Atem woke up to the sound of two messengers knocking at his door, so he floated sleepily out of bed to answer them.

One of them zipped inside immediately and began talking, whereas the other one hovered in the doorway, trying to get a word in.

"A message for you King Atem—"

"I come from Kaiba's Private Rock and the message is this—"

"One at a time!" Atem cried, pulling the other octopus inside his room and pointing at the orange one from Seth's colony first. "You, speak."

The orange octopus stilled and saluted him importantly, puffing outwards as it spoke, "A message for you, King Atem, from Prince Seth of Helios…"

"Great," Atem muttered, wondering if he'd really scared Kaiba off with the pact.

"…Dearest Atem, just letting you know that Seto is here with me, so please don't worry. If you already knew that, you can disregard this message. I'm accustomed to telling people Seto's whereabouts when he shows up unannounced, meaning he probably left without telling anyone where he was going. Love and admire you dearly. End message."

Atem sighed and nodded, pointing at the green octopus and giving him permission to speak. "Go on."

"I come from Kaiba's Private Rock," the green octopus squeaked, doing a twirl in the water. "It's me, Mokuba. Adina's bedroom, play area, and study room are finished. Ayame had a lot of fun finding girly furniture and picking new outfits for her. Hope she likes blue and pink stuff. Anyway, Kemo will be on standby all of this week and next week, cuz I know you guys like to take your sweet time. Honestly, no rush because she's scheduled to start in the fall. Noah will be pulled out of school after this summer, so we can talk more about the date when he's officially out. Kay, that's all. Love you, big bro. See you soon."

Both octopi hovered by his closed door, so Atem opened it to let them out before shutting it again, not ready to face his court.

What have I done?! Atem grimaced, throwing himself back into his bed and staring up at the dark, curved ceiling. He would have to face his subjects eventually and say why he'd so suddenly given Kaiba nearly total control of everything.

If they found out the pact was a silly attempt to keep his mate around longer, he'd be mocked mercilessly.


Kaiba turned the page with interest, ignoring the food that had been brought to him by octopus. He wasn't hungry, meaning it was probably some waning moon or whatever. Besides, what was written in these pages satiated his hunger for knowledge.

After Seth had helped him organize all 250 diaries, Kaiba locked himself in his room and began to pore over the books, deciding to forgo sleep in order to read it all as quickly as possible. He decided it was pointless to read in order and only chose the ones he cared about the most.

Those books sat in a neat stack at the foot of the bed, and Kaiba gripped the one in his hands tighter. These were more precious than gold. If he had the resources, he might haul these up to land and get them preserved in plastic, because this diary about royal blood was in tatters, undoubtedly suffering from the poor conditions of the polluted water Seth had been living in.

Sighing to himself, Kaiba eyed the page and continued reading quickly.

"…I've been searching for proof, actual physical proof of our 'godly' ancestors.
I asked Father and he said to read a book.
I asked Mother and she offered to show me a picture-memory story, which I know can be faked, so I politely declined.
I broke the rules again and swam to the Outer City limits to visit the Banished Elder, and she told me to swim into a volcano. I don't know if that was an insult or not, but I've never been in a volcano before… I bet I could will myself to withstand the scorching water, but what would I find?! Also, it's a really long swim to the nearest volcano. I'd sooner be caught missing.
Seth will tattle on me. He tries to read my thoughts when he thinks I'm unaware.
Call it a dead end. I'll try again and go back to what I know—Pacts.
Royals can make the strongest pacts in all of mer-society, so I'll…"

Kaiba frowned and skimmed the rest, not finding anything new or revolutionary. This book was a dud. There were three diaries on pacts, so he picked up the first one without excitement, not really expecting anything.
Also who the hell was the "banished elder"?
Damn. Maybe he should've read the books in order. This was the fourth time he'd had to go back, just like when he'd come across a tidbit about memories being faked, he'd spent hours, or maybe it was a day, opening every book and trying to find the one he'd written about faked memories. Kaiba had learned that if he mentioned it in the dairy as an offhand comment, it meant there was at least an entire record about it.

Raging at himself, Kaiba got up from the bed and floated apprehensively in front of the bookshelf glaring at the titles and wondering which one held information on the Banished Elder.
He could enlist the help of an octopus…but Seth would yell at him for 'diverting resources.'
Ugh.
Maybe it was time to try out that willpower thing.

"Give me the book about the Banished Elder," Kaiba said loudly, staring at his bookcase.
Nothing happened.

Grinding his teeth, Kaiba whirled around and crossed his arms, closing his eyes and willing for memory or a vision to come forth.
Please, fucking please. God, please. Just—

Something hit him in the back, and Kaiba turned around furiously, stunned to see that one of the diaries had dislodged itself from the shelf.
Okay….
Curious, he bent down to pick it up from the sand, dusting off the cover and seeing a detailed illustration of a banana on the cover, and the title was, "BANANAS".
Ban? Banana? Could it be any more obvious?

Holding his breath and daring to hope, Kaiba gently pried the book open and dashed back to the bed to grab the hand mirror, angling it over the pages and seeing the chapter title, "BANISHED ELDER – NISOOI, formerly ELDER IOTA"

Excited, Kaiba threw himself down on the bed and began reading with renewed fervor.

"Finally managed to find Elder Iota.
It took me seven moons of sneaking to the Outer City, but it was worth it.
She is hiding in a makeshift dwelling near the big-mouthed eels. She somehow knew who I was immediately and threw something at me to make me go away. I caught it and threw it right back in that old hag's face. I came to her for knowledge, not a fight! Also, the thing she threw at me was a human boot.
I told her very nicely that I sought her wisdom and she said, "you don't need my wisdom" blah blah, so I brought her something to gain her trust. Macadamia nuts. Fresh in a tin from land. That stupid tin took me two moons to find, so if you total up my time trying to even get this hag to talk to me, that's nine moons!"

Awww, Kaiba thought, turning the page and scanning the sheer blocks of text.
It seemed there would be no drawings or graphs in this diary.
He kept on reading with mild interest.

"But what I learned from her is priceless and can be trusted. She says the royal family is descendants of God, and I shouldn't take my royal blood so lightly by swimming out into 'dangerous waters' to see her. I rolled my eyes cuz I hear that ALL THE TIME from father/seth/mother, whatever.
She says we are blessed to be royals and that even when I go on land, I'll face less misfortune than my peers who are not of royal blood. I…find that hard to believe.
I asked her to show me proof. Of god.
She showed me drawings, diaries kept by Amphitrite, but how am I supposed to know if those are real or not?! I keep diaries too! And I bet anyone could come in and copy them all….
Whatever.
I keep going back, and every moon, I bring her some food from the royal dining hall, which she refuses on sight because she's got this annoying pride, but she's starving and I know it. She knows that I know it. She's too old to hunt for herself out there too. The Elder community just left her out there to DIE because she broke one stupid rule about falling in love with a human.

Other useful things I learned from her:

THE MOON POOL / CHRYSALIS: is more like a reset on your fins than a healing pod. You grow a new set of fins every time. Its not the same pair. Weird huh? Sometimes Warriors got caught sneaking in and grew different colored fins based on what they ate on land, which was a dead giveaway. I'd hate to have different colored fins from the ones I have now, so I'll watch what I eat on land.

LOVE & WORSHIP: Merpeople say they love each other all the time to re-affirm our bonds as a species. Royal power is directly affected by this love. If people don't love (me & seth) we couldn't be nearly as powerful. It's important that I am loved. It's important that I can BE loved so that I can be a powerful leader. People's love is their energy. That's what they're giving to us. As royals, we harness that power and use it to pray for peace and (other stuff everyone needs).

GUARDIANS:
are sometimes the initiators of pacts because they fear for their species lives. They serve us half out of fear and the other half out of respect. Because we rule the ocean, they're afraid we will kill them off, when they're already being hunted by humans. Sucks to be them.

THOUGHTS / INNER FEELINGS: with enough willpower and being close enough to land, we can send private thoughts up, but as for a something to completely block thoughts, we have yet to figure that out. When I go on land, that is the one thing I swear I'm gonna figure out. The answer on how to block thoughts is on land.

Now I'm obsessed with thought-blocking and I kept pestering the Elder for answers. She demanded more macadamia nuts or a I get a free trip into the nearest volcano. That insult is getting old.
But she taught me a whole bunch of more useful stuff, like how to will my nails to be shorter, or longer. How to keep a calendar in my room to count the time passing on land. How to make better bindings for my diaries. I showed her this one, and she"

The entry ended there, and Kaiba frowned, flipping through the rest of the diary and realizing it was blank.

What the fuck?!

His eyes had to be playing tricks on him.
Swimming out of his room, Kaiba darted into Seth's room without knocking and was annoyed to see that his twin wasn't there.

Great.

He floated out of the room and was immediately mistaken for Seth by a passing guard.

"Prince Seth…" The man bobbed his head politely, and Kaiba frowned.

"I have short hair. I'm Seto."

The guard froze and paled, nodding stiffly and giving him a deep bow. "My apologies Prince Seto…"

Kaiba stared at the man and decided to make him look at the diary.

"Hey, can you see if there's anything on this page?" Kaiba asked innocently, holding the book up at eye level, and the guard nodded.

"Yes, it's full of writing."

Kaiba's frown deepened and he turned the page, tapping it with one slender finger, "and here?"

"Covered in writing," the guard replied, his eyes darting to the side, looking scared. "I-I can't read it…i-if that's what you're asking."

"No. You're fine. Excused," Kaiba dismissed him airily and swam back into his room, his chest tight with turmoil.

Fuck. What did this mean?!

I can't see with my own eyes! Am I being manipulated?! Kaiba gripped his hair and dropped the book on the ground, beginning to spiral.
No. Relax.
He was only unable to see this book…which meant someone somewhere had a hold over him.

Another pact?! Kaiba reeled, leaving the book on the ground and diving to pick up one of the ones labeled, "HUMAN PIES AND THEIR FLAVORS".

He snatched the mirror up and fanned through the book, seeing the usual drawings, graphs, and lists on every page. It was just the pages about Elder Iota that was missing.

Maybe she bound me to a pact? Kaiba wondered, half-heartedly reading about pacts in the next diary, consumed with a mild fear that he couldn't trust his own eyes anymore. Maybe he'd learned something about the Elder and it had to be erased from his memory….

Right, my memory…and Mokuba's memory, Kaiba growled, flipping to his diary's table of contents, quickly finding the one about, 'illegal pacts I performed on myself' and began reading from there.

"Pact A – done under a full moon for maximum effect, alone and with no witnesses, even the fish were absent. I made sure. The exact words are: I can swim stronger and faster than any warrior on land and sea. Please grant me this wish and I will use my strength discretely and wisely. Date performed: 0099-sL-341-Age of King Aknamkeenon the VI or the VII I forget and honestly I don't care"

WHOA WAIT, Kaiba leaned away from the book, sweating. Was this still in effect?! Because…he could swim faster than Joey and Tristan…even when he'd been with an egg. Even now, he could outswim Seth. It had taken him less than one sunlit day to reach this colony from Atem's kingdom, when usually it took Mahad one full day, or even two days without stopping.
Oh…shit.
Shit shit shit.
Shit.

Bending his head down and feeling his cheeks burn, Kaiba continued to read, trying not to feel guilty.

"Pact B – done under waxing gibbous (full moon celebration happening later, can't get away) alone, no witnesses, same secret location. The exact words are: my engineering skills and intellect will be unchallenged on land and sea. Please grant me this wish and I will build a legendary shrine to the best of my ability. Date performed: 0093-sL-341-Age of King Aknamkaenon"

Shaking with disbelief, Kaiba skimmed the other pacts he'd supposedly performed on himself, illegally improving his smarts, his strength, even his looks. He'd tried making a pact to change his appearance and that had failed. He'd also made one saying he wanted 'the best, most prettiest mate in the entire ocean'…which had to be why he was so resolutely attached to Atem.
It was his own damn fault.
He'd made a few for Seth too.

'I vow he will never be separated from me unless of extenuating circumstances. Even so, if anything happens, we must die together at each other's sides. His intellect and strength need to match mine, or it will be suspicious, BUT IM STILL THE BETTER ONE. Please grant me this wish and I will be more compassionate towards Seth at my own discretion.'

Wow, his child-self was really narcissistic and idealistic, even making one for his mother and father too.

'Mother and Father shall never be separated from me unless they insist on it together. Otherwise, we will always find each other, regardless of the war or chaos that happens. Please grant me this wish and when the moment comes, I will fulfill Mother and Father's expectations of me to the best of my ability.'

And finally, one of the last pacts on the page that caught his eye.

"Elder Iota can accompany me on land if she wants. She will make her way unscathed to any Chrysalis, be able to enter undetected, and find me successfully no matter where I am, or who I'm with. She will have a peaceful life, and a peaceful death however she chooses. She will never feel pain, suffering, or hunger ever again as long as I'm there to prevent it. Please grant me this wish and I will show Elder Iota the compassion she needs for the rest of her life."

Frowning again, Kaiba fanned through the diary, wondering why all the self-indulgent pacts were stated as 'wishes'.

Who am I wishing to? Kaiba wondered, and he slowly reached for the second diary about pie flavors, feeling oddly numb.
He had to be missing something. And it seemed he'd developed a nurturing relationship with Elder Iota, enough to include her in his selfish demands for perfection in his life.

Maybe there was something in his stuff back at the mansion that would give him clues, but for that, he'd need his legs back.

Sighing, Kaiba turned the page and arrived at the end, so he tossed it aside and picked up the next book, titled, "MANGO FLAVORED PIES" and opened it to read the actual title.

"PACTS PERFORMED ON INANIMATE OBJECTS and OTHER PEOPLE"

Fuck, Kaiba thought sullenly, resigning himself to read more about his own crimes. Atem would lose his shit if he knew about this. Hell, Seth would lose his shit too. Everyone would. That's why these books were backwards and vertical, and titled ridiculous things like, "bananas".

Ch 1 - pacts on items like utensils and weapons

Ch 2 - pacts on items other people own and use frequently

Ch 3 - pacts on stolen items

Ch 4 - pacts on lost items

Ch 5 - pacts on other people without their knowledge

"Which I did on Gozaburo…" Kaiba muttered under his breath, still reading while feeling slightly nauseous.

Ch 6 - pacts on sleeping people

Ch 7 - pacts on unconscious people

Did my parents know I was doing this shit?! Kaiba grit his teeth and decided to start with the first chapter, because the last time he read something out of order, he'd managed to confuse himself because there was too much information.

"PACTS ON FATHER'S SPOON / MOTHER'S MIRRIOR/ MY SPEAR / SETH'S SPEAR

Father's spoon: the exact words, "I will always slip out of your hand on first use. I'm forever shiny but no one can keep me clean other than you."

Result: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA father keeps dropping his spoon at mealtimes and mother keeps giving him looks. It WORKS so much that the medic came to look at Father thinking he was ILL for dropping this spoon every mealtime HAhahahHAhahaha"

I'm the fucking worst, Kaiba pressed two fingers to his temple and kept reading.

"Mother's mirror: the exact words, "I will show you the prettiest version of you, and any impending illness will be shown as an aura. I will only function as your mirror and show everyone else an ugly reflection."

Result: IT WORKS but I had to lie and tell mother I took her mirror to an enchantress (Elder Iota had to cover for me, and thankfully that old hag sure can lie through her fangs) She made me break the pact on the mirror and even threatened to come back into the kingdom as "the enchantress" to check if I broke it or not. She keeps telling me to stop calling her "Elder Iota". Whatever. That's her name. She's not any less of an Elder because she was removed from the Council. Stupids.

My Spear: the exact words, "I will always return to your hand faithfully no matter what. I will face any type of destruction and stay razor sharp, coming back to your hand when called because we are companions."

Result: YESSSS IT WORKS, uh, but its super dangerous because I threw the spear into a fissure, and then swam home, called for it, and it came zipping out! Nearly killing some people as it came back to me! So anytime im calling for it back, I need to make sure im ALONE or at least somewhere far away from people! Even humans! It came back with a fish on it one time. Oops.

Seth's Spear: the exact words, "I will always return to your hand faithfully no matter what. I will win any fight for you when your life depends on it. I can spear food with a single throw and I can face any type of destruction because I am your loyal spear."

Result: Seth is now attached to his spear at the hip. He even sleeps with it cuz he swears it 'listens to his mind' and Mother signed him up for extra Warrior Training Sessions, and now Seth leaves me alone a lot more. SUCCESS mahhahaha"

Kaiba let his breath out slowly and felt his head spin. These pacts were more like curses!

He'd read up on pacts as much as he could while in Atem's kingdom, but it was more like a giant book of What Not to Do, and here in this diary, he'd done just about every single illegal thing there was to try.

Even performing it on unconscious people! There had to be a limit on this type of shit, but apparently there wasn't. Flipping to the very back of the book, Kaiba read a sentence that made the hair on his arms stand up on end.

"No one can stop me because I've unlocked the deepest secrets of Pact Making. Not even Warriors three times my age can figure it out. I've finally done it. I've written it all down in the journal titled "Shore Adventures & Goals."

The water warmed uncomfortably around him again, and Kaiba reached for the last book, noticing that the page colors were different, meaning there was a shortage of kelp, and that this was a dyed blend of seaweed.
Shortages in a Kingdom was never good news.

His worst fears were confirmed when the title of the diary was, 'WE ARE AT WAR!'

Fuck….

He flipped to the first page and the handwriting was jumbled together, no longer neat. Everything written was rushed and were in odd scribbles, sometimes even in regular Mer.
He'd been so pressed for time he hadn't even written in Backwards Vertical anymore.

"CHECKLIST:

-cast a protection pact on ALL my journals, AND I made Seth SWEAR to protect this information. I bound him by pact without him knowing, so if anything happens, at least these will be safe with him!

-cast another protection on top of Seth on top of the ones I already had. Same on mother and father

- cast a protection around our hemisphere, but don't think it'll work since a MISSILE?! Came down into our LIRBARY?! Im so MAD! It affected the steps to my shrine that I worked so hard to build!

-enlisted more guardians to help swim Seth out of here in case he can't fight as well as me (cuz I know he can't, and if he dies, I die)

- cast a pact on my hair. Every time I cut it, I revert back to full strength as if it's a full moon."

"WHAT?!" Kaiba cried, and he felt the walls of his room shake, nearly shattering the glass. Fuck. Time to cast a protection pact on the glass to make sure he never broke with a scream.

He went back to reading, ignoring the shadow of the guard by the door checking in on him.

"- prayed 8 hours at the shrine before it crumbled. God has heard me.
I'm doing his bidding.
God also wants to talk to me about all the bad pacts I made, and I might have to compromise and undo some of them to gain his favor again."

"I'm talking like I know God. Am I insane?!" Kaiba whispered, holding the book over his head and fervently reading as fast as he could, flipping the pages like a man possessed.

"Happenings:

Im FURIOUS. A human man has tried to fish us out of the ocean with a huge net attached to a boat. He also has guns and was shooting at people from the surface. A few were injured, no one died thankfully.
He now knows we are here.
Our location is not safe.
Mother and Father are not safe.
I will find this man and hurt him.
Mother evacuated with Seth and all our people to the neighboring Queendom of Almeta. She's basically mom's moonbathing friend, I've seen her like eight times maybe. Only warriors are left + me + father + Elder Iota (not that anyone knows) I tried to get her to go with Seth and Mother, and she's annoyingly stubborn and said 'no'.

I managed to convince Dad (cool shore version name of father) to let me become a fully fledged warrior. I'll now FINALLY get to CUT MY HAIR for REAL and see if my pact works (bet it does. All the others did, no reason this one shouldn't)
And mom won't know until she comes back (sorry mommm) (sorry seth, you wimp)

I hid a makeshift shrine on shore, so that's my closest point to God. I'll talk to Him there, and a few moons ago, he even told me this man was coming, and I didn't believe him."

Kaiba shut his eyes and rested the book on his forehead, his heart thumping in his chest. Did he skip any parts? No. He'd read all of it.
So, at some point at the end of the last diary, "God" had talked to him.

Opening his eyes, Kaiba flipped to the next page.
There was one sentence written eerily in the middle.

"Pact-making is God's Will."

The next page was another sentence alone in the middle of the page.

"Any Merperson can make God's Will happen, but those who are His Direct Descendants have the most power."

The next page was a paragraph in the middle.

"I am the great-great-great grandson of Helios.
Father is his great-great grandson.
And Grandpapi, who I barely remember, is his great-grandson.
God made me swear not to misuse my power on land.
I swore I wouldn't, but told him I'm going up to hurt a man who has killed many merpeople.
God did not answer me after I said that."

Kaiba frowned and turned the page.

"We are the Gods of the Ocean.
We must restore balance.
I will restore balance."

The next page was blank.
The next few pages were blank too.
He'd left for shore.

Sighing heavily, Kaiba closed his eyes and rested the book down on his chest, his head spinning with exhaustion and confusion as he slowly processed all that he had read.

Maybe when he woke up, he'd realize it had all been a bad dream.


Author's note:

a whole mini backstory on Kaiba's underwater life (part 1 of 5) :OO let me know what you think!

-ugli