The Legend of Link:
The Bastard Prince
7. Lady Impax
"Zelda, wait!" Zoelda called after the Princess as she stormed ahead through the narrow cave-like opening into the Hidden Village. It was late afternoon by now and the sun was beginning to edge its way down to the western horizon, meaning the cave-path into the village was dark enough that Zoelda stumbled her way through it, trying not to break her heels as she chased after the Princess.
After a few minutes, the brunette emerged, or rather stumbled out, into the former home of the Sheikah. The Princess was stood just to the left of the entrance, smoothing down her perfect hair as she stared into the town; she didn't even turn as Zoelda approached her, trying to smooth her own hair into something that resembled a bird's nest a little less as she looked out into the Village.
Being a ghost town, Zoelda hadn't expected much to have changed in the Village, and she was unsurprised to find that it was practically the same, with a few plants beginning to crop up here and there among the dirt. The Village still resembled an abandoned town in classic western movies, complete with the occasional tumble weed.
"Come on," the Princess snapped at her as they started into the town, an oppressive silence settling on them that was only broken by the howling wind.
"I'm sorry if I struck a nerve earlier," Zoelda said as they strolled to the back of the Village, the silence becoming unbearable.
"It's fine. You stuck me as the sort to ask questions and think of the possible harm they can do later, I knew what I was getting myself into." Said the Princess, not bothering to look at her or allow her to object. "Just don't do that with Lady Impax when you meet her."
"Oh, so the last Sheikah is still Lady Impaz?" Zoelda asked, deciding to carry on with her questions even after being called out for them. "Isn't she a little old now? She was old in the era of Twilight…"
"No, not Impaz." Zelda said in an exasperated tone as they reached the house at the back of the Village. It was a two-storey building built almost into the back wall of the town. It had been repaired in the last two decades, painted white with accents of blue and a bright red Sheikah eye on the door. The building stood out in the relative wasteland setting, showing the one place where life other than cats lived. "She unfortunately died with the Pestilence. We all thought that was the end of the Sheikah line, until Lady Impax arrived shortly after. She helped me a great deal after Mother died, teaching me how to use my Goddess given power and what my part in these Legends will be."
The Princess' tone softened as she spoke about Lady Impax, something Zoelda would have found interesting if it wasn't for the fact that she was thinking about the Impax that she knew. Silently, she prayed to every god and goddess she could think of that this Impax was her Impax, knowing it was an impossibility since she had died in the car with mother.
Zoelda was told to wait back from the building a few paces as the Princess went to knock on the door. It flew open almost before the Princess had returned to stand next to her, giving sight to a lean woman, as tall as Zoelda, in her forties. The woman had a pale tan and platinum white hair in a braid that fell all the way to her waist. Clothed in relatively traditional white and blue Sheikah armour - with a breast plate and gauntlets painted with the Sheikah eye symbol - there was little question that the woman before them was Lady Impax, last of the Sheikah tribe.
She even had a Sheikah eye tattooed over her left eye - three white marks above the eye and a tear below.
It was a tattoo that Zoelda remembered from her childhood. After learning that some murders were tattooed with tears next to their eyes, young Zoelda had once asked her aunt if that was why she had that tattoo. Her aunt had chuckled, along with her mother, and said: "No, this is a tribal tattoo. Everyone in my family has one."
"Lady Impax," said the Princess with a curtsey. "It's wonderful to see you again. This is-"
"Aunt Immy!" Zoelda shouted suddenly as she ran into Impax's arms, almost knocking her down in a way she hadn't done when she was a child.
Impax chuckled as she hugged the brunette, as the Princess stared on in disbelief. "Zelda... I always knew you'd come find me again someday. … I've missed you, my girl…"
As Impax pulled herself from Zoelda, she noticed the wound on her arm and began demanding answers. "Zelda, what's this? When did you get hurt?"
"Oh," Zoelda looked down at the cut on her arm with happy, unshed tears in her eyes. She'd almost forgotten it was there, the water from Eldin spring really did seem to have healed it, or at least stopped the pain. "A Bulblin archer got me this morning. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt!"
"Good, though, please be more careful."
"I will, Immy, I got a little careless is all…"
"You need to remember that your armour isn't exactly the best at protecting you, be on your guard." Impax, flicked one of Zoelda's flouncy sleeves to make her point.
"I will, and this armour wasn't exactly my choice." Said she, self-consciously pushing the skirt down a bit lower on her hips. "I would have picked something that fit a little better."
"Yes, well, I certainly had some trouble making my armour accommodate me," Impax gestured to the Sheikah armour she wore. "It seems that breeding with the humans of our world has lead us to be much taller than the standard Hylian or Hyrulian human."
"Lady Impax," the Princess butted in, clearly unhappy at having been left out of the conversation for so long. "What do you mean 'your world'? Surely you come from here?"
"Princess, where do you think Zelda came from?" Impax asked pointedly, her hand resting on Zoelda's shoulder.
"I… I haven't really thought about it. And for all the talking Zoelda does, she's not exactly provided me with an answer."
"Zoelda, eh?" Impax looked at the brunette. "Who came up with such an on the nose name?"
"Alarink suggested it, and then began using it immediately." Answered Zoelda, causing Impax to start chuckling.
"Why am I not surprised?" Said she as she turned to go into her house. "Come in, I fear we have much to discuss and there's no point doing out in the open."
The three entered the living room of the house and the Zeldas were both surprised by it. The Princess was struck by the sheer amount of stuff in there that she had never seen before - there was a large flat screen TV on the wall above the fireplace and a series of consoles littered the mantle shelf - as well as the simple nature of the furnishing - there were two simple sofas on either side of a low coffee table, which had an arm chair at the end opposite the fireplace.
Zoelda was surprised by how similar it was to Impax's house back home, the only difference being the walls were hung with pictures of the Sheikah through the years, rather than pictures of her and Zoelda's family - though one still stood in the centre of the table, a photo of the four of them sat on the floor watching as Zelda Sr taught her daughter how to play the original Legend of Zelda when she was barely four years old. Once again tears filled her eyes as she looked at the picture of her mother, still so young and so much like her.
"Immy," Zoelda broached the subject as she and the Princess sat on the sofa opposite her, helping themselves to some of the water provided. "I thought you died, but you're still alive, you're still well. … Is Mum…?"
"... No." Impax said simply, looking at the picture on the table instead of meeting Zoelda's eyes. "I'm afraid she's dead."
Taking a ragged breath to stable herself first, Zoelda asked the next question which a note of accusation, "How come you lived? How come she died? What actually happened?"
"The Pestilence." Impax said quietly and simply, meeting Zoelda's eyes.
"How is that possible? What was the Pestilence and how did it get to Mum?"
"It… was something far more deadly than anyone knows. ... It was no normal virus. It was Ganon." Impax said bluntly before sighing and explaining the Pestilence to the girls:
"As you are both aware, Ganon is the physical reincarnation of calamity, evil and Demise. Because of Demise's curse, it is all but impossible to take it down forever, but there are always ways to put it to rest for a while, though never long enough.
"Ganondorf, the most recent incarnation in this timeline, was killed in the era of Twilight. To prevent him from reviving yet again, Princess Midna took his body with the Master Sword still lodged inside to the Twilight Realm. In breaking the Mirror, she was effectively sealing the Triforce of Power, and the spirit of Demise, away for good. If the way had remained closed, that should have been the end of the story.
"I say if, because it is never that simple. Link, the Twilight Hero, found a way to open the portal to the Twilight Realm. I still don't know how he did that, and I've been enlisted as the guardian of the paths between realms for many years now. Regardless, in opening that pathway again, he damned us all to another fight with Ganondorf in this timeline.
"No one was aware of the fact that Link had opened the path between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm for many years, I believe it was only about eight years ago that people found out.
"However, over the years that Link would come and go between Realms, he allowed Ganondorf to awaken enough that he could release some of his malice upon Hyrule. This was released in the form of the Pestilence, a super virus that took no more than a week to wipe out almost everyone involved in the Twilight era. The first it took was Link, the last was Zelda Sr.
"I was with her when she died and I can promise you it was quick and painless, my girl. We were driving back to your house from mine when it got her. I won't give you the details, it wouldn't be fair, but it was quick and I knew exactly what it was, and how I let it get to her when we visited Hyrule earlier that day.
"The car accident cover up was also my fault. I turned us into a fence to make it look like we had both died in a freak accident. Your father knows the truth, I told him it all. After, I disappeared into this Hyrule to monitor the situation and act as a mentor to the Princess, I knew your father would keep you up to date on the Legends.
"I know this was cruel of us, but we needed you to be prepared for when the time came for you to visit Hyrule and put an end to Ganondorf. Once and for all."
"Lady Impax," said the Princess after a few moments of Impax finishing and staring sadly at the photo on the table. "I must ask, how did you travel from your realm to this one?"
"I used the Legends," she replied, going over to her collection of consoles below the TV. "Sheikah have always been at the call of the Goddess Hylia and her bloodline, She showed me how to use the Legends as portals to their time and Hyrules. It is how I let the Pestilence get to Zelda's mother, and how I brought Zelda to this world."
"That was you?" Zoelda asked, in shock after hearing the story of the Pestilence. "I thought it was Mum…"
"It was me impersonating your mother. I needed you to be here and I knew that was the best way for me to get you to come. I'm sorry if that also seems cruel."
I almost didn't come anyway, Zoelda thought to herself as she remembered her resistance at being pulled into this world, rubbing her bruised wrist as she did. There was still one thing that Impax had been dodging, a question she still needed an answer to: "Immy, what's my role in all this? What am I?"
"You mean aside from a beauty?" Came a voice from the doorway. The three all turned to look as Alarink as he walked into the room, plopping himself down in the arm chair at the head of the table with a grin, his hair and clothes still a little damp.
"Don't call me that, Alarink," Zoelda said, relieved to see again - it surprised her to realise that a small part of her had been worried about him and missing him all day.
"Ugh," the Princess scoffed, turning her nose up as she looked at him. "You're wet and you reek of fish."
"Well, what do you expect? You sent me to Zora's Domain, the place is full of water and fish people, it's impossible not to get wet or smell like them." He said simply as he got comfortable and helped himself to a handful sweets from the table. "I got Ralis' blessing by the way, we're all good on the Zora front. Fuck me, these sweets are good, Impax."
"No one's going to do that, Alarink." Said the Princess at the same time as Zoelda asked, "You know Immy?"
"Yes, I meet Link the same day that you arrived in Hyrule," Impax said with a smile, watching the Princess' disgust for the man grow.
"I presume that's no coincidence?" Zoelda asked, trying not to meet Alarink's eye as he smiled at her.
"No. Link also has a key role to play in this last Ganondorf fight, I wanted to be sure he was prepared and preparing for what will happen to him."
"Oh, I am." He said confidently, looking over at Impax with serious eyes. "I only have three things left to do, aside from getting Ganondorf, the Sword and the Twili blessing."
"That's six things, Alarink." Said the Princess.
"I said aside from, Zeldy." Alarink snapped at her, not bothering to look her way and see her shocked face.
"And you are prepared for your fate?" Impax asked him, her gaze unwavering.
"... Yes."
"Then you have the blessing of the Sheikah to revive Ganondorf."
"Thank you, Impax." Alarink said, a sad smile ghosting his features.
"This is nice and all," Zoelda interrupted. "But would you mind telling me my part in all this? Who am I and why am I here?"
"Ooh, can I tell her?" Alarink asked, looking excited by the prospect.
"Yes, but be careful how you say things, Link." Impax said, watching him with a smile.
"Okay," Alarink turned to Zoelda, a serious look on his face that absolutely commanded her attention. "I'll start at the beginning:
"Shortly after the events that have come to be known as the Era of the Sword, the first Zelda settled down in what eventually became Hyrule. By her side, as always, was the first Link - the man who became her husband and lived his life on the Surface with her. Time passed as they explored the Surface and their friends from the Sky started to settle with them. Before too long, Zelda - Hylia reincarnate - fell pregnant to the first Hero's child.
"Or, should I say children?
"See, Zelda gave birth to twin daughters, thus diluting the Goddess' blood within them and creating a loophole to Demise's curse.
"Neither Link nor she knew this to begin with and they simply lived and loved their life with their family as if nothing could possibly go wrong. And, really, nothing did go wrong. There just came a time when one daughter had to be taken away from the world that would become Hyrule in order to create a way to take down Demise for good.
"So far as I know, just before the twins turned 16, a Sheikah woman visited Zelda. Her name has been lost to history, but I'd imagine it was Impa, or some variation - do you know what it was Impax? No? Okay then, moving on. I don't think anyone knows where possibly Impa came from, but she told Zelda of a way to stop Demise from ever gaining domination over the land. And since a part of Zelda was still Hylia, she was very excited by the prospect of protecting her people from Demise's influence.
"So, possibly Impa took one of the twins - a girl carrying the Goddess' blood and therefore tied to Demise's curse - to another realm, one that no one who comes from Hyrule has ever seen. Ever after, a Sheikah has been a guardian or friend of the daughters of the lost twin and the story of this twin was eventually forgotten in Hyrule, as a decree of her sister. I believe that the Royal family still knows the story, though whether they believe it or not is another matter.
"As for the lost twin's line, it appears that over time they have never forgotten Hyrule and have each been taught about it in a different way - some have had their Sheikah guardian take them to Hyrule, some have simply had the Legends presented to them. But, Impax tells me they have never forgotten who they are and what they will one day be forced to do.
"With the assistance of the other half of the Goddess' blood and one bearing the soul of the hero, the product of the line of the lost twin will help to end Demise's curse. They will help destroy his physical form - Ganondorf - once and for all."
"And the product of the line of the lost twin, as you put it," Zoelda said quietly, looking down at the harp necklace in her hands - she had pulled it out half way through the speech, remembering what her mother had told her about it being an old family heirloom - "is me?"
"Yes," Impax said quietly, looking at the harp too. "I understand that this is a heavy burden to bear. Your mother and I hoped that it wouldn't be you, that you wouldn't have to fulfil this old legacy. But then we saw your Triforce, so we began preparing you. That harp once belonged to Hylia's Zelda. It is the harp from the Sky era made small to be a constant reminder to the lost twin's line of where they come from."
"And where does the Triforce fit in to all of this?" Zoelda asked, looking at the mark on her hand as she put the harp away again. All this was making her head spin, a heavy legacy she wasn't sure she could live up to forced on her shoulders.
"Honestly?" Said Alarink, his arms crossed over his chest and brow furrowed. "No one really knows. Presumably the twin line got involved with some of Hyrule's history somewhere down the line and picked up half the Triforce of wisdom as a result, taking it back to their realm and passing it on to their daughter afterwards."
"Actually," Impax butted in, clearing her throat as she did. "The Zelda who took her Triforce shard didn't know about it until it appeared in her daughter. It was another accident of crossing realms during the Twilight era. And a sign that our Zelda is the Zelda."
"Mum accidentally took some of the Triforce with her after visiting here?" Zoelda asked in shock, looking over at Alarink and noticing his equally shocked face.
"Yes. She was younger than you when she first visited here, she didn't know that meeting and shaking her distant cousin's hand caused the Triforce to split."
"Such an odd phenomenon," said the Princess, finally breaking her silence. "Mother could never explain why I only had one half of her Triforce, yet now there is a bizarre, yet plausible explanation."
"So…" Zoelda said as a pause descended over them all as they stared at their dominant hands and the Triforce embedded within, leaving Impax to watch with small amusement as they did. "Where does that leave us now? What are we meant to do from here and what am I meant to do to prepare?"
"Now," Alarink was smiling as he spoke again. "We make our way to Gerudo Desert and the Mirror of Twilight so we can gain the Twili's blessing, Ganondorf's body and the Master Sword."
"How will we get there?" Asked Zoelda.
"I've sent a message to Shad to get confirmation that he'll help us into the Desert, we need to meet him in Kakariko graveyard tonight to finalise a few details."
"Kakariko graveyard, at night?" The Princess said in disbelief. "That sounds like a great idea, Alarink. I'm so glad I left Shad to you."
"You know he wouldn't have done it for you, Princess, he's not exactly the biggest fan of you." She grunted in response, not meeting his eye as he attempted to get a rise from her. "Besides, I didn't choose the graveyard, he did. He's working on something in there, apparently, Goddess only knows what it is. Actually, we should probably leave now so that we don't get there too late."
"Um, Alarink?" Zoelda said as she got to her feet, smoothing her skirt down and trying not to trip on the table as they began to leave the house. "I actually meant how are we going to get to the Twilight Realm, what with the Mirror still being broken and all?"
After a moment of hesitation, he winked at her, "That's a secret."
"Oh good, I was hoping not to get a proper answer." Zoelda snapped as she crossed the doorway.
Impax chuckled behind her. "I'm glad to see you're still sarcastic, Zelda."
"It was good to see you too, Immy," Zoelda laughed, turning to hug her 'aunt' before they left the Village. It was almost dark now, the last rays of sunlight trying their hardest to light the whole world and settling on a dim glow of twilight. As she separated from Impax, she turned to see Alarink with his arms spread wide to hug the Princess, only to have her glare at and slap him for trying. "Promise me we'll see each other again, Immy."
"Of course, my girl," Impax replied without hesitation as she too watched Alarink and the Princess with a smile. "Keep an eye on him for me, he's not as well adjusted to this as he's pretending to be."
"What do you mean?" Asked she as she started to make her way to the other two, who were now walking back through the Village.
"He's been through a lot of crap here in Hyrule, and his role in this event is one he's had to come to terms with since he was a child. It hasn't been easy for him, so keep an eye on him, don't let him do anything foolish."
"Zoelda, you coming?" He called to her as she stood looking at Impax in confusion.
"Go, we'll meet again soon." The older woman waved as Zoelda ran after her companions, looking back over her shoulder every now and then to see her still stood there, watching as they left her in the forgotten Village.
AN:
I just want to say this is the last chapter before the quality of writing starts to improve and shit starts to happen in the story, so thanks to everyone who's sticking with me. Also, hi to everyone new who's started reading over the holiday's, there's been a few more views recently so I hope you stick with it too.
Anyway, happy New Year. Let's make it a better one, because the gods know we need a better one.
~WWQ