It's hip to poke fun at Seto's devotion to his dragon, and I'll freely admit that he makes it easy. But all the same, I've always found something … soft about it. Like, here is this figure that's never betrayed him. In a life full of betrayal, here's one thing that's never let him down.

Who cares if it's a trading card?

I think we all have something like that.

I knew, when this plot point came to me, that I had to reward his devotion.

.

Sotaro sat on his mother's knee as everyone else gathered around the fire to meet the queen. Kisara sat on the ground, legs crossed under herself, just like they did. She was a head shorter than Sieglinde; yet for as unassuming as her attitude, and her outfit, seemed to be . . . there was a certain magnetism about her, an innate charisma, that drew everyone's attention. What they were waiting for, no one knew. But they knew they needed to see it when it happened, and so they dared not look away.

Kisara waited until Sotaro had eaten a few morsels of porridge before she began to speak: "It has been centuries since anyone entreated my aid. I bid you speak freely. Lay out your troubles, that I may properly understand them."

She held out her arms in a welcoming gesture.

The Yagamis set about telling their story: how a business mogul who they only knew by reputation, whose name they had seen in newspaper headlines but who was otherwise a stranger, had descended upon them in a fury. How a young man they'd never seen or met before had offered his aid to them, and when asked why would only talk about righting past wrongs. How they'd ended up in another world, a sister world, a future where they were dead, and their only child was a man grown with a young brother who thought of him as a father.

They told Kisara about the threats, about the magic, about the shooting, and everything in between that they could think to mention. Yugi had his own insights, which he would only offer when prompted. Kisara did not speak all throughout this process, did not interrupt them; she listened, and she waited, and she made no reaction; though, every so often, her nostrils would flare out and her face would twitch. Anger, perhaps.

It was difficult to tell.

"You have called upon me to stand in your champion's place. You seek to prevent further bloodshed."

Yuki did not avert her gaze; she did not allow herself to feel embarrassed or guilty; she remembered what Kisara had told her while the others slept. She said: "The best chance we had at seeing this through ourselves . . . resulted in a young man taking a possibly permanent injury for us. He might have died. I'm not going to see a man with my son's name, with my son's face, suffer more on our account. This is the path we've decided on, the chance we've decided to take." She gestured to Yugi. "The spirit in Yugi Mutou's puzzle guided us here."

Kisara turned her attention to Yugi. She said: "I would speak to the forgotten king, if you would permit it." Her voice was soft, almost gentle, but it thrummed through their bones. "If it is within your power to do so, and you are willing, I bid you step back from your mind that he may explain his plan in his own words."

Yugi nodded. "Sure." He closed his eyes, held the Millennium Puzzle like he was praying to it and, when he looked upon the queen again, they could all tell that the other Yugi was present.

"Atemhotep," said Kisara. "The Ghost of the Golden Age."

Yugi inclined his head. "Your Grace has called for my presence."

"I have." Kisara nodded. "Speak, that I may understand why you have guided these people to me."

Yugi nodded solemnly. "It is a simple thing, at heart," he said. "While I am not of the world where I have guided the Yagamis, I am familiar enough with Seto Kaiba. Both my own compatriot and the man who resides in the sister world, as Missus Yagami has framed it, where we are currently attempting our work. Seto Kaiba and I are much alike in many ways, some noble and some . . . not so noble."

Kisara raised an eyebrow. She gestured for Yugi to continue.

"One way in which we are the same," Yugi went on, "is this: we trust vanishingly few to take our place upon the fields of war. It may not resemble one, in these modern days, but the fight between Gozaburo Kaiba and his chosen successor—extradimensional though he is—remains a war, and it is one wherein Seto Kaiba trusts only himself to prevail. To face Gozaburo Kaiba is a burden he would place upon no one's shoulders but his own."

Kisara frowned.

"I believe that the only way to ensure his safety, now that he has been brought low, as well as the Yagamis', is to find a suitable champion. A champion he would trust. One who he would permit to take his place, to fill his shoes. That list is . . . rather short. It contains but a single name, in fact."

"Mm?" offered Kisara.

Yugi gestured. "Yours."

The queen eyed Yugi critically, silently, for a time.

Yuki watched, straining to keep the words she remembered at the forefront of her mind: they had already earned her aid. She would not abandon them. But there was no questioning the anger on her face now. Kisara looked more than feral in this moment; she looked primeval.

Then she laughed.

It was a bright sound, loud and boisterous, and so sudden that it caused them all to jump six inches into the air; even the knights.

"You always were too clever for your own good!" she declared when she had gathered herself; her face was still split into a grin, and her eyes were glittering. "I must admit, however, that you come with sound reasoning. It is a strong case you present. If only because I, too, know well the measure of the man this child will become." Here she waved a hand at Sotaro. "You speak truth. More brazenly than I might have expected, but the truth nonetheless."

Kisara drew in a breath, then let it out.

Yuki was pretty sure she saw a crackle of lightning behind the queen's teeth.

She certainly heard a sizzling sound.

"So," Sotaro dared speak into the silence, "will you help us? Please?"

Kisara favored the boy with a doting look. She said, "I will fly this banner." She turned her gaze to Yuki, then Kohaku, then back to Sotaro. "This man, Gozaburo Kaiba, and any agents he has called upon to act in his name, has made a terrible enemy indeed."

She stood up, too fluidly to be human, and this time they all saw the lightning as it caught in her eyes and ran down her body. It flashed outward in a wide arc that spread out from her shoulder blades and evoked the wings of her true form, hidden behind the woman she presented.

Yugi leaned forward and bowed low, nearly scraping the floor of the cave with his forehead.

He did not speak.

Kisara held out one hand toward Sotaro. "Step forward, little prince," she said.

Yuki's entire body tensed as her son shuffled to his feet. Only Kohaku's hand on her arm kept her from . . . doing something stupid. "Easy now," he whispered. "This is what we came for."

"I know. I . . . I know."

Sotaro approached the queen, reached out and took her offered hand.

The light that burst from Kisara was blinding, yet its warmth was soft, comforting.

When they could all see again, she was on one knee, like a knight before her lord.

"I am your sword."