Disclaimer: Not mine...
Chapter warning: This one gets a bit dark, proceed with caution.
Being trapped in a world of darkness and silence was not only scary, but suffocating. Ryou wanted to believe that this was just an awful dream. But every time she opened her eyes after a night's sleep, nothing changed.
She wanted to hear things again – she was starting to forget what sounds were – and she wanted to be able to see again – she missed the colors. She wanted to speak again – wondering if she would forget how to do that as well, if she had her voice back.
There was also the anxiety-producing sense of upcoming doom – she only had a year left and was nowhere near the cure to her cursed state.
Even Lira's presence at her side did nothing now to soothe her. She refused to leave her room again – too scared of what she could no longer be aware of. Being trapped in this silent darkness was destroying her mind and breaking any of the confidence that she had built up within herself.
She began to wish that the curse would take her before it was due to end, to just put her out of her misery. Sure, she would miss everyone but she felt so hopeless and couldn't see a reason to keep going. Ryou was certain that she was a burden – despite being told that she wasn't.
What good was someone like her in a place like this? She could offer nothing in her state to anyone.
Shizuka was growing concerned about Lady Touzoku. Ryou didn't leave her room anymore – despite having Lira, herself and others more than willing to help her. The noblewoman seemed withdrawn into herself, hardly signing responses to things spelled into her palms. She had to be almost forced to eat and drink.
The servant girl was getting very concerned and she wasn't sure what anyone could do if Ryou was completely giving up.
To make matters worse, the one person that Ryou responded to best – Seto – had been sent away on an urgent mission with a troop of guards.
It had the potential to be a long-term mission. No one was sure how long it would be before Seto returned.
In her dreams, Ryou didn't have to worry about being a complete waste of space. She dreamed of when she was a child – when things were happy (before all the sadness had descended on her family). She dreamed of playing with her older siblings and of when her father was smiling and happy.
Though she had been quite young when things were so happy, it seemed that in her dreams the memories were emerging.
In her dreams, she had everything back that had been taken from her.
Her dreams made reality so much harder to face – waking up each morning to find that she was in her own personal hell made her wish that she would just sleep forever.
Seto growled as he scanned the horizon, the men with him keeping a slight distance, getting the feeling that their leader was in a rather foul mood.
The mission hadn't been going well – they were aiding an ally country in pursuing a small bunch of rebels with the goal of bringing them to justice.
The rebels were good – they knew the land almost like the backs of their hands; knowing all the places to hide and back routes to take to avoid getting caught.
Seto, while he was loyal and happy to carry out his duties, had somewhere else he wanted to be. He wanted to be back at the palace, he wanted to not be chasing bad guys far away from home. He wanted to just change to his full-dragon form and blast the rebels at the first chance he got. But so far, the rebels were always one step ahead and Seto had been specifically ordered by Atemu to not go off on his own. This was a mission where teamwork was key and where Seto himself wasn't the one completely in charge – he had to defer to the commanders of the ally army since they were chasing the rebels in their land.
The dragon shifter clenched his hands into fists – the itch to just transform and fly was growing and it wasn't helping that he was in a bad mood already.
The Captain of the Royal Guard wanted to be back with Ryou – he was finally admitting to himself that she was – aside from Mokuba – the most important person in his life.
Dragons also happened to be creatures who coveted and hoarded – and while Seto hadn't fully embraced those traits, they had sort of changed into a tendency to be very overprotective of certain people. Or rather, it had just been overprotectiveness of his little brother – and lately that had spread to one other person.
Seto wanted to protect Ryou. He wanted to stay with her and try and calm her fears – he just could sense that she was scared in her current state.
It had been two days after her birthday that he had been sent away.
It was now three weeks out with no end in sight and his need to just protect was threatening to undermine the cold, calculating and perfect soldier that many knew him as.
He hated that he was allowing something to distract him from a mission, from doing his job.
But at the same time, there was a growing sense that he didn't belong out here right now – that his place was at Ryou's side.
He just wished he could easily push down all the thoughts that were distracting him from the mission.
As much as he hated it right now – he had a job to do.
"We have to bring him back!"
"No, dearest. He has a duty to the country first, you know that. You know the old laws – he can't come back unless something has happened with Mokuba. We all can see he is growing close to Lady Touzoku, but they are neither engaged nor married, so we cannot make any exceptions."
"So, I have to watch an old friend waste away and die?! How do you expect me to be so heartless?!"
"Dearest, please listen to Atemu. You aren't the only one who wishes it could be otherwise, but the old laws stand and the Council will not tolerate an exception. Just because we rule doesn't mean we can do things on a whim – there is a process."
"Yugi, I have the feeling that the curse won't let her die except on its terms. She may grow weaker, but I don't believe she will be able to pass before that curse takes her."
"It's not fair..."
"No, no it's not."
A/N: See you next chapter...