Chapter One: Seeking Aid

Keisuke could not believe what he had just read. There was going to be more trouble than there already was? Gods, he thought, as if his little sister wasn't in enough trouble already.

Tetsuya spoke up then. "I really do not like the sound of that…"

"We've got to do something," Keisuke muttered as he stood up from where he had been sitting on the floor that whole time. "We've got to pull Miaka out of there! It's not safe! If this is what I think it is, not even Tamahome and the other Seishi will be able to protect her!"

"Uh, Keisuke, if I heard correctly, nowhere is safe – not even this world," Tetsuya pointed out. "Don't you remember? The book said that the evil would spread from that world and into this one. Miaka's going to be in danger, wherever she may go – whether she comes back here or stays in there."

Keisuke growled in frustration. "This is not fair, damn it! What are we supposed to do, sit out and wait for the coming of the apocalypse? We ought to be able to do something!"

Just then, a soft "thud" resounded from another part of the library. Keisuke and Tetsuya stiffened. Had they been caught? Was someone watching them? Had they been discovered?

After a long pause wherein no one appeared, Keisuke allowed himself to relax. He grinned wanly at his best friend, who also looked as if he had just had the fright of his life. It was nothing, Keisuke thought. They had not yet been found.

Tetsuya straightened up then, pushing his sunglasses further up his nose. "Let's go and see what that was."

Keisuke nodded, and followed Tetsuya through the maze of high shelves, picking his way through the semi-darkness, The Book of the Four Gods: Sky and Earth clutched tightly against his chest. There was no way in hell that he was letting of the book, not until he had finished it and managed to get his little sister out of there.

Hang on a little longer, Miaka, he thought, hoping beyond hope that somehow, his thoughts would reach her through the many gaps of time and space.

Tetsuya stopped, and so did Keisuke. Looking over his best friend's shoulder, Keisuke noticed something lying on the ground in front of Tetsuya, and when he saw it, he felt his blood grow just a little colder.

It was a book. Another book.

Tetsuya glanced at Keisuke. "Books don't just fall out of shelves, right?"

Keisuke swallowed. "Maybe someone else is in here," he said. Otherwise, it means that that book has something to do with this one, he thought. He shook his head to clear out that particular thought. He did not want to think that way.

"If there was someone in here they would have found us by now," Tetsuya said, his voice betraying none of the panic that had crept into Keisuke's voice.

Keisuke had to admire his best friend for being so calm and cool during a crisis. Maybe that was why he was the first person who came into Keisuke's mind when he realized that this was something he could not handle on his own.

He watched as Tetsuya walked forward towards the book lying on the floor, picking it up delicately. It was old, just like the book that Keisuke was holding, but the paper of the pages was different. Keisuke could tell as much, since when Tetsuya opened the leather covering and turned the pages, they sounded a lot crisper than the paper of The Book of the Four Gods.

"It's made of papyrus," Tetsuya murmured then, his fingers holding the pages by their corners and turning them delicately, almost daintily, as he leafed through the pages. He grimaced. "Oh damn it…"

"What? What's the problem?" Keisuke scooted over to stand beside Tetsuya. He focused his gaze on the book, and blinked.

The book was not written in Chinese. In fact, the letters looked a lot like those drawings he had seen in his World History textbook when his class was discussing ancient Egypt. What did his teacher call them again?

"I can't read this at all," Tetsuya declared as he closed the book. "It's all in hieroglyphics."

"Let me see," Keisuke said as he reached out to take the book from Tetsuya's hand. Holding it in his own, he suddenly realized just how fragile the whole thing was. Knowing that it would be best if he put it on something stable, he laid The Book of the Four Gods in his right palm, and positioned the book Tetsuya had been looking at on top of it.

Only to stop when a soft glow of an indeterminate color began to emanate from the books when they were about an inch or two apart. Surprised, Keisuke pulled his hand back, and the glow subsided.

Tetsuya's voice was soft. "What in the world was that?"

Keisuke did not respond. Instead, he brought the two books closer to one another. Again, the same light radiated from the two books. He pulled the second book away from The Book of the Four Gods, resting it, closed, on his left palm.

These two books are connected, Keisuke thought. There was something about the book that Tetsuya had found that connected it to the first one, though they didn't know how, exactly, because while they could read Chinese, none of them could possibly read hieroglyphics.

Tetsuya had obviously been thinking along the same lines, but he had also thought of a solution. "Keisuke," he said, "I think I might have an idea, but it's going to involve us telling someone else about this whole thing."

Keisuke's eyes narrowed at his best friend. "You mean, tell someone else about The Book of the Four Gods?"

"Not just 'someone'."

"You mean more than one? Tetsuya, have you lost your mind? I don't want any more people involved in this!"

Tetsuya frowned at him, and Keisuke could almost see the glare that his friend was trying to shoot in his direction through the sunglasses. "Keisuke, we don't have much of a choice, do we? Besides, we can trust these people; I know we can."

Keisuke stared at Tetsuya for some time. "And just who exactly did you have in mind?"

"You remember Deryn? You know, Deryn Kendall?"

Keisuke blinked. He certainly remembered Deryn Kendall: the only foreigner in their class and, as some of his more perverted classmates had said, probably the hottest girl around, what with her long blonde hair and stunning blue eyes. "Yeah. What about her?"

"She told me once that her parents were Egyptologists, and that they'd taught her and her older sister Seren how to read hieroglyphics," Tetsuya explained as he tried to find a way of tucking the book he had found into his jacket without doing any damage to it. "If there's anyone out there who can help us, it'd be those two."

Keisuke opened his mouth to argue against Tetsuya's idea, and realized that his best friend was right – again. He thought of his sister then, all alone in that world, about to face something that not even her Seishi could protect her from, and his mind was made up.

"Alright then," he said, tucking The Book of the Four Gods into his jacket. "Let's go and drive over to their place. You do know where they live, right?"

Tetsuya grinned, and nodded. "I do. Now come on, let's get out of here. Let's hope we can catch them before they head off to bed."

She sighed in relief as she stepped in from the cold outdoors, glad to feel the warmth of the house and smell the scent of her older sister's meat-and-potato stew perfuming the entire house.

"Seren! Seren, I'm home!" Deryn Kendall hollered as she slipped off her coat and hung it on the peg on the wall. After doing so, she headed towards the kitchen, following the delicious scent that was wafting from that direction.

Just like she expected, she found her sister standing over the stove, dressed in a pair of jogging pants and a loose T-shirt, with a rather silly-looking frilly pink apron covering everything. Her blonde hair was tied back from her face in a loose braid down her back for neatness – after all, neither Seren nor Deryn wanted to see yellow strands floating around in their stew when the sat down for dinner.

Seren took a moment to glance over her shoulder at Deryn, and smiled at her briefly before going back to stirring the stew. "Hey Deryn. How was school today?"

"Bad," Deryn muttered darkly. "Ancient Chinese philosophy is proving to be a very challenging course." She groaned, remembering the test that she took earlier that day. "God, I never imagined just how much torture Professor Kigai could be!"

Seren's sigh was audible. "I hate to tell you this, but I told you so. You should've just stuck with Egyptology."

"But I'm tired of Egyptology!" Deryn half-whined. "I mean, Ma and Da (1) always used to talk about it when we were kids, right? I want a change of subject, a change of pace!"

"So don't complain about how hard your life is. Remember, you chose to take up ancient Chinese philosophy, not them. Now go and get us some wine while I put this stew on the table."

Deryn just rolled her eyes, and headed towards one of the cupboards, where she knew the bottles of red wine were. It had become something of a custom for the two of them to drink a glass of red wine each with dinner – at least, the moment Deryn was of a legal age to start drinking.

She hated it sometimes, when her sister had a point. Wasn't she allowed to whine every now and then? She might have been twenty, but hey, sometimes a girl needs to vent and rant without being told that she's wrong.

But Seren was right. She had chosen to go into ancient Chinese philosophy, when it might have been better for her to go into Egyptology. Her parents were both Egyptologists, and were currently working on a dig somewhere near Giza. Seren herself had chosen to go into the same field, but Deryn hadn't, in spite of the fact that most of her life had been spent in and out of museums and hopping from one dig to the next, helping her parents when she could to translate hieroglyphics or research the origins of a particular artifact, or restore some damaged piece of pottery or faience.

That was the life that she and Seren had known since childhood. They had absorbed Egypt into their blood, so some of their parents' colleagues had joked. Instead of staying home in Wales, the two of them went wherever it was their parents went, and that was perfectly fine by them. It was a hard life, true, but it was one that had taught them many valuable lessons.

But Deryn was tired of that life. She wanted to do something else, something different – something that had no connection whatsoever with Egypt. She also wanted a sense of stability, to put down roots, as her mother had once said. She was tired of "the suitcase life" that she had lived for most of her life, and wanted someplace permanent to settle down in. After several years of receiving her lessons through the mail and eventually doing them over the Internet when that became popular, she wanted to go to an actual school, and sit in an actual classroom, and have actual classmates she could talk to.

And so here she was, in Japan, studying ancient Chinese philosophy in the university that had the strongest reputation in that subject, while her sister worked in the museums as an expert on Egyptian artifacts and as a restorer of ancient documents.

She grabbed the half-empty bottle of wine in the cupboard, closed it, and headed towards the dining room, just as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Seren called, and Deryn could hear her footsteps as she jogged to the door.

Deryn ignored whatever it was that went on there. It was probably just another one of those annoying door-to-door salespeople. Seren could deal with that any day.

However, as it so happened, it was not a door-to-door salesperson, because when Seren walked back into the dining room, there were two men trailing right behind her.

Deryn blinked. She recognized these men. "Keisuke? Tetsuya? What're you two doing here?"

Tetsuya grinned at her sheepishly. "Uh, hi Deryn. Sorry for barging in like this but, uh… We need to ask you and your sister for a favor."

Deryn glanced at her sister, who shrugged in response. "Hey, don't look at me," Seren said. "They said they'd tell the both of us at the same time."

"Um, yeah, that's what we're planning to do," Keisuke piped in. He looked around, embarrassed. "Uh, could we…go to the living room or something?"

Deryn shrugged, and gestured to the table. "I think it'd be best if you had dinner with us instead. While we're eating, you can tell us everything – though I do have to wonder why the two of you would suddenly come running here, and for what. Shouldn't the two of you be at home? Keisuke, don't you have a little sister who needs supervision or something?"

Keisuke frowned, while Tetsuya laughed, though Deryn could tell that it was a nervous one. "Ah…right. We'll tell you everything, as long as you promise not to say anything until Keisuke and I have both finished our stories."

Now Deryn knew something was definitely up. She raised an eyebrow, and was about to demand an explanation, but Seren cut in before she could do so.

"Alright, we're okay with that." Seren nodded to the dining table. "Now come on you two, sit down, and while we're eating, you can tell us everything."

Keisuke and Tetsuya glanced at each other, as if for confirmation, and then hesitantly stepped towards the dinner table, and settled down.

Deryn looked at them curiously. Something was wrong, she could tell that much. "So," she began, as she ladled stew on their plates, "what was it you wanted to tell us?"

Keisuke glanced at Tetsuya, who waved his hand. Then the former looked at Deryn, and said: "Well, it goes something like this…"

"…and that's the state of things right now. We know that this book is related to The Book of the Four Gods, but since neither Keisuke nor I can read hieroglyphics, we can't really tell just what sort of significance it has in relation to the events in The Book of the Four Gods. All we know is that they're connected."

Seren stared at Tetsuya as the younger man leaned back into his seat. The story he and Keisuke had just told was the most extraordinary she had ever heard, more suited for a fantasy or science fiction novel than reality.

"So what you're saying," Deryn said slowly, "is that Miaka, Keisuke's little sister, has been…sucked…into this book you call The Book of the Four Gods, and that Yui, her best friend, is in there too. They are currently rivals, because they both want to summon the gods that they represent, and are now currently preparing to go after some magical items called Shinzahos. However, something new has come up that puts not just that world, but this world in horrible danger."

Keisuke nodded uncertainly. There was no denying, after all, the sarcasm in Deryn's voice. "Yes, that's pretty much it."

Seren could practically see her younger sister's eyebrow disappear into her hairline. "You expect us to believe a hare-brained story like that?"

"May I see these books that you're talking about?" Seren cut in, seeing how Keisuke had tensed and was getting ready to stand up and start a word-war with her sister. The best way to prevent that was to interrupt – and Seren knew how and when best to employ that tactic.

The two boys looked at each other briefly, as if checking one another for confirmation. At length, Keisuke reached into his jacket, and pulled out a small, leather-bound book.

"This is The Book of the Four Gods: Sky and Earth," he said softly as he placed it in Seren's open hand.

"You mean to tell me that you stole the books from the library?" Deryn asked softly. "Seren, shouldn't we be calling the police or something?"

Seren ignored her sister and took the book from Keisuke's hand, and upon feeling the texture of the leather, frowned. It had been manhandled quite a bit, but at the very least it seemed sturdy enough to withstand whatever mistreatment it had undergone in Keisuke's hands. She flipped it over on her palm, and opened the book. It seemed quite normal to her – albeit a bit stained and weathered, but she assumed that it was natural. The illustrations were of a fine quality, and the calligraphy was first-rate. There was nothing wrong with this one – to her, it was just another book that had been most likely filed away in the library and then completely forgotten.

"Where's the other one?" She glanced up at Tetsuya, who seemed to flush under her stare, and brought out another book from his jacket. This one was also bound in leather, but the pages seemed a bit thicker than that of The Book of the Four Gods.

It was only when she actually touched the pages did she realize what the material was. "Papyrus? A papyrus codex?"

Deryn spoke up then: "Means that it was made sometime during the Roman period, after the Ptolemaic dynasty was deposed by Caesar Augustus (2)."

Seren nodded. The ancient Egyptians preferred to use papyrus scrolls as opposed to codices because the nature of papyrus made it easier to roll them into scrolls instead of cutting them and binding them into books. Papyrus scrolls were still being used well into the latter days of the Ptolemaic dynasty, but gradually fell into disuse as codices became more popular. While papyrus codices had indeed been made before, they were extremely rare, since the majority of them were rumored to have been lost when the Library of Alexandria was destroyed.

Resisting the temptation to lick her fingertips in order to turn the page – the moisture of her saliva would only cause further damage to the already fragile papyrus – she peeled back the blank cover page, wincing a little when she heard the crackling of the papyrus. She thought of dashing off to the museum, where there was equipment better suited for such a delicate job, but she doubted if she could do that – at least, not when she was holding a document that had been borrowed without permission, as it were, from the archives of the National Library.

The first thing that caught her eye was the illustration on the first page. It was done in the bright, bold colors of the New Kingdom (3) style of Egyptian painting, and depicted a young woman clad in a riding outfit of leather and linen mounted on a sprightly-looking black mare, the two dashing across the desert. She rode bareback, a short sword hanging from her hip, a bow and a quiver of arrows slung across her back. This was actually quite a common scene, depicted often enough on the walls of tombs and temples.

What did not make sense to Seren, however, was the fact that this rider was a woman. Women were not employed in the army, and neither were they employed in any form of military exercise. Certainly, some queens exercised great political power during the reigns of their husbands, and some, like Hatshepsut (4), actually did rule as pharaohs in their own right, but none of them had ever been known to go on military expeditions, or at least, train in the military way. Their spheres of influence remained on the political and diplomatic fronts; war was the domain of the men.

Maybe the text will have the answers, Seren thought. That was how it usually was with ancient Egyptian artwork: if one could not conjecture the painting or mural's meaning based on the images, then always look for the text. The answer would most likely be therein.

She turned the page, which revealed row upon row of delicately drawn, but finely detailed, hieroglyphics. Seren could not help but gasp in sheer surprise at the beauty of the pictographs. She would not have been surprised if the text for this book had been written in hieratic (5), but the fact that it was written in hieroglyphics indicated that, whatever this document was, it was of great importance and value – most likely a previously unknown religious text.

She looked up at Keisuke and Tetsuya. "Where did you say you found this again?"

"In the National Library," Keisuke replied. He took the book from Seren's hands. "Look, I know you find it very hard to believe, but I can prove to you that our story is true." As he said so, he pulled The Book of the Four Gods closer to him, and laid the other book on top of it.

Seren gasped, and heard Deryn's soft squeak of surprise as a bright light emanated from the two books.

"What was that?" Deryn murmured, as she looked first at Keisuke, then at Tetsuya. "If that was just some fancy special effect-"

"It isn't," Tetsuya said emphatically. "We are not playing a joke, neither on you nor on your sister. We really, really need your help here."

"If we don't translate this book," here Keisuke lifted the papyrus one that Seren had been looking at a few moments ago, "we'll never know what happens next in the story, and we won't know how to get my sister out of the book. Please Deryn, Seren: I'm begging you. I – we – need your help."

Seren glanced at her younger sister, who was looking back at her with a curious and almost helpless gaze. It was obvious that, whatever needed to be done, it was Seren's choice. Deryn would go along with whatever she decided.

Seren closed her eyes, and exhaled a breath, trying to calm herself down. What she had just seen – what she had just heard from Keisuke and Tetsuya – was ridiculous, almost absurd. People did not get sucked into books. Books did not glow when they come into contact with one another.

Oddly enough, a line from Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet came to mind: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy…"

"So will you help us?" Tetsuya asked.

Seren opened her eyes, and looked at the two young men sitting across the table from her, and nodded her head. "Yes, we'll help you."

Deryn sighed, and stood up. "I'm going to go and lock the doors and close the curtains. Don't want anyone seeing what we're doing in here."

Seren sighed, but smiled as she watched Deryn exit the room. As she disappeared around the corner, she turned to Keisuke and Tetsuya, and said: "Look, why don't you two go to the study? It's the room on the right-hand side of the living room. Deryn and I will just clean up here, and then we'll follow you. Don't hesitate to make yourselves comfortable; I have a feeling it's going to be a long night."

(1) "Ma" and "Da" are two shorthand terms used to refer to "mother" and "father," respectively, in countries like Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where the Celtic language is spoken.

(2) The Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egyptian rulers was established by General Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's favored companions. After Alexander died Ptolemy chose to settle in the city of Alexandria, where he founded a dynasty that lasted for 250 years, well into the time of the Romans. The dynasty ended with the death of Queen Cleopatra, and Egypt then became a part of the Roman Empire. This happened at around 31 BC, during the rise of Octavius (Caesar Augustus) to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar.

(3) One of the historical periods of ancient Egyptian history, which stretched from 1550 BC to 1070 BC. It was during this time that some of the most famous kings of ancient Egypt, like Tutankhamun and Rameses II, lived and ruled.

(4) Hatshepsut, or Ma'atkare', was a Queen-Pharaoh, the fifth ruler of the 18th Dynasty, and lived from 1473 BC to approximately 1458 BC. During her reign as pharaoh she assumed all the male titles and even the male garb that was traditional of pharaohs. She is most renowned for her building projects; unlike her male counterparts, she is not known for having led any military expeditions or the like.

(5) Hieratic is a type of shorthand used for day-to-day record keeping in ancient Egypt, since the hieroglyphics that are depicted on the walls of temples and tombs are far too impractical for everyday use.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

methodic madness - Thank you for taking the time to write a long and comprehensive review of my first chapter.

Forgive me if the description of the Four Gods seemed tedious; it was, as you had guessed, for the benefit of those who had not yet seen images of the Four Gods. I wanted to ensure that they would be able to see the gods as they had appeared to Taiitsu-kun, just in case. Though yes, even I will admit that it sounds tedious, but it is solely because of the fact that you and I have actually seen pictures of them already.

As for Genbu bringing up the Seishi and his Miko, I have fixed that already when I redid the previous chapter. It was a very raw chapter that I placed up, and I should have taken more care in that aspect.

Concering Irisi, I do not think you will have much to worry about her. In the first place, I do not think I will be pairing her up with any of the Suzaku, Seiryuu, or even Byakko and Genbu Seishi, though that may change as the story progresses, depending upon my whim. As for the new characters in this chapter - the Kendallsisters -I am still not sure if I will work on that particular angle I had in mind, but if not, then neither of them will be finding their way into the book - or books.

And you are right: my summary is rather misleading because it makes it out as if Irisi went to seek aid from Konan first. That is not necessarily the truth -since she came from the southwest, she would have come across Sailo first, and then headed where she would, but where she goes after passing through Sailo will be something to come out in the next chapters.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and will continue to read more as I slowly put up the rest of this story. Again, I thank you for your review.

Cheeto - Thank you for reviewing my story. I hope that you will continue to read as I putmore of this story up gradually. Again,I thank you.