Notes: Well, that's a big old fight scene. Link has now beaten the first boss! Anyhow, this chapter is very talky. There's no action at all. Whether that's a bad thing or not is I guess up to you to decide, but after last chapter Link needs a breather and some time to figure out what the heck is going on with all these things he doesn't understand. As always, thanks for reading! Enjoy the chapter (which includes Aurora's backstory!).
Previous Chapter Summary: Link, having fought and become pledged as the wielder of the Sword of Souls, refuses to loot the tomb, despite Aurora's insistence. However, she manages to get him to take one treasure – a bag that can hold anything. He learns the cause of the curse is an undead spider rider called Skull Rider, the evil guardian of the tomb. Though afraid, he goes to fight the enemy without a second thought. The battle is long and difficult, and he is wounded severely. He taps into Aurora's power once during the battle, but he fails to do so a second time. He finishes Skull Rider with the aid of golden power before falling unconscious.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Implications
Location: Lon Lon Village
Time: Late Morning of the fifty-fifth day of the Summer of the 35th Year of the Reign of King Armin Hyrule II
Link opened his eyes, and the sunlit wooden ceiling of a building that was definitely not his home greeted him. He blinked a few times, trying to remember where he was. What was the last thing he remembered? He narrowed his eyes, focusing. There was a dream…it had been important…but before that…
Aurora's transparent face popped into his view as she leaned over and placed her face a few inches above his. She looked incredibly relieved.
Oh, yeah…Skull Rider…
He blinked again.
Was she that pretty before? The lines of her face…the way her eyes and hair change color like that…
"You have no idea how glad I am that you're finally awake," she said, her tone giving Link a pretty good idea of how glad she was. "For a while there I thought you might never wake up. You gave me quite a scare." She withdrew her head as Link sat up slowly. He didn't feel any pain at all, he realized with some surprise.
"Just how long have I been out?" he questioned.
"A little over two weeks. When you destroyed Skull Rider, the obelisk turned into this weird shaft of blue light that sucked you into it and pulled you up above ground. The village militia found you a couple hours later. I wasn't sure you were going to make it; you were bleeding the whole time. They brought you back to the village and bandaged you up. Someone managed to find a healing potion, which healed your injuries, but for some reason you didn't come around. They've been putting you up the whole time."
"Two weeks?" Link exclaimed loudly, shooting to his feet and crashing his head into the ceiling. Climbing off of the bed he had been lying on, he repeated in a more normal volume, "Two weeks? With all my injuries healed, I was out for two weeks?" His face was a picture of disbelief. He rubbed his head where he had hit it.
Aurora nodded, sitting down on his bed. "Yeah. Nobody knows why, so don't bother asking anyone." She sighed. "I'm just glad you seem to be all right. How do you feel?"
The young hero stretched and bent at all of his joints. Sitting down beside the Sword of Souls' spirit, he replied, "Physically? I feel perfect. I don't even feel the rust you get for not moving around much for too long. Mentally?" He frowned. "I'm not so sure. I didn't even remember where I was until you showed your face. My memory's working fine now, but –"
He cut himself off suddenly, hearing voices and footsteps from outside of the medium-sized room. Glancing around, he realized for the first time since he had awakened that he wasn't the only one in the room (Aurora didn't count). There were three other beds in a row with his. Each one contained someone sleeping. One of them was slightly bandaged, but the other two merely looked ill. Link's bed was closest to the outside wall, where the window was, which was why the sunlight had seemed so prominent; that was the direction he had faced when he had gotten out of bed. The door on the far side of the room opened and two people walked in.
One of them was a middle-aged woman who Link guessed was the doctor. The other was Mick.
"Thank the goddesses!" the militia captain exclaimed upon seeing Link. "We thought you'd be in bed forever!" Link smiled.
"I just woke up. Has it really been two weeks?"
Mick scratched his chin, looking a little puzzled. "Two an' a half, about. It's Dinsday. But how'd you know?"
"Oh, riiight…" Aurora said slowly, slapping herself in the forehead. "I forgot to tell you, Link. Most people can't see or hear me when I'm like this. Only those with exceptionally strong spirits – strong souls, if you will – can see and hear me when I'm projecting myself. Those two don't know I'm here."
Link stared at her. "That's something you should have said when we first met!"
"What?" asked Mick, bewildered.
"I'm talking to … hey, where is your sword, anyway?" Aurora pointed to the floor beside the head of the bed, where all of Link's belongings, including those he had left behind when he had gone to the ranch, were lying. "To the spirit that inhabits that sword," Link finished, pointing at the Sword of Souls.
Mick and the doctor exchanged an uncertain glance.
"You…sure your heads all there, kid?" ventured Mick cautiously. "You have been out for a while."
"There was a plague of Skulltula and undead, and you think a sword with a spirit is hard to believe?" Link asked lightly. The woman smiled.
"He does have a point, captain," she noted.
"I guess," Mick said skeptically.
"Don't worry about it, sir," Link smiled. "So," he said, "what's the state of affairs?"
"C'mon, I'll take you to the mayor's place; you can get the whole story."
The woman held up a hand. "First I must make sure he is well." She walked over to him. "Stand and touch your toes for me."
*
Location: Lon Lon Village Mayor's Residence
Time: Mid-day of the fifty-fifth day of the Summer of the 35th Year of the Reign of King Armin Hyrule II
"So, to recap," Aurora said, "the militia were fighting for their lives the whole time you were down there doing your explorer thing. When you killed Skull Rider, the Skulltula vanished into thin air and the skeletons crumbled to dust. The animals and that fat guy, the mayor, came to their senses at about the same time as they found you, a couple hours later. Since then, the Guay have stopped being jerks as well. The Bokoblins outside are still trying to break down the walls to no effect, but the internal troubles vanished along with the spider knight. Everybody has been recuperating since then, and since they figured you were the one who saved them, they used a potion on you in gratitude, which saved your life but didn't wake you up. Nothing of any importance has happened in the village walls since then. The villagers are willing to give you supplies for your journey and put you up for as long as you stay here, but no go on any other kind of reward, so you should have followed my advice and looted King Idiot's grave."
"I wouldn't put it quite like that, but yes, that seems to be the general gist of it," Link responded quietly as he pretended to listen to Talon thanking him for saving the village for the millionth time. Once the militia, Talon, and the leaders of the ranch had given him their story, he had given an extremely truncated version of his ("The warehouse tower was where the spiders were coming from. It blew up and I went down a hole and fought my way through a dangerous ancient tomb filled with traps and monsters. At the end I found this sword, which the spirit who lives in it tell me is called the Sword of Souls, and then I fought a giant Skulltula bigger than four horses put together and a massive skeleton knight called Skull Rider and barely won. Then I passed out.") and listened to the important individuals thank him. Then he had tried to say that he needed some time along to think, but Talon would have none of it, insisting he stay for lunch. Not wanting to be rude, he accepted, which was how he had wound up in the current situation.
"That man doesn't know when to shut up, does he?"
"Be polite, Aurora," Link reprimanded under his breath.
"You're thinking the same thing. I'm just being honest with myself," retorted the transparent sword-girl, making faces at the oblivious overweight mayor.
Talon paused for breath. The exasperated boy jumped on the opportunity.
"Thank you, sir, for having lunch with me. It was a delicious meal. And truly, I'm glad to have helped this town. I am pleased that you thank me, but it is unnecessary. I was simply doing what I wanted to do. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to be alone for a while. I wouldn't want to impose any longer than I have already."
"Weel, thanks agin, mah boy heero. Yer welcum ta cum back at enny tahm."
Link bowed hastily and made his exit, heading for an empty spot in the ranch near the horse corral; Talon's home was on the ranch itself. It took no more than twenty minutes to reach his destination.
"So," Aurora asked, settling down in the grass beside him and lying down as he sat, "whatcha thinking about?"
There was a long pause. "A lot of things," Link said finally. "After having been asleep for so long, I want to get moving again, but I need to sort my thoughts out first. I just have too many questions right now."
"Like what?" she asked curiously.
"Hm…what to ponder first." He fell silent. "Okay. How come you can speak Hylian?"
"That one's easy," she yawned. "When you touched me back in the tomb and woke me up, I got a momentary glimpse into your mind. One of the things that transferred was the ability to speak and understand your language."
"What about Skull Rider? How come it could?"
Aurora pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I'm not entirely sure. It's possible that the magics animating it enabled it to speak and understand anything that came close to it, sort of like me, only without needing to touch. That's my best guess, anyway."
"If Skull Rider was the tomb's guardian, why did I encounter entombed people who had been turned into Redeads? Shouldn't whatever bound it to be guardian have prevented it from doing that?"
Aurora shrugged. "Well, it did say that the magic binding it had weakened. Maybe that was the result of that."
"Why did Skull Rider get stronger off my blood?"
"That's another easy one. You have a strong soul, and that affects your physical form. Doubtless the fact that you have a piece of the Triforce added to the effect as well. Skull Rider gets – got – stronger by feeding on the blood of strong men. It's how it got so powerful in the first place. I suspect it started out as little more than a Stalfos."
"The obelisk – the tip of it is what I struck with my arrow, I'm fairly certain. But why did it reveal the entrance? Why was the tip not disturbed earlier? What about the storm disturbed Skull Rider? Why did it turn into a shaft of light and lift me out?"
Aurora sat up. "Whoa, there, slow down," she said. "I know you have a lot of questions, but let's try this one at a time. Okay. The answer to all four of those questions is…I have no idea. I'm not sure we'll ever figure out the answers." She gave an apologetic look. "Sorry."
Link sighed heavily and lay down in the grass, placing his right arm over his face. Aurora followed suit, except she didn't cover her face. She turned on her right side to face him.
"More questions?" she prodded.
"All I've got are questions," he complained. "Like what on earth keeps happening with the Triforce mark on my hand? First, six years ago, I get run through by Dark Link, the evil shade of an ancient Hylian hero known as the Hero of Time. Instead of dying, I end up with a golden tattoo and get told I'm chosen by the goddesses. Then I start having these dreams. All six years, I get these dreams of impending danger out in the world. So I finally leave my hometown. Since then, every time I've gotten in a fight, the mark on my hand keeps burning. It burns when I draw an arrow. It burns when I resist the paralysis of a Redead. It burns when I get really into a fight, like against Skull Rider. And then it went even farther in the battle with Skull Rider. It shot some kind of gold paint all over your sword when I charged the guy. I think, but I don't know, that that was the reason the sword penetrated the dark aura around it. It's not like I'm controlling what it does. It just keeps doing stuff."
"Hmm…" she replied, studying him. "I don't know the answer to that. All I know about the Triforce is that it is a sacred power left behind in the world by Din, Farore, and Nayru and that it has incredible, unpredictable abilities. Supposedly it was sealed in the Sacred Realm, but obviously that isn't the case anymore. You'd be better off asking someone from your own time who is a keeper of legends." She played with her hair thoughtfully. "But it's done nothing but help you out, right? So I wouldn't worry about it."
"I guess."
There was a several minute silence where both of them were lost in thought. Then Link said, "I have some questions about you, Aurora."
"Fire away."
He rolled to face her. The two of them stared at each other.
"What are you, exactly? You said you were the sword, but right now all I see is a transparent girl. You're from ancient times and you made it sound like you had several wielders before me, but you look and act like you're not much older than me. You said that only those with strong souls can see and hear you when you're 'projecting,' but what exactly does that mean?"
The constantly color-shifting girl drew in a deep breath. Link looked at her expectantly.
"You ready?" He nodded. "All right then. I'll tell you what I know."
"Long, long, ago," she began, "before the nation of Hyrule came to be, there was a small, budding country in this land. That country was called Utopia.
"In that country, there were people of many races. Humans, Hylians, Gorons, Zora, and others that I can't find a name for in your language so I assume your people are unaware of their existence. The country was a harmonious place, where everyone worked together for the good of all. There was no prejudice, no enmity, no feuding. And so the country began to grow.
"But as it grew, problems arose. Distance lead to differences, and people did not always see eye to eye. Still, the country kept peaceful, on the surface. Underneath the skin, though, the seeds of war had been sown.
"Now during that time, it happened that the goddesses would occasionally choose someone to become a leader of the people. This was always accompanied by a miracle so that the people would know who had been chosen. It was as this land grew closer and closer to the brink of civil war that the goddesses chose a humble blacksmith to lead the nation. As a sign, they bestowed upon him the ability to give life to his creations. His farming tools were helpful servants, his kitchen knives were great cooks, and so forth. The people called him the Spirit Smith and accepted him as their new leader.
"It was about this time that foreigners first came into contact with Utopia. They were explorers seeking to broaden the borders of their own country. They demanded to be brought before Utopia's leader. And so they were.
"But when they saw that Utopia's leader was nothing but a blacksmith, they scoffed and mocked him. Only a king can lead a country, they said. And a king must have power. Eager to defend their leader against slander, the people presented the foreigners with proof of the Spirit Smith's powers. But the aliens only laughed again at what seemed to them to be useless magic. Power, they said, is the ability to control. The ability to master. The ability to destroy, not the ability to make. And then they left, warning the Utopians that they would be back with an army, full of fighters with weapons, and that Utopia would surrender and submit to slavery or die.
"When the foreigners made good on their promise, the Utopians panicked. They began to fight among themselves as well as with the foreigners. They appealed to the Spirit Smith and to the goddesses to save them. They gave the Spirit Smith swords taken from the enemy so he could learn to make them. And so he prayed to the goddesses and the goddesses answered. He worked for twenty days and twenty nights with no rest, and when he was finished, he had made the finest sword to be seen. The goddesses told him to go to the sacred lake and collect the tear of the moon bird and place it in the sword. He did, and the tear transformed into a gemstone. Other gems were gathered as well from all over the land – one from the forest, one the great inferno, one from the depths of the waters, one from the sands, one from the darkest part of the night, and one from the sun itself. These too, were placed in the hilt of the sword. Only then did the sword awaken.
"That was the Sword of Souls."
Aurora paused. Link watched her wordlessly.
"This much I have been told. The rest…is from my own memory.
"The Sword was used by the Utopians to win the war. But in its aftermath, the people fought over the most powerful blade of them all. Many died. Eventually, one strong swordsman who was also a magician gained ownership of the blade, and he placed a spell on it, a spell nearly as binding as the magic that made the sword in the first place. The sword's abilities should be limited, he thought, and the sword should be held only by the leader of the people. So he made the sword's soul invisible to those who were not strong enough to be deemed worthy, and he barred the sword from being able to transform its physical form into that of its soul.
"You see, before that, the Sword was not only able to project its spirit outside of its physical 'body,' the sword, but also able to physically transform into the shape that its spirit took; this is called manifesting. But after this spell, it was no longer able to do so.
"To limit the powers of the sword, he used fell magics to attempt to remove and destroy the other six gemstones, but he could not affect the original tear. He declared himself king and began to bring order to the country under a new name, Totaria. And so he ruled for many years.
"After his death, another strong man took control of the Sword of Souls. He discovered that the fell wizard had left one parting gift – the Sword could now determine whether a fighter was worthy of wielding it by engaging him in combat. The sword approved of this strong man, and this man took over as king of the nation. He discovered how to use the sword's powers, and even succeeded in weakening the spell preventing manifestation.
"Over thousands of years, this process repeated. The Sword was not always wielded by a King, however, but sometimes by military leaders or mercenaries. All who wielded the Sword became famous as Kings, Heroes, or Villains. The country fell and arose again many times, its name changing with the rise and fall of its leaders. Over the centuries, the Sword was wielded by those who changed the course of history, those who came to be called Fateweavers. Those who were chosen to use the sword were given the name Blademaster for their mastery of the strongest sword.
"But the wizard's curse, which had initially failed to remove the gems, was not without effect. As the centuries wore on, the gems wore out and crumbled to dust. At last, only the original stone remained.
"Eventually, the Sword came into the possession of the King of the Arren Empire. A covetous and miserly man, this King did everything in his power to take the Sword with him to his grave. He even had his court wizard put a spell on the Sword to put it to slumber until it was touched by one it might deem worthy to wield it once more.
"And that's where you found me," she concluded. "I don't know how many centuries or millennia have passed since then, but it seems to have been a very long time."
Link was puzzled. "There's one thing about your story that I don't understand," he said. "If you don't just inhabit, but actually are, the Sword of Souls, why did you refer to the sword in third person and as 'it'?"
Aurora rolled onto her stomach and stared at the grass. "Because…how do I put this…" she said slowly, frustrated. "I…am the Sword of Souls, but the Sword of Souls is not me. Or rather, the Sword of Souls is more than me."
Link raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well…I am the spirit, the soul of the sword. I'm the soul, it's the body."
"Okay. I'm with you so far."
"But, well… it's not called the Sword of Soul, is it?"
Link frowned. "Does that mean it has more than one soul? Sword of Souls?"
"Not…exactly. Argh, this is frustrating!" She turned her head to face him. "Do you know what reincarnation means?"
"Doesn't it mean that when you die your soul comes back and inhabits something else?"
"Yes. Well, according to reincarnation, when your soul comes back, it is completely different. Different personality, everything. It might as well be a different soul anyway. Now, reincarnation isn't the way it works; mortal's souls are eternal and they don't get recycled like that. But the point is, you understand the concept, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, the Sword of Souls is like that, only backwards. It's one immortal body, but its soul isn't an eternal soul in the same way yours is. It's kinda like…like…let's say that there is a soul named, I don't know, Artez. He's the soul of the Sword of Souls. He lives his life for a number of years (how many doesn't matter) and then he dies. Only, when he dies, the body lives on, and his soul doesn't go to some other realm like yours. Instead, it goes into this sort of everlasting dormancy, a death sleep. And another soul is born, we'll call her Alice. Now Alice is the Sword of Souls. She can access the memories and experiences and skills and everything of Artez. She doesn't need to practice to gain all his skills, she has them already. She knows everything he knew. But, and this is important, she is a different person than him. He could have been an aggressive, violent, bloodthirsty freak and she could be a timid, pacifistic, bookish girl. And then when she dies, she joins him in dormancy, and another soul is born. And so the cycle continues. And I don't understand this myself, but when the souls are born, they are born aged. I'm…not sure how to put this. When you were born, you hadn't yet become a fun-loving, enthusiastic, courageous soul. You turned into that. You grew into your personality. But when a soul of the Sword of Souls is born, he or she already has a fully formed personality."
Link put a hand to his head.
"That's…very confusing, but I think I get what you're saying." He rubbed his temple. "So then, you said 'it' so you would shift genders and used third person because those Sword of Souls weren't you."
"Right."
"When were you…born, as you put it?"
Aurora squinted at him critically. "You really wanna know?"
"I – yes…" he said cautiously.
"When you woke me up."
Link blinked and stared. "Really?"
"Yep."
"I…wow. So, I'm guessing age is kind of meaningless as far as you go, then."
"Pretty much. I have the knowledge and experiences of the previous souls to draw upon, and I have my own fully formed personhood, but I'm not influenced by those experiences the same way I would be had I actually experienced them. It's really impossible to describe."
The two of them turned away from each other and lay there in silence. More than half an hour had passed when Link spoke again.
"Can you manifest?"
"No. If you forge a strong enough bond with me, you can use your force of will to weaken the magic and allow me to manifest, though."
"I see."
"Got any more questions about me?"
"One. When I access your powers…what exactly is happening? Well," he said, looking at her again, "I guess this is really more than one question. For starters, sometimes you start crackling with lightning suddenly –"
"That's because we're on the same wavelength…we're both of the same mind, and you are extremely determined," she interrupted, twisting to face him. "It's the most basic of my powers. Eventually, hopefully, you'll be able to have that one continually active."
He nodded. "Okay. But what about the other time, when you told me to be reckless and confident?"
"That's another of my powers, the Lightning Cord. Right now, without the other gemstones, all my powers revolve around lightning. I also have a power called Lightning Arc, which sends an arc of lightning forward along the line you swing the sword. I've got a number of others as well. I wasn't lying when I said it normally takes months or even years to learn to activate my powers at will. I was really surprised that you managed to pull it off, though I don't know if you could do it again."
Link shook his head. "I tried a second time, and it didn't work," he said. "So I guess I was just lucky." He gave a small grin. "I tend to get lucky a lot."
Aurora smiled broadly. "I noticed."
The boy frowned. "There was something strange that happened when I used…what did you call it?...Lightning Cord."
A flock of Guay flew harmlessly overhead in the skies above as the green-clad youth described the experience to Aurora, who had no explanation to offer him; none of the memories of the previous Swords had any insight to give. The two new friends rolled onto their backs and sat up simultaneously, flashing each other grins.
"Of course," Link said, the grin fading slightly to be replaced by a perplexed expression, "there's the matter of what is going on in the world, too. I mean, I know some big problem is on its way, and I guess the smaller troubles, like the increasing illnesses and monster attacks, are harbingers of that, but I have no idea what the problem is. It bothers me. I used to have these dreams before I left Ordon, but I haven't had any since then…until last night."
"Oh?" the transparent spirit asked interestedly. "What did you dream?"
Link's eyes got a faraway look as he wrapped his arms around his knees.
"I was standing on top of a tower…
*
Location: Link's Dream
Time: While Link was unconscious
I'm cold.
The wind is blowing, but I know that's not the reason. Something horrible has fallen over the land. I know, because from my vantage point in this tower I can see for miles. It's daytime, but the world is dark. I look up, but there are no clouds blocking the sun. No, something evil has made the world this way.
I survey the lands below me. In the south-east, I can see the forest. It is dying. The trees are rotting where they stand, and there are no animals or birds. Turning to the east, I can see the mountains. A volcano is erupting, covering them all with deadly ash. In the northern part of the mountain range, a lone mountain remains untouched, but it sends out snow to cover and smother the life of the hills. In the north-west, I can see an ominous shadow spewing from the canyons. In the west, the far west, I can see a desert. Monstrous scorpions prowl it, slaying any person fool enough to get close. In the south-west, I can see the lake, but the lake is draining rapidly. Soon, there will not be enough water to support life.
I look straight down. A bustling city spreads out before me. But over there in the alley, I see someone that brings dread to my heart.
Dark Link.
As if on cue, he leaps out and begins slaughtering the people of the city. His ebony blade is stained with red. I see that he is now carrying a shield, also black. I want to run, but I know I must fight. I reach for my right-hand sword.
I draw it from its sheath and stare at it. It is beautiful, more beautiful than I could have imagined. The long silvery blade, the blue-violet hilt, the seven stones embedded in the hilt. There is one clear stone in the center, but the others are all on the underside of the cross hilt. One of them is green, one red, one blue, one orange, one yellow, and one a deep purple.
Distracted by a shout, I look up to discover that Dark Link has scaled the tower and is now approaching me swiftly. I reach for my left-hand sword and draw the colorful counterpart to my enemy's weapon.
Suddenly the Triforce appears between us. Dark Link grins, and a shadowy replica comes into existence beside it. I hear a distant battle cry, and the sound of marching. But I know all this is only the prelude to disaster.
*
Location: Lon Lon Ranch
Time: Afternoon of the fifty-fifth day of the Summer of the 35th Year of the Reign of King Armin Hyrule II
Aurora merely looked at Link as he finished his story. He sighed.
"I have no clue what it means. I know that I saw you, complete, now. But the rest…I have no idea."
"Hm…well, do you know if your location in the dream was a real place?"
"I – actually," Link said with surprise, "I do. It's close to the center of Hyrule, and just north of here. The capital – Hyrule Castle City."
"Then let's make that our next destination, Link. But for right now, let's head back to where you'll be staying and get some food in you, okay? Can't have you collapsing on me." She grinned cheekily.
Standing, he grinned back. "Yeah, yeah. We'll set out first thing tomorrow."
END CHAPTER SEVEN
COMING IN CHAPTER EIGHT: CASTLE CITY
Link and Aurora now travel to Hyrule Castle City to find out what they can about Link's dream. But Link's dream becomes the fades into the background as they find out just how different the city is from the towns and villages the boy has seen. There are sights to see, activities to do, and wrongs to right. And as Link discovers, not everyone is equal in the city.