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Author's note: Many thanks to any people who've read on so far. Just out of curiosity, anyone but StarDragon actually reading this? Without further ado:.
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. While completing her second task she finds that for a brief moment that her body seems to control itself without her input.
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 travel to Nurai's capital Asreal where they are due to meet in the Glass Temple. Link meets an Xi calling herself Tanya and the two become uneasy friends.
Eight
The darkened room was still talking as Oliver Black stood outside the door, waiting quietly. His gaze swept over the people congregated in the room, mentally ticking them off on a register. They didn't look particularly serious – half of them were playing with cards and most of the rest were talking and grumbling – but he knew how much they had lost to her. That would be subject of most of their grumbling. And of course, probably some about him.
Gulping down some of the red Calt wine that he always kept with him, he slowly walked into the room, each step loud and determined. The heads of the pirates around him reluctantly turned to face the stage.
"You all know or can guess what this meeting is about," he started, making sure he sounded confident. "Most of you will have lost ships to Tarn and her new gang." He paused, spitting out the last word, "some of you will have lost more, some less. It is time to set an example that we will not be dominated over."
Black stared around the crowd looking to see who was not agreeing, and joining in with the general shouts of agreement. He noticed two at the back who were still murmuring quietly, and made a mental note to deal with them later. And if they were saying what he thought they were saying, he would make sure they found out the hard way the price of annoying him.
"Before," he continued, "all of us put together would board at a maximum of 10 ships a month out of the 300 that sail this ocean. That's enough. We're rich; we have food, the public still thinks of sea travel as relatively safe. We had enough money for anything we wanted."
To emphasise his point, he threw the glass of expensive wine to the floor. A few of the more timid pirates flinched as the glass shattered.
"Last week, Tarn's fleet of 3 ships attacked 80 ships. In 3 seas that were normally safe for travel. In the Asrealan Sea only six ships managed to get through. Six! Most of those 80 ships had their cargo simply thrown into the sea, as Tarn had no room for it. Only 2 other ships were attacked by different groups – the majority of the ships due to sail that week postponed or cancelled the voyage due to the danger of attack. I don't blame them."
There was an even angrier shout than normal from the crowd and Black was glad that his fake statistics had enraged them - not that they were too far off the truth he had heard.
"The Nuran Navy hasn't captured one of our forces for over a year. They have no chance of taking Tarn even with her rash risk taking. They know that she's making a laughing stock of them, but so far they have completely failed to even scratch her."
He took in a deep breath and prepared himself for what he would say next.
"I propose that we form an alliance dedicated to destroying Tarn's ships," said Black, finally getting to his plan.
For a while the shouting made it impossible to continue as the more drunken members expressed themselves. But once it had again died down, another voice shouted out worriedly, "But what about her...Hail?"
Black stared at the red haired girl who had dared to speak. She looked only around 17. Deep down, he couldn't help feeling sorry for her. A tragic innocent, stuck in this putrid trade already. And yet from the look of her she still believed in the ancient teachings, so far as to dress in the traditional way. That was like a lot of pirates really, still deeply attached to the old beliefs. He reminded himself that he must never offend them directly through their religion.
"Tarn is not Hail," he spoke confidently. "Neither is that apprentice she took on Landstart. She is using the myth like Tana did 12 years ago, relying on the name to create her fear."
The familiar two at the back chuckled at that remark. Oliver Black's embarrassment at Landstart too quickly for him to stop it. He had underestimated the apprentice at Landstart, but he would not make the same mistake again. She was still a mystery, with not even his most powerful spy being able to tell him her origin.
"But..." the girl protested again, "Tana changed her name to Hail. The apprentice did not even know who Hail was. Is that not a sign?"
Black looked straight in her eyes to make her uncomfortable, before replying loudly, "No."
"So what's your plans?" called out a cocky Gerudo from a corner, "if you have any."
Black smiled. He had waited for this.
"I have a...a representative in Tarn's crew who has informed me of their position. We will destroy the main ship and the other two ships will be forced to stop their attacks. We need no plan but to overwhelm them with numbers. If all of us here stick together we would have in excess of 50 vessels. Not even the real Hail could beat those odds. We have nothing to fear..."
He took in a deep breath and allowed his eyes to trail upwards. "…Apart from spies."
At the same instant he flung himself to the floor, just in time to miss an arrow which had just hit the wall behind him. Then a Xi assassin in the familiar dangerous red and white pattern jumped down from where she had been concealed. With a loud war cry, she drew her sword.
Black jumped on to his feet and appeared to draw his own sword... only to throw it at her face. Surprised, the Xi blocked the incoming sword with her own weapon, but for a moment she let her concentration off Black. Taking his chance before she could attack again, Black sprinted forward and kicked out sharply. Her sword was only halfway up in defence as his foot rammed into her temple, knocking her down to the floor. For a moment, she was dazed and couldn't stand up. She tried, but she tried in vain as she realised when she saw the cold steel of her own stolen blade being thrust down at her.
As the first blood rushed the crowd leapt to their feet, their voices raised in simultaneous exultation the long feared ally but most often foe finally defeated. They stamped and they clapped and the more business minded of them ran to collect some of the blood knowing its potential worth later. Yet there were some who had already jumped to the feeling that most of them would come to eventually – wonder. The Xi were invincible; they always had been and they always should. They were the church's symbol of dominance, the reason this country had not long ago sunk to anarchy.
So who was this leader who could so calmly defeat the unexpected? Who was this who could turn the tides of history and defeat what even the Sadia and the Kalen could not? Hail or no Hail, with this man, who cared?
And as Oliver Black contemplated while he walked down from the stage, the dead actor had been well worth the money he paid for her.
*-*
"She must be stopped!" the priest claimed in his depressingly monotone voice. "She is openly contradicting everything we have said about the Distile. Her existence alone breeds mistrust."
"We are lying to them anyway," spoke another. "The Distile is here and now - we can no longer ignore that fact, we must take action and secure Nura's safety. We must study the texts and not take any irrational actions."
Link looked over across the tables and saw to his amusement that Tanya was almost as bored as he did by the oft-repeated arguments. Apparently the committee thing didn't suit her ever. An old story came to his mind of the lion that couldn't be tamed. Sitting over there, continually flicking the hair out of her eyes and glancing in exasperation at a blond man next to her she easily fitted the role. What had the end been? Oh yeah, now he remembered what Saria had…
Whoops. Shouldn't have invoked her memory like that, it was too hard – too hard to forget and pretend that Hyrule didn't exist any more. Too hard not to realise that he should be out there searching for her right this minute.
"I may be considered an expert on the subject of Hyrule," a priest called Raymus said, joining the debate, "I have studied the co-existence my whole life and the early Kalen passages which talk about gateways between the two lands. But I think we're forgetting an even more knowledgeable expert that we have."
Link tried to look modest as the majority of the room turned to face him. Nala (who had been sitting next to him) got up and began to tell his story. Link tried not to blush with guilt as Nala mentioned the Kalen. Finally, he finished his account telling of how they had decided to travel to Asreal. Thankfully he didn't know about Link's latest rooftop adventures. So far these people's respect for him wasn't exactly high and if they found out how easily he had been kidnapped that respect would soon disappear. Link ventured to ask the question that had been annoying him for so long - "So, who are the Kalen exactly?"
There was silence in the room. Everyone tried hard not to look at each other with the exceptions of Nala who stared at him in horror while Tanya looked on ironically. Finally the head priest stood up - and Link quickly searched his memory for the man's name. Daimos, he was pretty sure Nala had said.
"I suppose we ought to repay your information," spoke Daimos at last, still sounding reluctant, "so I will try and tell you our story from the beginning and I am sorry if you have already heard it."
Link kept silent but his heart radiated thanks - finally he would learn the details Nala had refused to tell him about this strange land and its heritage.
"In the beginning," he started in the normal way, 'there were Hylinians and there were Gerudos. Sex was not a barrier and there was as many male Gerudos as there were female. The two races were one in this strange land and we know that were many gateways between this land and others. Gradually the races interbred until there were around five males in every generation. These became the Masters of the Xiam Kalendium. This select group was of Gerudos who would only live and breed with each other, and not the growing amount of Hylinian-mixes. These Gerudo males were the only people who had slight magic abilities in their blood and so over the generations the Xiam became a people with more power than the others could dream of. But they chose not to rule over the common Hylinians and Gerudos and instead to live on their own, gathering knowledge on the world around them.
"One of these early Xiam started studying the properties of light and soon he and his descendants became extra strong in their light control abilities. They developed new skills that the others envied and often tried to find out about. Soon other factions of the group formed until people were split into whether they were strong at a particular power.
"During this time the first Gerudo male outside of the Xiam was born, a common boy from a Hylinian father. The early people declared him King and from then on his descendants were always boys, and the Hylinian people worshipped them.
"Some Hylinian males travelled to the Xiam Kalendium and only if they could prove their worth they would become a 'Master', a receiver of the power from an original Gerudo man. The power from Master to Master was transferred in a special ceremony, and although not a proper member of the community they became trainers of the other Xiam.
"At this time the King with his lavish parties was needing more and more money so he raised the taxes until he could no more. The King became angry with the Xiam Kalendium who would not pay any money, and he sent an army out to force them to do so. The army lost the fight and from then on there was hate on both sides for each other.
"And then came the greatest moment in history - the enlightenment."
At just the mention of the word some of the priests dropped to their knees and began fervently praying. Others just dipped their head slowly until Link was left as the only one who hadn't at least lowered his eyes. After half a minute of this devotion Daimos continued to speak.
"Nura appeared for 40 days and taught people about her and how to live. Some of the Xiam started a church to worship her and for 40 years after she left power resonated over her land. The Xiam were given dreams which revealed prophecies that would take place far off in the future. Many of these prophecies were forgotten, but one in particular was remembered.
"There would be three times of light and three of dark. A few hundred years later the first bad time came. For the first time in millennia a Gerudo male was born into the Xiam Kalendium, and he was one of the Xiam who controlled light. He was crowned king and all the followers of the light power came and supported him, but the rest would still not support him or pay taxes. They supported the growing church. So the Xiam Kalendium split up into the Xi and the Kalen. Later the Kalen became known simply as the 'Royal Guard'.
"Then thousands of years passed and the second dark time came, 'The Calalite War'. After the rebels seized control with the power they held in this enormously explosive stone, the church stockpiled their own material for safety. Years later when the monarchy was reinstated the King tried to demand the destruction of the church's supply so he could have sole control insured upon. And so the Xi (the guardians of the church) and the Kalen (the guardians of the King) fought.
"The King was killed and Gerudo males are no longer born in Nura, and so there are no more kings here. The once respected 'Royal Guard' became the lowly True Gerudos and even they gradually are disappearing.
"And now we think that the third and final dark time comes."
Daimos took a sip of water and spoke briefly.
"There are only a few predictions that are clear in the third dark predictions. One is 'She, on high, will be taken low, for she trusted mortal, and so was tricked by mortal and trapped by mortal.' The one you have probably heard, 'They who rule in fear the sea will be led by she, Hail and she will bring death and then life and then death.' "
"I'm not so sure about that interpretation," spoke up one priest and Link recognised the resultant groan as one of over familiarity with the subject matter. Gradually the speaking descended into monotonous babble and Link was again reduced to fighting off slumber.
"For example, the earthquakes are a classic Distile omen..."
Except the phrase wasn't being spoken – Link's mind was teasing him and recalling the time when it had been said. There must be some reason for it – Link's mind may have disobeyed his feeble attempts to try and controls its thoughts, but those thoughts normally had some inspiration. Later on this moment would seem ridiculous to him – how could he have not realised that the ground was shaking? How could he have not seen the pebbles trickling down the wall?
Two stones, one after another, crashed down from the ceiling, not too far where Nala was sitting. The situation was instantly clear to everyone. The long prophesised earthquakes had finally decided to put in an appearance.
The priests stared around them in horror as the roof continued to crack in the shaking room. It was only when the majority of the stones began to get dangerously sized that they realised staying there was not a good idea.
"Get out!" shouted one priest, and soon everyone took up the cry - which only seemed to anger the earthquake more. They ran terrified into the main chamber. From every door more people ran, some screaming, some solemnly quiet. Link noticed Tanya running around near trying to evacuate people from the chaos. And then parts of the glass of the roof began to fall down raining on the people's heads.
Link instinctively drew for his sword that had been so little use when he was a hostage. But it would take more than steel to stop this tantrum of nature.
There was a huge crowd at the exit, desperately trying to escape. Two Xi were slowing the crowd down, making sure the panic-stricken people crushed no one.
And then everyone's eyes were drawn to the same person. The shouting figure of Tanya. What was wrong with her? Nala suddenly saw the Xi Link had been with before charging towards Link, her eyes on the ceiling above. Nala followed her eyes up and saw the D'Ran statue falling directly towards the Hylinian boy. Link glanced up at the last moment, but it was too late for him.
The huge stone knife reached him first, pushing him to the ground and cutting through his chest, the floods of blood only too eagerly escaping. And then the great weight of the statue began to crush his body to the floor. The Xi reached him first, and with almost superhuman strength pulled the statue off him.
It was clear that it was too late. As Nala ran towards the boy he could see the blood pouring all over the floor and his crushed rib cage. The Xi was trying to straighten his back but Nala knew it was useless.
Link would die.