Chapter 71: Last Rites
Rauru's face slammed against the stone floor of the temple. Pain erupted from his cheek and chin until it overwhelmed his whole body. His vision blurred as the Gerudo warrior pressed him against the ground. She had attacked him. It took a moment for the concept to take hold. Someone truly hit him. With the intent to hurt him. He could not remember a time when anyone ever so much as threatened him, much less struck him. As a boy, he had avoided the rough horseplay of other children. And watching his father's bloody work in the butcher shop made him sick. Had he ever been in a fight?
But here he was, panting for breath. On the floor. Half certain he let out a rather pathetic gasp when he landed on the ground. He was in a fight. A Gerudo warrior struck him. Within one of the most holy sites in all the world. A terrible sacrilege. How would one even punish such an act?
A knee pressed into his back and his arms pulled back far past the point his old bones could bend. Another gasp of weakness escaped him.
His blurred vision returned, just in time to watch helplessly as the King of the Gerudo swatted aside Navi the fairy and walked into the Sacred Realm in triumph.
Rauru opened his mouth to say something, but he only could taste the iron of his blood. Even if he could speak, what was there to say? No words could describe the depth of his failure. For thousands of years the Temple of Time guarded the Sacred Realm and the power contained within. Generations of priests dedicated their lives to maintaining the temple, safeguarding the secrets of the past. Preparing every one of them for this day, the day that the Chosen would reveal themselves. And all his preparation, all his training had been for nothing.
The Gerudo King brushed aside his magic as easily as swatting a fly. A spell Rauru had once been so proud of, that he had hoped would be all he would ever need to defend his temple. Binds of golden light that no mortal power could destroy, and yet, Ganondorf broke the unbreakable. And before he could even think of what else to try, he had already lost. Rauru never imagined in his darkest dreams that this would be the end of things. The fate of the world not decided by his magic, nor his knowledge, nor his faith, but his inability to act after being struck.
The Goddesses must be so ashamed of him.
The Gerudo warrior got off him, grabbed him by the front of his robes and pulled him to his feet. "Listen to me, priest," she said as she grabbed a sword and pointed it at him. "I've fought beside my king for several years. I know what it looks like when he prepares to cast a spell. You so much as twitch in a way I don't like I will run you through. Now, I don't much want to do that. And I'm certain you don't want that either. So, you are going to stay absolutely still."
Though she spoke, and Rauru could understand each word, somehow their meaning didn't reach him. She had attacked him. And he lost.
As a young acolyte, he had dreamed that he would be the one to guide the Chosen to the divine. But he never believed it would be him. In truth he never wanted it to be him. Let others come after him to live in important times. Let heroes write their names in the annals of history. All he wanted was to help, to be a footnote. After Father Hinton passed the position of High Priest was passed to his faithful assistant Father Rauru who did his duty for forty years and was remembered fondly. That's all he wished his legacy to be.
He could never live up to the challenges of gods and the great chances of the world. No matter how he practiced, how he prayed, how well learned he became, he was still only the son of a butcher who happened to pick up a talent for reading and praying. He happened to draw the attention of the last High Priest of Time. He was not a lord, nor the descendant of an honored prophet, nor of the lineage of a hero. No one important, he never should have been anyone important.
Just a priest. That's all he wanted to be, a good priest.
"You hear me, priest?" The Gerudo slapped him in the face, and another spike of pain tore through him. "He's out of it. Here, give me a gag and rope."
"No," rasped another of the Gerudo. This one a heavy-set woman with a cane in one hand and a dagger in the other. "I like to hear them beg as we cut them."
"This one knows magic," the one that slapped him said. "And we're in a temple. We're not going to cut them."
"You do not order me what I will or won't do." The woman leaned down to look Rauru in the eyes, when he tried to look away, she grabbed him with the same hand she held the knife. The flat of the blade pressed into his cheek, but it was her grip that hurt him. He had no choice but to stare into the eyes of furious madness. "During the war I burned down temples like this one all across the kingdom. Used to lock the priests inside as I set the flames, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. They burned as hot as anyone else. Screamed just as loud. How loud will you scream, I wonder?"
Still clutching him, she rolled her hand across his jaw and with it turned the knife. The edge of the blade cut into him, hot blood dripped from the wound down his cheek and into his mustache. Rauru groaned as it dripped over his split lip and into his mouth. All while the woman's leer grew wider.
"Enough of that," the one that tackled him said. "You won't be burning any of these lot. They're our prisoners. They fought, it finished quick I'll admit, but they didn't surrender while they had some fight left in them. That earns them their lives, that's Gan's way."
"He'll make an exception for these three," the older one laughed. "Especially the princess. There's no saving her, that I guarantee you." Her grip loosened as she turned to the other prisoners. "Hear that brat? Tonight, you die. Maybe I'll place your head next to your father's? You'll decorate our new castle gate. As pretty as you are, I bet you'll be all the prettier when no one has to listen to you prattle."
Finally able to move his head, Rauru looked to the princess and Lady Impa. Both of them slouched at the base of the stairs, already bound in ropes. Their hands tied and the princess gagged. The last of the three Gerudo stood behind them both, finishing their binds and prodding them with the edge of her sword. "I'm sorry," he said to the child. "I should have-"
"Found your wits?" The old Gerudo whirled back to him, and her grip retightened. "Begging are you?"
She wrenched his gaze away from Zelda. But she could still hear him. "I should have been better. I trusted the protection of this sanctum, when I should have trusted your wisdom."
The woman struck him in the stomach with her cane and threw him to the floor. He sputtered and coughed as he fought once more to breathe.
"Pathetic, the lot of them. Can't even beg well. Let's finish this quick, Makeela go slit the princess's throat."
"I told you we're not doing that. At least not until Ganondorf returns."
As the pair bickered, Rauru turned his face away from them. He whispered the words of power for his greatest spells. But it did him no good. His hours healing the wounded had taken its toll, and when King Dragmire shattered his spell, it broke what power he had left. Perhaps if he could reach the artifacts, he could use one of them to channel his spells. But there was no way he could reach them before the Gerudo stabbed him as he fled.
He shut his eyes and whispered. "Golden Three, please forgive me. Nayru I have been foolish, ignoring the dangers of the world. Farore my courage has faltered; I am afraid of these women and what they will do. Din I am… weak. Please, blessed ones do not abandon me, even though I have failed you."
The Goddesses did not answer. Even with the Sacred Realm open before him, no divine retribution came forth. No holy word to wipe the temple clean. No judgment to punish the wicked. No sign. Nothing.
It never should have been him. Of course, the Goddesses wouldn't listen to him. What had he done to prove himself worthy? It should have been the fierce Father Gisrolb, who kept the temple safe during the burning of Castle Town. Or the legendary Mother Minra, the Grand Collector whose knowledge of magic knew no rival. Or even his own teacher, Father Hinton. There had been a wise and mighty scholar, with the conviction to act, whatever was required of him. All the qualities Rauru only played at.
Anyone but him.
A tingling energy started at his cheek and flowed through his entire body. At first a trickle, but it flowed deeper and deeper until he felt as if one of his own students offered him their magic. He opened his eyes and saw a faint blue light just before him.
"Make use of it," the fairy said, as she climbed up his face and nestled by his shoulder. Pressing little hands to his neck, and through her touch, Rauru's strength returned.
"You start begging?" The elder Gerudo laughed. "Speak up, I don't want to miss it. Let's hear you pray for your gods to smite me down. That's what you were doing, eh? That I should fall over and die? Or are you more creative. Got a way you want me to go, specifically? There was one that prayed I'd burn in holy fire. But no fire ever came. Well, except my own." She took him by the shoulder and pulled him back to his feet.
Rauru breathed deep and called the power to him. Forming it within him before he spread his hands and fingers wide. Chains of light swirled through the air. Shackles formed around the two Gerudo nearest him. Their hands, arms, ankles all surrounded in shimmering gold. The chains went tight, pulling the two of them into the air.
The younger of the two roared and struggled against the binds. The old Gerudo chief howled. "The princess! Kill the princess!"
"Nayru!" Rauru called upon spells he had never dared to use. Decades ago, his teacher Father Hinton warned him of these spells, only daring to teach him the form but never asked him to cast them. Rauru hoped he never would have the need, and since he had almost forgotten them to the dim parts at the back of his mind. "Let your love protect those in peril!"
The unbound Gerudo swung her sword down at the bound princess. The girl's eyes wide in pure terror. With her gag, unable to even scream.
The blade stopped a finger's width away from the back of the girl's head. Stopped by a gleaming blue light. The warrior struck again, and with each attempt the blade only rang against the blue shield that surrounded Zelda.
Lady Impa freed her hands from the binds. She stood, a long-bladed knife in her hand as she moved to strike the Gerudo. Rauru was no warrior, but a dagger did not seem like much a weapon against a sword.
"Farore!" Rauru called. "Let your winds carry the meek to safety!"
A swirling green gale encompassed the Sheikah, the princess, and the Golden Harp of Hylia that laid at her feet. For a moment Rauru saw the princess reach toward him, tears dripping down her face, before the billowing covered her. As quick as it came, the winds dispersed. The princess and her guardian were gone.
The Gerudo chief's screams sent shivers down Rauru's spine. There were no words there, or meaning, beyond a rabid feral howl for blood.
The other chained Gerudo still shouted orders. "Forget the princess! Get the priest! Don't let him talk!"
The last of the Gerudo warriors advanced on Rauru. He backed away struggling to come up with some more energy to cast his spells. But there was nothing left. No matter how he dug he could not find enough magic within him to even light a candle much less face a trained warrior. But this had been a proper end. He saved the princess, and from her there was hope that Hyrule would not fall. Not completely. Not tonight.
But once more, a little voice whispered in his ear. "For Link."
A final surge of energy burst through him before the fairy's hands slipped and the fairy collapse on his shoulder. But all she gave had been enough for one spell. The most destructive one he knew. "Din!" He shouted. "Let your flame burn away the unrighteous!"
"Stop him! Throw your sword!" the chained Gerudo yelled before he finished the spell.
Fire.
Screeching.
Heat.
So intense Rauru feared he miscast the spell and his own body became the kindling. Flame so bright all he could see was reds and yellows and searing white. It lasted only a moment, but when the fires died and Rauru saw what he wrought he wished for the flames to return. All that remained of his assailants were two charred corpses still hanging from golden chains, the last could not even be called a corpse, just scattered ashes strewn across the floor.
"I – I – I –," he collapsed. Why couldn't he breathe? No, he was breathing. Huge gulping breaths that did nothing but cause spurts of pain through his chest. His heart pounded louder and faster than when he feared being killed. He tried to clutch at his chest, but his trembling limbs hardly moved. Nothing would stop shaking.
"Rauru?" The little blue light climbed up his shoulder onto his chest. Her wings flapped, but weak and slow.
"I never - I-" He whispered through heaving breathes and clattering teeth. "I'm a priest." He turned from the two corpses hanging from golden chains, only to realize his feet scraping the ashes of the third. He pulled his legs back to his chest, leaving streaks of black dust.
"I know," the fairy said. "Look at me. Watch my light, try to match your breathing with me." Her faint blue light grew brighter, deeper held it for a moment before dimming lower than when she started.
"Breathe in," he told himself as the fairy's light grew again. Just as he instructed all his students. Just as his master instructed him. Focus on your breathing. Go slow. Be precise. Calm down. "Breathe out."
The patient fairy stayed with him, lighting and dimming herself a dozen times or more before his heart slowed down, and his lungs stopped aching. Even when his breathing returned to normal, it took even longer for his arms to stop shaking. "Thank you, gentle Navi."
"Those spells, I've never seen anything like that. Where did you send them?"
"In truth, I do not know. But away from here, where they should be safe. What of you? Can you fly? Can you find safety yourself?"
"No. Not until I rest near some powerful magic. And even after, I wouldn't go," the fairy shifted about, so she looked toward the wall of black flame and the Door that stood behind it. "I won't leave him again."
"I can't promise he is safe."
"He's alive," the fairy's voice left no room for argument. "I can feel him. He is… near, and yet so far. I can't explain it."
Rauru nodded and scooped the blue light into his hands before he got to his feet. Careful not to disturb the dead. "I have an idea. But it may be hard for you."
"I'll suffer through it."
Rauru could only shake his head and marvel at her. Accepting without question, without hesitation. Heroes all of them. The princess, the boy, the Needle, and now the fairy. They were the ones that these difficult times needed. He would do his best to live up to them. He carried her away from the smell of burnt flesh, and the sickening feel of ash in the air. Into the furthest part of the temple and the vault where all the greatest magical treasures of the realm were stored.
She gasped as they entered. Moving to the tip of his thumb to get a better look at the arrangement of artifacts.
"This is incredible."
"Will this sustain you?"
"For years."
"Let's hope it will not take that long." Rauru carried her past the dread mask and the cape of roc's feathers to the silvered bow. He placed his hand beside it and let the fairy crawl from his thumb to the weapon. "Whatever happens, King Dragmire must not find any of these. Should he return and discover you, you must be willing to destroy them all. Is that within your power?"
"I think."
"That is not good enough, Navi. This is not the time for modesty. Can you destroy them?"
"I can absorb the magic from them, render them useless. I can… I can start a small fire on the books. Not like the one you made, but it should work."
"That will have to do." He picked up one of the weaker of the times, a small wand with a polished red stone at its tip, meant to ease the creation of illusions. It would have to do. "I'm going to seal the room, hopefully no one will be able to find it. For you, this will be a simple door. But do not open it unless your boy returns. Once you do, my spells will no longer work."
"I understand."
"Then I pass my charge onto you. My final duty, guard these so that they cannot be used for evil. The realm may fall tonight, but its people remain. And these must not be used against them."
"They won't be."
"Then, I can only wish you well. May the Goddesses ease your suffering. And may Link return to you unharmed." He closed the door.
Once he could no longer be seen he pressed his forehead to the door and took a deep breath. Goddesses guide my hand.
Straightening, he raised his wand and began to weave the spells into being. The wand could make simple illusions with ease, but he needed something more powerful. Deeper and stronger than a glamour.
He released the wands magic in small bursts to shape what he wanted from it. First, he bound an enchantment around the door so that it could only be opened from within. Then he used the wand as a stylus and etched magic runes of protection onto the door and nearby walls. Making them as sturdy as Goron steel, so no axe nor sword could ever pierce them. Charms to divert any attempts to scry within the walls so they revealed nothing but dirt and stone. Every protection he could think of, until the wand was near spent. Then last, he used the wand for its intended purpose and spread the image of a simple wall across the door.
Until there was only one last thing that could reveal the secret entrance.
He walked back to the portal to the Sacred Realm, and once more looked over his handiwork strewn across the room. If only there had been another way. A way to save the princess without these murders weighing upon him. But there was no changing that now.
Or was there? One final temptation, he supposed. Call upon the most dangerous of spells himself. Just as he told all his students to never do. Perform the Song of Time and rewrite all his past mistakes. But that was more a dream than an actual option. None of the greatest mages in history had ever truly mastered the spell. Some few had been lucky a handful of times. But every story of a mage shaping time itself with their magic ended one way: with untold damage.
There was no harm in dreaming of some perfect world where your mistakes never happened, where you could right every wrong. But that is not the real world. That was not what it meant to be alive. All you could do is try to be the best person you can be in the time you dwell. Sins and all.
He snapped the wand in half and tossed it into the black fire. It sizzled to a crisp, consuming its magic and destroying any last hope of that magic could fix all the wrongs he beheld.
Those three deepest mistakes he could not return to life or change their stories. But he could do his best. For however little it would matter, he could not leave them. He would not let his last act be that of a killer.
He moved to one of the shackled corpses, he took hold of her charred flesh before he dispersed the magic that held her upright.
Her body was light, far too light to be a full person. And yet the weight of her felt heavier than any Rauru had held. He laid the body upon the ground. He found an ash covered and heat warped sword and placed it over her chest. That was how he buried knights, perhaps among the Gerudo they did the same.
"You were named Makeela. I do not know all the rites of your people. I understand that your funerals involve singing. I am sadly not much a singer. Nor do I know the proper songs. But I can only say, you seemed a loyal warrior. May you be judged by the nobility of your intentions rather than the destruction you have caused. I am sorry you now will never have the chance to learn from any mistakes you have made. Be at peace."
Next he released the war chief among them. Laid her out the same and put the dagger over her. He tried to do the same with the remains of her cane, but it still smoldered from Din's Fire. "I did not know your name, but I listened when you spoke. I do not know what horrors you experienced that led you to become the woman you turned into. What terrors in war, what miserable influences turned your heart to hatred. But may your rage be quenched in death, and whatever comes from your soul in the next life be given a new start. Be at peace."
And last he went to the ash that no longer even bore the shape of a person. He sat down beside It and lowered his head. "Of you I have no name, nor words. I know you followed an evil master, but not the choices that led you to them. I hope that your end was painless. I do not know if any who find us will even recognize you as a person to sing over. Please accept this song for you, it is the best I can do."
He cleared his throat and thought to the first funeral he ever officiated. The first child he'd sat at her bedside trying to heal though none of his magics worked. He thought of this last day, of trying his best to keep all who sought him safe. He had never been much of a singer, but he had led songs of prayer for most of his life.
On this night, on this night
When wind whiffs out the candle's flame
Unknown dark thy fear unkind
On this night, on this night
Fear not the lands in shadows lay
For mercy thou wilt find
Love shall guide thee
To bed and rest thy weary mind
Love shall guide thee
To a land evil shalt ne'er bind
He stopped before the next verse, it mentioned Hylia more directly and he thought that perhaps the souls of these Gerudo would not appreciate having her name sung over them. He rose to his feet. "I hope the three of you find peace."
He did not hear the man return through the Door of Time. He did not know how long he had been there. But once his last words were done he knew that he was no longer alone. He turned to face the doom of Hyrule. The black fire no longer sealed the Door of Time. But the realm of light was nothing next to the figure that stood before him. Rage etched on his face, and his right hand bearing the symbol of the Three and their Chosen.
"Who did this?" The man went to the first of the corpses, the one called Makeela.
"Only me."
"And where is the Princess?" the monster snarled.
"Somewhere safe."
"Don't be so self-satisfied, you have not won."
"Do I look satisfied to you?" Rauru sighed. "The kingdom is yours. I cannot stop you. But some day, someone will."
The Last of the Chosen raised his sword, and all Rauru could do was bow his head, and whisper one last prayer to the Three. Hoping that what he had done was enough.