Come Morning Light
Story 4: Undesired Crowns
Never before had the goddess felt so powerless.
The Lady Palutena, the Goddess of Light and Wisdom, had been imprisoned by gods and forces equal to or greater than herself before, but she had always counted upon something – or someone, more accurately, very special to help her to set things right.
Things were definitely not right. She sat before her scrying-pool, which served as her window upon the other world, fitted by the magic of that world to serve as her "television." Palutena wore manacles of dark magic that she had thus far failed to be able to remove. Spectral chains flowed from them whenever she moved, disappearing when she remained still. The shackles drained her energy, leaving her weak. Accordingly, the light around her temple in Skyworld and over the land below was dimmed – not by clouds shrouding the sun, but by a diminishing of the quality of Light itself. The goddess' guard – an army of brawny centurions that could carry themselves by white wings in their helms – were allowed to be at her beck and call. They knew, with great shame, that they could not fight the evil that had overtaken their land and had chained their goddess. Her power could not support them while she was detained like this.
And, of course, the Guard Captain, a higher kind of angel, was no longer with them.
Pit had always been a good and faithful servant – Palutena's best. Exceptionally talented at fighting demons and monsters and exceptionally brave, he had been able, in times past, to save her when the power of her divinity failed. Theirs was a unique relationship. He worshipped her and from her perspective, he had always been meant to be an employee, created to be a servant-creature, yet what he had become over the eons was something more like a son to her.
When he had volunteered, of sorts, to fight in her stead in her captor's wicked bloodsport and had been taken away from her to do just that, she had been left utterly bereft in heart. She didn't watch the events broadcast through the pool merely as the god of one world curiously watching what was going on in another – she was united with every mother that was watching their children forced to fight. It was a curiously mortal sensation. Palutena didn't like it at all. As someone who'd watched over a world from ancient ages, she knew what grief was, but had not been personally acquainted with it in the way that she was now.
"Keep them guessing, Pit," she said to the pool, knowing that he could not hear her. He was dazzling at that interview – just utterly charming. This was one of Pit's superpowers. It did not work on monsters or in battling the most wicked of opposing gods, but it worked on most others. Pit had a way of turning people who wanted to kill him into allies just by being sweet – sometimes. Palutena knew that, audience applause aside; he was still in grave danger.
Her boy was in a world where she could not simply extract him from the danger and heal him. She had brought him back from near-death time and time again and had even captured his soul before it fled when he had technically died from wounds suffered in heavy battle, but there was no way for her to do that for him while he was in the other world. The two of them were cut-off and Pit was no longer under her divine protection. She did not know what would become of his sweet soul if one of the other fighters prevailed against him or if he was taken by one of the landscape-hazards. By virtue of his species, he was strong – much stronger than he looked to the others, certainly, but not invincible, and there was a certain fragility in his wings. Pit's wings held and channeled the greater part of his life-force. Minor injury to them, or even breaking, was nothing he could not recover from, but if they were burnt down or otherwise destroyed, she could not bring him back even if he was able to access the usual miracles from her.
This was why the Power of Flight was so dangerous. It was a gamble between it cutting off and his falling in a way that would crush his wings and body beyond repair or the wings burning off – a crueler death than a fall should it ever happen. The Power of Flight was given to the small angel in a less powerful form with a shortened duration for these games he'd found himself in, one that did not carry the danger. Pit was being wise in the interview-show, making it look like he was not handicapped and was not making use of a severely limited blessing. His poor, small wings looked like they would carry him and looked like they were not magically crippled. This would, Palutena hoped, make him intimidating and keep the flightless fighters always watching the sky, hunting for him in the wrong place.
It was when he got back to his room on the night of the interview that she started weeping in earnest. Pit had been doing this all throughout his stay in Smash City, with her watching. When he was in a quiet place, he'd fall to his knees and cry out to her. His prayers were not unheard, but they could not be answered. She could not speak to him through his golden laurel-crown like she could in their own world.
"Pit! Pit! I'm here! I hear you! I am watching you! Please, feel something of it?"
He continued to cry out and to shake with sobs. They had never been out of contact with each other – not for his entire life. No matter how far away he was from their sky-island home, she was not only watching over him, but she was the "voice in his head." Watching Pit call and then whisper before cleaning himself up and finding something to eat was watching someone too innocent for it suddenly losing everything he'd ever had faith in.
Pit clearly still had faith in her - it just came without direct contact. It was devastating for him. Palutena formed a fist and pounded it on the edge of the pool, causing ripples to form in the water.
Palutena could see the experience of being mortal set into the young angel's eyes.
The evening when all of the fighters were made to do a presentation was a little better. Pit was dressed in a golden toga and his wings glittered. The goddess smiled as he used the limited miracle she'd given him to fly around and to charm the audience. From what she'd learned, this was a way to encourage them to send him things to help him.
The day the Brawl of Honor began, however, saw Pit in misery. Palutena knew that he did not want to be finished there… in that strange place. Furthermore, he even less wanted to kill anyone. The boy was a slayer of monsters but a protector of mortals. Though he could not know because their contact had been severed, his goddess watched him as he wandered the forest in Old Hyrule, cordoned off by an energy-field.
Palutena had some thoughts for a few of the other fighters, too. She suspected that the fierce hero native to the land they were all in as up to something. As cruel as his words were in the interview and as hard as his manner, she could see a sorrow in his gaze. His big blue eyes were hero's eyes, intelligent and calculating. His ninja-partner's red eyes were cold despite their fiery color and betrayed nothing. The woman in high-tech armor also struck Palutena as being more than met the eye… that despite her nickname including "Genocide." To Palutena, she looked like she did not want to do any unnecessary killing. She struck the goddess as "efficient" in the way she carried herself. She hoped her boy would not run into Bowser, whom she deemed as being like their captor, Ganondorf, but far less sophisticated.
"Stay safe, Pit," she said in unheard encouragement. She was pleased to see how wary he was, how ready for action at a moment's notice, although he was spending his time trying to avoid the others.
Pit paused at a pool. Clearly, he saw just what she saw from her unique vantage point. His reflection was strange. It was as if there was some residual magic in the waters that Ganondorf had tried to kill. The mirror image looked like Pit, but darker. The wings were curiously black and the eyes were curiously red. Pit stroked his cheek and his hair. He twitched his wings, watching the reflection do the same.
He moved on, seeming to conclude that he was watching a trick of the light – although it was not of Palutena's light. Palutena had a persistent feeling about that reflection – like the light and waters of Hyrule had revealed a part of Pit that was hidden and would come out into the light someday. The look in the reflection's eyes was fierce – but Palutena thought that it was the look of someone that wanted Pit to survive by any means necessary. Perhaps the pool had shown Pit his inner grit?
Her watch was tireless. As a goddess, Palutena did not need to sleep. It was like food – she had no need for eating, but ate for pleasure and to gauge the taste and nutrition content of meals for her warriors. Sleep was similar in that she had no physical need for it, but sometimes bedded down in order to open her mind to dreams and visions. She should have known that this situation was coming. She'd had a dream about a dark cloud covering her land and a golden object, far out of reach. A wounded, limping wolf that swayed drunkenly stood before a huge boar with giant tusks within the darkness of the cloud. The wolf growled in defiance of the pig's saliva-drenched squeal. Just because she was a goddess of wisdom did not mean that she understood what all of her dreams meant right away, however.
She dozed a little bit by the scrying pool without willing it, for her chains sapped her energy before snapping out of it. She silently vowed that when she got out this, she would be even kinder to the mortals under her patronage. If this is what they felt like every day… the poor things.
Poor Pit… he, too, required sleep. She watched him curl up in tree branches. He slumbered lightly at first, attune to every sound. Eventually, try as he might, he'd drool and emit soft little snores, deep in dream in submission to his exhaustion. She wanted so badly to drape a blanket over him as she watched him shiver with his wings against his body tight.
The days of the Brawl seemed endless. Fights and deaths happened. Palutena thought it was all pretty senseless. Then again, it wasn't as though things such as this did not occur in her world. Some of the human cities had constructed coliseums for battle, pitting strong warriors against one another or against animals or monsters for the glory of kings and entertainment of the crowds. Palutena hadn't before paid much attention to what humans did. She was their patron, but that only meant that she cared about shedding light upon their lands, inspiring minds open to her calling and keeping them protected from the monsters of the Underworld. Otherwise, she did not interfere with them. They had their wars and whatever games they saw fit, blood and bile upon the sand and all.
Her indifference to their battle arenas was starting to fade as she watched Ganondorf's games. She decided that if the mortals craved games of battle, she had to find a way to make them happen without death – Perhaps she would invite the best of warriors of her surface-world to one of her arenas, where her guards trained without permanently killing each other, just to give them a better form of entertainment.
She paced around her temple before coming back to the scrying pool one of the afternoons of the first week to find that Pit had found a friend.
"Little guys should stick together."
The younger Link… Outsetter. Palutena had liked him from the beginning, but chose not to become attached. He had a special energy, but she was sure she'd see his life taken by one of the arena-dangers or by one of the meaner fighters.
Despite his frailty, there was no one she was happier to see Pit ally with. They were just… compatible. Both were an interesting combination of innocent and brave.
"Oh, Pit…" Palutena sighed. "It's going to break your heart to lose him, isn't it? At least you can give him some kindness in his last days."
She fully planned to do a lot of counseling of her angel after this was over. If Pit was very lucky, he could hide out until the crueler fighters had killed each other off. Still… there was "Tiny" now. Palutena had been paying attention to what Outsetter's mentor had been calling him. What would take Tiny? Certainly, Pit wouldn't. He'd probably just watch something sad happen to the kid.
The goddess was not looking forward to having to counsel her angel.
For the first time in many days, the Goddess Palutena laughed out loud. Her centurions rushed to her to ask her what was wrong. She pointed to the scrying pool and showed them their guard-captain wearing a long Hyrulean hat. Pit and Tiny were exchanging hats. They had been talking about food earlier, the subject turning to pie and to Pit's rude eating habits.
After switching hats, the boys discovered plates of pie randomly left for them. Palutena smiled. Her dear Pit's charm had won them that. She laughed some more at the belching contest they had. It was crude, but adorable.
Palutena had wanted Pit to make some friends. It was nice for him to have one during this ordeal. However, it was also tragic… why did he have to meet this darling boy in the Brawl?
"Pit will come home," she said to herself, her heart doubting just a little, shot through with fear. "Pit will come home and we will rally our forces and President Ganondorf is going down! It will be just like with Medusa, Pit. Just get through this."
The action was white-knuckled the following day.
Pit was on watch. A wolf burst out of the bushes – it was the elder Link in his animal-form. Palutena ceased to care about the secrets she saw in the light of his eyes right then and there. The wolf came for Pit, grabbed a wing and they both went down. Palutena cried out and shook the temple with the sound of her spectral chains rattling. She stood by the scrying pool, practically dancing as she gesticulated and called out and acted as though she wanted to dive right through the thing and rescue her boy.
In hindsight, she was pretty sure she'd tried to use extraction-light on him, her muscle-memory forgetting that he was in another world.
Tiny fought off the wolf with great courage, dealing him an amputation of the tail. The little hero immediately went to Pit to help him in whatever way he could. Palutena heard him praying upon a token and immediately knew what was really going on: He'd smuggled in a communication device and was speaking to his mentor, Toki.
Pity the laurels did not work that way. They'd been found out, perhaps, and forcibly cut off. Perhaps that was the problem with them.
Pit was in bad shape. He was crying in confusing and pain, blood all down his back and side. Little Link severed the last thread that his left wing was hanging by and put pressure on the wound.
This wasn't good at all. While Tiny got the bleeding under control, Pit had still lost half his life-force in one fell swoop. He wasn't going to heal well.
Not to mention the guilty echo in Palutena's mind, Pit's voice, expressing his dreams:
"My one wish… would be to fly on my own!"
"Oh, Pit!" the goddess wept. She watched as Little Link got him into the dry, warm cave they'd been trying to defend. They'd found blankets given to them as mysteriously as the earlier pie. Palutena's heart swelled with a love for Link Outsetter. He'd not left his ally to die even in a game where there could be only one survivor. He was doing all he could to take care of her Pit. He pressed the wound closed and spoke words of comfort. He watched, as she did, as Pit succumbed to sleep.
She watched as Tiny left. Her pool was keyed to focus on Pit, but she was able to exercise a small amount of will over it. She watched as Tiny went gathering and lucked out in hunting. She didn't watch much of what else happened to him and he found the white chicken, keying the pool to show her Pit again. He slept deeply and she worried. He'd lost so much blood and life. She did not see anything happen to his soul, but she yelped when she thought she saw a Reaper's scythe in the shadows of the cavern. Pit shifted his legs in his sleep and she was relieved.
Outsetter returned with a cleaned, dressed bird and set it up for roasting over a tiny campfire. When Pit woke up, they ate, Link offering more to the wounded angel to help him recover – as well as he could from a torn-off wing. Palutena quickly checked their area over and found that the Wolf Link was not around, nor were there any other dangers, not that she could have warned them.
"Oh, Pit, do you really think I would do that to you? Gross!" – He had worried, for a moment that Little Link had seen fit to roast his amputated wing, all because some of her jokes about his wings. She remembered that he was woozy and might be having trouble remembering what was said in seriousness and what was just her joking and trolling him to get a reaction.
She smiled when she saw him brighten, talking about her. She and Little Link also seemed to be forming a plan – to both survive and to get out of the Brawl together. Palutena did not know if their plan would work, but it was nice to see Pit enthusiastic about something. She dabbed at her eyes with a divine handkerchief. He had faith in her to heal him and to restore his wing. She did know of a special spring down in the Underworld by the way-station for the dead that could help him. It was a dangerous journey there, however, and technically, would involve her violating the rules of the gods and of nature.
She would definitely do that for him.
The following days were agony. Bereft of half of a life-force, for the first time in his immortal life, Pit had become vulnerable to mortal disease. The wound where he'd lost his wing, despite being carefully bandaged as much as possible by Link Outsetter, had developed a severe infection. By how sick Pit got so quickly, it was clear that the sickness was deep in his flesh and already in his blood.
Little Link Outsetter prepared medicine for Pit to help ease his aches. They continued to tell each other stories and to watch out for each other. Palutena moaned when she heard Pit telling Link that he was sure that if he died, that she would "raise up another guard-captain." He was right in assessing that she wouldn't like it and would cry.
"I'd never forget you so easily, Pit!" she groused at the pool. She knew that the pain and weakness was getting to him. She wanted to hold him, to kiss his forehead. She did not want to raise up one of the centurions or to create another specialty angel. The Lady Palutena wanted Pit back – that was it, just him.
And hope was diminishing for the both of them of his return. Reaper-shadows were drawing close to the one-winged boy.
The morning dawned with everything came to a head. The fighters were dwindling. Link Outsetter fought Bowser to keep Pit from being roasted alive. A pack of monster wolves came for the elder Link - the one that looked like he'd had a plan whose plan had fallen through. Palutena winced as Pit dealt the man a mercy-kill. D'Ordon may have taken his wing, but she knew that Pit did not like killing a human – or a Hylian, as the case went. He'd only done it because the beasts were tearing the young once-hero apart and it was the better thing to do.
Pit fell. Link Outsetter held him. Palutena concentrated with all her might to subvert the power of her chains. She found her spirit briefly looking over Pit's. She told him that it was alright, that it was his time to fly now. She could sense his soul coming toward her and opened her arms to receive him…
… And then nothing.
Palutena was snapped back into the confines of her temple. She whipped her head around. "Pit! Pit!" she cried. Her steps echoed in the inner chamber. The dark chains rattled. "No! No! No! Pit!" she yelped.
Where was he? She was just about to grasp his soul!
His body was where she'd left it. Link Outsetter was resting it gently upon their scouting-rock. He took the laurel-crown from his head and ran off into the woods to avoid the cleaners.
The goddess was stretching her chains and concentrating all of her will upon Pit when a small group of her men interrupted her.
"My goddess," said one of them, "The messengers from the city have given us a portal to go and retrieve the captain."
"Go forth at once," Palutena ordered.
"Our poor captain!" several of the centurions cried, all at the same time.
"And…" she said before the small portion of her guard carried out orders, "If it is possible, please tell Link Outsetter that he may keep Pit's crown and that my blessing is upon him."
"Yes, my Lady."
"Thank you, Claudius.'
Lady Palutena paced, wept, and bit her knuckles. Just where was Pit? If he was fading away, she would have felt it. She had worried that it might happen, given their separation, but if so, she would have felt a specific kind of hollowness in her heart. He might have been plucked by a Reaper and taken to the Underworld. That was what she was worried about. She was sure that he was beyond resurrection, but there was still a small sliver of hope. If he returned to her, there was at least the hope of her guiding him into a favorable reincarnation.
Was he trapped there, in that other world? Would he begin to fade?
It was not long (a day, perhaps? She had lost track of the time) when a squadron of centurions entered her temple carrying a polished wooden casket. A golden laurel-wreath was etched upon its lid. Shaking, Palutena ordered it opened.
"Pit…"
It had been difficult to see from afar, but now that his body was in her presence, she could see how sick he'd been. He was pale - more so than the standard pallor of death. His face was gaunt but he was smiling, gently and sweetly. His right wing was tucked up around him and his left one was still gone. He was dressed in green and orange with live, green laurels on his head. There apparently hadn't been anything embalming-wise done to him – perhaps as a small measure of respect Smash City had for the people of different worlds to do their own ceremonies for the slain, such as the cremation typical of their world. She stroked his cold cheek.
"Lady Palutena?"
A shock went right through her like electricity up and down her spine. The goddess turned around.
Standing in her throne room was a somewhat greenish and translucent Pit. He was not wearing his crown, but he had both of his wings in spectral form.
"Pit!"
Palutena glided toward him, her toes on point, her feet not even touching the floor. She embraced the ghost and felt him go right through her. She backed off for a moment. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the centurions grieving over the casket. Apparently, they did not see their captain.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Pit said, brightly as well as apologetic. The boy rubbed the back of his glassy neck. The Goddess Palutena knew that this form of his soul was for her benefit, that spirit was made of stranger stuff and that he shouldn't have even had a "neck" to rub. She decided that seeing him like this was better than seeing him as an orb of light or trying to talk to a draft of wind.
Of course, he did also have a halo.
"I stayed with Link for a while – Outsetter. He couldn't see me or sense me or anything, but I still felt like it was important to be by his side, you know?"
"I know, Pit," Palutena said indulgently. "I'm sure he felt you in ways he does not know."
Pit made a face. "Lady Palutena!"
"Have you been talking too much to that Toki fellow? You know I don't mean for you to have naughty thoughts!"
Pit tugged on his halo. "Can we do something about this, Lady Palutena?"
"Ah, yes," she replied. "I actually think the halo looks quite handsome on you. You're like a proper angel, like in the art that mortals make."
"I don't like it!" Pit's spirit complained.
"It's seems a fitting replacement for your crown," Palutena said with a smile.
"It's a symbol of my death!" Pit groused. "I failed out there! I got finished! It's like when I had to fight Orcos. The minotaur I had to fight in that adventure did this to me a lot!"
Palutena giggled. "Oh, come on!" she said. "Listen to you carry on! I'd always bring you back! Of course, you'd look up to me so reverently. You were so cute in your 8-bit days!"
"I can't protect you like this…"
"Very well. We do have your body. Would you like to take a look?"
Pit's disembodied soul gulped. "O-okay, Lady Palutena."
He followed her to where the casket rested. He recoiled and made a face. "I look terrible!" he exclaimed. "I mean… the fresh toga is nice, but… I was really that sick?"
"I'm afraid so."
"At least I don't feel it anymore."
"Try getting back in." Palutena suggested.
"Um… I can try… I guess," Pit said. "You'll get me my wing back somehow, right?"
"I just want to see if you can be rejoined to your body," the goddess said with a nod.
Pit pressed his spectral hand to one of his hands of flesh. "Ack! It's like cold meat!" he yelped. "And, it's not doing anything! I can't get back in!"
He stepped back from the coffin and desperately danced around trying to pull the halo away from his head.
"Pit, calm yourself," his goddess ordered.
"Why did you order me to do that if you knew I couldn't get back in?"
"We had to try," Palutena sighed. "It was worth a shot, don't you think?"
"No! I'm going to have nightmares! Well, if ghosts can have those… Either way, Lady Palutena, I'm haunting you!"
She laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't want it any other way, Pit… but…" the tone of her voice turned to one of concern, "You are technically property of the Underworld now. You're not alive and are kind of… no longer mine if I can't properly bring you back."
"Can't you make me a new body or something, Lady Palutena?"
"I wish it were that simple," she said, chewing a fingernail. "If you had died in our world by falling into lava or something, I probably could, but the fact that you died in another world… of a mortal sickness… and that your life force was diminished by losing a wing… combined with the fact that you simply can't re-enter your body when we have it… Oh, Pit!"
"Can't I just haunt you, then? You can have a haunted temple... you can charge admission and stuff!"
"It's not that simple," Palutena said with a shake of her head. "I think the Reapers will come for you if you linger too long here. I do think I have an idea for how we might save you. Also… all of the worlds involved with Smash City and their games."
"What? Really? How?"
"Come by the scrying pool with me."
Pit watched as Palutena caused the pool to focus on Outsetter and upon Toki. "I think that something special is going to happen," she explained. "If I focus in, I can get a sense of plans. I had a stark dream a while back… I should have paid more attention to it, but I could not decipher it."
"Your dreams are important, Lady Palutena."
"Yes, they are. I think I know what that dream means now. It means that Toki is going to stand up to Ganondorf."
"What about Tiny?"
"Him, too. Aw, look, he's putting your crown on. Anyway… Toki is going to need all of the support that he can get, even if it's just moral support to keep his spirits up."
"Okay," Pit said decisively, "What do I do?"
"Go to as many corners of the world and as many worlds as possible and gather any stray souls you see whom you can sense were a part of the Brawls of Honor. Bring them into Toki's dreams."
"Huh? How? Doesn't that sound a little far-fetched?"
"I know you can do it. Remind him of what has been lost. Show him what is at stake. It will boost his fighting-spirit, believe me."
"Why can't I appear in one of Little Link's dreams? He… he was my friend."
"He was a beautiful friend to you, but he needs something different." Palutena smiled sweetly at Pit. "If we play this right, it will be as if none of the Brawls never happened. You'll have your body back, wings and all."
"Without the stupid halo?"
"No halo."
So, an angel's spirit took upon a journey to get rid of his new "crown" while a young hero wore a crown he'd never wanted to try to honor him.
I have "Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters" (the old Gameboy game) on my 3DS. Although I am proud to say that I got through my downloaded copy of the original "Kid Icarus" (ONCE! Pit got a helm and a spear…), I've never gotten past the Minotaur in the first dungeon of Of Myths and Monsters. I've never met Orcos and little Pit did the reverent ghost with the halo floating up off the screen many times with me. Is there a secret to that Minotaur? No matter how much I shoot him or how much I can get my strength-bonuses… gah! (I just want to sic Wander from "Shadow of the Colossus" on him and have done with the matter. In that game, Minotaurs go down!) I kind of get the "Pit doesn't like his halo" thing from a piece of fan art I've seen on Deviant Art that I sadly forget the title and artist to, and, after actually playing the game it referenced and getting lots of game overs, I've decided "No, Pit does not like his halo of death-ness."
