Chapter Five – The Lord, the Hero, and the Gloomblade


Lord Yami focused his attention on the battle that raged every night within his own citadel. He wearied of the need to be constantly vigilant against the Cold Shadows, blocking them as always from breaking free of the corridors and walls that confined them. He used his ability to not only look through any shadow to any other place where shadows fell to be the ultimate spy of the forces he himself commanded, but often shadow-walk to locations within the citadel where his power was directly needed to keep the Cold Shadows penned in. He knew that if a Cold Shadow ever broke free of his control during the hour of Shadows his Guardian Knight would have one last chance to contain it, but he was determined that would never happen. Even after all these years of nightly battles, it never had.

The hour of Shadows ran its course, and the Well of Shadows finally recalled its evil Shadow-spawned forces. Yami used his magic as the Lord of Shadows to ease those Shadows of his forces that had taken damage in this battle to the curiously sleep-like state that would heal them before the next battle, and finally turned his attention to the only non-Shadow occupant of the citadel.

Yugi had fallen asleep. Yami started as a spasm of regret clenched at what remained of his heart. The last thing he wanted to do was relegate this hapless young man to a Shadow existence, but... He knew the Well of Shadows sensed a human was here. Just as Yami had become aware of Yugi the moment he started to climb to the door of the citadel, the Well of Shadows had known, too. Yami could tell that the Well wanted him. Just like that young man before, if Yami did nothing the Well would claim Yugi for its own, turning him into a Cold Shadow to use against him. Yami didn't want to find himself fighting against Yugi, so far better for him to transform Yugi himself. Maybe, if Yugi didn't fight against him too much, the young man would retain some of his own personality for a while. Yami hated to admit it, but his own existence, partially of the Shadows himself, was beset by bonds of duty and inescapable loneliness. If Yugi's personality survived the transformation intact, it would give Yami someone new to talk to – at least for a while.

Sighing, Yami turned from watching Yugi sleep. The least he could do was give him some privacy before ending his human life by changing him forever. Besides, he needed sleep himself if he were to have the resources necessary to change Yugi as he intended. It was harder to keep as much of a human personality intact while changing him than just transforming him into Shadow in the first place.

– – – – –


"Kwee! Kweet! Kweee!" Yami blinked sleep from his eyes at the kuriboh's alarm. The momentary disorientation of reclaiming his consciousness from sleep eased, and he bolted up from his shadowed bed.

"What? What is it?" Yami demanded, summoning shadows from the corners to clothe himself in.

"Kooweeeee!" Kuriboh's keen rang a note of horror.

"The Well?! He can't!" Yami focused his attention on the shadows for a moment, then spat a disgusted curse. "There are no shadows in the corridor leading to the Well. I can't even look, much less shadow-walk there to stop him!"

He dashed from his chamber in panic, resolving then and there that the Well was not going to have a chance to transform this particular human. To save Yugi from the fate of becoming a mindlessly evil Cold Shadow, Yami would even go so far as to kill him first.

He summoned his loyal Shadows to him as he ran, hopping from shadow to shadow along the way. Perhaps it was meant to be like this. Instead of a nightly skirmish with the Cold Shadows of the Well, seeking to keep them from spreading their nightmares and evil across the human lands unchecked, perhaps Yami should have taken the initiative long ago and brought the battle right to the Well itself. Ironic that it was to save a human, even if it meant killing him to save him, that brought Yami to this realization, but Yami was no stranger to irony.

The very power he had sought in his reckless youth had come at a terrible price, and brought a heavy responsibility that stripped the power of any sort of pleasure. He was trapped, for the most part, within the confines of his citadel as surely as the Cold Shadows of the Well were. If he let his vigilance waver even a little, if even one Cold Shadow broke free of his control, the toll it could take on the humans it encountered would be terrible. And Yami didn't think he would ever forgive himself that the power to become the Lord of Blood and Shadows had cost him the life of his best friend. If not for that sacrifice, Yami would have gladly let himself succumb to the despair of his situation long ago, and let the Well of Shadows do what it willed as it spread its Cold Shadows across the land.

Not for the first time since becoming the Lord of Blood and Shadows, Yami wished he had found the fabled Gloomblade. Supposedly, it was his sword, as Lord of Blood and Shadows, and it contained the full power of the Shadows. He had searched the citadel years ago for the blade, and never found it. The only place he hadn't searched was the Well itself. He considered it only another of the bitter ironies that now commanded his life if indeed that were the hiding place for the sword, since in his hands it would have the power to break the evil of the Well.

"Lord Yami!"

He pulled up short from his run at his name, and turned. His loyal Shadows seethed at the margin of a doorway in the corridor he had just dashed into. They tried to follow but this corridor, leading to the Well of Shadows, unlike all other corridors in the Citadel, was fully lit. The walls themselves glowed, preventing the more cunning Shadows from hiding within them. Yami's Shadows were unable to follow him.

"I will go on alone," Yami said. "I will do whatever it takes, even if it means killing him, to prevent Yugi from becoming a mindless puppet of the Well."

"It's too dangerous," Everon countered. "The Well..."

"The Well," Yami ground out between clenched teeth, "has bitten off more than it can chew, this time." He turned, knowing that his Shadows, while they couldn't help him, couldn't stop him either, and ran down the lambent corridor. It had come to this. Perhaps it would be his last encounter with the Well. He remembered his first – and only – direct encounter with a painful vividness. Indeed, it had been flinging himself into the Well, surviving the realm beyond, and emerging with his personality intact that had given him the double-edged power of the Shadows. It had cost his friend his life, and given Yami the awful responsibilities he now fulfilled, but it had been that reckless act that had made him 'Lord of Blood and Shadows'.

"Yugi! Yugi!" Maybe Yugi was just lost and he could yet avoid this terrible choice. The corridor of light ended. Purest black met his gaze at the archway to the next, short corridor. He knew it led to the top of the room leading to the Well. A spiral staircase wound along the wall down from the top of the massive, circular room to the floor below. In the center of that floor, the mouth of the Well of Shadows gaped. Yugi, ignoring his calls, entered that blackened corridor.

"YUGI!"

He tried to rush through the corridor so black with Cold Shadows that he couldn't see. He could feel them grabbing at him and slowing him down. He snarled in frustration, lashing out to either side with his power to break the grip of the evil shadows. He didn't dare try to clear a path in front of him, for fear of striking Yugi. Finally, he fought free of the corridor, and could see again.

He almost wished he hadn't. Yugi was fully in the thrall of the Well, he could tell now that he was this close. The young man's eyes were flat and blank like those of a sleepwalker. Yami had no idea what the Well was showing him to compel him into this danger, as Yugi turned toward the head of the staircase.

"YUGI!" He bellowed, trying to break Yugi free with just his voice. Yugi did turn and look at him uncomprehendingly before the blankness in his eyes deepened. He turned away, and instead of starting down the spiral stairs, flung himself into the space above the Well.

"NO!"Yami jumped, as Yugi had. There was no way he was going to let the Well of Shadows just take him. This was one human who was not going to become a Cold Shadow, even if it meant his own, or Yugi's, death. He was going to fight the Well for Yugi.

Yugi plunged into the portal that was the mouth of the Well. Yami could sense that the Well had pulled Yugi through itself and into the Shadow Realm. Falling only seconds after Yugi, Yami gathered what he could of his power, and braced himself for his own entry into that dread place. It took him a moment to find his bearings. As he did, he shaped the part of his soul that was now Shadows, the painful sacrifice of part of his own humanity that has given him power of the Shadows, and sent it to protect Yugi from the Shadows of the Well. A moment after shaping it, Yami also entered the protective sphere. Relieved, he closed his arms around Yugi. The combination of his presence, and his soul-shadow shield broke the compulsion of the Well on Yugi's mind.

"What's happening? Where am I?" Yugi asked turning and angling out of his arms.

"Yugi – we are in the Shadow Realm. It's the place where both my power, and the power of the Well of Shadows come from."

"How did we – I – get here?"

"The Well enticed you here. It... It's seeking to turn you into a Cold Shadow to use against me. Yugi... You must let me transform you. There's no other way. This is why I told you that I had to be the one to change you. I would much rather have just let you go – if I could..."

Yugi reached a hand up to cup Yami's cheek. "I know. Everon told me as much. But... I don't want... I just want to go home. That's all I've wanted since this began. Isn't there any way?"

Yami shook his head. "No. Especially not now. The Well has never dragged anyone into the Shadow Realm before to change them. The evil Shadows of this place are already battering at my soul shield. If they break through, and you aren't Shadow by then, they will take you and... Yugi, I'm sorry. It's the only way. I will... If you try not to fight it, I can transform you to be a Shadow version of yourself. At least, I think I can." A mighty crack split along the inside of the sphere. "Yugi! Please!"

"O-okay. What do I have to do?"

"Relax, as best you can. Don't worry about it."

"Is it – going to hurt?"

"No, not if you don't fight it. Just let yourself drift, and try not to worry. Close your eyes." Immediately Yugi did. Yami smiled at the mark of trust, even though he knew Yugi was terrified with what was happening, and still frightened of Yami himself. He deeply regretted trying to frighten the young man before. It was making this ordeal even more awful than it had to be.

Yami hugged Yugi tight, and considered swiftly the best way to go about it. There was no time left. Even though it left him completely open to the Shadows, he recalled his soul shield. "Yugi, don't panic. I'm going to wrap you in the shadows of my soul. They will transform you into Shadow safely, even if I..."

"'Even if you'...? Mmph!" Yugi couldn't finish his question as he was abruptly, and completely swaddled in Yami's soul-shadow. Ignoring Yami completely, the Cold Shadows sought to break the cocoon of Yami's Shadows surrounding Yugi. Yami started making the mystic gestures that would help him focus and shape his magic to transform the human inside into a being of Shadow.

Brightness speared out from within the shadow-cocoon, startling him, and stopping the flow of his spell. He cursed, and started again, hoping to beat the Cold Shadows and now what had to be Yugi's instinctive fighting to resist the transformation. He regretted deeply that this was far more frightening that it had to be. He had intended to enter Yugi's chamber toward morning, and transform him into a Shadow version of himself before Yugi awoke – to spare him any awareness of the process. That would have been the gentlest way to go about it, rather than this, forcing Yugi to choose, changing him while he was conscious and fully aware...

The brightness startled him again, and poured through his soul-shadow, breaking the cocoon apart. Most of Yami's soul Shadows returned to him, but he felt as some part of them flowed into the brightness he could now see was in Yugi's hands. The Cold Shadows fled from that glow, but they were caught up in it, and pulled into the brightness as well.

Yami blinked. They were still in the Shadow Realm, but now, it seemed rather peaceful.

"What – happened?" he asked.

"Uhm, here." Yugi placed something in his hands. "This belongs to you." The brightness of the object rapidly abated once it was in his hands.

"What is it?" Yami asked.

"The Gloomblade, the sword of the Lord of Blood and Shadows," Yugi replied. "At least, that's what it told me. I think. Well, someone told me – I think it was the sword, but it might have been..." Yugi picked up the softly glowing purple stone that hung from a silken cord about his neck. "I suppose it might have been the Hero's Heartstone that told me, now that I think about it."

"What happened?" Yami repeated again, looking around at the changed Shadow Realm, and the sword in his hands. "I don't understand!"

"Well," Yugi quirked a crooked, self-deprecating smile at him. "Apparently, I really am the Hero of legend. Oops?"

Yami laughed at that, and swept Yugi up into a brief, but heartfelt, hug. He sighed raggedly. "I'm glad. Not that you wouldn't have been welcome in my citadel as a Shadow, but..."

"I'm more happy to remain myself. No offense!" Yugi added in a hurry.

Yami chuckled. "None taken. Yugi, I would have just let you go, if I thought I could have."

Yugi's eyes shined at him with something that almost looked like trust. Yami blinked. It had been aeons since someone had trusted him. "I know. Given that the Well of Shadows hypnotized me and brought me here, you were right."

"So, the Hero of legend... Who'd have thought it?" Yami said to break the awkward moment.

"Not me! Uhm, it's not all scary any more, but how do we get out of here?" Yugi glanced around the now quiet Shadow Realm.

Yami smirked. "I'm the uncontested lord of this realm, now, thanks to you. Breaking the power of the Well of Shadows and trapping it in the Gloomblade increased my power." He lifted the sword, and suddenly both of them were in his library/office again. "See?"

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Author's notes –

Next chapter teaser – Shadows of the Past

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