Oh, man. I am so, so, so sorry. This chapter is so late. And not fashionably late. Like, irritatingly late.
I rewrote this thing over eight times. I had to fix major holes in the story that just didn't make any sense. And even so, we don't get to high drama here anyway. Ugh. Excuses excuses excuses...
I apologize. I'm a dingbat.
DISCLAIMER: I am so poor I make Detective Gumshoe from Phoenix Wright look like Bill Gates. So there is no point in saying I own Zelda. If that was true, I would move out of this house already, quit school, and just live off my wealth. Like a lazy slob. Yeah.
CHAPTER EIGHT: TO BE ADRIFT
"The birds are flying strangely today," Morrigan commented idly as she sat on the balcony of the hotel they had chosen for the night. It had taken half a day to reach the nearest port, Istel Port, and they had decided to wait until morning to set out. As it was, Morrigan drank a hot beverage while looking out to the cold, gray sea in the distance.
"Hm? What?" Dizene questioned from just inside, securing her hairband and sweeping platinum strands out of her face. "What about the birds?"
"Gulls," Morrigan observed, "Are the greediest, stupidest birds I know. They'll gorge until they die but then chase each other away when they sit bloated: gluttons until the very end. But, Diz, look at how they fly today!"
Dizene stepped out onto the balcony, damp, textured wind hitting her face as it rolled in from the coast. Immediately she could see what Morrigan talked about. The gulls seemed to be coming in from the sea, not in ragtag flights, but with a sort of order to them. Dizene frowned. What would it take to make such creatures to flee in harmony?
"They're all neat, like a mass squadron of tiny airplanes," Dizene frowned. "What do you think it means?"
Zelda finished straightening her bed inside, feeling quite satisfied that she had spared the maids some labor. Yet, as she stared out the window, she could see the abnormal flight patterns. They made her frown with worry.
"You said this box... television," Zelda said, attempting to pull the subject away from the uncomfortable topic, "can show us the daily news. How do you work it?"
At once, Morrigan began to laugh softly and then subsequently finished her drink. She stood from the generic-looking chair and left the tiny porch for the dull light inside. Dizene followed, though took care to shut the screen behind her as she noticed the gulls still approaching. "There are lots of programs that the television can receive," Dizene explained. "But the news is always on, on one channel or another."
"I would avoid RAT News, though," Morrigan commented. "They're a little too crazy-right-wing, if you know what I mean. According to them, islanders and Karai might as well be slaves, and women would be in the kitchen for eternity."
Dizene scoffed as she tried to find the plug for their complementary television, crawling about on the floor. "RAT News? Who even watches RAT, anyway? Have they ever said anything important, or even funny, through lack of content?"
"Not since' they did a study on how being a housewife actually enriches the soul," Morrigan replied. "I had a good laugh out of that one."
A sharp rap sounded on the door to their room, echoed by the slightly muffled voice of Link. "Are you decent in there? Is it all right to come in?"
"It is," Zelda confirmed, unlocking the door. Link and Ganondorf entered (The latter somewhat lacking for sleep) just as Dizene put the cord in properly.
The television set sprang to life, much to the interest of the three who knew little of its workings. Ganondorf seemed somewhat disappointed, though Link nodded in understanding.
"It's like a little stage," the Hero of Time said. "It runs through programs like the public performances in Hyrule Castle Town's square does in the evening. It must have entertainment, and then world news, too."
"Yes, exactly," Morrigan confirmed, turning the dial to channel two. The clear, completely unaccented voice of a newscaster on-site came on. His face was less neutral and more grave, which hinted that his story was one that was not happy at all.
...Thank you, Felicity. This VBC News, reporting live from Hallifax, where three days ago a strange catastrophe came over the city. Thankfully, most of the citizens made it out alive, but there were severe casualties suffered by the militia. Before now the government has deemed it a state of emergency, and we're just getting to report to you...
"...Liar. Eclipse took the three days to cover its butt. Who do they think pays the militia?"
The remark under Morrigan's breath went unheeded, but not unheard.
...casualties. Evacuees are urged to find shelter in the homes of friends and relatives, and compensation will be paid shortly, as soon as the unknown threat has been identified and neutralized. The attack of a summer camp in Oadean territory may be related...
"No kidding."
...This has been Bryan Pierce, reporting live VBC News. Back to you, Felicity...
Dizene turned the television off abruptly. A heavy silence fell over the hotel; not one guest in other rooms was heard stirring. The call of the gulls as they flew by in a blind panic seemed eerily piercing.
"This all seems strange to me," Link frowned. "Why destroy towns? Why attack some unimportant children's home?"
Zelda looked to the birds that were screaming outside with a knowing glance. "They... whoever it is... it's looking for something."
"You," Dizene said suddenly, with a bleak tone that scarcely felt it should filter from her tongue. "They're looking for you."
Ganondorf nodded, but said nothing. A slight twitch came to the corner of his mouth, a sharp canine briefly flashing a growl to the birds outside. Him. He was being hunted. It didn't seem proper.
"Dizene has a point," Morrigan agreed darkly. "If they wanted to destroy things, they would be better off attacking the Capital, or better: Irien City where Eclipse runs the whole show. Why attack a seaport and a summer camp? You three are the only two things those places have in common."
"Then we had better hurry and move along," concluded Link. "What's our situation, my Princess?"
"Our objective is roughly twenty miles offshore, as the crow... or seagull flies," Zelda said. "I've already hired a man with a small craft to ferry us. A simple promise of reward and the gentleman was in stitches."
XXXXXXXXXXX
"Are you trying to make a fool of me?" Morrigan screamed. "What's your problem?"
"Morri! Stop shaking that man by the collar! He has to captain the ship for us!"
Dizene stepped between Morrigan and the tall man she was currently fuming over. "Dizzy, I don't even know his name, and when I walk by he goes and pinches my butt! Pardon me for introducing him to a little decency!"
"Ah, Lady Morrigan..."
"Fine! You know what? Have it your way!"
Morrigan dropped the man like a sack of flour and drew back, muttering something poisonous about the promiscuity of someone's grandmother and the aforementioned ancestor's unhealthy love for some distasteful creature in searing detail. Dizene shook her head when the mumbling trailed off into something incomprehensible. Both Zelda and Ganondorf squinted as they vaguely recognized corruptions of old, by-now-archaic cursewords under Morrigan's breath. Either way, none of what was said could ever pass for tasteful at all.
Apparently, the two rival royalties concluded at the same time, that profanity lasted a lot longer than civilizations.
The man that she had been harassing on the dock straightened up and dusted himself off. From the first glance one could tell he wasn't too old, but in his late twenties or so. Tall and thin, he had a long face and droopy, tired eyes: as if he spent far too much time awake pouring over charts and much too little time asleep. He proudly wore an embroidered captain's coat, which was somewhat comical because the vessel behind him that was presumably his was a little small for such pomp and affluence. Lastly, he had a somewhat red-tinted nose, as if he was recovering from being sick or spent too much time outside in the cold.
"Hey, kid!" he motioned at Link, the least threatening person looking there aside from perhaps Zelda. "Keep that crazy woman away from me, will you?"
"We're with her. Or rather, she's with us," Zelda enforced. "You have already agreed to take some passengers. Are you ready to set off, Captain?"
Dizene looked unimpressed by the somewhat shady-looking man, but restrained giggles at the sight of Ganondorf's frown of sheer disgust. "Uh, Captain, what's your name?"
"What's my name?" the man scowled in disbelief. "What's my name?! How can you not know my name? I'm known far and wide as a famous treasure-hunter and-"
"Get to it, you soggy geezer!" Morrigan shot.
"Linebeck!" the man announced, totally ignoring Morrigan's comment. "The most recent in a long line of Linebecks, in fact! I am Captain Linebeck XCVII!"
Link raised an eyebrow. The name sounded familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it. Instead, he decided to edge away and inspect the ship himself while the others worked out the price obstacle.
Dizene tapped her foot tentatively. "The ninety-eighth?"
"Hey, are you trying to upstage me? XCVII!"
"XCVII is ninety-eight, smart one."
Zelda sighed and attempted to reconcile once again. "Can we at least attempt to be civil about this?" she frowned in a bit of distaste. "Captain Linebeck, your craft is shipshape and suitable for our expedition, correct?"
"Only the most reliable baby you'll ever see, missy!"
"Then you will have no problem taking us east," Zelda concluded. "We intend to set off to the east, about... fifty direct kilometers."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
The sudden objection caused a few to startle. A fish-vendor in the next stall over dropped his catch, and the sound of a crate toppling off where someone had bumped it crashed in a thwump on the wooden pier. Morrigan glared, hand darting for Linebeck's collar again. "And why in hell not, you great coward?"
"H... hey! Put me down, you crazy woman!"
Zelda's face fell as she and Dizene attempted to pry Morrigan away from their Captain again, but to no avail. "Oh dear... compose yourself at once, Morrigan!"
"What sort of lame excuse do you have now? Fifty kilometers is like nothing! That's not even the distance to Irien City by ferry from Hallifax!"
"C'mon, Morri..."
"Morrigan! You had better stop this at once!"
"Enough."
Ganondorf gritted his teeth and rather bluntly grabbed Morrigan's collar and lifted her bodily from her fuming position. With little effort, he moved her a few feet to the left and set her down. "Let the man explain his plight, my girl," he said firmly. "Hounding him like this is entirely ineffective... not to mention bad form."
At his words, Morrigan flinched, frowned, and crossed her arms. "Whatever you say, Ganny," she said. Zelda silently let out a small amount of thanks, despite herself, at Ganondorf's presence. Morrigan seemed to listen to him. Zelda suspected that she was extremely afraid of him, but too stubborn to show it like Dizene did.
"Thank you!" Linebeck praised. "Thank you for getting that crazy woman off of -!"
"Don't push me," Ganondorf warned. "Tell me now-- why is east out of the question?"
Linebeck looked around nervously and wrung his coat in anxiety. "Whirlpool," he said. "There was some kind of earthquake a few days ago; caused a real big whirlpool by there. I'm not steering my baby anywhere near it."
"But-! That's where we need to go!" Dizene frowned. "Don't say you're not curious. And why hasn't anybody been mentioning this? You would think this would make the news, really!"
"Your guess is as good as mine," shrugged Captain Linebeck XCVII, "Eclipse paid good money to keep the harbormasters quiet. Probably some project of theirs or something."
Zelda's eyes narrowed. "I doubt that," she said. "Is there any way we can convince you otherwise?"
"No. I won't go anywhere near that thing! Are you crazy?!"
"I say we beat the stuffing out of him until he says yes," Morrigan frowned. "Pinch him in some places, why don't we?"
Dizene was less than pleased. "Morrigan, don't be a horror."
"Will you do it for some of these?" Zelda suggested, pulling out a big rupee, shining green. The Captain's eyes went wide with glee, nearly snatching the large gem from Zelda's hand and biting it to test for quality...
"Ow!" he groaned as he rubbed his sore jaw. "Yep! That one's genuine," he said happily. "Down payment... there's another half, beautiful?"
"You can count on it, Captain," Zelda assured. "There is more where that one came from."
All of a sudden, Captain Linebeck XCVII's mood did a complete turnaround. "Well, then what are we waiting for? Time to weigh anchor! Everybody on board... where's that kid?" The 'kid' that Linebeck XCVII referred to was none other than Link. It occurred to Zelda that she had not seen Link for several minutes, though she had never noticed him slip away.
"Oi!" a yell sounded from the somewhat peaky-looking ship before them in the harbor. Link sat enthusiastically astride on the bowsprit, holding onto his cap in the shore breeze. "Are you finished down there? Is it time to leave yet?"
Zelda raised an eyebrow in disbelief, though she giggled almost inaudibly. The sight looked... almost familiar to her, in a sort of absurd way. It was an uncanny sort of déjà vu that brought back thoughts of salt air and a wide horizon... she felt empowered, free, and quite fearless all of a sudden. "I swear, Link," she yelled in a manner somewhat unladylike, "You can be a complete child!"
As the boat pulled out of the harbor, a few left for below deck. Zelda wished to see the mechanism behind the ship, and she wanted to have a 'word' with the captain about the true quality of the vessel. Ganondorf had had enough of the whole lot of nonsense. Dizene didn't feel she trusted the Captain, and didn't want to leave Zelda alone. Link stayed at his place on the bowsprit, holding a big sea chart before him and questioning the Captain's choice of route.
"Honestly," he muttered in disappointment, "Can't this fellow chart his course in a straight line?"
He thought of the scene at the harbor and what he had seen from his perch. Next time, he mused to himself, I'll be the one at the wheel. I don't know why, but I know how to do this sort of thing...
But one thing escaped him as he looked to the blank, blue sky.
Where are all of the seabirds?
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The sunset at sea was spectacular, but it brought only a somewhat fell-feeling nightfall. Black fog slithered up from some unknown sea depth; tasting of salt and cold rocks, and covered what would have been a glassy sea with a sickly-soft claustrophobia-breeding blanket. The moon overhead did nothing to quell the drab, gray atmosphere. It hung overhead weakly, attempting to break the smog… but it's efforts fell like the feeble breaths of a dying grandmother.
"What's eating you?"
Morrigan had drawn the second-shortest straw, which meant she had second watch. Internally, she cursed who had gotten the ultimate one. It was like some divine power was trying to keep the King of Thieves close to her. Wryly, she wondered if she was his jailer or if he was supposed to be hers. The idea that a divine something would ever think she would be useful in any situation involving such a man was ludicrous.
He must have heard her approaching because he did not give more than the slightest twitch as the voice registered. But his eyes did slide over to her. "Rengard," he acknowledged. "What makes you think something is 'eating me?'"
"No reason," Morrigan shrugged, flopping herself over the guardrail. "You're either angry, broody, or sugar-manipulative. And I have a feeling you aren't usually like that middle one."
Sugar-manipulative, he mused, was an interesting way to class his efforts. A small bubble of amusement broke free from his restraint and hit the surface. He was sure Morrigan had seen the smile before he buried it again, unless the fog obscured his face as much as it did hers. "Either way, what I think is no business of yours."
"Can't argue that, Ganny," she observed, but was unnerved when the nickname caused no reaction. Perhaps he was tired of that one, she thought.
The silence pressed heavily in from the fog for a few moments. It was a standoff. Morrigan had to stay for her share of the watch. Ganondorf didn't want to leave, because that would give the impression that she had forced him away. Only after a hefty pause did Morrigan speak again. "I'm serious. You pace like a riding hound with an empty stomach and too short a tether chain."
He gritted his teeth and refused to answer.
"Who in hell are you, anyway?" she continued. "I hate judging by appearances, but you don't really look like Zel' or the Nightcap Wonder. There is nobody in all of Vesper with your color skin... do you know that? You've gotten some very weird stares, but I don't blame you."
"And why the sudden interest?" he countered with apprehension. "As far as I know, you couldn't care less."
"Yes," she agreed, "and no. Let's go over what I know."
She paused a moment, though Ganondorf could barely see her through the ugly fog.
"One, Zel' and the Nightcap Wonder clearly don't like you. Two, you appear in some ancient tablet as a demon. Three, you claim to be the King of Thieves, yet that's a common self-awarded title dreamed up at least once every fifty years by some hotshot wannabe who gets himself offed in the end by the authorities."
He could see where she was coming from, but... her words boiled something inside him that was extremely offended. Her ignorance astounded him. Was this how far this world, or whatever world it was, had fallen? It had fallen to this degree of insult, where it knew nothing about history? Had the magic wiped even memories away when it had been sealed, or had left, or whatever had occurred came to pass?
It made him extremely angry, but not the usual part on the surface. It was a deeper part that he rarely had thought of before recent events, a part that perhaps his maddened grip over Hyrule had muted. But it was blaring, screaming in his ears now and it made him furious.
It was the part of him that was the King and the father. It was the part of him that had hurt the most when he had discovered the echo in his memory... the rush of water... the bodies of his daughters and sisters all dead and gone. It was the part that screamed when he had realized that his people were gone forever. This ignorance enraged it.
"I hate being left out. I've already pumped the others for information, and they've told me a vague account of the whole fiasco. But... you're not the brute they make you out to be. Not to say you're a good person, and not to say I trust you, but even I know that brutes generally don't bother trying to play wit games or pull mind tricks. I hate to ask you, but I hate their condescending tone and their oversimplified story more. And who better to clear up a lie than the King of Liars?"
Through the rage, another bubble of amusement tickled the core of his being. He could barely feel it, but he could taste a tiny note of caution in her tone. Reverence, but independence. And for a heartbeat, in what might have been the knot in the center of him, he experienced a moment of pride in her.
And then, he laughed. It was not the overtly evil laugh; Morrigan could tell his 'sugar-manipulation' was back. The laugh almost sounded pleasant, with a rough heartiness and the tone of mischief that Morrigan could not help but find she liked.
"Condescending tone, indeed," he grinned through the fog. "They would lead you about on a rope without shame, my girl."
"And you would not?" replied Morrigan, a bit perturbed by his possessive reference to her. "At least I have at a bit of fun wrestling a half-straight answer out of you, as opposed to the grand storytime I already heard below deck. Tell me, really: is it as watered-down as they say it is? And who are you, anyway? Aside from that 'King of Evil' garbage they keep going on about."
Ganondorf snorted at the fact she would dismiss his hell-placed title as garbage. But, he shrugged, what was Evil to be king over right now, anyway? He looked back and wondered why he even had insisted on the title. He was not a kind man, but either way, it seemed somewhat... unnecessary. He had embraced the title in the beginning only for a political air to keep the common folk in his shadow of fear. Now that he was no longer king of anything, what use was such a title?
"I am of the Gerudo," he said simply. "A people of the desert in the west. I am their King."
"The only things to the west are plains and forests until the Hinterlands. There is no desert in Vesper, if you're talking about the sort full of sand."
"Then how do you know of the concept? If it has never existed, how can you even picture that such a place has ever been?"
Morrigan opened her mouth, but then quickly shut it again. She had no words to say.
"You are foolish, to think that you are the masters of all creation."
Underneath them, the ship creaked as it hit a small swell of waves. Ganondorf gripped the railing securely, scowling at the motion of the ship and the sound of the surf under the hull.
"Then tell me about these Gerudo," Morrigan smiled, striking him in their never-ending duel of presence. "If I'm such a fool."
Ganondorf paused, but then smirked. She played her part perfectly. "Perhaps another time," he said, noting a slight glow through the fog. "There is a ship following us."
"I noticed," Morrigan said. "You still haven't answered my question."
"Your point?"
"Are you sick or something? You look awful, even from what I can see."
The man grimaced at her words. "Sick? Hardly," he growled. "I simply have never cared for water." He attempted to push back memories of another Him, attempted to push back the memories of a flooded desert and Gerudo corpses...
"Is that so? Me neither," shrugged Morrigan. "If you fell in the water back home, you'd be expected to freeze to death within five minutes. I learned to swim with Dizene at Port Hallifax when we became friends."
"You had better see that bungler down below about the ship off the port stern."
"Aye-aye, m'lord."
As she left, Ganondorf could not discern if her addressing him as 'lord' had been mocking or sincere. Her words were immediate and the tone was neutral, as if she hadn't been thinking when she said it. As she descended below deck, he could hear another groan from her, berating herself for a 'big mouth.'
From what he had heard of Karai, the ruling houses were headed by individuals with the title of 'Lord.'
He began to smile to himself. He had won another battle. And the war seemed imminently his, as well.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
"All hands on deck! Boy, get on that gun! Mind the mizzen yardarm!"
"We don't have a mizzen anything!" Dizene yelled over the roar of the surf. "We don't have a yardarm, whatever the heck that is!"
Linebeck let out a couple more caustic yells as he looked back behind them. Several police
boats were closing in, and the current only grew faster. The fog had not lifted, and the rush of water carried with it a pulse of fear that made Morrigan ill. Ganondorf braced himself on deck like a great oak, cursing at the cold spray stinging him and the wind whipping in his face.
"First nightmare monsters, now the POLICE?" Morrigan roared, lifting an unsteady spyglass to scowl at the two light boats approaching. "What haven't you told us, you slag-belly?"
Linebeck said nothing to Morrigan's comment, but screamed at Link. "They aren't picking up the radio, boy! Those torpedoes waiting in the wings are for us! Fire at will- they've got no mind for bargains!"
Zelda distantly wondered what possibly could be going on, but she found herself occupied with the wheel as their captain grew green and left to below, claiming to 'mind the engine.' Zelda doubted that was the case, but she said nothing and found she had some talent with steering the boat across the troubled sea: lit only by the forward lantern and the cold beams of the search boats.
"Where am I aiming?" Link cried, stuffing his hat into his pocket. His sun-yellow hair was dulled by the rain and plastered to his face, chill droplets falling off of his chin as he puffed misty steam into the controls of the swivel-gun. "Where are they?"
"Direct stern, boy!" Ganondorf yelled, about to throw a ball of lightning at the offending ship… but then stopped. They were all covered in water. The deck was covered in water. They were in the middle of the ocean with water all around them, which if struck by electricity, would fry them all instantaneously. The rain and wind would fizzle even magical flames, and his darkest magic was strictly bound away by the heaven-power engraved into his hand. Ganondorf almost wished the thing didn't like him so much anymore, as the situation had been in the past. The Triforce was not compatible with his most destructive magic, and restricted it like a great overbearing censor.
Powers above, he cursed. He absolutely detested water.
Lightning cracked in the distance as the police boats released their deadly missiles, causing Zelda to spout extremely unladylike words, swerve out of the way of the torpedo and further still out of the way of some jagged rocks. Link finally managed to aim himself correctly, and the piercing-harsh echoes of rat-tat-tat from the repeating mount battered all ears in range.
Dizene sheltered her ears from the noise, feeling useless and helpless amid the chaos. The incessant tpuckt, tpuckt, from the strained engine vibrated her very bones, and she found she had to grasp the railing to even have a hope of remaining upright. Strangely, she did not feel as much seasick as disoriented-- as if all of her frames of reference had been suddenly snuffed and snubbed into a rolling sea and whipping hail-frozen rain.
By the forward lantern, Morrigan was somewhat less fortunate. "I hate the ocean!" she yelled, looking a rather unhealthy shade of pale yellow-green. "I hate boats! I hate you all!"
Her laments went unheard. Link wiped salt and rain out of his eyes as he aimed his gun again, empty ammunition falling in a metallic cascade of plink plink to the deck and rolling over the side: lost to the sea. Zelda winced as a grating boom shook the ship, causing a few of her company to fall to the slick planks. They had been hit! Not disabled, but their hull now had a smoking crack that probably had to be bailed immediately. And where was Linebeck, she wondered? Cowering in some box down below, she guessed bitterly, scowling. Good riddance!
"Dizene!" she barely forced over the howling storm. "Go down there and make sure we haven't breached a leak!"
"WE HAVE OTHER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT! TURN THIS DEATHTRAP AROUND, NOW!"
Morrigan's shrill scream caused a shockwave of panic. All heads whipped to the forward bow, and what the flickering electric lantern revealed.
The rush of water had been getting louder the farther they had traveled under chase, but none of them had been paying much heed during their escape. Zelda noticed with dread that the rudder was resisting her, as if the ship was being pulled by some great current. She let go, and the wheel spun around in a possessed dance, whirling out of control…
An immense whirlpool lay directly ahead, and there was nothing anybody could do about it now. The police boats had chased them into it!
Another detonation rang out, but the storm and fog enveloped the boat. Nobody was sure if they were the ones who had been hit. A sickening wrench grabbed the world as the little boat turned upside-down and inside-out, cold tides overtaking the world.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Ouch," Dizene said.
For a while, she hadn't been sure if she was alive or dead, or somewhere in-between. Her body ached and her clothes were sodden, but somehow she found the strength to roll over, coughing salty brine out as she sucked in blessed air.
Her mouth felt dry and unpleasant as she forced open her eyes, feeling as if water had indeed seeped into her brain—every movement she made sloshed unpleasantly, and it took a moment before she realized that it was only wet hair and water in her shoes. Dizene slowly focused her vision, a stinging headache feeling quite imminent.
She was on the strangest beach she had ever seen. It was not even that, for before her she could see a strangely quiet rush of water- a rolling wall that looked less than benign. The smell of rotting seaweed attacked her nose as soon as she had sneezed the sand out, which cleared her head like an odiferous slap to the face.
She looked up, and saw a raging vortex, as if the sea had cleared itself from this hellish spit of land and was swirling about it, ready to crash down again at any moment. Dizene stood to see dead coral and other sea life drooping limply in the stark and unnatural dryness. In truth, the expanse of land could have only been about the size of a few city blocks, but the claustrophobic nature of the vast walls of water boxed her in rather uncomfortably.
She was sitting in a hole in the sea. As if a cookie-cutter had sliced the ocean out from this bit, leaving a dry, dead seafloor and the depths of the ocean all the way up to the surface standing in tall walls around her: a perfectly circular enclosure.
And more importantly, Dizene could see that she was completely alone. The rocky not-seafloor stretched out before her in either direction of the 'beach,' devoid of everything but dead debris and herself. No Link. No Zelda. No Ganondorf. No Morrigan. Not so much as Linebeck. There wasn't even a shipwreck.
The surrealism of the scene washed over her with painful plainness. What are you going to do now, Dizene? Where are you? And can you be sure that you're safe here? Absently, Dizene laid hands to the combat knives miraculously still strapped to the tops of her thighs. You aren't safe, she told herself, and drew them.
They slid out easily, untarnished by the sea. In her heart, she knew that this was no drill. This was not one of the friendly lessons that Zelda had given her. This was real, and she had to decide what to do. Nobody else would.
Finally turning her back from the beach, Dizene looked to the interior. In the center of the vortex a tall tower stood harshly against the banks of coral and rock… I will go there, she thought. There was no point searching for other survivors without a lead. If anyone else had lived, that tower would be the place they would go. It was the landmark.
Survivor. The word prickled her eyes and threatened to spill tears. Who had survived? Where were they now?
You are a survivor, Dizene Solov, she told herself. You endure a lot of things. This will be one of them.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Zelda ran a hand over the waterworn and salt-encrusted stone of the huge spire that jutted out of the ruined seabed like a bare bone. The old marble was cracked in places, but still sturdy. She could barely discern the color of the original masonry in between the barnacles and weed that festooned it.
"This tower is ancient," Zelda whispered, eyes widening. "But not as old as we are. It is much closer, however, than anything else we've seen. It's damaged, but look at the stonecutting. It's cut in the same style as the most important temples of Hyrule. Cleanly, with master-chisels instead of black blasting powder."
Ganondorf was not a happy man in the slightest. He was wet, half-drowned, and irritable. "I suppose you are your kingdom's master-mason as well as princess, then."
"No, but it was a royal feat to make the man stop boasting to me at every opportunity. And growing up in a castle tends to make one appreciate stone that stands instead of falling in on you."
"There's something moving in the rocks."
Link's words scarcely preceded his sword-grip. Quietly, he stepped off of his elevated watch and slipped behind the boulders…
"L…Link! You're alive!"
A bit of half silence and quiet whispers preceded a few painful-sounding dragging noises. Momentarily Link emerged, helping bear an injured-looking Dizene to safety. "It's all right. It's only her. She's a mess, though."
"What happened to you?" Zelda gasped, somewhat horrified at the spiderweb of purple bruises and the bite-ring of puncture wounds on her left shoulder. Luckily, her clothes were unharmed. But one arm hung limply, and she wielded only one knife. The other was away; she could not grip it.
Dizene groaned and hissed as Link's touch grazed her left arm. "Oh," she gasped, gritting her teeth. "Fish. Fish with wings. Have you ever seen that kind of animal? They flew along and dived me. Pushed me off of the bluffs a few times. I came from over that way-- I had to climb a bit to get here. We're on a plateau right now… Ah!"
Zelda's healing magic tingled her skin as torn muscle knit together and bruises faded from sight. A reverse 'crack' rang sickly out as her broken limb set itself in the proper place. Awkwardly, Dizene rolled her newly-healed arm in place, feeling very strange.
"You're very brave to make it all the way from the south portion of the sea-clearing. From what I can see, it's all jagged rocks and deadfalls. And with a broken arm, too."
Dizene frowned slightly. "Well, I couldn't just stop midway up," she said. "Where's Morrigan?"
A dead silence fell over the three Champions. Link turned away and Zelda averted her eyes.
"We were hoping she was with you," Zelda said quietly. "I'm sorry, but… we don't know."
"She's not dead," said Link suddenly. "I know she isn't. Just a hunch."
Dizene said nothing, but wiped her glasses somberly on her shirt. Instead, she only looked to the tower, nodded at the three she had met, and set off to the weed-covered archway of the entrance. Zelda gritted her teeth and followed.
"Dizene, please. I'm sure that Morrigan is well. Perhaps she washed up elsewhere…?"
"Did you find the boat wreck?"
Zelda's heart dropped significantly. "No. There was no wreck we could see."
"Then we can't afford to sugarcoat anything," Dizene said bleakly. "Please. Making it sound better than it really is will not help. I don't care if you're super-wise, or whatever you are. Please… just… don't play with my hopes. We need to survive this, and we can't promise what we don't have."
Zelda was taken aback by Dizene's words. They sounded tired and old, as if Morrigan's absence had truly scarred her. At once, the princess understood. Morrigan played her role in Dizene's friendship. When that role was suddenly cleared, Dizene was forced to play a part that she had never rehearsed. Morrigan's half of the burden was hers now. And Dizene looked much worse for it.
She barely noticed as Link and Ganondorf came running up the path, barking warnings about danger. She barely heeded as repulsive winged creatures dived from the rocks above. She barely flinched as her knives flew out in a cold, frustrated flurry. She barely regretted as vile, black blood stained the sea detritus. She barely looked back as she entered the tower, a small sob marking the only sign of her sorrow.
Link looked at the devastation he had barely had to lift his blade to. Ganondorf frowned at the mess. Zelda looked after Dizene with worry.
Such sorrow was a creature akin to Morrigan. A destructive force. But placing it close to the heart, where that girl had been, Zelda concluded, was still more perilous. Basing conclusions on what-ifs and might-nots was a futile thing. But all the wisdom in the world wouldn't heal the princess of Hyrule after she had seen the sorrow in what had once been an ordinary little girl.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This seemed unnatural, Ganondorf concluded. Well, of course it did. He was climbing the infinite stairs of a tower that had just days ago been completely submerged. That was in of itself unnatural.
No, his gaze was turned upon the Dizene girl now. He had never seen her in real action before. He had seen her lag behind at Hallifax. And he had seen her strike for rage at their first great foe. But he had never seen her serious before. She always had been terrified of even her own weapons, but now… she said nothing and led the way, face as grim as a statue. Perhaps it was some insane vigil for her lost friend. She was unafraid because Morrigan would not have liked her to be. She was swift and ruthless in cutting down everything in her path because Morrigan would have done the same. She placed herself at the head of the group because Morrigan would have approved. It was not her doing all of this. It was as if she was possessed by the spirit of a lost fellowship. She went on coldly through all things.
Ganondorf could see Link and Zelda cringe at the brutality of her knives. She meant business.
That was what disturbed Ganondorf as they climbed.
Perhaps this was Dizene's true skill with knives, cultivated inside of a game. That would mean that Hope inadvertently trained murderers, for who else would be so cruel with steel? But somehow he doubted that was the full extent of it. Dizene had been taking scant instruction from the Princess, master of Shiekah combat she was. But even that did not solve the mystery of Dizene's strange competence.
Trained or not, Dizene was not a soldier, or a warrior, or a master of any combat art. She should not have had the reaction-time she had from the pathetic Hope-beasts she was used to. She should not have improved her form on such an impossible scale as she had since her last ordeal. Yes, Dizene was good for a girl. But she was also too good for a girl. It was not his level: not even close. But it was enough to make him skeptical. If she had improved so much, so quickly, what was to stop her? And how was it possible?
Once again he could feel divine Power squirm and pulse in his grasp, resonating quietly with the other two aspects of its being. It entangled this girl, he realized, and then noted his own hand that the golden marker sat quietly on—his glove had somehow been lost in the storm, and his skin felt the stinging brine air that stagnated in this corkscrew of never-ending stairs.
Magic was a potent thing. Too much of it can cause bad reactions, especially too much of his usual sort. The off-hue of his skin was proof of magic poisoning: staining his blood and bruising his complexion sickly green. Though, as he flexed his knuckles slightly he could see that a bit more bronze shone through the dulled, corrupted sallowness. He could feel the blood pump through his body, and past his marked hand… where the impurities were being purged from his system by the fully-realized magic within him. It irked him. The Triforce was fully willing and awake for him now, yet it refused to lend him it's true strength: instead reverting to tasks such as micromanaging the magic current inside his own body.
Ganondorf rolled his eyes. Perhaps Din found it amusing to take away from him. First she had torn away his face and body. Then came his free will, in the form of this ridiculous errand. Yet she was so unsatisfied that she even hungered for his blood?
The Triforce tingled mysteriously as it carried on with the purification process. It figured that he would finally be given Power, but not control.
But that was not Dizene's situation, though his suspicions were quickly pointing to a somewhat similar condition. The Triforce cast a field of magic when it resonated, he restated to himself, and this world had the magic stripped from it. Perhaps it was like a tree thirsting for water, or a clump of grass gone brown and dry. At the first sprinkling of rain, the world went green again, alive and hyper-responsive.
Dizene practically had been bathing in this magic field for days after living in a completely barren world all of her life. It could be, Ganondorf theorized, that she's absorbing magic from the Triforce. It could be that she overreacting and is developing magic poisoning of her own, though from a decidedly different source than mine.
But, as they all came to the end of the stairs, no magic poisoning could lead Dizene further.
"There's nowhere left," she said with a frown. "The tower goes on, but the stairs stop here."
"I can't see a roof. We have a ways to go, it seems," Zelda sighed, and attempted to consult her magic for the solution. The Triforce chose to leave her to her own logic, so with a slight tick of frustration, she raised the ball of magic light she held and began to inspect the circular, featureless room.
Rank puddles littered the flagstoned floor, and homeless crabs scuttled about under their feet. They were smaller, more mundane versions of the ugly half-mechanical beasts that had patrolled the stairs. Link half felt that the ugly crustaceans were less than random encounters and more of a deliberate resistance. Whatever was here, someone didn't want them to see it.
Ganondorf looked up. Oh, he could have flown. He could have given a mighty leap and let magic take him… but he could not. Surely Zelda had noticed, for her ball of light wavered and flickered like a harassed candle. This was an ugly suppressive place for magic… though he could still feel it keenly. The Source was so close, he practically felt on top of it. They were literally standing next to some enormous hub of magical power, a restrictive knotted barrier that was sucking up their strength and making the Triforce feel hot and heavy inside them, as if their own immense magic was trembling at the premise of this mysterious force.
Link frowned and looked up. "I bet… I bet you there used to be a way up. Maybe stairs… but if it's all destroyed, then why isn't there any rubble?"
"The rubble is in the floor," Zelda said in amazement, suddenly sinking to her knees to view a crack in the briny flagstones. "Rust is everywhere. There used to be a lot of metal beneath this floor… look at these catches. It looks like an enormous pocket-watch. Why… yes! This rust was a spring, like in an immense wind-up toy!"
Ganondorf almost contemplated climbing, if just to rid himself of the oh-ing and ah-ing. "It is of no use now. We will have to find another way to the top. Water has destroyed it all."
"I wish we could have come here when it was above ground," Dizene spat. "I bet this whole place was on an island that got sunken. I heard a bunch of little rock-spits got sent to the bottom of the ocean during the Island Civil War and Eclipse's conquest of the Island Kingdom."
The King of Evil snorted, crossing his arms in disgust at the girl's petty hopes. "There is no helping it," he said. "This place has been completely ravaged by the passage of time."
"Time…" Zelda frowned and looked about again… but then stopped. A look of revelation came over her eyes as she stood, frozen. "Time!"
Dizene looked between Zelda and Link as the man too gained a light in his eyes. "Of course," gasped Link. "Time is the answer! I still have it!"
He took off his hat and reached into its depths (it was magicked, Dizene realized) and pulled out a small cobalt object. Ganondorf stared in disbelief, recognizing the object that Link held with dark intimacy. It couldn't be, he marveled. It couldn't be. That horrid vile instrument…
"What's that thing?" Dizene asked flatly, the funny shape making her brow furrow. "A blue potato?"
"That is the Ocarina of Time," Zelda said correctively, a slight smile marking her face for the absurd comparison. "And it has magical power that can hardly be fathomed. With the correct tune rain can fall, the sun can shine, spirits can be lifted, and even time itself can move backwards and forwards out of it's normal flow. It can restore this place to how it was when it was built."
Link frowned, noting Zelda's flickering light. "I don't know," he said. "This place eats magic… and we are old, Zelda. Who's to say the Ocarina even holds power anymore?"
"Link," Zelda sighed, shaking her head, "you're feeling sullen. You've never not tried before."
"I know. But this whole world is backwards… what if the Ocarina's dangerous? It uses the magic of the world to work. There isn't any. What happens if we try to call something that's not there?"
Ganondorf growled in irritation somewhere in the background. He had had enough. This banter had gone on long enough, and he was getting tired of it. "Fools, all of you," he gritted, staring up at the black expanse above him. "Have any of you put thought as to why this place devours magic?"
Three pairs of eyes stared at him blankly. Dizene gaped—understandably. She had no idea what he was talking about. Link was sort of startled, as if he had been completely derailed. Zelda knit her brows, as if she suddenly was given something to think about. Their silence was a clear invitation for Ganondorf to speak, impatient as he was.
"Surely you all know of the force of gravity," he frowned, his share of magic feeling hot and molten while the two others were cold and lifeless.
"Nine point eight meters per second per second," recited Dizene mechanically, looking up as if the answer was written on the inside of her skull.
"Yes, yes. All well and good," Ganondorf said. "The larger mass something has, the more gravity it has. Correct?"
Link nodded in understanding. In the back of his mind, he found himself apprehensive. He always had pictured Ganondorf in a way that did not praise the man in the least, though vaguely Link knew of Ganondorf's intellectual prowess. It had always seemed a sneaky, furtive intelligence, though the knowledge contained inside the man seemed inescapable now. Link never really considered Ganondorf a truly learned man. Though, he thought, he was beginning to have his doubts.
"And we've established that we are standing right next to a vast nexus of magical power," he put in, somewhat sarcastically, "are we clear?"
"Vaguely," Zelda frowned. "Are you implying that the concentration of magic is overpowering our own, drawing it inside?"
"Not so much as drawing it away," Ganondorf said. "In case you haven't noticed, we're practically in a sort of stationary magical orbit."
Dizene coughed. Nobody noticed. Distantly, she was growing to dislike it when she had no idea what was going on. She knew little of magic or ancient powers. At once she wished that somebody would simply explain how the whole impossibility of magic worked, just to spare her the trouble of standing around like a gape-mouthed fish.
Zelda gasped and instantly berated herself for her own stupidity. Now, she was not a stupid woman. In fact, she was amazingly intelligent. But she had been thinking about a different angle. Now it all became clear. Her own magic had little to do with such large concentrations of power. She preferred subtlety, something that she actually had in common with the King of Evil. But he had the experience with such magnitudes of power, for he dealt with them far more often than she did. It was in his nature to.
"This place is like a great ball of glue rolling around," Zelda said. "It pulls in the magic, but it leaves the glue behind. Magic attracts magic, but it's splattered about everywhere as it reaches out and pulls our magic in. We can't feel it, because it's a ways above us, but there is magic in this place. The Ocarina should work!"
Link nodded. "All right. I'll play it. Just give me a second, if you're sure about this."
"Hm," Ganondorf muttered. "You never cared to look before you charged in to face me."
"You spread darkness around, but you didn't ever kill Hyrule," Link said sharply, hearing every word. "And I was careful. If I wasn't careful, you would have won."
Blast those infernal Hylian ears, Ganondorf thought acidly. Then, he vaguely noticed his own ears twitch and absently lifted a hand to brush his hair away. The ears his fingers met were long and tapered, similar to those of Link and Zelda, but of his own flesh. Distantly, he wondered if Din was laughing at him now, and if so, why couldn't these damned pointy ears let him hear her, if that was what they were for.
"Please, everybody," Dizene said abruptly, looking up at the unearthly pale ceiling above in anxiety. "If there's something you can do… please do. I… I don't know what any of you are talking about. And for every second we don't keep moving, Morri would…"
As they turned their stares to her pleading, conflicted eyes, she felt that only Link truly understood her feelings. He lifted the ocarina to his breath and began to play…
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chapter over. Where is Morrigan?! Is Dizene tough enough to handle this adventure without trauma? What's with this freaky tower? CLIFFHANGER!
Awful, I know. It was going to be longer, but with this it is substantial and unless you wanted to read a 20-page megagiant monster chapter, this was the breakoff point.
For anybody interested, a new chapter of my other story is on the way, also. I just have to finish the last scenes of that one.
Thank you for your patience! This story is not dead! It shall continue!