A calm peace overcame him. The pleasant moments afterwards spent lying with his lover, their bodies entwined, never failed to bring about a sense of closeness to the heavens. The Gods must truly love and protect their own to send him someone like Set. He closed his eyes, finally decided to give into the need for rest his body had fought off since Set’s earlier return. His body demanded rest. His mind, on the other hand, had other plans.

An image formed in front of the closed eyes. It felt as if he were looking into a mirror, his own familiar form stared back at him but he knew it was not. Oddly, wide, innocent eyes looked into his--undeniably too innocent to be his reflection. The image faded followed by another, this time of Set but again, not. Skin paler, looking as if never viewed by Ra’s burning gaze. This one looked back at him with eyes as hard as glass, clear blue like the sky. Opening his eyes, he looked straight though Set. A shadow crossed his face, eyes shifted out of focus, “Have I told you how beautiful your eyes are, Kaiba? No. I guess I haven’t, wouldn’t be really fair to Yugi.” He moved away from the Priest rolling over to stare at the wall on the opposite side of the room.

Set sat up quickly upon hearing the strange words coming from the Pharaoh. Grabbing his clothing, he threw the first piece on even as he ran from the room. The guards, stunned at his arrival out the door, came back to their senses quickly as Set started ordering them around, sending one in an endeavor to find the healer as quickly as possible. Returning to the Pharaoh’s room, he picking up the small bottle the healer had left with him earlier in the evening. It took everything he had to sit the Pharaoh up, to convince him to drink the liquid. He had gone silent after the last of the strange tongue, and had not moved on his own since then. And this stillness confused Set more than anything else. Surely if this were some form of fit there would be movement.

The guard needed to hurry back with the one whom, he hoped, would have more answers this time; otherwise, he would bring the other priests into the situation. Saying a silent prayer to Imhotep, the god of healing, along with a separate request to his own favored patron, he sat down on the bedside next to the unnaturally still form. His hand reached up brushing away the strands of hair that had fallen into Atemu’s unseeing eyes. Impatience wore at him. Irritation at the feeling of helplessness that consumed him was not helping either. He wanted to yell at the guards, ready to threaten their very lives if necessary, whatever it would take. Instead, he stayed where he was, afraid to leave his love again. What was taking them so long? The pharmaki was not that far away, kept close to the royal family’s housing for convenience if someone became ill.

The slight movement next to him caught the Priest by surprise. “Set?” The Pharaoh turned so he was looking at the other, eyes still out of focus but mostly aware.

“I am here. The question is whether or not you are.” The words came out without hinting at the fear within the Priest’s heart.

“Fool. Where else would I be?” Pushing the other away from him the Pharaoh struggled to sit up. Failing to do so, he settled for leaning back against the wall at the head of the bed. “Well Priest? Answer me.”

“I am not the one to answer that question.” Uncertain if he should speak of the last few minutes or not, Set decided Atemu would want to know what had taken place. “You were here and yet were not.” He paused waiting to see if there would be any reaction to the news. “You spoke but I did not recognize the words and you did not sense me. The fact you asked for me confirms that you were unaware of my presence.” Meeting Atemu’s eyes straight on Set waited, knowing the other would deny all of this.

Crimson eyes flashed angry, over the information just received or because of the thoughts the information caused, Set could not be certain. “Impossible. I was here the whole time; you have said so. We must have gone to sleep and you dreamed the scene.”

Anxiety getting the better of him, Set stood up walking over to the window to look for the guard and healer. “Atemu, you did the same earlier as well while the healer was here. Both times, you said the word, ka’bah.” Turning back toward the Pharaoh, he asked, “Do you recall what this word is?”

There was a strange glimmer of recognition showing in the eyes of the other, something akin to fear as he spoke, “Not what Set--who. What you should ask is who is Kaiba?”

~~~~~

Yugi awoke, this time feeling better than he had all day. Slowly he sat up, taking his time just in case his head decided to start spinning yet again. Silently he called out for the other before recalling his self-imposed banishment. Alone the boy sat there, waiting for a sign that everything would be all right.

A knock came at his door, followed softly by his grandfather’s voice. “Yugi? Are you awake?” He gave an affirmative reply asking the older man to come in as well. His grandfather entered the room slowly, balancing a small tray in his hands. “Thinking you might be hungry, I brought you some soup. Glad to see you’re sitting up now.”

“Oh, thank you Grandpa.” Taking the tray, he sat up a little straighter, trying not to spill anything upon it. Forcing himself to slowly sip at the soup, Yugi managed to finish most of it before he looked up at his grandfather again. “The day is kind of fuzzy for me, how did I get home? The last thing I remember was sitting in class.”

The old man chuckled at the boy’s confusion. “You need to call Jounouchi and Honda to thank them for seeing you home. They had to carry you most of the way. You can also let them know you are feeling better; they were very worried. I’ll bring a phone in here for you so you can rest.” Getting up, he walked out into the hallway returning quickly with a cordless phone, holding it out to his grandson. Then he picked up the now empty dishes and left the room so Yugi could speak to his friends in private.

After his grandfather left Yugi picked up the phone, calling his friends. When done speaking to them he hung the phone up, setting it down on his bedside table realizing suddenly he was very tired again. Closing his eyes, he found himself standing at the door leading into the other’s soul room. Knocking gently, he was surprised when the door silently swung open.

~~~~~

“Then I shall rephrase myself. Atemu, who is Kaiba?” There was an intense moment of silence while he waited for the other to answer. “You know this word, this person--tell me. Please.”

Finding he could not look into the deep blue of his lover’s eyes without seeing the pain and confusion there, he looked away instead while attempting to form a possible answer to what was truly an impossible question. “You are. Or you will be.”

Before Set could ask for clarification on such an enigmatic answer, a loud knock was heard at the entrance to the room. The guard sent out earlier shoved the healer through it as soon as they were permitted entrance. Dismissing the guard immediately, Set started explained to the healer what had happened over the last minutes.

The healer once again examined the Pharaoh concluding that his fever was less, but still finding nothing to explain the apparent problem. Taking the Priest out of the room to speak privately after suggesting the Pharaoh needed to rest he spoke as honestly as he could. “I feel at this time, you might wish to inquire to a higher power’s involvement. I shall still venture to find something myself that might help--secretly inquiring with a trusted colleague of mine; however, I am less inclined to trusting my own skills alone. Mayhap between us, your Gods and I, we can defeat this problem.”

The healer left after giving Set another bottle of the liquid and extracting a promise to watch the Pharaoh closely though out the night. Set turned around, walking to the room after leaving an order with the guards to have some food sent up to the Pharaoh’s chambers. They would not be leaving the room for the rest of the night.

~~~~~

Yugi slowly walked into the other’s room, apprehensively-- it was always tricky to enter without the guidance of the room’s owner. As he crept through the passageways, trying to note which ones seemed familiar from past visits, he noticed how eerily quiet it was. Not that there would, under normal circumstances, be a lot of noise or anything but it still felt too silent for his liking. He walked along the empty halls cautiously peeking into the rooms he passed, calling out for the other as he did so.

One room caught his eye as he walked past. A bright, nearly diaphanous fabric blew out the door hitting him in the face as it attempted to wrap around him when he got too close. Yugi moved to enter wondering why the Spirit would have something so odd in one of his rooms. Pushing the fabric curtain aside as he walked into the doorway, Yugi could just see the outline of a bed inside. He was going to walk further into the room, hoping the other was there resting when he heard a low moaning coming from up the hallway. He knew there could only be one other person in the Spirit’s maze of a soul room. Momentarily forgetting the room, he ran down the way to check on the other.

He found the Spirit of the Puzzle curled up on the floor seemingly asleep, as there did not appear to be any injuries that Yugi could see. He thought for a moment about waking the other up and then decided against it. They had both been through a lot in the past hours; it was understandable that the apparently tireless Spirit would be weary.

Yugi turned walking quickly back to the last room; he had seen a bed after all and a bed would have pillows and a blanket or something. Walking past the near deadly fabric once again, he made it into the room completely before stopping still in his tracks. An apparition or ghost stopped him cold, for he could see no other reason to think Kaiba would actually be standing in the room. No, he realized as he looked at the other, it was not Kaiba. Instead, it was the Priest that they had seen on the stone tablet in the museum. Nevertheless, why would he be here, in this room?

Yugi started to speak to the solitary figure that stood gazing out a window. The other turned before he could however and vanished in front of his eyes. Trying not to think too hard on everything he had just seen, as he knew it would be better to leave it until the Spirit was up to talking on the subject, Yugi grabbed a few things off the bed. Dragging a cover and pillows back to where the Spirit lay, Yugi settled down next to him covering them both up before falling into his own strange slumber.

Warmth flooded his recently chilled body arousing the once Pharaoh. Eyes fluttered open partially, enough to realize he was no longer alone. Innocently enough he felt Yugi’s arms wrap around him, and placed his own around the smaller boy. Poor substitution for what his mind seemed intent upon reminding him was no longer his, but in his half-dazed state, it did not matter. It only anchored him to sanity.

 

onward