Chapter 18: Panic

…

After Captain Koroul left, Irleen and Link took a break so that they could have lunch. They sat and talked at a bar near the large tree, mostly concerning airship travel in Hyrule. She seemed fascinated with the Sky Lines and cited passages which said that the Sorians had established them for similar purposes in the past, although they had not progressed their ship-building techniques as quickly as the Hylians had. Link replied that, according to some of the older journals he had read, Hylians had found early airships which they based their current fleet on and that, in all likelihood, they were ships that the Sorians had used in the past. Her scant knowledge of but great interest in airships almost launched him into a spiel about the designs of Skyrider airships. Irleen was quick to stop the talk before he became committed, telling him that, although she found the subject absorbing, she would be lost on the technical aspects of airships themselves. It left Link a little disappointed, but this was relieved when they ended lunch and returned to the library to read the logbook of the airship Cloudraiser.

After reading aloud an entry detailing the amount of damage done when a powerful wind gust sent the ship listing at strong angle, Irleen let out a high-pitched yawn. "Aaaah~, excuse me," she told Link.

Link shook his head as he looked through an artbook of airships. "It's okay. It's probably kind of late anyway."

Irleen looked up at the ceiling. "It is a little early in the evening," she remarked.

Link, after casting her a confused glance, followed her gaze toward the large orb in the middle of the ceiling. He realized that, in addition to the symbols circling the large light, an arrow positioned on a ring outside of the symbols pointed out one of them. "It… it's a clock?"

"Yep," Irleen replied. She sighed and closed the logbook. "Do you mind if we stop for now?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Link said as she stood. He closed the artbook and followed her through the shelves. "So, I have a question."

"Sure," Irleen said, replacing her book.

"How long have the Sorians lived here?"

Irleen frowned as she looked for an answer. "It's really kind of vague," she responded, leading him to another spot. She took the artbook and put it back on the shelf. "At least a hundred years."

"Well, I know we first colonized these islands further back than that," Link told her. "But it must have been some time after the Sorians left because all that was left was the machines which supply the islands with water."

Irleen could only offer a shrug. "Records were lost a long time ago, during the War of the Spirits," she told him. "It's hard to say anymore. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that you've lived her so long surrounded by the Undying Storm."

"The Undying Storm?" she asked. "Oh! You mean the Storm of Purgatory?"

Link nodded. Then he thought for a moment. "You know, I heard the elder call it that last night," he remarked. "I didn't catch on until now."

"Well, what other storm could we be talking about?" Irleen laughed. She pointed him towards the wall. "Come take a look at this."

"Okay," Link said, following her.

"So, what's the name of your ship?"

"The Island Sonata."

"Hm. That sounds nice. How long have you been captain?"

"Two days?"

Irleen stopped mid-step, and Link jerked to a halt just short of colliding with her. "T-two days?" she asked as she turned around.

Link nodded. "I was promoted just yesterday morning."

"Wow…" she awed as she continued walking.

"What about you? How long have you been a librarian?"

"Well, technically, I'm just a sorter. It's my job to make sure all of the books go back where they belong when people are done with them. A little mundane, but it gives me the opportunity to read while I'm working. I know where most of these books go; I've been doing this for two years." She stopped and stepped aside. "What do you think of that?" Link turned to look at a relief molded into the wall.

He leapt backwards in surprise. At first, he thought it was the maw of some enormous creature; the relief was square and twice his size. The central figure was the bow of an airship hauling itself with apparent effort over a cloudbank. Loose lines fluttered about the tattered sails in a still wind. But perhaps its most menacing quality was the gapping chunk missing from the prow. Planks had been ripped away from the hull just above the keel, and on the face visible to the viewer the missing planks continued almost up into the weather deck at a curve, giving the ship a rather sinister smile. The inner decking appeared to form teeth. Above the smile, two cannons jutted out of their gunports like eyes. Link took the next moment to study the relief before calming down.

"What was that?" Irleen asked him.

"It… kinda surprised me," Link replied, his face turning red. "Wha-what is this?"

"The Smiling Gunner," Irleen replied. "I thought you might be interested in seeing this while you were still here."

Link dared a step toward it, leaning as if to look into its mouth. "Is-is it a Sorian ship?"

"A demon ship." Link looked over his shoulder at her with a look of mild shock and confusion. She shrugged. "There are books about it dotted all over the library. This was the ship used by a demon general called Cunimincus during the War of the Spirits."

Link looked back up at the relief. "Yeah, Princess Zelda mentioned that name before. She said that he followed the Sorians into the skies during the war. That was why all of the islands exist as they are now."

"Correct. The ship was heavily damaged during the war, but Cunimincus never repaired it. He just renamed it. The hull was as black as a starless night and as large as an island."

Link imagined the ship as she had described.

Then a chill ran up his spine. "I-I've seen this ship before," he uttered.

"Huh? What was that?"

He did not answer as he tried to remember where he had seen it before. The image felt so vague to him, so lost that he had to force it out. But he knew it now. He knew where he had seen this thing.

Once, on the bridge of the Island Sonata while they traveled through the Sky Line. He recalled it now, how the nearby lightning had lit up the clouds around it so that it showed Link its smiling maw and gleaming gun barrels. It was the image that had made his heart nearly stop with fright but left no trace upon his memory except for the pure, primal fear it had inspired in him. But to be so afraid of something required a person to have seen such a thing before, and, indeed, Link had. It was not until Irleen had mentioned that the ship was large and black that Link remembered it.

Because he had seen it in a dream. A dream that had felt so real to him that he would have died had Captain Alfonzo not awakened him.

He took a step back without realizing it. "Irleen…" he started, having to pause so that he could swallow the lump in his throat. "The Storm of Purgatory…"

Irleen leaned forward to look at his face. "What about it?"

"Who… who's purgatory is it?"

Irleen flashed a confused look before she racked her memory trying to remember the story behind the storm's name. "Well, us Sorians live pretty peacefully here, so… I imagine it's Cunimincus's purgatory."

The color drained from Link's face. "Cu-Cunimincus's… purgatory?"

"Yeah," Irleen replied matter-of-factly. "It's his prison, after all." Link stepped backward again, and this time Irleen could not ignore it. "Are you all right?"

Link continued to puzzle everything together in silence, not responding to Irleen when she waved a hand in front of his face. He remembered the dream a little clearer, and one of the images he recalled was the sight of Princess Zelda stumbling across the deck of the ship. And then he had also seen Line's face. But… neither one of them were with him now. And, surely, the princess would not be returning on the Horizon's Eye. At first, he thought his decision to let Captain Koroul return her to Castle Island had been one of relief. But then he remembered another aspect of the ship he was on. In the dream, the ship's rudder had been destroyed, rendering the ship incapable of correcting its list.

The Island Sonata did not use a rudder.

Link immediately turned and bolted. "Hey!" Irleen hollered after him. She started to chase him, but then she remembered something and dashed in a different direction. She grabbed the sack of gemstones she had left on the table. "Captain, wait!"

Link dashed around the library heading for the door, ignoring a reprimand from a librarian he ran past. Irleen was on his heels, throwing her robe at the same librarian before receiving the scold that had been prepared for her. Up through the stairs and out into the open air, Link had to get his bearings for a moment before remembering where the door inside the tree was. Irleen continued to shout at him as he rounded the tree. Through the doorway to the dock, Link could already feel his breath giving out. But he willed himself on until he slammed his hands on the stone surface of Ackaar's desk.

"Hey, wake up!" he shouted at the elderly Sorian, rubbing the pain out of one palm. "Come on, hurry!"

Ackaar released a snort and gave a heavy grunt as he turned his head to give Link an irate glare. "What do you want, feather-less?" he growled.

"Captain Koroul's ship," Link said. "What kind of ship is it?"

"Huh?" Ackaar crowed, lifting his head and wiping drool off his chin.

"The Horizon's Eye!" Link shouted at him. "What's its sail-plan?"

"How the hell would I know that?" Ackaar spat in response (with actual spit landing short of Link's tunic). "I just park the damn ships, I don't know what they look like."

"Come on, I have to know!" Link said. "Doesn't anyone besides the crew tend to the ships here?"

"Captain, what's going on?" Irleen said, finally making her presence known.

"Is everything all right?" Link looked up to find a young, rather burly-looking Sorian man stepping from the staircase. His chest was bare, and he wore a pair of loose-fitting slacks. "I heard you mention the Horizon's Eye."

"Are you an airman?" Link asked as he approached.

The Sorian sniffed. "Yeah," he replied in a nasal voice. "I'm one of the duty boatswains on the Horizon's Eye." He sniffed again. "I'm dealing with a bit of a cold right now; that's why I'm not onboard."

"Your captain's ship, what kind of sail-plan does it use?"

Again, a sniffle. "Sail-plan? Well, it's a fully rigged ship with three masts."

"Fully rigged," Link confirmed. "Three square sails, so it uses a rudder to steer itself, right?"

The Sorian airman blinked at him for a moment. "Wha-yeah, of course it—Hey, wait a moment!" Link was already climbing the steps toward his own vessel.

"Captain, what's going on?" Irleen shouted as she pursued him.

"We have to get to them now!" Link told her over one shoulder.

"Wait, there's something you should know!" the airman called up after them. Link stopped and looked back down at him. "The Horizon's Eye is running all course and topsails at stuns'l right now."

"What?" Link shouted at him. "Why would they do that? The Sky Line could tear the yardarms apart!"

"Captain Koroul wanted to get out of the storm before nightfall. You might not be able to catch them."

Link glanced at Irleen, who could only offer a confused shrug. "Thanks!" Link called back down before continuing up the stairs as fast as he could.

Irleen continued after him. "Captain, I don't get it!" she called to him. "Why are we chasing after the princess!"

"Because… the Horizon's Eye's… in danger!" Link shouted back through his heavy breathing.

"How do you know that?"

"My dream!"

"Your what?"

Link paused and looked over the rail. He had made some progress up the spiral staircase, but he was not as close as he had hoped. "It's…" he huffed. "It's… a dream I had… yesterday morning. I-I saw… the Smiling Gunner… attacking the Horizon's Eye."

"In a dream?" Irleen asked. "How do you know it was the Horizon's Eye?"

"I… didn't know… until just now. It doesn't… it doesn't have the same… sail-plan as… the Island Sonata. I also… saw Princess Zelda… in the attack. They're… they're all in danger."

"But you're not on the ship," Irleen pointed out to him.

"I know," Link huffed. "I saw it… I must've seen it… through someone else's eyes." He started up the stairs again, and Irleen followed in silence for a while.

Then, as they started seeing portals to the docks outside, she called to him, "I think I know why you had that dream!"

"Why?" Link asked, still running as hard as he could.

"The gem I gave to Captain Koroul," she replied. "I imprinted your knowledge of your crew onto it, but sometimes it'll cause the person the imprint is taken from to spontaneously share dreams with whoever's holding it at the time."

Link found what looked to be the dock which the Island Sonata had been tethered to and stopped at the doorway to catch his breath. "That… that's impossible, though," Link told her. "I-I didn't meet… Captain Koroul until today. And… I never saw… that ship before yesterday… evening."

Irleen sighed, feeling her breath giving out as well as stiffness in her legs. "Look, if you want magic to make sense, you'll have to talk to a god or something," she replied. "Because only they know why things like this happen. The book said that someone using a gem with someone's thoughts imprinted on it might share dreams with that person from time to time, but it didn't say when it would happen. Magic books are notorious for not thoroughly explaining side effects."

"Okay," Link said. "Another question."

"What?"

Link took in a deep breath to steady himself. "Why are you following me?"

"Well, I thought you might need some help," she answered. "Your crew's on the Horizon's Eye, remember?"

"But… you don't know anything about being an airman," he pointed out.

"If the Eye's in trouble, you don't have the time to find anyone else to help you," she rebutted. "Just tell me what you need."

Link stared at her for a moment. Then he looked out at the docking branch. "Okay," he decided. "Let's go then."