It
was unsurprisingly dim lit beyond the curtain. The same sort of holographic
torches as in the dining hall were spread unevenly around the room and didn’t
light the room particularly well. She could see well enough get a grip on the
layout though.
The
huge throne was what caught her attention though and she froze when she
realised that there was a huge man in heavy looking black armour and a helmet
that covered his face, on the giant obsidian throne. She hadn’t seen him on the
security cameras and she knew that no one could have followed her in.
When
he didn’t seem to react to her presence, she figured he had to be a hologram
whose programming hadn’t been fully activated yet and risked entering the room
further, taking in the painting on the floor that looked like it was a magic
circle of some variety.
She
made her way over and recognised it, on closer inspection, as the magic circle
the ShadowSwords had thrown her into when they had planned on sacrificing her
to the Shadows four years ago, leaving her confused. Pegasus had told her that
they planned on sacrificing every player coming to the beta test, but the
circle here wasn’t big enough for that.
Either Pegasus had fed her false information or there was something going on here that she didn’t know about.
She
risked turning her back on the hologram on the throne to see if there was some
way that she could disturb the seal on the floor, to put paid, at least, to
this part of their plans.
It
wasn’t hard to come up with an idea. She pulled her purse out of her bag and fumbled
around for a coin. She tried scratching at the paint and was pleased when the
paint started to chip away.
“What
do you think you’re playing at?” Dani had just enough time to let out a
startled squeak and start turning around before an arm coated in black armour wrapped
around her chest and she was dragged away from the circle.
“Let
me go!” She struggled and kicked out, trying to break free from what was
obviously not a hologram as she was dragged to a heavy metal door in the wall opposite
the generically evil looking dark throne. “Let me...ack!” She yelped as she was
slammed against the wall and held there by the throat by a gloved hand, the
metal of it cutting into her neck as his hand pressed firmly, partially cutting
off her airways and distracting her enough to allow the man to unlock the door
with his other hand as she focused more on trying to get his hand away from her
neck than she did on what he was up to.
The
door opened before she could free herself and the armoured knight quite
literally chucked her inside. She hit the granite floor with a pained yelp as
the door slammed closed and locked behind her, leaving her trapped in a almost
lightless room that, from what she could tell only had one way out.
“Well
shit.” She grumbled as she backed away from the metal door, her eyes still
adjusting to the fact that the only light was the dim stream coming in under
the door. Suddenly her foot hit something on the floor that let out a weak whimper.
She knelt down to feel for the cause of the sound, only for her hands to find a
person shaped form, with their hands bound behind their back and their ankles
tied together.
“Yami?”
She asked, swiftly untying him, blindfold and all and helping him sit when it
became obvious he couldn’t on his own, reaching in her backpack for a bottle of
water when he tried to reply only for his voice to crack. “Here, drink this.”
Dani
had to pull the bottle away when he tried to down the whole lot in one sitting,
wincing he let out a piteous moan. “I know. I know.” Dani tried to reassure
him, “But if you drink too much at once you could drown yourself and then your
brother would kill me.”
“Ya...Yami?”
The teen asked after another few mouthfuls. Dani frowned slightly, she couldn’t
make out who she was talking to properly but it didn’t sound like the Yugi she
had been talking to on the boat.
“Which Yugi are you?” She couldn’t help but ask, confusion obvious in her tone. She felt the body leant against her flinch and hastened to add, “It doesn’t matter, but if you’re the one who was kidnapped, I thought you were Yami.”
“N...No.”
The teenager replied still tripping over his words as his voice croaked again. “Yami...uses
my name...has done for years.” Yugi chugged down the last of the bottle. “A...Any
more?”
“Water?”
Dani asked, when she felt Yugi nod, she pulled a sandwich out of her bag. “Eat
first, you’ve got to be...” She was pleased and highly amused when Yugi
snatched the sandwich from her hands, his eyes long adjusted to the darkness
after being blindfolded for two days. “There’s more in the bag.” She told him,
as he scoffed it rapidly.
“Thank
you.” Yugi said between mouthfuls, sounding grateful even as he took the other
sandwich from her.
“You’re
welcome, Yugi.” Dani informed him, “Do you think you’ll be able to walk soon?”
“My
legs are sore and stiff but I can try.” Yugi replied honestly.
“Okay, you fill up while I check the door.” She nudged the bag closer to him, “Just remember to drink slowly.” She reminded him as she pulled a set of hairpins out of the bag and edged over towards the door, feeling it for the keyhole.
“Who
are you?” Yugi asked as she searched the door blind.
“My
name’s Danielle, my friends call me Dani, my reader call me D.M.G.” She told
him, grinning when she found the keyhole, “And we are getting the hell out of
here.”
