Manacle of Ra
Chapter 1 – Dream
By: Yami no Kaiba
Seto finished typing down his idea on how to improve on the duel disk components. So far, he was pretty sure that with the prototype holo-emitters that he had created it was feasible to do what he wanted. Instinctively he rubbed his right wrist. It was a bad habit he had picked up in the last two weeks since getting off of the Duelist Island. Typing with the manacle on put unnecessary strain on his wrist.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t an option. He still couldn’t find a way of getting the damn thing off, even though he had even tried heating the metal to loosen it so as to get a pair of metal shears into a position to cut it off. The fucking bracelet didn’t even get warm. The soft glow around it had also gotten more intense over the weeks.
Noting the time on a clock resting on his desk, Seto saved the file and flicked the power switch. Stretching catlike in his seat, he rubbed at his tired eyes. Once he had gotten back, his first action had been to fire the entire board of executives and replace them with hopefully competent people. Out of the five seats, only three had been filled to this point, and he was taking over the load of the other two till he found replacements. Meaning, he was slightly backed up in work while pulling eighteen to twenty-two hour days. This made for a very tired Kaiba. Walking over to the door to his office he turned off the light and went to the cot he had in a side room. He didn’t like sleeping at the office because he didn’t like not seeing Mokuba, but until he could find competent replacements, he’d just have to rough it out.
*---*---*---*---*
Seto shivered as he looked around him. The place he was in was a dark void, with nothing but him and the old High Mage and a shifting of the shades of darkness all around them. Wearing the light blue robes of a temple initiate, the ten-year-old boy looked like gutter trash next to the resplendent silver with gold embroidery robes of the old man holding the sennen rod.
"Wha-"
"A test, young one. You’ve shown a high aptitude for magic and spells, but I wish to see if you hold the favor of the gods. This is the shadow realm, where dreams can become reality and the win or loss of a single game decides a person’s fate. If you hold the favor of the gods, I wish to make you my successor."
Seto repressed another shiver. He had heard rumors of this place, and all the stories were fairly disturbing. "What do I have to do?"
The old man smiled benignly. "As you know, the most recent trend of games has been the dueling of monsters. I want you to try and create a monster to be played in the game. If the gods favor you, they’ll make what you want true here, it will be yours alone, and the gods shall give you a talisman as a sign of their favor. If not, then it will be created and made available for all players."
Seto perked up at this. Anything he dreamed of? And it would become real? Neat! But... "How?"
"Just imagine it, and don’t forget the details! Then concentrate on it really hard."
Well, that didn’t sound too hard! Now, what to make? If anything was possible, then why not his favorite mythological beast? Closing his eyes, he framed a rough mental picture of a dragon in his mind. Now, the details... Eye color like his own, silverish white scales like armor plating, an angular head, sharp teeth and claws, bat like wings...
Seto almost jumped as he felt what could only be called a presence in his mind, seemingly admiring his work. [This is to beautiful of a creature to only make one of, don’t you think, little one?] a fatherly voice sounded in his mind. {Well... I guess it would be lonely without a father or mother.} [Then why don’t you make it a father and mother, hmm?] the voice replied with a hint of amusement. So Seto did as he was prompted, and another two images of the dragon appeared, but slightly larger than the first and one had a small, barely noticeable crest. {How’s that?} The sound of clapping made him blush with pride. [Now open your eyes and they will be there. And don’t worry, when in battle, they’ll be much bigger.]
The ten-year-old opened his eyes to find little bird sized creatures that resembled his dragons perched on him, the mother and daughter on each shoulder and the father curled up on top of his head.
The High Mage smiled at him as he pointed his rod at his right arm. "It seems you’ve passed, and quite nicely if I’m reading that symbol right."
Seto blinked and raised his hand to examine the manacle that had manifested itself around his forearm. A raised circular relief stood in plain sight with a dot in the exact center. "So that was Ra?" he asked in a hushed. awed whisper.
"It would seem he has a special interest in you, little one. I’ve never heard of one passing the test and creating more than one creature. Most interesting indeed."
--To be Continued.