Disclaimer –"Yu-Gi-Oh!" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Takahashi Kazuki and any other related owners/distributors/producers. The world of Reirinsei and all related characters and concepts belong to Lunnaei. Dragon's just havin' fun. We get no monetary benefit from this. Our benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.
"Otherworld I: The Door"
by Lunnaei and DragonDancer5150
Chapter 15 – Threshold
Weary and grateful, the company trailed Bobasa to the corner to take advantage of Shadi's provisions, shucking backpacks and dropping to the ground beside them. A hearty chorus of "We humbly partake!" – the Japanese equivalent of a blessing – rang out in the musty air, the Ishtahls even participating, before the meager but much-appreciated meal began.
Atemu had no requirement for food nor, he knew, could he have partaken if he had wanted to, but he sat with his friends for the companionship, listening to the soft chatter around him . . . and wondering at his own senses – especially smell. The food all smelled good, and he was suddenly glad he had no want for it, or it would have been torture!
Shadi waited, still standing on the first dais before the low structure, until the group was largely finished eating before speaking up again. "Pharaoh Atemu, Kaiba Seto, please join me here on the dais, and we will get started with the Door." Kaiba left his briefcase and hiking pack but, Atemu noted with a small grin, he carried the Rod with him to meet Shadi on the dais.
Atemu climbed the few steps to the platform behind Kaiba – and gasped. He had not been able to see from below, but now he could see the surface of the low structure behind Shadi, recognizing it instantly. It was a wide, circular formation, a large ring of hieroglyphs framing a vaguely humanoid shape raised in bas relief from the surface, reminiscent of the lid of a sarcophagus. Amid more hieroglyphic text, Atemu could make out bent, sleeved arms, hands in fists on either side of the figure's breast, and a face under a rich, pharaonic headdress. Deeply recessed into the surface of the sarcophagus-like figure were depressions for all seven Millennium Items – the Scale where the figure's legs would be, the Ring level with its abdomen, the Puzzle in its chest, the Rod and Key in its hands, and the Eye in its forehead crowned by the Necklace in the front of its headdress. He had seen it only once before, when the self-proclaimed King of Thieves had gathered all seven Items and released Zorc three thousand years ago. [T-the . . . Millennium Stone . . . ]
Kaiba eyed him. "Yes, it is. I told you, I had it moved here before the tomb was sealed."
Atemu shook his head, dragging his eyes up from the massive plaque to find Shadi's. [N-no, I . . . I had forgotten until just now, but . . . Shadi, Pegasus told me once how he met you years ago and received the Millennium Eye. He described this stone, but he said he had been in Kul Elna, had followed you down into that underground temple – ] He turned to Kaiba. [ – where you and I and the others had faced that thief, and Zorc was released.]
Kaiba snorted. "Impossible. That can't have been more than ten years ago. He's in his mid-twenties, and didn't he tell you he was our age – well . . . mine and Yugi's age – when he was in Egypt that first time? I had the stone moved out of Kul Elna three thousand years ago."
[He said he was in his late teens at the time, yes.] Atemu turned to Shadi for explanation.
The Egyptian allowed a mysterious smile to tug at his lips. "The Millennium Stone is an Item of Power, even more so than the seven Millennium Items it helped forge. It is not of this world . . . heh, no, not of Reirinsei, either," Shadi corrected at the question in the others' eyes. "It is supernatural, and not of the Prime Material Plane at all, but belonging ultimately to the realm of gods and demons. As such, it can be wherever it chooses to be, where it feels it needs to be. What determines that, even I do not know. But you are both right. It first appeared in Kul Elna, where it remained until your death, and you moved it here – " He nodded to Atemu and Kaiba in turn. " – and has since fluctuated between the two as it has seen fit. It knew that Pegasus would be in Egypt. In fact, I've little doubt that it called his subconscious to Kul Elna, where he and I crossed paths. The Millennium Key gave me a sensation that this man would prove to be of great importance." He graced them with another small, haunting smile. "It was not wrong, was it?"
Atemu frowned. [No . . . no, it was not.]
"Enough of this." Kaiba grunted, impatient. "Are we going to work on the Door or talk supernatural idiosyncrasies?"
Atemu, Kaiba, and Shadi stepped up onto the rear dais, which made Atemu think of a porch of some kind at the foot of the otherworldly doorway. They studied and located the glyphs they would need to alter, then Kaiba and Shadi set into those few with archeological-grade chisels and miniature hammers brought to them by some of Shadi's men, tiny instruments for fine-detail work.
After a few minutes, Atemu heard Sugoroku excuse himself from the group in the corner to join the three on the dais, intent on helping. Atemu arched an eyebrow, and Sugoroku huffed defensively. "I may not have had the same mystical training as you two mages, young man, but – " He paused, pulling a deep breath as he turned and regarded the portal with pensive eyes. " – I have stood before the door to Reirinsei often enough to recall much of the ancient text inscribed on it, believe it or not." When Sugoroku turned to look at him again, Atemu gazed back only a moment longer, then nodded.
Once the chosen spots were smoothed in preparation for the new glyphs, Kaiba gave the older gentleman his tools, and the foursome paired off to inscribe them, Sugoroku and Shadi doing the manual labor while Atemu and Kaiba stood behind them with hands on their shoulders, chanting the ancient spells and flooding the energies through their partners to activate the magic of the new hieroglyphs and integrate them into the function of the rest of the door.
By this point, the others had gathered to witness, watching in amazement as each finished glyph flared with silver power for a moment before the surrounding stone absorbed its energies. Upon completion, Shadi looked unaffected, but Sugoroku rubbed his shoulder, sore from the work. Kaiba put a hand to his head, and Atemu sank to a knee, both of them tired from the unaccustomed spellcasting. Neither had wielded magic in any such manner for millennia. Their companions pulled in around them, supporting and concerned.
"So . . . that it, then?"
Atemu looked up at Jonouchi as Yugi helped him back to his feet. [We have yet to see if it worked, but . . . that should be it, yes.]
Kaiba crossed his arms. "It will work."
Bakura shifted closer to the former priest. "Eh . . . Kaiba-kun, may I ask you something just briefly?" Kaiba only eyed him, but it was not a refusal, so Bakura plowed on. "This is the innermost chamber, is it not? The sacred burial chamber? I-I've been wondering . . . w-where is Atemu's sarcophagus?" He glanced with sheepish apology at the spirit, then looked at the Millennium Stone, his expression betraying curiosity as to whether the coffin were hidden under that somehow.
Kaiba, too, glanced at Atemu, his eyes uncharacteristically soft, before turning to gaze down the chamber to the other end. "Yes, it is . . . and there isn't one. That obelisk at the front of the room was designed to be the structure to support the pharaoh's spirit in place of a body should it return to this place. I-I . . . " He turned to Atemu again. "I could not prepare your body and give you the proper burial you deserved. The spell you cast . . . consumed you completely, body and spirit. There was nothing left except the Millennium Weight itself." For the first time in the experience of his modern companions, Kaiba bowed his head in reverence and regret. "I'm sorry, my king."
Everyone but Atemu stared at him in shock, and even Jonouchi recognized the sincerity and the importance of the moment, solemnly refraining from any barbs that such a display might normally elicit between them.
Atemu shook his head. [Seti, face me.] Kaiba straightened almost reluctantly, his eyes the last to come up and meet those of his deceased king. Atemu regarded him a long moment, then gave him a reassuring grin. [Seti . . . my cousin, my friend . . . you have nothing to apologize for. You had no warning. My death was unexpected. Our land lost its king and most of its top advisors and sorcerers in under a week – most of those in a single day. I can only imagine the turmoil that would have erupted in the wake of all that. And yet, with all of that on your shoulders as my successor to the throne, you still involved yourself personally in the finishing of my tomb, even did some of the work yourself, and made sure to set all the pieces in place for my return – the Puzzle, the Stone, the Door . . . the Tablet of Memory . . . ] He shook his head again, marveling. [You have honored me more than I could have ever asked for, both as king and as friend. Thank you.]
Kaiba gazed back in unreadable silence for so long that it began to look as though he would not respond at all, but finally he nodded. "I only did what was right . . . and because I wanted to."
Everyone stood in respectful silence for a moment, no one quite sure what to say to that. It was Kaiba who broke the spell with a grunt as he turned and stooped, retrieving the Millennium Rod from the floor where he had left it to work on the Door. Sugoroku pulled the Key from under his shirt where he had stashed it, hung from the thick rope around his neck. Moving with reluctance, the rest of the company retrieved their packs.
Yugi had moved the unclaimed Millennium Items from the knapsack, in which he had carried them to school the day before, into a shoulder bag he could wear across his torso out of the way of the larger backpack, and Atemu watched as Malik brought it to the group regathering on the lower dais around the Millennium Stone. Atemu frowned and turned to Shadi. [What role, exactly, do the Millennium Items play in our passage through the Door?]
"Each of those going must claim, and be accepted by, a Millennium Item. That relationship is the key to pass through the Door."
Atemu's fists – and jaw – clenched at that, and he growled, glancing over most of his dearest friends. [They don't have to actually try to wield them, do they?]
Kaiba snorted. "I don't see how. None of them are trained." His eyes fixed especially on Jonouchi.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, rich boy?"
Before Kaiba could retort – if he were going to – Sugoroku's hand on Jonouchi's arm swung him around enough to interrupt the retorts before they could erupt. "No! Jonouchi-kun, he's right! You've not seen what these Items can do in the hands of one not properly trained to handle their power. These aren't playthings, boy!"
Atemu glanced at his friends but most of his attention remained on Shadi. The mysterious Tombkeeper merely shrugged. "That remains to be revealed, my pharaoh."
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