Chapter 16

She appeared with the flash of green light which marked Farore's Wind in front of the doors of Castleton's main hospital. The mature but graceful woman began walking forward slowly, but with purpose not stopping for the simple glass doors of the hospital opened, which opened for her of their own accord. Her pale bare feet made no sound as they padded the tiled floor past patients and healers alike, taking virtually no notice of them. Her purple cloak and cowl hid her middle-aged but supple, pale Hylian features well. Those features held neither smile nor scowl, but were occupied with reaching her destination. The long white and silver braid of her hair were concealed beneath the cowl.

Those who saw her, healers, nurses, and patients alike quickly moved out of her way, eying the unblinking red eye emblazoned across her purple robes tensely and with fear as she moved as silent as the grave among them. Some made signs of faith to ward of the presence of evil, though none dared disrespect her. The guardsmen who were patrolling the hospital on the king's orders found themselves shrinking back and unable to voice a challenge as she glided by. No sane mortal dared to stand in the way of the Sage of Shadow.

The Sage of Shadow was known only by the vague paintings and depictions in sacred artwork. No living citizen of Hyrule outside the other Sages had seen her for as long as anyone could remember. But the eye of the Sheikah which stared from all directions of her robes was unmistakable. It was a symbol associated with a past so dark that few would display it openly. Even the location of the temple which was the service and residence of the Sage was shrouded in more mystery and dark tales than any other. Not even the highest levels of the R.H.M.G. knew where it was, but only the king himself and, supposedly, the lady who was dying in the king's personal suite. Only rumors and ancient myth served as a guide for the unwitting adventurer.

She could hear the quiet weeping as she passed by patients and visitors. It didn't please her. She had no interest whatever in harming them or their loved ones, but centuries of rumor and bedtime stories about her and her predecessors couldn't be undone even if she did have the time or inclination to stop and explain that she was not the harbinger of the shadow of death, just its guardian and servant.

The aura she projected was such that when she passed by, it felt as if the Shadow itself was coming to take you, and more than one new mother in the hospital clutched her child tight as she saw the pale woman in the purple cloak pass. The slight rush of wind created by the passing of her cloak felt cold, as if death stalked the corridors.

Shakanah didn't need anyone to tell her where the fallen goddess' suite was as she took the elevator to the highest floor. As she entered the small boxlike room she studied the modern, computerized controls. It had been some time since she had dealt with such modern technology.

"I do not have time for this nonsense." She said in frustration. She touched the control panel with a finger tip and a pulse of dark light flowed from her hand into the system. The elevator obeyed her silent instruction and began moving skyward, regardless of the pass code and key it required to do so. She needed to reach the king's suite where the fallen goddess was receiving treatment. It was not just the goddess however that she needed to speak with, rather it was also Shakanah's former peer, Talon.

The elevator stopped on the highest floor it was capable of and opened up onto an elegantly decorated hallway which looked as though it was better suited to the Royal Castleton Hotel than than the city's hospital. At the other end of the hallway stood four guardsmen in dress gray uniforms. Their eyes were fixed intently on the unauthorized intruder they had been warned about, uncertainty and fear filling those eyes as they lowered their loaded weapons, barrels trembling but aimed in her direction.

Terror spread across their faces, but to their credit, they did not move from their posting. Courage and determination in the face of the inevitable. Impressive, she thought to herself. Futile, yes, but impressive all the same.

"H-halt, yo..your grace. N-no one is allowed in-inside by order of h-his maj-majesty." The lead guardsman managed to stammer out. He looked as if he would wet himself as he attempted to stare into her face. "E-especially those who hide their faces." He told her.

Shakanah drew back her purple cowl with her hands to reveal her nearly flawless, deathly white skin and braided, silver white hair. Her beautiful, haunting eyes were deep purple. "Is that better?" She asked, knowing the effect her appearance, even at her age, could have on even the strongest of men. The dark mixture of fear and desire on the faces of the men was apparent as she radiated the Shadow's aura.

"I have a need to speak with his majesty and her excellency. This is something which cannot wait." She told the guard who challenged her. "I know they are both within this room."

The guardsmen looked lost. "Your grace," he said stiffening up, "Our orders were to allow family members of her highness only. Those orders were from his majesty himself."

Shakanah considered this, then she asked, "Do you know what I am capable of doing to those who displease me, guardsman?"

"I can imagine, your grace." The guard replied, the tremors in his hands visible to all present.

"No. You can't." She said with a tone of authority that allowed for no argument. "I have no time for this, and neither does the Lady Hylia within." She said and began to raise her thin white hands pulsing with dark energy as the guardsmen shrank back in terror.

"Let her through, guardsmen." The aged voice of the king came through clear and strong over the radio, loud enough for everyone to hear. "The Sage has my permission to enter."

Shakanah dropped her hands and the guardsmen cleared out of her way as she opened the door to the hospital room. "Perhaps the next time, gentlemen." She said ominously as she passed them. "One way or the other, everyone crosses my threshold eventually."

The woman stepped into the room where the aged king sat next to the woman he had called goddess, neice, and aunt. "Almost everyone." She corrected herself. She looked around the room, having expected a third living presence. Strangely, the Hero was not where she assumed he would be.

"The Hero is not present? Your last message said he had returned alive from his quest." Shakanah asked Talon as she came to stand next to the bed.

"He has returned. He reclaimed his place among the gods this morning." Talon responded. "We have not heard from him since."

Shakanah considered this unexpected development. "And he has not assisted you in returning as well, my Lady?" She addressed the aged woman on the bed. "How unlike him." She said contemplatively.

"I assume he has his reasons, your grace." Zelda responded.

"Indeed." Shakanah returned thoughtfully. "I am certain that he does."

"It isn't often the Sage of Shadow leaves her temple." Talon observed. "What news could bring you to walk among the living rather than communicate through our link?" Talon asked her amiably, as one equal to another.

"It concerns our Lady's late father. It seemed something that I believed she should hear." Shakanah responded.

"My father? You mean king Daphnes?" Zelda responded.

"Yes, of course. Allow me to clarify; your most recent, late father, my Lady. I suppose it is easy to confuse considering how many there are. I have had discourse with all of their poes since I was chosen as Sage of Shadow."

"Great and wise men in life, your grace." Zelda replied.

"No less in the peace of death, my Lady." The Sage agreed. "And your late father Daphnes Johnson has been no exception. No exception, that is, until recently."

"I don't understand." Zelda replied.

"Your late father's poe entered the shadow realm several years prior to my awakening as the Sage of Shadow, but for as long as I have known him in this way, he has been wise, kind, and strong. But over the last several years, I have noticed the progress of a change come over him." Shakanah told them. "It is unlike anything I have seen among any of the shades of Hyrule."

"Why have you not brought this to our attention before?" Talon asked.

"An error in judgment on my part," the Sage of Shadow conceded. "It does not always occur to me to trouble the living with matters pertaining to the dead."

"Please, continue." Zelda told her. "What has happened to him?"

"Of course, my Lady." The Sage responded. "His poe has become..." She searched for the word to describe what she had sensed and seen, "cold, my Lady."

"Cold?" Zelda repeated.

"Unfeeling. Cold. There is a shadow which has grown within his poe which is unnatural even for the Shadow Realm. It has grown dark and continued to grow darker day by day as I have watched. Several hours ago, he disappeared from my sight." Shakanah's voice grew deathly quiet and concerned.

"How is that possible?" Talon asked. "All the Realm of Shadow is under your oversight. All poes are visible to you."

"I do not know." The Sage of Shadow replied, the anxiety in her voice bleeding through in spite of her attempted calm demeanor. "But the former king's poe retained the powerful magic which had been a part of his being, even though separated from his body. It is a powerful magic now at the mercy of the darkness which has consumed his poe. In truth, I do not know what his dark shade is capable of."

"My father never used magic in all of his life." Zelda told her disbelievingly. "He preferred things he could understand."

"Be that as it may, one's use or understanding of magic has little to do with one's capability for magic, as you well know, my Lady." Shakanah corrected her. "Being of the bloodline he was, King Daphnes had the capability to be a powerful and dangerous sorcerer had he chosen to pursue that in life."

"But, I still don't understand," Talon said. "How could he not be within your sight? He would have to have left the Shadow Realm and returned to the realm of the living. His body remains where it has been decomposing for forty five years."

"Then he would have needed to take another, living body." Shakanah continued his thought.

"Surely the gods would not permit such an atrocity." Talon said in disgust.

"One would think." Shakanah agreed.

"They wouldn't." Zelda agreed, but then she continued a sick realization coming to her, "if they could see it."

"What do you mean?" Shakanah asked, confused. "What can the gods not see or know?"

"The souls of the dead, your grace." Zelda replied soberly. "The ascended can't know the mind of a soul that has no body. Only one who lies in between ascension and the grave can sense them. And if the darkness has taken hold of the power which resides within his poe..." The old woman paused to gather her thoughts from her memories. "He has become a danger not just to those on this plane, but those on the immortal plane as well."

Another presence in the room felt even more unease and concern at this new revelation. One for whom all of their minds should have been as an open book the minute he came through the linking book.

"Why didn't I know about this?" Daniel asked himself after hearing the conversation. "Regardless of the thing with the dead, I should have known about this as soon as Shakanah knew."

The ascended being had remained in the room to observe Zelda long after he and Impa had watched the Hero's re-ascension together. Impa's face was radiant with joy for those few brief seconds, and then became twisted in confusion as he vanished within seconds. She gave no indication to him that she was aware of any "help" on his part, and he betrayed nothing. If she was aware, then her silence to him was her unspoken consent.

"For that matter, why didn't Impa know about it?" He asked himself again, thinking it through. "If she did, she certainly didn't let it slip." It opened up a whole new realm of problems and possibilities to his mind. The first of which was, "How much else are we not aware of?"

He had always assumed that those who had died without ascending just ceased to be. Did the Others in his own reality know that there was more? If any of them did, they kept it close to the breast, so to speak. The implications for those he had known in his own life and existence were staggering to him, but he didn't have the time to worry about them right then.

There was another thing which had been bugging him as well. Why did Link just vanish after he shed his mortal form? No "thank you", no acknowledgment of his presence, no consultation with Impa and he about Zelda's plight. Nothing. It had confused him just as much as Impa

One thing was becoming clear to him, however. The rules of the game weren't what he had been led to believe, and one of his friends' very soul was at stake. He needed to find out what the rules really were, and quickly.