Chapter 27: Where the Seagull Lay Sleeping
Five days earlier.
Marin would do anything to escape her Fate.
Father had grown far more prone to illness and injury as of late. He could not hunt for rabbit and fox pelts or gather camouflaged mushrooms as he once had. The Lost Woods, too, had grown less bountiful in the past few years. Where they once provided a bounty, she now struggled to fill her basket. Each time she came to the Woods, she had to delve deeper and deeper into their murky depths. Each time, she was forced to take more risks. Follow the wind-blown torchlight through the fog to find a rare fox. Approach the most gnarly trees and hope that they did not see her for the single trussell nestled at the crook of their roots. Upon each outing, she fervently prayed that the Spirits of the Wood would keep her safe, her feet quiet, and her path true. They, her knife, and her bow, were all that could protect her now.
Father definitely couldn't. He had fallen ill once more while she had been out. The fever had returned, and his coughing and wheezing seemed unending. She'd asked Gillian to keep an eye on him when she'd gone foraging these past two weeks. But worse, he'd managed to speak with Mat when she'd been out in the Woods one day, and all but promised him her hand in marriage!
Tarin thought she'd be safe. Happy. Well cared for. No longer would she need to venture into the Lost Woods and risk her life for shrooms and furs. She knew Father meant well, but Marin would not wed that despicable man. She'd not be a prisoner in her own home. She'd not let her wings be so easily clipped. She knew what Mat was really like behind his honey sweetened words, his honest façade, even though Father, Gillian, and everyone else in the Village of Rauru had fallen for his charms.
So, she'd gone and done the one thing she'd promised Father she would never do. She'd gone to that ever-night forest to the north that had taken her mother. She'd gone chasing after the very same myth that had sealed her mother's own Fate. She had no other choice.
She'd either unearth the treasure said to be buried deep in its haunted dark depths, or become an undying Stalfos for trying.
For her own sake, she would not hesitate. A Stalfos was better than being wed.
/-/-/
When the whirlwind subsided, Nan spun about, glare aflame and whorls of light dancing above her fingertips. Her magic cast aside the curtains of everlasting darkness around them, thicker than the fog that had cloaked the village earlier that morning. The edges of her light flickered slightly as the darkness pushed back to reclaim their bubble of safety. Yet, the magic did not give way. It pressed down upon them, oppressive and pitch, yet Nan pushed back, a firefly against the night.
Linkle was impressed. Before, Nan hadn't really touched her magic. Barely acknowledged it even existed at all. She had poured herself into sword fighting instead, stubbornly refusing to focus on anything else even slightly related to her other talents.
It felt like Nan hated her best gifts, like a racehorse that dreamt of swimming, or a fish trying to fly. Nan was more like the former than latter. She could kinda fight good with swords and knives just like a stallion could sorta swim. But magic? That was where her friend shined. It came to her like breathin'.
Now though, Nan took those swirls of light and wove them into a thin, sharp blade with instinctive ease. A weapon that would do more than just wound their enemies, it would tear them apart like an arrow of light.
Just how do I know that? she thought, shaken. She hadn't used magical arrows or quarrels before. She'd only seen arrowheads carved with spells for fire or ice. Even then, poor soldiers like her weren't exactly allowed to train with them. I just…I don't get it.
Nan eyed their sparsely lit patch of underbrush and the surrounding dark forest with a grim sneer. "Where is that brat?"
"I don't think he's with us," Linkle whispered. Something about this musty forest made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "I don't see him–"
"Over here, over here!" called a voice from within the shadowy woods. For some strange reason, the voice didn't echo. This was supposed to be a forest, but the darkness around them seemed to smother such sounds. "I am not, I fear, much of a fighter, friends."
"Figures," Nan remarked, rolling her eyes.
"Unlike my fellow Sage," he said. Linkle gasped. Wait. Nan was a…that explained so much! "I will be useless in the Forest of Night. My true gifts are healing the mind, casting illusions, and creating shields. I can't carve the Forest into a knife."
Nan huffed, waving her blade of light before her and slicing through the shadows. "So you're useless."
"Contrary!" he all but cheered. Linkle watched as the wound in the darkness cut by Nan slowly seeped close. "I'm your ticket out of here."
Nan rolled her eyes again. "Great."
"Indeed I am!" Makar sounded from their left. He reminded her of one of those street corner conmen. "Glad am I that you, at long, long last–"
"Close your cluck," Linkle interrupted. Both Sages glared straight at her. She couldn't see Makar, but she just knew that he had turned his veiled eyes upon her.
By Farore's green bosom, this whole conversation reminded her of wrangling goats. If she didn't steer them, they'd never get outta here, and she wasn't interested in being yet another victim of this dark forest. You didn't let your goats headbutt you into the pen instead of them.
"Where's Marin?" she asked, hoping her voice made it through the thick darkness.
"Probably a Stalfos!" Makar said cheerfully, his voice now on her right. She started, but saw nothing but trees and pitch. "That's for you two to find out."
Linkle resisted the urge to glare at the voice. He'd probably moved on, anyway. "I wasn't talking to you."
"Oh. Well I'll be around then." His footsteps started to trail away. "Toodles!"
Nan shook her head, turning slightly, as if she knew where the Sage was. "No," she said firmly, "you're coming. We need a guide."
Linkle cocked her eyebrows at her friend. She had thought Nan too mulish or annoyed to want the Forest Spirit to come along with them. "You think he can help?"
"The sarcasm suits your friend better, Miss Hero," Makar said wryly, right behind her. Her heart skipped a beat. Hadn't he just been leaving a moment ago?
Linkle whirled on the spot. "I…I'm sorry, Mister Sage, it wasn't sarcastic," she said, even bowing on impulse. Nan gave her a flat look. She pouted. "Hey! It pays to be polite to your elders!"
Just because Nan couldn't bother to remember that they were knights in training, didn't mean that Linkle had. She still had good manners. Growing up in a little ol' country village didn't mean she'd been born in an actual barn.
"Elders?!"
Linkle winced. "Ummm. Right. Err…I mean...Sages!"
A breeze passed through the dark wood like a tired sigh, earthy and dank. "Why ya think I know this place, Miss Hero?"
"You kinda implied, back in your Woods, that you once could see it…"
The wind ruffled leaves in reply.
"Are you coming," Nan began, impatient, "or do I gotta go floosh, and make ya appear again?"
The Sage grumbled a curse about heartrot and worms, but stepped out of the dark forest. In his hand, he held a lamp, and with a spark of flint and a small belt knife, he lit it. His hands trembled with fear, but only slightly.
"My magic is antipathetic to fire. Can't use those spells," he said, hanging the lamp on the top of his staff. The berries on top jingled wearily. With a flick of his finger, both knife and flint disappeared into thin air, back into the ether from which they had sprung. He turned back to them, the pale orange glow made his green mask and pale skin look two shades off from sickly in the dim lamplight. "But I can make this easier. Put that thing away, Nan. It will hurt more than help."
The blade of light fizzled into sparks, then Nan drew the motes of magic back into herself. Despite that, the shadows did not grow closer with the absence of half of her almost ghostly light.
"No arguments?" he asked. The eye holes of his mask widened until they were almost touching. "No disperges? Disagreements? What's caught your tongue?"
"Almost thought you got a serious streak," Nan muttered. "So, what's your plan, Mak?"
He grinned, then with another flick of his fingers, drew in the shadows from under the trees. Nan yelped, but Linkle nodded. A small part of her felt like she'd seen this before. A memory of a memory, a murky hint of the distant past. Soon, those shadows engulfed them utterly and the same small part of her knew that they had become hidden like the Koroks, invisible except to those either with the will or power to see through their dark guise. The illusion shimmered dully as a faint green glow on the edge of their figures, but the magic didn't otherwise obscure their sight. On the contrary, she could see past Nan's sphere of light where silhouettes of gloomy trees slumped, and the grass leaves, and bushes seemed to glow dimly verdant in her sight, like the last dying embers in a campfire.
"Most monsters shouldn't see us," he said. Linkle caught herself with her jaw hanging open, and shut it with an audible click. "Just, ah, no chit chat. Don't balderdash."
"They can still hear us," Linkle said. "Got it."
The Sage shook a little. In fact, now that Linkle thought about it, he hadn't stopped shaking since he'd first appeared to them in this place. It hadn't been the fire or the lamp. He was, she realized, frankly terrified of what lurked within the dark beneath the trees.
"Sorry," Nan said, her voice having softened, much to Linkle's surprise. The look Nan shot Makar was truly apologetic. Nan took his staff from him, but when he opened his mouth to speak, she lifted a finger to her lips. "No chit chat. If something does spot us, we'll keep ya good and safe."
Linkle nodded, sitting a quarrel in her crossbow as Nan began to lead the way. "Cuz we're your friends."
The mask blinked, but the Sage made no further reply.
"Maybe," Nan popped that word a bit too loud…oh shit. "Oops."
Something in the darkness turned piercing crimson eyes upon them. A deep and terrifying keen erupted from the creature that had heard them. For a moment, all three stood stark still. Feet glued to the ground, cold terror frosting over them. As if bewitched, Linkle's limbs felt stiff and burdensome. The creature lumbered closer. Still, she could not so much as twitch a toe.
Its feet dragged against the damp ground. Heavy, rotten, reeking of hate and loam. Red eyes, like lanterns glowed in the night, trailing ghoulish light. With each breath, those eyes grew closer. With each breath, she felt its sharp fangs sink into the back of her neck, its arms wrapped around her in a deadly embrace. With each breath, she begged her limbs to move, but they would not budge.
Then it turned its head and ambled away.
As sudden as the spell had come, it shattered. All three of them immediately ducked behind an upturned tree, despite that Makar's illusion still protected them. A heartbeat later, they heard more pairs of shuffling feet in the dark. A groan soon followed. Others answered. Then, by some kind luck, the shuffling turned away and the moans grew softer, but never silent. Nan peeked over the log.
"More redeads," Nan whispered, rejoining the pair behind the log. Makar, now rolled into a ball, sat shivering. Linkle laid her hand on her crossbow, just in case she needed to shoot one of the dark figures in the chest. As long as they didn't see her, that was, and trap her in their spell again. Plus, it made her feel safe. Those things… Her heart still raced in her chest as though she'd just ran from a wild boar. "I thought…"
Makar shook his head, then covered his nose…or where it should be, if he wasn't wearing a mask. This baffled Linkle. The undead did stink, but…
"Can't smell, got it," Nan replied. With the back of his hand, Makar wiped perspiration from the top of his mask.
Then the other girl crawled out from behind the log. With wonder, Linkle watched Nan cross the field of broken and shattered columns patrolled by the undead. Nan, holding her breath, tiptoed past the lumbering forms. None stopped her. None so much as looked her way. When she made it to the far side, she gave them a thumbs up.
Linkle nodded, then turned towards the green haired Sage. "Ready?"
He trembled in reply.
"I'll go with you," she said, then grabbed his arm. "C'mon."
Something bright sparked in his hidden eyes. Recognition, she thought, but of what, she couldn't be certain. It was, however, enough to make him stand, then follow her without further prodding.
They crept through the throng of undead with relative ease, even if she wished her heart would quiet. Makar was remarkably silent. It seemed that the strange Forest Child didn't even need to hold his breath. When at last they joined Nan behind the fallen column where she had hid, Linkle drew in short, quick breaths, grateful to be far enough away that this didn't attract the dead.
"Where to?" Nan asked.
"Follow the bubble," he said. "Carefully. Don't get too close."
From behind a broken arch of square stone came a fluttering skull. It had the wings of a keese, the eyes of a demon, and was enveloped by the green flames of the undead. Like a raven coming to roost, it landed atop of the nearest cracked column, mere feet from their hiding spot. It turned left. It turned right. It then, finally, looked down, but instead of spotting the three figures hiding behind the fallen half of the large stone column, its fiery eyes slipped over them.
Then it took flight, and Nan took a deep breath and said, "Gods. I swear this place has a theme or–"
Only to have a face full of green bubble. The skull released a hideous crackle then plunged straight at Nan's voice, and Linkle could do nothing. Even with her crossbow loaded, she knew the quarrel wouldn't reach it in time. She knew it would knock it back a moment too late. And worse, her hands shook too much to aim straight. She was more likely to hit the Forest Child behind her than the mark before her.
Instead, Linkle closed her eyes. She didn't want to see her friend get hurt. She didn't want…to feel so powerless again. She couldn't…she still couldn't protect them!
Coward, she thought. …Just like the Sword Spirit said.
Then a burst of pure white Light all but blasted through her eyelids. A moment later when she opened her eyes, the bubble was gone, the other half of the column had completely evaporated, and Nan sat at the center of a shallow crater, blinking and dazed.
"You…you okay there, Naneth?" Linkle asked, offering the Sage of Light a hand.
Nan took it, then climbed to her feet…only to stumble briefly. "Yah…just a second." Linkle caught her by the arm, then threw it around her shoulder. The other girl downed a green potion and shot her a hollow smile, but no longer needed support.
"Ah shit," Makar said, staring at something behind them, "ah shit. You just blew our cover!"
And with that, darkness came awake. Giant, skeletal hands climbed out of the ground, then pulled an impossibly large skeleton out from the earth. Towering far above their heads, its ribs dripped with purple slime and mud, and its single eye shone bright, a gold iris on a sclera of pure black. The iris blinked.
Linkle, screaming, hands still shaking, shot it dead in the center of that horrible draconic eye.
The giant stumbled back, but didn't fall. Its eye did not pop, despite that it…should. She swore it should have. That was how…it used to work.
Something tugged on the back of her tunic. Linkle stumbled back a step, then, seeing it was just Nan and not some horrifying undead hand, she turned and fled. The dead, Stalfos, poes, and all kinds of foes, followed in their wake as they went deeper and deeper into the dark ruins.
She didn't even check to see if Makar had come with them, or if the Sage of Forests had died this day. No, she didn't have time. She didn't want to know. She had failed all too often to save them. Him. Fado. Iko. Saria. Lua. Forest Sages. All dead because even a hero couldn't…didn't always…she blinked back tears. Then stumbled deeper within…and hid.
Away from this place and her fears.
…until she slipped on something in the dark, slipping forward on solid stone inside a large, temple chamber crested by a low but shallow dome. It's center was cracked. Red moonlight streamed down through the branches of leafless trees to sparkle across a mosaic of ancient stone and some dark liquid in shades of red and purple.
Blood, her mind supplied, cold and empty, clinical. Of ours and theirs.
Blood stained her hands, her tunic, her trousers, she didn't even remember fighting. But Nan stood with her, equally bloodied. The remaining Sage had summoned a spear of light at some point, and slammed this into one last foe, making it explode in a brief blast of power.
Nan took a gump of green potion – their last, her mind informed her – then threw it aside. The spear vanished a moment later. Then she turned to Linkle, and something like terror flashed across the other girl's face.
"...I don't think I've ever seen anyone fight like that before," she said. "Not Ruu. Not Bazz. Not even Impa. It was like you were possessed…"
Linkle shook her head, but found her tongue too heavy to form words. Instead, she slipped her sword into the scabbard on her back and readied her crossbow. She still had, she counted, ten quarrels left.
"Oh Din, ya think there's more?"
"Always is," she tried to say, but wasn't sure if it made it out as anything more than a cold grunt. "Just where…"
Behind her, something dripped. She turned around. Nothing but broken skeletons, cold lamps, and wet blood. Then, it dripped again behind her. She looked. Nothing once more. Then a droplet of ooze splattered right in front of her, a foul black and purple slime that reeked far worse than melting tar. This time, Linkle looked up.
Right in time to see a spider covered in purple sludge block out the light of the red moon, casting the chamber into pitch darkness. A moment later, Nan summoned a ball of light, but then fell over with a thump, her light all but dissipated. The spider, far above them, opened the ghastly eye…right on the center of its upturned abdomen. Dropping down on a line of sparkling malice, and with impossible speed, swung straight at Linkle, its two great fangs aimed at her chest.
Linkle covered her face with her arms and heard a scream…but didn't know if it was her own voice or that of another.
This, she thought, is a worthy Fate for a hero like me.
/-/
In the castle bathed in unearthly red moonlight, Vaati awoke with a strangled scream. Something tightened like a noose around his neck, his wrists, his ankles. Searing. They flared, hot. His mind blazed, and words, horrible words written in bright red, crawled across the brick wall across from him.
I see you, little fool, they said. You are MINE.
He heard it. Heard him. All at once he was back there, pinned under the gaze of a glutton deep beneath the fortress of his own making, trapped, his escape routes destroyed. Nothing left. Nowhere to hide. A dark silhouette stood before him again, a mane of red, eyes of gold, and a sharp grin slashed across its face. Ganon, the fiend that had trapped him. Put him in chains, and then sapped him of strength with jagged sigils. Pain lanced through his form and arched his back. The resultant scream shook the walls of the infirmary.
A blur of shadow ran in, seeing nothing but the wide-eyed potion master, thrashing in bloodied moonlight.
/-/
An arrow flew through the darkness right into the spider's side. It wasn't enough to defeat it. It didn't do any real damage. But it did stun it briefly, and that gave Linkle enough time to roll to the side.
When she rose to her feet, she gasped at the woman who had saved her. For a moment, she thought it was Ruuya, for her hair was that same shade of red and tied back in a messy bun. But no, she bore neither spear nor scimitars, and she was far too short to be a full-blooded Gerudo. Plus she smiled, sweet but self-assured, and readied yet another arrow. Meanwhile, the spider climbed back up the wall.
"Oh hi!" she said bright and cheerful as a cucco that had just seen the first light of dawn. "I'm Marin!"
The very girl they'd been sent to find shot the spider that had nearly killed them right in the eye on its back. It dropped to the floor, sprawling in pain.
"Ah, Green Girl, you might wanna chop that!"
Shook out of her stupor, Linkle reached for her sword then charged at the monster. She took a swipe at its back and cut off a few of its legs, but before she could finish it off by plunging her sword into its eye, the spider fled. She waited in the dark. Waited to hear drips of sludge. Spider legs crawling up ancient stone walls. Anything to indicate where it had gone.
"Think she fled," said a new voice. No, not a new one… "Malgohma would've died long ago if she'd stayed to face down anything that might have even the slight–"
"Makar!" Linkle said, blinking back tears. "You're…not dead?"
Shadows drew away to reveal that the Sage knelt beside the yet unconscious Nan, his mask pulled back over his green hair and his forehead, partially hidden beneath his mussed bangs, wrinkled in concern. The mask did not even so much as blink at her when she joined him. Instead, he lifted bright, green eyes to meet hers. They seemed depthless and utterly weary, and Linkle found she could not retain that haunted gaze for long.
No, it held…too much despair.
"I'm sorry," he said, then pulled his mask back over his face with a forceful tug, ripping off the very bottom of the large leaf. "You shouldn't have called us friends, Miss Hero."
He'd known that this spider was here, hadn't he? He'd called it by name. He knew what they would face. Maybe, even, he had known that Marin still lived, even that she was healthy and hale…
How long did it take for a normal person to even get here? Days? Weeks? Had Marin even been here when they had first arrived?
Had Makar tricked them? Something in her chest snapped.
"Why?"
It felt like such a useless question, but it hung heavy in the air thick with the stink of blood and malice under the cold light of the silver moon.
He gave her a shrug in reply.
"When I got here, the monsters were all gone. I almost left, thinking I'd come to the wrong place to search for treasure," Marin said. "He came and got me just before I went. Said his friends got lost in these here Woods…broke down the wards for me ta get in. Didn't even know the place had 'em til then. Didn't use to."
The mask gasped at her. "That wasn't…you can't. I never said friends."
"I can read between the lines, Spirit," she replied, shooting him a half-smile. "He was worried. Scared. Hard for them to just ask for help. Never got the why of that. How's the girl?"
Makar pried open one of Nan's eyes. His mask frowned. "Concussed," he answered. He conjured a sprig of sage and pressed it against her forehead. "Mildly, mind. We…should get going."
Linkle bit her cheek. "Is that safe?"
"The monsters are back," he said. "If we don't go soon…"
Outside the domed chamber's wall, just beyond the nearest arch, she thought she saw shadows moving. Something creaked and groaned in the dark.
The monsters were back. A red moon had risen.
She didn't know why, but she hugged herself, trembling, suddenly cold. It had risen, again.
"Let's go," Linkle whispered in a broken voice, even as the wind rushed in and took them away. "I hate this place."
/-/
Ruuya awoke, scratched at her throat, and reached for the closest thing to drink. Thirsty as the desert in the grip of a years-long drought, she downed it quick, coughing, barely noting the medicinal taste or the thin veneer of strawberries meant to disguise it. As soon as she finished, she downed another. Then two more. They had plenty, now.
As luck would have it, she'd spent the day waiting for the others to return making potions. Pacing would not bring them back sooner, despite what Bazz might think. Idle hands made one think that the worse, indeed, had happened.
So, she'd worked, brewing red and green potions. The strange fae spirits had plenty of bottles. Worked until exhaustion took her and she all but fell into the giant kettle she'd borrowed from the invisible Forest Spirit called Holli. A lazy spirit who'd been more than happy to relinquish her pots as long as Ruuya agreed to give her half of the potions she brewed. She didn't remember going to sleep either, or how exactly she'd come to rest inside what appeared to be a large, hollowed-out stump as wide as the Great Deku Tree itself.
No, she thought, wider.
Strange, but this Wood was a strange place. Even the moonlight, falling bright through the arched entryway, was red. Bright red, like blood. She stared at that red block of intense moonlight that spilled through the aperture and wrapped herself in her cloak, chilled.
But it soon passed. The moonlight faded back to a pale silver, the shadows took on a gossamer hue. For a moment, she thought to fall back asleep. Perhaps the red light had just been another trick. Another prank. But…
Something was off. Something she couldn't name. The taste of the magic that had dyed the moon red…she had felt it before, hadn't she?
Once in this wood, hidden from sight.
Once in a desert temple, conquered by green.
Once on a dragon, its powers blighted.
…and once in a chamber, in that Realm where shadows lied.
Vaati had been held by this same magic. They were all linked to that dread moonlight. This power that radiated with unceasing anger, vengeance, and hate.
Malice.
Ruuya, unable to sleep, went out into the cold night. There, leaning against the outside of the stump, stood Bazz, now wrapped in his blue cape, his armor discarded, the black cloak elsewhere, and a pewter mug in his hands. It stunk, strongly, of alcohol.
He showed it to her. It was empty except for a single, green leaf at the bottom. For a moment, she wondered where he had gotten the liquor, then realized, uneasily, he had brought it with him.
Should fish even drink?
"I…I can't do this again." He shook, clearly rattled. "Not twice, Ruu, not twice."
Then he added in a hollowed voice, "...I had hoped you were wrong."
Ruuya took a step back. The visage of that male Gerudo flashed through her mind. Tall, powerfully built, and regal, an arrogant man with ambition in his golden glance. He'd wanted something desperately, and would do whatever it took to take it.
"Is Ganondorf why the moon turned red?"
"Yes."
She bent down, found the bottle of liquor at his feet, and took a short slug.
It was already empty.
"We could run," she said. "All of us. The whole squad. Get out before he takes everything."
"We cannot," he said wearily. But didn't he see? Wasn't he frightened? What else did you do but run from what scared you? What threatened to take everything away from you? "I can't."
"But we're powerless." She choked on a dry laugh. Her throat still burned. "And dead if we stay."
"That doesn't matter," he said. "I am terrified, but I can't run if there are those who might need my aid. How can you look at other people, your family or friends, and simply…abandon them?"
A great whirlwind whooshed in then, west of them, where the Deku Tree looked upon the sword asleep in its pedestal. Though neither saw it, both turned, sensing its power.
"Are you coming?" she asked as a breeze blew through her unbound hair, tickling the tips of her ears. Chilled, Ruuya put up her hood.
"Just a moment." He pushed himself away from the hollow stump, but stumbled, and fell back. "I suppose not."
"Stay here," she said, lifting a hand in farewell. "I'll tell them you fell asleep on watch."
He gave a short, grateful bob of the head before stumbling back into the stump. Alone, Ruuya considered again her options. She couldn't run, yet, not with so many eyes on her, but once they left this place…
Well, she'd make up her mind then. For now, she would see to her friends.