Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.
Soul Remnants
Chapter 36
It seemed that not even having the enemy on the run was enough for the winning side. Those of Agon's men who didn't throw down their weapons and beg for mercy immediately were killed without a second thought, even those who tried to run away. Riveth's men were angry and vengeful, and not even the angry barking from their commander could halt their actions.
Panting and gripping the axe tightly, as if he was afraid the world would turn upside down should he let go, Rial slowly let his gaze glide off the headless corpse of General Agon and roam the battlefield. Bodies everywhere, twisted and broken, empty and glassy eyes staring into the great nothing of death, blood seeping into the snow, staining it a vicious red that was quickly turning black.
Was this all that awaited him from now on? More death, blood and accusing eyes? He slowly let his fingers relax, and the axe fell from his grip, clattering noisily as it hit the dead general's plate armour.
A nearby whimper snapped Rial out of his thoughts and made him look to his right. Erd was lying in a foetal position, clutching his middle as his breath came out in ragged gasps and moans. Rial crawled over to him, all too aware of his own injuries. Breathing was a massive pain, and his head felt like it was two sizes too big. When he reached the silver-haired boy, he reached out and touched his shoulder, which only made Erd flinch and withdraw further in on himself.
"Erd...it's me..." Rial managed to say before coughing up a fair amount of blood, revealing that he must have had some sort of internal bleeding as well. He tried touching the silver-haired boy again, and was relieved to see the lack of fear this time. Erd slowly raised his head, tears of pain rolling down his cheeks and blood leaking from his mouth.
"C-captain..." he choked.
"Shh, it's okay," Rial said, trying to sound comforting but failing miserably. "I'm here...you're going to be okay..." He paused as he saw the burst blood vessels around the boy's neck and throat. They were roughly shaped like a hand, a testament to Agon's cruelty. It filled Rial with enough rage to wish he could kill the man again and again. Children were off-limits. Always.
"I'm n-not okay...ah..." Erd whimpered again.
"Yes, you are, you will be," Rial said quietly, his voice almost a whisper. "Move...move your hands, I need to see the wound...come on..."
The warlock whined in agony as Rial gently pried his hands away from the wound in his stomach. What he saw there left him wishing he hadn't insisted. No one could heal the damage that had been wrought on the young warlock. He was as good as dead, but it was a stomach wound and would take time...and the pain would be great.
"W-well...?" Erd asked, already knowing the answer, a bitter chuckle coming from his mouth as Rial shook his head. "I kn-knew it...I'm dead..."
"Nonsense, we'll just fetch the surgeon," Rial protested, taking as deep a breath as he could without causing himself too much pain and shouting, "Medic! I need a medic over here, now!"
But they weren't the only ones in need of medical aid, and Rial's pleas were deafened by cacophony produced by all the wounded. Everyone were dying, everyone needed help the most. It didn't stop Rial from trying to be heard over the other voices, however, and he screamed his throat raw. He would have continued, but Erd's weak grip around his wrist stopped him.
"Please, captain...it's no use..." he said slowly.
Rial felt absolutely hopeless there he sat. In a vain attempt to comfort the boy, he lifted Erd's head and placed it in his lap, staring down at those impossibly green eyes. What had the boy even been doing out there, on the battlefield? He voiced this question.
"Looking for...you, of course..." Erd replied with a weak smile on his lips. "Had to...save you..."
"I was doing fine on my own," Rial said, knowing full well that this was not true, and so did Erd.
"Liar...you were getting the...hah...shit kicked out of you, captain..." Erd tried to grin, but a violent bout of coughing put an end to that. His hands clutched feebly around the wound, trying to stem the blood flow. "S-saw it from the t-tent...had to...help..."
"What about your brother? Didn't he need help?"
It was the wrong thing to say entirely. Tears welled up in Erd's eyes again, but this time it was from despair rather than pain.
"Ard...oh Ard...who's going to take care of him?" he wailed weakly. "He...he can barely walk out a-among people on some...days..."
Rial didn't know what to say, kicking himself over and over for mentioning that.
"My brother...I'm so sorry...I'm sorry, I'm..." The words turned into a garbled mess as Erd began to cry. It broke Rial's heart to see it. The boy was dying and all he could care about was the fact that he was leaving his brother behind all alone.
Rial lifted the boy gently again and placed him fully in his lap, embracing the boy carefully. It was almost time now—his breath was starting to become shallow.
"Easy, easy...shhhh..." Rial felt so pathetic at his own words. After a few minutes of quiet weeping, Erd suddenly pulled back and started fiercely into the captain's eyes.
"You will take care of him, won't you?" he asked. Begged. Pleaded. "Please...promise me you'll take care...of him..."
Rial nodded solemnly. "I promise. I will look after him."
Erd's entire body tensed up right then, and Rial knew what was happening. The warlock's body was taking one last, desperate stand against the damage that had been caused to it. It was a losing struggle, and nothing could turn the tide, so Rial only held Erd tighter, whispering words of comfort into his ear as he began to shake, breath coming out in ragged gasps.
It was over in a matter of minutes. When Erd finally stopped shaking and his breathing had ceased, Rial carefully laid him on the ground and closed his eyes. Ignoring the blood around his mouth and the streaks of tears down his cheeks, it almost looked like he was sleeping.
Then it was Rial's turn to weep. He didn't even try to hide it as he lifted the boy's body from the ground and began to stagger in the direction of the camp. People were milling about everywhere, all of them caught up in their own thoughts and ruminations about what had just happened, all swept up in the post-battle mind haze that settled around every soldier after a hard fight.
He was close to passing out, he realised when his legs suddenly stopped obeying his commands and collapsed under his weight. He ended up in a kneeling position, looking pleadingly around for anyone to help him, but everyone was too busy to notice...
...everyone except the red-eyed young man who was suddenly kneeling in front of Rial and liberating the weight of Erd's body from his arms. The scarred Sheikah had nothing but sadness in his eyes as he looked over the dead warlock before meeting Rial's gaze.
"His brother..." Rial choked out. Kafei nodded in understanding and stood up, carrying Erd away before returning to put the captain's arm around his neck, helping him to stand up.
"Where...?"
"Sick tent," Kafei explained. "Bodies are gathered there for identification before burial."
"How long...has the battle been over?"
"An hour or so...lot of men missing, many chasing them through the woods. This battle took a lot out of everyone."
Had it really been that long since it ended? Had he been sitting there for an hour?
"You...saved my life during the battle, didn't you?" Rial looked at the young man's face, wondering what had caused so much scarring to only one side of it.
"That I did," Kafei said, unashamed. "I had a feeling you wouldn't appreciate being turned into a grill spit." They stumbled along in silent for a little while before Kafei spoke again, "Agon killed the boy, didn't he?"
"Yeah..."
"I saw your handiwork with the body...he didn't suffer nearly enough."
"My thoughts exactly."
"May Din find his soul and burn it for all eternity," the Sheikah whispered under his breath.
Rial, who had never been a religious man, finding the notion of divine beings such as gods who, with but a simple thought, could take away all the world's problems and yet never chose to ridiculous, suddenly found himself wishing that this goddess of Kafei's, and her soul-burning ways, was real.
Even hell was too good for that child-murderer.
Rehm had had The Chimera pick up Victor from the Denal estate and bring him back to the capital a week after the meeting with the nobles. The snowfall had been too heavy to take a horse and carriage back, the message had claimed. While Victor was used to having a sizeable escort wherever he went, he realised that the soldiers on the airship weren't guarding him from outsiders. They were guarding outsiders from him. They subtly prevented him from having contact with anyone but people he was sure had connections to Rehm. He wasn't even allowed to speak to the captain of the ship.
Ordering them about didn't help either as they simply returned blank stares. When they finally arrived in Lumina City late at night and docked at the castle, another heavy escort awaited him on the landing pad, and he was wordlessly steered towards the council chambers. Inside, Rehm waited. He was sitting in his usual seat, but all the others were empty. The only light in the room came from the solitary candle on the table in front of the old man.
"Councillor," Victor said curtly, knowing that his planning and organisation had not gone unnoticed after all.
"Your Highness," Rehm replied, nodding for the soldiers to go away. When they were finally alone in the room, a scowl fell over his face. "Been busy, have we?"
"I'd say so, yes," Victor answered. "Soirées are always such a bother, really. So many people to meet and greet, shaking hands and so forth. It takes a lot out of one."
"Hm, indeed," Rehm said, scowl still on his face. "Though from what my little birdies tell me, you have been up to a little bit more than the casual meet and greet, have you not? I realise that raising armies is a troublesome task, and that having so many nobles gathered in one place is the perfect opportunity for it, but surely you know more about subtlety than that?"
So, he knew, then. Shit, Victor thought. He held his ground, however. "Raising armies? My dear councillor, I believe you have been indulging yourself with the royal wine for—"
"Your Highness, you are an exceptionally bad liar," Rehm said, a small smile suddenly appearing on his face. When Victor's face fell, the smile widened. "Thank you for confirming my suspicion."
That honestly shocked the king, and he realised his stupidity. Of course it was all a game to Rehm. That's all everything was.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Victor said, looking away.
"Of course you don't," Rehm said amicably. "However, just to be safe, I will be forced to confine you to your chambers for the time being."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Your Majesty," Rehm said. "It is my duty and privilege as leader of the city council to make this decision in times when I consider the king's mental faculties to be...unstable. Normally, this is something that has to be decided by the council as a whole, but since most, if not all of the other members are still making their way back to the city after the celebration...well, it falls on me."
"You can't do this," Victor protested. "I am the king!"
"And you are going insane, I believe," Rehm said. "Just like your little friend on the airship, seeing conspiracies everywhere. However, you are too valuable to share his fate...for now. Guards!"
There were so many words that he wanted to say, scream at the old man, but his mind couldn't single out which ones were appropriate, and so the king was left gaping like a fish at the councillor as two of the royal guards came in.
"His Majesty is feeling unwell and needs a long period of solitude and privacy to recover," Rehm said with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. "Take him to his chambers and make sure he stays there."
When they made to grab his arms, Victor exploded into action. He pushed past the guards and ran into the hallway, making a beeline for the great hall. Why, he didn't know, but the farther away he got from Rehm, the better.
They were all in on it. Every guard he passed shouted for him to stop and attempted to chase him, but their armour weighed them down and allowed the king to slip by them easily. He jumped down the last few steps of the staircase into the great hall, paused for a few seconds before he made a decision and ran for the castle gate. If he could slip into the city, he'd be safe. There were enough people out there still loyal to him—unlike his own armies—that would shelter him.
It was a good plan, and would probably have worked had not Rehm foreseen it and made sure to triple the amount of guards at the entrance. They waited just outside the doors, forming a human barrier that stood between him and freedom.
"Your Majesty," said a sergeant. "Please, don't do anything stupid."
Despair welling up inside him, Victor could frown. "You all took oaths when you joined the army," he said quietly. "You all took oaths of loyalty to the royal family...and this is how you uphold them? By listening to that madman?" He screamed the last part, surprising a few of the guards, who had only seen the quiet, slightly meek side of the king. "As king and military commander of Lumina, I order you to stand aside!" he bellowed.
It did not have the effect Victor wanted. If anything, it only served to amuse the guards, who began closing in on him.
"The councillor is right, Your Majesty," the sergeant said. "You must be feeling quite unwell. There is no conspiracy here. We simply want to ensure that you get enough rest. Take him to his chambers. Don't hurt him!"
It was undignified and humiliating, being dragged through the halls of his own damn castle, in full view of servants and maids, and tossed into his bedchambers and then hear the door being locked. He hammered on it for a few minutes, screaming obscenities before finally giving up and sinking into the chair in front of the fireplace. At least the room was warm...
So...that's my part played out, is it? he wondered. I can't do anything like this...am I to put all my hope in Rial, Riveth and the others now? Anger festered in his heart. Rehm had fooled him thrice now, and he was getting damn sick of it. No, he thought. I'm not giving up. Never! They will pay for this, all of them!
"His Majesty the king is now under our control again, you will be happy to know," Rehm said as Marlotta stepped into the council chambers. She had never attended the soirée, but she knew plenty who did. And that's how they had come to suspect the king planning something.
"Excellent," she said. "He was rapidly becoming a nuisance. I believe he may have succeeded in raising his army."
"That does not matter," Rehm said. "It is too late for them to do anything now anyway. Besides, as long as we have the airship, we are unbeatable. As soon as Agon is finished mopping up Riveth's men in Freyborough, he can deal with these upstarts. How goes the rebellion in Urne?"
"Same as always," the countess said sourly. "Agon's soldiers are playing their part to the letter. Those mercenaries he hired aren't particularly inactive either. How long are we to keep up this charade?"
"For as long as we need to, when Agon—"
"Agon is an incompetent fool, Rehm," she interrupted him. "Why do you put so much trust in him when he can't even kill a middle-aged woman in a forest? Besides, he might be planning something against us."
"Excuse me?"
"I have a few spies in his camp, and they tell me that the good general is far from doing his utmost in hunting down the rebels. Also, he makes worrying speeches...about you."
"Is that so?" Rehm said, surprised. "That is...surprising. I did not believe Agon had it in him to perform a double crossing like this...so, he is allied with Riveth?"
"No, that rivalry runs too deep to produce any sort of arrangement between them," Marlotta said. "But I think that, as soon as he is done with her, he will do something...rash."
Rehm assumed a thoughtful expression on his face and pursed his lips. "The more loose threads I remove, the more untangled the web becomes," he said quietly. "We are losing control of the situation, and I fear we cannot wait any longer. It's time to start phase three."
Marlotta's eyes widened. "You mean...?"
Rehm nodded. "Yes. We have run out of time and cannot wait for His Majesty to come around to our way of thinking. I want you to take as many men as you need and march on Prison's Peak. You will reopen the mine and start working on the seals."
"What about the Silver Guard?" she asked.
"If they get in your way, remove them from the equation," he answered. "Show no mercy. If you fail me in this, our plans are all forfeit."
Marlotta looked hesitant, but then nodded. "Of course. I won't fail you. I will make preparations immediately."
Rehm grunted. "Good." After the countess had left the room, he leaned back in his chair and stared up into the dark ceiling. Things were starting to spiral far out of control. He didn't like it one bit. "We'll see who laughs last," he muttered.
The glow and joyous atmosphere that fell over the camp after the initial triumph was quickly extinguished when everyone realised how much of a pyrrhic victory it had been. Yes, not a single soldier on Agon's side had survived, but the remaining soldier's on Riveth's side barely numbered a hundred and ten now.
Many friends had been lost. Brothers, sisters... There wasn't enough room for all the dead, so those who had followed Agon were simply tossed into the pit traps, while the others were laid out in front of the sick tent. One by one, they were identified and covered up with their blankets. Everyone knew that there wasn't any time for a proper burial for any of them—for all they knew, the rest of Agon's army might have been on the way there at that very moment.
No one spoke as the survivors milled about, half-heartedly attending to their duties. The officers had withdrawn to the command tent and were discussing what to do next, but none of them seemed to have any good ideas. There was a lot of arguing, judging by the raised voices and angry curses that could be heard from the outside.
Link was sitting by a fire, a pair of wadded-up cotton balls stuck up both his nostrils. His nose had suffered a small fracture according to the surgeon, and the bastard would start bleeding again every single time Link did something to aggravate it. Elenwe was sitting next to him, a hand clutching her left shoulder. At some point during the battle, an enemy soldier armed with a war hammer had swung at her. She'd dodged it, but it had clipped her and dislocated her arm.
None of them spoke. There was no reason to. They had both survived a terrible battle and were just...winding down. They'd seen Kafei walking by, carrying the dead body of Erd. A minute later, Ard's agonised scream that could be heard everywhere when he saw his brother had made their chests tighten with sorrow.
"Poor kid," Elenwe had said simply.
Jeryd was still with Sheik in the tent. A soldier had tried to barge in, but the clerk had swiftly and efficiently dispatched the man by way of a crossbow bolt to the eye, courtesy of Elenwe loaning said crossbow to him. Link had thanked him and asked him to guard his lover for just a little while longer.
He needed some time think things over. The events of the day had dragged his spirits down as it was, he didn't need the crushing disappointment of Sheik not waking up on top of that. He poked mindlessly at the fire with a stick, shivering. Was it just his imagination, or was it getting even colder? It was midday and the sun was shining brightly, but not even that seemed to warm his clothes the slightest.
They barely looked up at Kafei as he came over to join them. He handed them a waterskin, but a cursory sip proved that there was definitely not water in it.
"Warms you up," the Sheikah explained upon seeing Link's grimace.
"Where have you been?" Elenwe asked quietly.
"Looking for the other warlock," he replied. "He disappeared after seeing his brother."
"Did you find him?" Link said.
"No," Kafei shook his head. "And I have a feeling that as long as he doesn't want to be found, no one will. And, frankly, I don't blame him."
"Losing your twin must put things into a strange perspective," Elenwe mused. "Can't imagine what it must be like..."
Just as awful as losing your lover, I imagine, Link thought. I remember how I felt after Sheik died the first time at the Forest Temple... He shook his head. No, Sheik isn't dead, stop thinking about it. He's just sleeping, yeah, just sleeping until someone manages to wake him up!
That hope had been flattened considerably by Erd's death, however. From what he had learned about the twins, Erd was the more technically gifted one while Ard was, to put it in layman's terms, the brute. Ard could probably figure out how to wake Sheik on his own, given time, but without Erd there to keep him focused or calm...
And now he felt guilty for thinking about making Ard do something like that in his time of grief...
"Hey, Hero," Kafei said, grabbing his attention. "Here, eat something." He tossed him a piece of meat that he had cooked on the fire. How long had he been thinking, stuck in his own head? "It'll do you a world of good."
"This isn't rabbit," Elenwe noted as she chewed.
"It's beef. Took it off a dead Agon man," Kafei said. "He wasn't going to need it."
Kafei hadn't been the only one to scavenge supplies from the dead enemies. Many of them had been stripped of their clothing, having worn thick furs and keep out the winter cold. Any and all food had been scrounged up along with usable weapons and armour. It hadn't felt honourable to anyone, but what else were they to do? Freeze and starve to death?
The Sheikah had been right. Eating something that wasn't the same gruel or stringy rabbit meat they'd had for the past few weeks did lift the Hero's spirits a bit. As he chewed, he looked at Kafei. "Where were you during the battle, anyway? I didn't see you anywhere."
"I was there," Kafei said, "but not in the middle of the crowd, as it were."
"Huh?"
"Fighting openly like that isn't Kafei's style," Elenwe explained. "He prefers to lurk on the outskirts of the battle, striking whenever and wherever he sees an opening. Most don't even realise what's happening before they find his blade in their backs."
"Not very honourable," Link muttered.
"I agree, but it has kept me alive for many years, not to mention that I haven't broken my nose a single time," Kafei said, adding the last part for Link's benefit, no doubt. "Something to consider."
"I'll stick to breaking my nose rather than stabbing someone in the back," Link replied sourly. He was fully aware of the fact that Sheik fought that way as well when he had a choice, but it was somehow easier to ignore it...
"Easy, boys," Elenwe said warningly. "We just had one brawl out here, we don't need another."
Neither of them said anything to that, but the conversation ended anyway.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Link excused himself and headed for the twins' tent. Jeryd was sitting by Sheik's side, dagger in hand as if he was still prepared to cut down anyone who threatened the sleeping boy.
"Thanks for watching out for him," Link said as he sat down on the opposite side of his lover. "Kafei's got some real food out there. Why don't you have a break?"
"Thanks, I'll do that," the clerk replied, picking up on the Hero's tone. "Think I'll stay out there for a while, too."
"Thanks."
Three thanks in a row. Even their communication had become lethargic.
He took Sheik's hand and squeezed it gently. "Hey, I'm back," he said quietly. "You won't believe everything that's happened while you've been sleeping, lazy-bones..."
Sheik glared at the wall of black in front of him. That's what was, quite literally. He'd been walking along the sand, thinking, when he had suddenly spotted what he assumed was the border of Speil's imagined beach. It was completely black and stretched off to the sides and upwards as far as he could see through the fog. He'd tried following it in either direction, but there was just more blackness wherever he went.
He retracted his description. It wasn't a wall per se. It was simply...an absence of anything that wasn't emptiness. He'd tried throwing fistful of sands into it. The grains had disappeared without a trace. Fog drifted into it and evaporated.
Is this my way out? he thought. Or is it just a gateway into something even more horrible than this place?
He was glad to be presented with this conundrum. Having his mind occupied with something other than thoughts of Link just being a child mentally, meaning that what they had been doing, at least on Sheik's part, was as wrong as it could possibly be, was draining physically, mentally and emotionally.
He wasn't left alone with this mystery for long, though, and he sighed loudly when he heard footsteps in the sand behind him.
"I see you found the limit," Speil said, coming to stand next to him. Sheik took a step to the side, away from the shadow, just to be safe. "Well done."
"Are you here to bother me some more, or are you going to help?" Sheik asked.
"Neither," Speil said, grinning carelessly. "I'm just here to watch."
"Then shut up while I think."
He found this to be increasingly hard with the shadow's eyes boring into his neck. His skin began to feel tingly when he knew Speil was watching him, and he didn't like that feeling one bit. He tried to ignore it, but the more effort he put into it, the stronger it became. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and glared at him.
"Either help me or piss of," he demanded.
"Oh, so forceful," Speil said, still grinning. "I thought you didn't need help."
"No, I need help, I just don't want it from you."
"That hurts, really."
"Speil..."
"All right, all right, let's bounce some ideas off each other to get the mental faculties rolling, shall we?"
The shadow was taking far too much pleasure in this. Sheik scowled, but nodded. "Very well. Everything that passes through this...wall here disappears. Is it a reasonable assumption that this could be a way out of the prison?"
Speil shrugged. "Wouldn't be able to say. As far as I know, this...darkness is just the way the prison would appear to be had I not imagined this place. They say the mind is infinite, so perhaps this is just an extension of yours..."
"So...technically, we could walk for hours, days, years, and never reach the edges of the seal?" Sheik asked, afraid of the answer.
"In theory, yes," Speil agreed. "But then again, this could be some sort of barrier that is the only way out. Me, I can't pass through, look." He put his hand against the blackness. It was like he was touching a real wall, whereas Sheik could stick his entire arm into the space without any problem whatsoever. "So, whatever this is for you," Speil continued, "it won't let me come along."
"That seems to suggest that this is indeed some sort of gateway," Sheik mused.
"Or a passage into the great nothing that could easily annihilate your mind," Speil replied.
One second he wanted nothing more than to jump through, hoping to emerge back in the real world, but in the other he suddenly feared it more than anything else. If he jumped, and his mind was destroyed, what would happen to his body? Would it die? Or would it live on in a cruel effort to continue existing?
"Listen," Speil suddenly said. "Can you hear that?"
Sheik listened carefully. There was something there. "A voice?" he asked.
"Sounds like it, but really muffled," the shadow said. "Can't make out what it's saying..."
...ey...ack...y...beli...-eeping...
There was something familiar about the voice...
Lazy-bones...
"Hm," Sheik hummed, staring thoughtfully at the darkness.
Link was sitting among the trees just outside the camp, suddenly feeling a desire to be alone. He had sat by Sheik for a few hours before aimlessly wandering about camp. When the sun had set and darkness began to fall, he had retreated even farther and finally settled on the rock he was currently sitting on.
The momentary joy he had felt at having real food again had soon evaporated, and he was left feeling cold and miserable again. It was biting cold, but he made no attempt to build a fire. He was probably going to head back soon anyway. The stars above cast a pale light on the woods of Freyborough, quite a bit of it making it through the thick canopy of the trees.
Link felt so alone. He didn't know Kafei and Elenwe well enough to consider them friends, and Jeryd he didn't know at all. He just wanted Sheik to wake up...he just wanted to talk to him and receive an answer.
Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets, trying to warm them, but was surprised when his right hand came into contact with something hard and smooth. He fished out his ocarina and inspected it. Not a single scratch or sign of damage marred its texture. Then the idea struck him, and he knocked the mouthpiece painfully into his teeth in his excitement to play.
The familiar notes filled him with homesickness, but they cheered him up all the same, and knowing what would happen after finishing playing...
He waited for Saria's voice to fill his head, looking forward to conversing with his oldest friend...and was disappointed when it didn't come. He played the song again, frustration gnawing at him when it didn't work. Why wasn't she answering? Why? Again and again he played, anger growing within him until he let out an angry bellow and hurled the instrument away. He watched it bounce along the snow before coming to a rest at...a pair of feet?
"Who's there?" Link demanded, drawing his sword, narrowing his eyes at the shape in the shadows. "Come out!"
A pair of trembling hands gently picked up the ocarina as the owner came into light. Ard stared blankly at him as he came forward, holding out the instrument.
"Play more...please..." the boy said, his voice hoarse.
Link, surprised by the warlock's sudden appearance, nodded dumbly and sheathed his sword before taking the delicate instrument from the boy's hands. He didn't even say anything, only put the now freezing mouthpiece against his lips and played again, though he avoided Saria's Song this time.
Instead, he played his way through the entire repertoire he had built up on his journey in Hyrule, from the very first song he had learned—Zelda's Lullaby, which was actually the royal melody—to the very last—the Requiem of Spirit. The music brought back memories of his quest, both good and bad. He remembered giggling as a child when he angered the owner of the mill in Kakariko after playing the Song of Storms and making it go too fast. He remembered being nearly knocked down by a very young and eager Epona after being taught her song by Malon. When he got to the temple songs, every memory that flashed before his mind's eye involved Sheik, usually holding his lyre. Link couldn't remember ever being more at ease during his quest than the times when he was being taught those melodies by the Sheikah. The memories filled him with warmth, and a small smile suddenly found its way to his lips.
Ard remained quiet while Link played, listening with rapt attention. His eyes were shiny with unshed tears, but he made no attempt to wipe them away. When Link finished the Requiem of Spirit, he smiled a little and nodded to Link. "Thank you," he said quietly.
"Don't thank me," Link said, nodding back. "It's just music."
"Beautiful music," the boy corrected. Ard hesitated, but then asked, "Will you...come with me?"
"Where?" Link asked.
"Just...come." With that, Ard disappeared among the trees, leaving Link to stare foolishly at him before kicking into gear and following.
They didn't go far, just a few hundred metres past the tree line. Among a sheltered group of large stones, they stopped. Here, Ard had gathered sticks and logs and shaped them into a crude pyre. Erd's body lay upon it. Link didn't question when or how Ard had done this, but simply watched as the boy made some final preparations.
"He would have wanted this," the warlock explained, voice breaking ever so slightly. "Wouldn't want to rot in the ground..."
Link nodded silently. The boy was exhausted and clearly close to collapse, but the Hero knew that to interrupt him now would be...unwise.
"Erd," Ard whispered, leaning down to caress his brother's cheek with the back of his hand. "I...I know you're l-lonely, but don't w-worry...I'll join you soon enough..."
No child should be forced to say something like that, Link thought.
"We're...both alone now," Ard continued. "But as long as I remember you...you won't disappear...right?" He let the tears flow freely now, not bothered by Link's presence in the slightest. "G-goodbye...I love you..." He stood up and took several steps back, pushing Link backwards as well. Without a second's hesitation, he grunted as a fireball appeared in his hand and hurled it into the pyre, which erupted into flames within seconds.
Link was ready to catch him before Ard toppled over and steadied him against his side. The young warlock began sobbing loudly, and Link held him tightly as they watched the fire consume Erd's earthly remains.
Link dropped Ard off at Riveth's tent after they returned to the camp. The ex-general said nothing, but gave the Hero a silent nod of appreciation before leading the boy inside. After that, Link went back to their own. Elenwe, Kafei and Jeryd had all fallen asleep in various places on the floor, the heaters burning brightly to combat the cold seeping in from the outside. Shedding his tunic, Link crawled up next to Sheik and wrapped himself around the sleeping boy, forming a cocoon around him.
"Sheik," Link whispered into his ear. "I know you can hear me in there...you have to come back. Please...I can't do this without you...I can't do anything without you...please come back to me, please...wake up..."
Sheik opened his eyes. It wasn't his imagination. It was Link's voice! He could hear it almost clearly now. The longing, pleading in his words made his heart ache.
Please come back to me...please wake up...
"Sounds like My Light, all right," Speil said, looking at him. "What are you going to do?"
Was that...a hopeful look on the shadow's face? Sheik dismissed the notion. Of course it wasn't. The shadow despised him these days.
"Those who dare win, right?" Sheik asked, looking at the blackness. "I have to try."
"I know," Speil said, nodding. "Just...don't forget about me, yeah?"
Sheik paused and turned to look at the shadow in confusion, but he was gone. It was like he had simply sunk into the sand and disappeared. Wondering what he'd done wrong this time, Sheik turned his attention back to the border. This was it. It had to be the way out. It had to!
...wake up...
Sheik took a few steps back, hesitated, and then hurled himself through the darkness and into the void...
To be continued...
You people and your pleading, heh. Turns out I had a bit of free time today to write this and decided to do so. This is the last one until the 13th of December, though, so ration it carefully ;) Thanks for the revs, you guys!
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