Excerpt: Egyptian Dawn

Yugi sat alone in the small dwelling, which until recently, he had shared with his Grandfather, his mood desolate.
The funerary rites for Yugi’s Grandfather Sugoroku had all been completed yesterday. For as long as Yugi could remember, his Grandfather had been the one constant in his life. Always there. Always able to solve any problem. Now he was utterly alone in the world.
The long future without his Grandfather seemed to stretch bleakly into the distance before him.

Sugoroku had been a respected toymaker and seller in the town where the two of them lived. Yugi had helped him out as best he could, though it was obvious that he didn’t have anywhere near the same talent with toy making as Sugoroku had had. It wasn’t the most affluent of professions, but the two of them had always seemed to get by without hardship.
Following the death of his son in law when Yugi was an infant, his daughter had moved back in with him along with her son, and the three of them had lived together until her tragic death of fever when Yugi had been just five years old. Since then, Yugi had been raised entirely by the old man.
Though Yugi may have lacked skill in making toys and games however, he thoroughly excelled at solving all of the puzzles that Sugoroku had made. Combined with the fact that Sugoroku had been teaching him to read and write since he was a child, Sugoroku had always indicated that Yugi would have a bright, and even somewhat wealthy, future ahead of him. In fact he had already started to make enquiries with contacts on behalf of his Grandson, in an effort to help him gain a position as a scribe in the temple of a nearby town. Though with his death, that job was now seeming much less attainable.

Yugi’s current problems however, were much more serious than simply having to make a little extra effort to get his ideal job.

Two days ago the town magistrate had come to him with an accounting of massive debts which he claimed were owed by Sugoroku before his death. Debts which Yugi was now to be held accountable for. Debts which were now due to be paid. By tomorrow.
Personally, Yugi didn’t believe a word of it. He just knew that his Grandfather had not had debts. He had been very good with managing the family finances, and his toy business had always thrived. Aside from that, Yugi knew that Sugoroku hated the thought of owing money to anyone, and never went near the moneylenders -which did so brisk a trade whenever the merchants with their travelling bazaar came to town. Sugoroku’s policy had always been that if he and Yugi couldn’t afford some frivolity, then they should do without it until they actually could afford it.
He had searched through all of his Grandfather’s possessions and had been unable to find even the smallest proof that these so called debts were genuine. Unfortunately, he had also been unable to find any sort of proof to refute the magistrate’s claims. Whilst the magistrate had documents from various money lenders, complete with their official seals, detailing various large amounts of money that had supposedly been borrowed from them by Sugoroku.
Yugi knew that he would need to somehow sell absolutely everything he owned, including his home, before tomorrow, in order to repay the alleged debt in time.
In the two days that he had been trying, he had not even come close to raising enough money. It just wasn’t doable. Even visiting all the moneylenders himself hadn’t helped him. He had been unable to borrow any money to pay the owed money, from the moneylenders that he didn’t supposedly owe, and he had been unable to negotiate for more time or different payment terms from the moneylenders that he supposedly did owe, since they all claimed that the debts had been passed on to the magistrates and the matter was now completely out of their hands. And of course they also wouldn’t lend him any money to pay the magistrate.
Yugi knew he was about to lose everything. He knew he was also very probably going to be thrown into prison for unpaid debts that he just knew could not possibly be real. He simply could not understand why all this would be happening. It was just too much for him to cope with. So overwhelming. If these debts really were genuine, then why had his Grandfather never even so much as hinted at them, and what had he needed to use so much money for? And if, as Yugi still very much believed, they were false debts, then why? Why would the moneylenders be doing this to him? What could they possibly get out of him being jailed? And why would the magistrate have given him so little time to try to repay the debts? He surely must have known that Yugi didn’t have a chance of raising so much money in just the three days that he gave him.
The loss of his Grandfather was still so fresh. So painful. Even now, he still felt so hollow and empty inside, as if he had been drained of all emotion and would never feel anything ever again. Everything but the pain. Even the despair at his impending imprisonment was somehow muted.
Yugi continued to sit alone, in silence, on what might be his last night in the house he grew up in. As the sky outside slowly darkened into night, Yugi wondered just how everything went so wrong so quickly.

All too soon the next day arrived, and Yugi left his house to travel the too short distance to the magistrates building, where he would either have to pay the outstanding debt, or suffer the consequences of not doing so. Since Yugi had been unable to gather any where near enough money to pay the required amount, it was obvious which option he would be facing. Not once did Yugi even consider the third option. Running. He knew that it had been known to happen in the past, that people had tried to escape punishments of various crimes by simply fleeing, but in Yugi’s mind that simply was not a viable option. The moment someone chose that route, they became a fugitive and were declared outlaw. Yugi couldn’t imagine living that way. Being unwelcome in any town, always looking over you shoulder for the soldiers, and having to steal simply to survive. To him, it sounded like just about the most miserable kind of life imaginable.
Looking back briefly as he turned the corner, Yugi took one last look at the only home that he had ever known, and hoped that someday he might get to see it again. He shuddered slightly. He really was not looking forward to going to prison. Knowing that he truly had done nothing wrong just made it all so much worse. But he would show everyone just what kind of honourable man his Grandfather had raised. He squared his shoulders, he would hold his head up proudly as he faced whatever sentence the magistrate deemed appropriate for a defaulted debt.