Chapter 48

Without bothering to explain to them what he meant by new host, he aimed the Axe at Duke and fired another beam of light. He knew he should have let his girls know what he was up to, but he needed their reactions to be genuine in order to get what he wanted. Still he hated deceiving them and he knew he was going to pay for betraying their trust sooner or later.

His mind moved across all the half truths he'd told up to this point and tried to figure out which ones he needed to reveal and which he could keep to himself for now. He definitely needed to assure them all Covo was in no danger. It was essential that SK's irrational reaction came from a genuine place and the thought of someone close to him being in peril was real enough to work. Of course they weren't really waiting for Covo to find the Reganna; that was a ridicules notion. With any luck the guy was just waking up somewhere with a massive headache and no way of getting himself back into danger.

Of course there was still the possibility he was wrong; the Reganna might have disposed of him already. After all, unconscious at the end of his burnout he would have been an easy target for them. But easy targets were boring and the Reganna already had bigger fish to fry, so the likelihood was Covo was totally safe.

His head swarmed slightly as the beam of light between the Axe and Duke began to dim. Win hadn't been lying before when he said the Axe was design to backfire on anyone who wasn't a true balance and considering the level of power he'd had to use with it, a little bit of light-headedness was an almost welcome side affect. With the power exchange now complete, Win lowered the Axe and examined Duke. The guy's whole body was glowing in a strangely eerie kind of way. There was something almost beautiful about it, but at the same time...

'Win, what did you just do?' The First interrupted his train of thoughts.

'I did what I had to do,' Win glanced towards her, 'I created a Mistresses with a stronger connection to Crovell than anyone else.'

'Stronger connection to Crovell...?' The First shook her head. 'But... I'm his father.'

'I know, but Duke is the one he's most connected to. I know it pains you to hear that, but it's the truth.'

'So you're saying he's a Mistress now,' her voice was tight, 'how is that possible?'

'Do you remember the alteration I performed on SK's powers the last time I was here? I didn't tell any of you at the time, but I increased his power level. I had my reasons for doing it which went beyond just saving him from Re, but I can't go into those reason now; they have nothing to do with this situation. But I did raise the levels considerably, maybe not quite to Mistresses level, which is why I needed to add a little of my own power into the mix when sending it across to Duke.'

'You mean you weakened yourself?'

'Hardly, you and I both know I have more than enough power to spare. Although I would have had to have made fewer adjustments if he didn't have such a large hole to fill,' his gaze carefully glided over the still dazed Duke.

'Large hole to fill?' The First frowned. 'I don't understand.'

'Don't give me that my girl,' Win shook his head, 'you know exactly what I'm talking about. Is your host really so jealous he won't fix it?'

The First made a slight choking noise, before shifting her gaze away. For a few long minutes there was silence.

'This isn't how things were meant to go,' Win gave a heavy sigh. 'The Reganna were never meant to get their hands on Crovell. When Heart installed fear into Covo, it was supposed to make him run until he reached a safe place. The safe place he was heading for was the Three Mistresses Chamber in the Temple of Set. I guess the Reganna must have cut him off sometime before then.'

'Why the Temple of Set?' The Pure frowned at him. 'Why not the Temple of the Three Mistresses?'

'Because I was hoping my son would protect his brother from detection,' Win smirked. 'I know it was a long shot, but…'

'It was a risk you had to take,' the Pure finished for him.

'Yeah, it was. We wanted to keep the child out of this. But when the Reganna got their hands on Crovell I had to rethink the whole plan,' he sighed again. 'I always knew I would need three Mistresses, but originally the third was supposed to be SK, since I'd already raised his power levels once adjusting them wouldn't have been too difficult. But like I said before, Duke's bond with Crovell is closer than anyone else's. It was a bond formed during the first few hours of Crovell's existence and one that no one, not even the Reganna, can break. Duke is the key to getting Crovell back.'

'Wait, let me get this straight,' SK rubbed his face as he carefully pulled himself up onto unsteady feet, 'all that just now, that was just you setting me up?'

'I'm sorry.'

'I knew something was going on,' SK licked his lips, 'but I'm not sure how I feel about being right.'

'Well if it helps, we're not really waiting on Covo finding the Reganna,' Win smiled weakly at him, 'I had to give you something to latch onto and that just felt... right somehow.'

'So where is Covo exactly?'

'I don't know; somewhere safe and completely out of danger with any luck.'

'But what if he isn't?'

'Then we have to pray I'm right about the Reganna, that they really won't hurt him.'

'What exactly am I?' Duke's quiet murmuring interjected itself into the conversation.

'A Pseudo-Mistress,' Win glanced towards him, 'a substitute.'

'But…' Duke stared down at his own hands as his eyes slowly glazed over with a glowing white light, 'why do I feel so strange?'

'That'll pass.'

'Will it?'

'Yes.'

'When?'

'Soon enough and when it does we will be ready.'

'So this is what you've really been waiting for?' SK licked his lips again.

'Aye.'

'Then maybe it's time you explained the real plan to us,' he folded his arms. 'After everything you've just put me through, I think you at least owe me that.'

'Vengeance is Chaos?' Covo frowned for a moment, before the truth dawned on him. 'Don't you mean the Wolf of Chaos? Then again I guess in Etean the word for canine is veron, which also means vengeance, so I guess it makes sense.'

'Must you babble to yourself like that,' Ahna shot him a dirty look, 'it isn't smart or clever and you're hardly impressing anyone with your pointless trivia.'

'I wasn't trying to impress anyone,' he shook his head, 'I was just thinking out loud.'

'Can we kill him?' Yugi's voice was dry with boredom. 'I'd really like to kill him right now and then chop him up into little pieces and have Na stitch him back together again.'

'What are you, a Sayu Sen?' Ahna cocked an eyebrow at him.

'No, I'm just really, really bored and if something doesn't start suffering or preferably bleeding soon I think I'm going to completely lose it. I told you not to keep me waiting too long little sibling.'

'And I told you we can't risk killing anyone just yet, especially not someone who'll get a reaction out of any one of our hosts.'

'What about maiming?' Re met and held her gaze. 'Will your little host hold a hissy fit if her little boyfriend loses a few extremities?'

There were a few long moments of silence, during which Covo could feel his stomach clench and unclench several times with fear alone. He knew from Ahna just how dangerous Re was, but somehow hearing his sick and twisted desires coming out of Yugi's mouth made them seriously disturbing.

'The second you touch him, she'll kick off,' Ahna rolled her eyes.

'I'm really starting to hate that bitch, she's not letting me have any fun,' Yugi began to pace agitatedly.

'Re's right, I wanna play now,' Jay pouted, 'can't we play? Please can't we play just a little bit? If I promise he'll stay in one piece will she let us play?'

'Oh yes Gan,' Yugi's voice was filled with mocking tones, 'if we promise to restrain ourselves can we play?'

'You don't know the meaning of the word restraint,' Ahna glared at him.

'And you don't seem to get just how impatient I am right now,' Yugi glared back at her, 'either we move out now or we do something Gan, because if I have to go through one more second of boredom I swear you won't be able to stop me from having a little fun.'