Chapter 3: Somewhere in the Gerudo Desert...
Florian remained trapped on the inside, looking out. A helpless prisoner in his own body. The outside world seemed muted and dim, made blurry by dirt, sweat and blood. He doubted he had the strength left to wipe any of it away from his face. Not that the evil entity puppeteering his body would allow it. And it certainly didn't care. He was so tired. And the pain never stopped in the parts of his body he could still feel.
The entity had literally dragged him into a deep, underground dark chamber. Light shone down from the glowing orb hovering high above in the room – a blue moonstone. The largest he'd ever seen. He'd stolen it from the home of the Sheikah chief in Kakariko village. Guilt ravaged him at the thought, along with what he had been forced to do to get it. He tried to busy his mind by taking in the sparse details of the rest of the chamber.
The room was circular, made of solid rock with no windows. Directly in front of him was a simple altar that had acted as a resting place for the moonstone orb. Carved into the rock wall beyond that was a dark flourishing swirl. He was certain it was the symbol of space. There were two swirling flourishes carved into the wall on either side of him in his periphery vision as well.
As light from the orb began to glow brighter, the globe itself began to look more and more like an actual moon nestled in a pocket of night sky and clouds. Florian was stunned and awed. He had never seen magic like this before. The orb appeared to be emulating the real moon and even the night sky on the surface. He wondered if it actually was nighttime outside the chamber. Slowly, the moon seemed to be moving to better center itself and its light directly over an ominous opening in the floor of the room, right behind the altar.
The entity had forced him to stand stiffly for hours before the altar and the hole in the ground. The large cavity was perfectly round, set deep in an enormous scorched black crescent marking. An all-encompassing blackness darker than any shadow, dark corner, or moonless night he'd ever seen filled the hole. Whenever firelight shone on it from his now-dead torch or the moonlight like now, the light hovered strangely just above its impenetrable surface.
Fatigue weighed down on his body heavily. He remembered stealing the orb. The desert… Blackout… Someone screaming… More blackouts… Pain… Insects buzzing loudly in his ears… Strange masks and muffled voices speaking in worship…. The terror of falling…Then moving through more darkness… The order of it all left him uncertain. He didn't even remember walking into this room. The entity eagerly seemed to be waiting for something. Florian, on the other hand, was waiting for the nightmare to end. His body couldn't take too much more. He was certain the entity hadn't fed him or given him a drop to drink in days based on the way he felt. Although food and drink could likely do little to stop his declining health, which he believed was being caused by the entity's poisonous presence in his body.
The entity continued to force him to look upon the moon. Clouds had begun to drift in front of its gleaming face - slowly and then more swiftly. Florian watched as the celestial body was unveiled as something more otherworldly and bloody. Red mist drifted down, and time seemed to slow. He wanted to cry out in pain as the entity finally forced his stiff body to move forward. It felt as though his muscles were being peeled off his bones. Did the entity plan to throw him in the hole never to be seen again? Florian struggled against the entity more forcefully than he had in days. He threw his will against the vice grip entwined around every nerve in his body like barbed stingers. The pain was staggering.
The entity didn't even bother to swat away his efforts. It could care less about his still lingering presence. This was the moment it had been waiting for.
A red light shone on the black pool from the blood moon. The entity pulled out the dual shot knife and raised one of Florian's hands. Florian watched helplessly. His hand was deathly pale beneath the dirt and grime. The skin seemed bloated; something beneath began to writhe and pulse. Florian begged and pleaded. The entity plunged the knife into his palm, and the skin almost seemed to explode. Glowing sanguine purple blood spurted out. The heartless parasite within him flung the wounded hand forward, and blood splattered against the surface of the pool. Florian drifted in and out of consciousness for several minutes before desperately grasping onto wakefulness again.
He felt his mouth being moved and heard parts of an incantation being said. The entire pool began to glow the same color as the blood moonlight. Florian was horrified when something began to rise slowly from its shadowy depths. A feminine shape completely unadorned and coated in the tarry darkness rose from its center.
The young man recoiled inside as he was forced to bow, and the entity spoke using his voice. Sure of itself, deep and smooth.
"Goddess Vyomi… as always, I am honored by your presence."
The woman glistened in the red moonlight, smooth and polished. Her body sculpted of the blackness of the pool then wrapped in light. The expression on her face was impassive. Her dark hair floated weightless like smoke around her face. Noiselessly, she began to hover above the pool and then came to sit on some invisible seat only she could see. She reclined with the same lazy, graceful motion of the clouds that had drifted across the moon only moments before.
"Ganon, Chosen of Din," the Goddess addressed him formally. Her voice was chilly as the night air. The sclera of her eyes had taken on the same red shining light filling the room, while her irises and pupils appeared as black gaping holes. "What is it that you want?"
Florian's stomach dropped upon hearing Ganon's name uttered. He'd known that this was the true identity of the entity. He dreaded hearing it confirmed. Florian felt terrified and more vulnerable than he thought possible standing before the Goddess, even though she was speaking to Ganon and not him. He'd never felt so helpless and unimportant. His childhood interest in monsters suddenly felt terrifying and very real.
He was not supposed to be there… and yet he was. His mind went back to Princess Zelda and the deity book he'd found. This meeting clearly answered questions that the ancient text written by the sage had not. Where was the book anyway?
Florian recalled Ganon attempting to burn the book soon after taking control of his body. As Florian suspected the book was enchanted and had survived that attempt at its destruction. It also told Florian he was not yet in his full power, and there was still time to stop him.
Florian wanted to look for the book, but his eyes were well trained on the Goddess. Inconveniently, fogginess had started to cloud his mind again. He fought to stay alert. Even if he did lose consciousness, Ganon would continue to puppet his body, but he would lose out on the opportunity to learn important information that could help Hyrule… possibly himself. He needed to survive long enough to tell someone what was happening. He forced himself to remember. When he came into the chamber initially, he still had his satchel backpack. Ganon had forced him to drop it to the floor. The book was there some where.
Florian's thoughts went back to the Goddess when the muscles in his face pulled back involuntarily into a wide smile.
"I respectfully request to reinstate the terms of the last contract made for the Unwanted Ones," Ganon stated calmly.
The Goddess seemed to be expecting his request.
"The Nulli," she emphasized in correction, "are not welcome in Hyrule. The World of Light wanted nothing to do with them, and the Nulli care nothing about the concerns of this world." She relaxed further in her unseen seat as she spoke. "Our last contract and each previous one, has always entailed that they would be under your command until the end of one of your campaigns - win or lose. As I recall, you lost... again."
Ganon was undeterred. The pleasant smile remained etched on his borrowed face, though the muscles had tensed. "So true, and sadly your Nulli remain banished by the three Goddesses. But I'm quite certain they would still like to return to Hyrule. Otherwise, you wouldn't have bothered to entertain this meeting."
A small smile, genuine and terrible, bloomed on the Goddess's face at the same time the wall in her demeanor dropped. The subtle distinction in her dark façade was visible only because of the light glistening off it.
"I'm very much aware of your current plans for Hyrule. I didn't make this world, and what becomes of it isn't for me to say."
"Interesting, considering our many previous arrangements and you being a servant of the Goddesses," Ganon replied. His voice was confident, and the smile on his face took on a new nuance. Almost lascivious. Like a man taunting an old lover about previous liaisons that he knew the other party would much prefer to forget. For a moment, the darkness in the room seemed to strangle what light was present. The Goddess's smile didn't change, but her eyes seemed to blacken if such a thing were possible. Her voice was a thing of poise, tension, and control.
"True, I'm their servant, and because of that, I can't go against the Goddesses by directly allowing the Nulli to enter Hyrule. And I never have. "
Ganon continued charmingly. "Well, as one chosen and deemed worthy of the Triforce of Power by the Goddess Din, if I were to invite the Nulli into Hyrule in service to me, they wouldn't be trespassing."
The Goddess nodded impatiently. "This has always been so. And would the services you require be anything different this time around?"
"Their will must be mine. Fully and completely. I still require an army," he answered.
"As is always the case in war," the Goddess responded in rote fashion. "I'm inclined to grant your request under one condition."
Ganon tilted Florian's head to give the Goddess something of a sidelong glance. Vyomi continued to state her terms of the agreement.
"My Nulli will cross into Hyrule at your summons at the next blood moon. Their volition will be yours to command. All but one. You will allow this One to cross with the rest of my Nulli - invited - into Hyrule - free will intact."
The expression on Ganon's face became one of suspicion and consideration. Vyomi maintained her casual posture and a more neutral expression than before. It would seem to Florian her proposed condition was apparently something new than in previous dealings. The Goddess seemed intent on guiding Ganon's thought process.
"You know, I hear Princess Zelda has had difficulty awakening her spiritual powers," she said, breaking the silence. "So fortuitous." The Goddess continued her musings. "Historically her powers have an incapacitating, rather binding effect. But who can say if those powers will ever awaken? Tomorrow, weeks or years from now, maybe never. Although I can't recall a time when they haven't. Can you?"
The muscle tension in Florian's body suddenly became more agonizing, and he thought his tightly clenched teeth would shatter.
"What becomes of your war when they do?" the Goddess crooned. She didn't wait for Ganon's response.
"My Nulli, although banished from the light, are hardy and strong, making excellent storage vessels for your power. If they fall in battle, their spirits will return to the Nulli Void and reincarnate at the next blood moon." The dark, bottomless pits serving as the Goddess's eyes dragged over Florian's ravaged form. "Meanwhile, that vessel you are currently puppeteering is frail and quickly failing...all over the floor." She turned her head to give the blood moon a pointed look. "This could be your one and only chance to secure a new contract with me before the Princess's Awakening."
Ganon forcefully smiled before answering. Internally, Florian had panicked at hearing the Goddess's disparaging assessment of his physical condition, but perhaps it fitted that he should appear as horrific as the occasion. This deity was, in fact, the mother of nightmares, and Ganon intended to unleash them once again upon Hyrule after 10,000 years.
"Dear Goddess, your points are well taken. Time is of the essence." Ganon continued, some of the pomp in his voice gone. "As before, our interests align. I will agree to your One Nulli. But if your One dies in Hyrule, he will not reincarnate back to this World of Light from the Null Void... ever."
It was the Goddess's turn to pause for consideration.
"Done," she said finally. "A new contract has been struck. If there is nothing more…"
"Actually, Goddess," Ganon added, "I took on this facade so I could meet with you without arising suspicion, but as you can see…"
The Goddess understood his request and had no further desire to converse with him. She stepped down onto the surface of the black pool. Gracefully, she lifted one arm. The symbol of a black moon appeared on her hand, and a dark circle moved from her palm, wavering in the air toward Ganon. As the shadow passed over him, through him, he felt himself being pushed out of the body he was occupying. Pushed...pushed... and pushed until he found himself separated. The host body collapsed to the floor heavy like lifeless clay, and with a dull thump almost immediately. What remained of Ganon was the glowing, blood-purple mass resonating his unceasing malice for anything standing in his way.
Just before relinquishing all hold on the vessel previously housing him, he'd felt its lingering life energy dangling from a single, unraveling thread. It had served its purpose, and there was no chance of anyone finding it in its final resting place. He had no objection to it staying precisely as it laid. As for the moonstone, it was right where it belonged long before it had been misplaced by a certain meddlesome Gerudo sage.
The Goddess then plunged one of her hands deeply into the black pool beneath her feet. Its smoky surface rippled and waved. A moment later, a black shadow appeared underneath "Malice" Ganon. Dark fingers closed around his writhing form while pulling him swiftly into its murky depths.
The Goddess turned her attention to the lifeless body, left like trash on the floor of the sparse chamber. A small sigh parted her lips. There wasn't much to do about it. The blood moon was almost over, and its light was starting to bleed a pinkish red. The remains of this poor unfortunate man would have to stay where it laid. She had all but turned away and prepared to descend back to her realm when a weak, rasping voice called out to her.
"Waait... Ple-please wait."
The Goddess's eyes widened in surprise. She took a close look at the man – or rather the young man - she was all but certain moments before had been dead. His youthfulness had been lost on her when Ganon had possessed him. Suddenly, he looked much younger. He was clearly Hylian. The pointed ends of his ears made that evident. His skin looked ghostly pale and bloated. His ruined left hand still bled profusely. He didn't even seem to have the strength to lift his head, much less any other part of his body. Heavy lidded, red-rimmed eyes with dark circles stared back at her. Without a doubt, this young man should be dead, yet he was daring to lock eyes with her.
A puddle of darkness grew and expanded underneath the young man. His body trembled with terror as a shadow beneath him formed into a giant hand. Except instead of abruptly enclosing around him, it lifted him up gently and cradled him so that he could face the Goddess with more dignity.
"Don't be afraid," Vyomi said with a softness that had not been present when Ganon was still in the chamber. Her voice had become the warmth of a crackling fire in the night. "I won't harm you."
The youth seemed surprised by the stark difference. He looked at the female deity suspiciously, but when he saw no cruelty reflected back, his body hesitantly relaxed.
"Goddess Vy-vyomi…My name is Florian. I have rea-read… about…you," he said, trying to gather his strength. "And I know you revere life...of a sort. I don't understand why you agreed to help that evil creature. What he is...what he's done to me...what he would do to Hyrule."
"Is what he's always done," she said, finishing for him, seemingly unperturbed.
Florian was stunned into silence briefly. "Well, it cannot be allowed," he rasped boldly, shocked and angered by her nonplussed attitude. "If Hyrule is destroyed, then your monsters will have nothing."
The Goddess met his anger with a cold anger of her own when he'd said the word "monsters" and arrogantly presumed to tell her, Goddess of Shadow and Space, the meaning of having nothing. "Young man, I do what I do to protect the lives of those who have been undervalued. Events must play out as they are meant to so that all may eventually live equally in harmony. And I will play my role in this cycle, as I have every other one until this end result is achieved."
Florian stared back at her, confused and still angry, but forced himself to bite his tongue. She turned her head to look pointedly at the moon, and it's dwindling blood light before turning back to him. "There's not much time left for you or me in this world tonight. However, I believe I can help save you if you are willing to trade something of value."
"Then please send me to the Spring of Power," Florian blurted out, feeling foolish almost immediately at his obviousness. Florian wasn't entirely sure where Princess Zelda was currently, but he'd heard King Rhoam had commanded that she resume her spiritual training full time. The Princess was sure to be at one of the three springs of the Golden Goddesses.
The Goddess in front of him laughed. It wasn't a bitter laugh, but the kind one might make at a naïve child asking for something silly. "A bargain must be reasonable and always include a fair exchange. I won't send you there, or to any other place the Princess is likely to be right now," she responded. "But what I am willing to do is send you to a place of healing. And in return, you will not speak of me, Ganon, our dealings, nor this chamber."
Florian slumped some at hearing Vyomi's response, even if he wasn't surprised. Not wasting any time, he scraped for resolve. "Goddess, I can't agree with this."
"Then that leaves one of us in quite the dilemma," she said matter of fact. "You can stay here and die alone where no one will ever find you, or you can go home to your loved ones and be fortunate enough to have walked away from this wretched experience."
"Please, if you send me to my village, I will... gladly give you my tongue," he sputtered impulsively once more.
The deity stared at him now. "Do you really think me a collector of dreary, gory things?"
Florian squirmed uncomfortably in the unrelenting pull of her dark gaze. His mind went to the monsters she seemed so strangely protective of and whom he'd once been so fascinated by. He found himself sputtering for an answer, but to his credit, he didn't drop his eyes.
Vyomi smirked as though having read his thoughts. "Well, I'd say my monsters are more useful than your tongue. You can keep the pink squiggling thing for whatever good it seems to be doing you."
The moonlight had become a light pink, but despite this, the Goddess took time to note the young man's adamant refusal of her offer. He didn't seem to want to have any more magical workings placed upon him that might bind his will, and would first give up bodily pieces of himself. She supposed she couldn't blame him considering everything she'd imagine he'd likely been through. The vastness within her suddenly overflowed with empathy but was mostly staunched when she noticed the bokoblin tooth hanging around his neck. An idea formed in her mind.
Florian's eyes turned to the fading moonlight. The moon's lifeblood almost wholly drained and returned to the color of a pale white bone. It was taking all his strength to keep his lids from closing forever. He felt himself fading away. Panicked, he began to look for his bag. He needed something to hold on to and started to reach for it weakly in vain. The Goddess shook her head in refusal and then spoke again. She pointed at his satchel and then the moon once more. He strained to hear her voice, which seemed further and further away.
"I will send you where your body can recover…but if you should speak of that which you shouldn't, you will…And not well…As for both your hands, should you write with either… And finally, you and any descendants in your familial line… tethers… In return, I will allow you to keep…"
The young man's breathing was starting to become more labored, but he still seemed ready to argue. The Goddess raised her hand in authority.
"Enough. Your answer. Now."
Vyomi watched as the dying youth drew upon his final reserves before responding. The Goddess of Courage would likely have been proud. Vyomi saw only desperation… and a new opportunity to be seized.
