Author's Note - So it seems to me that Link and Zelda are being constantly being reincarnated due to each incarnation's extreme resemblance in looks, personality, role, and as inheritors to the Triforce. This seems to apply to a few other characters who remain virtually unchanged throughout the series as well (Malon, for example, who seemed almost identical to her counterparts in Oracle of Seasons, Four Swords, and Minish Cap in most ways). Impa, on the other hand, never looks the same way twice and often varies in personality, despite usually playing the same role as the princess's nurse/bodyguard. This makes me think that these Impas are unrelated to each other and merely have the same name, like Impa is the Sheikah version of the name John, really common. With that in mind, I came up with this.

The Way of All Flesh

Chapter 1

The rough stone dug into her knees as she knelt before the altar of Orpho. Impa dared to glance up at the great statue's huge black wings, the far-off sound of drumming beating in time to her heart as she beheld the god's terrible visage. From the way the pupil-less ebony eyes stared down at her she could almost swear that the statue was alive. He looked at her with such a fierce demeanor as though demanding to know why she was here before him. What made her so worthy to approach His altar? She was no Hylian; her soul was not befit to walk Hylia's golden halls. She could only throw herself before Orpho and beg for mercy.

The Hylians did not dare speak the god's name. To them, He was the Harbinger, the Dark King and the Herald of Death. They whispered when they spoke of Him, as though the mere mention of the god would bring Him swooping down to claim their souls. He had no temples amongst the Hylians, no devotion or love. They averted their eyes when they caught a glimpse of His priests. Not even King Zagreus dared to approach the Temple of Shadows. They considered Orpho to be a demon, a fallen god who would steal the souls of young children and carry them away on His black wings. The made signs and carried good luck charms to ward off His raven-eyes.

Orpho was a dreadful god, but He was no demon. Impa ran her eyes across the statue of the Great Raven, at the skulls that adorned His torches, and the green fire that sprang up all around. He was the god of lesser creatures. The Hylians were the Goddess of Hyrule's chosen people; their souls were Her soul. They were immortal. When they died they would be reborn again in new bodies. Death held no meaning for them. Again and again, they would come back, throughout the ages. They would continue this cycle of reincarnation until Hyrule was finally destroyed; only then would Hylia bring them into Her golden hall, take their souls into Her's, and be whole once more.

For the Sheikah and the Zora and the Gorons and the Gerudo, this was not so. When they died their souls would fade away into nothing, like the foam upon the ocean. All that was left was Nothingness. Unbeing. Their only hope for salvation was in Orpho. If they were worthy He would come to them at the hour of their death and lead their souls out to the sea where the Ferry would take them across those wide, unknowing waters to that dark country, the Underworld. The priests spoke of it as a desolate land, where the sky was gray and the flowers were white. They was no hate and no love, no feeling and no thought. Just the simple peace of existing.

The drumming became louder and the High Priest stepped up to her to anoint her with the perfume of blood lilies. The Priest's white hand slipped out of his black robes and touched her forehead; she knew that soft flick of the wrist, those long fingers as they placed the heady oil upon her head. Impa bit her lip to keep from smiling. The last time she had been in Kakariko, Erudius had been a mere acolyte. Now he was the Head Priest of the Cult of Shadows. She was pleased; if anyone deserved it, it was him. She had never known a man so devoted to Orpho as Erudius. He would spend hours locked away in his study, pouring over the ancient scripture in an attempt to know its secrets.

Erudius stepped back and Impa finally stood, her young knees creaking at the effort. After a year of fighting for the glory of the King, her joints were beginning to sound like that of an old woman's. An acolyte stepped up to hand her a sickle and as she reached for it Impa looked down at the Zora general for the first time. He stared up at her defiantly from where he was bound, kneeling on the floor. After the Battle of the Seven Hills, Queen Persa had demanded that the great Zora general Delphos be executed for his crimes. Impa was not pleased with the decision, but she said nothing against it. Impa was often described as fierce and unfeeling, hiding in the King's shadow like some great cat, curled up and ready to spring. This was not true- or, at least, it was not entirely true. She could feel compassion and love and all those softer, tender emotions, same as anybody else.

She just refused to allow them to interfere with her duty.

Impa approached the bowed captive, sickle in hand. She would do as the Queen demanded, but Delphos was an admirable man, deluded though as he was. She would not see his soul fade to Nothingness if she could help it. Impa raised the sickle up before the statue and commanded, "Great Orpho! May you see your child here before you and deliver his soul into your kingdom!"

The Zora spat at her feet, the action causing his already dry and cracked mouth to bleed. "Keep your gods to yourself, slave," he sneered.

Impa felt a rush of pity for the poor creature as her sickle came crashing down upon his neck.

Impa swept into the King's council chamber. She stopped before the Queen and bowed low, only rising when Queen Persa waved her hand. The Queen stalked around the wide table, heavy with maps and missives from the front. King Zagreus had left with his troops for Lake Hylia nearly a week before, leaving his Queen, nearly seven months pregnant, to command in his stead. In truth, it was just as much her war as it was his, perhaps even more so. It had always been King Zagreus's dream to see Hyrule united under one banner, but it had been Queen Persa to launch the first attack.

"Is it done?" She asked imperiously.

Impa inclined her head. "I have delivered General Delphos into the arms of Orpho."

The Queen flinched back at that. "Do not speak the name of demons in my presence," she snapped, worryingly rubbing her swollen stomach. She turned back to her maps without giving the Sheikah commander a second glance. "Regardless, I am still displeased. I had wanted to give the Zora a public execution, mount his head on a stick and wave it before the Zora army. It would have certainly been a blow to their morale." She sneered, "But my husband insisted that I leave such matters to you."

"Though we look Hylian, we Sheikah are not. It is a tie that binds us to all non-Hylians," Impa carefully explained. Queen Persa was not yet used to the ways of the Royal Family. The young Queen had not been married but for two years. Before her marriage and coronation, she had been the daughter of a local farmer. By all rights King Zagreus should not have even noticed her, but during that fateful day when all of Hyrule was celebrating the Farorisia and the coming of spring, he happened to see her face in the crowd and fell instantly in love. Some of the more hateful rumors whispered that she was a witch who had cast a love spell upon the King; of course no one would dare say such things in Impa's presence. An attack on the Royal Family was an attack on the Sheikah.

Queen Persa sighed as she ran her fingers across the pages of parchment that were strewn across the place. "The blockade around Death Mountain is holding, but I am beginning to think it is futile all the same. The Gorons are not like the rest of us. They've got rocks a-plenty to eat up there; they have no need of clothes or wood. Why would they ever need to come down? They're mocking us," she hissed. "If we can't subdue the Zora, how will we conquer the Gorons? We need to win Zora's Domain."

Impa bowed. "My Sheikah are ready to depart. You need only to give the word."

"Go, and bring me the head of the Zora Queen."