Sleep, my love, so we can meet.
Dream, my love so you can see.
My visage so close to yours,
Our souls lying on the crystal shores.

And when the shores and oceans meet,
we can make our haste retreat,
hand in hand, heart in heart,
Did you find me now my love

-Me

…………………………………………

(Ya tabe kahayu (Belarusian))

………………………………………..

Chapter 1: Vengeance hereby sleeps

The morning of the season debut was bleak and painted with graying clouds, an omen to those who believed in such. For him, the thunder clap was just another savior from his tormenting dream.

These nightmares were more recurrent than they had ever been before, and that bothered him. The girl Kiya kept returning and that carriage kept coming out of nowhere. That wheel kept leaving a forever mark on her pale shoulder, and the little sailboat kept cracking under the strain. For a rake like him to be having obsessive dreams like this…well it was unheard of!

Getting up, he made his way to his own private bathroom to splash some cool water on his face. A mirror hung eloquently and displayed his pale visage. The rich regal red hues accented his woe, but his composure was quickly regained. Today was the start of another season and both his mother and father insisted he attended this one as well. He saw no point in doing so however; the only fun of a season was seeing how many girls he could ruin. He never really took interest in any of them and just build up his reputation as being impossible to get. However there was a down side in that, more scandalous women just found this as a tasty challenge and latched on like leeches, thinking that they would finally get him to succumb to them. But marriage was the last thing on his mind.

And Kiya should've been the last thing on his mind as well. Wasn't it her whose journal he had found lying around in his woods? Wasn't it she who had wrote that the only reason that she was friends with him was for his fortune? Didn't that thought burn him and make his heart want to break his chest? No… she was a street rat and should not be thought of. He left his abode with a close of the door, embarking on one more day.

………………..

Kiya groaned as the sunlight pierced through the space between the wood in the cottage. Rubbing her eyes, she looked to the bed across the tiny room to find it empty. Where was her sister? Working no doubt. Her employers were the definitions of grotesque and unreasonable. Sure enough after a few moments of lying around, Selene crawled into the cottage and shut the door before collapsing into the bed.

"Selene, you can do whatever you want but I'm not letting you go back to the Kaibas." Kiya stated.

"Heh, I have to go…in….one…hour." And she was out like a light.

Kiya grumbled as she got up and went to the kitchen to make some eggs sunny side up. This involved a rather unique strategy involving a reluctant frying pan which needed to be wrestled with, and eggs that were too hard to break. This was the traditional breakfast that they had had since…since they could remember. After preparing the humble breakfast (and getting egg coincidently in places there were no stains yet), she sat down and reflected on the situation that they were in. Having been left to strive for themselves since a very young age, Kiya and Selene adopted pretty nicely to their bleak existence. While Kiya was left to look after the cottage, Selene had been employed by Lord Kaiba, the elder. Her job was vigorous, cleaning, cooking, and sometimes for some reason they kept her over night. It was as if they thought her a slave. Kiya's fork connected with her plate with a loud clunk. It just was just not bearable. But they needed the revenue for whatever bread, butter, and water they could get.

The incident with the carriage had occurred seven years ago, the scar was almost faded however A lingering memory of Atem. He was so kind, nothing like what Selene told her the younger Lord Kaiba was like. It was just as well, after the carriage accident, every rainy day they would meet by that fateful bed in the road. And that year it had rained a lot. Atem had ceased showing up however. Something had occurred, and after staying out 10 days under the rain, she had gained the courage to knock on the door to the palace-like structure which served as his home, only to be turned away coldly by the butler. "I'll see him again…eventually." She vowed under her breath and heard a stubborn groan and the bedroom door open.

"Don't even think about it" she said without looking at her sister.

"Oh I'm not thinking about it…"

"Oh?"

"I'm dreading it." Kiya gave a snort and shook her head.

"At least eat-" she was cut off with the front door closing. "Damn she's fast…" she worriedly sighed and then heard the door opening. "Whoa! That WAS fast."

"You don't understand…your grace. I have no time for this. I'm late for my job."

"What job. You will be having no job." A mans voice came and soon they entered the kitchen area.

Kiya stood up abruptly when she saw who it was. She recognized him right away, even after seven years.

"You're the guy that was in that carriage! You're Lord Alex of Ashville"

"Nice memory. But you know who else I turned out to be?"

"No…who?" Selene chimed in.

"Your blood relation." He said, "More specifically, your brother!"

A moment of silence fell upon the part of three for a moment. When the moment passed Selene broke the awkwardness with a mirth that she had been holding back since Duke Alex made the impossible statement.

"By god. Duke Seto would stoop this low? But this is quite humorous!" She giggled on, and her statement made Kiya shoot up and fold her arms. Before the duke in question could begin to speak she stopped him with her own two cents.

"Now I don't know much about being wealthy. But you lot are all pigs and deserve a fate of falling to a pool of mud, drowning. And…and!"

Selene and Alex looked to her expectantly.

"Getting pelted with…!"

Selene knew when her sister was too angry to finish the sentence so she said the first thing that came to mind, or rather that met her eye.

"Eggs."

"What?" Alex asked, wondering if a particular madness ran in his family.

"Yes eggs!" Kiya confirmed "the...err…hard kind!" sacrificing her rant at the altar of no more witty ideas.

"Okay, okay. But you will have to suffer the same fate because; you in fact are related to me."

Both sisters looked at him like he was the mad one who had predicted the egg fate.

"Okay… wow" Alex said thinking most girls wouldn't care for proof and just jump up and join him on the lands of Ashville. He reached in his briefcase which was made of pure and sturdy leather, the crest of his family embossed in golden thread. He took out papers, birth certificates and handed them over to both girls.

"Okay, my name isn't Casey, for one thing…" Kiya said. "This must be a joke.

"And Elena?" Selene asked. "How is that even pronounced? Elehna.. Elahna…." She tried.

"It's eee-lain-ah" Alex answered. "We have a grandmother left, although she had taken ill. But her wish was to locate the lost daughters of her grandchildren. That's where you two come in."

"So, how cruel are you to simply find two poor girls in the middle of nowhere and make them pose as your long lost sisters just to make your grandmother shut up?!" Kiya asked.

"I hadn't. It was a very long and vigorous search. I have been searching for over seven years. Remember the time my carriage had almost hit the young duke? Well I was going to the priest who looked over these lands to get the bios of everyone. And I went through each one of them quite thoroughly." Alex explained.

Kiya and Selene looked at each other quizzically. So it must've been true.

Kiya, or rather, Casey, had hair the color of chestnuts and a red sunset fused together. This wasn't considered to be very beautiful in these times, since they preferred solid colors over anything else. Her eyes were just as uncertain, they were mostly green, but if one looks closely, they would see traces of brown in her elegant orbs.

Selene, who was already beginning to get used to her real name, Elena, was not much different. Her hair was even more of a muddle of colors. She was a light brunette, that some claimed to be dark blond. But under certain angles of the sun, a red tint would be seen, and the color would be even more anonymous. Although, apparently, Russians claimed it russa. Her eyes were of a crystalline blue, but had traces of green. And as many blue eyes people, they had a tendency from going to gray to blue to greenish.

It was apparent why the two girls had identified themselves as sisters on the street so long ago. And a second look at their brother proved that they were related. He shared the same eye color as Casey, except with more masculine features, they weren't quite as luminous. His hair was somewhere between Casey's and Elena's.

"Are you serious…?" Casey broke the not-so awkward silence after the siblings finished assessing themselves.

"Yes and you are requested to come with me as soon as possible."

"Can we make a quick stop before we get to our…home?" Elena asked.

………………………………….

A few hours later Elena was returning to the carriage with a quite satisfied grin on her lips.

"By the gods, did you murder him?" Both Casey and Alex asked their sister. The only difference was that Alex asked fearfully, and Casey asked hopefully.

"Much much better than that. What do you think of me? Some mediocre tormentor? I don't think so..."

"What did you do!" this time both of them had mock looks of horror on their features.

"I tried shoving a broom up his buttocks which involved me chasing him up three flights of stairs and slamming his door in my face." Elena explained, "After I told him that I will no longer be cleaning up his and his father's pigsty."

"But why the broom?" Alex mussed while Casey sat back and laughed soundly.

"Because I said that I wanted to test my hypothesis…. That there was room for another large stick up in that hole of his…" At this point both siblings burst out laughing while Elena looked at the two quizzically. "What!? I believe there is!"

……………………………..

The next few days ran so smoothly, Casey felt that she would wake from this delightful dream at any moment. They were received with open arms, their newly discovered grandmother was recovering from her illness, and they had been measured and had a whole new wardrobe for themselves. Best of all; hard eggs were no longer on their list of things to wrestle that day.

There was, however, this season business. And standing in uncomfortable yet breath taking attire, Casey realized that this wasn't going to be quite as easy as it seemed. There were only three families left before hers would be called up. And, quite incidentally, the staircase was growing longer and longer with each couple called. Until finally, the majestic and loud voice boomed.

"Duke Alex, Duchess Casey, and Duchess Elena of Ashville!" With a final breath, Casey ventured into the thick water. Or that's what it felt like. The stair Casey seemed to have taken forever to dismount, and she wondered if ten years had passed somewhere before she finally got to the final step. But she had looked ahead, as the two days of consecutive and vigorous training dictated. But it was then that she scanned her surroundings, and felt her heart stop.

Atem was standing against a column, not looking, and talking to some blond.

She had no idea why that caused such a sinking feeling in her chest.