A lot of world-building went into this sequence. I think, in its way, this section is me lamenting the fact that I didn't get more of this stuff out of the Doma / Waking the Dragons arc of the anime. There was a lot of talk about the Duel Monsters World in that storyline, and we never really saw it.
So, I decided eventually, if I'm gonna bring magic into my 'verse, then I may as well pull out all the stops and see what I could come up with. Aim for the moon and all that.
.
Sieglinde and Anri moved in concert with each other, so attuned to each other that they seemed a single being, split into two bodies. It seemed an optical illusion to watch them. When they spoke, if one was interrupted, the other would finish. They marked the easiest paths, guiding Sotaro with gentle hands and gentler words, and they answered his questions with brightness and enthusiasm.
"I heard the queen sleeps a lot," Sotaro said, marking his way around a boulder with care and precision. The snow was light, shallow, down near the foot of the mountain. Nonetheless, the boy seemed to be taking the seriousness of his mission in stride. His eyes were feverish, and he'd never looked more like his older counterpart.
"This is true," Sieglinde said.
"Our Lady is an immensity to look upon," Anri put in. "At the peak of her power, her wings blot out the sun. She could carry any of us in the palm of one claw."
"It takes vast measures of food and drink to ensure her good health," Sieglinde said next, picking up as her brother trailed off; they were clearly used to this, for there was nary a step missed in their dialogue. "Lesser beings, Anri and myself being examples, need no such sustenance. We are spirits. Our Lady, however, is a different breed of being entirely. She does not live, not as Your Highness does, and yet she requires energy in much the same way that you do, in order to rise to her true heights."
"In order that we retain enough in our larders that Kyanna is kept in good spirits," said Anri, "Our Lady elects to sleep."
"Kyanna doesn't need food to keep the people alive," Sotaro said. Then he gestured randomly, as if swatting away a fly. "You know what I mean." The knights nodded. "She rests so she doesn't have to take your food. So you can enjoy it."
"Correct." Anri nodded.
Sotaro smiled; he seemed charmed.
"A noble gesture," Yugi mused, "but one that I struggle to understand the people of Kyanna accepting."
"Do not mistake us," Sieglinde said. "We do not allow Our Lady to languish. But neither can we truly offer the bounty she would require. We are but a small settlement. A holy order, to be true, but insignificant in number."
"It was not always this way," Anri said. "The reaches of Kyanna once spread across each and every root of the mountain, circling it as a ring would a finger. But this was in the says before Our Lady had risen to her peak."
"Was it war?" Sotaro asked carefully.
"What is it ever, if not war?" Sieglinde asked wistfully. "Aye, Highness, you speak true. Even here in this place, where we carve out our days outside of life, there is war. Ever have their been, and will there be, hounds at our heels."
"I've heard it said," Yugi said, "that your queen was once one dragon of many. Part of a larger clutch. Was it this war, the war that broke the ring of Kyanna, which deprived her of her siblings?"
Yuki and Kohaku both looked at each other, thinking the same thing: the man they knew, the man they had relied on thus far, had discarded himself in favor of a much humbler figurehead. Yugi spoke carefully, with a soft humility that seemed anathema to the spirit with whom they'd first struck this Faustian bargain.
Was it fear?
It was hard to tell.
It was impossible to tell at a glance just how strong Sieglinde and Anri were; but the ease of their movements, even in full armor, and the casual manner with which they treated the weapons hanging from their belts, spoke to rigorous training and well-earned confidence.
Perhaps it was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon herself who had Yugi stepping so carefully.
There was no question whose lightning was embossed into the knights' breastplates, after all.
"So 'tis spoken, in whispers," Sieglinde agreed. "We know not the most intimate details, for it is not our place to know. You speak close to the truth. There was, at one time, not a single Sovereign of Lights. But four."
"Four cards," Yugi murmured, mostly to himself, "for four dragons."
Anri said: "When her dear siblings fell, Our Lady inherited their strength. They live on, in this way, within her majesty. So it is now that Our Lady harbors might beyond reckoning. She soars, however, alone. I do not doubt that she would divest herself of this strength if it meant that she could fly again with her own."
"How often do you see her?" Sotaro asked suddenly.
This question, unlike all the others, stopped the knights short. Both stopped on a coin, looked to each other, then back at Sotaro. "Your Highness," said Sieglinde, "we have not had the honor of looking upon Our Lady. To see her is to live through a cataclysm which requires her intervention. It is a boon to us all that she sleeps. For she is permitted to walk in the realm of dreams, and we walk in peace."
"This journey," Anri said, "for which my sister and I have been selected, is a pilgrimage unlike any we have e'er embarked upon. We shall be the first of our order in a thousand winters to look upon her."
"She seems more like a goddess," Yuki said, "than a queen."
Anri bowed his head. "You speak wisely, my lady," he said. "This is true in more ways than you know."
"Your land has been at peace for a long time, then," Sotaro said. His eyes were sparkling.
"Aye." Sieglinde nodded. "From my brother's birth and mine own mere breaths afterward" —so, they were twins— "to our youths, to our training, to this moment upon which we lead you, there has been peace. It pains us that you come here, having faced such hardships as you surely have. It is a small part we play, bringing you to her absolution, but it is an honor unlike any we have ever dreamed of having bestowed upon us."
The knights bowed low at the waist.
Sotaro gave a nod. "Thank you," he said.