* * *
After a brief incident at half past midnight on the night the two girls had gotten back from Lake Hylia, in which April had refused to calm down at all, the household was quite unsure of what to do. Vaiya tried to assure everyone that it would be all right. However, every time she would say this, April would jump all over the statement, making some sarcastic comment about simply leaving the Spirit Temple to be corrupted.
It wasn't until April had fallen asleep mid-sentence that Vaiya consulted the Book. Though she wasn't sure exactly what help the volume could provide, she thought that it was worth at least a bit of research to ensure the security of the second to last Temple. The seer came across several variants of summoning spells and the like, and a rather interesting riddle that had something to do with letting well enough alone, and allowing Time to do its job.
Even after the extensive tome had been poured over into the early hours of the morning, Vaiya was still unsure that anything would help them in their mini-quest to assist the Hero of Time.
It occurred to her suddenly, as many important things often did, that Nabooru would not be there, as the Princess had claimed. However, this was only a comment to her mental state.
Cursing her rather untimely vision, which could have saved them an argument or two, she realized that Nabooru was currently possessed and under the influence of the cause of evil in the Temple. This, she knew, could be used to their advantage. The things Vaiya had been looking for were summoning spells, and vision spells that would allow the Sage to be present without her actually being physically present. However, if Nabooru was in the Temple itself...
It wasn't until a few days later that Vaiya actually told the Princess what her plan was. She'd wanted to give her mind a few days rest before she attempted to get anything through to her.
April wasn't exactly sure what Vaiya had meant by 'getting Nabooru's attention mentally in order to use her energy,' though when it came to practicing for this she was rather amused.
In the past, she had been able to communicate with Impa and Vaiya through mental conversation. However, there was something important about this that she didn't realize until Vaiya began to show her more in-depth aspects of this sort of magic. The reason she could converse with these two was because she could recognize their energy. Impa had been her guardian ever since 'she' was young, and Vaiya was Impa's niece. This link made it easier to pick up on these two, especially when it was she who had to start the conversation.
There was a perk to being the Seventh Sage, April realized.
'Well, not technically... yet, but....'
Most of the time April didn't even bother to think about the awakening of the Sages, including herself. She knew that this would wind up in a train of thought that involved Link. And also, several months ago, she had somehow realized that she, as the Seventh Sage, would not be awakened fully until all of the other Sages were awakened. She thought, ironically, that it was no wonder she was the Last Sage.
But on the topic of the mental conversation, her hidden linking power as a Sage helped a great deal in using magic. This included telepathic power. This also meant that she wanted to try these powers out at every opportunity. She had begun to communicate with random people, trying to figure out how exactly one could go about picking up on energy signals without actually knowing the individual. Of course, the ever-helpful Book offered much information on this.
One particular evening, April had begun a mind chat with Sheik, whose energy she had just picked up on a few days previous.
'Boo!' she yelled mentally.
There was, oddly, no response.
'Hi-yoo?'
'Can you stop acting like you're five for three minutes?'
'Maybe,' was the sarcastic response.
There was a sigh from the other end of the connection.
'And you know, when I was five, I was learning how to rule a country. So there.' April stuck her tongue out at him from across the room.
'Uh-huh...'
'Course, when you're five, you also don't really care to hear much about the political economy of the Lake Hylia District, either, but...'
Rather abruptly, the princess began choking on the bread she had been snacking on, causing Sheik to jump to his feet in alarm.
"Are you okay!?" he asked out loud.
She help up her hand to show that she was, indeed, not in mortal peril while she tried to rid her throat of the obtrusive pastry.
Where in holy Din did that thought come from!!? she thought frantically, seeing for the second time the memory of sitting in a vast library being positively bored out of her skull.
'I'm very confused.' The oddly calm thought, which was unintentionally voiced through the link that still connected her mind to Sheik's, was lost amidst the extreme desire to simply throw a full-on fit as April tried to think of where that thought could have come from.
But, of course, there was only one logical explanation.
"Do you ever have a memory come back to suddenly, without any real reason?" she asked Sheik, without warning.
"Um... sometimes, I suppose? Why?" The Sheikah was a bit perturbed by the Princess's behavior at the moment. Of course, she did tend to be unreasonably random at times, but this was a bit beyond the normal outbursts of "GOLDFISH CRACKERS!!!"
April, who was at the moment actually doubting that any part of that person and identity remained, simply stared at him with an unreadable expression.
"I think I'm going to bed now," the girl said while rushing to turn around and climbing up the stairs in a fashion that was actually closer to tripping and grabbing at the empty air.
"...She scares me sometimes. She really does," Sheik said to Vaiya, who had just entered the room, on the way to the kitchen, with an armful of foodstuffs.
"I know."
There was a collective sigh which ended that train of thought.
* * *
April sat cross-legged on her bed, thinking a million things yet focusing on none of them. Muttering to herself, she slowly came to the realization that she was, quite literally, loosing her mind.
Speaking aloud to herself, she mused. "So, basically, if I have some memories from Zelda's life before I was here.... What exactly does that mean?"
Of course, there was nobody present, or even nearly present, that could give her any semblance of an answer.
"I remember being... myself. But I am.... not myself." At this point, she was rather tired of having to wonder exactly who, or, rather... what she was. In the three years she had existed as the princess of this 'nonexistent' place, she had been forced to accept her current place. "Destiny," as others had so inexplicably put it.
At the start of it all, she had indeed viewed it as one big game, an elaborate scheme. There was no possible way she could have ended up where she did, as who she did. So, as to why she was now receiving memories from Princess Zelda's life previous to her intrusion of it, the reason quite escaped her.
The only thing that truly scared her was the fact that she was starting not to remember the person she had been.
April thought of herself as Zelda the girl. However, it had stopped being a part she had to play. She had actually assimilated her original character into the Princess of Hyrule.
"No matter what the situation," she pondered, "the Princess seems to be chronically SOL. I mean, whether it be being kidnapped, or the losing, or in this case gaining, of memory..."
* * *
The next few weeks would be spent with Vaiya looking for various ways of channeling energy, and April in 'deep' philosophical thought. For her, it was the classic teen identity crisis taken to the extreme. Of course, she kept all of this internal debate to herself. Muttering out loud about that fact that she was forgetting exactly who she was would probably tend to scare her fellow dimension residents. Added on to this was the training that she had been doing for the past several years. Most of it involved channeling magic, and other magically oriented things. This often tended to leave her with no energy whatsoever to be able to think about her little "issues."
And, as it always did, Time flew by too quickly for anyone's liking.
The morning came in which Vaiya and April were to, yet again, venture forth into Hyrule and seal yet another Temple. This time, however, Vaiya had several volumes and scrolls on her person that she thought she might need for the summoning of Nabooru's spirit.
Oddly enough, though, they wouldn't be needing any of these...
* * *
*** ....and now you are free to throw rocks. *nodnod* But, I love you all? ^_________^() Review, onegai!