Chapter 19: Retrospective; Hooking through History
Ruins of the Forgotten Ones Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "Footsteps of Fate" - Fire Emblem XII: Shadow Dragon OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Pandora's Place" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"Ancient Castle of Ikana" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 2.
At long last Hyrule's Hero of Time receives his first real challenge.
Having sauntered through Termina's three of four corners with only the greatest of ease perhaps suited for one of his calibre, he at last finds a challenge both mentally and physically within the lands of the forgotten ones; 'Ikana Canyon'.
Said to be a land of sheer infamy within its days of glory, Ikana Canyon was once home to the royal family; a clan of powerful warriors tied to their royal lines. Ruled by a man known only to the public as 'Igos Du Ikana', these men and women dutifully served the country they were attached to; a maelstrom of chaos that was consistently put down before being rose again. Although many tales tell contradicting stories, one fact remains ever certain; the Garo clan of ninja-like people also residing within Ikana served not only the Ikanian royal family but also a second unknown party.
Who that party is, however, no-one knows for certain; Link and Tatl can only speculate.
Having learned key information through his battle across time in Hyrule, the Hero of Time very quickly begins to find many similarities and oddities akin to the dis-remembered 'forgotten ones'; said to be a heretic group of Hylians that turned on the Sainted Three in their creation of the 'Fused Shadow' and 'Majora's Mask' itself. In his detective work of naturally eliminating Woodfall, Snowhead and Great Bay, Link's long-held suspicions are very quickly taken root; like a large plug held to keep a dam from overflowing being removed, the youth at last begins to make connections that he otherwise would have no way of knowing.
Not only does he begin to suspect that the forgotten ones came from Termina's Ikana Canyon but that only they possess the vital information required in order to confront and destroy Majora's Mask itself. In freeing Ikana Canyon of Sharp's poisoned grip and, indeed in the process the ghost Sharp himself, Link manages to open the way through to Ikana's well; a dark, dingy and dank dungeon in and of itself that contains an underground pathway to Ikana Castle itself. With this information gained, with great thanks to the nearby living family, the two heroes push forward through the foul-smelling well in an attempt to infiltrate the ancient castle of Ikana.
It is in doing so, however, that Link meets his first challenge since Kage Narumono and, indeed, king Ganondorf Dragmire himself.
While moving through the well, Tatl and Link come face-to-face with another intruder; a mysterious one powers befitting one of a godlike status and stature. Although the Hero of Time fights valiantly and firmer than he ever had before, he is overpowered all-too-easily by this nameless woman ; a sheer testament to the skills of the similarly cryptic organisation that seemingly sent her down into the deep catacombs of Ikana's well.
It is only through fighting to the death, however, that Link's life is saved but not without a heavy cost; for the first time in what feels like an eternity, Kage Narumono reawakens from the holy Triforce of Courage resting in the back of his left hand. Having just barely won control over him in a savage exchange during the Hyrulean civil war and especially now bereft of Navi's calming cerulean light, the former Kokiri begins to lose himself to hopelessness and anguish.
Thanks to Kage's incredible fighting powers rooted in the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai however he successfully overpowers the nameless sorceress and, like the poor fallen Barkner before her, she falls to his demonic-like strength and is absorbed within.
Hoping to save him from himself, not unlike a manner the Great Deku Tree's last trump card would have, Tatl tries to wash Kage's firm hateful-eyed fire with her calming lemon light...
Scene 1
"Grnnngh... Nanda-ko...?"
Kage's animalistic growling echoed out throughout the realm he stood within; one huge cage. With many bars having seemingly been erected in order to house the demonic mirrored form in, he found himself glaring his hell-shaded eyes through them before pulling one of his claw-like arms back.
KATAAAAAANG...
As he had half-expected, the iron bars before him were built to last; even with all of the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai's power behind his strike, it couldn't even phase the cage's bars. The mirrored youth's countenance pulled a half-disgusted and half-disappointed look to his face, mild annoyance dotting the rest of his fiery-shaded form.
"I was wondering when you'd wake up."
Kage's blazing eyes widened and he snapped his similarly-haired head 'round to the voice's source; a familiar one at that. Sure enough, there he stood; Kage Narumono's first-born self and second-side.
Link Firbrand.
"Grnnngh... you...," he greeted in his usual animalistic growling scowl, his hell-like eyes narrowing as he spoke. His brow furrowed in deep-thought however, puzzled as he seemingly attempted to make sense of it. "But... how...?" He began again, his fire-shaded eyes darting around the youth's mirrored form. "That blue fly has gone missing so you shouldn't have been able to-"
"Navi, you mean," Link answered him, his body held to the side as he simply frowned back at him, a kind of business-like casualness about him. "It's Navi that's gone missing."
"Why give it a name...?" Kage spat back as he marched forward to grip one of the many iron bars around his person, glaring on through them. "It's a fucking insect," he crudely cursed in a deft narrow of his eyes. "It shouldn't be important enough to-"
"She's important to me, Kage."
Link's response, so firm and yet so calm, managed to make the listening demon growl back in response before soon falling silent, perhaps in a curious state-of-mind.
"But I know what you mean," the young Hylian added, his own eyes narrowing ever so slightly before soon lowering as if in his own thought. "Maybe it was something Tatl did... or...," he began again, his brow furrowing forward. "Maybe it was me."
Kage's hot-crimson eyebrows shot up in a mixture of shock and hilarity. "You?!" He exclaimed out, laughing as he spoke. "You could barely stop me within the Water Temple and even then it was-"
"It was enough, wasn't it?"
The young Hylian's words, as calmly spoken as before and with just enough truth to them, made the laughing Kage stop dead in his tracks; he soon lowered his fanged smirk, returning instead to his beloved hateful-eyed scowl.
"I've never seen myself as a force of violence, ever," the youth further elaborated on his answer, frowning ever as he spoke. "Even when I fight I like to think I can be quick enough to put an end to any engagement I'm in."
"Hmph...," Kage huffed back, lowering his head just a little in his scowl. "They call you the 'Hero of Time' now, don't they...?"
Link stared back in silence, his blonde-haired head still tilted to the side in his simple unreadable frown.
"Maybe you are stronger now," the demonic-like warrior put forward, his words hanging in the air as he glared back at the youth. "But are you strong enough to put Majora's Mask to the sword...?"
This time the frowning Link found his gaze averting Kage's; a tell-tale sign that made the demonic mirrored form of the youth smirk back victoriously.
"Right there," he began his rebuttal with, satisfaction spicing the demonic tone his tenor took. "That's the kind of weakness that Majora's Mask will eat right up," he chuckled on, half-maliciously and half-disappointed. "You need me... just as much I need you."
"Maybe...," Link answered him, re-raising up his oceanic-eyed gaze to mix with the demon that Sheik once called 'Dark Link'. "Maybe not," he finished, growing his frown into a small smile of his own; something that managed to make the chuckling Kage stop and scowl back in silence. "Maybe eventually I'll be able to find an answer," he elaborated on lightly, tilting his head a little downward as he spoke, his small grin growing as he did. "An answer that doesn't rely on just mindless violence."
Kage opted not to speak in response; as before, he glowered on back at the youth unflinchingly, a response that the confident Link had come accustomed to.
"I guess I'll see ya down the line... Kage Narumono."
WHOOSH...
The sound of Link's human form whisking away was the last noise to be heard for quite a while within the pair's subconscious; as Kage stared from within his trapped iron-barred cage, he narrowed his eyes even further as if to watch the youth disappear and return to the Light World.
"There you are. I never thought I'd say I'm happy to see you but, lo and behold, I am."
Tatl's little quip managed to make him quirk an eyebrow up, a matching grin on his face.
"Oh yeah?" He batted back, raising up a blonde-haired eyebrow as he marched through the dank caverns of the deep well they sauntered through. A long and wide ray of light poked through the ceiling far above them a few yards ahead, dotted only by what appeared to be three unlit torches all standing corner-to-corner.
This certainly appeared to be the end of the well's chambers.
"Yeah." Tatl answered him, buoyantly hovering nearby as he stepped forward casually to rise up his fingers.
SNAP-FRRR...
In response to his Aegir sizzling away at the tip of his left thumb, a ball of flame materialised. As he walked forward he very simply hung his hovering flaming thumb over the unlit candelabrum resting around them, a smirk ever evident upon his expression.
"That... was really something else."
SHWII-SHWII-SHWII-SHWII...
The ever-satisfying sound of treasure being revealed echoed out softly around the young Hylian's small pointed ears, making him swing his blonde-haired head 'round to face it; a golden and hot-orange shaded chest resting atop the small staircase to their right.
"You mean... Kage...," Link answered her with a serious frown unvarnishing the rest of his words. "Huh?" He shot up to her, raising his oceanic-eyed gaze briefly to watch her as he sauntered toward their loot.
"Y-Yeah...," the little guardian fairy nodded her small and bulbous body back in response. "I honestly wondered if I'd ever see you again."
"You and me both..."
His low-toned tenor-like chuckle, uttered out in a shut-eyed laugh, could only make the floating Tatl stop in her tracks; shocked and bewildered. He re-rose his head however to stare straight into the chest ahead, almost as if it were Kage he were speaking to again himself.
"I don't know how I did it...," he murmured out, his frown slowly upturning into a tiny grin. "But if I can pull myself back like that by myself...," the young Hylian started again, his grin of satisfaction ever-growing. "Then maybe I'll be all right," he answered. "At least until I can find Navi again."
"Ah... of course... her."
Link's eyebrows shot up as he swung his head 'round to face her, half-curiosity and half-bewilderment spicing his inquisitive-eyed gaze. The words with which she spoke were flavoured with what felt like resentment.
She doesn't like when I mention her, he thought.
But why?
It's not as if I'm close with Tatl.
"So, why then?" The little guardian fairy began again, this time with an effort-filled sigh lacing her soprano.
He rose another curious eyebrow. "'Why'?"
"I mean why wouldn't it be all right without her?" She clarified, an eye-rolling annoyance filling her tone. Link's eyebrows both rose up this time in realisation.
"Oh," he frowned out simply before tossing her a light grin as he began to reminisce. "Y'know we never really talked too much about it," he admitted this time in a chuckling little grin, folding his small arms as he re-rose his head up as if in remembrance. "But it wasn't hard to figure out very quickly...," he started again, lowering his grin in favour of a thoughtful frown, his earlier cheer soon replaced by a stony silence. "That she definitely had an effect on him."
"How do you mean exactly?" Tatl pressed him, curious as she brought her small form closer as if to draw more information. "You mean that she-?"
"I'm not sure how yet or even why but...," he murmured out, lowering his sky-blue eyes to rest on the unopened treasure chest ahead. "Navi was a guardian fairy sent to me by my people's keeper and protector, sort of like a king or chieftain."
"The Great Deku Tree, yeah."
Her answer managed to surprise the frowning Link; he swung his head 'round and rose an eyebrow.
"Don't forget the Skull Kid came from your people once too," Tatl batted back, a kind of satisfied grin in the tone of her soprano. "Or at least long ago he might have been... who knows."
He couldn't help but grow a small grin of his own as his eyes very slowly tore away from her, his frown soon re-forming on his face.
"Yeah... the Great Deku Tree sent her," he admitted. "We only managed to stumble on it, but... I think the first time I lost control was probably within the Great Deku Tree himself."
"Within him...?"
"He was infected," the youth explained briefly, swinging his eyes 'round to face her as he did. "Remember the Gerudo man I told you about that took over my country?"
"Oh... of course."
"It was so... sudden I don't think even she knew what she'd done," he continued on, turning his eyes back down to the ground in deep thought. "But any time the light from her form would come into contact with Kage's eyes he'd just... fall asleep."
Tatl opted this time to remain silent, her eyes narrowing in similar scrutiny and curiosity as she listened.
"I think he knew... somehow," the youth explained on. "But if he did... he didn't let us know," he chuckled, his grin returning to his young complexion as he thought of the wise old guardian spirit. "So... without her... I've been lucky," he claimed, turning his head to cast his frown upon her; a hardened and firm one that successfully carried his next words' suitably heavy weight. "Extremely lucky."
Having just witnessed exactly what the young Hero of Time was talking about, Tatl at last opted to remain humble in his words.
He was right, she thought.
It was a wonder he hadn't murdered anyone since losing contact with her.
"Th-There is... one thing I want to ask you about..."
Although the small blonde stepped forward to reach for the treasure chest before him he turned his head 'round to raise an eyebrow at her curiously.
"W-When I saw him fight..."
"Yeah...?"
"I felt... another Aegir within him... besides yours and his I mean."
His sky-blue eyes widened; a mixture of horror and realisation.
How did she know, he thought.
Can all guardian fairies sense that sort of thing?
If that's the case, then...
"Normally I wouldn't ask you, but seeing as you're telling me now and all...," she began again somewhat hesitantly. "Was it him that killed that man? That Goron?"
His eyes slowly shut in his saddened frown; a signature of guilt and regret.
"Or was it you?"
"I ain't gonna make any excuses..."
Tatl, surprised, could only widen her eyes in silence beneath her small bulbous form. Link turned his head 'round to frown back at her, a kind of hardened look in his eye.
"I lost control... and that's what got Barkner killed," he answered, firm and solid and all. "It may have been Kage that dealt the killing blow but..."
"Oh thank the goddess..."
He blinked, curious. "Wha-?"
"For a second I thought I was travelling with a goddess-damned psychopath.."
Tatl's worried gasping finish could only make the listening Hylian snort out in laughter in great spite to the seriousness and firmness of their earlier conversation; he could barely hold back the grin that threatened to split his face.
"Hey!" She pressed him, annoyed. "That's not funny!"
He couldn't help but laugh anyway, glad for some form of light humour to wash over the heavy weight the tone that their conversation adopted.
–
2
DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY
-48 Hours Remain-
"Careful... we don't know what's up there."
Link's eyes narrowed upward through the darkness below him as he gripped each metal handle ahead, listening for the sounds of nearby foes.
Only the sound of a far-off ring of fire blared away in the distance, sounding closer as he ascended.
"I got some idea what is...," he murmured back, glaring on as he climbed up. "But I guess we'll just have to find out... the old fashioned way."
In the crux of his sentence he grunted as he pulled himself up somewhat clumsily, oceanic eyes sweeping their new surroundings. Resting very carefully around the grand-looking castle to their immediate left appeared to be pillars; in groups of three they all surrounded the heavy building, a testament to their forgotten creators.
It was something the firm-eyed Link thought back to.
What was it the Happy Mask Salesman said to me about these people, he wondered silently.
"The creators were said to have been a jealous tribe of former Hylians, like you and me, that turned against the Sainted Three."
The 'Forgotten Ones', he added quietly to himself; the same people that were behind the Shadow Temple incident back in Hyrule and also behind the 'Fused Shadow'.
But then if that was them...
Surely they wouldn't be involved in the Ikanian royal family too?
"They may be the Ikanian royal family..."
His cynical thoughts drove him on regardless; a grim march that saw him sweeping his eyes around in search for foes.
"Link..."
Tatl's quiet-voiced prodding made him swing his blonde-haired head up to eye her briefly as he ascended the small staircase into Ikana Castle's main entrance.
"Yeah?"
"This place, this... this country...," she began again, her soprano revealing a tone of anxiety to it. "It's got something the others don't."
"Oh yeah..." He agreed lowly, nodding his head lightly as he stepped through the darkness and into the main foyer. Sure enough, as he had half-expected, a group of four ReDead stood all watching him almost as if having been waiting for him.
MOAN-MOAN...
"I feel it too." He answered, his brow furrowing in his similarly hard-eyed stare. He rose up his left forefinger and thumb before narrowing his eyes in the effort of his next action.
CLICK-FRRRR
SQUELCH-MOAN...
In showy display of his natural affinity of Aegir, the standing Hero of Time managed to turn alight the seemingly poor defenceless ReDead, turning their dead dry skin alight in a blaze of glory that saw them all drop to the ground.
"Up there."
He followed Tatl's directions with a frowning switch of his head before clicking his fingers a second time.
CLICK-FRRR
SHHHHHH...
CLUCK
In response the eye-faced lock resting on the pillar they passed gave out a loud echoing sound to signify a change; a change soon rectified and observed by the iron bars quickly rising up via the first door to the heroes' immediate left. Resting ahead to their top-left and nestled into a little corner of the next room they stepped through seemed to be a common sight Link had grown accustomed to seeing; a Shock Switch. Just as with many he had seen throughout Hyrule it was designed in a crystal-like fashion; shaped similarly to an octahedron. It instead however carried a design of Majora's Mask itself drawn firmly into its lower granite; something that Link spied as he passed and activated it.
TING
VRUP
In an incredible sight indeed, the huge surface of hot-red ceiling that had seemingly fallen at last re-rose to the skies and took its place hanging above them. As he stepped forward to activate the next switches that would open the way ahead, his mind couldn't help but wander back to what the Happy Mask Salesman had once said.
How does he know so much, he thought.
"I know what you're thinking about."
Tatl's words carried him through the deep rumble of the next door he stepped through; he rose his eyes to briefly watch her hovering as he did.
"Yeah?"
"And I can't help but feel there's got to be some connection to him as well," the little guardian fairy began, a hardened tone to her usually soft soprano. "The Happy Mask man I mean."
Link grew a tiny grin of his own before re-facing the front, his hardened frown returning to him. "Yeah," he answered, hopping across the next couple of platforms to activate a third switch. "He definitely knows more 'n he's tellin' us," the youth claimed, eyes set past the hanging Spikes and Skulltulas to rest on the newly-opened third door ahead. "Question is... how much?"
As the door rumbled loudly behind their wake the two heroes pressed on through the new daylight that cast its warm ray down on them.
"I mean what do we actually know right now?" Tatl bounced back, a curious tone to her voice. Link's own eyes narrowed when he inevitably made the climb up to the castle's broken top walls; an easy enough execution to make.
"Only bits and pieces...," he murmured out, marching forward before hopping down to the next platform below at the castle's centre and front. "We know that these people, 'the forgotten ones', were once people like me," he began in a light grunt, hopping over to one of the next platforms ahead, carrying yet another switch. "Apparently they didn't care too much for the goddesses..."
"A lot of people were like that," Tatl admitted, a frown in her tone as she watched her partner hop back toward her. "After all the death and destruction back in the Continental Divide I imagine people were just sick of it; they wanted a change."
"A 'change' is a different group of laws from their king or queen," Link answered, his aquatic eyes narrowing fiercely. "What they did was blind murder."
"You mean... the 'Dark Interlopers'... don't you."
At last his attention was forcibly-gained; he swung his head 'round to face her, eyes narrowed in his furrowed brow of concentration.
"I know that name...," he murmured out in response, lowering his eyes as he re-faced the front slowly, sifting through his memories. "Was it... Kage...?"
"Just what are your comrades hoping to find here that the Interlopers themselves have not?"
Yeah, it was, the narrow-eyed youth thought to himself.
The demonic will's words echoed out across the walls of his consciousness as he watched him murder the mysteriously nameless young woman.
Was she with these 'forgotten ones'; the 'Dark Interlopers', he wondered silently.
I wish I knew more.
"You know the story, don't you?"
He turned his straw-haired head up briefly amidst his hard-won thoughts to raise a curious eyebrow before he continued his climb back up the broken castle's wall ahead of him.
"A little bit...," he grunted out in his light effort before marching along the side. The sound of a nearby ring of fire echoed out toward his north-east; a sign of his next destination. He pulled out the Hero's Bow and took aim at the crystal-like Shock Switch hanging on a platform to his left. "Impa-sensei and Zelda mentioned it a couple times."
FWIP
TING
"Well, what that creepy weirdo mask guy said was true," Tatl spoke as the youth activated the Shock Switch. He channelled his Aegir to his boots and narrowed his oceanic-eyed gaze as he leapt forward; in an incredible manoeuvre he managed to cross the distance not just once but twice. A feat that the pursuing Tatl did little to acknowledge, perhaps used to his feats of strength and agility. "What he said about those 'forgotten ones' link directly up with what the Great Fairies taught us guardian fairies." She claimed.
Link grunted lightly as he bent down to pick up the treasure he was seeking; a Heart Piece. "Yeah?" He countered, curious as he swung his head back to eye her. "How do you mean?"
"He said these people that made Majora's Mask were once people like you... right?"
He half-turned his head as he landed back on Ikana castle's broken wall, a light grin on his face as if to refute her claim. She rolled her eyes in a display of light frustration and impatience.
"Except 'that they turned on the Sainted Three'; I know," she sighed out, drawing a listening and satisfied chuckle from the youth as he resumed his progress forward. "But, what if...," she began again, her soprano turning low as she narrowed her eyes behind her bulbous little form, a thoughtful tone taking to her voice. "What if the people that made Majora's Mask were the same people that made your 'Fused Shadow'?"
He stopped mid-march, his brow furrowing a second time. Even as the circular wheel-like door he stepped through rolled behind him loyally he couldn't help but stop to swivel himself 'round to narrow his cerulean eyes back at her.
"I know...," she murmured out, shaking her small form. "It doesn't make sense at first but-"
"No."
His soft interruption caused her to blink in half-surprise out of her sentence.
"No it makes perfect sense... the more I think about it...," he murmured out in response, slowly turning his straw-haired head back to his front in deep-thought. "I got almost exactly the same kind of feel from Majora's Mask's Aegir as I did from that Fused Shadow thing; I remember it," he attested to, nodding forward at the staircase lying ahead as if it were the Fused Shadow itself. "It felt like..."
"Like death?"
He re-rose his head up to frown back at her, half-unsure before his face twitched as he re-faced the front, nodding.
"Yeah...," he answered, his eyes set as hard as the horrid feeling he reminisced on the unnerving sensation of his new enemy's Quintessence. "Not even Ganondorf's... Or Kage's Aegir felt like that."
His words hung in the air as he marched on down the staircase resting ahead.
"At least we have a connection now...," Tatl began as they hopped across the hanging and broken platforms waiting for them. "I would never have thought to look for it with them though."
"Yeah...," Link nodded a second time, his eyes set firm on the next circular door, listening to it whirr noisily as it moved across. "You're tellin' me..."
He kept his senses sharp as he stepped through what appeared to be the castle's final door; a testament to its powerful whirring behind him. Barely any sound at all aside from it and the reverb that his boots gave out upon the plush carpet below; something that unnerved the former Kokiri into narrowing his oceanic-eyed gaze 'round in searching for his missing enemies.
It appeared to be a throne room.
Just as he thought it, he spied what appeared to be a modestly-sized chair at the end of the hall; surely enough, the king's seat.
And yet it's empty, Link thought to himself in a deft narrow of his eyes.
Where are they.
Are they dead?
"Oh, insolent one... who hath brought the unthinkable into a land a land as ruined as Ikana..."
CLICK
WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR...
It was only when the tattered remnants of their curtains drew across the windows to his north-east did Link even notice the rays of light that they once offered to him; now having been sealed off completely.
"My servants have all fallen namelessly before the light that guides you."
His hardened frown twitched as he watched darkness descend slowly upon him.
"However..."
The man's deepened bass, suddenly sounding much closer, managed to make the sharp-eared Hylian swing his head 'round in realisation. Abruptly appearing somehow through the darkness, a tall skeletal man stood at the foot of the throne that was seemingly reserved for him; a notion confirmed by the royal-like clothing his bones were adorned with.
"The darkness in which my servants live is, after all, fleeting." The nameless king spoke, eyes narrowing straight into the glaring-faced Link's. A pair of similarly skeletal soldiers stepped out to hover menacingly at the king's sides loyally, noisily unsheathing what appeared to be swords and shields of their own.
"So... you're Igos."
Link's sudden and impolite addressing made the hovering Tatl cringe from her position of spectating. When the skeleton king's eyes somehow narrowed in response, a reaction the youth had expected, Link's body tilted to the side and he let loose a wide grin.
"King... Igos Du Ikana...," the Stalfos-like warrior-king introduced himself with, rising his stocky-skull head up as if in distaste. "You would do well to remember that... boy."
"Yeah...?" The youth batted back, rising up a straw-shaded eyebrow as he did. "Ain't much of a kingdom here for me to remember... king."
"Hmph...," Igos growled out, lowering his head to glare in response. "I had thought you a different type... oh 'Hero of Time'."
This time the former Kokiri couldn't help but rise up both his eyebrows this time in a display of shock and surprise.
That's another person that knows, he thought.
But how?
"I had thought you to shine your ray of light on my dead country; one so long in need of life...," Igos began again, rising up his head lightly as he spoke. "But if you haven't even the conscience to understand what has happened to us... then we have no need of you."
"Oh I understand all right," the young Hylian batted back, resetting his head's position to its front as he tilted the rest of his green-clothed body to the side. "You were connected to 'em... weren't you? The ones that did this to your land."
The watching skeleton lackeys couldn't help but exchange looks with one another, almost as if the youth had said something telling indeed.
"Hmph...," Igos growled back. "You know...?"
"I've been lookin' for 'em too," Link at last revealed, his teal eyes narrowing forward to represent his determination. "The forgotten ones."
At last silence descended upon the gaggle of swordsmen; the two lackeys murmured like housewives over the seat of their king and the glaring-faced Igos exchanged his ire with the firmly-frowning youth.
It was a reaction that said it all.
"What do you know of conscience...?" Igos snorted out, eyes glowering as he spoke unfavourably. "Only when you have felt the full gravity of choice of life and death... should you dare question my judgement."
The dead king's words were spoken lowly, horribly and hatefully; something that Link brushed off but could successfully recognise.
They must have been alone so long, he thought.
"Your life's span... is but a flicker compared to the massive doubt and regret that I have borne since Norogumi first turned me from the light!"
His words, though deep, carried and echoed throughout the deep throne room they all stood in. Link opted to remain silence in half-respect and half-interest, true curiosity driving him on.
"To know...," the well-spoken king began again, his eyes narrowing with each inflection of his words. "That the fate of the very world itself could hang dependent on the advisedness of my every deed?"
Link watched him silently and carefully, a kind of respectful frown adorned on his face.
"Can you even begin to conceive which action you would take in my position?!" Igos at last finished his hardened exclamation with a light leaning forward, his otherworldly ghost-like eyes widened from beneath the similarly firm skull he carried.
"I wouldn't have chosen to speak with the people that caused all this," Link at last countered with, his own sky-blue eyes narrowing at the inflection of his speech. "Let alone allied with them."
A small period of silence that, though short in its own right, felt much longer than it should have; in response, the watching lackeys exchanged another look as their king lowered his head in a slow chuckle.
"Touché... oh former legend...," Ikana's king grinned back as he re-rose his bald-headed skull to grin back at the youth. "Look around you, Hero of Time," he began again rising up his two stocky-skeleton arms as if to gesture toward the huge dark hall they all resided in. "See what has become of the Ikanian empire; the end of a glorious age in and of itself," he continued on. "Termina's guardian giants scattered to the four corners of this country."
Link's brow furrowed in realisation that his opponent seemed to be no less informed than he currently was.
He knows a lot of information, he thought silently to himself.
How much else does he know?
"Perhaps it is time... that Alphonse and Wren show you..."
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK...
The steps of the two king's soldiers echoed on out, the sounds of their skeletal-like feet dragging horribly across the ground beneath them.
Igos lowered both his hands to his throne's arm-rests before lowering his head menacingly to glare forward. "Just what kind of thing true darkness really is."