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Chapter Five
Pains and Gripes

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"See, I told you this whole report was a waste of our time."

Mahado looked upon the high priest with a playful scowl, "Now, now Seth, have you forgotten? The people do come first."

Seth snorted and spurred his horse into a gallop until he was in front of Mahado by a good ten yards, his way of saying that he no longer wished to speak. The sorcerer chuckled good-heartedly and shrugged, remaining at his original pace.

There had been a fire in one of the small branching villages just off the Pharaoh's city, basically in the outskirts of town. The fire had taken out the village's largest barn, and a nearby shed. Unfourtunatly, it had also claimed the lives of a few people, not to mention some chickens.

The sad thing was, one of those people was trying to be a hero, trying to save one of the stable workers, or so he had heard, that had been trapped inside the burning building.

"Mahado, if you don't speed up you might as well be riding backwards."

---

Meanwhile, in the little village, people gathered around the stinking pile of what used to be their barn, waiting for it to cool down enough for the bodies to be recovered. Nobody seemed to notice the blood spots in the sand, or the two pairs of footprints that led away from the village.

By now Kisara and her white-haired savior were half-walking across the desert, Kisara's back severely tender and sore, Her arm throbbing, the white haired man's legs shuddering slightly beneath him. By the expressions on their faces, it was clear who was better suited for life in the desert.

Kisara's face was already dyed red from the heat, her clothes already damp with perspiration. On the other hand, the stranger was barely breaking a sweat, though his face was pulled awfully tight…

"H-hey…Wh-"

"Don't speak, concentrate on walking. If we're lucky, we'll avoid any travelers."

Kisara shut up, mostly for the fact that she was really confused. Wouldn't they want to meet people? People who could help? For that matter, why hadn't they stayed at the village? She cast her gaze to the man who had saved her, who the hell was he, anyway?

The man in question, had a plan unfolding in his head, he only needed to reach his band…

---

"…Do you think they've found the bodies yet, Seth?"

Seth turned his head in mid-profile to glance briefly at Mahado before looking forward again and saying, his voice clipped, "How would I know, we only just got here." A pause and then,"Though if I had to guess, no."

Mahado looked curiously at his upper-classmen through the ears of his horse, "What makes you say that?" He drew his horse to stand beside Seth's, a few yards away from the smoking remains of the barn and shed. The horses shook their heads nervously. "That." Seth pointed to the almost-unnoticed blood spots on the sand, where Kisara and her savior had lain.

---

"Are we almost there yet?" Kisara complained, she was tired, not used to such physical exertion in such a short period of time.

"Would you quit whining, girl? I thought I told you not to speak." His voice was becoming steadily growly.

Kisara groaned and tried not to slouch forward, or else stretch her wounded back flesh. She looked down at her arm wound. It looked horrible, yellow crust at the center of the wound, and a dark purple/red/brown towards the outside. She wondered if perhaps it had gotten infected. She didn't know, she'd never had an infection before. Such things were always treated immediately at the castle.

Wait, what castle? She stopped walking, her mind searching desperately for this little fragment of familiar information, now lost. She looked around her wildly, like a frightened rabbit, ready to spring away at any moment.

Come to think of it, this entire landscape was unfamiliar to her! The rolling sand, the dunes in the distance, dried plants and sharp rocks; even this heat was unknown to her, not a cloud to be found. Where the hell was she?

He looked back at her as soon as she stopped, afraid for a moment she'd fainted; he wouldn't be able to carry her. But no, she was simply staring off into space as it were. He narrowed his eyes at her, obviously irratated, "What are you doing? We have to hurry if you don't want to freeze tonight."

Kisara shook her head, still half-heartedly searching her mind for the information she'd gained and lost, the teaser-thought. She didn't even pause to wonder how this hell hole could manage temperatures below 500 degrees. "I'm coming, I just needed to catch my breath." It wasn't a complete lie, she was tuckered out.

---

Mahado's eyebrows rose and he dismounted to get a closer look at the spots. His fingers brushed over the tarnished sand. As he pulled his hand away he stared at the pads of his fingers intently. "What is it?" Seth questioned, dismounting as well and moving over to stand next to the sorcerer. Mahado's eyes met Seth's as he showed the priest the red smears where he'd touched the sand. "It's fresh. Can't be more then a few hours old, the sun has not yet had time to dry it."

It was Seth's turn to raise his eyebrows, though to a lesser degree then Mahado. "Then they could still be alive." Mahado nodded grimly, "Yes, but not for long, look to where the footsteps lead."

The movements in the sand were a bit hard to follow, after all, villagers had stepped on some of them, the wind softening their clarity even further, but the general path was out into the open desert, the most dangerous place to be, especially with an open wound. Bugs, sand, coyotes and even bandits lurked out there; all could be very well fatal.

Both of the men looked a bit confused, Seth more so angry. "Why would they leave the village if they were injured?" Mahado questioned. To this Seth had no reply. "We should report back to Atemu, He'll want to hear about this."

"But Seth," Mahado protested, "Shouldn't we stay around here to see if any bodies are recovered? Or if any lingering ka are around?"

Seth shook his head and walked back over to his horse, mounting quickly and waiting for Mahado to follow, "I have a strange feeling about this, I'm going back, though you're free to stay here if it bothers you so much." And without waiting for Mahado's reply he spurred his horse and took off.

Mahado sighed and rubbed his fingers together, letting the drying blood flake off. He too, had a strange feeling, but unlike Seth, he was compelled to stay here. A man ran up to him, his head bowed as he spoke, "We've found some remains, sir." And right after Seto left, too, how convienient...

Mahado looked down at him, "Is that so? Well, lead me to them." The man walked slowly to where a few other men were gathered, and one woman was silently weeping. "We believe the remains to belong to the young stable girl, she never did make it out…"

Mahado listened carefully. "And how many fatalities were there, besides the girl?" The man cautiously looked up at the sorcerer, "Just one other, a young man with strange white hair, he ran in there when the girl didn't come back out after she saved the horses. He didn't come out either."

Mahado stiffened, for he knew of only one man with white hair, but he had to be sure, "This man, did he have any old wounds? On his face perhaps?" The man put a finger to his chin in thought, "Now that you mention it, I do think I recall an old wound, scar more like it, under his right eye if I remember correctly."

"I see." Was all Mahado had to say, his teeth gritted together as he looked down at the few bones that had been found. If Akifa truly was dead, at long last, this was what Atemu should hear. He looked off in the direction Seth had left, if only he'd waited to hear this.

But something else was puzzling him. If there were only two supposed victims of this fire, one body already discovered, and if Akifa truly was dead, then who's blood was that? Who had gotten away?

There was an easy way to find out. Mahado nodded to the man, and walked back over to the blood spots. He kneeled down and muttered something under his breath, once more running his fingers over the sand, then, carefully drew a circle around the area, he said one more something, and gave a quick hard blow on the sand, scattering it into clouds.

He watched carefully as shapes appeared, one was the form of his own ka, The Magician of Illusion, next was the infamous Diabound. 'Well', He thought, 'that answers that question. Akifa is alive after all.' The news was disconcerting.

He was about to go, his dark eyes narrowing, but before he did, he noticed a third shape take form. He took a double take in astonishment. Atemu was sure going to have a lot of reports today…

---

"Please, sir, can we stop now?"

Akifa looked back at Kisara, his patience with her thinning dangerously. He wasn't even quite sure anymore why he'd brought her with him, she was nothing but a hindrance, and a pain, and yet…

"Sure, why not? You've only been asking all day."

Her face lit up, "Can we really?"

"No."

"C'mon! We've been walking all day, sir, and I see lights, we must be close to a village."

The sun was setting, turning the once hazy blue sky into a rich purple.

"Actually, we are, and stop calling me sir."

"Then what am I supposed to call you?"

Akifa didn't say anything, it was best she not know his name. Instead, he said sarcastically, "Master, or Lord of Everything should be suitable, don't you think?"

Kisara leveled a flat look to his back, "Ha, ha, sir."

They had reached the village, and they kept walking.

"Sir, why don't we go into the village? They have doctors, don't they? It's foolish to wander about in the desert, we'll die for sure."

Akifa ignored her, somehow knowing she'd follow him. He couldn't risk going into a village with these wounds, he wouldn't be able to escape if they knew who he was, and he was sure everybody had by now, it had been nearly a month since he burned that village…

Kisara looked down at her arm again. She'd tried to bandage it with a piece of her dirty kimono, choosing a place that wasn't covered in sand or blood. Her kimono was hardly such anymore, it had to be torn and tied in various places to cover her back from the sun, and still be decent.

Her back ached, and felt uncomfortable and sticky, her arm the same way. She glanced up at Akifa, who was strangely stiff and walking awkwardly. She looked at his legs. Because he was wearing shorts, she could see the bare back of his calves. She winced.

Big sections of skin on both calves had been badly burned, though she noticed his wounds were already healing. Her back felt as though it would never heal, though she supposed that's because it was healing. Only time could really tell…

---

Atemu listened to Seth carefully. "So, no bodies have been found yet, correct?"

"Correct." Answered Seth.

Atemu sighed, he had better things to worry about then one lost barn with no sure fatalities. And even if there were any such fatalities were common. His crimson eyes looked to either side of the throne room, "Where's Mahado?"

"He decided to stay at the site, your majesty." Seth hated using the upper-classmen terms, but his father, who was present in the room, would not be pleased to hear otherwise.

"Well, you'd best head back there and see if he's found anything new."

Seth suppressed his disappointment at having to ride all the way there, again. There had to be a faster way to get messages across…

---

Mahado, however, had left the site of the destruction, and was on his way back to the palace at that very moment, his horses' hooves flying over the sand. He had to get what he saw to the Pharaoh, and Seth as well, he supposed.

Unfortunately for Kisara, Mahado was headed in the opposite direction she and Akifa were, making encounter unlikely, and thus, she was stuck, having left the village behind, she had no where else to go, but wherever Akifa went.