Chapter 50

The last time SK had felt this weak and powerless he'd been at the mercy of the Pure's powerful mind control. And even that somehow didn't feel anywhere near as bad as this did. When he'd asked for his powers to be stripped he was trying to be obtuse; he didn't actually want his powers to be stripped. Hell he didn't even think they could be, after all up until that point powers had only really been blocked or suppressed, not stripped completely; at least not according to Jay.

Unfortunately for him he couldn't find any real flaws with the explanation Win had given. Okay he didn't exactly go about it in the best and most productive of ways, but you couldn't really fault his motives. And now that he'd explained the real plan to them SK had to give him credit for his resources and reasoning. As weird as it was to acknowledge, even to himself, Win really was everything he thought he would be.

But at the same time, and even surrounded with three and a half powerful beings, SK still felt strangely exposed and vulnerable. On top of this he also had no idea what to make of Duke. The Pseudo-Mistress had been zoned out for a while now and SK was worried the guy had completely missed Win explaining his plan to them. Considering just how much of the plan rested on Duke's ability to get Crovell away from the Reganna, the thought of the guy going into battle unprepared left unsettling feelings swirling in SK's stomach.

SK found his gaze resting on Duke for what felt like a little too long. The day had already raised enough questions about his sexuality and SK didn't really feel comfortable with anymore. Still there was something about the look on Duke's face which held SK's attention. The curious look slowly deepened into a frown and then a flash of realisation sparked across his features.

'The Reganna are coming.'

'What?' Win turned towards Duke with a look of unexpected shock on his face. 'But that means battling in the Sacred Huntay.'

'That shouldn't be a problem,' Kaiba pressed his lips together in thought, 'I mean, it's what happened last time.'

'No, you don't understand,' he shook his head, 'remember that place I told you about, the one in Giya I said we were going to head to once Duke was ready?'

'What about it?'

'It has a Yatnuh,' Win paused for a second as if to let the rest of them absorb the word, 'the only Yatnuh left in existence.'

'No, you're lying,' Joey stared at him, 'all the Yatnuhs were destroyed when chaos became order.'

'Well this one wasn't.'

'Um... I hate to interrupt the conversation here,' SK's tongue skated across his lips, 'but what the hell is a Yatnuh?'

'The ring of the Mistresses,' Win's voice was as calm as it was strangely direct. 'It was used by the…' he hesitated. 'It doesn't matter. What matters is that the Yatnuh would have allowed our Pseudo-Mistress the chance to defend herself properly whilst working on Crovell. Not to mention giving the rest of us a much needed power boost.'

'Then we should get there,' Duke's delivered his statement in a matter of fact way only Catilin could have matched.

'But there's no time.'

'Yes there is. If we move now, there will be time.'

'But…'

'Ler dros ti cam, al chaosa shan reno.'

'I don't understand,' Win frowned at him.

'What did he say?' SK licked his lips again; embarrassed his Etean still wasn't up to much.

'It doesn't matter,' Duke shook his head dismissively. 'We have no time for this now anyway.' With that he disappeared.

'Where'd he go?'

'Isn't it obvious,' Win smirked, shaking his head, 'he went to Giya. He went to the Yatnuh.'

'I don't believe this,' Re snarled as he stared around the empty Huntay, 'where the hell are they?'

'How should I know?' Gan puckered her lips together and turned away from him. 'If we'd just waited and taken a little bit more time to fully gage the situation, instead of rushing in head first because we were bored, maybe we would know where they were.'

'Shut up,' Re's hand was around her neck so quickly it caused her to gasp more than a little. 'Just because they're not here, doesn't mean we rushed into this. We just have to find them.'

'Fine by me, any suggestions where we start looking,' Gan's voice sounded tight.

'Maybe they went to Giya,' Na began playing imaginary hopscotch across the Huntay.

'Giya?' Re turned his attention towards him. 'Why the hell would they go to Giya? What could they possibly want there?'

'The Yatnuh,' Na's face filled with a stupid grin.

'There's a Yatnuh in Giya?' Re's eye twitched.

'They don't know it's there, but I do. I do because the other one of me does,' Na laughed.

'If they don't know it's there, then why would they go to Giya for it?' Re was starting to feel more than irritated now.

'Because they have the puppet and it's the puppet's Yatnuh.'

'Interesting,' he took a step towards Na, 'you think they've put the puppet back together.'

'I don't think, I know,' he stuck his hands out behind him and began spinning around in a circle, 'you can tell.'

'I knew there was a reason we didn't drown you at birth,' Re grabbed hold of Na in order to stop the spinning. 'So my dearest little sibling, where on Giya is this Yatnuh, do you remember?'

'Of course I do. I remember lots of things. You know that.'

'So that means you can take us to the Yatnuh, right?'

'Wait,' Gan interjected before Na could reply, 'do we really want to be rushing into this? I mean, even without the Face of Friendship around, they're going to get a serious power boost from that thing. Shouldn't we come up with some kind of strategy before charging in?'

'We don't need a strategy, we just need that brat under control,' he glared at her, before turning his gaze back to Na. 'So tell me little sibling, where is the Yatnuh?'

'Why oh why is there a forth symbol,' Covo muttered to himself as he studied the design on the back of the door. 'What would an Odraian gain from making one? Who am I kidding, an Odraian wouldn't gain anything.'

Covo pulled a face and tried to clear all thoughts of conspiracy from his mind. He had to look at this situation rationally and to do that he had to start from the beginning. And in the beginning, according to the Odraians at any rate, they were the first mortal breed. A breed with a messier history than they cared to acknowledge, because even according to their own texts they had to have started off a lot more violent and chaotic than they were now. Back before the rise of the Two Lovers to the status of gods had brought about the Tenth Order, these early, more violent Odraians had followed a different kind of religion. One which worshiped the Three Mistresses as equals alongside the other gods, instead of shoving them away and deeming them unimportant. It was known as the Time of Chaos which nobody was allowed to talk openly about because if they did...

'If they did then people would have to start asking a lot of questions about the nature of these so called early Odraians,' Covo couldn't help but smirk to himself, 'to the point of questioning whether or not you can even call them Odraians.'

Covo found himself running his fingers lightly over the carved symbol as if hoping the wood would somehow give him the answers he needed. It didn't. It didn't because the answers he needed were already in his head.

'Chaosen,' even saying the word felt strangely wrong to him.

The Chaosen were supposedly a Silkoneon myth to explain the stark differences between the so called early Odraians and their Tenth Order counterparts. According to these myths the Chaosen were a volatile race who'd drifted out of more civil wars than any one civilisation ever should. But in the years leading up to the ascension of the Mortal Gods and the start of the Tenth Order social reforms had started to occur. Reforms which started with the birth of a new Elemental; Strek.

'Odraians won't acknowledge the Chaosen, because that would mean they're not the original breed,' Covo closed his eyes in thought. 'If they're not the original breed then they lose all rights to that nice little superiority complex they like to lord over everyone. And more than that it would make them like us; victims of sudden mass evolution and not some divine work which needed a little refining.' He gave a exasperated sigh and headed back into the chamber. 'I'm still not totally sure what I believe, but... I get the feeling this little room has a lot to tell me, so the only real question here is; how the hell do I get it to talk?'