Chapter 28: Sheikah District
Once they had gotten away from the floating islands, Zelda, Impa, and Lana made their way to the Sheikah District which consisted of a maze of canyon walls in a desert that connected to the Gerudo District. Near nightfall, they had reached a small settlement of houses and shops that appeared to be empty while a windmill continued to turn.
"What's it called?" Zelda asked looking around.
"Kakario Village," Impa answered. "This is my home, and where you were raised before Ganon found you."
"That's why these buildings look so familiar," Zelda noted. "I wonder where everyone is."
"They're all dead," said a menacing voice that belonged to a scarecrow-like being who was leaning in the shadow of a porch. "Word has it that the leader of the Sheikah who served the Mayor proved unfaithful, and so he captured all the villagers and executed them. Now it's nothing more than a ghost-town with tourists occasionally going through."
"Skull Kid!" Zelda exclaimed. "How did you get here?"
"I get around," Skull Kid answered nonchalantly. "Aren't you supposed to be locked up in your tower, Princess?"
"I'm not from this reality!" Zelda snapped, causing everyone to look at her.
"What do you mean?" Lana asked.
"It's a long story," Zelda said exasperatedly. "All you need to know is that I come from another place that is like here and it was made possible with this device."
When Zelda showed off the Infinity Gauntlet, Lana seemed surprised.
"That device…" Lana said wearily. "I saw it in a vision, before sending Link up here. You were punching holes into nothing with it, traveling to places that looked similar but with slight differences, and then Ganon was wearing it as whole kingdoms and lands were being destroyed from above."
"Speaking of Link, where is he?" Impa asked.
"He's dead," Zelda said reluctantly.
Lana and Impa looked shocked.
"Were you with him?" Lana wondered.
"No, I learned this secondhand," Zelda said. "Apparently he joined the Twilight Wolves in order to receive their aid in rescuing me, and by that I mean the Zelda of this reality, but he got killed while trying to collect the Fused Shadow fragments for Midna, which Link and I were tasked to find by the Midna from my reality."
"I'm not sure I follow, but everything she said about Link is true," Skull Kid said. "The Priestess Cia stabbed him in the heart, and then that caused Midna to order her non-Twili allies to attack Ganon's forces including the Gorons and the Zoras. Only now, she somehow got ahold of the complete Fused Shadow and is wrecking the city with it."
"That was my fault," Zelda admitted. "I bargained it for the lives of a group of Hylians that were captured by Midna, whom she was going to kill."
"Then you shouldn't blame yourself," Impa said, hugging Zelda tightly. "You only did what you thought was right."
"But now Skyloft is going to be destroyed because of what I did," Zelda said, looking up at Impa with teary eyes. "Is there anything I can do to stop her?"
"You could always summon the Light Spirits," Skull Kid suggested.
"The Light Spirits?" Zelda gave Skull Kid an odd look.
"They're ancient beings made of pure energy that rid the land of Twilight when it spread across Hyrule long ago," Lana explained. "They came up to Skyloft when the Fused Shadow found its way here, and now rest in unknown locations until they are summoned."
"Then how are we supposed to find them?"
"First, you must locate the four Wind Instruments," Skull Kid said. "Then you have to play a certain song to summon each of the four Light Spirits, and only then would they be willing to help you."
Zelda looked dubious. "How do you know all of this, Skull Kid?"
"I've been around long enough to know what's what," Skull Kid answered.
"Do you have any alternatives in mind?" Impa asked Lana.
"Not really," Lana said shaking her head. "The only thing I can think of is that if Zelda returns to her reality and prevents the same event from happening there, then this reality won't happen."
"I've thought about that too, but I think each reality has its own separate timeline that may have similar events going on but are completely separate from one another. So if the Hero of Infinite Possibilities dies in this reality then the Zelda of this reality will never get rescued."
"All the more reason to go back to your reality," Lana said. "You can erase the possibility of Link's death from occurring in the first place."
"But it won't be your reality that'll change," Zelda argued. "Look, I'd love to spend more time talking about this, Lana, but if we don't find those Light Spirits soon the whole city will be covered in Twilight and then the world after that."
Everyone stood in silence until Skull Kid spoke. "I know where one Wind Instrument is."
"Where?" The women asked.
"In the Graveyard of this village, there's a removable tombstone that'll lead you to an underground passage," Skull Kid said, in a mockingly scary voice. "From there, you'll reach the Sacred Spring which is guarded by a fearsome creature."
"I see," Zelda responded, and shrugged. "Doesn't sound all that difficult to me."
"Are you insane?" Impa said, pinching Zelda's shoulder. "You could get seriously hurt, or possibly killed. Therefore, I'm going down with you."
"Me too!" Lana added. "My spells could come in handy."
In response, Zelda groaned and marched toward the Kakario Village's Graveyard which was located on a hill that was partially visible behind the windmill. Impa and Lana followed her with Skull Kid bringing up the rear. He glanced back every now and then.
"You see him too?" Impa said, glancing in the same direction as Skull Kid.
In the shadow of an alleyway, there was a slim masculine figure wearing a blue and white skin-tight suit with a red eye pattern on the chest, a matching white scarf covering his mouth, and bandages covering a head of long blond hair tied in a ponytail. His visible red eye noticed Impa and Skull Kid's glance, and so he darted away.
To be continued…