Authoress Sana- Welcome to chapter two...
King of Thieves Akifa- (in singsong) We've come a long way...
Priest Mahaado- That's nice... where is Pharaoh and Seth?
Authoress- Got me.
King of Thieves Akifa- Probably still at. (checks his watch) Umm... it's been two hours since they engaged in erotic activites.
Authoress- Oh... (blinks) Wait... how did you get a watch!
Priest Mahaado- Probably stole it...
Authoress- (looks at the watch) Hey! That's mine!
King of Thieves Akifa- Oh yeah... it is... (grins and runs off)
Authoress- (runs after him) Come back here with my watch!
King of Thieves Akifa- But it's so shiny!
Authoress- If you don't bring that back then I'll show you the true meaning of "shiny"!
(loud crash is heard)
Priest Mahaado- (twitches and sweatdrops) I guess that I'll do the disclaimer. (ahem) Sana-sama does not own Yuugiou/Yu-Gi-Oh. Neither does she own Pharaoh-sama, Seth-kun, Akifa-kun, Isis-chan or me...
Priestess Isis- I heard my name.
Priest Mahaado- Yes you did. And now we are leaving. (takes her hand and leads her away)
Priestess Isis- (smiles and kisses him)
Priest Mahaado- (blushes)
Priestess Isis- (giggles) On with the fic!
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-Terms-
Per A'a- What the Ancient Egyptians called their Pharaoh (Atemu)
Hem Ntjr- High Priest (Seth)
Khemet- What the Ancient Egyptians called Egypt. It means the Black Land.
Change of scene or entering a memory- -----------------
Warnings- Shonen ai, yaoi (Seth x Atemu), some lemons, angst in some chapters, some blood and gore, character death (...your typical romance...)
A.N. Seth and Atemu have been reincarnated hundreds of thousands of times. In this life they have been reborn to look exactly as they did in Ancient Khemet.
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Chapter 2- Dreamtime in France
Seth woke up during the Reign of Terror, lying in a bed. He sat up with a start then calmed his nerves and got out of the bed, finding that he was dressed in the finest royal attire, his skin pale as the Blue Bloods and his hair blonde as gold. The only unchanged facts were that he was still quite tall and his eyes remained cerulean-blue. Taking a deep breath, he exited the bed chamber and headed down the hall. After a few short moments of wandering aimlessly, a shorter man with tanned skin emerged from seemingly nowhere and put the blade of his sword to Seth's neck, his crimson orbs gazing furiously.
"You die today noble!", the man exclaimed.
Seth didn't even flinch as the cold metal brushed against his skin.
"I shall show you no mercy!", the man thundered angrily.
Seth finally spoke, being careful not to let the sword slit him, "Out of my way, vermin…", he replied coldly, his hand subconsciously slipping down to the handle of his own sword, though he would never pull it out.
"Not a chance!", the man barked, "All of you first and second estate pampered pigs will die! The days that the people of France labor to grow the food that you nobles eat and tax us with are over! You die now!"
"You'll never take me alive!", Seth yelled.
"Oh yes we will...", the man replied.
"We?", questioned Seth.
Just then two more men appeared and grabbed Seth's arms, tying them together with rope, Monsieur Mahaado"! Monsieur Bakura! Take him to the guillotine!"
"Yes Monsieur Atemu!", and with that the three men kicked Seth outside and marched him up to the device of death, kicking him to his knees and causing him to kneel, his head positioned on the wedge and the long metal blade right above his blonde head.
Atemu smirked as the crowd cheered, "Here shall be another victory for the people of France! Robespierre, the blade falls on your command!"
Maximilien Robespierre nodded, "Off with his head!", and with that the blade fell, sending Seth to his death and the crowd cheering as Atemu picked up Seth's decapitated head and held it up for the crowd to see. Blood squirted everywhere, as Seth's cerulean-blue eyes moved to gaze at Atemu. The crimson-eyed revolutionary gazed back and he suddenly realized what had happened. Seth's beautiful eyes rolled to the back of his severed head, as Atemu screamed and dropped it back into the head-basket, "Noooooooo! Koishii!"
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A.N. Sorry for that graphic scene. As you probably realized, Atemu didn't recognize who Seth was until it was too late. He killed his lover (or koishii: dearest one, love, sweetheart). How sad. But don't worry. There will be plenty more deaths for you people to cry over. Heh... Oh and… sorry for the short chapter… there will be longer ones.
If you know about the French Revolution then please feel free to skip over the next section and to the review button. :)
(Info about the French Revolution is below. All of this was written by the authoress for her Honors World History class and was edited for this story. No stealing! -- The authoress worked until 2:00 am the day that this was due to finish this and got only 4 hours of sleep. Plus it has been entered into the National Database and anyone plagiarizing will be caught by their teachers and punished for cheating. Also, all information that relates directly to this chapter are in bold. Now that that's been said… read on!)
Head-basket: After a person's head was guillotined, it would drop into a basket in front of the guillotine, followed by the executioners picking up the head and showing it off to the crowd. Supposedly it was good luck to have some of the blood land on you. Oh and… yes the eyes do move even after a head has been decapitated. Since the brain is still alive, there is still enough left to make the eyes and mouth move. Afterward, the eyes roll back and the mouth freezes in whatever position it's in, and the executioners place the head on a pike for all to see.
-The Three Estates-
French society was divided into three classes or estates. Birth and blood accounted for this division – the clergy representing the first estate, the nobility the second, and peasants made up the third. (Seth was nobility, so he was of the Second Estate.)
Peasants: The peasants were part of the third estate, as were professionals, storekeepers, merchants and artisans. Wealth was obviously not the criterion for class strata. Benefits accrued to the first two estates while the third one bore the brunt of obligations and taxes. Members of the Third Estate made up 98 of the population, and we're very poor, working in the fields all day, suffering in the heat, and never getting a break, while the nobles of the era lived in luxury and never worked a day on their lives. Men who worked outside, tanned and burned in the hot sun (This is why Atemu was tan in this chapter), while their wives cooked and struggled to keep their children healthy. Families unfortunate enough to be part of the Third Estate, had a very difficult time paying their high taxes and feeding their families, sometimes only surviving on bread and water. Famine and malady, we're not uncommon in the Third Estate, but rather a daily occurrence among people.
Burdened by archaic methods of farming, the peasant's situation was intensified by limited access to land. Although constituting a majority of the population, peasants possessed only about 30 of the land. Moreover, because of population growth, the average plot was too small to sustain an adequate living standard. Farmers were forced to rent additional land in order to earn a living. Common lands that could be used to obtain lumber for shelter and warmth were being enclosed by the nobility. All this added to the plight of the peasants before the revolution. As if these conditions were not serious enough, the peasants were obliged to bear the brunt of taxation levied upon the third estate. Although serfdom no longer existed, peasants were still required to pay feudal dues (aka the taxes that Atemu spoke about). In addition they had to pay annual rents, a fee to bequeath goods, and a fee for use of the lord's grist mill and wine press. There were also days required to work on roads and bridges, a ten percent tax that went to the church, a tax on land, and numerous other taxes. In all approximately 50 of the peasant's produce was allocated to taxes. And the peasants who did not own land but worked for the nobility, clergy and king were required to share their produce with the landowners. As France was a cultural and intellectual center of 18th century Europe, it was not long before these conditions were addressed.
Nobles- Nobles on the other hand, had a very easy time, living luxury from the day that they we're born to the day that they died. Peasants always worked beneath them, while they relaxed and spent their enormous wealth. They never let the light outside hit them, covering themselves in thick layers of clothing and wearing large hats to keep the sun off of their faces. Unlike their peasant counterparts, they were very light-skinned, and given the nickname of "Blue Bloods", for their veins showed very noticeably under their skin (Seth: "his skin pale as the Blue Bloods").
Clergy- Members of the church, or clergy, made up the first estate. They ran the Catholic Church, which seemingly had more power than the monarch himself. They basically ran the country, influencing the French people with their catholic views and ideas, and making decisions for the king.
Reign of Terror
In the years of 1793–94, this period of the French Revolution was characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary government's Terror was essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the country in a national emergency. The establishment of the Committee of Public Safety had Danton as its president and he became the de facto master of France.
The French Revolution reached its peak of violence during the Reign of Terror, when no one felt safe from being arrested and sent to the to be beheaded. Nobles and Clergy were captured by the Third Estate and beheaded. This was also the time when Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were beheaded. Their son, the uncrowned Louis XVII died a sort time later of unknown causes. The man in charge of this bloody period, Maximilien Robespierre, was a dedicated revolutionary leader whose tactics finally were his own undoing.
-- Tomatoes are actually fruit… who knew? --
Authoress- (puppy eyes) Review?
