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Author's note: Not quite as fast as I have done before but I don't think it was too bad. Six more chapters to go, and we're starting to get into the final section. From now on things should hopefully start to draw together. Again thanks to LauraCeleste for reviewing .
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 in the ensuing battle Saria is killed. In the aftermath Link and Tai argue, and end up running away from Darunia and Bren. Later that night they accidentally bump into each other and meet up again.
Eighteen
The country was breaking up.
Daimos, the head of the Nuran church, would have to be using all of his power to try and keep the country together. After all, that was part of his job. But more and more cities were being wiped out by the triple threats of the Sadia, Hail and even the land itself. Earthquakes and storms had become regular, if not usual, occurrences.
Raymus reflected that in a more peaceful time it would have been an interesting matter to discuss. They had believed Nura responsible for the weather and yet she could not possibly be causing this. For if this was the Distile, then Nura had to be trapped somewhere, and if she was trapped she would not be able to influence outside events. Maybe she had invested some other spirit with power to control the weather (who was now angry in her absence), or maybe it had all just gone totally out of control without her.
And the weather wasn't the only thing to not be behaving normally, thought the priest. The latest reports weren't exactly encouraging. One small group of the Sadia had wiped out half of an army. Personally Raymus thought that they would have been completely wiped out if the Xi had not helped. And if the Xi also lost people at that rate in future there would not be enough of them to go around. As for the rest of the army, it had not been much use either. It had completely failed to find and stop Hail, and wasn't doing much good for the newly homeless refugees either.
So far rebuilding Asreal had seemed hopeless - they had been unable to even start with the weather as it was. Temporary camps were being expanded but they could not be used indefinitely. Hundreds of people already had to be contained because of panic.
Raymus himself was travelling alone. He considered it safer to be as inconspicuous as possible, especially as his objective was not too far away. Besides, he wasn't sure that a garrison of troops would agree with his mission.
The Kalen he sought, and it wasn't exactly an easy task. They had been in complete hiding for decades. From all the rumours of the Kalen that he had been able to study it seemed that one particular forest was their most likely base. It made sense that this would be where they there. It was not too far from the capital, and they would not have wanted to stray too far from it. They were supposed to be the Royal Guard after all, and the King's palace had been in Asreal. More over, the important city was the only place where they could guarantee that information would get to eventually. Anyone who wanted to stay in touch would have to stay in contact with sources there.
But even if he had guessed right, his next challenge would be even harder. He had to persuade them to let him in. He was not looking forward to the begging he predicted that he would have to do. The Kalen were not going to look kindly on an important figure in their great enemy. The unusual circumstances were his only hope.
He had just reached the crest of a small hill when his eyes fell on a small campsite. Curious, he made his way down to it. This was not a time when most people wanted to stray too far from civilisation. A quick trot soon cleared up the mystery however, as he spotted a familiar face - Bren. A few seconds later and he had recognised which species the strange yellow creature beside him was from. If the books were right, then this could only be a Goron. And only Nala and Link had told of a Goron to be found in Nurai recently.
"You have succeeded in rescuing some of the sages!" he congratulated heartily, and he really meant it. This truly was excellent news, especially after what he had heard from Nala.
The brief smile that had been on the two's faces when they had identified him immediately dropped.
"We were attacked," Bren started to explain, " and a sage... Her name was Saria. She was killed."
Raymus stopped dead still, his mood at once soured. Had they come so close to rescuing the sages to lose now? "Who attacked you?" he said eventually. "And where is Link or your apprentice?"
*-*
Nala stared out at the battlefield, wishing that he could help.
Before him chaos reigned, as the carefully trained and drilled soldiers disastrously lost their formation, and were forced to fight man-to-woman against their sudden attackers. For that was what it had been, a sudden and unpredictable ambush. His army had been on a peaceful march to the next suspected location of the sages when this pirate group had jumped out at them from behind the hills. The surprise of the attack had cost them dearly, and if it was not for some lucky fighting the army could easily have been routed within a few minutes. Now they were attacking strongly, but so were the pirates, almost maniacally so.
Even with their lack of organisation they were still putting up a strong fight, and at the moment the numbers on either side had been reduced to about equal.
Nala stared hard at the attacking force, and he couldn't help wondering if the legendary Hail led them. What other pirate still roamed these days? If so, Hail was not putting up as good a fight as he would have expected her to. In fact, the battle was slowly beginning to turn to the soldier's favour, as it should always have been. The soldiers had originally outnumbered the pirates by a factor of four. It would take something special for the pirates to win now.
Then the special thing came.
The pirates suddenly started to sprint backwards. Not sure what was going on, the soldiers watched them for an instant. Not moving was their last mistake. A small package was thrown into the middle of the army, and the next moment several of the pirates began shooting burning arrows at it.
"What..." Nura looked puzzled, and then he knew, "Run!"
His shout came too late. One of the arrows came close to the package, and in the next instant it was alight. A horrible pause followed, as the finally realising soldiers turned to sprint. But it was too late, and the fire bursting out of the innocent bundle easily caught up with them. They were vaporised, even as their legs pumped across the ground.
When the flames had finally died down, the result was easy to see. A horrible black and red stain spread over the landscape and three quarters of Nala's army had been wiped out. The thirty or so left stared in horror around them.
"What happened?"
Nala heard the old voice of Rauru, for the first time actually sounding shaken, come from behind him.
"Calalite," he replied bitterly. Where had Hail got the thing? And more importantly, how much had she left?
The army started to regroup, but he knew it was pointless. Before, they had struggled when the odds were in their favour, now there would be a massacre. Quickly he gave the dreaded order - surrender.
The pirates swept through the group, and tied up all the soldiers. Nala tried to restrain his anger - did they not trust the soldier's honour when they said that they had given up?
Finally Hail herself appeared, and came up to them riding on a pitch-black horse.
"Zelda..." Impa's outburst was one of pure surprise.
"What?" Rauru's voice was confused at Impa's exclamation. But then he too looked harder at the girl with her long red hair, and stared deep into her eyes. Gradually what her life long guardian had realised in an instant, he saw as well.
Hail too was slight less sure of herself, and looked hard at both of them for a moment. They were so familiar... particularly the woman. Were they related somehow to the boy in green who haunted her dreams? And why had they called her by that name - or was that once her name? It was so hard to remember.
"Tie them up!" she ordered finally, "But... not too tight. We keep these old two."
For a moment Nala was almost sick with disgust at what Hail's group were doing. The pirates were going through the tied up men and slaughtering them. Not one of the men could defend themselves as they were all still unarmed and bound.
As the pirates came close to him, he quickly made up his mind. A quick count to three and he exploded into a downwards slide right through the oncoming women. Then, using strength born solely out of desperation, he ran to the nearest empty horse, leapt onto it and ordered it to gallop. To his relief the urgency in his voice came through, and the creature sprinted at its true top speed away. Still weak he clang onto the horse, hoping that it would be fast enough. Someone had to tell of this, someone had to commemorate those men's' lives.
The pirates turned questioning glances at Hail, but she shook her head.
"He'll keep."
*-*
The morning had dawned in the forest as well.
Link was leaning against a tree in the peace of the early morning, and examining the broach that had just fallen out of his pocket. It seemed so long ago that the intruding Kalen had given it to him. That had been just after Nala first awoke him in Nurai – then he had not even known what the Distile was. Then Saria had still been alive.
The broach itself was made out of fairly heavy, shiny metal (which seemed to wrong to him for some reason), and was covered with old writing that he could not understand, let alone recognise. And of course the whole broach was dominated by Nura's holy symbol, the crescent with light beams through it to represent the Kalen's superiority. He doubted that it would even do anything for a foreigner like him.
As he saw Tai wander back towards him he made up his mind. She walked up to him still trying to dry her hair with an old rag; it was dripping water from the river where she had been washing. She noticed the broach, and looked at it curiously.
"What's that?" she asked.
"A gift," Link explained, "someone I knew for a short time gave it to me. But seeing as probably only Gerudos can use it, I was wondering... would you like it?"
She smiled and took the small broach from him. Then, to his surprise, a look of disgust came on to her face.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I can't take this. It's a Kalen ornament."
She gave it back to him. He asked, "Then you know what it does?"
"No... But Link; you ought to know. You should be able to use that broach. Your mother was like me. A Gerudo, I mean."
Saria's memory of his mother's face came back to him. It made sense.
"I wish I knew more... but I don't," said Tai, "I've got no more secrets."
Somehow it wasn't a surprise to him. He didn't even really care - at the moment the broach seemed more important. Curiously, he attached it to his shirt. For a moment nothing happened, and then the whole world seemed to go out of focus and he could barely make out Tai covering her eyes. Suddenly the world jolted sharply back into focus and he could see clearly again. In fact better than before. He could make out things much more clearly and see far further. And then there was one other big difference.
Only a few hundreds of metres away, stood what could only be described as an enormous fortress. It rose above the forest with line above line of turrets, walls, and rectangular windows which seemed to cover the whole hillside. The building was made out of fairly old, but clearly solid, stone. Occasionally it was reinforced in parts with huge planks of wood, but the majority of the building looked strong enough on its own.
"Link?" Tai's voice interrupted his gazing, her voice nervous and unsure. "Where are you?"
"I'm... here," he replied, puzzled, as he had not moved.
"I can't see you," she told him, and then she cautiously stretching out her hand.
Link bought his own out to touch it, and she gasped when their limbs connected.
"Take it off," she said quietly, "I don't trust this Kalen magic."
Reluctantly, Link took off the broach. Again, his vision was jolted, this time back to its normal self. It took a while to get used to it; everything seemed so blurry. The fortress had disappeared as well.
"I saw something," he told her, "I'm not sure - but it looked like a huge castle."
"That's where they've been hiding all these years," she said, a look of realisation coming to her face. "Some place hidden by their magic. Sounds like just the kind of cowardly thing the Kalen would do."
"Lets go to it," Link suddenly said firmly, "maybe we can persuade them to help us find the last sages."
"Go to the Kalen? Are you mad?" Tai raised her voice. "For a start, they've been hiding for a hundred years, do you reckon they'll be glad to know that someone has finally found them. Second, how could they help? As for a third, in case you're unaware they happen to be dangerous blasphemers. Or hadn't you heard that they don't even believe in Nura as a god? And fourth, and most importantly, Bren and Darunia will be probably looking for us by now, we ought to go back to him."
"First," Link replied, "they gave me this broach saying they were my friends, and I doubt they did that if they never wanted to hear from me again. Second, I bet you they've got at least as many spies through this country as the Xi have. Third, I happen to be not that fond of your goddess at the moment, or have you forgotten who is helping Ganondorf destroyed right at this moment? And fourth, and most importantly, if you've got any suggestion about how we are supposed to find Darunia and Bren I'll be glad to hear it."
Tai glared at him, but he was at least partially right. The 'small woods' had seemed to quickly turn into a forest and neither Tai nor Link had any idea where they were. They could have wandered around for days without getting back to the camp. In fact, the best lookout spot for miles must have been the fortress, yet another reason to go there.
"Fine," she at last relented, "but I don't like it."
Link remained silent at that, and led her to roughly where he had seen the Kalen base. When he thought that he was fairly close he (after checking with Tai) put on the broach again. Gently, he pulled Tai by her hand to in front of the huge gate.
"Its there, isn't it?" she asked, screwing up her eyes and looking in front of her. At his surprised look, she explained, "Its strange but when you touch me for a while I can see this faint outline - perhaps the magic spreads or something."
"That it does," confirmed an unfamiliar voice from beside them. They turned to see a brown haired, medium height man behind them. Link immediately got the impression that this man was a dependable ally and he seemed to exude trust. Link couldn't image him having attacked from behind without at least a warning. To Tai, he looked instead incredibly arrogant, and at first glance she hated him. The man was wearing a red robe, that looked similar to what the other Kalen Link had met had wore, but this one had silver lines woven into it. He grimaced as he couldn't help having bad memories of the Sadia brought back.
"Who are you?" Tai asked defensively.
"I am Kaze, but I am not the one who is intruding. Identify yourselves and your purposes," the man answered.
"We want to speak to your leader," blurted out Link, "I... I mean we, need your help."
Kaze raised his eyebrows. "Who?"
"Link, Link of Hyrule. And..."
"Tai, Tai of the Xi." The venom in her words was clear.
"Do you speak for yourselves or your own leaders?" his question was obviously more directed at Tai.
"For ourselves. Or for him really. If this was up to..."
"But luckily it isn't," the Kalen interrupted, "so what do you have to offer us in return?"
"The broach," Link said firmly, holding it up so Kaze could see it.
"We have many of them already, dozens in fact."
"But," said Tai, "you don't have this one, do you? And we do. I think you know whom I work for. You wouldn't want them to have it, would you?"
The threat did not really impress the man. "I could kill you both in an instant. The fortress obeys my commands."
"The fortress? What can a fortress do?" she said, pretending to be unimpressed. If the man were as stupid as most Kalen she had been told about he would easily fall into her trap.
"This," the man said, raising his hand. With a crash parts of the structure became visible again, and out of them started to pour immense quantities of what looked like light. Where the rays touched the grass it instantly began to burn. Slowly the light approached where they stood, making elaborate patterns on the ground so as not to touch the trees.
"We understand," said Link quickly, "stop it."
Instantly the rays disappeared, but Kaze looked surprised. "I didn't stop them," he murmured before he could stop himself.
A huge grin suddenly spread itself over Tai's face as realisation set in. "Link, you know what I told you about your mother..." she murmured, "Well... Order the fortress to fire at... that tree over there."
Link stared at her, but meeting the defiance in her eyes he wearily complied, lifted his hand in a vague impression of Kaze, and rather feebly said, "Um... shoot...it."
For an instant there was a flash so bright that none of them could see and then, when they could see again, a smouldering pile of ash awaited them. Link was as surprised as Kaze.
"How?" both of them asked.
"Kaze... meet your King."