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Author's note: Well - its been a long time since I posted the last chapter. As it has been such a long time, more than ever, this is going to need a summary. If you've haven't read any other chapters I'd recommend reading them first. Chapter Seven coming (fairly) soon. Note that it only talks about story detail that is relevant for this chapter.

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 and Link awake in the alternate dimension of Nurai, the land that Nura created, and also the homeland 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 not been 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. To graduate from her Xi training she must complete two tasks. The first she manages to complete.

Link is awakened by a priest of the Nuran church who is called Nala. However, while Link is still confined to bed a Kalen (a mysterious group who all the Nuran people seem to hate) breaks in a gives Link a mysterious broach.

Nala reveals that Link's coming and also the emergence of a mysterious pirate queen called Hail are all part of a prophecy. This prophecy predicts that the world will come to an end in a time called the Distile. The only chance Link has to stop it is to find the six sages who are somewhere in Nura. Hoping to recruit more help Link and Nala set off to Nurai's capital Asreal...

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Six

I am stronger, she always told herself to keep morale up.

The stick shot out of the wall and for a moment looked like it was going to split Tai's leg in half. But her instincts didn't fail her and she easily swung her leg over it. Another stick threatened her head and so she was forced to dive downwards only to have to do a flip in the air to avoid another one from the bottom of the wall.

"Its just a physical thing," explained Bren when referring to this second test. This second test which decided whether she could join the only group that had ever truly accepted her.

The next section of corridor that beckoned also had ominous holes in the walls. More sticks? But she could handle them - she knew it. She was strong and nothing could stop her.

Sure enough more things shot towards her as she ran down the corridor. But this time it was metal rods that threatened to reduce her to crawling. She jumped, twisted in the air and ducked almost at the same time. Then she used her hands on the ground to vault three metal spikes that formed a wall. Two more that she could simply hurdle and that particular trap was done.

The sweat pouring down her face, her limbs exhausted, and her clothes torn Tai finally stopped. She had no idea how long she had been running, but she knew that she needed a rest right now. She lay down right where she was and closed her eyes. For a minute or two she breathed in and out, concentrating on the bliss that was nothing.

The maze that formed the second Xi task was extremely cold, and she found herself longing for her warm bed in her room. Her brain refused to give up its alert state even though she knew that she never been more tired in her live before.

She was just about to carry on when the voice came to her ears. It was a male voice, that was a long way away, but at this distance she could not make out any more than an eerie muttering. She got up and walked down the corridor following a side turning to the right. For a few minutes she carried on along yet another side passage until she realised that she was getting further away from the voice.

Finally she found a huge wooden door from where the voice was coming from, yet strangely she could still not make out a syllable.

"Help!"

The unexpected clearly shouted word would have made Tai jump a few months ago. It was the same voice, just much louder and clear.

"Open the door!"

Who was it? Tai had no idea, but she couldn't help expecting that it was a trap. She had avoided many of them in the last few hours, but none of them had contained anything that was alive. Curiosity got the better of her (although she hoped that Bren never found out) and she stretched out her hand to the door. When it opened she walked straight into an at first glance large empty room. There was a small hole near the top of one wall, and the air around it seemed to have a strange blue tinge.

It was from this the small bird which was crawling towards Tai must have come from. The creature looked it should have died years ago with its one remaining eye and most of its feathers fallen out.

The bird came close enough until it was touching her foot, and then flopped to the ground. It was dead. Her head suddenly seemed to explode with pain and she found herself backing out of the room. Next her legs were sprinting down the corridor, seemingly with all tiredness forgotten. The headache died down and finally the alertness in her mind went and she was free to rest. Yet her feet continued to lead themselves as she ran though corridor after corridor.

And then to her astonishment, she could see a huge gateway to the blue sky. She was at the end.

*-*

It was only when they first sighted the great city that Nala broke out of his silence.

"There she is," he almost breathed, "Asreal."

It was a month since Link had awakened. After he had recovered enough to travel Nala had taken him to several villages trying to contact other members of the Nuran church. None of them had been able to talk to Nura, and all of them were panicking. As no explanation had come from Asreal, the capital of Nurai, Nala had decided to go to them instead. The only message that had come through from the church's capital was that they were to keep the secret from the peasants. Riots from frantic people would help nobody.

Besides, the leaders would need to know about Link and so after hiring two sturdy horses they had set off on their journey to Asreal. As the weeks had gone by, Link had started to become worried. When were they going to start looking for the sages? he wondered, and a few times he even asked Nala.

"When we know more," Nala always said, and Link could never get more out of him before he would change the subject.

And now, finally, Link could see the famous city. Or rather, he should be able to. Instead all he could make out was a glint of light. According to Nala that was the light reflecting off the great spire of the Glass Temple, the headquarters of Nurai's religion.

Link wondered idly if any of the Kalen that Nala seemed to hate so much lived here. He still would look at the strange broach that the Kalen had given to him. But he always did that when Nala was not around.

It was made out a strange shiny metal, and on it was depicted the crescent that seemed to be the main religious symbol of this community. Strikingly, the crescent seemed to be in the process of being shattered by a beam of light coming from a sun in the corner of the design. Link guessed that the picture must be incredibly sacrilegious. So far he had seen no other sign similar to the one on the broach - or even heard anyone mention the Kalen. Which made finding out about them harder than ever.

As they made their way down the heavily eroded dust path that formed the main road to the city Nala began to describe his home city. "The Glass Temple is in the central square and is surrounded by mostly the church buildings that run the country. If you're ever lost just head towards the spire - its kind of impossible not to be able to see it. Or just ask for D'Ran square; that's also another name for the Glass Temple by the way. Most normal people just use glass, but some reckon that the name doesn't sound respectable enough so they call it D'Ran. The D'Ran is actually a huge knife inside it hung from the ceiling. In our earlier days the D'Ran used to be used for ritual sacrifices."

That bit of Nala's babbling made Link look round at him.

"Yes..." Nala actually looked kind of embarrassed. "Some factions in our society believed that sacrifices were a right interpretation of the teachings at the Enlightenment."

Another curious look from Link - but this time not from shock.

Nala quickly explained. "The time when Nura descended among us and told us her teachings - remember? I'm sure I've told you about it. Anyway, nowadays every person's death is taken as their own personal sacrifice to her and so the D'Ran knife does not have to be used any more. Still, we hang it above us in there to remind us that at any time she still may require a sacrifice from us."

Link nodded to show he understood. He could see Asreal pretty clearly now - a gigantic labyrinth of a capital fitting for this country's immense size. For the small boy who had spent his life living in a forest and then only in a country that was a few square kilometres this country was almost overwhelming. For Hyrule's one mountain range Nurai had several. Its forest was around ten times the size and while it did not contain any lakes a seemingly endless ocean surrounded it. The Glass (or D'Ran as Nala had called it) Temple clearly stood in the middle of it - it pretty much looking like its name sounded. The huge (it must be several times greater than the Temple of Time) cathedral made almost all out of glass contrasted against the other various stones and wood buildings that were.

"Quite a sight isn't it?" said a guard standing by main gate into the city, obviously recognising the signs of a first time visitor.

"Its amazing," agreed Link as Nala showed his identification documents to another guard.

Then they were let through and down the short path into the city. They dismounted, placed their horses in the city's stables and then slowly made their way on foot through the narrow streets of Asreal.

*-*

The talk in the old Inn's bar where they were to stay the night was about one thing and one thing only.

Hail.

"They say," said one drunk man, "that the church's latest shipment of money was captured by Nura the other day."

"Impossible," broke in Nala, "that shipment was sent in an area which Hail had just vacated."

"Well I'm sorry," mocked the drunkard, "maybe she leaves mirror images wherever she goes. After all she is supposed to have tremendous power..."

"She is not the real Hail!" shouted Nala, quite out of place. He cooled down enough to lie, "If she was Nura she would have been captured."

"Well... maybe she was," the drunkard continued only really to annoy Nala, "after all, who knows how much the church lies to us these days. We could have been invaded and they wouldn't have told us."

Link realising that Nala couldn't be restrained for another second, pulled him upstairs, waited while he cooled down, and then rejoined the bar. He was curious about Hail, the mysterious pirate who he had heard so many rumours about in the last few months.

"Apparently," another man was saying, "Hail's hair was originally blonde but has been apparently gradually turning red."

"What? They're dying it?" asked the drunken man. "Nice touch doing it in stages."

The second man raised his eyes to the ceiling briefly in despair and then turned around and asked Link, "What do you think of her?"

"I don't know. Why don't they stop her?"

The laughter from the drunkard caused most of his drink to spill out from his mouth onto the table, but a girl quickly cleaned up with a cloth while the man ordered another drink.

"Yeah right!" he said. "How many times do you reckon they've tried? I've heard at least ten."

"Oh," Link said dejectedly, realising that he should become more knowledgeable about current affairs.

He turned away as the conversation turned to how many husbands Hail had stole and walked up to his room. Tomorrow he would meet up with the church's council and have to tell them his story in detail. It was time for an early night...

*-*

Link smiled as he slowly rode back to the shelter where the gerudo was normally standing. 1900 points out of 2000 points wasn't bad, even by his standards. 16 bulls eyes as well! Not something that even the gerudos do normally.

Not that Link did it normally for that matter. He had only just sneaked in here, the Gerudo Archery Course, on a whim when he heard that the Gerudos had gone into the desert for a while. He only got a chance to test his skills every few months. And then there was also the bonus that the Gerudos paid for the pots that he had smashed...

As he packed up his gear he wondered what they would think when they saw all the pots smashed and the arrows spread everywhere. Curse the vandal? Not that he cared. His happiness turned to slight gloom when he saw the dark clouds coming over the sky. They had certainly come over suddenly. Link would have sworn that they weren't there five minutes ago. They looked like they would last the night too. Not good. His tree house always leaked.

He had just begun to climb up onto his horse's back when the first lightning bolt struck. It was so sudden that Link fell down to the floor, shocked. Shaking the dust off, he climbed back up again. This time he managed to get on before an even larger bolt struck and Epona bolted. Clinging on desperately, he managed to slow her down, and finally she was under control again.

Until the earthquake came.

The land shook violently, so hard that parts of the nearby fortress crashed down and Epona again bolted, this time towards the bridge. Link stared around him in horror. What was happening? Epona just managed to jump in time as the bridge in front of them fell down into the river. Link didn't even want to know how far down that was.

As he emerged onto Hyrule Field he heard the first screams and loud screeches from the nearby ranch. Epona was charging towards it, her old home, as if she thought that she was safe there. If she thought that she was going to get a shock.

As they were charging towards it (the earth still shaking and the lightning still raining down) a huge crack opened in the earth splitting Lon Lon Ranch in two. Epona charged right through the middle, dodging the lightning bolts that were still pouring down. Link turned away, horrified as he saw the body of Malon, a piece of wood stuck through her heart.

Epona charged again to Hyrule Castle, only to see it too falling down, soon a mere heap of rubble. She didn't even bother to turn to the great furnace that was the Lost Wood, instead jumping over Zora's river and up into Kakariko Village.

Horrific memories came back to Link as he saw the buildings burn down, the great windmill again stopped. For one instant he saw the ghosts pour out of the graveyard, their home too lying as dust.

As Epona charged up the Death Mountain Trail she had just managed to turn in time to miss the huge limp body of a Goron falling to the ground. They reached the top of the precipice, and finally Epona thought that she was safe.

And then Death Mountain erupted, bringing true its name. Seas of lava poured down the mountain, and Link found himself riding a skeleton where life had been moments before.

He clutched at a piece of rock, and to his amazement managed to hold on and to scramble up onto the top of it. From there he saw the lava cover Hyrule, destroying anything that was left. And still the lightning raged, and still the cracks in the earth opened.

With one last effort, Death Mountain exploded, fragments of it flying everywhere and anywhere. But Link was left untouched.

And when all the lava had finally be drained by the cracks in the Earth, Link could see nothing. A land of ashes, and one Hylinian on one pillar of rock.

Everything but Link had been taken.

It was the Day of Death.