BACKGROUND INFORMATION! Per my reviewers' requests, here's some info about each of the characters, before I get back to the story proper.

SPOILER WARNING!

And everyone who is still reading this...thanks. Really. You all mean a lot to me. Even if you don't review, you rock.
:)













LINK:
Elf, male, between eighteen and twenty-five years old.
6'00 or so, pale complected, blue eyes, long blond hair, somewhat stocky build--very muscled.
Link is, in no uncertain terms, a hero. It's what he does, like a job, though he's a good enough person to feel compelled to do it. Not that he has ever had room for many other goals; His mother was killed bringing him to safety when he was only an infant, and he spent the first
eleven years of his life believing he was one of the ageless woodland folk, the Kokiri, who are forever children. Not until he was forced to leave the Kokiri forests did he come to understand that he would someday grow old, grow up, and die, and at that point his world was in
such turmoil that all he could do to help was almost not enough. He learned to fight, to protect others and himself, and in doing so lost what he could have had of the rest of his childhood--he is an Adult, and has been since he was eleven years old. Link is a wanderer, trying to find something he cannot describe, even to himself. He is happy enough with the love of his friends(Saria, one of the Kokiri children, remains his best friend; should she ever have been able to grow and age as he does, they would likely have been more.
Malon, a farmgirl, is his beloved; Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, is his sister, and he is the type of person who makes loyal friends easily)and though few of them can ever truly understand what he went through, they're good enough to try.
He's noble; he goes out of his way to help others, and is tireless in pursuit of Light.
----writer's note: This is true-to-game information, actually, not fan-fiction at all: Prima Game Guides, some quotes from Miyamoto-sama and some hard-to-find sources have convinced me. Zelda is Link's elder sister, and in one version of the story he does actually marry Malon.




TASUKI(or Shun'u, or Genrou, or one of a host of other names)
Human(God-touched, but human), male, somewhere around twenty-two
Also around 6'00, tanned skin, amber eyes and fiery red hair; slimly muscled, slender. Tasuki confuses himself sometimes. He was the only son born to his father, and living in a household of sniping, unforgiving girlchildren(not to mention his disgustingly overaffectionate mother)scarred him for life. Women are not his thing. So what does he like to do?
Get drunk.
A lot.
He ran away from home at an early age, and got attatched to a group of bandits through a series of increasingly unlikely circumstances. To his benefit, the gang that picked him up relied on scare tactics rather than rape or murder; with them he learned to fight, to bluff, and to drink
any other man under the table. For him, life was almost idyllic; he had his friends, he had the excitement of his chosen career, he had money most of the time, food most of the time and booze all of the time. But then the leader of the gang took ill. While Tasuki was out searching for
the herb that would heal him, the man died, leaving the gang to be ruled by a repulsive lecher with little practice in mercy. Tasuki returned, managed to win leadership of the gang from the scum, only to face another problem; he was the God-Chosen warrior of fire for the Priestess of
Suzaku; a full-time job requiring patience and loyalty. In the end, he decided that she was worth protecting, and left leadership of the gang to Kouji, his friend and mentor--though he does stop by from time to time to keep his hand in.
Chichiri is his best friend(and, some argue, his lover, though I've no proof either way), and Tasuki follows him out of love, for companionship, and because he is the only other true surviving member of the Suzaku warriors. Tasuki's foul-mouthed and blunt, but on occasion is surprisingly perceptive, and is more gentle than most men when it comes to the wounded or children. Tasuki is up for about anything, so he's not really missing Kounan.



CHICHIRI(or Houjun Ri)
Human(ish), male, around thirty years of age
Five-ten to six feet tall, pale skin, asthetic build, deceptively fragile-seeming. Only one eye(maroon or sienna, depending on his mood)though he often appears to be a rather cat-faced man, because of an enchanted mask that he wears. His hair is an unbelievable silvery-bluish shade, in true anime style--were he a physical being, I think it would probably be silvery-white blond.
Chichiri wears more than the physical mask. For many years, he blamed the deaths of his beloved and his best friend on himself; his friend, Hikou, attempted and half-succeeded in seducing the woman away from Chichiri, at which point she decided she was too tainted to marry him as they had planned. Miserable, Chichiri faced Hikou down, as the rain began to fall and the banks of the river on which they fought began to overflow...Hikou fell, and Chichiri panicked. He threw himself to the ground, with his face over the bank, to hold the man above the water, but debris caught in the rushing water stabbed into his eye, ruining it, and in agony he released Hikou, who drowned.
Chichiri regained consciousness to find that his whole village--including his fiancee--had died in the flood. With no purpose left to him, he was empty, useless, suicidal, and Suzaku could not let that be. Chichiri's powers were woken, he was trained, and he became a wandering monk of sorts, watching and waiting for the Priestess of Suzaku to arrive--she was his purpose for living now, his atonement and his forgiveness.
The war came and went, and many of the friends he had made during it died. The Priestess came, performed her duty and returned to her own world. Alone but for Tasuki, he was again without purpose, without a true life--but to his surprise and renewed pain, he learned that the anger Hikou felt at the time he died had kept him as a half-alive hungry spirit, who drowned people to hang on to a half-life. Chichiri was forced to assist in the killing of the monster that his almost-brother had become. Again, Hikou's death was Chichiri's 'fault;' again, the monk could do nothing to save one he loved, and instead proved instrumental in killing him.
In a lesser man, this would have meant insanity, but Chichiri still loved his childhood friend so much that he was able to make Hikou certain that Chichiri had forgiven him for stealing away his lover. And in return, Hikou forgave him, and told him that their beloved was waiting for him--for them both--in Heaven.
At last he was at peace. For the first time in ten years or more, Chichiri needed no great purpose to goad him onward--he could enjoy breathing without counting his breaths. He travels now, with Tasuki, as advisors to the throne of Kounan, serving still the Phoenix-God Suzaku.
And now this happens.

LAGUNA LOIRE
Human, male, around fifty years of age.
Five foot five, delicate build. Black hair to about his waist, moves silently as a cat.
Laguna is a simple man. He loves with all his heart, hates nothing, and does the job he has to do without ever looking back, with only one exception. Twice he has lost women he loved; Julia, a singer who was never-quite his lover, and Raine, the woman he married and the mother of his child. Twice he has lost everything he has, his home and his security, once when he was forced to leave Galbadia, and again when he had to chase Ultimecia the Sorceress, forever leaving the little town where he had at last found peace.
And yet, he is content.
He misses his wife, though she died twenty years agone; he misses the simplicity of his life as a soldier and a writer; but he does the job that needs to be done.
What more need be said than that?









A CHANGE IN PACE








"What are you doing here?"

Chichiri stammered "I felt I needed to come here. And what of you?"

The child studied him with huge eyes, so pale a blue as to seem silver in the dim light. As he noticed it, the faint glow around her faded out, and she stood before him in darkness.
She was dressed differently from any of the others Chichiri had so far seen; only a slim shift and a thin cloak covered her, but both were of fine fabric unsuited to one with as underfed a frame as hers.

The little girl shrugged. "I belong here. You don't." She ducked her head, and silvery hair fell into her face. "I think." She said uncertainly, her eyes flicking around him.

She's alone. Chichiri realized. There's no one here for her. Without thinking, he reached down and scooped her into his arms. "All right, no da. In that case, let's find where I should be, yes?"

Unresisting, the child nodded. "Not here." she said. The monk turned back the way he had come, and she stiffened in his arms. "Not there." she said in a little voice. "Not into the light."

Chichiri paused. "All right." he said again. He grinned. "By the way--I'm Houjun, or Chichiri, whichever you'd rather call me, na no da. Can I have your name, no da?"

The girl giggled, a sound as silver as the rest of her. "I'm Aerdre."
Chichiri smiled again, surprising himself. "Do you know what that means, no da?"

Her pale eyes studying him, she shook her head. "Names mean things?" Chichiri nodded. "Aerdre means 'stream.' Isn't that lovely, na no da?"

Aerdre grinned, showing her teeth. "Wow!" she giggled. "That's neat!" She adjusted herself in his grip, pointing ahead with one little hand. "Turn." she commanded.

And not knowing why, he did.




Laguna sighed happily, absentmindedly rapping his fork against the delicate china plate. Julia's eyes caught and held him, and he smiled back
at her. "This is lovely." he said, gesturing at the bright fruit pastry that he'd been poking to pieces. Julia giggled, but said nothing.

Across the table from them sat Link and Tasuki, deep in conversation, drawing the appreciative eyes of the court ladies to them.

"How do you fuckin' stand a sword that that fuckin' big, man?" Tasuki drawled. "I mean, if I was gonna use a sword, I'd make damned sure it was somethin' I could lift, y'know?"

Link shook his head. "The sword is the Master Sword, relic of people that came long ago. It's more than just a blade. And even if it was a sword, it would be better than that thing you use." he said with a grin. "What do you do, smack people with it?"

Leaping up to stand on the table, Tasuki ripped his tessen from the sheath where he still wore it, pointed it at the ceiling and shouted "REKKA SHINEN!" for emphasis.

A tower of blood-red flame soared from it, roaring and snapping midair, and the members of the court gasped and screamed in terror. The guards dove for the Queen, whom Laguna held protectively, Link's hand twitched toward his own sword, and several of the ladies fainted in shock.


His hair blowing back from his face, his fanged grin glittering in the crimson light, his head thrown back to laugh, Tasuki resembled a demon from the court's worst wine-induced nightmare. And then, as abruptly as it had come, the fire winked out of existence, leaving only a rustle in the drapes and the faint scent of some unnamable blossom. Tasuki stepped easily off of the high table and fell back into his seat.

"See?" he said.

Utter silence reigned in the dining hall. With an exaggerated yawn, Link rose from the table and bowed to Queen Julia. "My deepest pardon begged, milady." he said clearly. "All of this excitement has quite exhausted me, and I think I shall retire." he bowed as the awestruck Queen waved him on.

Tasuki, standing again though none had seen him rise, nodded. "Me too. 'M tired." he said.

Without waiting for the Queen to nod, he swaggered away from the table, grabbing an apple at the last moment and crunching into it noisily. " 'Night." he called behind him.

Laughing silently, his shoulders barely shaking to betray him, Link followed.







AUTHOR'S NOTE:
More coming soon, I prooooooomise. Just been busy, with my boyfriend flying out from England to visit me.
Soon.
Very soon.
Really.