The Magicians' Realm Chapter 93: Predications, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 93, everybody! Oh goodness two chapters in one month—and we might be getting another one before the year's out hopefully—YAAAS PROGRESS! TvT/

So my Mom has actually dreamt of people's deaths before they occurred, which is where Kineil's comment comes from—it's freaky, honestly….And "nuthouse" might not be the politically correct term for an insane asylum anymore, but the Skellington timeline is set in the thirties, so…I don't know, take it with a grain of salt?

And as I understand it, that was precisely Edgar Rice Burroughs' reasoning in writing the Tarzan pulps. Having read one, I can see that. :\

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Ah, thank you, it's so good to have that done finally. ;v;/ And updating this too—hopefully I can maintain a steady update from now on. ^^ Yes, mothers KNOW. Perchance….

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

Teana was already seated in the Bentley, forcing herself to forget those images—she could explore them later, maybe, but not now.

Skulduggery slid into the driver's seat, pulling the door shut in one smooth movement and leaning over to her.

"My acute sense of the feminine mind tells me you are troubled," he declared. "What happened? It's not China, is it? If you told her you love her, don't worry, everyone does that."

"I—what?" she asked, feeling like she had lost all the threads again and regretting reading that reference.

"China Sorrows, the librarian in there."

"I'm pretty sure I would have remembered telling her I love her."

"My goodness, you make…maybe the third? Fourth? Person to not instantly fall for her then. Fret not though, for beauty is only skin-deep," he said, turning the engine over. "Except for me. With me it goes all the way down to the bone."

Bone made her flinch.

"Ah dear, now I know something is wrong. What is it?"

"Nothing," she said, watching the buildings as they pulled away from the curb.

"My dear Miss Teana, I must needs inform you that lying to a detective is an exercise in futility. Something is troubling you, something that wasn't a problem—or was less of a problem—this morning. What, did Tarzan not deliver? It's understandable if the books don't deliver—as I understand it, Mr. Borough's sentiments at the time were everything I read today is trash I can write better trash."

"I didn't read that one," she said, feeling the need to deflect.

"So it was the other one. Which, by the way, if you bring up to Jack will earn you a best friend for life—he loves those books. Which one was it, the one with the mind-reading Shadow-dragons?"

"Yes?"

"Ah dear me—in the middle of that one, been having to go through the whole series because Jack wants me to read them to him as bedtime stories—with voices. And I have to because otherwise he stays up until two in the morning reading them in bed. Should have never taught him how to read," he muttered darkly.

"Excuse me?"

"I kid, of course—although I have to wonder if there's some sort of correspondence course for misbehaving kids. I would love to know where Jack got the idea for hiding a flashlight under his covers."

"I think it's just instinctive."

"Perhaps. Speaking of, my detective instinct says that you are still bothered by something. Spit it out, it'd make you feel better, and then I know who I can go have words with—"

"Kineil gets shot," she blurted out, the image right there and out before she could even try to say it's nothing. And then bracing herself as Skulduggery slammed on the brakes to stare at her.

"I'm sorry, do what?" he asked, expression and tone emotionless, like he was trying to keep from reacting.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"That was not nothing. I distinctly recall you saying that Kineil gets shot. Gets shot. As in later down the line."

"It's nothing! It was—a bad dream I had."

Skulduggery didn't seem convinced, but he put the car back in motion down the street, watching her more closely out the corner of his eye.

"I suppose if it was just a bad dream," he said finally. "Except those can be portents, don't you know—Divine messages. Any specific time stamp? Location?"

"You're not taking this seriously."

"You're foretelling a murder—I'm taking it very seriously. Hephaestus did it, didn't he. Or Vulcan—you didn't say how many times she gets shot. Or—I didn't do it, did I? She finally insulted one of my hats and I did her in."

"You'd shoot somebody over a hat?"

"Hats are very serious business."

"If I told you I dreamt you were sent upriver to the nuthouse, would you believe that?"

"Pish posh, the asylum isn't upriver, it's south from here, in a decidedly nasty location. Or perhaps I'm thinking of the prison. There's not much difference, is there?"

"I don't know, but the message you seem to be neglecting is it was a dream."

"But dreams have weight."

"Detective Pleasant, please stop."

"The car?"

"The dream-discussion."

"How? You bring up an interesting point—we could be dreaming this conversation right now. Where's a billboard sign? I can never read those in my dreams."

Teana pinched herself. "There. I'm pretty sure I'm awake."

"Well, you are—I'm not sure about myself yet."

She reached over and pinched him on the arm, eliciting a yelp. "How about now?"

"Definitely awake. So that's one issue settled. And look at that, there's Kineil—that makes another one settled. We'll give her a ride and perhaps avert the horrible thing that will happen to her."

"Oi vey," Teana muttered, as Skulduggery pulled over to the curb.

"Kineil!" Skulduggery called, once he had rolled Teana's window down—Teana leaned back so she wasn't in the way. "Get in, I'll give you a lift."

"What is this, a carpool now?" Kineil asked, opening the back door and sliding in. "Or are you renting yourself out as a taxi service?"

"Just keeping the public safe," Skulduggery said primly, rolling the window back up. Oh no, don't tell her….

"I'm pretty sure I'm not that much of a menace to the streets," Kineil said.

"You misunderstand."

"He's just being weird because I had a bad dream," Teana told her. "It's nothing."

"You say that now…."

"What was the dream?" Kineil asked.

"She dreamt you were shot," Skulduggery answered, before Teana could. "Was it fatally? Fatally, I can tell by her expression."

"What?" Kineil asked blankly, before looking at Teana with the beginnings of panic on her face. "When? Where? I need details!"

"Why would you get so bothered about this?" Teana asked, hands up in frustration. "It. Was. A. Dream."

"Are you kidding me? My Mom has dreamt about people dying, and guess what? They dropped dead. She didn't even tell anyone until the third time it happened. Fourth time she said it, and blammo, the guy was dead. I take being told someone dreamed about me dying very seriously." Kineil sat back, hands on her chest. "I'm not ready to die."

"You're not dying," Teana snapped, ignoring the flip-flop in her stomach. "I just fell asleep in the library."

"I wouldn't mind hearing the details of the dream anyway," Skulduggery said. "It might help dispel any lingering issues."

"Like what?"

"Like snippiness?"

Oi. "How long does it take to get from the library to your house, anyway?"

"You misunderstand—I'm driving around town until I get an answer."

Teana threw up her hands, completely frustrated. "Fine, fine." She put her face in her hands, trying to focus on that one bad thread amid a hundred or so. She eventually found it, leaned back in her seat to address Kineil.

"It's in an orchard," she told her. "You're running from something, and you get shot in the back."

The car was silent for a few moments.

"I told you robbing from old man McMurran was going to get you in trouble," Skulduggery said, sounding amused.

"You have," Kineil said thoughtfully. "But this is good. This is really good. I can work with this. Because now I know how I die, and it's like that one guy out west said about visiting that witch with the eye, if I know how I die, I don't have to worry about anything else. I think I'll play in traffic."

"Don't," Teana said flatly. "And what if I dream about you dying in a cornfield? Would you avoid them for the rest of your life?"

"I do anyway," Kineil said. "There's creepy children in there."

"Don't be silly."

"I would agree, normally," Skulduggery said. "But I saw that movie and I have to agree with Kineil there."

"And now I have a headache," Teana sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Well, good news," Skulduggery said, pulling to the curb. "If you ask Idgy nicely, she'll fix you up with a homemade remedy."

"Aspirin would be good."

"Actually, at this point you're probably hungry. Come to think of it, I am too. Let's go eat," he declared, turning the car off and getting out.

Kineil waited until he had shut the door and was coming around before touching Teana's shoulder.

"Hey," she said. "You uh, didn't dream anything else, did you? About me or Yami or anyone?"

Teana stared at her, not sure how to answer that, was fortunately saved by Skulduggery opening the door for her.

"No," she said, before sliding out of the car. Unfortunately, she didn't think Kineil believed her, if her expression was any indication upon coming out. "Besides, it was just a silly bad dream. Don't worry about it."

"You keep saying that," Skulduggery said, shutting the doors. "But I think you might be trying to convince yourself of that."

"Don't make me dream of your death."

"And moving on to lunch," Skulduggery said, opening the door to the house. Teana moved to follow him in, was stopped by an ache in her stomach she realized she recognized. She turned to see Kineil glaring at her.

"This isn't over," Kineil threatened.

"Yes it is," Teana said, walking into the house.

It had to be.

*/*\*

Yuki had concerns.

Okay, to be fair, that was nothing new—except now these concerns were monster-sized. Sure he had been worried about all the things Yami had been doing…but now this was something he couldn't even begin to wrap his head around. Their twice-great uncle, dead but still moving around, and doing things. Possibly bad things.

And it was their fault.

Yes, Yuki was counting himself among the guilty—he was pretty sure he could have stopped Yami, knew for a fact that bringing back all of Skellington had been his stupid idea, he had an equal share in the blame same as Yami.

So now, with Yami preoccupied with Horus and Anzu back off to the library and the rest of their friends who knows where…well, Yuki had to do something.

But what?

Think, Yuki—Yami was hoping for a spellbook that would help out, and they had ruled out the Delvaire Public Library and were kicked out of the Administration Library….

That left one more library to consult—it was a thin chance, to be sure, but he had to do something to help.

Hence why he was hugging his mom bye and slipping out the door, trying to look everywhere at once as he made his way to the school of Hallowed Fields.

Okay, let's be as real as we can be, Yuki did not expect this to be helpful—not when Yami graduated so early, not when even Yuki could run circles around the curriculum—but he had to be doing something, feel like he was contributing, at least try to fix this.

Deep breath before entering the library—he could do this.

Sort through the master scroll that listed all the books in the library, noting that some had been removed from the list entirely…he pointed this out to Alexis, one of the assistant librarians, who told him that the Administration had come through and cleaned out some of the library. That wasn't good news.

"What are you looking for anyway?" she asked.

Yuki hesitated…pretend she's a bird. That might do it.

"Just—magic stuff," he said, fiddling with the wheels on the scroll. "Like, interdimensional portals, do they exist, how do they open, should I be worried…I feel like I should be worried." Which was the truth.

Alexis considered this, glancing over the shelves like the right book would come floating out (they did that sometimes at the other libraries). "I'm thinking…maybe we still have a general magicks book—let me look."

He followed her for a bit, drifted over to Syrus and Jaden when she pointed them out and told him to wait over there, see what they had, maybe the Administration had missed one or two…Yuki hoped so.

"Hi, Yuki," Syrus greeted, eyes tired behind his glasses. "Here to study for the exam too?"

"Not really—I don't know yet," Yuki replied—he had honestly forgotten about it in all the excitement, didn't really care about it one way or the other; if it was anything like the last several, he could take it in his sleep. "How's it going?"

"Well I think I'm doing better than Jaden, but that doesn't take much effort," Syrus said, indicating Jaden sprawled in his chair.

"Kill me," Jaden wailed. "Please I'm dying slowly in misery save me from my pain!"

"This is after he put a book down, opened it, and looked inside for all of five seconds," Syrus reported. "Which is actually a record for Jaden."

"What are you reading?" Yuki asked, sitting down and tugging the book over.

"I'M READING OF MY OWN DEATH," Jaden declared dramatically.

Yuki glanced over the page, flipped to the front to read the cover—Unfogging the Future. Well, maybe Jaden was being accurate.

"I didn't think we were covering divination," Yuki said, opening the book again to where Jaden had it. "Were you hoping to see the test answers?"

"I'm beginning to think stealing the test results would be easier."

"Or staying awake in class," Syrus said. "Besides, isn't it you either have the gift or you don't? Like magic?"

"I think everyone has magic—but maybe it's like, really small, or no one bothers with it," Yuki posed—he was pretty sure his mom was magic despite being a Commoner. "And there's no way to see the future if you don't have future sight, right?"

Syrus considered it. "Well, you can see the future the old-fashioned way and wait for it to be the present…or yeah, there's ways to read like, bones and runes and stuff…but you have to take like, years of study to do so."

"YEARS!?" Jaden squawked.

"Jaden, not in the library," Alexis sighed, coming over and depositing a book next to Yuki. "General Magick book, I'll keep trying Yuki."

"Thanks anyway," Yuki said, tugging the book closer.

…And then glancing at the divination book. "Uh, Jaden? Can I borrow this?"

"Sure," Jaden moaned, sagging deeper into his chair. "I need a break."

Syrus and Alexis both stared at him. "How can you take a break from doing nothing?" Syrus asked.

"Very tricky, hard to get right—I'll tell you after my break."

"I give up," Alexis said, waving her hands as she walked off.

Yuki wasn't sure what to make of Jaden either, but in the meantime….

Maybe he could foresee a way out of this mess.