I'd Do Anything

by Kestrel

Ch. 6

"I was born in the darkest room of the palace, the birthing room. No windows and only one small door. The heat in there was insufferable, but of course I didn't find that out until much later.

"My mother was common, a little known fact that my father went to great lengths to keep quiet. I don't know her name. She died giving birth to myself and my brother, who died in infancy. My father's heart was broken for the last time when my mother died, and after her passing he became cold and tyrannical. The people later told me that my father's change was taken by some to be a sign for the beginning of the Apocalypse. I laugh now, but to them it was literally the end of the world.

"The poorest died within a month, for my father closed the bread-and-gruel stations and even taxed the public fountains. The slums became death traps, and were soon destroyed because of the disease and villany they housed. The markets became more and more deserted, and more and more merchants fell out of work as the people became poorer. Some even had the audacity to carve upon their tombstones, 'Taxed to Death'. But in a way they were right, for my father grew colder and greedier with each family he taxed to starvation.

"I still remember the way they cheered when my father's death was announced one bitterly cold winter's morn. I was seven at the time but not in anyway innocent like a child of that age should be. I had seen all, and I knew enough. I began to rule within five days of my father's demise. I was nowhere near the harsh tyrant he had been, but I was still considered heartless by those who still remembered times before my mother's death.

"Upon my ninth birthday, I went through the ceremonies to become a sorceror. I took part in my first shadow game on that day, and it is with great pride that I say that five great sorcerors now reside in the shadow realm because of my ascencion tests. Apparently I pleased my tutors, for they continued to wage shadow games against me until only one of them remained. On the day I was to duel him, he took me aside.

"He told me of a monster so powerful none would dare to approach its tablet. This monster had previously obeyed only my father, and were I to try and control it, it would most assuredly rip me apart.

"Taking this as a challenge, I stole into the tablet storage room one night and stood before the great carving of the Dark Magician.

"I didn't have to exert my will or even call upon him. The Dark Magician sensed my presence and came forth to bow at my feet. I raised him up and he stood tall before me, and I swore that we would defeat all those who would stand against us. That we would defeat them together. And from that day on, I never lost a shadow game.

"One evening in my seventeeth winter, the most powerful of the dark sorcerors came forward to challenge me. I met his challenge, but in order to restore the balance in this temporal realm I was made to seal my soul within a golden Millennium Item. The other six stole souls from unsuspecting vessels and imprisoned them as well. Thus I lay, asleep but never dreaming, for five long millennia.

"Imagine my surprise and delight when you solved the puzzle. Suddenly, I was no longer trapped within a dark soul room, but seeing light and tasting air again. Granted, the air stank of chemicals and the light burned my eyes, but they were still sensations I'd been too long without.

"You helped me become human again, Yugi. And for that I am utmostfully grateful."

Yugi blinked. Then blinked again.

The phone rang once. Twice. Three times.

Yugi snagged it on the fourth ring. It was Mary Retger.

"Well are you coming or not? I hate to nag, Yugi, but this stuff can only be good for so long before I have to nuke it in the microwave, and then it'll taste all wrong."

"I'm coming, Mary," Yugi assured, standing. "Just let me grab my coat and keys and I'll walk down."

"Good," she laughed. "Even though it's only three blocks, the fresh air will do you good."

Yugi brought the letter with him to read in the dimming light of the fading sunset.

()()()()

Okay, should I have to say it again? NO! But will I?

Sigh.

Of course! Review!!!!!