The day was especially bright and cheery as Kali made careful steps between the trees. She found it eerie. It could have been any other day, where she took a pleasant walk through the woods if it weren't for the fact that this walk ended with an attempt to seal away the most evil person she'd ever met. Shafts of afternoon sunlight peeked through the gaps of foliage that made up the forest ceiling, groups of wild flowers were in full bloom. She spotted bumbling bees pollinating the flowers, and heard the sing song chirping of birds all around her. A drop of sweat trickled down her back, her nerves worn down to their very raw ends as she lifted her skirts to step over an especially large root.
It was the day that would make or break her future in Hyrule. She could either think about what she was about to face, or the blissful week that she'd experienced prior to that afternoon stroll to her potential doom. So she chose the latter, and let her thoughts drift to the day after she and Kiden slept together for the first time.
She went through her normal training routine, but was distracted, trying to work up the courage to ask Impa about what Hylians did for...contraceptives. When she'd finally stammered out the question to her teacher, well away from the eavesdropping ears of anyone else, Impa just stared at her. "You didn't…" her teacher had muttered.
Kali gave a helpless shrug, "I...did?" she responded lamely.
Impa demanded an explanation, so with flaming hot cheeks, Kali told her that she'd chosen Kiden. She'd even gotten defensive of her choice, explaining that if the worst were to happen, she didn't want to leave with a huge amount of regrets - there would already be so much she would regret if she had to leave. Impa let her go on for as long as she needed, only studying her silently with crossed arms and narrowed eyes. When Kali ran out of things to say, Impa asked, "And what of Link?"
At that, her heart had dropped to the pit of her stomach and she averted her gaze. "I talked to him."
"And?"
"I...I don't know. He didn't really tell me what he was thinking. I just feel like...he wouldn't recover the same way Kiden would if I were forced to leave." Kali attempted to explain.
At that, Impa actually nodded in agreement, although she didn't look happy about the conclusion. "You are probably right in that aspect." Impa rubbed her hand over her face, and blew out a sigh, "That would explain why he didn't show up for training today."
Impa didn't say much else after that as she guided Kali to a small storage room that appeared to hold a variety of potions and brews. She picked one out and ran her finger over the label to show Kali, so she could find it on her own from then on, and instructed her to take it the day after she and Kiden…."Interacted…" Impa finished with the slightest cringe.
Something in Kali fell at Impa's poor response to her choosing Kiden and when she asked her teacher about it, Impa sighed again. "It's not that I'm not happy for you, girl. I just am biased towards Link I suppose, after all he's been through."
Kali's stomach coiled into a painful guilty knot at those words and her gaze found the floor as she held the glass potion bottle. She felt Impa's eyes on her, "Not that his experiences should influence your decision. The heart wants what it wants."
"My heart wanted them both…" Kali admitted in a whisper, guiltily.
Impa's hand found Kali's shoulder and squeezed firmly, "You aren't the first that has happened to. And you won't be the last."
She felt suddenly like confessing all of her darkest secrets to Impa, her hands clutched at the bottle. "I still want Link. I just want his happiness more if I am gone. I can't tell if my choice is selfishness, or selflessness…"
Another reassuring squeeze, "It could be a little of both. We are complicated creatures. But I know without a doubt, that Link wants what makes you the happiest as well."
"Would he make you happy? In the end?"
That had been Link's question to her the day before, after she'd confessed that she wasn't afraid of what she felt for Kiden. Then he said nothing else of her decision. That had been why, because he thought everything he wanted to say would ruin the thing that would make her happiest. Kali frowned and sighed heavily. Impa's arm circled her shoulders and she guided Kali out of the storage room.
Each day, Kali focused on her training and Link eventually rejoined the sessions as her sparring partner. He carried himself and interacted with her as he usually did, but she watched him warily. He nudged her, and joked with her, he tried to make her laugh but his own laugh felt forced in some way - hollow. He helped her up when he knocked her down, he encouraged her when she was struggling and each time her heart squeezed with a writhing guilt. When she finally got some time with him alone, usually on their breaks, he would become lost in thought. She would ask him when he was thinking about, and he'd just chuckle and brush her off. He was shutting her out...And who could blame him.
Each night, she and Kiden would make love as they had that first night - not wanting to waste any spare moment they had together before the day she'd have to face Pallas. He brought her flowers, the petals of which he scattered on the coverlets of the bed, or a bottle of wine, that they drank from each other's mouth. He entered her room during a bath once, and nothing stopped Kiden from climbing right into the bath with her. They didn't make it to her bed that time. He whispered how beautiful she was into her skin, or how much he loved her expressions, her laugh, her body. After, before drifting into a dreamless sleep, they would talk about their plans for her to move to castle town - the possibility of how Bastian would react to her moving in, or what she'd like to do with her time. At that question, she admitted that she wasn't sure, and remembered how before, she'd wanted to travel Hyrule to get to know this world. Usually at her silence he'd drop that subject and stroke her hair as he pulled her to his chest until she let sleep take her.
Kali stumbled, her feet catching on the hem of her dress and she steadied herself by grasping at a nearby tree trunk. She blew out a frustrated breath. Why did they have to send her in this uncomfortable court dress of all things? She straightened, and gave an exasperated swipe at her skirts before resuming her walk with careful steps through the forest. She felt like she was going to be sick as her stomach twisted with anxiety. They hadn't even sent her with any weapons, wanting her to appear as unarmed as possible so Pallas would actually get close enough to speak to her. She went over the plan again in her mind.
She was to wander the forest where Impa seemed sure that those twin shadows ran patrols to secure the perimeter around Pallas's fortress. Until eventually one of them would spot her from the shadows and report back to Pallas before taking any action because certainly Pallas would come to gloat or to berate her or to frighten her before attempting to abduct her again. Her job was to keep his attention, to keep him talking until he drew close enough for her to act. Her role was to act as if she were sick of the Hylian customs, of her friends, the training from the princess, and was at her wits end because she felt she didn't understand herself, or her powers. So they sent her in a deep blue court dress, hair swept up into a knot and secured with a needle sharp hair pin, the tip of which was coated in the clear poison concoction that Kiden had brewed up. A pretty present for the sorcerer wrapped in royal, deadly packaging. She was to yank the pin out, to play up the frustration she felt at Hyrule and its people. When Pallas got close enough, she would prick him with it and use her powers to speed up the effects enough for him to be weakened. Then she was to hold him there while the sealing was completed.
Impa's role was to make sure everyone else was concealed, swathed in her shadows, far enough away to avoid detection, but close enough to monitor the interaction. Unfortunately, while she was holding Pallas in place she would be an unmoving target for his twin shadows, Bia and Styx. That was what Link was for. He was to put himself before any oncoming danger and Kali until the sealing was completed and in theory, once Pallas was gone the twins should disappear with him.
Kali heard a snap of a branch behind her and she whirled, her eyes searching the darker depths of the forest around her, her heart galloping in her chest. She drew in a breath and yelled into the trees, "Pallas? I want to talk!"
The only response was the chirping of birds around her. Perhaps it was the group of sages, but it was unlike Impa to allow such a mistake. Maybe one of the twins then. Good, they'd report back to their master and hopefully they could get this over with. She continued her walk until she reached a small clearing, groups of yellow and white wildflowers dotting the tall grass. Her heart gave a leap as she recognized an oval of shimmering air on the other side of the clearing and she halted. A tall, horribly familiar figure stepped through, his slicked back auburn hair glinting orange gold in the spring sunshine. The portal disappeared behind him and he folded his hands behind her back, his stance wide as if he wasn't sure what to expect from her but his same cocky grin pulled at his lips as he called out, "I will admit. I hadn't expected you to come to me first."
Kali stepped more fully into the clearing, and swallowed, praying that this could be the one time she could lie convincingly. "I've had enough." Her voice was more steady than she felt, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"Oh?" he crooned as he took a few long, slow strides towards her, an eyebrow raised as those leering green eyes looked her up and down. "You look quite taken care of to me."
"It's too much. I can't stand this." she growled, gesturing to the dress, her hair, and with a sigh of frustration she worked off the silky gloves on her hands. She tossed them over her shoulder in annoyance that wasn't entirely fake.
His eyes continued to study her, likely searching for weapons. "I suppose you have those daggers strapped to your thighs. You wouldn't come here unarmed, surely." he assumed out loud, a knowing grin widening on his face.
He wasn't stupid, that was for sure. With a deep frown, Kali raised her skirts up to her thighs, to expose her bare legs. "I am unarmed." she said unenthusiastically before letting her skirts drop, "I only want to talk."
Pallas's eyebrows rose with surprise, and he stepped closer to her before pausing. They were only a few feet apart now, and she noticed upon closer inspection of his olive-toned skin, that a twist of scars were peeking out from beneath his collar. They looked almost like burn scars, likely from whatever concoction Kiden had splashed on him that allowed her to escape during the battle of Kakariko. Good, she was glad he wasn't able to reverse that damage in time, and savored that it scarred his skin. He wore dark clothing, with a 20's style vest that looked remarkably similar to the time where he originated, but embroidered with the fantastical swirls of this world, his deep maroon cloak billowed in the slight breeze that blew through the clearing. "Well I am here now. I assume you're not here to join me. What else is there to talk about?" he said, his expression still skeptical.
"I already told you. I'm at my wits end with this." She gestured towards her dress, "With them." She gestured back in the direction of the castle. "They don't understand this."
He peered at her for a long moment, as if trying to see through her. "Your powers." he said, his expression giving away nothing as he analyzed her.
She gave one nod, and frowned. "They do have powers, but I feel like I'm still not in control, and nothing they say is helping. I'm afraid of not being able to control myself. I'm afraid of the things I could possibly do."
"You seemed perfectly in control when you took your little trip into my past." Pallas grinned that confident, knowing sneer at her again. Shit...she'd nearly forgotten about when she'd done that.
"That was an accident." she blurted out, and averted her gaze, trying to seem embarrassed by her lack of control.
"How do you accidentally peer into one's past?" He questioned, trying to ferret the lie, the trick out of her. He was right to not trust her. Fully trusting her would have been the worst mistake he could make.
Kali gave an exasperated sigh and put her hands on her hips, and gavehim her best impatient stare, "I don't know Pallas, how do you accidentally step into another world? It was an accident. I was laying in bed one night, and I was thinking really hard about you and-"
"Thinking about me?" Pallas raised a brow at her, and crossed his arms over his chest. She didn't miss the genuine surprise that lit his eyes with curiousity. "What about me?"
Kali met his gaze and sighed again, the lie coming to her easily, "I was thinking about how you're like me. And I'm like you. And nobody else is the same and I wanted to know if your experience in coming here was….similar."
Pallas took a step closer, uncrossing his arms, "And now you know that nothing can happen to either of us, without the other dying."
She frowned again, and nodded, making a show of scratching at her scalp as if in thought, "I wanted to talk about that too. To see if….we couldn't come to some kind of agreement, since I assume we both enjoy living."
"So you did want me dead then?" Pallas growled, his shoulders suddenly tense.
"To be fair, you did kidnap me, torture me, attack the village that had been my home, held my friend hostage, do I really need to go on?" she shot back, her voice flat with sarcasm.
Pallas shrugged one shoulder, as if those things couldn't possibly matter. Was he trying to get her riled up? How could he put so little value in life? "I admit my methods have been….excitable."
She only stared at him, her expression disbelieving, but he ignored her as he went on, "So what agreement would you propose?"
She continued to scratch at her head irritably, then gave a grunt of frustration before she finally ripped the hair pin from the twist, and summoned the weeks of frustration she had felt to color her face with anger as her hair tumbled in blonde knots over her shoulders. "I'm just sick of feeling like the only place I can live is in that Gods forsaken castle. I'm being smothered to death. They dress me up like some kind of doll, they guard me nonstop, monitor my letters and everyone I interact with, and expect me to act a certain way. I fear they may even use me as a weapon for the kingdom." She cut herself off, realizing the truth in that last statement. Regardless of if she, the princess, and the sages were all suddenly pals, if Pallas was a threat then so was she.
"A gilded cage is no fun. Is it?" Pallas chuckled, amused at her outrage.
"Your actual cage was not that fun either, sorcerer." she grumbled, her hand with the hairpin falling to her side.
Come on, she thought anxiously. Get closer. She willed him to take just another couple of steps towards her to allow the range to prick him with the poisoned hairpin, which he appeared to not be paying much attention to. Good. Her best entry point would be as close to his heart as possible without doing major damage.
"I think we both know the only agreement we can come to is that you come to my side, and forget those fools who are so greedily keeping you holed up in that wretched castle." He said smoothly.
Kali frowned at him, annoyed, "Why is that the only solution? We can't just coexist in the same realm?"
Pallas considered her for a long moment as he searched her face, still on guard but seemed to be carefully choosing what he should say next. She didn't break his stare, her brows knit together as she tried to understand why he chose to be like this. She couldn't even fathom it. "Like you said," he started quietly, and stepped closer to her. Her heart began to hammer in her chest with anticipation, and with fear. She could not mess this up. There was an uneasy pause before Pallas reached out his hand and grasped her jaw with it, his fingers curled slightly around the back of her neck. It was not a tender gesture, not one of affection, or fondness - it was possessive, invasive, and felt wrong on her as his fingers squeezed her skin firmly, "I am like you, and you are like me and nobody else is the same. And it will never be otherwise."
Kali felt her skin crawl, and she wanted nothing more than to shake his grip off as he leered at her with a sinister dominance, but this was the best position for her to be in. She forced her eyes to stay on his, not willing to give away her true target at his side below the thick embroidered vest, where only the fabric of his undershirt would separate his skin and her hair pin. Kiden had told her that only a small knick would be enough as long as she was fast enough in speeding his blood flow to work the poison through. She breathed in, holding onto the mental image of Kiden laying next to her in bed, of how her future in Hyrule was suddenly fueled by hope. Her vision of a peaceful Hyrule, and an easy life stood on the hair pin's point, balanced like a top. "Are you telling me the only reason you want me to join you is cause you've been lonely?" She sneered at Pallas as her grip on the pin tightened.
She focused her power to her arm with a rush, to speed its movement as Pallas opened his mouth to answer. Her arm was practically a blur as it shot out and drew the poisoned hair pin over his side. She saw it cut through his shirt, broke his skin in a thin line of red. She threw her hands out towards him as he leapt away, scowling at her as his hand reached towards the shallow cut. "If only those dirty Hylians trained you to aim better." He muttered, a cocky grin beginning to curl his lips.
Then his face visibly paled, and he was suddenly as white as paper as the poison worked quickly through is blood. Kali felt the moment he realized what she was doing, because the progress of her speeding his circulation suddenly halted but could not budge her hold on him, he could not reverse the effects with her still working on him.
Her grin was triumphant, bright as she saw the thin sheen of sweat bead on his brow, his eyes dilate as he fell to his knees. His jaw clenched and unclenched with the effort of using his powers to cancel out her own, but she would not relent. She had done it! She heard Link suddenly at her back as he took his place as her guard. He muttered, "Perfectly done." And heard the smile in his voice.
She couldn't let him distract her, though a rush of pride swept through her like a wave as she watched Pallas glance around them both - the only indication she had that the sages had surrounded him. She spotted Impa take her place directly opposite to her, behind Pallas, flanked by a grim-faced Nabooru and the ghostly image of Rauru. "What is this?!" he ground out through his clenched teeth.
Kali didn't need to answer, she heard Zelda's voice from somewhere to her left and a rainbow of colorful lights very slowly began to cascade over them. "This is your end, sorcerer." Lights started to envelope each of the sages like an aura. From where she could see Impa's was an amethyst violet, Nabooru's was an amber orange, and Rauru's of purest gold.
Pallas's eyes stayed on Kali as he growled, "You can't kill me. You will die too!"
Kali gave the barest shake of her head, her voice tight with strain as she said, "Don't worry, you're not going to die. You'll be nice and comfortable while being sealed away forever."
At that, his poisonous eyes grew wide with shock and with an unparalleled rage. She felt the pressure against Pallas's power as he pushed harder to break her grip on him, to reverse whatever was weakening his body. His breathing was ragged as he fought her but she was determined to not give him even an inch of leniency, and marveled at her own strength after weeks of training. She was suddenly thankful for every miserable, painful, awful second of it. She held strong even as she heard the clang of metal on metal behind her. The twins must have finally made their move, assuming that Kali was the reason Pallas wasn't wiping them all off the face of this world.
But she tried to keep her focus on Pallas as he bared his teeth at her, attempting to draw himself to a stand but failed again and again, "I should have never trusted you, you wretched girl." he growled at her.
Rauru's voice boomed in the clearing as the sages were beginning to miraculously fade into their own orb of sparking light, "Ancient creators of Hyrule!"
Kali glanced up towards Impa, her grin dazzling as her skin tingled with the excited anticipation that this was almost over! It was working! And she was doing it, everything Impa had trained her for was paying off! Impa smiled back at her, pride twinkling in her eyes, as her form slowly became swathed in shadows and that strange violet glow. Something caught Kali's eye in the foliage behind her teacher, the slight glint of glass in the sunshine. She narrowed her eyes and with surprise she realized it was Kiden, armed with a blow gun loaded with more poisonous darts as they'd planned. This extra measure had been just in case Pallas managed to slip out of her grip and it would give her a second chance to keep him in a weakened state. But he was supposed to be out of sight, hidden by Impa's shadows. Had he moved somewhere he wasn't supposed to be? Or was Impa using so much of her power on Pallas, that it was now nullifying anything else she'd done that day?
Kali found that it suddenly, terrifyingly didn't matter how he'd gotten there as she spotted a bare flick of a shadow to her right, quickly approaching Kiden in the brush. The other twin...They had anticipated for them to go directly after her, but not after anyone else. Nobody else was supposed to be so plainly vulnerable. Her expression tightened with horror, "No, no, no! Kiden run away!" she shouted, her whole body tensing with effort as she tried to bring her focus back to Pallas.
He must have felt her weakness because he ground out, "Is that all it takes to defeat you? To remove these ignorant friends from the picture?"
She ignored him, and was about to shout back towards Link but the scrapes and clangs of metal against metal indicated he already had his hands full. "I can't!" Kali cried out, unable to communicate properly in the midst of her terror that she couldn't rush to him. Her hands violently trembled with the effort it took to keep Pallas down, and with fear as she met Kiden's eyes from across the field. He was confused, unsure of what to do. "RUN KIDEN!" she commanded, her voice shook.
A scream clawed its way up her throat as she watched the shadow twin suddenly appear behind Kiden, a razor sharp smile and those awful golden eyes - Kiden still watched her with an alarmed, puzzled expression. He was about to be killed right in front of her, but this time there was nothing she could do. She couldn't release her hold on Pallas or everything they'd done would be for nothing - there would be no second chances. She thought of that flirtatious grin he shot at her when he first spoke to her in the potion shop, how he made her heart race, the easy way he spoke to her during their walk in castle town, the tender kiss on her forehead on his balcony as they gazed at the stars, the intense flaming heat between them in the hot spring, in her bedroom, the way he'd calculated everything about this plan except this singular possibility that they'd go after him to harm her. A thousand little, wonderful moments flashed through her head in the span of a second.
She saw the flash of a blade and shadow and a spatter of crimson on the bark of the trees. Someone was screaming, and Kali realized it must have been her. She felt as if she were ejected from her own body, unable to cope with what she'd seen with her own eyes as her eyes stayed on the red stained blade protruding vulgarly from the chest of not Kiden, but Impa - who was the closest to him, who was the fastest of them all, able to shoot through the shadows just like the twins.
At Kali's scream, she felt everything around her slowing, slowing. The trickle of blood that swelled at the corner of Impa's lip, came to a halt as she laid in the grass. The expressions of combined horror collectively growing on everyone's faces came to a stop. Pallas's cocky, triumphant grin paused. The twin that had stabbed Impa in the chest managed to fade from view, and Kiden had taken a half step back away from the scene, his eyes wide with shock. She thought that her mind was slowing and stopping everything in an effort to preserve herself, to preserve her heart, her mind but she found that she was able to move just fine in the midst of this frozen world.
Surely this was a nightmare. Surely it was only her mind's worst fears, but she dropped her outstretched hands and took a step towards Impa, then another. Then she was racing towards her teacher, tears already pricked at her eyes. She gazed down upon her, eyes wide with disbelief and found that Impa's eyes were still flush with life, furious somehow. Probably at the situation Kiden had gotten them in. The blade was still embedded in the spot where she knew her heart rested in her chest. There was no coming back from a wound like that. No potion could knit the heart's flesh back together, no healer could be fetched in time. In time….In time….Kali felt hot tears stream down her face as she knelt next to Impa. Could she reverse this? Could she stop death from taking her teacher? She'd managed to stop the whole world around them, or maybe she was moving so fast, her surroundings just couldn't keep up.
As soon as Kali touched Impa's still warm skin to pull her into her lap, Impa was suddenly present in the moment with her and everything was a thousand times worse. Impa gasped, her labored breaths rattled and sounded wet. It sounded wrong, and the tears dripped onto her armor as Kali secured one arm around Impa's shoulders and the other was pressed to the hot, bleeding wound at her chest. Impa's scarlet eyes found Kali's, surprised but pained. "What are you…"
"I'll….I'll stop it." Kali stammered, her voice thick with sorrow.
She willed her power to reverse the wound, to knit the skin back together as the blade would be pushed from her chest. Impa only watched as a sharp, alarming pain shot through Kali's head but she only pressed her hand more firmly against Impa's chest. She couldn't see anything through the blur of tears, but willed herself to not let anymore tears spill from her because she could fix it. She would fix this. She felt Impa's clammy hands wrap gently around Kali's palm, slicking both of their skin with Impa's heart's blood. "It's alright." she said, somehow sounding even through those awful rattling breathing sounds.
"It's not!" Kali cried as she clenched her eyes shut, which caused the tears to pour over her cheeks. She wouldn't let Impa pull her hand away as she continued to try to heal her, to reverse this mistake.
"I'll always be with you. All of you." Impa rasped, her voice mottled with blood and her breaths came more labored. "Just because my body is gone, doesn't mean I cease to exist."
"I don't care…" Kali's sobs shook her body and she pushed harder. The pain in her head increased and she groaned with it.
Impa weakly tugged at her hand, but she wasn't supposed to be weak. She was strong. She was the foundation of everything Kali had trained to do, the mighty pillar of a woman that urged her to push harder, to stand up, to make the right choices. She remembered the firm press of her reassuring hand on her shoulder during times of distress or indecision. The solid strength of her embrace when Kali threw herself into her, squeezing her tightly before the Spring Ball. The tears Impa spilled for her when they found Kali half dead in the lost woods after being kidnapped. The unbending strength of her arm across her chest when she awoke in Hyrule for the very first time, before she'd tried to run away.
Like Impa, Kali resolved to be just as unbendable as her dying teacher tugged at her hand. "Please, you'll need to save your strength to get away from here….Get everyone out." Impa gasped.
"I've already failed at so many things...I will not fail at this." she insisted, a keening sound escaping her at the pain that threatened to split her head in two, that was about to shatter her heart.
"Kali," Impa said in barely a whisper, and Kali made herself look upon her face. Her usually golden skin was like fresh snow, her eyes beginning to glaze over, "Keep them safe."
Her eyes widened as the already weak grip of Impa's hand slipped from her hand, and topped into the grass below them. A long, rattling breath escaped Impa as her chest, which was moving up and down with her breaths before, Came to a halt. Impa's now unseeing eyes gazing at the ceiling of trees above them. She must only be frozen again, Kali only needed to reverse it. Everything was suddenly, entirely too quiet.
She lowered Impa's body to the grass and put both of her hands over her chest now, willing this to be reversed with all of her being, with everything she had left in her wretched soul. "Go back.." Kali urged, sobs overtaking her voice.
She pressed harder into Impa's unmoving chest, "Move…" she sobbed, "Breath...Reverse this."
A bone shattering pain cracked through her skull and blood began to trickle from her nose. Time slowly began to resume around her, but once it began to flow again, it would be too late. Kali's heart raced, and she moved up to her knees, leaned over Impa's body with both hands on her chest, "Reverse this." She repeated, louder now. But nothing in Impa would budge, the familiar flow of time beneath her hands as she healed wounds or manipulated the world around her was nowhere to be found as Impa's body had already begun to cool as she laid there.
"Come back...Come back!...Come BACK!" Kali screamed now as the sounds of the chaos around her began to resume. She heard Kiden startle next to them, as he gasped her name.
But Kali gave a wail as she dropped her forehead to Impa's unmoving body. As the awful realization finally set in that her teacher, one of her first friend's in Hyrule, the guardian of Kakariko Village, the shadow sage, the glue that held them all together, the woman that had somehow become something akin to a maternal figure in Kali's new life….was horrifically….impossibly….dead.