“How did…”
Seto spun round, wanting to argue but the heat on his face stopped him as he realized it was Katz, mate of his twin brother and Co-Leader of the Clan Seth, looking at him with knowing eyes. His brother must’ve somehow known that he had went missing from his chambers to be gallivanting and spending the night with Joey instead of tending to the palace like a Royal Advisor should, and must’ve sent him to search for him. It was bad enough to be found slacking off from his duties, but to be found by his brother-in-law and in the middle of sneaking back into his office was worse. He scowled and looked away, walking quickly to avoid Katz. Katz followed behind him, adjusting his robe so that his protruding belly was decently covered.
“My personal affairs are none of your concern, half-breed. Leave me be.”
“What have your blood brother spoken to you about succumbing to emotion? Are you trying to break the tradition that been centuries old? And you’ve taken his Millennium Rod no less.”
“A tradition that is not written in law in black and white. Who are you to deny me my way of handling my mate? You’re just a half-breed…”
“With that kind of attitude, I just might issue such law,” Seth said coldly, appearing from behind the scroll shelves, giving Seto a disapproving look. “What have I spoken to you about respecting your brother-in-law? And where have you been, Seto? Yami and I didn’t see you at the political meeting today.”
“I was…well…occupied,” Seto tried to worm his way out of the situation but Seth’s cold blue eyes held him in place. So far, the only person who could ever hold Seto’s ground and bite his tongue was his brother, and since they were pups, Seth had always been his means of discipline ever since their mother died due to the Plague and their father died during the War.
“To see your human counterpart again, no doubt. How many times do we have to go through this? We are still…”
“At the aftershocks of war, I know,” Seto replied exasperatedly. “Look, we haven’t exactly have an attack since, what, three hundred moons ago? There is no reason to doubt that the aftershocks are over as we all know it.”
“We can’t be too careful, brother,” Seth growled, taking the Millennium Rod out of Seto’s hand and dematerialized it in his hand. “What if something were to happen when you’re not at your post to defend the armed forces? What would become of our Sky City? You know you are an important asset in leading the troops to battle.”
Seto sighed, too tired to argue with Seth. He had undergone this argument ever since he was elected Royal Advisor alongside Yami, and after so many centuries of listening to the same lecture for the umpteenth time, it was getting really, really old.
“I know this tradition is as old as time and isn’t exactly a compulsory thing to abide,” Katz said as he lay a hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder, “but you cannot further complicate things by acting at your whim. You know that you and your mate are of different worlds. The tradition is set because we do not want too many strings attached and complicate the lives of humans and of ourselves. Our lives are already at stake here. Please be careful and wary of what you are trying to pursue.”
“Yes, brother-in-law, I understand,” Seto sighed grudgingly after a long silence, spitting out Katz’s title like it was a disease. Katz spoke the truth, in a way, no matter how much distaste he had for him. Ever since the end of the Duelist Phantoms War, though the world of humans have regained control and are living an almost normal life, there is still much loose ends in the Ethereal Clan that needed to be settled that involved a lot of counter-balancing. To upset another set of balance between human and Ethereal was not an option.
“Milord,” Yami suddenly popped his head through the curtains that serve as Seto’s office door. “Your presence at the chambers of counsel is needed.”
“Is anything the matter?” Seth asked, his face nonchalant but his eyes concerned.
“It is regarding the aftershocks issues, I’m afraid. His Majesty Maximillion Pegasus is here and requires the audience of both of you in private. I cannot tell you anymore.”
“Very well,” Seth sighed and walked out, but not before he gave a warning look at his twin. Katz gave Seth a ‘That’s enough’ look and consoled Seto.
“Remember what your blood brother and I have spoken to you, brother dearest. And Brother Yami, please ensure that my brother dearest be present at the counseling of the commons later.”
“Yes, milord,” Yami bowed slightly and watched Seth and Katz leave before leaning against the table beside Seto, who was taking a seat and letting out a tired sigh. “So, brother, Lord Seth and Lord Katz lectured you again of your Puppy?”
“Don’t even try to repeat whatever nonsense he just bombarded me with,” Seto growled. “Who does that little half-breed Katz think he is, anyway? He’s not the lord of me!”
“Pleas stop calling Lord Katz ‘half-breed’. You know very well he’s just as much of a normal Halfling as Brother Duke Devlin is, and that he’s your brother-in-law. I don’t recall seeing you calling Brother Duke Devlin half-breed as much as you call Lord Katz.”
“That’s because Brother Duke Devlin is our friend, and a decent Halfling! But him! I wouldn’t mind him being a Halfling, but he’s not even of royal blood! He’s just a spawn between a commoner Whisperer and a commoner human, and yet he gets elevated to royal status and get to rule side by side on the throne just because he and Brother Seth couldn’t keep their legs closed and Brother Seth had to end up impregnating him. Now who’s the one being succumbing into emotions here? He dares to accuse me of being emotional! Gods of Ethereal! To think that my nephew would be that little spawn growing inside of his belly right this minute!”
“Technically, Lord Katz’s father was of royal lineage, but was demoted and rendered to a lower status,” Yami pointed out in his wise way, “due to the fact that he embezzled the Royal Treasury, so genetically and technically speaking, Lord Katz has all the right traits and bloodline to be on the throne. The sins of the fathers doesn’t necessary have to be paid by the blood of the sons, you know.”
“Anyone who is of lower status than royal is no different than a commoner,” Seto replied indignantly, looking through his list of scrolls to be signed, not exactly reading anything.
“Don’t forget, Brother Seto, that he was the one to provide you with your Puppy’s information. He was the one that led you to be so lovestruck with your Puppy.”
It was not exactly a big secret among the royal family about Seto’s obsession over the honey-tan human. He had to admit, that was the first time Katz had ever done anything smart and worthy. Since he run the Sky City alongside with Seth, Katz’s job was slightly more focused towards the troops of the Whisperer middle men (where his fellow Halfling Duke Devlin worked), and he was in charge of giving information about their human intended to the selected few who will undergo the ritual every few years. Unlike the humans who are kept in the dark about their Whisperer mates until the day of the ritual, the Whisperers get to know their intended briefly through a picture and a scent mark as soon as their human counterparts have reached the age between 10 to 12, depending on how soon have they reached physical puberty (i.e. menstruation). When Katz gave him the picture and the handkerchief bearing his Puppy’s scent mark, he couldn’t get his mind of him. He would stare at it every day and before bedtime and would inhale the scent mark as if his life depended on it. As twins often share telepathic links, it wasn’t long before Seth discovered Seto’s obsession and wasted no time in reprimanding about tradition, forbidding him entirely to even think of looking at his human mate before the ritual day. Katz took pity at Seto’s plight and quietly hinted him that his Puppy can be seen at certain places where there are secluded place he could hide so that he would not be spotted by the humans.
He was reluctant to listen to Katz at first, since he had never been in good terms with him to begin with, but soon the temptation was too great. He finally decided to venture into the human world and coincidentally saw him from outside Yami Forests. He remembered it was during the time his Puppy was running towards the forests for some unknown reason before his Puppy’s female foster mother came to bring him home, and while hidden behind the shadows of the forests, he and his Puppy locked eyes for the first time. What a sight his Puppy was to behold! His Puppy may be still a pup of 10 human years, but every fiber of his being screamed perfect, from the tip of his honey-brown hair to the tip of his honey-tan toes. Since the first time he laid eyes on him, he knew he could never part himself from him ever again. As he watched him from afar under the shadows, he learnt about his Puppy more than any of his other friends should. His escapades to the human world earned much scolding from Seth because of him abandoning his job and post, but Katz always managed to lighten up the situation and tried to persuade Seto to lessen his frequent visits to see Joey, which, of course, fell into deaf ears.
Throughout the years of waiting for Joey to come of age, he had watched him and somehow, in a way, grew up alongside him. He had watched him graduate grade school and middle school, witness his first play during the school open day, saw him won his first game at soccer, cheered him on quietly at his first fight alongside his fellow friends to protect his weaker friends against the hormone-crazed pure men, and even learnt of his first crush and the heartbreak he endured after being rejected for being ‘too violent’. He was tempted to teach that wretched human who broke his heart a lesson, but he knew any action he did would soon reach the ears of Seth, and if the offence was serious, it might be brought up to Maximillion Pegasus and he would have to face the wrath of Marik the Royal Executioner. Besides, he was glad that the crush did not accept Joey’s advances anyway; his heart would’ve shattered into a million pieces if he had done otherwise.
“What about you, Brother Yami?” Seto smirked, looking slyly at his royal cousin.
“What of me?” Yami asked, giving him a questioning look.
“Do you not deny that you, too, are as equally lovestruck to your Light as well?”
Yami blushed through his tan skin, giving his royal cousin an angry challenging look, but seeing Seto giving him that usual smirk whenever he knew he was right, Yami sighed in defeat.
“No, brother. Unfortunately I cannot deny such truth.”
Seto’s obsession towards his Puppy soon became a source of curiosity for Yami towards his own mate. One night, during one of their rare days of relaxation, Yami requested to tag along with Seto to see who exactly his Puppy was so special about that made Seto so adamant to leave post all the time and endure his twin’s lecture time and time again. It was prom night for his Puppy’s high school—about a year before Joey and the gang were of age to undergo the ritual—and, while sitting on a nearby tree that gave them a scenic view of the whole school hall through the hall window, Seto gestured quietly at Joey who was dancing in a frenzy beat along with his band of misfits through the booming and banging music that could very well threaten to bring the whole building down. He agreed that Joey was quite a looker, and could understand why Seto was so smitten with him, but nothing prepared him for what he had witnessed next.
Yugi was dancing in front of Joey, and it took all of Yami not to just fall off the tree and die. Just as Seto felt for his Puppy, he felt the exact same feeling for Yugi. He didn’t think that seeing his mate in real life could be so tantalizing and breathtaking than in the photo and from his scent mark. If he had been slightly attracted at the way Yugi smiled in the camera while sitting on Solomon’s lap, the feeling he had right now after seeing the real deal was tenfold. He could tell from the features that Yugi was related to Gozaburo from the exact tri-coloured hair they both shared, and he discovered from Katz that he was related in a very, very minute way due to the fact that his grandfather had sire one of Gozaburo’s nephew, but after learning about the theory of scent marks, he was relieved that they no longer share the same bloodline after so many centuries. He could feel that little Yugi’s presence alone could illuminate the whole school hall, and if he were a Whisperer, he’d light up the entire Sky City with his radiant soul and blot out the night, bringing in rays of joy and love with a shine that could rival the brightest of light of the sun.
Which is why Yami was obsessed in calling Yugi his ‘Light’.
“At least I’m not like you,” Yami replied indignantly, his blush slightly subsiding. “I don’t go around running away from the palace and shirking my duties and go beady-eyed over a human. I’m not an obsessed freak, pining over someone who would never be part of my life.”
“But you would almost always agree when I invite you to come along,” Seto said. “That’s obsession enough.”
A young pup—one of Yami’s many pageboys—popped his head in to remind the duo that the counseling of commons would start any minute. Yami nodded and dismissed the pup. After a long silence between the two royal cousins, Seto finally spoke.
“Brother?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think…we would ever have a chance with our human mates? A chance to have and hold and cherish forever?”
“That is an unlikely possibility, brother. Even if they are allowed to live with us or vice versa, we will still have to suffer the fate of their mortality and watch them wither before us.”
“Then…are we just going to be doomed to live with another while our hearts remained captured by our human love?”
“I suppose that is the only outcome it’ll ever be, brother.”
--:--
Maximillion Pegasus nodded gravely. “It seems that more and more recruits have been collected by those Bad Seeds. Other clans and tribes have joined forces with them and we are left for naught. We have only a few alliances that would remain loyal to us and stand and fight alongside against them, but it would take more than just a few handfuls of loyal tribes that are willing to die for us to fight against them.”
Seth and Katz sighed, worry filling into their hearts. This was the last thing they wanted to hear right now.
“I know this is a bad time, Your Highness,” Maximillion Pegasus said apologetically, “what with the coming of your royal bairns, Lord Katz, but this is rather a dire situation. It seems like those Bad Seeds have begun to have strong desires to overthrow me and conquer every part of the Ethereal Clan, including the Sky City.
“Their influences are getting stronger by the day and we cannot afford to be slack. They would stop at nothing to get what they want. They will find any weak link possible to bring you down. I strongly suggest that each and every one of you be on your toes for the time being.”
“Understood, Your Majesty,” Seth nodded, reprimanding and disciplining Seto being the first thought in his mind.
After a few more briefings, Seth and Katz sent Maximillion Pegasus on his way. Rubbing his pregnant belly, Katz leaned onto his mate.
“I fear for our pups, Seth. What would become of the Ethereal Clan? If we are conquered, there is no telling our…”
“Hush, my love,” Seth laid a finger on his mate’s rosy lips. “Nothing will come between us or our pups. I swear with my life that I will protect you and our pups till the end of time.”
As the royal couple hugged each other, both their hearts couldn’t help but wonder and worry about the not-so-impossible upcoming bleak future ahead of them.
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