Angel of Light
Chapter 12
Coronation
Noon struck and was announced by deep booming gongs from opposite ends of Memphis. At the same time, musicians started playing, acrobats started performing, and the procession started to inch forward. Celestia watched all this with interest in her scrying air-glass. She'd never seen a real affair of state carried out before, but now she wished time would speed up to the crowning.
And I thought that Seth's initiation was long! She marveled. That was in no way equal to the event that was taking place now.
Various priests and important officials came after the initial section of the procession. The sun glinted off several expensive-looking jewels and gold finery. They were out in impressive numbers, but she just blinked at the image in front of her.
"You know, I should be impressed, but somehow I think they're all fools," she said aloud. After the officials passed, the nobles came, sitting languidly in litters in positions that would best show off their wealth and beauty.
Celestia rolled her eyes. "They're bigger fools than the others!" She grew bored and looked for Bakura. Her scrying glass blurred for a moment, unable to see the person in question. She whistled softly, "Kage, you've been practicing your spells." She glared angrily at the glass and a second later, Kage appeared, watching the procession pass by from a rooftop with a knife concealed in his hand.
What in the name of Ra did the greatest fool think he was going to do?
"Kage," she crooned softly to her glass. "If you try to kill the Pharaoh, my friendship won't protect you." His head jerked up imperceptibly, but gave no other sign that he had heard her. "Let me put it this way, if you so much as move that knife, I will personally deliver you to the palace guards. You know what would happen then..."she trailed off. She literally saw how much he struggled with the problem, his knife quivering angrily in his hand. Finally, he concealed the knife back again and disappeared back into the house.
Celestia turned her attention back to the procession. The Pharaoh had finally surfaced, but his identity surprised Celestia.
"Oh. My. God." The Pharaoh was the stranger who had accosted her in the bar! Even though his face was hooded, she could still make out most of his general features. She groaned loudly, but it froze halfway in her throat.
Seth and Akenadin were riding on either side of him.
Seth looked, as always, solemn and regal, his gaze never faltering from the activity in front of him. Akenadin, on the other hand, looked bitterly angry. He wanted Seth to be the one with the crown and glory, but the Pharaoh came first.
The first thing she had noticed about the Pharaoh was his gravity-defying hair. Next, his crimson eyes, filled with determination. There was nothing physically similar to Seth except his eyes, and, she supposed, hers, since she was Seth's twin, and therefore, the Pharaoh's cousin.
"Good gosh, how could I have been so stupid!" she cried. "The one person who could help me convince Seth is the person I insult! Could I have just asked for a death warrant?" There was nothing she could do but watch.
Suddenly she sensed a soul being absorbed into another. Narrowing her focus, she directed it to the spot it was last sensed. The scrying glass immediately showed a dim room. A person was stretched full-length on the floor, motionless. A dark fluid dripped slowly down one of his arms and into a cup. A figure raised it to his lips and drank it thirstily. As he wiped his lips, a stray gleam of light fell upon him.
Malik.
He looked more powerful than before, but the power was derived from many other individuals. He grinned slyly, and, pocketing his blood-stained knife, crept out of her field of vision.
That fiend! She stormed silently. When is too much power too much for him?
"By activating my spell on his power, I've actually made things worse! More people are being killed to make up for the power he's lost!" Celestia stared at the dead body in shock, barely noticing the scene below her.
That could have been me, two years ago, she realized. That should have been me, if it would prevent all this senseless bloodshed...
Bakura blended with the crowd easily as he slipped through the throngs of cheering people. He grimaced, thinking of the chance he had lost. If Celestia hadn't been watching, his family might have finally been avenged. And that was nothing compared to the retribution he would exact for the rest of the victims.
His face darkened as he thought of his little sister, cruelly murdered while she stood still, crying in fear. His mother and father had gone down fighting, at least, but they hadn't deserved this fate! None of the people of Kuruelna wished to be a thief or outlaw, but Fate had forced them to it. At night, they would always talk wistfully of the lives they would have led otherwise.
Bakura's father had thought that he would make the best thief of all of them. Instead of dreaming about things gone by, he would talk with Bakura of his future career, sure to flourish. And indeed, it was.
Of course, not all thieves had a personal vendetta against the Pharaoh...
"See, it's easy," Seth muttered to Atem. "You're doing the waving and smiling just fine."
"Very funny," Atem said through teeth determinedly clenched in a smile. "Of course, you don't have to smile at all."
"One of the better parts of being a priest," Seth smirked. "If I look grumpy, it's because my god told me to be grumpy."
"Naturally, if I look mad, people get frightened because they think Ra will put a curse on them," the Pharaoh sighed.
"You call that a downside? I'd jump at the chance to make people nervous." He grinned mischievously, thinking of it already.
"Wouldn't work on your friend, now, would it?" Atem asked absently, hand posed in a gracious wave.
"Friend as in you? I doubt it; you've got the courage of a lion."
"I meant your priestess friend, what's-her-name." Seth grew moody at this, glowering at the top of his horse's head.
"No, if anything, she'd make me nervous," he pronounced finally, ending their discussion.
After Malik disappeared from her glass, Celestia tried several times to trace him unsuccessfully. Not surprisingly, he had grown in ability as well, shielding himself with a complex spell. If she wanted to, she could have broken the enchantment, but she had to save her energy for the grand entrance demanded of her by Mas-Ne-Ra.
The procession had ended, and the three main nobles in Egypt stood on a raised pavilion in front of the largest crowd Memphis had ever seen. Akenadin began speaking the praises of the Pharaoh with a venomous glance no one but Celestia could see, gesturing grandly at the audience. She watched him sit down and Seth stepped up to speak. As the Pharaoh's closest relative, he had the honor of placing the crown of the Two Lands on the Pharaoh's head.
Red sparks burst in front of Celestia's eyes just as she was beginning to drift off.
Immediately she willed the sky to darken and lightning to illuminate fast-approaching clouds. Dimly she saw Akenadin lean towards a terrified man and say in a low voice,
"You had said there would be no storm today."
"Not a natural one," the poor man said nervously. "This must be the work of-"
"The gods," Akenadin cut him off. The golden eye he wore winked with a promise of divine intervention. She could almost read his thoughts: Hopefully they'll denounce him as a criminal and place my son on the throne!
She sighed. Akenadin had a one track mind. She brought her right hand up to the clouds and brought it gracefully down, her fingers fluttering gently as her left hand sought to bring her goddess's entourage, which required the bulk of her power.
White petals began fluttering down in a scented storm, contradicting the lightning above. The people clutched at the petals, taking them as godly charms. Before the week was out, these would all be spread out across Egypt courtesy of caravans and the black market. The Pharaoh was impassive, looking out to the sky from where the next marvel would undoubtedly come from.
"Your wish is my command, Pharaoh," Celestia muttered softly. With her finger, she drew a circle in the air and a portal to the Shadow Realm was opened. The six priests below stiffened, recognizing it for what it was, and gathered power as unobtrusively as they could, unanimously agreeing to protect the Pharaoh from whatever the threat was. Seth had a frown on his face; he faintly remembered a similar summoning from when he was at the temple.
First a silver globe entered the real world, followed by the more beautiful creatures of the Shadow Realm. They descended to earth in a spiral, the globe coming to rest before the Pharaoh and its entourage staying in the air. Mas-Ne-Ra stepped out of the globe, earning shocked whispers from the crowd.
"Surely you wouldn't think of crowning yourself Pharaoh without my blessing, now, wouldn't you?" She said pleasantly. The Pharaoh inclined his head graciously and spoke.
"I wouldn't dream of it, revered goddess." The priests relaxed their power; against a goddess, they wouldn't have a chance.
"Wise choice," she remarked to them casually, then turning her attention back to the Pharaoh. "Now, with your ancestors, I'd normally go off into a loud and pompous tirade promising that your crops will flourish, your armies will conquer all, and that sort, but before, there were less important issues."
Celestia could have smacked her right then. Less important? She raged. Why don't you just say that you don't pay much attention to Egypt, you dolt? Mas-Ne-Ra's next words silenced her, though.
"There is a cloud on the horizon," she said calmly," And you must be able to meet it with all your heart and soul. Your fate rests not only on your own power, but also on that of those around you and your faith in this land. Naturally, you must be proficient in the ancient magic because they'll save your life. That goes for you six as well," she added to the others. "Although you are missing one from your ranks."
They looked at each other, puzzled. They were all there-at least, the ones who mattered.
"I'm talking, of course, about one of my own representatives, someone well known to all of you."
Celestia glared at her with cold fury, silencing the thunder by mistake for a second before it resumed. "That's it. I'm resigning and going to somewhere distant like the Shadow Realm," she decided.
The Pharaoh was the only one present who understood exactly who she meant and nodded very slightly.
"My gift to you, Atem, is my blessing. All future magical works will flourish under your guidance. You will win all your duels as long as you pay proper tribute to me-and you'd better. I'm not a goddess who easily forgives slights." She snapped her fingers and every trace of her presence was gone, including the flower petals. Her voice rang in the air for a long time afterwards. "Crown Pharaoh Atem now, Egypt, and be as one in the future."
"I resign from your service, Mas-Ne-Ra. You basically told them that I should be a palace priestess and that's something I can't forgive." Celestia had taken care to emphasize each word so she wouldn't brush it off as nothing.
"You're always thinking about yourself," the goddess said coldly. "I this, I that, whatever happened to the days when you would do anything for the Pharaoh?"
"Anything as long as my secret is preserved," she argued. "I have less respect for blabbermouths who I can't trust!"
"A goddess can never be trusted," the deity said obscurely.
"Nevertheless, I refuse to be tied down to someone who can't appreciate what I can do."
"Banishing my Shadow children is a great and noble task now?" said Mas-Ne-Ra sarcastically. "I recall that you love a challenge and guess what? Every single person on that platform is capable of giving you a hard time."
"I'm a traveling priestess who does exorcisms, that's enough for now."
"It's always enough for you. You never push your limits and there is so much you could really do. What's the matter, afraid of finding out what you can do?"
"No, has it ever occurred to you that I really don't want this destiny?" she gestured at her uniform, particularly her veil. "I don't want to always be masked and unfortunately, that's what has to happen if I live in the same place as Seth!"
"That makes no sense at all," the goddess snapped. "You can change your illusion and I'd think Seth wouldn't recognize you if it's been two years since he last saw you."
"What's your point?" Celestia sighed.
"Stop hiding. Face Akenadin and Seth and all those strange people on the platform. Or else." The goddess vanished and Celestia sighed again.
"I hate it when she does that," she muttered. "Might as well see what this Pharaoh's like, first.
Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Never have, never will.
Sorry this took so long, I didn't have internet for a while and it really bugged me. When I did have internet, I spent it on email and stuff, so now I finally got it online. Hope you liked it!
