Impa reflected back on those days, they were strange times...the days of the so called Sheikah Civil War she closed her eyes and a tear found itself falling ever faster down her cheek. When she threw off the coat, she allowed herself a little reminiscence.
She remembered tales of Sheik, the warrior that was told to herald the resurgence of power for the Sheikah. Did the Princess of Destiny know then that by taking that name, she would bring that fate upon herself, or did she take up that name hoping that she alone would face that harsh struggle which Sheik was to banish?
Sheik and the Hero of Time, it was an old story, many told it in the past tense, even though the Sheikah knew it had yet to come. They vowed to protect the Royal Family of Hyrule, with their powers so great, yet few and the target of many envious knives that had been stopped short of the heart of the Hylian Royal Family. The Sheikah knew that when the legend of Sheik and the Hero of Time happen, they'd need to be as close and trusted to the royalty as possible, in order to better protect them and minimize casualties.
"Impa," the voice mildly startled her, not because she hadn't expected an emergence from the chambers behind her, but that the sound of walking and talking had been altered from the girl she sent inside, "the shadows accept me as Sheik."
"Then...you are the chosen one." the finality scared her, Zelda scared her, was this the same girl who never struggled with music lessons who played with every instrument in the Royal Band until she was tired of them, or was it the fact that Zelda didn't need a guardian anymore? She had put so much focus into raising the kid—no, the warrior the "kid" used to be—that she hardly thought of herself as Sheikah as much as a Zora contemplates being a Zora, avoiding any state of arid for any length of time, or thinking, "I should avoid the suns rays when water isn't present, for I am a Zora" or, "My Zoran body cannot withstand great temperatures", it was second nature, she never thought of anything related to the Sheikah.
Looking back, but not at Zelda, she seemed to remember telling herself the quiet days of watching the roughhousing princess wouldn't last long. Quiet, what a modifier, but compared to now, weren't they?
"You're displeased." Impa cringed. What had she done? The cold, calculating tone of a Sheikah was behind her, when the warrior behind her was scarcely an adult...seven years of training, it finally hit her, she spent so much effort trying to protect the princess, that the princess became a new threat to her safety.
"I'm certainly not elated, if that's what you wanted to know." Impa felt stupid, she was merely staving off the inevitable, and she knew this. It was human, though, she cringed again at that thought, seldom do humans welcome the thing they fear most, this was her greatest nightmare.
"You know very well that isn't what I meant." Sheik's rebuke made her feel like a child, who, instead of answering the question of "Who broke that jar" says they found a cute bug and caught it in their empty bottle. But really, what was this person, to speak to her in that tone?
She turned to answer the question for herself. The answer hurt more than she realized, Sheik was ready for all of the Dark World to attack, she could take on Ganondorf himself if she had the Master Sword, but she hopefully knew that her fate wasn't to take the Temples of Hyrule by storm, that was the Hero of Time's fate, she was merely on damage control.
Sheik must have been waiting for a reply. Well, she got none from Impa. The Great Impa, she had forgotten how she acquired that title, was it Kakariko Village being opened to the public, or was there more? The only reason she could open Kakariko Village was because of that war, all those years ago, she had no choice, besides, she had to leave for Hyrule Castle.
"You...don't like Sheik?" with that voice she couldn't tell what was meant by that, was she afraid of disapproval, or was she coming to terms with the idea that maybe Impa wasn't the unshakable warrior Hyrule loved for so long, but then, Impa consoled herself that everyone had a weakness...hers was the one she saw when she faced her fears seven years ago, she feared for Zelda's well-being.
"If the shadows accept you under that name, it must be fate." Impa couldn't believe Sheik would reword the question so artfully, after gauging so many reactions, Impa would soon give away what was bothering her.
"Not the name." Impa refused to face the—whoever, whatever, was talking to her.
"Then what, pray tell?"
"Impa-"
"Remove your cowl, Sheik!" Impa jumped up and turned on the intruder, and as the cloth was slowly undone and the hair was cleared from the face, Impa felt as though she stabbed herself in the heart with ten thousand tiny needles, the tear stained face seemed to plead for an answer to this reaction, and the face itself...wasn't unfamiliar, "I—Zelda, I'm-"
"Scared." Zelda finished, somehow understanding that Impa was mostly distressed because of what had to be done, Impa knew she scared Zelda, they were both unused to the way Impa had spoken.
"But...you, how could you-" Impa was startled that anyone could have seen the reasons she had hidden, or the feelings hiding under masks, hiding under very controlled facial muscles.
"Because," Zelda gave her mentor a sad smile as she walked up to hug her, "this one eyed gaze can see the truth."
Impa finally realized a dark secret that she never wanted to accept, that, because of her prestigious position, she couldn't allow herself to accept: Truth hurts. She had gotten so good and not telling secrets that she forbade her mind's ears from hearing those words.
"I hate to admit it," Impa whispered, realizing no truth hurts worse than the one spoken by the one who spent so long denying the painful reality to come, "you are going to be an amazing Sheikah...and no one could have been a better fit for the prophesied warrior named Sheik than you."
She remembered the war well, it started when the holder of the title Sheik turned against the Royal Family, and killed Zelda's mother, Impa hadn't trusted Sheik, or the Sheik before then, or the Sheik before that, and they had all tried to do harm to the Royal Family in some way, then she found that accursed mask they recently captured from the corrupt offshoot of the Sheikah, after hundreds of years of silent war and open war, they finally captured the mask, and then were trying to learn how to use it. She believed nothing but evil could come of it, and when the Hero of Time came, he was prophesied to destroy the evil in it.
One night she sensed the mask and the Sheik were gone and chased after the pair, when it became clear the target was moving to Castle Town, she knew it was the castle that they would meet in. Impa climbed up the castle wall and found an open window, she briefly let her eyes flick shut and saw through the darkness that the knife was raised over the princess it was a vision like that of a Sheikah Stone. Impa darted into the room and found that Sheik was hiding. Zelda's mother, who presumably got up to check on the princess, started back for the bed and lay down.
Sheik stealthily approached the princess, while Impa hid behind him, and when the knife went up and the eyes of that mask started glowing, Impa threw herself at him, knocking him into the wall, then delivered a blow to his stomach, his agony filled cry woke the family and they called for the guards, while Impa punched him repeatedly, then drew her knife and impaled him.
She stepped back, but the mask suddenly started giving off a strange energy, waves of orange emanated from the mask, and she instinctively reached into the crib.
"Run!" she cried, holding the baby princess, and in a brief instant, her senses remembered everything in perfect detail. The sound of sheets rustling and heavy footsteps filling the hall, an eerie hum, and then a shout.
Impa turned around and saw the unblinking masks staring at her, strangling the queen, "Your Majesty, take her." Impa handed the king his daughter and ran to the struggle, moving in was hard, but as soon as she could, she took the hands in her grasp and pulled at the fingers, then going for the mask.
"Hold onto me!" she felt the queen's weak grasp, and kicked the knee of the mask wearing Sheik, though hobbled, he stood firm, was as though he didn't need bones. She kicked the wall instead and tore the mask from his face. The two women and mask hit the floor, and Impa stood up, threw the mask at the window, swiftly made a shadow seal, struggling to hold it as the mask struggled with her, she then used her magic, which quickly broke through the light and engulfed the mask, and she fell on her side, exhausted from the frantic battle.
She had forgotten that day well, having cast a seal on that part of her memory that distinctly recalled intricate events, second by second.
She saw, she chased, they clashed, their was a struggle, the mask was sealed, the queen died later that morning, she remembered only that it happened, that Her Majesty suffered some injuries and passed mere hours after the sealed mask was taken to the well and locked up forever. She couldn't find the mask, now, though, it was strange, a couple years ago, for Zelda's sixteenth birthday, Impa entertained the notion of going back to Castle Town on a standard supply run, and buy a mask from that store, it's name she didn't remember well, but the store was gone anyways. That man seemed familiar, though she couldn't place his face. Apparently he left a weeks after she fled Castle Town with Zelda seven years ago. It was for the best, anyway, she already decided that it was just a happy idea that would only serve to derail the princess' intense training.
"You know, Sheik was the title given to the leaders of the Sheikah." Impa didn't know why she said that, their was only an idea that maybe the princess should know that what she took for a name was also a title, it was impulsive at best, and reckless at worse, the princess didn't need her ego to swell on the job.
"Then...they were always ready to fulfill the legend of Sheik and Hero of Time." Zelda had already put her mask back on and Impa sighed, she sensed a presence at the Lost Woods, the Hero of Bad Timing would soon need Zelda—Sheik—to brief him on what needed to be done, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. That is, nothing I can do about...this." Impa tapped her head, "I should have suffered the memories back then, maybe I'd be used to it by now."
"Impa...you did your best, that's why you were charged with protecting me, because of how fierce and loyal you were."
"He's about to awaken, you should go now." Impa sighed.
"I know, but he's not ready yet, talk to me." Zelda sat down and huffed, "Please tell me what's bothering you."
"Time...time stolen, time lost, time running out...times before." Impa swallowed, "Time is my problem."
"It's different for everyone...it's been rough for you, though, especially now, though, huh? I have just a simple task, yet even now you worry over me...you know he could find me."
"Yes...I guess I should have opened up sooner about this," Impa looked up at the masked warrior and wondered how long ago she had put her cowl back on, "you can go now, I'll be fine."
"I'll be quick." Zelda promised, before running towards her goal.
Impa sat in the shadows a while before falling asleep, though she felt like she was waking up, as though the real world was slowly being realized by her mind, and soon her eyes would open. She wondered at what she would see when she "woke up", but had a feeling it was something big. The word "sage" crossed her mind briefly, as the shadow of a bird, fleeting and hardly discernible...it could have been anything.
She was just Impa, attendant to Princess Zelda and mentor to Sheik, those things were special enough anything else wasn't necessary, not that she would mind taking on another role. Someone else was the Sage of Shadow, the Hero of Time would awaken that person, probably another Sheikah.
Author's Notes: This is kind of my story on the Sheikah, my take is that Sheik was the name Zelda chose because she needed an identity, and it turned out to also be the name the leader of the Sheikah and then Impa's story happened...it felt like the story was longer than this, but it turned out to be pretty short. Anyways, this is also where Sheik's time bit in the game comes from.
This story also sets out to explain Majora's Mask a little, the tribe that used the mask for hexes was none other than the Sheikah! Well, an offshoot of the Sheikah, they may or may not be related to the fallen kingdom in Majora's Mask, but I had a headcanon and wanted to share it.
I was playing Ocarina of Time and realized I made a big mistake, at this point Sheik is supposed to have just recently emerged, but Sheik first met Link in the Temple of Time, so I fixed it.