I know these chapters are shorter than my regular readers are used to, but that'll change soon. Hardest part of a new story is actually getting it started, and I'm still laying groundwork for the long haul, but that's almost done now. Fun challenge for me: Tying events of the Silent Kingdom, through this story, to events of games that came out after I actually wrote them in the first place, and making it seem natural, like that's what I intended from the start. You'll see some of that in this chapter.
Chapter 6: Plans Within Plans
Upon returning to the castle, Queen Zelda had ordered that the information lockdown continue regarding the events of the day. If it got out that the princess had been abducted right out of her own castle, it could have severe political repercussions, especially when she was planning to meet the Emperor of Riastad in such a short time. It would make her appear weak if she couldn't protect her own home. Appearing weak in front of that man could be a death sentence and not just for herself.
It was bound to leak sooner or later, but she'd like to have something to say about it first and potentially head it off. In the meantime, she now had the sudden appearance of the Gerudo to deal with. For thousands of years, they'd been believed to be extinct. Their reappearance was going to cause a stir. Hopefully a pleasant one.
She had returned to her office, drafting several letters she was going to send out before the end of the day. Warnings to the right people of what had happened, and getting some quiet eyes on the roads to try to track down the cult, and then one to Baron Ravenholt to let him know about the meeting that was going to occur on his lands.
There was a knock at the door of the office and without looking up, Zelda said, "Enter."
One figure entered, walking up to her desk, pausing to give a nod to the ninja standing guard in the corner, and then Zelda looked up.
"Vargus?" she asked, surprised at the guest, "I wasn't expecting you."
Vargus was a very old man at this point. Many centuries old, he was very much in the twilight of his life, but still served in the position of the Shadow Blade, the leader of the ninja forces that made up the royal bodyguard. Like the others of his kind, his skin was black as coal, making his bright green eyes and snow white hair stand starkly out from his flesh. His dark complexion helped somewhat hide the deep lines of age in his face, but no one would think him a young man.
He was also missing most of his right arm. During the previous war, his arm had been severed between the shoulder and elbow to prevent a toxin that had entered his blood through a wound on his forearm from killing him. Due to this and his age, he had long retired from active assignments and now served in a more managerial manner. Responsible for assignments and information, as well as training new recruits when he had the time.
His severed arm had become something of an infamous legend among recruits, as when he did have time to participate in training sessions, he'd never address recruits by name or rank, merely pointing at them with the stump and saying "You." But the knowledge he had could not be denied, and they learned to listen well to what he taught. It was a difference between Hylians living only an average of one hundred years compared to this elf that had honed his deadly craft for centuries.
Dressed as he was now, one might not assume he was as dangerous as he actually was, wearing a simple blue tunic and brown trousers, though still carrying the katana on his right hip so he could draw it with his left hand.
"Considering it is past midnight, I wasn't expecting you to still be awake. I received word through my channels of what had happened," he said, replying to Zelda as he sat down in one of the seats in front of her desk, "The princess being abducted falls on my people. I've brought about twenty veterans with me, and we're going to reinforce the guard here, help with the investigation. And also reprimand those on duty and do a full audit to see if we have any problems in the roster."
"You think there was an insider," Zelda said, reading his intentions.
"That is one possibility," Vargus said, "But getting the princess back should come first."
"Oh, that's right, I should have told you," Zelda said, remembering the earring that would have allowed her to contact him, "Link and Kilishandra followed the kidnappers to an area west of the city. I still have men combing it for clues. But all we have right now is witness reports from Gerudo travelers that say my daughter was taken through a magical portal, then Link and his group, along with the two scouts of yours, vanished in a flash of light.
"After that, Link did try to contact me with the crystal earring. I could barely hear him, but I did catch that they were all alive, including my daughter. But there was noise drowning out most of it. I didn't catch where they are, if he even said."
"Noise drowning it out likely means he was out of range and was increasing the power to try to boost the signal," Vargus said, "Probably also burned out his earring's charge in the process if it's a great distance."
The earrings were one of many designs the ninja had uncovered in the old Sheikah village in the mountains when the moved in there following the last war. Many buildings had to be rebuilt to be habitable, and some had to be completely torn down first. In the process, they had come across a sealed underground chamber in one basement. A heavily trapped and sealed vault that had taken over a month to crack into, and contained within were artifacts beyond monetary value. Weapons and tools of the previous royal bodyguard, records of their people that might lead to an explanation of why the Sheikah disappeared in the first place.
But the greatest value was in the schematics of new tools and weapons yet to be made. Designs that a genius had imagined, but were beyond the ability of engineers at the time to actually craft, and many of which were still beyond them. The earrings were but the first, allowing communication across great distances by charging a particular crystal with mana and inscribing the right enchantments upon it.
Zelda had encountered something like it before, in the form of a necklace used by lawbringers in a land across the sea, which they called soundstones. So with her permission, the ninja had recruited skilled jewelers to craft them, and help from available magicians to perform the necessary enchantments and mana charge. And another design had shown a device capable of recharging the mana without needing a magician, and they had engineers seeing about how to build it.
All together, the designs fused science and magic in a way Zelda had never seen before. There was a design for an explosive that was nothing more than concentrated mana in a glass vial that, while destructive, would also be completely stable and impossible to set off by accident, but the amount of mana required was still beyond their ability to gather.
How the Sheikah came up with these designs, they'd likely never know, but the potential for them was simply too great to not pursue. At the moment, they could only manufacture so many earrings, so only the ninja and Zelda, along with her select elite, wore them.
"If my daughter is with Link, then I'm sure they'll be on their way back here," Zelda said, "If she isn't, he'll be doing everything he can to find her, I'm certain. In the meantime, we do have two prisoners from the initial group that took her, and they are being interrogated now. I told the interrogators to inform me the instant they talked."
Vargus reached to his ear, touching the earring there and said, "Marcus… Yeah, it's me. I need Saren and Lark in the capital as soon as possible. Yeah, by morning if they can. Thanks." He then lowered his hand, looking back at Zelda. "Nothing against the Hylians, but those two are more likely to get the answers we need. I'd have brought them with me if I'd known."
Zelda sighed. She knew the two he was referring to. She detested torture as a rule. It was messy, and too easy to make the victims confess to anything just to make it stop. But Saren and Lark were masters of the art. They knew exactly how to push a man to the limit of his pain threshold, but not too hard past it. They knew how to avoid that very situation by hovering right at that edge of a man's limits. And they also knew how to break men that were able to resist the efforts of less skilled torturers.
"If I have to guess, they won't know where she is anyway," Zelda said, "Very likely the grunts aren't told what the boss is doing. But they may know where the main body of their group is and that could set us on the right path to rooting them out."
A ringing in her ear made her stop, and she held up a hand before Vargus could respond. A touch of the earring and a voice in her ear could be heard.
"Your majesty, this is Karlic, one of the scouts following the Gerudo."
The Gerudo had said they'd likely arrive in the evening, but the sun was down and they had yet to show. So this was likely what had become of them, she surmised. "Report," she said.
"They told the truth about their numbers," the voice in her ear said, "Less than thirty altogether. They've made camp about an hour from the city. Seems there's a few upset that they didn't make it to the city before the sun went down. Probably slower going than they expected. And they know the gates all close at sundown."
"So I can expect them in the morning then," Zelda said, "Just keep a watch on them, but don't let them know you're there."
"As you command, your majesty," the voice said, and faded as the contact was broken.
Zelda lowered her hand and leaned her head back against the back of her chair, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath.
"Are you feeling alright, your majesty?" Vargus asked.
"Let's see," Zelda said, turning her head to look at him, "My daughter has been kidnapped by a death cult that has been killing innocents for the past several months, a very big and scary neighboring empire is eyeballing me, and to top it off, an extinct race has turned up on my doorstep. To be fair, they at least seem friendly, but now we have to start a very long and often painful process of introducing and integrating an entirely new culture with our existing ones. And because I'm the queen and the way my people see me has a massive effect on both willingness to serve and morale, I must put on a strong face in spite of all this no matter how I actually feel. So to answer your question, other than all that, yes, I think I'm just fine."
Her tone had grown steadily harsher and more angry as she spoke, only to sink back with a defeated sigh. Vargus was one of the few people she trusted enough to show her true feelings in front of, but it made her feel guilty to throw it all at him like that.
"Sorry about that," she said.
"The situation is stressful, I understand that," Vargus said as he rose to his feet, "You may want to get some rest while you can. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check on your interrogators and make sure they don't do any permanent damage before Saren and Lark arrive."
Zelda nodded and Vargus made a quick bow before turning to leave the room.
Rest wasn't going to do much at this point, she thought to herself. All the anxiety, and fear for her daughter, would likely keep her awake long into the night. This wasn't the first time she'd been under such pressure, but the best outlet for her stress was no longer around.
Arthur, the father of her children, had also had an almost magic touch when he'd give her a massage. It was difficult to put into words how effective it was for easing not just physical pains, but mental ones as well under the practiced hands of a man who knew exactly where and how to do such work.
She sighed, having only added another downer on top of her already low mood. She wrapped her arms across her chest, holding each of her own shoulders with the opposite hand, and closed her eyes, trying to at least find the warmth of the memory of his arms around her.
"I miss you, love," she whispered, "But I still have so much work to do yet."
When the sun had come up, Link had given the order to move out, the group leaving the cave and setting out through the jungle. A short climb up a tree, and Lilith was able to spot the sun, determining their direction, and Link was ready to march them north when Lilith called down something else.
"I thought you said the Narak were tribal," she called down.
"They are," Link said, looking up toward her.
"Then what's the massive city over to our northeast?" she said back down.
"Well, if it's what I think it is, I know where we are now," Link said. Deciding he needed to see it himself, he reached up to a branch, grabbing hold and climbing up the tree himself. As he reached up, Lilith leaned down to grab his hand and help him up to her level.
Link sighed as he turned to see it in the distance. Massive stone walls, overgrown with moss, and a rising pyramid structure visible within. It was so massive, it was visible even at this distance, but he guessed it was a good forty to fifty miles away from them.
"It's not a city, it's a temple," Link said, "And more ancient than any standing structure in Hyrule. The ancient Narak, and some of the modern ones, worship a spirit in the jungle they believe is a god."
"Really..." Lilith said, "And the ancients built that…? It's bigger than our capital."
"That it is," Link said, "And it's a deadly maze of traps inside."
"Why would a temple be trapped?" Lilith asked.
"I don't know the fully history, but it ties to what I mentioned before, about the human sacrifice," Link said, "As part of those sacrifices, the victims would be turned loose inside, likely on the promise that if they made it out, they'd be spared."
"The Narak are just unpleasant people all round, aren't they?" Lilith said.
"Pretty much," Link said as he started to descend the tree, then paused, "Well, there is the Maraz tribe. They're decent enough, but that's likely just because Chief Hoots owes his life to Kilishandra and myself. Long story, I'll tell you later."
Link dropped from the tree, landing with a grunt at the sharp pain in his knees and reaching out for the tree trunk for balance. Kilishandra moved to him, reaching out to help, but he waved her off. The other members of the group were waiting close by and turned at his landing.
"I'm fine," Link said, "Just my knees. Nothing a soak in the Ordon hot spring won't cure."
"We didn't get a chance for our usual stop there," Kilishandra said, "You need to be more careful. You're not as young as you used to be."
"Yeah, and I've tried to cripple myself almost daily for most of my life," Link said, "I know."
"So what was it you saw?" Kilishandra asked.
"That big temple, what's it called..." Link said.
"Don't look at me," Kilishandra said, "I'm not even going to try to pronounce that crap."
"But it's off on the northeast horizon," Link said, "About fifty miles or so."
"That means we're sandwiched right between Goreg and Malta lands," Kilishandra said and then sighed.
"Is that bad?" Lance asked as Lilith descended from the tree, landing next to Link with almost no sound.
"Well, both tribes will kill us on sight," Link said, "But the Malta are a much bigger tribe, and they're the ones that occupy that temple at present. Even with Kili here, they'd likely overwhelm us with sheer numbers."
Areil was standing to his right, and had been keeping an eye on the surrounding, but that caused her to turn, looking at Kilishandra. "Throwing fire might be dangerous in this jungle," she said.
"Oh, I can do more than fire," Kilishandra said, "But the real problem is stamina. Magic is very taxing on the body, and while I can last longer than most, a long and sustained fight will drain me."
"And the Narak don't fight like Hylians," Link said, "They come in small groups, circle around you and move in from every direction. They know the jungle and how to use it. Even if we can kill a hundred easily, they'll keep coming for hours, exhausting us all."
"So we go for the Goreg lands, then, if they are fewer?" Damien said.
"Our best hope is to not be spotted at all," Link said, and pointed north, "We slip through on the borders of their lands, and aim for Maraz territory. From here, it should take us four days or so to reach them, and from there another week to reach the border between Zitheria and the Empire. Once we're in imperial lands, we'll be much safer."
"In that case, we're going to need to find food and water," Natalya said, "There are some fruits in these trees..."
"Nope," Link said, looking up, "They're all red fruits. Red fruits in Zitheria are all highly poisonous. Not exactly fatal, but blindness, diarrhea, and so on. And the Narak use them to make an oil that they dip their arrowheads in, which is boiled down and far stronger. It is fatal. They won't use that on us, though."
"Why not?" Lilith asked.
"Because they'd want to eat us," Link said.
"Not sure I find that comforting," Lilith said.
"We'll be alright," Link said, clapping her on the shoulder, "All we have to do is stick together and watch each other. Now, if I'm remembering correctly, I think there is a river in that general direction, so we can get some water and breakfast."
He pointed into the trees, in a northwestern direction, as he said this, and then motioned for the others to follow as he started walking.
"At least we're finally moving," Damien muttered as they moved.
"Ease up, man," Lance said to him, "Nothing we can do to help it now, so you might as well calm down."
"Yeah, I know," Damien said with a sigh, "I just… No, nevermind."
Lance looked over at him, but didn't press. Damien was clearly still angry about what happened, but pushing him about it wasn't going to help. The rest of the party was walking in silence, so they fell quiet as well, ears open to the jungle around them, listening for anything that could be a warning of danger in this unsafe land. Areil looked like the most uncomfortable among them, no doubt being used to the dryness of the Gerudo Desert, this humidity must feel like she was practically underwater. The dark elf twins didn't look much better, wearing that black armor, and darker colors had a tendency to not breathe as well, on top of it being hard leather.
But as they walked, Lance couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't that far away. They'd seen the masked woman take the princess through a portal, and he'd seen a jungle through that portal. It was possible she was closer than they even realized.
In their dark hideaway, the series of tunnels kept secret from outsiders, Vaati sat alone in his chambers at the small table, an empty plate before him as he leaned back with his eyes closed. To a casual observer, it may have looked as if he'd fallen asleep in his seat, but the truth was he was in a form of meditation. When one had lived as long as he had, it took time to collect his thoughts and memories. More than once, he'd been lost in his own ocean of memories and it nearly cost him his life because of how long it took him to recover.
And the key to defeating that was a form of meditation in which he partitioned his conscious mind from his own memories, in order to safely sort and push them away. To describe it to someone who had never experienced it, it could be seen as sorted them like books on a library shelf, so that he could find them when he needed them. He dared not simply forget anything, should he need it in the future.
To put it simply, his own vast ocean of knowledge was attempting to drive him insane, and only this careful form of sorting his memories staved that off.
His meditation was interrupted by a pounding fist on his door. The thralls knew better than to interrupt him at this time, he thought as he sat up, opening his eyes and rising from the chair. That meant there were only two people who would dare to do so, and neither of them should even be here.
He walked to do the door and pulled it open to see the face of none other than Princess Zelda waiting for him. But naturally it was not her. Six had returned unexpectedly, but he took note of the bundle of clothing under her arm. She'd completed that task, at least.
"What are you doing back here?" he asked, looking at her as she stood nearly double his height.
"Ask your ghost friend," Six growled, "He's the one who called me back."
Said ghost was always listening in, and the glass shards on the table emitted a faint glow, a second later the dark silhouette of the otherworldly being rising from them.
"It was the only way to save her life," the spirit said.
"Did they learn your identity?" Vaati asked Six as he slowly walked back to the table and sat down, "I warned you that Kilishandra was a real danger to even your state."
"Not her," Six said, "It was a man. Big one, like almost eight feet tall. Couldn't see his face clearly in the dark, but he evidently scared the hell out of ghost boy."
"How did you even see what was going on?" Vaati asked toward the ghost, "I thought you were confined to Limbo and the shards of this crystal ball were your only link to us."
"My knowledge and power went into the creation of Six," the ghost said, "Part of the process you performed linked her to me. I see through her eyes as if they were my own."
"The hell you say?!" Six said, anger rising in her voice.
Vaati raised one hand to her, and she growled but just dropped the clothing bundle, crossing her arms angrily.
"You did not mention this when I went through the process to create her," Vaati said, "I don't like my supposed ally keeping secrets from me."
"I did tell you about the last creature like this I made," the ghost said, "He broke free of our control and became a hindrance. There's no way I'd let another one walk free without a leash."
"This one also hasn't been tortured from the moment she was conscious," Vaati said, "She's been properly raised and trained by me. I've put twenty years of effort into her and this plan and will not have you jeopardize it because of mistrust. You will sever this connection immediately."
"Sorry, I'm afraid I cannot do that in my current state," the ghost said, "Once I walk the living world again, however, it will be a simple matter."
"Fine," Vaati said, "But once I have completed the preparation for your return, you will release her."
"The sooner, the better, I say," the ghost said.
"In the meantime, just accept that you have an audience," Vaati said to Six, then turned back to the ghost, "Now what about this man she encountered. You know him?"
"A powerful wizard, not as mighty as Kilishandra, but too much for Six to handle on her own," the ghost said, "If he learns her true identity, she'll be just as dead as if Kilishandra does."
"He kept me from killing the actual princess," Six said, "And she's not far from those knights will have landed."
"True enough," Vaati said, "We might get lucky and the Narak will kill her first, and then eat the evidence, but I don't think we can count on that if this wizard gets involved. Did this wizard step in to protect the princess?"
"I'm not sure," Six said, "He seemed ready for a fight, but I don't think she knew him. I had to use my last crystal to teleport away."
"He likely sensed your arrival from the portal and was simply investigating the magical disturbance," the ghost said, "In any case, I think we should expect him to take her in his protection. She'll live."
"If the knights find her, then the whole plan is ruined!" Six said.
Vaati slowly rubbed his chin, deep in thought, then looked toward the ghost. "What about me? How do you think I'll fare against him?"
"I'm afraid while he may not be as powerful as Kilishandra, the result of direct magic battle will be the same," the ghost said, "Wind magic is your specialty, and you know it is a poor counter to lightning and fire."
"Ugh, brute force like that, I'd hardly call it magic," Vaati said, "But you're right. Once you're with us, will you be able to deal with him?"
"I'll need time to prepare," the ghost said, "He bested me last time because he backed me into a corner. I'm not going to let it happen again. But with enough time, even the most powerful sorcerers can be unmade with a clever trap."
"We might not have that time," Six said.
"If the knights find the real princess, we simply move to the backup plan," Vaati said, motioning with one hand for her to calm down, "As long as I've lived, something I've become very good at is staying alive. When it comes to making plans, always expect your first plan to fail. And for good measure, expect the next five to fail as well. Always have a backup."
"You didn't tell me there was a backup plan," Six said.
"Because I still wanted the first to succeed, if at all possible," Vaati said, "The backup plan involves a lot more of that gruesomeness in other hall out there."
"The necromancy," Six said, confirming it.
"Aye," Vaati said with a sigh, "I said I was willing to do anything to make this succeed, though."
"Just finish the current task," the ghost said, "Once I walk the world of the living again, I will deal with the wizard, and the knights. Even if they find the real princess, no one will know if they never leave Zitheria."
"A shame," Vaati said, "Link and Kilishandra both would be quite useful if they could be brought around."
"You'd be wasting your time," the ghost said, "Kilishandra, maybe, but she's bound to Link now, and his personal morals are unshakable. Like I said before, he may not possess magic like she does, but he is far more dangerous in the long run."
"Well, just so we're clear," Vaati said, pointing at the ghost, "Any more secrets from you and you're done. You won't get what you want without my help."
"And you think you'll be able to get your hands on Hyrule and the Triforce without me?" the ghost would have been sneering if they could see it.
"Like I said, always have a backup plan," Vaati said.
"So what should I do now?" Six asked.
"Stay here for the next few days," Vaati said, "We're almost ready for the ritual, and the last ones we need should be here tomorrow, and then we'll see where we go from there."
"The last ones..." Six said, turning and looking out the open door into the large open cavern, "You mean all those pregnant women the thralls have tied up out there."
"Yes," Vaati said, "Like I said before, necromancy is truly a disgusting thing."
"That's why you need me," the ghost said, "Because I'll do the things you're not willing to."
Even Six, who could kill without conscience and had no stomach, still felt as if hers was turning over at the thought of it. The thralls, in the white robes and masks, were preparing the ritual circle in front of all those women. The women cried, begging to be freed, praying for someone to come for them, some even calling for their husbands or sons by name. Others just sat there, staring into space, having completely given up.
And all of them sat there in the shadow of the altar, lit by the two blazing fires on either side of the sacrificial slab. Above it towered the idol of the god that the thralls had been groomed into worship. Six had asked Vaati if it was even real, and he had waited a moment, then simply whispered, "Yes. I've seen it."
The idol towered nearly fifteen feet up, the head almost at the ceiling of the cave. The body was indistinct. There was a shape, but it was overly long, and many folds of dark fabric wrapped the altar, which was meant to represent the fact it was either covered by a dark smoke, or the smoke was its body, constantly changing shape. But the face was the most disturbing part. Like a great beast, a snout like a pig but fangs like a crocodile, and two enormous tusks from either side of its jaw. The eyes of the altar burned brightly, lit by flames within the head itself that the thralls climbed up to refuel each day. It gave it an ominous feeling that it was somehow alive, though it was only carved from stone, as the light of its vision shifted and danced on the ceiling.
But it was just a part of the plan. If that thing was real, there was no plan to actually loose it on the world, in spite of what the thralls were told.
Six was not human. She had no blood, no bones, nothing of the sort within her body. And yet she felt something that humans would describe as a chill running down her spine just imagining meeting a creature like that. Just the knowledge that it actually existed was bad enough.
She wondered if Vaati had told the truth, if he had actually seen it. She wondered if anyone had ever seen a creature such as that.
The Sages lived apart from the populace of the world. They were not the first of their kind, the offices passing down through the generations for over thousands of years, since before the founding of Hyrule. One who had remained far longer than he should have was the old Sage of Light. The name he had given when meeting the Hero of Time four thousand years ago had be Rauru, though that was not his original name.
Originally known as Darius, he was more ancient than any had known at that time. A hero of an ancient war that had occurred more than eight thousand years ago, he had been instrumental in founding the circle of Sages, as well as maintaining peace through the passage of time, and he had lent his knowledge and power in the fight against Ganondorf, the King of Evil, more than once.
In his own words, he had lived far beyond what he should have, and his own body was a desiccated husk when Queen Zelda first met him, slowly crumbling to ash before her very eyes. He had perished almost three decades ago, slain in battle with the devil goddess Shaklator, and his office passed to the next chosen for the role.
She was Sheila Anthress. The new Sage of Light, she was opposite of what the Sages were used to in that office. While the previous had been the oldest and most experience of the Sages, the guide and teacher for them all, now the Sage of Light was the youngest of them all, and the one they were teaching.
It was not as though she was a poor Sage. In fact, the other five all felt she had done very well, having to step into the role and immediately join the fight against the devil goddess, and she had risen to the challenge admirably.
What the Sages felt she lacked was the separation from her old life the office required. The Sages, by necessity, lived separate from the world at large, because they frequently had to make decisions that they could not allow personal feelings to affect. Their primary task was to protect the world from outside forces, creatures and beings beyond the comprehension of most, by keeping such things out. Fear for individuals of personal attachment could compromise them and cause them to make poor decisions in this regard.
This was why one of their greatest laws was that they could not interfere with the battles of mortals unless it threatened the world itself, as the battle against Ganondorf did millennia ago.
The other Sages felt Sheila had not distanced herself enough from the mortal world. She remained in regular contact with Queen Zelda of Hyrule, even just for friendly visits, and while she had not been able to be there for him much of his life, refused to completely step out of the life of her son, Damien.
But when she took the office, she took the oath, that her life was no longer her own and belonged to the world as a whole, same as they all did, and it was recorded by Eternity, the Goddess of Time herself. If she violated that oath, it would be the gods who struck her down, that had never happened, so she must be committed to her task in spite of all this.
As the decades passed, Sheila had gained more and more of the shared power of the Sages. The accumulated knowledge of all the past Sages was available to them, and amplified her already impressive magical skill with the power of all those that came before, including Darius himself. She could leaf through his memories, or any other past Sage, like the pages of a book.
And it was from these memories that she had come upon the most terrifying knowledge she had ever encountered.
Long, long ago, in ages beyond reckoning, before the ancient war, before the time of Darius, and before the world even bore the shape it did now, before the time of first Sages, there was another civilization, now lost even to legend. Even what the Sages knew was nothing but hearsay and speculation. But some things from that ancient time were very real.
One was the weapon called the Master Sword. Darius had named it Silver Fang in his time, but its name was ultimately irrelevant. It was a weapon more ancient than most mortals could comprehend, a product of that ancient lost civilization, and it was a vital tool in the ongoing battle against the darkness.
It was known as the weapon that could slay all evil, and most importantly, it could neutralize the power of the golden Triforce when that power was wielded by evil. This was what gave it the power to piece the dark magicks used by Ganondorf in his ancient battle against the Hero of Time.
Though even as she thought this, the memories of the Sages she knew of the King of Evil from, he was a very different man from the one she had met thirty years ago.
The man who was the father of her son.
And the answer to the change of his character was the other thing from that ancient time that now lay before her. She stood on a high cliff, inside the golden lands known to mortals of the world as the Sacred Realm. The land had been the seat from which the golden goddesses had done their work, creating the world and the creatures that inhabited it, and then they had departed, leaving the world to the mortals, watched over by other gods, including the younger, gentler goddess Hylia.
It was a land that was both part of the world and separate from it. Just as the three golden goddesses had numbered, there were three gateways from the world to the Sacred Realm, and Sheila knew all were closed at this time, and that was perhaps the only thing protecting the world from the monster that lay before her.
When Ganondorf had first been contained in the Sacred Realm by Darius and the other Sages with the Hero of Time, he had fought against the imprisonment, driven into a rage that had consumed his mind. Many, many centuries later, he would recover from this, but have no memory of what had transpired, and would believe he had gone insane and then found himself again. He was not entirely wrong in that assessment, but that gap remained a permanent blank spot in his memory.
During this time, the Sages had seen what was transpiring and worked to actually help him. With their aid, it was a great darkness that was pulled from him that allowed him to recover himself, and the action left a dark scar on the Sacred Realm itself. A large swatch of the land was stained black, any creature that attempted to enter that darkness was consumed by it. In the time following Ganondorf's escape from the Sacred Realm, things began to come back out of it. Monsters of various shapes and sizes, though most significant and deadly were the ones that resembled Ganondorf himself, or more precisely, the beast that legend simply called Ganon, in all its forms.
And recently, those creatures returned to the darkness, as if pulled by an irresistible force, becoming a part of that darkness once again.
What was this darkness? Sheila had a theory as she stared down into it. It had been a part of Ganondorf, and she believed the separation from it was what eventually allowed him to recover not just his sanity, but to grow into the person she had known. It had taken time. At one point, the Sages had given up on him ever reforming and attempted to execute him, but their failure at that may have been what finally started it. To hear Ganondorf say it, it had been his adopted daughter, seeing himself in her, and realizing what he had become that had finally started that salvation.
But this darkness was more ancient than the man it had appeared from. It was more ancient than Hyrule and the Sages themselves.
In the lost history, what she had been able to piece together, there had been a being of pure, unrelenting darkness and evil that had been struck down by a hero wielding the Master Sword, just as the Hero of Time had struck down Ganondorf himself. That being's physical body had been destroyed, but its soul lived on, and with its final breath, cursed the hero and his allies, so that the being of darkness would one day be reincarnated in mortal flesh, and he would forever torment the hero's descendants. That reincarnation had been Ganondorf.
And Sheila believed this darkness before her was that darkness, the soul of the ancient being, reincarnated but then had been separated from the mortal form it had taken, ending the time of the King of Evil and allowing Ganondorf the man to eventually find himself and be free of that dark fate.
The darkness shifted before her, a shape she couldn't make out moving within it, and then two slits of light appeared, widening with a yellow glow. They were eyes, staring straight at her.
"When one gazes long into darkness, that darkness gazes back," Sheila whispered, "Isn't that right, Demise?"