*In distance, sounds of squabbling over gifts can be heard*

Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawr rawr rawwwwwrrrr, rawr rawr rraawwrr rawr rawr! Rawr rawr rawwwwwr! (Sorry for the delay, but those other two are still fighting over some of their Xmas gifts! So, I'll just get this chapter started without them!)

Disclaimer: See last chapter, stupid

Claimer: What she said

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My next recollection was waking up on a bench inside a room I'd never been in before. The furnishings were modest at best, but it was clean enough. Sitting up, I discovered someone had tended to the burns on my arm.

It was an interesting change, to receive medical attention for the results of my sibling's 'games'.

"I see you're awake now, your highness."

I hadn't noticed the strange person, who was standing right in front of me by that point, but his genuine concern was really beginning to confuse me.



Adults, when they paid any attention to you at all, only did it because you were misbehaving or if they wanted something from you.

"You're not a guard," I said.

"Good morning to you too," he said sarcastically. "I can feel the gratitude for saving your hide just pouring out into the world."

Cursing whatever made my face darken, I mumbled what I meant to be a 'thank you'.

"I still want to know who you are. You don't work at the palace at all, do you?" I said next.

"Well, maybe we _should_ start off with names. You're the infamous Yamakali, aren't you?" He said, smirking. "Even outside the palace walls, there are all sorts of rumors about your unusual … lineage."

I gave him my fiercest glare.

"My _mother_ is _not_ the subject here," I snarled back.

For those of you unaware, I will take this time to explain things. I am the youngest. I also have no full siblings whatsoever. Everyone else was born around the same time, and all of them were sired by the Pharaoh - of course - and mothered by one of his wives. Some of them were arranged wives from neighboring nations, some were exceptionally beautiful women taken from the towns around the palace, some were slaves imported from anyone-knows-where. All the children that resulted from Father's mistresses were either killed or adopted after Father married their mothers.

Out of all of these pairings, the results were boys that were big and strapping, and girls that were beautiful and intelligent. And not a single one had any aptitude for any magic whatsoever. Magic was not Father's strongest point either, but he was supposed to pass the family magic to the next Pharaoh. There was a major sensation, from what I heard, as everyone offered women from their grandmothers to their newborn daughters as possible wives that would bring forth magically strong children.

For a while, it looked like the only possible thing was for the Pharaoh to find some baby with potential, kill the real father, and marry the mother, afterwards claiming the child as his descendent. Then, on a hunting expedition - Father always loved to go hunt and kill things - he came across what appeared to be a simple woman who lived alone in a desert oasis. According to rumor, her skin was the blackness of ebony, she had black hair, and black eyes.

She must have either been very beautiful or a good talker, because Father dragged her back home and married her the same day. Also according to rumor, she agreed to the hasty wedding if she could be his most important wife, the Queen. They say she said something about 'Saving or Destroying Destiny Itself'. I have mixed feelings about it, personally.

In any case, none of the other women took too kindly to this desert lady being named Queen. They did manage to be remotely civil when they found out about her being pregnant. 'It'll be a weakling girl,' they said. 'Pharaoh will get tired of her then. Can't expect a boy from a desert tramp, they only make more of themselves.'

I often wish they'd been right.

But they weren't. After the usual amount of time, she gave birth to a healthy boy - me. Although they weren't so certain I was healthy at first. According to the scrolls Seth found for me, I didn't make a sound. Everyone else came into the world screaming bloody murder but I just looked around quiet and polite as you want. That and I was white as a sheet of linen with red eyes. The hair was probably the final straw - black, red, and gold, all in high crowning spikes, even then - the surest guarantee I was the One. Once the other wives got wind of that, they went on the warpath. The logic was that since Father was off fighting a war at the time, they would kill me and my mother both, bury us, and claim we both died naturally.

I don't even remember what happened, but according to the rumors, Mother turned into a black vulture and flew into the desert, or something strange like that. And the heir to the High Priesthood, Seth, who was barely two years old then, and being very magically inclined himself, took me into his room where the women never found me. Father was greeted by a gifted two year old baby priest that was dragging his last son in a basket when he came home slightly earlier then expected.

Father, although he can be stubborn and very thick-headed - any one of his advisors will agree with me - listened to Seth's story (He never gets tired of boasting about his ability to speak at an man's level at age two, Seth really can be too smart for his own good), and ordered all his other wives executed. Mother vanished - her house was gone when Father went to look for her, like it had never existed in the first place - and he proclaimed I was some sort of 'Divine Gift', sent by Lord Rah to insure the survival of the royal magical bloodline.

All my older half siblings were instantly jealous, and so far Father hasn't found out how they're trying to basically kill me while pretending it was during some kind of nice children's game. Honestly, what children's game involves crocodile teeth, lit torches, and a brick attached to a rope? I have Naparithnah to thank for my knowledge about the effects of such things used in concert.