Ms. Ishtar's blue eyes contrasted brightly against her cinnamon Egyptian skin. They were staring at the panting group of teenagers, bemused.
"You're lucky I'm here," she said, "I don't live in the museum, you know. What is so urgent?"
"White slave," panted Tea, "I need you to tell Yugi all you know about the white slave of the pharaoh's."
The Egyptian woman did not appear pleased. "What has that to do with you?"
"We think she's here!" protested Yugi. "The white girl—she time traveled!"
She pursed her lips in annoyance. "I never knew you to be the kind to make such farfetched assumptions, Yugi. You don't even know what she looks like."
"But the pharaoh remembers her!" cried Joey.
Now they had her attention.
"He remembers her?" she blinked. "And he says this girl you've met is her?"
"More or less." said Yugi.
She considered this for a moment, arms folded. Then, she finally shook her head.
"That's very strange. Does the pharaoh remember anything else?"
"No, miss. Just her name and age a few random bits about her."
She asked a few more well placed question before sadly shaking her head.
"I always was confused about the mentioning of time rather than her name, but even if it is her returned back to her home, I don't see what good it can do you. It is probably best that you do not pursue her. After all," she gave Yugi a pitying look. "The pharaoh is dead."
"That's not the point!" he said, and with that he delved into explaining about Shadi strange (or at least stranger), behavior and how he claimed that Aleah was never meant to be. He talked about the shifting items phenomenon and how Shadi sait it to be the young woman's fault messing up their timeline. Ms. Ishtar listened attentively. She too shared that some lights in her studio had randomly switched into wax candles and back, and agreed it was all very strange.
When the three of them had given all that they knew concerning Aleah, excluding Tea who hardly knew anything about the situation, Ms. Ishtar still shook her head.
"There's not much I have to tell about this girl, or her place in all this. She was very mysterious. The pharaoh made sure to keep her out of any spotlight and in the end she just...vanished, just as mysteriously as she came. I thought of her more of a myth than any real person."
Yugi visibly wilted. She smiled at him, however, and brushed her fingers against a display case as a few last visitors walked by.
"Have you even thought to ask the millennium necklace I gave to you? It is what can answer your questions."
"That thing is so fickle. It's only worked, what, once now? Twice? I don't really even think of it as an asset anymore."
"And it will always be that way to you until you understand time properly and the way it flows."
To this, he perked up once more. Joey gave her an incredulous look.
"This sounds like it's border'n the edges of something philosophical." he twisted a finger in his ear. "Let me know when you two are done, I'm gonna go check out some things."
"Oh no, you don't!" And Tea grabbed onto his retreating collar. "We are going to learn all we can so we can help out Yugi in this, aren't we?"
"But I don't even know what for!" protested Joey, "So the girl doesn't belong here. Not nothing I should mess with."
"But the pharaoh remembers her!"
"Well, if I had a girlfriend that pretty I'd remember her too!"
Yugi sighed heavily. "You were saying? About time?"
The Egyptian woman looked bewildered at his friends before turning her attention back to him. She looked uncertain for a moment.
"Time is something you understand with your senses, or as my brother would say, your gut feelings. It isn't something I can so easily explain. I can say that there is one thing I think peculiar about Shadi's purpose. Time is not something that is easily denied by anyone. Every living creature is affected by the flow of time in one way or another. The ability to travel through time is simply a gifted awareness. I do not think that just because the girl can see when these opportunities arise that she is automatically exempt from time and has no purpose." She looked at the display case and at the cracking mud statues inside. "Change is not bad. Even if it's a change in the future. Whether we want it that way or not is up to us, and our choice. Because in the end, we always have our choices. One girl giving new information should not change that." She looked back to Yugi, her eyes hard. "Nothing can change our power of choice. Kaiba has taught me that."
"Then what about destiny?" asked Tea. "And fate?"
She nearly smirked at this. "Well, if you know someone well, can't you predict how they will react to a set of choices? Perhaps destiny is what we are intended for, and fate is the prediction made by some intelligence we do not yet know who simply knows us very well."
There was a contemplative pause at this—and a confused one on Joey's part. Before he could open up his mouth and give the first blank note of his question, Yugi spoke up.
"And knowing this, or understanding time—will that help me use the necklace?"
"Understanding what I've said can help, but time is something to be understood by instinct, not by logic."
Yugi's mouth twitched. "The pharaoh isn't going to like that."
Tea looked down at her watch and squeaked. "Oh gosh, I have to get home for dinner. It's the one thing my mom's anal about."
"And it's about time we close." The Egyptian bowed. "It was a pleasure seeing you again, Yugi and friends."
"No! The pleasure is ours! We did load you with a lot of questions."
"Oh, come on guys, I'm starving. Can we go already?"
"Joey! Have a little decorum!"
"She knows I'm grateful. Don't you, Ms. Ishtar?"
She smiled. "Yes, and I can understand the distractions of an empty stomach."
With that they parted. In the front of the museum Tea gave a quick goodbye for running off in the opposite direction. Joey and Yugi huddled at the bus stop as the wind began to blow, icy and cold. Joey rubbed his arms furiously.
"Damn, this weather is so weird."
"You can say that again."
"They predicted sunshine! With record breaking highs! And it's freaking May!"
"It feels more like February." said Yugi through chattering teeth. He tightened his rain coat tighter around himself. A part of him wished that Aleah was still at home, waiting for him so he could curl up in blankets with her again and talk of all this weird timey wimey stuff and whatever else came to mind. An ache throbbed in his chest. Too late, it seeped through the mind link before Yugi could have the present of thought to block it.
Yami floated into the cold air besides him. "What is wrong, abiou?"
Yugi shivered and made sure to think his words so as to not freak Joey out. 'Nothing. I'm just cold.'
"No. You are sad. I know what I felt."
He hesitated, but realized there was no escape. 'I was just thinking about Aleah. I miss her. She was...fun to talk to.'
He could feel the spirit's eyes examining him closely and feel his probing at the edges of his mind. Before he could think of a way to change the subject, Yami floated in front of him, his expression serious, if not even more so than it usually was.
"Do you care for her, Yugi?"
'Of course I do! I thought we could've been friends.'
"You know what I mean."
To this, the smaller boy fell silent. What was he suppose to say to Yami of all people? That he felt affection towards the girl who had once been his yami's lover? Which probably had been only days ago for her, though it had been thousands of years for him? Even then, how could he feel such feelings for someone he had only met a few days ago? No. It wasn't worth risking it. Blocking up every corner of his thoughts, he took a deep breath.
'Of course not, Yami. I've only known her for a few days.'
Still, the spirit watched him carefully. He could feel the probing against his thoughts again and knew the pharaoh sensed his resistance. His expression fell uncertainly.
"Yugi..."
"Hey, Yug! Snap out of it, the bus is here!"
Brushing past Yami's spiritual form, he stepped up after his friend, dumped some change into the fee box, and curled up next to a window near the back to watch as rain began to fall.