Okay Lovelies, you get to be the first to know that the first half of a complete 50 page re-write of 'Greed' will be up in an hour or two! Surprise! Oh, and just for the those who need incentive: chapter two includes a 21 page lemon. Yes. You read that right. Let it never be said I don't know my audience.
Chapter 11: Cities of Ghosts
Yami should've been sleeping. Tonight he and Yugi were going to Atlantis' Grand Library, or rather Atemu and Atreyu were, but it was eleven thirty and he was finding it hard to disentangle himself from his laptop. Mind mapping had turned to reading fan-fiction, had turned to writing, and now thirty- no fifty pages in he felt like he was forming some long overdue love letter to Atreyu. His third book was escaping through the cracks in his mind even if he had decided maybe it was best it never see the light of day. Not all the pieces were there but it was somehow cathartic to write the most important central focus of the plot: Atemu falling for Atreyu.
His phone buzzed by his hip, Yami hadn't taken the damn thing off his person for days, and smoothly he drew it out of his pocket. It was odd how naturally Atemu fostered the change inside Yami to happen. One moment he was a cowering author and now he understood he was a Reaper. He understood somehow he needed to be reachable for the call at any moment, needed to be reliable, needed to be ready to fight and somehow he felt stronger. He was capable in some small way even if he was not at all as powerful as Yugi or the others.
Crashing, see you later when we AP. Happy hunting.
Trey
So Yugi wanted him to sleep it seemed. Well Yami had to face Atlantis sometime and sooner rather than later seemed best. They'd already put it off too long. Funnily enough the adventure of another hunt, frightening as the consequences might be, gave Yami and old nostalgic rush of childish joy.
"Atemu," Atreyu greeted mildly as he phased in.
The Reaper found his feet fast, Atreyu had taught him to adjust, but there was a languid security here. Atreyu was here, everything was in place and Atemu could be assured whatever might happen they could face it even if he had no warning.
"Atreyu," he smiled, offering his hand cautiously.
The Faen paused, blinked, smiled off-hand and wrapped his arms round Atemu's upper arm near the crux of his elbow like a fine lady to be led off to dance.
"Atemu," he murmured gently enough, while the Reaper revelled slowly in the complex softness of the Faen's form against his. "Welcome to Atlantis."
Atemu's eyes were more distracted by the Lance of Lazarus resting as a bright ruby on Atreyu's forehead but at the cue he took in their surroundings well enough. The dimension was foggy and grey infused. It stunk somehow of mildew and disrepair though Atemu could see little beyond them.
They were standing, he noted, on a thick sheen of murky water amongst the mists. Fish churned in the depths which were in patches clear and in others obscured by algae and seaweed and fungus. The water they stood on the surface of, shallow as it was, seemed to stretch out all around them for miles of empty space. There was no sky above them that Atemu could make out. The whole scenario felt as though it could've taken place in an artificial chamber and before them it took some time to notice the looming great shadow in the mist.
Atreyu was barefooted, toes dry, as he led them over the water's slick surface closer to the shadow hunching up in the mist. It became clearer as they approached till Atemu could discern the looming derelict of a ruined building rising up before them.
The building may very well have been plucked out of a grander structure. It looked as if everything else had been ripped away round it. Like the root of an onion clearly pulled apart by hand. It was a sorry vision of something that must've once been quite beautiful. Only when Atemu saw this structure, mud packed in banks against it, bright blue paint faded and copper ornaments rusted green, did he notice the other ruins round them. In the water, here and there, in patches were chunks of grand stone work left abandoned in the shallow water.
They had done a thorough job destroying Atlantis it appeared…
Atreyu's toes touched the mud of the bank but remained clean in the squelching slush and Atemu followed him up the wet ramp to the worn, faded, mosaic paving of the building.
"Who goes there?" The voice boomed as Atreyu's toes hit the tiling.
"Atreyu Damestaire," the little fairy called softly, utterly at ease with his squire of a Reaper beside him and Jenzar's ruby on his brow.
"The Faen?" A beast inquired.
It was a beast, a ragged dragon, which peaked its head through the fog to lean down from the upper battlements to emerge into their vision.
"Ah yes," it rumbled lowly, "Atreyu Damestaire the Faen."
"Hermos," Atreyu greeted, bobbing a little in half a curtsey as he held himself to Atemu. He didn't look any weaker for it in Atemu's eyes rather the Faen seemed all the more fragilely pristine. He glowed in this dark place, bringing life to this forgotten realm, and that radiated power which far exceeded the submission of his stance leaning into Atemu.
"The conquering hero returns." Another beast chortled, distinctly unfriendly, as it brought its own raggedly faded visage into their field of vision.
"Critias." Atreyu answered with a cordial nod of his head. The little Faen was such a courtier sometimes impossible to ruffle with rudeness.
"Who do you bring with you?" The beast demanded lowly. The breath that escaped round its fangs was rank with age and mildew as Atemu tried to fend off a grimace under its consideration.
"Atemu Pheramora." Atreyu introduced. "A Specialist Reaper, child of the Gate Keeper, and my temporary body guard."
How did Atreyu manage to make him sound so grand?
"King Dartz did not give permission for multiple visitors. Your body guard is not welcome here."
"Well then King Dartz will have no one to give audience to." Atreyu answered politely. "I am not entering the Grand Library without Atemu Pheramora."
"Then you can return to the Hive it seems." Critias grumbled, hissed, and a churn of fire could be seen stirring behind his teeth. "Disrespectful creature of odd customs you are."
"Easy Critias." Hermos ordered mildly. "We are all allies here."
"These allies destroyed Atlantis." He reminded bitterly. "This one-" he glowered carefully over Atreyu "- is the lover of that beast Jenzar Fraveous."
"Beast is an interesting adjective." Atreyu retorted gently but undercut with an almost invisible sass.
Critias head snapped back to them viciously, snarling, teeth flaring and Atemu felt his back tighten into coils but Atreyu did not even waver barefooted before the dragon.
"Atreyu Damestaire," a third voice intervened smoothly, a voice Atemu recognised. "King Dartz has been waiting for you."
"Timaeus," Atreyu bobbed again, as a looming beast with the Guardian's voice appeared before them. Atemu supposed, after the initial shock, that the knight like man who had visited the Hive was just one form for this beast with the same voice.
"He comes bearing intruders." Critias grumbled.
"Dartz will see them both." Timaeus assuaged simply. "Stand down and let them pass Critias."
The entirety of the path within the walls of what was left of the building was dank with crumbling misuse. What was left of Atlantis was a faded, dying, relic and Atemu had low hopes with the beasts, the Guardians, behind them as Atreyu twisted the handle of a weathered blue door to lead them into a new inner chamber away from the mists.
Inside the Grand Library was much more elaborate than the ruined outsides gave hint to. It was a vast, vulnerably juicy, interior with an element of plush luxury heavy about it. The indigos, the emeralds, the verdigris, the navy, the cobalts, the baby blues… were all intense and fresh in here. Like a buried tomb the weathered exterior protected, shelled, an untouched inner wealth. The ceiling domed, studded with maps of constellations, high overhead and the books followed the veins of every wall as far up as they could go. The books stretched back and back into long cavernous rows out of Atemu's immediate vision and he could only imagine the full size of the library in its entirety.
"I see your body guard is impressed." It was a smug, eloquent, pipe of a voice and Atemu found it immediately offensive somehow given the hidden sourness it stirred into Atreyu's face.
"He's never been." The Faen smiled simply but there wasn't any true joy in the expression. It was more driven by manners. "How are you Dartz?"
"I make a living." he sulked restrainedly as he shouldered his way into view. Atemu caught him clearly only when he noticed the man descending one of the ivory ladders propped up against a towering book shelf. "It's been rather unpleasant really."
"That's a shame." Atreyu noted but Atemu was sure the Faen had no sympathy for the proud Watcher.
Dartz certainly looked proud, prouder even than Cobalt who was Kaiba. He swept more than walked, swayed in motion, like a ship at sea. It was an elegant kind of handsome but Atemu hardly found it attractive given the snide disapproval that radiated off that smug face. If Dartz was a fine galley at sea then Atreyu was the sea. Then again, Yami reasoned, Atemu was heavily biased.
"I had hoped the Guardians would've made your life here as comfortable as possible."
"Oh they try," Dartz shrugged sympathetically, "but you know how these things are Atreyu. Some of us aren't simply satisfied. Are we?"
"I don't know at all what you mean."
"You have your favouritism and I have mine." He grinned. "Cobalt sends me the most interesting reports about you but you always have been fascinating, you and our good friend Jenzar Fraveous, the Finest Star of the Faens and the Champion of Champions."
"I didn't think you considered Jenzar a friend," Atreyu replied simply. He had chosen very clearly to cut through whatever nonsense Dartz would've like to rile him with because Atemu could tell the King quite obviously would've like to rile the Faen. Atreyu was gripping Atemu quite firmly now and behind his placid expression Atemu somehow felt he was radiating dislike.
"Well after he and Amar Seirramoura defeated my Guardians and he dragged me out of my palace to throw me at the feet of the masses, yes, you could say I did rather dislike him for a while." Dartz smiled simply. "Yet we put all those silly things behind us I would hope. It was such a long time ago. Even for someone with a memory as long as yours Atreyu."
Atemu caught the implication. The implication that now Dartz didn't have to dislike Jenzar hung round them like dank air. This King, and Atemu rued the word, was rubbing it in that Jenzar was missing. Bastard-
Atreyu's hand ran up and then down Atemu's upper arm, soothingly, working the urge to strike out of the Reaper as suddenly as it had manifested. The motion was so passing it could've appeared thoughtless but Atemu was sure from Dartz's grin he was aware how infuriating Atemu found his existence.
"How's Christina?" Atreyu inquired sweetly. "She's an active part of the Watchers I heard?"
Dartz coiled and the smug radiance wafting off him seemed to subtract immediately like a dissipating miasma. Atreyu had hit back.
"She's very well," the king assured kindly, "still remembers you fondly. You made quite an impression when you carried her out of Atlantis yourself."
"She was a lovely girl." He replied simply. "No need for her to have been distressed by what was going on or for me to be unnecessarily cruel. Not while you and Jenzar settled your disagreement anyway."
"Hmm." Dartz snorted primly to cease the line of thought. "That's a lovely ruby by the way Atreyu. Lance of Lazarus I assume?"
"Of course."
"Jenzar did have lovely magic, didn't he?" The past tense here was palpable. "I suppose we best get down to business on that front however if we're ever to locate that poor Champion of yours."
"You best." Atreyu cut gently and for a second Atreyu may very well have been the King ordering Dartz to submission. The Atlantian didn't appear to like that at all. "How goes it?"
"Slowly but surely we're trawling back through the last four hundred years of reports for clues," Dartz sighed sympathetically, "but it's a slow process by my lonesome you understand. After all we have to consider the entire universe and both sides of the Veil. He could be anywhere."
Dartz rather seemed to revel in emphasising that.
"Oh I can't imagine it would be so hard for someone as talented as you." Atreyu cooed. "You know exactly how many pieces of grass there are on Earth. You're a wealth of information, memory of an elephant, and why not? There's not much else to do anymore here in Atlantis."
Oh this could get nasty.
"Yes, there's that," Dartz snorted.
"What about the Lance?" Atreyu prodded. "Timaeus said you wanted to talk about it with me in person. Where exactly did you find it?"
"That's the distressing part unfortunately," the King consoled but hardly appeared distressed, "one of my Watchers found your Champion's lance abandoned at a battle site outside Tartarus."
"Tartarus?" Atreyu snapped. "You're sure?"
"Oh very," he answered grimly.
"I knew it!" The Faen hissed fingers curling into Atemu's armour.
"Tartarus?" Atemu frowned. "Dare I ask?"
"I'll-" Atreyu may have been resolved to tell him in private but Dartz was equally resolved to ruin that.
"You may indeed!" The king interceded to Atemu. "Tartarus is a dimension along the Supernatural Side of the Veil. As the Reapers have the Hive and the Watchers had Atlantis. Tartarus however is where the Seers make their nests and it has been since the dawn of time. Terrible, dreadful, awful place."
"So then the Seers have Jenzar?" Atemu decided conferring more with Atreyu than paying Dartz any heed.
"I'd bet my core on it." Atreyu murmured hotly. "They have him or, if not, they know exactly what happened to him."
"Ah, but which Queen?" Dartz rued over them. "After all the Seers live in distinct nests, attack distinct parts of the Veil, have distinct Queens. Tartarus may be a mess with all of them but only each individual nest knows what happens within its confines. Which one of them has Jenzar? If, assuming, there's anything left of him?"
"There's plenty left. The Lance survives. If it survives Jenzar survives." The Faen decided but offered nothing on the matter so far as more specifically locating Jenzar or on revealing what Third Star had told them in Sanctuary.
Then again Atemu suspected maybe not even the Watchers knew about Sanctuary, the Faen city, and maybe it was best that way. Dartz certainly seemed the type to wring vengeance if he could find a way to get it.
"You always were so very positive Atreyu Damestaire," to use a full name here was a mark of intimacy rather than formality, and in this case a rather insulting assumption. "I envy that. Unfortunately I'm afraid as of yet I can't offer you any more information. I might not have any more for you for centuries yet I'm afraid."
"Thank you nonetheless." He smiled smoothly.
A security had reaffirmed in Atreyu and the Faen was satisfied within itself again. Even if Dartz had bought them here just to gloat directly. Atemu could perceive the change even if Dartz could not. Nothing the king said from here out would touch the Faen, he was sure, but why Atemu didn't know. Atreyu had something which rendered him unaffected by the King of Atlantis' barbs. Some information he wouldn't share here?
"Will you be leaving then?" Dartz inquired.
"I should think we best." Atreyu nodded curtly as if a foreign emperor carried with a glowing kind of pride.
"Would you settle a minor curiosity of mine before you leave? Between old friends?"
"I'll try." The Faen offered kindly.
"Who is your charming body guard?" The Watcher asked even as he turned his focus more acutely upon Atemu's bemused expression. "Cobalt and Timaeus tell me you're a Specialist Reaper?"
"Aye," Atemu shrugged, "I am."
"What type?"
"I don't know yet." He admitted.
"How odd," Dartz frowned, "what is your true name exactly? Cobalt and Timaeus gave be strange answers. I wanted to ask you myself."
"Atemu Pheramora." He frowned and beside him Atreyu was slowly stiffening with a confusion which was evident between them and growing parasitically.
"Atemu Pheramora?" The king repeated curiously and Atemu, driven, nodded. "Is that right Atreyu?"
"Yes." The Faen retorted curtly. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well because that has to be a lie." Dartz chuckled as if quite uncomfortable with the information. "There are no Reapers called Atemu Pheramora."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Atreyu, old friend, I know exactly how many pieces of grass there are on Earth. I certainly know the names of every Reaper and, especially, every Specialist just as well as their father the Gate Keeper does. I make it my business to know." He elaborated. "So I can assure you your friend here is either a liar or nota Reaper."
"Don't insult me," the Faen snapped, "the Gate Keeper acknowledges Atemu as one of his children. I would pin my life upon his word and I think very little of yours."
"Oh, but he acknowledges you as his child as well and you're not exactly one of the Gate Keeper's kin," Dartz suggested with a faux weakness, meekness, that had Atemu's temper intensifying.
"I am a Reaper. I am a Specialist." Atemu rumbled low. "I am very proud of my heritage and I am very sure of it. So I will not have you insult me or disturb the charming creature I have the pleasure of assisting. If you have nothing else to say I think Atreyu Damestaire and I will be returning to our duties."
It tumbled out of his mouth with pizazz. Atemu felt like to lurch at the impropriety of it but Yami was torn by the desire to punch the air with his fists when Dartz fumbled his own lips open unhappily at the insult. Atreyu was blinking at him, bemused, but not horrified and Atemu, half embarrassed under his strict glower, took grip of the Faen and rather dashingly took head to escort the fairy from the library.
They walked, Atemu's boots clopping harshly on the tiles, out of the library into the fog and past the Guardians into the water where they did not stop till Atemu, heart pounding, was convinced the shadow of Atlantis was out of view in the fog.
"I am-" He pivoted to Atreyu, taking the Faen's elbows in his hands apologetically as he stuttered.
"No! No!" Atreyu laughed, taking his cheeks into delicately soft hands, bringing their noses together as he giggled. "Don't you apologise! That was wonderful! If you hadn't done that I would've slapped him!"
"I'm still…" Atemu laughed, unable to finish despite himself, arms slipping round Atreyu to draw the Faen up against him. The fairy tossed its arms round his neck and pressed warmly into him as Atemu buried his face in the soft locks of hair. "He deserved it. How dare he insult you like that?"
"How dare he insult you." Atreyu reminded pushing back, grinning, hands clasped round Atemu's firm biceps through the cotton armour which was as light and flexible as the Aztecs' had been. "That was marvellous. Weren't you frightened of him? He's powerful."
"I don't care," he scoffed, "what's he going to do? You're not afraid of him are you?"
"Certainly not," Atreyu snorted amiably, "but I'm older and stronger than you. You don't have to defend anyone's honour."
"Never mind that relic or his crumbling palace!" He dismissed jovially. "I have my suspicions you may know where Jenzar is now?"
"Oh I do," Atreyu beamed, "but not here. The Guardians have far reaching hearing. I'll tell you later."
"Do you think he's alright?"
Atreyu's smile twisted, became more complex, eyes darkening as he tightened in Atemu's arms in the struggle of conflicting emotions.
"I don't know," he admitted, "but I will find him or at least what happened to him. I'll avenge him. I want to believe though that he's still waiting for me somewhere."
"Even if only a tiny portion of him survives I'm sure it is," Atemu consoled, because truly he could believe it. He would fight on living for Atreyu. He could only assume Jenzar, who knew all the Faens secrets, would always do so. "What about Dartz' nonsense about my not being a Reaper?"
"Mind that even less," he snorted, "Watchers can lie too. I wouldn't trust Dartz as far as I could hurl him. The Gate Keeper knows all his children, they can't lie to him, and if you weren't a Reaper he would know instantly. You are a Reaper and you're a damn fine one too."
There was passion in that, a kind of passion he normally associated with Atreyu's Yugi face but here the Faen revelled with him and, in its own way, adored him as he was. Maybe he wasn't Jenzar but Atreyu still favoured him Atemu could see in that smile. He had known what the Faen was feeling in that Library, he knew Atreyu's energy, and he was getting better at this without much notice.
"Tell me everything." Yami demanded as he hit Yugi's couch.
The Faen laid their bounty of snacks over the misused little coffee table and lowered the volume of the DVD player as Hercules scrolled past the opening credits. He collapsed beside Yami easily enough and fished under the couch for a shoe box filled with knick knacks.
How many times in the past few weeks had Yami done this, just dropped his nonsense to stride over to Yugi's place or to his front door to let the Faen into his? How many secluded coffee shops had they sat in by now? How easy and natural it had become for him was astounding. Even without the right to kiss Yugi he had found intimacy that merged the fractions of his life and made the yo-yoing capable.
"Cassidia." The Faen declared simply. "Jenzar and I were sure she was the Seer Queen watching over Earth. The Seer Queens like to divide up planets like that amongst themselves so they can claim all the glory for themselves if they cause a tear in the Veil, or real chaos, or hurt a Faen. They're rarely good at sticking to rules but the Seers are so greedy for glory they usually fight off other Queens who stick their noses in their business."
Yugi had found a stack of cards and was shuffling them.
"We had a close run in with her in 48BC when she organised a little chaos and burnt down the Library of Alexandria."
"Alexandria…" Yami frowned. "Why am I remembering that?"
"Because," Yugi grinned, "the Seer who attacked your house said it knew me from Alexandria. Said it; 'cut me in the river'. It's got to be one of Cassidia's pawns. Which means she's the one coming down hard on me and she's probably the one who's got Jenzar."
"What happened in Alexandria exactly?" Yami couldn't pass up a good story.
"One of our past lives," Yugi answered. "Egypt was under Roman rule at that stage under the Ptolemaic dynasty. Jenzar and I were in Alexandria when Julius Caesar visited. He had a diplomatic accident and burnt the library and half the city down. We were lucky to get out alive and the Seers, who were amassing there, didn't make it any easier. A couple of them tried to drown me in the Nile with possessed bodies. They let slip who's name they were working under the banner of and Jenzar and I figured Cassidia had Earth under her roster this time."
"In 48BC?"
"Doesn't often take us long to figure out which Seers we're fighting around," Yugi shrugged, "on some planets we destroy one Queen and another nest takes over. It happened three or four times on Murasi when Jenzar and I went crazy for six hundred years."
"So Cassidia is in-charge of the Seers clustering round Earth?" He summarised briefly. "Ever had her before?"
"Ever played Astral tango with her?" Yugi snorted. "No. Seviticus has though."
"What was she like?"
"I don't know. Seviticus and I haven't ever talked about it." He confessed mildly. "That's where these come in."
"Playing cards?"
"Tarot cards." He corrected cheekily flashing the long thin deck of cards towards Yami. "They're a staple for Goth chicks and high school sleep overs. Like Oujia Boards. I hatethem, just like I hate fortune tellers, but they're useful."
"Oh?" He grinned. "Am I getting another Supernatural 101 from Yugi del Trey?"
"Yep," the smaller chuckled, cutting the deck. "I pour my energy into them, sync them with me, and then connect them with myself and the Gate Keeper so that he and I can have a proper discussion while I'm awake rather than waiting to go to sleep."
"You can do that?" Yami baulked. "I just thought..."
"So did I for ages," Yugi grinned, "but this is a really good way to talk to him while being conscious. You can just tap them into the Veil as well and get a good litmus test for how everything is and what kind of hunts you might get called up for soon or if everything is peaceful. It never is but I digress. It's no future vision or anything ridiculously solid like that but it's a good way to chat or get a vibe for what's going on. Like checking the oil in your car I guess."
"That is perhaps themost unromantic way you could have thought of to describe your magical dealings with a God." He chastised breaking into a breaming Cheshire grin. "I dig it. So are you going to call Seviticus?"
"Not allowed to have direct contact with him except in emergencies because he has a Faen and I'm not allowed to have contact with the other Faens full stop." Yugi sighed. "But the Gate Keeper should be up to speed on Cassidia enough to give us some info. We'll hit him up."
"Wouldn't an Oujia board work better?" Yami pondered. "You get letters that way."
"Too much hassle and I hate the damn things with a burning passion." The smaller shrugged honestly. "They're so naïve and nasty. Only the weakest creatures need a board to talk to humans and only the most bored, malicious, ones bother to chat. They lie through their teeth and they hurt anyone who talks to then. Oujia boards just invite wickedness. Call me Christian or something but I just…ick…"
Yugi shuddered a little for dramatic effect, to drive home the point, and leaning into his knees and elbows Yami let it slide like water rolling off a duck's back. Yugi was the expert in these matters and by now Yami trusted him implicitly to keep them from falling off the rails. So he let Yugi sit on the carpet between the coffee table and the sofa and hold the deck to his chest.
Yugi closed his eyes, inhaled, kissed the deck, seemed to focus and breathe directly. Yami listened, he waited, he felt more than what he could see and he could feel Yugi channelling his energy and tugging at strings around them. Beneath the daily magic covering Yugi's home Yami could feel the Faen tug at the strings of bigger forces.
"Who are you?" Yugi asked and with the deck in his lap dealt three cards to the table.
"Three?"
"Gives us a better picture of who we're talking to," Yugi whispered as he flipped them, he hummed a little to himself as he traced the illustrations and smiled. "Gate Keeper."
"How can you be sure?" Yami frowned.
"Look at them," the smaller gestured, "the Sun, Justice and King of Swords. Who's the father of the entire knight like race of Reapers, Champions, who enforce justice and who rules from a castle under a never sleeping sun?"
"The Gate Keeper," he chuckled, exhaled to his own amazement in realization.
"Bingo," Yugi winked, refocusing as he shuffled the deck lovingly once more. "Now then, Atemu and I saw Dartz. The Seers might have Jenzar or what's left of him. We think its Queen Cassidia. You copy?"
Judgement was laid on the table and satisfied Yugi continued his conversation under Yami's watchful, childishly amused, eye. It was like reading runes, tea leaves, because as the Gate Keeper couldn't speak he could only guide the cards with the appropriate messages for their eyes to decode.
"How bad is she? I've never had her before. I'm not sure what I'm in for."
Yugi laid three cards out now to, Yami supposed, garner a better picture of the Gate Keeper's answer. To better see the tone and the nature of the response.
The Empress was the first card Yugi flipped on the little table then Death and, finally, The Tower.
"That sounds pretty bad?" Yami guessed and nodding idly Yugi gathered up the cards to shuffle more languidly as he frowned.
"She's been after me here in the Natural World as well."
Ace of Swords and The Star sat on opposing sides of The Lovers.
If Cassidia had Jenzar then it was only natural she should seek out Atreyu knowing he was vulnerable.
"I know," Yugi sighed as if he could hear the Gate Keeper. "She must've had Jenzar these past four hundred years and been trying to figure out my true name so she could find me. Knowing our magic but not our names would've left her in the dark to finding me. The books must've tipped her off."
Almost distantly, thoughtlessly, Yugi drew again from the constantly shuffling deck.
The Fool and Wheel of Fortune
Yami didn't need a translator to know that was directed at him. By chance, by a lack of memory or knowledge, Yami had unknowingly exposed all their secrets and spread their cards before the Seers. Seers who, while aware Jenzar's Earth bound was unprotected, had not known his true name to summon till now. With Yugi's true name then exposed they'd been able to find him and attack him.
Temperance was laid out next, after another shuffle, and Yugi cast Yami's blink a knowingly soft smile.
"He can feel you getting depressed." Yugi reminded before turning back to the deck. "So what do we do? We're almost sure it's Cassidia and that they at least have what was Jenzar. If the Lance is right he's still alive. We have to rescue him."
Yugi laid six cards next, one on top of the other, and nearly, in the back of his ear drums like pressing a shell to his ear, Yami was sure he almost heard the Gate Keepers voice narrate the symbols:
The Hanged Man- Jenzar the prisoner was acknowledged.
The World- the Veil and its need for peace and protection was prefaced.
The Tower- if they rushed in to save Jenzar and lost Yugi-Atreyu then everyone would be in danger.
Strength- seemed to be the Gate Keeper's way of comforting them, of urging Yugi to hold on a little bit longer, while they came to a solution.
The Hermit- for now Yami and Yugi would have to lay low and quite.
The Chariot- and then, when they were ready with a plan, the Gate Keeper would let them off into battle.
"I…" Yugi mumbled. "I don't know if I can manage like this much longer. I don't feel like me anymore."
The Moon.
Protection, love, Third-Star… everything the moon had ever meant to Yugi, that he had explained to Yami, the Gate Keeper seemed to beautifully comprehend with a Father's necessity and stern appreciation. The Gate Keeper knew Yugi was hurting but had faith in his ability to endure and would offer the reassurance that even now the Faen was not alone. Somehow, even as an author, Yami found the absence of human words more powerful in conveying the message which was like hieroglyphs to the Ancient Egyptians from their God. Silent but present like the presence of the Gate Keeper over them.
"We'll save him though," the Faen whispered, "we'll pay them back?"
Justice.
Smiling Yugi gathered the cards back together and pressed them to his lips a second time.
"Thank you." He whispered, eyes fluttering, and a string cut somewhere around them. The shadow of the Gate Keeper which had been hanging over them dissipated into dull background noise as if a song had ended and the air had refilled with silence.
"We've got to lay low," Yami sighed, itchy. "What do you want to do?"
"What do you mean?" He blinked.
"I don't think anyone would be too surprised if we flew the coop and stormed the nest on our own." He shrugged gracelessly.
"You'd come with me?" Yugi frowned. "Leap off into danger and get your ass kicked with me?"
"Of course I would." Atemu was very strong at the surface of Yami right now as he leant into his knees and twisting his legs on the carpet Yugi's face came very close to his. There iron in Yami somewhere, strength, that came with the Supernatural calm he usually only felt when he was sleeping. It was the peace of certainty and self-confidence that carried fearlessness on its shoulders inside Yami's heart.
"Wouldn't make you," the smaller promised gently, running his fingertips over Yami's cheek affectionately thumb brushing the raised arch of the bone.
"You'd take me with you though?" Yami checked, grasping the wrist. "You're not just going to run off without me all guns blazing or something?"
"That'd be brain tumour levels of stupid." Yugi conceded good humouredly. "I might in another hundred years or I might've a couple billion ago, yonks ago, when I was young and really stupid but I trust the Gate Keeper. He'll get Jenzar back if there's any way to get him back. I'm not dumb enough to fuck it all up."
"No big romantic lunge into danger then." He teased despite himself chuckling. "Darn."
"Got to be careful," the Faen shrugged, drawing his hand away. "If I fuck this up we might lose Jenzar for good if he is alive somewhere. Sides it's not like I want to get you destroyed with me."
"Hey, Yugi," he rolled over the syllables delicately and found himself startlingly honest. It was easy. "I started writing the third book."
Delicate brows furrowed over the coffee table as Yugi packed the cards back into their shoebox and, carefully reluctant, the Faen glanced back to him.
"Yeah?" He murmured warily. Yugi wasn't pleased by the concept, Yami had just rubbed him the wrong way with its mention he was sure, but he wasn't angry yet. Yami's first two books would be forgiven for ignorance but if he published one now he'd be knowingly, unforgivingly, betraying Yugi's trust. If he did that now, Yugi was making it clear with those tight eyes, he would not be forgiven.
"What do you want me to do?" Yami appealed with a total lack of expectation which seemed ruffling to the Faen. "I don't care if I never pick up a pen again. I get it. I can call my editor and tell her it's over. I can start a new series and actually come up with something on my own for once. I don't care."
"You've got eat somehow." The Faen mused.
"Got to do what you've got to do," he agreed, "but I'll think of something if I have to quit writing. You want me cancel the deal on the third book?"
"No…" Yugi insisted cautiously. "You could get away with another one but you'd have to change half of it. You wouldn't be able to mention Sanctuary at all and if other creatures figured out how the Seers captured Jenzar they'd be onto it too. You'd have to change names and locations and all sorts of things."
"It's fiction." Yami decided smoothly. He was ready to let it go. Accuracy was irrelevant. "What are the readers going to know? There's not point me making a bomb with another book and getting us killed I mean. I honestly don't care. It's up to you."
"Let me read it first?" The smaller compromised tenuously. "What's another one going to hurt if we're careful? But I want to see it before anyone else."
"Definitely, easy done," He swore casually. "Anything you want. It's reasonable."
"You sure?" Yugi mumbled hands slipping into his lap. "You've got a great fan-base, you enjoy it, you make a good living. You don't even care a little bit that it all has to change?"
"It's money and paper." He dismissed resting his cheek in his palm. "I know I should care more because I always wanted to write but I just don'tanymore. I've got you guys now. I'd rather know you, Mokuba, Kaiba and Ryou and Amar and Sev and Morphis and everyone else was happy than worry if I get to go to conventions anymore. I just doesn't matter. I'll deal, I'll survive, I mean if I can handle Seers with you why the fuck am I worrying about grocery money in the grand scheme of things?"
"I was like that about my high-school exams," Yugi snorted, "so much was going on and I wanted to do well but I just thought: why do I care? It's not going to be the end of the world if I fail. I'll do my best. As long as no one dies today than it's a good fucking day so screw math. Whether I failed my senior maths exam or not is not going to be on my tombstone."
"Exactly," Yami breathed heartily at the sentiment as if Yugi had just grasped something he had been searching for the words for. "I mean, sure, the books are really satisfying but… I guess they were escapism, fun, and this is real. This is way more engaging, way more worthwhile, and way more fun in a really terrible way. If I can write a third book but it has to be less than true then who cares? I just want to still have you guys a year from now even if no one knows who I am."
"Didn't take you long," the smaller laughed. "May have taken you forever to figure out it was real but, shit, you sound so much like a Reaper pro already.
"I guess I'm cheating." He shrugged. "It's not like I'm strapped for cash right now after all. I'm not really worried about that in the long run. I'm a great gambler and a killer fucking gamer. I'm not just an author. I can make money. Money is money. Sides gambling and writing both don't expect me to be very reliable so if I have to deal with emergencies at odd hours it wouldn't matter like it would if I was at a desk job. I guess that's why you work from home and online? Makes sense."
"You gamble?" Yugi supposed curiously shuffling on the carpet to push back Yami's elbows and cross his arms over the Reapers' knees. Yugi leant his chin into his forearms and for a second Yami's imagination gave him the image of a great sultan and an interested courtier locked in storytelling.
"I was kind of addicted when I was younger." Yami admitted. "I haven't played anything in ages cause I was way too into it but it'd be really convenient now. I really clean up."
"Heh," he grinned, "you and Jenzar are going to run off to Vegas without me when he gets back. Just come back with a couple hundred grand each or something ridiculous. Pair up and clean out the whole city. He lovedgames."
"Really?" Somehow that sounded fun. Even given everything to be close to Jenzar like that sounded like something precious and good. "No one told me that. I always got the impression he was kind of inhumanly chivalrous and badass. I mean, I know you said he wasn't perfect and he could be an asshole but even then…"
"He's chivalrous alright," Yugi agreed on a soft ripple of nostalgia, "loves being the hero or the gentlemen. He's always put stock in honour and valour all those Reaper things. He's a big kid though, always has been, hopeless philosopher, romantic, gamer… He's riddled with self-doubt too. Like, he knows he's good at what he does but he never feels like he's great at it. He's weirdly humble and he's so innocently amused at the simplest things even though we've seen it all before. He's unendingly positive but every now and again he'll decide everything's gone to shit and it's all ruined and he's fucked up permanently and I'll have to slap him round and get him to pull himself back together again. He's a sook."
"Doesn't exactly sound like King Arthur." It was playful on his part but oddly fascinated.
"Oh God no!" Yugi laughed as he drifted through the memories. "It's weird. I remember him being so practical when he had to be but he was so clingy when it was just us. He'll be all: everything shall be just fine! I'll go take care of that! Then we'd be alone and he'd whine about having to go away. I've never liked being away from him but I've always coped better when we're separated for a while. He sulks inside. Most of the time he can't be serious for more than ten minutes without a stupid joke…He seems so big and imposing and incredible from not far off but when you get right up in his face he's such a hopeless spaz."
Watching Yugi, Atreyu, remember a millennium expanding relationship was enchanting in its old fashioned sweetness. There was a grandmotherly jokiness to it. Yugi unwrapped, unpacked, layers of familiarity and qualities which the soul of this other being had maintained over the centuries most truly despite the influences of the times and the places they'd been reincarnated in.
"We've lived in huts and palaces," Yugi prefaced dreamily, "but it's always been so easy to be happy wherever we end up. We've been in a one bedroom shack along the banks of a sordid little river and I still remember he'd sing to himself every single morning like we were in Venice in a grand hotel. As long as we were together everything was alright. Like… he's usually really good with kids but he's always terrified of being a father or a mother but he always wants me to have them. Thinks kids and I just go together, loves making me parent, thinks it's the most beautiful thing in the world. Maybe it brings out the best in me, or the worst, but he just loves it.
He's as stupid as I am too. Once or twice we've had more mouths to feed than we knew what to do with. He'd sneak not eating so the kids and I could but I'd find out and tell him off for working for hours and not eating. Then a few weeks later he'd have to call me out for doing the exact same thing and I'd tell him off for telling me off! And he'd apologise!"
He was laughing, he was smiling, he was drifting on a tide that lapped back thousands and thousands of years to lives on planets well before Earth had humans. Jealousy wanted to stir inside Yami's gut and to a degree it did but the heat was stolen by Yugi's contentment soothing the flames.
"See," Yami snorted, "no one else tells me that. Everyone I talk to makes it sound like he was all Superman all the time. You make him sound like a person."
"He is amazing, he is a superman," Yugi confessed nonchalantly. "It's hard not to love him but he's also a person. He lived, he breathed, and he got cranky without his breakfast.
"I know," he nodded, "I just haven't been able to see him like that."
"You'd love him. I could say the sky was orange and you'd both go: oh sure Trey whatever you say sweetheart!" Yugi fawned happily. "When I get him back you and he will fall madly in love, ditch me and never come back."
"No way," Yami dismissed playfully. "We'll fight like scorpions."
"He's going to think you're so badass," the smaller assured contradictorily. "He's going to ask me why I bothered to come looking for him with you around. He's going to be so grateful to you you've got no idea…"
"Amar and Sev said that," he pondered, as they continued to pretend that Jenzar's return was certain. "But…I keep thinking he's going to hate me."
"He's going adore you." Yugi fought insistently. "Just like Amar and Sev do. Just like I think you're fantastic."
"But what about you?" Yami pushed on more curious than bothered. This was gentle and to his surprise he didn't find himself uneasy to talk about Jenzar like this. He sounded more human, more reachable, and more filial when Yugi illustrated his character. "I feel like I know you, I do, but I don't know much about this life time. We've sort of been too busy for that. So, what you told me in the gardens was true right? No parents but you've got a grandfather?"
"Yeah," he paled softly, brushing his hair back from his face. "He runs a game shop in Domino City. Lived there my whole life, right above the shop, he's lovely. Used to be an archaeologist and run off on adventures when I was little."
"He where you picked up your history fetish?"
"Oh yeah," Yugi snorted weakly.
"Must like that you're taking it at University," Yami supposed.
"Probably," he shrugged uselessly, "I don't know."
"How come?"
"I haven't talked to him for two years," Yugi mumbled, resting his arms back across Yami's knees and planting his chin back across his forearms after it had lifted with animation discussing Jenzar. "I've had to move a lot. When I turned eighteen, when high school ended, I jetted out of there. It was just getting way too dangerous for him. Lots of nasties had read your book by then and gossip was around and they'd started to find me here in the Natural World too in the masses."
"Oh…" Yami had remembered perhaps a second or so too late, stomach churning, and sighing he leant forward to wrap his arm round Yugi's shoulder as he brought their foreheads together. "I'm so sorry, could I help somehow?"
"It's alright," the younger assured, "if I wasn't so frazzled and overworked I'd be able to protect him as well but I'm shot doing all this without Jenzar backing me up. When we find him I'll figure it out. Grandpa will forgive me. He knows there are just some things I won't tell him and as long as I'm happy he won't push."
"Can't I back you up?" Yami supposed uselessly. "Maybe… I don't know, something?"
"Oh buddy," he chuckled, "when you get your memories back your powers are going to quadruple but till then I've got to keep an eye on you. You can help me then. That's why it's so easy to still be friends with Kaiba and Ryou: they can protect themselves with their own magic sort of like you can. Grandpa can't so for now its best he's as far away from me as possible."
"I'm still sorry." He insisted. "If I'd had any idea you were real…"
"I know," he promised, rubbing his nose teasingly against Yami's. "Never mind that, what else do you want to know?"
"You a workaholic in everything?" Yami joked weakly leaning more of his weight against Yugi fighting the urge to tip their faces against each other and kiss him.
"Double Major at University," he answered cheekily, "English and History."
"How the fuck do you find time?" He laughed.
"ADHD." Yugi retorted jokingly. "Multitasking mastery is probably my only superpower. I get bored if I'm not doing four things at once. Part of having a Faen core means I'm never out of energy so it's hard to sleep and its' hard to keep me occupied. Not to mention with my Faen core I hardly ever get sick. Flus wipe the shit out of Ryou and I barely get a sniffle. It's good like that. Hate doctors. They're useless. I've got terrible patience for them. I'm too practically minded and short on time. If I feel like they're yanking me around or taking too long I just don't go back, would serve me right if I got cancer."
1 AP = Astral Projecting
2 Tragic or not I always thought Dartz was kind of an arse. Understandably I'm surprised Atreyu didn't go full on beat-down on said arse.
3 Tartarus was the Greek equivalent of Hell and a prison for the Titans Zues defeated. Really could there be a better name for the home of the Seers?
4 So the books have been discussed! Yami's got a publishing plan!
Okay loves, hope you had a fabulous week and do let me know what you think of your surprise when it's up~