Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Scales sliding against each other may have been quiet for a snake, but the massive red dragon was 'not' such a small creature. Thus the sound of its scales as it moved jarred Set back into the waking world, his eyes snapping open in alarm. He saw himself, older and unimaginatively paler while a host of people stood beyond him. Their backs towards him while focused on something on the table before them. For a moment he could only stare baffled before he blinked to clear his vision. And just like that the image was replaced with stone resting above him.
Slowly his eyes began to sweep about the room seeking out some clue as to where he was, as the dragon was gone. Yet with every passing moment the world came back to him as his eyes flickered from the stone ceiling to the walls about him. He was home, in the barracks he had been moved to once his training had started. Pushing himself up onto his elbows before he sat up fully, Set finished sitting up while straining to hear something outside his room.
Sunlight streamed from the open small window of the room, but beyond that... A frown crossed his face as his noted the empty beds around him. Set finally got to his feet, fighting off the wave of dizziness that rocked his world. While he tried to remember what happened after he fell asleep the day before, but there was only a gap of darkness that filled the space.
The world felt distant to him, as he finally could hear the distant sound of shouting. Far enough that he couldn't make out the words, but he could recognize the rhythm. Drills were being performed outside while Set was... was... Set looking around his bed, wondering if there was any sign what had been going on. A half dry rag was resting on Set's pillow where it apparently slipped off at some point. His skin was even darker from the sunburn he clearly got from the mad ride that they had taken.
By his bedside there was a pitcher of water and a cup that he gladly checked before pouring himself a drink.
"Sekhmet be praised, you're awake!" Asim's voice covered the sloppy sploshing of water as Set's hands began to shake.
Quickly Set put the pitcher down as he turned his attention towards his rival. He sat down quickly, hoping to hide the trembling in his hands. "Where is the Prince, Maha and Mana? How am I here?" He asked, as difficult as that was when he had to tear his tongue off the roof of his mouth.
Asims' expression of relief and quiet stoicism was an interesting mix as the young man walked over and sat down on the bed next to Set's. Asim took a breath before looking Set over with a critical eye. For all the world Asim appeared no different than the last time Set had seen him, yet there was a change all the same.
"Three Gods, Set... What in the name of all the Gods happened out there? The Pharaoh returned and with three 'Gods' at the princes' side.
"Wait... they came 'with' the Prince?" Set never saw them return but, if he was here... "What happened?!"
"I told you, They came with the prince. He could not call them back, and as such They have been sealed into Tablets..." Asim answered the gravity of his words stones that bound themselves to Set's neck and dragged the young warrior to the floor.
"No..." Set wanted to lunge forward, yet even as he did so his strength gave out sending him crashing into Asim's lap as tears blurred his vision.
The princes' Kurr friend came to his mind instantly. That all the children were dead that gave rise to those Tablets... But to tear a Ka Beast from the living person who bore it had consequences to the bearer. Not a problem when the bearer was a criminal, who cared what happened to the mindless husk? But the 'prince'...
"Please no..." How would this affect the little prince? How could Set live with himself knowing that the prince was now a mindless husk? His mind dredging up the image of the small child laid out on his bed with total disinterest with the world in general.
"Nine times has Ra sailed above us since the procession returned. All of you with the very Gods in attendance created quite a stir as you were returned to us in such deep sleep. You have barely stirred and the Prince has not at all. The palace has grown quiet out of worry for the Prince, and all eyes have turned to Mahaado. Many a prayer that the Prince takes after his Maha in strength." Asim explained quietly as he leaned down and hooked Set under the arm to help the guy up into his own bed.
'If I had been better with a sword,' the thought haunted Set, as the world spun around him. Be it from the exhaustion or the horrible news he had been just given he didn't know. 'If I had planned better, or woke up when they stole into our sleeping tent instead of later. Or just checked the damn toy basket!' The self accusations continued circling around Set's mind as his eyes scanned the floor for some hidden message from the Gods that this was his fault. That he should have tried harder, made more of an effort, than what he did.
That his laziness resulted in what they now faced, until a stray thought caught his attention. "What about Mahaado?"
"He never told you?" Asim asked, not really surprised in tone, but there was a bit of retrospection.
Set sullenly raised his gaze to look over at Asim, his head resting in his hands. His head felt to heavy to lift up to speak so he left his jaw in his open palm, his fingers slowly started to drum against his cheek.
"When Mahaado was first brought to the palace it was because he rescued the prince from his owners at the time. That is fairly public knowledge, but he had a fully established Ka at that age and High Magician Heisheen had it extracted. Then committed to a Tablet," Asim explained patiently, while the words washed themselves over Set.
Suddenly a great deal of Mahaado's personality finally made sense. The loss from a part of his very being extracted, and Asim was right. Set knew about 'when' Mahaado was first brought to the palace. The passivity and submissive behavior now had a root cause, as Mahaado would have been a mindless one when he lost his Ka. For him to come back this far...
Set's fingers fidgeted as he counted the seasons that Maha would have been with the Prince before Set had arrived. 'I had pushed Maha to grow beyond that passive behavior, but that passive behavior was due to the loss of self. My pride over getting him to act more 'normal'... Have I been hurting him further? Can such an act be mended from? Have I aided him in healing, or beaten him into pretending that he is normal?'
"So now the priests pray to the Gods that the Prince will take after Mahaado and recover. Even if the Prince we know is gone..." Asim stopped talking, his voice skipped over a lump that it found.
"Silence! No, I can't bear the thought of the prince being... I don't know what Mahaado was like when he got his Ka sealed up like that. That's not how the prince is! He's arrogant, and bossy and smarter than any of us." Set's rasped out voice held a desperate strength or anger as he sat there.
"But your presence has done a good work on Mahaado. He's not as passive as he used to be, maybe he's not who he would have been had he been born free. But he's alive and he can interact with the world around us. That's all we can hope for with the Prince now, all we can hope is that one day we'll have some part of him back." Asim pointed out his eyes reflecting a desperate hope. One could believe he was in the middle of prayers as he spoke to Set.
"Our master has given permission for you to go back to the palace as soon as you have the strength to do so..." Asim continued, his voice hushed. "Because the High Magician has made it clear he's sending Mahaado back into slavery. If someone doesn't convince the Pharaoh otherwise in time... Well without his Maha, will the prince 'want' to recover?"
"Wait... me? If everyone knows how important Maha is, than why doesn't the other High Priests speak up?" Set asked, even as his mind tried to process the idea that someone would willingly 'send Mahaado away' at a time like this. Not only send him away, but 'back into slavery'!?
"Because he claims he's only going to 'pretend' to send Mahaado away. Its supposedly a stunt to trick the Prince into stirring out of his stupor," Asim explained with a faint sigh. "Just imagine the prince any other time when he would hear such a thing. That response is the hope of the palace."
"Its too much to hope that he's serious?" Set asked as he pushed himself to his feet. Pushing away the thoughts of just how far the palace was on foot. "Do you think Master will notice if I'm gone for a bit so soon?"
"It will be fine," Asim answered swiftly. He stood up and joined Set where Set's own disbelief must have been visible for Asim frowned in answer. "Maybe you've forgotten, but Mahaado is our friend as well. Were it Kalim or any of the others we all would rally to Mahaado's side. Its just that they are too far away to make it in time."
Sullen as he felt from this news, Set bit back his replies and looked around a bit. "But it doesn't seem our wishes are being heard, so why would the High Priests listen to us now? Why have they never stopped the High Magician from all he has done against Maha?"
"Probably because his methods got results. Its... not an exact lie, after all Mahaado could very well be as good as he is because he's just incredibly talented. But his assessments have been recorded through his master. I mean, can 'you' judge magic?" Asim pointed out shrugging his broad shoulders while Set dug around for some clean clothes.
"It just enrages me that he can get away with this treatment of another person.." Set growled as he began swapping clothes... Then sniffed... sighed... "I should bathe before I leave. Anything less does me only a disservice if I attempt to convenience anyone of anything in the palace."
Asim stayed quiet, a wordless shadow that followed Set as he went to bathe off the scent of bed confinement. Which was just as well, as Set was not in the mood to have a discussion on the merits of a person's behavior.
"I'll get you some food as well, it might help wake you up and get you more balanced." Asim offered once Set was settled into the baths. Once his rival was gone, Set let his eyes drift over the walls of the room, the familiar stone walls. The benches and cloth with the suns' light gently filtering down into the room with him. The cool water lapping gently against his skin and the normality of all of it, as it became a weighted rope that dragged his head down into his hands.
'We were outnumbered... what could either of us do?' Set thought to himself as a traitorous tear slipped between his fingers and plopped into the bathing water. 'There's nothing we could have done to improve our situation, yet this is the punishment for our weakness?'
In his minds eye he could see those strange people huddled over a table. But while he couldn't say with surety who they were. Something in the back of his mind was wailing that they were fixing his failure. That they were putting back together what he allowed to break apart. 'I can not allow myself to be weak. Its fatal, the prince had to save us because of our weakness, the 'prince', a baby who it is 'our' duty to protect. Yet he had to save 'us'. No, this is not acceptable, I will no longer tolerate this weakness that allows for a baby to fight to protect others!'
'Our duty is to protect the Prince. We should ever be the ones to stand between him and the threat. I will no longer allow myself to be so weak that someone else must defend me.' Set thought with a savage resolution as he sat there. Before furiously attacking the shame he felt was crawling on his skin.
It was the sound of a earthen cup clinking as it touched the stone floor behind him that finally broke through the anger induced splashes. Causing Set to look behind him where Asim was kneeling. The basket held rolls of bread already torn in half with fresh butter slathered over them. Next to the basket was what he first heard, in the form of a thick earthen cup filled with wine.
"I was going to get water, but you didn't even notice my return. You seem rather angry so perhaps wine would be better than water..." Asim explained at the glare he got. "You 'do' remember that I'm your friend right? Because at the moment you are wearing an expression that screams that the world is your enemy."
Set was quiet for a moment, a disgruntled sigh escaping his lips before he flung the rag down into the water. "Forgive me..."
He felt Asim's hand grasp his shoulder in solidarity, the squeezing sensation could have been behind his eyes as the tears threatened to fall yet again. "How is Mana?" She had been even smaller and not of royalty, what had befallen the baby started to nudge its weight onto Set's back.
"Back with family, she was found and brought back with all of you.. Though Set, from what I have been lead to believe, she was not part of the trip. How did she end up with you?"
It was the only question he could hear that had the power to bring a smile, tired and beaten though it was, to his face. Just even with the fresh memory of that chaotic moment when she popped out of the toy basket with her blanket and a fig. Naively obedient to the prince and as cheerful as sunshine. "When we rode past, if you saw a basket with the Prince... that's how. He apparently hid her in there, and was smuggling food and drink to her."
A soft chuckle escaped the pair, "I heard the servants even note that the Prince had insisted on food for his toys... We didn't know she was there until the attack was underway. The prince was actively defying Mahaado and trying not to be taken away. But he wouldn't say why..." Set continued regaling the tale of the small group, from Mana's appearance to the mad ride through the desert. Somehow, despite knowing how this story would end, he started to find relief in talking about the trip.
Asim was a good listener, interrupting only when needing clarification or to give a soft laugh or gasp as needed. It allowed Set to turn his attention to finishing his bath before he got out and began to eat. It was then that he realized just how hungry he was, the bread was more travel ration than for the royal family fare. But for him it was as good as anything he had eaten in the royal palace. With the butter softening up the bread enough for his teeth to tear in. Yet no matter how much he ate, his stomach demanded more.
The rolls were soon gone, and even as he tried to drink the whole of the cup to compensate his body still craved more food.
"We can raid the royal kitchens once we reach the palace," Asim suggested helpfully.
"Yes, that might be best idea," Set agreed as he got up and began getting dressed.
"If nothing else at least Mana got through this unharmed, the prince had his reasons for bringing her. But I'm sure he'd be upset if she got hurt."
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Never had the royal city felt so different, the merchants were calling out their wares, but there was a hushed tone to it. Loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to disturb the palace it seemed. Many times Set saw people standing in the streets their hands raised as they prayed, some silent, others vocal with their prayers.
'Three Tablets to seal the Princes' Ka. Three of them? Those three 'were' massive, but they were nothing compared to what they originated from...' Set thought as he gazed up at the palace gates. Somewhere in the palace that he had come to know like the back of his hand, the prince laid unresponsive to the world. While somewhere else...
"Asim I... can we honestly believe that Heisheen would go this far?"
"I honestly can not say. I don't know magic, never tried to, Heisheen was not born with the gift either. He studied hard for it. The Gods alone may know. Perhaps in his mind, this stunt will work, just keep pushing the boundaries until the Prince reacts accordingly," Asim suggested.
"You know... how do we even know that's his plan? I mean, you were in the barracks, you said as much. How would you hear about what the High Magician had planned out?" Set asked.
Asim gave a polite cough, even as he coughed out, "I got a message from Isis warning that he wasn't 'pretending'..."
"Wait... 'Isis'? You are basing this off 'her'?" Set demanded turning to face his friend.
"She has the Gift," Asim pointed out meekly as he tried to get them moving again.
"It does not mean I want her to know I acknowledge it!" Set retorted with more life than he had shown this whole day.