Chapter 1- The Cycle Continues

He released the captured spirit from the bottle in which it was imprisoned. The wisp swirled about the room as it began to reform the ghostly monster it had once been. When a blue-flamed lantern floated before him, he knelt, pressing his hands together tightly.

"S-s-sorceress of Wishes, I have a wish that only can grant. I… I summon you here," he muttered nervously. With each time he repeated it, however, his voice grew louder and louder as his impatience worsened. Finally he sighed, rising from his knees. He went to his chair in the corner of the room, sitting down with a tired flop. His cat Gengle took the opportunity to jump on his head, purring loudly as it kneaded his head.

He knew it had only been a legend. Of course there were no such things as wish-granting sorceresses. He rested his chin in his hands, staring at the bobbing lantern across from him. Why had he thought asking a poe would summon a sorceress, even? Such a ridiculous tale.

Gengle jerked to alertness, claws digging into his head. He screeched as he reached for the now hissing cat. The orange cat released its hold, but continued growling lowly. He gave up, and let the cat do as it wanted.

Then he noticed it. In front of him a cloud of black mist gathered. He scooted back in his chair when he could see a figure forming in the mist. Once visible, it took the form of a young, deathly pale woman with long black hair billowing behind her. She floated above the ground, gradually closing the distance between them. Her yellow eyes glowed as she studied him.

"And who are you, human?"

"J-j-j," he stuttered, body turned away from her as he tried to get further away from her. Those eyes were boring into him, making his skin crawl. "Jovani," he squeaked out.

"What is it you wish for, Jovani?" She hovered closer, her eyes narrowed and head turned to the side. "You did summon me here, after all."

"I… I want to be rich," he choked out. "I want to be surrounded by gold."

"Oh, you wish for riches?" She backed away, a smile forming on her face. The gesture would have put him at ease, if not for her pointed teeth. "Why do you wish for such?"

"I want to buy everything I've ever wanted. I want a nice house, fancy food, and, you know, nice things." Jovani thought for a moment, adding, "I could buy Gengle the best fish. I could impress my girlfriend with gifts. Money can get me everything I want."

"Hmm." The sorceress let herself tilt as she floated. She held a hand to her mouth for a few seconds before asking, "Is that your sole wish? Riches for yourself?"

He nodded excitedly, not thinking it through at all.

"What a selfish wish," she sighed, sounding disappointed. She raised her arm, a mass of mist forming around it. "However," she said with a grin, "I shall grant your desire to be surrounded by gold."

The room filled with dark mist, it soon forming a vortex with blue lights dancing about. Jovani went to stand, only to find his legs unable to move. Quickly he looked down, a scream his response. His feet were gold. The shining metal slowly continued to crawl up his body. With panicked eyes he looked to the sorceress, but then he saw what the lights had become. A horde of lanterns surrounded him, the small room overtaken by so many. All at once the poes charged forward.

When Jovani became conscious once more, his vision was horribly clouded and blurry. A scream rang out once more when he found himself unable to move any part of his body.

"Perhaps someone will help you," the sorceress' voice echoed. "Until that time, the poes will keep your greedy soul as payment for your wish." She laughed, adding "Enjoy your riches, Jovani."

"They say that if you summon the sorceress, she'll grant your wish. But, if it's selfish, she'll…"

"No way," Talon said, cutting the story off there. "That's the stupidest story ever."

"It's a legend and it's not stupid," Link argued.

"Yeah, that was stupid," Sera joined in, standing up from the circle they had formed. Talon stood up on Sera's cue.

"You didn't think it was," Link said, turning to his best friend, "do you?"

The other boy blew a few stands of lavender hair out of his face. "It was kind of dumb," he answered bluntly. He stood up, stretching, before adding, "Not the worst one you've told, though. Clearly that title belongs to the 'bathroom ghost of terror.'" Vaati cackled when he thought of how utterly stupid and pointless that story had been.

"Before you start babbling again, we've got to go," Sera cut in, Talon nodding. "See you later."

Link waved at the two as they walked away. Vaati muttered a farewell under his breath. There was a brief pause before Link picked up the conversation again.

"Oh, yeah? My stories are ridiculous?" Link stood up, pointing a finger at Vaati. "At least I don't think there's a flying palace in the sky or that I'm a sorcerer because I can use a few spells." He tried to keep from smiling.

"Well, those are not just silly tales." Vaati put a hand on his hip, pointing his nose in the air. "I am a sorcerer and soon you shall respect me. I will be renowned throughout Hyrule for my mastery of magic." He then crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. "And that palace does exist."

"Just because you saw it in a dream doesn't mean it exists."

"Yet here you are, speaking of a wish-granting sorceress from a legend like they could actually exist." Vaati waited for Link to retort, but, when he said nothing, he muttered, "That palace is real though." He had seen it so many times in dreams it felt real enough to him. "Could you imagine if such a sorceress existed, though? A person able to grant wishes… They would be powerful indeed," he mused. "With such magic… one could do anything they wanted."

"I guess," Link agreed half-heartedly. He watched his friend as he thought. Link did not like the smirk on Vaati's face. Nope, that never meant anything good. "But, you know, legends usually try to warn people about stuff. Like not making deals with people that suddenly appear next to you because they might curse you. Like that sorceress did to Jovani."

"Oh, yes, your legends are all cautionary tales. Like 'always take paper to the bathroom for the terrifying toilet ghost.'" For effect Vaati waved his hands about for a few seconds before laughing at Link's glare.

"Whatever," he grumbled, looking away from his obnoxious friend. He noticed that the sky was turning pinkish-red as the sun began to slip beyond the horizon. "I should probably be going home," he mumbled, thinking about supper. His mother didn't like when he was late, and he would rather not make her fret for his safety needlessly.

"I guess." Vaati took a step forward, Link catching the frown on his face. When Link did not move, he snapped, "Did you forget how to walk?"

Link shook his head, walking forward. Since they lived about two houses away from each other, they often ended up walking together. They had only gone a few feet when Link saw that Vaati was still scowling. "How is your grandmother today?" That had to be what was bothering him.

"Does not remember a damned thing," Vaati spat out. "Never does."

Looks like he was right. "You know she can't help it, right? She's pretty old, after all," he said, knowing that Vaati already knew that.

He just had a difficult time dealing with her sometimes. His grandmother did not recognize him at all and often yelled at him, thinking he was an intruder. His odd looks did not help him, either. Her distress then would make Vaati's mother worry that the elderly lady would somehow hurt herself. It usually ended with Vaati having to leave the room, or, more often, him storming out of the house entirely. It was obviously a frustrating situation, only made worse by Vaati's attitude.

"Different topic," Vaati strongly suggested. "Did you ever find out more about that…" he sighed, still loathing the corny names of things in Link's stories. "About that desert place, the prison one?"

"The Arbiter Grounds," Link clarified. "Not anything really new, I guess." Link had told this one a few weeks ago. It was a story about a giant monster sealed in the grounds that the Twilight Hero had defeated before reaching the mirror. "Why?"

"A vague sense of familiarity." Vaati paused, his eye twitching at the feeling. "I feel like I should know that place and the monster sealed there. As though, at one time, it was important."

"Like that palace?" Link was used to this by now. While he poked fun at Vaati's obsession over the supposed floating palace, he did not totally dismiss his friend's words. He seemed genuinely upset whenever he felt like he should know something but could not fully recall it. "Or like poes?" he added.

"Definitely like that," he growled, his fists clenching and unclenching. "Oh, it certainly had something to do with poes. Those conniving, wretched creatures. If I had the chance I would kill them all. Especially…" Vaati trailed off, stopping. "Especially that…" His face scrunched together, looking both disgusted and incredibly confused. Eventually he growled in frustration and began walking again, giving up on the thought.

Link did not pester him further. He should have known bringing up poes would cause that reaction. Vaati seemed to detest the spirits, or rather, a few he could never quite name, like they had personally insulted him. Of course, he thought even less of the heroes in legends. Ones often described as similar to Link. In fact, for a time when they were very young, Vaati had been a complete and utter terror towards Link. It was like he had had a personal vendetta against him for a while, but, given time, they learned to tolerate each other. Well, more like Link learned to tolerate the so called sorcerer and his massive ego. He never could quite figure how he ended up being friends with Vaati. Maybe it was just because they were the only two boys the same age in the village.

Soon enough, they reached Link's house and parted ways. Link went inside, the smell of cooking food drawing him through the small entry and into the kitchen. His mother was stirring a pot of what was likely stew.

"Hey," Link said, sitting at the table. Like usual, his mother had a few books lying about.

"Food will be done in a bit," she answered, moving over to the counter to tidy the dishes.

Link nodded even though she had her back to him. After a moment, he picked up the nearest book, paging through it lazily. It one of the legend anthologies his father had gifted his mother. She had always enjoyed the old legends, but, when Link's father had died, she kept the book nearby. Not only because it had been a gift, either. She missed being a knight in Castle Town and the books reminded her of her time there.

She had been one of the few female knights in Hyrule, earning her fame in winning a skirmish against a band of thieves that had been attacking travelers along roads. According to her, with likely a fair amount of embellished details, she had caught ten thieves by herself, tied them up, and paraded them through town to show that she knew what she was doing. Apparently, soon after that, she met Link's father. While she never gave the mushy details, she always smiled when talking about him. Link figured his father must have been a good man, being as he was too young to remember him much.

Link's father had drowned in Lake Hylia after the knights were sent there to investigate a few bulblin sightings. He had fallen in, his armor too heavy to swim in. After the accident, his mother moved back to Ordon Village to live closer to her remaining family, namely her brother and his family.

"Link, could you set the table?"

Link stood up, his mother's voice bringing him back from his thoughts. He went to her side, looking in the cupboard for the bowls and cups. After finding them, he put them on the table absentmindedly.

For some reason, he thought back to the story he had told earlier. Everyone had a wish. Everyone desired something. For Vaati, it was that nagging feeling of forgetting something going away. For his mother, it was the past where she was living her dream. And, for Link, all he wanted was to find a purpose. Right now he was just a boy living in a village, telling stories. He sort of… He sort of wanted to be like one of the heroes in his legends. He wanted to be someone that helped people when no one else would or could.

Author's Note- Hello there! This was a short intro to the world of Wish Upon a Blackstar. It is set after Twilight Princess, and uses events from my other story, Among Humans and Monsters. The cycle begins again, Link and Vaati both reincarnated. While their families will likely only be mentioned in passing, I wanted to give them a bit of background info. Instead of Link's mother being dead for once, she's alive (and a knight 'cause I can). The lovely legend is about how Jovani came to be cursed. Vaati's having some memory issues again (if Link doesn't remember his past lives, I'm not letting Vaati off the hook either). This Vaati is also a bit less… evil, I suppose, right now. May or may not change. Well, that's my spiel for now.

Thank you all for reading!

-AwkwardBlackCat