DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: Text in bold is being emphasised.
Chapter 7: The Seventh Show
By Shadow's Mirror
Show aired December 2, 2004
The Dark Magician is in his library, sitting quietly in his comfortable chair in front of a merrily crackling fire. There are no cameras in the room, for it isn't a scheduled interview day. In fact, with Shadow's Mirror's busy schedule and the uncertain state of the Shadow Realm, all interviews have been postponed for at least a month. So the Dark Magician is merely enjoying a rare moment of solitude and silence as he reads a book.
Then the door slams open and the whirlwind that is his apprentice bursts in with a tea tray, babbling at the top of her voice in a most undignified, but thoroughly her, way. "Here he is! Just come in and sit down, make yourselves right at home! Oh, I'll just magic up…" She pauses suddenly, biting her lip as she remembers. With the Shadow Magic so wild, any use of it is more difficult and draining on the strength of the spellcaster.
"That's all right. Allow me."
If the familiar voice hadn't caused the Dark Magician to peer around the side of his chair in surprise, the two armchairs appearing beside his, one on either side, would have. "Shadow's Mirror? What an unexpected pleasure! What brings you here in such nasty weather?" He smiles at her in delight.
"I'm hiding." Shadow's Mirror smirks, her grin fading slightly as she gets a good look at him. The mage looks paler and frailer than usual, dark circles under his eyes revealing the fact that he hasn't been getting much sleep. He looks ill and tired, which for him most likely means he's near exhaustion.
"Hiding? From what?" The Dark Magician ignores the questions he can see in Shadow's Mirror's eyes.
"More like 'from whom'. And the answer is… my lovely readers! I've been told by my best friend, beta reader, co-writer, fellow fangirl, Bakura-and-Yami lover and all-around treasure, otherwise known as Vash is my Angel, that I should hide from them. It's either that or duck."
The Dark Magician blinks, partly at the odd statement and partly at the Authoress's unusual hyper state. "Duck?"
"Yup!"
When no more information is forthcoming, the Dark Magician succumbs to the obvious cue. "Duck what?"
Shadow's Mirror drops into the chair on his left and holds her hands out to the fire, a smile of pure bliss spreading over her face at the welcome warmth. "Mmmm… toasty! It's cold out there! And purple. Is the snow always purple here?"
"No, yesterday it was orange with green stripes. Duck what?" The Dark Magician refuses to give up hope of getting a straight answer from her.
"Hey! There's no need to be sarcastic! I was just asking!" Shadow's Mirror frowns at him.
A soft voice speaks up from the doorway. "Actually, that was not sarcasm. Yesterday, the snow really was orange with green stripes. It was rather disturbing. Especially since it fell with every snowflake in precise alignment, so the lines were clearly visible."
The Dark Magician blinks and peers around his chair again, searching for the speaker. He blinks again when he spots him. "Chaos? What in the Shadows are you doing out of the fortress in this awful weather?" His already-pale face turns several shades lighter as he gasps. "Oh no…"
The Magician of Black Chaos shakes his head, smiling as he crosses the room to the spare chair. "Do not fear, my brother. The Elders are safely at home. They dare not leave the warmth and comfort of their sanctuary in such unpredictable weather. They have a tendency to fall into icy lakes and snowdrifts. Besides, with the magic so far beyond our control, journeying is very difficult for them." He sinks into the chair with a sigh and leans back. Closing his eyes, he suddenly looks very tired.
The Dark Magician eyes him with concern. "For you, also. Your bond with the Shadow Magic may not be as strong as some, but it is stronger than most." His comment earns him a small smile.
"True. In fact, the Elders have stopped sending me out on their little missions, because of it."
"That is good to hear. So why is it that you are here, then? Not that I am complaining. It is a rare pleasure to have you visit." The Dark Magician smiles warmly at the other Shadow Monster. The Magician of Black Chaos opens his eyes and smiles back.
"You mean it is a pleasure for me to visit alone. As I recall, you were not so happy to see me the last time I came to call." The Chaos mage's dark eyes gleam with amusement as the younger mage winces.
"Yes… well… it was a rather nasty shock to wake up and find you and both Elders standing in my bed chamber!" He frowns as the other mage chuckles softly. "Oh yes, you can laugh. You were not the one who got lectured for over an hour on appropriate sleepwear!" Turning away, the Dark Magician pouts into the fire.
"Oh, do not worry, you are hardly the first to incur their wrath over such a thing. Considering that their idea of 'appropriate sleepwear' is either long underwear or a nightgown and cap, there are few Shadow Monsters who have not received that particular lecture. Although… for the record, they gave you the short version. I think you impressed them."
The Dark Magician blinks. "Impressed them?" He looks more than a little horrified at the idea.
"Yes. As the Stern Mystic commented afterwards, 'it is few indeed who have the courage to listen to us speak to them on correct sleep apparel while remaining skyclad throughout.'"
Shadow's Mirror bursts out laughing, causing both males to blink in surprise as they suddenly recall her presence. The Dark Magician's cheeks flood with colour. "You… did not hear that."
"Oh, yes, I most assuredly did!" Shadow's Mirror grins. "And the mental image that came as a result of it is not one I'll soon be forgetting, either!"
Her words cause the Magician of Black Chaos to chuckle, earning him a reproving glance from the younger mage. "It is not funny." He turns his frown onto Shadow's Mirror. "Ducks what?"
"Are you still on about that? Oh, very well then." Shadow's Mirror rolls her eyes. "I'm ready to update two of my stories with new chapters."
The Dark Magician's eyes light up as he smiles. "Oh? That is excellent news! Which ones?" Then he frowns slightly. "And what has that to do with your needing to duck?"
"According to Vash, when I upload these particular chapters, I should either hide or prepare to duck, so I don't get hit by the various items being thrown at me."
The Dark Magician blinks at her. "Various items?"
Shadow's Mirror smiles wryly. "Fireballs, pitchforks and large rocks were mentioned."
He winces. "Ouch. Why would anyone wish to throw such things at you? Your writing is not that bad."
"Gee… thanks…" Shadow's Mirror glances at Chaos as he snickers. "Having fun there?"
"Oh yes. Very much so," the mage cheerfully informs her. She rolls her eyes and returns her attention to the other snickering mage.
"Do you want an answer to your question or not?"
The Dark Magician manages to stop laughing… more or less. "Please."
Shadow's Mirror sighs and rolls her eyes. "Mages… No, it's not because of the writing. It's because both of the chapters end in cliffhangers. Not 'evil cliffhanger of doom'… more 'if she doesn't update again soon, I may have to resort to threatening her with chibis' cliffhangers."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Chaos offers softly.
"It wouldn't be, except that one of the stories hasn't been updated for so long that I'm starting to get 'is this series continuing?' reviews." Shadow's Mirror winces as the two mages blink.
The Dark Magician leans forward, hope warring with caution in his eyes. "Which one is that? Oh, thank you!" He accepts the cup of tea the Dark Magician Girl hands to him and takes a sip.
Shadow's Mirror wriggles into a more comfortable position and smiles serenely. "I'm updating 'Library' and…" She pauses, waiting until he finishes sipping his tea. "…'Source'."
There is a moment of silence as the Dark Magician almost drops his cup of tea. He catches it and quickly places it on the floor beside him. Then, releasing a wild whoop of unrestrained joy, he starts bouncing in his chair. "You finished it! You finally finished it!" He beams at the now-laughing Authoress. "Congratulations! It certainly took you long enough!"
Shadow's Mirror wags her finger at him. "Don't you start. I'm feeling guilty enough over it! I actually had it finished a week or two ago. At least, I thought I did. I wasn't quite happy with it. Finally, I said to myself that I had to update it, happy or not, so I went to type in 'to be continued…' at the end. By the time I typed that, I'd also typed two extra pages and was happy with it!" She shakes her head, grinning. "I swear the stories do it to me deliberately sometimes… But anyway, it's done now and I'm very relieved about that. Now I just have to get working on the others." She winces at the thought.
The Dark Magician smiles at her. "You finished this chapter, you can do anything!"
Shadow's Mirror laughs. "I'll take that as a compliment! I just hope everyone likes it!"
"I'm sure they will. Does this chapter end the series?" The Dark Magician leans towards her, eager for her answer. Chaos manages to rescue the teacup before the younger mage kicks it.
"No. It was supposed to end this particular arc in the story though, but I changed my mind about that while writing it. So it looks like there's going to be at least one, possibly two, more chapters in 'Source' than I thought." Shadow's Mirror grins wryly. "And for some reason, I'm not surprised at that."
The Dark Magician nods. "You had a lot of trouble writing this chapter, didn't you?"
"Oh yeah!" Shadow's Mirror winces at the reminder. "I thought I knew what was going to happen in it, but when I checked back over the rest of that arc, I realised that I had a lot more to fit in than I'd thought. I tried to stick to the original plan, but it just wasn't working. Then, about a month or so ago, I decided to try a different approach. It worked. The story was much easier to write after that. Sometimes that's all it takes to break through a Writer's Block. If the story isn't coming in the way you want it to, it might not be lack of inspiration or inability to find the right words, it could just be that the way you want to write something isn't the way the story wants to be written."
"So, now that you have this chapter written, when will you update it again?" The Dark Magician smiles at her as Shadow's Mirror bursts out laughing.
"Hey! Give me a chance! That's not my only ongoing story, you know! I have a few others and some of them haven't been updated in just as long, if not longer, than 'Source'!"
"Ah, yes. It has been some time. Where are you up to with all of them and why are they taking so long?" The mage's eyes gleam with interest.
Shadow's Mirror thinks for a moment, mentally reviewing her story list. "They're taking a while because of where they're up to. All of them have angst, action or a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up. Some have all three. The more that's in a chapter, the longer it usually takes to simmer. My two Inu-Yasha fics are both up to their last chapters too. That brings a horde of problems by itself. With my other fics, the next chapter of 'Source' shouldn't take anywhere near as long as the last one. I actually know what happens in the next chapter!" She grins. "'Library' shouldn't be too far away either, although it will probably start to slow down since it's getting close to the end. I'm not sure how close though. I know there's at least three chapters to go."
The Dark Magician blinks. "It is that near to being complete?"
She nods. "Uh huh. It was originally intended to be much shorter, actually. I wasn't going to bring in the bit about the cards, or the state of the Shadow Realm, just the bit about Fire Sorcerer falling ill. But 'Library' is one of several stories that are linked together and there were a few pieces of information that I needed to work into one of those stories. They were supposed to go into the Christmas chapters in 'Source' last year, but I ended up cutting them. The timing wasn't right and they just didn't fit in. But they do fit into 'Library'."
"So both 'Library' and 'Source' are connected?" The Dark Magician appears fascinated. "You said 'several' are linked, which ones are they?"
Shadow's Mirror counts them off. "'Hearts, Souls & Shadows', 'The Shadow Tournament', 'Another Source of Magic', 'The Cinderella Spell', 'The Shadow Library', 'Interview with an Authoress', 'A Life for a Life' and two others. Possibly three… 'Life' might have a sequel."
"I have not heard of that one before, is it new?" The Dark Magician looks delighted at the possibility. Shadow's Mirror grins at his eagerness.
"Yes. It's a companion story for 'Library', but I have to wait until I get further into both it and another story before I can start posting it. You won't see it for a while." Shadow's Mirror smiles apologetically at the obviously disappointed mage.
"Oh well, at least you are updating 'Library' fairly quickly. It seems to be going well."
A big smile lights up Shadow's Mirror's face. "Oh yes! I got a bit stuck around one of the earliest chapters, but since then it's been good. I know what happens in the rest of it too, I just have to find the time to type the chapters up!"
"Excellent! What about the others? You have… how many is it ongoing now?"
"Eight. Two Inu-Yasha, five Yu-Gi-Oh! and an Inu-Yasha/Nights into Dreams crossover."
"You have mentioned four so far, what of the others?" The Dark Magician shifts in his chair, getting comfortable as he listens eagerly.
Shadow's Mirror thinks for a moment. "The crossover is on hiatus. Two of my Yu-Gi-Oh! fics might as well be, since neither of them shows the slightest inclination to simmer." She sighs. "There's not much I can do with them except add some water, stir them a bit and put them on to reheat. 'Interview' is going rather well though, despite the fact that most people don't seem to realise that it is an extremely important story."
Chaos stirs. "It is? Is that not the one where you talk about what you have been writing?"
"Yes, but it's much more than that. It's my only story set entirely in the Shadow Realm, so it contains a great deal of information that my other stories don't. Even if I do write something Shadow-Realm related into one of the others, chances are that it appeared in 'Interview' some time earlier. Although I will write most important facts into one of my more popular fics, like 'Library' or 'Source', by the time all of the linked stories are completed, there will be some information found only in 'Interview'."
The Dark Magician frowns slightly. "So all the linked stories need to be read together? Is that what you are saying?"
Shadow's Mirror considers for a moment. "Yes and no. You can read all of them individually, and you will get the complete picture for that story, but if you read more than one, you will notice things that link the two. For example, there's a character whose name pops up in 'Source' at one point and Ryou has a certain reaction to him. It has nothing to do with the storyline for 'Source', so it's never explained why he has that reaction… But fairly late in 'Tournament', it will turn out to be a rather important fact."
Both mages blink and lean forward. "You mean, you are working such things into your stories even though they will not have importance for some time to come?" Chaos stares at her in shock.
"That's right. If I don't explain something in one story, then chances are that it's either not important at all, or it's important in another story and that's where I'm explaining it." Shadow's Mirror smiles serenely at the two startled mages.
"How in the Shadows do you manage to keep track of everything?" the Dark Magician blurts out.
Shadow's Mirror laughs. "Oh, that's easy! I have all of the linked stories set in my mind. I know roughly what happens in each one, I just don't have it word-for-word in most cases. I have a brief summary of events for each story, enough that I know what happens and in what order. But I don't know the exact details for every part of every story. That's why some chapters take longer to write than others. They have to simmer more because I don't know them as well as I do other chapters."
"That's… remarkable." Chaos blinks at her, obviously still in shock.
The Dark Magician manages to shake himself out of his own daze. "So… with so many stories still ongoing, what are you planning to work on next? What can we expect the next update to be and when?" He gives Shadow's Mirror a very hopeful look. "Perhaps… my story?"
The Authoress laughs. "Soon, my friend. Very soon. The next update will be around Christmas time. I'm hoping to have something a bit special done by then. But it depends on how much writing time I have between now and then." Her eyes twinkle mischievously as she grins.
The Dark Magician grins back. "It sounds as though you are planning a little Christmas surprise for everyone who reads your stories."
"To quote a character from one of my favourite anime… 'That's a secret!'" Shadow's Mirror smiles mysteriously. Which isn't difficult, since every smile of hers looks mysterious with her wearing her black hooded cloak.
Both mages sigh and shake their heads. "Oh well, I suppose we will find out your plan soon enough. Aside from your ongoing stories, are you working on anything new?" The Dark Magician looks around, frowning slightly. "Where is my teacup?"
Shadow's Mirror snickers as Chaos sighs and hands the rescued cup to the younger mage. "I'm working on a few new things, actually. But I want to finish off some of my ongoing fics before I post any new chaptered ones. Still, you never know with me." She smiles serenely. Both mages shudder.
"True. I have noticed that you often seem to be heading in one direction and then you will twist your story into another direction." The Dark Magician eyes Shadow's Mirror thoughtfully. "Sometimes I think you delight in leading your readers on such a twisting ride through your stories."
The Authoress's eyes gleam and she smirks, but makes no reply. Instead, she stretches and sighs. "Ah well, I suppose I'd better get back before I'm missed. Vash is probably looking for me. It should be safe for me to go back now. The objects shouldn't start flying until later tonight at the earliest."
She stands and returns her teacup to the tray with a smile. "Thanks for the tea!" She turns to Chaos and smiles wryly at him. "And thank you for bringing me here when I turned up at the fortress by mistake. No, really, thank you! If I'd run into the Elders, they probably would have lectured me!"
Chaos smiles. "More likely they would have asked you to edit one of their manuscripts."
Shadow's Mirror shudders. "In that case, remind me to write you a nice big part in one of my stories as a thank you for saving me from such an awful fate!"
The Dark Magician snickers as Chaos's cheeks darken to purple with his blush. "Oh dear… I am not certain that would be… wise…" Having heard from D. Human about some of Shadow's Mirror's stories, Chaos glances at the younger mage for help.
"Oh no, do not look at me like that! This is your own fault entirely! You should have left her wandering around instead of guiding her here. Then she would not be so grateful to you." The Dark Magician pauses, frowning.
"Come to think of it, why is it that whenever Shadow's Mirror turns up in the Shadow Realm, I am always the one who ends up either being sent for, or has her delivered to me? Why does no one ever call Dark Witch, or take her to see the Spirit of the Books or someone?"
Shadow's Mirror laughs as she creates a shadow portal with a wave of her hand. "Silly. It's simple. They all know the truth about you and I."
The Dark Magician's frown deepens. "Truth? What truth?"
Shadow's Mirror laughs again as she steps through the portal, leaving behind a very frustrated mage.
"What truth?" He pouts as the portal closes. "Bother. I hate it when she does that."
"She means that we all know who she is. Therefore, we also know of the connection between the two of you." The Magician of Black Chaos finishes his tea and rises from his chair. "It is only right that you should be her guide and protector in this Realm of Shadows." He stretches and smiles down at the younger mage.
"After all, my brother, she is the keeper of your card."
