Chapter Four

Isis awoke and stretched. Yawning, she looked at her watch. 7:04; she had to leave for work in an hour.

She got up from bed and lit the torch in her room, then changed into one of her "work" dresses. Deciding to leave her hair down, at least for the moment, she left her room to see if anyone was awake.

Seto probably was. It had been a week, and he had yet to find mention of the blue-eyed girl in the scrolls he chose. Each time he failed to find her, he became more determined. So he was in the library every morning, copying hieroglyphs obsessively.

Isis wondered who the girl was, that she could upset Seto so. Because it was quite clear that he was upset. He was adamantly determined to find the girl, and his inability to do so was frustrating him. Yet he refused any help other than proofreading. Isis had had to resist the desire to offer again and again to search through some of the texts and see if she could find the girl. He turned her down the first time, and he'd been quite annoyed. And she'd said she'd stop. But she was having difficulty keeping that promise.

Why won't he let me help? Isis wondered. Although, truthfully, she probably knew why he refused her help: he preferred to work alone, and of all people, Isis was probably one of the ones whose assistance he'd like least. But she still wanted to help him. It was a reason to be near him, after all.

Because despite all logic, she found that she had indeed grown very fond of him. She wanted to be near him, to speak with him and learn about his feelings.

But he rejected her presence. And though she tried not to let it bother her, it was painful to see how little interest he paid her.

As she passed the library, Isis looked in and paused. Seto was sitting at the library table, which had at least three scrolls spread out on it. But he was not writing, which was strange. Usually he copied non-stop. Now he was just staring at a scroll. She watched him for a moment, and in some corner of her mind she thought, he's beautiful when he's concentrating. But then she noticed that he looked troubled.

"Seto…?" Isis asked hesitantly. He didn't respond. Isis walked up to him and touched him on the shoulder. "Seto? Is everything alright?"

She felt him give a slight jump under her hand. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, seeming contemplative. "Is something wrong…?" Isis said, worried.

Seto shrugged. The movement brought Isis's attention to the fact that her hand was still on his shoulder, so she quickly pulled it away.

Then, appearing to make a decision, Seto gestured towards the top of the scroll and asked in a business-like tone, "What does this say?"

Blinking at the unexpected question, Isis glanced at the top of the scroll, taking in its meaning and translating it to its rough Japanese equivalent: "Today I found a strange girl while hunting. I saved her life. She—"

"That's enough." Seto's face was taut, and his voice was flat and irritated. "The next part is 'She has unusually light skin and hair, and blue eyes. The villagers were stoning her for their bad luck, thinking her a witch.' "

He can read it!! Isis gasped. "Y-yes!" she exclaimed in wonder. "That's exactly right! How… how did you know!?"

Seto was scowling. He pushed back his chair and gathered the scrolls. "I don't know and I don't care," he snapped. To Isis's surprise, he began to put the scrolls back on the bookshelf.

"Wait!" she cried, grasping his arm. He glared at her, but she continued, "Seto, doesn't it sound like that's the girl?" He didn't answer. "And the fact that you can read it, it's a sign! This is what you're looking for!"

Seto scowled more deeply and pulled his arm out of her grip. "A sign?" he asked sarcastically. "A freak event hardly seems to me like a sign. I doubt this has occurred to you, but I'm not supposed to be able to read this."

"But…" Isis watched helplessly as Seto reshelved the scroll and looked for another. "But that one specifically mentions a strange girl! You should be glad you can read it! She's probably the one you're looking for!"

For a second, Seto met her eyes, then looked away. Isis caught her breath at the emotions contained in that short glance: annoyance, frustration… fear? No, that was impossible, certainly, Isis thought; but she knew it wasn't. Seto was afraid of his strange ability, his supernatural ability, to read the hieroglyphs. Suddenly, Isis pitied him. She'd known before that he had a low tolerance for things out-of-the-ordinary, for the unexplainable. But it seemed uncharacteristic for him to allow that fear to interfere with what he wanted… normally he let nothing stand in his way. Was it really so disturbing to him, this piece of his past?

Quietly, Isis said, "Do what you like, Seto."

He gave her a look that said like I need your permission to do that. Hand hesitating by the shelf, he gave a low growl of frustration, then yanked out the scroll he had just replaced.

The one he could read.

He gave Isis another look, this one daring her to say anything. She didn't, instead bowing to him and turning away. Only then did she allow herself a small, pleased smile.

Isis couldn't concentrate at work. She was too worried about Seto, wondering whether or not he was learning anything from the scroll he could suddenly read. She hurried through everything she could, barely taking a lunch break, cursing the day she'd decided to keep her job with the Egyptian government. She turned down three new assignments and yelled at the person who brought one she couldn't ignore. She wanted to go home already!

Finally, she could. Eager and impatient, she rode the bus to the edge of the city and walked from there, instead of going on foot the whole way as usual. As she walked across the desert, an idea occurred to her. Could Seto read the scroll because it was written by Priest Set—his past self—and he unconsciously remembered writing it?

Come to think of it, the text had seemed like a journal from what Isis had seen. Was it possible that it was Set's?

Isis paused for a moment as she realized the implications of this discovery, then sped up with excitement. If it was true, Seto would discover things far more important than the identity of a mysterious girl. He would learn of his role in the Pharaoh's court, and understand the reason behind his rivalry with Yuugi, and…

And he wouldn't care a bit. Isis sighed as she realized that no matter how important Seto's past was, it meant nothing to him. He barely agreed to refer to Set as his past self and refused to acknowledge any other connection.

And he had even been disinclined to research this girl originally, Isis remembered. It was only after persistent dreams of the strange girl that he reluctantly asked the Ishtars for help.

But despite that, Isis doubted that he would stop now until he knew everything possible about this girl, especially after finding the journal that seemed to speak of her. His fervor for finding the mysterious girl grew with every day that passed. It had almost become an obsession.

"Hey, Isis!" Malik's voice called, breaking Isis's train of thought as the tomb came into sight. Malik was standing near the tomb, waving. He must have just returned from the market—Isis and Rishid had decided that it was unreasonable to ask Malik to stay inside now.

"Hi, Malik," Isis replied. "How was your day?"

"Too short, as usual," he sighed, referring to the time he'd spent outside. "Made even shorter by the fact that I stayed in to check out the miracle text of Kaiba's."

The two went inside. "Oh? Did you discover anything interesting?" Isis questioned her younger brother.

"It's one of the journals that Father didn't want us to read, because he felt them biased and unimportant." Isis could hear the slightly amused tone in Malik's voice.

"So it is a journal!" she exclaimed. "I thought it was."

"It's Priest Set's, too."

Isis smiled. "I'm going to go see how he's doing," she said.

She quickly went to the library. Seto looked up as she entered. He asked dryly, "Has Malik told you the good news? It's my past self's journal." Isis nodded and Seto added, "You must be thrilled."

"Why do you say that?"

Seto's voice did not lose its dry tone. "Because this is an important opportunity for me to learn about my past, is it not?"

"All that matters to me is that you find that girl," Isis lied with a straight face. "I didn't even think of that."

"Liar," Seto accused.

"Fine, so it did cross my mind," she admitted. Rather eager to change the subject, she added, "Did you learn anything about the girl?"

"Her soul monster is an extremely powerful dragon," he replied. "An extremely powerful white dragon."

Isis gasped. "The Blue-Eyes!" she exclaimed.

Seto nodded. "And that's why my past self was interested in her." He said this almost defensively, as if fearing Isis would think otherwise. "He wanted its power."

"Are you sure that's all…?"

"If it weren't, don't you think he'd write it in his journal?"

Isis sighed and nodded, then began to leave. As she reached the door, Seto spoke up. "Her name is Kisara," he said.

Isis looked back and smiled. "Kisara," she repeated. "It's a nice name."