Disclaimer: Zelda no Densetsu no Miyamoto-san desu. Le Legend de Zelda est le propriété de Monsieur Miyamoto. Um... how many more languages should I say it in? Well, it all means that I don't own Zelda.
A.N: Pull up a chair and get comfy, this is gonna be a long one...
Chapter 10: Nox Nocte
There were six lights in a circle behind her; green, red, blue, purple, orange and yellow. She herself was surrounded by her own aura of pale golden light, a beacon in the shadows like her fellow sages.
What am I doing here?
Zelda's subconscious attention turned to the scene before her. Darkness, nothing but inky blackness that was only broken by the presence of herself and the other sages. Nervously, her eyes flicked back and forth across the scene, her mind contemplating the location of Link.
The Seven could not fight without their champion.
Suddenly, a figure loomed before her, a stranger she had never seen before who stood before the unseen enemy, challenging him with what Zelda presumed to be some kind of staff, it was certainly far too big to be a sword. This new warrior turned to face her, and she was aware only of his eyes. Only they weren't what she'd have called eyes, they were mere shadows of eyes that fixed upon her with a colourless stare. That stare chilled her to the core.
Zelda awoke suddenly in the darkness of the night to find herself lying on her side with Amalia cuddled up beside her. The little girl had been put to sleep in her mother's bed whilst Zelda herself had laid awake, watching her daughter breathing softly and taking comfort from her proximity. Impa had eventually given the princess a herbal remedy to make her sleep.
But it wasn't the concoction of herbs that had made her witness that dream. Zelda knew far too well from her years of experience when she had experienced a prophetic dream and the one she had witnessed had certainly meant something.
The question was: what?
******
"He hasn't slept and he hasn't eaten anything, he just lies there, saying nothing."
Saria's shoulders drooped in fatigue and lack of cheer. Darunia's large hand positioned itself on her shoulder in a comforting gesture as the pair stood outside her house in the Kokiri Forest.
"He'll get through this Saria, he's a tough nut to crack, our brother. And you're forgetting that he has got one of the most powerful weapons to help him fight this."
Saria shook her head.
"I've never seen him like this before. I mean, there's no spark there anymore."
"There won't be for a while I'm afraid, he's lost one of the most important things he's ever had. You couldn't possibly understand the bond between a parent and their child."
Again, the green haired Kokiri shook her head.
"That's not true. I know how much he adored her, I know how much she adored him and I know how much I love Link. I watched him grow up Darunia, and I know that I don't understand about the world or about adults but I do know about love. I've seen it. I saw how much Link's mother loved him, I see the look in his eyes every time someone mentions Zelda's name and I saw how he held Orla when I first saw her. I know I don't understand, but I know."
Darunia smiled at the ten year old adult.
"I forget sometimes that you are older than all of us, little one."
She sighed and sat down cross legged on the grass. Darunia joined her.
"I don't know what you think, but I think he needs to go home."
"He is home," Saria protested.
"There will always be a place for him here but it isn't where he belongs. Right now, there is someone out there whose loss is the same and who is feeling as bad as he is, only she doesn't know how it happened or why it happened and that in a way is making it harder for her."
Saria looked into Darunia's coal black eyes and frowned.
"Zelda doesn't know what happened?"
Darunia shook his head.
"No. Link hasn't said a word to her about how it happened. Has he told you?"
Saria shook her head.
"He's only said seven words since he's been here."
******
"...there is someone out there whose loss is the same and who is feeling as bad as he is, only she doesn't know how it happened or why it happened and that in a way is making it harder for her."
Link didn't want to hear Darunia's voice. He heard the truth in his deep tones and he knew that his friend was right, only he didn't want to go back. He couldn't go back.
"Daddy, Daddy!"
The two year old Orla let go of her mother's hand and tore across the courtyard to her father. Zelda smiled serenely as her daughter was tossed into the air and hugged against her father's chest.
"It's plain to see who she loves the best."
Link laughed and kissed Orla's cheek as he walked towards Zelda.
"Orla, who do you love more?"
"Link! You can't ask her something like that-"
"'pona."
Both parents stared gobsmacked at their offspring.
"Farore Zel, she's as diplomatic as you are."
Orla giggled and kissed her father's cheek before reaching out for her mother and repeating the action.
"Love yoo boaf."
How could he go home without being met at the courtyard by his little girl? How could he look Zelda in the eye knowing how he'd let their daughter die?
He couldn't.
Just couldn't.
And he lay on his side, staring at the wall and watching the shadows change with every passing hour. It was only when Saria came in carrying a bowlful of mushroom soup at about noon that he moved. To Saria he looked a different person with his features unshaven and sleep deprived. His eyes looked dull and tired from lack of sleep and his face was as pale as it had been the night before. She set the soup down on the log table and put her hands on her hips.
"You look terrible."
"Thanks."
His voice sounded hoarse and dismissive, but Saria was not swayed.
"I've brought you some soup, I thought you might be hungry."
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry."
"You should eat something, it's not good for you to-"
"I said I'm not hungry," he snapped. "Just back off already."
Saria shrank back in alarm before her own face slipped into a mask of anger.
"I'm trying to be your friend and help you! Would you stop being so pathetic and look around you?" she cried.
Link's head rose from the pillow and looked at her quizzically.
"Look at what? Look at the world and think 'Hey, what a great place it is!' Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think it's that great a place at the moment," he growled.
"I know you don't think that, but hiding away in here isn't going to make things any better. You have get a hold of yourself before you waste away. That's not going to do anyone any good," Saria protested. "It's not just you that's got to deal with this, or have you forgotten that Orla had a mother and a sister?"
Link closed his eyes.
"Of course I haven't forgotten. How can I face them? It's just that I- I let that thing kill Orla."
His eyes opened as he felt Saria's arms wrap around his neck.
"Link, I can't comfort you here because I'll never know what it's like to lose a child. But you need to go home, you need to be with your family. They need you, and you need them."
She drew back and lifted her friend's hand, staring intently into his listless blue eyes.
"It's what Orla would have wanted."
Link turned his head away from her face, but it was caught by the Kokiri's hands and made to look.
"And you know it."
******
Zelda walked through the castle gardens early in the morning with a light shower casting a hazy mist about the shrubbery, hoping that the fresh air would inspire her thoughts into interpreting the strange dream she had witnessed. Amalia's small hand clutched her mother's as the two princesses walked silently in the open air beneath Zelda's umbrella. No one would have thought that the family had befallen such a terrible tragedy were it not for Zelda's black shawl and the black satin ribbon that kept Amalia's curls away from her face. The atmosphere inside the castle itself was so claustrophobic that Zelda had felt herself suffocating and had escaped with Amalia into the fresh air, out into the light. Amalia was the only thing that had stopped her soul from plummeting to the point of no return.
Amalia tugged at her mother's hand and cried out in excitement.
"Look Mama, flowa!"
She broke free and ran to a bright red bloom, laughing happily and reaching out to touch the petals with her chubby hand.
"Pretty!"
Zelda forced a smile and knelt beside her daughter.
"It is isn't it? What sort of flower is it, poppet?"
Amalia frowned in concentration and then cried the answer cheerfully.
"Wose!"
Zelda nodded and plucked the flower from the bush, picking the thorns from its stalk before handing it to the two year old.
"For you," she said with a forced attempt at being cheerful. "A special flower for a special girl."
Amalia giggled and inhaled the rose's perfume. Zelda ruffled her daughter's golden curls and stood up, surveying the mist cloaked garden. Had it only been a month ago that she had started training Orla with magic in this garden?
It seemed like an age.
"When's Olla coming?"
Amalia tugged on her mother's skirt and stared persistently at her.
Zelda swallowed hard. She had tried to make Amalia understand, she had taken her to Orla's room to say goodbye, and the little girl hadn't understood. Two year olds weren't supposed to understand death.
"Orla's not coming out this morning darling. She's... sleeping."
"Oh."
The clattering of hooves on the cobbles of the courtyard caught the princess' ears. Her heartbeat quickened in the slim hope that the horse she would see would be Epona. Taking Amalia by the hand, she retraced their steps to the courtyard. The rider was dismounting as mother and daughter passed through the gate. Zelda stopped dead in her tracks.
It was Link.
"Daddy!" Amalia squealed and broke free of her mother's grasp. "Daddy!"
Link's eyes met with Zelda's for the briefest of moments before his attention turned fully to Amalia. In that second, Zelda had been able to see the torment in his soul. She could feel it too. It was an emotion she was sharing all too painfully with him.
Link scooped Amalia into his arms and hugged her tightly, his eyes closed tightly as he nuzzled his cheek against his daughter's golden curls. The rain had made his hair fall lankly in his eyes, dampening his face to the extent that Zelda was unable to see his tears whether they were there or not.
"Where you been?" Amalia demanded.
"In the Forest with aunty Saria," he said quietly.
He could still feel Zelda's eyes upon him, he always could.
One of the side doors opened and Catrine appeared with Aidyn by her side. The pair caught sight of Link, who remained oblivious of anyone but Amalia and Zelda.
"Olla's sleeping," Amalia said matter of factly.
"I know," he whispered, barely audible.
His body started to tremble, and Zelda knew it wasn't from the cold. A harsh, choked sob escaped his mouth, a warning that the floodgate hung on its last hinges. Catrine had moved over to the pair and had taken Amalia from him, removing her with the promise of milk and cookies indoors. Aidyn lingered a moment after his wife, watching his brother intently. Zelda's eyes met his and she nodded for him to follow Catrine before she herself walked slowly towards the man she loved. The umbrella lay discarded in the rain.
Link's eyes raised to meet his wife's gaze and found his own face reflected in her eyes. He looked, to put it mildly, like shit.
He half expected her to be angry, he expected her to shout and yell at him for failing their daughter. He expected her to hate him.
So when she took him in her arms and held him close, he didn't know what to think. All he knew was that he nestled his head against her shoulder and let her arms hold him tightly. Her body felt warm, and it was that warmth he clung to like an infant, it was the closeness of her body that soothed him. Her fingers brushed through the tangled mass of his hair and her body pressed itself against his.
"It's going to be alright my love, we'll get through this."
It was only when he heard her soothing tones that he realised he was crying. His body convulsed as he sobbed bitterly against her shoulder and his tears flowed as freely as the rivulets of water that rushed around the channels between the cobbles.
"I'm so sorry," he wept. "I let her down, I let that thing-"
"Link don't. Don't do this to yourself."
"I let our daughter die Zelda," he repeated.
He felt her hands at his cheeks and was compelled to meet her bottomless gaze. He noticed how pale she was, how the dark bags framed her eyes and made her look older.
"I am not going to hear you say that again. I know you, and I know that you did everything that could possibly be done."
She hugged him and wrapped her right arm around his waist while she used her free hand to bring his left arm over her shoulder. Her fingers entwined in his and warmed his hand gently, her fingertips lovingly passing over his knuckles in a comforting gesture. Without protest, she led her husband indoors into the warmth.
******
The afternoon dragged on slowly.
Amalia had been temporarily taken into the custody of Catrine who spent the afternoon entertaining the children in the library. Only Ranny failed to participate, staring aimlessly out of the window at the rain and not saying a word.
Far away in Gerudo Valley, Navali's gaze focused on the rain clouds and its produce through the narrow window in her mother's rooms. Nabooru had removed her daughter from the children's dormitory as soon as word had reached her of Orla's death. There was no way she was letting her daughter suffer such a loss in a place where she was habitually tormented.
After Navali had been told, she had gone into a state of shock. She had quietly asked for the statement to be repeated. There had been tears, but these had ebbed and the girl had left her mother's room quietly. Nabooru had been surprised by this reaction, but it was only later when she had been summoned by Ura's chambers that Navali's strange behaviour had been explained. Alanya had been leaning against the wall, looking a sorry state. Her left eye was half closed and swollen due to a heavy purple bruise over it and her bottom lip was equally swollen as well as being split. Her white tube top was stained with blood. Navali stood opposite her, her face emotionless and on her part sporting slightly bruised knuckles on her right hand. When asked what had caused her to attack the girl, Navali had replied simply that if she couldn't take revenge on the thing that killed Orla then she would make do with going after the cause of Orla's disappearance.
Alanya would certainly never pick on Navali again.
Looking up from her work, Nabooru watched her child anxiously and then walked over to her, taking a seat beside her at the window.
"The heavens are weeping for Hyrule's loss," she commented.
Navali nodded without a word.
"Would you like to ride over to the castle later, so you can say goodbye?"
The girl shook her head.
"She hasn't gone," she said quietly. "I know that she's still here."
Nabooru put her hand on her daughter's bare shoulder.
"Vali, Orla has left this plain. I know that it's sad, but it's something that you and I are going to have to accept and eventually come to terms with. Denial won't work this time."
Navali's body trembled and her mother reached out to take the child into her lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around her while she wept, her own eyes welling with tears. When she had found out, the first thing that had flown through Nabooru's mind was the thought of what would have happened had the situation been reversed and she was the one who had lost a child. Such a thought was not worth having.
"I know it's difficult, but things will get easier. I promise."
Navali shook her head.
"They won't! She's my best friend, I don't have anyone anymore!"
Nabooru's arm was damp with her daughter's tears as she stroked the top of her head.
"You do have somebody baby," she assured her gently. "You've got me, and we will always have each other."
******
"...it was all over. She'd gone."
Link's voice trembled as he sat on the edge of his and Zelda's bed. He felt his throat tighten as tears threatened again until he heard a quiet sob beside him. His eyes had been fixed on the floor all the time he had been speaking, and now that his account of Orla's death was finished his attention shifted to Zelda. She was crying, and because of his preoccupation with his tale he hadn't even noticed that she had been. All of the guilt he had been feeling suddenly shifted back onto his heart at the sight of her tears. The mother of his children was crying.
And he knew whose fault it was.
Every conscious thought that he had screamed at Link to take her into his arms, and he did so, remembering how she had held him earlier. She was his lifeline, and he hers.
"I shouldn't have asked," she sniffed.
Link gently rubbed her back as she nestled into his arms. She had forgotten in those hours that he hadn't been just how good it felt to be near him, to breathe his familiar scent and to feel his strength in his embrace. It felt as though part of her being had returned to her with their reconciliation, even though it was no compensation for the loss that had led to their reunion.
"You needed to know, and I needed to tell someone," he murmured.
"I can't believe that it was as cruel as that. That creature, it to have been something with no soul."
Or maybe it was purely a soul. An evil soul.
Zelda knew the tales she had been told well. She knew the names of all the creatures of darkness, she knew all too well. And in her heart of hearts she knew exactly how her daughter's demise had been caused. Dark souls all came under the command of one entity.
Mortis.
It sickened her to know how an immortal god, the perfect being, had disposed of Orla. She had been in his way, and he had destroyed her being with one simple, underhanded command. For that, her retribution would have to be taken.
"I need to be punished for what I've done."
Her eyes met with his with an expression of fervent passion in their depths.
"Don't you think that we're suffering enough with what we're going through? You haven't done anything wrong, can't you see? This isn't either of our doing, this is the work of Mortis."
Link misunderstood her meaning.
"It's my fault she's gone."
Zelda could scarcely believe her ears, or her eyes for that matter. Her husband was not the man she remembered, he seemed broken and the sparkle in his eyes had dulled until it was no longer detectable. And it was all because of the ruthlessness of a God. She just wished she could make him understand.
"Link..."
"I didn't get there in time, I was too late. I didn't push myself hard enough, wasn't concentrating. I kept thinking about us, and I didn't think how much danger she was in. I was too late, it's my fault-"
"Don't say that!" Zelda begged. "I told you, it wasn't your fault. I don't blame you for what happened. Mortis killed her-"
"I don't deserve you to be so understanding," he said softly. "Not when our daughter's dead because of me. I blamed you for her defending herself, I didn't think about your motives or even let you explain why you were teaching her. I was just so angry that you kept it secret and I didn't concentrate. It's as though I killed her myself-"
"You didn't kill her Link. You know that, stop berating yourself. None of this is your fault."
Olaran was standing in the doorway, his facial expression apologetic. Zelda stood up at her father in law's arrival, but Link remained in his place on the bed.
"I'll be in the garden," she said, kissing the top of Link's head lovingly before leaving the room.
"I didn't mean to interrupt but the door was ajar," Olaran said quietly. "If you blame yourself for this then you're going to destroy yourself. This was nothing but a tragic accident that no-one could have prevented, I think that deep down you know that."
He went to his son's side and took his hands in his before sitting beside him.
"Blaming yourself might seem like the reasonable thing to do right now, but it doesn't do anyone any good. Believe me, I've been there, it's not the right road to go down. I lost two people that I loved, remember? Only I was fortunate enough to get you back."
Link stared at his father for a moment.
"How did you do it Dad?"
The general knew what his son meant and sighed.
"I got up everyday, looked out of the window at the sun and reminded myself that although part of my world had crumbled away, there were still things to be thankful for. Some days it was harder than others, but if anything got me through it all it was Aidyn. He still needed someone to rely on, and in his reliance on me I relied on him. The pain never goes away Link, but every day it gets easier and easier until the pain is nowhere near as bad as it is right now. And as time goes by, more and more things make you smile again until you know that you are going be alright."
He put his arm around his son's shoulders.
"You have to be strong my son. Zelda needs you, and Amalia can't be deprived of a father now that she's lost a sister. You'll draw your strength from them the way Aidyn and I survived."
Link let his father hug him as his words sunk in.
"The gods must really hate us," he said dryly.
Olaran shook his head.
"No Link, they don't hate us. Things always seem worse than they are. You are still blessed with a beautiful wife who loves you and a thriving daughter, just as I was left with your brother and the hope that you were still alive. And Orla loved you, that is the most important thing. She loved and was loved. There are some who never attain that throughout their whole lives yet your daughter achieved that in seven short years. She should never have been taken from us so early, I agree with that fully, but remember that in the grand scale of things that her parting has some greater purpose."
Greater purpose.
At that moment, Link felt as though a smoke screen had been blown away from his eyes. He knew what Orla's greater purpose was, and she had died before that purpose had been achieved.
What now did that leave for the rest of them?
******
The evening sun was dying in a beautiful and dramatic display of reds, golds and purples, streaking the sky like a myriad of coloured paints carelessly thrown across a blank canvas. Had she not been so downhearted, Zelda would have taken a long time watching the beauty of the scene and taking pleasure from it, only she found that very little could lighten her spirits at that moment. The God of Death had taken her daughter from her, and not in the normal and acceptable way. She had never felt such hatred for anything, not even Ganon.
"Tell me everything about nox nocte."
Zelda looked up as Link walked over to her and met his eyes determinedly. She would make him listen this time.
"Nox nocte is the night that the Dark God Mortis will try to invade this world from his prison in the Evil Realm. Endeffera defeated him before and trapped him in the Evil Realm, and now that he has been exposed to a great enough power source he has gained the strength to break through into our realm. When the stars are in the right alignment then he will make his move, which was when Orla was to use her power to send him back. Which was why sent that dark soul to get rid of his opposition. Mortis was the one who killed her Link, literally."
Link felt his guilt ease with her words, though not absolutely. In it's wake however, he was left with the stirrings of anger at the thought that an unknown enemy had taken something so precious from him without his knowledge.
"How do you know all this?"
"I was going to tell you as soon as I heard about the business between Orla and Alanya. But then-"
She took a few deep, stabilising breaths.
"I was told in dream by Endeffera, she came to me the night before I started training Orla. She told me what was expected of Orla and I was blinkered by what she said. Only I could train her, and it was those words that made me keep it secret from you. I'm so sorry."
Link looked at Zelda for a moment, forgetting what could possibly have made him think that she'd kept it secret from him for a selfish purpose. His wife hadn't a selfish bone in her body.
"You have nothing to be sorry about," he said gently, touching her cheek.
"Now we have to face him with no hope of having enough power to defeat him."
Zelda felt Link's hand on top of hers in a comforting gesture. Her unease weakened slightly at his touch, but it was still weighing heavily on her, as destructive as ever.
"I don't know what to do Link, I don't know when it's going to happen, I don't know how or where but all I know is that Mortis will come."
Link's arm draped across her shoulder and drew her body in closer to his. She sighed and leaned in closer to his embrace, drawing in the warmth from him and the overall sense of safety that always accompanied her being with him. She wished that circumstances were different, that they were all safe and sound and that they could be as happy as they had all been a week ago.
As happy as she had been the morning before Orla disappeared.
Her hand absently rested on her stomach as she closed her eyes. The overwhelming desire to just collapse and let the world cave in around her had lessened now that Link was home, but it still niggled in the back of her mind. But she knew she had to keep going, for her own sake as well as Link's and Amalia's and for their future.
And for Orla.
"I missed you."
Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it was loud enough to be heard by the intended audience. He dropped a gentle kiss to her brow.
"I missed you too. I hurt you so much, it's unforgivable-"
"Link please, I don't care about that. All I care about is having you here with me again. Nothing else matters."
"Except this stupid Mortis thing and nox nocte."
Zelda lulled his words through her head. She wished that such a night had never been decreed by the heavens, it was cruel enough having her daughter robbed from her but then to force the humiliation of certain defeat at the hands of the foe who had committed the crime.
Nox nocte.
The word whispered through her head, teasing her with its three syllables and prompting her to think that she was missing something terribly obvious.
And then it hit her.
"Shadow Night!"
Link caught her startled expression and frowned.
"Impa mentioned it the other day," Zelda continued. "It's a major Sheikah festival that's very important to them. She used to take me to it when I was younger, it was a night time celebration of the lunar eclipse. They called it Shadow Night."
She looked at him with a worried expression on her face.
"If I'd only concentrated more on what was going on instead of Orla's magic! I should have been preparing myself too, and the others! How could I have been so damn stupid?"
"What are you talking about?" Link asked, taking her shaking hands in his.
"...and when she said that the stars had to be in the right alignment, how could I have forgotten about the sun being a star?"
She suddenly turned her head to Link and moaned piteously.
"Nox nocte is now. Tonight."
Whatever reaction she had expected from him was totally forgotten as he responded with a simple nod of his head.
"So, tonight's the night. Gather the Sages."
Zelda stared at him in disbelief.
"We're not ready, it'd be suicide!"
Link stood up, his face filled with determination.
"Even though things are hopeless, we can't just stand by and do nothing. That's not who we are Zelda. We have to fight him, we've got to try."
"But..."
She paused as she noticed the look in his eyes. She recognised it from many years passed as the same raw determination, the same resolve that had seen the Master Sword put an end to the reign of the Evil King, only now it was coupled with burning and intense anger.
"I'm not letting him get away with taking Orla from us."
to be continued...
