Solomon

"Everything recovered from the tomb is written in some sort of sub-dialect. It seems based on what we know of conventional religious scripture from that time period, but it's almost as though it's been deliberately muddled." Arthur explained, enthusiasm for his work shining brightly in his eyes as he looked over his findings one more time.

I nodded as I studied the copy of his notes that I'd printed out to review at my old friend's request. It had been a long time since my name carried weight as an Egyptologist, but Arthur kept me up to date on all the latest discoveries and it was my pleasure to look over his work whenever a newly discovered artifact left him puzzled.

"Like it's been jumbled with some sort of code." I agreed, leafing through the pile of papers.

Excitement was obvious in his voice. "We know so little about this time period, Solomon. Imagine if this tomb and this tablet are the keys to understanding all those missing years of Egypt's history."

I chuckled. The generation before, during and after the reign of the Pharaoh that once lived under this very roof with us – in a manner of speaking – was still largely lost to time. Besides the tablets discovered by Maximillion Pegasus and my own discovery of the young Pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, artifacts from his dynasty were rare and defied traditional translation techniques.

"They're thinking of nicknaming him 'the Silver Pharaoh'." Arthur added, eagerly. He had a habit of jumping from one topic to the next without any notice, but as a dear friend of so many years I'd become used to the leaps in conversation and kept up well enough.

Well it was better than 'the Water Pharaoh', which was the last nickname I'd heard being pitched on the archaeological forums. Being nicknamed for the flooding of your own tomb would be unfortunate. "Oh ho ho! They've confirmed the remains are male?" I asked belatedly. The processes were so quick these days.

"They believe so. The Ministry of Antiquities pushed for machines to drain the tomb within a few days. It revealed the sarcophagus and Solomon, it's made of silver!" Arthur exclaimed in a hushed tone of awe and wonder.

What a find. For the ancient Egyptians, gold was regarded as the flesh of the gods and silver was believed to be their bones. In fact, silver was rarer in Egypt than gold and often had to be imported from Western Asia and the Mediterranean. That alone carried implications for the Pharaoh's character. Trade routes of the time would have been difficult to negotiate and defend.

"Fascinating, I-" The cheerful chirp of a phone ringing interrupted me and my friend glanced around his office as if he expected to find the source of the noise in there with him.

"It's not mine." Arthur confirmed as he hastily checked his pockets, pulling out a sturdy old cell phone to double check. It was a tough old girl; a brick by modern standards with dust from one archaeological dig too many lodged forever in its buttons.

"No, it's mine." I replied, sparing him the trouble a moment too late. I recognized the ring tone. "Excuse me for just a minute, old friend."

"Of course." Arthur's mustache quirked in an easy smile. Being clean shaven made it stand out against his face. I scratched at my beard as I found my feet and ignored the ache of my back as I ambled toward the kitchen phone. Perhaps I should shave it off? Spring and summer were around the corner, after all, and the young women these days seemed to appreciate a clean shaven man. In may day growing such a healthy beard had been a sign of masculinity but those times were gone now. Despite that, the more I contemplated it, the less I liked the idea of shaving it. It was too late to be trying to teach this old dog new tricks. I slid the phone out of its receiver and parted it from the wall, watching the cord waggling from its end and tangle on itself as I did so. Case in point, I chuckled.

The number on the display wasn't one I recognized. It seemed strange that whoever it was would call through to this phone and not the one in the shop front, but stranger things had happened.

"Kame Game; toys, collectibles and novelties." The new greeting was Yugi's creation.

I could tell that running this store with me wasn't his calling even before he seemed to realize that for himself, but that didn't stop me from using his ideas for the business. He was still trying to find his way, a little too quickly in my opinion since the Pharaoh had departed from our world, but his ideas were as sound as they came. Besides, it never hurt to listen to the youth. He and his friends kept me young at heart. He was a good grandson, and his friends had grown into equally good people, each and every one of them.

"Nyuhhh. Hey Gramps'" Joey drawled from the other end of the phone, as if just thinking about him had summoned him into the receiver. He sounded off. A little panicked, I'd say.

"Joey." I greeted my former student, though unlike Yugi I suspected there were still things I could teach Joey if he ever became my pupil again. He was yet another young man who had yet to find his way. I supposed this was the right age for self-discovery and missteps. "This isn't your usual number." I noted. Joey had a habit of either breaking his phones or coming back to find them broken if he left them in his apartment for too long. I couldn't change the life he had at home, but I could give him somewhere else to be when it all became too much. Perhaps this was one of those days. It would explain the strange number.

"Let's get him top-side and I'll call our physician. You can carry him, right?" Came a second voice, muffled by distance but easy enough to make out. It was younger, higher pitched. It sounded familiar.

"Y-yeah, no problem." Came Joey's reply, speaking to his companion rather than to me I gathered as the angle of his voice shifted back toward his friend.

"Alright, good." The younger boy replied, casually.

"Seein' how chill you are 'bout all this is kinda freakin' me out." Joey told him and then the phone buffeted against his cheek, making a soft 'bumf' as he shifted something heavy around.

It was the younger of the Kaiba brothers, I realized. That was the other voice. He seemed like a good boy, despite that horrible piece of work he had for an older brother. I'd learned the hard way with my own children that youngsters needed strong, fully present and sensible role models to grow into well rounded adults and Mokuba Kaiba had drawn a short straw there without a doubt.

"Sorry 'bout that Gramps." Joey was speaking to me again now, his voice clearer as his mouth aligned with the phone properly. "Yug' and I are, nyuhhhhh-"

"-Mind his head." Mokuba noted.

"-He's like a freakin' rag doll!" Joey protested quickly before returning his attention to the conversation. "So I know Yug' has like a shift at the store later, but nyuhhh..." There was a long pause as Joey seemed to be deciding what to say. "He's sick!"

"Oh? Yugi is sick?" The way Joey blurted it out made me doubtful and Yugi was too dutiful a grandson to be trying to escape work without a good reason.

"Wait. No. He's not sick, he's...nyuhhh." Joey hummed from the other end of the line.

"Oh wow. You're really bad at lying." Mokuba's tone was dead-pan and unimpressed.

"Shhhhhhhhhushhhhh!" was hissed back.

"Joey." I began, making sure I had his full attention before continuing.

"Uh, yea?" He sounded nervous. Good. That meant he at least knew what a bad job he was doing of this.

"Why are you with Mokuba Kaiba. Where are you? Just be honest now." Saving him from having to think up another lie was probably the best thing I could do for him. Telling them wasn't his greatest strength.

"Ok, so!" Joey took a deep inhalation of breath, as though he were about to dive down to the bottom of a swimming pool, or in this case, this conversation."Me n' Yug' went over to the Kaiba place t'talk te Mokuba cos' Kaiba like, went into the afterlife to duel Atem' or somethin' and hasn't come back yet. Then the evil cube-thing started glowin' an Yug's head lit up with that weirdo third eye thing an he' just folded t'the floor like a freakin' towel. Or 'e would'a done if I hadn't caught 'im! Usually the Millennium Items just glow fer a second and then are like, done. But this ain't one a' those times! Yug's totally outta it but his forehead keeps on glowin' and the cube's doin' it too so... uh. It's not good."

"I see." I stroked my beard as I worked through all the different details, half marveling at the strange world my grandson and his friends seemed to have built for themselves, and half envious of it. To be young again. Well I definitely couldn't shave my beard now. What else would I have left to fiddle with as I contemplated the strangeness of life. We were just lucky my daughter-in-law was half a world away cruising with my son to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Had she been here still then there would have been hell to pay. "Well now, how long has it been since Yugi collapsed?" I finally answered, breaking the suspense and releasing Joey's obviously baited breath.

There was a woosh of breath as he replied; "Like, ten minutes-"

"-Twenty two minutes" The younger Kaiba corrected.

"Like, twenty two minutes." Joey corrected. "Y'wanna add in the seconds and nanoseconds too?" He quipped to Mokuba who remained silent from what I could hear but must have done something to reply as Joey snickered a second later. "Nyehehe. Real classy, kid." He added.

"That's not very long." I pondered aloud. The frequency of these sorts of going on and of course having my own soul stolen by Pegasus kept me calm. "If he hasn't woken up in a few hours it'll be time to call the hospital, but for now if he's in a safe place then he can stay there." I decided.

"Yer!" Joey agreed, enthusiastically. "Like I said, were at the Kaiba place so s'all good. They've got like fifty spare rooms or somethin'."

I could hear that Joey hadn't understood exactly what I meant. The Kaiba mansion was not necessarily a 'safe place' in my book.

"He'll be fine here." Mokuba added a little sullenly. Apparently he'd been able to hear both sides of the conversation and could read between the lines.

"Alright then." I agreed, relying on the boy's word to be the truth. "If Yugi wakes up then call me. If he doesn't then call me anyway in a couple of hours." I concluded.

"Y'got it, Gramps!" Joey, muffling a little again as the soft 'bumf' of something soft but weighted being moved around repeated itself; which I now knew to be my unconscious grandson.

I shook my head as I replaced the phone on the receiver and returned to the Bonebreaker, otherwise known as the chair we used with the computer desk in the living room. Arthur had been rereading through his translation notes and shuffled them back into an orderly pile as the web camera on Yugi's laptop recorded my approach. These video chats with the Skype were truly marvelous.

"Is everything alright, Solomon?" He questioned, taking a good look at my face.

I chuckled. "Oh yes-" and then shook my head in an exaggerated disbelief. "-You wouldn't believe the mischief these boys get into."

Ano

The branch swayed beneath my weight as I landed to perch upon it. Below me she continued to make a spectacle of herself.

"You have lost them again, Teleia." I noted. Burying them below the earth had not been a terrible plan, but it had nevertheless backfired. Our quarry had escaped once more with their respective lives.

Teleia's clutched her head and thrashed back and forth in obvious suffering. She had brought this upon herself.

The Master was displeased. He was making that known to her. She forced one eye open to hatefully behold me while the other remained tightly closed against the Master's reprimands.

"Yes – yes my sweet Master. Of course!" She gasped, speaking to him aloud as he willed agony into her body and tore into her mind. "-I will not fail you again! I will never fail you again! No. No. Never!"

Teleia was due this for allowing the Master into her thoughts so easily; so eagerly; yet it was beginning to become difficult to keep him from penetrating my own mind too. His power was growing. Though dropping the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba through the earth had not earned them a second death, the damage inflicted to both was feeding him their strength in invisible strands of energy.

The reprimand ended and Teleia straightened. She panted as she was released from her punishment, sweat collecting where her heavy breasts met and strained against the thin linen barrier to stain her host's robe. She failed to catch her breath. Her host's chest heaved with effort. Clawing at thick gold band around her waist and forcing it from her body alleviated this. The circlet rolled away as she crushed the neckline of her robe beneath her fingernails and shredded the fabric with a loud rip. Teleia was not finished. With viciousness she yanked the priestess's garb away from her skin as though fighting it for room to breathe and released the now misshapen robe. It cascaded back over her host's body in light waves, torn and soiled.

Her host body was her greatest asset, yet Teleia in her ponderous stupidity paid it no mind. Her clothes were now destroyed. Her hair was tattered. A mixture of dirt both necrotic and not stained the side of her face.

She would likely kill the priestess if she continued this way.

Such an arrangement suited me. Teleia was a gluttonous fool and deserved to become the victim of her own carelessness, and yet my host disagreed. Though ever calm and subdued I felt Mahad's foreign concern for her body leak into my thoughts. He lessened it, as though there was something he would rather not reveal to me fueling its fires. I did not care so I did not pry.

Not while there was information more useful to my purposes.

There was a well-deserved cruelty to it. Had Teleia permitted her host greater sentience she would have been privy to the priestess's wisdom. Instead by denying her and binding her in silence Teleia remained ignorant. The knowledge of these priests was valuable. Mahad's memories revealed to me his understanding of our current location. Though he knew little about the caves the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba had escaped into like rats, he knew much of the oasis beyond and the pathways leading to it. He could anticipate where they would emerge.

This insight was now mine and mine alone.

"You must find them, before the master loses what remains of his patience." I observed with finality. "Or your fate will be sealed." Teleia paled, no longer able to muster her usual hungry bluster. Whatever torture the Master had just finished inflicting would be nothing in the face of another defeat. It was a fact we both knew. I spread my wings wide and sailed away from her and the stench of her failure knowing that she would not find them. She did not know where to look. I did. It was near pleasing.

The wind was my aid as I made my way though the air.

It was a disappointment that my bid to grant the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba this same advantage had been negated when Teleia stole her Mark of the Rose back from me. In commanding the Pharaoh to injure Seto Kaiba she had foiled me without even being aware of my ploy. Should the Master regain strength enough to force himself within my mind there would be no mercy for plotting against him. Such was a fate deserving of a traitor. Accepting this or not, it was no end to be welcomed nor looked forward to.

The roaring of water crashing down upon itself marked Mahad's target.

The yellow and red rocks of the canyon parted from their narrow pathway and spread wide. The reveal was splendid. A paradise more fanciful than anywhere else I had yet to fly over in this world of souls shone below me like the jewels of a crown. Sapphire blue waters, flanked by an emerald green shoreline teeming with the lushest of plants and palms, all embraced by white gold sand unsullied and untouched by mortal feet. The ruddy red stones of the canyon enclosed the gleaming oasis with protective walls, shielding it from all points of ingress but that of a single winding track carved between jagged rock faces. The unyielding natural barrier featured an opening a great distance upward; water spilling from the mouth of a mighty cave that overlooked the vista to create a waterfall of such height and majesty I had never known.

Noises echoed from the cavern's depths.

They drew me and I found a new perch upon a rocky outcropping that gave me a well veiled view of the cave mouth. Heavy splashes and the scraping of claws against stone heralded them into my view as the silver beast that had become of Seto Kaiba pounced free of the cave shadows like a lion and lurched to a stop that nearly unseated the Pharaoh upon his back as they arrived at the waterfall's edge. I felt my host become attentive to my comings and goings once more as his beloved Pharaoh and the reincarnation of the High Priest he privately called his friend met our gaze.

"Do you believe me now?" The Pharaoh questioned with amusement before casting his gaze outward. Despite his steady words his manner stirred my host's concern once more. The Pharaoh's cheeks were unnaturally reddened with heat even while his body shivered as though cold.

Seto Kaiba huffed in reply. He appeared to think nothing of it.

It was with reverence that the Pharaoh did survey the view sprawling before him in every direction, while his mount merely snorted again and craned his head over the precipitous drop he now stood before as the water rushed between his talons to throw itself over the cliff and into the oasis below. He scoffed through his muzzle and slowly raised up his wings.

"Don't do it." the Pharaoh cautioned tonelessly over the roar of the waterfall before them. "There must be a better way down."

Seto Kaiba tilted his head to the side and sneered back at the Pharaoh. The narrowing of his eyes and flashing of fangs was different to a normal beast's. His maw pricked upwards at the edges. Mahad corrected me. The expression the dragon wore was not a baring of teeth, but a mischievous smirk. Under the circumstances, my host found that even more questionable. The Pharaoh's mistrustful expression echoed his champion's sentiment.

"Don't do what?" The dragon cooed back, the monstrous tone lilting and nearly playful. I did not understand the meaning of his grunts and growls, yet somehow my host did.

"You'll kill yourself if your wing fails." The Pharaoh told him without a doubt, haughtily crossing his arms as he did so. "We're too high up. Obviously so. Even diving from this height would be foolhardy."

A deep hum reverberated from Seto Kaiba's chest and he nodded along with a dipping of his head as though agreeing, even while his talons inched toward the rim of the tunnel's mouth and curled around it firmly.

"Correction: 'Us', I'll kill 'us'. Get it right, Pharaoh." He grunted and then shook the birds resting beside me from their nests with a boisterous bellowing roar that he threw at the clouds above in challenge.

"Kaiba!" A moment to right himself and secure his legs around the dragon's middle was all Seto Kaiba allowed the Pharaoh before lunging snake-like from the mouth of the cave and into the open sky; his rider's jaw clenching and eyes going wide as he did so.

The sun branded his wings bright white as he opened them wide and caught the wind effortlessly, easily beating them to soar on an updraft of warm air as though he had been born with wings upon his back and not only just acquired them. Even to one such as me who knew nothing of these boys, the dragon's joy was obvious. His mouth curled in glee and a sound that may once of been deep laughter echoed from the depths of his body as the monster threw his head back and barked many times with amusement. Atop his back the Pharaoh chuckled, intuitively smoothing his body to sit flat against the monster's back as the beast tested himself, flying a circle around the oasis like a victorious charioteer and experimentally spinning and rolling in mid air for the apparent pleasure of it.

I could feel the smile of my host as he watched, though it did not break through my lips. Seto Kaiba spiraled through the air toward the oasis, pulling up at the last moment to fly just a hair's width above the water's surface. The Pharaoh's chuckles became true laughter every bit as loud and mirthful as his mount's as he leaned over the side of the beast's back to run his fingers through it, creating a long wake in the otherwise calm stillness of the oasis as Seto Kaiba flew its length. Seeing the two of them get along pleased Mahad. I did not know why.

Seto Kaiba pivoted in the air abruptly, climbing back up high into the sky with a pounding of his wings and between wing beats the Pharaoh's expression softened from hardy enjoyment to a warm and gentle delight as he watched the dragon beneath him perform and rollick in the sky. His featured sharpened into a smirk of pleasure, hiding the gentler face as Seto Kaiba's pale neck twisted around to glance back at the Pharaoh as if to briefly check on the boy astride his back. Or taunt him. Seeing his rider's confidence the dragon put on a burst of speed to fly a knot in the air, the Pharaoh beginning to laugh once more as the aerial feat turned him upside-down for but a moment.

Watching them... was strange.

Here, like this, it was difficult to wish them the ill will necessary to complete my task.

I wondered if that had been my host's intent.

I ruffled my feathers and settled down more comfortably onto my ledge. Let them them cavort and frisk. For now I would merely watch. My patience may yet be rewarded. Once they were done playing they would finally have chance to use the dragon's flight to spirit themselves to my master and hand him his next defeat. It was an outcome worth waiting for.

The dragon's eyes slide back to his passenger once more for just a moment before he curled around himself to draw a second loop in the sky and then a third as the Pharaoh's clear enjoyment of the ride vindicated his antics. Abruptly the sounds of Seto Kaiba's baying guffaws deepened into a wordless questioning growl.

The odd noise attracted my host's attention and a spike of fear speared through his heart as the Pharaoh's face slackened.

His hold on his mount grew lax.

Within but a second he slid from the beast's pale back and plummeted limply through the air toward the earth below.


AN: With the COVID-19 virus shutting so many people behind closed doors I imagine quite a few of you are binge-reading through fanfiction to pass the time. If you find yourself thinking about this one sometime after you've finished reading it then it would mean a lot if you could pop back and throw me a review. Many thanks to everyone who has already left one for this story. They really mean a lot to me!

Also on the subject of COVID-19, the next chapter is going to deal with a character experiencing sickness and fever. I've been building up to it since very early in this fic and awkwardly this is where the chapter falls in the story, but I appreciate the timing of it might seem in bad taste.