Chapter Fifteen
The Heretic

"No! Away from me! Burn your eyes!" Great fiery whips lashed out at Rael, and he screamed out again in pain unending. "Why do you torture me so! What do you want?" A spear struck him in the back and he down writing in a river of molten fire. Flames licked upon at the sky all around him, and a moon blazing with white fire burned down upon him.

"You cannot escape me ra'Ael! Give in!" Came that horrible high-pitched voice and its thunderous echo scraped at the inside of my skull. "I will strip you of your flesh, and drink your sour accursed blood!" He cackled. A dark shadowed figured danced between the flames, a dark spectre like a hooded man. "I am coming for you! I am near now! So close! Close, close, close!" Again the mighty tendrils of a hundred whips struck against his body and Rael wished for death.

"Just kill me now! Just stop this pain!"

"I will come for you in the waking world, and then you shall see your folly, Light Born! Twilight is falling, and I shall undo all that you have worked so pitifully to uphold. You'll think you are safe in the realm outside your dreams, but you won't be!"

"No! Get away from me! Somebody save me, please! Ralis, I need you! Daran, please stop this, wake me!" Try as he could, he could not escape from his nightmare. Chains held him tightly in this hellish darkness. "Zelda! Help me! Da, why have you forsaken me to this madness?"

"I am close now, ra'Ael. Now I know which of you fool boys you are!" The spectre laughed manically. "I am coming!"

With a gasp Rael broke free of the darkness. Light burned his eyes, and then slowly image of his bedchamber formed before him. It was morning. Cold sweat dripped off his body cold a in the chilling morning air. He tried to stand up, but found that Elane was lying asleep on top of him. Burn me, he thought, Tabett not hear about this.

Sliding her off him gently, he rose to his feet and crossed the room to the window. It was a crisp dawn; the skies were cloudless and clear over the white walls of the city, and the distant plains were alive in shades of green and earthy gold. Resting his elbows on the sill, he sighed and brushed his hair back with his fingers. He was still in his day clothes, which would save him needing to change clothes. He felt like going for a walk.

"Rael?" came Elane's voice from behind him. He turned to face her, each of them not sure where to look for awkwardness. She had just comforted him, he reminded himself. He had put a block up between himself and the horrific sight he had seen the night before, and he just wanted to forget about everything. "I think it would be best if we weren't to mention this to anyone," she said, standing up and clumsily rearranging the divided skirts of her brown riding dress, "especially Tabett. He would probably understand, but none of us need confusing any more than we already are, right?"

She mirrored his thoughts exactly, "Yes," he muttered, "that's what I thought too."

"Good," she said brightly, "well I'm going to go and get some breakfast. If anyone asks, I stayed with Jensha last night in the city." She exited swiftly, closing the door behind herself softly. Jensha was a young lady that Elane had befriended recently, a maid in the palace who she had met one afternoon when she was alone in the palace. With Tabett, Daran and himself at the academy all the days, and Mara having been moping around grumbling about Ralis' absence, she had really needed some other company.

Rael stretched out his arms and yawned deeply. The burn lines in his back ached as his back muscles contracted, and he grimaced. How was something from his dreams hurting him when he was awake? A quick check in the tall mirror proved no visible marks, no scars from his night of torture, but the pain was there. Muttering to himself about 'this damn city' he swept out of the room and began jogging through the maze of corridors to the stairs.

Soon he found himself slipping out through the gates of the Inner Circle, down into the Market Circle. This was the only part of Hylia to show any real age, compared to the brilliant freshness of the rest of the large city. He didn't much feel like eating, or facing his friends about what he had been shown yesterday afternoon. He needed time to himself, to clear his thoughts, and decide how best to handle his current situation. Best to try and learn what had happened to the army in the south first. All he had gathered so far was that the Kairin had forced Hylian forces into retreating back to the capital. Beyond that, he knew nothing.

The market was busy already, filled with loud merchants calling their wares, peddlers banging loudly upon pots and pans, frustrated men and women alike barking at young children to scram. Almost like the old square in Taran Kaey, he thought.

Stopping for a moment to eye some honey cakes at a table of baked goods, overseen by a plump greying woman, he overheard a particularly unusual calling voice some way over through the square. A loud, scratchy voice that echoed somewhat menacingly. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a large crowd gathered around a man on a podium. There was a buzz of excitement and confusion, and a fearful undertone seemed to be in the voices of all present.

He made his way over, and eyed the man on the podium – which turned out of be a stack of crates- carefully. He was a thin twisted wretch of a beggar, clothed in a sack of all things, tied at his waist with a length of ratty rope. Long, scraggly, unkempt hair was a mess upon his head, and a mangy grey beard hug from his face, filled with dirt and filth. His face was dirty, and beady black eyes peered out from underneath large bushy eyebrows. As common as Rael thought himself to be, this man made him feel like a noble.

He was gesturing widely with his hands, shouting out loudly in a hoarse croaking voice that reminded Rael of a sword being sharpened. Murmurs spread through crowd of 'fanatic' and 'blasphemer', but most regular of all he caught the accusation of 'heretic'. Rael soon found himself hemmed in by more market-goers who had come to watch this scene.

"The Dark is coming!" he proclaimed, starting his speech from the beginning once more, "The Age of Twilight is falling upon Hylia! Upon Hyrule! Upon the entire world!" he voice rose and fell like waves, going high then low, "The Kairin march on our land. Death marches at their head, by the sword and the spear and the bow! But do not be fooled! The true darkness corrodes from within. Just like the single maggot that slowly and surely eats away at the cloth, preparing for the lightest touch to tear it apart, the Lord of Dusk already poisons the souls of his enemies from within."

Rael's ears picked up at this. This heretic was surely more than he seemed. He knew things… "Our Queen!" continued the madman, "is nothing more than a puppet, a figurehead for a deadly and unearthly secret. The weak daughter of the last great king has struggled long now to maintain civil order, but do-not-be-fooled! Civil war blazes in our land. Not just between Hylians, but in Goron lands and amongst the Zora, and most strongly between the divided Gerudo people. Our 'Queen' casts an illusion of harmony over us with her sorceress magic, but a conflict plagues her kingdom that she cannot end."

The heretic laughed, cackling laughter like bitter thunder. "Civil war is rife, the Kairin are marching once more… and every part of the Queen's mind is now bent on the Lord of Dusk. Marshal Ivarl al'Arantos is not who he appears to be, and he pulls the Queens strings with the total power and authority. The world is falling into the Age of Twilight! Repent now! Repent!"

Just after that last cry, a patrol of Hylian soldiers broke through the crowd, and tore the heretic down from his podium into their grasp. The sergeant, tallest and largest of them all, clapped the heretic's wrists in irons and spoke gruffly to him, ignoring the jeers of the crowd. "By order Marshal Ivarl al'Arantos, according to the Queen's Law, you are under arrest on count of heresy and on count of intent to inspire rebellion."

"Do not be fooled!" the heretic shouted out to the crowd, "Fear for your lives! The Lord of Dusk walks the earth! He alone is the Queen's every thought! He is here in this very city and-" a heavy fist collided with the madman's jaw and he slumped to the floor in a heap.

"Show's over!" shouted the sergeant who had delivered the concussive blow, "move along! Move along, you helpless fools!" He rattled his spear, and that was enough to convince the crowds to disperse. Rael kept his head low, and shuffled away amongst the Hylians. Marshal Ivarl has the Queen on strings? That was not the first time he had heard that. The air was thick with tension. A storm was coming. Soon, he knew every scheme and motive in this city would be laid bare before the Dark, and then he would have the truth. What frightened him was that he was not sure that he really wanted to know the truth in the end…