Chapter 53: The Doors of the Gates Swing

…

When Link woke up, it was not easy. Every muscle in his body was locked in place. This left him in the unfortunate position of both arms curled at his sides with his fingers locked in a claw-like gesture, legs turned outward from the knees, and his back twisted in one direction while his neck was tilted against his shoulder in the opposite direction. His left eyelid was stuck, leaving him to blink only his right eye as he waited for something to happen. He could not call out for help; his jaw was extended down and to the right and stuck there, and he could not summon the breath to let out any louder than a rattling sound. He tried to make his tongue work for what seemed like hours.

Well, it might have seemed like hours if Link was capable of putting that kind of thought into his situation. He really did not know how long he had been lying in this state. He could, at best, tell that he had a massive headache which preoccupied most of his thoughts. He was not even able to begin wondering what had caused this confusing state.

He eventually came out of this state when he perceived someone pulling his left arm. The movement broke the lock on his arm, and he could feel everything down to his fingertips again. It also seemed to break the power his headache had over his mind, because he started hearing voices from nearby.

"… breaking rigor mortis," one voice was saying. "I have to admit, this is kinda strange to do on a living body."

"Captain, do you heah us?" another voice asked.

Link used his free arm to reach around his head and pull his neck out of its odd angle. Then he pressed on his jaw to return movement. "No…" he groaned.

"Where does it hurt, Captain?" the first voice asked.

"Doesn't hurt," he told the deckhead. "Stiff."

"Doctoh, what could have caused this?" the second voice asked.

"Are you kidding?" the first voice said. "There's no medical precedent for this. It's another of those 'dumb shit happened in the dream' things."

Link tilted his head to see Leynne and Nester hovering at the side of his bed, Nester's fingers probing along Link's twisted left leg. He could not quite place them at first, his mind still lacking clarity. Once he recognized them, it seemed obvious who they were. "Report," he told Leynne.

"Well, we'h still docked to a homicidal island," Leynne replied, "the crew is still losing sleep, and I, not ten minutes befoh, walked in to find my commanding officeh twisted into a pretzel."

"Anything beats a blood-curdling scream at this point," Nester said.

"What happened to cause this?" Leynne asked, his tone sympathetic.

"Don't know," Link replied, still having a hard time taking in enough breath for a full sentence. "Died."

"'Died'?" Leynne asked. "What, you mean… you mean you died in the dream again."

"Yeah…"

"I don't see any bruising," Nester said as he straightened out Link's left knee. "His breathing sounds off, but that might be related to the paralysis." He leaned closer to Link's head and asked, "Anything else you wanna tell us about?"

"Headache," Link answered. "Dull headache."

"Did you succeed in eradicating The Night?" Leynne asked.

"Think so," Link said.

"You think so?" Nester asked.

"I'll have a shoh pahty check the location as soon as possible," Leynne told Link.

"Time?" Link asked just before twisting in response to Nester grabbing his hips and rolling him. "Guh…"

"I'm afraid I don't know," Leynne replied. "In attempting to maintain wakefulness this mohning, I've lost my watch."

Nester paused releasing Link's other arm to look out the window. "Probably about eight, nine in the morning?" he suggested to Leynne.

Leynne nodded. "It sounds reasonable. I believe that the Obeetans have retihed foh the day."

"Sen—augh!" Link suddenly hollered when Nester pressed down on his bandaged wound.

"Sorry, Captain," Nester replied.

"Agh…" Link groaned, rolling onto his good side with his hands protecting the bandage. He took a moment to breathe, finding it much easier after hollering in pain. He heaved a sigh as he told Leynne, "Send Line and Dubbl."

"Why Dubbl?" Leynne asked.

"She was with me when we looked at the river technoworks," Link told him. He still had to pause for a breath before continuing, "I want her to find the chest down there. If The Night is gone."

"I should like to send two moh along," Leynne said. "Just in case."

Link nodded. "Do it."

"Aye aye." With those words, Leynne turned and walked out of Link's cabin.

"Think you can sit up, Captain?" Nester asked.

"I think so," Link said as he took the hand Nester offered.

As he was sitting up, the door to Link's cabin opened again. "Captain," Leynne said as he leaned inside. "Do you have a moment?"

"What is it?" Link asked after a heavy breath.

"Actually, I wondeh if you could step outside."

This caused Link to give a confused frown. "I… I guess I can?"

"Something wrong, Number Two?" Nester asked.

"I cannot be cehtain," Leynne admitted. "Whetheh by coincidence oh design, the stohm is gone."

Nester and Link shared a surprised look. Then Nester broke into a grin. "Sounds like the old bastard's given up," he told Leynne.

"Help me up," Link said, holding out a hand. Nester took the hand and pulled Link to his feet. Link wobbled for a moment as feeling came back to his heels and toes. "I'm okay," he quickly told Nester as Nester placed a hand on his back to steady him. He grabbed the nearby bedpost and shook the feeling of pins and needles out of his feet one at a time.

"Hey, Lieutenant!" someone from outside hollered. "Are you looking out at—"

Leynne turned and hissed at someone outside. "Retuhn to youh post, Line," he said in a level voice.

"Sure, once you tell me we're getting the hell outta here!" Line replied.

"The wohd is not given yet," Leynne told him. "If we ah to leave, we will infohm you."

"What's going on?" Line asked, his voice sounding just outside the cabin door. "Did something happen to Link?"

"I'm fine, Line," Link hollered toward the door as he stepped to his footlocker, his legs still feeling stiff.

"He's had a rough encounteh with The Night this mohning," Leynne explained. "But he's moving about now, and he hasn't had any new injuries."

"Really?" Line asked as he craned his head in from one side of the door. "You doing all right, Link?"

"I'm okay," Link said as he picked up his tunic. "I think I'm getting back into the swing of things."

"What happened?" Line asked.

Link paused to put his tunic on. "I don't know," he said. "I just woke up with all my muscles kinda… stuck."

"Line, retuhn to youh post," Leynne told him, pointing afore.

"Look, the storm's gone, so I'm feeling a little good about all this for once," Line snapped at Leynne.

"Go! Line!" Leynne hollered at him.

"Line, get up there, you little shit!" Nester shouted at almost the same time.

Line started blowing a raspberry at Leynne. Leynne responded by quickly raising a hand and running it over the tip of Line's tongue before Line knew what he was doing. "Agh!" Line hollered as he jumped backward. He spent a moment trying to scrape the taste off with his teeth. "Ma—what is on your hand!? I feel like I licked a chain!"

"Go back to youh post, oh I'll beat you with that chain!" Leynne snapped at him.

"Man, I'm gonna go put some oil on my tongue!" Line said as he stormed away. "I think your joints are rusting!"

After struggling to put his trousers on, Link finally made it to the door just as Line disappeared into one of the hatches. "Is that how he's been lately?" he asked Leynne.

"It's a benign soht," Leynne admitted, "but he's still a colossal pain in the ass." He then stepped aside so that Link could walk out onto the deck.

The difference was noticeable after just stepping into the open air. Having been shrouded by storm clouds this whole time, the navy blue of dawn hailed the disappearance of one thing that kept the ship tied to port. Link stepped further onto the deck and looked to southern sky on the port side. The stars were already gone, and Link could almost make out the shimmer of the Sky Line in that direction.

"It is quite a sight to behold, My Captain," Dholit said as she approached, her features beaming as she gazed at the Sky Line. "I sense a homecoming inevitable."

The moment of relief Link had been feeling upon seeing the Sky Line quickly faded. He frowned and told Leynne, "Not yet. We're not through."

"My Captain?" Dholit asked, confused.

Leynne sighed. "The Night," he simply said.

"The Night?" Dholit repeated.

"We can't leave it alive," Link explained. "It's been catching ships leaving the kingdom for years, adding Obeetans with each ship. We can't let it go, especially with what we know now."

"Oh?" Leynne asked as Cale and Irleen walked up behind Dholit. "Do we know something new?"

Link nodded. "The Night is the Dreamweaver."

Leynne could only blink for a moment. "What?"

"The Dreamweavah?!" Irleen cried out, startling Dholit.

"Captain, you mean to say that The Night is a Sorian?" Leynne asked.

"Yeah," Link replied.

"How?" Irleen asked, stepping around Dholit.

"I don't know," Link confessed. "Janni said it was such a slow process that no one knew what was happening until it was too late."

"Oh, deah…" Irleen said as she put a hand on her head. "That explains its methods. And why the Mystics' called it the 'Nightmah Weavah'. I thought they'd simply fohgotten that the Dreamweavah existed."

"Is this pahticulahly bad?" Cale asked.

"Yes…" Irleen groaned. She turned and explained, "We'h talking about a pahson who has been pahfecting the aht of the dream foh his entiah lifetime. Even wohse that he's had an additional one hundred yeahs to improve on that, much moah than any othah Dreamweavah in history."

"And yet, we seem to have done things that no one befoh us has," Leynne pointed out.

Link glanced at him with a confused frown. "I suppose so," he said. "Do you think it means something?"

Leynne crossed his arms as he thought. "Well, I've a few ideas," he said. "On the suhface, it seems that The Night has become ovehconfident with its situation. Given its abilities, I should think that we would have met with an unfohtunate fate by now."

"But that wouldn't help it," Link pointed out. "It feeds on dreams, and I doubt it could live on just the Obeetans forever."

"Indeed," Cale said. "Theih existence is so fragile that we could simply rendah it without sustenance by knocking ovah every Obeetan in sight."

"We ah foheveh plotting against it, though," Leynne argued. "I do not think it necessary foh it to keep all of us."

"I don't think we need to put such a thought into its head," Dholit said. Link, in his own mind, agreed with Dholit as he recalled what the dream Leynne had told him. Although he knew that it was fake, it would not do them much good to provide it with a reason to start killing the crew.

"So, what should we do, Captain?" Leynne asked. "Shall we motivate Sello once moh?"

Link shook his head. "No, I don't think it's a good idea. If The Night decides to spit him out again, there's only one way he's flying: down into the floor."

"Besides," Irleen spoke up, "I don't believe Sello will help much. It doesn't appeah that the Mystics left anything in the towah."

"Well, they've left items in the technowohks," Leynne said. "Why not the toweh?"

"I know; it didn't make sense to me, eithah," Irleen said. "Until now. The towah, in its original fohm, was wheah the Dreamweavah lived."

Both Link and Cale paled while Leynne and Dholit exchanged surprised looks. "What?" Nester asked as he stepped out of Link's cabin with his bag in-hand. "What's everyone looking scared for?"

"It appeahs we'd nahrowly avoided feeding the captain to The Night foh dinneh," Leynne said, his face changing to a casual expression. "I must say that we haven't felt this awkwahd since the discussion to send Cale's group to find the previous technowohks."

"I most cahtainly appreciate that now…" Cale commented.

Nester heaved a sigh and stepped around the group. "Goddesses Above, this crew's out of it's mind…" he grumbled as he walked by.

"I would be in agreement if employment was so flexible," Leynne said. "Captain. I would suhmise at this point that we will be waiting foh anotheh evening?"

"After Dubbl and Line check out the technoworks," Link said. "I wanna make sure we have that place cleared out."

"Excuse me, Captain?" Link was confused by the additional voice from behind. He was the only one, as Leynne, Cale, and Dholit had seen Brandon descend from the poop deck.

Link turned around. "What is it?" he asked.

"Uh… the island, Captain," Brandon replied. "The Obeetans are still awake."

"They'h what?" Leynne asked at the same time Link simply said, "Huh?"

Brandon turned and pointed at the island. "The Obeetans are still up and wandering around."

Link and his surrounding crew moved to the starboard side of the deck to look over the island. They could not immediately tell anything different, being so far from the Hylian settlement. However, they noticed stray Obeetans stepping out and around the outside of the buildings. The couple of streets they had clear sight of showed them a handful of Obeetans still wandering about.

They could only stare in silence. Then Dholit asked, "What does this mean?"

"I have no idea," Link replied as Leynne shook his head.

…

~~10/8, Expedition Day 53.

~~The storm is gone. Save for waking up like a sardine, it looks like we've finished getting The Night—The Dreamweaver out of the technoworks. I still can't believe it. Here I was hoping that the Dreamweaver would have had a plan against The Night like the Mystics did. It kinda answers a few questions, like how The Night can make the waking dream every night and can so easily feed off the crew's dreams. But I wanna know why. Why is the Dreamweaver doing this? What happened that made him turn against the Sorians that used to—still live here? I can guess that he had to continue to feed on Hylians long after the Sorians became Obeetans, but why did this have to happen? Irleen explained that the Mystic who wrote the scroll doesn't give any indication of it happening until they built the items that they left to—I guess brew or mature in the technoworks (Irleen didn't really explain it that well). It's as if one day, they realized that there was a crisis and jumped on it without leaving any explanation as to why. In fact, they got to work so fast that they didn't even spell out the connection between the Dreamweaver and The Night.

~~And then, there's Janni. I've been thinking about it ever since Irleen pointed out that the tower at the middle of the island was the Dreamweaver's home. If he lived in a tower, and if he was prominent enough, I would guess that he must have had some staff for cleaning and cooking. The Night hasn't exactly been a kitten about the way he's treated anybody, so I wonder if Janni was just a member of his staff that he decided to randomly imprison in his shield. She definitely made it sound as if it was done simply to be cruel. It's Janni; she doesn't answer questions straight like that. Who else could she possibly be? The Dreamweaver doesn't seem to have had any family; the way both Janni and Irleen described the role, it doesn't sound like he would have ever had time for a family.

~~Something else seems to be going on. The Obeetans didn't go to sleep this morning. I don't know

Kon kon.

Link set down his pen. "Come in," he called.

Leynne opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Line and Dubbl. "Captain," he said with a nod.

Link stood up from his desk. "What'd you find?"

"Kyaptin?" Dubbl asked as she offered her hands out.

Link quickly rounded the desk and accepted the lift reel. "Oh, that's great, you guys!" he said as he examined it. "Where'd you find it?"

"A couple floors under the surface," Line replied. "We went another floor in before we reached a dead end. No Night."

"How did the technoworks look?" Link asked as he turned the lift reel.

"A little red here and there. You said it wasn't bad until it was black, right?"

"Yeah." Link paused as he located a cut in the outer case of the lift reel. He pointed it to it and asked, "Did you guys find this like this?"

Line immediately raised his hands. "I didn't touch it!" he declared while Dubbl just nodded.

"Line, you f—" Leynne began.

"No, no, it's all right!" Link quickly said, interrupting Leynne by touching his arm with a free hand. "I expected this."

"You did?" Leynne and Line said at the same time in confusion.

"That was a sword strike," Link explained. "While I was down there, the evil me I had to fight got the sword, so I had to defend myself with this."

"What about youh shield?" Leynne asked.

Link heaved a sigh. "It… it turns out that when the sword hits the shield…" He turned and nodded at the shield sitting on the floor next to the head of his bed. All three of his crew glanced in that same direction to see that there was a similar cut in the bottom-right edge of the shield. "… Janni feels it. I had to get rid of it."

"Oh, deah…" Leynne uttered.

"You mean that thing in your shield actually feels pain?" Line asked.

"That 'thing' in my shield might actually be a member of the Dreamweaver's staff," Link said, his tone defensive. Then he turned to Leynne and added, "Which would explain why she knows so much about the Dreamweaver."

Leynne frowned and crossed his arms. "Pehhaps," he said, "but I still have my suspicions."

"So, what is that thing?" Line asked, pointing to the lift reel. "Is it like some kinda weapon or something?"

"No," Link replied as he put his hand inside. "Janni called it a 'lift reel'. The Sorians use things like these whenever they can't fly into their trees. She said this is the first portable one she's ever seen, so I guess they have just regular pulley systems. You know, kinda like the ones we use to load cargo onto ships."

"I can cehtainly see the merit of a pohtable device," Leynne commented. "But how ah you supposed to attach it to something? With the blade?"

"I was thinking more like you had to shoot it past whatever you were aiming at and then grab the other end to pull yourself up," Link said, taking aim at the starboard bulkhead just in front of his personal privy. "I mean, I don't think the blade would stick that well. Watch."

Link pulled the trigger. The device kicked as it sent the blade at the bulkhead. To Link's surprise, the blade stabbed into a timber and held tight while the wire rope coiled behind it for a second longer. "Oh," Link uttered. "I didn't think that would go in."

"Softeh materials must be easieh to connect to," Leynne said.

Link nodded. "Good point. I was shooting it at brick last night." He then squeezed the handle.

However, once the wire rope pulled taut, Link gave a surprised cry as he was immediately ripped off his feet. He only had a second to comprehend the bulkhead flying straight toward him.

WHAM! Ka-whumph! Link's world swam upon crashing face-first into the bulkhead and, after releasing the lift reel, falling to the deck.

"Captain!"

"Kyabtin!"

"Link!"

Link rolled over and raised his hands to his panicked crew. "I'm okay," he told them in a level voice, even though he had trouble focusing his eyes. "I'm okay."

"Ah you suh?" Leynne asked.

Link pushed himself up into a seated position. "Yeah, I think so," he said. He placed a hand on his forehead, where the majority of the pain seemed to be. "I jus—… Wow! that caught me off-guard."

"No kidding," Line agreed. Then he snorted. "Wow. You flew, Link."

Link stood up and flinched at a twinge of pain in his side. "Link?" Leynne asked.

"No, it's all right," Link quickly told him. He stretched a bit. "Didn't do it much good, but it'll be fine."

"I hope you will at least ask Nesteh to check that lateh."

"I will." Link turned and grabbed the lift reel with both hands. He tried to pull backwards only to find that the blade would not budge. Then he leaned on it, thinking that the vertically-set blade would give. The blade rocked under only some of Link's weight, and he quickly pulled it free from the bulkhead. "Maybe I should only do that in the dream…"

"If nothing else, it would appeah to be dangerous enough to othehs," Leynne observed.

Link pulled out the clip and hung the lift reel from his belt. "How did things look outside?" he asked Dubbl and Line. "Are the Obeetans still wandering around?"

"Yes," Dubbl answered.

"Yeah, and it's kinda weird," Line said.

"Have you noticed anything different with the way they behave?" Leynne asked.

"Nope," Line said as Dubbl slowly shook her head. "Nothing but insane rambling. Well… you know, in Sorian."

"The Obeetans closest to the ship have been venturing fuhtheh outside the settlement," Leynne said. "None have approached the ship, although I imagine that has to do moh with the travel distance."

"Maybe they can tell The Night is weak," Link said as he returned to his desk. "Maybe we shou—"

WHAM! "Līnca!" The cabin's occupants jolted with surprise when Irleen suddenly burst through the door. This was subsequent to her tripping over the baggy pair of work slacks she had been holding up and falling onto the floor. Line immediately burst out laughing.

"Irleen, are you okay!?" Link cried out.

"Àūūūū…" Irleen groaned as she pushed herself off the deck. She rubbed one cheek and moaned, "Kàtpo…"

Link glared at Line, who was leaning a hand on the map table and still laughing as hard as he could. "Dubbl?" he asked. "Shut him up."

Dubbl promptly turned to Line and delivered a jab to Line's chest. "Doh!" was the last sound Line could make before he lost his breath.

"Thank you," Link said before turning his attention away from a collapsing Line.

"Ihleen?" Leynne asked as he held out a hand.

Irleen took Leynne's hand. "Kákihōn," she uttered as Leynne helped her to her feet. She turned to Link and said, "Līnca, ìpā nàpi káħàrōlat. Towá Ōħ Ūt cìpákwáhtū tá kīh cìpákwáhtū klátūwá ahà àt Toròlcita kláactìl ahà."

The best Link could tell was that she was excited about something. However, the only response he had for her was, "Uuuuuh… we… don't understand you."

"Nūc?" Irleen replied. Then she turned around. "Cīla hūta?"

"Who has heh gem?" Leynne asked.

"I think Cale still does," Link said. Then he glanced at Line as Line started pulling himself back to his feet.

The cabin occupants then turned back to the door as somebody's panting became audible. Cale appeared in the doorway a moment later, clamping onto it with one hand to brace himself as he caught his breath.

"Oh, theah he is," Irleen uttered. She turned and addressed Link, "I was just on the head, and I had a realization."

Link shrugged and said, "Yeah, it probably felt better when you didn't have to poop."

"Link!" Irleen snapped at him. "No, you idiot! I was thinking that, since The Night isn't in the technowohks anymoah, we could repaih the technowohks and call upon anothah Sky Line to retahn us to the kingdom fastah."

"Indeed," Leynne agreed as he turned to Link. "Up until now, The Night has had control of the technowohks. We should take this oppohtunity while it presents itself."

Link nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."