Chapter 58: (The) Breakout; The Next Step
Meeting the Master Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda; this is just a Fan Fiction.
Featured Music: "Neutiquam Erro" – Fire Emblem X: Radiant Dawn OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Refreshing Morning" – The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Results – The Ghost Survivors" – Resident Evil 2 (2019 OST). Scene 2 (First Half).
"For Victory" – Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"Tear Drops to Earth" – Black Lagoon OST. Scene 3 (First & Second Halves).
In their incredible journey across Aurelia, Link and his companions have learned many truths and fought many battles; some harsher than others. One such battle, having finished just recently, was one of Aurelia's bloodiest; a civil war orchestrated by two battle-hungry warlords, taken over by a third – a Gylomecian man of mysterious origin and intent, known only by the name 'Kaius Torquatus', joined by his assistant, a blonde woman by the name of 'Amalda'.
The group's Hero of Time, Link himself, finds himself drawn to this man's charisma and promises of redemption through the use of his strange Aegir-control techniques. When he receives naught but denials from the rest of his close companions, Link can't help but despair for his future in relation to the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai – the chaotic Aegir wrestling for control within him – and, at long last, he chooses to listen to Kaius' seemingly kind offers.
This proves to be a fatal mistake however.
During the battle of Corinium City, Gylomecia's capital, Link becomes separated from his companions and comes into contact with the elusive martial artist; the third visit. This time, Kaius opts to manipulate the boy's intentions by using the urgency of the battle around them; this succeeds and he operates on the boy's Aegir chords. With an impressive level of finesse and control, Kaius manages to not quite do as he promises – instead of completely eliminating the dark side of his Aegir, he magnifies it; by suppressing the 'Yang' reserves of his magic and magnifying the 'Yin' side, Kage Narumono's influence is indeed eliminated, yet…
A new form takes his place and is evolved from his hateful-eyed position; the figure spoken of only in painted murals on the walls of Rockvale Temple in Termina.
The Fierce Deity.
Also known as 'Akuma', this existence known only as a Yōkai to the people of ancient Hyrule was said to be a being that existed purely, and only to destroy and one with no true equal in its strength; this claim is followed through all the more for when Kaius recruits this 'Akuma', he and Amalda find their already-intimidating power multiplied thousand times over. They turn their swords on both the northern and eastern portions of the civil war and easily break down their leaders, Bryda and Cyna. With their warlords and commanders essentially killed, both factions' soldiers are essentially absorbed into Kaius' own, leaving them with a much-stronger position in the land of Gylomecia, and as the dominating warlord of his time.
Link, now feud-hungry and near-suicidal in his desire for battle, is essentially propelled back toward his group to murder them in a similar fashion to sending one's dog in attack. The group of morale-laden companions find themselves outmatched at almost every turn and, in great spite to their numbers advantage over him, Link easily and effortlessly breaks each and every one of them down; bringing true credence to the ancient prophecy in Termina's Rockvale Temple.
Scaverin and Raynard, having made a temporary alliance with the group in hopes of stopping Link, manage to assist the group by utilising a portal to the Void in escape; a far-off dimension resting in between the Light World and the afterlife. While taking refuge there, they discuss possibilities of the developing situation before them and formulate a strategy in order to stop their friend, and perhaps even bring him back to the light. Impa and Raynard speculate that only Zelda within the group possesses the appropriate traits to bring the boy back; her level of careful Aegir-control finesse that stands on par with their enemy Kaius' and the fact she knows the once-blonde boy fairly well, indicating a certain level of trust he gave only to Kaius to help him.
This trust was not won easily however.
Indeed, as they return to the Light World, Kaius sics Link on the group and they divide into two teams:
Alwyn, Scaverin, Vassia and Barkner intercept the watching Kaius and Amalda.
And Impa, Zelda, Raynard and Veronika all meet Link's offensive with their own, in a near-damned attempt to fight and stop him.
This battle, easily the bloodiest Aurelia had seen in years, is one that not ends easily; after nearly killing his former mentor Impa, and the surprising re-appearance of Lavrentius and Lycidas from the building's dungeons down below, Zelda at long last finally gets her shot at him; as Lycidas and Raynard manage to very briefly overwhelm the young Yōkai, the Hylian princess utilises the golden opportunity to correct and re-balance his Aegir chords.
Unfortunately and, rather saddeningly however, this ends in tragedy.
His mind overtaken by Akuma's rage and hatred for the world, Link impales his close companion with his silver-gauntleted fist, coating them both in her blood. While she near flinches in her attempt, she does not stop; a feat that impresses even him. Holding on for dear life, she somehow manages to finish the operation on him and, as she does, Link becomes human once more… yet all too late. Having already thrown his fist through her violently and hatefully, the damage has already been done; the two fall unconscious with one another, Akuma's rage and hatred at long last put to rest.
Only the similarly-gifted Veronika attempts, with great effort, to salvage what she can from the hopeless and downtrodden situation…
Scene 1
"Yowai…"
Link groaned and, upon hearing that one familiar voice he hoped never to hear again, forced open his blurry-eyed sight forward; there, standing ever in the powerfully-constructed cage that Veronika created for him was the glaring leaning Kage Narumono himself, demonic second side of his own self and mirror image. Link sighed through his nose and furrowed his brow forward as he stepped toward the chaotic incarnation of the Triforce of Courage, raising up one of his small calloused hands to grip at the iron bars around the cage, suddenly realising the cage had already weakened since Veronika had installed it.
And quite substantially at that.
"Kage…," Link greeted the hard-glaring red-eyed dark side of himself with. "I was wonderin' where you were…"
"You let them change you back," Kage spat out venomously, hellfire eyes narrowed back at the blonde boy before him. "You… I… we had finally done it…"
Link propped up a curious-laden eyebrow at the demon, prodding him silently to continue.
"We achieved perfect synchronisation, thanks to that fool… and reached our path to heaven…"
The listening Link's brow furrowed a second time through the chaotic being's curious words. "'Path to heaven'…," he parroted out, their voices knocking and echoing against the walls of their shared subconscious. "You mentioned that before… in Termina… didn't you?"
"We became… Akuma…!" Kage hissed out this time, casting his hungry-fanged grin forward as he stepped closer, drawing out a hardened glower from the listening Link. It was only when he began to approach him however, that his Kage's smirk soon devolved back into the annoyed scowl he was known so well for. "But then… that whore of a princess of yours…"
CLANNNNNG
Kage failed to flinch but rose a fiery-tinted blonde eyebrow back at the narrow-eyed Hero of Time standing outside of his barred cage.
"Don't call her that," he spoke with a quiet sense of anger, his hardened glare fixated on the demonic second side. The listening Kage's curious frown soon upturned into a half-amused smirk. "Or I'll do somethin' to really make you regret it."
Although he kept the mocking smirk on his face, Kage turned his body and his head back from the boy, pacing around the cage he now called home. "And now… here we are…back to marker one," he chuckled malevolently, his small smirk soon extending as he tilted his head, staring forward past the bars at the endless expanse of their subconscious. "All this searching for your 'answer'… and you still have not found it."
Link's hardened frown twitched as he listened to Kage's incessant ramblings; although he despised the demonic existence, he wasn't wrong; every avenue, every option, every possible potential had been dashed before him in some mad attempt to deny even his existence itself. Even the possibility of Kage re-awakening within him was enough to make him reach for a final solution to it all.
Only his attachment to his companions stopped him.
"In the end we are destined to become one another," Kage chuckled, about-turning to re-face the firmly-frowning Link; he shot up his hardened-eyed frown back up to the demonic being's own gaze, listening intently. "It is just as that pathetic Garo told us back in Termina…," he began again, his demonic baritone knocking powerfully against the iron bars of his cage, echoing out as he spoke. "It makes no difference what path you think you choose… you will always end up with the Shinzui. Just as I told you in the Water Temple."
Link's comparatively calming oceanic eyes narrowed back into Kage's hateful hellfire-red as he thought back to Kage's words during their fateful duel in the Water Temple.
"Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai ga anata no naka de nemuru kagiri... watashi wa kesshite shinanai..."
Ancient Hylian. Loosely translated as:
'So long as the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai sleeps within you… I will never die…'
Link's oceanic eyes shut firmly and gravely, his frown threatening to frustrate and anger him. Kage's words, as irritating as they were to listen to, were as true then as they were now; his manipulation by the savvy and shrewd Kaius only made it all the more obvious to him and he hated that fact.
At this stage, it almost felt as if there were no answer left for him.
Maybe I should just quit fighting altogether, he thought.
"Yowai…," Kage repeated, a hardened scowl to his fanged features. Link shot up his frown to re-faced the demonic second side, brow furrowing again. "How can you be afraid of killing those pathetic friends of yours…? They're useless."
"Those friends of mine are good people," Link responded firmly and confidently. "I'd trade everything you've given me for any one of them."
Kage shook his head dismissively and disgustedly, upturning his frown to near-purse his lips as if to display his distaste. "Koko-de-shine…," he spoke again in ancient Hylian, re-opening his mouth to speak one final time. "All we need is time… time to change. And then you…,"
His hardened glower and tone of speech began to turn hateful or, even more spiteful than it normally was spiced with, his demonic-red eyes narrowing as he did.
"You… will cease to exist."
The pair stared firmly and with little hiding for their contempt for one another as Kage's words of hate and resolve echoed out and reverberated against the walls of their shared subconscious. Link eventually left the plane of existence they held together, his small green-tunic figure soon dissipating and vanishing before Kage's eyes, leaving little reminder of his stance. The watching Kage tilted his fire-tinted blonde-haired head a little further, snarling his mouth up a little as he narrowed a single eye forward, his words reverberating hauntingly one final time against the walls of their mind.
"Hanashi ni naran na…"
"… off him!"
"Sh! He's waking up…"
Link groaned, having been roused from the seemingly eternal sleep of near-death itself, he re-set his blurry-eyed vision 'round him only to find a number of eyes staring back at him from all ends.
Very suddenly he felt uncomfortably on display, especially when realising he was submerged deep within a bed's covers, a small group of his companions standing on the opposite end watching him.
"I better not be dreamin' again…" He groaned a second time, raising up his left calloused fingers to lightly rub at the ache building in his forehead, wincing as he shut his eyes in scrunches briefly.
"You're awake!"
The sound of Vassia's exuberated and glee-filled soprano made him re-open his eyes and hold back a third groan as she leaned forward on his right to wrap her gloved arms 'round his neck. He made an annoyed face at her as he pulled them lightly off, casting her with a fairly grumpy look before revolving his messy-blonde head 'round to find the smiling-faced Veronika watching him on the bedpost's left side.
"How did I even get here…?" He murmured back, briefly eyeing the temporarily hurt Vassia on his right and the smiling Veronika before him, before soon double-taking when he found the seemingly deep-sleeping Zelda laying next to him in the fairly large bed, her small hand resting on his chest.
Link's cheeks grew red and he sat up almost as if in a mixture of shock and embarrassment before facing his two friends again.
"What the hell happened yesterday?" He demanded quietly, so as not to wake the slumbering form of his close companion next to him.
"Don't even get us started…," Vassia sighed melodramatically, rolling her raven-black eyes as she did. "I still can't get my head around allying ourselves with our enemies…"
Link propped up a curious-laden eyebrow back at the Palashian princess' cryptic comments, opening up his mouth to speak, before the newly-frowning Veronika spoke for him, eliciting him to double-take again and this time in her direction.
"I suppose… I'd better be the one to explain things to you."
With surprising ease and swiftness did the little Stralanavian impart the past few days' events to him, leaving the shock-faced Link open-mouthed and near-unable to react. It was only when he lowered his oceanic-eyed gaze from hers that he put on a cringe to his expression, shame and doubt filling his eyes.
Particularly the parts of him near-killing Raynard and Zelda while under the influence of the legend of 'Akuma' gave him the most shame.
He turned his blonde-haired head down to find a massive bandage run around the sleeping Hylian princess' body on his left, wincing as he clocked it. "I did that…?"
The sad-faced Veronika nodded back at him. "You very nearly killed us all…"
"You weren't yourself mon amour!" Vassia called out, almost as soon as Veronika had finisher her sentence, hurried and concerned. Link briefly turned to face her, an unsure frown on his face before he very shortly put on a weakened wan kind of smile, re-lowering his head as he opened back up his mouth to speak.
"I… I remember being on an operatin' table under Corinium City…," he began, brow furrowing in genuine thought. "Kaius he… he promised he'd help me get rid of the…," the youth began speaking, his tenor soon lowering into a murmur as his eyes slowly shut mid-words. "I should have listened to Impa-sensei…"
"No… we should have listened," Veronika bounced back his way, eliciting a half-surprised rise of his head. "I suppose you could liken us as the true indirect orchestrators of Aurelia's near-destruction…," she began, a kind of amused and joking half-smile on her face. "Huh?"
Link held back a mirthless laugh of his own, smiling if only for the sake of it. "W-Where are the rest of the guys…?"
Veronika's smile soon fell back into its usual business-like frown as she responded to him. "They've gone to see Raynard and Scaverin off…," she began in reply. "If it wasn't for them… I don't think we'd have won yesterday."
"And…," he began, gulping down a small drip of saliva at the thought of his recently-gained ex-mentor. "What about… Kaius…?"
"We chased them out…," Vassia shot in with an unbridled huff, folding her gloved arms as she did. "Last we saw of those pathetic mécréantes they turned tail and ran as soon as we got you back."
"Though they did promise they'd be back… someday." Veronika finished for the Palashian princess.
"We can always hope they end up cropping it somewhere down the line, I suppose…" Vassia huffed out from the boy's right.
Link nodded in an odd sense of saddened agreement. "Yeah…"
He hated himself for it but he still held some strange sense of attachment to the man for listening to him and for teaching him when no other would, even after knowing of his manipulation and killing of many Gylomecian innocents during his attempt at continent conquest. He shook his head of such thoughts and turned his head back up to face his two remaining companions and re-opened up his mouth to speak again.
"Maybe I should get out there," he began. "I haven't seen Ray since we fought in Stralanavia… and, with Impa-sensei and everyone else, I…"
"No," Veronika merely shot back, shaking her raven-haired head in response to his unsure query. "Impa commanded us to watch over you until you awoke… and now that we have succeeded…"
"Non!"
Link's eyebrows lifted up in surprise when he found the suddenly-concerned Vassia lean forward to rest her gloved arms across his neck again, pulling him into her perfumed grasp. At first he blinked in sheer shock before drooping both oceanic eyes in a humorous display of frustration and irritation, eyes focused forward as he did. The watching Veronika's frown soon upturned into a half-amused smile as she listened further.
"We left him once before! And he became that! Never again!"
Veronika chuckled good-heartedly, shaking her head. "We've confirmed he's not that anymore though… haven't we Vassia?"
The near-unsure Palashian princess lowered her eyes from the Stralanavian fortune-teller's before briefly eyeing the half-irritated look on Link's face on her left. Her own frown soon shot up into an amused smirk of her own.
"Besides… after Zelda saved us I think she's entitled to some time with him, don't you?"
The listening Vassia rolled her black-shaded eyes in defeat before at last pulling away from the tired young Hylian, placing her gloved hands to rest across the expensive dress' hipline that sat on her. "Fine…," she conceded before half-turning her violet-haired head to eye the boy with, a new smirk on her face. "I'll be back though…"
Link sighed through his nose, an irritated tone in his tenor. "Yeah I'll bet."
"We'll be outside," Veronika began in reply as the two girls turned to leaving. When the moaning Zelda next to the frowning-faced Link began to stir, soon pulling his attention, Veronika gave the blinking youth one last smile before re-opening her mouth, hand hanging on the doorframe lingeringly. "And… welcome back."
Link stared at her for around half a second, almost as if unable to formulate a word in reply before soon forming a small weakened smile of his own in response, grateful and hearty for his group of loyal companions.
I really don't deserve 'em all, he thought.
"Especially after yesterday…"
"Mmm…"
He held back from stiffening at the sound of Zelda's voice; a light groan as she stirred herself awake, her hand still resting on his chest. It was only when she sat up to face him that he gave her the unsure and awkward-faced smile that she knew him for.
"Is it morning yet…?" She murmured out, taking her hand off his bare bandaged chest to rub at her tired eyes.
"Yeah…," he answered her with in his light smile. "I think so…"
She blinked back at him before her vision seemingly unblurred and, as it did, she used her free left hand to brush the long light-blonde hair out of her cerulean-shaded eyes. "Are you… feeling any better…?"
The listening Link couldn't help but swing up his light smile into an amused smirk, tilting his messy-haired head back at her. "I should be askin' you that." He shot back, nodding down at her greatly-injured chest. When she blinked and lowered her head to trace his stare she put on a half-embarrassed little smile, spiced with the same embarrassed look he himself carried before re-opening her mouth to respond.
"I-I'm fine…," she responded with in her own smile. "Did… did Veronika tell you about…?"
Her trailing sentence made the listening Link's grin fall short back into a curious-eyed frown and he blinked back in response before finally shaking his head back at her, unsure and quizzical. She re-eyed him in her frown before slowly lowering her eyes and morphing her frown into a small smile.
"Um… she told us that she… she saved us…"
Link's eyebrows lifted up in realisation. "Oh!" He exclaimed out suddenly and abruptly.
I guess that makes sense, he thought.
She's the only one with us that can do the same stuff Zel can.
I had no idea she could heal wounds of that magnitude though.
"I gotta get her somethin' then…," he sighed out lightly in his sat-up position, tilting his head as he turned his frowning-eyed stare back toward the door the young Stralanavian girl had walked out of earlier. "After all she did just save us both… and from death too by the sounds of it." He finished out in a half-amused chuckle; eyebrow raised at the sheer level of skill it must have taken to do so.
The laying Zelda's small smile elongated just a little as she sat a little further upright, now leaning on her right elbow. "I think it's rather… how she saved us… that's most impressive."
Link's dirty-blonde eyebrow piqued up again in interest, revolving his curious-eyed stare down in her direction on his lower left. "Yeah?" He batted back.
"Yeah… she um…"
An odd sense of panic and embarrassment began to prematurely hit him when he realised she had a strangely proud sense of happiness and glee to her cheeks.
"She split our life forces in half to save us."
Silence.
The frowning-faced Link's brow furrowed in sheer confusion and shock. "W-What…?!" He whispered back down. "How…?"
"Well…," Zelda began in another smile, ocean-highlighted eyes lowered from his own as she used her free left fingers to brush the strands of her long hair behind her small pointed ear. "She cut… your life force… not mine."
Link's half-annoyed turn to his frown, an oddly amusingly irritated look on his face could only make the watching Zelda hold back a giggle but, nevertheless, she re-lowered her eyes and re-opened her mouth to respond to his silent prods for more answers.
"When… when you and I fought… and you… put your fist through me…"
His oceanic eyes widened in sheer shock, unable to recall the events of which she spoke.
"I lost… a lot of blood…," she began again, her smile slowly dropping into a sad-eyed frown. "When we managed to bring you back to us… Veronika decided to pull from your own life and Aegir to transfer to me."
He gasped out quietly and in light shock, eyebrows lifting up as he did, briefly turning his eyes down to his open-palmed hands almost as if for confirmation. When he couldn't find any other marks than the usual callousness he was known for, she pointed down softly and carefully at his bandaged chest that he realised where the operation was previously done.
"H-How much…?"
"A little under half…?" She responded, a kind of awkward-faced wince to her earlier smile, almost as if she were feeling concerned for his thoughts. "You're not… angry are you…?"
"Angry…? No… no!" He chuckled this time, shaking his straw-haired head back at her, as if to set her anxieties to ease as best he awkwardly could. "I'm… I'm glad if I could help ya back to full health… y'are feelin' better… ain'tcha?"
She nodded lightly, her smile slowly returning to her face as she did.
"Good," he chuckled, briefly turning his head from hers. "Besides… it's my fault anyway ain't it?" Link added, swinging his smirk back on her as her own smile grew.
"I suppose that… in a sense…," she began thoughtfully, lowering her eyes as she began to hopefully draw her small finger across his chest playfully. "You're… inside me now… aren't you…?"
Although she clearly didn't mean her innocently-spoken comment the way he was shamefully thinking, Link couldn't help but grow red in and cheeks and the tips of his small and pointed pair of Hylian ears as his much-older mental mind went places he shouldn't have; an embarrassed turn to the usual overconfident look he carried.
"U-Um… y-yeah…," he stammered out sheepishly in response, eyes wandering from hers as she scooted skilfully closer to him, carefully and softly draping her left arm and her head over his chest. "Hilarious…"
2
"So… I suppose this is it then, hm?"
The listening Impa nodded in respect to their former temporary ally Scaverin's words, casting him a hardened yet civil-enough frown.
"Now that Link's back to normal…," the Sheikah began in reply, briefly turning her silver-haired head back the way they came; toward the far-off building of the damaged Whiteblood Cardinal. "And our enemies have fled… I suppose there's no more need for this alliance, is there." She finished her sentence, more as a statement than a question, re-folding her armoured arms as always.
Behind her stood the similarly folded-armed Alwyn, the lighter-faced Barkner on her back-left, Malon gripping the Cuccoo she bought with Link in Stralanavia and the surviving ruling council members of Gylomecia themselves standing around them all.
"Yes…," Scaverin began in reply, eyeing each member of the group before him, re-joining his robed hands together as he did. "I suppose so."
"Well… you guys were helpful," Barkner spoke up for the pair standing before him in a light-voiced sigh, placing his rock-skinned arms across on his hips. "If it weren't for you two we'd have probably eaten it back there, not gonna lie." The Goron chuckled well-naturedly, drawing out a listening grin from the standing Malon behind him.
"I suppose it'd be out of the question to maybe consider dropping your ambitions now that we've saved the world…?" Alwyn posited forward curiously; eyebrow piqued up as he did. The bulk of the group around him, curious and all, swerved their eyes 'round to the standing Scaverin almost as if to gauge his next inevitable response; the former Hylian bishop put on a small smirk as he shut his eyes and lowered his bald head a little.
"I'm afraid that is out of the question Zoran," he shot back uncompromisingly, re-opening his hazel-shaded eyes as he re-faced the former Zoran soldier. "I didn't desert the Hylianis and abandon the leader I defected to just to abandon my own ambitions…"
"You've both done great things for the land of Gylomecia," Baltus spoke up with an inviting smile in his welcoming baritone, stepping forward to join them all, Eryll and Freda both following behind him. "There's always a place for you here if you so choose?"
While the frowning-faced Raynard looked genuinely curious, exchanging a quick glance with the firmly-frowning form of his mentor Scaverin, it was the hard-expressed summoner himself that responded.
"We have no interest in living here…," the man spoke for the pair of wayward Hylians. "We have even greater things to accomplish… after all…"
Raynard lowered his spiky-shaped raven-haired head in response, a firmer scowl to his usual frown as he did, almost as if he were disappointed; the watching Impa noticed and furrowed her brow down at him silently, taking quick note of it.
"Come Raynard," the summoner began again with a light sigh, turning 'round, presumably to leave. "We have much ground to cover."
"Yes… Scaverin-sensei…"
Before the frowning-faced Scaverin eventually did leave, however, he swung his bald head 'round to narrow a single eye back at the watching Impa.
"Make no mistake, Sheikah," he began rudely. "When next we meet… we'll be enemies again."
"Oh believe me… I know," Impa spoke back in response, lightly tilting her silver-haired head mid-speech. The listening Scaverin, seemingly satisfied, shot the Sheikah with a smarmy-faced smirk before swinging back 'round to saunter away, his mission complete. When the frowning-faced Raynard marched off in duty, Impa re-opened her mouth to address the Hylian boy. "Raynard." She called out.
The curious-eyed youth revolved his head 'round to face her, brow furrowing in curiosity.
"Remember…," she began again, ruby-red eyes narrowing back at him. "You have a choice…"
Raynard watched her quizzically for a few moments, soon darting his chestnut-brown eyes between the silent-faced members of his former friends, before eventually upturning his frown into an overly-disgusted expression.
"Hmph."
With that, he turned back to follow his mentor and constant travelling companion. The group watched him leave for a few seconds before the frowning-faced Barkner spoke up to break the silent tension around them.
"Think he's gonna listen boss?" The Goron pressed curiously, rotating his rock-skinned head 'round on the Sheikah next to him. She nodded her head back at him, eyes focused on the Hylian boy's back.
"If he knows what's good for him…," she began, her frown softening a little as she finished her sentence. "We can always hope."
When Impa and the last remaining members of the group had returned to the near-ruined Whiteblood Cardinal, Link had managed to not only rouse himself out of bed but his once-sleeping rescuer laying next to him; a fact that managed to raise their once-low morale following their fateful fight with Kaius and Amalda earlier. After exchanging pleasantries and explaining the situation to them, it didn't take awfully long for the party to turn their conversation to the breakfast table, thanks to their gratefully-rescued hosts – the previously-ruling temporary council of Gylomecia themselves.
"We here – all of us here – at Gylomecia… we thank you," Baltus began speaking in gratitude, spicing his speech with a smile, fingers threaded together at the white-clothed table before him. "Without you all… we surely would have perished under the powerful fist of that mysterious man." He continued on, his smile soon falling into a half-saddened frown as he shook his short-haired head as if in shame.
"'Ey don't worry 'bout it," the smirking Barkner shot back from across the table with a showy shrug and tilt of his rock-skinned head. "It's kinda what we do, ain't it?" He began again, passing his winking chuckle on to the chortling Malon sat on his left; she reached up and issued the Goron with a lightly-affectionate high-five as he did.
"Still," Baltus laughed similarly lightly, his smile returning to his older complexion. "We are all grateful here, we truly are."
"I have to admit…," the ever-tall and firmly-frowning Freda sat on Baltus' right side, her own hands joined at her lap. "Your group hasn't been all bad…"
"Wow… never ever thought I'd see Freda giving out thanks like that." The smiling and younger Eryll across from her threw into the conversation with, leaning forward on the table as she placed her palms softly into her chin. Some of the more sociable members of the group all gave out louder laughs or chuckles in response, drawing out an annoyed huff from the listening Freda.
"It certainly was dicey for quite a while though, wasn't it." The newly-frowning Lavrentius spoke up from the bottom left side of the table, gripping at his cane even at the table; a bad social habit.
"I'm just glad you two were downstairs and readily available at the time to help us out," Barkner shot back with a grateful-faced smirk, directing his grinning nod toward the now-smiling Lavrentius and firmly-frowning Lycidas sat on his father's right. "We'd have definitely lost Zelda and Link if it weren't for you guys."
The listening Link, still feeling ashamed for having been manipulated earlier, could only lower his oceanic eyes, brow furrowing deeply in disgrace. His expression softened somewhat when he felt Zelda's fingers carefully snake their way into his own; the straw-haired youth swung his curious-eyed look on the bandaged Hylian princess on his right, only to receive a smiling shake of the blonde-haired head she carried.
He couldn't help but smile back at her, even if it were somewhat forced.
"It was nothing," Lavrentius smiled back at the Goron with, similarly shaking his own purple-shaded head back at the young man with. "And I'm sure my boy was grateful for the practice, after all!" He cheerfully shot out with, chuckling as he passed his shut-eyed smile on his right; the listening Lycidas merely shut his own eyes, nodding as he opened up his own mouth to make a rare voiced remark.
"Better dead… than a slave to that man's will…"
His hardened comments left a somewhat sour taste in some of the group members' mouths yet, as the frowning Link listened, he could only turn his head and nod firmly back at the former Palashian champion.
"Yeah," he shot back in agreement. "For real."
A small period of silence, awkward and stiff, managed to fill up the air fairly strongly, leaving naught but unsure looks around the room.
"Well… I guess that's it then, isn't it?" Malon spoke with a frown, choosing to cut into the silence fairly boldly. "There's no more national tournaments if we've been all over Aurelia…"
Link's eyebrows lifted in abrupt realisation and he blinked as they did.
Oh yeah, he thought.
She's right.
"Damn…," Barkner began in surprise, leaning to cast the fire-haired girl with a frown of his own. "That snuck up on us… I can't believe we've been all over the continent already."
"Not yet mes aimes…," the ever-smirking Vassia cut into the conversation with, gloved fingers joined at her own lap. "There's still… Draerith."
"Oh shit, yeah," Barkner cursed out suddenly before soon wincing when he received an amusingly warning look from the lightly-irritated Impa across the table. "I completely forgot that place existed."
"That's where the world championships are being held," Alwyn trailed off lightly in reply to the Palashian princess' words, his slim blue arms ever folded at his seat. "Five years from now."
The listening Link, having reached for a nearby refreshment and already mid-consume, could only spit it back out in shock, oceanic eyes widened. "Five what?!"
"You didn't know?" Impa bounced back his way from the front of the table, silver-haired eyebrow risen upward as she did. Link double-took her way in sheer shock and awe, drawing out an amused look from the watching Zelda holding his free right hand next to him.
"Hell no!" He shot back. "I figured we'd have-ta wait a few months tops."
"Yes it's very five years I'm afraid," the smiling Baltus spoke up from the Sheikah's side, casting the boy with an apologetic smile on his face. "Shame about the national championships here cancelling and all… but at least it will give you all much more time to prepare." He smiled on in positive reinforcement.
"I'm unsure if we've all qualified though," the frowning Veronika spoke softly from one of the table's corners. "I have no idea on how we'd check our current level of championship points…"
"We have one of those in the cardinal if you'd all like to verify; a Gossip Stone," Eryll responded well-naturedly from the other end with a smile. "Providing it hasn't been damaged during the fighting of course…" She finished in a nervous-faced laugh, drawing out light chuckles from the surrounding group.
"Ehhh we'll be fiiiine," the grinning Barkner shot back, firing the young Stralanavian girl to his right one of his usual sociable grins. "Most of us here been at pretty much every one of 'em and qualified for top eight, ain't we?"
The Goron received nods and murmurs from most listening in the room.
"So we're in the world championships then!" The grinning Barkner added into the conversation with, casting a happy-go-lucky shrug into the group as he did. "There ain't nothin' to fear."
"Perhaps for moi," Vassia smirked back at the Goron overconfidently, raising up her violet-haired head at the young man across the table. "Given I won Palashia… it's only fitting I take the world championships."
"Didn't you lose every other tournament though?" Malon offered forward curiously; red-shaded eyebrow raised upward as she did. Her words drew out an amused snort from the listening Barkner and a few chuckles and chortles from the surrounding group.
"Pure luck!" The Palashian princess sniffed back haughtily, regaining her usual hardened pouty frown as she shut her eyes in effort. "If anything I'd have wanted mon amour to win…," she began again, her frown soon morphing back into its usual cheeky smirk as it 'rounded slowly on the nervous-expressed Link on her far-right. "Only a king of combat can take my hand… after all…" She finished, kissing up at the air between them both; the watching Link put on a humorously disgusted expression to his face, pulling out laughs and amused looks from the surrounding members of the group.
"It certainly looks as though you'll all have your hands full!" Baltus began thoughtfully, speaking his baritone in a fairly loud exclamation that commanded attention to his smiling state; his hands joined and resting on the table before him. "Five years to prepare… for the ultimate challenge."
"I dunno."
Surprised by the sudden doubt in the normally confident blonde boy's face, all heads revolved 'round to the source of the tenor, only to find them having come from the frowning-faced Link, his eyes lowered to face the table as if in thought.
"What are you so worried about…?" Barkner fired back in a genuinely-amused little laugh, piquing up one of his eyebrows as he did. "You're easily the best-performin' fighter here."
"He is right," Alwyn backed up the Goron's claims from his folded-armed seat on the Goron's side. "You've always consistently at least qualified for the grand finals," the Zoran pointed out, eliciting agreeing murmurs and nodding of heads as he did. "I'd say you stand a good chance of winning the final championship."
"If he works for it Al," the grinning Malon shot back. "He has a habit of being too lazy."
While most of the surrounding group all laughed in response to the farm girl's words, it was the smiling Zelda that soon lowered her beam into a concerned-faced frown.
"Link…?" She murmured his way, tilting her blonde-haired head at him as she did. "What's wrong…?"
"I just…," he began again, shaking his dirty-blonde head back in response, oceanic eyes still focused on the table before soon shutting as if in defeat. His retort soon managed to pull attention from his surrounding friends again. "I've looked all over Aurelia and… still I don't have…"
"Your answer?"
Impa, having spoken up for the first time in a while, at long last made the frowning-faced Link rise up his straw-haired head to face hers in a startled blink, before he gave her a simple-faced frowning nod in response.
"I suppose you have tried all avenues…," the Sheikah mentor began again with a light sigh through her nose, eyebrows briefly rose as she shrugged back. "However…"
The young Hylian narrowed both eyes back at her, curious.
"There is one road left not travelled," she started again, brow furrowing as she unfolded her arms to thread them together at the table before her. "One last option left I can see maybe helping you."
Link leant forward in his seat, genuinely interested. "W-What is it?"
"There was a woman, a martial artist with skills said to be superior even to those of the greatest prowess."
Some more knowledgeable within the group, such as the listening Alwyn and Lycidas, piqued up their eyebrows from their stoic seats of silence, waiting for more.
"They called her… 'Sun Hui'."
The listening Link furrowed his brow thoughtfully, seemingly having recognised the name from their earlier trek through one of Aurelia's previous tournaments. "Sun Hui…," he parroted out in a low-voiced murmur, his eyes soon narrowing to match his curious-eyed thoughtful-faced look. "Oh! She's the one that taught-?"
"Ragnar Romanov…," Lycidas nodded from the other side of the table, his muscled arms folded and his eyes shut as he nodded his braided-haired head in similar recognition. "It's said she's also the one that taught the world's greatest living soldier…"
The shock-faced Link double-took from Impa to Lycidas, eyes widened in a mixture of renewed hope and surprise.
"I suppose if anyone knows an answer to your dilemma Link…," Impa began again, this time in a softer-faced frown. "It'll be her."
"Y'mean… but… I don't even know where she is and…"
"I hear she took to living as a hermit down in a deep section of Draerith," Lycidas responded to the boy's sudden concerns, re-raising up his head to eye the boy with as he did. "So I suppose it would be advantageous to travel there, given where the world championships will be."
"As for introductions… I suppose I could make them for you," Impa began again, trailing off from Lycidas' words and commanding her student's attention once more. "We haven't spoken in a while… but I'm sure she'd listen to a request of mine."
Link's grin very slowly began to overtake his saddened-faced frown and he nodded back at his Sheikah mentor gratefully. "Aw man… I don't believe it! I was expectin' to deal with this Shinzui problem forever at this rate."
"So I suppose you'll be going away from us then…?"
Zelda's saddened soprano, spoken so softly and sullen, could only make the blinking boy swing his frown up her way.
"Oh…," he murmured out in a second blink before chuckling nervously and using his free left hand to rub at the back of his green-hat head. "I… guess I am…"
"Hey, it won't be the first time ye're out on yer own though," Barkner shot positively into the conversation with, grinning as always. "If anyone can do it, pipsqueak… it's you."
Link fired back the Goron one of his own amused grins and chuckles in response.
"So we can't even come with him…?" Vassia shot in with a rolling-eyed sigh. "What a gyp… I suppose you'll have to make do without me, mon amour…" She began again, casting him with a light-eyed grin of her own. Link's smirk softened a little and he chuckled back at her.
"I'm sure I'll survive." He shot back smarmily.
"You should be careful of this woman, Link," Alwyn piped in with, casting his firmly-held frown forward, eliciting a curious-eyed blink from the listening Link. "I hear she has very little patience, especially for men."
"I should be safe then, huh? I'm just a kid." The youth fired back, cool as ice in a similarly well-to-do shrug spiced with a smirk on his face. The surrounding members all let out light smiles and chuckles of amusement.
"Sir Alwyn's right," Veronika bolstered the Zoran's claims with a soft-faced frown of her own. "Sun Hui is said to suffer no fools. Please… be careful."
"I'll be fiiiine," he shot back, shrugging and grinning, eyes briefly shut as he did. "I always am!"
"Maybe you can send us a postcard," Malon smiled his way, uncharacteristically friendly. "It'd be nice… I've never even been to Draerith."
"For sure," he chuckled back in response, flashing her his usual amiable grin. "I'm lookin' forward to it now."
"And on that note…,"
The similarly-smiling Baltus' words managed to make the surrounding party swing their heads his way at the top centre of the table; the older man cast his smile around the seated members as he rose up a glass and nodded at them all.
"I wish our good friends here, our rescuers, our heroes…," he finished in a brief shut-eyed smile before soon re-opening them. "Power to you all and kalí týchi!
"Kalí týchi!"
As the rest of the room called and repeated out the man's words and pronunciation of native Gylomecian as best they could, all clinking their glasses together, it was Link that cast the smiling Zelda on his right a curious-eyed look as he exchanged his glass with hers; a silent expression on his face that left as a precursor to opening her mouth in reply.
"'Good luck'." She whispered his way with a smile, her blonde-haired head tilted a little as her soft-fingered grasp around his own calloused left fingers grew just a little tighter. He blinked back her way before nodding in response and understanding.
3
"So… I guess this is it!"
Link flashed his close Goron companion with a likewise-faced grin, raising up his free left hand to take in his friend's in a presumable friendly farewell shake, holding up his weathered white duffle bag on his back with his right.
"Yeah… 'til the world championships I guess." He spoke in a chuckle before soon widening both oceanic eyes and wincing humorously as the grinning Goron crushed his fingers within his own rock-like grasp.
"You better get stronger between now and then!" Barkner grinned on, tilting his head mid-inflection as he spoke. "We all wantin' that runback!"
"Goes double for me, amoureux…"
As he was still recovering from Barker's handshake, he couldn't help but widen his eyes a second time and, like a small animal being cornered let out a small amusing yelp as the owner of the Palashian voice leant in to mash her lips with his. He dropped his duffle bag in sheer shock and consternation as she wrapped her gloved arms 'round his neck, almost as if to prevent him from fleeing, drawing out amused chuckles and laughs from most of the watching members behind her.
Finally when he managed to pull away, groaning in frustration with the Palashian princess, Link wiped away at his lips as if to rid himself of her touch before casting her with a half-shut eyed frown.
"I'll miss you too Vass."
The people watching behind them all let out laughs and small chuckles of amusement, treasuring the soon-to-be rare moment they all shared together.
"Can I… have a kiss?"
The tips of Link's small and pointed ears grew red and his briefly-annoyed frown turned zig-zag when he realised the words came from Malon, very carefully and awkwardly stepping past the smirking Vassia. Vassia turned and walked back to the group, satisfied, leaving the group around her to cast their peer pressured looks on the blonde boy. He rolled his oceanic eyes and turned his head away from hers in embarrassment before rising up his now free two arms.
"Fine… c'mere…"
He made sure not to take nearly as long as Vassia did, merely opting to give the shut-eyed and smiling Malon a peck on the cheek. Thankfully satisfied, she turned and walked back to the group, eyes still shut in her blissful-faced smile, hand raised up to softly paw at where his lips touched.
"Me… too?"
The low-smiling Zelda, a single thin finger directed at her face, could only make the listening Link groan in further embarrassment. He rolled his eyes as the watching group looked on in amusement, stepping forward to give her a similar kiss, confirming that it lasted as long if not lesser than the previous. Before he could pull back from her however, he widened both eyes again as she pulled him in and gave him a second kiss, this one directed for his lips; a simple and child-like peck that, although quick, still made him grunt and gasp in sheer sheepish shock and embarrassment.
"Sorry…," she chuckled back shyly, smiling as she joined both hands back behind herself. "It'll be… five years before I see you again, won't it."
He let the brief annoyance that flashed down his spine give way to soft understanding; Link tilted his straw-haired head back at her and sighed through his small nose before nodding back at her, his frown creasing a little in compassion.
"And you guys too I guess…," Link murmured back in reply, directing his words up to his faithful pack of friends standing behind the Hylian princess. "Gonna be a long five years."
"It'll fly by I'm sure." Barkner fired back, hand on his rocky hip, grinning away as he always did.
"Stay strong out there," Alwyn spoke, giving the boy his last pearls of wisdom in his folded-armed small smile. "You'll do great out there."
Veronika nodded along in agreement next to the former Zoran soldier. "Steer closer to your destiny… and you'll find your answer, Link." The young Stralanavian smiled over at him.
"All right, well… I guess I better get goin'," Link began back in reply, reaching down for his duffle bag. Before he could get a good grasp on it however, he felt a force suddenly crash into him; a simple hug that sent both crashing down. "Oof!"
"I'll miss you…,"
He knew immediately it was Zelda, not only due to the nostalgic scent he always remembered her carrying, but some strange sense of knowing from the odd inward Aegir connection they now shared together. It was a sadness he felt exerting from her within his own heart; something that made his earlier smile dissolve down into a morose little frown of his own as he slowly peeled her off him.
"Please be safe…"
"Zel, it's okay…," he began in reply, hands on her small shoulders as he did. "You know how strong I am, right?"
She sniffed, smiled weakly and nodded.
"Besides," he spiced in with a grin and a chuckle. "You're 'inside' me now, remember?"
She couldn't help but laugh this time, her tears sparkling out from her ocean-shaded eyes, drawing out a satisfied growing of his small smirk.
"Don't worry Zel," he began in reply, nodding back her way, this time with a slow smile on his face. "I swear I'll come back to you."
When at long last the final companion within his group was satisfied with the last hug she gifted him, he grunted out lightly as he got to his feet and reached down for his duffle bag.
"Wait, Link."
Impa's words made him blink up her way, casting his Sheikah mentor a curious-faced frown. She edged her thumb toward a safe distance away from the group, as if to gesture.
"One last thing I want to say to you."
Link blinked before following. "Sure boss…"
"Do you know anything about this woman?"
Link cast his Sheikah mentor a curious-eyed glance as she stood in a folded-armed frown, her back facing him as she stared out into the far-off distance of Corinium City's ruined streets, now re-populated with its people after the previous fight.
"A-About… 'Sun Hui'?"
Impa nodded.
"Err…," Link began cautiously, lowering his head as he used his free right hand to rub at the back of his green-hat head. "Not really…," he admitted before elaborating further. "Aside from the fact she taught Ragnar and this greatest soldier guy."
"She is a woman of incalculable skill, strength… and age," she began again, fire-red eyes narrowing as she paused mid-speech. "It's said that Sun Hui may not even be her real name."
"She's… lived that long?"
"No-one knows how or why…," the Sheikah responded, turning her silver-haired head briefly and half-way 'round to eye him before re-facing the front. "But the most important thing to keep in mind, when learning from this woman, is her patience."
Link propped up one of his dirty-blonde eyebrows in curiosity, prodding her silently to continue.
"She has none," Impa pointed out firmly as she about-turned to face the boy behind her, firmly-frowning back at him. "Now I like you Link… Zelda likes you. Your friend Malon likes you. Barkner likes you. Everyone in our group has a fondness for you."
He smiled and briefly lowered his eyes from hers before nodding.
"But your attitude and jokes will not fly with Sun Hui." The Sheikah warned him, a firm frown adorned on her features.
"Why not? She ain't got a sense of humour?" Link batted back with a chuckling grin, tilting his head at her. Impa shook her head.
"No," she answered simply. "She doesn't even know the meaning of the word."
"Well… damn…" Link laughed out nervously, rubbing the back of his head a second time; an old habit.
"I'm telling you now… if you talk back to her, in any way… she won't waste time. She'll kill you," the Sheikah spoke, eyes narrowing fiercely at the inflection of her second sentence. "It's something she's admitted to doing, simply on a whim."
"Damn…" Link repeated this time, his grin very quickly dissolving into a shocked frown.
"Whatever…," Impa began again, eyes narrowing once more as she lowered a hand forward, her index finger outstretching forward in a lecturing and warning manner. "Whatever Sun Hui says… you obey her."
Link, very slowly, nodded back at his wise mentor in a lightly-opened mouthed frown, shocked and genuinely interested.
Satisfied with the response she received, Impa let the hardened frown on her face soften before she went down on a single knee, raising up a hand to rest on his shoulder. "I firmly believe you're destined for great things Link," she began again, speaking with a softer-faced frown as she tilted her silver-haired head at him lightly, drawing out a confident-expressed smirk from the blonde boy. "Go and make me proud," she spoke again, this time in a positive-faced smile, small yet noticeable enough that it made Link's own smirk fall into an appreciative smile of his own. "Make us all proud."
"You know I will…," Link began in reply, his smile soon elongating back into the grin they all knew him affectionately for, raising up his free right fist to clench back the way in facing her. "Impa-sensei."
Impa's own smile grew as she listened, giving him one final nod as he re-affixed the duffle bag on his back and turned to leave; the Hero of Time cast his mentor and group behind her one last grin and wave with his right arm, drawing out calls of loud goodbyes from some of the noisier members of the party.
"Was it a good idea to let him go Impa…?"
The Sheikah frowned and rose an eyebrow down at the similar-faced Zelda as she began to re-approach the group. The Hylian princess gripped both hands together in a soft and demure embrace, concerned.
"Now that he's alone… we can't help him if he ever loses control again." She pointed out.
"That's true," Veronika agreed astutely. "It's fairly risky."
"I think he'll be fine," Impa began in reply, turning her silver-haired head back in Link's now far-off figure disappearing down the steps of Whiteblood Cardinal's staircase in front of him. "He's a man now. Sorry… has been a man for a long time now," she amended, this time in a low-faced grin, drawing out chuckles from the listening and knowledgeable group. "And besides… to find that answer of his… he'll have to find it alone."
The listening Zelda cast her frown downward as if in thought, gripping her hands close to her chest as if thinking of the recent life-connection she now shared with him. Soon satisfied with the warm sensation she felt in her chest, a mixture of her own and another entity's – one she knew intimately – she reformed the frown on her face into a smile and turned back to leave with the rest of her group.
