Part One of the Dragmire Chronicles:
By cade
Rating : PG13
Author's Note: Like the Future's Children upload, this isn't new, just a compounding of the previous chapters. This is my last hurrah folks, so if anyone wants to take up Dragmire's Chronicles, please e-mail me! Lot's of thanks to everyone who r/r-ed the individual chapters! Thanks so much! Have a happy New Year everyone!
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Chapter 1: Long Live the King
He was dying; there was no doubt about it. He could feel himself fading away as his soul flowed into the son Shafali was carrying. His time was at its end. In fact, he was almost certain that tonight was his last night. He had come out here, to the roof of the Gerudo Fortress to say goodbye to it all. The stars and moon had never been more radiant to his eyes; it seemed as if they had come out to bid him farewell.
Ghabriel Dragmire was not sad or afraid to face death. All his life he'd known this day would come. It was just the way of things. The old giving away for the new. It was something he had accepted a long time ago. Soon, his son would be born, and someday he would take Ghabriel's place as king of the Gerudo. Ghabriel wished he would be able to guide the boy, to help mold him into a good king. But that was not the Gerudo's way. When a new male child was born, the father would pass on, but his spirit would remain with the child. This way, the new king would inherit his forefather's knowledge and wisdom. Ghabriel wondered if that was enough.
There was one thing troubling him though, and that was concerning his son's mother. Ghabriel had lived through Hyrule's brutal civil wars, and in those dark years before the peace was called, he'd seen a lot of ugliness. But never had he met anyone with a soul as black and corrupt as Shafali's. Looking at her was like looking at a rose infested with crawling maggots.
To be sure, she was beautiful, but there was something about the woman that awoke a quiet fear within Ghabriel. He never would have married her, but the oracles said she was the one who would produce a son. There hadn't been much of a choice.
He heard a sound behind him and turned to see his first and most beloved wife, Tantari, watching him. Seeing her made him smile. They had been wed for so long, Ghabriel couldn't exactly remember when he'd ever been without her.
Tantari sat beside Ghabriel and put her arm around him. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Just enjoying the night." He smiled down at her, "it's nice to hear quiet for once."
"When I woke up and you were gone... I started thinking all kinds of things." She shook her head and grinned in a shame faced way. "Silly, isn't it?"
"No, it's not."
Tantari looked away from him, letting her gaze rest upon the moon washed desert. In the distance stood the Colossus, the great temple and tomb of the Gerudo. The resting place of all the past kings. Tantari thought of how soon Ghabriel would be laying among them, and she sighed softly.
"Are you all right?" Ghabriel asked after hearing Tantari's sigh.
"Yes, yes... Fine. Are you?"
"Well considering everything, I feel pretty good actually."
She thought for a moment then asked, "you're not sad to be... Leaving, are you?"
He took her hand gently, "I'm not leaving, Tari. I'm dying. You can say it, it's not a bad word."
Tears pooled in Tantari's amber colored eyes before she could blink them away. "It's not the right one though, not for you."
"Maybe not. But no, I'm not sad. I've been here long enough, almost a hundred years now. I'm just tired, that's all."
She wiped her eyes quickly, unwilling to give in to her grief yet. "I suppose. What a hundred years it's been though, eh?"
"Yes." Ghabriel mused thoughtfully, "several wars, a tentative peace..."
"A deal with the Sheikahs, new trade agreements with the Zoras." Tantari added, "colonization of the Northern Palisades, better education so no one can say were stupid thieves. The restoration of the Spirit Temple. Two happy wives and twenty-one beautiful children."
Ghabriel's smile faded, "and my one big mistake." He uttered lowly.
"Shafali." Tantari said and it wasn't a question.
"Yes. Proof that the Goddesses enjoy irony. You should be carrying my son. Not that harlot. I don't like her, I don't trust her, and I don't trust her with my precious son." The dying king grasped both his wife's hands and looked at her intently. "Please Tantari, promise me you'll look after him for me. Promise me you'll protect him from her."
Tantari stared at Ghabriel, shocked. She had never liked Tantari either, but he had all but declared her as evil. Dumbly she nodded and Ghabriel relaxed.
"Good. That is a relief to me. Now I can rest peacefully. Do you mind if I..?" He motioned to her lap.
She smiled and reached out to him, "be my guest."
Ghabriel lay his head against Tantari's belly and felt her arms tight around him. If there truly was a reward after death, Ghabriel wasn't sure what it would be like there. But this, he was certain, was what it would feel like.
He looked up at her. "Was it always so obvious you were my favorite?"
"No," Tantari said then hesitated. "Well, maybe."
There was no need for further embellishment upon there relationship. No need for quivering lipped 'I love yous'. Both knew it, both felt it.
"Could you do one more thing for me?" Ghabriel asked suddenly.
"Of course."
"Could you sing that song for me, the one you always sang our children when they were little. I'd like to hear it once more."
Tantari swallowed hard and nodded. She searched her memory for the words then began-
*"Sleep my love in the cool of night,
the stars will come out and give their light.
Between the river of stars and the river of sand,
The Goddess shall hold you in her hand..."
Tantari looked down at Ghabriel. His eyes were closed. She knew he could probably no longer hear her. Tears ran freely down her face as she struggled to continue.
"Let your dreams take you to the Land of Gold,
where your every joy will lie untold.
And in the morning when you wake..."
Here Tantari faltered. In the morning Ghabriel would not wake. She felt him exhale, then waited for the sound of inhalation.
And waited.
And there was none.
Ghabriel Dragmire, king of the Gerudo was dead. A tiny smile softened his broad face. He was at peace.
Tantari did not fly into a fit of sobbing and wailing. The grief had left her too weak for that. Instead she simply bent and kissed Ghabriel's still brow.
"I'll always love you my king," she whispered. "Wait for me in the Blessed Land."
In the room below, a lone woman sat in the dark listening. Shafali put a hand to her belly and laughed silently. Old King Fool was dead! Ghabriel the foolish, Ghabriel the pacifist, who had no idea of true power, was gone! Now was her time. From the shadows the twisted figures of two old women joined her. Koume and Kotake, mistresses of the Black Arts. Together, they celebrated the king's death.
And the child within Shafali's black womb stirred nervously.
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Chapter 2: Heart's Son
Night fell over Gerudo Valley but it was still hotter then Hell. Tantari, widowed First Wife of King Ghabriel, stood in the shadows off the fortress, trying to cool off. A full moon smiled down upon her and the Gerudo woman was not surprised. According to the beliefs of her people, only events of great importance took place under a full moon. Like the birth of a future king.
Inside the close chambers, Shafali, third and most despised wife of the late Ghabriel, labored. Tantari pitied her not. In the society of the Gerudo, Tantari carried more status than Shafali. Both had been married to the king, yet he had only wed Shafali on the words of an oracle. Tantari he had cherished, Shafali was only a vessel to carry the valuable son. Ghabriel had not had a choice. Without a new male, the Gerudo blood would thin and run dry. The king hadn't liked or trusted Shafali. Before his death he had confided in Tantari and told her his worst fears of what Shafali might to do his last child. And Tantari who had seen both Ghabriel's wisdom and Shafali's wickedness before, had no reason to doubt her husband's words.
Being the only one present with any medical skills, Tantari was required to help Shafali throughout the birth process. There were many things she knew of that would ease the pain and hasten delivery, but Tantari was unwilling to squander any of her knowledge on Shafali. She knew the woman's true colors, and concerned herself only with the welfare of the child.
Tantari believed that somehow, Shafali had tampered with nature's odds, putting her in favor bearing a son. That kind of power, Tantari knew, was not beyond Shafali, and that's what made her so dangerous.
A young girl came up to Tantari and bowed, "Ma'am, Madam Shafali has been calling for you."
"All right. I'm coming."
Shafali had been in labor for nearly two days and was not handling it well. It was her first pregnancy and Tantari vowed it would be the woman's last too. Shafali writhed and cursed. At the other midwives, at the Goddesses, and when she saw Tantari, at her as well.
"Where have you been?" she snarled.
Tantari didn't bother answering, she walked around the bed to peer between Shafali's drawn up knees.
Shafali snarled openly at the First Wife. Obviously disgusted by the intimacy of the examination, "get away from me, bitch."
Again Tantari ignored her. And although it did not show on Tantari's smooth coppery face, she was disgusted too.
"You're fully dilated." She reported blandly, "he should be crowning soon."
"You said that two hours ago!" Shafali growled through gritted teeth. Her bloodshot eyes fastened murderously on Tantari's own calm gaze, but the First Wife did not flinch away. She understood who Shafali wished were attending the birth in her place. The dark ones who gave her the power. Koume and Kotake, the old sorceresses. They disgusted Tantari as well.
Bending low so only Shafali could hear, Tantari whispered, "and you'll not be calling on those witches to help you, not here. This is a holy place. My place."
The two females locked challenging stares, but Shafali was forced to look away as another set of contractions hit her. Tantari stood by silently, counting seconds. She though of Ghabriel, and wondered if he was watching them. Where ever he was.
Judging the time to be right, Tantari looked down at Shafali again. Dark blood welled with clear liquid. It was finally time.
Tantari nodded to Shafali. "Here he is. Start pushing."
The whole process of birth had always amazed Tantari. Whether it was her own child coming into the world, or someone elses. To her, there was always a feeling of mystery. Holiness. Touching newborn flesh and looking into misty just-opened eyes, was to Tantari, like looking upon her Goddesses.
Shafali strained, her veins standing out like snakes beneath her damp skin. As the tension built, the midwives offered chanted prayers to Farore. Involuntarily, Tantari's lips moved with the ancient words. The old magic seemed to work and the tension broke as the child crowned.
An almost girlish cry of joy escaped Tantari; she was wiping his face quickly and turning the slippery body, helping his shoulders to ease out. The rest of the infant slip out with a pop, and Tantari could confirm it was truly a male. She held him up, still attached to the umbilical cord, so the others could see him. Their reactions were similar to hers- joy, and several of the girls ran out to spread the word through the Valley.
He was wet, bloody and coated with the waxy substance all newborns are. Tantari smiled down into his tiny face and whispered, "welcome, son of Ghabriel." In his curious amber eyes, she could indeed she the old king's reflection, and Tantari's heart contracted painfully.
As the other midwives attended Shafali, Tantari busied herself with the removal of the infant's naval stump. It was then she got a good look at him and realized that he was too thin and yellow, and his cry wasn't as strong as it should have been. Tantari glanced at Shafali who was smiling smugly, and she wondered what he had been exposed to.
It is said that while in the womb, a child knows everything the mother knows, feels everything she feels. Shafali never denied walking the Black Road, and apparently she had taken her son down along it with her.
Well, no more of that, Tantari thought as she gazed down at Ghabriel's last child. I'll protect you princeling.
"Give me my son." Shafali demanded from the bed.
Reluctantly, Tantari handed the newborn over. The satisfaction on the other woman's face came from no motherly love. Shafali's eyes gleamed with dark ambition. This child was her key to bringing the Gerudo Nation to its knees. This was the future Shafali envisioned as she looked at her son. This was his future.
"What will you name him?" Tantari asked, cutting into Shafali's dark reverie.
"Ganondorf." Shafali snapped.
Tantari balked slightly. Ganondorf? What an awful name, she thought, not even fully Gerudian. Ganon, she knew meant fair. Hardly a name for a Gerudo prince, soon to be king. But it was not her choice. With a last tender look at the infant boy, Tantari slipped out of the room, wanting nothing more than to be alone with her doubts.
Down deep in the heart of the Spirit Temple was the Mandrag Hin'inasa. Literally- the King's Tomb. It was the resting place of all the Gerudo's greatest kings. Each lay perfectly preserved by Gerudian mummification techniques in a crystal coffin. Only the First Wives of the Kings, eldest daughters, and high priestesses were allowed within the Mandrag Hin'inasa.
Tantari stood before the newest crystal box with moist eyes. Ghabriel looked as he did in life. His broad features still radiated the calm wisdom the Gerudo king had been known for. Tantari touched the crystal over his face. Seven months had not done much to diminish her heartache, but here with the man she had loved, Tantari felt peace.
"Ah, Gabe," she murmured. "You know you have a son. Ganondorf, Shafali's calling him." Tantari sighed and shook her head. "An ugly name it is. I wish you were here. Everything's changing, Ghabriel, and I don't like it at all. I thought I'd accepted decades ago that I'd out live you by centuries, but now...Now if it weren't for my promise to watch over this new one, I'd be rushing to join you. All our children are grown. Elisheba is an excellent leader and her little Nabooru will probably grow to be just as competent. I just don't feel like I belong here anymore."
Tantari leaned forward and rested her cheek on the cool crystal. A sensation of love and understanding filled her suddenly, making her understand that Ghabriel was still with her. She closed her eyes, but as she did, a soft wind blew across her cheek, like a puff of breath. Then a voice whispered into her ear.
"He needs you Tari."
Startled, Tantari sat up. She looked up at Ghabriel, but his face was still set in the peace of death. Confused, she glanced around the crypt, knowing no one else would be there.
"Tantari! Are you there?"
While, no one in the crypt could have possibly been calling her, a voice in the temple's upper chambers was. Tantari left the Mandrag Hin'inasa to find a young novice priestess waiting for her, not daring to enter the Tomb of the Kings.
"I'm here, what's wrong?"
The young girl's eyes were tearful. "It's the prince, madam. He is ailing!"
The trip back across the desert was the longest Tantari had ever known. With each step her dread increased, so did her anger. What if the prince died? Tantari would not let herself entertain that thought, for if he died, the entire Gerudo nation would die as well.
By the time she got back to the fortress, the sun was already skimming up over the horizon, painting everything with sickly shadows. Tantari's pace quickened to a run; she bolted past several pale and worried guards, not slowing until she reached Shafali's chambers.
A thin cry issued from the Third wife's rooms, and without a knock, or any pretense at all, Tantari burst in.
Shafali was holding the newborn out stiffly, her eyes glazed with the fervor of her spell casting. With her were the two hags, Koume and Kotake. The ozone smell of gathering dark power made Tantari reel, but her rage cleared her head. How dare they defile Ghabriel's legacy!?
"What are you doing!" She shouted as she stormed into the room. Her voice resounded in the small space like the thunder of the Goddesses, and the two hags scattered away to the shadows, surprised. Shafali nearly dropped Ganondorf in her shock.
Tantari scooped the babe up and held him defensively against her. He quieted and relaxed in her arms, seeming to sense her love.
"How dare you take my son!" Shafali screamed. Her thin arms lifted and Tantari felt Ganondorf being pried from her embrace. She tightened her arms about him and shouted back at Shafali, "and how dare you endanger the prince! He is not your pawn, Shafali! He is the future of our people!"
"He is my son!" The Third Wife yelled, "mine to rear as I see fit! He is destined for power!"
"Not your dark dealings!" Tantari retorted, "now that he is free of your dank womb, he is a child of light. I now know of all your terror, Shafali. I know of the Sheikan children that fell to your knife to sate your lust for power. I know more about you than I wish. Your crimes haunt me, those poor sacrificed children haunt me. But by Farore, Din and Nayru, you will not taint this one!"
Shafali leaned back, her face drawn up in a grimace. "You will regret ever saying those words." She growled.
"Hardly," the First Wife chuckled mockingly, "I could call in the Circle of Crones right now and tell them of your crimes, prove you are unfit to care for the prince. Then you would be cast out from our family. How long do you think a lone Gerudo would last away from the desert, among the other races that hate us?"
Shafali was silent turning all her treacherous plans over in her head. The valley was her base and source of power. She could not risk being exiled, not yet, not until she was stronger. Then she'd deal with this bitch Tantari as well. In fact, she thought, having another wean the brat would be favorable. It would give her more time to pursue her dark seekings.
Confident in this decision, the Third Wife turned a sour smile upon Tantari. "Fine you take the brat, but don't think this is the end of it."
Tantari simply nodded and walked out of the room with Ganondorf.
After the First Wife left, Koume and Kotake slithered out of the shadows.
"Foolish!" Kotake admonished Shafali.
"Yes," continued her twin, "what fun we could have had with him!"
"But you have ruined everything!" Kotake took up the dialog; "Tantari will not give him up now. What of our plans?"
Shafali sighed, irritated by the two crones. They gave her power, yes, but they could be maddening to deal with.
Everything still stands," She assured her dark mentors. "It will be twenty years before Ganondorf will take throne, that gives us plenty of time to... convert him. Let Tantari do the dirty work. I have no desire to spend my days changing diapers and cleaning spit-up from my shoulders."
"How long though?" Koume mused, "He will be infected fully by Tantari's light if we do not act quickly."
"Two years." The Third Wife promised the witches. "Two years, then we take him whether Tantari willing gives him up or not."
Kotake raised her sparse brows, "That one is strong, you will have to kill her before claiming Ganondorf."
A slow smile spread across Shafali's wan face, she reached down and pulled a curving knife from its concealment beneath her mattress. She held it up so the blade reflected the dim light in the room.
"This my friends," she announced, "has Tantari's name on it!"
Outside, the sun had fully cleared the horizon, filling the fortress and the courtyard with morning light. Tantari watched Ganondorf blink against the brightness. His small face creased with wonder and Tantari smiled. He was only hours old, yet he was so curious and alert. She shifted him in her arms and stood. After taking Ganondorf from Shafali, Tantari had climbed onto the roof to the place where she and Ghabriel had spent his last night together. There, she had held the new prince and began whispering the stories of his heritage to him. He'd slept peacefully through the First Wife's narrative, but Tantari's words reached the infant in his dreams and were locked away forever in his psyche.
Tantari walked easily through the compound; the guards on duty all stared with awe filled eyes at the babe in her arms. As she past, the soldiers bowed to the new prince reverently, and Tantari moved Ganondorf's blankets, giving his people a good look at their king-to-be.
At a door down a long corridor, Tantari stopped and knocked three times.
"Come in..." A raspy voice called out.
Tantari opened the door and entered the dim chambers with Ganondorf still in tow. An old Gerudo woman, at least 500 years old, sat at a small table. A red clay scrying bowl rested in her weathered hands. She looked up at Tantari and her little charge and grunted. "I was wondering when you'd be hauling the newest prince of diaper wetters down for my blessing."
Tantari grinned, Ganondorf made a little moue of annoyance at the crone and she chuckled.
"This is Ganondorf, Binah," Tantari said, holding the male child out. "Son of Ghabriel, the future 99th king of the Gerudo and-"
"I know that. But Goddess....What kind of a name is Ganondorf?" Binah asked while studying the prince.
"Shafali's choice," The First Wife shrugged and sat down with Ganondorf. She looked at the old Shaman; "I was disappointed that you were not present at his birth last night. We could have used you."
"You handled everything fine. It was not my place to interfere. Ganondorf is your son after all."
Tantari lowered her head. "So I was not wrong in taking him from Shafali?"
"Oh no. I know you have watched Shafali and learned of her. And through the months you have prayed and ached for this child. Even though he was not born of your body, the bond is sealed. He is yours now, as surely as Ghabriel would have wished."
The older woman smiled and took the infant. She looked deep into the child's eyes, then stood and lifted him up so the mornings light touched his face.
Binah hummed and muttered to herself all the while keeping Ganondorf's gaze. Her voice finally rose and she announced, "by the Three: Farore, Nayru, and Din. Maiden, Mother, and Crone. I give unto you this child and offer him up to the light of our world. May he hold true to the promise of his royal father, Ghabriel and his lady mother-" Here she looked at the First Wife and grinned. "Tantari. Blessed Be."
Binah lowered Ganondorf who was taking the ritual in with wide eyes. She laid him upon her lap and wetted her index finger. While muttering a litany of prayers, she drew a complex design of holy symbols upon the newborn's brow. Then she took a handful of white sand from her bowl and sprinkled a fine spray across the wet pattern. Ganondorf looked from Binah to Tantari as if to ask 'what?' The pattern began to glow faintly, forming the radiant sign of the Triforce. The glow intensified, flooding the room with white light. Both Tantari and Binah were stunned by this display of power. But then, the light became dimmer and sickly, tainted by a brackish green under-glow. Tantari tensed, ready to grab Ganondorf and protect him from this malevolent force. Before she could move, the white sand upon the infant's brow began to melt and burn. It turned into a black sludge that flowed into a new picture- The crescent moon and star- the emblem of the Gerudo. But this image was warped, upside down. Reversed to the left.
Ganondorf began to cry and Tantari was unable to endure anymore. She grabbed him up again and dashed away the damning symbols with her hand.
The room returned to normal and Binah and Tantari stared at each other.
"I have never seen that happen in all my 500 years." The old Shaman said lowly.
"Legends have been told of the Fallen Ones but I never-"
"What does it mean though?" Tantari demanded. She cuddled Ganondorf close, rocking him soothingly.
Binah rubbed her eyes and sighed. "It means he may already be lost to us. The Darkness is close, no matter what Ganondorf will always-"
"NO!" Tantari cried. "I cannot accept that! He is away from Shafali surely with time he will heal."
Binah shook her head mournfully, "there will always be a gap in his soul. You can protect him, and teach him to protect himself, but that hole will always be there. And through it evil may enter."
Tantari stared down at Ganondorf, he looked so peaceful now, so innocent and beautiful. A perfect miniature of the Gerudian ideal. She swallowed hard, trying to banish her fears.
"So now what?" She asked.
"Keep him away from Shafali, keep him close to you. Love him, let that bond protect him. In time..." Binah's voice droned on but Tantari was silent, reflecting back on Ghabriel's words. How she wished he was here with her to face this crisis. Ganondorf stirred in her arms and she looked down into his open, innocent face. Into the uncertain future of the Gerudo...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 3: Forward Two Years
Another night fell, and it was still hotter than hell. In the vast rooms of the Spirit Temple, the heat rose and shifted on a lazy current. Tantari watched Ganondorf, now almost two years old, playing on with floor with the little clay figurines she had molded for him. He paused and grinned up at her, and Tantari couldn't help but smile back. There was a magic about the child, no denying that. Powerful and strong, it crackled about him like heat lightening. Unseen, yet intense.
Such power frightened Tantari. But she loved her son, her Gahnee as she called him. A proper Gerudian name that meant wealthy. The strange power he possessed could not change that. It was her love and her fear that had forced her to play her direst hand. What she feared about the toddler's burgeoning magic was not the powers themselves; it was Shafali's discovery of them.
In the years since Ganondorf's birth, things had fallen apart. Shafali had taken control of the tribes and soon, members of the Circle of Crones, the Gerudian governing body, began to disappear. So did the remaining daughters of Ghabriel. Everyone who could challenge Shafali's claim to power was being murdered.
Not only was strife tearing the Gerudo apart from the inside, but Shafali had also mobilized armies to march on the Hylians and the Zoras. Communication with the Northern Palisades had stopped completely. Word from the Lower Walls was that the Sheikan city of Kakariko was little more than a ruin and the roads to the Palisades were all destroyed. The Gerudo race was being led to slaughter by a madwoman.
Tantari understood Shafali's strategy. It wasn't about conquering the Hylians or anyone. Not yet. What she was doing was using the excuse of war to whittle away all the strong young Gerudos who could oppose her. Those she could not kill outright, she would let the Hylians and their allies decimate
Tantari also knew she was next on Shafali's killing list. She knew it, and she knew without her, Ganondorf would be an open target. So far she had been able to banish his birth affliction of evil with her love and devotion. The little prince was growing strong and healthy. His body and soul unblemished now by Shafali's influence. The intelligence Tantari saw in his eyes gave her hope and everyday, she could see more and more of Ghabriel shining through his son.
To protect him, Tantari had done what she had hoped she wouldn't have to do. She had stolen him away from their people and hidden him away in the Spirit Temple. It was the safest place she could think of. A place guarded by the souls of ancient kings and...
BAM!
The noise shocked Tantari into ultra alertness. She had been drowsing out of sheer exhaustion brought on by the days of watching and waiting for Shafali to make her move. Only a few moments had passed but she cursed herself for a lazy fool, and scrambled up to hunt for her toddler.
I am too old for this, she mused as she peered into an antechamber. A small lump wiggled behind an old tapestry and Tantari snickered.
"Gahneeeeeee" She called sweetly. The lump shivered with the effort of keeping still and Tantari advanced, crouched into an attack stance. "Mandrag Ghabe-Ganondorf Dragmire, now come out this instant!" She ordered in a mock-stern voice, using his full title. A red head poked out from behind the tapestry and Tantari was assaulted by a gale of baby laughter.
"I have you!" She cried and pounced on him, hauling him up into the air and spinning about in dizzying circles. Ganondorf screeched happily and Tantari flipped him upside down then shook him playfully. All the tension of the last months drained from the woman and now she truly laughed.
"You know what happens to bad little kits!" She teased as she tickled him. "Yes you do!"
It was a moment of blissful relief for both mother and son. Their laughter echoed in the dim halls of the ancient temple, giving the somber place life. The ornamental mirrors reflected their capering dance, and if another person would have seen them, no one would have guessed that the child was borne of another darker being and destined for a life of black agony.
For now, Ganondorf clung to the only mother he cared to know as she swirled around the room in a parody of a fancy Hylian waltz. Tantari began to sing- rather badly- a shaky imitation of an east-lands ballad, and within a moment, the toddler prince was imitating her yowling verses.
Again Tantari laughed. Ganondorf had been slow to begin speech, but once he had, he had displayed an excellent ear for pitch and mimicry. He'd even been able to repeat long incantations and scripts almost word for word. Something odd for one so young, but Tantari figured Ganondorf.... Gahnee was an exceptional child.
Outside, the dust blew frantically across the hard stone courtyard. The lone figure did not wince from the wind; she bore it, not even aware that the sand stuck to her bared teeth.
Shafali could hear the laughter of her son and that bitch Tantari echoing out of the temple. It galled her. So much potential was being wasted on such stupidity. The foolish First Wife was as sentimental and soft as the dead king had been. The two years were up. It was time for Shafali to take back her own, and mold him into a conqueror. A pawn worthy of her expanding chessboard.
She touched the bag of bones at her side. Bones recently taken from a Hylian babe. That child's life essence had bought her enough power to transport to the temple. Shafali was confident there was enough left to deal with Tantari and be done with her. Shafali let her hand drift from the bag to the knife on her belt. She withdrew it and held it up to her eyes, seeing the reflection of the sickle moon in its bright blade. She smiled, and her smile was colder than the knife or the white light of the moon.
Silently, she entered the temple, the knife she had shown her mentors on the night of Ganondorf's birth clutched in her dry hand, her footsteps soundless on the sandstone floor.
Tantari slumped against a wall holding Ganondorf on her lap. Both were tired out after their play. He leaned heavily against her breast, still holding the clay people, and babbling in baby-Gerudian. "Manni makee noop cohr'la pu-uh uh uti choal...."
Tantari kissed his head and sighed. "I should start trying to teach you Hylian".
He looked up, "High yuuuuh leeeee in?"
"HYLIAN." Tantari corrected. "That's the language of this whole country. You're going to meet lots of people when you get big. And if you want to get on with them, you're going to have to speak properly."
"Speak proper now." Ganondorf offered, hopefully.
"You speak fine Gerudian now my prince." Tantari praised.
He regarded her with wide eyes, as if deciding something, then said, "noooo, speak now."
"What? You want to hear some Hylian words?"
"Hi yuh leee in"
Tantari thought for a moment, "All right, I'll tell you a story in Hylian."
Ganondorf settled down more comfortably in Tantari's arms and she searched her mind for the right words of the language she had learned so long ago, then began in the tongue of the east-lands:
"A long time ago, three goddesses came down and made our world...."
Tantari lulled Ganondorf to sleep with the old tales. Fables of days past, of history and heroes long gone. With his head tucked into the curve of Tantari's shoulder, the prince dreamed, oblivious to the darkness stalking the temple's halls. Tantari felt the warm breath of his sleeping sighs against her cheek and wondered how long they would be together. She would fight to save him; she would die to save him. And she had a sick feeling that it would come to that. She was tired of hiding, just tired, but she couldn't rest. Not while Shafali lived. In the quiet temple, lying in the place between the living and the dead, Tantari felt her fears for her son swell.
Her eyes burned from the effort from keeping them open, but Tantari's gaze did not waver. A soft hiss came from her side and she watched the stone shaped itself into a jackal golem. One of the sentries the First Wife had set.
"Mistressssss," its voice grated, "Ssshafali comesss..."
Tantari was on her feet and half out the doorway before the creature finished, but she whirled and spoke to it before she left, "you, Ramsa, and Carda hold her off, I must get Gahnee away."
"Yessss, mistresss," it uttered then sank into the floor again.
Tantari ran down to the entrance, hoping to beat Shafali, Ganondorf still slept, and Tantari was grateful for that. She was sure that if he began crying she would simply break down with him.
Shafali entered the room that only an hour ago had rung with the voices of Tantari and Ganondorf. She sniffed the air quizzically. Yes, they had been here. As she stepped forward, her boot crunched on something. It was one of the prince's clay dolls. She picked it up and grinned. Close, so close...
There was a hiss and a growl behind her and Shafali spun to see stone monsters, a jackal, a snake, and a vulture, emerge from the ground and rush at her. She screamed and flailed about with her knife. It only nicked the stone and dulled the blade. Her hands found the snakes body and twisted. The stone animal struck and bit, but her black magic enveloped the thing and it snapped like dry wood. The Jackal leapt at her throat and the two went down. Shafali felt her ribs bruise beneath the rock. Jagged teeth scrapped her neck and she brought both hands out to lock on the beast's chest. She cried out a spell and the stone withered beneath her touch. As she rolled to her feet, the vulture slashed at her face, it's talons ripped her left cheek open. She grunted and reached up to her cheek to stem the blood. With a swift movement she flicked the bloody hand at the incoming bird, the droplets elongated and turned into black crystal. They pierced the stone vulture's eyes and sent shockwaves of black energy over its body. It fell with a muffled explosion then blasted apart in a million pieces.
Shafali spat on the stone corpses and moved on, more confidant. If this was the extent of Tantari's powers, this fight was already over. Their scent was still strong and she followed it, breaking into a run until she came to the temple entrance. She stood at the steps and frowned. Tantari was tricky but not that fast. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a movement from behind a rock. She was right, Tantari wasn't that fast.
Tantari hadn't expected Shafali to deal with her golems that fast. Goddesses, she prayed. Take me and take her, but leave my babe.
Her final prayer finished, Tantari turned and waited, Ganondorf still clutched to her hip. There was no point in running any farther. Shafali would always catch them. It was time to stand and let fate show its hand.
There was no beginning barbs or taunts, Shafali lurched out of the temple like demon, summoning her powers as she ran. A black orb of energy materialized in her hands and she hurled it at Tantari. It struck the first wife and stunned her, holding her in place. She struggled, trying to at least free Ganondorf from the power's hold, but it was no use. Shafali was coming towards them, smiling almost amiably.
"I want my son back." She said in a tone that matched her smile. "If you give him to me, you can go."
"Don't lie to me Shafali, you do it badly and look stupid doing it." Tantari retorted sharply.
Rage danced across Shafali's red rimmed eyes, "I said give him to me!" She screamed as she lunged forward, knife in hand. Tantari found the strength to roll away and toss Ganondorf to the side. Shafali saw her chance and grabbed for the boy but Tantari was up and kicking her in the back. "Get away from here Gahnee." She ordered the prince. Shafali rose from the sand, "no my precious son, come here, manni wants to see you."
Little Ganondorf stared at both women, one a monster he only remembered in nightmares, and the other who had raised and loved him. He started moving away.
Shafali growled, "He'll heed you no longer!" She dove at Tantari who side stepped and delivered another kick, followed by a swift punch to the gut. Shafali winced; perhaps this was not going to be as easy as she thought. Her arms raised and she called upon her unearthly energies. The burst of power struck the First Wife, knocking her into the sand. She gagged on the putrid taste Shafali's magic brought to the air. Vaguely, she felt a kick connect to her stomach, once then twice, but she was staring at rock sheltering Ganondorf. Strength, Ghabriel, give me strength.
Her heart and mind focused on one thing: her son. As Shafali reared her foot back for another kick, Tantari rolled around and caught it, dragging the Third Wife to the ground with her. Biting and clawing furiously at each other, they grappled on the hard-caked sand. Their blood flowed freely between them.
On the ground, in hand to hand combat, Tantari held the upper hand. At one point her hands were on Shafali's neck, then it was reversed. The ground seemed to shake beneath them as the struggle wore on. But then Shafali gained enough space to unleash her black magic and the tide of the battle turned. Tantari was aware of what hung in the balance, she fought like a wild thing, but Shafali's power was overwhelming. The Dark power was crippling, sapping Tantari's life from her. It fed on her will and latched into her agonizingly.
Shafali dealt her a blinding punch to the head, cracking the First Wife's skull. Tantari knew she was losing, knew it and fought even harder. From the corner of her blood filled eye, she saw Ganondorf watching, petrified. I love you so, she thought hazily. Shafali delivered another shattering blow and Tantari felt her world collapsing. She struck out blindly and knocked Shafali away. The Third Wife forgotten, she crawled to toward Ganondorf. Praying for him with her remaining shreds of her consciousness.
Shafali watched her crippled enemy crawl on her belly with relish. Drawing it out before the final blow. When she was sure her prodigal son had a good view, she brought her locked hands down on Tantari's head. She felt the skull crush under her fists and saw Tantari lay still. Victory. After 2 long years. Shafali looked from Tantari's corpse to where Ganondorf hid, trembling and pale. She smiled and walked to him holding out her hands, "now come here my little one." She held out the clay doll she found in the temple. "Come here and you can have this back."
In the dust, Tantari stirred. She opened her eyes and watched the demoness stalking her child. Her child...
Ganondorf stared at his birth mother, horrified. His young instincts told him she was bad. She smelled bad, looked bad. Her teeth glittered like a viper's and he felt himself being charmed, the way a snake can charm it's prey. He took a hesitant step forward then stopped, wide-eyed. Behind Shafali was Tantari, bloody and beaten but alive. Ganondorf smiled at her and Shafali turned just in time to see the First Wife bear down on her. "YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"Just die already!" Shafali screamed angrily and ripped her knife out. It sank into Tantari's chest, but the pain was distant. Tantari was only focused on her grip about Shafali's neck. She steeled herself and twisted with her very soul. The snap of the Third Wife's neck was audible, and then her limp body fell. Her lips moved in a silent curse, then were still. Such an anticlimax to a life built on evil promises.
Tantari slumped to her knees and pulled the knife out. Her blood ran out freely and she knew her life was truly at its end. But somehow, that was all right, because Shafali was dead. Ghannee was safe. Her mission was accomplished.
Ganondorf knelt beside her, hugging her, trying to get her up. "Come on manni, he begged her, "come on."
"No, I can't" she whispered. "You'll be all right, you're my son. I love you. Don't forget me. Someday..." She smiled at him and touched his face. Then closed her eyes.
The next morning, scouts from the fortress found the bodies of Shafali and Tantari in the courtyard of the temple. They also found Ganondorf nestled against Tantari's corpse. He barely reacted when they called to him, and they feared he was dead also. Finally he had to be picked up and carried away.
The women wept over Tantari and kicked sand over Shafali. They left her in the desert for the vultures, but wrapped Tantari up and loaded her onto a horse.
Ganondorf was silent; the scout given charge of him was a woman named Naomi who had a daughter his age. She had been a friend of Tantari's and she was very tender to the boy who had been her son. But the prince was silent, inanimate.
At the fortress, the returning party was met by Koume and Kotake. The two witches knew that Shafali was dead. In fact they had foreseen it, but well, forgot to let her know. What a pity. They chuckled, what a pity. Life and death and life again. So turns the wheel of destiny. And the sisters knew Ganondorf's destiny had no place for either Tantari or Shafali.
When Naomi dismounted with the prince, Koume reached out her scraggly hands.
"Let us look after him," she said slyly.
"Yes," Kotake chimed in, "it's what his mother would have wanted....."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 4: Sage Woman
"Hey," a voice called to Tantari through a black haze. "Lady, you're going to have to get up. I know being dead is a pisser but it's only your physical body that died. Trust me I know."
Tantari opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the colossus. The sun was setting and it backlit the spirit temple with scarlet fire. It was so beautiful, the First Wife felt her eyes sting, then she remembered the events of the last 5 hours. She was dead, Shafali was too and Ganondorf was- She sat up and looked around frantically. Where was Ghanee? Her head whipped around to the left and she saw another woman sitting on a bolder, watching her with curious black eyes. A hand rolled cigarette dangled from her long fingers and the smoke drifted lazily upwards.
Tantari stumbled backwards a step, this woman was a Hylian...or a Sheikah perhaps. With her pale skin and short black hair, Tantari couldn't be sure. "Who are you?" She asked, "how did you get here and what..." Her voice shook, "what happened?"
"M' name's Parapa," The other woman answered as hopped off her rocky seat and came forward. "I was sent here to collect you now that you've gone over."
"So I am dead." Tantari said softly. "I was hoping my husband or my mother would be the one to meet me."
A look of sympathy touched Parapa's ivory features, "I know, that's what I thought to. But the thing is you aren't really dead, not the way most people die. See, now you're a spirit, an elemental, take a look around and tell me what you see."
Tantari obeyed and realized that the world looked different to her eyes. The colors appeared muted and lifeless, but other spirits unseen by the living, were going about their business. The world of the living seemed dull and gray, but the world of the spirits was alive and humming. Every rock and grain of sand shone with it's own light. Each cloud and gust of wind laughed and chittered, blowing by Tantari with purpose. When she turned and looked back at the colossus and it's twin formation, the Vision Rock, Tantari was almost blinded by the radiance of their spirits. Awe filled Tantari, here was the world she had always sought and had always hoped to see, the world stripped of all material illusions. She just hadn't wanted to die to see it.
"I don't understand." Tantari said, "why is this happening? What are you?"
"Well," Parapa began. "There's this place called the Sacred Realm-
"I know that."
"Yeah, who doesn't? But there's these folks called sages too, there's the elemental sages- fire, forest, spirit and so on. Then there's the sages of alchemy- beauty, knowledge, the fool-that's me." Parapa grinned sweetly. "You see, Tantari, you're the Sage of Medicine. It's your job to keep the unwashed masses of Hyrule from killing themselves with junk like leeches and eating mercury as a birth-control. We all have a sacred task. Mine's to keep the world from getting to serious. Kasuto's is to keep the world from getting to stupid. Coraliss' is to keep the world from getting to ugly, an so on and on and on."
Tantari couldn't help it, she started laughing. It was so utterly ridiculous, the whole story. Parapa waited patiently for the hysteria to subside. She understood well enough the oddity of the situation. Five years ago she'd been in Tantari's place. "You all right?" She asked Tantari, and that question brought forth a new explosion of insane laughter from Tantari. All right? Obviously nothing was ever going to be all right again.
"We have to leave whenever you're finished." Parapa breathed, dragging on her cig. "Damn desert. Already I can feel my skin peeling."
Tantari straightened up and gave the Hylian a sideways glance. "Didn't you just say you're a spirit? You don't have skin anymore, I don't have skin anymore.... Goddess, this is going to take some getting used to..." She wiped a hand over her face and paused, realizing she could see through it as if her flesh was no more than thin leever parchment.
Parapa patted her shoulder and oddly enough it produced a sensation. "First lesson," the girl said. "Creatures, live critters of the flesh can't hurt us...." She paused, "well unless they're knowing magick. But it's the shadows and boogies, our dark brothers and sisters that govern the less savory parts of the unseen world that you have to watch out for. Spirits can hurt spirits. And the dark ones HATE us."
Tantari nodded slowly. In an odd way it made sense, and her mind wandered back to Shafali. What happened to her spirit? Was she now one of these dark spirits that Parapa was chattering about?
"We should go now," the Hylian girl was saying. "There's others- especially Rauru- who are keen to meet you. You're a part of our big happy family now." She pinched her cig out, grinning. Then she shouted a stream of words, a fast slick sentence in Hylian, and a pale green-glowing portal materialized before them. She made a polite gesture and said giddily, "after you o queen of the desert and mistress of Medicine."
A new life was waiting beyond that softly luminous doorway. A new life far away from this place of heartbreak, a safe place maybe. And if Parapa was any indication, the folks there might not be to bad either. But Tantari knew she couldn't step through that doorway, not yet anyhow.
"I can't go." Tantari said.
"WHAT!?" Parapa wheeled around so fast, Tantari instinctively ducked. "Oh, but you have to!"
"I can't, not until I know Ganondorf is safe."
A horrible look contorted Parapa's face, "oh no, Hell." She sighed. "Tantari, there's something you should know about the kid."
Terror crept up Tantari's spine and roosted in her skull. If something had happened to Ghanee, then that was it. She wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't worth it anymore. "What, what? Is he all right?" She clutched at Parapa almost desperately for any knowledge of her son.
"Physically, yeah, he's fine. But, " Parapa tapped her temple, "here is the problem. He's a bomb waiting to go off, Tantari. Not you, not any one can, or could stop it. It's how it's written."
The memory of the night of Ganondorf's birth, of the burning sand upon his brow came slamming back to Tantari. She wanted to deny it, and scream to the sky that it wasn't true. But she just stared at Parapa's earnest face and found no trace of falsity there.
"I have to go back to the Fortress." she muttered, "I'm sorry but..."
"I'm coming with you." Parapa announced. "Rauru said to bring you, but he didn't say anything about detours along the way. Let's go and I'll fill you in some more on the way..."
The two sages floated along the desert, it wasn't really walking, Tantari noticed. Her feet didn't exactly touch the ground now, they rather slid over it-or through it. Parapa chattered away, her voice might have been annoying, but Tantari found it flowed over her senses like cold water. The girl had the grace and drama of a born story teller. "...The Goddesses, they're failing." Parapa said as they passed the first marker flags. Tantari noticed a spirit glancing back from inside the battered wood post and felt awe anew at the world unveiled. "You know the three make up all of creation. One creates it, one puts it to use and the other destroys the overspill, so there's not overpopulation and suchlike. Din the lady of Power was the destroyer. But see, in recent years she's gone a little...crazy." Parapa finished in a small whisper. Tantari noticed a flicker of fear or sadness within her eyes.
"Din can't be crazy." Tantari admonished Parapa dryly. "Why-"
"Oh think about it." Parapa returned, " all the recent wars, the death and killings. It's true if you think about it."
Tantari frowned and let herself think about it, as unpleasant as the ideas that popped into her head were. "I always was taught that Din is the creatress of our planet and Hyrule Not a destroyer."
"She is! But the thing is she...well she creates by destroying. I thought this was the type of thing you Gerudos were really up on." Parapa smiled faintly.
Tantari made no comment, just kept frowning. "What does this have to do with Ganondorf, and me?"
"Because of her...questionable mentality, Din is nearing the end of her godhood. Within at least 600 years she will be discarded and a new deity will take her place as the Patron of Power. The Powers that Be decided it was time to pick a new God. 600 years is a pittance of a time to them." Parapa let her words hang in the quiet desert and stared hard at Tantari. "And let me tell you, they're not interested in no merciful god either."
The full weight of Parapa's words struck Tantari.
"You can't be serious."
"No I'm not, most times...." Parapa agreed. "But this is real. Your son is bound to be the holder of the Triforce of Power and the eventual successor of Din."
A deep gulf of new understanding opened within Tantari. The possibilities, the fear and astonishment of what Parapa was implying. The First Wife had known Ganondorf was special
Known he was the future King of the Gerudo.
But a god?
"It sounds grand, being the avatar of Power, but the way is madness. It requires madness. To be-- to take up the mantle of the Destroyer, the Chaos Bringer. "Parapa paused her babbling to search for words. She wished she were Rauru with all his religious fervor, or Kasuto with all his dry worldliness. She was just a Fool who only had a vague idea of the cosmology's hidden agendas and power plays. Her heart ached for Tantari who must suffer for this little knowledge. To know the child she had nursed and loved as her own was essentially the Apocalypse embodied.
"Why Ganondorf." Tantari finally asked hollowly. "Why him?"
Parapa didn't know the answer to the question, she just looked Tantari in the face and said, "I can't say, there are others better suited to this task than I."
"It's just impossible..." Tantari said. "The Goddesses are forever. They can't just...die. Can they?"
Parapa gazed at the looming shelf of red rock that cradled the Gerudo's fortress. "Nothing's forever, Tantari. Open your eyes."
The scene awaiting them at the fortress disturbed Tantari. Her kinswomen were gathered in the courtyard, eyes weary and bleak. Then Tantari realized they mourning for her. A pain of guilt welled within her, she saw her friend Naomi holding her daughter Rohana, looking disconsolate. The warm glow of their life-lights made Tantari's eyes water. The gentle, feather light touch of Parapa's hand on her shoulder startled her. The Hylian's dark eyes were full of sympathy.
"They must've loved you well." She said softly.
Tantari nodded bleakly and walked on into the fortress with Parapa trailing behind, curious of the Gerudo artifice. Tantari moved with the sureness born of living almost 100 years in the building. The complex was a madman's dream of labyrinth twists and turns. The rooms and corridors strikingly intricate, and at the same time sparse. An intruder would be forever lost in these winding hallways, Parapa noted.
The hall Tantari chose became more elaborate in furnishings and decor. The sandstone walls glowed in the light of fine beeswax candles. Lines and lines of crude, yet beautiful pictograms had been carved into the wall and the light made the figures dance. Sandalwood and patchouli made the air warm with fragrance. These were the royal's chambers.
"This is where I and my husband, his two other wives, concubines and the king's children lived." Tantari told Parapa as they descended deeper into the fortress. "I pray that I may find Ghanee here."
"Why do you call him that?" Parapa asked, genuinely curious.
A hint of a smile tugged at Tantari's mouth as she remembered the night Ganondorf was born. "Shafali named him Ganondorf but it is not a truly Gerudo name. The 'dorf' is an old suffix. But I know Ganon is an old Hylian word." She looked briefly at Parapa, noting her paleness again. It was most unbecoming.
The Hylian grinned unabashed. "A poor name for a Gerudo lad. Ganon means fair."
"Yes, and Ghanee is a good Gerudo name, it means wealthy. It's close enough."
The pair rounded a corner and entered into the wives' chambers. Then Tantari froze and Parapa just stared. There were the hags, Koume and Kotake, and there was Shafali's withered body spread out on a table.
"Foolish wench." Kotake admonished the body. "Foolish and-"
"Stupid!" Koume supplied. "Stupid stupid stupid! Oh yes wonderful! Let her die, forget we need a nurse maid for the brat-"
"Now we have to expend our energies to revive her."
Tantari forgot about the Hylian and ran to the table. "NO!" She shouted at the old witches. "Oh no..." Of course Koume and Kotake didn't here her, they were already lining up components for the resurrection spell along the body. She glared at her enemy's corpse and tried to grab it, but her hands passed through as if she had merely dipped them in water. Parapa skidded up to her side and grabbed her arm. "THAT'S Shafali?"
"That's her."
"Oh Kotake," Koume called as she dug around for some ingredient, "do you feel a draft?"
"Yeah you bitches, it's ME!" Tantari muttered as she paced the room.
"Ah...no" Kotake returned, "but do we have any more powdered rat caul?"
This charming conversation went on for awhile then the two got down to business. Koume began chanting lowly while Kotake mixed together the evil smelling potion in a copper bowl. Tantari was powerless to halt their dark ritual; she stood with clenched fists, battling her urge to run as far away from the scene as possible. Parapa bit her lip in frustration and looked from the hags to Tantari for some idea of what to do.
"Umaria...conijac....retia...retalia..." Koume droned on, calling on the powers of the undead and the damned. "Umian..icares...droiash..." Kotake joined in as she lifted Shafali's battered head and poured the black liquid down her throat. Streams of it drooled down Shafali's cracked lips, but most of it went down her gullet. The body twitched once then stilled.
Both witches took up the chanting, one on either side of the table grasping Shafali's hands. Despite the warmth and light of the day, the room suddenly became dark. A gust of cold wind blew through, making Tantari and Parapa shuddered. Their spirit eyes saw what was riding that wind. The demons and darklings that lurk just beyond the light of the elemental plane. The wraiths and nightmares, boogies and incubi. All the things that made up mortal fear seemed to heed the witches call. They swirled about Shafali's body, laughing and chattering madly. They recognized her as one of them and danced across her body, flickering their greasy light over it, giving it animation once more.
Shafali stirred again and moaned, Kotake cackled but was shushed with a pinch from her twin. The demons continued their dance, one large shadow broke away and breathed its rancid breath into Shafali. She coughed and retched up the witches' potion then sat up, alive again.
Tantari stormed forward, and it was then that the demons saw her. The big one whose breath awakened Shafali leapt at her, but she batted it away easily. They swarmed upon her, seeking to rend her ghostly form. Without any hesitation, Parapa jumped into the fray, swinging her small, hard fists in a confusing pattern of blows that sent many of the lesser demons scurrying.
Koume and Kotake realized their spell was being interrupted and began shouting strings of spells to bring the demons back under their command. It wasn't working.
Tantari swatted the interfering demons away, intent on only the one who had awakened Shafali. It shrieked at her and raked her with it's cold claws, causing Tantari to duck away. She slid through the table and through Shafali, gagging as she momentarily merged with her enemy. The demon followed her while the others fled the destructive force of Parapa. Tantari turned and face the wraith over Shafali's listless body. She lived but her eyes were still dead, devoid of the malicious spark that once lit them. The two spirits tangled, Tantari and the demon, light and dark collided and the room filled with flashes of supernatural energy. She dragged it away from Shafali, "No, no, no..." she panted doggedly. "I won't let you bring her back, not now, not ever."
Her shadowy nemesis surged and threw her off then bolted for Shafali once again. With a cry of helpless despair, Tantari threw herself at it, dragging it to the floor and pinning it beneath her.
Demons are nothing if not opportunistic. One of the lesser boogies saw it's chance and squirmed away from Parapa. Gleefully, it swarmed over the sprawled and struggling forms of Tantari and the big demon. Parapa dove after it, but it's tentacles slid through her hands. She swore and it whooped maniacally and let itself be sucked into Shafali's body, merging its psychotic essence with her own half-life. The demon pinned beneath Tantari screamed helplessly cheated of its host. It flared off its dark energy and disappeared back into the shadow realm. The other shades and wraiths followed, it riding that dark wind back to their hell hole plane.
Shafali was sitting up looking dazed; the demon that infested her was obviously not very bright. Tantari groaned and cursed, "son of a..." she swore, "This is wonderful." Her disembodied hands curled into misty fists.
Koume and Kotake were still recovering from the strain of opening the portal to the demon's world. They looked at each other than Shafali. Things had not gone as planned, but still she might make a decent puppet. That was all Shafali had ever been, a mere link in the chain.
"Shafali?" Kotake asked hesitantly.
The cold, dead eyes of the Third Wife turned on the witch and she shuddered. The expression in them was not alive, sane nor humane. "Yes...?" Shafali drawled in a icy voice. "What do you command?"
All Tantari and Parapa could do was share a despairing look.
Days passed, and Tantari had to resign herself to the fact that she could do nothing. She watched Ganondorf, watched him every second of the day. He was so different from the happy child she had raised, most of his time he spent staring sadly into space or playing halfheartedly with the clay dolls Tantari had made. He didn't cry, Tantari realized with pride, but he didn't smile or laugh either anymore. Even when he was occasionally put with the other babies, Ganondorf remained somber and it broke Tantari's heart. She reached out to him constantly, trying to hold him with nonexistent arms, tried to hold him against a ghostly breast.
Koume and Kotake's treatment of him was negligible, most times they acted as if Ganondorf was not there at all. Tantari could live with that, but it was Shafali's continuous abuse of him that drove her half-mad with frustration.
The demon that was infesting Shafali's rotten, half-dead brain, was the sadistic sort. It seemed to have awakened the Third Wife's own cruel tendencies. Her fists were fast, tongue sharp. And Tantari was the helpless spectator to the brutal treatment of her beloved child. She wept and sought to comfort him, to nurse the bruises and pain, but the limitations of spirit and flesh made her a mere shadow in her son's world.
"I can't bear this," she finally confided in Parapa.
The Hylian sage had been waiting for Tantari to make her decision. The Sacred Realm was calling, and the call was getting louder and more insistent everyday.. Parapa had spent her time watching the Gerudo, and she was beginning to understand a few things. Two tiny girls had caught her attention. Both, Parapa came to know, were nobles- according to the Gerudo hierarchy. And both were destined to be brides of Ganondorf at some far away time.
The eldest, Parapa learned, was a little ruby eyed chit named Rohana. The other, was the daughter of the Mistress of Arms and called Nabooru. The children fascinated Parapa. Here was a tiny version of the Triad right here. Power, Courage and Wisdom. Young Ganondorf obviously was destined for Power, but where did the other two fit in?
It was a piece of the puzzle Parapa was willing to let alone for now.
"Then come with me, to the Sacred Realm." Parapa implored. "There's nothing you can do for Ganondorf now. If you come with me, there may be a chance that someday....someday you can help redeem him."
"I can't leave him." Tantari whispered. "I love him."
"I'm sorry. But Tantari, you're already dead to him here and now."
For a long while, Tantari sat unresponsive. The world was moving on without her and it was time to catch up.
She looked up at last and met Parapa's eyes, "all right, let's go to the Sacred Realm."
The two moved into the courtyard because according to Parapa, she need space to open the portal ("I'm no good at it yet." She'd muttered to Tantari). Tantari was silent, withdrawn. Her eyes swept the expanse of her home and she wondered if she'd ever see it again. On that came the inevitable: would she ever see Ghanee again? Her throat threatened to close up with bitter sorrow, and she instead focused on Parapa.
"Are you ready?" The Hylian asked.
"Yes."
Parapa made a few slightly ridiculous looking gestures while chanting nonsense. The pale green portal opened again and this time, Tantari was the first one through. A step forward into her new life.
Water. It was the sensation that met Tantari's eyes and ears. Walls made of water, blue and white and shimmering. She looked around and saw shadowy figures lurking just behind the strange water facades. Am I truly, truly dead now? She thought, am I dreaming?
Welcome, Tantari, Sage of Healing!" A commanding voice sounded out through the odd aquatic stillness. "Be welcome, says I, Rauru, the Sage of Light."
A platform appeared in the blue nothingness, glowing golden. An elderly Hylian man wearing regal robes and a large graying mustache stood on it. He smiled reassuringly and made a motion toward her.
"We all welcome you," he continued. "Here now, are your fellow sages..."
"Kasuto, the Sage of Knowledge." A tall, dark haired Sheikah man appeared beside Rauru and bowed gracefully to Tantari.
"Moruge, the Sage of Emotion." Another figure materialized. This one was a hefty Goron with dark, angry eyes. He glared at Tantari, then nodded differentially.
"Coraliss, the Sage of Beauty." A willowy female Zora with skin the palest shade of azure blue, shimmered into being beside the Goron. She smiled prettily, yet smugly.
"Birche, the Sage of Compassion," A tiny Kokiri boy appeared wearing green and brown. A fairy hovered over his shoulder. He grinned and waved shyly at Tantari.
"And you know Parapa, the Sage of Fools. Here, we are the Alchemical Sages."
Parapa wasted no time on being subtle. She bounded up to Tantari, grinning, and led her into the embrace of her new family. And for the first time since her physical body had died, Tantari felt hope. Hope for the future, and hope for Ganondorf.
By cade
Rating : PG13
Author's Note: Like the Future's Children upload, this isn't new, just a compounding of the previous chapters. This is my last hurrah folks, so if anyone wants to take up Dragmire's Chronicles, please e-mail me! Lot's of thanks to everyone who r/r-ed the individual chapters! Thanks so much! Have a happy New Year everyone!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 1: Long Live the King
He was dying; there was no doubt about it. He could feel himself fading away as his soul flowed into the son Shafali was carrying. His time was at its end. In fact, he was almost certain that tonight was his last night. He had come out here, to the roof of the Gerudo Fortress to say goodbye to it all. The stars and moon had never been more radiant to his eyes; it seemed as if they had come out to bid him farewell.
Ghabriel Dragmire was not sad or afraid to face death. All his life he'd known this day would come. It was just the way of things. The old giving away for the new. It was something he had accepted a long time ago. Soon, his son would be born, and someday he would take Ghabriel's place as king of the Gerudo. Ghabriel wished he would be able to guide the boy, to help mold him into a good king. But that was not the Gerudo's way. When a new male child was born, the father would pass on, but his spirit would remain with the child. This way, the new king would inherit his forefather's knowledge and wisdom. Ghabriel wondered if that was enough.
There was one thing troubling him though, and that was concerning his son's mother. Ghabriel had lived through Hyrule's brutal civil wars, and in those dark years before the peace was called, he'd seen a lot of ugliness. But never had he met anyone with a soul as black and corrupt as Shafali's. Looking at her was like looking at a rose infested with crawling maggots.
To be sure, she was beautiful, but there was something about the woman that awoke a quiet fear within Ghabriel. He never would have married her, but the oracles said she was the one who would produce a son. There hadn't been much of a choice.
He heard a sound behind him and turned to see his first and most beloved wife, Tantari, watching him. Seeing her made him smile. They had been wed for so long, Ghabriel couldn't exactly remember when he'd ever been without her.
Tantari sat beside Ghabriel and put her arm around him. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Just enjoying the night." He smiled down at her, "it's nice to hear quiet for once."
"When I woke up and you were gone... I started thinking all kinds of things." She shook her head and grinned in a shame faced way. "Silly, isn't it?"
"No, it's not."
Tantari looked away from him, letting her gaze rest upon the moon washed desert. In the distance stood the Colossus, the great temple and tomb of the Gerudo. The resting place of all the past kings. Tantari thought of how soon Ghabriel would be laying among them, and she sighed softly.
"Are you all right?" Ghabriel asked after hearing Tantari's sigh.
"Yes, yes... Fine. Are you?"
"Well considering everything, I feel pretty good actually."
She thought for a moment then asked, "you're not sad to be... Leaving, are you?"
He took her hand gently, "I'm not leaving, Tari. I'm dying. You can say it, it's not a bad word."
Tears pooled in Tantari's amber colored eyes before she could blink them away. "It's not the right one though, not for you."
"Maybe not. But no, I'm not sad. I've been here long enough, almost a hundred years now. I'm just tired, that's all."
She wiped her eyes quickly, unwilling to give in to her grief yet. "I suppose. What a hundred years it's been though, eh?"
"Yes." Ghabriel mused thoughtfully, "several wars, a tentative peace..."
"A deal with the Sheikahs, new trade agreements with the Zoras." Tantari added, "colonization of the Northern Palisades, better education so no one can say were stupid thieves. The restoration of the Spirit Temple. Two happy wives and twenty-one beautiful children."
Ghabriel's smile faded, "and my one big mistake." He uttered lowly.
"Shafali." Tantari said and it wasn't a question.
"Yes. Proof that the Goddesses enjoy irony. You should be carrying my son. Not that harlot. I don't like her, I don't trust her, and I don't trust her with my precious son." The dying king grasped both his wife's hands and looked at her intently. "Please Tantari, promise me you'll look after him for me. Promise me you'll protect him from her."
Tantari stared at Ghabriel, shocked. She had never liked Tantari either, but he had all but declared her as evil. Dumbly she nodded and Ghabriel relaxed.
"Good. That is a relief to me. Now I can rest peacefully. Do you mind if I..?" He motioned to her lap.
She smiled and reached out to him, "be my guest."
Ghabriel lay his head against Tantari's belly and felt her arms tight around him. If there truly was a reward after death, Ghabriel wasn't sure what it would be like there. But this, he was certain, was what it would feel like.
He looked up at her. "Was it always so obvious you were my favorite?"
"No," Tantari said then hesitated. "Well, maybe."
There was no need for further embellishment upon there relationship. No need for quivering lipped 'I love yous'. Both knew it, both felt it.
"Could you do one more thing for me?" Ghabriel asked suddenly.
"Of course."
"Could you sing that song for me, the one you always sang our children when they were little. I'd like to hear it once more."
Tantari swallowed hard and nodded. She searched her memory for the words then began-
*"Sleep my love in the cool of night,
the stars will come out and give their light.
Between the river of stars and the river of sand,
The Goddess shall hold you in her hand..."
Tantari looked down at Ghabriel. His eyes were closed. She knew he could probably no longer hear her. Tears ran freely down her face as she struggled to continue.
"Let your dreams take you to the Land of Gold,
where your every joy will lie untold.
And in the morning when you wake..."
Here Tantari faltered. In the morning Ghabriel would not wake. She felt him exhale, then waited for the sound of inhalation.
And waited.
And there was none.
Ghabriel Dragmire, king of the Gerudo was dead. A tiny smile softened his broad face. He was at peace.
Tantari did not fly into a fit of sobbing and wailing. The grief had left her too weak for that. Instead she simply bent and kissed Ghabriel's still brow.
"I'll always love you my king," she whispered. "Wait for me in the Blessed Land."
In the room below, a lone woman sat in the dark listening. Shafali put a hand to her belly and laughed silently. Old King Fool was dead! Ghabriel the foolish, Ghabriel the pacifist, who had no idea of true power, was gone! Now was her time. From the shadows the twisted figures of two old women joined her. Koume and Kotake, mistresses of the Black Arts. Together, they celebrated the king's death.
And the child within Shafali's black womb stirred nervously.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 2: Heart's Son
Night fell over Gerudo Valley but it was still hotter then Hell. Tantari, widowed First Wife of King Ghabriel, stood in the shadows off the fortress, trying to cool off. A full moon smiled down upon her and the Gerudo woman was not surprised. According to the beliefs of her people, only events of great importance took place under a full moon. Like the birth of a future king.
Inside the close chambers, Shafali, third and most despised wife of the late Ghabriel, labored. Tantari pitied her not. In the society of the Gerudo, Tantari carried more status than Shafali. Both had been married to the king, yet he had only wed Shafali on the words of an oracle. Tantari he had cherished, Shafali was only a vessel to carry the valuable son. Ghabriel had not had a choice. Without a new male, the Gerudo blood would thin and run dry. The king hadn't liked or trusted Shafali. Before his death he had confided in Tantari and told her his worst fears of what Shafali might to do his last child. And Tantari who had seen both Ghabriel's wisdom and Shafali's wickedness before, had no reason to doubt her husband's words.
Being the only one present with any medical skills, Tantari was required to help Shafali throughout the birth process. There were many things she knew of that would ease the pain and hasten delivery, but Tantari was unwilling to squander any of her knowledge on Shafali. She knew the woman's true colors, and concerned herself only with the welfare of the child.
Tantari believed that somehow, Shafali had tampered with nature's odds, putting her in favor bearing a son. That kind of power, Tantari knew, was not beyond Shafali, and that's what made her so dangerous.
A young girl came up to Tantari and bowed, "Ma'am, Madam Shafali has been calling for you."
"All right. I'm coming."
Shafali had been in labor for nearly two days and was not handling it well. It was her first pregnancy and Tantari vowed it would be the woman's last too. Shafali writhed and cursed. At the other midwives, at the Goddesses, and when she saw Tantari, at her as well.
"Where have you been?" she snarled.
Tantari didn't bother answering, she walked around the bed to peer between Shafali's drawn up knees.
Shafali snarled openly at the First Wife. Obviously disgusted by the intimacy of the examination, "get away from me, bitch."
Again Tantari ignored her. And although it did not show on Tantari's smooth coppery face, she was disgusted too.
"You're fully dilated." She reported blandly, "he should be crowning soon."
"You said that two hours ago!" Shafali growled through gritted teeth. Her bloodshot eyes fastened murderously on Tantari's own calm gaze, but the First Wife did not flinch away. She understood who Shafali wished were attending the birth in her place. The dark ones who gave her the power. Koume and Kotake, the old sorceresses. They disgusted Tantari as well.
Bending low so only Shafali could hear, Tantari whispered, "and you'll not be calling on those witches to help you, not here. This is a holy place. My place."
The two females locked challenging stares, but Shafali was forced to look away as another set of contractions hit her. Tantari stood by silently, counting seconds. She though of Ghabriel, and wondered if he was watching them. Where ever he was.
Judging the time to be right, Tantari looked down at Shafali again. Dark blood welled with clear liquid. It was finally time.
Tantari nodded to Shafali. "Here he is. Start pushing."
The whole process of birth had always amazed Tantari. Whether it was her own child coming into the world, or someone elses. To her, there was always a feeling of mystery. Holiness. Touching newborn flesh and looking into misty just-opened eyes, was to Tantari, like looking upon her Goddesses.
Shafali strained, her veins standing out like snakes beneath her damp skin. As the tension built, the midwives offered chanted prayers to Farore. Involuntarily, Tantari's lips moved with the ancient words. The old magic seemed to work and the tension broke as the child crowned.
An almost girlish cry of joy escaped Tantari; she was wiping his face quickly and turning the slippery body, helping his shoulders to ease out. The rest of the infant slip out with a pop, and Tantari could confirm it was truly a male. She held him up, still attached to the umbilical cord, so the others could see him. Their reactions were similar to hers- joy, and several of the girls ran out to spread the word through the Valley.
He was wet, bloody and coated with the waxy substance all newborns are. Tantari smiled down into his tiny face and whispered, "welcome, son of Ghabriel." In his curious amber eyes, she could indeed she the old king's reflection, and Tantari's heart contracted painfully.
As the other midwives attended Shafali, Tantari busied herself with the removal of the infant's naval stump. It was then she got a good look at him and realized that he was too thin and yellow, and his cry wasn't as strong as it should have been. Tantari glanced at Shafali who was smiling smugly, and she wondered what he had been exposed to.
It is said that while in the womb, a child knows everything the mother knows, feels everything she feels. Shafali never denied walking the Black Road, and apparently she had taken her son down along it with her.
Well, no more of that, Tantari thought as she gazed down at Ghabriel's last child. I'll protect you princeling.
"Give me my son." Shafali demanded from the bed.
Reluctantly, Tantari handed the newborn over. The satisfaction on the other woman's face came from no motherly love. Shafali's eyes gleamed with dark ambition. This child was her key to bringing the Gerudo Nation to its knees. This was the future Shafali envisioned as she looked at her son. This was his future.
"What will you name him?" Tantari asked, cutting into Shafali's dark reverie.
"Ganondorf." Shafali snapped.
Tantari balked slightly. Ganondorf? What an awful name, she thought, not even fully Gerudian. Ganon, she knew meant fair. Hardly a name for a Gerudo prince, soon to be king. But it was not her choice. With a last tender look at the infant boy, Tantari slipped out of the room, wanting nothing more than to be alone with her doubts.
Down deep in the heart of the Spirit Temple was the Mandrag Hin'inasa. Literally- the King's Tomb. It was the resting place of all the Gerudo's greatest kings. Each lay perfectly preserved by Gerudian mummification techniques in a crystal coffin. Only the First Wives of the Kings, eldest daughters, and high priestesses were allowed within the Mandrag Hin'inasa.
Tantari stood before the newest crystal box with moist eyes. Ghabriel looked as he did in life. His broad features still radiated the calm wisdom the Gerudo king had been known for. Tantari touched the crystal over his face. Seven months had not done much to diminish her heartache, but here with the man she had loved, Tantari felt peace.
"Ah, Gabe," she murmured. "You know you have a son. Ganondorf, Shafali's calling him." Tantari sighed and shook her head. "An ugly name it is. I wish you were here. Everything's changing, Ghabriel, and I don't like it at all. I thought I'd accepted decades ago that I'd out live you by centuries, but now...Now if it weren't for my promise to watch over this new one, I'd be rushing to join you. All our children are grown. Elisheba is an excellent leader and her little Nabooru will probably grow to be just as competent. I just don't feel like I belong here anymore."
Tantari leaned forward and rested her cheek on the cool crystal. A sensation of love and understanding filled her suddenly, making her understand that Ghabriel was still with her. She closed her eyes, but as she did, a soft wind blew across her cheek, like a puff of breath. Then a voice whispered into her ear.
"He needs you Tari."
Startled, Tantari sat up. She looked up at Ghabriel, but his face was still set in the peace of death. Confused, she glanced around the crypt, knowing no one else would be there.
"Tantari! Are you there?"
While, no one in the crypt could have possibly been calling her, a voice in the temple's upper chambers was. Tantari left the Mandrag Hin'inasa to find a young novice priestess waiting for her, not daring to enter the Tomb of the Kings.
"I'm here, what's wrong?"
The young girl's eyes were tearful. "It's the prince, madam. He is ailing!"
The trip back across the desert was the longest Tantari had ever known. With each step her dread increased, so did her anger. What if the prince died? Tantari would not let herself entertain that thought, for if he died, the entire Gerudo nation would die as well.
By the time she got back to the fortress, the sun was already skimming up over the horizon, painting everything with sickly shadows. Tantari's pace quickened to a run; she bolted past several pale and worried guards, not slowing until she reached Shafali's chambers.
A thin cry issued from the Third wife's rooms, and without a knock, or any pretense at all, Tantari burst in.
Shafali was holding the newborn out stiffly, her eyes glazed with the fervor of her spell casting. With her were the two hags, Koume and Kotake. The ozone smell of gathering dark power made Tantari reel, but her rage cleared her head. How dare they defile Ghabriel's legacy!?
"What are you doing!" She shouted as she stormed into the room. Her voice resounded in the small space like the thunder of the Goddesses, and the two hags scattered away to the shadows, surprised. Shafali nearly dropped Ganondorf in her shock.
Tantari scooped the babe up and held him defensively against her. He quieted and relaxed in her arms, seeming to sense her love.
"How dare you take my son!" Shafali screamed. Her thin arms lifted and Tantari felt Ganondorf being pried from her embrace. She tightened her arms about him and shouted back at Shafali, "and how dare you endanger the prince! He is not your pawn, Shafali! He is the future of our people!"
"He is my son!" The Third Wife yelled, "mine to rear as I see fit! He is destined for power!"
"Not your dark dealings!" Tantari retorted, "now that he is free of your dank womb, he is a child of light. I now know of all your terror, Shafali. I know of the Sheikan children that fell to your knife to sate your lust for power. I know more about you than I wish. Your crimes haunt me, those poor sacrificed children haunt me. But by Farore, Din and Nayru, you will not taint this one!"
Shafali leaned back, her face drawn up in a grimace. "You will regret ever saying those words." She growled.
"Hardly," the First Wife chuckled mockingly, "I could call in the Circle of Crones right now and tell them of your crimes, prove you are unfit to care for the prince. Then you would be cast out from our family. How long do you think a lone Gerudo would last away from the desert, among the other races that hate us?"
Shafali was silent turning all her treacherous plans over in her head. The valley was her base and source of power. She could not risk being exiled, not yet, not until she was stronger. Then she'd deal with this bitch Tantari as well. In fact, she thought, having another wean the brat would be favorable. It would give her more time to pursue her dark seekings.
Confident in this decision, the Third Wife turned a sour smile upon Tantari. "Fine you take the brat, but don't think this is the end of it."
Tantari simply nodded and walked out of the room with Ganondorf.
After the First Wife left, Koume and Kotake slithered out of the shadows.
"Foolish!" Kotake admonished Shafali.
"Yes," continued her twin, "what fun we could have had with him!"
"But you have ruined everything!" Kotake took up the dialog; "Tantari will not give him up now. What of our plans?"
Shafali sighed, irritated by the two crones. They gave her power, yes, but they could be maddening to deal with.
Everything still stands," She assured her dark mentors. "It will be twenty years before Ganondorf will take throne, that gives us plenty of time to... convert him. Let Tantari do the dirty work. I have no desire to spend my days changing diapers and cleaning spit-up from my shoulders."
"How long though?" Koume mused, "He will be infected fully by Tantari's light if we do not act quickly."
"Two years." The Third Wife promised the witches. "Two years, then we take him whether Tantari willing gives him up or not."
Kotake raised her sparse brows, "That one is strong, you will have to kill her before claiming Ganondorf."
A slow smile spread across Shafali's wan face, she reached down and pulled a curving knife from its concealment beneath her mattress. She held it up so the blade reflected the dim light in the room.
"This my friends," she announced, "has Tantari's name on it!"
Outside, the sun had fully cleared the horizon, filling the fortress and the courtyard with morning light. Tantari watched Ganondorf blink against the brightness. His small face creased with wonder and Tantari smiled. He was only hours old, yet he was so curious and alert. She shifted him in her arms and stood. After taking Ganondorf from Shafali, Tantari had climbed onto the roof to the place where she and Ghabriel had spent his last night together. There, she had held the new prince and began whispering the stories of his heritage to him. He'd slept peacefully through the First Wife's narrative, but Tantari's words reached the infant in his dreams and were locked away forever in his psyche.
Tantari walked easily through the compound; the guards on duty all stared with awe filled eyes at the babe in her arms. As she past, the soldiers bowed to the new prince reverently, and Tantari moved Ganondorf's blankets, giving his people a good look at their king-to-be.
At a door down a long corridor, Tantari stopped and knocked three times.
"Come in..." A raspy voice called out.
Tantari opened the door and entered the dim chambers with Ganondorf still in tow. An old Gerudo woman, at least 500 years old, sat at a small table. A red clay scrying bowl rested in her weathered hands. She looked up at Tantari and her little charge and grunted. "I was wondering when you'd be hauling the newest prince of diaper wetters down for my blessing."
Tantari grinned, Ganondorf made a little moue of annoyance at the crone and she chuckled.
"This is Ganondorf, Binah," Tantari said, holding the male child out. "Son of Ghabriel, the future 99th king of the Gerudo and-"
"I know that. But Goddess....What kind of a name is Ganondorf?" Binah asked while studying the prince.
"Shafali's choice," The First Wife shrugged and sat down with Ganondorf. She looked at the old Shaman; "I was disappointed that you were not present at his birth last night. We could have used you."
"You handled everything fine. It was not my place to interfere. Ganondorf is your son after all."
Tantari lowered her head. "So I was not wrong in taking him from Shafali?"
"Oh no. I know you have watched Shafali and learned of her. And through the months you have prayed and ached for this child. Even though he was not born of your body, the bond is sealed. He is yours now, as surely as Ghabriel would have wished."
The older woman smiled and took the infant. She looked deep into the child's eyes, then stood and lifted him up so the mornings light touched his face.
Binah hummed and muttered to herself all the while keeping Ganondorf's gaze. Her voice finally rose and she announced, "by the Three: Farore, Nayru, and Din. Maiden, Mother, and Crone. I give unto you this child and offer him up to the light of our world. May he hold true to the promise of his royal father, Ghabriel and his lady mother-" Here she looked at the First Wife and grinned. "Tantari. Blessed Be."
Binah lowered Ganondorf who was taking the ritual in with wide eyes. She laid him upon her lap and wetted her index finger. While muttering a litany of prayers, she drew a complex design of holy symbols upon the newborn's brow. Then she took a handful of white sand from her bowl and sprinkled a fine spray across the wet pattern. Ganondorf looked from Binah to Tantari as if to ask 'what?' The pattern began to glow faintly, forming the radiant sign of the Triforce. The glow intensified, flooding the room with white light. Both Tantari and Binah were stunned by this display of power. But then, the light became dimmer and sickly, tainted by a brackish green under-glow. Tantari tensed, ready to grab Ganondorf and protect him from this malevolent force. Before she could move, the white sand upon the infant's brow began to melt and burn. It turned into a black sludge that flowed into a new picture- The crescent moon and star- the emblem of the Gerudo. But this image was warped, upside down. Reversed to the left.
Ganondorf began to cry and Tantari was unable to endure anymore. She grabbed him up again and dashed away the damning symbols with her hand.
The room returned to normal and Binah and Tantari stared at each other.
"I have never seen that happen in all my 500 years." The old Shaman said lowly.
"Legends have been told of the Fallen Ones but I never-"
"What does it mean though?" Tantari demanded. She cuddled Ganondorf close, rocking him soothingly.
Binah rubbed her eyes and sighed. "It means he may already be lost to us. The Darkness is close, no matter what Ganondorf will always-"
"NO!" Tantari cried. "I cannot accept that! He is away from Shafali surely with time he will heal."
Binah shook her head mournfully, "there will always be a gap in his soul. You can protect him, and teach him to protect himself, but that hole will always be there. And through it evil may enter."
Tantari stared down at Ganondorf, he looked so peaceful now, so innocent and beautiful. A perfect miniature of the Gerudian ideal. She swallowed hard, trying to banish her fears.
"So now what?" She asked.
"Keep him away from Shafali, keep him close to you. Love him, let that bond protect him. In time..." Binah's voice droned on but Tantari was silent, reflecting back on Ghabriel's words. How she wished he was here with her to face this crisis. Ganondorf stirred in her arms and she looked down into his open, innocent face. Into the uncertain future of the Gerudo...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 3: Forward Two Years
Another night fell, and it was still hotter than hell. In the vast rooms of the Spirit Temple, the heat rose and shifted on a lazy current. Tantari watched Ganondorf, now almost two years old, playing on with floor with the little clay figurines she had molded for him. He paused and grinned up at her, and Tantari couldn't help but smile back. There was a magic about the child, no denying that. Powerful and strong, it crackled about him like heat lightening. Unseen, yet intense.
Such power frightened Tantari. But she loved her son, her Gahnee as she called him. A proper Gerudian name that meant wealthy. The strange power he possessed could not change that. It was her love and her fear that had forced her to play her direst hand. What she feared about the toddler's burgeoning magic was not the powers themselves; it was Shafali's discovery of them.
In the years since Ganondorf's birth, things had fallen apart. Shafali had taken control of the tribes and soon, members of the Circle of Crones, the Gerudian governing body, began to disappear. So did the remaining daughters of Ghabriel. Everyone who could challenge Shafali's claim to power was being murdered.
Not only was strife tearing the Gerudo apart from the inside, but Shafali had also mobilized armies to march on the Hylians and the Zoras. Communication with the Northern Palisades had stopped completely. Word from the Lower Walls was that the Sheikan city of Kakariko was little more than a ruin and the roads to the Palisades were all destroyed. The Gerudo race was being led to slaughter by a madwoman.
Tantari understood Shafali's strategy. It wasn't about conquering the Hylians or anyone. Not yet. What she was doing was using the excuse of war to whittle away all the strong young Gerudos who could oppose her. Those she could not kill outright, she would let the Hylians and their allies decimate
Tantari also knew she was next on Shafali's killing list. She knew it, and she knew without her, Ganondorf would be an open target. So far she had been able to banish his birth affliction of evil with her love and devotion. The little prince was growing strong and healthy. His body and soul unblemished now by Shafali's influence. The intelligence Tantari saw in his eyes gave her hope and everyday, she could see more and more of Ghabriel shining through his son.
To protect him, Tantari had done what she had hoped she wouldn't have to do. She had stolen him away from their people and hidden him away in the Spirit Temple. It was the safest place she could think of. A place guarded by the souls of ancient kings and...
BAM!
The noise shocked Tantari into ultra alertness. She had been drowsing out of sheer exhaustion brought on by the days of watching and waiting for Shafali to make her move. Only a few moments had passed but she cursed herself for a lazy fool, and scrambled up to hunt for her toddler.
I am too old for this, she mused as she peered into an antechamber. A small lump wiggled behind an old tapestry and Tantari snickered.
"Gahneeeeeee" She called sweetly. The lump shivered with the effort of keeping still and Tantari advanced, crouched into an attack stance. "Mandrag Ghabe-Ganondorf Dragmire, now come out this instant!" She ordered in a mock-stern voice, using his full title. A red head poked out from behind the tapestry and Tantari was assaulted by a gale of baby laughter.
"I have you!" She cried and pounced on him, hauling him up into the air and spinning about in dizzying circles. Ganondorf screeched happily and Tantari flipped him upside down then shook him playfully. All the tension of the last months drained from the woman and now she truly laughed.
"You know what happens to bad little kits!" She teased as she tickled him. "Yes you do!"
It was a moment of blissful relief for both mother and son. Their laughter echoed in the dim halls of the ancient temple, giving the somber place life. The ornamental mirrors reflected their capering dance, and if another person would have seen them, no one would have guessed that the child was borne of another darker being and destined for a life of black agony.
For now, Ganondorf clung to the only mother he cared to know as she swirled around the room in a parody of a fancy Hylian waltz. Tantari began to sing- rather badly- a shaky imitation of an east-lands ballad, and within a moment, the toddler prince was imitating her yowling verses.
Again Tantari laughed. Ganondorf had been slow to begin speech, but once he had, he had displayed an excellent ear for pitch and mimicry. He'd even been able to repeat long incantations and scripts almost word for word. Something odd for one so young, but Tantari figured Ganondorf.... Gahnee was an exceptional child.
Outside, the dust blew frantically across the hard stone courtyard. The lone figure did not wince from the wind; she bore it, not even aware that the sand stuck to her bared teeth.
Shafali could hear the laughter of her son and that bitch Tantari echoing out of the temple. It galled her. So much potential was being wasted on such stupidity. The foolish First Wife was as sentimental and soft as the dead king had been. The two years were up. It was time for Shafali to take back her own, and mold him into a conqueror. A pawn worthy of her expanding chessboard.
She touched the bag of bones at her side. Bones recently taken from a Hylian babe. That child's life essence had bought her enough power to transport to the temple. Shafali was confident there was enough left to deal with Tantari and be done with her. Shafali let her hand drift from the bag to the knife on her belt. She withdrew it and held it up to her eyes, seeing the reflection of the sickle moon in its bright blade. She smiled, and her smile was colder than the knife or the white light of the moon.
Silently, she entered the temple, the knife she had shown her mentors on the night of Ganondorf's birth clutched in her dry hand, her footsteps soundless on the sandstone floor.
Tantari slumped against a wall holding Ganondorf on her lap. Both were tired out after their play. He leaned heavily against her breast, still holding the clay people, and babbling in baby-Gerudian. "Manni makee noop cohr'la pu-uh uh uti choal...."
Tantari kissed his head and sighed. "I should start trying to teach you Hylian".
He looked up, "High yuuuuh leeeee in?"
"HYLIAN." Tantari corrected. "That's the language of this whole country. You're going to meet lots of people when you get big. And if you want to get on with them, you're going to have to speak properly."
"Speak proper now." Ganondorf offered, hopefully.
"You speak fine Gerudian now my prince." Tantari praised.
He regarded her with wide eyes, as if deciding something, then said, "noooo, speak now."
"What? You want to hear some Hylian words?"
"Hi yuh leee in"
Tantari thought for a moment, "All right, I'll tell you a story in Hylian."
Ganondorf settled down more comfortably in Tantari's arms and she searched her mind for the right words of the language she had learned so long ago, then began in the tongue of the east-lands:
"A long time ago, three goddesses came down and made our world...."
Tantari lulled Ganondorf to sleep with the old tales. Fables of days past, of history and heroes long gone. With his head tucked into the curve of Tantari's shoulder, the prince dreamed, oblivious to the darkness stalking the temple's halls. Tantari felt the warm breath of his sleeping sighs against her cheek and wondered how long they would be together. She would fight to save him; she would die to save him. And she had a sick feeling that it would come to that. She was tired of hiding, just tired, but she couldn't rest. Not while Shafali lived. In the quiet temple, lying in the place between the living and the dead, Tantari felt her fears for her son swell.
Her eyes burned from the effort from keeping them open, but Tantari's gaze did not waver. A soft hiss came from her side and she watched the stone shaped itself into a jackal golem. One of the sentries the First Wife had set.
"Mistressssss," its voice grated, "Ssshafali comesss..."
Tantari was on her feet and half out the doorway before the creature finished, but she whirled and spoke to it before she left, "you, Ramsa, and Carda hold her off, I must get Gahnee away."
"Yessss, mistresss," it uttered then sank into the floor again.
Tantari ran down to the entrance, hoping to beat Shafali, Ganondorf still slept, and Tantari was grateful for that. She was sure that if he began crying she would simply break down with him.
Shafali entered the room that only an hour ago had rung with the voices of Tantari and Ganondorf. She sniffed the air quizzically. Yes, they had been here. As she stepped forward, her boot crunched on something. It was one of the prince's clay dolls. She picked it up and grinned. Close, so close...
There was a hiss and a growl behind her and Shafali spun to see stone monsters, a jackal, a snake, and a vulture, emerge from the ground and rush at her. She screamed and flailed about with her knife. It only nicked the stone and dulled the blade. Her hands found the snakes body and twisted. The stone animal struck and bit, but her black magic enveloped the thing and it snapped like dry wood. The Jackal leapt at her throat and the two went down. Shafali felt her ribs bruise beneath the rock. Jagged teeth scrapped her neck and she brought both hands out to lock on the beast's chest. She cried out a spell and the stone withered beneath her touch. As she rolled to her feet, the vulture slashed at her face, it's talons ripped her left cheek open. She grunted and reached up to her cheek to stem the blood. With a swift movement she flicked the bloody hand at the incoming bird, the droplets elongated and turned into black crystal. They pierced the stone vulture's eyes and sent shockwaves of black energy over its body. It fell with a muffled explosion then blasted apart in a million pieces.
Shafali spat on the stone corpses and moved on, more confidant. If this was the extent of Tantari's powers, this fight was already over. Their scent was still strong and she followed it, breaking into a run until she came to the temple entrance. She stood at the steps and frowned. Tantari was tricky but not that fast. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a movement from behind a rock. She was right, Tantari wasn't that fast.
Tantari hadn't expected Shafali to deal with her golems that fast. Goddesses, she prayed. Take me and take her, but leave my babe.
Her final prayer finished, Tantari turned and waited, Ganondorf still clutched to her hip. There was no point in running any farther. Shafali would always catch them. It was time to stand and let fate show its hand.
There was no beginning barbs or taunts, Shafali lurched out of the temple like demon, summoning her powers as she ran. A black orb of energy materialized in her hands and she hurled it at Tantari. It struck the first wife and stunned her, holding her in place. She struggled, trying to at least free Ganondorf from the power's hold, but it was no use. Shafali was coming towards them, smiling almost amiably.
"I want my son back." She said in a tone that matched her smile. "If you give him to me, you can go."
"Don't lie to me Shafali, you do it badly and look stupid doing it." Tantari retorted sharply.
Rage danced across Shafali's red rimmed eyes, "I said give him to me!" She screamed as she lunged forward, knife in hand. Tantari found the strength to roll away and toss Ganondorf to the side. Shafali saw her chance and grabbed for the boy but Tantari was up and kicking her in the back. "Get away from here Gahnee." She ordered the prince. Shafali rose from the sand, "no my precious son, come here, manni wants to see you."
Little Ganondorf stared at both women, one a monster he only remembered in nightmares, and the other who had raised and loved him. He started moving away.
Shafali growled, "He'll heed you no longer!" She dove at Tantari who side stepped and delivered another kick, followed by a swift punch to the gut. Shafali winced; perhaps this was not going to be as easy as she thought. Her arms raised and she called upon her unearthly energies. The burst of power struck the First Wife, knocking her into the sand. She gagged on the putrid taste Shafali's magic brought to the air. Vaguely, she felt a kick connect to her stomach, once then twice, but she was staring at rock sheltering Ganondorf. Strength, Ghabriel, give me strength.
Her heart and mind focused on one thing: her son. As Shafali reared her foot back for another kick, Tantari rolled around and caught it, dragging the Third Wife to the ground with her. Biting and clawing furiously at each other, they grappled on the hard-caked sand. Their blood flowed freely between them.
On the ground, in hand to hand combat, Tantari held the upper hand. At one point her hands were on Shafali's neck, then it was reversed. The ground seemed to shake beneath them as the struggle wore on. But then Shafali gained enough space to unleash her black magic and the tide of the battle turned. Tantari was aware of what hung in the balance, she fought like a wild thing, but Shafali's power was overwhelming. The Dark power was crippling, sapping Tantari's life from her. It fed on her will and latched into her agonizingly.
Shafali dealt her a blinding punch to the head, cracking the First Wife's skull. Tantari knew she was losing, knew it and fought even harder. From the corner of her blood filled eye, she saw Ganondorf watching, petrified. I love you so, she thought hazily. Shafali delivered another shattering blow and Tantari felt her world collapsing. She struck out blindly and knocked Shafali away. The Third Wife forgotten, she crawled to toward Ganondorf. Praying for him with her remaining shreds of her consciousness.
Shafali watched her crippled enemy crawl on her belly with relish. Drawing it out before the final blow. When she was sure her prodigal son had a good view, she brought her locked hands down on Tantari's head. She felt the skull crush under her fists and saw Tantari lay still. Victory. After 2 long years. Shafali looked from Tantari's corpse to where Ganondorf hid, trembling and pale. She smiled and walked to him holding out her hands, "now come here my little one." She held out the clay doll she found in the temple. "Come here and you can have this back."
In the dust, Tantari stirred. She opened her eyes and watched the demoness stalking her child. Her child...
Ganondorf stared at his birth mother, horrified. His young instincts told him she was bad. She smelled bad, looked bad. Her teeth glittered like a viper's and he felt himself being charmed, the way a snake can charm it's prey. He took a hesitant step forward then stopped, wide-eyed. Behind Shafali was Tantari, bloody and beaten but alive. Ganondorf smiled at her and Shafali turned just in time to see the First Wife bear down on her. "YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
"Just die already!" Shafali screamed angrily and ripped her knife out. It sank into Tantari's chest, but the pain was distant. Tantari was only focused on her grip about Shafali's neck. She steeled herself and twisted with her very soul. The snap of the Third Wife's neck was audible, and then her limp body fell. Her lips moved in a silent curse, then were still. Such an anticlimax to a life built on evil promises.
Tantari slumped to her knees and pulled the knife out. Her blood ran out freely and she knew her life was truly at its end. But somehow, that was all right, because Shafali was dead. Ghannee was safe. Her mission was accomplished.
Ganondorf knelt beside her, hugging her, trying to get her up. "Come on manni, he begged her, "come on."
"No, I can't" she whispered. "You'll be all right, you're my son. I love you. Don't forget me. Someday..." She smiled at him and touched his face. Then closed her eyes.
The next morning, scouts from the fortress found the bodies of Shafali and Tantari in the courtyard of the temple. They also found Ganondorf nestled against Tantari's corpse. He barely reacted when they called to him, and they feared he was dead also. Finally he had to be picked up and carried away.
The women wept over Tantari and kicked sand over Shafali. They left her in the desert for the vultures, but wrapped Tantari up and loaded her onto a horse.
Ganondorf was silent; the scout given charge of him was a woman named Naomi who had a daughter his age. She had been a friend of Tantari's and she was very tender to the boy who had been her son. But the prince was silent, inanimate.
At the fortress, the returning party was met by Koume and Kotake. The two witches knew that Shafali was dead. In fact they had foreseen it, but well, forgot to let her know. What a pity. They chuckled, what a pity. Life and death and life again. So turns the wheel of destiny. And the sisters knew Ganondorf's destiny had no place for either Tantari or Shafali.
When Naomi dismounted with the prince, Koume reached out her scraggly hands.
"Let us look after him," she said slyly.
"Yes," Kotake chimed in, "it's what his mother would have wanted....."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 4: Sage Woman
"Hey," a voice called to Tantari through a black haze. "Lady, you're going to have to get up. I know being dead is a pisser but it's only your physical body that died. Trust me I know."
Tantari opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the colossus. The sun was setting and it backlit the spirit temple with scarlet fire. It was so beautiful, the First Wife felt her eyes sting, then she remembered the events of the last 5 hours. She was dead, Shafali was too and Ganondorf was- She sat up and looked around frantically. Where was Ghanee? Her head whipped around to the left and she saw another woman sitting on a bolder, watching her with curious black eyes. A hand rolled cigarette dangled from her long fingers and the smoke drifted lazily upwards.
Tantari stumbled backwards a step, this woman was a Hylian...or a Sheikah perhaps. With her pale skin and short black hair, Tantari couldn't be sure. "Who are you?" She asked, "how did you get here and what..." Her voice shook, "what happened?"
"M' name's Parapa," The other woman answered as hopped off her rocky seat and came forward. "I was sent here to collect you now that you've gone over."
"So I am dead." Tantari said softly. "I was hoping my husband or my mother would be the one to meet me."
A look of sympathy touched Parapa's ivory features, "I know, that's what I thought to. But the thing is you aren't really dead, not the way most people die. See, now you're a spirit, an elemental, take a look around and tell me what you see."
Tantari obeyed and realized that the world looked different to her eyes. The colors appeared muted and lifeless, but other spirits unseen by the living, were going about their business. The world of the living seemed dull and gray, but the world of the spirits was alive and humming. Every rock and grain of sand shone with it's own light. Each cloud and gust of wind laughed and chittered, blowing by Tantari with purpose. When she turned and looked back at the colossus and it's twin formation, the Vision Rock, Tantari was almost blinded by the radiance of their spirits. Awe filled Tantari, here was the world she had always sought and had always hoped to see, the world stripped of all material illusions. She just hadn't wanted to die to see it.
"I don't understand." Tantari said, "why is this happening? What are you?"
"Well," Parapa began. "There's this place called the Sacred Realm-
"I know that."
"Yeah, who doesn't? But there's these folks called sages too, there's the elemental sages- fire, forest, spirit and so on. Then there's the sages of alchemy- beauty, knowledge, the fool-that's me." Parapa grinned sweetly. "You see, Tantari, you're the Sage of Medicine. It's your job to keep the unwashed masses of Hyrule from killing themselves with junk like leeches and eating mercury as a birth-control. We all have a sacred task. Mine's to keep the world from getting to serious. Kasuto's is to keep the world from getting to stupid. Coraliss' is to keep the world from getting to ugly, an so on and on and on."
Tantari couldn't help it, she started laughing. It was so utterly ridiculous, the whole story. Parapa waited patiently for the hysteria to subside. She understood well enough the oddity of the situation. Five years ago she'd been in Tantari's place. "You all right?" She asked Tantari, and that question brought forth a new explosion of insane laughter from Tantari. All right? Obviously nothing was ever going to be all right again.
"We have to leave whenever you're finished." Parapa breathed, dragging on her cig. "Damn desert. Already I can feel my skin peeling."
Tantari straightened up and gave the Hylian a sideways glance. "Didn't you just say you're a spirit? You don't have skin anymore, I don't have skin anymore.... Goddess, this is going to take some getting used to..." She wiped a hand over her face and paused, realizing she could see through it as if her flesh was no more than thin leever parchment.
Parapa patted her shoulder and oddly enough it produced a sensation. "First lesson," the girl said. "Creatures, live critters of the flesh can't hurt us...." She paused, "well unless they're knowing magick. But it's the shadows and boogies, our dark brothers and sisters that govern the less savory parts of the unseen world that you have to watch out for. Spirits can hurt spirits. And the dark ones HATE us."
Tantari nodded slowly. In an odd way it made sense, and her mind wandered back to Shafali. What happened to her spirit? Was she now one of these dark spirits that Parapa was chattering about?
"We should go now," the Hylian girl was saying. "There's others- especially Rauru- who are keen to meet you. You're a part of our big happy family now." She pinched her cig out, grinning. Then she shouted a stream of words, a fast slick sentence in Hylian, and a pale green-glowing portal materialized before them. She made a polite gesture and said giddily, "after you o queen of the desert and mistress of Medicine."
A new life was waiting beyond that softly luminous doorway. A new life far away from this place of heartbreak, a safe place maybe. And if Parapa was any indication, the folks there might not be to bad either. But Tantari knew she couldn't step through that doorway, not yet anyhow.
"I can't go." Tantari said.
"WHAT!?" Parapa wheeled around so fast, Tantari instinctively ducked. "Oh, but you have to!"
"I can't, not until I know Ganondorf is safe."
A horrible look contorted Parapa's face, "oh no, Hell." She sighed. "Tantari, there's something you should know about the kid."
Terror crept up Tantari's spine and roosted in her skull. If something had happened to Ghanee, then that was it. She wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't worth it anymore. "What, what? Is he all right?" She clutched at Parapa almost desperately for any knowledge of her son.
"Physically, yeah, he's fine. But, " Parapa tapped her temple, "here is the problem. He's a bomb waiting to go off, Tantari. Not you, not any one can, or could stop it. It's how it's written."
The memory of the night of Ganondorf's birth, of the burning sand upon his brow came slamming back to Tantari. She wanted to deny it, and scream to the sky that it wasn't true. But she just stared at Parapa's earnest face and found no trace of falsity there.
"I have to go back to the Fortress." she muttered, "I'm sorry but..."
"I'm coming with you." Parapa announced. "Rauru said to bring you, but he didn't say anything about detours along the way. Let's go and I'll fill you in some more on the way..."
The two sages floated along the desert, it wasn't really walking, Tantari noticed. Her feet didn't exactly touch the ground now, they rather slid over it-or through it. Parapa chattered away, her voice might have been annoying, but Tantari found it flowed over her senses like cold water. The girl had the grace and drama of a born story teller. "...The Goddesses, they're failing." Parapa said as they passed the first marker flags. Tantari noticed a spirit glancing back from inside the battered wood post and felt awe anew at the world unveiled. "You know the three make up all of creation. One creates it, one puts it to use and the other destroys the overspill, so there's not overpopulation and suchlike. Din the lady of Power was the destroyer. But see, in recent years she's gone a little...crazy." Parapa finished in a small whisper. Tantari noticed a flicker of fear or sadness within her eyes.
"Din can't be crazy." Tantari admonished Parapa dryly. "Why-"
"Oh think about it." Parapa returned, " all the recent wars, the death and killings. It's true if you think about it."
Tantari frowned and let herself think about it, as unpleasant as the ideas that popped into her head were. "I always was taught that Din is the creatress of our planet and Hyrule Not a destroyer."
"She is! But the thing is she...well she creates by destroying. I thought this was the type of thing you Gerudos were really up on." Parapa smiled faintly.
Tantari made no comment, just kept frowning. "What does this have to do with Ganondorf, and me?"
"Because of her...questionable mentality, Din is nearing the end of her godhood. Within at least 600 years she will be discarded and a new deity will take her place as the Patron of Power. The Powers that Be decided it was time to pick a new God. 600 years is a pittance of a time to them." Parapa let her words hang in the quiet desert and stared hard at Tantari. "And let me tell you, they're not interested in no merciful god either."
The full weight of Parapa's words struck Tantari.
"You can't be serious."
"No I'm not, most times...." Parapa agreed. "But this is real. Your son is bound to be the holder of the Triforce of Power and the eventual successor of Din."
A deep gulf of new understanding opened within Tantari. The possibilities, the fear and astonishment of what Parapa was implying. The First Wife had known Ganondorf was special
Known he was the future King of the Gerudo.
But a god?
"It sounds grand, being the avatar of Power, but the way is madness. It requires madness. To be-- to take up the mantle of the Destroyer, the Chaos Bringer. "Parapa paused her babbling to search for words. She wished she were Rauru with all his religious fervor, or Kasuto with all his dry worldliness. She was just a Fool who only had a vague idea of the cosmology's hidden agendas and power plays. Her heart ached for Tantari who must suffer for this little knowledge. To know the child she had nursed and loved as her own was essentially the Apocalypse embodied.
"Why Ganondorf." Tantari finally asked hollowly. "Why him?"
Parapa didn't know the answer to the question, she just looked Tantari in the face and said, "I can't say, there are others better suited to this task than I."
"It's just impossible..." Tantari said. "The Goddesses are forever. They can't just...die. Can they?"
Parapa gazed at the looming shelf of red rock that cradled the Gerudo's fortress. "Nothing's forever, Tantari. Open your eyes."
The scene awaiting them at the fortress disturbed Tantari. Her kinswomen were gathered in the courtyard, eyes weary and bleak. Then Tantari realized they mourning for her. A pain of guilt welled within her, she saw her friend Naomi holding her daughter Rohana, looking disconsolate. The warm glow of their life-lights made Tantari's eyes water. The gentle, feather light touch of Parapa's hand on her shoulder startled her. The Hylian's dark eyes were full of sympathy.
"They must've loved you well." She said softly.
Tantari nodded bleakly and walked on into the fortress with Parapa trailing behind, curious of the Gerudo artifice. Tantari moved with the sureness born of living almost 100 years in the building. The complex was a madman's dream of labyrinth twists and turns. The rooms and corridors strikingly intricate, and at the same time sparse. An intruder would be forever lost in these winding hallways, Parapa noted.
The hall Tantari chose became more elaborate in furnishings and decor. The sandstone walls glowed in the light of fine beeswax candles. Lines and lines of crude, yet beautiful pictograms had been carved into the wall and the light made the figures dance. Sandalwood and patchouli made the air warm with fragrance. These were the royal's chambers.
"This is where I and my husband, his two other wives, concubines and the king's children lived." Tantari told Parapa as they descended deeper into the fortress. "I pray that I may find Ghanee here."
"Why do you call him that?" Parapa asked, genuinely curious.
A hint of a smile tugged at Tantari's mouth as she remembered the night Ganondorf was born. "Shafali named him Ganondorf but it is not a truly Gerudo name. The 'dorf' is an old suffix. But I know Ganon is an old Hylian word." She looked briefly at Parapa, noting her paleness again. It was most unbecoming.
The Hylian grinned unabashed. "A poor name for a Gerudo lad. Ganon means fair."
"Yes, and Ghanee is a good Gerudo name, it means wealthy. It's close enough."
The pair rounded a corner and entered into the wives' chambers. Then Tantari froze and Parapa just stared. There were the hags, Koume and Kotake, and there was Shafali's withered body spread out on a table.
"Foolish wench." Kotake admonished the body. "Foolish and-"
"Stupid!" Koume supplied. "Stupid stupid stupid! Oh yes wonderful! Let her die, forget we need a nurse maid for the brat-"
"Now we have to expend our energies to revive her."
Tantari forgot about the Hylian and ran to the table. "NO!" She shouted at the old witches. "Oh no..." Of course Koume and Kotake didn't here her, they were already lining up components for the resurrection spell along the body. She glared at her enemy's corpse and tried to grab it, but her hands passed through as if she had merely dipped them in water. Parapa skidded up to her side and grabbed her arm. "THAT'S Shafali?"
"That's her."
"Oh Kotake," Koume called as she dug around for some ingredient, "do you feel a draft?"
"Yeah you bitches, it's ME!" Tantari muttered as she paced the room.
"Ah...no" Kotake returned, "but do we have any more powdered rat caul?"
This charming conversation went on for awhile then the two got down to business. Koume began chanting lowly while Kotake mixed together the evil smelling potion in a copper bowl. Tantari was powerless to halt their dark ritual; she stood with clenched fists, battling her urge to run as far away from the scene as possible. Parapa bit her lip in frustration and looked from the hags to Tantari for some idea of what to do.
"Umaria...conijac....retia...retalia..." Koume droned on, calling on the powers of the undead and the damned. "Umian..icares...droiash..." Kotake joined in as she lifted Shafali's battered head and poured the black liquid down her throat. Streams of it drooled down Shafali's cracked lips, but most of it went down her gullet. The body twitched once then stilled.
Both witches took up the chanting, one on either side of the table grasping Shafali's hands. Despite the warmth and light of the day, the room suddenly became dark. A gust of cold wind blew through, making Tantari and Parapa shuddered. Their spirit eyes saw what was riding that wind. The demons and darklings that lurk just beyond the light of the elemental plane. The wraiths and nightmares, boogies and incubi. All the things that made up mortal fear seemed to heed the witches call. They swirled about Shafali's body, laughing and chattering madly. They recognized her as one of them and danced across her body, flickering their greasy light over it, giving it animation once more.
Shafali stirred again and moaned, Kotake cackled but was shushed with a pinch from her twin. The demons continued their dance, one large shadow broke away and breathed its rancid breath into Shafali. She coughed and retched up the witches' potion then sat up, alive again.
Tantari stormed forward, and it was then that the demons saw her. The big one whose breath awakened Shafali leapt at her, but she batted it away easily. They swarmed upon her, seeking to rend her ghostly form. Without any hesitation, Parapa jumped into the fray, swinging her small, hard fists in a confusing pattern of blows that sent many of the lesser demons scurrying.
Koume and Kotake realized their spell was being interrupted and began shouting strings of spells to bring the demons back under their command. It wasn't working.
Tantari swatted the interfering demons away, intent on only the one who had awakened Shafali. It shrieked at her and raked her with it's cold claws, causing Tantari to duck away. She slid through the table and through Shafali, gagging as she momentarily merged with her enemy. The demon followed her while the others fled the destructive force of Parapa. Tantari turned and face the wraith over Shafali's listless body. She lived but her eyes were still dead, devoid of the malicious spark that once lit them. The two spirits tangled, Tantari and the demon, light and dark collided and the room filled with flashes of supernatural energy. She dragged it away from Shafali, "No, no, no..." she panted doggedly. "I won't let you bring her back, not now, not ever."
Her shadowy nemesis surged and threw her off then bolted for Shafali once again. With a cry of helpless despair, Tantari threw herself at it, dragging it to the floor and pinning it beneath her.
Demons are nothing if not opportunistic. One of the lesser boogies saw it's chance and squirmed away from Parapa. Gleefully, it swarmed over the sprawled and struggling forms of Tantari and the big demon. Parapa dove after it, but it's tentacles slid through her hands. She swore and it whooped maniacally and let itself be sucked into Shafali's body, merging its psychotic essence with her own half-life. The demon pinned beneath Tantari screamed helplessly cheated of its host. It flared off its dark energy and disappeared back into the shadow realm. The other shades and wraiths followed, it riding that dark wind back to their hell hole plane.
Shafali was sitting up looking dazed; the demon that infested her was obviously not very bright. Tantari groaned and cursed, "son of a..." she swore, "This is wonderful." Her disembodied hands curled into misty fists.
Koume and Kotake were still recovering from the strain of opening the portal to the demon's world. They looked at each other than Shafali. Things had not gone as planned, but still she might make a decent puppet. That was all Shafali had ever been, a mere link in the chain.
"Shafali?" Kotake asked hesitantly.
The cold, dead eyes of the Third Wife turned on the witch and she shuddered. The expression in them was not alive, sane nor humane. "Yes...?" Shafali drawled in a icy voice. "What do you command?"
All Tantari and Parapa could do was share a despairing look.
Days passed, and Tantari had to resign herself to the fact that she could do nothing. She watched Ganondorf, watched him every second of the day. He was so different from the happy child she had raised, most of his time he spent staring sadly into space or playing halfheartedly with the clay dolls Tantari had made. He didn't cry, Tantari realized with pride, but he didn't smile or laugh either anymore. Even when he was occasionally put with the other babies, Ganondorf remained somber and it broke Tantari's heart. She reached out to him constantly, trying to hold him with nonexistent arms, tried to hold him against a ghostly breast.
Koume and Kotake's treatment of him was negligible, most times they acted as if Ganondorf was not there at all. Tantari could live with that, but it was Shafali's continuous abuse of him that drove her half-mad with frustration.
The demon that was infesting Shafali's rotten, half-dead brain, was the sadistic sort. It seemed to have awakened the Third Wife's own cruel tendencies. Her fists were fast, tongue sharp. And Tantari was the helpless spectator to the brutal treatment of her beloved child. She wept and sought to comfort him, to nurse the bruises and pain, but the limitations of spirit and flesh made her a mere shadow in her son's world.
"I can't bear this," she finally confided in Parapa.
The Hylian sage had been waiting for Tantari to make her decision. The Sacred Realm was calling, and the call was getting louder and more insistent everyday.. Parapa had spent her time watching the Gerudo, and she was beginning to understand a few things. Two tiny girls had caught her attention. Both, Parapa came to know, were nobles- according to the Gerudo hierarchy. And both were destined to be brides of Ganondorf at some far away time.
The eldest, Parapa learned, was a little ruby eyed chit named Rohana. The other, was the daughter of the Mistress of Arms and called Nabooru. The children fascinated Parapa. Here was a tiny version of the Triad right here. Power, Courage and Wisdom. Young Ganondorf obviously was destined for Power, but where did the other two fit in?
It was a piece of the puzzle Parapa was willing to let alone for now.
"Then come with me, to the Sacred Realm." Parapa implored. "There's nothing you can do for Ganondorf now. If you come with me, there may be a chance that someday....someday you can help redeem him."
"I can't leave him." Tantari whispered. "I love him."
"I'm sorry. But Tantari, you're already dead to him here and now."
For a long while, Tantari sat unresponsive. The world was moving on without her and it was time to catch up.
She looked up at last and met Parapa's eyes, "all right, let's go to the Sacred Realm."
The two moved into the courtyard because according to Parapa, she need space to open the portal ("I'm no good at it yet." She'd muttered to Tantari). Tantari was silent, withdrawn. Her eyes swept the expanse of her home and she wondered if she'd ever see it again. On that came the inevitable: would she ever see Ghanee again? Her throat threatened to close up with bitter sorrow, and she instead focused on Parapa.
"Are you ready?" The Hylian asked.
"Yes."
Parapa made a few slightly ridiculous looking gestures while chanting nonsense. The pale green portal opened again and this time, Tantari was the first one through. A step forward into her new life.
Water. It was the sensation that met Tantari's eyes and ears. Walls made of water, blue and white and shimmering. She looked around and saw shadowy figures lurking just behind the strange water facades. Am I truly, truly dead now? She thought, am I dreaming?
Welcome, Tantari, Sage of Healing!" A commanding voice sounded out through the odd aquatic stillness. "Be welcome, says I, Rauru, the Sage of Light."
A platform appeared in the blue nothingness, glowing golden. An elderly Hylian man wearing regal robes and a large graying mustache stood on it. He smiled reassuringly and made a motion toward her.
"We all welcome you," he continued. "Here now, are your fellow sages..."
"Kasuto, the Sage of Knowledge." A tall, dark haired Sheikah man appeared beside Rauru and bowed gracefully to Tantari.
"Moruge, the Sage of Emotion." Another figure materialized. This one was a hefty Goron with dark, angry eyes. He glared at Tantari, then nodded differentially.
"Coraliss, the Sage of Beauty." A willowy female Zora with skin the palest shade of azure blue, shimmered into being beside the Goron. She smiled prettily, yet smugly.
"Birche, the Sage of Compassion," A tiny Kokiri boy appeared wearing green and brown. A fairy hovered over his shoulder. He grinned and waved shyly at Tantari.
"And you know Parapa, the Sage of Fools. Here, we are the Alchemical Sages."
Parapa wasted no time on being subtle. She bounded up to Tantari, grinning, and led her into the embrace of her new family. And for the first time since her physical body had died, Tantari felt hope. Hope for the future, and hope for Ganondorf.