Chapter 7: Encounters
Brighty leaned her forehead against the fence and eyed her fellow students with envy. It was lunch time and everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful, sunny afternoon. "Everyone except me," Brighty thought mournfully. When lunch had begun she had escaped to the roof of the school seeking a little peace, but her search had been futile. A gentle breeze teased the ends of her hair and brought the buzz of merry chatter to her lonely ears.
Brighty shook her head trying to break free of her melancholy. Since waking in that alley yesterday her head had felt muzzy. She couldn't remember much of what happened and that frightened her. Top it all off with that phone call from her mother…it had been a very taxing day. Brighty shifted her contemplation to the azure sky. "I wish...I wish..." she confided longingly to the heavens.
"You wish what? Maybe I might grant it," a voice mocked.
Brighty shut her eyes in dismay and couldn't suppress a small groan from fleeing her lips. "Gods...what are you doing here!" she demanded in thinly veiled contempt. Of all the people in the world she would have wanted to talk to at the moment, this person didn't even make the list. "Seto Kaiba," Brighty thought with annoyance, "well there went any chances at finding tranquility."
"Just confirming some information," Seto replied nonchalantly. "Imagine my surprise at finding out you went to this school."
Brighty snorted and threw him a droll look over her shoulder, "I'm sure you were just overjoyed at the news." The nerve of this guy, she fumed. First invading her office and now this, couldn't he tell that she didn't want him around!
Seto studied Brighty's enchanting face; all traces of sorrow had been replaced with vexation. "Good," he thought, "at least she doesn't look sad anymore." Since their first encounter this girl had intrigued him. He had tried to delude himself by thinking it was because she was his company's rival. But after watching her for several minutes as the sun glinted off her hair, he wasn't quite sure what he was feeling.
Brighty narrowed her eyes in suspicion, the longer Seto remained quiet the more she worried. "What is his game? And what's he carrying," she thought. "Well?" she asked, "No comment?"
Seto smirked. "She really is beautiful when she is angry," he thought to himself. "Oh, yes, thrilled," he mocked, "stalking me in your off hours? Hoping to catch me in an unguarded moment and then I might let some morsel of information slip? And here I thinking you had more of an imagination than that."
Brighty whirled to confront him, her face flushed with fury. "You pompous, arrogant prick," she sputtered. She was incensed with a righteous anger, hardly able to find words to express her wrath. "How dare he," she thought as she balled her hands into fists barely able to keep from slapping him.
"Such language," Seto scorned. "Here I was searching for a little intelligence among the peasantry and when I thought I had found some...turns out to be nothing more than hot air." Seto grinned, he could almost hear her teeth grinding together, "my mistake." He set an oblong box he had been carrying at her feet, "I'll leave this with you anyways. The latest invention from Kaiba Corp. Thought you might like to drool in envy. Your pathetic little company can only dream about coming up with something so ingenious." Seto crowed darkly and sauntered back towards the exit. "Oh, by the way, you have a meeting with me tomorrow after school, your secretary has all the information," he said over his shoulder to her, "I'll see you then."
Round 2: Kaiba Wins
Brighty took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. She turned her burning gaze beseechingly to the heavens and screamed, "Is this some sort of punishment? Did I do something in the past life to deserve this torment?" Brighty searched the clear blue sky; she watched and waited for a revelation but none were forth coming. Brighty groaned in disgust and scrubbed at her face with her hands.
"He always did have that affect on you," a voice teased.
Brighty peeked through her fingers and spied the new kid, Evan, standing not so far away. He stood with his hands causally stuffed in his pockets and a few stray strands of his dark hair danced in the gentle breeze. "Come to attack me too?" she asked and then became puzzled at why he winced as if struck. "I'm sorry," she sighed. Brighty stretched and released the rest of her anger to be carried off by the wind. "You caught me at a bad moment," she said and sagged back onto the fence exhausted from her spent fury.
Evan shook his head, "no, my fault, I heard you were up here and just..." Evan stopped and frowned. He had come up here to apologize, he needed to apologize; he was weighed down by guilt because of what he had done to her yesterday and needed to purge his soul of it to feel whole once more. But Shadow had warned him to let it go, that she wouldn't remember it. He also urged him to keep his distance from her. What was he so afraid of?
That we will inadvertently reveal her presence to the enemy before she had regained her full power. Tahliat answered for him.
Oh...but I can't just stay away from her! I can't explain it, just that I can't, Evan complained to Tahlait.
Tahlait chuckled, I know that, so does the shadowed one. She has always had the power to draw people to her. She is of the light after all. By the way, she's starting to get suspicious.
Evan focused his attention back on Brighty and flushed. A frown marred her delicate face and her eyes had started to cloud with unease. "Uh...," he stammered as his mind went blank as he searched for something to say. Evan dropped his eyes from her attentive gaze and spotted the box Kaiba had left with her, "what's this?" Evan crouched down and picked up the box, then gasped in surprised pleasure, "the latest dueling system!"
"You're kidding!" Forgetting her weariness, Brighty knelt down next to Evan to better examine the gift. "Damn...I hate it when he's right," she grumbled. "Wow...look at the interface, this is going to make duels feel very life like."
"Yeah and its portable...amazing. Duels are going to be much more intense now. Ya know, for such a cold-hearted punk he sure can come up with some cool stuff," Evan said in awe. Brighty laughed and Evan grinned with pleasure at the vibrant sound.
His smile faded as he continued to gaze into her joyful face; guilt returned. "How could I have ever tried to kill her," he pondered to himself sadly, "to almost deprive the world of her laughter, I am a monster." His face burned with shame as he jerked his gaze from knowing eyes, "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."
Warm, soft fingers tenderly cupped his chin, gently they turned his face so he could look no where but into her emerald green eyes. There he saw comfort, understanding, but most of all forgiveness. "Tahlait," she breathed his name softly. "I'm just happy you found your way back to us."
"Spes?" Evan asked in confusion.
Brighty-Spes smiled tenderly at him and caressed his cheek.
Light washed over Evan, filling every corner of his being with such splendor. Her vivid nimbus purged the last traces of guilt, of darkness, from his heart. No more would he be uncertain. No more would he waver from his path. In the wake of such radiance Evan felt revitalized, felt as if the very fires of his soul had been rekindled. Evan closed his eyes and took a deep shuddering breath to steady himself. "Thank you," he murmured in gratitude.
"What?"
Evan's eyes popped open and he examined Brighty. Spes had retreated back into the arms of Khnum but had left behind one very confused and very frightened Brighty.
Brighty snatched her hand away from Evan's cheek and shrank back away from him. "What just happened?" she asked in an alarmed voice.
"Oh great, how am I going to explain this," Evan thought to himself and cursed Spes silently for leaving him with this mess.
"How touching," a voice declared cynically into the awkward silence, "being forgiven just before I desolate you."
Evan watched as Brighty's face went pale and her eyes widened in shock. He carefully placed the box on the ground, then whirled on the balls of his feet to face the new speaker. This person was cloaked in a tattered purple robe and his cowl shrouding his face in shadows. Evan seethed with hatred; he knew what ilk had spawned this creature and he wanted nothing more than to incinerate their kind from the face of the world. Evan crouched into a combative stance and placed one hand on his invisible sword hilt; ready for whatever trouble this pest cared to start. He was only half conscious of Tahlait slowly merging with him. The ancient soldier offered Evan unswerving faith and confidence, they both had a debt to settle with this creature. A sense of calm settled over Evan and he demanded in an icy voice, "What do you want?"
"What do I want?" it mimicked. The robe shifted and fluttered in the wind as it revealed one flame tattooed arm clutching an ebony sword. "I've come to take my sword back, traitor."
