Chapter 22: Awaken to the Nightmare; A Land Conquered in Darkness
Realisation of the Prophecy Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "File Select" - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Chamber of Sages" - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
–
Having finally located the Zoran people's princess, Link undergoes an ill-fated quest to search for and locate Ruto's Spiritual Stone – the Zora's Sapphire. In finding this however they also come face-to-face with an intruder; a mysterious and cloaked schemer of the darkness, his powerful man with an unnatural kind of Aegir. When located, he summons a corpse itself to do battle with the young Kokiri; though Link manages to fight bravely he barely scratches the surface of the supernatural entity and is forced once again to rely on Kage Narumono's incredibly demonic powers.
Separated from the group, the Zoran warrior Alwyn and guardian fairy Navi continue their search for the missing Zoran princess and their Kokiri companion; in doing so they manage to locate and rectify all the irregularities Lord Jabu Jabu had suffered at the hands of the disingenuous Ganondorf. Following this, the pair of heroes eventually catch up to the blazing trail of Link, Ruto and Kage Narumono; in doing so however they soon find themselves in hard confrontation with the second demonic side of Link, the manifestation of the chaotic side of the Holy Triforce's Aegir.
Though Kage easily exorcises the summoned corpse he struggles to deal with the highly skilled former soldier that is Alwyn of the Zoran people. With a special kind of training, having fought through the great Hyrulean civil war, Alwyn manages to beat back the crazed and infernal Kage with sheer skill and martial arts. However, though he succeeds, he stays his hand in 'eliminating the threat', much to the watching Malon, Ruto and Navi's relief for fear of their companion's life.
Pressing on, Link manages to make peace and even form a mutual respect with the former Zoran soldier Alwyn; promising one another to remain friends even after all the horrors they witness. Tendering her own thanks to the young blonde boy, princess Ruto of the Zoras allows him to have at her Zora's Sapphire but only as agreement of a pledge for engagement. Though he feels somewhat guilty as, being a Kokiri in never-aging, he agrees regardless in an effort to end his quest.
Pressing forward, Link meets with and re-enacts the horrible re-occurring nightmare he suffered for years; in doing so however he meets very briefly with Zelda, receives her treasured tool and is wounded by the object of their antagonism, the lord king Ganondorf. Having displayed his control of his monstrous Aegir over his own, Link is easily outmatched by the older man; with the treasured Ocarina of Time however the young Kokiri gains an edge.
An edge not so comfortably won.
In learning the sacred 'Song of Time', Link puts everything in the rest of his weakened state to returning his country's three Spiritual Stones to the church-like Temple of Time. Though Navi warns him against it, having great anxiety and unease at their situation, Link presses on regardless; in doing so, the pair of heroes manage to discover an incredible sight indeed.
The Master Sword.
Unable to believe it, Link makes the worried Navi promise to leave should he fail in drawing the blade from the Pedestal of Time; he pulls the divine weapon from its resting place and, like magic, is frozen in time.
Just like the mountains in winter...
–
Scene 1
Glup... gloop... splash...
"Link..."
A familiar voice in the great white abyss echoed on out into the air, reverberating hauntingly across the invisible walls of the dimension they resided in. Deep and bass-like in its tone, the blonde boy managed to make it out clearly very easily and yet still he could not place the owner.
I know who that is, he thought.
But... who...?
"Awaken... Hero of Time... Fourth aberration..."
Gradually and soon as well the whiteness of his vision stabilised into a sea of blue; gasping lightly as he scanned his similarly oceanic eyes across his new surroundings, he couldn't help but feel disorientated. Around him appeared to be multi-coloured islands divided by a bright-blue watery surface; he briefly caught the sight of a purple island before double-taking on the one dead centre ahead of him.
A short robed man appeared to be standing directly in the heart of the sun-shaded podium; a similarly-attired man, seemingly of the cloth. The hot crimson of the front of his robes went very well with the calming apricot of the rest. Though he was a stocky man and not anyone Link should have recognised, the long and bushy grey handlebar moustache he wore told a different story.
There was something off about it; something recognisable.
But that's impossible, he thought.
I've never met this man.
"Calm yourself...," the mysterious man cryptically stated, his low voice knocking soothingly across the deep-blue ocean of the surface below them. "I... am Rauru," he finally introduced himself with, a hardened frown to his surprisingly firm features. "Ancient Sage of Light."
"W-Wha-" Link managed out, his eyes widened but not at the old man's words; realising how much deeper his voice sounded to his Kokiri ears he gasped.
What in the name of the Great Deku Tree is going on?
"Link... do not be frightened," Rauru spoke over softly, furrowing his brow at the youth. "Use your eyes... look at yourself!"
Narrowing his eyes with a half-suspicious frown on his face, Link did just that; he reached his head forward and used the water's reflection below to gaze at himself.
He held back from gasping a second time when he did.
A stranger stared back at him.
"L-Link! You've grown up!"
Navi's voice.
Realising she was behind him, he swerved his head 'round with his wide-eyed stare to register her with his shock. Unable to find the words with which to respond, he merely stared back and shook his head.
That's impossible, he thought.
I can't have grown up.
And yet there it was in the very reflection he had stared at; the taller body, the longer legs, brawnier arms and broader torso.
He looked every bit the human adult males he had seen nonchalantly in Kakariko Village or Hyrule Castletown.
"What's...?" Link began a second time, re-turning his blonde head to frown forward in his bewildered state. Becoming uncomfortably reminded of the newly unfamiliar baritone of his new voice he winced, longing for his old high-pitched and familiar tenor. "What's happened to me...? Why am I like this?"
"I realise you must have a thousand questions about all of this... but I can only tell you so much," Rauru spoke in an apologetic crease of his wizened features. "Seven years have passed."
Link's aquatic eyes widened in a mixture of horror and puzzlement.
"For you I imagine it will have passed... within the blink of an eye," the self-proclaimed Sage of Light remarked; in doing so he raised up his left sleeved arm to click his fingers mid-sentence as if to emphasise his words. "Think hard... what was the last thing that you remember?"
Blinking curiously back at the frowning Sage, Link found himself furrowing his brow once more in thought.
"I...," he began, creasing his own features in a scrunch, shaking his straw-haired head in some attempt to access his memories. "Y-Yeah...," he nodded, turning his eyes down in thought. "I... think I remember... pulling the-"
Nodding, Rauru opted to interrupt the green-garbed youth. "The Master Sword."
Turning his head back up in surprise, Link re-set his frown to a curious one and strained his ears to listen.
"In very ancient times... times of the holy goddess Hylia..."
Rauru's words, referring to a name Link recognised, made him raise his eyebrows in recognition.
"We Sages built this Temple of Time that housed the divine relic you possess now in an effort to protect the entrance to the Sacred Realm," the robed Sage explained briefly. "This, my boy...," he began once more, narrowing his dull-cobalt eyes forward. "This... is the Sacred Realm."
Realising this was the very dimension he was hoping to have protected, Link's eyebrows shot up both in recognition and wonder. Perhaps reading his mind however, the hard-frowning Rauru continued.
"Or... what remains of it...," he managed out, a lower tone of voice as his eyes very briefly wandered down to his lower left as if in saddening somehow. Link furrowed his brow once more as he listened dutifully and unusually patiently. "As you are probably no doubt aware... Ganondorf used you in a bid to access this forbidden plane and the ultimate power that lies within." The robed man disclosed in a similarly sincere frown.
"B-But I..." Link stammered back in response, an aching fold and wrinkle to the saddened expression of his own; he reached ahead with his long left arm, as if to outstretch the volume of his words. Sensing his intentions once again however, Rauru spoke for the newly awakened hero.
"I know...," he allayed in a displaying nod. "Your intentions were pure, if, very naïve... just like the princess..."
Link's eyes widened for the umpteenth time and, once more, in recognition.
"Zelda?!" The older Kokiri shot out with, his voice similarly anxious in tone. "Seven years... is she okay?!"
"I... cannot say," Rauru shook his head apologetically. "It is not my place."
Though the youth was disappointed in his answer, he merely lowered his twitching frown to match the turn his eyes took.
"Just as she told you... the Master Sword that you pulled from the Pedestal of Time was the final key to opening the doorway to the Sacred Realm," the religiously dressed old man continued on. "It is a sacred blade that those steeped in corruption may never touch," he claimed, nodding his head forward; tracing his stare, Link found himself absent-mindedly reaching for the sky-blue hilt of the long broadsword resting across his back, eyes narrowing. "Only one worthy of the title 'Hero of Time' may draw it from its divine resting place."
There were those words again, Link thought, his oceanic eyes narrowing.
'Hero of Time'.
What does it even mean?
"You were... much too young... to be the Hero of Time," he further explained, hesitatingly only briefly; as the listening Kokiri recognised his words, he listened dutifully and interested in the turn the conversation was going. "And so your very Aegir and soul was sealed here for seven long years."
Link's frown twitched in disappointment but barely noticeably as he listened; he had hoped for more information on why he had grown up past the age of eleven.
But no luck.
"Now...," Rauru began again, a light smile upon on his old lips. "It is time!" He called out, his once reassuring voice now passionately bouncing off the walls of the waterfalls in the dream-like dimension they stood in. "You now awaken in response to the calamity that is Ganondorf and his takeover of our grand country!"
Link's eyebrows rose up in surprise as he listened.
Ganondorf had taken over Hyrule?
It's been seven years, he reminded silently to himself, lowering his eyes.
A lot has probably happened on the outside.
Realising that however he couldn't help but hold back another shocked gasp.
The Kokiri Forest, he thought.
Saria!
"Steel thy nerves my son... for I am about to impart to you the origin of your true destiny."
Pulling his blonde head back up from his inward thoughts, Link furrowed his brow forward.
"You... are an anomaly; the fourth anomaly." Rauru finished, deep-blue eyes narrowing.
"An-A what...?" Link managed out, blinking unsurely.
"An anomaly; an oddity, a small part of a much larger sum of people that occupy our ages."
Link's blank stare was all Rauru needed.
Lowering his bald-headed front in a well-meaning chuckle he shook it once before re-opening his mouth to continue. "Of all the people in all the world... why do you think the Master Sword chose you?"
Taken aback by the man's question, Link found himself blinking once before briefly flitting his eyes over to the sky-blue hilt hanging on his back.
Rauru's smile slowly returned to his face. "Then I shall speak plain...," he began with a brief shut of his eyes before soon re-opening them and speaking. "You are the Goddess Sword's second... and the fourth of your line of heroes."
"W-What do you mean? My family-"
"Not your direct family... no," Rauru countered with a soft shake of his head; Link gasped in exclamation as he listened dutifully. "I call you an anomaly because... well...," he began, lowering his head with a light chuckle, as if finding his notions amusing. "You are one my son," the Sage of Light grinned. "You are the fourth anomaly."
"You mean... incarnations, don't you."
Navi's sudden interruption made the listening pair snap their eyes over to the hovering little ball of light. Sure enough, Rauru at last nodded along with the guardian fairy's sentiments.
Exhaling his next exclamation of revelation, Link turned his azure eyes up to frown back at the old man's voice above him.
"There will be plenty of time for you to see your friends; I promise you that they are safe," he smiled; Link couldn't help but smile slowly and softly back, his worries being allayed. "But remember...," Rauru reminded, his hardened frown returning to his expression. "In this kingdom, Ganondorf's rule is law," he clarified with an emphatic narrow of his eyes; Link let out a tortured angry groan as he listened. "You must be careful in moving throughout the country."
Link raised a curious eyebrow as he listened.
Was Rauru expecting him to just jump at this?
He can't seriously be expecting-
"My power now... only has little influence... even in this Sacred Realm," he informed, cutting the young man off mid-thought. "But there is still hope...," he called out, narrowing his sea-blue eyes at the older Kokiri before him, lowering his head ever so slightly. "When the power of all the Sages awaken... the Sages' Seals will contain all the evil power in the void of the Sacred Realm..."
In his explanation, Rauru's smile slowly returned to his expression and Link at last recognised his voice to his face.
This was Kaepora Gaebora.
Perhaps acknowledging the boy's discerning, Rauru's smile only widened as he re-opened his mouth to continue. "I, Rauru, am one of these ancient Sages...," he began before nodding forward at the blonde youth. "Your power to fight together with the Sages makes you the Hero of Time!"
Link's oceanic eyes narrowed in response; he found himself glaring back at the elderly man as a result of listening to that term once more.
It was beginning to grate on him.
"Keep my spirit with you, my son...," he started once more, regaining his hardened frown as he nodded again. "Locate the strength of the other Sages... and add their might to your own!"
With that, the robed Sage of Light turned his two long-sleeved arms skyward to join his frowning head.
FLASH
To match the bright-white beam of light that hit his eyes, the sound of a shimmering orb began to plummet down from the sky; Link winced as he raised up his arms to reach out for the falling sphere of glare. Sure enough, as it finally came within view, he found himself staring back at coin-shaped medallion. Rotating in the air of which he held it in, Link caught the symbol of the Holy Triforce on its back and the symbol of the island in which Rauru himself stood on.
FLASH
With that lasting burst of light, Link found himself shutting his eyes to break out the glare as a single voice reverberated across his ears.
"Find the other Sages and save Hyrule!"
SHIIING...
As the high-pitched whine that appeared to be Aegir carrying him along echoed out into the air, Link re-opened his cobalt eyes, frowning forward.
Darkness.
A single light from the window high above him was the only succour from whatever blackness lay amidst the Temple of Time's dark abyss.
I remember here, Link thought; his eyes drawn down to the Pedestal of Time laying below him.
Now that he was taller, it felt odder to stand so high above it.
"Why...?" He murmured out raising his left open palm to gaze down at it longingly. "I... I don't understand..." The youth whispered, closing his fingers into a clenching fist as he shut his eyes as if to emphasise his passion at the question with which he asked.
"Have seven years really passed...?"
He re-opened his cerulean eyes and raised his blonde head to catch the similarly sky-blue shade of his guardian fairy, hovering nearby the bright light that shone in from the window high above. Link lowered his head once more and shook it, unsure.
"I... I don't know Navi," he answered, furrowing his brow in a defeated frown. "There's so much I just-" the young and curious Kokiri began out with a gasping finish, shaking his head a second time before finally sighing. "Don't know..." He ended, leaning himself to the side as he turned his straw-haired head to his right.
"Come on...," she called for him over her shoulder, very slowly drifting toward the exit of the Master Sword's chamber. "We should get going."
And do what exactly, Link found himself thinking back in response.
Choosing not to voice his silent concerns however, the youth merely sighed softly through his nose and marched on after her. It was only after descending down the first set of marble-stone steps however that Link's senses shot the hairs on the back of his neck up.
What is that, he thought.
A presence; something that was definitely strong, he could feel it in his Aegir, in his bones.
WHIZZ...
SCWING-CLANG
His eyes narrowed, Link immediately spun in place to clash his new double-edged sword with his enemy's blade, seemingly attached to their arm. Though he was leant to the side in his clash with the youth before him he managed to identify quite a lot from first glance.
The youth before him appeared to be a male in build, similar to his own; surprisingly, blonde shaggy hair similarly clung to his head, coming down over his now hidden left eye. His remaining right glared back into Link's sea-coloured gaze with a fiery crimson that seemed to remind the watching Kokiri of Impa somehow.
A Sheikah?
As if to confirm his very inward suspicions, further examination provided Link with a symbol upon the white front his opponent wore; one that he recognised with an odd little change. A single eye depicted in bright-red blood seemed to be crying a single drop.
I've seen that symbol on Gossip Stones, he thought.
Whoever this is, they're a Sheikah.
"I've been waiting for you...," the young man began lowly, his voice oddly soft and feminine in nature. His eye narrowed as he spoke his next sentence. "Hero of Time."
SKRR-SWISH
Pushing off of the divine Master Sword, the nameless Sheikah back-dashed to presumable safety and back up the last section of stone steps. Link narrowed his eyes at the youth suspiciously, leaning his body to his side carefully, expecting his new opponent to make another lunge at him.
"At long last you've appeared...," he began lowly, recovering from his skidding earlier to stand back up. "I was beginning to lose hope."
"Who in hell are you?" Link demanded crossly and rudely, glaring back at the shaggy-haired blonde before him. At first the nameless Sheikah appeared to blink his one visible fiery eye back at him before soon shifting to shut it, as if smiling somehow behind the pale turban and scarf he wore.
"Ah... I apologise," he began before re-opening his eye and bowing forward in respect; furrowing his brow as he listened and watched, Link slowly calmed his nerves. "I... am Sheik," he ultimately gave claim to. "Last surviving of the Sheikah."
"Sheikah...," Link repeated, watching the blonde with some form of suspicion. "Do you happen to know-?"
"Impa?"
Surprised, Link widened his bright-blue eyes in response, opting to close his mouth to allow the Sheikah to elaborate.
Sheik nodded briefly. "Yes," he started. "My aunt... my only family."
Link's eyes narrowed as he listened, unable to believe it.
Impa had family?
Wasn't she the last of her people?
And even if not then where was Zelda?
What is going on?!
"I can see you have many questions...," Sheik spoke for him, his voice echoing softly against the walls of the Pedestal of Time's chamber. He shook his shaggy-haired head however in a seeming low grin as he watched the youth before him, his weapon and Hylian Shield drawn together. "Even I thought the Master Sword was just myth... but here you are. The Hero of Time really does exist."
Link found his frown scrunching up to a short scowl as he listened intently.
I'm getting sick of that phrase, he thought.
"It's been hell out there...," Sheik continued, narrowing his one visible red eye forward. "I imagine Rauru's already told you..."
"Yeah...," Link at last gained the time to respond, turning his head very lightly to his side as he narrowed his eyes at the Sheikah before him. "Seven years... huh...?"
Sheik nodded, a grave look in his eye. "Indeed...," he answered. "After you opened the Door of Time, it gave Ganondorf the leverage he needed to access the Sacred Realm... and the Holy Triforce."
"You make it sound like my fault."
Silence.
The pair glared at one another, almost as if enemies once more in that short span of time. Link waited for a fight to break out at any moment, his nerves tensed up.
"I suppose it was in a sense...," Sheik at least spoke, glaring down at the green-garbed youth. "Whoever it was that encouraged you to do it... I would place the blame squarely at their feet."
"Hmph...," Link shot back, scrunching his face back up as he twitched his glower once in reply. "Zelda..."
"She is still alive..."
That surprised him.
Link found his straw-haired eyebrows shooting up in alarm as he listened intently, urging the Sheikah to go on.
"She leads the resistance movement against the Dreadlord Dragmire and all that he stands for," Sheik explained briefly, folding his bandaged arms as he did so. "All we've really been able to do is lead his forces away from neighbouring towns, interrupt his supply runs; things like that."
The listening young man huffed back at the Sheikah. "Sounds like a bad job to me."
Ignoring his sarcasm, Sheik continued by pressing forward a few steps in a slow march. "But now...," he began, eye narrowing at the blonde youth. "Now you have awoken!" He exclaimed in a light gasp, reaching forward with his right outstretched hand as if to be taken. "At last this country has a chance!"
Opting merely to stare back reservedly at the Sheikah standing before him, Link allowed his tense muscles to finally relax. With an echoing click he rose the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield to rest on his back.
"You are... hesitant...?" Sheik poked, his voice soft and doubtful.
"Put yourself in my boots...," Link shot back, narrowing his sky-blue eyes back at the Sheikah youth. "Not once... not even twice but three times I've been denied being able to go back home for this 'quest' of Zelda's," he explained very briefly, watching the young man carefully; sure enough, almost as if he were talking directly to him Sheik avoided his eyesight. "I don't suppose goin' back to the Kokiri Forest and hangin' the Master Sword up is an option, huh," he postulated half-sarcastically, raising a curious blonde eyebrow up as he did. Receiving merely stony silence from the Sheikah, he huffed in a derisive tut. "That's what I thought..."
"Whether you want it or not Link, you are the Hero of Time," the fiery-eyed blonde shot back, his tone shifting to one of bold confrontation. Link's scowl returned to him as he listened. "Without you... we don't have the means to even consider opposing Ganondorf's regime."
"There that is again..."
"There what is?"
Link's eyes narrowed angrily. "'Hero' of Time," he clarified. "What does it even mean?"
"Well it means that you're the-"
"I know what you and Rauru think it means," Link coldly interrupted, deep-azure eyes glaring. "But it sounds to me like you both need a pawn to help clean up your mistakes." He finished in a narrow-eyed hiss.
"She's using you."
The words of Kage Narumono, spoken to him those seven years previous, now at last had their weight in gold within him. Though he would have felt sheerly insane for even considering the words of his demonic second side, the entity that thrived on conflict, he finally found meaning and sense in him.
Although he was hateful he never lied; not once.
Not like Zelda or Kaepora, or any one of these people Link had known.
"We don't want to use you Link," Sheik attempted to reason, stepping forward from the pedestal's position. "Think of it this way...," he started, narrowing his one visible eye as he stopped just short of the first incline of steps. "Say we take back the Master Sword from you... we send you back home to the Kokiri Forest..."
Link's eyes narrowed in silent suspicion as he listened.
"What will you do there?" Sheik pressed, tilting his blonde head to the side as he watched the youth intently. "You think it's just been undisturbed all these years you've been sealed away...? Hm...?"
Clicking his tongue in disappointment as revelation set in, Link lowered his eyes in his scowl, realising that his home was probably a war-zone by this point.
Sheik was right and he knew it.
"I understand Link... I get it..."
His attention and curiosity piqued, Link re-rose his newly hardened frown to face the Sheikah stepping forth a few more paces.
"But this country is no longer a land of peace...," the young man explained with an emphatic shake of his head. "Right now Hyrule is very weak, especially to outside interference."
He means other countries, Link thought to himself in his studious frown. Catching his words however, the young man's eyes narrowed and he replied.
"Ganondorf's ruled for a full seven years and no other country's attacked...?"
"With an iron fist," Sheik reinforced with a hardened glare of his burning eye. "It's possibly the only thing good about his kingship...," the Sheikah youth muttered out, folding his arms. "So... what do you say Link? Will you help Zelda and I reclaim Hyrule's innocence?"
Turning his own blue-eyed frown away from his new companion's Link sighed through his nose as he shut his eyes in defeat.
–
2
"Thank you my good king!"
Bowing yet again, the brown-haired and fashionably dressed Ingo smiled so deeply it nearly tore his facial structure apart. Lowering his body so fiercely he appeared almost as if to be begging the intimidating persona before him.
Sitting atop a blackened, almost burned-like throne rested the hard-scowling Ganondorf. Footed in the back-centre of the huge lavish summit-room, the area was even filled with a glorious orange-y tint that made castle look like a beautiful sunset. Placed directly below the chair and all that resided in the throne room was the kind of velvet red carpet that only royalty would find. Standing next to the sat Ganondorf was a similarly-faced cloaked figure, seemingly his advisory. The watching king of Hyrule scrunched his face up with a light scowl as he bid the bowing Ingo away.
"Begone..." He intoned out; as if called forward by their master, growling pig-like monstrosities shambled forward.
Dressed in basic iron gear and both carrying steel lances they used their remaining free arms to grip at the gasping Ingo's own arm. Pulling the surprised Hylian up by his shoulders the two Moblins growled a second time to match the ranch-hand's horrified gasps. Disappearing into the bright sunset of the front of the summit, Ganondorf stared after them as he placed his right arm's elbow down on the throne's arm-rest. Cupping his hardened right cheek to his leaning fist he glared forward.
"Are you certain we can trust him my lord?" The cloaked man spoke softly in a narrow-eyed hiss. "The man looks like a snake..."
"He will be easily controlled...," Ganondorf shot back as he creased the frown he carried ever so slightly as if in thought. "And with a pawn holding fast that ranch of his I have one more source of income for this country."
Nodding along in agreement and understanding, Scaverin turn his frown forward.
"Seven years, Scaverin...," he began once more, his amber eyes glowering ahead. "Seven long years..."
"A bountiful rule, your majesty," the cloaked figure grinned at the fiery-haired warrior-king. "Just as you once said it would be."
"And yet..."
SLAM
The listening Scaverin flinched but only through his facial expression; he narrowed his eyes in the commanding direction of the small chasm the king created in his throne's arm-rest. Ganondorf's hateful grimace carried far as he stared directly ahead of him, seemingly at something in his thoughts.
"And yet still that wench eludes me...," the Gerudian king snarled, scrunching his face up as he spoke. "I should have killed her when she was still a brat..."
"Perhaps it won't matter... my lord," Scaverin at last spoke into the conversation as he leant his head a little closer. "Even in all this time the resistance's pockets of forces could never hope to-"
"Even so..." Ganondorf interrupted once more, pulling his arm from his chair and standing directly up from it to pace very slowly forward. The blood-red cape he wore so well hung upon his broad-shouldered back as he marched gradually toward the precipice of the small staircase leading to his throne. Stopping just short of it he glared forward as he rose up his superior right fisted palm, amber eyes narrowing.
SHIIING...
The high-pitched whine of divine Aegir bounced off the walls of the otherwise empty throne room of Ganon's Castle; proof of the godlike triangle that formed atop the back of his clenched fist shone brightly to join the already powerful light of the summit.
"To have lost the last two remaining pieces...," he referred to the sacred golden triangle within his hand. "Somehow... I know that she is behind it..."
Though he was unwilling to respond for fear of his leader himself, the listening Scaverin merely watched with a thoughtful frown upon his lips.
"Perhaps you are correct Scaverin... as you have been these past few years...," Ganondorf began once more, lowering his arm as he glared forward; the golden yellow of the Holy Triforce he wielded began to dim out as he did. "What would you say is the best course of action?" He asked this time, 'rounding his long-haired head to face his advisory behind him.
"Inaction, my lord."
Narrowing his eyes to match the half-curiousness of his scowl, Ganondorf studied the summoner's calm and cool expression for some form of meaning. Unable to find it he rose a flaming eyebrow upward.
"The rumours say that Daphnes' daughter leads the rebellion... yes?" Scaverin began, a low smile on his older face as he started to march forward to join his king. Ganondorf glared back but nodded regardless. "From what my intel has gathered... the resistance take faith in an old legend..."
"Hmph... I know the one..."
"Yes...," the smirking Scaverin nodded in acknowledgement. "Although she may have proven to be a shrewd politician indeed she cannot remain hidden forever..."
Ganondorf narrowed a single eye, part of his scowl upturning into a similar-faced smirk.
"For when she finds her hero fighting for her...," the cloaked schemer chuckled lowly, a toothy grin to his expression. "She will have no choice but to help him..."
With an identical chortle, Ganondorf shook his head at first as he briefly turned to face the front once more, erupting eventually into full-blown laughter.
"You really have thought of everything haven't you...?" The Gerudian king laughed in his direction. The listening necromancer merely smiled as he bowed in a sign of respect. "Well... I suppose it is why I pay you...," Hyrule's feared monarch grinned before turning once more to re-face the front. "Just as when we tore this land from its unworthy hands... so too will the remaining pieces of the Ultimate Power become mine," Ganondorf growled, his hard smirk soon morphing into a firm scowl. "Soon... this world... is mine."