The night passed slowly, and Aryll got very little sleep. The cold walls of the barracks seemed claustrophobic compared to the aired-out space within the cottage. Aola's breathing beside her was a slight comfort, but she couldn't forget the conflict that had happened just minutes earlier. Aola had broken her world by arresting Impa, whose defenses, it had previously seemed to Aryll, were impenetrable. But she couldn't argue with the logic of the arrest. Impa's unfeeling calculation could have easily led her to murder in order to secure the Triforce; the only reason, it occurred to Aryll like a shard of ice, that Impa had been seemingly sympathetic to Aryll was the possibility of her redeeming what Impa valued most: the dominance of the goddesses.
She had always wondered what motivated Impa to pursue such a goal. Was it the preservation of life? Certainly the chaotic and unrestrained rule of Demise would bring about more destruction than would the already demagogic but more reasonable rule of the goddesses. It was, perhaps, a choice between the lesser of two evils that had kept Impa in stubborn battle after all. And she certainly wasn't benefiting much herself from the role she had to play, so perhaps she was altruistically motivated after all, and simply thought that the sacrifice of nearly two dozen lives was worth the safekeeping of an object that could be used to evil ends. But to sacrifice innocents so easily didn't seem like the Impa she knew at all.
There was also the possibility that Impa was telling the truth in pinning the crime on this demon that most thought she had invented. Ghirahim, his name was. It was a foreign name, yet it seemed so familiar on her tongue. And Impa had before spoken of demons under the command of Demise; she just hadn't listed any names in particular. The abstract treatment of these figures always struck Aryll as strange. She had been taught the history of Hyrule and the incessant meddling of Ganondorf, Demise's mortal form, but she had never seen any evidence of the godlike entity Demise, or even of any other sages besides Rauru, whose place among the sages was only the claim of Impa, to her knowledge. For all Aryll knew, Impa was nothing but a crazy old witch who had mislead her since the day she rescued her from the ruins of her village, and her teachings, though true in the application of magic, had been horribly misrepresentative of the state of Hyrule.
Aryll thought to herself that she was under Aola's protection now, but she knew this was inaccurate. Aola was not proven to be any wiser than Impa, and looking for another wing to hide under would only lead Aryll back to the place in which she had found herself, her being subject to the whim of an authority figure. It was only Aola's intelligence, her skills as a fighter, and her military rank that kept her in a position of authority. And while Aryll didn't have any of the social advantage that Aola had and was not sure where she stood in terms of intelligence, her magical abilities had ten times the destructive potential of any individual sword. If anything, it would be up to her to protect Aola. And she would gladly do so, not for the stern military officer she had seen today, but for the childhood friend she hoped would never disappear behind an inflated sense of duty.
Aola slept peaceably as Aryll laid awake with bloodshot eyes, not knowing whether the sun was up. She knew that if she did not sleep she would be too tired to be any help during the journey tomorrow, but such sleeplessness was the price of change. For seven years of her life she had lived in that single cottage and not left the confines of the city, and here she was about to make the journey to the desert in the east and confront creatures of which she had only read and traverse environments unimagined. Aola was adapted to this sort of change; she lived travelling vast distances and confronting all sorts of wonders and horrors, but for Aryll, the world had been a small marble that fit into the palm of her hand, a mere concept. Aola, who had just opened her eyes and who was pressing a palm to her forehead, her face in a scowl, knew a different world: something that could consume her.
"What time is it?" Aola asked wearily. "How long have you been awake?"
"Don't know," Aryll said. "Is there any way to tell?"
"There's a bell that goes off at six here. Hear anything?"
Now that she thought of it, she did hear the tolling of a bell a bit earlier and attributed it to the everyday city noises; but she was well away from those, inside a fortress surrounded by a thick black wall. "Yes, I believe I did."
"How long ago?"
"I'm not able to say. An hour, perhaps?"
"Then the guard should be making his rounds, waking people up by now. Unless we want to deal with him, we should get up and find Magnus and Riku." She slid out of bed and slipped on her mail, not bothering to change. "You know where the infirmary is? I have to take care of some formalities before I take my leave. It'd be nice if you could go wake them up, if they're asleep. Tell them we're leaving within the hour."
"I'm not sure where it is, but I can ask around. Don't let me slow you." Aola gave her a thankful grunt and headed out the door, leaving Aryll to poke her head out of the room into the narrow, dungeon-like passageway, lit only by faint candles. She looked around for another soul, but found nobody. "Aola, I may need your help," she said quietly, but the older girl was already gone. Quietly, she began to explore, weaving around in the maze of passages, sure that there must be some order to the way they were built. She saw an open door to her right at one point and saw a table full of food that seemed to have been left overnight. She ducked in and found a lone soldier enjoying a drink in his chair. "Excuse me," she started quietly, but he butted in.
"Ah, you there!" he proclaimed. "I've been waiting for one of you to come along! Anyone at all, really; it gets lonely in the late hours of the night."
"You do realize it's seven in the morning?"
"To hell with morning!" he cried. "They drill us all day. They tell us when to eat, when to sleep, when to breathe. Some sort of test of discipline. Which is why I stay up. It's the only time I get when I'm not subjected to the will of some dimwit with a badge."
"Do you know where the infirmary is?" she asked tentatively.
"Well, it's not here, I'll tell you that," he said before rambling some more about the drudgery of a soldier's life. Aryll would gladly have listened, but she knew she had to keep moving. She left the small dining hall and searched the corridors further, eventually finding herself winding down a long spiral staircase. The room she found herself in now was nearly pitch black. She could just barely make out the faint outline of the walls, archways separated from each other by about three feet each. She knew that there was likely nothing down here, but she headed in anyway out of curiosity. "Who's there?" a familiar voice called in low tones.
"Impa?" Aryll cried.
"Not so loud; the other prisoners will wake up and I don't feel like listening to their chatter." A faint white light appeared in the air, revealing sturdy iron bars, behind which Impa was chained by her wrists to a wall, her face grimy. "I was a fool last night, as was Aola. You were the only one with clear reasoning, I'm afraid. And the two of us pushed you aside without a thought. I'm sorry."
"Are you alright?" Aryll asked innocently. "Why are you kept in near darkness?"
"Because little mercy is shown to prisoners here. But don't have pity on me, for I could escape if I wanted to. You know that. I must stay so they can feel in control and I can eventually be ruled out as a suspect." She extinguished her light, as if to signal Aryll that she couldn't stay for long. "Aola is right. You must go to Nabooru and heal Riku. Then learn whatever you can from her about the war on Demise. Magnus will be in the infirmary with Riku. Ascend the stairs, then take the second door on the right."
"Thank you, Impa." Aryll hurried out of the prison and followed Impa's instructions, finding herself in a long hall filled with beds, separated by curtains. A couple weary nurses tended to their patients.
"Who are you?" one asked. "You hardly look as if you belong in a place like this."
"I'm here for Magnus and Riku. Are they awake?"
The nurse smiled wanly. "Riku died during the night. Magnus is here, but he, um . . . mourns. I wouldn't approach him at the moment." Aryll was taken aback, quickly pushing past the nurse to see Magnus sprawled over one of the beds, that upon which his dead wife lay. "What are you doing?" the nurse inquired.
The man was motionless; if Aryll didn't know better, she would've guessed he had died as well. "Magnus?" she called softly, receiving no response. Daringly, she put a hand on his shoulder and shook him. He trembled. "Magnus, please, I need to speak with you." He turned around, his head visibly shaking as his gaze diverted upwards.
"Two sets of memories. Fighting for dominance. I had no choice."
"He's completely out of it, you see. I wouldn't persist further. Who sent you?"
"Aola," Aryll replied. "Colonel Aola sent me; she was going to escort these two to Nabooru when she returned to the war. She was told she could be of some help." She turned back to Magnus, once again completely slumped over his lover. Aryll picked him up by the shoulders. "Help me," she said, to which the nurse responded reluctantly by moving to Aryll's side. Together, they moved him to a free bed. "I'm sorry to have walked in unwelcomed. But he's not in a state of mourning."
"Perhaps not. He's in a state of delirium, if anything."
"Not quite. Did you notice anything strange between these two?"
The nurse laughed. "Anything strange? You mean the way he hovered by her bedside for hours even though she was completely wordless? Staring at a burned corpse for the majority of your waking hours qualifies as more than 'strange.' And he's been worse than ever since he returned from that mad chase that happened last night to find his wife on the brink of death. As I gather, he also had a run-in with the perpetrator. It's a shame he's not got enough wit in him to share what he knows."
"He wasn't just staring. He was talking to her. A prominent mage here connected their minds so they could speak. My guess, from his meager words, is that he's somehow completely taken her mind into his now that she's suffered a physical death." The nurse looked at her blankly. "I understand, it must seem implausible, but I'm telling you that's what's happening. I can fetch the colonel for you; she can confirm, and then we'll be on our way."
"With my approval. I have to deem him medically ready for leave. Perhaps with a word or two with this 'prominent mage' of yours."
Aryll grimaced internally. She shouldn't have said anything about Impa. She hoped that Aola had enough influence to bypass the word of this skeptical nurse. "I'll be back soon," she said, heading back out of the room. Aola would be expecting her back in their quarters, but Aryll wanted to visit Impa again first to see if what she had guessed was true. She descended back into the prison quarters, hearing shuffling now and mumbled voices; a number of prisoners were now awake. Silently as she could, Aryll estimated the place where she had found Impa, but she slipped and nearly fell. She cried out and the prisoners began to shout.
"Get out of my face!" one screamed just before a hard object hit Aryll on the shoulder and she broke into a run.
"Aryll, over here!" Impa's voice called. Aryll again saw the orb of light that Impa had created before and hurried over to where she was chained. "Inside!" The door was thrown open and Aryll didn't hesitate to proceed into the cell, now looking out of rather than into the iron bars. "What is it, Aryll?" The prisoners went silent as they witnessed this display of magic.
"It seems," she began, "that Riku has died in the night, and Magnus now has two minds inhabiting his body. He said something about two sets of memories, and that he didn't have a choice. Is this possible?"
Impa pondered for a while. "Yes, though how he managed a feat like that on his own I don't know. It's a jarring experience, having two minds within the same body. An infusion of both her personality and memory have overtaken him. Every thought, feeling, and sense that Riku had is now part of Magnus's being, and his brain wasn't meant to keep two separate strains of memory intact. He will be overwhelmed for weeks, likely unable to function when you and Aola take him to Nabooru. No need to bring Riku's body now."
"So when he comes to his senses, will they need to cooperate in determining who holds dominance at any given time?"
"Nobody will hold dominance. They are one person now, with two means to the single end of their being. They will speak as one and think as one, once they wrap their mind around the idea that the struggle is not necessary. But there is no way you can communicate this to them in their present state. When you and Aola depart, they will be nothing but baggage."
"Good to know," Aryll said. She started out of the cell door, but stopped midway. "I'll miss you, Impa. You were a good mentor."
"Only a mentor?" she asked sorrowfully. "I had thought myself incapable of regret, but now that you're leaving, possibly for good, and I've recognized the error of my ways, I would hope that I was more than a mentor to you. Perhaps a friend."
Aryll smiled. "Perhaps a mother," she replied, embracing Impa around the waist. Impa did not undo her restraints to embrace her back, but she planted a kiss upon Aryll's forehead. "I love you, Impa."
"As I do you," Impa replied. "I hope you never lost sight of that, though I was cold sometimes. Tell Aola I love her, too; you both are like my children, though I was not fain to show it. My standards of impartiality have done more harm than good."
"I know, mother," Aryll said, sobbing. "I have to go now." She let go of Impa and exited the cell, watching as the door shut behind her. Neither said any more goodbyes as Aryll wiped the tears off her cheeks and went to see Aola, who was waiting for her. Aryll recounted what she had seen in the infirmary, but avoided word of having spoken to Impa for the moment. After Aola helped Aryll into a suit of mail, they collected Magnus with very little trouble from the nurse, who was not as willing to oppose the colonel as she was her messenger, and wrapped him in blankets, placing him delicately in the back of a cart as they would have done with Riku's body. As Aola saddled up her horse and selected one for Aryll, who didn't have any riding experience but would have to learn by necessity, Magnus every so often muttered something about chaos or overwhelming pain.
"Isn't there something we can do for them?" Aryll inquired as they writhed in their makeshift bed. "Perhaps we should go back to the nurse for an anaesthetic to administer. We can't just let them lie like this."
Aola rolled her eyes. "Then he'll be in pain in his dreams. If what you told me is true, he's not going to get rest until he comes to term with the fact that two separate people are living in his head." She hitched the cart to the back of her steed, moving to help Aryll atop hers.
"I know, but there has to be something we can do."
"Aryll, please. You're the mage. If we are to do anything, precisely what is up to you."
Aryll was afraid to use magic on a being so vulnerable, not knowing quite what effect it would have on their mind. A sleeping spell would certainly be too risky, but perhaps a purely physical spell, a stasis curse that only she could remove, would render every atom in their body immobile and thus suspend their consciousness. And though she knew they needed to maintain their conscious state to learn how to manage the excess weight, that would be far more easily and less dangerously done when not on the road. Aryll sloppily dismounted her horse, closing her eyes and summoning the beads of rushing light to her brain. But instead of feeding energy into the outside, she used the beads to form tentacles with which she could reach out and draw energy directly from the body; and once all of it had left, she used it to form a small energy barrier around the body that kept out all heat, which would reactivate the body and make the spell for naught. Now, only an intensely concentrated heat could pierce the barrier, one which she could produce when the time was right.
"I've cast a spell on them. They sleep peacefully now."
"Well, that was easier done than said," Aola commented. She dismounted and walked around to where the body lay, her brow furrowing as she saw the eerie, inhuman stillness that enveloped Magnus. She lay a hand against the skin of his arm and recoiled with a look of disgust. "His skin is cold and tough!" she cried. "You've killed him!"
"No, just put them in a state of no energy, energy that I can re-supply."
Aola gave her a wary glance. "I know a dead man when I see one, and this is a dead man! You're sure you know what you're doing?"
"You know me," Aryll said, laughing. "You know I wouldn't kill someone; and if I did, I'd fess up to it."
Aola gave an affirming nod, though the look of worry didn't leave her face. "Then I suppose we'd best be going," she concluded. She helped Aryll back atop her horse, but when she noticed just how inept Aryll was at the reins, having never even been atop one on her own before, she suggested that Aryll ride in the cart, and Aryll didn't argue. She decided that she would learn to ride a horse, however, when the time was convenient.
The city streets were crowded as ever, and people jeered at Aola as she rode past. Aryll ducked, hoping to avoid being seen wearing the armor of those who had allowed the city to slip into anarchy-and, on a more practical level, to dodge the various items being thrown at the cart. She covered Magnus's vulnerable form with her body in case something should land on him and hoped for the best. It was a long while before they had exited the city gates, and when Aryll finally dared rear her head to see the surrounding landscape: smoothly rolling hills like an ocean, the green grass rippling in the wind and the occasional tree waving like a spirit in the cosmic stream. The sky was littered with clouds that shone at their edges with a gleaming light but were dark in the middle as they covered the sun, and a flock of birds danced about it.
"I'd forgotten what this looked like," Aryll said.
"And you won't forget again," Aola replied. "I'm not letting anyone keep you cooped up in castle town as long as Impa did. You're going to see the world, I swear. And if it's Demise's fall and the reclamation of the Triforce that she was preparing you for, that's exactly what you're going to do; but we can't let Demise rise at all. We have to take out the Gerudo faction that plans to bring revive him."
"I know." Aryll leaned out the side of the cart, watching the wheels roll over the grass, which was relentlessly moving past. "So you agree with Nabooru that this war is for the better? That it's the only way to avoid a greater war later?"
"If I didn't, why would I be participating in it? This isn't just about my duty to my father, you know. Our chances of success will only be narrower when they resurrect Demise."
"That seems logical, but there has to be a more efficient way of doing it than to pour precious lives into the capture of a single fort."
"But there is no other way. The fort is very heavily guarded from every side. It houses all of the Gerudo rebels, who have the advantage of defense. Our forces, meanwhile, are spread thin."
Aryll was troubled. If Impa's and Aola's accounts of the war in the east were accurate, it sounded like Nabooru was slamming herself against an impenetrable wall more than she was making progress on any sort of victory. "Can't you manage to slip a single spy in? Take out whatever is needed to resurrect Demise in that way?"
"Every spy we've sent has been killed. Trust me, if we could only get a hold of that knife, a sacrificial knife that belongs to a Gerudo rebel named Ashkini, they could not perform the ritual and it would put them on the offensive."
"But why must we be on the offensive now?" Aryll inquired. "If we stopped attacking, I would think it unlikely that they ignore us. They would, in the best case scenario, open negotiation, and in the worst, attack us, and then it is we who would have the advantage of defense. As I understand it, the Arbiter's Grounds are anything but vulnerable."
"In any normal case, I would agree with you. The problem is the possibility of them already having resurrected Demise. As a sage, Nabooru should have been able to feel it, but we must not put aside the possibility of the rebels devising a way to slip all that under her nose. Demise may be alive and they may be trying to weaken our forces by keeping us attacking in the hopes that we may halt the process before it's started."
"Then we'd be falling into their trap, wouldn't we?"
"Yes, but the alternative is letting them know that we suspect Demise's activity, in which case they'd have nothing to hide and they'd unleash Demise's power on us. We're caught in a lose-lose scenario and our best bet is to keep storming their fort until we manage to penetrate it, or at least bide the rest of Hyrule time before our impending defeat."
"Then you agree with Nabooru that our only choice is war, but with Impa that the war is essentially futile." Aryll didn't like this picture. She was starting to wonder if the opinions of Hyrule's citizens would change if they knew the full implications of their circumstances; perhaps they would take up arms and the Gerudo army, commanded by Nabooru and Semak, could be joined by the Hylian army, commanded by the remainder of the Hylian generals: Bied, Sisiri, Eko, and Vothur, who was presently king in Semak's stead. "Would our chances be any greater if we had the Hylian army at our side?"
"Yes, but we can't very easily have that happen as long as the concerns of our leadership remain focused on the desire of the citizens to rip our society to shreds. The populace wants their king back, but that's not going to happen as long as this war persists; I wish there were a way to tell them that, but this mob mentality is invulnerable to reason."
"There must be something we're missing. What did Semak offer that our present leadership doesn't?"
"Nothing much in terms of day-to-day government, but they like him because they chose him themselves."
"Then wouldn't it make sense to adopt a democratic system like the Gerudo and the Zora have? One where they elect a king?"
"Oh, and you think that those in charge, proponents of the royal family, are going to listen to that? The only reason that Semak is king is because Zelda, who was next in line for the throne, was away fighting Ganondorf's armies of Lizalfos with your brother at the time the old king was killed."
"And wasn't he not of the royal family either?"
"No, he was chosen for the throne because Zelda was too young to rule at the time her parents died in battle. But at the time, he was viewed as an usurper by most, which Semak is not only because Zelda is now seen as a deserter. You can't win by installing a new system so quickly, and besides, I highly doubt that we could figure out such a complex problem ourselves, given that the sages have thought long upon this issue without yet reaching a conclusion."
"Impa is evidence enough that age does not equate to wisdom. Yes, they're generally wiser than ourselves, but they can have lapses in reasoning. I say that we can rally the people behind our cause if we give them what they want: democracy, which is a better system anyway."
Aola laughed. "Why, though? Have the rulers of the royal family not been just?"
Aryll knew that Hyrule had been a peaceable nation for years, and conflict had only arisen because of a war that brought itself to Hyrule's doorstep. But had the peace been one of happiness or one of complacency? Either way, there was no going back to the old system, not if what Aryll had seen in the heart of the city held more substance than the crying of a toddler.
