gure's fic archive

[Fic] Harbinger of Calamity Chapter 02

2006-12-15T04:44:08Z

Title: Harbinger of Calamity
Author: gure
Chapter Two - Regrets and Resurfaced Memories
Fandom: Yugioh! and Yugioh! Duel Monsters
Summary: Abandoned by the gods, young Set finds himself being summoned back to the City of the Sun to become the High Priest to a new King. Little does he know that his fate is unpredictable and that his destiny has only begun. [Ancient Egypt KaiJou]

Harbinger of Calamity

Chapter 2- Regrets and Resurfaced Memories

By gure

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Author’s Notes: Originally, I put all translations and explanations at the end of the chapter, but I decided to just put them before the chapter, since the story can get pretty confusing without these references. I did a bunch of random research before I started this story, so I hope that everything is at least remotely accurate to Ancient Egyptian mythological stories and Ancient Egyptian culture. Of course, not everything can be accurate after all, because the stories keep changing with time, and there are a bunch of random contradictions here and there in Egyptian mythology itself. I’ve also taken the liberty of incorporating a couple of my own “myths” and edited some of the original mythological stories as I saw fit, as I wanted this story to focus on Set and *cough* “you-know-who.” I haven’t given him a name yet, so I shouldn’t be mentioning him…

I will be addressing the pharaoh (Yugi’s other self) as Atem, while addressing the god he is named after as Atum, just to make things simple and less complicated. Same thing goes for Set, and his godly counterpart, Sutekh.

So yeah, below are a list of terms and explanations that you might want to look over before continuing on with the story. I can’t guarantee you’ll understand it if you don’t.

You can also skip everything and just go straight on to the story.

[1] Hetep di nisu: the formal title for the king or the Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt. The word “pharaoh” or “per’aa” was not used by the Egyptians until 1450 BC in the mid-18^th dynasty. This story takes place slightly before that, sometime during the early 18^th dynasty, when the stories about Sutekh changed for the worst.

[1.5] nisu: short for the above.

[2] Per-Atum: Temple of Atum; also House of Atum, a name for the city, Heliopolis due to the main temple of Atum worship situated there. Heliopolis is a word that the Greeks came up with for the city of Iunu.

[3] Wabu: a lower-class/ranked priest. It means “pure one.”

[4] Iunu: Iunu was the Ancient Egyptian name for Heliopolis; means “place of pillars.” Center of Atum worship.

[5] Hem-netjer: High Priest, a powerful figure underneath the Pharaoh. He is responsible for the main Temple and is the one who performs the rituals/carries out the duties to satisfy the gods. He is also above all other priests.

Various Egyptian deities:

I will be using the Egyptian language when mentioning Egyptian deities.

-Atum (Atem): god of the Sun and creator later coalesced with Ra.

-Sutekh (Set): god of the storm, the Desert, foreign lands, wind, and eventually, chaos and confusion were added to the list. I like how his name means “to dazzle.”

-Ma’at: known as the goddess of truth, balance, law, and order.

-Ra: the creator god of the Sun that arose from Nun and Naunet, the primordial watery abyss before the creation of mankind.

-Heru (Horus): the king of the gods, son of Aset and Asar, nephew of Sutekh.

-Amun-Re is the combination of Amun and Ra. The Egyptians liked to combine their gods into one deity. There were many combinations with Ra, such as Atum-Re, a combination of Atum and Ra.

-Re-Harakhti is a combination of Ra and Horus. In this story, this term will be mentioned the most regarding the history of the gods.

-Asar (Osiris): god who ruled over the dead in Djuat, the Land of the Dead.

-Aset (Isis): goddess of magic and healing; wife of Asar.

-Nebt’het (Nephthys): “Mistress of the Temple/House;” twin sister and reflection of Aset; a wife of Sutekh.

-Djehuti (Thoth): god of wisdom, writing, and speech.

[6] Maa’kheru: “true of voice”

[7] The pharaoh of Egypt had multiple names. The Praenomen or the Throne Name is usually the name that gets carried through history. In this story, Atem’s name is just a shortening of his “full nomen name.” It’s complicated, I know, but oh well.

Atem’s name: Atem’s name itself means “accomplished one.”

*The Horus Name: Sekhemkhet (Almighty Horus, Powerful in body)

*The Nebti Name: Neter Nesyt (He of the Two Ladies, Divine of Kingship)

*Golden “Horus” Name: Khasekhemre (Horus of Gold, The Power of Ra appears)

*Praenomen (The Throne Name): Meri’re (Lord of the Two Lands, Beloved of Ra)

*Nomen (The Personal Name): Meri’Atem Irimaat (Son of Ra, Beloved of Atem, who does what is just)

Set’s name: Set’s name itself means “to dazzle.”

*The Horus (Heru) Name: This name is given to the ruler or pharaoh. Because Set was a candidate of becoming the next Pharaoh due to his mother’s royal blood, he was given a Horus name. However, this name is now null, since he does not become the pharaoh.

*The Nebti Name: Netcher Mesut (He of the Two Ladies, Divine of Birth)

*Golden Name: Sekhem Neteru (Powerful one of the gods). Although the golden name is often considered the Golden Horus name, the “golden” part of it was derived from Sutekh’s original connection as the king. Sutekh used to be the god of the city Nubt, which was the major city of gold trade. Over the years after the unification of Upper/Lower Egypt, the original views of the Sutekh were lost, and he became the embodiment of evil in Egyptian beliefs.

*Praenomen (The Throne Name): He does not have a throne name for the same reason he does not have a Horus name anymore.

*Nomen (The Personal Name): Seti Tutmesut (He who belongs to Set (or Sutekh), Perfect of Birth)

[8] Akhenaten: “effective spirit of Aten”

[9] Asar: the Egyptian name for Osiris, who rules the dead in a realm beyond Nun.

----

A pair of blue eyes glared at the eight escorts in front of him who were busy making themselves look at anything but that sharp intimidating glare.

Shifting uncomfortably from his position, the escort standing at the very front stepped out to represent the rest of the awkward group. Keeping his head low and voice steady, he delivered his message to a tall auburn-haired man, of whom those sharp blue eyes belonged to.

“And therefore, this is the decision of the Majesty, Hetep di nisu [1], Khasekhemre Meri’re, Meri’Atem Irimaat [7], the Son of Ra, the beloved of Ma’at, and the manifestation of Horus. By his order, you must travel to The City of the Sun, Per-Atum [2], immediately and assume your duties. He will be expecting you within two moons from now. It is our responsibility to escort you back to him when you are ready, Wabu [3].”

Finishing his message, the escort sighed silently to himself, not daring to look at the one before him. He had come all the way from the royal city of Iunu [4], the City of the Sun and the Pillar, to this backwater village that was not even worthy for a servant of the palace to tread on. And now he had to escort this intimidating upstart back to the holy city itself just so this boy, barely turned man, could attain his role as the Hem-netjer [5] of Amun-Re? It was ridiculous, but of course, he could not disobey the command of his nisu [1.5].

Although their current King was very young, he was wise beyond his years, and his words held the will of Re-Harakhti, and who was he to disobey his king? That did not mean he had to like this sullen-faced boy-turned-man who would become High Priest under their ruler.

Meanwhile, the silence and tension of the room prevailed, growing thicker as time went by. At last tired at the silence, the escort dared to look up at the face of the young man with eyes the color of the Nile, and he gasped at the bitter smirk on the young priest’s face.

“Hn, who knew he would do something so reckless like this? Well, he is the nisu now. I suppose I have no choice, although it is troublesome to call me now,” the brunet thought out loud to himself.

The escorts overheard his words and hardened their opinion against him. To have the nerve to say their king’s orders were troublesome, it was travesty! Why had their ruler chosen such a discourteous person to become their next Hem-netjer? Was he even learned and educated in the ways of a true priest?

They kept their mouths shut and their thoughts to themselves, but waited for the boy with blue eyes to respond. They’d still have to put up with him for now.

In a louder voice, the boy finally gave his consent to travel to Heliopolis in a month’s time and dismissed the escorts from his plainly built house.

----

Young Set looked up ahead into the distance, but all he could see was an endless horizon of copper sand. He would finally be returning to Iunu after five years of absence and take his position as Atem’s High Priest.

He had been born in Iunu and had been raised there for twelve years of his life as a candidate for the next ruler of Egypt. Atem, his cousin in blood, had been the other candidate. They had both been trained under the eyes of strict teachers and priests, undergone the same hurdles, and because of that, despite their subjected rivalry, had become friends. It had always been understood between them that one of them would become the King, and the other the High Priest.

However…

Everything had ended five years ago, the year he had endured hell. He knew he was not one to make friends easily due to his somber and somewhat distant attitude, but who would have thought someone had hated him so much to start such incriminating rumors? Unfortunately for him, the rumors circulated despite his father’s attempts to quell them, and in the end after his father betrayed his own family, his mother and he had been banished from Heliopolis, settling in a nondescript village among the Red Sands. His promising future had been desecrated, and his family was broken apart.

Set was never one to pity anyone, including himself, and he did not believe in fortune or fate. But he would not forgive those who had taken part in defiling his mother and brother. He did not mourn of lost opportunities or of his ruined future but rather of what had been done to his mother and to his little brother, young Maa’kheru [6].

Maa’kheru, barely only seven years of age at the time and filled with innocence and purity, had taken the brunt of the hate-filled rumors. Some of his friends had decided to play an awful hoax on him; in the end, their prank had gone too far, and Maa’kheru’s soul had left this world. His own father, Akhenaten [8], in an attempt to remove all ill repute against himself, disowned the entire family for fear of losing his position in the royal council, and he had done nothing about Maa’kheru’s ill-fated death.

His lovely mother, who had always been a fragile and gentle creature, had been devastated by Maa’kheru’s death and her husband’s betrayal. Faced with destitution as she and her remaining son were banished from Heliopolis, she became a mere shadow of what she once was, laden with desolation and hopelessness. Her broken spirit led her to often become sick, and Set, still young at the time, had not been able to do anything but watch his mother’s health deteriorate as he clutched her as close as he could.

Two years later, his mother chose to leave him and joined Maa’kheru in the afterlife, her long pale fingers slipping from his tear-stained cheeks and her light blue eyes, still on his face, dull to an insipid white. Set could still remember that she had been crying when she died.

In the end, Asar [9] had taken his loved ones from him and left him by himself in a village of uncivilized strangers. But, Set thought to himself, didn’t everyone living here have one thing in common? They had all, at one point in their lives, been completely abandoned by the gods.

Ironically, the gods that had abandoned him would now have to put up with him. In less than a week’s time, he would become the High Priest, a vessel of Re-Harakhti, the king of the gods, and the one who had originally banished him from the Holy City.

Set had not intended Atem to ever contact him or summon him again and had given up everything for loss. After all, who would want to assimilate him, a ruined prince who was a disgrace to the gods, back into society? And to a position as the High Priest, second to the King and no other.

It was laughable and absolutely ridiculous. Here he was, a man rejected by the gods, whose sole purpose in life was to now serve those same gods who had forsaken him.

Perhaps Atem had lost his mind over the years. It had been a while since Set thought about him, as he had spent most of his time reading and researching past history.

Set shook his head slightly in bitter contemplation as the sound of pattering feet and the creaks of the wooden litter continued in the background. It was hot and stuffy inside the litter, and he was tempted to just get out and walk with the rest of the men on the soft desert carpet. But then again, he had an image to carry and those escorts seemed like they disliked him. It was better to play it safe and stay in the confines of the cramped wooden box with his thoughts as company.

Set sighed once more and decided to take a look outside once more through the gauzy curtains suspended from the top of the litter. Something glinted off from the corner of his eye, and he strained to see an unmistakable silver sheen of something a little ways off in the distance. The silver dot started to get bigger as he stared harder, and by the time he realized what was coming towards them, it was already too late.

His escorts shouted from the outside, and he could hear panic and fear in their voices. The sound of sharp objects cutting through flesh and blunt weapons crushing bones could be heard, and Set refused to sit still and surrender to what was definitely an invasion of a band of thieves. The litter had long ago stopped, the donkeys braying loudly and kicking their hooves at rushing men. He slipped quietly out and unsheathed a copper dagger from his tunic, his eyes alert and widening when he saw one of his escorts get crushed in the skull by a blunt mace.

The situation was not looking bright, as they were grossly outnumbered in both men and weapons. Set wasn’t sure any of them would be alive tomorrow, but he was sure going to take down as many as he could before he died.

Before he could register anything else, a thief had lunged at him, eyes wild and arms outstretched with a rusted dagger aimed towards his heart. Set swerved out of the way, his instincts barely saving his life, and he winced as the dagger sliced his arm.

The dark-haired thief had not expected his target to swerve so quickly and was unbalanced by his thrust. His eyes widened as Set moved swiftly and kneed him in the groin, dagger coming down to sink into his back. The thief instantly dropped to the ground, blood spilling from his wound, eyes wide in disbelief. He glared at Set with hatred in his eyes before they dulled and his breath stopped.

Set had no time to stare at his first kill. Two more thieves had seen their comrade fall, and were intent on killing him with no mercy. They both rushed at him with weapons forward, yelling at the top of their lungs. Set prepared to duck, but at the last second, saw that one of the thieves had decided to change his stance and aim low for his abdomen.

Too late. He wouldn’t be able to move so quickly. He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the impact.

The point of the rusted dagger came too soon, and he choked on the blood he could feel coming out from his throat. He fell to his knees as he stared at the two thieves chuckling sinisterly at his future demise, weapons ready to end his short life.

The brunet felt weak as he clutched at his fatal wound, dizzy from the blood loss. He coughed out blood and was amazed by the amount of red he blurrily saw coming from himself.

For a split second, he saw his memories flash through his eyes.

Despite his developed bitterness towards Atem for abandoning him during that his time of difficulty, despite his refusal to forgive his father for betraying him, despite everything that had happened to him, what had happened to Maa’kheru and his mother, everything—

All he could see was Atem’s young face smiling at him with hands outstretched in friendship, his father who had looked at him with pride, firmly patting him on the back, Maa’kheru’s happy grin as Set taught him how to shoot his first sling, his mother who had gently stroked his auburn hair and sang to him softly about majestic dragons and beautiful maidens—

And Set realized that despite everything, he missed them all, even Atem and his father. That even if they had all abandoned and betrayed him and left him alone in this god-forsaken world, he wanted to see them just once more.

Why?

Why couldn’t he hate them?

Why couldn’t he forget about them?

Still kneeling upon the blood drenched sand that was absorbing his life’s liquid, hands clutching his wound, he did not realize the tears that were flowing down his face, dripping to mix with his blood.

So engrossed in his memories, he did not notice anything, not the sudden disappearance of the two thieves who were about to end his life, not the flash of red eyes as various men suddenly dropped down dead with their eyes still open from shock, definitely not the swirl of darkness that enveloped him in warmth, nor the soft hands that wiped away his tears.

He did not see anything at all as blackness consumed him.

----

tbc…

[Fic] Harbinger of Calamity Chapter 01

2006-12-15T04:18:51Z

A new fanfic I've started. :)

Title: Harbinger of Calamity
Author: gure
Chapter One - Beginning of the End
Fandom: Yugioh! and Yugioh! Duel Monsters
Summary: Abandoned by the gods, young Set finds himself being summoned back to the City of the Sun to become the High Priest to a new King. Little does he know that his fate is unpredictable and that his destiny has only begun. [Ancient Egypt Kaiba/Jounouchi]

Notes: A new series I’m starting. This will be a multi-chaptered story set in the time of Ancient Egypt. I’ve recently found my renewed love for Yugiou, which has stimulated me to research on Ancient Egyptian culture, history, and myths.

This will be mostly about my take on the past reincarnations of Jounouchi Katsuya and Kaiba Seto. Please remember that this is fanfiction, something I’ve created with non-original characters. I’ve given them new names and even introduce some new original characters, but ultimately, most credit belongs to Takahashi Kazuki for creating Yugiou to begin with.

Enjoy, and please review.

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Chapter I - Beginning of the End

There was no salvation. Only rain of fire and lightning.

There was pain and there was betrayal. But only the glow of a golden eye remained.

There was no redemption. Only a distant horrific laughter that resounded in the skies.

There was a memory and there was a will. But only the burning light lingered.

And there was nothing more.

------

He woke up not knowing who he was or where he was from. He opened his eyes and then choked up sand that had layered on top of him. He tried to sit up but the layer of sand had been thicker than he thought. How many days and nights had he been unconscious here that the sand threatened to swallow him up?

Coughing, he struggled to crawl out of his sand-prison, ignoring his body’s protestations of moving. His mouth was dry and his eyes watered as he slowly dug his way out. He felt weak and tired, and he just wanted to close his eyes and sleep everything away. But he knew that he had to get out or he would die from suffocation.

Just as he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, a hand reached out to grab his arm to pull him out. Startled but grateful, he used the last of his strength to help push his way out of the thick sand. He flopped limply to the sandy ground and then looked gratefully to his savior only to find no one there. Where…?

He was delirious. That had to be it. Where was the person who had helped pull him out of the thick layers of sand? Maybe he was really just breathing his last breath and hallucinating about his freedom. He took a couple deep breaths of the desert air and pinched himself hard, only to wince when he felt the pain. So it wasn’t a dream.

The young boy frowned, eyes tired and body weary, and ignored the inherent feeling of something tingling down his spine. Whoever had helped him was gone now, and it was best not to think about it for now. Rather, he needed to find shelter, some kind of shade even, lest he burn under the bright scorching sun. The insides of his mouth felt like sandpaper, and he yearned for a drop of cold liquid to soothe his dry throat.

Making a tremendous effort to pick himself up, the boy caught a glimmer of red from the corner of his eye and whirled his head to stare at the thing that had shimmered at him amongst the sand.

Dropping to his knees, he brushed the thin layer of sand off the bright object and picked it up. Hanging on a thread of gold, was an intricate oculus shaped pendant with a glowing red ruby set into the middle as the pupil. The boy felt an influx of renewed energy flowing through his veins as he held the jeweled eye in the palm of his hand, and he instinctually clutched it tightly in his fist.

He yelped as the sharp facets of the ruby cut into his flesh and he would have dropped the necklace if he had not been concentrating on what was happening. The small drop of blood that had come into contact with the jewel began to sizzle and the boy watched in amazement as the ruby started shining a deep red and absorbed the small amount of blood he had shed. In return, the cut on his palm began to close until all remnants of his wound disappeared.

Confused and more than amazed, the boy fingered the jewel and hung the necklace on his neck, feeling that he needed to keep this valuable gem close to his heart. He got back up on his feet once again and scrunched his eyes up in concentration as he tried to make out his surroundings.

There was nothing but an endless expanse of copper-hued sand stretching before him. He was stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the desert with no shade or shelter, no food, and no one to help him or to keep him company.

The boy trembled slightly at this realization, and he clenched his fists in desperation. He did not want to die. Despite not knowing his own name or where he was, he wanted to live. He did not know what fueled this motivation, but it was enough to keep him going.

Gathering his cloak around him to shield himself from the sun, the boy took a deep breath and then lifted a tired leg forward to begin his journey to nowhere.

tbc…