Chapter 111: Nobody's Home
…
Link burst into his cabin, startling Irleen. "Yikes!" she hollered. "Link, what's—"
"You need to come outside," Link told her as he grabbed his weapon belt off his desk and put it on. "Something's wrong here."
"What are you talking about?" Irleen asked as she moved from her bed to hover above Link's desk. "What's going on?"
"The storm's gone."
"What!?"
Link grabbed the Lokomo Sword off his footlocker and slung it over his head. "We just dropped out of the Sky Line to Forelight Island." He next grabbed his new shield and slung it on. "The storm is completely gone. I told you Zelda talked to me last night, right?"
"No, I've been here all morning."
Link fit his cap over his head. "She said there were some strange sounds coming from the ship."
"Oh, no. You think Cunimincus attacked my home?"
"We're gonna dock and look around." Link paused to try to remember what he did with the Bow of Light. Then he dismissed it when he remembered that he did not have any arrows. "C'mon."
"Wait, wait," she told Link just before he stepped out the door. "Put my translator gem down for a moment." Link pulled the gem out of his pocket as he moved to the map table and set it down. "Kakòrōl?"
Link picked up the gem. "You spoke Sorian; I didn't understand it."
"Oooh, that's not good," she said just before zipping into Link's hat. "Let's go."
Link rushed back out onto the weather deck and rounded onto the stairs. He met Leynne just as he stepped onto the quarterdeck. "Captain Nohth wants to know wheh the stohm is," Leynne told him.
"He's not the only one," Link replied. He scratched the back of his head as he thought. "Tell him we're going to the island. We'll look for answers there."
"If there are answers there," Irleen added.
Link did not wait to watch Leynne cup his hands over his mouth to holler at the airman on the Moon's Shadow. Instead, he hustled back down the stairs. "Dholit!" he shouted as he crossed the main deck.
"Yes, My Captain?" Dholit asked.
Link stopped and turned to talk to her. "Have Biluf replace Flower on watch. Tell her to keep an eye out for any ship she doesn't recognize. If she finds another ship, we need to know immediately."
"What shall I have Layna do?" Dholit asked as Link made to walk away.
"Whatever the hell she wants!" Link hollered, spinning in place with his arms wide open. "Just tell her she can kill anything that isn't human."
"Sorians aren't human," Irleen pointed out.
"Tell her not to kill any Sorians, either!" Link snapped. Dholit's only response was a confused tilt of the head as he walked away. Link marched across the main deck and up the stairs onto the forecastle, startling Line with his footsteps. "Line, you know where to dock. Take us there."
Line stared at Link for a moment. "Yeah, sure, boss," he replied.
Link sighed. "Please, Line."
"He—you're the captain," Line told him as he turned and started forcing the engine to engage.
"Irleen?" Link asked.
Irleen emerged from Link's hat and looked ahead at the island. "Oh, wow…" she uttered. "It looks so different. It's so… bright."
"That's…" Line paused to shove the engine lever hard. "Uragh!" Cunk! "That's nice, Irleen, but what about the storm?"
"I… I honestly don't know this time," she admitted. "I skipped class the day they discussed what would happen if the Storm of Purgatory went missing."
"Bite me!" Line snapped at her.
"Wha—then don't ask me stupid questions!" she shouted back.
"Guys!" Link snapped at them. Line gave Irleen a scowl (which Link assumed Irleen returned) before busying himself with the ship's controls. "Irleen, is it possible that the storm fell while we were away?"
"Not a chance," Irleen immediately replied. "Like I said, that storm was meant to last until the world itself ended. There's no reason it should be gone."
Link glanced around. "Could the storm simply be gone, but Cunimincus still here?"
"I suppose, but it's pointless without the storm; it was the only thing keeping the Smiling Gunner from shooting at the island all the time."
"At least we don't have to worry about the Smiling Gunner sneaking up on us," Line said as he looked around.
"Link," Irleen said. Then she called, "Link! Hat!" Link realized that, with the engine running, Irleen was starting to drift away. He quickly cupped his hands around her and brought her to his forehead. Irleen tugged on his hair until she was safe under Link's hat. "Sorry. I just don't know what happened here."
"That's okay, Irleen," Link said to his brow. "Once we dock, I'm sure we'll find some answers."
Line glanced out at the bow. Then he made a nervous sound. "I don't know about that, Link," he said. He quickly pointed with one hand. "That tree doesn't look too promising."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Irleen asked while Link turned to look out at Forelight Island.
Now that the ship was closer, Link could see that the tree did not have any leaves. It was simply a mass of tangled branches towering over the island. Link expected to see Sorian airships docked all over those branches. Instead, he found himself reminded of the dead trees of Whittleton when he had first awoken. He found just a little comfort in the fact that, despite the lack of green growth, this large tree was not as far gone as those he had seen in Whittleton. He stepped closer to the beakhead so that he had a clearer view of the surface of the island. From this height, he could make out the smaller house-trees that dotted Forelight Island's landscape. But they were framed by a field of brownish yellow, not the bright green of fresh grass.
"Irleen…" Link started.
"What? What is it?" Irleen asked.
"This doesn't look good. That big tree on the island looks like it's dying. And the ground doesn't look any better."
Irleen took a moment before saying, "Let me know when we dock."
Link could feel Irleen's dread as she seemed to simply withdraw further into his hat. Although he was not on the same level as her, he had his own fears regarding the current state of Forelight Island. He had never seen an island devoid of airships like this; not even Skyrider Port had been so abandoned. Of course, now that he had remembered what Skyrider Port looked like, it gave him the hope that, even if Cunimincus had managed to attack the island, the Sorians would be all right.
He waited for Line to bring the Island Symphony next to an appropriate docking branch before he started issuing orders to his crew. While the Gelto stowed the sails, he sent Leynne to put up a signal to indicate that Link would be away from the ship. Link found Flower standing at the top of the port steps to the poop deck and asked him to find a rope so that he could lasso the branch just as he had done on the Island Sonata. Even as the crew bustled about, Link was keenly aware of one thing which no one had commented on: no Sorian had come to investigate the Island Symphony. He initially wrote it off as just the Sorians being cautious, the same as they had been before. But after watching Flower lasso the tree, for which he would have at least expected a Sorian docker to assist with, the thought that the Sorians were being cautious turned into the concern that they might actually be waiting to ambush Link's crew.
So as he watched Leynne, Biluf, and Flower pull the Island Symphony closer to the tree, Link decided to consult Dholit and Layna. He approached them while they watched from the main deck. "Dholit, I need to talk to Layna," he immediately said.
"Oh…" Dholit moaned in disappointment.
"What?" Link asked.
"Sometimes, I feel that I am but a mouthpiece between you and my sistahs," she said. She touched a wrist to her forehead and leaned to one side like she was about to run in that direction. "But if it is to bettah the relationship between the two, I find that I can only follow ohdahs whilst secretly plotting to fully avenge my spuhned feelings on My Captain."
Link gave her a flat look. "You done yet?"
She straightened up and put a finger on her chin as if she was thinking. "Pehhaps the false swoon was not fitting?" she asked. "Would you have prefahred teahs? I can do teahs."
"I'd prefer if you'd just translate for me."
"But of couhse, My Captain," she replied with a deep bow. Layna, unsure as to what was happening, gave a slight bow herself.
"Since Layna is… what she is," Link asked, "does she know how to tell if someone is watching her? Or, well… us?"
"I would very much expect that, My Captain," Dholit said as she stood up.
"Can she tell if anyone is watching us now?"
Dholit turned to Layna and asked, "Layna, xiban soynwaditak 'inon max?"
Layna gave Dholit a brief look of confusion. Then, her face becoming emotionless, she gazed out at the tree. It was strange for Link to watch because she appeared to have simply spaced out. But then, after just a minute of staring, her head tilted. "Na', Giltiyn Dholit," she said. "'Inan nadgoylwanitak soynwadtya."
Dholit's eyebrows rose. "My," she said, sounding surprised. "How curious."
"There's… no one watching us?" Link asked, already gleaning Layna's words based on the fact that she hardly showed any defensive reaction.
"It cehtainly appeahs that way," Dholit replied with a nod. "The fact that Layna has not gone into covah hehself seems to indicate a lack of immediate concehn."
"We're good to go, Captain!" Flower hollered down from the quarterdeck. Link glanced up in response, but he paused as he contemplated what he had just learned.
"Shall I have Layna accompany you regahdless?" Dholit asked, her voice now carrying a tone of genuine concern.
Link gave it a moment of thought before he answered, "Yeah. The Sorians don't have any problems with us, but, if Layna's wandering around, she might find something no one else will notice. Give her the word."
"Yes, My Captain," Dholit replied before Link spun around.
As Link stepped onto the quarterdeck, Flower asked, "What's the plan, Captain?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Link replied, giving the docking branch a dubious look. "Something doesn't feel right. And, with a place as large as this, I'd prefer not to have half of the crew wandering around. Irleen, Layna, and I will go ashore. We'll signal if anything happens."
"We shall do the same," Leynne told him. "But I question why you should be the ones to go."
"Irleen and I know the area," Link explained. He gave Flower a nod. "So do Line and Flower. If we get into trouble, it'd be better if they were here in case a party needs to be sent to find us."
"The captain also knows one of the elders," Flower spoke up. "If he gets into trouble, the elder should recognize him." Link gave him a nod of gratitude, knowing that this would have been a good point for the older airman to refute what he had said.
"Undehstood," Leynne said. "Watch youhselves."
"Thanks," Link said. He looked up at his brow and said, "Here we go, Irleen."
Irleen slipped out from under Link's hat. Link was just about to step down onto the docking branch when she said, "This is wrong. This is all wrong."
"I admit it has an unnatural feeling about it," Leynne told her, "but it's a bit much to assume that any soht of devastating event has occuhed."
"Is the tree still alive?" Link asked. The question caused Leynne and Flower to give him confused looks.
"I-I don't know," Irleen answered. "What I'm seeing… it doesn't look right."
Link took in a deep breath and stepped down onto the branch. "If things are looking bad," he said over his shoulder, "get away and signal me."
"Be careful, Captain," Flower told him.
Walking down the branch felt like a completely different experience from the first time Link had set foot on the island. Being in daylight cast beams of sun through the tree, mingling with some mysterious dust floating about the air. The branches groaned and occasionally clicked when the easy breeze smacked two together. As he moved further in, he lost the ability to hear anything other than the odd flitter of Irleen's wings. At one point, Link's hand grasped the Lokomo Sword, looking for an excuse to pull it. He could not bear the quiet; he was almost begging for something to attack him by the time they found the trunk. While Irleen carefully floated in, Link glanced back over his shoulder as he realized something. He remembered that they had encountered something which resembled a signpost before. But as he looked back, he realized that nothing of the sort had been set up along this walkway.
The inside of the trunk only served to unnerve him more. His eyes, perhaps affected by how dim the surrounding light had become once he had gotten closer to the trunk, barely had to adjust to the dark interior. The light in the banister was gone, leaving only Irleen's soft glow the only light source Link could see with. He stepped over to the banister and discovered after brushing it with a hand that the carvings were no longer decorating its surface. A glance over the edge only showed Link a black pit with a small pinpoint of light at the bottom.
Link moved back over to the doorway so he could see his flare gun after drawing it. "What are you doing?" Irleen asked as he pulled a shell from his belt.
"Giving us a little more light," he replied.
"Not with one of those flares!" Irleen cried out.
Link cringed and dropped the shell out of surprise for how loud her voice sounded. "Yikes, Irleen," he replied.
"Link, we're inside a dry tree," Irleen continued. "If you fire that thing, it could hit the side and send this whole place up in flames. Look, you may not be able to see, but I can. Just follow me." Link was about to argue. Then he realized that she was probably using the same magic that allowed her to see life and using it as a light. So he replaced the gun and retrieved the shell.
He followed her down, his boots clapping against the dry wood of the stairs. She placed herself nearer to the banister, which caused the wall to be very dimly lit. Her faint glow caused the shadows to dance around the wall's carved surface, and Link felt at a few points that he had seen a face watching them from the corner of his eye. Neither one of them spoke. Link felt stifled by the atmosphere around him, as if talking could be the worst thing to do while wandering this place. He considered that Irleen was not speaking because of the mounting dread she was feeling. If Cunimincus had attacked the Sorians… what were they about to walk into?
When they set foot on the floor at the very bottom, Link felt at least a decade older. The first thing he did was look over at the stone desk where Ackaar was supposed to be. Through the narrow beam of light reflecting into the trunk, however, he saw that the desk was vacant. It caused Link to grasp his sword harder as they stepped into the archway and finished the descent into Kuruuk Nehai.
The sunlight was back to its full strength as Link stepped out of the tree. He had to blink and buy time for his eyes to adjust. When he had his sight again, what he saw sent him into shock.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.
That is to say, of course, that the landscape was still the same despite being completely different. The surrounding trees were just as bare as the large one behind him, which included not having any of the exterior carvings or other indications of what they were; Link could not even find a sign. The ground was covered in dead grass and wild-looking weeds that were just beginning to grow. None of the exotic aromas filled the air. Instead, the air was so barren that Link wondered if he could even smell anymore. Other than the wind whistling through the tree branches far above (which was haunting enough, given the circumstances), not one sound gave Link the same impression of Kuruuk Nehai as it once had. All of the tables and all of the stalls were gone with barely an indication that they were ever there in the first place. It was fitting enough for the scene.
Because the only Sorian to be seen was slowly dropping out of the air next to him.
"N-no…" Irleen uttered so softly that Link, through his own shock, barely heard it. "No no no, please, no…"
Link took a moment to bring himself out of his stupor. "Irleen…" he started before his words failed him. When he finally found something to say, it was, "What… what happened here?"
"I… They're all… They're all gone…" Link reached out and gently caught her in one hand. "This… this can't be… can't be happening…" She suddenly jumped out of Link's hand. "Link, I have to go somewhere," she told him with sudden urgency in her voice. "Just… just stay around here." Before Link could get a word out, Irleen zipped down the road ahead until she was out of sight.
Link wandered over to the nearest tree with a platform and jumped up. With his newfound ability, he landed much easier on the platform and stepped further into the tree's gourd-like body to look around. Not that there was much to look at after all. Whoever had used this tree had left it completely empty. No furniture in the room he looked through, no sort of decoration or personal items which might have indicated who had lived here. Or if this tree was either a home or a business. Everything had been taken. This led Link to reconsider his thoughts about Cunimincus attacking the Sorians, namely the part where Cunimincus had attacked the island. As he stepped back out to look over the landscape of abandoned trees, he found that, had Cunimincus actually attacked, there was a chance that Kuruuk Nehai would not have survived this well. He may have not known Cunimincus that well, but he was certain that his crew, being a mash-up of insane creatures, would have likely burned the whole island out of the sky. For everything to be gone like this, Link concluded that the Sorians must have abandoned the island. It must have been in relation to the fact that the Undying Storm was gone, but he was unsure of what kind of connection that would be. The efficiency with which the Sorians had removed their belongings was staggering, and Link wondered if they might have even had planned for this sort of situation.
Carefully, Link dropped back down to the ground. He leaned in closer to one of the weeds to look it over. It had green, healthy-looking leaves, if a little sinister in appearance due to how much they resembled a Keese's wings. If Link had learned anything about these islands, it was that, as long as there was healthy growth, it meant that the Technoworks were still in working order. Although, he could not say the same for all the trees since none but the largest had ever been seen with leaves before.
He found his mood dropping as he stood back up to survey the landscape again. Irleen must have been devastated by now, wherever she had gone. He feared that she would not find was she had gone to look for. Once he had considered what might be important to her now that they were on the island again, Link remembered that the library was nearby. With luck, maybe the Sorians had left it behind for other people to use. Thinking that, he wandered his way around the large tree to where he remembered the entrance of the library should have been. However, when Link found the recess in the tree that was the library's entrance, he found himself worried by the lack of doors. Carefully, since he was descending into another dark space on his own, he kept one hand on the wall to help guide himself down the stairs.
The spiral staircase did not allow much light into the library, so Link decided not to venture much further beyond the stairs without Irleen. The atmosphere inside was thick and musty, a feeling he had come to expect from other libraries. He could barely make out the clock in the ceiling, frozen in place like a dead watch.
Much to his dismay, Link saw that the nearby bookshelves were empty. He stepped over to the librarians' counter and wiped a hand across its surface. He had to change his angle to see that his bare fingertips were not covered in dust as he had expected. Had this happened recently? Why had this happened at all?
Thinking that she would be coming here next, Link took a seat at the bottom of the steps. His mind flooded with questions as he tried to ponder what had happened here. Had the storm fallen? What if the Sorians made it disappear so that they could flee? Could that have caused Cunimincus to leave the island alone, because they were already gone? Why would they suddenly do something like that? Had they found out about the Horizon's Eye? Had they known that some of Cunimincus' crew had escaped into Hyrule? That was impossible, right? The Sorians and the Hylians had always been isolated from each other. How would news have gotten back?
It must have been at least an hour before Link heard voices from the entrance. At first, he was alarmed because he had been sitting in the quiet for so long that he was getting used to it. He jumped to his feet and prepared to draw his sword. Then he saw Irleen's light wander into the stairs, and he relaxed. But as he watched her slowly descend, he knew immediately that she had not found what she had been looking for. "You okay, Irleen?" he asked.
Irleen sniffled. Then, towards the bottom of the stairs, she suddenly dropped out of the air, and Link lunged forward and caught her in his hands. As he brought her closer, she broke into sobbing. Link turned and carefully sat back down on the stairs. Instead of trying to interrupt her, he waited for the crying to pass. It was a long wait because her sobbing then turned into a loud scream of anguish that made him wish he knew what to say to make her stop.
She managed to gain control of herself after a while. "I'm sorry, Link," she said in a voice much smaller than usual.
"It's okay," Link replied.
"It's just… They left me, Link. My parents are gone. They took everything, even… even… my things. My home… it's just an empty tree."
Link sighed. "I'm… I'm sorry, Irleen. I wish I'd known. I would've found a way to bring you back sooner."
"No, Link," she told him. "That would've just put the rest of the ship in danger. Sad as I am now, it would've been worse if the crew had been killed because of me."
"Still… I can't believe the whole island's empty. How could they've done this so fast?"
Irleen sighed. "Magic, Link," she said, her tone treating as an obvious answer.
"Has this ever been done before?"
"No. What's worse, I have no clue where they would've gone. All Sorian land was once the islands you Hylians now live on. They would have no place to go." She sniffed a couple times. "Oh, Link! Don't they realize I'm missing?"
"I'm sure they do," Link replied in a gentle voice. "But just because they're gone doesn't mean we can't find them. They must be somewhere nearby; you said before that Sorians can't travel the Sky Lines without ships."
She sniffed again. "Right."
"I promised to take you home," he continued. "And I meant with the other Sorians no matter where they went. It might take a long time, but we'll definitely find them."
"Thank you, Link," she said. "I'm counting on you."
Link nodded. "It doesn't look like they've been gone too long. Do you think that clock up there can tell us anything?"
Irleen lifted away from Link's hands. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, it just might. Link… do you know how long it's been since the Island Sonata was shot down?"
"A little over three months, I think," Link answered.
"Days, Link. How many days?"
Link took a moment to think back to his journal. He knew that the count was somewhere in the nineties, but he was not exactly certain. So he guessed, "I-I think maybe… ninety-three days?"
Irleen fluttered a little higher and closer to the rail ahead of them. It amazed him that she could see the clock at all in the darkness around them. When she returned, she told him, "Link, this clock died ninety days almost exactly from the time we left. Are you sure about that count?"
Link offered a shrug. "I don't really know, Irleen. It would help if I had my journal with me; that was how I'd been keeping track of the days since then. I might be off by a couple of days."
"So we could have been at either Autumn Island or Skyrider Port, right?"
"Probably. Why?"
"Well… remember when Lutock disappeared?"
"Yeah."
"Well, this is amazingly close to about the same time he disappeared. That was about… how long ago?"
"Uh… well, that was while we were at Autumn Island, right? So…" Link scratched at the back of his head as he thought. "See, we got back the day after that, and then we were putting the plan together for the next three days… one day since we fought the fake princess…"
"Then… five days, right?"
Link shrugged. "I guess."
"Okay. Link, I don't know how, but I think Lutock must have felt what was going on here. Sort of like instinct was forced on him. He knew the rest of the Sorians were leaving, and he went to join them."
Link carefully nodded. "Okay. Okay, so… if Lutock knew, how come you didn't respond to it either?"
She gave an annoyed growl. "It must be this stupid fairy form. If I was back to my old self, I might've gone with him. But…" She trailed off as she looked around the library. "All the books are gone. I guess… the only way for me to change back… would be to find them."
"Then that's what we'll do."
"May Kyabtin!"
Both Link and Irleen cried out when Layna, having silently stalked down the stairs, spoke up with an urgent tone. Being directly behind Link had caused him to jump aside at the sound of her voice. He put a hand over his heart and took in a deep breath. "Geez, Layna, I wish you would warn someone," he told her, a weak smile crossing his face.
"May Kyabtin, falwif thukwfya'ak," she said, indicating the top of the stairs. "Sariyk 'an 'ilthan'afi'il ziyn."
"What's going on?" Irleen asked as Layna grabbed Link's hand.
"I guess something's happening," Link got out before Layna yanked him up the steps.
Link fell into step to keep from tripping, and the three of them were outside again. Layna pointed, and Link could see a line of blue smoke standing out from the sky above. He was not as alarmed by the sight of this, knowing that blue meant that something, while not particularly drastic, had just happened to the ship. Considering there was no sign of a threat, Link began wondering what was happening as he started for the main entrance to the tree.