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Author's note: This must be a record for getting a new chapter up. Anyone reading at all? Ah... never mind.
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.
Zelda is given the new name of Hail as a joke when she is forced to become a pirate. But gradually she finds that she can no longer remember her old life, and her old thoughts and emotions seem invalid. She takes over as the pirate captain and soon her name reverberates around the country as one to be feared. For Hail is the prophesised figure who will appear shortly before the Distile, the end of the world. This new 'Hail' seems to live up to the legacy that had been told of – not even a fleet fifty times bigger than hers can defeated her.
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 is also foretold of in the stories of 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. Here Link meets Tai (although he does not know who she is) and the two become uneasy friends.
Nurai's history is revealed to Link in a meeting inside the Glass Temple, however half way through an earthquake (one of the prophesied signs of the Distile) strikes. While trying to evacuate the building a huge D'Ran knife that long ago had been used in sacrifices falls to the floor. To the horror of Nala and Tanya it falls on Link and kills him. Link finds himself in a place beyond death, where those that call themselves gods live. He learns here that his infinite chances have run out, and he has only one left. Here all knowledge is stored and much of it flows into his head. He learns of an old man called Rein who was struck by lightning while being attacked by a wolf, and also of Hail's plans to defend herself against Black.
When Link returns once again into the real world he has lost all his memories, although a witch manages to restore them through Nala at least far back as the two met. He continues to dream of Rein, who became after he was struck by the lightning, a wondering spirit who inhabited people's bodies until they died. He later realises that Rein's spirit is actually now inhabiting Tai. He manages to set it free, but instead it travels into Bren, one of its old companions. It will be impossible to ever split them again.
But there is worse, much worse coming. There is another earthquake and in this one Nurai's worse enemy – the Sadia – is set free. A mysterious metallic people, they can change their shape at will. Within a few seconds they have travelled several miles from what was their mountain prison to Asreal.
Link battles one, but is easily defeated. In the last moment before what would be his death he unconsciously calls on the power of the Triforce and the Sadia are banished back into their mountain prison.
Deciding that the time has come to rescue the sages the church organises two groups to scout out likely areas for where they may be imprisoned. Nala and a small army are lucky, and quickly manage to find and rescue Impa and Rauru. Link, Tai and Bren manage to defeat the temple guardian they are assigned to and rescue Saria and her fellow sage. But the temple guardian awakes later, and as a last revenge, he releases the Sadia again.
Fifteen
The Sadia.
The most feared warriors the Kalen had ever faced. Even the Xi weren't as strong as them. And that had been in the glory days of the Xi, the days before the war between them and the Kalen. They still existed, but only as a vague shadow of their former power. Back then, there had been several Xi in every town. Now there were a couple of hundred in total, and more and more of them had broken away. It was no secret how much money the Xis could earn as assassins.
Their was a thousand Sadia. A thousand trained warriors who could morph into any shape that they liked. A thousand individual, yet bound together enemies who were disciplined to perfection. A thousand willing for revenge.
Their first attack had gone well. Flying together in a huge cloud they had headed towards the capital and consumed it. Some had tried to fight back, all had failed. All but one.
He had conjured up in an instant more power than ever seen before in Nura. He had managed to reverse the Sadian assault and re-trap them in their mountain prison. And there they would have stayed if fate had not decided to give them another chance. They would not waste it.
They hungered for their vengeance, but they were cautious and afraid of the capital. This time they would first head west and build up a strong force before they tried to attack again. After all they would need to build up to a finale, and what better finale than Asreal itself ?
But first they would have to destroy the one who had stopped them before. They would split up and cross the land until they found him. And then he would have to fight. And they hoped that he couldn't use his power again.
*-*
"Then Tanya told me that she really was called Tai and…"
"Link!" Bren interrupted, "Saria. Are you ready?"
"For what?" asked the strange Kokiri girl curiously.
"Hasn't Link told you yet that he has no idea who you are yet?" asked Rein curiously.
"That's not true!" Link glared at Rein. "Well...not quite true. I...I can remember faint impressions."
They were sitting round a camp fire, Link eagerly staying as close to the girl as possible. "The scary thing is," remarked Rein, "that he knows more about my past life than his." Now it was his turn to glare.
Tai shuddered as she watched from her safe distance. She still hadn't got used to Rein's voice coming from Bren's mouth. At least Link seemed to be happy. Rein was wrong, he could obviously remember the small girl as a very close friend. He hadn't stopped talking to Saria since they had rescued her and the Goron. She smiled as she remembered Bren's surprise at seeing Darunia. He had never see one of the strange yellow creatures before. Tai had only seen them herself a couple of times. So if she was glad that Link was happy, how come she was still depressed? It wasn't just because Link had ignored her, was it? That was silly – she wasn't a child needing attention at every moment.
She wondered off up the small hill that they were camping in the shadow of, telling herself that it would let herself plan where they had to go next. Assuming Nala had managed to do his job there were only two more sages to find. Then… Then what would they do?
Back at the fire Bren watched curiously as Tai wandered further off. Something wrong? Internally, he glared at Rein's answer to the question. He bought his attention back to Link and Saria who were once again talking now that Rein was leaving them alone. Or more like Link was talking to Saria – he hadn't stopped babbling for the last half hour. Bren had never met Link with his memory still intact and he couldn't help wondering whether he would still act the same.
"You'll need to both drink this," he instructed, interrupting their conversation finally and holding out a blue potion which he had been given at Asreal by the witch. "It should put you to sleep until sometime tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully you'll get your memory back."
Link nodded slowly and then looked at Saria. "Shall we?"
She nodded firmly and held out her hand as Bren gave the blue liquid to her. She gulped down half of it and handed it to Link who quickly swallowed the rest. While they were still awake they made their way to the tents pitched for the night.
Exhaustion already settling in; they made their way to the tent that had been chosen and collapsed to the floor. Bren walked over and pulled a blankets over them. The closer their bodies were the better chance there was of the spell working.
After making sure that they would be alright for the night he made his way back over to Darunia. He was resting by the camp fire, still looking slightly puzzled. Sigh – Bren knew that he had a long night of explaining ahead.
*-*
A white floor?
Link jumped up, startled by the sudden appearance of it.
He had been staggering along by Saria, feeling more tired every second, to their tent and had eventually given in and collapsed onto it.
Naturally he had expected to either fall on the cloth floor or fall asleep. Instead he had found himself on a white floor. Looking around he could see that he was now in some huge white stone temple. Saria had completely disappeared. Was he asleep and dreaming? A side effect of the potion?
He got up, no longer feeling tired, and started to walk to the nearest arch. On the other side he simply found himself in a long corridor, stretching along to a point at the horizon. This had to be a dream. So why did he feel so awake?
He turned around but the corridor only a stretched a few metres in that direction. The whole side of the corridor was lined with arch after arch. There must have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of them.
The problem was that all the arches seemed to be in front of mist and he could only just make out vague details about what was behind him. Straining his eyes, he could just make out a tent. He looked harder in one and he could barely see the face of a young woman. She couldn't be more than thirty and in some way that Link could not understand she was vaguely familiar.
He walked up to the arch but some invisible force stopped him from going through it. Somehow he had expected that. He looked at the woman, getting as close as he could, and wished that he knew more about her. Who was she?
"She was your mother."
Link jumped; spinning around he saw behind him was what looked like a glowing Saria. She was different… somehow he knew she wasn't quite the same Saria he knew.
"Who are you?" he asked, "Where is... this?"
"You are an intruder," the girl laughed. "This is me."
She paused for a moment and looked at his face harder for a moment, "You want to learn something, don't you? About yourself? You are silly! You should go to yourself for that!"
Suddenly she ran down the corridor.
"Wait!" Link called, and he sprinted after her.
It was strange running through it. The corridor seemed to speed up as he sped up until he was racing past hundred of arches every few second and they turned into a blur. Vaguely he could still make out the thing which stayed in the arches. At first they seemed to mostly have trees behind them. Then in a relatively short amount of time the arches quickly changed into a lot of other things, lakes, mountains and towns.
Suddenly the girl darted through one and Link found that he could travel through it too. Somehow that seemed natural. He found himself at somewhere that seemed vaguely familiar. He was standing on what seemed like the wrecked ruins of a castle. Debris, rubble and fire were all around, the sky a mess of smoke.
The first person he noticed was a girl whose mouth was open as if she was shouting. She was very tall and had long blonde hair. She too was strangely familiar. Suddenly his mouth started to say her name on its own.
Zelda.
How could he have forgotten what she had looked like when she was older? He could vaguely remember seeing her recently. But surely she didn't look like that? Her hair had been different, her face had not taken so much grief and he was sure that she had not been so tall.
It was only then that he had noticed the huge wall of flame that she was staring anxiously at, and more specifically the shapes that were in it. He slowly walked forwards to the fire and found that he could walk through it like he was a ghost.
He was in a frozen moment of time. If he had not already realised that nothing was moving it would have become even more obvious from the supposedly action filled and fast pace scene which had been taking place. In front of him was huge thing – monster, he guessed – with two enormous swords. It had the most evil face he had ever seen. And it was fighting...
Him. Standing there with the Master Sword determinedly held ready.
"I don't look like that," he unconsciously said aloud.
"Of course you don't," it was the Saria imposer again, "is this your memory?"
Memory? If it wasn't his, whose was it? Saria's?
"Am I in Saria's memory?" he quickly asked.
She looked at him for a second.
"No. You're at the wreck of Ganondorf's Castle at the time when you and Ganon fought. Except that was wiped out in time, wasn't it? It didn't happen. He..."
She pointed to the huge monster.
"...didn't exist. Or did he? Does she?"
Link was given another shock. He was back at the camp place where he had been only ten minutes ago. He could clearly see Bren, Darunia, Saria, Tai and himself. Again everyone seemed too tall. The fake Saria was pointing at Tai who had a strange, slightly sad impression on her face.
"I've come," said Link, at last, deciding that this was getting him nowhere, "to learn everything you know about me."
"Private," she said shortly.
"I...I..." he was taken back, Bren hadn't warned him about all of this.
"An exchange?" he weakly suggested.
"Done," she said quickly, a smile on her face.
Suddenly they were warping from instant of time to instant of time, most of them in the last few months. His dreams, his thoughts, his every movement. A few made him blush in embarrassment. That only made the fake Saria smile even more broadly.
They finally arrived back at the camp place.
"Ah. I see what you want. You want your old memories back. I will do it all. You can just relax."
Yet again Link felt himself slump to the ground, but this time he really did sleep.
He awoke refreshed to see the fake Saria looking very worriedly at him.
"You didn't tell me!" she almost screamed. "You didn't tell me that you had memories from the future!"
She was more distressed than Link had ever see the real Saria be.
"I couldn't help looking," she almost sobbed, "and then..."
She paused, tears now falling out of her eyes.
"Don't forget... There's something I have to tell you... I..."
*-*
Drale was rather annoyed when the young soldier came in and disturbed his rest.
He found being the ruler of his small island colony rather a tiring job and he was always glad of his rest. The church seemed so fond of paperwork. He was slightly placated by the look of slight fear on the soldier's face. At least he was respectful.
"Th-there's a group of women who want to c-come through the g-gate, Sir," he stammered, "they looked quite angry..."
There was a loud crash. The huge wooden gate of the village had suddenly came crashing down. The group had grown bored of waiting.
Staring in horror Drale saw a group of pirates run through the village. At every house they entered. At the front was a women – if she could be described as such. Her hair and her eyes were all he noticed, a penetrating red that refused to let you not look and be trapped in it. She calmly strolled through the village, and even from her walk he could tell that she feared no one.
Two of her followers suddenly ran into Drale's own house. They burst past his wife and in a moment were by the soldier guarding him. He was a corpse on the floor in a moment. Drale tried to stand, but it was too late. He was slayed while he was still trying to stand.
In houses everywhere the pattern was repeated. A pair of baby twins were torn out of a woman's hands while her husband was killed. Their clothes were ripped off and with a quick glance the boy slaughtered.
Hail stood firmly in the centre of the chaos, oblivious to the carnage that was happening about her. Her inner self had disappeared, replaced by a being whose only aim was to fulfil destiny.
Besides, killing every male was the easy part, she knew how much harder her second job would be. But she had no fear. She was Hail. Every woman obeyed her on sight, every man would die. Every stain washed away. Even the gods would fear her.
Especially one, the one named Nura.
For Hail's final destiny was to kill Nura and thus complete the Distile.
She couldn't wait.