As May recovered from the sudden shock of the impact on the water, she had thought to herself, My, was that exhilarating. Now, she was shivering under a blanket, sitting near a wall to protect herself from the freezing wind, staring down at the grass that poked out from under the odd cobbles of the street in the sky. How it was held aloft, exactly, she hadn't the faintest idea, with even Nayru's wisdom, which she had figured out how to use as if it were a castle archival room in which she knew every location of every book and record. This place was so ancient, the walls were falling apart and the ceilings were all caving in, leaving patches of rubble scattered throughout the old stone homes. Vines that once were on trellises had spread sporadically to every surface possible. The sun seemed closer, if a bit colder, and the air was so thin, Maybell was still catching her breath.
Across the way, Ryn was poking at a fire, trying to entice it to become a huge flame. The lack of oxygen, though, only allowed for a little spark and small flames. She was heating a warm drink of tea mixed with water that May had assembled on the surface. Once finished, Ryn approached May as the others sat around the fire, struggling to dry off.
"Why don't you come sit with the rest of us?" asked Ryn, offering May a cup of tea.
May accepted the tea greatfully. "I don't know... I suppose it's just all so confusing, a city in the sky. You know?"
Ryn nodded, sliding down onto the stones beside her friend. "I guess so, but I'm not the one that thinks about it so much!" They both laughed, then fell into silence.
The stars soon began to poke themselves into the darkening twilight sky. Trey decided to take first watch, allowing the girls, Sal'nar, Link, and Hess to sleep. May snuggled with Hess, listening to his soft, even breathing as he fell asleep. Personally, she was too stressed to sleep, and when she finally managed to settle down, she was only woken seemingly a few minutes later by Trey's startled yelp and the sudden shing of him unsheathing his sword.
Shaking Hess awake, she sat up abruptly. Everyone around her was waking up, and readying for a fight. "D... don't look be... hind... you, May..." whispered Hess.
Naturally, she had to look. There was a ghost, standing there, smiling at them. The ghost was that of a girl, not much older than Ryn, dark hair in wispy curls hanging around the full cheeks of her heart-shaped face. She was dressed in a dark blue tunic with pants that poofed out right above the tops of her brown leather boots, and had a pale complexion. The girl seemed to glow, and levitate a few inches above the ground, which were the only things that gave away her ghostliness. May shrieked. For everyone that wasn't awake yet, that woke them up pretty quickly. Sal growled, Alandra clinging to him. Ryn looked at the ghost, ever cautious, as did her father and Trey.
Then, the ghost began to giggle at them. May wasn't sure what unnerved her most: the fact that it was a ghost or the fact that in the face of all that danger, the girl had the audacity to laugh at them.
"You're all very kind to give me such a warm welcome!" She smiled, and giggled some more, giving a flourish of a bow, then leaning back, and falling off the suspended cobblestones in the sky. Half the group (including May) ran to the edge, only to see that she was riding on the back of a huge, equally ghostly bird. The ghost guided the bird up and around them with strong wing strokes.
"My name is Virea," she said with a smile, "and this is my loftwing, Tempest."
Trey called up to Virea, "You're a ghost. You should really cross over."
Landing Tempest, Virea made a pout. "But I have so much business to take care of!"
"We'll help you." Ryn and May grimaced when he said this. Must he always be a gentleman, to even a ghost? May shuddered at the thought.
The pair took off again. "What business?" snarled Ryn. "Let's make it quick."
"Now, now, naughty, naughty!" Virea chimed. "Don't be mean." She dismounted once more across from Link, pointing her finger in his face. "You were very mean to me, too, Link. I don't like you."
"How... What? I don't know any little girls named Virea." The hero scratched his head, his hat still laying on the ground next to his bedroll. His hair was a total mess, as if something had slept in it.
"Your past life did," retorted the ghost with poison in her tone.
Silence fell for a long moment like a heavy blanket over all of them.
"What did I do wrong?" Link asked after a long moment.
"Peatrice, Karane, Zelda... you noticed them. You were Pipit's best friend, and Fledge looked up to you, because you were the youngest kid to ever win the Wings Ceremony. You traded bugs with Stritch, you made nice with Groose, and you tried to get Cawlin to understand. But really, Zelda was the only girl that ever mattered. You even stopped dating Peatrice because you couldn't handle Zelda leaving. I watched. I was there. You never noticed me, you dense fool!" Virea began to cry. "If I was corporeal, I would smack your face off! But... you didn't even pay any attention to me when I was at the Wings Ceremony myself, and you paid no attention when I was playing the role of the Goddess for when Fledge was getting his sailcloth. Did you stop helping people? Did you stop caring?"
Startled, Link blinked. "I'm not certain what you're talking about. Explain it to me."
She raised her chin. "Fine. I'll explain.
"I suppose it started when we were little kids in Skyloft. I was enthralled by you, to say the least, and I'd do anything to get your attention. You ignored me – your face was always smiling when you saw Zelda. When you looked at me, it was like you didn't see me. I trained beside you in the sparring hall with Pipit and Fledge. You wouldn't even laugh at me when the shield training log bashed me full on in the chest.
"Then came the day that you had your Wings Ceremony. I saw the storm. I saw Zelda being tossed onto the surface, then I thought I might have a chance with you, but soon after, not even two days after, you disappeared, too. Every so often, I'd see you and Crim flying through the sky. I'd watch as the lights popped up all over the place, and you'd dive to the Surface once more.
"When you finally returned for good, you were hardened and changed. You cried. You tried to go out with Peatrice, but that failed, and backfired when her father beat you to a bloody pulp. I watched, but I was afraid to help, because her father always scared me. They said he drank at night. When you returned to the Knight Academy to go about your business, I left bandages in your room, with a note saying that I loved you. I even signed it, but you disregarded it because you didn't know who I was.
"The monsters came more frequently, then, but you weren't ready to fight. You were too deep in your grief. Pipit almost died, and so did Fledge and Professor Owlan. You ignored that. I don't even think that you even knew that it happened. I fought with them. I was hurt by a cursed lizalfos, but before Professor Horwell could help me, I died of my wounds surrounded by friends.
"You might ask why I'm still here. It's because I wanted to be loved by none other than Link. Fledge tried. But like with you and Peatrice, it didn't work.
"I watched every moment of your life, and you didn't even bother to say hello."
As Virea spoke, Maybell could see what Virea had seen – one of the blessings (or curses, if you looked at it differently) of being the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. Virea standing behind a tree, watching as a more youthful hero with darker hair than Ryn's father's, a cream colored shirt with a blue motif around the cuffs and the collar and a belt around his waist holding on a red cloth that circled his middle with a light pattern on it, dark green pants, and light grey boots walked down the path with two companions. One of the companions was a little blonde-haired girl with a pink dress on ornamented with a blue stone at the collar and two crisscrossing belts, one of which dark brown and the other gold and fashioned like a chain. Her hair was wrapped in ribbons in two locks near her rosy cheeks and the last ribbon holding the remaining portion of her hair at her back. The brown belt had a blue cloth hanging from it with a light-colored symbol on it. The other companion was male, sporting a head of dark spiky brown hair and a face full of freckles. He was wearing a gold-colored tunic, light colored pants, a sword across his back, and boots. All three of them were smiling brightly, but none of them noticed Virea but the blonde, who paused for a moment, but continued on when Virea hid.
The scene changed. Virea was training as hard as she could in a sparring hall with logs in varied positions, scored for training. Some were stacked against the wall. The teacher stood at far end of the hall, calling out commands to his students. Who May assumed to be Virea's Link walked in, and immediately started training so that the teacher wouldn't notice. Virea, distracted, allowed for an opening for the log suspended from the ceiling that she was practicing defense on to swing in and hit her full-on in chest. She fell over, and a small, slight boy with light hair and flushed cheeks helped her up. The teacher scowled. "Be more careful, Virea. Continue on, Fledge."
A girl with red hair in pigtails giggled, saying, "Yeah. Be more careful, Virea."
Another scene change. They were outside, near what seemed to be a pier. Several boys lined up, listening to instructions. Several girls hung back, debating on who would win. "Let the Wings Ceremony begin." As the boys called their birds, the scene changed once more.
Link, and the girl that May assumed to be Zelda, were flying their loftwings. A sudden current of air swept Zelda and her bird from the sky. Link cried out, and was hurtled to the ground of Skyloft. Virea was watching from a pier, looking supremely worried for him.
Black. May could hear Virea's words, but there was no images to connect them. Link was in his room, crying his guts out, his tears dripping onto the glazing that covered a picture of Zelda within a picture frame. Virea watched from the window. A girl with a bandana covering her dusty blond hair pulled back in pigtails entered the room after knocking. "Darling?" she murmured to him.
Virea's Link frowned, wiped his tears, and looked up at the girl. "What?" he managed.
She sat down on the bed next to him, and rubbed his back. "It's okay."
He shook her off, saying harsher than intended, "No, it's NOT!" She winced, and truly sorry, he held his hand an inch from her arm, saying, "I'm sorry, Peatrice."
"I understand. I mean, I try to, Link." Peatrice took off his hat and ran her hand through his hair. "Maybe someday, you'll finally see that Zelda... living with her is out of the question. You told us yourself. She's gone." Tears slipped down his cheeks, and he let out another cry of longing. "Shh, sh-sh-sh-sh..." she murmured, taking her handkerchief and dabbing at them, looking at him with soft, loving eyes.
"She's gone," he whispered.
"I know, sweetie. I was her friend too."
The scene changed once more. It was night, and torches were the only light to see by. "That should teach you to mess with my little flower," said a flush-faced, heavyset man. Link was battered and bleeding, bruised in many places. A cut was across his cheek. Peatrice ran up to him. "Don't listen to Father. I love you more than anything. Let's bring you back to the Academy; Professor Horwell can take care of your wounds."
Link and Peatrice limped back to his room at the academy, and Peatrice fetched Horwell. Everyone crowded his room. Virea dropped a letter attached to a package into his window. Fledge grabbed it and passed it to Link, who read the note, and opened the package, which turned out to be a first aid kit.
Virea watched in silence.
Link looked around, and passed the first aid kit to Professor Horwell when he entered the room.
The view changed once more.
It was night again. Monsters flooded a clearing. Virea, a professor (probably Professor Owlan), the boy that May assumed to be Pipit, and Fledge were fighting for their lives. "There's too many of them!" called out the professor. "Fall back to the Academy gate!"
No one argued, but once they arrived and the monsters had followed, a cursed lizalfos smacked the barbed sphere at the base of its tail into Virea's chest. Then, it drew in a breath, and blew a hazy purple smoke into her eyes and nose and open wound.
Fire burst into Pipit's eyes. On adrenaline, he made quick work of half the monsters by himself, as did Fledge. The monsters taken care of, they knelt beside Virea. Pipit shouted to Owlan, "Professor, go get help!"
Fledge knelt beside Virea, and put her head on his lap. "E-e-e-every-ything will be okay, Virea..."
She began to cry.
Pipit frowned. "Don't waste your tears. It'll only make things worse."
Virea let herself cry, and rasped to Pipit, "You don't understand. I didn't fulfill my ambition..." And she drew in her final breath, and died.
Black met May's eyes for a long moment, until she woke in Hess' arms. Everyone was around her, including Virea. "I saw it," whispered May, "I understand, now, Virea. I have one thing to say, though. Why didn't you step into the light, and let Link see you? He never saw you because he couldn't see you, actually, quite literally. You were hiding."
Disgusted, Virea stared at Maybell with pain in her eyes. "I was afraid."
May righted herself, and said to Virea, right in her face, "Don't be. If were afraid, you obviously weren't worthy of Link. Zelda wasn't. Neither was Peatrice. Or Karane. See, they all managed to get a little bit of his attention. Do you understand, Virea?"
Virea nodded. "I understand. And now, I admit, I was being mean to all of you. As a token of thanks for you helping me, allow me to help you. I thought you were looking for something... But the only important thing here is this – a crystal that stayed in Skyloft for a long time, since before I was born. The Goddess Statue once held it in her hands, but when She fell from the sky, it fell into the hands of the Knight Academy. This way." Virea began to lead the way. "Oh, and, I might want to add – I'm not responsible for Aeralfos attacks. But they might not bother, because of you, Sal'nar."
With that, the ghost began to skip off.
– – t h e – – l e g e n d – – o f – – t h e – – h e r o ' s – – h e i r – –
"And this is where the Bazaar used to be and... Ooh! This is the place where the Goddess Statue used to be!" Virea was babbling on and on, and it was giving Ryn a headache. It was one thing when Maybell babbled like this – at least she shut up. But this was annoying Ryn so badly that she longed to have a moment to pound the ghost's head in. Oh, I'm sorry, she thought with a grimace. I forgot that you were non-corporeal.
A little concerned-looking, Trey approached her. "Anything wrong, Ryn?"
"It's nothing," she grumbled, but he put his arm around her shoulder, a thing that she took no notice of.
Finally, they reached what apparently used to be the Knight Academy. Once the stone was in her hands, Ryn decided that she would make everyone ship out. At this point, not even Zanix could make her stay in Skyloft much longer.
Virea tossed it down to not Ryn, May, or Trey, but to Link. "Thank all of you very much. I loved being seen and loved for once." She smiled at them, and faded away.
"Good riddance," muttered Ryn.
"Ryn! Don't say that!" said May, and Alandra, in agreement, punched Ryn in the arm, then recoiled, because it had hurt her hand.
"Serves you right." Ryn crossed her arms, a smug look on her face. "That is one thing I never want to do again. Help a ghost. It's annoying and a total waste of our time while the world is ending on the surface. We got what we came for, with no bloodshed to boot. Let's go. We got no time to lose." With that, she began to lead the rest of the crew to the surface once more.