Chapter 17

"AUNTIE! AUNTIEEEEEE!"

I desperately ran after Diana in the rain, my niece being dragged away by a quartet of plague witches, all in pointed black hats and black robes. The Gatepost Town was in chaos; the Plague Witches – along with a horde of monsters and Voice maddened soldiers – had attacked it and its neighbouring towns before the sun even came up. Suddenly a black moblin, immensely strong, cut me off and I was left with no choice but to fight it; by the time its life had ended my dear niece was gone, kidnapped by those Ganon worshippers for who knew what reason. I was horrified.

"Diana! DIANA!" I hollered out for all to hear. No response...I grabbed the broadsword the moblin had been wielding and tried to run in the general direction the plague witches had been going, but I was blocked by a wall of monsters, plague witches, and mug soldiers. I desperately fought one after the other, but was slowly pushed towards Proxim Bridge...there were far too many of those abominations for me to take alone, and Link was stuck on another side of the towns fighting yet another horde with Kolomo Garrison's few remaining soldiers. I had no clue where Namib was...

Eventually I was cornered on the Proxim; a horde of bokoblins on the east side, mug soldiers and plague witches on the right. Jumping off the bridge would have almost certainly killed me this time...staying on the bridge would be equally unproductive...it appeared that all was lost; I was truly, utterly terrified. Suddenly, though...a booming ROAR split the air from the direction of town.

It...was Namib. He uttered a vile scream, echoing through the towns like a burst of thunder, as he ran towards me. He...had changed; his body now surrounded by a terrifying red aura, his eyes bright red, his hair now blood red and flowing, his demeanor feral. He began forcing his way through the crowd with magic – something I did not believe he had; he electrocuted some of his opponents, fried others with fire, froze still others, blew yet others into the river with gusts of wind (quickly lethal for bokoblins and moblins, neither of whom can swim). Most terrifyingly, though...when he reached me, he began emitting malice. MALICE. Like what Ganon does...the malice devoured many bokoblins and soldiers, leaving only their armor and equipment behind. Namib was in a trance, barely aware of what he was doing...it was terrifying. Eventually, when the hordes thinned enough for me to control them, I strenuously surrounded Namib with my own magic, cutting him off from his...at that point he woke up and reverted to normal.

"What...where...where am I?! What am I doing?!"

"What the hell was that all about, Namib?! Why didn't you bloody tell me you had magic?!" Before he could answer an all too familiar voice began to broadcast from the edge of the bridge...

"Namib's real identity has been revealed,

that which he tried to conceal!

'Namib' is but a surname!

For he too is a player in this antiquated game!" I whirled around to confront Dreemer.

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY NIECE, DREEMER?!"

"That is the least of your worries!

For the man you are courting is the king of fury!

GANONDORF NAMIB!

The king of the fib!

My rogue pupil of wretchedness!

The Heir to the Demon King!

Run you may, Namib,

but you shall never escape that fate given you

before you were ever in the crib!"

With that Dreemer burst into laughter and disappeared, at which point the remaining witches, soldiers, and monsters legged it away from the towns. Suddenly everything made sense...the magic, Namib's "inner darkness", the Deku Tree and the Master Sword's angst towards Namib...I murderously glared at Namib, feeling deeply betrayed.

"But...but...that...that was Dreemer...do ya...ya really believe him over me?!" I continued to stare furiously at Namib without uttering a single damn word...eventually he just ran, tail between his legs. As soon as Namib was out of sight...I fell to the ground and sobbed until I was too knackered to cry further. Link arrived a few minutes later and tried to comfort me as I cried, but he didn't have much luck...eventually...

"Barclaya...we need to find my daughter now...before anything happens to her! Please, take your horse and run those witches into the ground!" I looked up to see Horace, by brother in law, with a black mustache, black, somewhat balding hair, and slightly heavyset, having led "Devyn" to me as I mourned everything that had gone wrong that day.

"...alright. I WILL bring Diana back here alive, Horace...I promise." Link and I climbed aboard "Devyn" and booked it for Hyrule Castle. Link guided "Devyn" while I took aim at monsters and Voice maddened creeps who approached...the latter became more and more common as we approached the Castle until finally practically everyone we met who was not a plague witch (which also abounded near the castle) was one of those mug zombies. We hid "Devyn" in the ceremonial Sacred Grounds (a fountain to the south of the Castle Town) before we began to approach the Castle...on our way we ambushed two plague witches, knocked them out, and stole their ceremonial robes and hats so as to navigate my former hometown unnoticed.

Hyrule Castle Town is a semicircular town situated to the south of Hyrule Castle, which itself is a rectangular building with its rooms arranged in a clockwise pattern; from the entryway you reach the soldier's quarters (with a staircase leading to the dungeon and docks), followed by the barn, library, education ward, laboratory, kitchen, and finally both the sanctum (where the king/queen would normally preside) and stairs to the second floor (where all the bedrooms are). Logically Diana would be in the dungeon, right? Wrong...we started there and the dungeon was completely devoid of intelligent life. We checked the other rooms and, in spite of our best efforts, we did not find Diana...eventually only the sanctum and the upstairs were left. I used telepathy to explain my next plan to Link.

Link...at this point the only place we have not looked in is the bedrooms. Can you distract the guards while I check the bedrooms? Surely Dreemer is not going to be fooled by our disguise...Link agreed and went to the sanctum, at which point he quickly shed his plague witch hat and revealed himself.

"Has the Hero dared to come here?!

Well then...I'll teach you the meaning of FEAR!"

As Dreemer engaged Link in battle I hurried upstairs, checked all the bedrooms...my bedroom...Devyn's...my parent's...my other six brother's...Anastasia's...Diana was not to be found. I was absolutely bollocks.

What the hell did they do to my niece?!

I hurried downstairs to find Link being swarmed by Dreemer and dozens of lesser plague witches. I quickly struck a group of them with orbs of my magic, knocking them out and allowing Link to retreat...Dreemer suddenly flashed a psychotic grin when he saw me.

"Heh heh...Barclaya has arrived...TOO LATE. Diana is dead! Deader than dead! We followed you to the Gatepost Town to find her!" I was horrified...I just froze, jaw dropped. Link and even the lesser plague witches stopped in their tracks.

"BUT! Life and death differ little to my great lord Ganon...I have an offer for you, Barclaya; join us willingly and your niece's life will be hers once more..."

"NEVER! She'd rather be dead than that!" Dreemer scowled.

"What a selfish aunt you are...my minions, show these two what we do to such selfish miscreants..." Suddenly hordes of additional plague witches flooded the room. Link wanted to engage them...but I, too distraught by everything that had happened recently, just ran, and he reluctantly followed. We narrowly escaped the Castle Town before the gates were shut, rode "Devyn" overnight back to the Gatepost Town, and settled into the inn...the moment we got into the inn – now battered from the attack the day before – I broke down.

"DIANA'S GONE! NAMIB BETRAYED ME! WHY ME?!" Try Link might, he could not settle me down...eventually sleep overtook me...

Chapter 18

I spent the next few days too stunned to do anything useful...betrayed by my "beloved", my niece gone, my sister still MIA. It seemed that my entire journey up until then was for nowt...that I was as worthless as I thought I was; I caused Anastasia to take the journey that probably ended in her death, I was the one who pinpointed Diana's location for the Plague Witches to snatch her away, I was the one who allowed "Namib" to come with me...Linky tried so so so hard to settle me down, but he was at a loss how to help me.

Three days after returning to the Gatepost Town, I was sitting against a building, head between my knees, trying to pretend I was dead, that I was no longer capable of feeling all the misery in my world...when someone suddenly grabbed me. My eyes flung open...

"Auntie...!" I...I did not have a word to say in reply. I just grabbed my niece and embraced her more tightly than I ever had before...

"DAUGHTER! DAUGHTER!" Horace yelled out before embracing us both in turn, followed by Link. "I thought we had lost you forever!" Everyone except Link was sobbing...it was drawing a crowd, many of whom were cheering at Diana's return.

"Simon...he...he saved my life..."

"Simon?" I asked curiously. I opened my eyes to see a scrawny, unkempt boy, not much older than Diana, with a royal broadsword strapped to his back. He looked depressed, uncomfortable...not particularly heroic.

"Are you Simon?" I was quick to inquire.

"Does it matter? I'm not big into being a celebrity, Your Highness..."

"It bloody matters to me! You saved my niece's life, boy!"

"All I did was save a pretty girl from those plague witches I hate. Anyone would have done that..."

"Come on, Simon, at least let Auntie say thank you!"

"Yes, please Simon...at least let us feed you lunch. It's the bloody least we can do to say thank you." Simon was very resistant to receiving any kind of reward, but eventually Diana convinced him to let us feed him. Link and Horace made some bread, tabantha mashed potatoes, and fish for us all, and we ate in the inn...Simon and Link seemed to get along rather well and were talking a lot; the rest of us (sans Diana) were struggling to get him to say anything.

"Simon...how did a scrawny little bloke like you save my niece from those wanker plague witches? I'm curious..." He did not answer me, so Diana spoke for him.

"It was awesome, Auntie...they were dragging me near a tree, intent on forcing me to become one of them, and he just sprung out of nowhere, scattered them with his sword, and then took me and ran. It felt like he was my knight from one of those love stories..." Simon was blushing bright red by the time she was done talking.

"Simon...thank you so much for saving my niece. When Link and I stormed Hyrule Castle looking for her those vile witches told us she was dead...we really believed them." Link then suggested that we should not spend another night in Gatepost lest the Plague Witches return looking for Diana.

"Ah, yes, good idea, Hero!" Horace replied. "Do you think Little Lorule would accept us?" Link believed as such, and before long we departed the Gatepost Town for Little Lorule, to much fanfare from the townsfolk. Simon opted to come with us purely to stay with Diana...he said she's the first friend he's had in a long time. We reached Little Lorule quite late and soon met with Peggle...I explained our situation to him.

"Are ya telling me ya are the Princess, Petra?!" he was quick to ask me.

"Positive. The Plague Witches tried to abduct my niece Zelda Diana here a few days ago...the Gatepost Town is no longer safe for her. She and my brother in law need a place to stay until everything settles down." Peggle held his hand over his chin...

"We actually have a couple tents available near mine...we will set ya all up right away! By the way...where is Namib?"

"Don't know, don't care!" I did not tell Peggle why...before long we were using three tents, one for me, one for Horace and Diana, one for Link and Simon. I fell asleep easily enough...only to be rudely awakened by Simon. He was SOBBING around midnight, inconsolably...

"FATHER, STOP! STOOOPPPP!" Link could not seem to settle him down. I was too tired to think and just rudely told him; "Suck it up, we're all trying to sleep!" Diana was more considerate...she put her hand on his shoulder and spoke to him in the softest, almost motherly tone of voice out of character with her youth.

"Simon...what's wrong?" Simon eventually calmed down enough to tell her.

"Father...four stupid years ago...he was a royal guard...he...he listened to that stupid Voice...killed my mother...my two sisters...then...then took his own life...now it's only me! Due to that idiot!" Suddenly Simon's cold, disagreeable shell made a lot of sense...Diana just held him tightly for a while and he reciprocated as he continued balling his eyes out. Diana has inherited her mother's extraordinary capacity for sympathy, a quality which I really struggle with.

Eventually Simon calmed down enough to talk further. "I...I was powerless to stop father...from murdering my family before my eyes...on this sword that is now strapped on my back...when he was finally dead...I took that sword...and swore up and down that I'd take revenge on those stupid plague witches...I am not resting until each and every one of them is dead...deader than dead! On this foul blade!"

"Simon...I...I'm sorry...I'm not sure what to say...Ganon killed my mom, so I...I can understand...how you feel..." Now Diana was starting to cry...I was not far from tears myself. Link warned Simon that such strong hatred could make him just like the Plague Witches he hates and suggested that his energy would be better spent protecting those he has left...

"It's just me, Hero...what do I have left?"

"Me!" Simon took a moment to process Diana's outburst...

"...you're right, Princess...I do have something left. You..." He embraced her tightly, then turned to Link to ask; "Hero...can you teach me...how to protect her?" Link smiled and agreed to teach him in the morning...finally we all settled down and hit the hay.