The hall was finally starting to clear out, and at last, only family and the royal court members were left
Shada, Isis, and the others bid everyone a good night and swam off, eager to be alone, and Solomon was the last to leave.
Mokuba and Ayame had returned to the surface because Noah had school on Monday.
That entire procession had lasted four sunlit days.
Even Adina was looking worn out.
Kaiba scooped her up in his arms to carry her back into her room. She didn't protest. Strangely enough, Atem didn't follow them, instead, he disappeared back to the men's hall and into his own room.
Still irritated that he didn't know what had bothered Atem, Kaiba hastily tucked Adina into bed, making sure to brush her fins a few times before leaving quietly and closing the door behind him.
He swam back into the men's wing tiredly, and headed straight for Atem's room out of habit. Pushing the heavy door open, he saw the king rolled up in the sheets, still sporting the unsightly aura, but the color had mellowed out to a faint pink.
"Hey, what upset you?" Kaiba asked gently, easing himself down on the edge of the bed and resting his hand on where he thought Atem's shoulder would be and felt the king tense underneath his touch.
"Nothing. Something Seth said," Atem replied darkly, thinking that was half-true.
He knew he shouldn't be angry. It was Seto's right to mate with whoever else he wanted to.
Merpeople lived for millennias. It was only natural their partners would get tired of each other, but Atem hoped they shared a friendship underneath it all.
He'd briefly talked to Mahad about it, and his protector merely said to expect that his mate would want to explore other people, other colonies.
Again, only natural.
Especially since they were both still young.
Seto might want to reunite later on after he was done exploring, but that was extremely far-off.
"What did Seth say?" Kaiba prodded, wondering if he should shout at his twin for pissing Atem off. "You can tell me. I won't be mad." Unfortunately, his tone already sounded angry, so Kaiba gave up trying.
There was a stony silence, so Kaiba decided to drop it and ask Seth later. Good news was in order anyway.
"Mokuba says he finished Adina's registrations. All we need is an ID photo and her uniform," Kaiba said excitedly, wishing Atem would emerge from the sheets to show his face. "We faked some papers, so she can go up as early as tomorrow if she wants. Or next week. What do you think?"
"I think it's great," Atem said calmly, glaring at the textured stone wall across the way. Maybe he ought to ask Seto upfront…or just test him, the way merpeople usually did when they sensed their mates were done egg-bearing and wanted a change.
"So…tomorrow, or next week?" Kaiba asked stiffly, wondering if he needed to swim back to Adina's room and wake her up to tell her the exciting news.
"Whenever you want. Whenever she wants," Atem replied, sitting up slowly and hoping his expression looked pleasant. "I request the first shift."
Kaiba blinked, not understanding.
"I want to accompany her for her first month on land," Atem clarified, seeing Kaiba's eyes widen with surprise. "That way, we'll have nothing to worry about, right? Can you take over my duties here for a full moon in the meantime?"
Kaiba bit the tip of his tongue while his mind raced with turmoil.
Fine. He could be selfless this one time and let Atem go up first.
It was only fair…
"There's a small pact we can make that will give you temporary control over my kingdom," Atem said cleverly, watching Kaiba's expression carefully for changes. "That way nothing is compromised. You have my word that I'll take care of your kingdom too while you're up there."
"Yeah, I don't know. Pacts aren't really our thing in case you haven't noticed," Kaiba said dryly, cracking a smile.
"Really?" Atem pressed, his eyes wide. "You don't want to experience what it would be like to be king for a month?"
Kaiba frowned sourly. "I follow you around. I have an idea—"
"Then it's settled. Hold your hand out," Atem stuck his arm out from under the sheets and Kaiba felt his stomach drop. This somehow felt like a trap…. But he trusted Atem to know better, so he held his arm out for Atem to drag his claw down his forearm, drawing blood in a thin stream that floated up eerily in the water between them.
"I, King Atem, declare Prince Seto of Helios, also known as Seto Kaiba, to be the temporary ruler of the Kingdom of Muran in my absence," Atem said clearly, pinning his own bleeding forearm down against Seto's wound, and the water around them stilled immediately.
"Now all you have to do is agree," Atem prompted, and Kaiba opened his mouth to speak hoarsely, "…I...Seto Kaiba, also known as Prince Seto of Helios, agree to be the temporary ruler of the Kingdom of Muran in King Atem's absence."
His arm grew terribly hot, and his head rushed with a strange ringing sound. The color faded into gray in the room before everything quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
"And it's done," Atem said simply, leaning back down to tuck the sheets over his shoulder, secretly congratulating himself on binding Seto to the kingdom. Now if Seto wanted to leave, he'd have to ask—no, beg, for him to reverse the pact, and then there would be the conversation about seeing other merpeople.
"What just happ—" Kaiba was cut off when the door to Atem's room swung open with a bang! and Mahad hovered furiously in the doorway, looking livid.
"ARE YOU TWO MAKING PACTS IN THE MIDDLE OF A RESTING PERIOD?!" Mahad shouted, and ice ran through Kaiba's veins at the merman's tone.
H-How the hell did he know that…? Could he hear them from his room?!
Atem clenched his teeth and bit back an angry shiver, replying in his mind, "YES! Now go away."
"I felt that! What in God's name did you agree to, Atem?!" Mahad raged, his fear rising when he noticed Seto's face remained impassive. This cretin of a merman….! He lunged towards Seto with his claws outstretched, and Kaiba let out a startled shout, diving straight for the spear stuck in the sand at the base of the bed, but Mahad was too quick for him.
Kaiba found himself pinned against the wall beside Adina's drawing, with Mahad's claws digging into his throat as the merman hovered in his face, acidic spit frothing in the corners of his mouth as he hissed, "hands off…the King! You are second to him even if you are the bearer of our queen!"
F-Fuck…you! Kaiba fumed, struggling to breathe as he thrashed in Mahad's iron grip.
"Mahad! Unhand him! I made the pact!" Atem cried, wrenching Mahad off of Kaiba and seeing him double over, coughing furiously.
"And what was it? It made my head ache and my hair stand on end!" Mahad yelled, drawing attention to Atem's doorway as the others began waking up and swam over to see what the commotion was all about.
Atem glanced at the small crowd drawing closer at his door and said loudly, "I gave Seto temporary control over the kingdom in my absence because I will be on land with Adina—"
"YOU…did WHAT?!" Ambassador Shada floated as close to the door as he dared, shaking with a mixture of fear and disdain. "You-You can't force me to serve under him! I'm loyal to you, Atem! I-I…I resign! E-Effective immediately!"
"Good riddance!" Kaiba sneered, giving the ambassador a solid middle finger, and he saw Mahad pale so much that his face turned grey.
"It'll only be for a month!" Atem insisted, his cheeks reddening when he realized just how much his court still hated Kaiba, even though he was Adina's egg-bearer. "Otherwise, who will be fit for the throne?"
"I haven't died yet!" Solomon cried angrily, also floating to the door to glare at his grandson. "Keep the rule in the bloodline! We don't know if this Undercover Prince knows anything about our ways of life! We had to explain a Procession to him!"
There was a tense silence, and Kaiba took this chance to retreat briefly into his mind.
This was like his hostile take-over with Gozaburo's company all over again…except he loved Atem, and his people hated him, that much was clear. He couldn't get anything done if Ambassador Shada was going to resign after merely hearing his name with the title 'King'.
Was it time to turn on the charm? Or…bide his time and wait?
"Atem, I need to have a very serious word with you after everyone is awake," Solomon said shakily, and Rishid muttered from the hallway, "everyone is already awake."
"Good, then while you sleep, I'll brief Seto on how to smoothly transition," Atem replied icily, sounding more confident than he felt. "Mahad, I love you dearly, but please leave me be now."
Mahad lowered his head and swam out the door. Kaiba didn't hesitate to slam the door shut, leaving them together in the room alone in the heavy silence.
"Okay, maybe tell me you're going to do something crazy before you do something crazy," Kaiba said sarcastically. He needed to read up more on pacts if Atem was this pact-happy. This couldn't continue if he was going to be kept in the dark about this voodoo shit, and calling it voodoo shit in his head probably wasn't helping.
Atem folded his arms defensively across his chest. "It's as simple as it sounds. You take over here, while I take care of our child on land."
"There are nannies and guards to do that, just like how we have guardians here," Kaiba breathed, wondering what Atem expected when he reached land. "You won't have to lift a finger! She'll be at school for six hours a day! Why did you just…give me…your kingdom?! Have you lost it? Are you…stressed? Need a vacation?! We could just visit Seth if you wanted a vacation!"
"I didn't give you anything. I gave you temporary control when I'm absent," Atem stated stubbornly, and he floated back to the bed, eager to get some rest. He curled up in the sheets and closed his eyes, willing for sleep to come. Had he done something incredibly stupid? He'd find out later.
Kaiba stared incredulously at Atem's outline in the sheets, his mind filled with turmoil. Had he just done something incredibly stupid? He needed to find out… Maybe talk to Seth before he accidentally bound himself to another thousand-year contract without knowing.
"Hey, I'm going back to my room…for tonight…" Kaiba said weakly, slowly floating to the door, and to his surprise, Atem merely gave him a weak wave and curled back up.
The door shut with an audible thunk! and Atem opened his eyes to glare at the wall again.
Well, that went along the lines of the most cliché script of a merperson running away.
The second he'd handed Seto access to his kingdom, he was eager to leave, even hiding his thoughts as he left, because there usually wasn't ever total silence between them.
Trying to stem the horrible feelings tightening in his chest, Atem closed his eyes and willed for sleep to come.
Kaiba powered through the water at high speeds, the water rushing past his cheeks, ears, and shoulders in tight streams while he panicked.
What if he'd just done something stupid again and locked himself into a million-year deal with Atem's kingdom? Would it be a problem? There was also so much about pact-making he didn't know, and it was like merpeople's worst-kept secret—he had to find out more, and the next safest place he could think of for help was Seth.
The surface was gleaming prettily miles ahead of him, and Kaiba realized he didn't even know it was daytime. He'd been stuck in darkness for so long, he'd forgotten what the ocean looked like, lit up in all its pristine glory.
Filled with excitement, Kaiba swam straight upwards, breaking the surface with a deep gasp and filling his lungs with crisp, afternoon air. He could feel a couple of boats in the distance, and after a while, he could see them as white dots ripping across the water, leaving a trail of waves behind them, with faint laughter from the humans ringing in his ears.
The water sparkled and glistened with white specks. Everything was beautiful.
Shocked at himself for reacting so emotionally to sunlight, Kaiba dove back down and let the rays warm his back as he swam towards familiar waters, seeing a hemisphere marker he'd previously missed.
He swam deeper for a closer look, noting that this marker was a clump of shells molded together to look like a very artistic and modern pole. Reaching down to yank it out of the sand, Kaiba weighed it in his hand, searching for writing.
In the very center of the pole was a curled piece of paper-kelp, so Kaiba slid it out with two fingers and unfurled it, stunned to see Seth's handwriting, " ROYAL WATERS – KAIBA'S PRIVATE ROCK – MARKER IV".
Great, Kaiba thought dryly, shoving the shell-encrusted pole back into the sand and swimming away. Nice to know his twin was marking their territory for him without consulting where the actual coordinates of the land he'd bought.
Unless Mokuba told him. Kaiba growled, wondering how much had happened in his two-month stint inside the pod. Time really seemed to move slower in Atem's kingdom.
The pressure was compressing around his head and shoulders mildly, and Kaiba was just about to go deeper when a voice called out to him in Japanese, "Yo! Whassup? Prince Seth?"
Turning around slowly, Kaiba was greeted with a guard holding a spear at his side and wearing one of the helmet's Mokuba had designed, complete with the steel cuffs that blocked thoughts.
"Hey, it's me, Seto," Kaiba said, feeling odd introducing himself like this so informally, but the guard understood and gestured for him to follow.
"Glad I caught you!" The man replied shortly, and they continued deeper in silence.
They swam forwards for a short while before Kaiba could see the glittering tops of the dwellings, paired nicely with the crops of white sand and the towering library with its rainbow glass windows.
"Do I need to announce your arrival?" The guard asked nervously, and Kaiba shook his head, grimacing. "No. Just tell me where Seth is," Kaiba replied, itching strangely in his skin.
Was the pact taking effect already?
No, right? Atem had said, 'in my absence'.
"I think I saw him retire to his quarters earlier, half an hour ago!" The guard replied helpfully, and Kaiba gave him a grateful nod, diving straight for Seth's roof and hearing a few people's startled shouts when they happened to look up and see him.
My! That was Prince Seto!
Ah, the short-haired one!
Ooooooooooo I saw a handsome prince!
Gritting his teeth, Kaiba made a beeline for Seth's double-wide glass doors and threw himself inside without knocking, eager to be out of sight. He frightened Seth who was sitting in a chair reading in the corner, and his twin tossed the magazine up with a fright, his blue-eyes wide.
"WH—SETO!" Seth cried angrily, rising from the sponge seat. "Nice to see you too. Won't you knock?! Nice to know you're still behaving like you're four decades old."
"I made another pact with Atem! I might be fucked!" Kaiba exclaimed, darting around in an anxious circle by the ceiling before his aching fins became too overwhelming, and he had to sit down. He chose to take Seth's seat in the sponge chair and found himself shoved out of it and pushed to the sandy ground.
"Hey! I'm tired from my long swim!" Kaiba hissed, but he stayed sitting on the floor by the bookshelf, glaring up at the sparkling glass ceiling.
"I don't see the issue. You want to break the pact? Is it another stay-on-land pact?" Seth asked witheringly, curling his fins underneath him as he made himself comfortable in the chair, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Seto and his pact-making…
"I, Prince Seto will rule Kingdom Muran in the absence of King Atem! That's the fucking pact! It's not that I don't trust Atem, I just need to know if I fucked myself! Where can I get a mer-lawyer?" Kaiba cried, feeling himself coming apart slowly as he felt a headache coming on from the sudden altitude change. Damn, Atem's kingdom was really fucking deep!
He needed to try measuring the distance sometime.
Seth was being awfully quiet. His twin was wearing a strange expression on his face and staring at a blank spot on the wall.
Kaiba crossed his arms and glared. "What is wrong with you?" he prompted, and Seth rose from the chair robotically, floating to the door and resting his clawed hand on the handle.
"Come with me. It wasn't all destroyed, you know. I saved what I could grab from our room before the ship…crashed down…onto us," Seth said with difficulty, and he swam out without another word.
Confused and irritated, Kaiba followed his twin, wondering what horrifying war memorabilia Seth had saved for this show-and-tell moment.
They passed a solid white wall and arrived at another door. This one had a golden plaque, and Kaiba recognized it instantly, having had it engraved and decorated for himself.
"You room, which you've never entered, because you're too busy smashing fins with Atem in his room," Seth muttered, pushing the door open and floating straight to the bookcase, leaving Kaiba in the middle of the room to gape at how it had been decorated.
It was exactly the same as Seth's room.
Well, how original.
No wonder he'd never come in here.
There was nothing to see.
He'd given Seth access to the best modern furniture money could buy on land, and he'd decorated their rooms identically.
Maybe this explained why merpeople all expected twins to have the same thoughts if it was 'customary' to treat twins like they were the same people.
"Seto, come here," Seth instructed, sounding grave. "Look what I saved for you."
Biting back a sigh, Kaiba floated over to the bookcase and narrowed his eyes at the ratty spines of the books lining the shelves. The handwritten titles ran straight down the spine, and Kaiba could read it vertically, which he thought was odd, because Mer books printed their characters sideways….
"My books?" Kaiba wondered, seeing the expansive topics ranging from 'egg-bearing' to 'human relationships'.
"Wh-What?! Y-You mean you don't remember?" Seth sputtered, before he composed himself and shook his head sadly. "See for yourself, my dear brother."
Gritting his teeth, Kaiba decided not to argue and plucked the first book he could reach off the shelf, titled, 'WHALES'.
"Go on," Seth encouraged, and Kaiba rolled his eyes, and let the pages fall open in his hand, his skin crawling when he saw neat lines of handwriting in tight, vertical lines, but it was all indecipherable.
What the …fuck?!
Was this Mer?
Or Japanese deconstructed?
"You…forgot. You can't read it!" Seth cried, gripping his hair while his voice rose with panic. "Y-you told me to keep these no matter what! You made me swear to me to save these over my own life!"
"Ah…" Kaiba said plainly, flipping through the neatly bound pages and waiting for a memory to jolt him, but nothing came. He was still looking at vertical squiggles on the page. Great.
He'd left himself a bookcase full of mystery novels, where only the title was readable.
"Is there a key in any of these?" Kaiba wondered aloud, picking another book off the shelf and trying to ignore Seth's obvious depression. Maybe he'd left himself a way out…because the titles were readable, unless the titles were fake and just for show. Shiiiiiit.
"No. You made this up entirely in your head," Seth replied despondently. "Our parents thought it was cute. The Elders thought you were insane. No one knew what you were writing about, or documenting—if that's even what these are, because no one could read it!"
Kaiba stuck the book back on the shelf and grabbed another one, throwing Seth a grin. "Don't worry. I'll figure it out."
"Of course you will," Seth muttered, swimming for the door, eager to leave. "Good day, brother."
Kaiba nodded, barely acknowledging that his twin had left because he was nose-deep into another mystery novel. It was nice to have a puzzle to turn over in his head. This was his favorite way to pass the time when he was stressed about something else, and now his past self had left him another mystery.
The book he'd chosen had detailed drawings of a merperson's body in its tattered pages, eerily similar to the Vitruvian Man, and that prompted Kaiba to dart over to the mirror.
Holding his breath, Kaiba's heart pounded as he lifted it up to his reflection and stared intently at the pages, shivering with relief as he realized he could read it after all.
It was just backwards and vertical.
What the actual fuck.
Filled with a sense of confusion and wonder at himself, Kaiba swam over to the large dresser and frantically opened every drawer, searching for a hand mirror. His clawed hand closed around slender handle, and he crowed triumphantly to himself as he dove back to the bed, making himself comfortable in the sheets while holding the mirror up to the pages.
He made sure to turn to the very first page, and his body grew cold when he read the title.
"WILLPOWER AND MOON CYCLES"
His head spun so much, he had to lean away.
This wasn't in any books he'd seen in Atem's vast library, and Atem boasted they had the most books of any kingdom in the water. Possibly, Joey and Tristan's porn contribution from their time on land helped expand their horizons for sure.
When he'd been bedridden with nausea, he'd almost managed to read the entire library.
Maybe he was holding secret revelations he'd made as a child, and he couldn't trust anyone with the information, hence the crazy backwards-vertical writing.
Did I write this? Kaiba reeled, feeling the water grow awfully warm around him as he began to read apprehensively.
"Since the surface is so close, I can test this daily, and at different depths, the deepest being my room (87sP1) and the shallowest being the surface (09.7q—unknown). NEW MOON – weakest / emotional / susceptible to other's emotions & thoughts WAXING CRESCENT – exhaustion (possibly from prior weakness) I'll sleep the most or be restless FIRST QUARTER – mild excitement / enthusiasm for boring tasks / medium energy (like 45%) WAXING GIBBOUS – super excited / possibly happy / im helpful and inquisitive FULL – im at my best, happiest, motivated and full energy, can hear other's thoughts the most WANING GIBBOUS – still giddy, I can still command messengers that aren't mine THIRD QUARTER – growing tired, annoyed at people, hate hearing people's thoughts WANING CRESCENT – nearly at weakest. Restlessness coming. Irritable.
I tried commanding Father's Golden Messengers and they responded only after much wheedling. Usually at a full or waning moon, I can convince them with one sentence. Same with warriors. They feel my pressure and obey immediately. Other times, they don't (especially at waxing & crescent moons)."
I'm…insane! Kaiba cried to himself, turning the page carefully, feeling like the book was going to fall apart in his hands. And it was no wonder Adina was stealing messengers. It ran in their blood apparently. Was she keeping crazy backwards-handwriting memos too?! She was already hiding her ears, who the hell knew?! And the detail this book was kept at was insane, even recording the depth in mer-measurements.
These…are…my…diaries! Kaiba realized, lifting his head to gaze dumbfounded at the entire bookshelf.
He turned the page, expecting more useful lists, and to his dismay, it was an entire paragraph.
"I asked Seth to try it with me, and he refused. I hate him so much sometimes, why won't he just sneak out and swim up with me?! One day I got fed up with it and tried commanding him too, at a full moon, and to my surprise, it worked! He was super mad at me, but who CARES because this means I CAN COMMAND MYSELF TO BECOME STRONGER THIS WAY, at every full moon, I'll swim up to the surface to either pray to the moon or sun and GROW IN POWER."
"…What?!" Kaiba breathed, shaking with anticipation as he turned the page and was met with a graph.
Wow.
Week 1 had a tiny sentence underneath the charted energy, saying he'd tried bending a spear with his bare hands, but had failed.
Week 2, he was also unsuccessful.
Week 3, fail.
Week 4, another fail.
So it didn't work, Kaiba thought, amused at himself, and he turned the page, seeing another graph, and another, and another.
H-Holy hell…. Wait.
According to these graphs, it did work. He'd even documented his own aging to make sure he wasn't bending metal because he'd gotten older in the past 6 months. According to his diary, Merpeople didn't grow that fast, but he'd written that he didn't trust the Medic's growth chart.
Merpeople grew at different rates according to their own willpower.
Trauma was only a secondary factor, and it had to be prolonged trauma.
That explains Adina so much, Kaiba raged, thinking back to all of Shada's comments about how she would visit land when she was 'older', so maybe Adina hadn't aged due to trauma, but she'd willed it to be so.
Shaken by how much he was learning, Kaiba turned the page and was dismayed to find it blank, with only a tiny inscription in the middle, "VOL VIII of CCL – next vol. SPEARING TECHNIQUES".
The titles are fake! I fucking knew it! Kaiba thought gleefully, closing the book carefully and dashing back to the bookshelf with pure elation. This was his answer. He'd left himself a giant bookcase of answers!
Thank you, me! He celebrated viciously in his head, pulling out every single book to count them, just to make sure none were missing, then he would put them in order.
CCL was roman numeral 250, which was impressive for a kid.
Books landed in large stacks onto the soft, white sand, and Kaiba made sure to keep them neatly piled in groups of five before digging more out from the back. Holy fuck. Thank Seth for saving these! These were incredible!
His door swung open with a thunk! and Seth hovered red-faced before him, panting, "you remember? I hear you thanking me!….Wh-What are you doing?! You're making a mess!"
"I don't remember writing them, but I can read them now," Kaiba replied breathlessly, opening the book in his hand and flipping to the very back, seeing it was book 50 of 200. Yep.
These were out of order.
Shaking his head, Seth turned to leave, but his twin called out to him excitedly, "hey! One last favor?" Kaiba kept his eyes wide, listening to his heart thundering in his chest with excitement.
"Favor…yes, brother, what?" Seth asked tiredly, and Kaiba waved a diary in front of his face. "Help me organize these and I might just tell you what I wrote in them."
Seth smiled weakly and closed the door, swimming back over to sit in the sand, nodding.
"Anything for you, Seto. You've always been the strange one between the two of us."
Yeah, bet," Kaiba growled, feeling slightly bad about the mild abuse his child-self had performed on Seth without his consent, and he had a feeling he would find a lot more incidents like it in these books. He'd find out eventually when he managed to read all 250 of his own diaries.
Author's note:
bruhhhh kaiba was cruel from the start lol
Atem binds kaiba with a pact, againnnnnnnnnn lol….wuh oh?
please let me know your thoughts on this chapter/where the story is going! comments are my FUEL (even if its just an emoji, i love hearing back from you) or even a simple kudos will do :O
much love,
Ugli
