Summary: In which we finally meet the Pharaoh, take part in a reconciliation, and first take note of the tombs. Oh yes, and meet our beloved brown-haired, blue-eyed Priest.
Disclaimer: I wish.
Author's notes: Sorry I haven't updated anytime soon. Lily-sama tells me the first sentence is bad. Any suggestions?
(Beta-ed by Lily-sama!)
(Title Suggested by Zoo-sama!)
Red and Blue
Chapter 3
~*~
The Pharaoh was going away again. In itself, this was nothing new. With problems constantly coming up all over the kingdom, it was expected that the Pharaoh would have to travel in order to observe or settle these problems. This time, however, something was different.
There was a major sandstorm going on near the village that was his destination, the scouts had reported back. Not wishing to endanger their monarch, the villagers had sent word that he should wait until it was over before setting out. Unfortunately, this left the days that had been allotted for the journey empty, all work having been distributed to underlings in anticipation of the now cancelled trip.
Which was why the Pharaoh was currently sitting in the private room allotted for him just off from the Throne Room. The only place he could go where he wouldn't be interrupted.
He sighed when he heard a knock at the door. Scratch that. The only place he could go where there was even the slightest chance that he wouldn't be interrupted.
"Come in." He stood up, expecting the High Priest or one of the senior clerks. When he saw the Sibyl girl walk in, he dropped all masks and stared. "What are you doing here?" He panicked; he had completely forgotten her name, which wasn't surprising. Seeing someone sporadically and never speaking to them wasn't an ideal circumstance for remembering names. Except in the case of his son.
The girl looked at him through eyes of sapphire blue. For some reason they reminded him of his son's crimson ones. Perhaps because red and blue together made purple, the color of royalty, the color that permeated his entire life. And had destroyed it. "So, you're…"
"Isis." She answered simply.
"Very well then. Why are you here, Isis?"
"It's about your son." Somehow, just by walking forwards, the thirteen year old could look menacing. "Perhaps you haven't heard about what happened last week?"
"I heard there was a disturbance…"
Isis snorted, losing her previous menacing expression. "A disturbance. Well, I suppose in the opinion of the High Priest, it was nothing more than that." Her voice chilled suddenly. "And I suppose that you, like your advisors, who are, excuse my audacity, completely incompetent, consider an attempt to kidnap the Crown Prince merely a disturbance."
"What? Who dared…"
"Here, majesty, is the only time when such an attempt will be uncomplicated. The kidnappers were after money. Simple street thugs. Next time, that won't be the case."
The Pharaoh glanced at her sharply. She was, after all, one of the Sibyls, even at thirteen. "Are you sure of this?" If she knew, then perhaps they could prevent it…
But she didn't answer the question. She only looked at him with a strange expression, a mixture of affected confusion and concern. Sighing, the Pharaoh walked away to look out the window at the riverside. It figured that the Sibyls wouldn't be allowed to say anything about the future to other people.
"Do you know what he said?"
"Pardon?"
"It was thanks to him that the gang held back long enough for his friends to help us. So, do you know what he said when the gang leader threatened him?"
Turning back, the Pharaoh focused a level-eyed gaze on the shorter girl. "No; and I would greatly appreciate your relation of the tale to me." This was as close as the Pharaoh would ever come to begging.
Isis closed her eyes, remembering. "'He will give you nothing. The Pharaoh will give you nothing. The kingdom cannot be risked solely for the sake of one person.'" Looking at the stunned Pharaoh again, she simply smiled. "Forgive me for disturbing you, your
Majesty. I'll leave you now." With one hand already on the door, she was ready to leave completely when the Pharaoh spoke.
"He was wrong, you know."
Surprised, she whirled around.
"He was wrong." Grinning rakishly at her, the first genuine smile that had been on his face in a long time, he repeated himself. "I would have given up anything to see him safe."
Appeased at last, Isis pushed open the door. "I'm glad to see that I was wrong about you as well."
~*~
Yami waited impatient for the meeting to end. The Pharaoh had promised to talk to him about something. Shaking with a mixture of happiness and anxiety, Yami glared at the door. When were they going to finish?
"Who are you waiting for?" He heard a soft voice behind him ask. Confused, he glanced behind him. "Oh." Sounding surprised, the brown-haired boy hastily sketched a bow, murmuring, "Forgive me, your Majesty."
Yami sighed. He hated it when the courtiers did that. This boy, though he didn't look like just a courtier, appeared to be just as bad. "Please just get up," he said, surprised when the boy quickly obeyed, eyes still respectfully downcast. The other boy looked to be only a little older though he was much taller, with brown hair. His skin was tanned; he obviously spent plenty time outside, though probably less than Jou and Honda did, as both of them had skin that was quickly burned brown by the sun. Yami spent more time indoors than either of them; his skin was only lightly tanned, testimony to his few outdoor excursions. Isis was very deeply tanned, typical of most Egyptians, though she didn't spend any extra time outdoors that he could tell. Curious, Yami asked, "What's your name?"
"Seto. I'm the son of the High Priest." Yami watched as Seto cautiously raised his head, worried that it would be considered rude. His eyes were a very bright very deep blue, Yami mused. 'He's much too polite for his own good. Though that can probably attributed to his father. Any child that polite was probably raised by extremely strict parents or simply putting up a façade.' Spending time with Jou and Honda (the former being the one who had given him that philosophy), neither of who felt inclined to keep up with formal manners in his presence, had probably given him a predilection for easy, informal courtesy.
"Yami." He stated unnecessarily, holding out a hand. "Nice to meet you." Seto took his hand slowly, seeming unsure that laying hands on the sacred person of the Crown Prince was allowed. "And to answer your previous question, I'm waiting for the damned meeting to be over so I can talk to my father." Apparently, Yami talking like this had reassured Seto and he answered candidly.
"Oh, it'll probably be another fifteen minutes." He glanced at the door in annoyance. "I'm the messenger, so I have to keep them informed about whatever. The last I heard was that they're trying to get that business with the illegal docking resolved or whatever." He hesitated then, as if he were mentally going over the information in his head to see whether or not it was appropriate for a Prince. It apparently (barely) passed muster because the other boy leaned down slightly and whispered. "The Pharaoh has been cutting a lot of meetings short lately. Well, not really lately. For a while, anyway, and that's been annoying a lot of the councilors no end. Since they really like talking, the meetings used to be so much longer. It's good that he's been doing so; it forces them to choose their words more carefully when their time limit is running out. So, now they're phrasing in ten words what they used to say in twenty or more." Chuckling as if at a private joke, he continued, "They have no real right to complain anyway. The same amount gets done, except in half the time." Straightening again, he looked wistfully at Yami. "It's nice that he spends the extra time with you."
Startled, Yami looked up at Seto. "So all the time he's been spending with me recently…it's because he cuts these meetings short?" He felt guilty about that. "I didn't know I was interrupting anything important…"
You're not." Seto said quickly. "I'm sorry if I gave you that impression. A lot of those meetings weren't really that important anyway; petty disputes really. The Pharaoh didn't even have to be at most of them, but the people insisted on his presence for every single trivial matter." He sighed. "People can be really silly about things, can't they? My father asked him to delegate these matters to the lesser judges, but the Pharaoh cares about what the people think about him. Anyway, recently he's been leaving more matters to the clerks and the Priests. It's made my father's job a bit bigger, but he didn't really have that much to do before anyway. The jobs are still distributed very fairly; the Pharaoh really is a good ruler. We're glad that he doesn't take everything up on his own shoulders anymore. Frees him up for the more important things." Seto winked at him.
'How does he know things that I don't?' Yami thought wonderingly. 'It's so nice of him to explain them to me. I know the older boys don't like talking to younger ones very much; I mean, sure I'm the Crown Prince, but I'm really just a little kid.' Seto was rapidly taking a place along with Jou and Honda as older friends he actually liked. Jou more than Honda though. Honda was the one who actually remembered Who He Was and treating him accordingly much more than Jou did. With Jou, he could play games without worrying that he would "let" him win. Honda did that far too often for his liking.
Just then, the door opened and out stepped the High Priest. "Seto, I need you to…Highness!" Bowing just as his son had, he turned back to the other. "I sincerely hope that he hasn't been bothering…" Seto looked abashed.
"No. No, he hasn't," said Yami hurriedly. After all, he didn't want Seto getting in trouble when he had been so kind to him. "I really enjoyed talking with him." He smiled disarmingly up at the High Priest, directing his next question at Seto. "Maybe we can talk again some time?"
"O-Of course." Both answered as one.
"Is the meeting over then, Father?" Seto asked courteously.
Handing him a piece of paper, the High Priest nodded. "Yes, and not one of the councilors went off on wild tangents again. If we keep this up, we're going to run out of things to do before the harvest season." He joked. "Please take this to the Harbormaster; he'll know what to do with it." When Seto had run off, the High Priest looked down at Yami again. With a kind smile for the boy, he gestured inside the Council room. "He'll be out very soon; he's just wrapping up some last minute details. By your leave, then," and he hurried off towards the Temple.
'I wonder why all the courtiers say "by your leave" and "your Majesty" more often than anything else. Coupled with their convoluted language, it's really no wonder the meetings used to take so long. In fact, I'd have been more surprised if they hadn't.' He didn't understand all of this from just one conversation; his brain had been putting the information together for a long time: the way the courtiers always seemed to put things in such flowery language in front of him, the annoyed looks on the High Priest's face (small wonder he had always acted slightly pompous and self-righteous when, in reality, he was really very kind; he'd had to adopt it for survival!), and the days it had taken for even the simplest action (giving food to villages suffering from drought, for example) to be carried out.
The door opened and Yami pressed himself against a wall to avoid the notice of the courtiers who were filing out. Vowing to get rid of them except in the decorative function, or at least phasing out most of their duties as his father had done when he was Pharaoh, he glared at the ostensibly endless line. He couldn't go in until they had all gone. Meanwhile, he tried to figure out exactly how he would carry out his plan. 'Maybe I could figure out a way to send most of them to foreign posts somewhere. That wouldn't be fair to their families though, so, what if I formed a temporary executive board? They could vote on members.' He glowered at the slowly moving courtiers. 'Yes, that would probably work. There are so many of them! That has to contribute to the problem somehow. Of course, voting them to office has its own problems, what with corruption, buying votes from others and all that. Ah well, that's the last of them.' Mentally laughing at the absurdity of the situation (a ten-year-old thinking about political science? Hah!), Yami darted in among the last remaining courtiers to see his father.
~*~
"Are you insane? He'll never agree to it!"
Sighing, Jou shook his head. "No, Honda. You think he won't agree with my idea for two reasons. One, because it's my idea, not yours, and you're jealous. Secondly, you're constantly superimposing your views of what the ideal Crown Prince should or should not do on Yami! How do you know how he thinks?" He finished triumphantly.
"I am not! And I'm not 'superimposing' my views or whatever you think. I just know that he won't like the idea!"
"See? There you go again. 'You know.'"
Interposing from the safety of the sidelines, Anzu called out, "I don't think you guys should fight about that now…"
Both of the boys turned toward her and snarled. "Why the hell not?"
Anzu sighed then, much as Jou had before, throwing her hands up in exaggerated despair, putting the small square of cloth and the needle in those hands in danger of being flung right into one of the boys' eyes. "At least keep it down a little?" Bending her head back over her sewing, she couldn't repress a small smile. Oh well. It would be their own fault for not listening to her.
Turning back towards each other, they continued arguing, though more calmly and quietly. Wouldn't do to attract extra attention, after all.
"I don't see what's wrong with my idea. And don't say, 'You mean besides the fact that it's your idea?' I'm not completely stupid and it's a good idea."
"It's a good idea if you want to get him killed." Honda muttered, obviously put out that Jou had taken the words right out of his mouth.
"And what's wrong with going to the Tombs? We'll be there, won't we? We'll make sure nothing happens to him and I know he'd love the idea."
"I doubt we can deal with whatever's been going on there recently."
"I can't believe you're buying all that. How do you know those crazy courtiers didn't just make it up? You know how easily they're scared."
Glaring daggers at Jou, Honda grit his teeth and ground out, "Then, by your reasoning, my father is easily scared. And, by your reasoning, fully half the members of the Royal Guard, who are, might I add, trained very extensively in at least a dozen different fighting techniques each, are also easily scared. That being said, forgive me if being in the company of an idiot and the Crown Prince, a prime target for kidnapping, out by the Tombs miles away from safety makes me scared."
"There you go again. Yami is not just a liability. You've seen him; he can put you in the ground more times than I can, and that's saying something." Muffled laughter interrupted him here. Looking pointedly at Honda and Anzu (which, for some reason, caused her to drop her stitching with a curse and hide her face), Jou waited for the amusement to peter out. Which it did, though much too slowly. "You don't think Yami can do it, do you?"
"Think I can do what?" he heard a cheerful voice behind him, coming, strangely, from about shoulder height. 'It couldn't be. The meeting wasn't supposed to end for another hour at least.'
"Yami! What are you doing here?"
"Being talked about, apparently." The Crown Prince returned cheerfully. "What was it about?"
Taking pity on him, Anzu interjected with, "Why aren't you still at the meeting?"
"Oh, it ended almost half an hour ago. I met someone new there too! And, of course, I got to talk with…Father."
It hurt Jou that Yami still found that word unfamiliar and hard to get out. Still, he was relieved that he wouldn't be called on to explain his previous words.
"…He wanted to ask for my opinion on a tightened guard around the Tombs. I told him that it wouldn't do to be sure without actually inspecting the situation personally, after all the recent thefts. And guess what?"
Jou and Honda exchanged glances. How could it be? They were just talking about the Tombs themselves! "What?" Both answered at once.
"He wants me, and a small detachment of Guards, to go with him! And, well, I wanted to ask you. Would you go with me?"
A chance to see the Tombs legitimately! "Of course!" They replied enthusiastically. Unfortunately, enthusiasm to them usually involved some slight bodily injury to the person who was the cause of this.
Yami winced a little as he left to inform his father and the High Priest. His hair was completely disheveled and he had a small bruise on his arm from when Jou had gripped it too hard.
As Anzu watched him leave, she couldn't suppress the feeling that this had happened too easily. "I hope he doesn't get in trouble there. Considering the way you two were talking before, I'd say he should be worried."
"Oh, please, Anzu. You're just angry that he didn't ask you!"
"Could I have gone even if he had?" Smiling somewhat pensively, she picked up the cloth she had been sewing on before and walked away.
"She's right, you know." Honda whispered to Jou. "Yami was trying to spare her feelings when he didn't ask her. I'm still glad we're going though!"
"So, you're not afraid of the 'ghost'?" Jou asked, emphasizing the last word to give the impression of mockery. "Even some of the most famous tomb robbers are afraid of it. We're talking about people who choose to spend their time in deep dark pyramids filled with the embalmed bodies of dead Pharaohs, which isn't even mentioning the other things in there."
"I'm more frightened of the tomb robbers. At least we know they exist. And, since they do, what harm their weapons can do to us."
~*~Owari~*~
Endnotes: Wow…I finally got around to obvious foreshadowing. Good for me!
Review, please?