Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any related themes. Those rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi and all publishing and liscensing companies. Oh, but only if I had any of the Yamis... (whimsical sigh)

A/N: I decided that because of the language used, Damning Dragons was better off being rated T.

Vocab:

heka: Egyptian word for magic

majick: the way Tine recognizes heka

magic: the way Damais recognizes heka

diaha: Egyptian word for "duel start"

Ka: In the book I read, the Ka is described as an astral double of a person and required a place to dwell, which was inside the person's body.

Ba: In the YGO manga is the magic force (or what Takahashi depicts more as hit points) is, according to the book referenced in the previous chapter, the soul of a person. The process of going to the underworld included the merging of the Ba and the person's body.

00000

The two foriegners and promoted Egyptian stood before the king once again. Isis, the priestess of the Sennen Tauk, presented Tine with an amulet. After a few words from Damais, she allowed Isis to place it around her neck. Isis proceeded to explain that the amulet had been infused with heka, and Tine's ears would hear her native language while the speaker spoke their own language. It worked the same in the opposite direction.

Tine, the redheaded girl, was not at all at ease, as Damais and Ankh were. The priests were their normal selves, except for Seth, who looked like he had even more of a stick up his ass. The idea of foreigners in Egypt had never set well with him. The king knew that Seth was opposed to Damais' presence, and even more so to Tine's, since he was an unbending traditionalist, unlike the king. The king suspected that there was something more to the priest than his egotistical and arrogant attitude, but the king had no desire to find out just what that was.

"Tell me," the king began, resting his elbow on the arm of his throne and resting his cheek on his fist, "can you understand what I am saying?"

Tine looked bewildered. It must have been because the words she was hearing did not match up to the movement of his lips. When she spoke, he discovered the exact same feeling. It was oddly disconcerting. She looked at the ground, remembering that the king was the son of Ra. "I-I... Yes, sir, I understand perfectly." She had taken to Damais' attitude of not bowing, but she had adapted Ankh's behavior of not looking directly at the king.

"I will allow you to judge yourself," the king declared. "Your Ka will decide your fate for you."

The girl frowned at the ground, thinking that the word had not translated through the amulet. "My what?" she inquired.

"Your Ka," the king repeated, and still the word remained Ka. "Your spirit double. If you pass the tests of your Ka, you will show us your abilities and I shall decide from that. If not, we shall have to excecute you."

There. He said it. If she didn't pass this, she would die. Tension sang along her shoulders and down her spine, rivaling even Seth's rigidity. "Do you understand?" the king asked. After a moment, when Tine could control her body enough to move without shaking, she nodded, one jerky movement.

"Karim," the king said. The scales in the priest's hands teetered for a moment, settling slowly. Tine shook visibly, not knowing which side of the scale she wanted to be on. She didn't know which side would tell the king that she was evil, and which side would tell him she meant him no harm. Finally they settled, dead even.

"She has a heavy heart, my lord," Karim delivered. "She has been grieving deeply, but it has not affected the good in her. As she stands now, she could go either way with the slightest of reason."

"Good enough not to be evil," the king waved off. Tine exhaled carefully, taking deep calming breaths. "Shada."

Shada stepped closer to her, and Tine was filled with the unbearable urge to run. She looked in the priest's eyes, and saw a cold indifference to him. She tried to move her legs, she really did. She didn't want the man any closer to her. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was afraid of him. She found out, though, that she couldn't move.

Panic flashing in her eyes, she glanced automatically at Ankh. The girl had her eyes closed and her head bent, her fingers laced and clenched as if she was concentrating very hard. Tine realized that she was the one keeping her from running away. She looked back at Shada, and he held up his key.

For a sickening moment, she blacked out. When she could see again, Shada calmly lowered his key, and returned to his place, delivering his discovery to his king.

"Her Ka is the Blast Magician, my lord," he reported. "It is nothing to be concerned about, but she would certainly make a worthy adversary."

A moment passed, and Tine was sure that everyone could hear her heart thundering. The king regarded her carefully. She could feel his eyes upon her, though she was afraid to look at her doomsayer. What seemed to be a comforting hand placed itself on her shoulder, but Tine knew there was nothing there. It was Ankh. If she didn't calm down, she was liable to pass out, which was apparently not something the other girl wanted.

"I know you have three abilities, just like Ankh and Damais," the king began. Ankh seemed a little surprised at being mentioned first, or being mentioned at all. "Prove your powers to me in the next morning, and we shall see about letting you live."

000

Ankh found herself calmer than the last time she was standing in that spot the previous evening. She had a little more confidence in herself, but still thought her own actions to prove her disrespectful, coming to her lord's rooms when he was trying to settle down. Her hand found the door automatically, knocking firmly but gently and much more boldly than she would have liked.

"Enter," came a voice from within. Pushing the door open, Ankh sensed the king sitting in front of her, reclining on his bed, his arm propped on his headrest. Several scrolls were scattered before him, as if he was studying. "Ankh," he said. "I was rather hoping you would come by. Please, don't bother bowing. It's too late in the day for any of that." Ankh caught herself just as he finished speaking, and stayed upright, glancing at him hesitantly.

"Please forgive my rudeness once again, my lord, but I would like to thank you properly for giving Tine a chance," she said, finding her voice a lot stronger than it had been last time she spoke with him. "If there is anything that I can do to repay you, please tell me."

Whatever possessed her lord to say what came next would forever be beyond the girl's grasp. "Just be my friend," he delivered. Ankh was shocked, and was so twice over, again at herself for looking directly at the king. "Friends" seemed like such a foreign concept to her, not being able to remember having any. He just sat there, completely relaxed, knowing she could not refuse him. There was an amused glint in his eyes. Something told her that he liked breaking traditions.

She could only imagine what Seth, or any of the priests for that matter, would do if they found out.

'Friends with a god,' Ankh said to herself disbelievingly. 'Can I do that?'

000

Tine found Damais' room easily enough, having been there before. Damais was sitting comfortably on his bed, while she paced the room frantically.

"Would you calm down?" Damais sighed, annoyed with her behavior. "You're fine. You passed the tests of your Ka. All the king wants is to know what you can do."

"But what if he decides I'm a threat after all?" Tine chewed at her nails, a habit she thought she had broken. "Being able to sense the strong emotions and thoughts of animals and being a remembrancer I think would be able to be overlooked. I can't do anything about those abilities. I can't control them. But being a pyrokinetic? How could he not think of me as a threat!"

Damais laid flat on his back, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the ceiling. "Do you think he was immediately alright with my being able to space-shift?" he asked. "He can't hold me in one place. If I decide to betray him, he can bind me in chains, post guards everywhere, and have swords trained on me, and I can still escape. If he decides to ambush me, I can be gone before anyone he sends after me can draw blood."

"But you helped him," she shook her head. "He trusted you because you gave him information."

"He was apprehensive about trusting that information, too," came the reply. Tine continued to pace the room, making a circuit from the bed, the door, the wall, and back again. "The king is a very trusting individual." Damais smiled to himself. "That will eventually be his downfall."

"Downfall," echoed Tine softly. She stopped pacing, and sat next to her rescuer. "You said, on the first day we were here, that you saw Egypt's downfall in a vision, right?"

"I said that."

"What caused it?"

"That is what I didn't see," Damais explained, sitting up. "My actual prophecies I can't control seeing. I can purposely see a few minutes ahead. Sometimes if I concentrate hard enough, I can see what will happen in an hour or two. Prophecies are hard to see. They're blurry and muffled and all you get is a vague impression. And that's when you're not distracted. You can't tell wether the vision will come true if something changes or if everything stays the same."

He stood, stretched, and stayed standing, looking at Tine. "I have made it a point to warn people about upcoming events, so they can be prepared. I have always reported everything to the Egyptian king." Damais crossed the room and leaned against the wall, looking out the small high windows at the stars.

"Why?" Tine wondered aloud. "What loyalties do you have to him? Aren't you from the first Atlantis?"

After the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back. Damais sank down to a sitting position, his arms straight and resting on his knees. He hung his head. His moment of weakness was brief. In the time it took Tine to take two breaths, he was sitting up normal again, his arms still on his knees, but casually this time.

With a sigh, Damais began, "He saved me, in much the same way I saved you." He rested his cheek against his fist, regarding her carefully. "I was about... I was a few years younger than you... probably even younger than Ankh. Fifteen years old, maybe." He let go of that matter with a shrug. "Anyway, I was supposed to be the king of Atlantis. I was next in line. When I was perhaps twelve years of age, I went somewhere far away from Atlantis to learn to control my space-shifting."

He smiled at a memory. "I once woke up in a friend's garden because I space-shifted in my sleep. I gave my mother quite a scare." He shook himself from the thought. "Anyway, I was gone when the real Atlantis sank into the ocean. I'm sure you were old enough to remember that." After Tine nodded, he continued. "I was so distraught, I returned from the Aztec city to the Atlantian encampment." His expression turned grave. "Half our continent," he said. "Half. That's how many of my people were left. I didn't know how it happened, since I wasn't there, but everyone had been convinced that, had I been there, I could have prevented it."

Taking a deep breath, he continued. "I thought it was a dream at the time; just a nightmare. Now I know that that was my first prophecy. I saw Atlantis sink in my dreams. It really happened, exactly as I dreamed it would. If I had been home, I could have evacuated more people. I swore then that I wouldn't let that happen again. I swore to warn everyone I could, if I could. I rebuilt Atlantis. I used a power I no longer have. It hurt - a lot - to use it. I brought Atlantis back, rebuilt the damaged structures, reconstructed our temples. The culture was all but lost. It took me a good two years to reserruct it, and when I was fifteen it was done."

A shudder ran down Tine's spine. He was only fifteen when he did it. Just fifteen. In her culture, he was barely old enough to train under a druid.

"We reoccupied the new Atlantis. I called it NeoAtlantis. I was to take the throne, as I was born to do. I had fully accepted that I would live my life for my people. That I would govern them, and it was only me that could lead them down the right path in order to prosper once again after the devastating sinking of Atlantis." His expression turned bitter, and he glared at the ground. "The advisor to my father led my people while I built NeoAtlantis. His son was my age, soft, undiciplined, and corruptable. I hated him for his indecision. Maneron, once my father's advisor, turned on me. He said I was not of legal age to lead yet. That I was still too young. Too weak and that I would not be able to properly lead NeoAtlantis.

"I was formally stripped of my title, privelages, and my counsil was disbanded. Maneron told everyone that I lied about my abilities, that I couldn't see into the future, that I couldn't space-shift." A deep hate shone through Damais' eyes. It scared her. In the short time that she'd known him, he had seemed so untouchable, so carefree. She never would have guessed that he hurt this much. "He betrayed me, and betrayed my people. I could have forgiven him for betraying me alone, but because of his power-hungry ways, he cost my people their chance. It was because of a stone that descended to Atlantis while I was gone that he was like that. It was because of that stone that Atlantis sank, which I wouldn't find out for many years to come. The stone didn't influence anyone but Maneron then. Maneron jealously guarded the stone, believing that it gave him power. He cast me out of my own home."

His intense gaze turned to her, his face carefully neutral. Behind his eyes was an unfathomable pain. "Can you possibly imagine what it's like to be forced out of the place you built, to be betrayed by your own people? Chased out like a monster, falsely accused? For no reason but someone's greed?" He turned away to glare at the ground again. "I was banished. Maneron's son took the throne in my place." An ironic sneer worked its way onto Damais' lips. "He was an entire three days older than me. He turned sixteen, and took the throne while I was chased out. If my people hadn't been turned against me, in another three days, I would have done it.

"I fled to Egypt," he admitted. "They chased me all the way to Egypt. I came to Thebes. The king was on the balcony, and shouted for his guards to apprehend those that caused me to flee without pause. He was absolutely outraged. I told him what happened, that I was the true heir to the Atlantian throne. He brought me in immediately, and sent a messenger to NeoAtlantis telling Maneron and his son that I was under his formal protection. He was only a prince then, much younger than me. He is seventeen years old now, he was ten years old when he took me in. He was and always has been very mature for his age. Something has always told me that, if he had been in my position, even at ten years of age, he would have kept control. He just has a dominating aura about him. He could have done it.

"It's because he defended me that I initially felt endebted to him. He saved my life. I found myself drawn to him, as if inexplicably knowing that he would always lead me in the right direction. It's strange. I get the same sense from Seth, though in a different way. Both of them are leaders in every sense of the word, but I owe nothing to Seth. I decided that I would protect the king from anything I could, since he had done so for me." He looked at her again, calm this time. "I was once captured by pirates in the Indian Sea. He sent his armada out to rescue me. Half of his naval fleet. He made a formal decree that I was under his protection. He was sixteen, hardly legal in my culture, and he had rescued a twenty-year-old man that wasn't even his kin. I can't do enough to repay him. He puts up with my attitude regarding Egyptian customs. He doesn't expect me to treat him like a god, like the son of Ra. He never has, since I never knew I was supposed to act that way. I just can't do enough for him to justify, in my mind, his saving me."

"Then we'll stay here and help defend Egypt," Tine declared. Damais looked at her. "If that's the way you feel about him, then let's do it," she nodded. "I don't know how I'll be able to help, but you saved me, and now I have to repay you, much the same way you feel you have to repay this king." She smiled, a little embarrassed. "You didn't have to do it, you know. You could have just continued on your way."

She looked at her feet. "I know I can be annoying," she insited hesitantly. "And I know I can be hard to get along with sometimes. But still, you're still here with me, and you haven't sent me away. I don't know anyone else like you, Damais. I mean, almost all of my clan is gone. The only ones left are the ones that were closest to me. They mean a lot to me, but somehow... I don't think they would have done what you did without knowing me." She struggled for the right words. "I just... it... something clicks when I'm around you, y'know? Like... we just get along without thinking about it."

It was a situation Damais couldn't help but ruining with an amused grin. "Are you about to profess your undying love?" he teased. Tine shot him a glare. "My, my, even I never would have been able to see this coming!" He laughed as he continued. "Yes, we get along, but, my dear girl, I'm afraid you're not my type!"

Tine growled at him, and threw a blanket at him. She proceeded to hold it down over him until he space-shifted back over to the bed, and laughed at her. With an imitation of an indignant huff, she declared she was going back to her room to sleep, her anxiety quite forgotten. Damais smiled as she left. That was just what he had been going for.

000

Tine scared the priests witless with her demonstration of her pyrokinetic abilities. Seth, predictably, was especially on edge. The king took it in stride, but Ankh noticed that there was a slight fear behind his eyes when he asked her not to use that ability if she could help it. Tine agreed, grateful that she was not being executed for being a threat. Her ability to sense the strong thoughts and emotions from animals was easy enough to explain, but the king took some convincing on her remembrancer abilities.

She was handed Isis' cloak, and made to declare where the priestess got it from. She turned the cloth over in her hands a few times, looking at it intensely.

"From a boy named Marik," Tine verbalized. "At her thirteenth birthday, in autumn. He made it himself."

The king glanced at Isis to see if this was true. Isis looked just to the side of his face, and nodded, retrieving her cloak.

After that, Damais, Tine, and Ankh stayed around to watch the priests practice dueling. A rallying cry of "Diaha," and the session was underway.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Damais said to Ankh, "did you have anything to do with the king's decision about Tine's trial?" Tine listened quietly, watching the duel. The language amulet still hung around her neck.

"What makes you think that?" Ankh wanted to know.

Damais shrugged. "Before you came along, the king was content to just make a decision and call it good, not be bothered by Ka trials for someone with red hair. Did you talk to him in private?"

"No, I didn't," Ankh replied easily. Tine believed her, but Damais called her a liar. "How am I a liar?" she wanted to know, looking indignant. "It is forbidden for a commoner to speak with the king alone!"

"But you weren't a commoner. You were promoted to a noble's rank. And you're just lying."

"How can you be so sure she's lying?" Tine inquired.

"Because I can tell when people are lying and telling half-truths," Damais reported. "That, my dear girls, is my third ability. It is pointless to ly around me."

000

It was a battlefield. An odd pair of eyes of blue and gold laughed at her from the other side of the field, but she was being pulled away. A woman stood in the background, the wind blowing her long blond hair and blue robes. Two people, one a girl and one a boy, as well as three creatures, were running toward her. The odd eyes came closer, and the creatures tore at them, meeting the attack with thier own.

The girl defended the boy she ran with, determined not to let any harm befall her wounded comrade. The boy was left alone as the woman locked in battle with a monster.

"Rabiah," she could hear him calling. She was filled with an unbearable urge to run to him. She ran as hard as she could, as fast as she could, but she didn't seem to get anywhere. The boy, a soldier, came closer, as did the woman. She could now see that the woman was a valkyrie.

Something snatched at her, like cruel talons. She looked down at herself, finding herself in green clothing, green gloves, green cloth around her calves, around her shoulders, and forming a kilt around her hips as well as covering her breasts. As the talons secured around her waist lifted her off the ground, she could see her purple hair trailing behind her.

This was not right. She had to get to the soldier. She had to help him.

She let her power burst forth, creating circles of light like ribbons that pulsed away from her. The talons released her, and she fell to the ground. The soldier was there below her, his arms outstretched to catch her. The valkyrie held off their enemies, her pinkish hair whipping around her, her helmet with wings falling to the ground as she jammed her staff into the gut of an attacking creature.

She fell toward them, and she was close enough to see under the soldier's helmet, to see sparkling blue eyes beneath the bronze metal. His spear lay at his feet. She landed in front of him, and he caught her into an embrace, whispering in her ear, "Rabiah - "

Ankh rolled off the bed, landing with a hard bump that woke her from her dreams.

Had she been dreaming that she was someone else? Who was Rabiah?

Was she Rabiah?

Had those been... Ka of people she knew?

Why couldn't she remember!

00000

Well, THAT didn't take as long as I had expected. Once I sat down and started writing, it just came out.

THERE ARE NO "PAIRINGS" IN THIS FIC! Not even OC/OC pairings. CERTAINLY not OC/canon character pairings! I don't know if I'll keep the "no OC/OC" thing in the other two fics that will come after this one (this is, after all, a trilogy) but for now, NO PAIRINGS! I'm saying this because someone might think that Tine "likes" Damais.

This is not true.

I mean, sure she likes him, but the relationship I was trying to get through was that she liked him as an older brother. The pharaoh's request of Ankh to be his friend was just that. Just be his friend. Nothing more. Nothing else will come out of that.

Now that I finally know what kind of Ka my characters have, things should go a little more smoothly for me...

K-chan: Betcha never thought I could do it THIS way, ne?

Everyone's Anti-Valentine: 10 of 10? Seriously? Thanks!

To those of you that didn't review... (pulls out paper fan) BASH BASH BASH!