The Fierce Deity
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The sunlight was warmth on her face, and Miyako brushed absent-mindedly at something tickling her cheek. Without warning the warmth was cut off, as though a shadow passed over her. She struggled to open her eyes and saw a young Sheikah male kneeling over her, a worried expression on his face. Upon seeing her wake, he asked,
"Are you all right? What happened?" The Kreyan pressed a hand to her forehead weakly, not sure she remembered
(green light)
what exactly had happened.
"...Where am I? Who are you?" Miyako sat up, looking around. To her right sprawled a vast forest, and to her left seemingly endless plains. "How did I get here?"
"My question exactly," a cold voice snapped, and she looked up to meet gazes with the hardest woman she had ever seen. "You just dropped out of the sky like a load of logs."
"Oh, Goddesses..." Miyako rubbed the side of her face thoughtfully. The last thing she could clearly recall was hearing Zelda shout something, and then...
Green light. And that, as many said before, was that.
"Can you tell us your name and what year it is?" asked the teenage Sheikah. "You don't seem to have any sprains or breaks," he added, almost as an afterthought.
"I'm Miyako, and... the year is 1337..." The two strangers exchanged glances and nodded. "What, is that wrong?"
"Depending on what calendar you go by," the Sheikah replied, rising to his feet slowly. "This is Hyrule." Miyako's eyes widened with shock.
"Hyrule?! But... but... how did I get here? I shouldn't be here, I... we were at the Island of Light..."
"But now you're here," he insisted firmly.
"The drop probably rattled her brains," the woman stated, not helpfully. "We shouldn't spend all day dallying with some half-wit who fell from the sky."
"I'm no half-wit," Miyako snapped angrily. "I just... don't exactly remember what happened. And who are you, anyway? I told you my name."
"I'm Dinshee, and this is Nadzja," answered Dinshee. "And this is Hyrule, more specifically, the Plains of the Wolves, south of the Kokiri Forest."
"What am I doing here...?" The Kreyan girl climbed to her feet slowly, ignoring Dinshee's proffered hand. "Is anyone else here?" He shook his head.
"Just we three."
" 'We three?' I only see two and one," Nadzja uttered coldly, crossing her arms over her chest. "She isn't coming with us."
"I never said I was," Miyako replied heatedly. She looked around at the surroundings again. "How in the world am I going to find them...?"
"Who are you looking for?" Dinshee asked.
"Well... some friends of mine, who were with me at the Island of Light. Um. A sailor, a Zora, another... Sheikah-" But had Zelda gone back into disguise, if she was anywhere near here? -"and... a swordsman."
"We haven't seen anyone on the way here, you were probably separated." It was the first thing that Nadzja had said that didn't sound like an insult. Miyako nodded once.
"I figured." 'But then... what went wrong? What was Zelda... going to do?' She pressed several fingers to her temple and rubbed it tiredly. "Well, this just fries my bacon." Dinshee chuckled softly and Nadzja only looked annoyed. "Where's the nearest city?" The Sheikah pointed behind himself, towards the forest.
"Through there, a few days' journey. But... if you just want a city, and not the actual people... then the Southern Runes. Which is where we're going."
'The Southern Runes... A piece of the Globe of Lorelei's there...' Was that what Zelda was trying to do, send them to different ruins in order to complete the globe? Or had something gone wrong and....
It was pointless to try and sort it all out now, when her head ached faintly and the sunlight was beginning to feel too warm.
"I've got to go to the Southern Runes," she announced. Nadzja shook her head.
"Not with us."
"Then I'll go alone. Just point the direction." Dinshee pointed south, and a little west, but he was frowning.
"Nadzja, we can't just not take her with us. The Wolves come out at night, and it'd be better to have three together than one and two apart. You remember what I told you about the Fierce Deity."
"The Fierce Deity who?" Miyako looked back and forth between Dinshee and Nadzja. The idea of wolves at night didn't faze her, but this Fierce Deity seemed to be a threat.
"The Fierce Deity is the leader of the Wolves and the physical incarnation of the Dark Figure of Immortality, Kaehler," Dinshee explained. "He lives on our planet through a mask. When worn by a man, it transforms him into Kaehler's slave, pretty much."
"...I... see." Well, actually she didn't, but it sounded bad enough. "Oh well. You win some, you lose some."
"You can't be serious," snorted the Sheikah. "You want to walk through the Plains and camp alone at night?"
"Nadzja here doesn't seem very keen on letting me join you two, so I don't have a choice. It's important for me to get there."
"What about your friends?" Dinshee inquired. "Aren't you worried about them?"
"More than I'd care to tell you, but I've got something important to get at the Southern Runes, and by hell's gates I'm going to get it."
"What is it?" Nadzja asked.
"None of your business," Miyako replied. The hard woman narrowed her eyes.
"If you told us, I might reconsider letting you join us."
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because we're looking for something, too," Dinshee cut in hastily. "We're seeking Fire."
"Fire? Well, you take some flint and steel..." The Sheikah teenager flapped an impatient hand at Miyako.
"No, Fire, as in a symbolic something-or-other. Not actual fire, but that might be it. Nadzja was told, by Nayru, to seek Fire in Hyrule, and the Goddesses don't play tricks. The Southern Runes is the home of the Fire Dragon, so I figured that's probably the Fire we're seeking."
"Now that we've told you our purpose, tell us yours," the Rogue demanded, lifting her chin ever so slightly.
"I'm looking... for a piece of the Globe of Lorelei," replied the Kreyan slowly. "What I'd really like to do is find my friends, but you know, saving the world comes first, I guess."
"What, exactly, does the world need saving from?" asked Nadzja, raising an eyebrow. "And how do you intend to save it?"
"Um..." Miyako struggled with herself for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell the truth. Nadzja had, after all, been addressed by Nayru herself, so there probably wasn't any danger in it. "It's Ganondorf... and Grineth." She shook her head. "And something else, I don't really understand it. I thought... Never mind."
"The Betrayer?" Dinshee seemed apprehensive. "He's... free?"
"No, but... Ganondorf is going to free him. And the only way to stop that is to get the Globe of Lorelei..."
"And how will the Globe of Lorelei stop him?" Nadzja seemed almost indifferent to the idea of world domination by a great evil. Well, that was just fine by Miyako. All that mattered to her was her friends, and Link... and were they all right?
"I don't know. We've got to try anyway." She tried not to sound as despairing as she felt, but some of her doubt had to have leaked through, for neither Dinshee nor Nadzja seemed particularly convinced. "...Am I going with you or not?"
"You may come," the Rogue replied curtly, and before Miyako could thank her (for what, she didn't exactly know), Nadzja turned and began walking at a brisk pace south... and a little west.
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"So, what's this Fierce Deity guy all about? Is he evil? Good? Sort of in between?" Miyako was getting bored with the intense silence, and any topic seemed favorable in light of no topic. Dinshee shrugged.
"I don't really know. The Golden Goddesses... we think of them as good, and the Dark Figures, we think of them as evil, but gods and goddesses have their own intentions, and don't constrain themselves within the morals of mortals. It's just not... godly. Certainly, people praise the goddesses for their compassion and caring for the people, but if need be, Din, Nayru, and Farore have no hesitation in sacrificing the lives of many for the greater cause."
"Which would be...?"
"Oh, I don't know, stopping the world from destruction or total domination," replied the Sheikah airily. "Even the will of the Dark Figures can be turned to nurture some good, but it doesn't make the goddesses more powerful than them. At one point, the Dark Figures and Golden Goddesses were... on the same side, you could say. But there was a terrible struggle for power when the world was created... and they split into two factions."
"They called that the Separation of Peoples," Nadzja said from her position relatively ahead of them. Dinshee and Miyako looked at her with undisguised surprise. "All living beings, which had once lived in harmony with one another, were split apart into many cultures." Miyako frowned.
"But I thought... isn't Hyrule a recent... country?"
"Yes, it is." Dinshee ran a hand through his lank hair. "The Goddesses don't hide themselves in obscurity, unlike the Dark Figures. Many see Hyrule as the Golden Land, in which all peoples will meet and become one again. I don't foresee it happening any time soon, but then again, I don't look to the future for answers."
"You know a lot for a kid," Miyako complimented after a moment. The Sheikah teenager blushed. "Do all the Sheikah know about the history of the world?"
"Of course. It's been passed down through many generations. As much as I don't like to admit it, some of it's actually pretty useful. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life studying what other people did."
"Sort of a... rebel Sheikah?" The young male grinned.
"Well, I guess so. I just don't see why we have to hide in the shadows. Maybe I wasn't meant to be born a Sheikah."
"The goddesses make no mistakes," Nadzja said cryptically. She seemed to be listening, but not really taking part. Perhaps it was her own solitary nature, or perhaps it was just because she didn't like the present company. Suddenly, she stopped, and Miyako had to stumble to the left to avoid crashing into her. "What's that?"
"What's what?" Dinshee came up beside her and peered in the direction Nadzja was gazing. "Oh... kuraapu..."
"Eh?" Miyako squinted, but saw nothing. Maybe she was going blind. How fun. "I don't see anything...?"
"That's because you weren't trained to," Nadzja replied curtly. "It's faint, but it's there. We might have a little trouble. I hope you can hold your own in a fight, Miyako." The Kreyan suppressed a smile.
"Don't worry about me."
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"It is them," said the leader of the group to his followers. "Just as Rjivk predicted." The other men nodded sagely to each other, pretending they understood the point of capturing the three travelers, but really they didn't. "We shall capture them. He said we must not harm the Rogue or the Fire."
"But there are three, sire," one of his men uttered quietly. "What of the third?"
"The third is male and of no consequence to us," the leader replied, "but in lieu of killing him, we shall make sure that he does not attempt to stop us. Perhaps the two will cooperate if he is not hurt. In any event, we shall take him with us if we must."
"Then, shall we go?" asked his second-in-command. The leader nodded, and the five of them gigged their horses and began galloping forward.
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"They're getting closer, should we run?" Dinshee asked urgently. Nadzja was about to answer, but Miyako shook her head.
"If we ran, we would show that we're afraid of them, and that could only invite more disaster. No, better to stand to a warrior's death than a craven's end."
"Honor is a wonderful thing, but I find life so much more better," the Rogue replied, frowning. "It'd serve no purpose to be slain like cattle. We should run." Not bothering to see if they'd follow her lead, Nadzja broke into a headlong sprint, making for the dark smudge of forest in the distant. Dinshee made an exasperated noise and followed suit. Miyako took one last glance at the approaching riders and sighed. Then she too ran after her newfound companions.
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"They run. Shall we chase?" asked one of the riders. The leader smiled ever so slightly.
"There is always the thrill of a chase." The others took this as consent and their horses charged forward.
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"We shouldn't have run," Dinshee muttered when he found the strength to. For the rest of the day and all through the night they had been dragged at a quick trot, most of the time hardly able to find the will to jog upright. Tired, sore, and thoroughly humbled, the three of them could not even get their captors to speak to them. The leader seemed anxious about something and would now and then talk rapidly to his companions.
"Think they'll kill us?" panted Nadzja.
"If they were going to do that, they would've done it sooner," Miyako replied, her eyes closed. It felt so good to shut everything out, but each step brought fresh pain to her feet. The shoes were worn through and pocked with holes. She felt like limping but that inscrutable Callahan pride forced to walk with dignity... or whatever was left over.
"We're here," the leader spoke in common vernacular, and the three of them glanced up.
The Southern Runes had once been a magnificent castle with a sprawling city, but all that was gone. The city that had once been was nothing more than a few carved stones half-buried in the dirt, and the palace was a crumbling relic of days the sun had already shone upon. Strange, monolithic shapes that resembled written characters and gave the city its name still stood, having survived the test of time.
"Is this where Volcanis lives?" Miyako asked, hoping for a straight answer.
"I know not of what you speak," replied the leader in a frosty tone. "Do not talk, do not make any bad moves. Rjivk is waiting."
"Who's Rjivk?" Dinshee asked, but the rider that was towing him suddenly backhanded him. A thin trickle of blood seeped out of one nostril, and the Sheikah looked bewildered and enraged by the treatment.
"Do not talk," he growled, turning around in his saddle. Towards the castle they rode in silence broken only by the sound of horses' hooves.
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The portcullis was broken, and the drawbridge was set down indefinitely, as the turning wheel had been broken. Their captors dismounted their horses and, taking up the trio's restraining cords, pulled them inside.
Moss flowered in deep cracks, and creeping vines slithered along fallen walls. Nadzja tried not to stare about, for she had never considered herself a curious person, but the strange place was more than enough to satisfy even the deepest of the wells of imaginations. The castle itself was like a dream half-remembered.
'Who is Rjivk?' Dinshee mentally asked himself. An old Sheikah saying was that answers only led to finality, but questions led to infinity. Rjivk was no doubt the riders' leader and was interested in capturing passing travelers, possibly for slavery. 'We have to escape as soon as possible.' But his hands were bound tightly, and even his feet were tied together, loose enough for walking but not for all-out running.
"Rjivk is the Chosen One, the God of gods," the leader said suddenly, unexpectedly. They twitched in surprise but said nothing. The dried rill of blood on Dinshee's chin was too much of a reminder, and none of them wanted more pain. "He is the thunderbolt, the judgement upon peoples."
'And he lives in a place like this?' Nadzja felt like spitting on them and their damned 'God of gods.'
"When the time comes, he will rise to his true place, as the figurehead of the world," continued another. Their captors had that reverent tone that many religious fanatics took one when they spoke of their obsession. "He is the fire, the destroy, the Fierce Deity."
'Oh, Farore no,' Dinshee thought, closing his eyes. 'The Fierce Deity rises...?'
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The halls of the castle were in no better condition than the outside; some rooms crumbled into other rooms, creating a broken labyrinth of stone, moss, and dust.
"Here." A door on wobbly hinge opened, and they were shoved unceremoniously into a large meeting hall. At the end sat a faded throne. Upon the throne sat the Fierce Deity.
Empty, white eyes stared at them from beyond all space and time. Staring into those seemingly sightless orbs, Miyako felt the empty allure of oblivion and the rewards of nothing. Hollow triumph reigned behind them when he sighted the Celatian and the Kreyan. His thin mouth played into a smile that was neither happy nor sinister, just a simple movement of lips.
"The Rogue and the Fire," spoke the Fierce Deity. His voice was unremarkable, and at the same time, all three of them leaned forward, drinking in the richness of nothing.
'This is what hell is like,' Dinshee thought, knowing what was happening and yet not even bothering to struggle against it. 'Nothing.' "You... You're Rjivk?"
"I was." Rjivk the Fierce Deity leaned back in his seat. "But now I am the Fierce Deity, the Avenger of the Dark Figures." Nobody said anything; Miyako was beginning to suspect that Rjivk was missing a few cards from his deck. Everyone knew that the Dark Figures only plundered, even from their own worshippers. "I have the power to reshape the world, but I will wait. Because I can see..." He closed his empty eyes. "I can see too many things. Voices in the wind. I have to wait. They tell me so."
"You do know what will happen to you, don't you?" Dinshee inquired. Miyako and Nadzja looked at him in surprise; did the Sheikah know more about this 'Fierce Deity'? "Kaehler's only using you. He'll have complete control of your body."
"I know. But there is nothing for me without him." Rjivk stood up and clenched his fists. Beside him, leaning against the throne was a long, double-helix sword. Miyako doubted she'd be able to even lift the blade an inch off the sword. It was made with no metal she had ever seen. "I know Ganondorf is planning to free the Betrayer from his prison, and I know that you, Fire, are trying to gather the Lilliath together to stop him. Yet you don't see what I see."
"And what do you see?" Her voice betrayed her uneasiness.
"Dark times." He smiled again, a meaningless gesture. "Dark times under Grineth. Of course, he forgets who his true masters are..."
"Listen. I don't have the patience to bandy prophecies with you. So if you're going to kill us or use us, go ahead with it. But enough of this stupid nonsense." Nadzja raised her chin defiantly. "Better to be dead than to listen to this religious prattle." Rjivk opened his eyes again; no facial expression gave hint to any of the emotions he might have felt.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand. You were not the little orphan boy that I once was, living with a woman who was not my mother, who never told me who my mother was."
"How sentimental, I think I'm crying. Look, tears." Nadzja spat on the decayed stone floor. "Just run me through and spare me this."
"Shut up," Dinshee hissed out of the side of his mouth. The Fierce Deity stared at Nadzja, though he did not seem perturbed by her action.
"I found this mask in these ruins, and I knew I had a higher purpose. For when I placed the mask on my face, Kaehler spoke to me and told me more truth than anyone has ever told me before. By placing myself in his hands and opening my body to his power, I will finally matter. I will be important."
"He's using you. He'll suck your soul up and not even leave a recognizable husk," the Sheikah teenager warned. Rjivk shrugged carelessly.
"That doesn't matter. In the end, I will finally meet..." His voice trailed off.
"Meet who?" Miyako felt too caught up to stop herself. Nadzja glowered at her, but the Kreyan pretended not to notice.
"I will meet the Hero of Time," Rjivk finished at last. "My brother."
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Words cannot express the deepest apologies my heart bleeds. Er, or something like that. At any rate, hate me for my procrastination and fuddling around with this chapter. I still don't like it, but you Loyal Readers have been far too patient with me as it is. School has just begun, and already I have a load of homework, but that didn't stop me from finishing this chapter. Hopefully I'll have the next one done soon, but you know you shouldn't trust me.
The year... 1337... you computer geeks know it, right? I couldn't resist.
I have distorted the Majora's Mask game to bring this Fierce Deity's Mask, and with a twist. You may hate me for it and also changing the origins of the mask, but I couldn't NOT use it... if you know what I mean. I too though Oni Link was kick-arse, but that Sly Little Muse in my head told me, "Not Link..." How ironic that one of the momentous... moments in this fanfic will be when the Hero of Time meets his twin brother, the Fierce Deity. What will happen? Stayed tuned for the next millennium or so to find out! (Er, just kidding. I hope.)
I have learned to say "A dog eats a hotdog" in Japanese. Ah, the joys of school.
--Shiniki Wyrd
REST IN PEACE. THE MISTAKE SHALL NOT BE REPEATED.
--Cenotaph Hiroshima, Japan Inscription.
(This will be my motto in remembering to get these chapters going. *gulp*)
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The sunlight was warmth on her face, and Miyako brushed absent-mindedly at something tickling her cheek. Without warning the warmth was cut off, as though a shadow passed over her. She struggled to open her eyes and saw a young Sheikah male kneeling over her, a worried expression on his face. Upon seeing her wake, he asked,
"Are you all right? What happened?" The Kreyan pressed a hand to her forehead weakly, not sure she remembered
(green light)
what exactly had happened.
"...Where am I? Who are you?" Miyako sat up, looking around. To her right sprawled a vast forest, and to her left seemingly endless plains. "How did I get here?"
"My question exactly," a cold voice snapped, and she looked up to meet gazes with the hardest woman she had ever seen. "You just dropped out of the sky like a load of logs."
"Oh, Goddesses..." Miyako rubbed the side of her face thoughtfully. The last thing she could clearly recall was hearing Zelda shout something, and then...
Green light. And that, as many said before, was that.
"Can you tell us your name and what year it is?" asked the teenage Sheikah. "You don't seem to have any sprains or breaks," he added, almost as an afterthought.
"I'm Miyako, and... the year is 1337..." The two strangers exchanged glances and nodded. "What, is that wrong?"
"Depending on what calendar you go by," the Sheikah replied, rising to his feet slowly. "This is Hyrule." Miyako's eyes widened with shock.
"Hyrule?! But... but... how did I get here? I shouldn't be here, I... we were at the Island of Light..."
"But now you're here," he insisted firmly.
"The drop probably rattled her brains," the woman stated, not helpfully. "We shouldn't spend all day dallying with some half-wit who fell from the sky."
"I'm no half-wit," Miyako snapped angrily. "I just... don't exactly remember what happened. And who are you, anyway? I told you my name."
"I'm Dinshee, and this is Nadzja," answered Dinshee. "And this is Hyrule, more specifically, the Plains of the Wolves, south of the Kokiri Forest."
"What am I doing here...?" The Kreyan girl climbed to her feet slowly, ignoring Dinshee's proffered hand. "Is anyone else here?" He shook his head.
"Just we three."
" 'We three?' I only see two and one," Nadzja uttered coldly, crossing her arms over her chest. "She isn't coming with us."
"I never said I was," Miyako replied heatedly. She looked around at the surroundings again. "How in the world am I going to find them...?"
"Who are you looking for?" Dinshee asked.
"Well... some friends of mine, who were with me at the Island of Light. Um. A sailor, a Zora, another... Sheikah-" But had Zelda gone back into disguise, if she was anywhere near here? -"and... a swordsman."
"We haven't seen anyone on the way here, you were probably separated." It was the first thing that Nadzja had said that didn't sound like an insult. Miyako nodded once.
"I figured." 'But then... what went wrong? What was Zelda... going to do?' She pressed several fingers to her temple and rubbed it tiredly. "Well, this just fries my bacon." Dinshee chuckled softly and Nadzja only looked annoyed. "Where's the nearest city?" The Sheikah pointed behind himself, towards the forest.
"Through there, a few days' journey. But... if you just want a city, and not the actual people... then the Southern Runes. Which is where we're going."
'The Southern Runes... A piece of the Globe of Lorelei's there...' Was that what Zelda was trying to do, send them to different ruins in order to complete the globe? Or had something gone wrong and....
It was pointless to try and sort it all out now, when her head ached faintly and the sunlight was beginning to feel too warm.
"I've got to go to the Southern Runes," she announced. Nadzja shook her head.
"Not with us."
"Then I'll go alone. Just point the direction." Dinshee pointed south, and a little west, but he was frowning.
"Nadzja, we can't just not take her with us. The Wolves come out at night, and it'd be better to have three together than one and two apart. You remember what I told you about the Fierce Deity."
"The Fierce Deity who?" Miyako looked back and forth between Dinshee and Nadzja. The idea of wolves at night didn't faze her, but this Fierce Deity seemed to be a threat.
"The Fierce Deity is the leader of the Wolves and the physical incarnation of the Dark Figure of Immortality, Kaehler," Dinshee explained. "He lives on our planet through a mask. When worn by a man, it transforms him into Kaehler's slave, pretty much."
"...I... see." Well, actually she didn't, but it sounded bad enough. "Oh well. You win some, you lose some."
"You can't be serious," snorted the Sheikah. "You want to walk through the Plains and camp alone at night?"
"Nadzja here doesn't seem very keen on letting me join you two, so I don't have a choice. It's important for me to get there."
"What about your friends?" Dinshee inquired. "Aren't you worried about them?"
"More than I'd care to tell you, but I've got something important to get at the Southern Runes, and by hell's gates I'm going to get it."
"What is it?" Nadzja asked.
"None of your business," Miyako replied. The hard woman narrowed her eyes.
"If you told us, I might reconsider letting you join us."
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because we're looking for something, too," Dinshee cut in hastily. "We're seeking Fire."
"Fire? Well, you take some flint and steel..." The Sheikah teenager flapped an impatient hand at Miyako.
"No, Fire, as in a symbolic something-or-other. Not actual fire, but that might be it. Nadzja was told, by Nayru, to seek Fire in Hyrule, and the Goddesses don't play tricks. The Southern Runes is the home of the Fire Dragon, so I figured that's probably the Fire we're seeking."
"Now that we've told you our purpose, tell us yours," the Rogue demanded, lifting her chin ever so slightly.
"I'm looking... for a piece of the Globe of Lorelei," replied the Kreyan slowly. "What I'd really like to do is find my friends, but you know, saving the world comes first, I guess."
"What, exactly, does the world need saving from?" asked Nadzja, raising an eyebrow. "And how do you intend to save it?"
"Um..." Miyako struggled with herself for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell the truth. Nadzja had, after all, been addressed by Nayru herself, so there probably wasn't any danger in it. "It's Ganondorf... and Grineth." She shook her head. "And something else, I don't really understand it. I thought... Never mind."
"The Betrayer?" Dinshee seemed apprehensive. "He's... free?"
"No, but... Ganondorf is going to free him. And the only way to stop that is to get the Globe of Lorelei..."
"And how will the Globe of Lorelei stop him?" Nadzja seemed almost indifferent to the idea of world domination by a great evil. Well, that was just fine by Miyako. All that mattered to her was her friends, and Link... and were they all right?
"I don't know. We've got to try anyway." She tried not to sound as despairing as she felt, but some of her doubt had to have leaked through, for neither Dinshee nor Nadzja seemed particularly convinced. "...Am I going with you or not?"
"You may come," the Rogue replied curtly, and before Miyako could thank her (for what, she didn't exactly know), Nadzja turned and began walking at a brisk pace south... and a little west.
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"So, what's this Fierce Deity guy all about? Is he evil? Good? Sort of in between?" Miyako was getting bored with the intense silence, and any topic seemed favorable in light of no topic. Dinshee shrugged.
"I don't really know. The Golden Goddesses... we think of them as good, and the Dark Figures, we think of them as evil, but gods and goddesses have their own intentions, and don't constrain themselves within the morals of mortals. It's just not... godly. Certainly, people praise the goddesses for their compassion and caring for the people, but if need be, Din, Nayru, and Farore have no hesitation in sacrificing the lives of many for the greater cause."
"Which would be...?"
"Oh, I don't know, stopping the world from destruction or total domination," replied the Sheikah airily. "Even the will of the Dark Figures can be turned to nurture some good, but it doesn't make the goddesses more powerful than them. At one point, the Dark Figures and Golden Goddesses were... on the same side, you could say. But there was a terrible struggle for power when the world was created... and they split into two factions."
"They called that the Separation of Peoples," Nadzja said from her position relatively ahead of them. Dinshee and Miyako looked at her with undisguised surprise. "All living beings, which had once lived in harmony with one another, were split apart into many cultures." Miyako frowned.
"But I thought... isn't Hyrule a recent... country?"
"Yes, it is." Dinshee ran a hand through his lank hair. "The Goddesses don't hide themselves in obscurity, unlike the Dark Figures. Many see Hyrule as the Golden Land, in which all peoples will meet and become one again. I don't foresee it happening any time soon, but then again, I don't look to the future for answers."
"You know a lot for a kid," Miyako complimented after a moment. The Sheikah teenager blushed. "Do all the Sheikah know about the history of the world?"
"Of course. It's been passed down through many generations. As much as I don't like to admit it, some of it's actually pretty useful. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life studying what other people did."
"Sort of a... rebel Sheikah?" The young male grinned.
"Well, I guess so. I just don't see why we have to hide in the shadows. Maybe I wasn't meant to be born a Sheikah."
"The goddesses make no mistakes," Nadzja said cryptically. She seemed to be listening, but not really taking part. Perhaps it was her own solitary nature, or perhaps it was just because she didn't like the present company. Suddenly, she stopped, and Miyako had to stumble to the left to avoid crashing into her. "What's that?"
"What's what?" Dinshee came up beside her and peered in the direction Nadzja was gazing. "Oh... kuraapu..."
"Eh?" Miyako squinted, but saw nothing. Maybe she was going blind. How fun. "I don't see anything...?"
"That's because you weren't trained to," Nadzja replied curtly. "It's faint, but it's there. We might have a little trouble. I hope you can hold your own in a fight, Miyako." The Kreyan suppressed a smile.
"Don't worry about me."
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"It is them," said the leader of the group to his followers. "Just as Rjivk predicted." The other men nodded sagely to each other, pretending they understood the point of capturing the three travelers, but really they didn't. "We shall capture them. He said we must not harm the Rogue or the Fire."
"But there are three, sire," one of his men uttered quietly. "What of the third?"
"The third is male and of no consequence to us," the leader replied, "but in lieu of killing him, we shall make sure that he does not attempt to stop us. Perhaps the two will cooperate if he is not hurt. In any event, we shall take him with us if we must."
"Then, shall we go?" asked his second-in-command. The leader nodded, and the five of them gigged their horses and began galloping forward.
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"They're getting closer, should we run?" Dinshee asked urgently. Nadzja was about to answer, but Miyako shook her head.
"If we ran, we would show that we're afraid of them, and that could only invite more disaster. No, better to stand to a warrior's death than a craven's end."
"Honor is a wonderful thing, but I find life so much more better," the Rogue replied, frowning. "It'd serve no purpose to be slain like cattle. We should run." Not bothering to see if they'd follow her lead, Nadzja broke into a headlong sprint, making for the dark smudge of forest in the distant. Dinshee made an exasperated noise and followed suit. Miyako took one last glance at the approaching riders and sighed. Then she too ran after her newfound companions.
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"They run. Shall we chase?" asked one of the riders. The leader smiled ever so slightly.
"There is always the thrill of a chase." The others took this as consent and their horses charged forward.
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"We shouldn't have run," Dinshee muttered when he found the strength to. For the rest of the day and all through the night they had been dragged at a quick trot, most of the time hardly able to find the will to jog upright. Tired, sore, and thoroughly humbled, the three of them could not even get their captors to speak to them. The leader seemed anxious about something and would now and then talk rapidly to his companions.
"Think they'll kill us?" panted Nadzja.
"If they were going to do that, they would've done it sooner," Miyako replied, her eyes closed. It felt so good to shut everything out, but each step brought fresh pain to her feet. The shoes were worn through and pocked with holes. She felt like limping but that inscrutable Callahan pride forced to walk with dignity... or whatever was left over.
"We're here," the leader spoke in common vernacular, and the three of them glanced up.
The Southern Runes had once been a magnificent castle with a sprawling city, but all that was gone. The city that had once been was nothing more than a few carved stones half-buried in the dirt, and the palace was a crumbling relic of days the sun had already shone upon. Strange, monolithic shapes that resembled written characters and gave the city its name still stood, having survived the test of time.
"Is this where Volcanis lives?" Miyako asked, hoping for a straight answer.
"I know not of what you speak," replied the leader in a frosty tone. "Do not talk, do not make any bad moves. Rjivk is waiting."
"Who's Rjivk?" Dinshee asked, but the rider that was towing him suddenly backhanded him. A thin trickle of blood seeped out of one nostril, and the Sheikah looked bewildered and enraged by the treatment.
"Do not talk," he growled, turning around in his saddle. Towards the castle they rode in silence broken only by the sound of horses' hooves.
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The portcullis was broken, and the drawbridge was set down indefinitely, as the turning wheel had been broken. Their captors dismounted their horses and, taking up the trio's restraining cords, pulled them inside.
Moss flowered in deep cracks, and creeping vines slithered along fallen walls. Nadzja tried not to stare about, for she had never considered herself a curious person, but the strange place was more than enough to satisfy even the deepest of the wells of imaginations. The castle itself was like a dream half-remembered.
'Who is Rjivk?' Dinshee mentally asked himself. An old Sheikah saying was that answers only led to finality, but questions led to infinity. Rjivk was no doubt the riders' leader and was interested in capturing passing travelers, possibly for slavery. 'We have to escape as soon as possible.' But his hands were bound tightly, and even his feet were tied together, loose enough for walking but not for all-out running.
"Rjivk is the Chosen One, the God of gods," the leader said suddenly, unexpectedly. They twitched in surprise but said nothing. The dried rill of blood on Dinshee's chin was too much of a reminder, and none of them wanted more pain. "He is the thunderbolt, the judgement upon peoples."
'And he lives in a place like this?' Nadzja felt like spitting on them and their damned 'God of gods.'
"When the time comes, he will rise to his true place, as the figurehead of the world," continued another. Their captors had that reverent tone that many religious fanatics took one when they spoke of their obsession. "He is the fire, the destroy, the Fierce Deity."
'Oh, Farore no,' Dinshee thought, closing his eyes. 'The Fierce Deity rises...?'
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The halls of the castle were in no better condition than the outside; some rooms crumbled into other rooms, creating a broken labyrinth of stone, moss, and dust.
"Here." A door on wobbly hinge opened, and they were shoved unceremoniously into a large meeting hall. At the end sat a faded throne. Upon the throne sat the Fierce Deity.
Empty, white eyes stared at them from beyond all space and time. Staring into those seemingly sightless orbs, Miyako felt the empty allure of oblivion and the rewards of nothing. Hollow triumph reigned behind them when he sighted the Celatian and the Kreyan. His thin mouth played into a smile that was neither happy nor sinister, just a simple movement of lips.
"The Rogue and the Fire," spoke the Fierce Deity. His voice was unremarkable, and at the same time, all three of them leaned forward, drinking in the richness of nothing.
'This is what hell is like,' Dinshee thought, knowing what was happening and yet not even bothering to struggle against it. 'Nothing.' "You... You're Rjivk?"
"I was." Rjivk the Fierce Deity leaned back in his seat. "But now I am the Fierce Deity, the Avenger of the Dark Figures." Nobody said anything; Miyako was beginning to suspect that Rjivk was missing a few cards from his deck. Everyone knew that the Dark Figures only plundered, even from their own worshippers. "I have the power to reshape the world, but I will wait. Because I can see..." He closed his empty eyes. "I can see too many things. Voices in the wind. I have to wait. They tell me so."
"You do know what will happen to you, don't you?" Dinshee inquired. Miyako and Nadzja looked at him in surprise; did the Sheikah know more about this 'Fierce Deity'? "Kaehler's only using you. He'll have complete control of your body."
"I know. But there is nothing for me without him." Rjivk stood up and clenched his fists. Beside him, leaning against the throne was a long, double-helix sword. Miyako doubted she'd be able to even lift the blade an inch off the sword. It was made with no metal she had ever seen. "I know Ganondorf is planning to free the Betrayer from his prison, and I know that you, Fire, are trying to gather the Lilliath together to stop him. Yet you don't see what I see."
"And what do you see?" Her voice betrayed her uneasiness.
"Dark times." He smiled again, a meaningless gesture. "Dark times under Grineth. Of course, he forgets who his true masters are..."
"Listen. I don't have the patience to bandy prophecies with you. So if you're going to kill us or use us, go ahead with it. But enough of this stupid nonsense." Nadzja raised her chin defiantly. "Better to be dead than to listen to this religious prattle." Rjivk opened his eyes again; no facial expression gave hint to any of the emotions he might have felt.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand. You were not the little orphan boy that I once was, living with a woman who was not my mother, who never told me who my mother was."
"How sentimental, I think I'm crying. Look, tears." Nadzja spat on the decayed stone floor. "Just run me through and spare me this."
"Shut up," Dinshee hissed out of the side of his mouth. The Fierce Deity stared at Nadzja, though he did not seem perturbed by her action.
"I found this mask in these ruins, and I knew I had a higher purpose. For when I placed the mask on my face, Kaehler spoke to me and told me more truth than anyone has ever told me before. By placing myself in his hands and opening my body to his power, I will finally matter. I will be important."
"He's using you. He'll suck your soul up and not even leave a recognizable husk," the Sheikah teenager warned. Rjivk shrugged carelessly.
"That doesn't matter. In the end, I will finally meet..." His voice trailed off.
"Meet who?" Miyako felt too caught up to stop herself. Nadzja glowered at her, but the Kreyan pretended not to notice.
"I will meet the Hero of Time," Rjivk finished at last. "My brother."
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Words cannot express the deepest apologies my heart bleeds. Er, or something like that. At any rate, hate me for my procrastination and fuddling around with this chapter. I still don't like it, but you Loyal Readers have been far too patient with me as it is. School has just begun, and already I have a load of homework, but that didn't stop me from finishing this chapter. Hopefully I'll have the next one done soon, but you know you shouldn't trust me.
The year... 1337... you computer geeks know it, right? I couldn't resist.
I have distorted the Majora's Mask game to bring this Fierce Deity's Mask, and with a twist. You may hate me for it and also changing the origins of the mask, but I couldn't NOT use it... if you know what I mean. I too though Oni Link was kick-arse, but that Sly Little Muse in my head told me, "Not Link..." How ironic that one of the momentous... moments in this fanfic will be when the Hero of Time meets his twin brother, the Fierce Deity. What will happen? Stayed tuned for the next millennium or so to find out! (Er, just kidding. I hope.)
I have learned to say "A dog eats a hotdog" in Japanese. Ah, the joys of school.
--Shiniki Wyrd
REST IN PEACE. THE MISTAKE SHALL NOT BE REPEATED.
--Cenotaph Hiroshima, Japan Inscription.
(This will be my motto in remembering to get these chapters going. *gulp*)