***ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**
!
In Sotto Voce
By The Wolfess
!
Chapter 24
Though the tent flaps were already wet with morning dew, the sun had not yet reared its head before the Hyrulian Army began to march. Soldiers woke to the strange stillness of the witching hour—not quite night, not yet morning. Suspended in the cold in-between time, they were slow to pack and fall in line. Drummers struck a steady beat with hands still stiff with the desert night's brutal cold, and every person's exhale swirled from their lips to become starlight in the dark sky.
Atop their plodding mounts, Impa and Zelda kept one another's company with low tones to not to draw attention to their conversation. It was early for everyone, themselves included. The soldiers around them were already worried enough to not see Epona and her rider at the queen's side. They didn't need to overhear her private fears as well.
No one knew where Link had gone, not really, but Zelda had a sinking feeling that he went somewhere she told him not to. Despite the risk he was posing to his own life and their worry over their friend, both women knew that they didn't have time to follow and provide him with back up if they wanted to make it to the valley before the blood moon. Instead, they settled in for a long, hard march to the Valley of Seers. They could only pray that Link was the hero of legend, and that his dangerous quest was successful.
With all their armor and supplies, even pushing harder than they really should, it still took them a few days to make it to the valley. This was a dry, desolate place where the queen had never visited. The sky seemed permanently clouded with an ominous purplish-black cloud cover and the cracked landscape was covered in old garrison ruins and rickety bridges. The very rock formations rising into the air looked like the weathered bones of some long-dead giant. Not a single breeze blew through that dry valley, as if the world itself refused to breathe there.
The army moved into the southern keep easily enough. As Zelda and the rest of the commanding officers reviewed their battleplan one last time, Impa ordered their forces to sweep the areas on both the left and right of their keep so that they had a firm foothold in the south side of the valley. There were a few straggling scouts this far south, but nothing they couldn't handle and none of them got away. This was satisfying for Impa—they retained the element of surprise for now. If they could use it well, then the Hyrulian Army could finally go on the offensive for the first time in this war. She wondered what the surprise on Kishla's face would look like when they rode into her stronghold before the anticipated hour. It would be a sweet moment.
Once the area was clear and their troops were guarding the three bridges that allowed crossing into the rest of the southern part of the battlefield, Impa guided her horse to the bridge and gazed across it to the battlefield they were about to enter. Bulbous Bokoblins with their crude wooden clubs and oversized, slobbering maws were already charging toward them, while the more intelligent Bulblins stood back and readied arrows in their bone-crafted bows. "Shields!" Impa ordered, and a line of mixed Sheikah and Zora troops with large shields in their hands stepped forward to block the volley of arrows. The arrows were poorly aimed and either bounced of the shields or were lost in the gorge below the bridge. Impa pulled the horse back and turned to her own firing line. "Return fire—aim for the Bulblins, not the Bokoblins. On my mark…now!"
A rain of arrows flew into the air. Their aim was true and several of the Bulblin archers fell. By that point the Bokoblins had lumbered their way to the other side of the bridge, and Impa sent the Zoras with their finely-crafted spears to meet them. First one line of spearmen impaled their foes, then dropped back so another line could attack. The remaining Bulblins let another arrow volley loose. Impa's shields tried to get into place to protect the spears in time, but a few arrows lodged in the holes in the Zora's armor and they fell back.
"Archers, another volley. Take care of them this time! And…fire!" All but one of the remaining Bulblins fell this time. That final one turned to run away, but Impa ordered her forces to charge across the field. She, herself, caught up with the fleeing Bulbin and thrust the black blade of her Naginata into its back.
Impa's soldiers were flooding across the bridge now. As they crossed, she shouted her orders to make sure they got into position. There were not a lot of enemy soldiers this far south of the Sanctum. She had her troops sweep along the west wall and drive the enemy to the center, where the Goron forces had crossed the central bridge and were in position to receive them. Meanwhile, Impa turned her horse to get a better look at the eastern portion of the battlefield. There, the Hylians were supposed to be driving the enemy likewise to the center. The Gorons would have to fight on two fronts, but with the Sheikah and Zora army supporting to the west and the Hylian army supporting on the east, it was a doable task.
It was difficult to be sure what was happening from this distance, but before long Impa caught sight of the bright, golden figure of her Queen leading the charge in the east. Encouraged, she spurred her horse forward and moved to the front of the formation. The long reach of her Naginata made it easy for Impa to fend off the occasional Bokoblin while still having the vantage point she needed to give orders to her troops.
A couple units had taken the two western-most bridges and were positioned to defend them. The rest of her troops were pushing the enemy around a large rock formation toward the center while trying to press upward toward the third bridge. This one was positioned right near a major enemy keep, and the number of enemy soldiers crossing the bridge was higher than Impa had anticipated. She ordered a few Sheikah warriors to step into her flanking position and spurred her horse toward them to support.
As she neared the keep bridge, the partially closed doors shook. Impa slowed her horse and ordered the troops on the bridge to back up a few paces. No sooner had they retreated than the keep's door blew off its hinges. A large Moblin wearing a steal captain's helmet and carrying a large metal shield lumbered through the broken door and onto the bridge. The crumbling stonework seemed to crack under the creature's weight as it began to cross, but it held for now. Impa ordered the spearman nearby to try to stab the creature around it's shield, but the Moblin also carried a long spear, and its reach was greater. It slashed its spear around in a sweeping motion, knocking Impa's soldiers onto their backs.
Seeing no alternative, Impa leapt off of her horse and slapped its rump so it moved away. She ran over the oncoming Moblin, swirling her naginata in front of her so a storm of fire went before her. When she was near enough, she spun the weapon around and sent the fire toward the Moblin like an explosion. It shielded itself from some of the blast but was knocked backward by the explosive force. While it lost its footing and focused on the threat directly in front of it, Impa's troops took the opportunity to stab at the creature from the side. Spears thrust into its bulbous violet flesh. It screamed, swiveling its head around to try to see what was attacking it.
The Moblin turned toward the first group it saw, still holding its shield directly in front of it like a wall, and Impa leapt forward. She had just enough time with its attention focused elsewhere. Channeling her fire magic through the naginata, the weapon began to glow red hot. She threw it up in the air and it floated there for a moment before appearing to split into four naginatas made out of fire. Impa leapt toward them and, one by one, threw the four fiery naginatas directly at the Moblin.
The creature screamed as fire exploded against it. It thrashed in a wide circle, sending Impa and her troops falling back, but the Sheikah quickly got her feet under her. The naginata was back in her hand, having never really left it. She ducked under the Moblin's spear and swiped the blade of her naginata toward the creature's legs. Burned and bleeding, it fell to its knees and dropped its shield. Impa rolled to her feet and used the momentum to raise her naginata and thrust its blade directly into the side of the Moblin's head.
The sound of musical laughter pulled Impa's attention away from the Moblin's collapsing form. Queen Zelda was riding toward her with a bow in hand. "I was coming to help, but it looks like you do not need it," she said.
Impa slammed the butt of her naginata in the ground with a small puff of fire and grinned. "Of course not," she laughed, "but it's good to see you're well anyway."
Zelda's horse stopped next to Impa. The sheikah resisted the urge to reach up and touch the queen's calf beneath her dress. "The east bridge, along with the central area the Gorons were defending, are all clear. How goes it on this side?"
Impa looked around. She had gotten so wrapped up in defeating the Moblin Captain that she lost track of where they were in their progress. "Both of the two western bridges have been captured. This was the last one. We're going to need to press up into that keep quickly, though, if we want to hold it."
Zelda nodded. "I will not delay you, then. This is where we part ways."
"Until we meet again in the inner Sanctum," Impa said. "And we will. Please, my queen, take care until then."
"You as well, Impa," Zelda said. Then she mouthed 'I love you' silently and rode back to the Hylian army waiting for her.
Impa's eyes lingered on the queen's retreating form. An unwelcome thought passed through her mind: if something happened to either of them, this would be the last time she would see her love alive. Impa prayed it would not come to that.
Darunia approached her while the Sheikah was watching the queen ride away. "So, Sister, are you ready for this?"
"Is anyone really ready to try to keep up with you, Darunia?"
Big Brother Darunia threw back his head and laughed. "Well, let's get to it, then, Sister. We'll see you all outside the west-central keep. Brothers, let's roll!" Darunia held his Megaton hammer close and rolled into a ball. The rest of the Goron forces did likewise, and they rolled around the Sheikah-Zora troops to the two western bridges. They would press the advance up the open western field and meet up with Impa and her troops in the west-central keep as planned.
"All right, you heard him, let's go!" Impa directed her troops to press up into the nearby keep. They already took out the keep's captain, so the rest of it was relatively easy to take. Once the last Bokoblin had been killed, the Sheikah posted some defenders to hold the keep and continued their push northward.
Approaching the west-central keep, Impa got her first glimpse of Sanctum in the distance and the Valley of Seers itself. Two twisted stone archways rose over the man-made Seer's Sanctum like giant rib bones sticking out of the ground. In the valley in front of the Sanctum, stone hands grasped at the clouds. They were twisted and disconcertingly lifelike—as if real giants were trapped belowground and their hands were all that remained as a gravestone. Even the dark, leafless trees in this area twisted and curled, somehow both dead and alive. Impa could not suppress a shiver. This place was cursed. Wrong. She could feel it in her bones.
Her troops pressed into the keep and engaged the enemy. Impa, atop her horse once again, followed them in. They circled around the east side of the keep to flush the enemy out the west exit, where the Gorons waited to intercept them. All seemed to go well, until Impa realized that there was a group of Bokoblins who weren't paying any attention to them. They ran in circles brandishing their clubs at nothing. Impa had to see what was going on for herself.
She swung off her horse and waded through the engaged combatants to reach the group of Bokoblins. They didn't see her approach. As she drew near, Impa could see that they were chasing a small pink light. She had seen a glowing light like that once before, belonging to the healing fairy Zelda brought that saved Impa's life. Such a creature was a gift, and a great advantage should the unthinkable happen to her.
Impa slashed at the Bokoblins with three rapid forward attacks. They died with little fuss, and the fairy light seemed to stop running away. The Sheikah approached it slowly, worried that quick movement might scare it. When she drew close, she held out her hand and the little light floated down to land on her open palm. This fairy looked different than the one that healed her. Whereas that one was mostly a bright light with wings, this one seemed to have actual weight and shape to it. Unfortunately, Impa could see right away that it looked worse for wear.
"Are you too tired to fly away?" she asked. The little light blinked a couple times, as if trying to answer. Impa couldn't understand what it was saying, but she held open her pouch anyway. "You can hide in here until you recover if you want." The light hesitated, and then flitted down into the pouch. Impa closed it but didn't tie the latch just in case the little thing felt better.
The Sheikah and Zora forces cleared out the rest of the keep. Impa chose another unit to stay behind. Their attacking force shrunk with every keep, but it was important to hold the ground they'd already taken. She ordered the rest of her forces to continue out the west gate and mounted her horse again.
"Sister!" Darunia called out as his hammer smashed the face of a nearby Bokoblin. "What took you so long?"
"Glad to see you're cleaning up the rabble out here while my people deal with the real battle," Impa retorted with a grin. The Goron just laughed in response. The two armies took a moment to regroup. Impa relayed what they had faced so far, and Darunia caught her up on what his forces had taken care of. They then paired up Goron, Sheikah, and Zora forces into strategic partnerships.
"This is the final push to the Sanctum," Impa said to the joint forces. "From here on, we do not fight as Gorons, Sheikah, or Zora. We fight as one unified Hyrulian army. No matter what we face in there, I have faith in each of you and ask that you put your faith in each other. The ability to celebrate our differences and work together to defend a greater good—that is what Hyrule is. And Hyrule is what we fight for today. For Hyrule!"
Impa thrust her fist in the air, and the joint forces gathered took up the cry. For Hyrule! For Hyrule! The Sheikah's heart swelled with pride, and she added, silently: and for Zelda.
The final push into the Soul Sanctum's western entrance went well. Their joint forces easily defeated every enemy in their way, and they took the northwestern keep with ease. Impa stopped them there to regroup and drink some water. It had been a long campaign, and their goal was in sight. Once the troops were rested and ready, Impa moved them out.
She and Darunia led the way into the narrow hallways of the Sanctum. Though its roof had collapsed a long time ago, the walls and hallways of the place still stood strong and filtered their approach into a bottleneck. They left soldiers at each significant point to guard their escape route should it be needed as they made their way deeper in.
Finally, they turned the corner to the hallway right outside the most defensible position on the map: the northernmost inner sanctum.
"Where are they?" Darunia said, looking across to the eastern side of the hallway.
Impa shook her head. "Maybe we got here before they did."
"Or maybe Queen Zelda ran into trouble along the way."
Impa didn't respond. There was nothing they could do to defend the queen now. They had all known that when they made this plan. There was a lot more ground to cover on the west side of the valley, and the plan for the Hylian forces was just for them to slip up the eastern side as quickly and subtly as possible. It should have been a straight shot to the eastern entrance for them.
Darunia shifted his grip on his hammer and grinned. "Well, then it's up to us now, Sister."
"Darunia, we should wait for them. Maybe they're just right around the corner."
"Aw, come on! Just picture the tiny queen's face when they charge in and we've already taken care of it! With my power and your strategy, we can take down anything."
Impa wrestled with herself. This was not in the plan, but if something had happened to Zelda and no reinforcements were coming…well, if that was the case then waiting would only risk them losing the element of surprise. Surprise was the best weapon they had. Why risk losing it now?
"All right," she said. "Kishla will be in there. We don't know what else will be with her, but the sooner we disable her the better. I can distract her if you can take her out. Think you can do that?"
"Of course I can!" Darunia laughed. "But what about the Dragon Knight?"
"We haven't seen him yet, so I can only assume that's what has delayed the Hylians. Maybe he jumped them?" Impa shook her head. "There's no way to tell. But if he IS in there then all I can tell you is he really is a dragon. Don't get burned."
The Goron frowned. "You don't have to warn me about dragon fire, Sister. I was there when Volvagia fell."
Impa nodded. "Right. Then I defer to your experience dealing with dragons."
"Don't get burned," Darunia said. They both laughed and Impa gave the signal for them to move into the keep.
Darunia and Impa led the way into the keep in a rush, weapons at the ready. Their joint forces flood in behind them, blocking the entrance. In the center of the large space was a crumbling altar long out of use and a single person: Kishla, with her back turned.
"Kishla, it's over," Impa said. The old Sheikah hadn't turned around yet, so Darunia swept to the right to stay in her blind spot when she did. Impa continued speaking to draw her attention. "The blood moon isn't for another two days. We've already taken the valley. Please surrender and make this easier for yourself."
The old Sheikah turned around now. Her face was split in a grin. Rather than speaking or even drawing a weapon, she bowed and a burst of purple smoke erupted around her. Impa coughed and pulled her neck wrap up over her nose and mouth. When the smoke cleared, Kishla was no longer there. Instead, standing in the same spot was the Dragon Knight himself: Volga. Except that he looked different than before. Instead of the red armor he wore when they last faced each other, he was wearing an armor set that was pure black. His skin, too, looked somehow ashen and he seemed to pulse with a dark purple energy.
A grin spread on his face, except that there was something wrong about it. About him. It was Volga and it was something else at the same time. The hair on the back of Impa's neck raised. This was not going to be the same battle they fought before. She didn't know what had been done to him, but she knew that the person she fought before was no more. He was now replaced by whatever this was.
"A trick, huh?" Impa could see Darunia moving out of the corner of her eye. Not daring to look at what the Goron was doing, she tried to hold the Dragon Knight's attention. "Gotta say, black isn't your look. Totally washes out your complexion."
Volga brandished a spear that looked like it was carved out of a dragon's leg. The blade of the spear was like three long dragon claws thrust in the air. He was not interested in talking.
"Okay, two can play at that," Impa said, brandishing her own spear.
Just then Darunia pounced. He bounced into the air using his rolled up form and uncurled just in time to smash his hammer right across Volga's head. Volvagia's head had been his weak point, so Darunia assumed the same would be true of the Dragon Knight. It was a good theory—but it proved to be false. The helmet, which was carved to look like the dragon Volvagia, was sturdier than it looked. Darunia's hammer just bounced off of it. The Dragon Knight thrashed out, his arm turning into a real dragon arm just long enough to smack the Goron Big Brother into the wall. Rubble crumbled around the Goron's body and half-buried him in debris. He didn't get back up.
Impa motioned to the other soldiers in the keep to get back. "I know this guy," she said. "More people in here are just more targets for dragon fire. Guard the entrance. Look for the queen. I'll take care of Volga."
Volga tried to attack the retreating Hyrulian army, but Impa stopped him. Everywhere he tried to attack, her weapon deflected and caused his attacks to go wide. When everyone else was safely out of the keep, though, her approach shifted. She darted in and pressed the offensive. As long as she could keep him on his toes in melee range, it would be difficult for him to transform into his dragon form or get a good blast of fire off with his mouth. He needed space to operate. She had to take that away from him and make him play her game.
At first her plan was going well. Every time Volga tried to jump away and transform, Impa was right there on his heels taking the opportunity to stab through his armor again. The little jabs of her naginata were painful enough to interrupt his transformation, and he would be forced to defend her with his spear instead. However, besides being much less talkative, this new version of Volga didn't seem to tire. Impa pressed and she pressed and she pressed, and Volga seemed just as fresh and ready to fight her as when they first started.
Impa could feel her reflexes slowing. The pain from her freshly healed wounds was starting to get to her, and her limbs felt so heavy. As much as keeping him in melee range was preventing him from using his larger attacks, it was also stopping her from using hers. She tried to look at Darunia, praying for him to wake up and give her some backup, but the Big Brother of the Gorons wasn't up and moving yet. The blow to his head must have been hard. The regular soldiers were not strong enough and she wouldn't risk their lives. She was on her own.
Just as Impa was deciding on a shift in tactic, something to maybe give her an opportunity to get off one of her larger attacks, she felt an intense pain right in her gut. She stopped in her tracks and looked down. The three prongs of the dragon spear were buried right in her stomach.
"How…?" she managed to say as she fell backward. Her naginata clattered out of her hand.
Impa could hear people shouting her name and the clanking of armor as her troops poured into the keep and attacked Volga. The Dragon Knight spewed fire all around. Screaming. So much screaming. Someone grabbed her under the shoulders and dragged her away, but she couldn't focus her vision enough to see who it was. But what about the little pink fairy she saved? Maybe it could help her just like last time. She opened her pouch with a shaking hand and the fairy flew out. It circled her a couple times, seeming to hover over the bleeding wound in particular, but then it just flew away.
So it really was too late. Not even the fairy felt she was savable. Was this really how her story ended? Abruptly. Distracted by help that never came. After all her training, all the promises and the worry, all her dreams. In the end she was just a little too slow. Her vision was too blurred for her to make out anything that was happening around her. Even the sounds of the battle faded to white noise. She tried to speak, not even sure if anyone was around to hear her, but blood came out of her mouth instead. She kept trying though. Her message was important.
Tell Zelda I'm sorry.
She wasn't sure if she managed to say the words out loud or if it was just in her head. Impa lost consciousness shortly after.
!
On the east side of the Valley of Seers, things went smoothly for the Hylians until they ran into a rather rocky problem. The road up the east side of the valley that went straight to the Sanctum's eastern entrance was blocked by a stack of boulders. Zelda ordered her people to try to move the rubble, but there was too much of it. Not even bombs were effective in clearing it out. Wasting no further time, the queen adjusted her strategy. They would have to pass through the east-central keep and enter from there. They took a greater risk by going through the front door of the Sanctum, but it was the best choice left if they wanted to rendezvous with the other half of their army. Zelda was determined that they would meet Impa's forces outside the inner sanctum one way or another.
Queen Zelda and General Auru rode at the front of the army as they passed under the shadow of an abandoned stone tower into the east-central keep. They had cleared the keep out earlier before they discovered the landslide in the north so that enemy forces wouldn't nip at their heals on the way to the Sanctum. Now they just rode through and kept their heads on a swivel. One of the giants' hands cast its long shadow over them as they exited the keep in the central part of the valley just below the Sanctum's entrance. The queen briefly remembered the legend associated with them—that the giants were followers of Ganon who were sealed in the ground by one of her past incarnations long ago—and she prayed that today would not be the day they reawakened.
The central field was barren. Some Bokoblins roamed about, but it appeared practically unguarded at first glance—suspiciously so. Zelda drew her rapier and the general at her side drew his sword.
"Be on your guard, all of you," he told the soldiers behind them.
As they approached the stairs that led up to the sanctum, the hair on the back of the queen's neck raised. Something here felt…wrong. Backwards and upside down. Alive and dead. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was very off.
She was about to voice as much when a cacophony of laughter echoed through the air all around them. The valley filled with purplish black smoke as one poe after the other manifested in the air between them and the Sanctum's main gate. Zelda's horse reeled, the whites of its eyes flush with fear as it thrashed its head about. "Woah, easy girl, easy!" She shouted as she got the beast under control. She pivoted back the way they came, but more poes appeared in the east-central keep and attached her forces. So she spun the panicked animal around, again with much difficulty, thinking to go out the west-central keep, but once again the poes were there, laughing and brandishing their fiery violet lanterns.
"The cave!" General Auru shouted. His horse was also panicking, and he struggled to control it while taking a swipe at one of the ghosts near him. "Behind you, Majesty! Go into the cave!"
He turned his horse and charged at a poe that was trying to close in behind the queen, effectively clearing her path. The old maps she studied during the ride to the valley told her that the cave used to be a fairy fountain. She could only pray that the fairy was still there and that it would answer her call for help. She turned her horse and rode toward it, but the entrance was just a little too small for the horse. She dismounted and ran inside on her own with her rapier at the ready.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the cave. She had expected it to be resplendent with fairy magic, but instead found it dim. Not a good sign. She could hear the trickling of the water, so the fountain must still be there. She could also hear a strange, gentle sound like a hundred tiny bells not quite jingling. But stronger than the sound was a smell. It was metallic and sour, not fitting with the gentle sounds. She started to try to place where she recognized that stench from, but by that time her sight had adjusted, she knew at once what it was: it was the smell of blood.
Around the dim cave, a cluster of fairies hung in the air. They weren't flying, really. Rather, they hovered in the air like they were frozen in place. Their wings didn't even really twitch or flit. The queen wasn't looking at the fairies though. Beyond them was what used to be a beautiful, clear fountain—the home of a Great Fairy if she had ever seen one. The water now ran violet with blood that seemed to flow upward by the power of some dark magic toward a stone altar in the middle. Atop that dark altar, bleeding from multiple wounds and by all appearances either dead or unconscious, was Link.
"Poor, poor hero."
Zelda's head snapped toward the entrance of the cave. There, silhouetted by the light outside, was Kishla. "What have you done to him?"
The Sheikah elder chuckled and took a few steps across the rune-covered floor to the center of the room. "That's the wrong question, child," she said with a slow smile. "Try again."
"I am not playing your game, Kishla. I will rescue him." Zelda raised her hand toward Link and reached inside for her magic. Her hand glowed with golden light, followed closely by Link's body, but the strange mixture seemed to surge up and consume the light.
"Oh, Zelda. You misguided disappointment. You already are playing my game. Why do you think he's even here?"
Zelda frowned at her hand and turned a glare on the elder. "What did I have to do with this?"
Kishla laughed. "Now, that's the right question. I mean, you knew that choosing love over destiny would doom everything, right? You knew this boy was never meant to draw that sword by himself, right? Did you just ignore it? You assumed the Goddess would clean up your mistakes no matter what decision you make. You were wrong."
Zelda balled up her fists at her sides. They surged with magical energy. "Speak plainly. What did you do to him?"
"Well, I did what evil does—I laid a trap and he walked right into it. Why, after fighting off all those ghost soldiers by himself he proved his worth and drew the sword—but he was so tired. So very tired, and so very alone. When my forces ambushed him, he was barely able to fight back, even with the Blade of Evil's Bane in his hand. Now we have the hero and the sword."
Zelda's eyes widened and she looked again at Link. She could see, now, that the Master Sword lay on his chest with the blade pointed down toward his feet and the Hylian Shield overtop that. His sword hand was folded over the hilt of the sword and his other hand rested on the top of the shield. The royal crypt had effigies of many past kings and queens fashioned in this very position, and guilt flooded Zelda's heart. Kishla was right. She had chosen to pursue Impa instead of escorting Link to the sword. She had not thought he was ready, and she hadn't expected him to go on his own after her warning. This was her fault.
"Is he dead?" she asked, her voice small in the quiet cavern. For a moment, she felt like a young child asking her nanny a scary question once again.
Kishla clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Not quite, not yet. And I do have this one, single healing fairy here that could bring him back." She held up a jar containing a single fluttering pink fairy.
Zelda looked up at the jar, jolted back to the present moment. This wasn't the woman who comforted her through her nightmares. It may have her face, but Zelda couldn't imagine the woman who raised her in her mother's place doing something so horrendous. The queen took a step toward the Sheikah Elder to take the bottle from her, but Kishla pulled it back and wagged a single finger in the air.
"Not so fast, young one," she scolded. "All those years I watched over you, I hoped you would be different from your mother. That you would make right choices. You have proven quite a disappointment in that regard, but I still have hope that you can change. This is your opportunity to show me, one last time, that you can make the right decision. But to know what's at stake, Zelly, you should know that your hero here is not the only person you love who is about to die."
"Stop playing games with peoples' lives!" Zelda barked. She drew her sword and held it out, its blade glowing with light magic. "Give me the fairy or I will fight you for it."
Kishla shrugged. "Fine."
She tossed the bottle toward Zelda, who dove forward to grab it before it hit the stone floor. She just managed to save it and scramble back to her feet as the Sheikah elaborated.
"As I was saying, the other person in need of that little sprite is your lady love." All the blood drained from Zelda's face at once. She clutched the fairy to her chest. Before she could say anything in response to the claim, the elder Sheikah continued. "As we speak, Impa's blood is spilling out over the stone floor of the inner sanctum. You weren't there to meet her, after all, and she is just arrogant enough to think she can do it all on her own. Not so different from Link here, really, but only one of them is the real hero—and it isn't her."
"What do you want from me?" Zelda asked. Her mind was racing. How could she save them both? How did it even come to this? How could she be so blinded?
"Something simple for a Queen of Destiny—a choice, Zelda. I want you to choose, once again, between destiny and your own selfish desires. Save Link, defeat me and my Master, and Impa will die. Save her, and Link will die—along with any hope Hyrule has of surviving."
Zelda looked to Link and then at the door of the fountain. It was a simple choice, really, but how could she make it? How could she choose one over the other when she loved them both? Then it hit her. This was a fairy fountain. Maybe…just maybe….
"Great Fairy, please hear my prayer," she started. "If you can hear me, I beg for your aid—" Before she could finish, Kishla interrupted.
"Such a cheater, Zelda—always looking to have everything and suffer nothing. The Great Fairy is broken! She can't help you! You're on your own, child. Now CHOOSE! Their blood is flowing whether you're ready to choose between them or not. Take too long and, well, you'll just loose them both."
"No," Zelda said, tears welling up in her eyes. Her mind raced, but no other answer came to it. If even the Great Fairy couldn't help, then there really was no hope and no other choice but the one in front of her.
Kishla laughed. She swiped one of the paralyzed little fairies out of her face and gestured both to the hero at her left and the door to her right. "What will it be, Zelda? Your girlfriend or Hyrule? Are you going to be as selfish as the rest of your line?"
Zelda turned to Link and started uncorking the bottle with the healing fairy inside. She could hear the elder's laughter as she walked to the altar. Had she ever really had a choice? Was there ever really any way to be her own person and fulfill her destiny? Perhaps not. Perhaps it had all been a childish fantasy. Perhaps, in the end, we are nothing more than the path laid out before us, every step predetermined before we ever take our first step. Every decision made before the question was ever asked. Thinking she could break free was foolish.
As Zelda approached the alter where the hero's body lay, a single tear rolled down her cheek for the woman she loved. I am so sorry I could not save you both, she thought, hoping against reason that somehow Impa would hear her. But I know this is what you would want. You always want what is best for Hyrule, and we both know right now Hyrule needs him. Goodbye my love. She uncorked the fairy and watched it fly over to Link. The choice was made. The fairy swirled about his wounded body and as Link drew his first deep breath, somewhere on the battlefield her Impa, her love, took her last.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Author's Notes: Sorry for the cliffhanger everyone! I might be a little late next week for the final chapter because my wife and I will be camping, but I will do my best to get it up by Saturday night at the latest. Hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you thought.
-The Wolfess
