The Four Mirrors
Sequel to 'Legacies'
By MMM/AJ
A/N: Whew! Here's a nice beefy 21 pager for y'alls to enjoy! We've got 10 pages from Opulous' POV and 11 pages from Nolus, as well as a significant Author's Note at the end. Also, there are a few quick CotP-style historical notes at the beginnings of a few chapters, but their presence has been inconsistent as I've written. They may or may not pop back up again, depending on inspiration, so don't be confused if you see them once in awhile! Now grab some coffee and a big pile of spare time and enjoy!
Chapter III – OI
Opulous slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath of the bracing morning air. The breeze that blew through the forest around him had a bit of a bite of chill in it, and it nipped at his skin slightly as he slowly awoke from his meditation. The gentle sigh of this breeze in the leaves filled his ears and he turned to look at his brother Nolus who was sitting next to him. Nolus had just emerged from meditation as well, and he smiled at Opulous warmly.
"That was extremely relaxing, brother." Opulous said. "We should meditate more often."
"Thanks Op, it's good for just about anything that ails you. I try to do it 3 times a week, it helps me keep in touch with the energy of the forest." Nolus replied.
They stood up and began walking down the path back to their house, but were interrupted halfway there by the sound of someone pushing through the foliage. Cygnus emerged, scratched up from the thorns, with a brilliant look of excitement painted on his face.
"Your little hideout is extremely hard to get to!" Cygnus exclaimed. "Come on, the shuttle's here to take us up into space!"
"Already?" Opulous asked, feeling mildly surprised. This was the first time he had tried meditation with Nolus and he hadn't expected it to pass the time so incredibly quickly.
"Yes, it's been waiting for 20 minutes and we've been trying to find you!" Cygnus said.
The three of them raced through the woods together, knowing that the others were probably becoming impatient, and when they emerged Opulous looked up in wonder at the size of the ship that had landed on the grounds. Opulous had seen some of Shakara's gunships before, but this shuttle was nearly triple the size of any of them. Its hull was painted a uniform dull metallic grey, and the symbol of Shakara's Protectorate was emblazoned on the side of the craft near the nose. It towered nearly 25 feet tall and 30 feet wide, with the engines on the rear humming in idle mode and glowing blue. Tanis was standing in front of the door reading a thick white text book, and he looked up and grinned when they reached him.
"It's about time!" He said playfully. "Been out playing tag with the wild Sentrets?"
"Oh come on dad, let's just go." Nolus said, rolling his eyes.
They all stepped up inside the shuttle, turned a corner, and entered a fairly cushy room filled with padded chairs. Shakara was standing in the front next to the pilot's chair, and everyone else had already buckled themselves into the passenger seats. Opulous was surprised to see that even Venius was present, despite the poor performance on his exam. He decided not to ask Venius about it however, since it was best to just let him enjoy the trip without worrying about the exam. Tanis walked up to the front to stand next to Shakara while the rest of them found their seats and buckled in as well.
"Alright. Now that we're all here, there are a few things I must tell you before we take off." Shakara said. "First of all, I should warn you that riding in the Blue River is a lot more…disconcerting than you might expect. I could try explaining how it feels to you in words, but I fear that I would do it little justice. What I will tell you is that you had better have buckled yourselves in tightly and that I hope you haven't eaten recently."
"Ummm, what if we did just eat?" Tamista asked suddenly.
"Then I trust you to control your own gut." Shakara said frankly.
"Why should this be a problem?" Nolus interjected. "Your shuttles do have inertial compensators installed, don't they?"
"Of course, but you must remember that back when I was your age, my father had just barely developed the technology for these compensators to allow his ships to even come through the river undamaged. Even with the technology we've developed since then, the ride is never going to be smooth. That's why the seats you're sitting in are so thickly cushioned. Finally, we're going to dock and exchange some supplies with a station before proceeding into the River. This shuttle needs to have its carbon dioxide scrubbers replaced soon, and I figured it would save time if we did it on the way. We'll be docked at station 4 of the River's orbital ring for approximately 15 minutes before proceeding."
"Station 4…that's one of the stations you gave to the humans as part of one of your treaties with them, isn't it?" Opulous asked.
"Yes, it is, but technically it's a shared station. They don't get exclusive rights to it, under the same treaty all stations are equal access to all ships, no matter race or nationality." Shakara replied.
"Oh geez. Can't we use one of our stations instead?" Venius whined.
"The nearest one is a quarter of the way around the planet, and with engines at maximum, it would take us two and a half hours to reach. You've got to remember that these shuttles aren't designed to be as fast or nimble as the gunships, but rather sturdy and more comfortable. Do you really want to wait that long just to avoid seeing a few humans out the window?" Shakara scolded.
Venius sighed heavily. "I guess not."
"Are we ready to go yet?" Cygnus asked impatiently.
"Yes, I suppose so. Make sure you have yourselves buckled, sometimes takeoffs can be rough too!" Shakara said, and then turned and sat in her pilot's chair.
Despite Shakara's warning, the takeoff was exceedingly smooth. The engines of the shuttle hummed in a much more subdued and smoother tone than any gunship and they gently lifted off of the lawn and accelerated like a feather on the wind. Opulous marveled at his aunt's piloting skills and hoped to achieve them in training someday soon as well.
"Ummmm, Aunt Shakara, is it ok if we make a quick stop before entering orbit?" Nolus suddenly asked.
"You didn't ask her yet?" Cygnus whispered to Nolus in a frustrated tone.
"What kind of stop?" Shakara asked, sounding slightly irritated.
"Well, I was hoping we could fly to the Pokemon University in Kanto to pick up Asha. I wanted to take her with us on the trip." Nolus replied.
There was a tense pause, and Shakara and Tanis exchanged glances.
"I don't see why not. Maybe we can rope Ashley along with her." Tanis said.
"Alright, but you'll owe me some extra homework later, Venius." Shakara said.
It was an uneventful 15 minute side trip to reach the city where the University was located and they had to hover a handful of yards away from the City's controlled airspace to wait for clearance before flying over to the Square with the engines on noise-reduction mode. Asha was sitting on an iron bench waiting eagerly when they finally landed and she scampered inside, lifting her wheeled backpack up on one arm as she ascended the steps inside.
"Looks like you did a bang up job with your begging Nolus!" Asha said cheerfully as she entered. "Where should I put my books?"
"There are baggage compartments along the walls over there to the left, you can put your stuff in there but make sure they're strapped in so they can't shift." Nolus said.
"Hey Asha, do you think you could go fetch your mom and have her come with us?" Tanis asked, turning around to look at her from his chair.
"Probably not, she just collected 600 different exams from our classes, each of which is at least 10 pages long, and she and the aides need to have them all graded by next week. I don't think she has the time to spend jaunting around space." Asha said.
"Oh, that's a shame. I really did want to see her. Oh well, get your bags stowed and buckled up, and we'll be off and out of here." Tanis said.
Asha looked uncomfortable in a seat designed for Mewtwo anatomy, but she strapped herself in tightly nonetheless. Cygnus snickered and pointed to how her pants sagged into the hole where a tail was supposed to go and Nolus gave him a gesture to cut it out.
They took off gently once again and rose through the air with grace like that of a bird. Shakara eased them into a gentle acceleration directly toward the dark blue sky, and the sky filled the huge translucent view screen in front of all of them.
"I'll tell you what I told everyone else Asha, riding in the Blue River isn't exactly a gentle or pleasant experience and it has the potential to be even more uncomfortable for you since the shape of your body doesn't match the contours of these seats. The G-forces you will feel, although not dangerous, will make you feel ill, so be prepared." Shakara said.
"No worries. My mom warned me about it when I told her about the trip today. She and I always ride on thrill rides together too, so it shouldn't be too surprising for me." Asha said. The dark blue of the sky began to darken and fall away and they passed through thinner and thinner layers of atmosphere.
"Trust me, it can and will surprise you." Tanis cautioned. "Don't let your guard down."
There was silence in the cabin for awhile as they passed into the vacuum of space, and Opulous stared intently in wonder at the stars. They were clearer than he had ever seen down on the surface before and they shone an even and clear glow instead of twinkling like before. More idle chatter began soon, but this time Opulous chose not to listen, instead preferring to concentrate on the stars on the screen before him. They stayed stationary for several more minutes before Shakara turned the ship a bit and brought the River's orbital ring into view. At their current distance the ring was only visible as a few bright blinking red and white lights superimposed over a diffuse blue glow. The station was a cluster of even brighter lights sitting at one point along the ring, with a few visible moving lights nearby that were most likely other ships.
A series of short, loud beeps drew Opulous out of his trance and caught the attention of everyone in the cabin. It stopped in a few seconds, and Tanis stared at the console with a confused expression.
"Well, that was bizarre." Tanis said succinctly.
"What, what was it?" Asha asked.
"Just a little blip on the sensors. It only registered for a few milliseconds, and it was barely detectable."
"Probably just a sensor ghost, it happens every once in a while." Shakara said. "Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, but I think I saw something too." Venius interjected.
"What, what kind of thing did you see?" Tanis asked.
"It's hard to describe, almost as if something was bending the starlight over in that corner for a second, kind of like looking through a rising updraft of hot air." Venius said.
"I'll run a full sweep then." Shakara said.
After a tense silence, Shakara frowned and spoke, "It must have been some kind of error in our viewscreen, the ship's sensors are reading emptiness and dust."
"I don't sense anything with my mind either." Tanis added.
"Well, isn't it a bit odd that Venius would see a distortion at the exact same time the sensors picked something up?" Opulous asked.
"It is, but I'm afraid there's just nothing out there. As Shakara said, there could have been an error in our equipment that affected the sensors and the screen too. It's not like there's anything else we can do." Tanis said.
"I just wonder why I didn't see what it is you saw, Venius. I was looking at the screen at the same time as you and everything looked normal." Opulous said.
"Well it doesn't matter anyway, we're 10 minutes from docking at the station now, and they can tell us if they detected anything abnormal too." Shakara said.
A few more minutes of worried silence persisted again before everyone broke out into mindless chatter once more. Opulous chose to not listen again, choosing instead to pay more attention to the screen to see if he could catch sight of another distortion should it appear again. The station and the river grew in their vision relatively quickly, and Opulous had seen nothing by the time the metallic sheen of the station's outer hull filled the screen. The shuttle turned to properly orient its doors to the docking port, and after a series of thumps and clangs everything was secure. Tanis and Shakara unbuckled and stood to leave.
"We'll be back in 10 minutes, the men bringing the replacement scrubbers will come and do their work during that time. Don't bother them!" Tanis said, emphasizing the last part of his speech to Venius, who only grunted in reply.
Tanis and Shakara left, and less than a minute later a pair of human men in dirty work clothes trudged in carrying four long aluminum capsules.
"Heyo." One of the men said, and nodded curtly before opening the door to the engine room and disappearing inside with his partner.
"Good lord, they reek!" Venius exclaimed, holding his paw over his face. "Don't they even know how to bathe?"
"Hey, remember what dad said." Opulous scolded. "They're doing their job, and we should be grateful enough for that."
"Man, I am so excited!" Asha suddenly said. "This is going to be great!"
"You know it! We even get to make stops and visit Weyard and Hyrule!" Cygnus said.
"We do?" Nolus asked, "Sweet! I didn't know that!"
There was a loud crash from back in the engine room, and one of the humans yelled out a long and complex chain of profanities that would have put any gang member to shame. Everyone in the cabin turned around to look, most of them with profound looks of shock on their faces.
"Foul mouthed apes." Venius huffed. "They had better not have broken anything!"
"I haven't even heard a few of those words, and I've been through high school!" Asha exclaimed.
More metallic clanking and cursing drifted from the back of the ship, and the scowl on Venius' face deepened profoundly. Soon the others learned to ignore it and continued with their chatting, and Opulous settled back into his seat and relaxed, letting all outside noise drift over him ineffectively. He wanted to do a little mental preparation for the ride through the River, since he was still unsure how well his body could handle it. Before he knew it the human men left carrying the old scrubbers, and his father and Shakara returned.
"Ready to go?" Tanis asked, sitting down in his chair.
"Definitely. Did the station's sensors detect the same thing we did?" Opulous asked, cutting straight to the point.
"No, their sensors have been quiet for months. Apparently we just had a bit of a false blip." Tanis said. "Did everything go well with the replacement parts?"
"If you don't count the colorful vocabularies and hygiene of the humans who did the repairs, everything was routine." Venius said.
"Alright, we're ready to make the jump then!" Tanis said, and the docking clamps suddenly released with another heavy thud.
Their shuttle flew parallel to the station' hull until they found the large sliding steel doors that lead to the interior chambers. The doors were already open, so they floated inside slowly, turning a few corners before finding the second set of doors that kept the entry chamber for the Blue River. A glowing red X sign was blinking just to the right of the doors, indicating that there was still another ship inside. They waited there for a few minutes more until the red X sign flickered off and was replaced by a green check mark sign, and the thick steel doors slowly slid open.
"Alright, this is your last chance to get buckled and secured! I don't want to have to treat anybody for concussions!" Tanis said.
Opulous instinctively fingered his seat belt and ground his teeth slightly. Their ship entered the chamber and the doors closed behind them, and the bottom of the chamber opened up below them to reveal the twisting maelstrom of electric blue. Tanis and Shakara fidgeted with the controls, and lines of commands scrolled down the sides of the screen. Spiraling metal coils all along the wall around them glowed a bright blue, and various gasps and sighs of awe curled through the cabin.
"Whoa, I'm weightless!" Asha exclaimed, grasping her seat belt.
"This is totally incredible!" Nolus said.
"Hold on to your seats, the thruster charges are about to fire!" Shakara shouted.
Opulous caught sight of a countdown a few seconds away from reaching zero, and clenched his stomach right before it ran out. A blast of white and blue light filled the screen and the whole shuttle rattled violently as jets of focused thrust blasted the shuttle downward, causing Opulous to be slammed back into his seat. He felt compressed into his seat, as if his own weight had quadrupled and gravity was focused behind him. His vision quickly began to fade out and he nearly passed out from the G forces acting on him, but after a few seconds a deep hum filled the cabin and the forces reduced to a manageable level. As his perception returned to normal, he heard a loud, insistent alarm ringing from the control panels at the front of the cabin. His vision cleared and he saw Tanis and Shakara frantically messing with the controls, which were flashing red warning lights all over.
"What's going on, what's wrong?" Tamista asked urgently.
"The steering and control system shorted out!"
Opulous' blood ran cold, it was the first time he had been utterly terrified in his life. He grabbed his buckle and nearly unfastened it to stand up, but the shuttle began to shift and turn. He was tossed against the side of his seat, where there was no padding, and bruises appeared on the left side of his torso.
"We're drifting toward the inner wall!" Tanis said frantically. "The controls are still unresponsive!"
"Go to manual control! You know what happened the last time we disrupted the River Wall's continuity!"
A set of manual control sticks emerged from underneath the panel and Tanis and Shakara both grabbed them in unison and pulled them to the left as hard as they could. The ship's curving trajectory only changed slightly though, and they continued to drift closer and closer to the glowing blue of the River's wall.
"I don't understand, manual's not working either!" Shakara yelled, panic her voice as well.
"We're going to hit the wall, everyone brace yourselves!" Tanis shouted.
Opulous grabbed the arms of his seat and clenched his tail around the base of the chair. He saw the blue wall of energy fill the view screen and clenched his eyes shut right before the collision occurred. He heard a massive electrical crashing noise like a large power generator exploding, and the ship spun around violently. Opulous was thrown back and forth in his seat, the strap biting his flesh and the sides of the chair bruising him further. He opened his eyes and saw through the screen that they were still inside the River, but were twirling around inside it like a rogue spinning top.
Tanis and Shakara began glowing with power, and the metal frame of the ship groaned loudly from the sudden strain. The two of them co-operated to psychically steady the ship and put it back on course, stopping the spin and putting it on the correct path to keep it from hitting the wall again.
A thought struck Opulous, and since the ship was steadying, he took the chance to unbuckle and stand up from his seat. Tanis and Shakara were too busy concentrating on keeping the ship on course to see, but Cygnus and the others turned around and shouted at him to get back in his seat. He ignored them and ran into the engine room, looking for the access panel where the carbon dioxide scrubbers were. He found the panel, slammed it open and examined it frantically, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. A sudden prickly burning sensation covered the top of his head, and he looked up and saw sparks tumbling down from one of the bundles of cable on the ceiling, which had been very obviously cut. Opulous guess that it was the cables for the manual controls, so he reached up and psychically repaired them. The wires melted back together and solidified, and the ship jerked and tumbled, tossing Opulous off his feet. He landed on his bruised side and winced in pain, but the jarring stopped immediately and he climbed back to his feet. He sprinted back to the cabin only to see that Tanis and Shakara had regained control and we're holding onto the manual sticks with firm grips.
"Whatever you did, Opulous, it worked! Good job!" Tanis said.
Opulous sighed in relief and lowered himself into his old seat. "I don't know what caused the autonav system to fail, but I did find that the manual steering lines had been cut." Opulous replied.
"I bet those scumbag humans did it!" Venius growled. "They're the only ones who could have!"
"We'll investigate it later, right now we need to focus on making it through the River intact, manual steering isn't easy at these speeds you know!" Shakara said.
"We're lucky the River didn't collapse when we struck it." Cygnus observed.
"Lucky, but things aren't totally safe. The sensors are lighting up with all sorts of unidentified disturbances and imbalances rippling across the River. It very well could collapse n a few minutes." Shakara said. "I'm even detecting radio signals in here!"
"Put them on the speakers, there's never been any instance of signals like this inside the River." Tanis said.
Static and white noise poured from the cabin's speakers, and everyone silently listened for a moment. Not a single recognizable sound was audible for many long seconds, and Tanis was about to turn it off when a single word arose from the chaos: 'firing!'.
The static began to thin, and the distorted sounds of rumbling and explosions replaced it as background noise. A shattered monologue filled with breaks of static and interference managed to crawl its way through the noise.
"Fusion charges…line 12, their formation…ing….advancing at points 32 and….flanked their low lines…no good!"
Opulous turned and exchanged a glance with his brother Nolus, who looked equally confused and shaken.
"…back to the fifth marker…protect the…all costs!...3 cruisers left, fall back to the blue…"
A violent electrical screech marked the end of the signal, and the speakers returned to the torrential stream of static. Tanis fiddled with the controls for a moment, and then cut the speakers, leaving them in silence.
"That was creepy." Asha remarked.
"Didn't that voice sound familiar?" Tanis asked.
"Yes, but I couldn't really pinpoint it." Shakara replied.
"The disturbances seem to be ebbing though, the energy spikes are smoothing out and the wall is stabilizing." Tanis said, studying the readouts on the holographic console.
"We're getting close to the slowdown marker too, we'll have to manually make the turn-jump exit maneuver." Shakara said.
"You're right, in less than a minute actually." Tanis said, and then turned back to face the passengers behind him, "This could be equally jarring, so be ready!"
A little countdown timer appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen, and as it neared zero, the exit portal in the top of the River's Wall appeared. The screen highlighted it in red, and the highlight turned green just as the window of opportunity for using it opened. Tanis pulled back on the controls and the ship nosed upward and slid through the exit portal, barely passing without touching the walls. The blackness of normal space rushed up to fill the screen, and they shot away from the River at incredible speed. Tanis gently hit the nose rockets to slow them down, and when they eventually came to a stop, the River and the planet were small points in the distance.
"Well, that was certainly an exciting first trip eh?" Melicia said.
"Indeed, and hopefully it'll never be that exciting again." Opulous replied.
Chapter IV – NI
One of Shakara's greatest accomplishments as leader of the Protectorate was the intensively detailed study of the worlds of Hyrule and Weyard. By leaving science vessels in orbit around the two planets with their scanning and sensor equipment running for several weeks straight, she was able to develop a unifying theory of energy to explain the phenomenons of magic and alchemy. This theory would eventually lead to several scientific leaps and bounds in the fields of energy collection, generation, and utilization. Such advances allowed for more efficient reactors in spacecraft, cheaper energy bills for homes and businesses, and even artificial psychic powers in a few lucky experimental volunteers. Most members of the scientific community harbor a great respect for Shakara for these accomplishments.
"I still can't believe you beat Jenna in Weyardian Chess!" Nolus exclaimed.
"It was all logic." Opulous said, with a very subtle grin playing across his face. "That and she had become complacent in her status as the master of the game."
"It was truly a match for the ages." Asha said, giggling under her breath.
Opulous turned to look ahead toward the view screen, and Nolus followed his gaze. The blue of the Hypalian planet was swelling up to greet them.
"Hey Asha, how much do you know about Hyrule?" Tanis interjected.
"Quite a bit, actually. My mom had all sorts of stories and lessons about it." Asha said. "The planet is named Hypalia, and there are three large continents amid a large ocean. The south most continent, Suhera, is largely unpopulated and wild, and is of a tropical climate. Northwest of it is the continent of Iress, which is dominated by one large imperial kingdom of the same name. And east of Iress is Hyera, where the nations of Hyrule, Dantun, Bensor, and Il'Nead are located."
"Well I'm glad you know your Geography, but I meant more specifically about the nation of Hyrule in general." Tanis said.
The hull of the shuttle began to rattle a little as they entered the outer layers of the atmosphere. The brownish greens of the three continents were now clearly visible through the thick layers of clouds, and the vast oceans around them were a deep cobalt blue.
"I know that the central government is a hereditary monarch under the rule of Queen Ilana, and that there are smaller governmental subsets for each race, each of which is controlled by a local ruler who is subordinate to Ilana. The bloodlines of most of these leaders have been intact for thousands of years, despite Ares' violent conquest. Their culture is built around hospitality, commerce, and a reverent respect for the Goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore of the native religion."
"You know all this off of the top of your head?" Cygnus asked, obviously impressed.
"I wonder where she's keeping the cheat sheet." Venius muttered.
Nolus gave Venius a stinging glare, and Venius just frowned and looked back at the screen. The hull was now shaking eagerly, and there were little tongues of flame shooting across it.
"I also know that the Gerudo, Goron, and Kokiri races have extremely long life spans, sometimes reaching up to 500 years." Asha added.
"Ok ok, it sounds like your mom has been teaching you well. You've proven yourself." Tanis said, chuckling a bit.
"I knew Ashley wouldn't raise an ignoramus." Shakara said to Tanis, smiling.
"It's no mystery why I get straight A's in all the classes my mom teaches." Asha proclaimed proudly.
Nolus heard a barely audible scoff from Venius, and he psychically spoke to him, telling him to shut his mouth or father would probably never take them on another trip like this again. Venius simply frowned again in response.
The rattling of the hull slowly quieted down, and the clouds began to part before them, giving a clear view of the topography of the Hyeran Continent below them. To Nolus the sight was gorgeous, he could see ever geographic feature on the continent, from the brownish greens of the central grasslands to the grey crags of the mountain ranges that lined the northern shores. He could even see the deep green hues of the Lost Woods from up here; it was the largest forest on the planet after all. The Dead Lands of Dantun were visible as a large patch of grey emptiness, and the Draconian Heights of Bensor stood high like towers amongst the Snowy Mountains.
"That atmospheric entry was remarkably smooth when compared to when we went to Weyard." Opulous observed.
"Tanis and I tweaked the Inertial Compensators while you were all playing Weyardian Chess. Apparently our experimental settings worked well." Shakara said. "I'll have to publish them when we get back to Earth."
Hyrule came up at them quickly and filled the screen, and the details of the landscape filled Nolus' vision like water filling a crystal pitcher. He had been curious if there would still be visual evidence of the abusiveness of Ares' regime, but the land had recovered itself remarkably. Nolus remembered seeing pictures of Hyrule during his history classes, and Death Mountain had been covered with blackened scars and holes from Ares' industrial cities and mines, but as he saw it now it was clean and even, as if nothing had ever happened here. Not a single trace of any of Ares' bases was left; the wild plants had already grown to fill the spaces where they had sat. The farmlands and ranches which had been forced to use harsh chemical and industrial methods to maximize crop production had now been restored to a lush green. No more were the sickly yellow-green spots that Nolus had seen in the pictures; nature had healed these lands too. The once-polluted Zora's river was clear as glass again, and the great gaps in the forest from Ares' chopping programs had amazingly re-grown. It seemed miraculous to Nolus that the environment could have recovered so quickly, but he reminded himself that his father and Shakara had been the ones to help in the recovery, and he couldn't help but smile.
The shuttle landed in the western region of Hyrule, right next to the Gerudo Palace. Kalana and Ruru came running out to meet them as the shuttle settled onto the ground, and they were waiting there holding gifts when the shuttle door opened and they climbed out.
"Is that Hylian Redberry pie I smell?" Tanis asked with a smile as he and the others stepped down out of the shuttle.
"I know it's your favorite." Kalana said.
"Glad to finally have you people over for a visit again." Ruru said. "It's been long overdue."
"I hope you made more than one pie though, I brought the whole troupe this time!" Tanis said, and stepped aside, letting everyone else emerge.
"By Din, look at all of you! I didn't expect this!" Kalana exclaimed. "This your first time visiting Hyrule too, isn't it?"
"Sure is!" Nolus said excitedly.
"Well I think a bit of a tour is in order! Do you think you can stay that long?" Kalana asked.
"It's why we came to visit, of course!" Tanis said.
"Well come on, let's get going then! I'll scare up some more pie to eat, and then we'll see if I can get us some carriages for a tour!"
They walked together as a large group into the Gerudo Palace, and as they walked through the ornately decorated walls, Nolus suddenly sensed a wave of distressed emotions from Venius. He turned to look at Venius, and saw that Venius was staring down the hallway behind them with a terrified look on his face. He looked to see what Venius was staring at, but saw nothing. When he looked back at Venius, he saw that he had turned back and continued walking like normal. Nolus felt confused and worried, especially since he could still sense his brother's fear, but since there really wasn't anything obviously wrong, he continued walking as well. They reached the dining hall before long, and Kalana and Ruru summoned up a great platter of various foods, including several more pies. Nolus sat between Asha and Cygnus, and the food was doled out in generous portions.
"Awww, I already filled up on Mia's cooking when we were in Weyard!" Asha groaned.
"Just try a bit of this pie, it's amazing!" Nolus said, waving a plate with some pie under her nose and grinning mischievously.
Asha took a piece with her fork and nibbled a bit, and a look of ecstasy flooded her face. "This is the best pie I've ever had in my life!" she exclaimed.
"Thanks, it's our personal best." Ruru said graciously.
"I told you it was good!" Nolus said, grinning broadly.
Asha grabbed the plate that he had been waving in front of her and kept it for herself, then dug in.
At that moment, Nolus heard a violent retching sound to his right, and he turned and saw that Venius had fallen out of his seat and was vomiting all over the floor. Everyone in the room stood, and Tanis ran over to help him. He raised his paw to indicate to Tanis to stay back, and retched twice more before recovering. He grabbed the table and climbed to his knees, and Nolus saw a mess of half-chewed pie all over his face.
"Napkin…please." Venius stammered.
One of the Gerudo serving maids rushed over with a towel, and Venius grabbed it brusquely and wiped his face. When he was done, he tossed it over his shoulder at her and moved to sit at a different seat. Everyone was just staring at him at this point.
"Are you alright?" Tanis asked.
Nolus could feel more horrified emotions from Venius again.
"Fine, just fine. I think I might have the flu." Venius said dismissively.
"Oh dear Farore, I hope it wasn't the food that made you sick!" Kalana fretted.
"No….not at all." Venius said quietly. I just have this stomach problem that flares up every once in awhile."
Nolus knew that Venius was lying to be polite, he had never seen his brother vomit like that before. It couldn't explain all these emotions he could sense from him either, but Nolus this wasn't the time nor place to ask, and so did everyone else. Venius quietly sat back down, and everybody else followed suit. The eating continued in uncomfortable silence for several more minutes. When everyone finished, Kalana Ruru lead them back outside, where an extra-large, luxurious carriage was waiting for them.
"Where do you all want to go first?" Kalana asked, climbing atop and taking the reigns.
"Well, why don't we start at the Spirit Temple?" Tanis suggested.
"Ah, you want to show off your handiwork to the sons eh?" Kalana said with a grin.
"You know it!" Tanis replied.
The ride to the temple was short and uneventful, and Nolus spent it staring out the window at the grasslands as they passed by. As they approached the Temple, the grasses thinned out and the sands of the desert crept around the wheels of the carriage. The stout orange stone and glinting stained glass of the Temple stood tall above the beginnings of the desert. The carriage rolled to a stop in front of its great wooden doors.
"You mean, this is the temple that you said you and Shakara built?" Cygnus marveled, stepping down from the carriage.
"The very one." Tanis said, walking towards the doors.
Entering the Temple, Nolus couldn't help but stare at the two large guardian statues that stood before them at the head of the great hall. Two large hooded cobras glared down at them with ruby eyes, their hoods inscribed with ancient Hylian text. Nolus knew he couldn't read it even if he tried, so he didn't bother trying. Instead he marveled at the smoothness and precision with which the carvings had been made, the orange stone shined almost as if it had been polished. Kalana and Ruru lightly bowed their heads in reverence and whispered prayers in Ancient Hylian. Nolus didn't know the prayers, but he bowed his head with them as a sign of respect. The others followed suit except for Venius, who looked as if he wanted to scoff again.
The Nolus remembered talking with his father once about the Temples of Old Hyrule once. Tanis told him that before Ares invaded and destroyed them, the Elemental Temples used to be great labyrinthine puzzles, each filled with a great number of traps, locked doors, and even monsters to test those who ventured into them. Supposedly, these obstacles were designed to weed out those who were unworthy of wielding the elemental powers guarded within, and many who foolishly wandered into them often never came back out. The new Temples that Tanis had built were much different than this however. Instead of testing worthiness with mazes and traps, his Temples were places of resting and worship. The Spirit Temple that he built was the grandest example of this. It consisted of a lowered entryway with the Sister Cobra Demigoddesses, a great hall with the statue of the Desert Goddess at the far end, and eight smaller branching rooms, 4 of which were used for shelters, and 4 which were dedicated to some of the less significant deities of the Hylian Pantheon. The great hall had a raised arched ceiling that reached nearly 20 feet tall, and featured 8 stained glass windows, 4 on either side. Nolus looked up at the windows, fascinated by the craftsmanship they displayed. The farthest window on the left portrayed Mewtwo holding aloft the Master Sword, and the farthest window on the right portrayed Tanis standing victorious over a defeated Ares.
"Huh? What?" Kalana stuttered, a shocked look suddenly painting her face. She broke away from the group and ran forward, crossing the length of the great hall in a few graceful bounds. The rest of them ran to catch up.
Kalana stood at the foot of the statue of the Desert Goddess, staring at the 7 foot tall shrine that sat at its feet. The shrine, which was naught but a large, circular stone slab, was covered in tiny etchings of Hylian text. In the center of the circular tablet a single golden gem was inlaid into the stone, and just below it a single golden metal disc was also inlaid.
"I can't believe it!" Kalana whispered.
"Can't believe what? What's going on?" Cygnus asked loudly.
Tanis gestured to Cygnus to be quiet, and stepped up beside Kalana to get a closer look.
"The Medallion….I thought it was lost after Ares destroyed the old temple! It's…it's returned to us!" Kalana whispered.
"What can it mean?" Ruru asked.
"I don't know, we should tell Ilana and the others immediately." Kalana said.
"Do we need to leave?" Tanis asked.
"No, it's alright. I'll fly over to Hyrule Castle with Nulive; you can stay here with my sister." Ruru said.
"I don't want to stay here though, I want to keep going!" Venius protested.
Melicia elbowed Venius to get him to stop whining.
"We can keep going, we don't have to stay here. I'm just going to close and lock the doors as we leave." Kalana said.
Nolus felt a sudden surge of curiosity. Kalana and Ruru turned to leave, and as the rest of the group trailed behind to follow, Nolus reached out and touched the Medallion. A red-hot jolt of energy assaulted his senses for a millisecond, filling his senses and causing a burning pain through his body. He stumbled back away from the alter, gasping silently and grasping his arm. He clamped his eyes closed and took a few deep breaths while he regained his balance and control. When he opened his eyes again, his vision had a strange, distorted quality. He could see a warm, peaceful glow radiating from the stones of the Temple around him, so he blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. Opening his eyes again, he looked at his paws and saw a green aural glow surrounding them, and the red pulse of the lifeblood within them. He turned and looked back at the Medallion and was nearly blinded by the light it was emitting. To him it was a great swirling nexus of golden energy, and swarms of thousands of motes of light were swirling around it, both entering into it and spraying away in plumes.
"Hey Nolus! Come on!" Tanis' voice shouted.
Nolus was startled by his father and flinched. In that moment his vision flickered again and turned back to normal. He turned to see his father and Kalana waiting by the door. The rest of the group was already outside waiting.
"Coming!" Nolus yelled, and ran across the Temple hall as fast as they could.
"What were you doing back there?" Kalana asked him as they walked out and closed the doors.
"Uhh, nothing. I wanted to make sure I had a good look at the writings before leaving." Nolus said nervously.
Kalana gave him a funny look, and Tanis frowned at him slightly, but neither of them said anything. Nolus smiled weakly and walked over the climb into the carriage, trying to escape their scrutiny. He felt guilty and a bit afraid of what he had done, and he was still reeling from the strange visions he had seen. He felt a stirring in the back of his mind, it had felt eerily familiar to him, but he couldn't place it. He could still feel an odd tingling sensation all over his body as well.
Climbing into the carriage and sitting between Tamista and Venius, Nolus was overcome with another wave of feelings again, and he did his best to conceal it from his family. He kept a façade of normality on his outside and clenched his eyes shut again. He could suddenly hear voices around him, which he recognized as those of those who were sitting all around him.
"I would really enjoy a candy bar right about now…" Tamista's voice said.
"I really wonder if this Medallion thing is really worth all this trouble." Venius' voice griped.
"Oh shit, I forgot that history matching worksheet. I'll need to do it first thing when I get home." Asha's voice moaned.
More and more voices filled Nolus' head, many of which spoke all in unison so that their words blended together into an indistinguishable mishmash of chatter. Nolus knew that none of them were psychically projecting their thoughts at him as well, as several of the thoughts he heard sounded very personal. Also, whenever he psychically talked with any of his family members, it usually involved a detectable mental linkage that consumed energy and was easy to disconnect, and now there wasn't even a link to disconnect. He tried to block them out, but they chattered on unabated. When he opened his eyes, the strange vision had returned to him. He looked at Opulous, who was sitting across from him, and saw him sitting inside an aura of blue and white energy. Lines of energy were flowing through him, energy which represented his essence and life.
Nolus' memory finally clicked in recognition, and his mind was carried out of the carriage in the present back into his past and his childhood. He remembered himself as a child of barely 5 years, sitting out in the forest and meditating for the very first time. He was looking right at the life auras of every living thing in the forest. He could see the weak green energies of the trees and grass Pokemon that slowly bent in the breeze, and when his brother appeared out of the foliage, he saw his brother's aura as well. Cygnus had been bathed in a warm orange and red glow, like a gentle little flame that burns on a candle, and his psychic third eye was a glowing point of energy on his forehead.
"Hey Nolus, are you alright?" Tamista asked, grabbing his shoulder.
Nolus returned to the present and blinked, and in that instant his vision returned to normal again. "Yeah, I'm fine Tam. Just spacing out a bit." He said.
"Funny, that's usually Opulous' job." Tamista said, and giggled.
Nolus laughed and slugged her playfully on the shoulder, and then turned to look at Opulous to see what his reaction had been. He was staring out the carriage window and spacing out as usual, not paying attention to either of them.
"You're right on the money as usual Tam." Nolus said.
"Laugh it up all you want, but I do know how to listen you know." Opulous suddenly said, not looking away from the window. Nolus looked back over at him and saw that a tiny grin had crept onto his face for a few moments before vanishing.
When nobody said anything else, Nolus returned to his thoughts. It had been over 12 years since he had last been able to see life auras. The power had come to him at that young age suddenly, and only worked in sporadic increments. After he first discovered it, he had spent several months training himself to control it, until he could turn it on and off at will. He enjoyed it for awhile until that one day when his family had nearly fallen apart. He shuddered when he remembered that days, it was one of the darkest days he had ever lived through. Just thinking about it caused his memories to rise up again, despite his unwillingness to relive them.
He had been playing tag with Cygnus, Tamista, and Satoria that day. Venius was sitting on the sidelines watching, Opulous was inside studying, and Tanis and Shakara were both in their lab bunkers across the yard. Nolus had his aura-see ability turned on so that he could use it to predict where his siblings were going to run during the tag game, but he was concentrating on the game so hard that he didn't notice it when Venius wandered off and disappeared into the forest. He played and had fun until his aura vision suddenly caught sight of a huge glowing tower of reddish energy somewhere off in the distance. He stopped to stare at it, and it grew in size as he watched it, and its sinister color and shape had filled his still immature mind with terror. He knew the others couldn't see it.
A few moments later, the massive negative aura erupted into a fireball of pure energy, and in Nolus' vision it took on the form of a massive evil face, one that seemed to speak to him and tell him that it wanted to burn all of creation to dust. He knew it wasn't just a vision as well, when he heard a massive explosion and saw hundreds of bird Pokemon fly away in terror.
Of course, Tanis and Shakara flew over there straight away, and when they came back Tanis was carrying a badly injured and still terrified Venius in his arms. He asked his father what had happened, but Tanis didn't answer as he ran to take Venius to the bunker where he kept the med-bay.
That night, Nolus overheard his father in a huge screaming argument with Aunt Shakara in the house. Venius was spending the night in the med-bay, and the rest of his siblings were in bed asleep. He hadn't been able to sleep that night because he was still terrified by the aura he had seen in the forest, and when he heard his father and aunt roaring at each other in rage, he crept out into the hallway to listen to them. Nolus still didn't remember what his father was arguing with Shakara about, but he vividly remembered looking around the corner to look at them while they fought. With his aura vision on, he saw clouds of hateful energy surrounding his father and aunt as they argued, making them both look like demons. It struck him with such terror that afterwards, he decided to turn his ability to see these auras off permanently just so he would never have to see anything so horrible again. And over the years, he had slowly forgotten about it and blocked out the memories, until it was completely gone from his mind.
Nolus now knew that touching the Medallion must have somehow brought back his power to see auras. He sat there in the carriage pondering it for almost an hour as they rode through Hyrule Field, silent and solemn in his thought. His family members chatted idly around him an the landscape whizzed by, and soon he was interrupted in his thoughts when Asha laid her hand on his.
"You're been unusually quit for this ride, bro. Normally you'd have piles of things to talk to me about. Is something on your mind?" Asha asked.
"Just some memories coming to the surface. Stuff that I haven't thought about in a long time." Nolus replied quietly.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not now. Maybe when we get back home, when there aren't so many ears around."
Asha shrugged. "Works for me. Just ask if you want to talk before then."
Nolus started digging back into his thoughts again, but he was quickly interrupted by a strong wave of emotions radiating from Venius. This time, with Nolus' apparently heightened senses, the feelings felt even stronger, and he could almost hear Venius' thoughts this time. He didn't need to turn on his aura vision to know that it was fear as well. This time he decided to get to the bottom of whatever it was that was bothering his brother, so he reached out to psychically talk with him.
"What's wrong Venius?"
"Can you see them?" Venius asked.
"See who?"
Venius tilted his head to indicate the landscapes that were passing by outside the window. Nolus looked out there and saw absolutely nothing, the grassy plains were practically empty except for an occasional cow or horse. Nolus still could sense something though, and he knew that something was definitely distressing his brother, so there must have been something out there. He decided to try and turn on the aura vision again, it would be the first time he did voluntarily since he was nearly 5 years old. He clenched his eyes shut and willed the power to come forth like he had taught himself to do so long ago, and when he opened his eyes a sight sprawled out before him that struck him cold with fear and awe.
Out in the field were the ghostly aural forms of spirits. More than that, they were the spirits of Goron, Zora, and Gerudo soldiers, and there were thousands of them. They were wearing shining steel armor and stood in huge ranks, and as Nolus watched, chaos broke out amongst them. Not a sound could be heard as huge horde or flying spectral dragons descended upon them and began butchering them. A scene of unimaginable violence played out before Nolus' eyes, and he couldn't bear to look away as the Dragons eviscerated and torched the numerically inferior mixed forces. When there were none left to impose the dragons, and the fields were soaked with blood and blackened with dragonfire, the vision ended and the phantoms disappeared, letting the field return to its normal, empty state. Nolus turned to look at Venius, and Venius just gave him a grim nod.
"So this is what's been bothering you all day? Even at dinner?" Nolus psychically whispered.
"The dinner one was a bit different. My dinner roll looked like a severed section of someone's arm." Venius said.
Nolus gasped and covered his mouth in disgust. No wonder Venius had vomited!
"I'm just glad you can see these now too." Venius said after a moment.
"I think we should tell father. Right away." Nolus said.
"No!" Venius said sternly. "I know he can sense my distress, it's obvious that you could too. Now isn't the right time to talk about it, no matter how terrifying it is."
Nolus couldn't help but agree. He ended the conversation right there, and made sure to turn off his aura vision to make sure one of those phantoms didn't startle. He returned to his thoughts again for the remainder of the trip. He was now sure that touching the Medallion had amplified his abilities and brought back his aura vision, but for how long? It seemed to be trailing off now, the more time passed the more it dwindled. But it had dredged up parts of his childhood that he had thought had been put behind him, and he needed more time to mentally digest it all.
A/N: I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I write and, more importantly, WHY I write lately. Certain events concerning the last few chunks I've posted have gotten here have forced me to re-examine myself as an author, and I've come to a conclusion that has helped me both as an author and a human.
I write mainly to make myself happy, not to try and please everybody. Meaning: If someone doesn't like the direction I take my writing or my style, and they decide to make harsh comments, I'm not going to let it bother me anyway. Sure, good reviews always get me pumped, and I still crave them, but I'm no longer going to let the naysayers get under my skin anymore. People have the right to make comments like that on my stories, and I equally have the right to disregard them if they cannot frame their opinions in a polite way. So from now on, I'm changing my philosophy: Feel free to flame me all you want, but don't expect anything to change. Because I write what and how I like, and I don't have to change to suit one person. If I've been cruel or childish to my detractors in the past, I offer my sincere apologies.
And now that's off my chest, I feel like I can come out of my prison of writer's block and create freely again without worrying about what some people will say. Maybe the next few chunks will come in a much more timely fashion because of this! I have thanksgiving break from college coming up soon, and that should help. Thanks for reading!