The King's Maze (Yami x Reader)

Epilogue Part 2 : The Calling

He sat alone by the fire place in his room. Yugi had offer to stay with him, as did Seto and even Joey, but Yami refused to be babysat by any of them. He knew it wasn't fair to think like that since they only wanted to help. They kept him alive and sane for the past seven years. They spent hours coming up with plans and following any clues that might lead them to where Persona and his child had gone.

Joey helped even though he had a pack to lead and a family to raise. Yugi was the new king and Seto, well, actually Seto's life was still stuck serving and protecting him. Once he gets his life back, Yami planned to order Seto to get one of his own. The gods knew that Seto had earned it long ago.

The fire in the hearth whipped and cracked around a pile of logs that gave off a pleasant earthly smell. Yami inhaled the warm scented air and let go of the stress from the day in long deep breaths. His mind needed to be clear and his body relax if this was going to work. The smell and heat of the fire blended with the darkness that shrouded the rest of the room. Nothing existed right now, except the scented fire and Yami in the cocoon of darkness. A ritual had started, and Yami needed to be alone for it to work.

Two nights ago, his child had tried to summon him to their side, but Yami had no idea where to go. He tried to grab hold of the weak connection, but he was overtaken by a hurricane of emotions. He couldn't focus his power to see or reply to them. By the time Wormwood, Huarwar, and Seto arrived, his child had stop calling out to him. Yami had failed his child. Yugi told him that he hadn't but then he couldn't hear the way they wailed and begged.

What if they were hurt? What if they needed help? Yami didn't sense any fear in their calling, but he wished he knew for sure that they were alright.

He spent hours arguing with Seto and Yugi that it was his child calling for him and not some trick. Yami believed that there had to be a way to for him to send a message back. Seto argued that since he has never establish a family bond that there was no way it his child could perform the spell. Yugi and his wizard Huarwar both feared that it was a trap set to lure Yami out.

Wormwood was the only one to say nothing till everyone was too tired to argue and then he spoke his thoughts. "Demon children have less control of their power and tend to perform spells without meaning to. It is possible that child mistakenly triggered a protection summons. Such a spell would be heard by the parent even if a bond were never established."

"Without being in danger," Seto said skeptically.

Wormwood nodded and Yugi asked, "But why? And why now?"

The reformed elder witch gave them a sad smile and said plainly, "I imagine that child simply wants their father and the want became great enough to..."

"To open the link that would have been made if I had been present since their birth," Yami finished mournfully.

"Do not feel badly about it my king. Children are unpredictable in their power and now that they have opened the link, you may be able to contact them."

So here Yami sat for the second night trying to pry open a link that may not fully exist. Yugi and the others would continue their search, but Yami would focus on this no matter how many nights he had to stay up. He had to do this. He had to let them know he heard and that he cared. That he loved them even though he knew not a thing about them. That they were everything to him.

When Yugi had asked if he knew what the child was, Yami had lied. The calling felt private and sacred. Once he found them, they will all know the treasure that Persona had given him. The treasure of a daughter.

Xxx

Mai laid in her bed as her mother frowned at the thermometer in her hand. The little half demon child woke up not feeling herself and whenever she sneezed the tops of the candles in the room burst into small flares of flames. The caramel skin of her cheeks were flushed and sweat dewed her face and body. Her body refused to switch from her demon form to her human one. A blessing since the temperature on the little thermometer kept beeping and flashing 500◦F.