Chapter Two: The Dying of Light
There was something heavy hanging in the air that felt cold and heavy. Zelda shivered as she hurried down the hall to the East Wing hugging her arms for warmth. What was it? What was the Sacred Realm trying to tell her? Her pace quickened and she burst through the ancient oak doors, actually only the physical manifestation of what she interpreted the Sacred Realm as and into the warmth of the fire burning there and the strange chills subsided. Everyone was there and waiting for her. Impa, her life long friend, caretaker, and the closest thing to a mother Zelda had ever known, stood up when she came in and smiled almost in a non-emotional way, but Zelda knew better than to think there was no feeling behind that smile.
"Princess, we have been wondering where you have been," Impa said in her usual deep, calming voice and added, "I was getting concerned for you." Zelda only smiled in return and went to the reason they were all gathered there; she went to Rauru.
His face was paler than she had ever seen it, and though a big man, he seemed small and shrunken on the bed where he lay. His hand lay limply by his side and Zelda picked it up to hold and was alarmed to feel how cold it was in her warmth. No Rauru, don't leave us, we need you…We need your guidance, your wisdom to lead us… Zelda stroked her slim fingers over the white, old knuckles of Rauru's hand until his eyelids flitted open once again to reveal the dull and placid eyes staring at her and the other Sages. The sight jerked at her heart as she felt the tears want to swell up into her eyes, but she pushed them back knowing that this was neither the time nor the place to shed them. Saria joined Zelda at Rauru's bedside and only looked at her forlornly, knowing already what Zelda knew. It will not be long. Darunia, Ruto and Impa would stay a ways off for now, this was after all a time not one of them had wished to see for some time. Nabooru kept her distance though and leaned up against the far wall and had not come close to the bed since she had gotten there. Ruto was unable to control herself for a brief moment and let out a stifled sob which after she didn't try to hide the tears; she was not one to hide such things. Rauru blinked, then smiled a very tired, weary smile.
"I'm old," he said, "I'm so old that I do not care to remember anymore how old I am. Do not worry for me, we all knew this day would come, as it does to all life, Sage or not." His voice had gotten progressively weaker the past month, or whatever kind of time period one experiences in a realm with no real 'time' so to speak.
"No Rauru, that's not true, you just aren't well right not, you'll feel better soon and---" Saria trailed off as Zelda touched her hand lightly and nodded.
"We know it won't be long from now Rauru, but you're leaving us so quickly it's hard to accept." Tears were harder to urge back now, but somehow Zelda managed to contain herself even in front of the sad image of one of her mentors and good friends lying on his deathbed. Her hand closed on his again as Impa came from behind and clasped her shoulder. Zelda could feel the energy of Impa flowing gently into her as she had gotten used to since their coming to the Sacred Realm all that time ago. It was warm, caring…familiarity was what she liked the best though.
"Rauru, come, tell us why you have brought us here," Impa spoke in a grave tone that could only belong to her and paused after to wait for a response. They all did, but the old sage took his time, pawed slowly at the covers around him and sat up with a bit of difficulty. He made the move to throw the covers off and get up and immediately Zelda was at his side with her arms extended to help him.
"Ah, off with ye!" Rauru's voice was hoarse and heavy with his short struggle to throw his legs over the edge of the bed, but he did it nonetheless with no help. He was not so far gone yet to swallow his dignity and accept help. "Thank you Princess, but I can manage." Once Zelda had backed away a few steps, Rauru placed hands on bed and forced himself to stand. The bed did not creak though for it did not exist in a physical sense, something it would take Zelda quite some time yet to get used too. On the chair next to his bedside he took the deep orange robe sitting there and slipped it on. He was not going to face them without his self-respect and certainly not in his nightgown. Slowly he shuffled over to his great desk with its high backed chair, only having to take a few paces between the bed and desk without something to hold onto for support. Rauru sat down and picked up the spectacles there putting them on facing the rest of them with a very serious gaze. Zelda's apprehension grew more and more until she could barely stand Rauru's silence any longer.
"I'm dying," he said bluntly and rather brusquely, "as if it were not apparent already. I asked you all hear to talk of what is to happen after I am gone, what will happen to the Sacred Realm, Hyrule, and what will happen to all of you." There was a long pause for a few moments after and Nabooru still paced along the outside of the room. Darunia, his awkward, big bulk tottered across the floor to the front of Rauru's desk and opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find anything to say. Rauru smiled at this, his sallow cheeks filling with a bit of color, and sat up straighter in his chair. "Do not fret Darunia, I am not gone yet. Now, let us try to get through this clear and simple hmm? Come everyone sit down." And with that he beckoned with his hands toward the chairs that appeared out of thin air.
"Will Zelda become the new Sage of Light?" Ruto asked quietly, eyes still pink and glassy from her weeping. Everyone turned to Rauru for the answer, but Rauru only frowned at Ruto's tear-slick cheeks as she sat down.
"Oh come now Ruto," he grunted, "I will have none of that. You all knew I would not be around forever. I want no tears over this."
"But it's just so soon Rauru," Zelda sighed, "you've always been the one to guide us, who knew what he was doing…It's barely been three years."
"But Sages you all are, and Sages you all were many, many times before that. We've known each other in dozens of lifetimes and in fact, I've known you twice in this one. All you need to know is within you already and the Sacred Realm is not only a holy place, but a complex tool in which you will learn once again to use and master as the Guardians of Hyrule." Zelda knit her eyebrows together in puzzlement.
"Those were other lives Rauru," Saria chimed in and Rauru cleared his throat, adjusted the spectacles, and folded his hands on the desk.
"But lives your soul knows very well. You will learn in time that there is very little difference between past life and present and it is in utilizing both past and present that you will become competent masters and protectors of this realm," he answered. Nabooru, who had been silent this whole time, stopped her pacing and shouldered her way in between Impa and Ruto with irritation in her eyes and movements. The entire subject rubbed her the wrong way and she wanted to get off of it as soon as possible. She was a hardened Gerudo warrior, and not only that, but the leader of the Gerudo Nation as well, emotional situations were to be avoided as far as she was concerned and here they all were making a huge mess of things. Nabooru would not bring her walls down now.
"Why don't you just tell us what this whole damn thing is about Rauru! You're not getting any younger and neither are we!" She yelled and tensed her muscles tight. Rauru knew how she felt; he could sense it easily enough so he only smirked at her. He had always enjoyed Nabooru's spirit, not to pun himself in anyway.
"Very well Nabooru, let us get right to the point, no use in dawdling around." Ruto glared at Nabooru and Nabooru glared back. Two very different people they would always be. Rauru leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath and it was one of those moments when Zelda could truly see how old he was.
"Now," he continued, "after my death, the soul within me, the Sage of Light, will be reborn again like it has always happened, so no, to answer your question, Zelda will not become the new Sage of Light after me. She was born to be the Seventh Sage. It will be your responsibility to seek out and awaken the person who is reborn with the soul. I---"
"Rauru, how old are you?" Zelda spoke up with the up most seriousness and met him eye to eye. A deep chuckle sounded in the old Sage's throat as he smoothed out a wrinkle in his ancient orange robe.
"I," he began, "am old enough, past my time you could say. Oh, I should have been gone long ago, but my work was not done until now." Rauru sniffed and kept Zelda's serious stare.
"Rauru," she warned in a lowered tone. Rauru chuckled again and sighed.
"I am two hundred and eight." With that Saria gasped and Nabooru fought to contain a laugh. Zelda only stared at him in amazement.
"Two…two hundred?" Zelda stuttered.
"And eight."
"How---Some Gorons live to be almost two hundred…but you are Hylian, how is that Rauru?" Darunia thought the idea almost impossible.
"As I said, my job was not done, I could not stop until I had found all of you." Still the puzzled faces did not disappear. Zelda opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her. "Wait," he commanded, "now is not the time, we must finish here what I called you for. I am getting short of breath in my old age." Zelda closed her mouth and nodded.
"You are right Rauru, please, continue."
He took a deep breath and took a sip of water from the glass that had appeared in front of him magically. They are young and resourceful and I have known them many times and known them well…there is no need to worry about them…I will see them again soon.
"After I am gone," Rauru continued, "I will be reborn and when the time comes you will find me again. I will have no recollection of this life…well, it will be just as with you. Remember when you were first awakened…hmm," he took another sip of water and Zelda watched him very closely. An image flashed in her head of a young Hylian man with blond hair and a tall build in the same robe Rauru wore now. Beside him there was another man with darker brown hair…she knew this was a past life of their own when she knew him as Ganson and she as Connor. The sudden flash of being in a man's brain was surreal and Zelda tried to snap back into attention and listen to what Ganson---she meant Rauru, was saying.
"I remember Jusson explaining this very same thing to me," Rauru smiled, "you Nabooru." Nabooru snorted.
"I was a man?! How---," she began, but thought better of it, "never mind. Is that all Rauru?" She folded her very tan arms and flipped her red hair off of her shoulders. Rauru nodded and dismissed them with a tired hand.
"Yes, that is all for now, I am tired and would like to rest. Thank you for coming."
They all left and went their separate ways down the illusion corridors of the Temple of Light. Only Saria and Zelda stayed together and walked and talked a ways. Zelda paused in front of the Great Library where she was to stop and turned to Saria.
"I do not imagine Rauru has much longer," she said in a quiet, gentle voice. "But we will see him again someday, won't we?" That was the only thing keeping Zelda from weeping that very moment. Saria, her young, beautiful face beaming returned:
"Yes we will, someday...But for right now he's still here with us."