KNY: Okay Minnasan! Let's roll!
Joey: Whaddya mean "Minnasan"? Only two people reviewed!
KNY: You. Off my planet. NOW!
Joey: poofs away
KNY: Now we'll have Yami come do the disclaimer! smile
Yami: Roses are red. Violets are blue. KNY doesn't own YGO. And neither do you!
KNY: Thank you Yami-kun!
Yami: Can I go home now?
KNY: No.
Yami: sigh
A Goddess's Vengeance
When she first opened her human eyes, they glowed a soft, milky blue, like those of a week-old kitten. As she grew, the blue deepened and hardened until her eyes shone a clear, true aquamarine, like the eyes of a cat. Those aqua eyes named her, when she grew too old to simply be called "Lali"-"little jewel"-like all the other little girls dwelling in the House of Nine Jewels. Cat-eyes.
Cat-eyes grew swiftly towards womanhood, as if some inner goad urged her to maturity. Although cool and aloof, and far too fond of her own way for Ugrata-Ma's liking, the girl lapped up knowledge as if it alone would make her fortune. By the time she was twelve, Cat-eyes possessed all the skills she required, and more besides.
She knew how to paint her face to skillfully enhance her slanting eyes and her small, prim mouth. She knew how to select veils to set off the whiteness of her skin and bright jewels to highlight her deep violet hair. She could recite amorous love lyrics, epic poems, and riddles. She could tell fortunes and play chess.
She could sing in a pure, clear voice, and she knew all the appropriate songs for every occasion, and when each should be sung, how, and why.
And she could dance-and when Cat-eyes danced, even the most arrogant of the House's bartered jewels stopped to stare, entranced, as Cat-eyes arched and swayed across silken carpets, her garments flowing about her like wayward leaves.
She had learned cruel skills, too: the crafts of perfumes and poisons. But these dark talents were hers alone. Ugrata-Ma did not know all that Cat-eyes knew.
And one day, Ugrata-Ma pronounced Cat-eyes ready, and Cat-eyes smiled.
She had been ready for a long time.
As with so many who dwelt in the half-world between destitution and respectability, Ugrata-Ma was a great believer in tradition. Tradition declared that a newly unveiled Jewel sing and dance before those who would then bargain for her charms. Though normally courtesans danced in the House, the pharaoh's advisors had informed her, most discreetly of course, that the some lords would be willing to pay much for the violet-haired beauty, perhaps even the pharaoh himself. For Cat-eyes' first night before the men, Ugrata-ma outdid herself: the inner courtyard of the pharaoh's palace became a dream of desire, a false garden perfumed by jasmine garlands coiled about the marble pillars and china roses in silver bowls. For once, lavish expenditure did not trouble Ugrata; the courtesan Cat-eyes would lavishly repay the generosity shown by the House of Nine Jewels.
Ugrata-Ma had selected those who were to attend the evening's entertainment with the utmost care, restricting the guests to the cities richest and most influential men. She was surprised when the nobleman arrived, for she had not invited him-not this time. But he came riding up alone to the palace, dismounted, and casually tossed his horse's reins toward a waiting servant.
"I hear you've something new to show," the Egyptian lord said, and Ugrata-Ma bowed, hastily recalculating. This particular lord tended to be arrogant and difficult at times, but this one was rich- rich enough to buy blind eyes and new playthings after his coarse hands had killed Marjari. But her death had been a long ago incident, and Ugrata-Ma cultivated forgetfulness like a rare flower.
Now she smiled and invited the lord across the threshold into the inner courtyard- and forgot to wonder who had invited him to attend this special night…
Behind a gilded ebony screen, Cat-eyes stood watching as Ugrata-Ma escorted the lord to the second-best seat in the courtyard, the best being the pharaoh's of course.
The man who had once killed a courtesan and her little cat had come at last. As Cat-eyes had known he would come when she carefully inscribed the letter that had invited him here tonight.
He was neither so young nor so handsome as he had been fifteen years before. Sun had burned him a deep, dusty brown; wine had coarsened and blurred the lines of his face; time had faded his once glossy, black hair. But nothing could alter his stone-pale eyes. Unseen Cat-eyes stared at those arrogant eyes; her veil twitched as her rose-painted fingers toyed with the glittering fabric, and her neat, pink tongue licked her reddened lips.
"Do not be nervous, child." Fussy as an old hen, Ugrata-Ma adjusted a strand of pearls lying across Cat-eyes' breast. Ugrata-Ma's fingers trembled, and the pearls rattled softly, a sound like raindrops upon leaves.
"I am not nervous," Cat-eyes said, ignoring her mentor's fretting.
"You are the most precious of my jewels- you are perfection itself."
"Yes," said Cat-eyes, "I know." And then she waited until Ugrata-Ma bustled off to sit beside her most important guests; waited, still as stone, until it was time to walk out from behind the ebony screen into the flower-decked courtyard. To walk out before the waiting men- and dance…
Pharaoh Yami wanted to groan in boredom, but then his blasted priests would frown at him for that show of disrespect. They were the ones who had wanted him to come here in the first place. He had absolutely no intention of finding a bride, not right now anyway. He fully meant to simply watch whatever little show of scantily-clad women they had to offer, let his lords bid like they always did, and then go to bed.
It had been an abnormally rough day for the young pharaoh. There had been reports of slave rebellions on several of the providences, fifteen tomb robberies, and an assassination attempt on top of all that!
He covered a yawn and tried unsuccessfully to find a more comfortable spot on the golden throne. Who ever came up with a solid gold throne was a complete and total idiot. That, or they obviously didn't know what it was like to sit in a metal chair all day.
Yami's red-purple eyes drifted over to an old crone who had just walked up in front of the courtyard after seating Katsuro.
"My lords," she intoned, trying to sound impressive and failing miserably in Yami's opinion, "I am Ugrata-Ma, owner and proprietor of the House of Nine Jewels. I have for you a show starring nothing but my absolute finest. A girl of unparalleled beauty and unsurpassed skill who at the young, robust age of fifteen has already mastered all of the skills that still elude even the most experienced of my courtesans. But rather than attempt to describe her, I'll simply allow her now to perform for you tonight. Gentlemen, in her very first performance, may I present the courtesan Cat-eyes!"
Yami's eyes, which had previously been clouded with fatigue, instantly snapped open as what he could only describe as a goddess entered the courtyard…
Within the courtyard, the air was hot and still, the scent of roses and jasmine heavy as smoke. Cat-eyes walked across a carpet of velvet, soft as spring grass beneath her rose-painted feet. At the center of the courtyard, she paused, her eyes cast modestly down, waiting still and poised as a goddess… and a heartbeat before the music began, Cat-eyes teal eyes snapped open, and stared into the lord's cruel eyes. And then, as the music began to swirl through the heated air, and slowly, sensuously, Cat-eyes began to dance.
At first, her masculine audience murmured with delight as they watched. But gradually, almost imperceptibly, the sounds of approbation ceased, dying away until the only sound within the courtyard was the languid swirl of music and the chime of gold against gem as Cat-eyes danced.
Fluid as sunlight, she wove across the Persian carpet, light and joyous as a cat dancing after a butterfly in a harem garden. Graceful as moonlight, she drifted like incense and passion's sighs through the perfumed air.
Supple as midnight, she flowed within the music, a carnal shadow to the love song's pure ardent cries. And as she danced, Cat-eyes never lifted her intent, hunting gaze from the lord's avid, greedy face. And unbeknownst to her, a pair of violet eyes never left her as well…
The Egyptian lord wanted her; that outcome had been ordained long before Cat-eyes set her pretty foot on the velvet garden spread before him. The only question was of price- and whatever Ugrata-Ma asked, Cat-eyes knew the lord would pay.
Cat-eyes remained seated in the final pose in the lovers' dance, motionless as a waiting cat, and Ugrata-Ma feigned doubt and misgivings, and the man responded in harsh, urgent tones.
At last, Ugrata-Ma yielded to his persuasions, and beckoned. At the single, Cat-eyes rose and padded over to the dais, setting each foot so gently on the Persian carpet that the silver bangles around her ankles made no sound. Cat-eyes bowed before the man who wished to become her master and touched her smooth forehead to his sandaled foot.
"Pretty little thing," the lord commented, lifting Cat-eyes' pointed chin with his toe so he could look at her skillfully painted face. "Well-trained too," he added approvingly, and bent forward to pat Cat-eyes on her cool cheek. "Had a dog like that once."
Ugrata-Ma smiled politely, and- most discreetly, opened negotiations for this most glittering prize of all her costly jewels.
And so the arrangement was made. Cat-eyes herself took no part in the bargaining that followed; she knew the outcome, for she knew that until the greedy lord possessed her, his desire for that possession would overrule all other lusts. She need not fear that he would refuse to pay what Ugrata-Ma asked. And Cat-eyes had her own preparations to make before their evening of passions could be consummated.
Cat-eyes studied her long, elegantly filed nails, and smiled like a cat in sunlight…
Tonight he would come, and she would be ready for him. She had dressed for the equation with exquisite care, each choice, each selection, flawless and deliberate. Now she shimmered in silks of midnight and moonglow, a phantom in ebony and ivory. Black and white; a strange choice for a courtesan's first night. But Cat-eyes had insisted, and Cat-eyes had a knack for getting her own way.
'Black and white for memory. And now red, for luck…'Cat-eyes touched her forefinger to the scarlet powder in the alabaster jar and then pressed the reddened fingertip to the smooth skin of her forehead. Tilting her head, Cat-eyes inspected her face in the mirror inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The luck-spot gleamed between the violet crescent moons of her brows like fresh blood.
'Perfect. I am perfect.' Smiling a cat's small smile, Cat-eyes laid the mirror back down again on the rosewood table. She was perfect and was perfectly ready for tonight's events.
'It has been fifteen years since you slew a courtesan and her little cat, arrogant lord. Fifteen years you have gone unpunished for your sins.' Cat-eyes smiled again, her teeth shone like ivory fangs against her crimson lips. 'Now, dog, you will learn the faithfulness of cats.'
Beyond the sandalwood door, she heard heavy footfalls, and even heavier breathing; the mingled scents of alcohol and carnivore's rank sweat seeped through the latticework. Cat-eyes wrinkled her nose in distaste, then schooled her expression to one of modest welcome. It was a simple matter, for the ruse need only fool a man.
She sat her eyes cast meekly down, lashes masking cunning blue-green eyes, mouth curved in a goddess's serene smile. Hands folded placidly in her lap, half-hidden by the misty folds of her veil. As the door slowly opened, Cat-eyes allowed her rose-painted fingers to stretch and curve as a hunting cat might flex its velvet-sheathed claws.
In the soft breath of wind from the opening door, lamplight danced and shadows flickered. The little flames within the pierced lovers' lamps scattered about the room flared tiger-bright.
And in the light of those shadowed flames, Cat-eyes freshly gilded and poisoned nails flashed as long and sharp as claws…
KNY: Okay, that's it all!
Yami: Can I go- NOW?
KNY: Must you? hands Yami Dark Magician plushie
Yami: No, I don't! grabs plushie REVIEW!!
KNY: You heard the pharaoh! R&R!
Yami: Didn't they already read?
KNY: Good point. Well, REVIEW THEN! Push the little purple button!