The Archmagus Pharaoh

By Cybra

A/N:  Chapter 3 of this series!  Go me!

Disclaimer:  Yami, the Duel Monsters, and other characters and things belonging to Yu-Gi-Oh! belong to someone who has far superior amounts of money than I do.  ;.;

Chapter 3: Apprentice and Discovery

Dark Magician winced.  Today was not his day.  Due to the previous night's excitement coupled with the aftereffects of too much irep, Pharaoh Sebek was in a sour mood.  Hopefully, the Pharaoh would listen to him and allow him to train the Heir, but it would take a good amount of convincing.

"My son can be trained by the Archmagus," Pharaoh Sebek stated flatly, his eyes glaring, "just as I was."

The dark mage took a deep breath and forced himself not to shout at the man's idiocy.  "My Pharaoh, my mage sight shows me that Prince Yami's magic will surpass the Archmagus's.  I do not believe that Archmagus Heishin will train him to his full potential so that one day the Prince may take his seat from him."

"How can you be sure you're right?" the Pharaoh demanded.

"Sire, I ask that you look at him with your own mage sight."  Remembering that the ruler of Egypt's own mage sight was quite a bit weaker than most mages', he added, "You will notice the difference in the 'brightness' of their magic."

The Pharaoh opened his mouth to protest anew when the Queen suddenly spoke up beside him.

"Who would you suggest should train our son, Dark Magician?" she asked.

Very close to sighing with relief that someone was thinking with a clear head, Dark Magician offered, "I would train him myself if the Pharaoh and the Queen desire it.  After all, I am a mage as well.  And to make sure that his education is complete, I believe I can talk Dark Magician Girl and Mystical Elf into helping."

"My son trained by Duel Monsters?!" the ruler of Egypt roared.

But before Dark Magician could respond, Queen Nefertari said, "But wouldn't that be a wise choice, my husband?"

The Pharaoh stopped his tirade before it could begin and turned to look at his wife.

"You never did like Heishin that much," she pointed out as innocently as possible. "I would think that you wouldn't want him teaching our son magic."

"Of course I wouldn't.  But there is no one else with that much experience or that much power…"

"Well, what's wrong with letting the Duel Monsters train him?" she questioned, continuing to feign innocence. "I mean, they've been around longer than Heishin…"

As she allowed her voice to drift off, Dark Magician barely managed to suppress a smile.  So this was how Queen Nefertari managed to get some of her ideas on helping the kingdom through:  She would ask leading questions to her husband which would ultimately make him think it was all his brilliant idea.  'Clever woman.'

"Yes…yes, they have…" the Pharaoh mused. "And they are very powerful…Yes, it could work…But where would you train him?"  His eyes grew cold.  "I don't want Heishin knowing exactly how strong my Heir truly is.  He wasn't at the banquet last night."

"My home in the Shadow Realm would be the safest place, Majesty," Dark Magician promptly responded.  "It's far away from Heishin's prying eyes, and the perfect place to be in case some of the Prince's magic gets away from him…again."

"Excellent.  And if Heishin asks about why my Heir is not training with him, it simply is because Yami does not seem powerful enough to distract Heishin from his regular duties," the Pharaoh stated. "After all, we know how emotion can help strengthen magical ability temporarily.  Yami's fear last night merely boosted his magical ability."

"Brilliant, my lord!" the Queen gushed.  She sent a sly wink to Dark Magician when her husband wasn't looking.

Dark Magician acknowledged the wink with a slight nod of his head and a twinkle in his eye.  "A superb plan, my Pharaoh.  Now, I shall go and collect my new – "

A slave entered the room, bowing her head in apologetic respect.

The three turned to face the new visitor.

"What is it?" the Pharaoh demanded.

"Your son, Your Highness," the slave woman told him, trembling. "He has disappeared.  Again."

~@~

Yami paused just before he reached the palace gates.  The peasants' garb he wore hid even his revealing hair from other eyes so none would recognize him.  But the guardsmen wouldn't be stupid enough to think that commoners could simply appear behind the palace gates.  They would most likely take him before his father for interrogation if they didn't rip his hood off first.

Of course, that was only if he got caught.

His temples still throbbed a little from the massive headache he had woken up with that morning.  But the headache had mostly dissipated, allowing him to move freely as he slunk from one hiding place to the next.

Looking around the last corner, he saw the guardsmen, alert and attentive, standing as still as statues off to one side of the gates.  He would need to wait until someone approached the gates, then slip away as the men questioned that person.

Lady Luck seemed to smile on the Heir for a trader who seemed to think himself very important paraded with his caravan right up to the palace gates and immediately demanded entry.

Yami forced himself not to snort at the trader's pompous attitude.  The man would fit in well with the rest of his father's councilmen.

He began to slip around the corner, allowing the confusion to provide him cover.  All the while he thought, 'Don't look at me.  Don't see me.  I'm not here.  Don't look at me…'

Like what always happened when he recited this plea in his head, something tingled at the back of his throat.  He'd been sneaking out of the palace for almost a year now to visit the outside world and sneaking back in before he could get caught.  It seemed that whenever he chanted those thoughts in his head and that tingling feeling rose in the back of his throat, he had less of a chance of getting noticed.

He froze as one of the guardsmen looked right at him…

'Don't look at me.  Don't see me.  I'm not here…'

…and looked away.  Perhaps he hadn't seen the small form mostly hidden behind the camel.  Whatever the reason, Yami wasn't about to let the opportunity to slip away from the confines of the palace escape.

Cautiously, he slipped out the palace gates, unnoticed by all the adults.  Finally away from the palace, he relaxed and began to stroll the streets, that chant changing a bit and falling to the back of his mind as he gazed about at the world of the common folk.  It was the same chant that seemed to pop up in his mind whenever he stood anywhere near Heishin:

'Don't look at me.  I'm not that interesting.  Look right by me…'

~@~

Dark Magician Girl rarely managed to walk the streets of Thebes and always enjoyed every opportunity.  Some plants needed for potions or other purposes couldn't survive the harsh environment of the Shadow Realm no matter what the Duel Monster mages did.  So on "market day" (as she called these little visits), she would bring several of Mystical Elf's healing potions brewed from plants native only to the Shadow Realm to trade for plenty of these much-needed plants.  It was a fair trade all-around.

At the same time, she took in the sights.  The bustling streets of the human city never ceased to thrill her.  Vendors shouted from their stalls to advertise their wares.  Sellers and buyers haggled over prices.  Street performers fought for the attention of the crowds with slight-of-hand, dancing, or music.  Various odors of sweat, food, and even dung from animals filled the air.

As she scanned the crowds for the next stall, her eyes fell upon a hooded youth.  But before she could take a good look at him, her eyes slid away from him.  Puzzled, she tried to focus on the child again.  Once more, her eyes slid away from the hooded child.

She paused and fought to keep her eyes on the hooded child, but they wanted to slide away from the youth for some strange reason.  As she continued to fight with her eyes, her internal senses that alerted her to the use of magic began to take notice of a small, subtle application of power.  Immediately, she employed her mage sight as well.

Even her mage sight wanted to slide off of the child!  Now certain that the youth provided the source of the magic and the trouble, she hurried forward and made a guess to where the child was.  She couldn't trust her eyes to stay on the child long enough for her to grab the hooded youth.

She got lucky as her hand grabbed scratchy material.  At once, the spell that had prevented her from keeping her eyes on the child lifted due to the child's surprise.  The child gazed up at her in fear.

As soon as she saw the eyes and a bit of the hair of the youth, she knew instantly whom she held in her grasp.

She quietly hissed to him, "Prince Yami?!"

~@~

Dark Magician sat before his new apprentice in his home in the Shadow Realm.  He gazed back and forth between the young Prince and Dark Magician Girl with not one iota of emotion.  "He was using magic?"

"Subconsciously," Dark Magician Girl confirmed. "And I think that's why his magic seemed content to stay dormant.  It bled off a little bit over the years in a…spell…we've never seen before."  As the Prince continued to stare at the ground, she smiled and nudged him.  "It's all right, Prince Yami.  You didn't know."

"What sort of spell?"

Yami looked up nervously at Dark Magician Girl who nodded.  He turned to his new teacher.  "I don't know how to explain it, so Dark Magician Girl says I should just show you."

Nodding his head, Dark Magician waited.

A split second later, Yami vanished from his line of sight.

Dark Magician instantly sprang to his feet, looking about wildly for the boy he'd been entrusted with.  If the Pharaoh knew he'd lost the Heir…!

"Relax, Dark Magician!" Dark Magician Girl said, snickering. "Try and look at where he was just standing."

Blinking, Dark Magician did as she suggested.  For a moment, he thought he saw the Prince.  But then his eyes slid over the Prince so that he didn't see him.  He tried again with the same results.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" Dark Magician Girl asked. "That's when the spell's at its strongest.  When I caught him in the market this afternoon, I would see him, but my eyes wanted to look him over like he wasn't that important.  If he and his magic hadn't caught my interest, it would've worked.  But most people – even mages – would most likely overlook him.  It works even with mage sight."  She turned her head to where Dark Magician thought Yami stood though her eyes, too, seemed to want to slide over the Prince.  "You can stop now, Prince Yami."

As suddenly as he'd vanished, Yami reappeared before the two Duel Monsters.

Dark Magician raised both of his eyebrows with amazement.  "An interesting spell.  How do you work it?"

Yami met the Dark Magician's eye with some difficulty.  "I just sort of think over and over in my head how I don't want someone to look at me or notice me.  Like I'm not there."

"You ever hear of something like that?" Dark Magician Girl asked, smile widening with excitement.

"No.  I've never heard of a 'Don't look at me' sort of spell.  Very impressive."  Dark Magician turned his attention back to his apprentice as Yami looked at the ground.

"Are you both going to tell my father about my sneaking out?" the Heir to Egypt's throne whispered.

"We could do that, and perhaps we should do that," Dark Magician stated. "But we won't."

The Prince gazed up at his new teacher in astonishment.

"I don't think knowing more about the people you will one day rule will harm you any.  However, I insist you be a bit more careful.  And don't do it too often.  Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent.  Now, let us begin our first lesson, shall we?"