Ok, my first fic. Whew! Just registering is exhausting! I know a lot of authors have awesome little conversations and stuff before their stories. Unfortunately, my brain has no great imagination for cool stuff like that, so you have to bear with me. Haha! Well, this is a story about a kingdom that seems peaceful on the outside but of course there's an evil someone plotting to destroy the peace when something very unexpected happens.

Hope you like it! NOW GO READ!!! ^_^

Light's Sacrifice to Darkness

Chapter 1

She watched him pace back and forth across the white tiled floor. He moved gracefully, almost flowing across the ground. She smiled at his nervousness. Usually she was the one whose nerves were jangling while he sat with a calm expression on his face, passive to everything. Well, she thought smirking, almost everything.

He must have noticed the look on her face because the sound of sandled feet slapping against the cool tiles ceased. She looked up. He stood there, tall and foreboding, with a kind of aloof pride she knew she could never master. His crimson eyes, crinkled into a curious expression now, could go dark as the richest wine when a storm of anger was about to hit. He was so remarkable, this man that she loved, and soon, she would be his forever.

"What are you thinking about?" his deep voice asked, cutting through her musings.

She looked into his eyes and smiled, dimples piercing her copper cheeks.

"Nothing you need to know about," she teased. "It would only make your ego even more unbearably huge than it already is."

His face split into a grin, rarely seen before the two of them had found one another. He held out his hand and pulled her into her arms.

"You bring light into the darkness koi," he told her running his arms down her back.

She sighed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face into the side of his neck.

"Aishiteru,[1]" she whispered against his skin, and pulled back to see his face.

He leaned toward her, his lips coming closer…

"MY PHARAOH!" came a sudden shout from the entrance.

A growl came from his chest and she saw his eyes darken dangerously.

"Yami," she said, gently laying a hand on his arm.

He sighed but nodded pulling away form her. The man standing in front of them wore the white robes of the royal advisors, and was upon one knee in front of the pharaoh.

"My pharaoh, my lady Keturah[2], I apologize if I interrupted anything," the man said, raising his head to look at the pharaoh.

Yami glowered, yes you did interrupt, so you had better have something important to say.

"It is forgiven," Yami said waving the apology away, although he would have gutted the man if he hadn't apologized. "I assume you came here for a reason?" he asked raising his eyebrows expectantly.

"Yes sir," the advisor said bowing again. "This boy was caught in the royal tombs," he explained. "The punishment for such a crime, need I remind you is death, but Isis," he growled, "thought it better to let you decide his fate. Ra knows why," he muttered under his breath.

"Really?" asked Yami, his arms crossed over his chest. "Well Keenen[3], you speak of this boy I am to judge, yet I see none here. Bring him in!"

Keenen motioned to several guards standing at the entrance of the chamber. The came in quickly, dragging between them the form of a small boy with a dusty cloak covering his head.

Yami stared down at the fragile form before him. This boy had broken into the tombs? He had trouble believing this scrawny boy had enough strength to knock over one of the large vases in the palace halls, let alone to force entry to a heavily guarded place.

"Let go of him," Yami ordered, he didn't see this boy as a threat. "Now then, what is your name?"

Slowly, slowly, the boy raised his head to reveal two great purple eyes, shimmering with unshed tears. He stood straight and proud, and small though he was, it was easy to tell this boy was not afraid.

Yami watched this change with an interest. He stared into the smaller boy's eyes, meeting them with his own blood red ones. The boy met his gaze squarely, and did not look away.

Keturah watched Yami as he studied this boy. He was puzzled, she could see that. She glanced at the smaller boy just as he wrenched his eyes from the pharaoh's glare.

"Yugi," said the boy, his voice echoing in the silent hall.

Keturah cocked her head to one side, this boy had importance, that much she knew. Isis must have foreseen the future of this boy, and for good or evil, he had some role to lay, and so his life could not be ended now.

"You know the penalty for entering the burial place of the pharaohs without permission?" Yami asked.

Yugi's eyes darted over everything but the pharaoh's face. He did not want to battle those eyes again. Suddenly, behind the pharaoh he noticed a woman with long black hair standing beside the throne. Her eyes unlike the pharaoh's were a dark warm brown, and he sought refuge in them from the hard stare of the pharaoh. The red eyes seemed to bore into his very soul….He heard the pharaoh's question as though from a distance, but answered with a courage he did not feel.

"Hai[4], I knew," he said, keeping his eyes on the woman.

She smiled at this little boy. He was afraid she knew, but he put on a brave face. This boy had a strong spirit.

"Do you think you deserve the punishment appointed to such a crime?" Yami asked.

"By your laws?" Yugi asked.

Yami nodded.

"Then I would say as duty to the law and to the throne, I must be executed."

Yami stared. This boy, Yugi, intrigued him. No groveling or pleas for forgiveness. Only the straight truth of what he deserved. The boy had practically signed his own death sentence.

"And if not by my law?" Yami asked.

"Then entering the tombs would be no crime," Yugi said.

A guard slapped the boy across the face, sending him reeling. Yami lifted a hand, signaling the guard to stop.

Yugi laughed, his lip bleeding.

"Is your law so just?" he asked rubbing the blood away.

"Perhaps," was the only reply given by the pharaoh.

A moment passed on silence, all eyes fixed upon their king. When he made no move, Keenen stepped forward.

"His fate, pharaoh?" he implored.

Yami opened his mouth eyes on the boy before him.

"There is no sentence yet!" a voice rang from behind the king.

The onlookers watched as the pharaoh's betrothed (i hate that word!) appeared from behind him. They sank to there knees as she took her place beside Yami.

Yugi watched in disbelief. His salvation from the pharaoh's gaze had been the queen?

Yami looked at Keturah startled. She stood beside him with confidence.

"Who are we really," she asked, "to decide the fates of those who live and those who die? Do not some wrong doers amend their ways if given a second chance? Do we in fact know that this boy has committed any crime, if under other law he would be spared? And if he is innocent," she continued turning to Yami, "should he really have to suffer that fate simply because of what he is? In Osiris's eyes are our hearts not all equal, with no different Ma'at feather for the noble or the wretched?"

Yugi listened to her words. Confidence flowed into his blood. 'Be proud of who and what you are, no matter what it may be." He remembered his mother's final words as she had passed on into the after life. He had been eight years old.

Yami watched the smaller bot straighten, and a he did so, the dusty cloak concealing his features fell away.

The guards backed away startled. This boy looked almost identical to their pharaoh! Eyes darted between the two, as though reassuring themselves that there was no some kind of magic trick at work.

In a dark corner, shielded from view, a man stood watching.

"Well, well," he chuckled menacingly. "We have the prince of the gods, and now, the prince of peasants."

[1] Japanese for "I love you"

[2] The name of the woman speaking in the beginning, if you haven't figured it out yet. Means "sacrifice"…HINT HINT!!!!

[3] Name of one of Yami's high priests. Means "fighter"

[4] "yes" in Japanese

Wow! The first chapter. Sorry if it's a little short. Please read&review!! I don't think I'll be able to post more until after New Years but never fear, the story shall continue as long as someone reviews!

Happy Holidays!