***Author's note: I have not played Age of Calamity, so if there is any information on the Impa of 100 years ago contained in the storyline of that game, I am unaware of it. This is purely my own fictional account of what might have happened to Impa and how her child and grandchild came about. Apologies if this account doesn't match anything that might have been revealed in AoC.***

Chapter Eight – Impa's story

Impa informed me that she had been seeing a handsome Sheikah warrior, called Kiers, for several months before the Calamity. They had met in an ordinary way; they were impressed by each other's prowess during combat training with the Hylian soldiers, and he had invited her to go to the ale house in Hyrule Castle Town for a meal and conversation. They had fallen quite in love that very night; neither wanted to go home, and they walked all around the town and found themselves at the Central Square fountain, where Impa received her first sweet kiss from him. After that night, they were as inseparable as they could possibly be. Whenever they were both off duty, they were together, sharing meals, drinks, conversation, thoughts, passionate kisses, and eventually their very bodies with each other.

Impa and her lover had planned to meet again on the night of Ganon's return – obviously, their plans had been ruined. Only hours before Ganon's invasion, Impa had had a terrifying and nearly incapacitating vision of the impending destruction. She went before the king and pleaded for him to call for an evacuation, but King Rhoam was too proud and confident that the kingdom was as prepared as they could possibly be, and thus refused to "run in cowardice," as he put it. Frustrated and frantic, Impa had gathered everything she could foresee needing and fled for Kakariko. She knew that there was nothing she could do at the castle but warn everyone she met to spread the word quickly to gather at Hyrule Garrison or Kolomo Garrison; the attack would be sudden and unexpected, and everyone still at the castle would be dead in mere moments. She told them of her horrifying vision and the king's vain refusal to evacuate everyone. Before leaving, she had looked for Kiers but was unable to locate him. She pleaded with everyone she saw to tell him, if they saw him, to find her in Kakariko as soon as he possibly could.

As it turned out, Kiers had already gone to the Hyrule Garrison to assist with combat training. He was not in the castle when hell broke loose, and he survived to fall back to Blatchery Plain and help hold Fort Hateno against the guardians. Unbeknownst to me, he was one of the Sheikah warriors that I had charged with getting Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. The men miraculously – or was it preordained? – met up with Purah and Robbie along the way, and Purah showed them the secret way through the great machine beneath the Great Plateau, which accessed the Shrine of Resurrection from the inside. Together they prepared Link's body for stasis and placed the now-damaged but still mostly functional Sheikah slate where Link would be able to retrieve it once healed.

As the days dragged on and warriors continued to gradually defeat guardians and monsters all over Hyrule, the remaining Sheikah straggled into Kakariko Village. Impa waited anxiously for word of her beloved Kiers, and when Robbie and Purah finally arrived with Kiers and his comrade, Impa was elated. Having him by her side once again and hearing of the troops making their final stand at Akkala Citadel inspired her to return to the fight. She had been secretly ashamed of herself for running away, and longed to redeem herself to her King and kingdom. She convinced Kiers and a small band of the best warriors in Kakariko to accompany her to Akkala to defend the citadel. Purah declined to go along with Impa; although they were sisters, they were vastly different. Purah was the furthest thing from a warrior. She informed Impa that she and Robbie had already, before the Calamity, scouted out the two abandoned lighthouses at the north and south ends of the eastern coast of Hyrule to use as additional research labs, and they felt that would be the best place for them to contribute to the cause. Purah would go to Hateno Village with her young assistant, Symin; Robbie, with his lover and assistant, Cherry, would accompany Impa and the others to Akkala Citadel and continue to the lighthouse from there.

Impa had more than redeemed herself to the kingdom; she and Kiers, using knowledge imparted by Robbie and Purah, had defeated more guardians between the two of them than the rest of the troops combined. The head general was gravely injured by a silver lynel, but Impa and Kiers, who had been fighting nearby, converged upon the lynel before it could deal him a killing blow, Kiers beheading it even as Impa drove her sword through its heart. With a dearth of medals and other material forms of praise in the wake of the destruction, the general had decreed from his makeshift hospital bed that Kiers and Impa had displayed exceptional valor not only in saving his life, but in saving countless soldiers from the multitudes of Guardians they had destroyed. As next in command under my father, who was killed with everyone else in the castle when Ganon broke free, the general named them both commanders in the Hyrulean army, a title they accepted somberly, as the war was nearly over, and we had lost many thousands of people.

Eventually most of the Guardians were destroyed; some had disappeared into the Hebra mountains and the Gerudo highlands, and the monsters were reduced to small camps throughout Hyrule, much as things had been before. It had become apparent that, due to an occurrence called the Blood Moon that had begun happening since Ganon had burst forth from beneath the castle, it was impossible to completely do away with either the monsters or the Guardians, so the only thing left to do was avoid them as much as possible.

The Hylians, having had the greatest numbers prior to the Calamity, were the most severely depleted; where there had been tens of thousands before, there were only a few thousand remaining. Many people were maimed and burnt beyond recognition in most cases, and so were buried as respectfully as possible, side by side in mass graves. Those who could be identified were laid to rest with markers so their names could be remembered. A terrible sadness had fallen upon the people of Hyrule, but with it came a determination to not be exterminated completely. They would continue to eke out their humble existences, rebuilding where they could, tending their livestock and planting their crops, sharing with one another to ensure their survival.

As Impa told this part, my heart swelled with pride in my fellow Hylians. Where they had both the circumstances and the opportunity to fight and rob one another for resources, they chose instead to work together for the common good. Any robbery was strictly reserved for plundering ruins, including the castle, and even then mostly the bravest were the ones who attempted such things, as ruins were commonly infested with monsters.

Impa and Kiers were the ones who decided to create a sort of resting place for my father at the top of Mount Hylia on the Great Plateau. Since no one had discovered his body, and creating a resting place nearer to the castle was risky, they deemed this a suitable alternative. One could oversee nearly all of Hyrule from there. Also, as the Sheikah believed deeply in ancestral and guardian spirits, they hoped it would draw my father's spirit to the place, near Link, and his spirit might guide Link upon his resurrection. They set a date for the erection of the monument and spread the word, and the few remaining courtiers and soldiers attended the modest and solemn ceremony.

"Link did tell me that he saw my father's spirit on the plateau," I interjected. "Father did indeed help Link begin his trials, and he was the one who provided Link with the paraglider. I shall have to visit his monument with Link very soon," I added quietly, tears in my eyes, feeling my father's loss and appreciating Impa's and Kiers's gesture. The Sheikah were nothing if not loyal. Impa placed her hand on mine, squeezed briefly, and gave me an understanding smile. Then she continued her story.

Impa and Kiers returned to Kakariko Village, where their illustrious reputation from the battlefield had preceded them. They were received with much celebration, and Impa took her ancestral place as the matriarch of the village. She and Kiers were never married in the Hylian sense; they had only to declare their love and devotion before the rest of the village to be considered officially wed. They were well-respected and well-loved. Impa sat primarily as the village judge; her wisdom and prophetic vision were sought out in matters of disputes and decision-making. Kiers, who was skilled with every weapon in the Sheikah arsenal, became the village combat instructor. It was important, he said, to never let their guard down. Ganon's forces were still loose in the world, even if Ganon himself was being held within the castle, and the Yiga were crafty and dangerous.

In light of my love for Link and my desire to protect him being the keys to unlocking my power, and because it had almost been too little too late, with Link having had to be put in stasis while I faced Ganon alone, Impa was determined to relish as much time as possible with her own love. Life was too unpredictable and fragile to waste any time not loving and living fully. She and Kiers loved each other both tenderly and fiercely at once. They spent all their off-duty hours together, as they had before the Calamity, losing themselves in each other, living moment by moment, holding off on having children until they finally decided together that their love could only be made fuller by creating a new life together. By this time, thirty years had gone by, but among the Sheikah, who live much longer than we Hylians, fifty was not considered too old to bear children.

When her son was born, Impa discovered that love could be even stronger. Her maternal instinct was strong, and she loved her son even more fiercely than she loved Kiers, although in a different way. Lykke was hers in a way that Kiers could never be; he was a product of both herself and of Kiers, and therefore even more precious. She knew that she would protect this tiny new life with her own. She couldn't wait to experience all of his firsts. She and Kiers would teach him everything they knew about the world, and how to be a good Sheikah man.

Lykke did indeed grow to be a good Sheikah man; his skill with weapons rivaled his father's, yet he could also work the pumpkin patch with Olkin and the carrot field with Steen – and do it in such a diplomatic way that neither Olkin nor Steen begrudged the other Lykke's help. "Yes," Impa interjected in the middle of her own story, "those two stubborn fools were feuding with one another even back then."

One early spring day when Lykke was around thirty, a young Sheikah woman who no one had seen before arrived in the village. She called herself Ubry and claimed to have run away from the Yiga Clan to find her true Sheikah heritage. Of course, she was met with distrust at first, but she steadfastly camped alone outside the village throughout spring, summer, and autumn, meekly conducting business at the shop, and humbly offering her assistance to whatever villagers needed help in exchange for food and clothing. She had slowly endeared herself to most of the villagers, although there were some who still had misgivings about her.

Lykke had become particularly enchanted with her, and she with him. Before the snow flew, they had declared their love for one another before the village, as was customary, and Ubry came to live in the great house with Impa and Kiers, assisting with anything Impa needed.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Ubry was indeed a Yiga spy. Her orders were to slowly ingratiate herself to the Kakariko residents, Impa in particular, then to patiently wait an appropriate length of time before poisoning Impa and taking her place as leader. The Yiga knew very well that the rest of the Sheikah tribe were deeply distrustful of outsiders, so it would be a long, slow, careful process. Ubry was to subtly try to learn of the location of the hidden hero. She must try to cast doubt on the Sheikah's loyalty to the royal family who had spurned the Yiga, and try to convince them to join the cause. She was not to perpetrate any overt violence that could jeopardize her cover.

But Ubry fell genuinely in love with Lykke, and she found the lush, peaceful, mountain village much more to her liking than the sandy cave community of the Yiga in the Gerudo Highlands. The people of Kakariko were good to her, and she loved them. The stories they shared about the royal family were pleasant ones, and she came to wonder why the Yiga still held a grudge. She and Lykke lived harmoniously in Kakariko for more than ten years, but then one day they disappeared under cover of night.

A traveling merchant arrived in town shortly afterward, bearing a letter for Impa and Kiers from Lykke. It explained that Ubry had confessed to him about having been a Yiga spy, just as everyone had initially suspected, but that she had had a change of heart. Knowing that the Yiga were unforgiving and would come looking for them to dispose of both of them, he and Ubry had decided to go into hiding. He could not tell them where they were, and they may have to move to different locations from time to time, but he would send letters as often as possible to let his parents know that he and Ubry were still alive and well.

It didn't take long for the Yiga to find out that Ubry had defected. Some of their best stealth fighters managed to infiltrate Impa's home from the mountains behind Lantern Lake. They had held Kiers at knifepoint as they interrogated Impa, but Impa had managed to throw an inkwell through a window to attract the attention of her guards. The guards had burst in and saved Impa, but not before the Yiga had cut Kiers's throat. Impa had howled in anguish over her beloved's bloody body, then launched into fighting mode and joined her guards in exterminating the men who had taken Kiers's life.

Months later, a still-grieving Impa had been relieved to receive another letter from Lykke. He did not state where he and Ubry were, but the traveler who bore the letter said he had been given it at the Rito Stable. From then on, Impa received letters only once every year or two, and by the time they reached her, they had changed hands numerous times. Lykke's letters detailed times when they dyed their hair and wore Hylian clothing to blend in with Hylians in various unnamed villages, and other times when they had lived alone deep in forests or mountains, struggling to survive without the aid of other people. These letters brought both joy and sorrow to Impa: joy that her beloved son was still alive, yet sorrow that his life had become so difficult and he had to live as an outcast as a result of his love for Ubry. She wanted to tell him to just come back to Kakariko and they would do what they had to do to defend him and Ubry, but she had no way of replying to his letters.

Lykke and Ubry had been gone for ten years when a Hylian couple came on horseback to the village. It was a chilly late spring day. In front of the woman, on the saddle of her horse, rode a Sheikah toddler of two or three years. The strangers explained that during the winter a heavily wounded Sheikah woman had beaten on their door and begged them to take her little girl. The Sheikah woman had said her husband was dead, killed by the Yiga Clan, and that she herself had barely escaped with her and her child's lives. With her last breaths she had instructed this Hylian couple to take the child to Impa in Kakariko Village; the child was Impa's granddaughter and needed to be reunited with her people. The winter had been a harsh one, and the mountain paths to Kakariko had been unpassable until the spring thaw, but they had come as soon as they could. The child's name, they informed Impa, was Paya. They assured Impa that Ubry had been given a proper burial, but they had been unable to locate Lykke's body.

Once again, Impa found herself grieving, in silence as much as possible for Paya's sake, and the village grieved with her. Security around Impa and Paya was doubled. A marker was placed in honor of Lykke next to Kiers's marker in the graveyard to the north of the village. Feeling old beyond her years, Impa devoted herself to raising her young granddaughter to one day take her place.

As Paya grew and began interacting with the other children and villagers, her shy manner and helpful ways endeared her to everyone in the village. She seemed to have been born to serve her people; with the proper training, she could eventually become bolder and more assertive, learn to handle weapons, and learn to not only serve but lead her people whenever her time came.

Things had appeared peaceful since then, but the Yiga were known to be crafty and patient, and Hylia knew they could hold grudges indefinitely. The people of Kakariko could never let their guard down. They were even more wary of any outsiders, whether or not they appeared to be Sheikah. And that is how things had stayed, even until now. Ganon may be gone now, but the Yiga remained. They were most certainly still plotting, unseen.

I clutched Impa's gnarled hand gently as she told the last part of the story, my heart breaking for her. Tears ran down both our faces. I remained silent for a few respectful moments, then said quietly, "My dear old friend, I'm so sorry for all you've suffered. You have had to be brave all by yourself, all these years."

Impa smiled tiredly, but with a hint of mischief. "My dear girl, I had many wonderful years with Kiers, and after his passing, I assure you that I had the random lover or three along the way, once my grief had lessened, and while I still had the drive for such things. I am surrounded by friends who care for me. Danee, the village healer, has been my closest friend since you went to face Ganon. I have not been lonely. My life has not been so bad as you might expect. Grief is simply a part of life, as unavoidable as aging. You are yet young, and still have many things to learn about life and all its nuances. Even after your own struggles and the horror you must have endured holding Ganon in check, you still have the luxury of being naïve."

She held up a hand as I opened my mouth to protest. "Zelda, dear, I mean absolutely no offense. You were sheltered most of your life before the Calamity, then thrown forcefully into unimaginable pain and terror. I'm pleased that you still retain some innocence, and that you are finding happiness with the man who has loved you and protected you with his very life. There is no one better to accompany you as you move forward from innocence to maturity."

The mention of Link made my heart swell, as usual, and I smiled at Impa and hugged her for a long moment. "I wish you could have grown old with your Kiers. Life has been unfair to you, Impa."

"Life has been life," Impa shrugged. "If he hadn't died at the hands of the Yiga, he could as easily have died in a hunting accident, or been struck by lightning, or any number of things. As it were, he was a hero in his own right, and he and Lykke both live on through Paya now. I will see him again in the afterlife."