Notes: I leave the customary reminder that I localize Domino City to America, as per the YGO Classic dub.

Chapter Ten

It didn't take long for Kalin to vanish among the evergreens and be lost in a shadowy world where the trees were so tall the sky wasn't visible. He stopped and looked around, heart pounding. "Where are you?" he demanded. "What did you mean about what you said to me?!"

After a moment there was a flash of light and a being with upswept purple hair and a strapless dress made of leaves was standing on a nearby tree branch, looking at him. "I meant exactly what I said," she told him.

Kalin jumped a mile. "But that isn't enough," he said. "I need to know more! We already know someone's out to get us. It sounds like you know more than that."

"That castle is filled with many dangerous objects," she said. "Your enemy might choose to use any one of them against you."

"Do you know why he went after Radley yesterday?" Kalin asked.

"Radley wasn't the only one attacked yesterday," she noted. "So were you, and most of the others."

"Yes, but what happened to Radley actually could have killed him." Kalin's voice darkened.

"Without your leader, all of you lose all heart," she said.

"We wouldn't until we'd catch the killer." Kalin set the projector down. "If you know anything . . . !"

"I've seen how cruel and desperate he is," she said. "You've seen some of that yourself, in how he tried to poison Radley and disguised himself as Billy to attack Marty."

"You know all about all of us, don't you?" Kalin frowned. "Do you know who our enemy is?"

"I don't know his real name or appearance," she said. "He's a skilled actor. Every time I see him, he looks different. But I always sense the same evil from him and know it's him."

"And are you the one who cursed the forest?" It was an inane question, but in light of everything, Kalin couldn't help but ask. This person did look like some common children's storybook versions of fairies. She was human-sized, but maybe real fairies were.

If there were real fairies.

She gave him a wry, amused look. "Actually, it was Marty's ancestor who cursed the forest," she said. "The story's been upsidedown and backwards for centuries. Of course he was never going to tell it right, so he pretended I did it instead. Why would I want to curse my home?"

Kalin grunted. "So if that's true, how do I know you're not our enemy too, blaming Marty for what his ancestor did?"

"It's hardly his fault." She finally jumped out of the tree and calmly floated to the ground. The gossamer wings on her back completed the fairy image. "His ancestor was greedy. We used to be friends, but then he had a look in my divining pool and saw the future. Realizing dyne was going to become important, he wanted to cast a spell to take the dyne out of the castle and then make the castle into a common kind of stone instead. Instead, it backfired and turned the forest into a dangerous place. I warned him that would happen!" Her eyes flickered in annoyance. "My staff can't be used for selfish plans. If someone tries, everything goes wrong!"

"So what will break the curse?" Kalin still wasn't sure he wasn't being fooled. But he had definitely heard words in his mind when this fairy hadn't been right next to him, so it seemed something supernatural was certainly going on. And Radley was right; when other supernatural beings existed, were fairies really much of a jump from that?

"All of Marty's family has been greedy," she said. "If he isn't, and leaves without harming the castle, that should end the curse."

"What about this pool?" Kalin's eyes bored into hers. "You said it shows the future. Did you see our future? Do you know something horrible is going to happen?"

"The problem is, what it shows isn't always set in stone," she said. "Many times, it doesn't happen at all. But . . . yes, I saw something horrible."

Kalin reached out, gripping her shoulders. "Tell me!"

She was unfazed by his action. Instead, she regarded him with sympathy. "I saw blood . . . all over the castle floor. I saw Radley laying in it . . . dead, probably, but I'm not sure. It wasn't a clear image and I couldn't see what had happened to him. But . . . I saw you in hysterics. You couldn't deal with it."

Kalin snarled. "I've lost him twice! I won't lose him here!" He gripped tighter. "How do I know any of this is real?! You could be an actress, just a companion of the man who's trying to trick us!"

"I could be," she admitted. "But could an actress do this?" She reached up with one hand, placing it on Kalin's forehead. In an instant the forest fell away and he saw the scene that she had described—Radley laying on the floor in his own blood and Kalin reaching for him, begging him to wake up, to be alright. . . .

Kalin let go of the fairy and fell back, breathing heavily. The scene disappeared, replaced by the forest once again.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't going to show you that."

Kalin trembled, shaking his head. "How . . . how do I stop it?" he rasped. "Especially when I don't even know what happened?!"

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe it won't happen. Or maybe you can stop it. Be very careful. Danger could be anywhere, in any form. This man could pretend to be any of your friends."

"We already thought of that," Kalin said. "We have a code to identify each other."

"Kalin!" Suddenly Radley came crashing through the trees and brush, worry filling his eyes. "What's going on?!" He came to a stop next to Kalin, staring at the fairy.

She just gave him a sad look. "I was just warning Kalin to be very careful. That warning extends to you as well." She stepped back.

"Wait!" Kalin cried. "Marty's great-uncle kept writing in his diaries about 'them' being out to get him. Who did he mean?"

"He probably meant the fae," she said. "He believed the twisted version of the story and thought we were the villains."

Radley stared. "You're really a fairy?"

"Not what you expected, am I?" she quipped. "Yes, I am, and if you doubt it, Kalin can confirm it now."

Radley turned to look questioningly at Kalin, who just nodded in response. He looked back to the fairy. "Do you know if he was murdered?"

"I don't know," she said. "And no, I didn't see his death in my pool." She moved back farther. "I should go, and so should you. The forest really isn't safe until the curse is broken. The fae can navigate it because we're so attuned with it, but the evil preys especially on the mortals who are pure of heart."

Kalin snorted. "That hardly applies to me."

"You might be surprised," she said. Then, in a flash, she was gone.

Radley immediately turned back to his friend. "Okay, what was all of that?" he demanded, folding his arms. "You had to know I'd follow you back in."

"I had to come," Kalin said. "I heard a voice in my head telling me I might lose what I hold most dear. I found her and she told me about a horrible vision she saw in some mystical pool of hers. . . . Then she showed it to me." He turned away, clenching his fists. "You were laying dead. . . . Blood was everywhere. I couldn't deal with it. . . ."

"Hey." Radley laid his hands on Kalin's shoulders. "That's not going to happen."

"Maybe it will, if it's Fate," Kalin bemoaned.

"If everything is fated to be, then you were fated to find out about it ahead of time," Radley said. "That means we have a chance to stop it."

"I want to believe that," Kalin said. "I know I'll move Heaven and Hell to stop it from happening."

Radley gave him a sad smile. "I know you will too. I couldn't be in better hands. So let's go back to the others and try to figure out what's going on, okay?"

Kalin nodded. "Alright." He picked up his projector again.

Radley drew an arm around his shoulders as they started to walk. "And tell me everything that happened in this wild meeting we just had."

xxxx

Scotch didn't know what to think. He and Biff had stopped first at the local law enforcement office to try to find out about the license number of the truck. That had gone nowhere, as the number was unregistered. Next, they had been treated to some delicious desserts as they visited the various businesses and shops in the village, and they had also enjoyed picking up souvenirs in a little gift shop, but picking up useful information was proving difficult to come by. There were certainly rumors about the castle and its residents, but there wasn't really info concrete enough to help.

"I think it's time to call it a day and go back," Biff told him as they left the gift shop. It had been an intriguing place with Scottish clothing and novelty items such as keychains, mugs, and plush animals dressed as Scots. Scotch had got a couple of the latter.

He took out his phone to check on the others. "Billy thinks he's made some progress on the diaries!" he chirped.

"Well, at least somebody's getting some serious stuff done," Biff grunted.

"Aww, come on, this was fun," Scotch protested.

"Yeah, it kind of was, but we were supposed to be helping solve the case too," Biff said. "Wehaven't got much of anywhere." He sighed, leaning back against his motorcycle with folded arms.

"We found out everyone thinks the place is weird?" Scotch offered. "And they all seem to believe the curse story."

"Those things aren't much of a surprise," Biff said. "That's pretty common around here."

"They all seem to have their own ideas on what fairies are like, though," Scotch said. "Good, bad, mean, mischievous, nice. . . ." He shook his head. "It's so confusing!"

"They're probably all of that, if they're real," Biff said. "Just like with people."

"Yeah, I guess," Scotch frowned.

"Let's just go back," Biff sighed.

Scotch was agreeable, and soon they were riding back up the scenic path to the castle. They arrived about the same time Radley and the others were bringing the projectors up to the doors.

"What are these?" Scotch asked.

"They have the giant trees in them," Radley told him. He balanced his while reaching to press the button to demonstrate.

Both Scotch and Biff jumped a mile. Biff still looked alarmed, but Scotch's eyes quickly lit up. "That is . . . epic!" he gushed. "It looks so real!"

"Yeah, and somebody either bought or lifted this from Seto Kaiba," Radley said. "I'm going to call him and find out which."

"What did you learn about the license number?" Kalin asked. He sounded strained and clipped. Something had happened that had upset him.

"Nada," Scotch said. "It was unregistered! Can you believe that?!"

Virgil scowled. "So are the plates fake or something?!"

"I guess?" Scotch shrugged. "I don't know. It was weird and annoying!"

"And most of what we heard about the castle and stuff was weird gossip," Biff said. "And they all believe the place is cursed."

"No surprise there," Virgil grunted.

Radley sighed. "Well, Billy texted about having some luck with the diaries, so let's get inside and find out what."

"Yeah," Biff said. "He better have had more luck than we did!"

The group trouped inside and set the projectors down by the wall, where they wouldn't be in the way. Billy and Clint emerged from one of the countless rooms, having seen them coming.

"Hi, guys," Radley greeted. "So, what'd you find?"

"Well, I'm not positive this is how it's supposed to go, but I found that if I took certain letters from certain lines on each page, they spell ominous messages to Marty," Billy said.

"What?" Marty stared. "You mean, they're literally addressed to me?"

"Yeah, exactly." Billy held up the piece of paper where he'd been writing things down. "All of the volumes' messages start out the same way, with 'Hello, Marty.' Then for the rest of the diary, off and on he'll tell you things in this code."

Marty took the paper and scanned over it in disbelief. "He's talking about where some of the secret passages are and where they go," he told the others. "And about other things in the castle."

"The weirdest one is where he warns you against messing with the weapons we saw in the back hall," Clint spoke up. "I mean, they're weapons! Why would anybody with sense mess with them?!"

Marty studied the wording with a frown. "'Don't touch the weapons. Some of them are not what they seem.' Huh?"

Billy shrugged. "I ran over it more than once and that's the translation I got."

"There was that loco legend Jarvis told us about where that one sword was supposedly the inspiration for Snow White," Radley remembered. "I guess he doesn't elaborate on that?"

"No, he went on talking about other stuff then," Billy said.

Marty nodded. "Well, thanks for this," he said. "Knowing about the secret passages will be a big help."

"Yeah," Radley smiled. "Thanks, Billy. I'll try to work on some of this too. I'm guessing there's still a lot of diaries left?"

"Oh yeah," Billy said. "I can keep going, but if you pitch in, that'd be great."

"I can call Kaiba," Kalin volunteered.

"Cool." Radley smiled at him. "Okay, you get on that and Billy and I'll work more on the diaries."

"And I'd still like an autopsy on my uncle's body, so I'm going to go to the village and see what I can find out about setting that in motion," Marty said.

"I'll come with you," Clint offered.

"That'd be great. Thanks," Marty smiled at him.

"Maybe Biff and I could check out some of the passages?" Scotch said hopefully.

Biff groaned. "Scotch . . ."

Radley chuckled and shook his head. "How about we don't do that for right now? There's other things we've gotta get done, and you guys keep stumbling into trouble."

"Aww." Scotch sighed. "Okay."

Biff relaxed. "Is there anything we could do to help?" he asked.

"How about you write down everything you heard in the village?" Radley suggested. "Who knows, maybe something in all that gossip will actually be important."

"Works for me," Scotch shrugged.

Kalin stepped away from them and pulled out his phone. Not wanting to go through all the hoops of calling KaibaCorp directly, he instead dialed Seto's private line.

After a moment there was a click and the typical, gruff greeting. "Kaiba."

Thirty years later and he still couldn't say Hello.

"Hello," Kalin said. "We have a problem that apparently involves your company."

Seto grunted. "What kind of problem?" The news definitely didn't please him, and Kalin certainly didn't blame him.

"Someone's terrorizing us with projectors from KaibaCorp," Kalin said. "They show images of trees walking. They look professional grade."

"We only sell professional grade projectors to businesses," Seto said. "But none of ours show something as ridiculous as walking trees! Whoever bought them must have programmed that themselves."

Kalin frowned. "Have you had any thefts lately?"

"No. We've tightened security after the Bennett Ranch fiasco," Seto told him.

"Then we'll need a list of everyone you've sold projectors to in the last . . . let's try several months," Kalin said.

"Show me what model it is first," Seto said.

Kalin turned on the phone's holographic feature to allow Seto to see the projectors lined up against the wall.

Seto glowered at them. "Those look like models from two or three years ago. Let me see the model number."

Kalin walked over closer and turned the projector around until the number was visible.

Seto scowled. "There was a theft of some projectors three years ago, all with that model number. We never heard any more about them. Now they turn up in . . . where are you, anyway? That doesn't look like Satisfaction Town."

"We're in Scotland," Kalin said flatly. "It's a long story."

"What are my projectors doing in Scotland?!" Seto demanded.

"They've been scaring all the superstitious people into thinking the forest is cursed with walking trees," Kalin said.

Seto looked scandalized at the very thought of KaibaCorp technology being degraded in such a manner. "Even though it's been three years and that model is no longer in production, KaibaCorp wants them back," he declared. "Will you be coming back soon?"

"Hopefully," Kalin said. "If we can, we'll load them on the plane. But you'll need to have someone meet us at the airport to take them."

"Done," Seto said. "Just let me know when your flight is."

"When was this theft?" Kalin asked. "We'll try to find out if any of the principles in this case were around KaibaCorp then."

"It was almost exactly three years ago, in October," Seto replied. "When they never turned up, we assumed either someone took them for a Halloween party or that they were sold on the black market. We did extensive questioning of people in the Satellite at the time."

"I don't remember that," Kalin said.

"You were probably dead at the time," Seto said. "Or undead, whatever you want to call it."

Kalin grimaced. Seto still wasn't good at tact, especially when it came to the supernatural. "I'll let you know what we find out," he said, and hung up.

Radley looked over. "What is it?"

"We need to find out if anyone involved with this case was in America three years ago," Kalin said. "That's when these projectors were stolen from KaibaCorp."

Radley looked overwhelmed. "Oh brother."

"No kidding." Kalin shoved his phone back in his pocket. "Hopefully the servants will cooperate."

Marty went over to them. "When was this?" he asked.

"October," Kalin said.

Marty rocked back. "My great-uncle visited my parents then. I found out about it after Malcolm was arrested and communication was open again."

Kalin quirked an eyebrow. "Would he have stolen the projectors himself and put them in the forest?"

"I don't think so," Marty said. "I mean, I can't imagine why he would."

"I guess you wouldn't know if any servants came with him," Radley said.

"I could call my parents and see if they remember," Marty said.

"Do that," Kalin said.

Radley looked to Kalin in concern when Marty stepped aside to call. "Are you okay, Bro?" he asked. "You're on edge."

Kalin grunted. "I'm fine."

"Then it's not about what the fairy said," Radley said. Kalin wouldn't say he was fine if it was that.

"Seto Kaiba wasn't the most pleasant person to talk to," Kalin said.

"Oh." Radley sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have called him."

"It's nothing," Kalin said. "Just bad memories being brought up."

"That's not an itty-bitty thing when it comes to us," Radley said. "We've had some crazy times, to say the least."

"I know," Kalin said.

Marty came back over to them, looking bewildered as he held his phone in one hand.

"What is it?" Radley asked. "Did they know anything?"

"They said that the only person who came out with my uncle was Jarvis," Marty said.

Kalin grunted. "He's been acting strange."

"Yeah, but he's also been hurt," Marty countered.

"If he's involved, maybe he has a partner?" Radley mused.

"Let's go find him," Kalin growled. "He's supposed to still be resting."

He led his friends upstairs to Jarvis's room. But when they got there, the bed was unmade and empty. A quick search showed that Jarvis was not in the connecting bathroom.

Radley threw up his hands in irritation. "Why am I not surprised?" he scowled.

Marty leaned against the doorframe, frustrated too. "So now we have to wonder if he left on his own or if someone dragged him," he scowled.

Footsteps behind them brought them all around with a start. An elderly man was standing there, looking resigned as well as concerned.

"I may be able to explain some things, lads," he greeted.

Marty went absolutely sheet-white. "Great-Uncle John!?"

". . . So, just to be sure I have all this down right, isn't he supposed to be dead?" Radley said with growing anger. "And isn't his death the whole reason we're here and why everybody's getting hurt?!"

"Aye," was the tired reply. "Come along and I'll explain."

Kalin's eyes darkened. "Do you really think we're going to fall for this? We know our enemy is an actor who could disguise himself as any of us."

"Aye, that's true, but I am not he," the man insisted.

"Kalin's right," Marty said. "We can't believe you."

"Perhaps if you look at the body in the crypt, you will," John answered. "You wanted an autopsy done. When the casket is opened, everyone will find a wax dummy of me."

"Fair enough," Radley said. "Although you could have moved the body so we'd think you're Marty's uncle."

"You will be hard sells, won't you?" John remarked. "That's good. Marty's chosen smart friends." He stepped closer. "The only way I really know how to prove my identity is for you to inspect me and find that there is no make-up or mask."

Marty hesitantly reached out, feeling across the man's face. "You're right," he said in disbelief. "But . . . why?! Why would you fake your own death?!"

John leaned in, the fear in his eyes completely genuine. "Because, Laddie, they're still after me!" he exclaimed.

"Just who is 'they'?!" Radley finally cried. "And why would you come back here if you're really still in danger?!"

"I never expected things to go so far, with all of you bein' hurt too," John said. "That just wasn't acceptable. I had to come back to try to protect all of you! As for 'they' . . . they have Jarvis and plan to torture him until he tells them what they're sure he knows. You see . . ." He drew a deep breath. "I thought I'd found a way to take the dyne out of the castle without hurting it. They'll kill for a formula like that!"

Radley snorted. "Oh, now that is completely loco. What are you, an alchemist?"

"Something like that," John said. "But note I said I 'thought' I found a way. Of course it didn't really work. But they won't believe anyone who tries to tell them that! I thought faking my death would make it stop, but it only convinced them I must have told someone else before I 'died.'"

"Okay." Radley frowned. "This much I can believe. You say they've got Jarvis. Where?"

"In the secret passageway under the crypt," John said. "They're planning to take him out through the church and go into the woods. They're hopin' the threat of the trees will make him talk."

"We already took all their projectors away," Radley said. "There won't be any trees."

"Not any fake ones," John agreed. "But there'll be the real ones!"

"Cursed trees are just a teeny-tiny bit too out there for me," Radley said. "I've gotta draw the line somewhere."

"Then don't believe it!" John retorted. "Just please help me save Jarvis and catch these hooligans!"

Radley looked to Kalin and Marty. "Now, that," he said as they shared a nod, "we can get behind."