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Author's note: Another short chapter (although not as short as it was supposed to be). Thanks for reviews and keep them coming! Anyway, none of you actually mentioned that you wanted a summary of the story so far, but because I think this is going to get confusing, I'm going to put one in anyway. Note that it only talks about story detail that is relevant for this chapter and is no substitute for reading the previous chapters.
Story so far:-
Tai, a gerudo, summoned the power of her god Nura and used the power to free Ganondorf Dragmire. Ganon captured Nura's power and used it to destroy Hyrule. However, Zelda awakes in the alternate dimension of Nurai, the land that Nura created, and also the home land of the gerudos.
Tai also wakes up in Nurai, but discovers that Ganon who she always supposed to be her king, is actually not that role any more. He has been lying for the last 17 years. Instead she decides to join a group of incredibly skilled warriors called the Xi, who may be able to tell her where the real gerudo king is. However, instead she finds that she no longer cares about the Gerudo king and just wants to learn about the Xi ways from her teacher Bren.
Zelda is told that before the Nuran church will help her find other survivors from Hyrule she must do an undercover mission for them, and join up in Lain Tarn's crew as a pirate. She is given the new name of Hail as a joke, as Hail is the name of a mythical pirate queen who will come before the end of the world. However, after she saves the ship, the crew starts a mutiny and makes her captain. She finds that she can no longer remember about Zelda or anything that happened before she was Hail...
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Five
The fresh sea water that Hail splashed over her face seemed to be the one thing that could drag away the last vestiges of sleep and pull her into each new day. A bucket was now left outside her cabin every day for her to wash her face in. Just the first part of her simple regimented day.
But it was essential for her to be awake. Her memories may be slowly fading away but Hail needed all her wits about her. The ship may have chosen her as captain, but Tarn still kept some sway over the rest of the crew. A less confident person might have killed the old captain, but Hail was a firm believer in keeping her enemies close.
"Hail..." said Lain Tarn's voice, coming quietly from behind her.
Hail turned around, looked at her, and then asked softly "What is it?"
"A new course?" Lain asked, still unsure of her new role as a second-in-command. "You probably don't need telling this, but... The words spread that we're here and the other ships will avoid this part of the sea."
Hail looked at the water for a moment, considered, and then replied, "Rig our flag on the other galleon and assign twelve people to sail it up and around the North Trades."
The new galleon had been the result of one of Hail's recent naval victories.
"Twelve people?" Lain asked, even less sure. "Even our people won't be able to attack any ships with just twelve."
"They do not need to attack anything," Hail explained slowly, "just convince enough people that we're there so they believe it."
Lain began to catch on, "And then they quickly send their important shipments through here before 'we' get back?"
"Exactly."
"Understood," Lain saluted, before turning around and walking away.
*-*
Over all Bren was fairly pleased with his new apprentice. Her sword skills were fairly good, her acrobatics impressive and she was not short of courage either. But these would be expected from a potential Xi. What was more impressive was the amazing amount of general knowledge she had. In some of his conversations with her she had quoted from several famous foreign texts and even knew some simple alchemy.
The leaders of the Xi had decided that she would be best suited to do the majority of her training while on guard work, and Bren had to agree. He sensed that she was getting bored with practising, and actually wanted to try out some of her skills. But first she would have to go through the first two tests that all Xis and Xi Masters had to pass.
And now it was time for her first, her K'Tan. The origin of the phrase was lost back ago in the ancient times, but its use was enough to bring bad memories in most Xis. Bren still didn't like to remember his own.
Still, it had to be done, and so he walked up to her room to fetch her. Tai was standing at a window, staring out at the blue sky. Bren walked up to her.
"They're ready," he told he.
"I'm not sure I..." Tai started.
"It is the only way," interrupted Bren, his voice the hardest it had ever been with her.
Tai nodded and placed her new sword in the black sheath she had been given. The Master Sword had had to be given in to the Xi like the rest of her personal possessions, to be given back when she had finished her training. She was hungry, but she felt too nervous to eat anything at the moment. What if the Xi discovered her real reason for joining them? Then, her better self told her, they would also learn that the Xi had become more important than any supposed king could ever be to her. For the first time, she felt like she belonged somewhere.
"I'm coming," she at last replied, and she crossed the room to the door to prove it.
Bren nodded and led her out of the room and down a corridor. As they walked Bren was unusually quite, which was strange for him. In the few months that Tai had known him he had always tried to teach something as they walked somewhere, not wanting to waste a minute of her training. Bren at last stopped outside of one of the few wooden doors in the mountain. "In here," he told her.
She waited for a moment gathering her courage and then walked up to and opened the door. Why was she so scared of it? Was it just because of how scared Bren had been of it? Was she scared that she'd meet Ganon again? At the moment she didn't know. But she meant to find out.
Inside she found a single marble ball attached to a stone pillar. She closed the door behind her and walked up to the stone sphere. Bren's simple instructions echoed through her brain.
"Place your hands on the ball and repeat the chant."
She waited for a moment and then placed her hands on the ball. She was so nervous that for a few moments she desperately tried to remember the chant.
"I...I say that I am ready, and..." she said, at last.
The marble ball slowly glowed red and she felt her hands get warmer and warmer. She jumped as the pain shot through her body. But she was happy. Was this it? She could stand pain.
And then it all changed.
From being a slightly scared student holding a marble ball, in an old stone room she went to something...different.
The walls stretched and blurred up and down so much that it hurt her eyes to look at it; the stone floor she had been standing on had disappeared and she was falling through endless space. The whole room in an instant had become a brown mess of colour.
For a second she was floating in this strange mixed dimension and then the colours and walls snapped back to focus.
But she was no longer standing in the stone room. She was crouching on old cloth covered by a thin layer of sand, in a blue tent. Around her ten Gerudo women were crowding over a table in the centre of the tent, examining something. And towering over them was Ganondorf.
Tai recognised the scene; she was in the Gerudo planning tent from seven years back.
"H-hello," she stuttered nervously.
No one took any notice.
"HELLO!" she screamed.
No one even turned round.
She walked up to a woman straight in front of her who she recognised from her childhood and tapped her on the shoulder. The woman didn't move an inch. She pushed the woman's back hard, but she couldn't move her. What was this place?
She ran across the cloth to the entrance of the tent and pushed the opening flap out of the way. Outside was a blue swirling mist that she could see nothing in. And then suddenly a part of it brightened for a moment and she could see a small frightened child. The area brightened again and she saw that it was a girl of around ten years. But... she had known everyone in the hideout, hadn't she? The fog brightened once more, and she knew.
It was herself.
She ran out into the fog, trying to find the place where the younger Tai had been. All she found was the mist. She ran, and ran trying to get as far as she could from the tent. But when she turned back, it was always ten or so metres away. She remembered this time perfectly now.
Ganondorf had been giving his orders for what would become the 'Imprisoning War'. The orders had proved to be useless as he had not come out of the Golden Land for years, but Tai could still remember the fear she had felt on these long ago mornings. She had known that a war was going to start, and horrified she had sat outside, staring at the tent, knowing that her mother was inside planning a war.
Her mother...
She sprinted back to the tent, desperate to see her mother again. And then...
FLASH
It was like she was floating high in the sky, as images came pouring into her mind, quickly skipping between one and another.
She was above a Gerudo army, the women charging deep black horses across the plains of Hyrule.
FLASH
A nervous Hylinian army waiting. She saw one biting his lip, and another was quickly saying the three prayers of the Triforce. Somewhere behind her, a child was weeping.
FLASH
She was back in the tent again and Ganondorf's deep voice shouted out the orders for the attack.
FLASH
The Gerudo women charged up to the Hylinian army, their swords ready.
FLASH
She was seeing from her mother's point of view, she saw her mother's sword cutting through Hylinian's body.
FLASH
A scream rose up, as a fiery arrow burnt the Triforce banner to cinders.
FLASH
Her mother cut through a body.
FLASH
And another...
FLASH
The last was little more than fifteen.
FLASH
The scene changed. There was silence except for one voice droning on. She was in Kakariko village.
"No... how could they?" screamed one woman.
"My child..." said another quietly. "He was only sixteen..."
FLASH
...cut....more than fifteen....
FLASH
She was back at the funeral in Kakariko village. The villagers were starting to sing a song praising Din for their lives, and her greatness.
"Why?" said yet another woman, "Why sing happy songs now?"
"Don't worry," said her husband, "I'll get our revenge."
FLASH
The husband's limp body fell dead onto the newly fallen snow.
Her mother laughed at him.
FLASH
It was summer again, and her mother was in the main chamber of Spirit Temple. Ganondorf walked over to her and laid a medal over her head.
"Well done," he said, "you have done the best of anyone."
"I am glad to do so for you," she heard her mother say.
FLASH
...fell dead...
FLASH
She could see a young her again, this time talking to a friend.
"Your mothers the best," said her friend.
"I know," she had said proudly, "I want to be just like her."
FLASH
Another new face fell to the floor dead.
And then she could she who had killed him.
She had.
"No...." screamed Tai, at last. "It wasn't like that."
She broke down, and began to cry bitterly.
"I wasn't like that.... My mother is not a killer!"
The stone hall was deaf to her screams.
She breathed deeply, and waited, and then it came.
More images flooded back into her head... Hyrule Castle Town being burnt down and the occupants who had not left slaughtered...the killing of the town people who had refused to be moved...
And yet something was different this time. She hadn't killed these people. The stone could feed these images into her head but it was still her head. These people weren't really dying now. And she couldn't change time. And so she turned off her emotions.
And the images stopped.
And the door swung open again, and Bren was waiting outside. She ran to him, and couldn't stop herself from crying again. For an instant, she had been an Xi. She had been able to transcend everything, to focus on nothing but the job at hand. And now she had lost the calmness of mind again. But she knew that she could do it. And she knew that she would do it again.
*-*
The sleek galleon's movement finally stopped as it docked in the harbour. All around it people were staring in wonder. Officially, this ship was the 'Merchant's Dream', a registered antiques trader. But no one at this port was fooled. They all knew that the real name of the ship was the 'Lain's Pride'. And they all knew about its new captain.
They did not have long to wait before seeing her. Soon, a woman who could not have been more than 20 and with blonde hair that had strange red patches appearing all over it, stepped down the gangplank.
"Where is the one called Dizkre?" Hail asked.
A man appeared from out of the shadows of a particularly shady pub. "I can lead you to him," the man offered.
With Dayla and Tarn following her Hail went along after the man. The man finally bought them into a dinghy alley, before drawing a knife.
"My son was on one of those ships you sunk."
The statement hung in the air, the threat obvious behind it.
"Your poor wife." Hail stared at the man for a moment. "She's about to lose her husband as well."
The man ignored her. "Why can't you just work honestly like other people?"
"I'm bored now." Hail's hand struck out, and a knife was with it. The man's throat was cut before he had a time to react.
Dayla swallowed hard, but Tarn just raised an eyebrow.
"I believe you are looking for me."
The three pirates turned to see an old man walking up to them. "Yes," Hail admitted. "Dayla tells me that your family has passed down through the generations something for me."
"My father was killed by a fake Hail and his father before that." Dizkre looked at her hard. "You'll excuse me if I wish for some proof of your authenticity."
He held up to them a black box, upon which was carved a strange symbol that Hail didn't recognise. It was made up of three triangles, one standing on the other two. Curiosity overwhelming her, Hail touched the marble the box was made out of. Instantly, there was a click and the lid of the box opened. Inside were two clumps of white rock.
"Calalite!" breathed Tarn.
"You can explain later." Hail nodded at the man, closed the box, and walked off again. The other two quickly followed her.
"I say," started Dayla," "his whole family for generations has been working up to this. Don't you think that we could give him a little time?"
Hail stopped suddenly and looked at Dayla. "Your whole world has been waiting for me. And now that I'm here, they're not going to want to miss one minute of it."
The two of them walked on, and did not notice that Tarn had not followed. Lain made her way back to the alley, where she found another man crying besides the father Hail had ruthlessly killed.
"Who did this to him?" said the crying man, as he looked up at Tarn.
"Hail did," Tarn said quietly.
"There must be something I can do..."
"Black." Tarn left it at that, and as she hurried to catch up with Hail and Dayla she couldn't help smiling. It was all coming gloriously together. Hail was going to get a nice big surprise soon. Oh, a big surprise indeed...