Author's Note: Right, now just like with GotD, I am incredibly sorry for the long wait between these chapters, and I would love to say that I can make it up to you, but I really can't. This chapter throws a lot of information at you, yes, but there isn't much to say in the name of action here. Nonetheless, I really hope that you enjoy it beacuse I did like writing this chapter a lot. I hope that I can keep putting out chapters in decent time in the future, but college is really heating up so I may not be able to do that for you. Once again, I am so sorry! :3
"Truth is powerful and it prevails."
~Sojourner Truth~
Shards of Time
An Ocarina of Time FanFiction
Chapter 20: Aranya
"Your mother was like any other Gerudo growing up: smart, loyal, determinded to protect who she vowed to at birth," the Sprout begins calmly, branches twitching in the breeze. I watch him intently, the world around me fallen away as soon as he told me about her existence. "Even though she was wary about the King, she still devoted her time to him and her Sisters because that is what she promised to do."
A tiny smile tugs at my lips, my heart near soaring. Even though I am a Gerudo, where your mother is the same as your tribal Sister, something inside of me can't help but feel determined to find her now that I have seen her once. If only I had known... "She was a little under twice your age when she began plotting against Ganondorf."
"How do you know about all of this?" I demand, annoyed that the Sprout knows more about my mother than I do.
"I am simply in close connecting to Those who created me. They Themselves have asked me to relay such information onto you. Nonetheless," he quickly adds before I can question him further. "Many of the newborn Gerudo were being taken away from their mothers shortly after birth so that they could be experimented on. Whether to create soldiers from early on or to increase the likelyhood of giving birth to more male Gerudo, I am unsure."
The Great Deku Tree Sprout halts for a moment, watching me intently. I lower my head, confused and angry at how the King would do such a thing to the newborns. Yes, advancing in such a barren tribe is what is best, but I remember hearing once that she Gerudo refused to have a child again; now I understand why. Gerudo may not supposed to have a bond with their child, but we are still human and experimenting on them goes against everything that we vowed to do.
When I look back up, he continues swiftly. "When she came to be pregnant with you, she vowed to protect you and the other children from Ganondorf, and Nabooru was first to follow her. However, at the same time that she gave birth to you, Nabooru had been caught." I swallow thickly.
"She... she told them about my mother, didn't she?"
The Sprout frowns. "She was going to die, young Ciren, to protect your mother's cause, and refused to give up her own Sister. It was your mother who revealed her cause to Ganondorf in order to protect her Sister from death." I can feel the colour drain from my face. "You were to be killed for her wrongdoings, but she intervened and chose to die instead, but was freed by Nabooru and escaped, passing your care over to Nabooru in her abscence."
"But she never did a thing for me... other than help me escape, I guess."
The Sprout's branches rustle and he contradicts me effortlessly with, "I am sure that she protected you from afar so that it would not get either of you into trouble."
I exhale loudly and turn my gaze to the grass brushing against my legs and bare ankles, tugging and snapping the blades of grass when my emotions spike and descend. Nabooru was promoted to the highest honour that a Gerudo could ever have, Coraje, and yet the King would never be so forgiving of her enough to give her that title. She aided a plot against him long ago, yes, but she then freed her Sister before she could die for that cause and then helped me escape when the King rose to a higher power than ever before.
Maybe he did this to pain her as much as possible. He would give her the highest honour so that she could not step out of line, make sure that everyone looked up to her so that she could never want to fail them, and seperate her from me as much as possible before she could "taint" me with her own words. She would never be able to lift a finger without the King, or us for that fact, knowing that she was doing it and for what purpose. And all of the time she would only be able to watch her Sister's daughter from afar, the regret of allowing her friend to die still hanging maybe even today.
Despite the fragments of information that I have been given, it makes some sense.
"Now, dear Ciren, I believe that you should allow yourself some rest. I have told you all that I know, and so I hope that you may be able to rest slightly easier knowing that you are safe and have some new answers." I move to protest, saying that I have too many more questions and that I'm not tired whatsoever. But then I remember all that happened in the Forest Temple as soon as I glance over at my partner, who seems peaceful. I exhale loudly, failing to relax my tense body against the old Great Deku Tree.
I stare up into the night sky, mind whirlling too fast to comprehend. But in the middle of that storm, one voice says, Your mother is still alive.
At the thoughts trailing around and merging at unacceptable points, only confusing me further, a thought enters my stream of consciousness without any hesitation and I recall what the Great Deku Tree Sprout had said to me before. He had began this entire revelation stirring because I had met my mother before, but I can't bring to my mind when that was. If the Goddesses have truly given him such a power to pass this onto me, then I will be able to find out."Great Deku Tree. Where did I see her before, then? My mother?"
"I believe it was in Castle Town when the Gerudo arrived. You two collided, I suppose." At first I see his words as nothing but a metaphor for our unintentional meeting, but then I think back through the seven years where I have been alone and seperated from Castle Town. If she was freed, then my mother would never dare to return to the Valley unless she had a reason to, let alone Castle Town now that it is occupied by the same people, and even then it would be suicide. I strain my consciousness so much that my head starts to hurt, though I don't care for my pain.
I want to remember her, and I want to know where I have seen her before.
And then, all of a sudden, I remember.
The Sprout was right. When the King had first ridden through Castle Town towards the Palace in order to attend a meeting with the King of Hyrule over a peace treaty between the two nations, the first time that I had seen Nisah after she had been corrupted and used as a valuable weapon against me, I had bumped into a cloaked figure. I remember it vividly now, the way that I had reacted and stupidly ignored the lock of crimson hair spiralling out from their hood. I had never seen their face, but the figure showed that they were female.
She was watching the beginning of the end with me, whether she knew that I would be there or not. My lip trembles as I think back. I was so close to her, and yet I had not known then, meaning that we drifted away from each other before destiny continued to tear us apart further and further. The King always gave me a patronising glare of dominance whenever I was around him, and now I understand why: I had an Exiled mother who has barely escaped with her life, and a father who... I do not know anything about.
"What of my father?"
The Great Deku Tree Sprout frowns deeply in thought, then replies, "Your father was of Sheikah-Hyrulean heritage, the latter the only reason why he was accepted as a suitable husband by the King once your mother became pregnant." Maybe this is why some of my Sisters disapproved of me, my heritage. "However he died during the Civil War, unbeknowst to your mother. It was a valiant death despite the circumstances. This is all that I know."
I had an Exiled mother and a Sheikah father, only accepted because of the Hyrulean blood in him and most likely killed by Gerudo on the battlefield. I never felt a part of the tribe that I was bought up in no matter what my blood and spirit physically was, and
He may know of their names.
"Great Deku Tree?" He hums lightly. "What were their names?"
The Great Deku Tree Sprout says nothing for a long time, then, "Aranya." He reveals softly. "Aranya was your mother, Ciar your father." I swallow thickly, my heart clenching as my entire experiences somethin that it never has before. It reacts to the pure, hard truth. It was the truth from the begining because I trust the Sprout despite the small time that I have physically known him, but the truth did not hit me until I could put a name to the mother that I never knew.
Aranya and Ciar... that is who my mother and father were.
I force my body back against the Tree, determined to sleep. But no matter what I was told, I do not sleep. I leave my eyes closed in an attempt to fool any on-lookers, however my mind and body is in such a deep form of override that I don't know what to do. I constantly try to imagine their faces and see what they would have been like. Through the characteristics of the Gerudo, I can imagine what Aranya may have been like growing up before she was sentenced to death and miraculously saved by the woman who almost died for her.
But my father, I can't imagine what he was like. If he was anything like Kaei, then I suppose I would love and hate him at the exact same time. He would be the man to hold grudges until he took revenge on whatever the problem turned out to be, no matter how small or big, but he would do this because of how he grew up and how much he cares for the people stuck in that problem. He would be devoted to the Goddesses more than ever, yet would also lve his family just as much. Did he love or care for my mother in any way, or was she just another "toy" for him to use?
Would he haved cared for me?
Would he have loved me?
My mind carries on like this for hours on end until it finally submits itself to the realm of sleep, and I realise that it was better to be asking myself all of these question rather than sleeping after all...
~*O*~
I can see her before me, beckoning me to join her. To any other Hylian, she would look like any other Gerudo, but to me she is more unique than night and day compared. Her hair is slightly shorter but still tied back, signifying that she is of higher rank, but that she has not reached the pinacle of Gerudo ranking yet like Nabooru. Her eyes, beautiful and golden, have a sense of lingering regrets that only I can fulfil. She's dancing too, dancing to the old Gerudo folk songs that I can't hear.
She invites me, yearns for me, begs that I dance with her. "Mother, is that really you?"
But she does not answer me, continuing to dance. The dark veil of mist that surrounds us feels like it is going to lift me into the air, leaving me weightless and vulnerable to anything that could attack from the shadows. The world soon begins to twist and transform, and a bout of sand collides with the side of my body, the unfamiliar sensation knocking me back a little. Aranya doesn't seem to be affected by the wasteland of sand ow surrounding us, eyes focused intently onto me.
This isn't the Haunted Wasteland that I know, even if I have not been there for so long. The sky is bluer than the waters of Lake Hylia, dusty clouds floating by without a care in the world. The sun beats down hard on my exposed back, gigantic rock formations poking out of the harsh sands. Every for seconds the wind smashes into my sides, sending forth thousands of sand grains towards my mother and I. And yet, despite all of this, she continues to dance, stepping closer to me and taking my paler hands into her bejewelled ones.
"You have suffered so..."
I shake my head, eyes fluttering shut as I fall into her dance. "I have done my duty... it is you who has suffered." I swallow thickly, opening my eyes again for the moment. The sun shines across her face majestically, as if she is nothing more than a spirit of the dead. "I will not allow him to get away with what he has done to us, what he has done to you."
Before I can close my eyes again, I notice her smiling at me as she holds her hand to my face. "It is already too late, Sister..."
[Late.]
[Too late.]
"No! I refuse to let you be condemned to the shadows again!"
She laughs lightly, a hearty laugh that both warms and chills me. "Oh Sister, watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." I move to protest, however she cuts in before I can, pulling a thin veil over her face. "Follow your destiny and return your tribe to what it should be. I am no longer a part of this, and so have no place with you nor my Sisters. I have failed you all..."
"No, it was the King who failed us all, not you!"
She lightly shakes her head again, then begins moving away from me. As soon as I feel her fingers slip from mine, I cry out in protest until the sandstorm becomes too much for me to bear. I keep on my feet and fight to find her, but she has disappeared through the sand. I can no longer see the crystalline blue sky, just the sand coating and slowly drowning me. It pools across my feet, refusing for me to speak or scream or do anything at all. But I pursue her nonetheless, even until I hear a horn, the Gerudo horn, in the far distance.
"We comdemn you to the Marchita." Multiple voices say at once, and I run faster.
[The Marchita.]
[A forsaken punishment.]
"NO! Don't do it!" I force out, then tumble down to the ground. I immediately pick myself up again, catching sight of Aranya as she is prepared for the Marchita, but there is nothing that I can do to stop her as she is beared for all to see through the sandstorm, ready for the Goddess of the Sand to claim her once and for all.
~*O*~
I wake with a start, my mind not registering anything until I am on my feet and panting the oxygen back into my lungs. My eyes widly scan the area, searching for Aranya, but I can't find her. I vaguely remember finally falling asleep in the Great Deku Tree's glade, however now I find myself in the desert still, a blur of the one from my dream combined with the Haunted Wasteland. The name of my mother spins around my mind at a fast pace, so fast in fact that I can barely catch it, but the word that I can mainly pick out screams through my brain over and over.
Marchita. Marchita. Marchita.
It was an ancient punishment abolished by the previous King because of the laws that it defied within our tribe, but it would have been around when my mother was alive. Any of those sent to die from the Marchita where imprisoned under the desert sun and left to die, most likely already injured from imprisonment in the Fortress too. The stories that I had heard always spoke of never ended well, some dying from dehydration since they are all left there without food or water, others slaughtered by the animals that once traversed the Wasteland for food. Some went insane and used their binds as weaponds on themselves.
And if my mother was still alive and was going to die from it...
I break into a dash and run across the desert ground, ignoring the muffled sounds in the distance as I draw away from them. I see shadows in the distance, muscles straining as the sand brushes against my bare ankles. As the shadows draw closer, I feel my body weaken slightly as I see a body knelt against the hard desert stone, blood pooling around their feet; body limp. As my own feet meet that same stone, I notice the slightly shorter hair, the once sharp eyes, and the Coraje uniform that she must have once had.
A pair of arms encircle me as my legs threaten to give out, and I soon realise that I am fighting the person holding me, covering my ears with my hands as I struggle. But I keep looking up and seeing her face highlighted by the sun, wondering why I had only just gotten her back and then lost her so soon.
And yet, as I am about to put up an even stronger fight, the desert, my mother with it, begins to fade and is replaced by the bridge leading out of the Kokiri Forest, green replacing gold and floating spirits coming into place over the harsh sand grains. A Fairy, who I realise is Navi, hovers in front of my face with a worried concern, then breathes a deep sigh of relief and speaks to the person behind me; still holding me tightly. "She's coming back around, I think. Whatever nightmare she had was being relived in her mind in the waking world."
Some tiny voices talk in the far distance, a murmur of concern radiating out from them. Something pulls my hands away from my ears, and I turn to find Link looking down on me, finally moving away and swallowing thickly. "Are you all right, Ciren?"
And even though I am still shaken up, I still manage to break out a hoarse, "No... I-I'm part left too." He forces a smile, though I can easily tell that he is slightly panicked by what has happened. "I-I'm sorry for worrying you both..." I shudder. "It was... just a dream."
I hope.
"I'm glad." The Guardian Fairy finally says as I get to my feet again, trying my hardest to hide my quaking fingers. "Are you up to leaving in the next few hours? Link has explained what he can about Saria's disapperance to the other Kokiri, but if you don't—"
"I'm fine." I press rather angrily, begging for people not to see me as weak within a fraction of a second. Shaking my head, I remember what Saria had said to me and turn on him. "I'm sorry that you couldn't see her in person. How are you feeling?" He shrugs a little, muttering something on the lines of being fine, but I can see that staying here for too long will affect him like it did before, and that's without the influence that the Forest had on me. I chew at my lip, then sigh and give in. "I won't be long. I want to get out of here as much as you two do."
I can't tell them about my mother, not yet. Navi may have picked up on it while the Sprout was speaking, but I can't tell Link. This place is already having enough of an influence on him, but how can I tell him that my mother isn't dead when his own parents died without any explanation. I may be a coward, I may feel like a Hylian about it because I shouldn't lie to someone that I know so well, but I can't do it now; not here either. When things are looking up for us and the rest of Hyrule, then maybe I will finally tell my friends what I have learnt.
Besides, maybe the Sprout will be able to tell him about his own parents too.
As I begin to walk away and collect my things, he hugs me from behind, whispering into my ear, "I don't know how you did it but... thank-you for saving me." I smile a little but don't say anything, my mood dampened when I recall something and walk away without saying anything.
So before we finally depart back to Kakariko Village, I excuse myself to the Great Deku Tree's glade and kneel before the Sprout. Ever since I had seen that dream before me and then relived it once awakening, something has fallen onto my shoulders that I hope the Goddesses can alleviate through the Sprout. Once I thank him for giving me such startling and overjoying information, I ask, "Do you know how she was to die?"
The Great Deku Tree Sprout tenses in whatever way that he physically can, wishing not to tell me. I push him, however, "I had explained that Nabooru had saved her from death, and I wish for you to remember that." I agree briskly, irritated by his stalling. He then blinks twice before finally revealing how she was to be punished before she was rescued. "She was punished by the act of Marchita for three days before she was saved."
"We comdemn you to the Marchita."
~Interlude~
"The Marchita..." Nisah mused, resting her feet up onto her desk that she ever so rarely used. Before her, Xallia sat on the seat after the deask, body relaxed. It was the first time that she had been in the Fortress after patrolling the edges of Kakariko, and took it all to her advantage, especially after the news that her fellow Caraje had bought before her. "Humiliating, agonising, perfect. A punisment being used since the first of our tribe came to this land, and abolished because it "went against tradition"."
"Indeed, it is." Xallia mused, but kept quiet.
Nisah keenly picked up on this, waving her hand. At her command, a book slid free from its imprisonment in the shelf and slammed against the desk beside her feet, causing Xallia to flinch slightly. Nisah brushed her fingers against the pages, nails falling between the part that she wanted. Words and images ranging in horridness spilled across the page, and she pointed at one. "Do not be afraid of its return, Coraje. You must understand that we need this, Xallia, we truly do. There are too many who do not see what we see, and if they refuse to try, then they must see the light... the light of death."
Xallia simply smirked. "I see that your confidence has not dulled since we last met. You are acting as if you are higher than a Coraje yourself." She was merely given a glare in response, the words reminding Nisah of a "friend" that time long forgot. "Nonetheless, I know why we need this... but do we really have the right to? The King has authorised this, yes, but we cannot force people to join us when they fear death or march into it. We will destroy ourselves, or everyone but us."
The head Carmesi shook her head, eyes falling onto the pages before her, all of the words and colours merging together on the yellowed pages. Her dark eyes glimmered. "The Marchita punished those unworthy of living by imprisoning them in the Wasteland and leaving them to die. Whether it be through imprisonment or other factors is up to the punisher." She paused. "But if we can harness that and relive those stories that would terrify the people more than the Shadow Temple... they wouldn't need to join us when surrendering under fear will be more than suffcient..."
A moment of silence passd where no one spoke, and all that could be heard was the clanking of weapons as their Sisters protected the Fortress and went about their training sequences to become in sync with each other, unaware of the Witches pulling their strings from the skies above. Nisah swung her feet over the edge of the desk and bolted to her feet with mechanical commands, eyes falling onto a small box not collecting dust on the book shelf like the rest of the tomes around her, the warm Valley breeze somehow chilling her as she opened it.
The Coraje watched her intently, not understanding what her Sister was doing. "Let us hope that we do not have to eradicate an entire race for the others to listen."
Nisah did not respond, pulling out a small Pictograph from the box. The box had belonged to her once Purpura companion, and so Nisah salvaged it from their shared bunk so that she had something to fight to see. "I want to have power over them, Coraje, and I won't stop until I get it."
"But... that is not just what you want, is it?"
The Carmesi snorted lightly, gazing down at the two smiling girls in the Pictograph. "No..." She snarled, fingers closing in around the item, crushing their faces together. "I want her to pay for what she has done to her Sisters, but msotly what she has done to me." Nisah whirled around to Xallia, slamming the crumpled Pictograph down onto the table. "I want her to bleed for me, beg for her life to me, to die knowing how much she has destroyed me and her Sisters. I have spotted her now and again, refusing to kill her in public because that's what she would want. She still uses our blades, uses them against us."
"They are searching for the Sages." Xallia said strongly, eyes flickering between her Sister and the Pictograph. "One has all ready been freed. You believe that she will come back for you now that she has allies and a destiny to shape her?"
Nisah shook her head. "It doesn't matter whether she wants to or not. One Sage, born of Gerudo blood, forever resides within the Golden Vallies, and so she and her so-called allies have no choice but to come here." Upon countering the Coraje, Nisah moved over to the window behind her chair, eyes wild and fiery. "And then, when she returns upon our grounds, then she will pay for what she has done. I will force the information that she has, then watch as she dies from the Marchita, chained under the desert sun."
"This is what you wish for, the death of your own Sister?"
"She never was my Sister." She spat in response, watching as Gerudo filed those from different races out into the Wasteland to die for their disobedience. "I shall have my revenge. She will die alone and in pain, and then she will finally see how I have felt all of this time..."
