Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: I... didn't have to edit much, maybe because I have less to wrong or its still too fresh...
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Set was cleaning the princes' royal bedchamber.
Set was cleaning the prince's royal bedchamber.
Set was spending his free time away from the Prince, who was with his Grandfather the High Priest, cleaning the Prince's bedchamber.
How was that 'possible'? He was in the royal Palace of the Pharaoh, surrounded by priests, knowledge, good food, splendid clothes and he 'CHOSE' to clean a 'bedroom'. By the Gods how was he so bored that he came to this conclusion?! That cleaning that little Divine Agent of Chaos' bedroom was a 'good idea'?!
He had a small basket filled with the prince's little toy animals and was tossing more and more that he found. Blocks, carved wooden animals, balls, all of them went into the basket before Set bothered to put them up properly.
"Aww mommy cleaning up the baby's room..." Mahaado's voice teased out from the doorway sending violent shivers up Set's spine.
'Mommy'... DAMN THAT BRAT!
"I am 'not' his 'mommy'! If anything 'you' are the coddling motherly type!" Set exploded as he rounded on his heel and turned to glare at Mahaado. Willing at the the mage all the force his outraged soul could muster. Of course having a basket at his hip wasn't helping his case at all. Had he remembered what he was holding it, he would have flung it to the floor.
Maha snickered letting his eyes drift lazily down to the toy holding basket at Set's side. Growling his annoyance Set finally threw the basket to the ground in protest and folded his arms across his chest. Actions that did nothing to impress the magician in training, in fact it seemed to amuse Mahaado all the more.
Mahaado closed his eyes and brought his right hand to his lips, whispering something that Set could never hear. But he recognized when Mahaado began spell casting even if he couldn't pinpoint what the spell would be. That was when he heard a soft sound coming from his feet. Glancing down he saw the toys moving under their own seeming power. Animals walked along, pushing balls or blocks along as they moved, looking much like the heard beasts during seasonal changes.
"Show off," he grumbled as he stood there with his arms across his chest, squaring his jaw and glaring at Mahaado.
Smug little show off.
"I could teach you." Mahaado offered with that same smug tone seeping into his voice. He walked into the room and made himself a seat near a window as he glanced around with a thoughtful gaze. "I take it the prince is off with someone else?"
"I could do without being whipped to near death, thank you very much. And yes, High Priest Shimon took the prince with him for a stroll around the palace." Set explained as his feet were used as mountains to be overcome by the animals.
A breeze drifted through tugging at Set's clothes and hinting of a possible late afternoon storm with the scent of rain in the air. But if it hit during the day light hours it meant less chance of the Prince storming his bed that night. Glancing down he began tip toeing his way from the toys and made himself a seat at another chair.
"I'm not my Master." Mahaado pointed out flatly, "I don't have to beat you, and magic isn't something you have to be born 'with'. Though in all honestly those naturally born with magic have an easier time using it, as words are not always necessary."
"You use words and magic is natural to you," Set pointed out as he laid himself out on the chair and looked at the wall so he could get some light reading in.
"Words are necessary as you're learning, so you don't get them wrong if you do make an error simply stopping the incantation can stop the spell from activating. Which depending on the spell can have disastrous results if allowed to be cast incorrectly. Once mastered, a magician need not use words for anything more than theatrics. However; if you are 'not' born with magic, then yes, words and books are eternally connected to you." Mahaado explained in a practical tone, while watching the toys out of idle distraction.
"I'd rather visit Asim and see what the soldiers live and do if you ask me," Set answered lazily as the breeze was rather seductive in the prospects of taking a nap.
"Well, his life is different from the soldiers, with the death of Minkabh, he is striving to take up Minkabh's would be mantle. But the decision is not set in stone.. Though the two of you seem to enjoy clashing over strategy games so maybe you two would actually get along well." Mahaado theorized out loud while a very soft sound of huffing and puffing began to punctuate the conversation in the room.
The pair turned to look at the open door and suddenly put their jaws to the floor as the Prince made his appearance. His tiny frame wrapped in a tunic, his gold crown on his head and gold bands on both wrists and forearms. And an even tinier baby girl in his arms being carried around like a baby puppy or kitten. He had her around the waist and she just hung in his arms seemingly enjoying this ride. Her hair a soft shade of brown like Mahaado's and her eyes bright with curiosity.
"Lord Prince why are you alone?" Mahaado asked astounded as no High Priest accompanied him.
"Prince why are you carrying a 'baby'?!" Set demanded just as astounded as Mahaado for a decidedly different reason.
"The girl is your issue?" Mahaado argued as he stood up and began walking to the door, the bottom of his robes brushing against the top of his feet as he moved.
"The lack of an adult in the Princes own home is your issue?" Set snapped back as he followed quickly, catching up with the Magician in Training.
The prince was huffing and puffing, so apparently he had carried the baby girl for quite some time to reach there. His face was puffed out from the exertion but he looked pretty pleased with himself as he announced, "she my babiesss!"
That... was a statement. One that earned a decided look from the pair to him, then exchanged with each other. Mahaado took it, like he took 'everything' in stride while Set just turned and walked to the great windows of the Princes room. "Oh, what was that? Lord Osiris wishes for my presence before his divine self? Very well! Out the window I shall go," Set groaned dramatically.
"Lord Prince, where did you find her?" Mahaado asked patiently waiting for either a simple answer or a hysterical woman crying about their missing child.
"Home. Here. My babiesss!" The prince explained though he tried to loosen one hand to point. But the baby girl slipped down and landed on his feet. Though she didn't seem rattled or harmed by the painfully short fall, which was good.
"How do you even know that's a girl?" Set asked, since he couldn't recall a time when the prince saw a woman before she was of robust chest.
"Because..." the prince answered before bending down and pulling up the baby's tunic showing off her naked body.
"That's not nice, Prince put her clothes down and look that way." Mahaado answered in a frazzled tone for which the prince did obey the instruction. Even the part where he turned his back, leaving Mahaado to quickly turn the baby girl around to face the same direction before standing up straight. Turning and giving Set a death glare, "its your fault that he has absolutely 'no' manners!" Mahaado hissed before he magically ripped all the pillows in the room up into the air and started hurling them at Set with insane speed and accuracy.
"Hey! Stop that! How was I supposed to know he would do something like that!?" Set argued as he tried to hide behind pillars and chairs from the pillow assault.
"Have you learned nothing from our lessons that the prince absorbs knowledge like a plant absorbs the light of Ra!?" Mahaado demanded while flinging the fallen pillows at Set as well.
"Cut it out you mad magician! Its not like he did anything terrible!" Set called out just as a pillow got past his meager defenses and knocked him clear off his feet.
"A proper Prince doesn't pull up a woman's attire you uncivilized barbarian!" Mahaado shot back as he rained more pillows down on Set. For which the fact that they were in the weaponless bedroom of the Prince was a Gods send. Because if they had been in the barracks, it would have been the weapons after Set, that was for sure.
"Mana."
The princes' voice broke into the sound of thick pillows slamming into innocent teen faces causing Mahaado to turn and check on the prince. Which said prince had turned back around and was watching the antics in the room with the little girls' hand in his.
"Excuse me, my Prince?" Mahaado asked before sending another pillow after Set.
"Mana. Her name, Mana!" The Prince answered dutifully, unfazed by the outrageous amount of pillow assault going on in his room. While Mana looked positively mesmerized by the flying pillows, and began reaching for a pillow with one eager tiny hand.
Mahaado sighed quietly as he brought one such pillow and allowed it to land on the tiny girls' lap. She giggled and hugged the pillow before tossing it up only to look disappointed when it wouldn't lift off, while Set took the opening to peek outside from his tomb of pillows.
"Well I guess we now have to find her mother," Mahaado resigned himself as he spoke while Set climbed out of the mountain of pillows.
"The prince said he found her in the palace, and given how she's dressed she's a commoner, so I would say she's probably related to someone who works here. Its the only reason that seems to make sense to me."
"I didn't tell you that you were safe," Mahaado replied flinging a pillow at Set's head before kneeling down near the little girl. "Mana?"
The little girl whipped her head around to look up at him with the same childish way that all little ones did. He bent down and picked her up and caught the Prince giving this wide eyed look of near betrayal. Before fixating his attention on Mana, and reaching for her foot.
"My Maha."
"Well, yes, Lord Prince but she is too tiny to walk like you or us. Someone has to carry her," Mahaado pointed out, as a very distant sound of thunder trembled its way into the room.
"Seth carry! Maha mine! Maha only carry me!" The prince huffed and crossed his tiny arms across his chest in protest. While Set braved his way over, wary of an offended Maha.
"Because of course its ok for the Prince to carry her but not you," Set grumbled as he pulled the little girl from Mahaado's arms and held her himself before addressing the prince. "You know, you're Highness, you really shouldn't just take people's children from them..."
With that Set fairly near skipped out of the room before Mahaado got it in his head to take more shots at Set. The little girl had soft brown hair, almost the same color as Mahaado's, her eyes were innocent and lively. But they lacked that awareness that the Prince held, showing how unique he was in that he was more aware of the world than he let on. While Mana was just fascinated by the world in general. Though she was a small baby, maybe she was not used to her surroundings and just taking everything in. The prince 'did' live in the Palace and had seen all there was to see, both the good and bad, at this point.
"Lord Prince where did you find Mana?" Mahaado asked as he took up the rear with the Prince riding in his arms, his small legs wrapped around Mahaado's waist.
The prince looked up and then grinned happily at the memory. "Food! Sneaky snack! Sneaky baby too!"
"Well that helps," Set noted with amusement laced in his voice, of course the Prince would go to the kitchens for a snack. "Though when did the cooks bring their children to work?" Set asked as they walked along.
There were several worried looking servants at the end of the hall that lead to the kitchens, their eyes cast to the ground as though looking for something small. Or 'someone'. But that the Prince managed to get the baby all the way from the royal kitchens to his bedchamber 'by himself'. Regardless if he carried Mana the whole way or if he took breaks. That the prince had been towing around a small baby. Though in retrospect, the prince was only really behind on talking because he had gone so long silently communicating with his Maha. He was only now learning the value of verbal communication so was it any wonder why this was happening?
"Mana!" One of the servants exclaimed in excitement, waving the other servant with her as she made her way quickly to the quartet walking towards them. "Praise the Gods she didn't get hurt!"
A young guard, and two other servants appeared as from the alert sent up by the first woman and soon they were all descending upon the four. "Oh Mahaado, Set, where did you find her?" The first servant asked as she readily took the girl from Set's arms.
"My babiesss!" the prince announced, sounding pretty chuffy happy at that.
But the servants weren't really giving him their focus as they checked over the little girl, the young guard turning his attention to the trio. The shared expression between the older boys seemed to convey their curiosity about just 'where' Mana came from.
"Oh, her mother works in the kitchens, her sister used to look after Mana.. she passed away yesterday." The guard explained patiently while the serving girls carried Mana away.
"My babiesss!" The prince repeated starting to sound a bit put out, while he reached forward towards the woman carrying Mana.
"You're far too young to have a baby. Do you even know what you're saying?" Set asked leaning over and gently poking the prince on his little button nose.
The prince made a couple of frustrated baby sounds, as though he was trying to jam them to say something. Before finally giving in and trying something 'simple', "Set and Isis! Set and Isis!" He flailed his tiny hands to the ceiling as he pointed point at some nebulous thing and left the pair baffled.
Yet one thing they knew, word games were some of the only ways the Prince could communicate what was going on in his head. So they stood there exchanging glances between each other and set to work. Mahaado blinked as he gazed thoughtfully at Set before dropping his gaze back down to the prince, who was still repeating the same words and pointing at the roof. Or rather, the heavens.
"Does lord prince mean the Gods, Set and Isis?" He asked thoughtfully, the prince probably understood that the pair were not a couple soo...
"The siblings?" Set asked, picking up Mahaado's line of thinking and how the Princes' education had been so far.
"Oh! Brother and Sister," Mahaado followed along. The prince cheered as Set rolled his eyes and said, "My baby 'sister' is what you've been saying this whole time."
"YEAH!" The prince crowed out in victory his hands waving so much that Mahaado had to pull his head back a bit to protect himself.
"You still can't steal someone elses' child just to adopt them like this Lord Prince," Set attempted to inform the child as he stood there. Risking being this close to Mahaado after the earlier... pillow incident.
"I steal you, I steal Maha," the Prince answered looking at Set in defiance.
"This Prince..." Set began as he was once again amazed by how brilliant the child was despite his lack of words.
"Papa," the Prince patted Mahaado's shoulders, "Mama" he pointed at Set, "baby sisa." The prince then pointed down towards where they had carried little Mana away to.
"I. AM. NOT. THE. WOMAN. IN THIS SET UP!" Set roared lowering his head so he was on eye level with the prince. While every person in the nearby halls was given an earful, again.
"And yet you rant like a woman..." Mahaado replied under his breath.
The prince merely poked Set's nose, completely unfazed by Set's outrage.
