(First update in Decemeber. n.n Happy Holidays, everyone! I prolly won't update again 'till the New Year, so, until then—!)

Light the Flame

Chapter Thirteen

Turning Point

Yami was almost afraid that, if he went to see his father without anyone telling him first, the shock would kill him. The sixteen-year-old stayed clear of him until someone told him. Unfortunately, not many people knew he was alive. It was kept a close, quiet secret, so the city wouldn't get rowdy.

"I'll tell him," Sekhem said gently one morning. He glanced into the upper reaches of the palace. "Father is going to die any day now. He needs to know." He took a deep, shuddering breath, and headed up the stairs. Yami sat on the bottom step, still dressed in his desert attire, staring after Sekhem. He was afraid. Afraid that his father would be angry with him.

The entire reason he came back was to see him one more time.

Asenath leaned against a wall behind a pillar, watching Yami from a distance. She already knew. She knew that her father was going to die soon; she'd seen his death in her mind. But she had known since she was very young that her father was old – he was old when she was born – and that he would die soon. It wasn't that she was worried about.

It was what happened after that scared her so. She glanced around the pillar, her hair swinging over her shoulders, and stared at Yami. He was staring at his feet, sighing. He lifted his head and rung his hands, staring up the stairs. Asenath could feel his anticipation.

Asenath slowly slid from her hiding spot to wear Yami was sitting. He looked up at the sound of her bare feet. She was wearing a black dress that wrapped around her entire body and reached her feet, with no straps over her shoulders because it was tight enough without them. She sat down next to Yami as he looked the other way.

"Yami… Atemu," she said softly. "You've fulfilled Father's wish."

"What wish?" Yami asked in a muffled voice.

"His wish that you would someday return alive," she said softly. Yami turned to her. She closed her eyes and nodded. "It's his wish, Atemu. Please… Don't be scared."

"I'm not," he said defiantly. "I guess I'm just… mad. And kind of… Well…"

"Afraid?"

"Yeah," Yami admitted. "Yeah, I guess so. It's just… I feel really unwanted. Everyone's so uneasy around me."

"Maybe because you appeared out of nowhere, when the majority of the people here believed you had died," Asenath said, smiling. Yami closed his eyes and sighed.

"Is that what they thought?" he asked softly. He chuckled under his breath. "We're not that weak. Teana and I made it alive."

"I know," Asenath said, leaning forwards. She placed her head in her hands and smiled at Yami. "They thought that because that's what I thought."

"You!"

"Yes, me. I saw in a dream that you and Teana just… I don't know. You were lying in the sand, unmoving, blood everywhere… I saw people come across you." She gazed into the distance. "The people lifted your bodies and rode away. From the way it looked, I… I though you were dead." Yami smiled and sat up straight.

"I'm here, and I'm alive and well, Nefer-Asen," he said, smiling.


"He's weak. And he doesn't believe us," Sekhem said, frowning. He put a hand on his waist, and gazed up the stairs. Mana was sitting on the edge of a fallen stone pillar, her elbows on her knees. They were outside of the palace where they found Yami just sitting alone.

"Ohh…" Yami muttered. He glanced at Mana. "Is this true?"

"Very," Mana muttered, sighing. "He thought we were fooling him." Yami glanced up the stairs to the front of the huge palace. It loomed over them like a bad memory.

"Whoa!" A voice came from nearby to them. They glanced out of the courtyard onto the main path from the palace. Asenath was standing there, one hand covering her eyes, the other on her waist, staring into the distance.

"What is it?" Yami asked, alarmed. Sekhem and Mana followed him as he left the courtyard and stood next to his sister. Asenath shook her head.

"Its there again," she muttered. Yami looked to where she was looking.

What seemed to be a gigantic dark cloud was hovering in the very far distance of the city. It was a mish of dark, dreary colors, and sent a shiver down Yami's spine.

"What is that?" he asked. But the other three were insanely silent and serious. Asenath said something to Mana, and Mana nodded and ran off into the city.

"It's getting serious," Sekhem said softly. Yami looked at them, looked at what seemed to be a rain cloud, and looked back at his siblings.

A sudden understanding washed over his body as he gasped. He stared at the looming cloud.

"Is… is that…?"

"Yep," Asenath said sullenly. "That's the sign that our father is going to die." Sekhem gulped.

"What will happen?" he asked timidly. Asenath shook her head.

"All I can say is… all hell will break loose, I suppose."

Silence greeted this statement. Yami put his hands in his cloak pockets and just shook his head. It hurt him to think that his father could die, and that this could happen. While lying in his bed the night before, he tossed the notion of becoming Pharaoh back and forth, around and around in his head. Part of him felt that it was his duty, and since the Puzzle had chosen him anyway, was there any choice? But there was another part, hidden deep within him, that was mortally afraid of being Pharaoh. Of course it was tough, but that wasn't the reason. It wasn't the danger or the corruption or the failure that could come with ruling a country.

It was something else. This mental fear had been with him for a long time. He couldn't quite place the time it had started. Probably when he was around ten years old, he began to realize that he was insanely terrified of the Sennen Items.

How, or why…. He didn't know. All he remembered was waking up with a heavy heart, full of pain and confusion and… fear.

And Sekhem telling him something that Asenath had been doing something strange in the middle of the night, and that her hands turned black…

Yami shook his head. His thoughts and memories were becoming jumbled…

…black hands?...

"Yami? You alright?" Sekhem asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Yami nodded.

"Yeah. Just kinda… tired, I guess." Asenath crossed her arms. Yami kept his eyes on her hands.

They don't look black. Why do I remember black hands? He thought. Come to think of it… sometimes her fingers would be grey, or her fingernails red. Almost as if she attempted to scrub…paint off of them?

He knew Asenath painted – she decorated the walls of the palace. She was also an excellent writer. But… she did all that during the day.

Did she paint at night, too? And with ink, not paint?

Did she use her hands? But you only use hands when you're painting the rooms of sacred temples…

Asenath is different, Yami thought as the three of them went inside. She always has been. She was born underneath Osiris; she is the highest living form of him. She was born with a 'window' to the gods in her mind. But are there things even we don't know about?

As Yami dwelled on this, his thoughts slowly revolved to Teana. He closed his eyes with pain as he thought about her. Thinking about her reminded him of his loneliness without her, and how much he wanted her back.

He wanted to go back more then anything. He didn't belong here; he belonged with Teana and Zvallah. He belonged with the people he loved. Yes, his family was here, but he wasn't the same as them anymore.

He wanted, more than anything, to speak to Teana. He wanted her to comfort him. She was always good at that. He wanted her to just be here – just her presence made everything so much easier to handle.

It was like hell without her here.


"Father…?" Asenath said, kneeling next to the bed. She placed her hand on top of her fathers, smiling. Her father, Ankumanukanon, smiled at her. He was weak, and sickly from who knows what; he was comforted to see his only daughter there with him.

"Father, did Sekhem come here to tell you that Atemu was here?" she asked timidly. Ankumanukanon chuckled.

"Why, yes he did," he said, smiling, speaking with a hoarse voice. "I don't suppose you sent him to say that?" Asenath smiled back at him.

"I never did anything. He came because it's the truth." Ankumanukanon sighed.

"Please, Asenath – I don't need this now…"

"No, Father, please listen," Asenath begged. Yami was right outside the room, listening intently. "it's the truth; he's right outside the room."

"Really, now? Show me, then. Atemu," he called weakly, "come out from where you're hiding."

"I'm not hiding," Yami said, stepping out from behind the wall. Asenath smiled as Ankumanukanon gasped in disbelief. Yami couldn't believe how weak his father was. He had always believed his father to be almost like a stone; never falling, never breaking, always strong and willful.

Now he was a feeble man, an old man. Yami knelt next to Asenath and looked down upon his father. Ankumanukanon, with what little strength he had, sat up and just stared at Yami.

"…Yami? Is that… really you?" he asked in disbelief. Yami smiled, trying to hide the tears from his face.

"Y-yes, Father…" he whispered, wiping his eyes with his arm. Ankumanukanon smiled at his son.

"Oh, Yami… I…. I thought I'd never see you again… I…" he was at a loss for words.

"Jono and Tiet brought him back with them," Asenath said, smiling. She was talking softly to the old man. "Father; Yami has a son."

"A son? You?" and he laughed. For the first time since he became sick, Ankumanukanon laughed. It was a light laugh, a hoarse laugh, but it was also a laugh of relief.

His son was alive.

"What's his name, this son?" he asked.

"His name is Zvallah," Yami answered. "It means 'Little Gift' in Teana's native language."

"Teana, the servant-dancer girl, Teana?" Ankumanukanon asked. Yami nodded.

"Yes, I… I married her, Father."

"I see. And that's why…"

"That's why I left." Ankumanukanon lay back down and shook his head.

"You nearly killed me, you know," he said, chuckling about it. "But… even if you are illegal… you're alive. And that's all I care about now…"

Yami stretched his arms out at the foot of the bed and lowered his head. He knew his father was dying; he knew he would probably die within the next day, if not the next few days. He could tell.

But he just didn't want it to be true.


Teana couldn't help it. She crossed her arms across her chest and stayed firm with her decision.

"I'm going," she protested, standing up. Zvallah stared in awe as his mother stood, walking away from the comfort of the night fear.

"Hmm, I wonder what we'll tell Yami when he gets back?" Sati joked.

" 'Oh, I'm sorry, Yami, but you're wife ran off looking for you because she doesn't trust that you'll be back in a few days'," Kenneth mimicked, sparking laughter. Teana frowned.

"It isn't funny, Kenneth," she said, staring off into the distance. "I want him to come home. It's not safe there for him."

"His father is dying; give him some time," Sati said, rolling his eyes as if it were obvious. "He needs time to be with his other family." Teana tightened the grip she had around herself.

"I know… I… just… love him too much," she whispered while the others moved onto another topic. She closed her eyes and allowed her tears to fall, one by one, on her bare arms. She shivered in the night air and stared up at the sky.

"I'm going to find you. I'm going to get you back here safely. I love you too much to let you go now," she whispered, licking her lips in the night.


The looming cloud was felt all over the city. It seemed, even though the cloud had disappeared, the feeling remained. The entire city, every single person, could feel it. A sudden sorrow, a sudden depression seemed to befall the city. No one was sure, at first, what it could mean. Was something about to happen? Did something happen?

Then the news came.

"What is it?"

"—Did you hear?"

"—what did you hear about—"

"—What's the truth?—"

"The Pharaoh is dead!"


(Teheh. Well, this is where it gets even CLOSER to the fricken' Egypt arc. The part where Yami is wondering about Asenath's hands… That'll prolly never be explained, I don't think. n.n;; I THINK. I don't know yet. Well, I already know what's gonna happen, and how everything ties into the Egypt arc, and where Asenath disappears to during the Egypt arc. I thought ahead. The next chapter'll be kind of a reflection on Yami's past – the paint thing is important – and Teana, somehow, comforts Yami in his time of need…Next chap: "Comfort")

Shibby-One