Chapter Nine
Bain flattened himself against the masoned wall of the corridor, wincing as his steel spaulder scraped against the stone faintly. His breath was coming in short, fast gasps now, and the hands against his chest holding his large sword trembled slightly, his knuckles white. Looking over at where Talis stood propped up against the door of the last room they had been in; blood streamed down one side of the older knight's body from a long gash that an invisible blade had carved into his shoulder in that chamber, but others hadn't been so lucky.
He blinked rapidly, trying to scour away the image of Guaire that had imprinted itself on his memory – the noble-born knight's once blonde hair scarlet with his own blood as his body lay on the ground, neatly sliced in two by some invisible force. Worse still had been Davian, his long guisarme a useless defence against the swarm of tiny, invisible things that had torn him apart. The last thing Bain had seen of him had been his face, frozen in a mask of abject terror as he plummeted off a floating platform and down into the endless dark, and the red-haired knight could still hear Falion's horrified shriek as the dark-skinned female knight had been wrenched upwards by a giant, disembodied hand – her cries had cut short soon after, her fate hidden by the darkness that cloaked the massively high ceiling. Now, Bain and Talis were all that remained of the five-strong party of Royal Knights that had entered the Shadow Temple.
He was no stranger to fighting for his life, but this place, filled with unseen dangers and lurking horrors, frightened him. There were signs that Link and Ashei had already passed through these areas, seemingly with much less difficulty – here a puzzle was already solved, leaving a door wide open for the knights to continue through that chamber unhindered, there stood an empty wooden strongbox, the remains of a slain Gibdo lying beside it. He hoped that Talis and he could catch up to the adventurers soon; if the two knights were forced to push on much further alone, their fate would surely match that of their comrades. Princess Zelda could not have realised that this would turn out to be a suicide mission for the knights, but Bain still felt a tinge of resentment towards the monarch for sending them down here half-cocked, with no real clue as to what to expect.
Talis stumbled over to where the red-haired knight was surveying the corridor and leant heavily against the wall, his breathing laboured. Bain looked at the older man's wound with concern. "Are you able to continue?"
Despite his injury, Talis straightened and nodded. Flexing his shoulder, he winced in pain as the motion stained the makeshift bandage the injury had been bound with bright red with a fresh flood of his blood. "This place is massive, but Link can't be too much further ahead of us."
Bain snorted. "If we have a chance of reaching him at all."
The older knight reached out with his unhurt arm and placed a heavy gauntleted hand on Bain's shoulder in a fatherly gesture. "It's alright; we're going to make it out of this." His voice was steady, without any traces of fear or worry creeping into the tone, but Bain flicked his shoulder to remove the hand and fixed him with a level glare.
"You don't need to feed me false reassurances, old man." Suddenly, the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor up ahead made him freeze in unreasoning terror, every muscle in his body tense, his hands squeezing the hilt of his massive two-handed sword tight. Talis reacted almost instantaneously, drawing his sword from the scabbard on his back in a motion so fast that the younger knight barely saw him move; the blade seemingly appearing in his hand from nowhere.
The footsteps drew closer, and Bain relaxed as he heard a pair of familiar voices. He grinned over at Talis and released a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. Moving cautiously ahead, still scanned every shadow with a wary eye, he headed up the corridor to meet with Link and Ashei.
- - - - - -
Link strode evenly out of Kakariko graveyard and into the village proper, full of barely-contained righteous fury. Three good knights had died today; died for nothing. First Zelda deceived him and manipulated Tuli into lying to him, and now she had sent good men to their deaths because she was too much of a fool to realise he was big enough to look after himself. It was too much. She needed to listen to him. He would make her listen to him.
Ashei sauntered along a pace behind him, and despite her lazy pace she kept up with him easily. Bain and Talis flanked him, their haggard faces betraying the trials they had endured in the Shadow Temple beneath the graveyard. The princess was standing out the front of the Elde Inn, a handful of Royal Knights to either side of her and liveried soldiers to the north and south, blocking passage out of the village.
Princess Zelda stood still as Link approached, seemingly a statue carved from marble – her glare hard enough to bore holes through solid stone. The young knight kept his pace slow and leisurely, taking his time in reaching her. Coming to a halt several feet in front of her, Link squared off with the monarch, matching her gaze evenly. "You have a lot to answer for, Link." The princess's tone matched her expression, cold and harsh. Blinking as if taken aback, she looked to either side of him, taking in Bain and Talis. "Where are the rest of the knights?"
"I'm not the one who has a lot to answer for, princess. Guaire, Davian and Falion are dead; fallen prey to the evils of the Shadow Temple. Their blood is on your hands." Link's face was twisted into an ugly scowl, and
Turning her head to the side for a moment, a remorseful expression on her face, the princess sighed. Looking back at him, her gaze had softened, but her words were clipped and precise. "It grieves me to hear of their fate, but I would not have had to send them into the temple had you not run off like some brash child in pursuit of your own selfish desires without a thought to the consequences that would arise from your actions."
"Don't talk to me about consequences!" Link almost snarled as he spoke, thrusting a finger in the princess's direction. "Maybe you should have thought more on the consequences of lying to me and forcing Tuli to go along with your deceptions."
Zelda's face had coloured pink now, and she hissed between clenched teeth, obviously trying and failing to keep her anger in check. "You have no idea of the evil you could have unleashed upon Hyrule from your presence in that temple! The shadow magic that fuels your new tunic could have awakened a Twilight Spirit of immense power that was imprisoned there!"
"What, you mean the Twilight beast we fought and killed?" Link gave a sarcastic laugh. "I'm not a child, I can look after myself. I don't need you trying to tell me what I can and can't handle. Those knight's lives were thrown away needlessly. You had no right to send them after me."
Her voice almost a yell, the monarch bared her teeth. "I am the Princess; I had every right. That is not the issue here! Your disobedience-"
Link's voice raised a few more decibels as he cut her off. "Disobedience?! Tell me, princess, can you name even one occasion where I haven't obeyed your orders to the letter? What you mean to say is you resent my persistence in finding a path to the Twilight Realm! That is why you manipulated Tuli against me, isn't it?"
"You needed to stop following every single clue that smelt like it would lead you to the Twilight Realm. It's been months – months! – since Midna returned to her world and shattered the Twilight Mirror. That long ago and you're still wasting all your time on something that you should have learned by now was in vain, when there is so much else you could be doing! She is gone and Hyrule has need of your strength!"
Taking a deep breath, Link glowered at the princess, his fists tightly balled by his sides. "I love Midna! I can't just give up on her! I suppose I can't expect someone like you to understand that. You don't have time for anything or anyone except your precious crown. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good; isn't that right, princess?" The young knight's words dripped venom.
Zelda's face was contorted in rage, the deep red turning to purple. "Watch your tongue, boy! You may be a hero, but that does not give you the right to talk to me like that."
Shaking his head, Link threw hands up in frustration. "I've had enough of this. I have the ocarina. I will use its power to reunite myself with Midna, and you can be sure I won't be sending good men to their deaths while I do so." He reached inside his tunic to pull out the horsecall that hung from the leather thong around his neck.
"Have you even thought this through? Using the Ocarina of Time could have dire consequences!"
Link had no idea what she meant, but he forged on, refusing to concede any ground. "I'm well aware of the dangers." He lied. "I know I can do this." He lifted the horseshoe-shaped whistle to his lips and blew a few short notes before tucking it back into his tunic and glared at her defiantly.
Zelda had managed to steady her voice now, but there was a dangerous edge to her tone that Link had never heard before. "No, you cannot. I forbid it."
Outrage coloured Link's face an even deeper red than it had already been, and he spat out his next words like the crack of a whip. "You what?"
"You are a Royal Knight, and it's about time you damn well acted like one!" Zelda drew herself up, her eyes blazing – even though she hadn't regained her composure completely, she still radiated command and authority in the way only a monarch could. "I order you to hand over the Ocarina of Time and forget this foolishness."
Link was silent for a few seconds after this, his eyes downcast. Finally he lifted his gaze to meet hers once again, a pained expression painted across his face. "If this is what comes of being a knight in your service, your majesty, then perhaps I should have thought my decision to become one through a bit harder." Epona cantered up at that moment, pulling alongside the young knight and whickering quietly as he raised a hand to touch her nose, sensing his mood. Sighing, the young hero reached behind his back to unclasp his shield. Holding the kite in both hands with the front facing him, he studied it for a moment. The Hylian shield was a symbol borne proudly by knights, its crest celebrating the Royal Family and their dedication to the kingdom; he had owned it since long before he actually became a knight, but in his mind it had always been a solid connection to the current monarch. His voice shook, but he forced himself to enunciate his words clearly as he tossed the shield to the dirt at Zelda's feet. "I renounce my status as a Knight of Hyrule." He heard the sharp intakes of breath from either side of him as he started to turn to Epona. "Come on, Ashei, let's go."
Zelda was looking down at the shield; her face ashen. "I swear to the Goddesses, Link. Stop this right now or I'll-"
"You'll what?" The former knight stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head to look back at the princess. He wasn't angry any more. He had gone beyond it. He just felt... tired.
The princess's lips compressed into a thin line at his tone, and her words were filled with acid as she spat them out. "You know what? Fine. You brought this on yourself." Glancing towards the helmeted knight that stood stiffly to her left, she nodded towards Link. "Arrest him."
Link's sword was in his hand in a flash, and he held it out warningly, causing the knights near Princess Zelda to hesitate. "Stay back!" Gesturing with the blade, he glared at the monarch. "You will not dissuade me from this course of action, princess." With his free hand, he reached behind him blindly and found Ashei's side, pushing her towards Epona. "Ashei, get on the horse." The knights had their weapons out now, eyeing him cautiously as they reluctantly started to close in, but they made no move to stop Ashei from mounting. Putting a hand on the reins and a foot in the stirrup to pull himself up in front of the raven-haired adventurer, Link froze as Zelda gave another order.
"Crossbows!"
He looked at her in disbelief, then sighed ruefully and rolled his eyes. "Are you really going to have me shot? I can imagine that will go over really well with your people. The saviour of Hyrule, the only reason the entire kingdom wasn't consumed by the evil of Ganon, riddled with crossbow bolts at the command of Princess Zelda."
"Someone do something before he gets on that horse!" Zelda's voice was shrill.
Next to Link, Bain was regarding him with a confused expression on his face, his hand hesitantly moving up to draw his large, two-handed sword. Link dropped his voice and tilted his head towards the red-haired knight. "Don't. This is madness, and you know it." He nodded thoughtfully when Bain dropped his hand back to his side, then sheathed his own sword before bouncing on his heel and swinging himself up onto Epona. Casting his eyes out over the gathering once before fixing the fuming princess with an even look, the former knight spoke in a soft tone, digging his heels into his horse's flanks. "I'm going to head to the Sacred Grove now and retrieve the Master Sword. If you don't like it... try and stop me." Ashei's arms tightened around him, and Epona's hooves tossed up a cloud of dust as she surged forward, scattering the soldiers that blocked passage south out of the village as she galloped past.
Behind them, Link heard Zelda screaming at the knights. "Bring the horses! Don't let him get away, you imbeciles!"
As they rode past the Light Spirit's spring, leaving Kakariko behind, Ashei laughed in delight. "I can't believe you just did that! Did you see her face? That was funny as hell." Squeezing him tighter, she sat up a bit higher and lent forward so that her nose brushed the back of his earlobe, her voice husky. "Epona's fast, she'll outrun them easily enough, yeah? What do you say we find somewhere to pull over and..."
Link wasn't listening. His face fixed in a mask of grim determination, he was instead going over his argument with the princess in his head. There should have been another way, but she positively infuriated him. Arrest him! How dare she? He shifted uncomfortably in the saddle, suddenly very aware of his missing shield. He was no longer a Royal Knight. He felt like a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders, but also as though he had been kicked in the gut. Was he sad? Angry? He didn't know any more. Someone else was bothering him, too. What had Zelda meant by consequences of using the ocarina? He would need to talk to Tuli about it when she met up with them at the Sacred Grove, she would know. Gritting his teeth, he urged Epona on towards their destination.
- - - - - -
Link ran a gauntleted hand across the sheet of parchment that sat on the large oak workbench, his fingers tracing the musical notes delicately scribed upon it. Scattered magical apparatuses and objects lay haphazardly across the wooden surface, crystals, oddly intricate pieces of golden filigree, and other materials that Link had noted were common to most wizzrobe's studies. The melody on the parchment was the final result of months of work on Tuli's part, and he had been patient in waiting for its completion. Once he had received the archmage's summons, he had headed to her sanctum without delay – today would be the day. Today, he would make amends for his past mistakes, and start his search for Midna afresh, with the knowledge of past experiences to guide him this time. He would not ruin this chance.
Behind him, Tuli had just finished preparing the area they were to leave from. The magical Triforce symbol she had created on the floor glittered golden in the flickering light from her staff, which stood propped up in one corner of the chamber. Link stepped back from the table smartly as she strode up to it, her robes rustling around her ankles. He had gotten the general gist of the tune, but would need more time to examine the parchment before he could actually play it. He would need to be careful that it wasn't damaged.
"Preparations are complete, then? What time will we be arriving?"
The archmage frowned past him, seemingly going over something in her head. "The timing is as precise as I could get it – the day will be right, and we should appear sometime in the morning."
"'Should'? You mean we may be too late to stop my younger self from obtaining the ocarina?" That it may be beyond Tuli's ability to correctly calibrate a melody for this task was a prospect that had not even crossed Link's mind when he had asked it of her.
She shook her head, seemingly more at the concerned look he had given her than his words. "It's a possibility, but that won't be a problem so long as we appear before he arrives at the Sacred Grove to reclaim the Master Sword. I'm completely certain that that will be the case."
Link nodded slowly. That would have to do, he supposed. It's not like he had any other alternative at this stage. "Shall we do this, then?"
Tuli turned to the thick table to gather up several bit of paraphernalia, tucking several small magical items into pouches concealed in her robes before reaching for the parchment with the melody scribed upon it. As the archmage turned her back, Link eased the Master Sword out of its scabbard, wincing as it came into contact with his gauntlet. The uncomfortable feeling he had gotten from handling the blade had deepened to the point where it physically hurt to hold it, but he forced himself to put it out of his mind as he came up behind his companion as quietly as a shadow. Sliding the sword around faster than the eye could see, he pressed its blade against Tuli's neck and collarbone as his other hand snaked around to hold her steady, her back braced against his body. Bringing his mouth close to her ear, he spoke quickly and quietly. "If I see or hear anything that even remotely resembles casting a spell, I will kill you without a word."
Tuli's body had stiffened as soon as he had touched her, but her voice was calm and steady as she spoke. "Why haven't you done so already?"
"I just... I wanted..." Link's voice faltered, taken aback slightly by her lack of a reaction. He swallowed hard and continued in a hoarse whisper. "I'm sorry, Tuli. For everything. For how I treated you. For what you had to go through." He paused. "For what I'm about to do."
"...Hearing you say that, with that sincerity in your voice, definitely made this worth it." The tone the archmage spoke in was one well known to him. He had heard it often as she nodded to herself in satisfaction after puzzling out some problem she had been having difficulty with. Back then, hearing her speak like that would have made him smile, but right now it confused him even more.
"I... wait." Realization slowly dawned on him and he breathed in sharply, his brow furrowed. "You knew, didn't you? You knew I was going to kill you here."
"I did."
"And you did as I asked anyway? You came, even though you knew you were going to die? If you had attacked first… I wouldn't have been expecting it. You could have-"
She cut him off. "I don't want to kill you, Link. I just... I needed to hear you say those words."
Link could feel tears starting to well up in the corners of his eyes. "Why not? After everything that's happened... why don't you want to kill me?"
"You already know the answer to that."
"I... have to do this, don't I?" His voice cracked and his body shuddered as he tried vainly to regain some semblance of composure. "You won't let me do what I need to do. If we travelled back together, like we agreed, and I successfully stopped any of this from ever happening, our timeline would cease to be, but we would still exist... I could use the ocarina to find Midna and everything would be ok. Don't you see?"
A soft sigh was his reply, and when she replied her voice held nothing but sorrow. "Link... you still don't understand. Even after all this, you're prepared to keep using that thing? What if you make more mistakes? What if you ruin the timeline again?"
"I'll be careful! I can do this! I... please, let me." Despite the sword pressed to Tuli's throat, he felt like he was the one at her mercy. The Master Sword felt like it was made of molten lead, so heavy he could barely keep it lifted, the hilt scalding his hand through the cracked leather of his gauntlet.
Tuli shook her head slightly, as much as she could without cutting herself. "I cannot, and deep down you know it. After you prevented yourself from using the ocarina for the first time, I would confiscate both it and the one you hold now. It is too dangerous to be used ever again unless the need is dire."
"What if I just... let you go?" A touch of wild hope tinged his voice.
"I would destroy the parchment with a thought. I can recall its contents from memory, but you haven't had time to memorise it. I would take the ocarina from you and travel back by myself." The archmage's voice had gone hard and cold as ice. "I don't want to kill you, but I will hurt you."
It was Link's turn to sigh. "Damn it, why do you need to make this so hard for me, Tuli?"
"Because I refuse to walk the same path as you. 'When good men do nothing, that is evil enough.' I won't let that be me."
His eyes widening in alarm, Link choked on his words as he forced them out. "What? You think I'm...?"
"You tell me. How does the Master Sword feel? Is it still as comfortable and righteous as ever in your hand as you press it against the throat of an unarmed woman, thoughts of murder clear in your mind? It's not called 'the sword of evil's bane' for no reason." Her tone conjured up an image of her as she once had been, her face whole and beautiful, a rueful expression on her face, shaking her head.
She couldn't have known about the sword. It was impossible. It had to be a guess – but if it was a guess, that meant it was also a correct one. "You're wrong. I'm not. I can't..." The words caught in his throat.
"You can't stop. I know."
They stood there in silence, pressed together like lovers, for what seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke again. His voice had lost all traces of its previous emotion, now, and his quiet tone carried with it a seemingly simply statement of fact. "Everything I've done, I can't have done it for nothing. There's too much. It's… all I have left."
"I know." Though he couldn't see her face, he could hear her wistful smile in her voice. "It's time. Get it over with quickly." She straightened up, holding her head high and presenting her neck to his sword.
"...Goodbye, Tuli."
"Goodbye, Link." The archmage's voice trailed off as his blade sliced across her throat and opened her veins. She coughed up blood, twitching violently, as her final breath rattled in her throat. Link braced her body as she started to stagger backwards, dropping the Master Sword to the marble tiles and falling to his knees as he cradled her in his arms. Looking into her eyes as they turned dull and glassy, he held her to his breast, touching his forehead to hers, and wept.
