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Chapter Ten - Searching
"You have returned," Akai stated in the upper room of the atelier. The Red Dark Sage turned to face him and nodded.
"You have become strong enough for us to manifest again," he explained.
"Oh," Akai half-turned at that and ducked his head.
The Red Dark Sage smiled, and looked into the eyes of the other Dark Magic magicians of Yugi's deck.
"You still don't quite understand our nature. You can't hide your feelings from us...we ARE you!"
Akai looked up at that, startled.
"But...I've never...Yugi's never played your cards when I was on the field..." Akai protested. Mana stood apart from the discussion, forgotten, as soft despair seeped over her from the room full of Red Dark Magic. Not a trace of her master was left!
"It is one reason Mahaad constructed the atelier to keep us apart from the rest of the cards. We are not as linear as you. Each of us is you, changed or boosted by a spell, ritual or fusion, even though to you that hasn't happened yet." The Red Dark Sage stepped closer, sensing, as all the Red Dark Magic users did, that Akai was most comfortable talking with him.
"But that means...!"
"Mahaad!" Mana's knees gave out and she collapsed, sobbing wildly.
"Mana."
Arms wrapped around the sobbing girl as the room went still in shock.
Mana smelled roses. The scent carried her back to her days in ancient Egypt, before all the trouble began. Mahaad had somehow distilled the scent of roses into a crystal vial and given it to her as an apology for a harsh lesson that had left her in tears. It was his way. He never actually said the words, 'I'm sorry' but he would take great efforts to do something nice that acted as his apology instead. The memory served to drive her deeper into grief.
"Now don't you start that nonsense up again!"
The words were as bracingly harsh as any Mahaad would have uttered, but the voice...
...the voice was her own!
She opened her eyes in shock. She met her own eyes. They were a bit older, perhaps a bit sadder as well, but holding a shy smile within that pretended to be bold. All of a sudden, Mana realized how Mahaad and Akai must have felt when first confronted with their Dark Magic doppelgangers. This girl...no, woman, smelling of Mana's beloved roses, holding her, supporting her, and telling her to snap out of her sobbing...was HER!
"Me?!"
She smiled. Again, a soft sadness touched that smile.
"Mahaad! Is he...gone?!" Mana asked frantically, trying to read that sadness.
"I don't think so, else I would not be here." The woman stood up, bringing Mana to stand with her. "I am the Dark Magician Valkyrie, a version of you, finally, to offset all these Dark Magicians!" She glared in mock-displeasure at the room full of high level Dark Magic card monsters.
"But...but...there is no card..." Mana protested.
The Dark Magician Valkyrie nodded. "Not yet. But Mahaad is the first Dark Magician. I cannot be here if Mahaad doesn't bring the card. Therefore...Mahaad still exists."
Mana let that information flow over her.
"Really?!"
"Really. But, we need to find him. I'll help." The Valkyrie turned and looked at the astonished array of Dark Magicians before her. A teasing smile sparked in her eyes, proving to Akai that this was indeed Mana somehow changed within the framework of Duel Monsters into a different card monster. "It's obvious he's not to be found in any of those here! That suggests to me that he's not currently a Dark Magician."
Mana blinked at her stupidly. NOT a Dark Magician?! But...but...!
"How, how could that be?!" Akai asked.
"I don't know," the Valkyrie admitted. "But what else makes sense? If he were, one of you would reflect that somehow. I see only Red Dark Magic here."
"If he's not a Dark Magician any longer..." Akai began thoughtfully.
"It doesn't really matter if he's a card or not," the Valkyrie stated softly. "All of us just want to find him and make sure he's okay, right? Even if he never returns here..."
Mana understood the nature of the Valkyrie's sad smiles now. She agreed. She'd followed Mahaad into the shadowy world of Duel Monsters, trading her life as a human for an existence as a card to do so. She had no idea if she could follow Mahaad now to wherever he'd gone.
But that didn't matter. What mattered to her was only that he was okay. Once she saw that with her own eyes, she could return here, help Akai learn more about Dark Magic, laugh and play with her friends, help Yugi in his duels and never let on...never let show how much her heart hurt that her master, mentor and friend was not here sharing those experiences with her. As long as he was okay...
"How do we find him?" she asked simply.
"We should look deeper into those places we know he used to be. There must be a trace of his magic we can follow."
"The Magic Box!" Mana cried out. The Valkyrie nodded. "Yes, but more specifically, the atelier. He made it, there should be traces of him here still. Hopefully, we can track that and find him now."
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"Be careful what you wish for," he told himself. "Sometimes it's not what you expect..."
He thought back to the times when he had to stifle a flash of impatience with one of his fellow Duel Monsters, or when he felt had trapped in his duty and wished he could just get away and be all by himself, even if just for a minute.
The Magic Box was perhaps the triumph of his magical art, a dimension, a place where the Duel Monsters of Yugi's deck could congregate when they weren't dueling to talk, laugh, relax and play. A place where they could be and in that existing, develop as beings apart from the game of Duel Monsters.
It had been an audacious idea to try to create a magical dimension, maybe even a conceited one to think that he had that power; but he had to try to give Mana a place to be more than just a Duel Monster. Like himself, she had once been so much more. He knew his mentality could survive the isolation imposed by the existence of a Duel Monster, but he was concerned that Mana might not yet have the discipline.
It had been the Graveyard that made him think he could craft such a magic. He'd met Mana there once.
"Master!" Mahaad staggered as arms glommed around him enthusiastically, nearly sending them both tumbling to the ground. He fought for his balance successfully, closing his arms reflexively around the person who'd crashed into him. "I knew it had to be you! This armor you wear looks so much like your special summon."
"M, Mana?!" Mahaad smiled at her before remembering his 'dignity' and correcting his expression, though his arms remained loosely around her shoulders.
"A-ha!" Mana teased, pushing on his nose with her forefinger impishly. "I knew you could smile! Where's the on switch? Or is there a special Dark Magic spell, 'Make Master Smile'?"
Mahaad smiled gravely down on her again, even allowing his eyes to twinkle at her in his pleasure. He'd been worried about her!
"How are you doing, Mana? Is everything well with you?"
"Yeah, we better talk 'bout the serious stuff now. We've no idea how long we'll have this chance." Mana realized. Mahaad nodded.
"I've been well, Master. It's hard to learn anything new with Dark Magic now, but I have been able to cast some spells when I'm in Duels. I sleep most of the time."
Her words were matter of fact, but Mahaad knew his apprentice enough to sense her sadness.
"Yes, it is a life of sleeping for most of the time, and fighting for another's will during the rest of it," Mahaad agreed.
"Does it seem silly that I like the Graveyard?" Mana asked worriedly. "Not the gravestones or the Reaper of the Cards, but...well, it's kinda nice to be somewhere, not asleep, where I can walk around or talk to someone and it's my will, not someone else's, that I'm obeying!"
"This is my first time here," Mahaad admitted. "Why don't you show me around?"
Mana smiled, grabbed his hand and pulled at his arm enthusiastically. "Let's see who's here. There are so many nice monsters who come here!"
He remembered the rest of that first encounter in the Graveyard. He'd been surprised that the monsters who hadn't been human, as he and Mana had been, seemed to possess personality and will while in the Graveyard. He'd learned over his next all-too-infrequent trips to the Graveyard that except for the somber decor and the menace of the Reaper of the Cards, most of the card monsters liked the Graveyard. They liked to Duel too, and were relieved when they were called back into their games, but it was these rare moments of self-willed activity that all Duel Monsters looked forward too.
His own magic had continued to grow, as his card was used frequently. An awareness of his duelist's will grew too, bringing him the realization that he was his duelist's favorite monster. As time passed, he realized that not only did Yugi possess the Millennium Puzzle, but somehow, shared in Pharaoh Yami's destiny. There were times he could tell it was his Pharaoh who was the duelist he fought for.
Then came the day his magic was strong enough to sense an object that had been precious to him in his human life. His Magic Box.
He recalled the well of magic power he'd stored there, and discovered he could still tap into it. Perhaps with this power, he could help Mana have a semblance of the life she'd had before becoming a Duel Monster. It had taken painstaking care to slowly build the spell he hoped would craft a dimension separate from the game. Each time he was called into use in a Duel, he'd set another part of the magic in motion. Finally, his spell was complete. He waited patiently until the Duel he was in concluded, then, resisting the sleep imposed on an inactive Duel Monster, cast his spell.
He opened his eyes to a place of purest white. There was no up or down, no walls, no features, just pure white everywhere he looked. He felt weary. It had already been so long...and this wasn't what he had in mind. Such a place as this might well drive Mana mad. Better to let her sleep until he'd made a place that would suit. Now he would have to start all over. But he was tired, deeply tired, tapped of magic all the way down into his soul. He looked down at his hands as if they had betrayed him in crafting a useless place such as this.
"It's not useless," a voice answered his thoughts aloud.
Mahaad's head snapped up. He should be the only one here!
It was his own eyes he looked into. The Dark Magic pooling in the Duel Monster in front of him was almost visible.
"You...?"
"I am the Dark Sage. I am Mahaad, the Dark Magician, boosted and altered if the conditions are right in a Duel," the Dark Sage told him.
"I see."
"Why is there no paradox?" he asked after a moment.
"Because there's no reality here for me, us, to be a contradiction to," the Dark Sage replied.
"So you are why my spell doesn't work," Mahaad's voice was touched slightly with bitterness. The Dark Sage smiled.
"But I can help make it work."
"I...can't." Mahaad didn't think he had the stamina to begin such an involved spell again. As incomplete as it was now, once he left, this magical construct would dissolve wasting the magic he'd invested in making it.
"Your magic is tapped out? I know. But mine isn't. Since I am you, why not use my magic?" the Dark Sage offered. "Use it to make this place what you wish it to be for Mana."
Mahaad blinked at him. Use the Dark Sage's magic? How? While one part of his mind was yet racing to understand the Dark Sage's offer, another part couldn't help but envision what he would do for his apprentice. A small, circular, stone structure quietly appeared.
"Ah, a place to continue Mana's lessons in Dark Magic. A touchstone to the past and comfort for both of you," the Dark Sage approved. He reached forward and opened the door. "Shall we enter?"
Within was a small magical workshop, complete with bookshelves, a brazier on the worktable, beakers full of various fluids and powders, and every trapping for teaching magic to his apprentice that Mahaad had ever possessed.
The Dark Sage circled around the workshop, nodding his approval. He turned back to face Mahaad again. "Please allow me to add to your workshop."
The Dark Sage closed his eyes in concentration. Mahaad looked at him, intellectually understanding that somehow, in a way, the Dark Sage was him, but still he shivered. He could feel a deepening of the Dark Magic all around him. A massive door appeared floating in the air in the center of the atelier.
"There!" the Dark Sage sighed in satisfaction. "Now, the contradiction of my existence is separated from your dimensional spell. I can remain there," he pointed to the doorway. "You can make the Magic Box become anything you want, without my existence endangering it."
"Why?" Mahaad asked simply. "Why do all this? Why help me?"
The Dark Sage looked into Mahaad's eyes and smiled. "Because I am you. Because what you are doing will help Mana. Because I want to help her as much as you do. And it will help others too."
"Others?"
The Dark Sage turned and opened the door hanging eerily in midair. "You'll see. Now, go outside and make a place Mana will like to come to at least as much as she likes the Graveyard!"
Much later, he stood in front of the atelier, surveying the area around him. What appeared to be sunlight filtered down through trees to splash on a grassy meadow dotted with wildflowers. Just out of sight from where he stood a small brook babbled. He could have made a desert, he supposed, but this seemed nicer somehow. The Graveyard could be the starker place. He wanted this place to be an escape from the somberness of the Graveyard and the boredom of sleeping between Duels for his apprentice.
He'd just hoped he'd gotten it right as he resolutely sent the magic summons he prayed would wake Mana and guide her here.
She appeared abruptly before him, blinking in confusion.
"What? Where?" she squeaked.
"Mana," he couldn't help but smile broadly. "Come see what I made for you!"
"Master?!"
Mahaad reached for her hand to guide her toward the atelier. Something popped into being right in front of his face.
"Coo?!"
Mahaad's eyes widened as he lowered the Dark Magic staff he'd begun, in his surprise, to level at the intruder.
"A Kuriboh?" he asked aloud. "Why would it appear here?"
"Mana!" the fuzzy thing called out, rushing over to stroke against Mana's face affectionately.
"Shelleene!" Mana greeted in turn. "This Kuriboh is my friend, she's from the same Deck that I am," Mana explained.
Mahaad blinked at her. So, this is what the Dark Sage had meant by others! Others...other card monsters from Yugi's deck? How odd. He'd never suspected that they would come here. Then again, he'd felt the "Heart of the Cards" himself. Perhaps it was a spell that Yugi cast over his cards that they could work as one when he needed it in a Duel. No matter. If having the other card monsters from Yugi's deck appear here made Mana happy, he would permit it. In fact...
He sent his magical invitation out again, more strongly and less specifically aimed at Mana. He hoped it would invite all the cards of Yugi's deck to this dimension if they wanted to come...
A by-now familiar wave of a sadness not his own washed gently over him, jarring him from his memories. He was surprised and touched. He suspected his sense of the passing of time was now skewed, since he was isolated from everyone and everything, but it felt to him as though at least months had passed since his efforts to help Mana rescue Akai had plunged him into this strange, bodiless existence. He had been able to sense Akai's fledgling power grow as the Red Dark Magician suddenly found that his magic was the support upon which the dimension of the Magic Box existed. Mahaad had tried to help shoulder that responsibility for as long as he could after finding himself here, but he knew that he'd ceased being able to help long ago.
By now, he'd have thought that the transition of duty to maintain the Magic Box and tend the prosperity of the Duel Monsters of Yugi's deck to Akai would have caused him to fade into just a memory, perhaps one tinged with a bit of sadness, to the Duel Monsters of Yugi's deck. However, even though he was no longer part of the Heart of Yugi's Cards, he could still sense a deep sadness there.
"I know I was important to them. They relied on me.. And...I was honored...that they found me worthy..."
Mahaad would have cried if he could. It almost seemed as if the Heart of the Cards refused to forget him, tearing open the wound of his loss in his friends again and again to keep it from ever healing.
"They must let go. Maybe that is why I am still here...because they refuse to let me go!" Mahaad realized.
Held within a presence he didn't sense and didn't even realize was there, Mahaad had no way to know how very wrong he was.
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Author's notes -
::sighs:: Did I honestly think I was gonna end this in one chapter?! Hah! ::grumbles about her poor abused outline::
Evidently Mahaad wanted to angst and remember (I didn't even know that the Magic Box was made solely for Mana when I first started writing this!), and now he's insisting that I write the whole arc to the ending in "the detail that Yugi's Cards, Yugi, Yami, Mana, Akai and yes, I, deserve." Arrogant much, isn't he? Not to mention demanding, and high-handed, and...
...well, probably right too. ::Grr!::
Next chapter teaser - Chapter Eleven - ??? Uhm... ::stares at blank outline pages:: Well, it's got something to do with high Dark Magicians, and the inner atelier... ::sweatdrop::
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde(at)stargarde.com