Yu-Gi-Oh!: Enter The Dark Duels

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Chapter 3 : Forbidden One

Gwenhwyfar slid out from between the sheets as quietly as she could, so as not to disturb her sleeping husband, slipped into her robe and walked over to the window. The fireplace against the far wall of the room still provided a good measure of warmth, so she didn’t mind the cool air that confronted her as she gazed out over the courtyard of Hikari’s castle.

Occasionally, she would glimpse the outline of one of the Dark Magicians on patrol around the castle, but their magic usually concealed them from the revealing moonlight. She thought that the castle and surrounding city looked peaceful, deceptively so. Hikari had told them that she suspected that there was a plot underway to overthrow her and her supporters. From what she had gathered so far, the Waboku might be involved, although her main sources of information hadn’t turned up anything do far.

With a sigh Gwenhwyfar turned her back to the window and retrieved her clothing from on the floor next to the bed. She dressed without looking at Nazianzus, she was about to betray his trust, yet again, and although her mind was convinced that she was doing the right thing, her conscience was still in doubt. Picking up her deck, she added the cards that Hikari had given her and opened the door as quietly as she could and went off in search of some much needed answers.

Walking through the hallways of the castle in the dead of night, Gwenhwyfar was surprised that she didn’t encounter more guards than she did. She saw the occasional Hysteric Fairy and a handful of Neos, but none of them noticed her as she hid behind statues or pillars or anything else that was convenient at the time. Silently, she asked herself why she was being so secretive. After all, she was an honored guest of Queen Hikari herself, so none of the servants or even the guards would question her movements. All the same, she found herself ducking behind a hanging tapestry as a female elf of a type that she had never seen before, glanced in her direction. It appeared that she was trying to make sure that she wasn’t being followed. Naturally, as soon as she had rounded the corner, Gwenhwyfar stalked off behind her.

The elf took a roundabout route to the castle’s lower regions, glancing around every so often to make sure that she wasn’t being followed. Miraculously, Gwenhwyfar remained unnoticed. Finally, the elf stopped in one of the empty dungeons and sat down on a table. She appeared to be waiting on someone, or something. Gwenhwyfar crouched behind a convenient crate in a corner near the entrance and waited. Her hiding place gave her a good view of most of the room while concealing her as long as she didn’t stand up. Gwenhwyfar put her back against the wall, made sure that she was still fully hidden from view, and waited.

Nazianzus lay awake in bed for a while after Gwenhwyfar had left the room, thinking about all that had happened so far, and the startling things that Hikari had told them. He knew that Gwenhwyfar would be perfectly safe as long as she stayed inside the castle. Hikari had given word to all those under her control to protect the two of them under any circumstances.

Under an unending string of questions from both him and Gwenhwyfar, Hikari had revealed much of what there was to know about the shadow realm in their conversations before and after dinner. The first thing they had learnt was that the monsters native to the shadow realm were in fact, the physical manifestation of the beliefs and fears of human beings. The shadow realm itself was like a blank canvas onto which the human minds in the real world painted a mind-numbing variety of characters. This, Hikari claimed, was the cause of the unrest in the realm right now. The fact that human minds had created the monsters in the first place made them unpredictable, dangerous and apparently, treacherous.

Nazianzus had been quite fascinated by the concept that if a human believed something strongly enough that it would actually manifest itself somewhere. Gwenhwyfar however, had become somewhat withdrawn after the revelation. He pondered her sudden change in mood now, wondering what was its cause. The chain of thought caused him a pang of guilt a few seconds later. He was lying in bed while she was off exploring a potentially dangerous environment. “No”, he said to himself, “it’s not dangerous, the guards will protect her”. But then, why would Hikari have needed to make sure to tell the guards to keep them safe within the boundaries of the castle? Surely they were safe there? Unless of course, there was a threat from within…

Nazianzus dressed quickly and headed out the door. He didn’t know how he was going to find Gwenhwyfar, but he knew that he had to do it soon. Mere seconds after he had chosen a direction to start searching in, he heard someone approaching from around the corner. Thinking that it was Gwenhwyfar returning, he quickened his pace only to find himself face to face with a dirty, under-dressed, Isis.

Upon seeing him she gave a little cry of surprise and her eyes widened with something that might have been fear. Nazianzus in the other hand, felt his anger rising. How could she have followed them here? He and Gwenhwyfar had finally patched things up and forgotten (at least to all appearances) all about this troublemaker – and now she just suddenly appeared in front of him, more than half-naked, in the dead of night while he was searching for Gwenhwyfar and had the audacity to look surprised.

“What do you want!?!”, he asked angrily. She took an unsteady step forwards then swayed and fell at his feet. She did not move.

Concern quickly replaced Nazianzus’s anger. He bent down and quickly checked her pulse. She was alive, but she wasn’t breathing as often as he thought she should, and she definitely shouldn’t be as cold as she was. Now that he took the time to look at her properly, apart from being dirty, she was also very pale, and her clothing was spotted with small amounts of blood. He was caught in a dilemma. He didn’t want to leave her in the corridor and hope that someone would pass by and see her, but at the same time, he wanted to go and look for Gwenhwyfar. Precious seconds passed while he debated with himself. Eventually, with clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, he picked her up bodily and carried her off in the direction of the infirmary.

Hikari sighed deeply and turned away from the figure of the woman lying on the bed in the infirmary. Her appearance in the castle confirmed the Queen’s suspicions that there was something out of the ordinary going on right under her nose. If only she could discern what it was! There were supposed to be no other humans in the castle at the moment besides herself and the two guests. This woman was a complete mystery to her. Where had she come from? Why had she come? Why was she in this condition? She sighed again and turned to face Nazianzus.

“When she wakes up we’ll be able to question her”, she told him. His face bore a look of the utmost frustration as he replied, “I don’t care about her! I just want to find Gwenhwyfar! Why are you keeping me here?”

“I have two Stern Mystics in a room upstairs searching for her using their magic. They have a talent for seeing things that are supposed to be hidden”, she said with a reassuring smile.

Nazianzus said nothing.

“Don’t worry, they’ll find her”, said Hikari. Nazianzus looked into her eyes and found himself believing her. He nodded once and then said, “This is the woman we were telling you about. The one who…caused the trouble in Aile.”

Hikari seemed to be taken aback at the news.

“Are you sure it’s her?” she asked.

“It’s definitely her.”

Hikari strode over to the unconscious woman’s side and muttered something under her breath before waving a hand over the woman.

“She’s not carrying a deck. Are you sure it’s her?”

“I’m telling you it’s her!” replied Nazianzus with more than a touch of impatience. Hikari said nothing in reply but instead seated herself in a chair at the far end of the room, apparently deep in thought. Nazianzus had to content himself with pacing the stone floor while waiting for the Stern Mystics to find his wife.

After a while, a plump, green-haired woman entered the room and began using some basic magic to check on the unconscious Isis.

“Dian”, interrupted Hikari, “How old would you say her injuries are?”

“I was just about to ask you for a word about that,” said Dian “It would seem that her physical injuries are at least two days old.”

“I see.” said Hikari.

“But that’s not all” continued Dian, “she’s suffered some sort of magical injuries as well.”

“What do you mean?” asked Hikari, rising from her chair to join Dian next to the bed. Nazianzus had stopped pacing and was now listening intently.

“Well, I’m not sure you could call them injuries,” said Dian looking at her Queen suspiciously,

“But she’s had a variety of spells performed on her in the past few…hours I think.”

“Hours?” Hikari asked incredulously. Her title of “Cosmo Queen” gave her detailed insight into the spells being performed in a large radius around her. She was aware of every single spell that was cast in the whole of Yamimaki. Searching her memory for something that she might have overlooked, she found no trace of any kind of spell that would affect a human being in such a manner.

With her eyes narrowed suspiciously she sent out a psychic summons to two of her most trusted spellcasters. Both arrived within seconds of each other. A Magician of Faith and a Witch’s Apprentice.

“I want you to tell me all the spells that have been performed on this woman in the past…week”, she said briskly, her normally kind tones offset by the knowledge that someone had been performing magic without her knowledge.

The two sorceresses must have found this order very strange, considering who it was coming from, but they did their best to follow it to the letter. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the Witch’s Apprentice stepped up to the Queen and reported.

“Someone has been playing around with her mind. I can’t tell you exactly what they were doing – it wasn’t mind control exactly, more like… mind influencing.”

“What kind of creatures have such power?” asked Nazianzus. The Witch’s Apprentice glared at him for interrupting her and continued.

“It appears that she’s also undergone a very complex form of the polymorph spell-”

“The what?” Nazianzus butted in.

“It’s a spell that can make someone or something appear to be something that it isn’t.” said Hikari, “What were the exact effects of the spell?”

“We can’t determine that. Whoever performed this magic took great care to ensure that we wouldn’t be able to find out much.” said the Magician of Faith.

Hikari looked at the figure lying on the bed for a few moments, as if she were expecting it wake up and start revealing its secrets to her. When it remained still, she turned to the Magician of Faith she said keep trying and see what else you can determine about those spells.” She closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds.

“I’ve just assigned a guard to the infirmary. Nothing enters or leaves without my permission.” She then turned to Nazianzus and said “Come on! We need to find Gwenhwyfar now.” Without waiting for a response she walked quickly to the door pulled it open and left the room.

“What about your mystics?” asked Nazianzus as he caught up with her in the corridor.

“They should have found her by now. She must either have wandered into an area of the castle that’s sealed against magical intrusion…”

“Or?” asked Nazianzus, getting the feeling that he didn’t want to know the alternative.

“Or she’s being held against her will and is being shrouded from my detection” replied Hikari as she stopped next to an unremarkable archway. She traced some symbols into the stone wall and the space within the archway itself shimmered with magical energy. Nazianzus almost had time to ask her what she was doing before she grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the portal with her.

“That poor Hikari!” laughed the beautiful elf maiden, “She thinks she in control but she doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on.”

“Yes! And soon when we make our move, it’ll be too late for her to do anything!” said her twin. From her hiding place in the corner, Gwenhwyfar had been listening to the two elves talk about their plot to overthrow the Queen and seize control of the kingdom for themselves. From what she could tell, their plans seemed to be nearing completion. But that didn’t matter now, she thought. As soon as she got a chance, she’d go back to Hikari and tell her everything that she had just heard.

“I think it’s time that we dealt with the Queen’s so-called secret weapon,” said one of the elves.

“I agree,” replied the other as she moved over to an archway and scratched some symbols against the wall near it. The space in the archway became distorted and the twin elves stepped through it and disappeared. Gwenhwyfar suffered a few moments of indecision then steeled her resolve and followed them through. Her plan was to stop the elves before they could cause any damage to the Queen’s “secret weapon”, whatever that was.

As she appeared on the other side of the portal however, a pentagram flared on the floor at her feet and a circle of magic rose up from the cold stone to surround her. She briefly entertained the notion of running before she realized that she was completely paralyzed – she couldn’t even blink.

“Did you like our spellbinding circle?” the disturbingly sweet voice of one of the twins asked from somewhere behind her. She tried to turn to face the threat but the magic refused to allow it.

“For someone who’s supposed to be the “savior of the human world” you’re actually quite stupid,” jeered the other elf. Gwenhwyfar wanted to ask them what the hell they were talking about, but before the trap could stop her question, a figure materialized in front of her and drove the question from her mind. It appeared to be a woman in her early twenties – except that the colors were all wrong. Her short blonde hair was the only normal thing about her. Her skin was dark blue and the irises of her eyes were blood red. A light blue aura surrounded her, occasionally turning purple for an instant before resuming its original color. As Gwenhwyfar watched in horror tinged with fascination, the aura intensified and the creature sprouted a pair of feathery wings in the same color as its skin.

“Well, that’s better!” it said cheerfully, although Gwenhwyfar noted that the expression in its eyes was sinister.

“I’m Marie! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” it piped, putting on a very please smile. It took Gwenhwyfar a few seconds to realize that she had been freed from the spell that was paralyzing her. She straightened herself and glared defiantly at this “Marie”.

“Not much for talking are you?” said Marie, her spirits quite undaunted by Gwenhwyfar’s coldness,

“It doesn’t matter, you’re not going to live much longer anyway.”

As she said this the two elves each put a hand on her shoulders and steered her forcefully forwards past Marie and towards an enormous statue of a pharaoh on the far wall. Gwenhwyfar was still in too much shock to think about resisting. Besides, the grip of the elves was surprisingly strong given their size. Nearing the statue, she suddenly realized that it wasn’t a statue at all – it was moving slightly. As they came closer, it turned its huge head towards her.

For the first time, she noticed that it was chained to the wall behind it with impossibly thick golden chains that seemed to be made more out of energy than metal. The twins pushed her forwards suddenly causing her to stumble and fall face down in front of the monster. As she began to back away from it in terror, not daring to take her eyes off it, she barely heard Marie muttering some sort of incantation behind her. At least the elves and Marie were small. She’d rather face them than be forced to fight the giant in front of her.

She had almost made halfway across the room when she noticed with a jolt that the others were no longer in the room. A strange tingling sensation ran through her body accompanied by a soft green glow. The giant chained to the wall suddenly gave a roar of pure rage and took a step towards her. She couldn’t see how she was going to escape – there were no doors or windows. Her best bet was to run for the other side of the room.

As she tore her eyes away from the creature it stamped it’s foot and shook the ground so violently that she was actually thrown into the air. On hitting the ground she turned around just in time to see it launch itself at her, snapping the chains in the process. She screamed as blinding bright energy converged in the palms of its outstretched hands turning her world into a sea of white light.

End of Chapter 3 (Yes, yes! I KNOW my writing sucks but the story is ok if you use your imagination! Right? Riight?!???!!)