Sitting on a high throne, the young man bent forward to rest his elbows on his knees; a highly unusual position for a person so powerful. Tri-coloured hair adored his head, magenta and black on the back, blond bangs falling over the chaste, white and golden band that lay around his forehead. Ruby eyes closed momentarily, a sigh escaping the pale lips, before the man jolted as the door opened silently. Again, he sat completely straight, eyes narrowed slightly, and rested his hands on his knees instead of his elbows. In came a guard, out of breath and panting. He fell to his knees in front of the throne.
"Your Highness. . . "
"What is it."
"Prince Atem. . one of the priestesses from the temple sent a message for you. She said it was important.", the guard husked, holding out a piece of parchment and retreated the room with his head lowered. As soon as the man had left, Atem sighed again, and opened the roll of parchment to read the message. With every word he read, his eyes widened a bit more.
The message had been from the High Priestess herself. Hold in concerned phrases, she explained the state that Atem's younger brother was in, and from what he could read, for the message was written in a hasty yet neatly curved hand, Prince Yuugi was all but well. Atem sat back, crumbling the parchment in his hand, and closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall.
The young prince had fallen ill a while ago; and from what the priests could say, it was the same grave disease that had carried off the queen years ago. Atem himself never had any diseases, at least no grave ones, but Yuugi had been a weak child since he was born. Their mother had died shortly after, and now, after the king had gone missing, Atem had to rule. It was said that old King Solomon had been murdered by thieves, and that was why Prince Atem hated all of them and executed everyone who stole and got caught.
Anyways, Yuugi only was a child of eleven summers, and Atem was concerned about him. Lost in thought, he didn't hear the door when it opened.
"Prince Atem?"
The young man's head shot up, and he blinked away the wetness from his eyes quickly, as the tall, slightly sinister figure of the High Priest stepped in.
"Seto."
"Is Prince Yuugi well?"
"I can't say he is. . . "
"I'm sorry about that.", Seto said, but he certainly didn't sound like it. However, Atem didn't blame him; that was just how the Priest's character was.
"You know that the robberies increased, do you?"
"Yes, I've been informed about that. Did you find them?"
"Yes, my Prince. I have found them indeed. They will be here shortly."
Atem nodded, satisfied, and leaned back. He had hired the best assassins there were all over the country. It wouldn't be long until the murder of his father would be revenged.
A few days later, Atem visited his younger brother. Yuugi was delirious, pale and shivering, but he had opened his purple eyes and smiled at the nineteen-year old heir of the throne, extended his hand and fell back to sleep; but Atem stayed, holding the cold, small hand and brushed the golden bangs out of the small forehead. . . and his heart clenched painfully.
"The people you've been waiting for have arrived.", the High Priestess whispered to him, and Atem slowly stood up, leaving his brother with a last glance, and stepped out of the temple into the sun. The Prince looked forward the meeting. Not only he would get his revenge, he would get to see his fiancée as well again. In the distance, he could see them.
When he arrived, they lowered themselves onto one knee, and Atem was stunned. He'd heard the rumours about deadly beauty and elegance. The Prince cleared his throat and mind. He watched the three women who weren't moving the slightest, almost like statues. The first one had long blonde hair, wavy cascading down her shoulders, and was clad in a tight-fitting, sleeveless top, evenly tight shorts that showed off her legs, boots and gloves, all made of shiny black leather. The second one had evenly long, but black and straight hair, was more tanned than the other two and looked as she was older than them, wearing the uniform of a hunter. The third one finally was familiar to Atem, at least a little bit. Seemingly the youngest, she could easily be a boy as well, with short brown hair and wearing a loose white men's chemise. A guard called them by their names, and hearing them, the women stood, locking gazes with the young Prince.
"Mai Ventur, sanctified by Derrya, Goddess of Passion."
The blonde stood, fiery violet eyes on the Prince.
"Isis Ventur, sanctified by Nirrya, Goddess of Wisdom."
Cool dark blue eyes gazed calmly.
"Teana Ventur, sanctified by Sarrya, Goddess of War."
Cerulean blue eyes locked with Atem's ruby ones, an amused glint deep within them. So the rumours really were true, three mortal sisters blessed by three divine one's. Why the King gave the youngest one to Atem, the Prince never could understand; but he certainly didn't complain.
"Why did you call us, Prince?", Mai asked tauntingly.
"Because he needs us to find a solution. . . ", Isis answered almost dreamily. Teana just looked into Atem's eyes, clearly pondering, before she lowered her eyes.
"I need you to find someone.", Atem said when the cerulean gaze had given his mind free. "It's said that two children have entered the country."
"Children? I won't waste precious time finding children, Prince." Mai's tone of voice was icy.
"The High Priestess said they could bring them to fall. . . "
The blonde gaped. "No way!"
"Do you doubt my words?"
"She doesn't", Isis cut in. "If those children can bring doom to them, we'll be happy to help."
Sauntering along, two young men laughed and joked as if they were simple farmers, not the ones murdering about two hundred people in nearly two hours by burning down houses. Over their shoulder, there lay bags with stolen goods. It had been an eventful day for them.
"That certainly was fun.", the taller one said, a deeply tanned, muscular young man with unruly, spiked blonde hair and cold violet eyes. He patted the sword hanging at his belt softly with his free hand. "That thing is a true treasure."
"Tch, who would've known one of the dolts was the Prince's cousin? His fault that he had to carry that thing along; probably hiding it.", the other one replied, slightly smaller than the first one but tall nonetheless, with short silvery-white hair and evenly cold blue eyes.
"Prince Atem's getting careless; he thinks we killed the King, did you know that, 'Kura?"
"Of course I knew, I'm not stupid. And stop calling me that."
''Kura', as he was called, growled at his companion.
"Don't be like that. . "
"Shut it, Mariku!", the albino hissed, dragging the taller one down behind some bushes.
"What's it this time? I swear to the gods above, Bakura, if this is one of your damn jokes-"
"Look.", Bakura said, pointing towards the entrance of their current hideout; a cave set deeply in the forest. Mariku's gasp followed a short a silence.
"Who's this?"
"Well, if I knew, they would be either dead or not passed out in front of the cave."
Mariku scratched his head in attempt to catch what Bakura had tried to tell him; when the smaller one got up and made his way towards the two figures. Arriving there, he dropped the bag, kneeled down beside a heap of pale limbs and white hair and lifted up a head gently. Frowning, he stared into a face looking almost like his own though younger and angelic. Bakura looked over to where the other boy laid, and wasn't really surprised to find the other one similar to Mariku.
"Hey."
"Wha-?!"
"Do you know of any relatives of yours?", Bakura asked, coldly and emotionless as he was usually, and Mariku shook his head, staring at his small look-alike's face.
"They're too old to be our sons too."
"Let's just wait until they wake up; and then, let them answer for themselves.", the white-haired one said nonchalantly as he lifted his bag of treasures over one shoulder while hoisting the small pale boy over his other, and went straight into the cave without even looking back. Shrugging, Mariku did the same.
Shortness! TT