Crystal Compass Book 1: Part 11: July Camp NaNo 2014

“The King is not seeing anyone.” Clara huffed, sounding exasperated, “Not even the Lords and Ladies who rule over the subcultures of his Kingdom. He has no time, apparently, to deal with ‘such petty concerns,’ despite our best attempts to make him understand the situation.”

“Do you want me to seek the creature out and...”

“No!” Nadia shook her head violently, “Do not, Miss Twilight. This is our affair to deal with and you are mortal, you break far too easily. The Crystal Compass would not be pleased if we let a Havenkeeper get hurt. They like the fae little enough as it is. If you try, I will send even you around in circles!”

Twlight tried not to be insulted, she really did. It was a valid concern. Jack was known for his playful nature, but he was also known as the ‘Harbinger of the Winter Storm’ as he had, on more than one occasion been gifted with the ‘Wrath’ of Winter as he had been the closest Immortal of the Crystal Compass on hand when something non-mortal had been preying on those of mortal persuasion.

However she was honestly getting a little sick and tired of the ‘you’re only mortal’ issue. She fought monsters and magic on a regular basis in order to protect her little Haven. She had been at Jack’s side through several incidents and helped him all the way. She was not as useless as everyone seemed to believe. To hear even Nadia, who had seen and assisted in the take down of some of the recent non-friendly’s come out with it was exasperating.

“Fine.” She shrugged anyway, trying not to show her frustration, “I just came up to ask a favour. People are going to be searching for that missing kid again, can you grant them safe passage through your forest, please?”

“I don’t see why we should.” Clara grumbled, “My home is my home, you would not let people traverse your garden however and whenever they like!”

“I’m a Havenkeeper, remember?” Twilight reminded her with a chuckle. “Non-mortals traverse my lands all the time.”

“You’re a rare, almost extinct breed,” Nadia sighed, “I can tell you now that the child does not take shelter amongst the trees of my forest, Twilight, my people have told me such. At least the ones who can currently reach their trees have. So there is no need for the search to continue within the confines of our lands.”

Twilight grimaced at that. It meant that Mikey had obviously either gone in a completely different direction or was within the dark spot of the forest. However if Nadia kept her word and she would, the librarian knew, there was no way for her to get there to find out.

“I wish I could inform the searchers of that, but they would never believe me.” Twilight tried, “You can keep them away from that dark zone, if you wish, but the sooner they think they’ve traversed the whole area, the sooner they’ll leave you alone.”

“Fine.” Nadia huffed as Clara moved from Twilight’s shoulder to hers, nodding irritably, “But only because you asked and only until they are done with the search. Then the forest will not let them in so easily.”

“Thank you.” The student grinned at the pair of them, “You’re the best.”

“We know.” Twilight could barely hear Clara from just a few feet away, but she caught the tiny fairy Queen’s comment and laughed as she headed back to her bike.

One brief call to Detective Ley later to tell her that the dryads reported that Mikey was not in the forest, she finally got on the road, trying not to feel really weird that she had just reported something a member of the fae had told her to a detective. The trip to Plymouth was relatively quick once she actually left the dirt track. Though it took her an hour to get across to the port city, she welcomed the feel of the wind hitting her and the sounds of the road. The hustle and bustle of the busy university town was a stark and interesting contrast to the quiet and more often than not, peaceful village.

Her friends were waiting for her as she pulled up, demanding answers from her about the missing kid and whether she had seen anything as she tried to chain up her bike and head to the one revision class she had before they were supposed to be settling at the library.

She answered their questions with ease, a bright smile she did not entirely feel on her features as she remembered last night and the fact that right now there would be people combing her home in order to remove the bugs that the police had installed.

Still her friends, who had been the ones to coin the nickname ‘Twilight’ in the first place, were in quite a jovial mood. Once the initial questioning had passed and they had sat through the revision session with the one lecturer Twilight had that was guaranteed to put eighty percent of his students asleep with just a short lecture, they dragged her out to have a little fun. Considering the state of her bank account and the state of the accounts of her friends, who were all shopaholics and had almost completely totalled their student loans for the term, it was almost a relief to get dragged halfway across town for a burger and an hour on the ice skating rink.

Hanging out with her mortal friends was a breath of fresh air. They might have been obsessed with that daft animated pony show that was so popular right now, enough so to have nicknamed her after the book-obsessed librarian pony within it but they were good for her. Though they had no powers and often just humoured her when she said something odd, she did not have to worry about what she said around them or guard her words or actions.

It was okay, they had told her, that she was a little odd and occasionally talked about the fantastical. They had decided years ago that obviously her creative nature took over and ran roughshod over reality. They were used to it and it made life more interesting. She did not have the heart to tell them that it was all real. She was just pleased for their acceptance.

Mummies Alive/Clanverse: Part 4

“So, Presley,” June asked, her tone turning serious, “What magic do you use?”

“Me, use magic?” Presley sounded surprised. “That’s Rath’s job!”

“You’re not teaching him?” June gave Rath a surprised look, “Not even tricks that would help in his ability to evade Scarab?”

“You can do that?” Presley asked Rath with an odd expression, somewhere between a want to learn something as cool as magic, and a concern that Rath hadn’t wanted to teach him so far…

“Not until you have finished learning Egyptian, my prince.” Rath shook his head, wishing he could do more, “All of my spells are from our own time and require at least a basic knowledge of Egyptian.”

“You don’t know Egyptian?” June looked surprised, “It’s one of our basic languages.”

“He’s not a Clan Brat. Remember?” July prodded her sister.

“Yes, but didn't Great Seto and Great Yugi both know Egyptian because they were reincarnated?”

“Yes…”

“Great Seto?”

“Pharaoh Yugi’s eternal rival and the reincarnation of Pharaoh Seth.” May gave a hasty explanation. “We should speak to our father about getting Presley some training. How old are you?” She asked Presley, looking like she was thinking about something. 

“Twelve.”

“Too old to be enrolled in one of the magic schools.” She considered quietly.

“There are schools for magic?” Presley asked.

“We do not acknowledge or deny the existence of schools that teach magic at the current time.” June gave her sister a withering look, “You could still get into Duel Academy, you’d be safe from Scarab there and we could badger you for months.” She teased.

“Who said the Prince wanted to go anywhere?” Ja-Kal demanded, annoyed that the girls seemed to be making decisions without asking their opinions.

“Not us, we're just discussing options.” The trio smiled innocently up at Ja-Kal.

“They’re just trying to help.” Presley noted the look on the face of the leader of his guardians. “As long as you guys aren’t expecting me to actually, you know, be Pharaoh.” Presley looked around at everyone.

The sisters shared a looked and giggled, “Not unless you intend on marrying one of us.”

“What? No way!” Presley squeaked.

“He must have a girlfriend already.” June mock-mourned.

“Well there is this one girl…” Nefer-Tine teased her Prince by mentioning it.

“They are Princesses.” Ja-Kal considered.

“Ja…” Presley went bright red in embarrassment, the trio too.

“Too early. Way too early. Clan Rules say marriage can't be considered until age sixteen. We are not signing any contracts today!” May squeaked.

“How old are you?” Rath asked, looking them over as if considering if Shadow Princesses would be a good match for his charge.

“Thirteen and don’t even think about it.” July growled.

“Really?” Presley asked.

“If you make any short jokes we'll feed you to our Basilisk.” June warned him.

“Magic! We were talking about Magic! Not marriage. Not height. Magic! What Magic do you want to learn Presley?” May erupted, trying to break the mood that was settling, and asked, watching another group of brats arrive, this time through the door, and set up in the far corner.

Presley shuddered. “Not Necromancy.”

“No way.” June agreed, “We don’t teach that kind anyway.”

“Okay, well there's wanded, which you might not be able to do since the schools didn't pick you up. Shadow magic, like what we do, summoning and stuff. There's er...”

“Soul magic, which most anyone can do, but is rather dangerous, but a good counter for Necromancy.”

“I’d like to learn how to summon monsters and I want to learn how to counter Scarab’s magic. If I can defend Rapses’s soul then it’ll be harder for him to take it.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea, my Prince?” Ja-Kal looked worried.

“No,” Presley admitted, amusing the girls, “But I need to do something. How many times I have I nearly lost my soul because I couldn’t defend myself?”

Ja-Kal recalled all the close encounters. “Too many, my Prince.”

“Then I should do this. If only to make your lives easier.”

“We’d better test you for any magical abilities you have, I mean for all we know you might be a firestarter or something.” June said, seriously thinking.

“Yep, it's better to know, than accidently set someone on fire.” May giggled, making her sisters smile.

“Did that really happen?” Amun asked, noticing that the group that had just come in where watching their group with interest.

“Uh huh. Accidental magic happens a lot where we’re from.” June caught Amun’s gaze and glowered at the group, two of whom were on their phones. “Should have thought about this before we came here.” She grumbled, “The Clubs are some of the most heavily warded places not on Demiguise, so only friends can get in, but it means that the fact we’re talking to mummies is going to get back to the Elders sooner then I’d’ve liked.”

“And this is bad?” Rath asked.

“I wanted to present all the information to the Elders.” June sighed, “They can get a bit…”

“Paranoid.” July chipped in.

“It’s not paranoia if they’re out to get you.” May countered.

“Right... so anyway, we should probably talk to one of the elders before they come storming in here.” 

Mummies Alive/Clanverse: Part 3

“I am Princess May Mutou-Potter, my sisters are June and July.”

They had followed the three girls to a building not that far from where they had found Presley, a warehouse like structure which had been modified to serve as a juice bar and impromptu duelling arena. The girls had called it ‘The Emerald Serpent’ and apparently it was a meeting place for many of their family members along with it’s sister bars, ‘The Ruby Lion’, ‘The Amber Badger’ and ‘The Sapphire Raven’.

“Like the months?” Presley asked, now that worry about one of his friends wasn’t driving other questions out of his head.

“Uh huh.” May rolled her eyes, “Our father thought it would be a good idea.”

“Your father? The Pharaoh?” Ja-Kal questioned.

“Yes, our father, the current Pharaoh. He inherited the throne from his father and him from his mother.”

“You had a female Pharaoh?”

“The second Pharaoh of the Modern Age was our Great Grandmother, who took the throne when our Great Uncle Atem, who was named for the last Pharaoh before the Modern Age of Shadows, refused the throne.”

“Pharaoh Seth was the last Pharaoh of the age of Shadows…” Rath looked confused.

“Have you heard of the Nameless Pharaoh?” July asked, as June came in with tea and cakes.

“The Nameless Pharaoh gave up his chance at reaching the afterlife to seal away an evil that nearly destroyed the world.” Rath sounded like he was reciting something.

“Indeed.” May nodded, “We are descended from his reincarnation who found the Pharaoh’s name and helped him destroy that evil for good.”

“What?” Rath sounded stunned. “But the evil that the Pharaoh sealed away was…”

“Pharaoh Atem, after receiving some of Pharaoh Yugi’s energy, was able to destroy Zorc forever.” July said, handing Presley a chocolate cake and putting several glasses of cola and a plate of cakes on the table, not sure if Presley’s guardians ate or drank anything, but having bought drinks in case.

“You know a lot about Atem.” May looked amused.

“My tutor in magic told me about the time of the Shadows,” Rath explained, “Including the legend of the Nameless Pharaoh. He claimed no one knew about it anymore.”

“Until Pharaoh Yugi completed the Puzzle and became possessed by Atem, no one did.” June confirmed. “Great Great Grandfather Yugi was the first Pharaoh of the Modern Age of Shadows and he took the throne when Pharaoh Atem finally got to go to the afterlife.”

“What happened to his reincarnation?” Presley asked, having a vested interest in what had happened to someone who had had another soul within them that had moved on.

“Pharaoh Yugi ruled well and gave his life to save the world, twenty five years later. Tales of his time on the throne have been passed down through our family from generation to generation.” May explained.

“And the throne passed to his daughter, am I correct?” Rath nodded, thinking.

“That’s correct, just as the throne will pass to one of us upon our father’s death.” June nodded.

“You do not know who will claim the throne?” Nefer-Tina asked, surprised.

“We are triplets,” July explained, “And our parents decided that we would all get the same lessons and the same training. We don’t know who the oldest one is, and it’s the oldest who will get the throne, so it could be any of us.”

“An interesting decision.” Ja-Kal nodded, though he wasn’t sure it was a wise one.

“You mentioned that Prince Rapses soul is inside you.” June gave Presley a firm stare, “What did you mean by that?”

“I don’t understand it myself.” Presley smiled slightly.

“Hmmm…” June frowned, “Do you get possessed by him or is he dormant within you?”

“Dormant.” Presley nodded at the last part of her question, “I mean I think he is, he can tell me things, like if something’s wrong with someone he knew, but we don’t talk as such and he doesn’t possess me.”

“Defiantly dormant then.” June nodded, “And you’re his reincarnation right?”

“Uh huh.”

“And you guard the Prince even in death?” She asked the mummies.

“We swore that we would protect the Prince no matter what life or time.” Ja-Kal nodded. “And he will not be safe until he joins his father in the afterlife.”

“The Gate?” July asked her sisters, thinking.

“Would only work if we could separate Presley and Rapses, otherwise Presley would have to go through the Gate.” July disagreed.

“Gate?” Amun looked confused; the huge mummy, whose guardian beast was the ram, had missed most of the conversation so far, being far too preoccupied with the cakes that had previously been on the table.

“When Atem left, he went through the Gate to the Afterlife.” May explained, “We could probably reopen it again if we use the Millennium Items, but our father wouldn’t allow us to do it unless we were one hundred percent certain it would work.”

“Millennium Items?” Ja-Kal asked.

“Trade you.” July said, thinking quickly, “If you tell us about the Necromancer you’ve been having trouble with, and maybe allow us to help, we’ll tell you about the Millennium Items.”

“What are you getting out of this deal?” Rath asked suspiciously.

“We don’t want anything, but our family might want something when we get their help. Don’t worry, it won’t be anything that’s unreasonable.” July grinned, watching as a couple of brats appeared in solid vision hologram forms, obviously wanting to talk but too far away to come in person, and waved at them as they gave the group an odd look.

“So, the Necromancer, you said his name was Scarab?” July asked as the pair took a table close enough to overhear, but far enough away to hold their own, quiet discussion.

“Yes, he was once the most trusted advisor of the Pharaoh, but he kidnapped and killed Prince Rapses for his own, selfish purpose.” Ja-Kal sounded bitter even now, 3500 years later.

“Then why?” May indicated Presley, “If he already killed Rapses, why hasn’t Rapses moved on or whatever Scarab wanted come to pass?”

“You stopped him from completing whatever ritual he needed, didn’t you?” July asked the guardians.

“Indeed. We were too late to save the Prince, and it cost us our lives, but we stopped him from finishing his vile spell.” Ja-Kal nodded.

“By why didn’t Rapses move on?” June asked Presley, who tried to think about what his mother had told him about the exhibit when it had first arrived, back before Scarab had tried to steal his soul and the mummies had come back to life.

“According to my mum, Rapses’s body was never found.” Presley said, watching as collectively the girls hissed and they gained matching scowls, “What?”

“No body, no name, no afterlife.” May didn’t look amused, “If they never found Rapses’s body, then that would have prevented him moving on and it makes sending him on to his father all that more difficult. Atem, at least, had a funeral and a proper, Egyptian, burial.”

“Forgive my interruption Princess May,” Rath said, watching the girl, surprised she could get so worked up over someone she barely knew, “But shouldn’t you be a bit more worried about your own safety? By revealing your linage to Scarab you’ve made yourselves targets.”

“We’re Clan Brats, we’re always targets. One more bad guy chasing us for our souls isn’t going to freak us out.” June sniggered.

“One more…” July watched Nefer-Tina mouth the words in disbelief and joined in her sister’s chuckles.

“Yeap, we get the Dark Lords, the ones seeking power, the ones seeking immortality…” May continued blithely, watching Presley’s amusement at his guardians’ reactions, “Disgruntled Kaiba Corp employees, annoyed family members…”

“And do your guardians do nothing to prevent this?” Ja-Kal demanded, believing it wrong for the Princesses to have to defend themselves against so many enemies, as June went to get some more cakes for Amun.

“Of course they do something.” June sniggered, “There’s always someone watching over us, but we find that since there’s three of us, it’s easier to watch each others’ backs rather then have guardians following us around at all times.”

Presley could understand this. How many times had he wished that his guardians would temporarily get lost so he could actually be a normal human boy for the day?

“Besides, we have the Duel Monsters.” July added. “They’re our guardians. Didn’t you see how protective Gaia was earlier?”

“And it’s not like we’re the only Clan Brats, most of the adults can’t keep up with all of us, so if we want to slip away it’s pretty simple.” May nodded. “As long as they think we're going someplace safe, and not rushing into a dangerous situation...” She paused, “Oh…We're going to be in so much trouble... aren't we?”

“Probably, but we couldn’t allow someone’s soul to be taken and how were we supposed to know that something would happen this close to The Emerald Serpent?” June asked, “Nothing ever happens near the Serpent, that’s why it was built here!”

“You know, remember what uncle Nelson was saying about, it doesn't matter where we go, as go as we're there long enough, we're going to stumble into trouble?” May asked.

“No, I don’t remember that at all.” July shook her head.

“Denial.” May chuckled.

“The great river in Egypt?” Amun looked confused.

This, of course, just caused May to giggle louder.

“Well it's not our fault that Potters and Mutou's tend to attract trouble!”

“We didn’t even go looking for it this time.” June sniggered.

Rath caught Ja-Kal’s eyes. He wasn’t sure that the Prince hanging around with these Princesses was a good idea. They didn’t seem completely sane and they certainly didn’t act like any Princess he had ever met. Ja-Kal gave a small smile back, having been watching the Prince during the girls’ comments. He seemed amused, happy even, and if it hadn’t been for the girls it was possible that Rapses could be dead now.

For now they would give the girls the benefit of the doubt, especially as he wasn’t a hundred percent sure, if they could chase Scarab off like that, that they would be able to take the girls down, should they antagonise them into becoming a threat.

Mummies Alive/Clanverse: Part 2

Ja-Kal had been horrified to see his Prince walk straight into the trap, arriving as the eclipse cast darkness over the entire world, backed up by some girl that Ja-Kal hadn’t seen before, of the Prince’s own age.

“Let Ja-Kal go.” The Prince demanded.

Ja-Kal was confused. Rapses… Presley didn’t seem nervous at all, surely if he had come to give up his soul to save him there would be a little fear there… what did his Prince know about the girl that he didn’t.

“I will release Ja-Kal, once you have preformed the spell for me.” Scarab smirked, completely unconcerned about the extra child.

A moment later he wished he’d been more concerned, as a knight on the back of a dragon and a winged woman struck his Shabti warriors, destroying them and freeing Ja-Kal, while a huge ox-like creature stopped him from reaching the Prince.

“Prince Presley is now under Domino Clan protection.” One of the girls that had arrived with the beasts told him firmly, with a dark scowl, “I suggest you leave him alone if you know what’s good for you.”

One of the girls picked the lock on the cuffs around Ja-Kal’s wrists, while the girl at his Prince’s side called her knight in green armour and with odd pointy ears, to their side.

“Domino Clan?” Scarab demanded, looking a little pale, “You’re from the Domino Clan?” Of course he’d heard of them, you couldn’t do anything regarding Ancient Egyptian artefacts without butting heads with them, and they were responsible for the most powerful businesses in the world.

“We are Domino Clan members of the Mutou-Potter branch.” The one with the Prince said with a scowl, as the dragon aimed a ball of fire just to Scarab’s right, a deliberate miss that was enough to have Scarab thinking about retreat, “Eldest daughters of Pharaoh Gerik, fourth Pharaoh of the Modern Age of Shadows, we could squash you with little trouble.”

Ja-Kal saw her body language and heard her tone. She believed that she was correct, that she and her sisters were more powerful then Scarab. He remembered the tales of the Age of Shadows, the time when Pharaohs could summon beasts of such power that they could destroy the world, but that time had ended long before he’d been born, almost fifteen hundred years before, in fact.

If these girls were the daughters of a Pharaoh of the time of Shadows, then Scarab was in trouble, but Ja-Kal wasn’t sure that the battle would be as once sided as the girls seemed to believe.

“You, you are the heir to the throne?” Scarab seemed to gain a, at least in Ja-Kal’s opinion, worrying grin.

The girl who had picked his cuffs looked to the skies, where the eclipse was ending and the sun beginning to shine once more, “I’d worry less about your immortality, and more about Gaia.” She indicated the knight, “He doesn’t like it when people threaten us.”

“I am afraid of no Shadow Beast.” Scarab smirked.

“Gaia!” The Dragon Champion responded to the call from the girl with his Prince by attacking Scarab, knocking him over the railings and into the water. The eclipse ended, letting the sun shine properly. “It’s over…”

“For now at least.” Ja-Kal agreed with her, as he looked over the edge.

Scarab decided to retreat for now, taking off using his beetle wings and fleeing towards the city.

“Don’t let him get away!” The girl who had originally arrived with the Dragon Champion ordered. The Knight chased Scarab across the skies, his dragon snapping at his legs. “Are you alright?” She asked Ja-Kal.

“I am. I thank you for aiding my Prince.” Ja-Kal bowed to her.

“You don’t need to bow to us.” The girl smiled slightly, “We just did what anybody would do.”

“Still…” Ja-Kal straightened, watching them dismiss their monsters, “You are Princesses and as such a certain level of respect…”

He was cut off by the arrival of the other mummies. A little late to the party, but they were here. Rath watched as the Dragon Champion returned to its summoner, reporting that he was sorry, but the beetle had gotten away.

“It’s okay Gaia, just by trying you have done me a great service.” She smiled at the champion, “You may travel home now, should you wish.”

“If I may,” Gaia looked at the other mummies, “I wish to accompany you and your sisters home.”

“Alright, but stay alert, Scarab may be back.”

“I will, my Princess.” Gaia nodded and took off again.

“Ja-Kal? Rapses?” Nefer-Tina looked confused.

“Our Prince is not the only royal in this time.” Ja-Kal explained, still a little confused over everything himself.

“If we may,” The girl who had picked Ja-Kal’s cuffs interrupted, “It would be easier to explain if we were somewhere where we would not be interrupted.”

The mummies hesitated, reluctant to show their hiding place to these outsiders, and the girls seemed to sense this, “If you would like to come to our club, we will explain everything. I swear on our honour as Duellists and as daughters of the Pharaoh, that we will cause you no harm.”

“Daughters?” Rath questioned.

“Please guys?” Presley kind of didn’t want to see these girls go. They seemed to understand what he was going through and the mummies were great and all that, but it would be nice to have some human company that he could talk about this with.

“We will follow you.” Ja-Kal nodded. “Lead the way.”