Chapter 126: Where Legends Remember

…

~~Cale and I have arrived in Library Town. While he and Irleen are asking around about the possibility that the Sorians came down here, I'm gonna fulfill a promise from before.

…

The top of the Tower of Spirits popped into existence just as Link had remembered it from before. Without hesitation this time, he took the steps up into and straight through the octagonal room out onto the platform overlooking the Forest Realm. Just as he had suspected as the Number Fifteen train had passed by Whittleton, green had become the prominent color across the open fields of the realm. The area had yet to recover since its forests were still little than brown patches in the distance, but just the look of the realm without the overcast sky from the late morning filled him with relief. He had considered stopping in Whittleton, but he had decided that he could wait until he had a chance to get around the surface in search of the Sorians. After all, it would give Meilont the opportunity to meet the real Irleen.

He traveled up the spiral staircase. As he came about the north side, he saw that the Fire Realm had taken on a brick-red color. It also appeared that there was a volcano active somewhere in the distance, its presence revealed by the white plumes rising into the air. The Snow Realm had not changed much, being a large sheet of white that was completely impossible to see features through. He rounded the top of the tower until he stood in front of the platform that had held the Lokomo Sword. He spun in place, feeling the sensation of standing at the middle of the world.

Then, with a start, he dropped both feet to the floor and stopped. He was not alone. But, upon realizing that he was looking at Byrne again, he relaxed. "Oh," he said with a sigh. "You scared me for a moment, Byrne."

Byrne tilted his head. "Do I… know you?" he asked. "You look familiar."

Link stepped down from the platform. "Yeah, you know me. It's Link. Remember?"

"Oh, is it you?" Byrne asked, leaning forward as if to get a closer look at him. "Sorry, Link. I-I'm still dealing with a bit of confusion. Have you ever lost track of time before?"

Link nodded. "Yeah, plenty of times."

"Well, when time itself loses track of time, it can get even more disorienting. If you get what I mean."

"I guess."

"So… this is your second time here, right?"

Link nodded. "Cunimincus and his crew are dead, and the Undying Storm is gone. I came to return the sword."

"Yeah, I'm just now noticing," Byrne told him as he pattered to the edge. "I knew I was coming down here for something. I guess this was it." He watched the sky above for a moment. Then he turned back to Link. "It must not have been easy."

"No, it wasn't," Link agreed with a chuckle. "But we pulled through, me and my crew." He gave a sigh. "I… guess that's it then. No more demons to threaten us, right?"

Byrne shook his head. "It's not that simple, Link. Where life exists, there's always the darkness that wants to destroy it. You can't have one without the other. It's appeared before, and it will appear again. It's only ever a question of whether a hero will appear to stop it from succeeding."

"Kinda… kinda like I did, right?"

"Oh, yeah. As the Hero of Journeys, it was most definitely your time. I wanna say that your work is done for now. But…"

Link waited for Byrne to continue. Finally he had to prompt, "But…?"

"Confusion. I know there was another threat you were supposed to face. This one…" Byrne frowned as he tried to think. "It's a lot vaguer."

"Well, I did take out a lot of monsters down here," Link pointed out.

"Then maybe that was it," Byrne said as he scratched his head. "All I know is it was something independent of Cunimincus."

"Do I still need this sword?" Link asked, tapping the belt holding the Lokomo Sword to his back.

Byrne shook his head. "No, I don't think so anymore. You just needed it against Cunimincus. Any other weapon would not have been able to pierce Cunimincus."

Link grinned. "Except the Bow of Light."

"Maybe, but we'll never know. It went missing after Malladus was defeated."

"No, that's what I'm saying. Princess Zelda used the Bow of Light on Cunimincus. The Royal Family of Hyrule had it; they lent it to me."

"Oh, they had it?" Byrne asked, sounding surprised. Then he gave a chuckle. "Wow. I guess you just never know where you might find old things lying around. Did you give it back?"

"Was that wrong?"

"No, it's all right. Now that we know where it is, we shouldn't have to worry about it."

Link nodded. "Well," he said, glancing at the pedestal. "I guess I should give this back, huh?"

"Yeah," Byrne agreed. "Yeah, that'd be great."

Link turned and started for the pedestal. However, as he set one foot on the platform, a memory resurfaced that caused him to stop. He was not sure what sparked the memory; it might have been him placing his hand on the Lokomo Sword as he made to draw it. As he stood there, the last words Cunimincus spoke to him echoed in his head. He had considered them the past couple of days, and he had come to the conclusion that, somehow, Cunimincus knew that he was supposed to be the Hero of Journeys that Byrne had told him about.

So Link turned his head to Byrne. "There's… something else I wanna ask you." He took his foot off the platform so he could fully face Byrne. "After Cunimincus was beaten and we were falling… he said something to me that I've… kinda been thinking about. He said… something like 'of all the people to sail against in this time'. He-he said it like he knew something."

Byrne, having listened to Link in curiosity, gave a solemn nod. "It's possible that he did."

"How?"

Byrne sighed. "The same way the Spirits of Light told us about the hero who restored the Spirit Tracks. To put it in short terms, Cunimincus did his research."

"Research?" Link asked. He pointed to himself. "How can I be research? Up-up until all this happened, I was just an airman serving under my father. And-and why would he want to research me? How could he know I'd come after him?"

"It wasn't necessarily about you, Link. The tale of the Princess and the Hero were known to the Spirits of Light before Hylians arrived on the continent. Some were legends that I believe came from an ancient kingdom of the Hylians. The rest were stories of the Hero and his adventures told through the eyes of the Sorians' ancestors. This information, although not as well-known to either race, is not a complete secret. We cannot be certain when Cunimincus learned of this, but we knew the possibility existed. The fact that you fall into the cycle of legend is simply a coincidence. One can only wonder what would have happened if Malladus knew of all this one hundred years ago."

Link tilted his head. "I… I thought Cunimincus was Malladus' general. Or-or something like that."

"Indeed he was." Then Byrne shrugged. "But that's the downside to working for megalomaniacs; they don't listen to things they don't like. It's possible that Cunimincus did tell Malladus; Malladus just wasn't interested until the last hero beat him. As I recall, between the two, Cunimincus was the more intelligent. This is probably why he was simply physically sealed inside a storm while Malladus was, for lack of a better word, stuffed into an altar. But it sounds as if you surprised him."

Link shrugged. "It's fair enough; he surprised me. No one told me he was a gigantic bird."

Byrne looked taken aback. "Really? No one? I didn't say anything last time?" Link shook his head. "Oh. Uh… oops?"

Link nodded. "At least." Then he gave Byrne a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it; I could've just as easily heard from someone else, if she'd thought about it." He glanced toward the western sky on the other side of the pedestal. Although it was still well into the afternoon, he told Byrne, "I'd better finish up here; I've got a lot of work to do once I get back to the Library."

"What work is that?" Byrne asked before he pattered up to the platform.

Link stepped toward the pedestal and drew the Lokomo Sword. "Once I'm done here, I have to help Irleen find the other Sorians." He reversed his grip on the sword and carefully lowered the tip into the pedestal. The sword jerked into place, and the sheath belted to his back disappeared in a flash of light that broke apart around him. He watched for a moment as the little points of light blinked out one by one. Then he turned back to Byrne to ask, "Which reminds me; you haven't seen them… have…?" However, the spot where Byrne had been standing was vacant. "Byrne?" he asked aloud as he glanced around. Then he said to himself, "Man, that's kinda spooky."

From there, Link decided to return to the inside of the tower. By the time he stepped into the glowing magic that allowed him to move back to the interior staircase, he convinced himself that Byrne would have likely said something if he had known where the Sorians had disappeared to. Not that Link could ever be sure about what Byrne might have seen; the fact that Byrne seemed confused about how many times he had met Link before told Link that Byrne's memory might not be the best to trust.

As he faded back into existence inside the tower, he was pondering where they should try to search for the Sorians. He decided that he should probably wait until Cale and Irleen gave him their findings. He hoped that they did not fly too far from their island; the surface was a whole lot of land to explore, even just the extent of Hyrule.

Wham! "WAH!" Link cried out as something slammed into his back. He fell forward, and his left cheek hit the floor due to his inability to save himself; something was holding his arms back. The fall left him dazed for a moment, during which he was vaguely aware that something was wrapped around his arms. The fall had also knocked the wind out of him. He had to focus on getting his breath back before he could do anything else. As his head cleared, he realized that not only was something pinning his arms to his sides, that same thing held him against the floor. He attempted to free his arms. But once he pushed outward, whatever was holding him released him and carefully lifted away from his back.

He pushed himself up and looked over his shoulder. Then he gave a relieved sigh. "Oh, Layna…" he muttered. He sat up and turned to face her. He was a little stunned to find that the bodyguard/assassin sitting on her knees in front of him, the same one that had stood with him against Cunimincus' collection of psychotic monsters and survived being riddled with enough bullets to make a printing press, was pouting at him with her eyes welling like she was about to cry. He frowned and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Layna used one hand to indicate where the magic spot had been. It was gone, but Link managed to piece together what she was referring to. "Are… you upset because I left you here?" he asked. She jabbed her finger toward the spot, a stern look on her face. "Look, I'm sorry, Layna, I didn't really think about it. I'll-I'll try not to do it again, but I didn't think you'd still be following me. It's not li—" Link quickly aborted his next statement as he saw Layna's eyes grow wider. She coughed and let out a dull moan. "No, no! Don't cry! I-I'm sorry!" Tears started falling down her face when she pressed her eyes shut. "I said I'm sorry, Layna! You don't have to cry!" Link stood up, causing Layna to stop her crying and watch him with sorrowful eyes. He gave her an apologetic smile. He reached one hand out, but then he thought about the consequences of actually touching her head. She stared at him, eyes still welled up as if waiting to throw a tantrum. That made him decide that he would rather risk dismemberment and gently placed his hand on top of her rust-red hair, careful not to pull any strands out of her ponytail.

To his surprise, she smiled and leaned closer to him. He chuckled to himself and told her, "You're a weird one. But I guess it's okay. I won't leave you alone like that again."