Lessons
Mahad led the way to a room which resembled a wide open space with two platforms, one to each side. Both platforms were very long and had stairs leading up to them from both ends, and the images on the walls were clearly ones resembling the Duel Monsters Yuugi knew quite well. In a duel which was going to be equivalent to a Shadow Realm duel, he wasn't exactly sure what the rules were, so looked at Atem, who was leading the way to one platform, even as Mahad headed for the other.
"Atem, what are the rules I have to follow in a duel?" the smaller boy asked in quiet concern, voice just loud enough for the Prince to hear. Or so he thought.
"There's no real 'order' to the duel, but it's common courtesy in this setting to wait until both of you have summoned a monster before attacking," Atem replied. "You can call on almost any being you know, assuming you know how, but there's no tribute levels—monsters don't have 'levels' in this setting. Pay attention to how tired you are, because the more tired you get, the more damage your soul has taken, and you aren't fighting to kill each other. Most of what happens here is based on your own will, from Kuribo's ability to multiply to your own ability to call a monster. Also, you may find stone tablets appearing if you call on a monster we have one for, so don't panic. And don't call on the God Beasts. Even I'm not technically supposed to be able to yet."
The Prince pointed out to Yuugi where he should stand, and took up a position behind and off to one side of where the smaller boy was. Basically, far enough to not be included in the battle, but with a good view, all the same, as he watched over his nearly identical friend. Mahad took his position on the opposite platform, directly across from Yuugi, and the boy noted the position was marked with patterns which weren't on the rest of the platform.
"What are you doing, and who is that boy?" a new—but very familiar—voice asked, clearly frowning. When the three looked towards the door, they saw—Kaiba Seto, but in deep blue and white priest's robes and with a tall hat on his head. His eyes were dark blue, and his hair brown, but seemed to be longer than Kaiba's, hidden under his hat. He also seemed to be eighteen or nineteen to Kaiba's sixteen, almost seventeen.
"That boy is the one who came through the portal," the man beside him replied, and his voice was the one which had reminded Yuugi of Shadi before. The man even looked like Shadi, just dressed in priest's attire in white and with a bald head—and he was older, both than Shadi and than Seto, Atem, and Yuugi.
"High Priest Set, Priest Shada, Priest Mahad asked Yuugi for a duel, and Yuugi agreed," Atem said to the two, behaving in full royal capacity. What that allowed him to do was 'introduce' the two to Yuugi so the smaller didn't call them by the wrong names. "Would you like to watch?"
"Wouldn't it be dangerous for a boy with so little power to hold a battle with Priest Mahad?" Shada asked in concern.
"That boy has more energy than you, me, and Mahad combined, Shada," High Priest Set replied in mild amusement, his tone a bit dry. "Hence the duel—Mahad wants to know if he's really sensing so much power coming from such a small body."
"That would be correct," Mahad agreed with a wry grin at them as Atem snickered. "How you knew it so easily, I'm not certain, but it's true the boy's initial appearance is rather deceiving." He then looked at Yuugi and asked, "Will you begin with Kuribo or call another to battle with?"
"Um...I think I'll use a different one," the smaller boy answered, then looked at the Kuribo on his shoulder. "Stay with Atem, okay, Kuribo?"
The little ball of fur made a 'kuri' sound, then flew over to Atem's shoulder as the Prince said, "Don't worry, Mahad's chances of hurting Yuugi are slim, Kuribo."
"Thank you for your confidence, My Prince," Mahad replied in dry amusement.
Atem laughed and said, "I told you, Yuugi can beat me. Even my chances of hurting him are pretty slim."
"Then again, you won't try, either," the Priest grinned. "Yuugi, you summon, first. Unless you have objections?"
"Oh, that's fine," the smallest teen agreed, then paused as he ran through a list of monsters in his mind. "Mystical Elf!" Yuugi finally decided as he focussed on her. She appeared on the lower level, standing calmly as the others looked startled.
Mahad gave a bit of a snort and asked, "Is that all?" He then paused for a moment before calling, "Komori Dragon, appear and attack the Mystical Elf!"
The small dragon had much higher attack than the Elf, Yuugi knew, so thought fast and called, "Sword and Shield!"
Below them, the Dragon collided with the Elf—and was destroyed, making the Priests all stare in shock as Atem smirked.
"I told you he wasn't weak," the Prince called to Mahad.
"Hyozanryu! Attack!" Mahad cried, and the mostly white dragon appeared to attack the Elf. That time, the Elf was destroyed.
"Red Eyes Black Dragon!" Yuugi called, thinking of Jonouchi. "Attack Hyozanryu!" The two dragons struggled for a minute, then the white one was destroyed.
"Seiyaryu, I grant you the power of a Dragon Orb! Attack the Red Eyes Black Dragon!" the Priest across from the smaller teen called.
Thinking fast, Yuugi knew he couldn't call the Blue Eyes White Dragon—but he could use the Meteor Dragon or the Summoned Skull to make a stronger dragon. "Meteor Dragon! Red Eyes, Meteor Dragon, fusion! Emerge, Meteor Black Dragon!"
As the red and black dragon appeared and began fusing with the Red Eyes, everyone stared at him in complete shock, even Atem. As Seiyaryu struck the fused Dragon Yuugi had just created, it attacked back, countering the rather pink dragon—and destroying it with ease. A long, stunned silence followed the end of the attack, and Mahad didn't summon another monster, making the smaller boy frown in puzzlement.
"Is something wrong?" Yuugi asked the man in concern.
"...How is that possible? How can he create a fusion without the Scales in hand, and how could he even know the pieces to fuse or what they create?" Shada gasped. Yuugi looked over at him. "Even Karim doesn't know that fusion!"
"Huh?" the smaller boy asked. "I just did it. I know most of the Fusions—there's several dozen, all-told, and I know how 'fusion' itself works, so why shouldn't I be able to?" He then turned to look at Atem and said accusingly, "You didn't tell me not to!"
"I had no idea you'd think of doing it, or even be able to do it if you did," Atem replied dryly, still looking a bit surprised. "No one here can do that."
Pausing for a minute, the smaller boy met the taller's gaze, then gave a grin and asked, "Is it that you can't, or is it that you think you can't? I think you can, Atem, and probably the High Priest, too. Maybe all the holders of the Millennium Items can."
"Don't suggest such a thing to Uncle Akhenaten, or he'll use it to kill you," the Prince told Yuugi, then shrugged and looked across the room to Mahad. "I think you'd better call it quits, Mahad. That fusion should give you a pretty good idea of Yuugi's power."
"...Yes, it does," Mahad sighed. "And I think we five should keep this to ourselves."
"That would be for the best," Set agreed with a sigh. "Forget Priest Akhenaten, the Pharaoh himself will take the boy as a threat if he has such power. I know you don't like to hear such things, Your Highness, but while your father is a good man, even you recognize how much of a threat such power is to your line. If those powers get to be known, particularly if they reach the common people, it may well be you and your father are forced off the Throne in favor of Yuugi."
"But I don't want the Throne," the smaller boy replied.
"Angry mobs won't give you much choice, Yuugi," Atem replied, his expression and stance a combination of wary and weary. "I know you, but they don't, nor would they care. I can see High Priest Set's point, both about my own father and the people. It's best for you to keep the full extent of your power hidden."
"...Okay, I'll be careful. But, you'd better tell me now what other things I should only be able to do with the appropriate tools," Yuugi agreed.
"I'll do that," Set suddenly offered, making everyone turn to look at him in surprise. "I want Yuugi for lessons every morning, regardless, since I noticed one fatal flaw in his power no one else did. He's incredibly powerful, yes, but it just makes these lessons all the more required to prevent harm." His eyes then went to Atem. "Unless you plan on being obsessive about your...friend, Your Highness?"
"I have no objection to it, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean, so I'll attend the first meeting tomorrow to hear the whole explanation, myself. If you really do have cause for concern, by all means, teach him," Atem agreed, and the High Priest smirked.
"Come to my chambers after the morning meal, then. I'll be waiting," Set replied, then looked at Yuugi and said, "Well done in your duel, by the way." With that, he left the room.
"...There was a flaw in anything the boy did?" Shada asked in surprise, still looking at the door, even though it had already closed behind Set.
"I wonder about that as well, but the High Priest was raised in the territory where Old Zahur held power," Mahad commented.
"Ah, that would explain it," Shada agreed.
"Who's Old Zahur?" Yuugi asked Atem, even as Kuribo flew back over to Yuugi's shoulder to cling to it.
"He was a Priest serving under my father until about two years ago, and his greatest strength was to see energy flows—and any flaws in them," the Prince explained. "Set came from the central temple in Zahur's territory, so he was probably trained personally by the Priest to have such a skill."
"I see," the smaller boy agreed. "So...what do we do for the rest of the day?"
"I have a tactical lesson with my father and the General after the evening meal, and we only have a candle-mark or two until then." He leaned close to Yuugi's ear and whispered, "A candle-mark is roughly an hour, by your terms." He straightened again and went on, "Once I'm done my lesson, it'll pretty much be time for bed, so you may as well spend the evening resting. As for now until supper...how about a tour of the Palace?"
"Sure, that would be great!" Yuugi agreed with a grin—and both Mahad and Shada chuckled at the boy's cheer and excitement. They were starting to legitimately like the boy, and to feel he was good for the Palace and the young Prince.
PA-HPS-YM-SK
After a mostly uneventful night where the only 'entertainment' was for Atem to introduce Yuugi to his father, it was a relief to go visit Set. Not that Atem's father had any issue with Yuugi—he actually didn't seem to care about the boy's presence—but the man was obviously a severe, strict person, and Yuugi felt a bit uncomfortable around him. Rather, the man behaved like Yuugi wasn't even worth acknowledging. Atem told his smaller friend it was actually a good sign, since it meant his father had no objection to the boy being in the Palace. As such, Yuugi now had to dress like Atem, but without all the regalia.
Regardless, after the morning meal, he was happy to be able to go for the walk over to the Temple of Ra on the Palace grounds. The Prince led the way into the Temple, down a few corridors, and to a large door near the end of the hall, which he knocked on before pushing open. The room they entered had two doors off either side of it, and the far wall was entirely windows, all of which were open. Some cushions were clustered in one corner of the room, but there was also a fair-sized table in the room, surrounded by several square stools, and bookshelves lined all the free space on every wall. Many were filled with books and scrolls, mainly the latter, but some had objects, mostly religious or magical, on them.
The door to the right-hand side of the room opened and Set stepped out from there, closing the door behind him. His hat and cape weren't on, showing his long hair in a ponytail, and he carried a goblet with him, while there was a pail of water in his other hand. The pail, he set down beside the table, then put the goblet down in front of him and invited the two visitors to, "Sit."
Once the two had done so, Atem asked, "So, what's the problem, High Priest Set?"
"Simply put, it's clear that, even if you showed Yuugi how to summon, you didn't teach him, not how to do it, or how to control his energy flow," Set answered, and Kuribo, on Yuugi's shoulder again, gave a questioning 'kuri'.
Atem frowned and Yuugi blinked in surprise, but the Prince asked, "How can you say showing someone how to do something isn't teaching them?"
"But Atem...you didn't teach me," Yuugi answered dryly, making Atem look at him in puzzlement. "The first few times I did it, you had summoned the monster, then handed it to me to support. After that, from the Shadow Duels, I did it myself out of necessity." He then looked at Set and asked, "But why is that so dangerous, exactly, High Priest?"
"Because your energy flow gets out of your control, and has kinks in it," Set replied, leaning back a bit and crossing his arms. "This comes from personal experience, from when I was still fairly young and didn't realize how dangerous my own abilities could be. My mother had brought in a container of clear liquid, so I thought it was just water and started using my power to lift some of it and shape it into a ball. But, my power shot out at a bad angle and the ball went flying, only to stop right above the burning lamp—and the ball caught fire. That shocked me so much the ball was able to slip through a kink in my energy flow—and fall to the floor, on a cloth mat. The fire spread from there. The only reason our whole house didn't burn down is because Priest Zahur himself was nearby, and caught me when I ran away from the fire. He put it out—and slapped me, then took me in for training so nothing like that would ever happen again."
"And you think Yuugi would be so careless?" Atem asked with a frown.
"It's not whether he would be or not, it's the fact that anything he does, he could lose control of as long as his energy flows are the way they are," the High Priest said.
After a long silence, Atem sighed and nodded. "Yes, you have a valid concern, given your own experience. Send him back to me when you're done, then."
"See you later, Atem," Yuugi said as the Prince rose. Atem gave a wave and left the room, closing the door behind him. Yuugi then looked back at the other teen and said, "I can see your point, too, High Priest. How do I start?"
Set waved one hand in a dismissing way and said, "Call me Set, not by my title. We start with the same activity from my story, but the difference is—this is only water, not oil or something equally flammable."
"But...I can't do that," the smaller boy stared.
"Yes, you can. Anyone who can summon can do this," Set replied dryly. "Just more proof you haven't had any training."
"Then why didn't Atem ever do it, or teach me how?"
"Probably, he either didn't think he needed to or he didn't realize normal people use it as a training exercise. As the Prince, he was forced to train and control his abilities from the time he could walk, but he didn't do it with simple tasks like this one. Frankly, I pity him the training he had to go through, but it means he probably just assumed you had the same training if you're strong enough to beat him."
"...Okay...so how do I do this, then?"
"Use the water in the goblet, and imagine something like a cup or ladle scooping the water out of it. From there, shape it into a ball. You can even imagine a shell, like of a ball, forcing it into such a shape. Once you know how the energy flows to do the task, you'll be able to make it lift and shape without imagining something else helping you."
At that point, the High Priest paused, and the water rose out of the goblet, shaped into a ball, then lowered itself back down into the goblet to fill it again.
"That...I felt that flow of energy..." Yuugi blinked in surprise, staring at the water.
"Good. You now know how to manipulate your energy to do the task," Set told him in amusement. "So, there's your example, now give it a try for yourself." He pushed the goblet across the table to sit closer to Yuugi.
With a nod, the smaller boy began trying to lift the water, even as Set just watched him quietly and calmly. To his surprise, the water actually had a reaction from the first, creating ripples or small droplets, which made Set blink in surprise. And Yuugi was already getting a headache from the effort he had to put in.
"What?" Yuugi asked the taller teen as he took a bit of a break.
"For someone doing this for the first time, you're a remarkably quick study. When I heard you've never done it before, I was fully expecting it to take a few days for you to get this much reaction," the High Priest answered in amusement. "I'm impressed. Keep working at it, and you may even be able to lift the water and start shaping it by the end of the lesson."
"Really?" Yuugi asked in surprise. When Set nodded, the smaller boy said, "I guess that's something else no one should know I did..."
"If anyone even asks, just say you had started your training in your homeland," Set replied shrewdly. "No one would question it, and your training with me would become self-explanatory as well—you're just trying to keep up with your lessons."
With a little chuckle, the smaller boy nodded, then went back to focussing on the water in the goblet. About an hour later, after Set made him stop and rest for several minutes, the water collectively began rising out of the goblet. After another break of several minutes, Yuugi lifted the water again, though only a few inches, and began to try shaping it. Since it was liquid, if he lost his grip on any one part of it, said part began bubbling out, or even broke and drained most of the water back into the cup. The High Priest laughed at the latter when it happened, teasing Yuugi about how 'proper' he was by keeping the water so cleanly in one place—namely, in the goblet.
Finally, after a third break, Yuugi lifted it and had it almost perfectly shaped—only for the ball of water to go flying and splatter all over the floor and wall. Problem: the wall was over ten feet away.
"Um..." Yuugi began to say, as he started to rise, eyes searching for something to clean up the water with.
"Sit down, Yuugi," Set told the boy in amusement.
"But I have to clean up the mess—"
A sigh cut Yuugi off, and Set told him, "It's water. This is the desert. How long do you think it's going to last there?" When Yuugi didn't answer right away, but a sudden understanding appeared in his eyes, the taller teen went on, "You don't need to clean it up, you need to understand what just happened. So, what was going on with your energy, and what did that feel like to you?"
Slowly sitting down again, Yuugi considered the question, staring off into space while he thought about it. "It felt like part of my energy snapped and lashed out like a whip...and before I knew it, the water was being pulled along with the whip."
"And right there is the problem," the older teen nodded.
"So what do I do to fix it, Set?" the boy asked.
"First, you have to keep your energy from pulling anything you're doing at the time with it when it snaps, then you have to keep it from snapping like that in the first place. And let me tell you, it isn't possible to skip the first part, since any time you get tired, your energy will start snapping, no matter how well-trained you are. The better your training and control, the less it'll snap, but it still will, so you have to be prepared to control the object your power is influencing, regardless."
"...And...Do I just keep practicing on the water?"
"Yes, but with a new rule once you're familiar with forming the ball." Set took the goblet off the table, filled it from the pail, and set it back down in front of Yuugi. "First, I need to see you form the ball of water again. Once I'm sure you're steady enough with it, I'll give you the new rule, since you'll have to be able to divide your attention to make the rule work."
"Okay," Yuugi agreed, working on forming the ball again.
Finally, after he'd managed to toss four more of them around the room, thankfully not hitting any of the books or scrolls in the process, Set told him, "This time, your extra rule is to watch for the snap of energy—and to send up some energy between your object and the part that's breaking, like a second layer to the energy holding the ball."
"Could I just give the ball two layers of energy from the start?"
"If things were so easy, we'd have a lot less training to do. No, if part of the energy snaps, all the energy in that area at the time snaps with it. As a result, its easier to create a second layer only once the break is happening, essentially to take over for the now broken flow."
"...I'll try, then," Yuugi agreed, concentrating on the water again.
The first three times, he couldn't stop the ball from flying—and one of them landed on a shelf where there were some objects, but Set didn't seem concerned about them getting wet. The fourth time, he managed to get it halfway, causing the water to splatter over both of them and the table. Set laughed outright at the small shower while Yuugi blushed. And finally, the High Priest called a halt to the practice.