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Author's note: And another chapter goes up. Many thanks to the new reviewers Mystic Paladin and LauraCeleste. I'll admit that the issue of Tai and Link's relative strengths hasn't exactly been made clear. To put it simply, Link is slightly better than Tai at sword duelling whereas she is pretty far ahead in general hand–to–hand fighting.
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 Darunia. Bren gives a potion to Link and Saria which puts them into a strange sleep. Here Link enters Saria's mind and regains his memories. But the temple guardian awakes later, and as a last revenge, he releases the Sadia again.
Hail is met by Ganondorf who tells her of her ultimate destiny – to first clean the Gerudo blood by killing all the man and then to kill Nura herself. She gathers a group of followers and quests around the countryside, killing any men can get hold of.
Bren gives a potion to Link and Saria which puts them into a strange sleep. Here Link enters Saria's mind and manages to regain his memories. But the Sadia attack their camp, and Bren is forced to awaken them early. In the following battle Darunia is knocked unconscious, but Link and Tai manage to deal with two other Sadia. To their horror another one sneaks in behind them and manages to deal with Bren/Rein. It chases after Saria who has run for safety into the forest. Link tries to stop it, but he is too late to prevent the horrific tragedy.
Saria has been killed.
Seventeen
"She can't be..." Darunia's voice broke off.
He had awoken alone in the clearing; forgotten by the others. He had stared around – worry flooding into his brain. Where was everyone? Why was it so deathly quiet? He had made his way back to the camp, his heavy footfalls sounding wrong against the silence, and his eyes anxiously searching for any signs. Please let there not be any blood. Please.
Naturally he had made his way to the wood where his sharp eyes had spotted a gash in the ground. Someone must have slipped. But at least there was no horrible red stain. Suddenly he had heard a groan on his left, and with a sharp jerk seen Bren laid against a tree breathing heavily, but otherwise all right.
"Is everyone alright?" Darunia had asked, seeing Bren's face.
Sadly and reluctantly Bren shook his head and said, "Saria... I tried to stop him... Link was too late..."
Rein finished for him. Too many long times in his long life had he seen death and no longer did it hurt him so dearly. He hated that. "Saria didn't make it," he said quietly.
And so after standing still for a few moments, his denial sounding pathetic even to his own ears, Darunia tried to speak again, "Is Link alright?"
Bren replied, "He's quite... understandably... upset."
Silently the Goron walked through the forest, and soon he found the clearing where Saria had stopped running. Tai was standing there at the back, watching Link as he kneeled over his old friend's body. Slowly Darunia walked up to him.
"Can I?" he asked quietly, and he looked down into the face of his fellow sage.
"She won't be the last to die in this," Darunia started, feeling it was the right thing to say "everyone else in Hyrule..."
"Everyone else in Hyrule has still got a chance to come back," Link slowly began to talk, "this wasn't her fight. If I hadn't been stupid enough to mess around... If I had gone to see if she was safe... They used my own strategy on me and I was fool enough not to think of it. This was my fault..."
"No," Tai interrupted suddenly, "my fault... I..."
"You tripping over was an accident..." Link slightly angrily replied.
"That's not it," Tai suddenly realised that she had to confess now or the guilt would kill her, "all of it was my fault. Hyrule. This... this land..."
She almost spat out the word.
"...appearing. The Xi and the Kalen and their stupid quarrels. All of it would still be locked away if I hadn't..."
Link was starting to look at her now. "Go on," he said quietly.
"I... I set..." she gulped slightly, fearful of Link's reaction. "I set him free. Ganon, I mean. I live in Hyrule and I prayed... prayed so much to Nura that she helped me. And she did. We... we set him loose. He was my king. I never dreamed that he would capture her. I didn't know he'd destroy the world."
The silence in the clearing after that was too much for Tai.
"Shall I go?"
"No, stay," Darunia's voice was obviously upset, his tone pleading for stability.
"Go."
In contrast Link's voice had never been more icily calm.
"Go and never come here again. Go back to your wonderful king... Maybe if I don't see you with him I'll spare you."
"Link!" Darunia's voice was sharp now and even angry. He turned to Tai and said softly, "Don't mind him. He's upset... You've realised your mistakes." There was still a question at the end of the last sentence.
"Fine," Link was desperately trying to keep his voice under control. "If she isn't going, I am. Goodbye." While still in control he could, he walked off, and let the forest absorb him.
"No…" Tai's own voice was shaking now. Her mind went back to Bren's kind and trusting face. Suddenly she turned in another direction, and she too ran off into the forest.
Darunia sat down heavily, and softly stroked Saria's face. He had been a king for so many years, and yet he couldn't even deal with a simple quarrel. Yes, that was what it was. What it had to be. A simple quarrel.
"They'll come back," he whispered, "they have to."
Never before had he felt less like he was telling the truth.
*-*
Below, a beautiful blue ocean spread out from horizon to horizon. And a small, from this distance almost innocent, ship trekked lazily across it. Yet even at the laziest of glances its inhabitants were obvious - pirates.
Should we?
Across the sky an army of silver eagles were flying. Not many had seen them and fewer still knew what they were - but those who did were rightfully scared. For they were the Sadia and they were out on the hunt
One of the Sadian soldiers had first seen them, and he had asked the question. It had taken an instant to ask, for they could communicate mentally, but the reply took longer.
No. They are part of the end of this world. It will be more advantageous if we leave them to continue what they have started.
At last he long message came from the leader of the group. The soldier felt pleased - it was an honour to be answered by him in such a long way. Someday, he would be the leader, he told himself.
A few minutes later another message came into his head - a view of the land they were now crossing and a human army marching through it. Five hundred men in classic marching position, their Nuran Church flag of the golden crescent clear.
We attack them.
At the leader's command the whole flock dived, their sight already picking out flaws in the army and line of attack. Mentally the soldier steadied his excitement. Later the cheering could begin, but at least for now there was work to be done.
A few metres off the ground and he let himself flow into the human shape, his feet lightly touching the ground. Out of his hand a sword raced, and he was ready. As long as the elements were sufficiently mild a Sadian could change its shape at will. No hero could have stopped them if they had fought using their true morphing powers. But to do so would be against their most sacred honour - life was not worth living if the right rules were not kept to.
The Sadian soldier almost smiled as he saw the army before him, of so many hundred faces, their expression of fear already clear. The humans outnumbered them by so much, and yet they were still cowards. They did not deserve easy deaths.
As one the Sadia sprinted at the row of shields before them. A storm of arrows rained down in front of them, but they were not afraid. Only a direct hit through their unable to morph hearts could kill them. If they were killed then their bodies would dissolve - but none of the Sadia was afraid of death right now.
Their huge swords crashed down onto the humans' shields and where they did not smash them, they easily cast them aside. The soldiers behind only lasted one quick stab longer.
A few managed to block the Sadia's attacks and still keep hold of their own swords, but none had managed to hit one of the Sadia yet. Steadily the Sadia began working through the human lines.
And then two other legions of men suddenly charged out of the nearby woods and the Sadia were surrounded. It had been a trap.
They are getting clever.
The Sadian leader wasn't afraid. Easily he dealt with the three soldiers who were now circling him and looked for more. He would have been quite happy to deal with twice as many people at the same time. Still they would no doubt win.
Minute after minute the battle continued, and the humans became downhearted. The Sadia were simply slaughtering them - making use of a ready conveyor belt of new meat. At last they made an impression, and managed to kill one of the grey warriors. A great cheer spread over the army and in the Sadia's surprise at their loss another two Sadian lives were ended. The further victories inspired the humans on again, and the Sadia began to find it harder to hold them back. Yet the Sadia had still killed around 50 to everyone they had lost.
But the humans were suddenly given another huge boost. The sound of horses' hooves was heard and around over the hill came 20 charging horses, and 20 women upon them.
The reinforcements would not normally have mattered. There were hundreds in the human army already. Except these soldiers were different. These soldiers were the most feared warriors in the country. These were the Xi.
Their horses quickly broke through the mass of soldiers and allowed them to get to the centre of the fighting. Perhaps the soldiers were also understandably only too keen for the Xi to pass and delay their own turn. At the centre they leapt off and ran towards the Sadia. As pairs they fought against the grey terror, hoping that they could move from Sadia to Sadia. Always one Xi to defend and back-up, always one to attack.
The Sadia were worried now. Twenty Xis would be enough to handle without their supporting army. One Sadia began to wonder in the circumstances how dishonourable it would be to use their morphing powers. After all if the humans fought ten people on one was fair, why shouldn't they?
Their leader sensed the thoughts and quickly banished them. However low the humans became the Sadia would always keep their honour. Besides this was not bad news - it was a chance for the Sadia to prove their new superiority over their old enemies. He could have sent someone off to fetch reinforcements, but he would not. They would win this battle alone, or die trying.
Another Sadia went down to two experienced Xi and the battle was starting to look even worse for them. Bravely they fought on and on, and they took not only many normal soldiers down but also steadily the Xi.
Two Sadia were defeated but so were three Xi. And the more Xi who were killed, the easier it became for the Sadia. Suddenly their chances were starting to look up again.
Gradually both sides' numbers crept down until three hundred soldiers, ten Xi and twelve Sadia were left.
The Sadia suddenly changed their strategy, and grouped into pairs. The Xi responded by sending five at each pair and hoping that the soldiers could cope with the other Sadia. One pair was defeated and half of another, but two more Xi were killed.
Finally eight of the Sadia ended up all grouped together, back to back. But they only had one sword each and all the soldiers had been told to try and restrict the movement of weapon's attacks as much as possible.
Two soldiers would block a Sadia's sword while a Xi would stab it through the chest. There was not much they could do. Desperately they fought on against all odds but even they could not do the impossible.
The Sadian leader made his decision. The battle was useless and someone had to report of it to the rest of the Sadia. Without protest, his last two warriors sacrificed themselves to give him spare time. He jumped into the sky, flung himself into the eagle form and flew into the sky, sadly watching as the human mass swallowed the last two chrome masses.
But overall the battle had been a success. The Sadia had lost but a fraction of their total number whereas the humans had lost half of what must have been one of their biggest armies and a precious amount of Xi.
The future was looking bright.
*-*
Of course Tai had knew that lying at the bottom of a tree would not exactly be the safest place to sleep. However she was tired, it was pitch black, and she had trusted herself to wake if she needed to. Her Xi reactions she had told herself would wake her if anyone were walking too close.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite work.
She was shocked awake to find someone stumbling over her. In an instant she tried to jump up, but her instincts betrayed her. Jumping up only made her collide with the other person and sent the two of them falling awkwardly back down to the ground.
The stranger was pressing onto her, and roughly she tried to push them off or roll over herself. The other person landed to her side, and to her surprise didn't try to fight back. Finally the two of them managed to stand up. Yet it was still black, and the two of them couldn't even see each other's faces.
"Who..." started the voice. Link's voice.
"Link... it's me, I..." she broke off.
He was silent for a few seconds and then, "How?"
"You must have tripped over me... I was sleeping on the ground," she explained.
"No… Why are you out here?" he asked, his voice still surprised.
"When you went... I couldn't stand to think what the others..." she stopped, "What you must think..."
"I was wrong," his voice was firm, "everyone makes mistakes. I... I don't know if you would believe this but everyone in Hyrule had to live through seven years of terror under Ganon. That was all thanks to me. I thought I was so clever that I could do everything myself. I thought I could save the whole kingdom myself! I should have known better - got Darunia or somebody else to help. But Zelda and I thought we could do it all on our own. I don't blame her. After all, she is a princess and how would she know about the outside world? But I should have known. Asked somebody. Then I... I led Ganon to the way to the Sacred Realm and the Triforce... and I opened it and he more or less walked right in."
He stopped.
"But that wasn't deliberate," Tai said, " you were just a young kid full of dreams of saving the world. Ever since I was born I should have realised what he was... but I didn't until... and then I felt so guilty I could have jumped off a cliff. How could I ever have been so stupid? This whole world is going to end and it may be all my fault."
"That's not true. This isn't the first time I've been to another world that looked like it was in trouble. I had a lot of weird things happen to me there.... I don't know why it's happened again. I wish I did. Besides, all this may have nothing to do with Hyrule, and Hyrule going. And I'm sorry... I was just so upset about Saria.
"When I was young I lived in a place where I just felt so alone; an outsider. I don't know if I could have managed to stay there for all that time if it wasn't for her. Everyday she would be so friendly. She would defend me whenever she could. She was like a mother to me.
"Eventually I grew up and now it was me who should have defended her. But I didn't. At first I blamed myself, but then... I blamed you. I know it was unfair but I just couldn't think straight. If you hadn't tripped, and I hadn't turned around... She probably would be still alive. At least that's what I thought.
Forgive me?"
The moon suddenly came out from behind the wall of thick cloud in which it had been hiding, and for a moment lit up the forest. Tai found that she was standing embarrassingly close to Link, and was about to move back when she suddenly decided against it. Instead she moved even closer, brought her face in right close to his, and stared straight into his eyes.
Together for an endless moment they stayed facing each other, gaze to gaze. Somehow Tai felt like she could really see the true him and what he stood for. And then, at the same time, it was as if she was finally opening up, letting down her every defence. Here she was, sin, problems, trauma and all, and she was unashamed. Anyone else could take or leave her, but she could not ultimately change herself. And so she stayed staring, for to glance away would be to show shame, and to deny herself once and for all.
I forgive you…" she said quietly.
She couldn't break away. She would never break away. It was stupid, but this was her trial, her epiphany. Afterwards she could stop running and hiding, and get on with a life. But while light remained, she had to stay like this and could not let anything take over.
Finally the moon returned behind the cloud, and finally she was free.