort of that stuff is not going to dictate how I live and that's final." but as he said that though, the words felt empty, hollow. Feeling unsettled, he turned off his laptop and fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of sandstorms, dragons and of a certain blue eyed girl.
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The night was long as the woman made it into the site, her ceremonial spear in hand. She had come to warn them, to deter them from seeking the Dagger. Her acolytes and comrades couldn't do the job, she had too, the situation was too delicate for her acolytes to handle. Plus, her goddess demanded it from her. It was her duty to protect the Valley of the Kings, keeping would be tomb robbers from making off with the treasures and the mummies. Unfortunately she and her fellow members couldn't be everywhere at once and some managed to get away with it.
Those that didn't though, well, let's just say that they had been cursed by the gods.
She silently padded into the site, careful about exposing herself to the moon above, whose light shone down. She went barefoot, all the better to move cross the sand, plus the natural shapes of her footprints blended in with the shifting patterns of the earth below. She entered one of the tents, pleased to know that she had found the right one.
Katrina and Seto Kaiba were fast asleep, Katrina still sprawled across her cot. The woman chuckled at the site. Unconsciously, the two were leaning close to each other, not enough to touch, but close enough for the passerby to notice. However, they weren't the people she wished to talk to. She quickly glanced about and smiled in triumph.
"Ah," she thought. "Ishizu Ishtar." She silently moved over there and gently nudged the sleeping woman on the shoulder. Ishizu stirred but fell back asleep. Undeterred, she shook Ishizu again, this time getting a response.
"Who is it?" she mumbled.
"Are you Ishizu Ishtar?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"Yes I am, why?"
"I wish to speak with you. May we go outside?"
Ishizu nodded and slowly got out of bed and the other woman led her outside the tent, in the shadows of the moonbeams.
The stranger began, "You cannot seek the Dagger."
"How do you know about the dagger?"
"I know many things. My goddess gives me the gift to do so. But you cannot search for it. The Dagger was not meant to be in mortal hands." Ishizu was silent, studying the woman that stood before her. She was tall, with the build of a gymnast, lean and muscular. She was wearing some sort of bronze armor that covered the upper part of her torso, leaving her abs visible; she also wore a pleated linen kilt, with what looked like bronze plates over it. She was barefooted, with a leather strap wrapped around her lower legs. A collar necklace with the snarling visage of a lion was around her neck and she carried a spear in her right hand. Her golden green eyes bored into Ishizu.
"I do not even know what this dagger is," Ishizu explained.
"The Dagger of Anubis is a dangerous weapon, a weapon of the god of the Dead himself. It has the power to sever the soul from the body, causing death. It can even kill the gods themselves."
"I do not understand, I don't want the Dagger, I just want answers."
"I know you do not desire to have it, but someone else does and they are using you to get to it. The best solution is to leave the site, or better yet shut the expedition down. That action will save more lives than you will know, including yours and those you care dearly about."
"I cannot simply just shut down the expedition, we've worked so hard to uncover one of Egypt's greatest mysteries."
"Then you have two choices. One: leave the site and deny the enemy the chance to gain ultimate power, or let yourselves become pawns in his deadly game. You aren't the only one he seeks to manipulate."
Ishizu shook her head. "Neither one of your choices will be happening anytime soon, I can promise you."
"Can you be so sure of yourself? If you wielded the Necklace still, I would be inclined to believe you, but you don't, so no answer of yours can be said with absolute certainty."
"Look, I don't know how you are, or what your intentions are, but do not doubt me or try to scare me off. I'm only here to find answers to questions I seek, not to gain power of any sort. And I can promise you that no one will find this Dagger while I'm here."
The stranger sadly shook her head. "Very well, you have made your choice and I am duty bound to respect it; I am also duty bound to protect those who are involve." She turned to walk away. "Which means that you will be seeing me in the future."
"Wait!" Ishizu cried out, making the stranger turn around. "Who are you?"
"You may simply call me the 'Lady of Flame'." She was gone, lost to she shadows.
Ishizu paused; why would someone be called by one of the goddess's Sekhmet's titles?
XXXXXXXXXXX
The way to Cairo University was simple, only a little ways from his residence. Derrick was going to make a visit to the dean there, to offer a proposition; however he wasn't going as himself, he was going as Dr. Alan Knighton.
It wasn't too hard for Derrick to disguise himself, a few cantrips and a minor spell or to and viola, he was the slightly eccentric doctor. He walked the grounds of the university and up to the dean's office. Much to Derrick's, aka, Dr. Knighton, pleasure, the dean was still in, working furiously on something.
"Dr. Ahmed," 'Dr. Knighton' started, drawing a surprised look from the dean. "Very nice to see you, but shouldn't you be at home right now, resting?"
"It's nice to see you too Alan. I would be home right now; however, there is still a budget that still needs to be balanced."
"Ah, I see," Derrick had passed the first test, he had managed to fool the dean. "Well then, I'll just come back tomorrow."
"You don't need to. What was it that you wanted to see me about?"
"Well, I had a proposition for you. You see, the majority of the people I'm working with are American and will be missing the holidays. I was thinking that we could hold some sort of dance to perhaps cheer them up. The dance can be held campus wide, so the festivities can be spread around."
"An interesting idea Alan," the dean said. "The campus has never held any sort of holiday activities. I might just think about it, though I cannot guarantee it."
'Dr. Knighton' gave a courteous half-bow. "I understand, but please, contact me when you get an answer." 'Dr. Knighton left the office.
As Derrick, who had now shed his disguise, left the campus, he murmured a few words under his breath. The words were unknown in origin, perhaps a fusion of Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian, either way, Derrick had enacted a spell to influence the dean's position to a more favorable one. "The first step of my plan is complete. All I have to do now is wait for the right moment to release the White Dragon. Then the doors will open for me and I will have gotten what I rightfully deserved."