I'm sorry for not posting anything in ages... That happened because the wifi protection thingy wouldn't let me use Fanfiction, I got distracted, there was a lot of homework to deal with, general school stuff, computer problems, Christmas, lack of related ideas, and my own general laziness due to everything else. I'll try to stick to the schedule from now on... Sorry again. So,

in the last chapter...

Due to Link's inability to swim, Link and Ezlo headed to Castor Wilds, a very dangerous swamp, for the third element. Along the way, Link and Ezlo felt Vaati's powerful magic waves coming from Hyrule Castle- what was the purple sorcerer up to now? There, Link quickly made it clear that getting across it without a pair of pegasus boots was not an option. So, the two of them went to a shoe store, then to a witch's hut to get a smelly mushroom, then back to the shoe store to wake up the shoe store owner, getting the pegasus boots and heading back to the swamp. There, Link and Ezlo met a little snake called Venom, who if anything was more innocent than Link was! With Venom's help, Link and Ezlo managed to find their way to the hidden Wind Ruins, where Link blew up a living statue and a nice minish let them all stay for the night. At long last, Link was able to have a good night's sleep, though as Ezlo closed his eyes, he was certain he saw a younger Vaati sleeping in the room as well...

Chapter 13: Playing King

Vaati was fast asleep at the top of Mount Crenel. The monsters, being monsters, had reappeared overnight and one -a red, four-legged bug-like monster with one eye and a lot of spiky teeth in the mouth on its underside- jumped right up on top of Vaati's head and bit it, teeth sinking past the hat and hair and just about pinching Vaati's scalp... a little.

"Ow!" said Vaati, bolting awake to see the peaceful mountain now covered in monsters. Vaati recognised them as tektites, spiny beetles and chu-chus. Vaati, now in a very grumpy mood, grabbed the tektite on his head, carefully yanked it off -to no harm to his hair or hat- and aggressively threw it off the mountainside before sending a few mini-cyclones at the the other monsters. Thanks to this, many of them were sent pummelling off the other side of mountain and out of Hyrule (where they would cause much more trouble in the later parts of Hyrule's history) like that first tektite. Vaati easily defeated the remaining few using a spray of compressed wind bullets, which each made the monsters disappear in a collective batch of white smoke. By the time it cleared up, not a single monster remained on that mountain top.

Vaati's mood was now better -sort of- so he calmed down a bit before teleporting straight to Hyrule Castle, in order to finally use his plan to use the soldiers of Hyrule to find the light force, and do a bit of searching around himself.

By 'teleport', I mean split himself into a load of teeny-weeny black molecules and then sped to his destination through walls, trees, and anything else in his way faster than the speed of light and reformed where he wanted to go- the throne room of Hyrule Castle.

In front of him now was the king, sitting a little way away on his throne, in deep thought.

"Hmm? Who's there?!" Called the king, before he looked ahead of him and spotted Vaati. "Vaati! How did you get in here!?"

Vaati said nothing, instead splitting himself and rushing straight to the king, stopping just in front of him. He raised his arms, letting powerful magic flow through him, true Ancient Magic that Ezlo had always gone on about not messing with it. This happened to be a type of possession magic which lasted a lot longer than a mere ten seconds. This was consciousness bonding, in which Vaati's spirt would enter the spiritual consciousness of the target and Vaati's body would dissipate into black molecules which would just float around doing nothing for the time being, his own consciousness temporarily being the target's.

"Uhn..." groaned the king, clutching his head. "What are you doing?!"

("Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!") laughed Vaati within the king's consciousness. From there, he was able to control the king's body through his own spiritual form. He flexed the king's fingers a bit before calling the soldiers of Hyrule and Minister Potho. Once they were all there, in the most 'official' sounding way he could think up, he announced, "It looks like you're all here. Very well. The king of Hyrule has words for you." -he did, but more along the lines of 'Help! Vaati's controlling my mind!' than- "You all know of the power of the Picori gave to mankind, do you not? The Golden Light Force of incredible magical power... I want it! It is somewhere underground here in Hyrule! Go now, and bring me it's power!"

The soldiers all seemed confused about what Vaati was saying using the king's voice.

"Waste no time! Go forth at once, and bring me the light force! Fling anyone who refuses into the dungeon! Him and his family, too! I will tolerate no disobedience! Now, search everywhere throughout the lands of Hyrule!" Yes, that sounded EXACTLY what Vaati imagined a king would be like. The soldiers all left without a word.

Minister Potho nervously asked, "Are you okay, your majesty? You're not acting like yourself today..."

"I feel perfectly fine." replied Vaati using the king's voice.

"Right. Well, with all due respect, your majesty, why did you send the soldiers off to look for the light force? Surely, at least someone should try and find Vaati..."

"I have my reasons." replied Vaati, being careful not to give away the truth by accident.

"I shall respect your decision, then." said Minister Potho. "Right... now remember that very important paperwork you need to do in your office." He then walked out of the room.

Vaati quickly found that he could see properly through the king's undamaged eyes, and that he could scan through the king's memories, similar to what he'd done with Siroc. However, in doing so, the king might just see some of his memories... but that would be of no consequence. He scanned through the king's memories and quickly discovered that yes, these would be very useful in understanding the politics involved with being the king.

Vaati left the throne room and walked down a corridor, remembering the way to the king's office. The king's body felt a bit... stiff. Heavy, like he was wearing thick, lumpy armour. Since the possession was reversible, the king's body was not moving as naturally as Vaati could move his own, and this would take a bit of getting used to. However, it was an upside to be able to see through both eyes again.

He quickly mastered breathing, then walking, then arm movement, then other kinds of movement. He tried to do it when nobody was looking so that none of the people going around the castle would notice. Possession is far from a simple matter, and can have nasty side effects, which is why most possession spells only last about ten seconds at most. One particular problem would be the home spirit, the king in this case, fighting for control. This would be very bothersome in the near future...

Having done a lot of research on powerful spells and how to use them without accidentally messing up your or someone else's natural balance and causing havoc, Vaati knew what he was doing. He thought about how he had been struggling to bring out his own potential- partly because Ezlo was always 'far too busy' to bother teaching HIM, partly because of his own low self-confididence, and partly because there was hardly any space to practice in which didn't involve Ezlo's oh-so-precious furniture or something Vaati used to be afraid of... which was pretty much everything back then, but he'd grown out of them -no thanks to Ezlo, who'd gone on about them being silly and whatever-it-was was harmless even though most of those things were actually dangerous- and a few more were eliminated from the moment he first put on that hat.

Once Vaati found the office, he saw that it was actually a rather cosy-looking room, with a desk and chair in the middle. On the desk was a neat pile of papers and a pen. He sat down on the chair and looked at the papers, most of which were boring-seeming important decisions, laws and things like that, some of which were invitations to birthday celebrations to Zelda. One was a letter from a... Milly Lisan? Asking to join Hyrule's Royal Army as a recruit?

(Where have I heard that last name before..?) thought Vaati, looking at Milly's letter.

"...First, we have Mira Lisan, who has just returned from her training at Mount Crenel!"

"Nobody, least of all YOU, is going to stop me winning that sword for my sister!"

(Her SISTER!) thought Vaati, (What were the odds? Well... looks like I know how to do something in the king's shoes...)

With that, he wrote an acceptance letter in the king's handwriting to send to Milly. After that, he quickly figured out how to fill in all the other papers, then picked up another piece of paper from the top of the pile and looked at it. This one was about some new law about safety and horse restraints. Vaati didn't like the sound of it so he crumpled it up and threw it in a nearby bin.

So he continued looking at the papers, the king's political memories, and forming his own opinions as to how things should work around here. Actually, Vaati was reminded of homework as he sorted through the papers, and of all those silly questionnaires Ezlo had made to try and distract him from his magic books and said homework. It had never worked.

Seven-year-old Vaati sat down in Ezlo's living room and did his homework from school.

It had been a great distraction from real life, and it would have helped him at the end of it. Most kids saw it as boring, but Vaati had seen it as a chance to prove himself.

To do so well that they would have to finally stop ignoring his existence and recognise that he had been there, learning stuff like everyone else.

However, they had never really seemed to respond. As if they had never even looked at Vaati's overdone work.

Vaati shook the king's head. No, he had to stop doing that! The past had made him who he was now, but he had to move away from it now. Now was not the time to get distracted. He had to get this paperwork done to the best of his ability -after all, he didn't want Hyrule to fall apart- as soon as possible so that he could get exploring and see if anything around here to the light force. As the king, he could explore much easier and no-one would question him. Unless they wanted a trip to the dungeon.

The wayward sorcerer slow-ly smiled, and an almost demonic look came over the king's face for a moment. As the king, Vaati had power. Vaati could make people acknowledge him, accept him. A new idea popped into Vaati's head. With the light force, he could rule Hyrule, couldn't he? No-one could stop him. Once he had it, he could do anything... Anything at all... Anything he wanted... Vaati doubled his efforts to understand the politics involved with the paperwork, and soon after it was all sorted and done. Vaati peered into another of the king's memories.

King Daltus called Minister Potho into the office. His well-trusted minister would know how to take care of the rest. Now, it was time for a much-needed nap. The King went through a couple of flights of stairs, reaching his personal chamber- the one no-one but him was allowed to enter without his permission.

Ahh, so that was what he did with the documents. Vaati called Minister Potho over. He left the minister to sort it out and set off to continue his search for the light force. There were plenty of parts of the castle he hadn't searched yet, after all. He decided to start with the king's personal chamber. As he made the king's body walk down a red corridor, Vaati suddenly heard the actual king's voice echoing from his consciousness.

("Vaati! Why are you doing this? What are you up to?!") Yelled King Daltus.

("It's nothing you would care about.") replied Vaati through his thoughts, trying to block the king out.

("I will not stand for this, Vaati!") Shouted King Daltus, ("I will stop you!")

("Please, keep the threatening to a minimum, I'm busy.") Stated Vaati, yawning before closing the king's eyes and opening the eyes of his own spiritual form.

Laid out around him was the consciousness, a blank, empty place where one could see with no light. Vaati's spirit form was exactly like his regular form, as was the king's, except that -as the body was harmed, not the sprit- he could see through both eyes, 'hair' in the way or not. This was due to Vaati's way of thinking, the way he saw things as they were and therefore did not imagine much else in the consciousness... and that happened to be because Vaati was the one in charge of the king's body at the moment, his own in a kind of stasis.

King Daltus was right in front of him, looking very much cross. Now this, this was a tricky situation. Killing the king was out of the question for a number of reasons, including Vaati not really being totally evil, the king dying causing natural balance problems, and a number of very nasty side-effects. Turning him into stone was impossible due to King Daltus being in a spiritual form- such does not turn to stone. The best Vaati could risk doing was to knock him out and hope he didn't bother him later.

The king drew a sword and ran towards Vaati, who leaped into the air and sent storm bolts -compressed electrified wind bolts, each one equivalent to a teeny-tiny storm- in a curved arc around the king, who tried to slash them but got electrified in the process, just as Vaati quickly drew a magical sword of his own and sent the hilt of the violet blade bonking King Daltus's head at a high speed. Vaati let his magic dissipate as the king fell to the ground, knocked out. Obviously he'd be back and kicking, but for now Vaati was in full control.

Vaati closed his spirt eyes and opened the king's eyes again. Controlling the king's body, he walked through all the red corridors and red staircases to reach the king's private chamber... which was also mainly red. There was a large bed to one side, and a wardrobe filled with outfits next to a window, which had grand red curtains with gold patterns across it. There was a door to the other side which led to a bathroom which worked using all the interesting human 'pipes' and 'taps' and all the rest of it. To the back side of the room, there was a large bookshelf, which was filled with books.

After looking around a bit, he started looking around for clues that could lead him to the light force. So far, all he knew was that it was in a sacred underground place- which wasn't much to go on. Vaati began by checking the floor, the cupboard, and a few other places for secret panels, but there weren't any. He next rattled through the bookshelf to see if he could find anything useful, and while he did find quite a lot of interesting things... nothing even remotely related to the light force was found. Vaati sighed in annoyance.

Just then, there was a loud knocking on the door. "Excuse me, your majesty, but your lunch is ready." said a voice from outside. Vaati went over to the door and opened it, revealing a rather nervous-looking maid. He followed her to the dining hall, where some of Hyrule's top soldiers, some maids and Minister Potho were all sitting, waiting for 'the king' to make a few announcements before eating lunch. Vaati went to the king's seat.

"It is of the utmost importance to me that I receive the light force as soon as possible! Zelda is to be brought to my private chamber as soon as this meal is finished. No-one is to enter the castle unless they are part of the royal staff- whichever of Hyrule's soldiers which are not searching for the light force must guard the castle and make sure nobody else gets in, and if I find out that anyone has slacked off, they will be sent to the dungeons immediately! Now, by the blessings of the three golden goddesses, we may eat." Announced Vaati. That sounded proper and official enough.

Still, everyone there looked a bit unsettled. Vaati looked back to the lunch he'd witnessed here and thought that he might be doing something wrong. He was never a good actor after all; he knew that he was just doing what he would do if he were the king, not what the actual king would do. That seemed to be enough to make people believe he was the king... or at least to make them obey him.

There were several reasons as to why he wanted Zelda in the king's personal chamber, including wanting to keep an eye on her in case her power broke the spell and not wanting her to witness anything else he ordered people to do. He'd be long gone by the time these people found out he'd fixed Zelda, which would be after he'd found the light force. From there... Maybe he'd go explore the huge world beyond Mount Crenel, or perhaps play king a little longer. The possibilities would certainly be endless!

Once Vaati (who had not eaten a single bit of meat- it felt wrong to eat something you could talk to) and everyone else was done eating, they all went their separate ways- mainly to follow Vaati's orders. Vaati continued his search for the light force.

Outside the dining room, he passed those pictures of the king's ancestors, the king, and the one of Link and Zelda.

"The light force, or a clue to it, has to be around here somewhere..." muttered Vaati, "I should try searching the underground floors- I can begin doing this properly from down there."

He soon found himself in the throne room again, where a few people were helping ti very, very carefully move Zelda out of the room. Vaati could feel her mysterious power from here... Perhaps that power what what drew him to her- but that didn't explain Link. Vaati felt just as drawn to him as he was to her... What made them so special?

After watching the people leave the room, he put the king's hand in the king's coat pocket. Sure enough, Vaati's dimensional hole spell had made itself a new entrance as Vaati had essentially 'changed clothes', as the spell saw it. That was just how they worked. Vaati took the diary and pencil out when nobody was looking, sat down on the throne, wrote a diary entry for yesterday then this one for today:

'Age- 13 years old. Date- 21st of August, 307.

To whoever reads this thing,

I got a very rude awakening by a tektite this morning. Someone must have cleared them out, but monsters always come back due to the Cursed Spirit Theory. Well, the thing jumped right onto my head and BIT me. Trust me, that HURT! I cleared out all the monsters again with my newfound power, then teleported directly to the castle as planned. I also managed to possess the king using consciousness bonding. No doubt that kind of powerful stuff send a rebounding echo that any magician/sage/sorcerer/witch/wizard/general magic user worth their salt would be able to feel from a couple of miles away a couple of hours later! ...I wonder if Ezlo would be proud of me if I actually managed to remember everything. Probably not. He was never satisfied, but I digress. It took a bit of getting used to, but I am now fully in control of the king's body. Everyone thinks I'M the king thanks to the magic despite the fact that I'm a terrible actor. So far, I haven't found anything light-force-related here, but I believe I'm getting closer to it- apparently, it's at a sacred place below ground...-'

Suddenly, just as Vaati wrote that last sentence, something in Vaati's mind clicked- The Elemental Sanctuary! The sanctuary, the gateway between The Minish and Human Worlds, was a very sacred place indeed and from what Vaati remembered, it was indeed UNDERGROUND! How had he not thought of that sooner?! Vaati quickly wrote the rest of the diary entry-

'I just realised as I was writing this- The Elemental Sanctuary is both a sacred place and underground! The location really was under my nose this whole time. I will go there right now. This could be it...

-Vaati'

Once he'd written it, he ran to the sanctuary as fast as the king's legs would allow him to.

(Could this be it?) thought Vaati, (The key to the light force?)

Once he got there, the first thing he noticed was the powerful forces of Earth and Fire were within this room. Putting two and two together, Vaati quickly realised Link must have put them there- if he'd been carrying the Earth Element around then he'd have no problem with Fire. Just behind them was a stone tablet blocking the way forwards.

It was clearly a powerful stone, its message changing depending on the magical aura it was surrounded with. Vaati tried to break it anyway, cooking up the most destructive magic he could think of to try and break it, but at the end of the onslaught... Nothing was even scratched. Vaati should have thought as much, as it was protected by sacred power. After all, the sanctuary was directly between two dimensions. Now, the words on the tablet were written in Vaati's home dialect of minish. It read,

'Should you wish to reveal the true location of the light force, to must hone the sacred elements through the blade of the ancient legends.'

The sword. The SWORD?! To find the light force, Vaati would have to find THE SWORD first?! Then the elements, then fuse them all to get the sword fixed. According to his research, the elements were in the four most dangerous corners of Hyrule- the forest, the mountain, the swamp and the lake. But wait one itty-bitty second...

Two of the elements were already here, most likely brought over by Link! Now it suddenly made sense why that boy had been in such a hurry, who had cleared the monsters before Vaati got to Mount Crenel and even why Ezlo was tagging along with him!

(Link must be nothing short of incredible to have found and fused two of the elements in what, three and a half days?!) thought Vaati, (Ezlo would be of very little help, knowing the nature of that spell, so just HOW did he do it?!)

Well, that didn't really matter right now. The point was that Link would lead him right to the light force... all he had to do was wait, and Vaati was very good at waiting.