Hey folks, time for chapter 101! Now that Link has finally been subdued, it's time for some reflection on what happened, and for a few truths be made known...
"How's Link?! Is he okay?!"
"And what about Esolu?!"
"Everyone, please calm yourselves so I can-"
"Please let me go see him, I must hold my beloved husband between my bosom!"
"You want him to suffocate as well Ruto?"
"Is there anything I can do for my sworn brother? I know, I'll take him to my hot springs! I'm sure a nice bath in the lava springs would do wonders for him!"
"That would kill him you idiot!"
"Please, everyone calm down!" Sarami shouted out at Aviel, Ruto and a number of the others as she just left the medical ward of Gerudo Palace to meet everyone in the dining room, "Both Link and Esolu are unconscious at the moment. I've done what I can for their injuries, but they both need rest, and it will probably be some time before they wake up!"
"Ooooh, poor Link..." Ruto sighed out, as Zopem was busy giving her a shoulder massage to help her relax, "He's been through so much tonight."
"Fear not my queen, he's a strong one, he'll recover." Zopem said.
"So what about Esolu's child?" Saria asked.
"The child is stable for now, but I do hope Esolu wakes up soon..." Sarami said, "She's way overdue to deliver her child, and I'm worried about both of their conditions if she has to hold it for much longer. I don't want to have to perform emergency surgery to remove the child from her womb if it comes down to it..."
"First she loses her voice, and now she's having pregnancy complications..." Saria spoke sadly, "How much is she going to suffer? All she wants is a baby..."
"Yeah, wasn't expecting to hear her shout out like she did." Darunia said, "Didn't you say she was mute or somethin'?"
"She is- I mean, she was...?" Sarami pondered, "I was hiding at the time to ambush Link-honey, so I was rather surprised to hear that voice shout out, I've never heard it before."
"But why do you suppose she could talk all of a sudden?" Nemisa asked.
"Hm, based on what me and my sister read about in our mental psychology research..." Korume spoke, "The stress caused by her concern for Link may have brought out her voice, even if just a little."
"Yeah, like the whole thing with Link just shocked it out of her!" Kesuta nodded.
"Well we can only hope she wakes up soon. The other child-bearers are all concerned for her, and I'd really love to hear her voice for myself, I'm sure Link would as well..." Nemisa said, the others nodding in agreement.
"So what happened to that Meokuro lady I brought back to the camp?" Reirousa spoke up, "Did she ever get arrested?"
"Unfortunately no, she escaped during our fight with Link." Nabooru shook her head, "It's not the first time she's escaped either, she's pretty slippery it seems."
"Oooohhh! I can't stand that woman for what she put Granny through!" Sarami said with a fit, "When we capture her for good I'm giving her a piece of my mind!"
"I'm lookin' forward ta seeing that!" snickered Togau.
"..." Impa took a glance over at the zora ambassador Oton in deep thought, "Something on your mind?"
"Oh don't mind me, I was just thinking about everything King Link went through last night himself. I still cant for the life of me figure out who would go through the trouble of doing all this to him?" Oton muttered rubbing at his chin, "What would they possibly gain from it?"
"Hard to say, if it had been Captain Andreas the culprit wouldn't have had to steal Knave's armor. And I don't think even he would willingly deal with the rebellion for that tonic Link was drugged with." Impa said.
"Whoever it was, they must have known about Link's anger tendencies, and knew how to manipulate them as well..." Korume pondered.
"That's right, it wasn't just the power tonic and hypno candy stuff that did that to him..." Saria spoke, "It's something else within Link, I'm sure some of you have already seen it before."
"The first time we saw it was back during that caravan trip we went on with Togau." Nemisa spoke, "He blew up at the knights who had been posing as bandits. Back then I didn't give it much mind, but it's gotten worse over time."
"And then the effects of the power tonic just amplified it." Sarami spoke, "Just what could it be though?"
"I think I already know." spoke one voice, as everyone turned to Tatl, who was floating over Skuld, "It was about nine years ago, me and Link once worked together to-"
"H-Hey sis, I thought we promised not to bring that up with anyone!" Tael said.
"I-It's okay, I'll tell them," Skuld said, "This is more important than that promise..." the skull kid gulped a bit and spoke out to the group,
"A long time ago, I played a little prank on a traveling salesman and knocked him out cold. All he had on him was a bunch of weird masks, though there was one I found that I really liked, at the time I wasn't really sure why I did... I put it on, and after that I started hearing strange little voices in my head, they were telling me to do bad things to people... I wasn't sure why it wanted me to do them, but something deep down make me think it was funny, so I kept doin' it..."
"His pranks used to be pretty harmless, so me and Tael didn't care too much, but things got worse. We were just hoping Skuld was going through a phase or something. He was our best friend, so we tried to put it aside." Tatl explained.
"One day I had the two of them spook a kid riding a horse through the forest, and I stole his shiny blue ocarina as well as his horse and escaped on it." Skuld said.
"A... shiny blue ocarina...?" Impa muttered to herself, "Don't tell me, that kid you scared was Link?"
"Yeah, that's right. Good guess!" Skuld nodded, "At the time my mind was feeling so weird by the bad voices I didn't even recognize him for a while. I escaped on his horse into a hideaway deep in the woods, to a place called Termina."
"Termina...!" Togau spoke out, "That's the place Link was talkin' bout before, back when I put on that headdress that turned me into a Lynel!"
"Jees, a Lynel? Would had been nice to have that kind of firepower when me and Link were traveling together." Tatl spoke.
Impa asked, "Was this something he did on his seven year journey?"
"That's right, Link said he was about eleven at the time" Tatl nodded, "After Link chased us into Termina, Skuld used some weird power that turned him into a Deku Scrub. He had never done something as crazy as that before, so I was getting a lot more concerned, but not as much as when Skuld took Tael and ditched me!"
"Link mentioned before about being turned into a Deku Scrub back then..." Saria said with fascination, "I didn't know it was Skuld who did it though. And that's when Link started traveling with you?"
"Yup, we agreed on a deal that if I helped Link change back to a human he'd help me find Skuld and my bro." Tatl said.
"A fairy companion..." Saria muttered, lost in thought about something...
"Anyway, me and Link found out that Skuld was somehow causing the moon over Termina to come down from the sky, and in three days it would crush and destroy the whole land. At the time I didn't get what was up with Skuld, he was horrible to Tael, and he didn't even seem to care about us when we saw each other again..." Tatl said sadly.
Everyone took a look over to Skuld who was moping a bit, "I was so busy having what I thought was fun, I didn't even realize about all the lives I was hurting, even my own friends..."
"You poor little voodoo doll..." Korume whispered, coming right up and giving him a gentle hug.
"But you and Link are friends again, right?" Aviel asked, "You got along pretty well back when we went to go save Saria from that temple."
"That's right! I recognized Link after everything was done and we made up!" Skuld nodded, "We even played the song Saria taught him together!"
"Ha ha! You got good taste in music kid!" laughed Darunia.
"So just what was with that mask anyway? Why'd it wanna destroy the world so badly?" Kesuta asked.
Tatl said, "The salesmen we talked to said it was some hexing ritual mask with a horrible dark power to it... he called it Majora's Mask."
"Did... you say Majora?" Korume exclaimed, almost dropping Skuld in shock.
"You know about it?" Nemisa asked.
"I've seen the name mentioned once or twice in my occult research," Korume said, "Majora was said to be an ancient deity of chaos and destruction. It revealed in mayhem and pain like an insatiable lust."
"Sounds like a certain war captain we dealt with..." Impa muttered.
"Termina... Majora... I could have sworn I seen those names in Ganondorf's writings..." Nabooru muttered in thought, before speaking out loud, "So I take it Link and you were able to stop it, but he was a child back then, how could be possibly defeat a god like that?"
Tatl answered, "Well when me and Link went to fight the mask, he was given another transformation mask like the others he had... something that had such great power inside it that Link was able to destroy Majora and save Termina from it's destruction..."
"It was called the Fierce Deity Mask."
"Fierce Deity?!" Ruto exclaimed out loud. Everyone looked to her for a second, before she cleared her throat, "Sorry, do go on."
Tatl nodded, "Link put on the mask and it turned him into this giant and powerful adult with a helix-shaped sword. He was pretty much unstoppable at that point, and he whupped Majora like it was nothing!"
"A fierce deity you say... the pieces are coming together now..." Nabooru said, "And you're sure this is the same power as what we encountered last night?"
"Definitely." Tatl nodded, "He had all those markings on his face, and his hair was totally white, just like how he looked when he put on the mask for the first time. Even his eyes were a blank white."
"I see... so that's the strange power that was inside Link all this time..." Saria said.
"But we've never seen him with a mask like that before." Nemisa said, "And he's never shown off that much power like he did last night either."
"I sensed that power within Link back when we first met him, but it was very faint." Korume spoke, "It must have been laying dormant inside of him all this time."
"Hmm..." Togau thought to herself, "Come ta think of it... ...you mentioned before you were hearin' weird voices when you were wearin' that mask, right Skuld?" Togau asked the skill kid as he sat on Korume's lap,
"Yeah, why?" Skuld asked.
"Cause that reminds me, I was hearin' voices like that too after I put on the Lynel's Headdress, they were from the spirit of the Lynel possesin' me!" Togau said.
"Oh yeah, you mentioned that before!" Saria gasped out.
"...yes, I see what you're getting at Togau! The Fierce Deity Mask must have become one with Link at some point like the Lynel Headdress did with you!" Nabooru realized,
"You don't suppose Link might have been hearing voices like that from this Fierce Deity thingie as well, do you?" Kesuta asked.
"That makes about as much sense as anything, sister." Korume nodded.
"So now we have an idea of what happened... but just who is behind all of what happened tonight? And how could they know about that power inside of Link?" Ruto asked.
"A good question, and if my suspicions are correct, one that I intend to find out later." Nabooru muttered to herself. She looked out to everyone, stood up and cleared her throat.
"Everyone, if I can just say something," Nabooru said, "You all did extraordinary work in helping to save Link and Esolu. Had it not been for you, I dare not want to think of what would had happened with the knights." she bowed her head down, "You have my thanks, for saving our people, and for reminding me of what's important."
The group all stared out at Nabooru for a second, before they smiled brightly.
"Ha! Don't worry about it Lady Nabooru! Your people are like sisters to me like my own brothers are now, of course we're going to look out for you!" Darunia laughed out.
"I have to say, I was a bit worried there for a while." the Zora Ambassador Oton said, "But you and your people really pulled through that situation."
Impa spoke, "No doubt Captain Andreas is going to try and use this incident to cast doubt on the Gerudo before the meeting, but I'll do what I can to try and de-escalate the matter. I'm sure Princess Zelda will put in a good word for you all as well."
Both Knave and Lackey nodded in agreement with her, the latter of the two saying, "We can assure you that you have the princess' full support in this matter."
"Yeah, don't worry yerself none Lady Nabooru!" Togau said grinning, "Just as long as ya got yer head back on straight!"
"Heh... thanks for that everyone." Nabooru said with a light smile.
"Well now that's everything's mellowed out, how about we relax a little before bed?" Kesuta suggested.
"Yes, after everything's that's happened, I don't think I can sleep just yet." Nemisa said, "How about you Aviel?"
She looked over to see Aviel had long ago passed out, and was sleeping against her partner, some drool starting to leak out from her mouth.
"...maybe I should get this poor thing to bed." Nemisa said with a light smile, lifting her up and escorting her off to her room, "Have fun everyone."
"Sounds good to me!" nodded Darunia, he called out to the servants, "Hey, get us a round of saiharan sand!"
"I don't know, I kind of feel bad enjoying myself what with Link's condition..." Saria spoke.
"I know how you feel Saria, but there isn't much we can do." Ruto said, "Besides, I'm sure if Link was awake he'd encourage us to not worry about him."
"Okay... guess you're right." Saria said with a small smile, "I'll take a sparkling melon cider!"
Nabooru smiled warmly as the mood of the room started to lighten up, and relieved to see what had happened didn't affect relations with their allies. She had a feeling she and Halei were in for some extra work to quell the concerns the Hylian Parliament might have towards the Gerudo, but she was determined to make it happen no matter what.
As the group was enjoying themselves, a guard came up and whispered something to Nabooru, and she nodded.
"If all of you excuse me, I need to see into something." Nabooru said getting up.
"Do you need some help?" Impa asked.
"No... trust me when I say this is something I need to see for myself." Nabooru spoke as she went off with the guard.
As the others were enjoying themselves, Darunia spoke quietly to Ruto, "...so I guess he found it after all, huh?"
"Yes, and now we finally know where that mask came from." Ruto whispered sadly, "Oh Link, if only I had known sooner..."
"You think we should say something? I mean, we made a promise and all..." Darunia said.
"Like little Skuld said before, this is more important than that promise." Ruto shook her head, "Besides, I'm sure everyone's going to want to know the truth from Link as well when he wakes up. I'm sure she would understand..."
"Is this the place?" Nabooru asked.
She was standing before an old house in the back of Gerudo Town, surrounded by some Gerudo guards. The windows of the sandstone building were covered by tattered cloth, and there was no light in the room aside from some melting candles left behind in there.
"Yes Lady Nabooru, this is where we found the dead goat." the guard said, "We've left the building untouched by your request."
"Good, I need to properly investigate this place and find out just who was behind all of this." Nabooru said. In that moment she had a strange feeling, as she took a glance between her at the guards to survey them.
"But just in case there's a trap or ambush in there, I could use some back up to assist me..." Nabooru pondered, she pointed out to one solider in particular near the front, "You there, you seem strong. Can you escort me inside?"
"But of course Lady Nabooru." spoke the guard with a courteous bow.
The two of them walked into the building and the guard shut the door behind them. Nabooru went forward and looked down at the goat's corpse. If it weren't such a gruesome sight and led to such a horrible disaster for Link, she would had been slightly amused at someone actually dressing a goat up to look like a woman.
"With the lighting of the room and the way this goat was dressed, along with those hypnotic drugs Link was given, I'd say it's pretty reasonable that he had been fooled..." Nabooru muttered, "And since Esolu's a mute, using an animal that can't speak out to Link was pretty effective."
As Nabooru looked around the room more, she felt a small creaking sound under a rug she stepped on. She moved away the rug to reveal a wooden door, and opening it she saw there was a ladder that lead down deep into a tunnel.
"Well, well, well." Nabooru said with a smirk, "Looks like we figured out how the culprit managed to enter town without detection. This must have been down here before I even built the town with the Sand Rod. I'm going to have to have this tunnel investigated later."
Nabooru covered the door again and started checking around the room itself for some more evidence. She went into one corner where she found Sir Knave's helmet and sword, the latter covered in goat blood, affirming that Knave's garments had been used in the act. She also found a strange book with a symbol on it she didn't quite recognize.
"Now what's this all about...?" Nabooru opened the book to read it, but saw it to be in text she had never seen before.
As Nabooru was focused on looking the book over, the guard stood still, watching her carefully, then flashed a sinister grin.
'This was your last mistake Gerudo leader...' thought the guard to herself, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a strange jagged dagger, 'You've meddled in Chaplain Iktiakh and the Order's plans long enough. But now you'll pay for your defiance, as well as the blind devotion to your faux goddesses... by the hand of Marceau the Mirror.'
With that the guard, now known as the Order of Reyahm member Marceau in disguise, brought up the dagger prepared to silently impale Nabooru with it from behind...
"Finally, you reveal yourself." Nabooru spoke up with a smirk, as she quickly spun around and kicked the dagger out of Marceau's hand.
"What?!" Marceau exclaimed as Nabooru lunged up and headbutted the man in the forehead, stunning him. She then delivered a powerful thrust kick that sent him flailing backwards through the doorway outside, to which he was quickly caught by the guards that had been waiting. He tried struggling to break free, "Let go of me you damn wenches!" he shouted in his normal male voice.
"So I'm sure we have you to thank for everything that's happened here tonight." Nabooru said with a smirk, kneeling down at the quick-change artist, "I knew you would come back here to clean up your evidence eventually, that's why I set up this little trap for you."
"But... that's impossible, how did you know who I was?" Marceau asked, "That was a perfect disguise!"
"It nearly was, I'd like to get tips on what make up you used to make your skin so smooth and shiny like that." Nabooru said, "But you messed up in one big way, your footwear."
"Huh?" Marceau exclaimed, looking down at the basic sandals he was wearing.
"Sandals may sound ideal for the desert, what with the name and all, but here in Gerudo Valley that's not the case. Compared to tropical beaches, the sand here is much more soft and hot from the sun to safely trek in footwear like that. The shoes we Gerudo wear may look goofy to outsiders, but they provide us comfort and protection from the scorching sands of the valley."
"...it seems, I may have overlooked an aspect of your people after all..." scowled Marceau.
Nabooru held up the dagger Marceau had intended on stabbing her with, "And this weapon... I've seen it before. A copy of it was given to me by my king after a little mountain trip he went on recently. I think you're going to have a nice, long talk with my interrogators about what you had planned here tonight..."
"I think not..." spoke Marceau, suddenly jerking his arm out of a guard's grip, "Farewell Gerudo leader, we'll meet again soon enough!" he said, pulling out a small paper ball, and throwing it to the ground. The paper ball burst into smoke, and when the smoke disappeared, Marceau was long gone.
"Find him!" commanded Nabooru as the guards all hurried off in search of the man. She stared down to the smoke ball that had been left on the ground, she picked up some of the powder residue and rubbed it between her fingers.
"Well if I can't talk to him... then perhaps there's someone else that can tell us the truth about all this instead." Nabooru muttered to herself, as she looked to the small book she had found.
Meanwhile in an isolated area of Gerudo Canyon far, far from the town, there was a group of people gathered in a circle, with one person in the center of them.
That person was Chaplain Iktiakh, kneeling on the ground with his hands and legs tied up in ropes. He was hunched over as he was surrounded by multiple people in silver robes. As the sun was starting to rise up more, the light reflected off the gold eye-shaped masks they all wore, a signature item of the Reyahm Order.
Standing some distance away from the circle was the acrobat Jianya and the muscular monk Omaldak, both looking with uncertainty at their boss. Unlike him, they weren't tied up.
Soon a mysterious figure rode up to the area on a horse, they wore a dark brown cloak to completely disguise their identity. The figure hopped off their horse and slowly walked up to a Reyahm monk who spoke to him, and the figure nodded. They then walked up to Iktiakh and stared down at him.
"It's been some time since we last saw each other Chaplain. I thought we had already discussed the dangers of what you've been doing. Now I'm hearing that you went to Death Mountain to try and turn the fire dragon living there into the new god of flames, then to Dhaijialoft to create the new god of storms, and now here in Gerudo Valley you hoped to make the Gerudo King awaken to becoming the god of fury? I swear I can't keep my eyes off of you for a minute." the figure said in a masculine tone.
"What we do is for the good of the people." Chaplain Iktiakh simply spoke, "The old gods are a blight on this world, and we will only suffer so long as they control our lives. I did all this to achieve peace in this world, just as the great Reyahm desired!"
"All you've done tonight is attempt to drive an innocent man to madness, and almost brought about a terrible war between Hyrule and the Gerudo. What you did tonight could have ruined everything we've been working towards." the figure said.
"As if I care about that. Ever since you took power, our once great organization has been reduced to a group of mere servants under your thumb! I've been working to fulfill the true destiny of our people!" Iktiakh stated, "And if it meant making the Gerudo die out in a war, that would had been just fine by me."
The figure brought up his leg and kicked Iktiakh across the face, knocking him to the ground. Jianya almost tried to run out to him, but Omaldak held her back.
"You're acting like some great revolutionary, but all I'm seeing is a sick monster." the figure said, "I'll see to it you'll get justice for what you've done tonight."
"Hmph, I have no regrets over what I've done tonight beyond failing to achieve my goal..." Iktiakh scowled as blood ran down his head, "Try as you might, but what you hope to achieve can never truly come to pass. She will never-!"
But that was Iktiakh's last words, as he realized the figure had just drew a blade and impaled him right through the neck. Blood started to emerge out from his mouth as he gagged out, and the figure yanked out his sword.
The great Order of Reyahm member Chaplain Iktiakh then fell to the ground lifelessly.
Some of the monks lowered their heads in mourning and chanted some words. Jianya started to tear up, and she hugged Omaldak, crying her eyes out against him. The muscular monk could only hold her softly and allowed her to let out her sorrow.
As she wept, Jianya thought about back when she was younger, back when she was penniless and alone on the streets after having been thrown out from the traveling circus she once worked with. She had been in tears and holding herself tightly to stay warm one cold night, until an older man with long black hair and wearing a monocle over his eye came up and held out his hand to her. She stared up at him for a moment, before reaching out for his hand.
But then a voice spoke up to snap her out of it.
"...it was a good call on your part to warn me about this Ms. Jianya. I know how much he meant to you, but if Iktiakh continued with his ways he would had hurt even more people with his reckless attitude." the man in the cloak told her, "I won't punish you or Mr. Omaldak for what's happened tonight, but please reflect on what he's done here."
"Yes sir..." nodded Jianya, sniffling.
The figure didn't say another word as he saw off the other monks as well, climbed onto his horse and rode off. Shortly after the man left, the monks all gathered around Iktiakh's body and continued chanting, while Omaldak did what he could to comfort Jianya.
"It's okay Jianya, he's right. You only did what you felt was right in reporting Chaplain Iktiakh's actions." Omaldak assured her, "But just what made you feel like you needed to say something?"
"..." Jianya looked downwards, as she thought of what Iktiakh said about inciting a war between Hyrule and the Gerudo, then thought about both Aviel and Link in particular, "I'm... not exactly sure anymore..."
Omaldak didn't say anything else, but put a coat around the acrobat woman to help her stay warm as he escorted her off. While the Reyahm monks wrapped up Iktiakh's body in a cloth and hauled him away to receive a proper burial.
Meanwhile, going down the road of the canyon was a large group of figures, all silhouetted by the sunrise coming over the horizon.
As the sun rose up higher, they were shown to be Gerudo women clad in black clothes with gold markings on them, a symbol of the rebellion group the Ebony Sisterhood, all of them carrying various weapons. Accompanied by them were a number of different monsters like Moblins, Lizalfos, and Desert Wolfos. The monsters all had strange bronze helmets with bulbs worn on their heads, and they looked to be in a trance of some kind. There was also some of Meokuro's Beamos Walkers moving alongside them all.
Standing on a cliff overseeing the army marching down the path was an individual draped in a full black robe lined with ancient Gerudo markings made from gold thread. The robe completely hid her body, save for her face which was instead hidden by a porcelain mask. The mask itself was a pearl white in design with a feminine frame to it and made the woman's expression completely unreadable. There was gold chains hanging down from the top of it that hugged the mask's shape.
This was Mother Eclipsis, the mysterious leader of the Ebony Sisterhood. She gazed out at Gerudo Town in the distance as a another Gerudo woman came up by her side.
It was an average sized Gerudo woman; she had short red hair done into a bouffant style, with a white bonnet topping it. As opposed to the silk desert wear Gerudo usually wore, she instead had a black short dress with white frills. Her legs were in white stockings and she wore black dress shoes. Oddly, she also had small devices around her ears with antennae sticking out from both of them. She had a strange blank look in her eyes as she spoke to the cloaked woman.
"Mother Eclipsis." she said with a low monotone voice, and giving a polite bow to her at the waist, "The spies have delivered us their report, there is very little in the way of patrol guards this morning. Even the lookouts are not present at the moment."
"Excellent. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it seems that incident with the false king last night has left them scattered and defenseless." Mother Eclipsis said.
Near the rebel leader was a group of seven shadowy warriors, she turned to them and spoke out,
"It's finally time for all of you to show the fruits of your training, and for Lady Nabooru and the false king to be shown their failures as the supposed leaders of the people."
The seven figures all nodded, sporting wicked grins, as Mother Eclipsis turned back to the town, gazing out at it, "...and finally, we shall take back all that belongs to King Ganondorf."
She brought out her hand and shouted out to the soldiers as they stood ready for her command,
"...Ebony Sisterhood, attack Gerudo Town!"
And that ends the chapter, but just when everyone thought they could relax, a great threat is coming over the horizon. What will Nabooru and the others do to contend with this? Find out next week!
Thanks again everyone for your support as usual, drop me a like, follow comment or PM if you choose, your feedback is always encouraged!