This work is the result of some in-depth conversations about Skyward Sword with the excellent Floor Owl (not a user on this site). There will be more in this series, and in this particular story - I don't usually post more frequently than once a week, but I'll try to stay ahead of myself and keep the chapters coming regularly. Though, since there are several interlinked stories in this series, this particular one may update slightly less regularly - stay alert for updates!

The Sword of the Goddess series:
I. To Drift from Grace
II. A Hunger to Swallow the World
III. Out of Time
IV. The Sword Reforged
Technically there is a complicated optimal reading order beginning with Ch. 1 of The Sword Reforged, but it isn't being written in that order and can be safely ignored anyway. When all four are complete, the reading order will be fully flagged at the beginning / end of relevant chapters. If you have arrived here from Ch. 16 of The Sword Reforged, you are in the right place! Please continue until Chapter 6, when you will be signposted elsewhere...

This particular story goes into the backstory of and answers several specific questions about Skyward Sword, some of which are spoilers. The one that sets us off, however, is this: If tech beats demons, then there should be no demons left, since major tech takes time to develop. And if demons beat tech, the tech should never have even got off the ground. So how come we have both aggro demons running around and a really advanced (however now-dead) robotic civilisation?

Please do leave a review if you like it, and let me know if you spot something I can improve on!

Chapter 1: Clockwork Sunset

You're lucky, little one. You'll be part of the new start. It's a big responsibility, but I know you'll be up to it. Of course you will.

Saina scowled at her screen, which had turned on automatically as she sat down. With less than 256 days to go, everyone and everything had started a countdown. The numbers at the top of her screen showed time ticking inexorably away, slipping away from her.

It was an honour to be in her generation, of course it was, a great honour to be one of those to begin the next iteration. The duration of the great cycle had been timed down to the last nanosecond long ago. It was stable. Self-sustaining. Complete. The great work arced through it, on and on, around and around. Unending.

Unlike the people in it. They were born, they lived, grew old, died - but they did so on the same ground, in the same place, one fraction of one iteration of the Grand Design. There was nothing new in the closed world of the Cycle. Only the Design, ever improving, from simple metal tools on up to thinking machines. The Design existed, it seemed, to perpetuate itself. There didn't really seem to be an end. Or at least, not for the Design itself. Its people were fast failing, now. They were comfortably on track for the Design to continue without them - the robots agreed - but what, in the end, was the point? Saina's life had been mapped out for her, from beginning to End to Beginning to end. She dreamed of seeing something new, anything, something unpredicted and unpredictable.

"How's the calculation coming along, Para?" she murmured, and put the assistant on her lap to read the answer.

| 88%. This would be much faster on a bigger system, Mistress.

"Very funny." Her next words, such as they were, were typed.

| You know we can't do that. Someone will notice. You're still on track to finish before the end of the Cycle, aren't you?

| With 99% certainty!

Para's text was briefly ornamented. It looked remarkably cheerful. Saina just nodded, set her to one side, and set about the work she didn't want to be doing.

Parasova was Saina's somewhat whimsical personal assistant. The persona had in part grown with her and in part been modified over the years. The last year, in particular.

"Can you increase her curiosity? I want…" Saina had glanced around, perhaps looking for anyone listening, perhaps just buying herself a moment of time. "I need to practice working with children before we pass into the next iteration. Can you make her a bit more like that?"

And Madi thought he understood, just as she'd hoped. "Sure. Can't make her know that little without wiping too much of her memory banks to be useful, but I can have her asking you why every five seconds if you want."

Relief had bubbled out as a little giggle. "Maybe not that much. But you've got the idea."

And so Parasova had been modified, curious and more talkative than before. Even so, Saina had had one hand nervously ready to go for a hard reset when she'd first, carefully, broached the subject that was fast becoming all she could think of.

"Hey Para, do you have the First and Second Cycle records still in your memory?"

"I certainly do! What are you looking for?"

"I just want to read them again. It must have been such a strange time. Imagine not knowing a Cycle was coming. Not knowing anything about it."

"Wow." Para had, somewhat annoyingly, taken to humming to herself. Given it had to be either part of or a consequence of the update to her personality, Saina didn't want to risk stopping her. She guessed she was using the pause to analyse files.

Patience paid off. "Where did the first people come from, anyway?" Para asked abruptly. "85% of what they wrote is really unhelpful, and the other 15% is nearly incomprehensible."

"Good question, Para. You know, I'm not entirely sure myself." She'd paused, her heart beating so fast she was certain Para would detect the changes in her physiology. "Wouldn't it be fun to find out, though?"

With that, she'd finally had a computer to work with, to do what she couldn't. She'd drawn Para in, sworn her to secrecy - a childlike loyalty came in unexpectedly handy - and now they were closer than anyone had ever been to something no-one had ever done before. Closer than Saina had ever been to… freedom. She dreamed of it, of a life lived by her own choices, not even the broadest strokes mapped out to take advantage of or work around the quirks of history that everyone knew were coming. She dreamed of things that would be unique, never seen before or since. She dreamed of a place that wasn't the one set out for her, some duty other than to begin the Cycle again with the knowledge from its end. She dreamed…

...But the screen before her was awaiting her input, her refinements to her own plans and projections about the role mapped out for her. Saina held back a sigh, and set to work. Based on past performance and training, she was refining instructions for herself to maximise the speed and efficiency of reconstructing their technology from only what they could carry back with them. Her design would be pooled with others, her contributions weighed, and the ultimate plan refined as a result. At the beginning of an iteration, there was less room for manoeuvre than ever.

The plans she worked on felt like a prison, each refinement adding a binding chain. Her own plans, her secret plans, were to set herself free.