Clear Skies

Chapter 9: Blind Motives

            Dartz slammed his palm onto the DOMA conference table. None of the gathered members reacted besides Rahlin, who flinched. Dartz barked, "You snatched the wrong one."

"You kidding?" Rafael responded. "Have you seen Yugi Muto? He's impossible to mistake. It was him. I beat him, and the Seal took his soul."

"Did you miss the part where he stood up and walked away?" Dartz hissed. "Of course you did, you insolent ape. You were busy patting yourself on the back for your win. You did not win. You lost. They outplayed you with their mind games. Yugi Muto contains two souls in his vessel, and you stole the wrong one. The pharaoh is still out there."

"Eh, hold on," Valon said. "How can one person have two souls?"

Dartz held up his two index fingers. "One from himself and one shared with him from the Millennium Puzzle. Rafael captured Yugi Muto's soul. The ancient soul of the pharaoh, which is worth thousands, roams freely without the original soul from his vessel."

"No big deal. We just have to beat him again," Alister said.

"You say it like it's some walk in the park," Rafael responded.

Mai chimed in: "I'm sure it would be. I'd do it in half the time Rafael did."

"Maybe let me take a crack at it first," Valon said. Mai shot him a glare.

Rahlin remained silent. An apple was hidden in her folded hands. She twiddled her thumbs. Dartz retracted his hand from the tabletop and said, "Our objective would be complete if someone hadn't failed. I expect you all to work double time to make up for your ally. You are all dismissed – except Rahlin. I require your presence a few moments."

He waved towards the portal in the back of the room. She had one hand in her pocket and the other on her cane as she followed him. She was transported more gracefully this time; it was more like walking through a doorway than tumbling through dimensions. The dampness of the cavern suffocated her. She tugged her collar away from her sweaty neck.

Dartz strolled between the crisscrossing glares of stone serpents with no such discomfort. Firelight flickered in their open maws. Their red glow illuminated the rock carvings on the far wall, which Dartz was leading her away from. His golden eye glowed and his turquoise eye darkened when he looked to Rahlin. "Why do you despair, my child?"

"Me? No, I, I'm completely fine."

"Do not lie to me. I hear the inner pain of all of your kind. Tell me the cause."

She stumbled over her words several times while attempting to think up an appropriate lie. "I, uh, I lost today. In front of. A lot of people. It's just sort of embarrassing? And shameful."

Dartz stared. Rahlin flashed an awkward smile. He said, "In any case, it's not the reason why I called you down here. There are some trespassers I trust you to handle."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Cones of light rolled over stone carvings. Water dripped from the cavern ceiling onto Professor Arthur Hawkins' safari hat. He held up his flashlight in one hand and his camera in the other. Orichalcos glimmered green under the shine. His cohorts snapped photographs of the carved stone.

"By the implications of these images..." The hand holding his flashlight shook. "The great beast of darkness is created to destroy humanity. It can travel freely between the realms, and thus escaped when the Egyptian gods nearly destroyed it. What do the different realms represent to the Atlantian people? And this, the one who destroyed the great beast of darkness-"