“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
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.
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