Chapter 12: Denizens

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…

Link took some time before he was able to talk again. His voice shook as he recounted what little of his dreams he could. He had to remind her of Airman Jared, an engineer's mate from the Airliner vessel Cloud Moon. The same Cloud Moon that, two years ago, had been shot down by Skyrider airships drafted into a navy formed by a creature posing as Princess Zelda. Airman Jared had been the only crewman to survive the ship's landing in the ocean. Link had been onboard the S.E.S. Goddess's Tides, a steamer vessel on the surface, when the ship encountered the Cloud Moon. Airman Jared had been taken to the Goddess's Tides and treated in the infirmary. However, his injuries had been fatal. In addition to that vision, he told her about seeing the wreckage of the Horizon's Eye, a Sorian vessel that had been shot down not long after the Island Sonata. He knew Sorians had died on that ship, and he also knew that one of the four crewmen he had had for that journey had also died on that ship.

These two attacks had the same source: a bird demon called Cunimincus. The captain of a ship known as the Smiling Gunner, he and his crew had been imprisoned around Forelight Island until two years ago, when his crew had escaped on the Horizon's Eye before scuttling the ship. One of them, posing as Princess Zelda, had seized control of the throne and taken control of the Skyriders using their captains' loyalty to the crown against them. Cunimincus himself had once talked to Link while both of them were plunging from the sky. That had been the voice speaking to him at the end. Link did not know how much Cunimincus had read his mind back then, and he began to fear that, if Cunimincus was not dead, he knew everything about Link.

Irleen, however, had a vastly different opinion of Link's experience.

"It was just a dream, Link."

Link had his face pressed in his hands while he sat huddled against the wall on the bed. He raised his head and asked, "How do you know?"

"What do you mean 'how do I know'? Link, I've seen you having visions before. This isn't one of those times."

"You said the same thing when I was sharing dreams with Princess Zelda," Link pointed out.

"And I corrected myself when we found out it was true," she countered. "But, Link, you don't simply become a seer."

"I didn't say it was a vision," Link said. "I'm saying… I think—I think Cunimincus is still alive."

"Nuh uh," Irleen responded as she floated over to him. "Sorry, Link, but I'm not trusting your dreams this time."

"Why? I told you before that Cunimincus talked to me. You believed me then."

"Because magic won't simply allow a person to talk to another in their sleep," Irleen explained as she settled down on his knee. "I've had plenty of time to remember the manuals I read about telepathic communication since you told me about that. The number one thing that I remember is that you cannot communicate with an unconscious mind, and that includes someone who's sleeping. Words and images get confused when you're dreaming; the fact that it was all clear says that Cunimincus could not have been talking with you."

"But… Princess Zelda talked to me in my dreams."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that might be because of that gem I gave to Koroul. That gem affects conscious thoughts; it can even cause them. For those few days you were supposed to spend without your crew, you might've noticed your mind spontaneously focusing on them from time to time. At night, it would have made you think about them and end your dream; the intrusion would've been barely enough to fully wake you up. I've had a friend experiment with me using that kind of magic; I'd like to believe I know mostly how it works. The princess changed the gem when she got it. Didn't you ever notice that you'd be awake after she used it?"

Link gave her a blank look while he thought. Then he said, "I, uh… I guess."

"I remember you waking up screaming once," Irleen pointed out. "It was nothing like what you just did here. And I do know that, after that time, you were pretty tired that morning."

"Up until I fell into that… crypt thing," Link said. "I-I think I know what you're talking about."

"This whole thing you two do now, while the both of you are awake?" she said. "It wasn't intended, but it's almost exactly what the gem was made for. The only difference is that she can send her thoughts back to you."

"What about the dreams she made?" Link asked. "Where the two of us were standing on the Island Sonata?"

"You told me she had to 'fool' herself with some of those images. It sounded to me like she was sending you images of places the both of you were familiar with, or else you might not have thought about the Sonata back then. She pulled some really strange tricks, Link. I can't say whether it's all true or not, but I'm very sure that's not what's happening now. You may not realize it, but Cunimincus is missing something valuable."

"What's that?"

"An imprint of your mind. When I made that gem, I copied your mind while you were thinking about your crew. Cunimincus would have had to do the same thing. When would he have done it?"

Link slowly shook his head. "I don't know…"

"On top of it, how did Cunimincus even know what the Island Sonata looked like? There are just so many ways I can poke holes in what you experienced, Link. But the short of it is I think you simply had a nightmare."

Link leaned back against the wall and sighed with a hand pressed over his itchy eyes. "Okay, so maybe it was," he said. "It was just so… intense."

"The question is if it was just a one-time thing or you've been having issues lately," Irleen said as she rose from his knee. "Is something going on?"

Link shook his head. "Nothing in particular. I've been thinking about the Sorians lately because we've been here."

"Hmm. Maybe this place is just that creepy. You have to admit, this isn't really the kind of place you wanna fall asleep in. Deserted and drab. Us being alone here probably doesn't help things."

Link allowed himself a small smile. "Maybe." They fell into silence for a moment. That was when Link noticed a change in the sounds nearby. "Hey, do you—"

"Yeah, I hear it," Irleen said, her voice tinged with curiosity. "What is that?"

Link could not determine the sound, either. The wind had definitely died down sometime between when he had gone to sleep and when they had finished their conversation; his memory failed to tell him when since he could not remember if it was still blowing after he woke up screaming. What had replaced it sounded disjointed and mangled. One thing he was certain of was that there was more than one thing making noise outside. His years spent on an airship or staying at the Skyriders' home office had dulled his senses, so he took time to recognize that there were people awake and moving about outside. This changed the direction of his thoughts as he slowly crawled across the bed to the gear he had left near the foot.

At the same time he lifted his sword up so he could start putting it on, Irleen asked, "What is it, Link?"

"Voices," Link replied as he stood up from the bed.

"The crew?"

Link shook his head. "I don't think so. I can't tell what they're saying, but that sounds like much more than the crew. They all can't be here at the same time; someone needs to be with the ship."

"You gotta be kidding. These people are nocturnal?"

Link glanced at her with confusion prevalent on his face. "Noc…tur…"

Irleen gave an annoyed sigh. "It means they're awake at night. This is bizarre, Link. What kind of people wake up late at night and then go to bed in the early morning?"

"Line when he doesn't wanna do work?" Link asked, clicking the bracelet onto his wrist.

Irleen only looked at him in silence, simply hovering over the bed while he put on his gun belt. Then she said, "Granted, but that's just Line being lazy."

Link moved over to the door and held up a finger to signal her to be quiet. He pulled the blanket off the doorway and threw it over the foot of the bed. Then he turned the doorknob slowly, and the locking button popped out with a snap that caused Irleen to jerk in surprise. Once Link felt the latch release, he pushed forward with his other hand held ready to draw his sword. His first view of the street was toward the outskirts, which were obscured by a curtain of black that was only revealed by the lack of stars just beneath the horizon.

In the other direction, Link saw light. The windows on a number of the buildings had been opened, and they cast squares of dim light on the street. Those lights revealed… something walking the streets. There were about a dozen of them nearby, all of them simply wandering around. They had no real features, at least nothing Link could make out from where he stood. They all wore ragged, earthen-colored cloaks with hoods over their heads. The shadows cast by the hoods made it nearly impossible to see anyone's face.

Link relaxed a moment and pushed the door open further. "Come take a look," he told Irleen as he dared a step outside.

Irleen came to a hover over Link's head. "Oh, my…" she breathed, her voice carrying an edge of shock. "Link, it's them."

"Who?" Link asked.

"The shards, the fragments," Irleen replied. "These… these aren't people. It's barely even life."

Link had to step aside so he could glance up at her. Then he pointed at the figures on the road. "That's these people?" he asked. Irleen did not respond. So Link strode forward toward one who was coming around the corner.

"Link, wait!" Irleen suddenly shouted in alarm.

It was too late. Link had put his hand on the shoulder of the figure.

"I didn't murder the calendar. You must be confused."

Link succeeded in spinning the figure toward him. The deep voice sounded like it echoed and was very level in its delivery. The words immediately caused Link to release and back away a step. The man's hood tilted at Link, the movement indicative of mild confusion. Then, as meaningless as the motion, the figure turned around and walked away from Link.

Irleen rushed toward Link. "What happened?" she asked with panic coloring her tone.

"I-I don't know," Link replied.

"What'd he say?"

"I-I…" Link paused to collect his thoughts. Fortunately, the sudden voice had burned its words into Link's mind, if not from the creepiness in the voice itself then by the bizarre denial of guilt. "He said… he said 'I didn't murder the calendar; you must be confused'. It was… it was just so weird."

"That's a pretty random thing to say," Irleen agreed. "Did you… see anything?"

"Huh? Uh, no. I-I couldn't see under the hood." He glanced down the side roads he stood near. "What do you think?"

"I don't know. I don't know what these things are." She looked toward the black horizon behind them. "Think we should signal the Symphony?"

Link shook his head. "Too dangerous. They can't pull up to the edge of the island; they could smash the hull against the ground."

"Could you fire flares at the ground to show them where the island is?"

"Still too dangerous. It's pitch-black out there. If we don't have a good idea of what the edge looks like, we could miss something the ship could run into. We don't have enough supplies to do any serious repairs on the ship. Even the damage to the mast now is too much for us."

Irleen sighed. "So we… we definitely have to wait until morning."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just… Link, if you saw what I could see, you'd think this place just rose to a new level of creepy."

"Iiii don't know, Irleen." Link started looking between the different figures on the street, most of which seemed to simply ignore him. "I don't see what you do, and I'm… I'm feeling pretty creeped out right now."

"So… what's the plan now?"

Link gave a sigh and glanced back at her. "Look around. Maybe find someone who'll want to talk to us."

"And how are we supposed to find the ones who want to talk to us? Link, I don't even think these things know we're here."

Link shrugged. "We gotta try."

The decision made, Link started down the road with Irleen hovering as close as she could. If the island in the daylight was surreal, the deep of night felt like something out of a dark dream. The dim lanterns further down the road only served to vaguely indicate that there were buildings around them. Link stopped to look at one and found that the soot on the inside had not been cleaned lately, and he supposed that this was true of many of the others along the road. Not that this seemed to bother the island's local population. In fact, it seemed to Link and Irleen that nothing seemed to bother them, including Link's presence. Most of the words Link could make out did not seem to have any context to them at all. Or coherence. Things like "My third foot is itching again" and "When did my walls turn maroon?" and "I wonder if I'm standing upside-down, does that mean that the rest of the world is also upside-down?" made Link wonder if anyone knew anything about what was happening on this island. Many of the inhabitants looked to be hunched over, putting them at eye-level with Link. But no matter how many times Link tried to look, he still could not see under their hoods.

So he decided to rip one off. It was more a matter of frustration since he could not seem to make anyone acknowledge him. He had advanced further in toward the center of the island, about where Biluf had blown open the ground. Two of his attempts to stop someone were met with a sidestep that was not even noticed. So Link grabbed one person's hood and pulled it back.

The response was a piercing shriek that caused Link to stumble backwards into another. The person behind Link fell aside, and Link hit the ground hard. Even then, he pushed himself backwards as the creature continued to shriek at the sky with no one stopping to respond. Even without the shriek, Link felt that just looking at the person without the hood would have been frightening. Man or woman, Link could not tell. They had no face. They had no defining features at all, including skin. What Link saw was a vaguely head-shaped mass of semi-transparent black against the glowing silhouette of the nearby buildings. No mouth was open to release the scream, but Link did notice something akin to jaw movement when the creature finally decided to settle down. He watched as a pair of arms then protruded from the cloak—no, passed through the cloak from underneath and reached up to pull the hood back on. As with everyone else, there was almost no acknowledgement of Link's presence as the creature simply went about its own business.

"You okay, Link?" Irleen asked after what felt like an eternity.

"Yeah," Link replied as he returned to his feet. "But I probably shouldn't do that again." He sighed and brushed himself off. "Did you see that thing? It was like it was… I don't know, blank?"

"Practically no distinguishing features," Irleen agreed. "Those fragments of its life, though… when you did that, they sped up like they were excited."

"Is that something we could work with?" Link asked, clapping dirt off his hands.

"Maybe, but I don't think they like you taking thei—… Oh, my…"

Link looked up at her. "What is it?"

"Link, look at your foot."

Link glanced down at his foot. Then he noticed that he was standing on a cloak and stepped backwards off of it. "Oh. Where'd that come from?"

"I think that's the one you bumped into."

"You mean—" Link looked around as if to find someone listening. He was also looking around for any creature that was not wearing its cloak. Then he asked in a quiet voice, "I didn't kill him, did I?"

"I don't know if you could've avoided it," Irleen said, her own voice mimicking Link's silent panic. "The way these people's lives are fragmented… it must make them very fragile."

"Could be why they're ignoring me," Link said as he squat to examine the cloak. He picked it up and carefully turned it over, but the cloak appeared to be made of just a single layer of material. "See anything?"

"It's completely empty."

Link sighed and ran a hand down his face. "I-I didn't mean to."

"Link, I don't think there's anything you could've done. These people seem so screwed up, it's a wonder they're still alive now. If you can even call them alive at all."

"It's the way things are here."

Link shivered at the sound of the deep, masculine voice and looked up and around. He found one of the people standing behind him and stood up. "What, just walking around waiting to die?" Link said in a hotter tone than expected.

"You can't help the way we are."

"Wait…" Irleen said. "You're… actually talking to us?"

"It's been known to happen."

"That doesn't mean it has to," Link pointed out.

"Look, we're new here," Irleen said with a slightly argumentative tone. "It's not like anyone's actually told us what's going on."

"No one will hold it against you."

"Oh," Link uttered. "That's-that's good, I guess." He glanced around. "Everyone else has been ignoring us. Are you… You're willing to talk to us?"

"Evidently, it would appear to be the case."

"Right," Irleen responded in a snarky tone.

Link hissed at her to be quiet. "Look, we're explorers from a place called Hyrule," Link explained. "We came looking f—"

"You're not going to find them here."

Link, surprised by the interruption, took a moment to respond. "The Sorians… were never here?"

"Maybe. Once before. But not now."

"We—… Well, how long have your people been here?"

This time, the voice took on a wistful tone as he responded, "Oh, who's to say? Memory is a fickle thing."

"Were you born here?" Irleen asked.

"Only if it concerns you."

"Huh?" both Irleen and Link uttered, exchanging a look with each other.

"Uh… it was—it was just a question," Link said in a calming tone. "She didn't mean anything personal by it."

"Sometimes, it's just so hard to know what people mean."

"I'm sure it was just an innocent question," Link assured him. "Right, Irleen?"

"Of course," Irleen replied defensively.

"There are so many things we want in life. Sometimes, I just want a little clarity."

Link simply blinked at him, dumbfounded. Irleen asked, "Uh… what are we not being clear on?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure she'll understand."

"I… don't think any of us understand," Link pointed out.

"That would be the queen. If you'll excuse me, I must mingle." Link and Irleen then watched as the figure turned in a different direction from what he was facing and started forward at the same dragging pace as the rest of his people. They remained still as they watched him disappear into the crowd.

Then Irleen asked, "Okay, what… what made us think that he was actually talking to us?"

Link shook his head. "I have no idea." He scratched the back of his head as he glanced around. "This is nuts. We need to find someone to talk to."

"Link, I just had an idea. We know we're not getting anywhere with people walking the streets, right?"

"That's what it looks like," Link replied with a nod.

"Well, if you think about it, if you're out on the street, it means you're going somewhere. How many times has a person stopped to help you on the street?"

"We-uh… maybe… once or twice?"

"Exactly. So we need to find someone who isn't in a rush to get somewhere. Now, we know that someone is using the metalworking shop that Lwamm broke into. Maybe whoever owns the shop will talk to us."

Link latched a hand onto the back of his neck and rubbed as he thought. Then he nodded and told her, "It's the best idea we have to work with. Let's see if we can find that shop again."