I Will Protect You... Chapter 4 [A YuGiOh fanfic]

A woman. A queen! She's beautiful.
Her eyes. They're my eyes. Is that me?
So many Kuribohs. I've never seen so many before in my life!
They're all gathering together. What are they doing?
Ah! No. It hurts. They have to stop. If they keep destroying themselves like this, I'll die. I don't want to die. Why won't I stop them?!
Is that the Pharaoh? Why is he crying? Is it because of me? Don't cry for me, Pharaoh.
No, dear. You have to stay behind and protect the Pharaoh…
Protect the Pharaoh…
Pharaoh… Forgive me…
*---*---*---*
I sat up gasping, covered in a cold sweat. Immediately, I was blinded by the rising sun shining into my eyes. I raised my arm to cover my eyes. Damn. The Pharaoh had said that my first magic lessons were to begin at dawn. And judging by the bright orb blinding me as I climbed out of my new bed, dawn had already come.
I heard a knock on my door. It was Auset.
"Madam, Master Mahad and the others are wondering where you are. They worry something may have happened to you."
"Tell them I am fine," I told her. "I merely overslept. Tell them it will not happen again." Auset nodded and left to deliver the message.
So, there are gonna be a bunch of me when you die? Kuriboh asked.
Apparently, I replied. I've never gotten that little detail before.
Of course, it wasn't the first time new details have come up. I've been having the same dream since I was a child; there were just finer details every time. The first time I had this dream, I was eight years old. It was just after my father had died and I'd moved in with Karn and Ferod. When I woke up, the only thing I could determine was that someone had died. I didn't have the dream again for a while, so eventually I just forgot about it. It was the second time I had the dream that I realized that I was the one who had died. The more time that passed, the more frequently I would have the dream. And the more details would become clear.
The last time I'd had it, the day I met the Prince, I'd learned that the Pharaoh would find me. I don't know how I knew it was the Pharaoh, because I couldn't see his face. Something just told me it was him.
That was the thing with the dream. The order that the details revealed themselves in was completely random. There was no way of determining what would be clear next.
As I changed into suitable day clothes, I began to think about how the Prince would react when I arrived. No doubt, he would scold me for being late again. He was probably pacing the grounds at this moment, growling about how much of a bother I was, and how I shouldn't even be here in the first place.
==@@@==@@@==@@@==
"She shouldn't even be here in the first place," Atem growled, pacing back and forth across the grounds. He had never been a very patient man. But the Pharaoh had strictly said that her lessons were supposed to begin at dawn. That was almost a half hour ago, and she still had yet to arrive. "She is too much of a nuisance for her own good."
"Calm down, my Prince," Mahad chided his student and childhood friend. "It may take her a while to get used to her new schedule. She hasn't lived in the palace as long as we have. The servant girl said that she had overslept. Perhaps her sleeping patterns are different from ours." Atem merely scoffed and continued his pacing.
Mahad sighed. Her lack of punctuality was rather distressing. If she was to guard the Prince from now on, she would have to learn to be able to be called at a moment's notice; even if that meant she'd have to cut short her beauty sleep. However, if they waited any longer, he would have to dismiss his students without teaching them anything. He went ahead and started his lessons, and everyone began their training.
==@@@==@@@==@@@==
"I'm here." Rhea came running from the palace entrance. She came to a stop next to Mahad, bending over and panting to catch her breath.
Keeping his face stern, Mahad scolded the girl. "Milady, you are a noble now. You should not be running if you are not in any danger."
Rhea stood, still panting. "I'm sorry, sir," she said. "It seems I may have forgotten some of my father's lessons."
Mahad nodded, unfazed. "Well, let us hope you will not forget any of mine. You may find yourself in need of them someday."
He turned away from her, back to the small class of magicians in training. All in all, there were about six of them—seven, including Rhea. Ever since the attack on the Imperial City that had caused the forgery of the Millennium Items, the Pharaoh had deduced that a stronger magical defense was needed. If there was ever another attack on the city that required some sort of military action, perhaps sorcery and spells would cause fewer casualties than brute force. At least, that was what the Pharaoh was hoping.
Mahad had to admit, at first, the goal seemed a little lofty—and even now, as he gazed out at his miniscule class, he knew that any passerby would assume that none of them would be strong enough to protect the entire Imperial City—but he had watched his students grow and change. They had made so much progress since their first lessons. He knew that, with enough training, they would grow to be incredible magicians. And he had a feeling Rhea would be the same way.
---*---*---*---
I felt a little nervous beginning my new magic lessons. Last night, Mahad had seemed so amiable. But today, he was stern and cold, like he didn't even know me.
As if reading my mind, Mahad spoke, still not tearing his eyes away from the rest of his class. "You may have noticed a change in my behavior from yesterday. That is because I am no longer just a fellow noble. I am now your teacher as well. While taking lessons from me, you will find that I am quite strict with my students, and therefore demand respect from all of them." He looked down at me. "This means I will not excuse any more late arrivals on your part. Am I understood?"
I stiffened, bowing to show my respect to my new master. "Yes, sir. Of course, sir."
"Good. Now, I'll be pairing you with Mana. She is one of my top students. I hope you will learn well from her." He pointed to a girl just a tad taller than me. She was holding a blue and pink rod with a yellow stone at the tip. She was pointing the rod at a large clay brick, her face scrunched up in focus.
Suddenly, the brick began to glow as it rose off the ground. It hovered in place, and the girl smiled brightly. She rested her hands on her hips proudly, staring at her handiwork.
"Easy as pie," she said to herself. I walked up to her nervously.
"Excuse me," I said. Apparently, my intrusion had broken her of her concentration, because as she looked up at me, the brick stopped glowing and fell back to the ground with a loud crack, breaking into three pieces. The girl looked back at the brick and whined.
"Aww. And I was just starting to get the hang of it, too." She seemed to remember that I was standing there, as she looked back up at me and smiled. "What can I help you with?" she asked.
"I was told you would help teach me some magic?" I said, forming it more like a question than a statement. A look of recognition crossed her face.
"Oh, you must be the new girl," she said. She smiled again, holding out her hand. "My name is Mana. What's yours?"
"Rhea," I replied, shaking her hand. "Mahad tells me you're one of his top students."
Mana nodded. "Yep. I'm his second best apprentice." She held out one hand with her index and middle fingers extended into a V.
"Who would be the first," I asked. Mana pointed her magician's rod over my shoulder.
"That would be the Prince. He's a natural!" I turned to where she was pointing. Five bricks twice the size of Mana's danced in the air, twirling and flipping as if they were alive. While the bricks looked lively and weightless, the Prince looked bored to tears. He was sitting cross-legged under a tree with a bored look in his eyes, resting his cheek on his fist, using the other hand to maneuver the bricks expertly through the air in intricate patterns.
My mouth fell open a little. Was there really that much of a difference in their skill? I turned back to the rest of the class. They seemed to be having even more trouble than Mana was.  Most of them couldn't even get their bricks off the ground, let alone to hover for minutes at a time. I was beginning to think that the whole "learning magic and combat to protect the Prince" thing wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Don't worry," Mana assured me. "Once you get the hang of it, it's a piece of cake."
"So I see."
---*---*---*---
Mana had been kind enough to let me borrow her magician's rod to try to complete the spell. She showed me the basics of spell casting, and set up one of her brick pieces as practice. I tried to focus, uttered the magic words and…
Nothing.
I sighed, readjusting my stance, hoping that it might have a better outcome. I focused my energy and…
Again, nothing.
No wonder everyone else was having so much difficulty with it. This was a lot harder than it looked.
"Your feet are in the wrong position." I turned. It wasn't Mana who had said that. It was the Prince. He was standing a few cubits away, watching me. He had his arms crossed, and the bored look from before hadn't left his eyes. Behind him, his practice bricks had been stacked in a neat column. He really was good.
I suddenly felt nervous at his watching me. How was I supposed to protect him if I couldn't even do a simple spell like levitation?
"I, I-I…W-w-well…"
"Listen," he interrupted. He walked up right behind me, using his feet to reposition mine. He took my arms, and shifted them a bit just below my breasts. "Don't focus on the brick as a weight. Try to imagine that it has no mass, that it weighs nothing. Then guide your energy from your core to your shoulder, through your arm, and out the rod. Don't to focus too hard or you could shoot it into the air and hurt someone. Just relax and let the energy flow through you."
The feeling of his breath on the back of my neck was making my skin tingle. I was getting the same feeling as I did last night. I took a deep breath to steady myself. I closed my eyes, and imagined that the brick was floating, that it didn't weigh a thing. I reopened my eyes and felt my energy bubbling in my gut. I took a little bit of that energy and lifted it up into my shoulder. Using my arm as the tunnel, I shot the energy through the magician's rod and out the end. The brick began to glow green and rose a few centimeters from the ground.
A feeling of joy bubbled up inside me. I'd done it! I'd really done it! My first day of magic lessons, and I was already levitating.
"I did it!" I said, smiling. "Thank you so much!" Without thinking, I turned around, forcing my arms from his grip, and threw my arms around the Prince's neck. I couldn't help it. I was practically giddy with excitement. Maybe I wasn't so bad at this, after all.
It wasn't until I heard the Prince clear his throat awkwardly that I realized what I was doing. I quickly let go of him, shoving my arms behind my back. I backed up several paces, trying to put as much distance between me and the Prince as possible. I felt my face burning as I stared at the ground, humiliated. I'd never been so embarrassed in my life.
I heard someone whistle, and Mahad greeted his students again. "Today's lessons are over! All are dismissed."
Oh, thank the gods, I thought.
===++===++===++===
Oh, thank the gods, Atem thought at Mahad's announcement. He quickly bid Rhea and Mana farewell and walked as quickly as possible to breakfast.
As he was teaching her the spell's footwork, he'd tried to ignore the jarring sensation his hands and feet had been giving him. He found his heart racing at being in such close proximity to her. Just touching her seemed to faze him.
But when she'd turned around and hugged him, it was like he had been struck by lightning. To say he'd been taken by surprise would have been an understatement. For a split second, all he could see was white as every sensor in his body screamed at him of her presence.
Once his head had finally cleared, however, he was able to regain enough composure to clear his throat as an indicator for her to let go. Luckily, she got the hint. It was a good thing she wasn't looking up at him to notice his face about as flushed as hers. Those few moments of awkwardness before Mahad dismissed them seemed to drag by forever.
Curse his father for dragging them together, he thought. It seemed like the closer they got to one another, the more his body would react. And the more his body would react, the more scared of her he became. It wasn't like she was a danger to him. But the way he would respond to her was so unfamiliar to him, if he was truly honest with himself, it frightened him a little. He wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from this strange girl as possible.
He was so deep in thought that he almost walked straight into a strange cloaked man.
"Pardon me, my Prince," the man said gruffly, his accent rather strange. "Please accept my humblest apologies." Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but Atem could swear he could detect just the slightest hint of sarcasm in the man's voice.
"Why are you here?" Atem asked.
"I came to visit my daughter. She is one of your servants here in the palace, and it's been so long since I've seen her."
Atem sighed, not in the mood to argue with anyone right now. "Fine. But be quick about it."
"Of course, sir." The man walked off without another word. Halfway down the corridor, he sidestepped, revealing a terrified Rhea. "My apologies miss. It seems I'm rather clumsy today." He bowed to her and continued down the hallway.
Rhea stood frozen in place for a moment, staring at the stranger. Then, she turned to the prince. Immediately, she started running towards him, in the opposite direction of the cloaked man. As she ran by him, she grabbed his hand, sending another wave of energy up his arm, dragging him behind her as she ran.
"What are you doing?" Atem demanded, fighting her surprisingly tight grip. "Why are you running?" She didn't answer until they were a good distance from where they had been. They rounded a corner, and she finally stopped. She let go of his hand, and they both rested their hands on their knees to catch their breath.
"What in the world was that for?" Atem asked. "Why did you drag me so far down the corridor?"
Still panting, Rhea stood up and stared at him, a fearful look in her eyes. "You don't understand," she said. "That man tried to kill you yesterday!"