~32~
Karzad felt Nayru's hand torn from his grasp and then he was falling through darkness. Suddenly he saw the ground rushing toward him, and then with a crash, he landed, and all around him was blackness. He lay there for what seemed like an eternity. He was half-conscious, and thoughts spun in his darkened mind. He tried to move, but he was detached from himself it seemed. Thoughts continued to whirl through his mind.
Nayru…where was Nayru? Where had she gone? And his mother. His mother…she was…she was dead. Dead. The word echoed through the hollow barrenness of his bleak mindscape. And Nayru. Taken by Ganondorf, dead too, most likely. If he could cry he would have, but he felt numb. He remembered Nayru's words.
"Love never fails." He told himself. Never fails…never fails… But the pain that pierced him was like no other. The only thing he had ever had to love, gone. His whole world as it were, it was gone. Reality was slipping away from him. Slipping beyond his grasp. First Father…Mother… Nayru. They all slipped away. He let them get away. He didn't even get to tell them how much he loved them. And the pain… He felt as though a thousand white hot knives were stabbing him again and again. Old wounds opened. His heart was wrenched in an icy fist, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. It was all over. It was all over.
*****
He tried to think. What can I do, what can I do? The question echoed through his mind again and again… His thoughts spun and suddenly from out of the turmoil came a picture of Nayru's face calm, sleeping, in the castle on the wide silken bed, her beautiful face was pale, but relaxed, her breathing soft and steady. He looked at it blankly for a moment, and suddenly a flood of new emotions fell onto him. He loved her. He loved her so madly, he remembered her love for him. He remembered Nayru's unrelenting strength and stamina, even in the face of her life being pulled out from under her, and in danger, pain and darkness that few ever face. And she, only a 15 year old girl, with such bravery and courage, that instead of shrinking in fear, her heart only grew, and became more loving than before.
Suddenly a little beam of white light peaked through the darkness. Just a tiny strand, a thread. He reached to it in his mind, he grasped for it. His lifeline. Then he felt the light growing, expanding, warming, healing, and he was engulfed in a pure, clear light.
"Karzad," a soft voice called. He looked and there in a robe of soft white light, stood his mother.
"Mother," he choked.
"Yes," she said softly.
"Mother, I'm so sorry, you know I didn't—" but his mother simply shook her head, motioning for him to be quiet.
"I know that you feel as though you ought to be sorry. That it's all your fault. This is not true my son; it isn't true at all. It was simply time for me to go that's all, there was nothing you could have done." Karzad looked at her, his eyes gleaming. So she really was gone.
"Karzad I must tell you how proud of you I am. How proud I have always been of you. Though I may not have exactly been good at showing it, you must know I always loved you."
At this point Karzad tried to jump in but his mother silenced him once more.
"Yes son, I know, you love me too. I have always known. And we have our fights, I know, but I most certainly would never…could never, ever believe you stopped loving me. And thank you for that Karzad, it is something that has gotten me through my darkest hours. But now my hour is through, and you and your friend's time has come to pass. You must help them Karzad. You must help them, for though you love them dearly, they, and all of Hyrule, shall perish if you do not help them now." "But what can I do?" he stuttered. "Surely you already know," said Zelda calmly, looking deep into his eyes.
"The strength was within you all the time, darkness hid it from you when all you had to do was to simply believe." There was a short pause and then Karzad swallowed hard and looked his mother in the eye.
"I believe." He said with confidence, and then there was a blinding flash of light, and Karzad awoke.
****
He stood slowly. The sky was still dark, and red. He looked down at his hand. Grasped in it was a glimmering staff. It was silver and tall, tipped with gold at the ends, and flowing runes of gold were encrusted along its shaft. At the top in an encirclement of gold was a pure, clear, beautifully cut diamond. The staff of light.
He held it up to the bloody light pouring from the sky, and a blast of white light came from the end, streaking through the reddened sky, destroying the crimson and returning it's true color. He suddenly remembered. Nayru, Londaris, Zarij. He whistled for Lapeze, and as soon as he came he mounted him then galloped at a breakneck pace into the darkness.