Chapter Eleven

"Kisara, I… I think you should leave the palace."

Seto was caught in the grip of a memory. His head burned whenever he tried to pull away from, so he helplessly accepted it.

The priest Set was sitting on his bed; Kisara was standing near him. The first thing she said when Set told her she should leave was, predictably, "But then I will not be able to serve you…"

Set sighed. "For the thousandth time, I don't want you to be a servant! I want…" He met her eyes. " I want you to love me."

Breaking Set's gaze, Kisara began to speak, but Set shook his head as she uttered the word "servant."

"I told you, I don't want you as a servant. And there's no way I'll force you to love me."

"High Priest, I will willingly…"

"No." Set looked at the blue-eyed girl longingly, but said, "That's one of the reasons I want you to leave. I don't want something like what happened at supper a few days ago…" He reddened slightly, still ashamed by his actions on that day. "…to get out of hand. And besides, you hate being here, don't you?"

Slowly, Kisara nodded. "Yes," she whispered. "I'm sorry, High Priest."

He shook his head. "It's fine. I understand." Then he paused. There was another reason, but he didn't want to frighten her… However, it was probably best to tell her. "I'm also afraid for your safety if you continue to stay here."

The girl looked up. "My safety?"

"Akunadin… does not seem to value human life. He wants…" Kisara still didn't know about her soul monster. "He wants something you have. I am afraid he will kill you for it."

This information upset her, but still she stuttered, "I-I am bound to your service. If… if I leave, then…"

"Then you will be carrying out my order," Set said firmly. "I order you to leave as soon as possible."

Finally, Kisara bowed in agreement. "As you command, High Priest."

At last, the memory released Seto. He shuddered, still unused to the ferocity with which the memories presented themselves in his mind.

But he was also filled with relief. She's… she's leaving the palace, he thought. That means Set will have no more to do with her, which means there can be nothing more to research! I'm… I'm free of it… Seto was… excited, in a way. Excited that he would be able to escape from his memories—and his reluctant love—of the blue-eyed girl and return to normal life.

And leave Isis. Suddenly, Seto hesitated. Did he want to get away from Isis? His feelings for her seemed to be exactly like his inherited feelings for Kisara, and he knew those were love. But to say that he loved Isis…

And there had been yesterday, too. Isis had just… kissed him. Seto had been utterly shocked by it… but… not in a bad way. He had liked it. A lot.

So did he love Isis? Slowly, Seto answered his own question. Yes. I love Isis. I… I love her. It was almost a relief to admit it.

But somehow, it still made him angry. Ever since he had come to the Ishtars' home, he had been feeling things so much more. It wasn't something he liked. And that, more than anything else, made him want to escape. To go home, deal with his company again. It was easier not to feel…

"Seto?" Isis stood in the doorway to the library, head bowed. She seemed very awkward, probably because of yesterday's kiss. "Would you like to tell me what you discovered today?"

She was giving him a choice, Seto realized immediately. The choice to reject her presence if he was angry with her. He was uncertain for a moment, caught up between two thoughts. The first was long and complicated: if I say I want to talk to her, she'll think I didn't mind the kiss, she'll think I like her, she'll think I want to be with her…

The second was simple: I do want to speak with her.

He compromised by standing and saying as he walked past her to his room: "Set asked Kisara to leave the palace. Since their contact ends with this event, there can be no more for me to research. I'm leaving in the morning. Will you tell Malik for me?" He heard a gasp behind him and tried to will himself not to turn. But he couldn't resist a glance over his shoulder.

Isis was looking at him with wide, shocked, saddened eyes. As soon as she saw Seto turn, she snapped her head to the side, but not before Seto could see tears starting.

"Isis…" Seto heard his voice say softly, before he'd really had a chance to think. Isis raised her eyes again, meeting Seto's. They were longing, deeply longing. But they were sad, too, as though Isis thought she was asking for something she could never have.

Seto was torn in two. In his heart, he wanted to say he loved Isis, wanted so badly to take her in his arms and tell her how much he cared about her. At the same time, though, his mind was rejecting the emotions, trying to restore the unfeeling balance that was always so important to him.

His mind won out.

Gritting his teeth, Seto turned away fiercely and stalked to his room. There's too much here! he told himself. I'm glad to leave!

His body shook as he packed and tried to block all thoughts of Isis and all memories of Kisara from his mind. They aren't important anymore! I'm leaving tomorrow!

I never have to think about them again!

When Seto awoke the next morning, it was to the realization that he'd dreamed about Kisara again. He sat up shakily and tried to make sense of that. That's impossible! he exclaimed in his mind. She's gone. She left the palace! I shouldn't be dreaming about her!

Finally, Seto decided that he had dreamed about Kisara because that was what he had come to expect when he fell asleep. So this dream hadn't been a vision, it had just been a dream… nothing more.

But the uneasiness stayed in his mind, even when he and Isis set off for the airport. Isis had seemed apologetic when she'd said she was coming with him, explaining that she was the only one who knew where the airport was. Seto had only shrugged. He didn't mind.

For a while, they walked silently. Then Isis said uncertainly, "I never told you that I'm… I'm sorry about what I did… that one time." She swallowed, and said in a strained voice, "When I kissed you."

Not sure how to respond, unwilling to tell Isis that he hadn't been angry with her, and far too proud to say how much he'd liked the kiss, Seto just nodded once.

They were silent again.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through Seto's head. He grunted and closed his eyes as a rushing sensation surrounded him.

"Seto…?" he heard Isis's voice cry, but the sound of it was very distant. Seto's mind clouded, blocking out everything around him; then, abruptly, it cleared. But he wasn't walking through the desert anymore.

Immediately, Seto realized what was happening. Another vision?!! It was the first one, the first time Seto ever seen Kisara. But now he was the priest Set instead of floating beside the scene; it was Seto holding Kisara's body in front of the stone tablet bearing the Blue-Eyes White Dragon carving.

And he was sad. Deeply, heartbrokenly sad. Set's—it was Set's, there was no mistaking that—feeling was overpowering, so strong it nearly brought tears to Seto's eyes. As he struggled to fight off the despair, he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

A ghostly Kisara stood beside him. "Please," she said quietly. This time Seto hardly noticed the Egyptian because he was so used to understanding it. "There is still more for you to learn. You must remember my death."

"Your…?!" Seto exclaimed, then looked at the body of Kisara that he held in his arms. She wasn't moving, wasn't breathing. Why hadn't he realized that before? "How did you die?!" he asked, looking from the ghostly figure to the lifeless body and back again.

"That is what you must remember, High Priest," she said quietly. She began to fade.

"Wait, please!" Seto cried. But it was no use. The ghost-Kisara disappeared, leaving Seto alone in Set's memory. Seto looked down at the dead Kisara again, wracking his brains, for once willing to accept all of the foreign memories. How did she die?! But the memories stopped at Set's asking Kisara to leave. They didn't go any further than what he had read. As Seto grasped this, processed what it meant with dismay, the scene vanished from his mind, leaving him to realize that he was on his hands and knees on the hot Egyptian sand. He was sweating and panting from… from shock, from fear, from receiving a vision when he thought he was done with them…

Then he noticed that Isis was kneeling next to him, her hand on his shoulder. "Seto! Seto, are you alright?"

He looked into her deep eyes and saw the concern in them. She really cared about him, really… loved him. But he couldn't let that matter to him right now. He still had research to do.

"I need to go back," he said, trying to cover the shaking in his voice with a determined tone. He got to his feet. "There's something I haven't finished yet."