Chapter 73: In the New House of Ukhool

…

Night had fallen by the time Ukhool had been able to usher the crew to his home. He understood the crew was exhausted, and not just because of the long walk from the Island Symphony. Nothing was said about Cunimincus' defeat, at least not aloud while there were others fluttering about the air out of fear the Sorians would swarm them. Of course, with so many celebrating the news, there were not many in the elder's house. What little staff Ukhool located were mostly those too advanced in age to enjoy the festivities outside. While they did not have the stamina to spin and tumble through the air, the elder at least set them to work putting together a quick dinner for him and his guests. Unlike two years ago, Ukhool showed them to a small dining room inside his home. With everyone's spirits waning from exhaustion (except for Janni, who appeared mostly bored), the meal was consumed in silence. The first group of returning staff checked in on the meal, and Link asked that someone send for Leynne and have him bring the bottle of wine from his cabin.

It would be a couple of hours before Leynne showed up. Zelda and Link had decided to relax with Ukhool in his study. Irleen decided to go home with her parents, eager to fill them in on her adventures. Janni went for a walk, although she remained vague about why. Line had to be shown a room, having come close to falling asleep in a bowl of soup during dinner. Janni had simply disappeared without saying anything, although she looked just about as sleepy at dinner. In the couple of hours before Leynne showed up, Link and Zelda recounted their experiences since they departed Forelight Island. For both of them, the story had begun to feel like a fantasy, almost as if none of it had actually happened. After narrating Cunimincus' fall, their conversation fell into the mundane. Which, much to Link's embarrassment, included recalling his crew's antics which had resulted in the ship being banned from Timbre Island.

Once Leynne had arrived, Ukhool brought a set of four glasses into his study. Leynne wasted little time in removing the cork and pouring into the glasses.

"Lieutenant," Zelda spoke up. "I would like only a small amount. I am afraid that my ability to consume alcohol is quite limited."

"Of couhse, Youh Highness," Leynne replied as he quickly picked up the neck to let only a meager amount spill into one glass. "Captain?"

Link nodded, his body sunk into a thick armchair that grew out of the wall behind him. "Same here," he said. "It's gonna be stronger than grog, right?"

"Yes, it will," Leynne said as he poured the same amount into the last glass.

"I assume we're drinking to our reunion, Captain?" Ukhool asked.

"I decided a while back to save it for a special occasion," Link explained as Leynne started handing out glasses. "This seems appropriate enough."

"I had actually expected it to have been saved foh when he retuhned home," Leynne said as he gave Ukhool a half-full glass. "Unfohtunately, that was befoh we knew what Cunimincus was doing to the sky kingdom."

"Indeed, Captain Koroul explained that the situation was quite bleak," Ukhool commented. "That was why he was left quite surprised when you, Princess Zelda, spoke up about being able to see Captain Link's dreams."

"I had been concerned that I had gone mad," Zelda confessed from her seat on a couch next to Link, shifting her legs to stretch out a little more onto the next cushion. "However… as it continued, I began to hope more. And it became quite believable as time went on."

Ukhool raised his glass to them and said, "Then, if I may. To hope. And our reunion."

"To hope," Leynne repeated as he held his glass toward Ukhool. Zelda and Link also raised their glasses, although without saying anything. They only dared a small sip while Ukhool and Leynne indulged in a longer drink. Leynne smacked his lips after the drink. "Twenty-two yeahs old, but it tastes youngeh."

"Not a horrible drink, though," Ukhool told him. He glanced down at the glass as he swished the remaining liquid inside. "I have to admit, I find myself curious about the other Sorian who dined with us."

"That was Janni," Link said. "We… actually didn't know we'd be bringing her back, either."

"You said you found her in the Lost Library on Obeeta. What was she doing there?"

Link began to feel a small measure of reluctance. He did not really want to recount events on Obeeta, but he would at least start an explanation to see where it went. "Well…" He had to pause and heave a sigh to give himself a moment to find a good starting point. "She and her dad were actually the last ones there. I guess… there had been a problem."

Ukhool gave Leynne a confused look. "What problem?" he pressed.

"Well… Janni's dad was a Dreamweaver."

Ukhool raised his eyebrows, but he kept the delight only in his tone as he said, "I see. A rather rare profession these days. Our last known dreamweaver passed away when I was a young boy."

"Unfohtunately, Janni's fatheh was a ratheh exceptional characteh," Leynne said.

"We don't really know what happened," Link confessed. "But… sometime before we got there, the Dreamweaver discovered how to eat dreams and sustain himself on them."

Ukhool's expression became wide-eyed, and Zelda shifted uncomfortably. "I… I cannot imagine this to be a very healthy affair," Ukhool commented.

Link shook his head. "It was worse than that. He started going insane, and feeding off the other Sorians' dreams left them with nightmares that… it slowly ate away their lives."

"The 'Obeetans' weh left without a sense of identity oh puhpose," Leynne added. "They wandehed the island at night because they knew the Dreamweaveh could not get theih dreams then."

"They didn't have faces, they didn't have names…" Link continued. He paused for another sip of wine. "We couldn't tell the Sorians from the Hylians. No one had their original body anymore; they all looked like shadows."

Ukhool rested against his high-backed desk chair, his expression one of mild shock. "I see," he said. "How… troubling. But… where did Janni come from?"

"Her dad imprisoned her in a shield," Link said. "He did it to try to save her, but… she may be just as insane. She had to watch her dad slowly drive her people mad."

"How regrettable," Ukhool commented, giving the nearby wall a sorrowful glance. "And she has been enduring this for years?"

"About a hundred," Link confirmed. "She hasn't really done anything since her dad let her out of the shield, but…" Link paused to use his free hand to scratch his head. "Did… we mention she lived in the dreams her dad made?"

Ukhool's frown was quickly subdued by a wide-eyed response. "I beg your pardon?"

"The Dreamweaver used a device on the technoworks to create dreams," Link explained. "Dreams that he could then pull people into."

"Ouh best assumption is that the Dreamweaveh is capable of creating a second reality within a dream with the intent to pull a sleepeh inside," Leynne offered.

"I don't know if he made the dreams for Janni or what," Link continued. "But that was the only way we could fight back. The Mystics had a plan to fight him, but… we think he killed them before they could act. They left things around that could hurt the Dreamweaver even if it was only in the dream." Link twisted and gently patted his bandaged side with his free hand. "I took this sword wound while I was in the dream, and it nearly killed me after I woke up. The sword was one of the Mystics' items, and it cuts anything in reality the same way it does in the dream."

Ukhool shook his head. "Such a frightening prospect," he said. "I cannot imagine what you have faced." He pointed to one of his eyes. "Is that another mark of your experience?"

Link covered the eye in memory of the shameless thoughts he had had and the resulting pain. "Uh… yeah," he said as Leynne heaved a disappointed sigh and covered his face. "So-sometimes, the Dreamweaver would kill me in the dream, and I would wake up with bruises and such. It was never as bad as the sword, but it still caught me by surprise. Don't worry; my eye's fine."

"Our own Mystics might be interested in the items you've found. I wonder if you won't mind parting with them?"

Link nodded. "No, it's fine," he said. "I can live without them. Uh… one of them kinda broke, though."

"I cannot imagine it being no less valuable." Ukhool paused to take a drink. "So, I assume, given your return, that you escaped the Dreamweaver."

"There wasn't any escaping him," Link said.

"Once Link had sufficiently wounded him, the Dreamweaveh escaped the island," Leynne explained. "We had to chase and stop him."

Ukhool appeared uncomfortable as he shifted in his chair. "You… you had to kill him. Didn't you."

"That was ouh intent," Leynne said. "Howeveh, reality was quite indifferent."

"How so?"

"The Dreamweaver wanted to die," Link said before Leynne could respond. "Everything he did to us he did because he wanted to die."

Ukhool narrowed his eyes. "How do you know this?" he asked.

"He told me. He used the dream that Irleen made to tell me. He explained that he would never stop feeding if he reached Hyrule. He didn't want to live with memories of destroying Obeeta."

The room sat in silence for a moment, Zelda equally as amazed due to having yet to hear about the same events. Leynne cleared his throat and spoke up. "Although my captain's story seems quite incredulous, theh ah otheh factohs which prove his statement," he explained. "Once we had discovehed the Dreamweaveh's influence oveh the island, it was quite cleah that we could easily join the population at the Dreamweaveh's discretion. The abundance of nightmahs plagued all of us, and the Dreamweaveh demonstrated a numbeh of times that he held dominance oveh us no matteh what we did. One of ouh crew neahly fell oveh the side of the ship afteh falling asleep sitting on the edge. Twice, Captain Link was accosted by membehs of his own crew when no possibility of that existed previously. The amount of mental manipulation the Dreamweaveh could pehfohm was such that, if it had not been foh the Dreamweaveh's desih foh suicide, we would suhly have failed to retuhn. Captain Link would most cehtainly have died as the Dreamweaveh's main opponent, possibly as soon as the Dreamweaveh detehmined him to be a threat. The rest of ouh crew would most likely have become paht of the listless population of the island."

Ukhool gave a steady nod. Then he said, "Although I have no reason to doubt your captain, I appreciate your ability to summarize the situation, sir. It is quite clear to me that your crew has been through such an ordeal as we cannot ever hope to comprehend. It is also quite clear to me that you have managed to cope with some rather extraordinary events."

"Suhvived, pehhaps," Leynne said. "Cope? I'm afraid not, sih. Theh ah still repohts among ouh crew of the continuation of nightmahs. One of them took retihment citing anxiety from injuries he had received." Link visibly cringed and looked down at his lap; to his fortune, no one noticed. "Two moh might have left had it not been foh Ihleen's ability to guilt them into staying."

Ukhool sighed and used his free hand to rub his eyes for a moment. "I feel I should apologize," he told them. "If we had only been able to contact you, there would have been no need to go to Obeeta."

"On the contrary, Eldeh," Leynne said, "ouh ventuh to Obeeta may have saved moh lives. The Hylian denizens of Obeeta did not arrive all at once. Janni indicated that Hylian ships had been drawn to the island since the establishment of the kingdom. With the Dreamweaveh gone, the next ship to land on Obeeta will not have to suffeh theih fate."

"Assuming the island is still there," Link pointed out. "Irleen said that Obeeta might drift away since we changed the Sky Lines near it."

Ukhool nodded. "A loss, perhaps, but reasonable in these circumstances," he said. "We have been without those texts for some time, but I cannot imagine any one of us would like to set foot onto an abandoned island." He paused, in which all four of the room's occupants took a drink from their glass (which left Link's and Zelda's glasses empty). "What are your plans now, Captain? Do you intend to return to your kingdom soon?"

Link shook his head. "I don't know. I… kinda figured Zelda might have some business to conduct."

Zelda sat up as eyes turned to her. "Perhaps… we can simply enjoy our visit, Captain," she said. "Now that we know where the Sorians are, we need not rush diplomacy."

"And… the young woman, Janni," the elder said. "Do you know of her plans?"

This time, Link just shook his head.