Disclaimer: Not mine, except for Odnetnin. The oasis that is two cities in a vast wasteland seems to be all mine, because nobody else really wants it.
--
Beyond the shadows, beyond the dust

Here I linger, here I lust

Beyond the ash, beyond the flame

Here I die and stay the same

Beyond the love, beyond the spells

Here I burn, eternal hell

Beyond the names, beyond their glory

Here I wait to re-enter the story…
--
--
The group of seven stood in the entrance hall of the palace, staring somberly at Rowrun. Rowrun was shifting uncomfortably. "Rowrun," Zelda said patiently. "You have to tell us everything you know about this shadow…thing." Her eyes cut to André, Lindsay, Rhia, and Zyuiu in turn. "You all do."

"That's the thing, though," Rowrun said desperately. "We don't know much." He scratched the back of his neck. "We were…you know, never mind what me an' André were doing, all right? But we overheard André's father talking with several soldiers, who were reporting about what looked like storm clouds over the Tourney building."

"Yeah, but they weren't storm clouds," André said. He seemed to have the image burned in his mind with no words to describe it. "They said there was a shadow hovering over the building."

"Yeah, and the soldiers that had been sent in to investigate came out starkers," Rowrun said. His voice was nervous and he twirled his duster between his fingers. "Absolutely insane. Not happy insane, either."

André shook his head. "Terrified insane. Seeing things behind their eyelids, insane." There was a heavy, uncomfortable pause. "Killing themselves insane."

The others stood in a horrified silence. More to herself than the others, Rhia spoke. "They did not go well, did they." When the rest looked at her, she would meet none of their gazes but Zelda's, who quickly shifted her own eyes.

"And I told you all, back in the Proper," Zyuiu said softly. She could feel her palms sweating. "That Ymota U thought some…some evil form of insanity came out of a mirror."

"Yes, and there's supposed to be a mirror, underneath the Tourney," Lindsay offered. "Where the other-worlders come from."

"Well, if they could come in," Zelda muttered. She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. If they all came in using the mirror beneath the Tourney, this shadow-thing would have come out by now."

"Maybe it just escaped," Link said. "Goddesses only know that evil just needs a little nudge."

"Do you think Ymota U nudged this thing?" Zyuiu asked. Even she was shocked to hear the worry in her voice. "I mean—it's been three years. It couldn't be her, could it?"

Zelda looked at Link, then shook her head. "I have no idea what it is."

"Right then," André said, clapping his hands together. "How do we get in?"
--

"This was not what I had in mind!"

Zelda wiped grit from her palms. "André, just walk up to the damn door."

"I don't want to go insane!"

"The sword lives for you," Zelda said. "It will protect you from the shadow."

"Won't it?" Rhia added. André glared at them all, holding the Sword of Power in his sweaty hands. He knew the sword changed for him, protected him from danger, but it didn't live for him. It didn't sing in his hands as it had in the days of old! With a resigned sigh, he pushed the thought from his mind and started towards the shadow-covered entrance of the Tourney.

"Wait!" Rowrun called. André turned. "André, if you go insane, can I have your sword?"

André paused before turning back towards the Tourney. "No." He came up to the shadowy door and stopped, looking at it and fidgeting slightly. Taking a deep breath, he held the Sword of Power before him and struck out at the dark. There was an electric crackle and André and his sword were sent spinning in different directions.

The others watched as André landed and immediately began cursing. "What fun," Zyuiu remarked absently.

"Any more bright ideas?" Lindsay asked.

Zelda stood, looking shocked. "I can't believe the sword didn't cut through the shadows," she said. "André, your sword! Why didn't it work?"

André stood up slowly, brushing dust from his legs. "Because the damn thing had a mind of its own! It probably doesn't want to go insane."

Zelda looked at him evenly. "Of course," she said faintly, turning to touch Link's shoulder. But Link had already moved forward, Master Sword held in front of him as he leapt at the shadow. The darkness sizzled, and where the sword touched, it faded. They watched as he chopped away the darkness until he turned around and announced, "I made a hole. It's even in front of the door. Shall we?"

"Oh yes, let's," Rhia said excitedly, clapping her hands together. "I call Zelda goes first!"

Zelda scowled, but moved towards the entrance, light gathering around her fists as she prepared herself for whatever could be lying in wait for her. Nothing attacked her, and, judging that to be a good sign, she gestured the others in. Link came in next and Rhia brought up the rear.

The Tourney was eerie and dark. They stood before the registrar's booth and looked around, shocked into silence. It was not that there was no one around them that was so eerie. But for them, there was nothing making a sound that they could tell. The silence was oppressive, and the shadows cast by Zelda's faint light were long and treacherous. The shadows devoured the walls hungrily, and their satisfied bellies told stories of untold deceit within their waiting maw.

It was not the emptiness that bothered them as they stood there, uncertain of where to go or what to look for. It wasn't the emptiness because this place wasn't empty. It was filled with living, hateful shadow, the all-encompassing burden of a sunless sky. The walls were alive.

Zelda heard the voices within the walls, the voices that the others couldn't hear. They whispered and cackled, mimicking the death cries of the soldiers that had perished. The shadows were alive…

"We should go through slowly," Zyuiu said. "Be thorough."

"Do we chance splitting up?" Rowrun wondered.

"It…would probably be best," Link conceded. "The less time we spend in here, the better, I think."

"I'll go with Zyuiu, Andre, and Lindsay," Zelda said. "Rowrun, Link, Rhia, you go together. Rowrun, what's the best way to divide up the complex?"

"We'll take the dormitories and the upper level training ring," Rowrun said after some thought. "You take the lower training rings and the two big arenas."

"We can meet up here again afterwards," Andre added. "And we'll search the basements together."

"Agreed," Link said, and they went their separate ways.
--

Link, Rowrun, and Rhia made their way to the dormitories. The Tourney had two levels of rooms for fighters and guests to stay in; beneath those were training rings and gardens. The arenas were on the ground level.

"It's so dark," Rhia whispered unhappily. "I can't stand it."

"Let's be realistic, here," Rowrun whispered back. "What do you think we're going up against? Is this a monster? A magician? Him again?"

"Why are we whispering?" Link whispered.

"Because there is a giant demon magician with abnormally large muscles and lovely sharp fangs waiting for us in one of these rooms," Rowrun whispered by way of explanation. "This way, maybe we can sneak up on him." Link seemed satisfied.

"The way I see it," the hero stated. "We're up either up against some magician's idea of a great joke, or the incarnation of pure evil."

The three of them looked at each other as they stopped before a dormitory door. "You have your fancy sword," Rhia whispered to Link. "You open it."

"Yes, but you have your fancy magic," Link hissed back. "You open it." They looked expectantly at Rowrun, who looked back at them absently.

"Uh? Oh. I'm not going. All I've got is a feather-duster." He held up the feather duster as proof, carefully ignoring the fact that beneath the feathers were rows of retractable spikes. It was a great conversation piece at balls, but there was no way he was going in first.

Rhia and Link exchanged a thoughtful glance, looked back at Rowrun, then nodded at each other. Rhia grabbed the doorknob and shoved the door open as Link grabbed Rowrun and pushed him in. "I know about the spikes!" Rhia called in cheerfully.

"Oi!"

Link and Rhia peered in after Rowrun, who had popped out the spikes and was now glaring at them threateningly. "There's nothing in here," Rhia said, almost disappointedly. "You know, I was actually expecting the incarnation of pure evil."

"Yeah," Rowrun said bitterly. "I was too! Thanks, guys."

Link grinned happily at his friend and clapped him on the back. "No problem, Rowrun! Next room?"

They made their way down the corridor quickly after agreeing to take turns opening the doors. They only stopped when they came to a familiar door.

"Now I know it's my turn," Rhia said. "But I'm the youngest here, and I really am far too pretty to die, so would either of you handsome, kind, strong gentleman care to open this one?"

"Not…not really," Rowrun confessed in a whisper, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh Mr. Hero?"

"Er," Link responded. "I vote we ignore this one. Ow! Hey!"

Rhia shrugged. "One of us has to responsible, you dolt."

Link made a face at her and gripped his sword tightly. "If I die, I'm coming back as a Poe to haunt you, Rhia," he said. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped into the curling black smoke.
--

The four companions had an easy enough time going through the training rings. Zelda cast big enough fireballs that there was light into the far corners of the rooms, briefly eliminating the shadows.

It was the arenas that proved to be a problem. The fighting arena was a wide, open space. The second arena was an intricate labyrinth of traps and challenges and it was darker than death when they entered. Not even the sick parodies of natural light that had penetrated the shadow's dome above ground could reach the arena.

"Oh, goody," Lindsay said.

Zelda twisted her hand and held it above her head as a ball of fire blossomed into life. The four of them looked around at the dormant machinery and looming obstacles of the labyrinth. There were doors everywhere, leading to different parts of the arena. The doors had been locked, and the controls to the machinery were hidden from them.

"This is officially my least favorite day of my life," Andre said, then yelped as the Sword of Power turned into a torch. "Goddesses, I didn't even know it could do that."

Zyuiu grabbed the sword-torch from his hand and began wandering forward. "There's nothing here," she said. "There's just a lot of dust. Master Tourney must not have started them up again before leaving."

Lindsay made a disgusted noise as she followed closely behind Zelda. "There's little skulltula spiders all over the walls," she said. "I'm glad I was never the first to go on this challenge!"

"No, that lovely duty tended to fall to me," Andre remarked absently, jogging up to Zyuiu and snatching his weapon back. "I thought the big skulltulas were part of the challenge until I said something about to Rowrun, who'd never seen one inside the Tourney in his life."

Lindsay and Zelda laughed nervously, but Zyuiu was still looking around the huge arena. "I keep feeling like we're missing something," she said. She grabbed the torch from Andre again and pressed forward.

"Zyuiu!" Zelda called. "Not so fast! We're losing you!"

The light from the torch guttered and died, swallowed by the relentless shadow. Suddenly, Zyuiu shrieked and the Sword of Power came skittering out of the darkness. "Zyuiu!" Andre cried, running to grab his sword and rescue his friend. But Zyuiu came quickly out of the darkness, crawling backwards on the heels of her hands as she struggled to stand up. Andre reached her and pulled her upright. Zyuiu hurried backwards, unwilling or unable to tear her eyes from the darkness.

"Zyuiu!" Lindsay cried as she and Zelda ran over to the young prince and the shaken knight. "What happened?"

Zyuiu let out a choked cry. "She's…she's there! She's in there!" The rest of them craned their necks to see into the darkness, wanting to catch of a glimpse of this horror figure in the shadows.

"Who?" Zelda asked. "Who's in there?"

"She is!" Zyuiu insisted. She pointed at the darkness with a dry, cracked, bleeding hand.

"Oh, goddesses!" Lindsay said sharply, seeing Zyuiu's dry and bloody hands. "Zyuiu, who is she?"

Zyuiu pushed past her companions to take several faltering steps backward. "She is," she said again, her voice falling to a whisper. "She's in there. She's…she's here. She's here! We must get out of here! She's here! She's back! It's the shadow's fault—she's in there!"

The others cast a last look towards the darkness, then turned and hurried away from the abandoned maze to await Link, Lindsay, and Rowrun by the entrance, where at least the perverse distortion of light could banish the shadows from their feet.
--

a/n: Oh boy, am I pulling a number on you guys. Here you are, thinking stuff is going to happen…but here I am, writing a five-page chapter. Urgh. I thought I'd get this up, and do all the explaining in the next chapter. Except one thing: The smoke coming out of the room Link enters is not the shadow. He won't be going insane.
My writing style keeps changing. This is the most disjointed story in history.
Here's the plan, though, kids: I plan on eventually taking the events of OoT, If Darkness, and Darkness Falls and combining them into one story. That's not Zelda and is legally mine. I'll be changing the story massively, keeping only certain elements of, you know, adventure and crap. If Darkness and Darkness Falls will come out virtually the same, because we all know I'm writing this for all the characters except Link and Zelda anyway…

Weeeeell, happy reading, my muffins!