The Yellow Sign - a Key?

This wasn't the first time that the world had trembled for Kai. In fact, it had already happened twice before. The two times when he had devoured the tales of Cersei and Petyr, using the Song of History. It hadn't been a true trembling then, and it wasn't a true trembling now, as it was his perception of the world, his vision, and his very thoughts and senses that were trembling, giving the wrong impression of an inexplicable illusion.

The intensity of the two tremblings differed, though.

They differed by so much that Kai was having a hard time keeping standing, a nauseating feeling churning the leftover wine in his stomach along with everything else.

Yet, the most noticeable difference between the two wasn't this intensity, but their sources. With the Tales of Beedle the Bard, it could be the Skill, the Song of History, or it could be the Skill, Thousand Tales Parasite. Kai had failed to put his finger on the exact cause. Now, he not only knew what was the source but also why it was happening.

Inventory.

Kai's Inventory was rocking like a ship amid a thunderstorm.

He had always perceived his Inventory as a space, separated from the material world. With just a thought, he could see its contents, their images materializing in his mind like objects, giving the illusion that he could just reach out and touch them. When he did desire to hold them in his hand, these objects would come out of the Inventory by themselves. That's how the Inventory worked as known to the Contestants.

Something mysterious was happening within Kai's Inventory now; to Kai's Inventory.

Kai felt as if his Inventory was a tunnel; a corridor with two doors at its ends. One door was opened as wide as it could for him, and through it, he could access everything within his Inventory. The second door was shut, but now it was rattling as if someone from beyond this unknown space was holding this door's handle and was trying to pry it open. Yet, Kai instinctively knew that this door would never open, for it was locked. A lock that was more inexplicable and mystical of nature than everything Kai had seen or heard of so far.

An unworldly comprehension dawned on him instantly, words and their meaning materializing in his mind like an insight gained through thousands of years of meditation and struggle. This insight told him he would need a key to open the door.

A key, or a Sign.

'So, this is how it works,' Kai thought, taking a deep breath, and straightening his spine. 'The epithets, minor or major, link the chanter beyond the second, locked door to me through the Inventory. However, this second door needs a key to be opened, which the chanter must use along with the epithets. And this key is the Yellow Sign in the case of Hastur. No wonder. No fucking wonder! The Sign is a key that opens up the gate to an Old One!'

Kai, though not openly, had always been mystified by the Yellow Sign, whose mere existence had transcended everything that he knew of. It was neither Arabic, Chinese, Sanskrit, nor any known or lost human script he could think of. It had an insidious nature that made all the users forget ever drawing it, and its sinuous form welled a deep repulsive feeling in the seeing eyes, but it was all this that had made Kai curious about it.

Now that he got to know what it does, his curiosity didn't satiate but shot up through the roof. Who created this Sign? How could this Sign breach the boundaries of the Multiverse, opening a cross-dimensional channel to pass information and objects? What was it?

Was it one of its kind?

The last question made him snap open his eyes, and he found Item-M staring at him with deep fervor and passion. She hadn't sensed the trembling like him, he knew. Nor could she ever know the comprehension through which Kai had gone just now. The same comprehension that had made it feel like a long time had passed between Selene's chanting the epithets and him opening his eyes, when in fact, only a moment had gone by in reality.

A paramount illusion of Space and Time.

"What do you know about the Yellow Sign?" Kai asked, reaching for Selene's head. He scratched the underside of her mouth, and a distinct rattling of her Dragon-like scales portrayed her immense joy. -You did good, Selene,- he hissed, not unkindly. -Now, don't speak those words without my permission.-

Selene replied by kissing his chin, flicking out her forked tongue. She slithered up, through his arm, and coiled herself around his shoulders, her head resting majestically on his chest.

Item-M gulped. "It's part of the ritual," she told him. "One must draw it using blood before invoking HIM using HIS epithets. Without it, one cannot sacrifice to HIM outside the Primordial Tower."

'Huh?!' Kai's eyes widened. "What do you mean 'Outside the Primordial Tower'?" he asked urgently.

"One doesn't need to draw it within the Primordial Tower," she replied immediately, sensing Kai's urgent tone. "The mere invocation of the epithets would let THEIR gazes fall onto the chanter. That's why only core Priests and Priestess are told of Signs that they can use outside the Primordial Tower for obvious purposes."

Kai's eyes lit up as he heard Item-M's explanation. 'Interesting,' he reflected, his eyes squinting. 'Very interesting! Is this because the Old Ones are known to dwell within the Primordial Tower itself, or because their Epithets are of a higher level both in power and mysteriousness than my minor-epithets? Or both? It still doesn't explain why speaking out "Hastur", without uttering HIS epithets, leads to the Temple of Hastur knowing about it.'

Kai sighed. Things were becoming too dark and hazy compared to his growth, he knew. If it was any other time, he could placate himself by saying he must take one step at a time. But now, after facing the Pokemon World's retribution, and the threat of Hastur's priests hanging over his neck like a sword, it was impossible for him to not face these situations head-on.

"Listen…" Kai was just about to address Item-M regarding his theories when a clamor blasted its way in through the cabin's musty doors.

'What's going on?' Kai thought, exchanging a look with Item-M, and approached the doors. Selene burst into a mist, melting within him, with no order.

The moment he parted the doors, he saw the giant figure of Andrik, now his loyal follower, charging toward him. But as the mate neared Kai, he dropped to one knee, and said, "What is dead may never die!"

"What is dead may never die!" Kai repeated the words solemnly. "Rise. What's the commotion about?"

"Ship!" Andrik barked, standing up with a jerk. "Barrelman sighted a ship due southwest, my lord. And it's gaining on us. It's gaining fast."

*********

AN:

Barrelman - the lookout posted at the crow's nest at the top of the foremast.