Hyrule's Requiem: Prelude
The First Symphony
Song I
Din's Power. He didn't recognize the name, or the implications the title of the song held, but he understood it was something unbelievably important and something unfathomably ancient. Fi was uncomfortable speaking of it—and of Nayru's Wisdom and Farore's Courage as well. He'd no idea what they were or why they bore such an incredible significance to the journey Hylia had set before him, but he knew it was vital. It was their Silent Realms he entered, their sacred gifts he fought to obtain, their flames that scorched Fi's essence raw and burned golden triangles onto the back of his hand. Not Hylia's.
The last strains of song echoing about the silvery-grey stone of the Isle of Songs fell silent, and he drew himself out of his thoughts before the hollow, cavernous silence that so often devoured the island could take him.
"Fi?" She let out a soft hum, spiraling down from the ceiling to hover near his shoulder as the pedestal he stood on began to lower, trembling as ancient mechanisms silently lowered their burden. She seemed content—he was always careful to watch her, to make certain she looked happy. Something said in passing to him by Scrapper still haunted him—that he'd no regard for her feelings and dragged her along against her will. She'd laughed when he'd asked her about it, said there was no other place she'd rather be, but he'd sensed the sadness behind her words and he was terrified of hurting her, the only person who had been there for him throughout Hylia's quest. She was his friend as much as his guide, and while she refused to acknowledge that, she meant more to him than Zelda did.
Zelda had left, not even given him a word of explanation, not explained to him the duty she forced him to take up before vanishing through Time. Fi explained everything, and she was always there.
"I suggest we head to Skyloft, Master Link. Gather your strength and replenish your exhausted supplies before we leave for Eldin-" There was a hitch in her voice as she fell silent and Link looked up at her curiously, lips parting to ask what was wrong.
She zoomed past him before he could say a word, one hand flying to her chest as a terrible cry tore free of her.
His senses were immediately on high alert. He drew the Goddess Sword instinctively, jumping from the pillar.
He slipped the moment his heels touched the floor, sliding and nearly falling onto his back. Fi's blade clattered across the stone, resting gently near the precipice as his hands flattened beneath him, barley managing to keep himself from falling on his back entirely.
Warm, wet, sticky. He knew what blood felt like even before he sucked in a sharp breath, inhaling the nauseating tang of copper. He moved slowly as he lowered himself to his knees and scooted over to the blade, snatching it up and sheathing it before he lost it in the slippery substance.
The pedestal came to a shuddering halt, and Link turned to Fi.
A crumpled body lay in the thickest part of the pool, small and silent and still. Fi knelt beside it, hands fluttering about frantically as she sought a pulse. His eyes tracked the blood trail, seeing that it originated from beneath the pedestal, where the statue had emerged.
Had the person come from within the statue?
"He's a—He's alive, Mast—Master Link! Please-!"
He was there in an instant, gently sliding into place on the other side of the body and turning them over, one hand on the back of the stranger's head as he tilted it up. He paused then—no breath stirred the man's chest and he didn't react, didn't move. His body was limp, still as the dead. Then bandaged fingers spasmed around a bleeding gut, and Fi let out a soft cry of relief, all but sobbing already.
His free hand sought out the pouch at his hip, fumbling with the cold press of glass until he'd drawn out a bottle filled with heart potion and uncorked it. The stopper tumbled from his hand and bounced across the blood-soaked stone beneath them, rolling over the edge of the platform. Link paid it no heed, gaze darting to the stranger's face. A thick cloth was thrown over the lower half of his face, no longer cream but a dark red with his own blood, and Fi gently pulled the cowl down until it fell into a sopping mess around his throat.
"Fi-"
Pale lashes fluttered, and Link very nearly froze for an instant—the injured man's eyes were red, as brilliant as the liquid pouring from his stomach. It was a color Link had only seen in the eyes of the demons that haunted his nightmares, tearing free of the Imprisoned's seal to rip both Surface and sky apart at the seams.
But Fi's tears told him that this man wasn't evil, and Link flashed a smile at him as he tilted his head up farther, pressing the bottle against his lips.
The stranger's other hand shot up, wrapping around Link's wrist in an iron grip. His eyes focused briefly on Link, distrust and alarm flickering in their ruby depths, but his grip relaxed after a second, losing concentration and slumping in Link's grip. Link moved quickly, pouring the liquid past the stranger's lips. He swallowed most of it, until the focus returned and he began to fight, choking and spluttering as he jerked free.
"Careful-"
Fi was there immediately, hands pressing against the stranger's thrashing shoulders. She sang then, three notes shaking and trembling unsteadily, but still retaining their beauty. She repeated them once, twice, and the stranger's struggling faded, until his body fell back to the stone.
"Fi…" Her name slipped past his lips before his eyes closed, unable to stay open any longer, and Link felt his own shock acutely.
He knew Fi?!
"Master Link, please. Analysis indicates he won't li—live for long and I can't-" Fi stopped speaking when Link stood, shoving the empty bottle into one of his pouches before scooping up the stranger's still form.
He weighed startlingly little—in fact, he was little. Far thinner than healthy and a few inches shorter than Link himself. He wasn't a man, not yet, Link realized. He was a boy, no older than he was.
"Would he make it to the Surface?" He asked, hurrying for the exit point. It had changed—widened until the hole that he had to crawl through to enter the Isle's tower was a doorway, plenty big enough to carrying the injured man through. A blessing from the Goddess, he assumed.
"No, Master." He stopped dead, looking at her seriously.
"Where'll we go? We can't show up in Skyloft with a stranger. The Knights are only just managing to keep anyone from descending to the surface now—if anyone sees him it'll be chaos!" Fi hesitated a moment, then floated closer to him and unhooked something from his belt—his wallet, he realized.
"That was the last bottle of heart potion you had, Master Link. I will go on ahead and acquire some more. I suggest heading to the graveyard—the demon's home is hidden from the majority of Skyloft. Kukiel will know of his presence, but analysis indicates nothing disastrous will occur if they meet."
"Can you go that far from the sword?"
She shrugged, glancing down at the stranger. It was unnerving to see such a careless gesture from her.
"I will have to." She didn't waste any more time—she fled, a streak of amethyst light vanishing into a thick cloudbank. Link shifted his grip on the stranger, throwing his mind out to the skies and hooking onto the spot of light he knew to be his Loftwing, relaying his sense of urgency. The answering call sounded a moment later, echoing faintly across the skies.
He struggled in the next few minutes to position the stranger's body so that when he dove from the floating island and onto his Loftwing, he wouldn't hurt him—he'd never doubled up with anyone who wasn't a child before, not even Zelda.
His Loftwing's presence grew warmer, and Link took a running start.
His landing was messy and nearly sent the three of them crashing through the clouds, but his Loftwing, Hylia bless its soul, caught an updraft at just the right time and managed to salvage their plunge with only a wave of extreme annoyance directed at Link.
"I love you and I promise I will bring you something good from the Surface, alright? But he's dying and we've gotta hurry."
The stranger stirred in his arms, eyes opening, unfocused and hazy, before slumping further into his grip. His breathing was slowing.
Link drew him closer, and prayed.
XxXxX
"…No!"
"Batreaux, we have nowhere else to go!"
"Do you know what he is? What I am? I can't-"
"…Master Sheik?"
He stirred, muddled words gaining clarity. His eyes flickered open—thank Nayru the lighting was dim—and he found himself staring up at the anxious face of Fi.
Fi?
His lips moved, but no sound came out. Vaguely, he remembered the tang of potion and cold air against his bare face and worried blue eyes glancing down at him and anxious threads of song nearly overpowering his feeble defenses.
Her fingers brushed gently against his stomach, tight with the press of bandages, and the grief he saw in her face broke the strains of music rising to break the silence he'd endured for millennia.
"-He's a Sheikah!"
"And you're a demon! I didn't kill you when I first saw you! You think it hasn't crossed my mind that you're lying to me? For Hylia's sake, Girahim is the only other demon I've ever met and he's-"
The noise was deafening. He'd clasped his hands over his ears before he knew what he was doing, closing his eyes tightly as he let out a soft hiss of pain. Fi's grief was no longer a barrier, and notes built up within his throat, a low whine he refused to let grow into anything. Pressure, overwhelming and tantalizing and-
"-awake now! He'll do more than-"
"-More potion?"
"Quiet!"
-His eyes flashed open again, fingers clenched around strands of hair and pain splitting through his skull, his throat. There was an arm around his chest, holding him tightly against someone as he thrashed against their grip. He panicked, struggling to keep the music from escaping, trying to free himself from whatever was holding him—he'd sworn—
Fi grabbed his wrists, tugging his hands free and holding them down tightly.
"Master Link, there is a seventy percent chance that you will kill him if you continue to restrain him. There is an eighty-five percent chance that he will kill you if you do not release him." Fi's voice was carefully controlled, dead and lifeless. He loathed it, hated hearing such emptiness, but the magic singing in her words would have killed him, and he was eternally grateful for that as he slumped into her, resting his forehead against her collarbone as the grip on him loosened, vanished.
"What's wrong?"
"He needs silence."
He could still feel the Silent Realm humming within his soul, and its echoes reverberated harshly within his head. Painful.
He realized he was nauseous in the same instant he realized that Fi was calling someone Master.
"I'm gonna go get some more potion. He'll reopen his wound if he sits like that. And I'll tell Kukiel to be quiet when she gets down here. Batreaux, if you even think about touching him or speaking to him, I give Fi permission to kill you." The speaker's voice was quiet, the music in his voice gentle and musky like decaying forest matter, strong and quiet like feather tips slicing air currents.
He was subtle about it, lifting his head just enough so that he could see the bastard Fi had very nearly died for. He caught a glimpse of a hand gauntleted in brown leather setting the Goddess Sword against a nearby wall, a flash of green fabric, and the pain in his head grew too much. He rested his head against her shoulder again, closing his eyes.
And his mind drifted.
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So, this is not going to be updated frequently. 'How to Live' and 'A Route' are my two main projects at this point. But this is a trilogy, an idea I've been working on for a long while now, and I had the first chapter written for a while, figured I'd post it. I hope you enjoy/ed this, there eventually will be more~
Both the title and the idea for this fic stemmed from a song I heard on youtube~'Hyrule's Requiem' by Bleeding Ink, a beautiful remix of Sheik's theme. While listening to it isn't essential to the story, I am promoting them by suggesting you check the song out (not to mention their other kick ass Zelda remixes) and you can buy them on Itunes! I have no affiliation with Bleeding Ink, but I feel I owe them something seeing as how I'm naming this series off their song x3