"Out," Mana demanded, pointing toward the door. "Everyone, get out."
Akai blinked at her. So did all the high Dark Magicians, before turning to exchange blinking glances with each other.
"Why?"
"If there is a trace of Mahaad here, I'll never sense it with all of you red Dark Magicians milling about!"
"She's got a point," the Dark Magician Valkyrie pointed out.
"That she does. But, it would threaten the reality of the Magic Box for us to leave the atelier," the Red Dark Sage countered.
"Oh."
Mana looked deflated. The was so much of Akai's magic around that there was no way she'd ever catch a hint of her Master's. Maybe she couldn't try to find Mahaad after all.
"How about the entry room?" Akai ventured. "Leaving here, which after all is where Mahaad disappeared from, and staying in the minor atelier room?"
"That could work. And if we stayed very still, magically that is, it would make it easier for Mana to try to sense Mahaad," the Dark Magician's Knight suggested.
"Well, let us try it then," Mana sighed. The high Magicians of Dark Magic, every last one of them, filtered slowly out through the door.
"Good luck, Mana. Call me if I can help in any way," Akai offered, before pulling the door closed behind himself, leaving Mana and the Valkyrie together.
"How do you know this will work?" Mana asked. "Perhaps your card is already in Yugi's deck but has never been played," Mana gave voice to a worry that had been gnawing at her.
"You haven't really looked at me, have you?" the Valkyrie asked. "I can tell that Mahaad is still out there somewhere just by looking at you. You can do the same if you honestly look at me."
Mana looked up at that, surprised by the words. Look at her? How would that prove anything...
The Valkyrie's eyes were kind. A slight, sad but hopeful smile curved her lips. Mana blushed, realizing that she had missed something very obvious. Still, despite her mistake, she knew the Valkyrie would never laugh at her.
"Do you see?"
Mana nodded, then looked down at her own outfit.
"I'm still purple. I'd have switched to red if I were Akai's apprentice, right? And you are dressed in purple too."
"So, Mahaad must still be out there somewhere, some how, since my card was not played before his disappearance. There has to be some way for us to get him back, otherwise, I would wear red."
"H, how can you be so sure?" Mana nearly wailed as he shoulders slumped dejectedly. "It's been so long, and we've no idea what happened or where to start!"
"Mana," the Valkyrie stepped forward to take Mana's face between her hands, "have faith, in yourself, in Akai, and in your master. Have faith in me. I wouldn't hurt you by giving you false hope."
The Valkyrie released Mana and straightened her shoulders resolutely. "My time to be in this deck has not yet come. Somehow I was allowed to come here early to give you hope. I bet you haven't realized one very important thing about me." The Valkyrie winked at Mana.
Mana blinked up at her. The Valkyrie seemed almost to glow, and spectral wings formed behind her.
"I am not precisely a Dark Magic user...or at least not only that. And..." the Valkyrie smiled again, "I am weaker than you, especially here in this bastion of Dark Magic. My card is one of Light. Take that light, Mana, use that hope, and find Mahaad!"
The Valkyrie caught Mana's hands in her own and brought the tips of her ghostly wings around to touch each other behind Mana, wrapping her in their light.
"I look forward to returning when my time is right," the Valkyrie smiled sweetly one last time, and disappeared.
Mana blinked at the empty air in front of her. She turned up her empty hands that just a moment before had grasped the Valkyrie's.
"Where, where did you go? Please, come back!" Mana cried out.
A feeling bubbled up inside of her, making her feel almost as if the Valkyrie had smiled at her again. She felt...hopeful. And she felt confident. There were no words at all, nothing to explain it, but Mana realized that the light the Valkyrie was speaking of had been given directly to her. Akai, all the high Dark Magicians, the Valkyrie, all of them believed she could find Mahaad. Though they hadn't dared to tell the rest of the cards that Mahaad might somehow return to them, Mana knew she had their trust as well.
"Well then," Mana stood up and straightened her shoulders resolutely, absolutely unconsciously mirroring the Valkyrie's action when she decided to give Mana her power, "It's high time I honored all that trust and tried to find my master!"
--------
He stomped through the passages and cavernous rooms of his mind. Normally, when he wasn't needed in a duel, he systematically explored the unknown labyrinth and puzzles of his own mind. Shadi's intrusion had started the process of self-discovery for him. Before Shadi had used his Millennium Key to enter his mind, Yami had not quite realized that his mind was completely separate from Yugi's.
After that, the fated meeting with Ishizu gave him another key to his own identity. She had called him 'Pharaoh' and the title felt familiar. The tantalizing glimpse into his past life opened by her words had slowly been verified by discoveries Yami had made as he explored the winding mazes of his mind.
Often he wondered at the myriad traps laid here, traps that he had triggered even though it was his mind and he belonged here. Such traps, though they appeared lethal, only served to bring him back to the chamber closest to the corridor connecting his room and Yugi's in their shared mind. He was relieved that the dangers of his mind and his memories were kept separate from Yugi's mind. He shuddered to think what would happen if the darkness in him overwhelmed Yugi's bright innocence. Still, he was puzzled. If any had the right to know his past, would it not be he? What secret could be so dangerous that he had somehow contrived to have it locked away from even himself?
Ever since throwing Yugi out, though he admitted that the young one had led him to the proper path, Yami had sulked here. Yugi wisely avoided Shadow Duels, or maybe there was just a lull in the dangerous Shadow Games right now. Yami hadn't been curious enough to step into the shared mindspace to find out.
Sometimes he envied Yugi his simple, innocent life. Yugi could have friends, go to school, indulge in games and live a normal life. His destiny hadn't been sacrificed for some unknown, fateful purpose. Even as his thoughts took this dark turn, Yami struggled to deny them.
Yugi deserved his simple, non-tragic life. Actually, Yami realized that he'd brought more danger and darkness to his partner, danger that Yugi never ran from, he had to admit, than he'd had a right to visit on anyone. And Yugi never complained about it, thinking only of how to help Yami and not of whatever toll it might take on him.
The corridors lightened and darkened as Yami's thoughts and mood rocked back and forth so extremely.
"He's been nothing but a good friend," Yami finally said aloud, dropping to sit on the ground with his back against one wall of the corridor he found himself in.
"He's like a cheerful conscience for me. I would have doomed Mahaad, if not for him."
A faint blush stained Yami's cheeks.
"And I was...rude and ungrateful to him. He's the best friend I've had ever since those days in ancient Egypt, and I..."
Yami knew why he'd been so harsh with little Yugi. He was sure that Yugi knew the reason too, and had already forgiven him for the outburst.
Mahaad...his dearest friend...was gone.
The corridor deepened to black as Yami brought his legs up to his chest, dropped his head down to his knees, curled up dejectedly and finally gave into his grief.
"Mahaad!"
--------
There! It was there...the faintest touch of her master's magic. Mana could feel it. It was faint, so light it was almost like an aroma hanging in the air, or a wispy half-forgotten daydream from a carefree childhood day. She hardly dared to breathe, afraid of losing the magical spoor of her master.
She smiled, imagining what Mahaad would say to her fanciful notions.
"So," the Mahaad before her mind's eye teased, "you are now a dog scenting out my magic?"
Mana placed herself on the stage in her mind and nodded.
"A magical bloodhound!" she agreed enthusiastically. "Now I've only got to follow the trail."
Her imaginary Mahaad placed a hand upon his brow wearily, with a restrained theatricism and sighed. "All this fancy after I've been so patiently teaching you the science and dignity of magic!"
"If I find you, Master, perhaps I need to teach you the ways of the whimsy of magic," Mana stated firmly.
Her imaginary Mahaad smiled gravely and faded, as Mana couldn't fathom her master's response if she were ever to be so bold as to actually say that to him. But...the touch of his magic seemed stronger now.
"Maybe I will have to ask you what you'd say if I told you that, Master!" Mana challenged the thread of magic she now held tightly. "It would be worth it just to see the expression on your face!"
For the first time, Mana truly believed that she could somehow find Mahaad, and bring him home.
Closing her eyes, Mana made certain her grasp on the distinctive touch of Mahaad's magic was firm, before turning and opening the door to the lesser room of the atelier.
"I've got it," she told Akai, as he looked up at the opening of the door. "I just don't know how to follow it!"
--------
Yugi knocked tentatively on the door. Yami had told him to never enter unbidden here again, but...
Yugi bit his lip and wondered what he should do. He knew, it was almost an agony deep in his heart, that Yami needed him.
But...Yami had forbidden him to enter...
Yugi turned his back against the door to Yami's mind, and slid down the wall until he was sitting with his back supported by the door.
"Yami...let me in," Yugi pleaded in a broken whisper. "I can tell...you need me."
--------
"So," Akai helped Mana back to her feet, "what can you tell us?" Worry haunted Akai's eyes.
There had been a very real danger that Mana's soul would have been lost too, sending her forth with the power of Dark Magic as they did to follow the trace of Mahaad's magic back to it's source.
"I'm fine," Mana smiled, "You didn't lose me!" She raised both hands up to push against her temples. "I'm fine, except for this headache!"
A hand dropped to her shoulder. Mana looked up and started. The Magician of Black Chaos always startled her a bit. He appeared so fierce!
He offered her a cup. "This will help you find your proper balance, and cure your headache," he told her.
She drank, wondering a bit at the odd taste, but true enough, with miraculous speed, her headache eased. She felt a bit as though she'd lost track of something important though.
"What did that do?" Mana asked, her eyes widening.
"Do not worry. If you have truly found Mahaad, the Valkyrie's Light is no longer needed. In this place, so steeped with the power of Dark Magic, holding a mixture of Dark and Light can be a strain."
Mana blinked up at him, finally realizing the reason for his ever-grim expression.
"You are both Dark and Light..."
The Chaos Magician's eyes tightened fractionally telling Mana that she had hit the mark.
"The Light in me is contained within the Dark, and I am more powerful than you. It is...uncomfortable, but I can function. The Valkyrie's unusual merge with you would have harmed you in the end with her Light, Mana. Neither she, nor Mahaad, would want that."
"But..." Mana felt a bit bereft of the confidence, hope and over-all buoying nature of the Valkyrie. Did this mean she would never see that doppelganger aspect of herself again?
"Never fear," the Magician of Black Chaos told her again. "When the time is right, the Valkyrie will return. In the proper course of things, there will be no damaging strain on you. You shall see her again, Mana."
He reached down and retrieved the cup from her unresisting hands. "What can you tell us?"
"It was like...I fell into dreaming, as the Dark Magic spell all of you cast came over me. I looked back and could see you, and all of you looked..." Words failed her. There was no way she could describe how the Dark Magicians appeared to her while she was cradled in and sent forth by the power of their combined Dark Magic to try to find Mahaad. "Well, I won't ever forget how all of you appeared! It seemed to me as if I flew out from here, into the Magic Box and then up, and out of the Box entirely. All the while, the thread of Mahaad's magic led me along, almost as if he left it on purpose for us to find him."
Mana's expression fell slightly.
"But...once I arrived at the place it led me, I lost track of it again. Once I left that place, I could sense it again, but, as soon as I re-entered, I couldn't follow."
"Akai...it, the place..." Mana paused, trying somehow to rein in her despair, "...it looked like a tomb."
"He hasn't...please, tell me, Akai...we haven't gone through all of this just to find...his tomb?"
"Wouldn't his magic have simply ceased if he were dead?" Akai asked in a voice meant to soothe.
"N, no...I don't think so. Not right away. He was very powerful."
"He is very powerful. Is, Mana."
Mana's eyes were wide and sorrowful. She'd seen the grandeur of the some of the tombs of Egypt for herself. If Mahaad were there, in an Egyptian tomb, she feared that all she had found was his final resting place.
"Mana, recall what happened when he disappeared. He was here, in this very room, coordinating the energy and power of his own magic, the Heart of the Cards, Dark Magic and the power of the Millennium Puzzle when he disappeared. And the way he disappeared...there would...there would be no body to bury. So...what if the place you found wasn't a tomb? Couldn't you be mistaken?"
Mana recalled the memories of her Dark Magic assisted journey seeking the last echoes of her master's magic step by step. She shook her head.
"I've been in enough tombs to recognize them," she protested.
"The carvings on the walls, floors and ceilings. The friezes of the gods and goddesses, details of the burial rights, the hieroglyphs...there's no way the place I was led isn't a tomb!"
Akai let her words flow over him, picturing each feature as she described it. It was almost as if he too were on that journey, following the power of Mahaad into a tomb. Strange how clearly the images appeared to him, as he'd never seen an Egyptian tomb before...
Why were the images so clear then, as if he were looking at his own memory instead of creating images from Mana's description?
Purple eyes suddenly opened before him in his mysteriously out-of-place memory of a tomb.
"Of course! I have been there before!"
As one, the rest of the Dark Magicians nodded, as Akai's knowledge was their own. Only Mana remained locked in hopeless despair.
"Mana," Akai caught up her hands to force her to look into his sincere eyes. "I have been there before, in the grand tomb you found. It has to be the same place!" Akai gripped her hands more tightly, trying to impart his certainty that he was right to her directly. "Think back! With all the powers that Mahaad was trying to control at that moment...do you remember what happened just before all of you rescued me?"
Mana cast her mind back to that moment, the moment when all the forces they summoned in their attempt to to recover Akai threatened to overwhelm her.
"Yugi, and Yami suddenly appeared and helped us," she realized.
"They are the bearers of the Puzzle, and Mahaad was at that point channeling the power of the Millennium Puzzle. I have been in the tomb you discovered, Mana. Somehow, that tomb is in Yami's mind. He invited, no, commanded me to appear there, when I first became a part of this deck, to make certain I wouldn't harm Yugi."
Mana stared at him, the beginnings of hope started to lighten her expression.
"Further, though I had been specifically 'invited', Mahaad showed up, evidently on his own, as Yami was surprised to see him there," Akai told her.
"My Master...was always...a great friend...to the Pharaoh," Mana whispered tremulously.
"From what you have found, I think that the magical backlash that took Mahaad from us flung him into the mind of the Pharaoh. Or maybe into the Puzzle. Or maybe, both are the same thing," Akai pondered. "No longer able to remain corporeal, yet not willing to die, Mahaad was forced onto the path of least resistance, aided by the fact that Yami was here helping him, somehow or another into the Puzzle itself!"
Akai shook his head, shaking his thoughts out of the mystical implications of what had suddenly become so clear to him. "No matter! Thank you, Mana, for finding this clue. Now, the rest is up to me!"
Mana glommed onto Akai's arm. "No. It's still up to us! I'm going with you."
"I haven't even figured out how to get there!" Akai protested. "And it's certain to be dangerous...."
"I don't care. If you don't bring me with you, Akai, I'll try to follow on my own. Wouldn't that be more dangerous?"
Akai glared down at Mana, who only continued to smile disingenuously up at him. He finally smiled.
"I bet you try to use such backward logic to get your way with Mahaad all the time," he chuckled.
"Yes!"
"I bet it doesn't work very well either. We need to get Mahaad back soon as he's the only one who has a chance of successfully dealing with you!"
Mana started to glare, then realized that despite his mean-sounding words, Akai was going to let her come.
"Yes!" She nodded firmly, smiling all the while. "If you don't get Mahaad back, Akai, I'll never give you a moment's peace!"
"Truly a fate I'd rather avoid," Akai teased her gravely.
-------------------
Author's notes -
I'm probably going to be overwhelmed myself at work again this week, and this chapter was close enough for me to want to post it (and not make you wait too long). I feel a bit bad that the rest of the Cards are being ignored, but haven't quite found a way to naturally work them into this section, yet. If I do, I'll post a revised chapter.
Next chapter teaser - Chapter Twelve - ??? Found! Mahaad has been found! But that doesn't necessarily mean that they can recover him...
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