Chapter 16:
Mind's Eye

Amaya

She stood at the edge of the village of Sakirven. The wind blew about her cloak with a chill; spring always had that lingering touch of cold. The snow was still melting, making the ground wet with mud mixed in grass, squishing under her boots as she stalked forward into the village through the front gates.

Her dark eyes glanced at the marks and gouges in the wood gates and their neighboring wooden walls that encircled the village. They had been attacked at some point. She knew the Gerudo came to this village in the fall, like they had others. No one stopped her from entering the village, a bad sign. It was already a dreary day, overcast with clouds and cold.

At first she feared the village was empty. However, she spotted figures moving about in the distance. They were in the fields but sparsely spread there. Others were gathered around campfires outside of the dilapidated homes. Then she noticed how young all of them were. She could not spot anyone older than seventeen as she got closer. Some had limbs in makeshift slings, used when no magic healer was around. Others had healing scars across their bodies and sometimes their features. They had seen battle. Perhaps that is what took the adults of this village? Was there a second battle?

Amaya headed for one of the campfires where a group of wounded individuals had gathered around a pot that had been placed over the fire. A girl stood in front of it, ladling some kind of soup into bowls and passing it among them. Some lifted their heads as she approached. The girl looked over her shoulder. Amaya pulled the hood from her head so they could see she was Hylian.

She stopped a yard from the girl, her staff in hand. "My name is Amaya Serwen."

The girl brushed her braided black hair out of her eyes, she didn't quite meet Amaya's eyes. "Uhm … hello. I'm uh Alicia," she mumbled. "Can I help you?"

"I hope that we can help each other," Amaya answered. "I came here looking for specific people, but I am willing to bring any who wish to come back with me to Kakariko."

Alicia chanced looking into Amaya's eyes at that, shifting slightly. "I can try my best, but uh, there might be a good chance they died." She looked down, shoulders sagging and voice dropping lower. "A lot of people died."

"The thought occurred to me," she agreed with the girl. "I am looking for the Agnis."

This actually caused Alicia to look up at her, surprised. "Well Miss Ceres died in the night, but Ventus and Rini left with Rei a couple months ago." She shifted and gestured to Amaya to come closer as she stepped to the side away from the others.

Amaya's dark eyes glanced down and closed as the wind blew her silver face around her face. Ceres was dead. What friends they had left from the previous war were quickly claimed by this new one. She opened her eyes, her expression flat. Amaya followed the girl's gesture and stepped with her off to the side.

"They left?" she pressed.

Alicia nodded her head, looking around and once she felt somewhat safe the words started flowing out of her mouth like a waterfall.

"After the Gerudo came and killed our warriors, a lot of the people started dying of the cold, sickness, and hunger. Miss Ceres was among them, after Rini got sick and got better. She was one of the few people who actually got better. They came and started living with us—Hikaru and Rei had started a group for orphans. We just wanted to have them not discount us, remember we were worth something. They were leaving us to die.

"So Hikaru had a plan to convince other adults who were outcasts like us. Rini and Gene did most of the talking, and well, it worked. They came and joined us, but then the adults and Hikaru started talking about starting a coup. Ventus … Ventus was against this. He spoke out against it. Then one day he, Rini and Rei disappeared, and Hikaru was dead. I don't think Ventus killed him—he's not that kind of person, he's not. I think Rei did. She's mean, but she likes Ventus after he saved her life from a wolf that killed Marco. And well, she was mad at Hikaru and me because we ran."

The last part of her sentence ended in a slight mumble as Alicia looked down again, grounding her foot in the ground again.

Amaya took another look around the village. That's why there were mostly children left. They had killed each other. She could imagine the Gerudo coming, slaughtering the warriors, and taking their harvest as had been reported in other villages. It matched with what Eli had described months ago. Killian must have died then.

More shocking was what Alicia described happening afterward. That they had begun to neglect children who had no parents, that those children and others then plotted against the adults who abandoned them. Not even during the previous war did Amaya see such savagery against one another. Perhaps, yes, against the enemy, but never their own children and elders. She had underestimated the darkness that the Blight stirred in their hearts.

She returned her gaze to the girl in front of her. "My apologies that I could not have come sooner, before all this. Kakariko has been pinned down by a siege since the fall. It has only recently reletented."

Alicia shook her head. "It's not your fault. I'm sorry they're not here. But … if you would allow people to come with you. I would like to come. I'm sure there are others."

She nodded in agreement but her eyes drifted away in thought. It hardly surprised her that Ventus had held his own ground. If he was against it, then of course he had not killed Hikaru. A smile twitched the corners of her lips sadly. He was stubborn like both of his parents, and Rini was just as clever. But where had they gone? She should return to Kakariko with those willing to come. She needed Eli to consult his shadows once more.

Her son had come into his own so quickly. She had no idea his passive abilities were already so developed until he told her the location of the Agnis. While her scrying ability was usually sufficient, it only worked for her when she was trying to look in on locations she had already been to. It also only worked in tracking specific people, people with close emotional ties. She cared for Ceres and her children, but sadly the bond needed to be closer. It was more easily done between family members. When the siege hit, they had to maintain a constant magic barrier around the village. Neither she nor Eli could use their abilities to see out of it until it was safe again to take down the barrier. Eli said the village was still standing. They had assumed that meant the Agnis were still there.

"Is there anything else I can do to help you? Do you want some food?" Alicia offered before giving her an awkward smile. "I'm not a bad cook, even though we don't really have much to work with."

Amaya looked up, emerging from her thoughts. "No, thank you. Please tell the others of their option to follow me … Where is Ceres' grave?"

Alicia looked down at that. "Miss Ceres hasn't been buried yet. Same with the others who died in the winter. I can bring you to the morgue though."

"I see… and Killian Serwen?" she asked.

"Miss Ceres buried him separate from the others. I know where he is buried—Ventus visited his grave a lot." Alicia paused and rubbed the back of her head. "I know he felt guilty about his death."

She started walking, pausing for a second to look behind to see if Amaya was following her. She followed the girl. It was just as Eli had described.

Alicia paused and shifted her weight awkwardly, before, "He was very strong. He died taking down a lot of Gerudo. Mr. Killian was very impressive, and I'm sorry he didn't return to you."

She smiled at the thought. She knew how good with a blade her brother-in-law was. "We have all lost someone or something."

Alicia nodded and continued to talk, seemingly uncomfortable with silence. "He did his best to teach the people of the village before the Gerudo. Ventus really took to it, so I think he's strong enough—especially with Rei and Rini. Plus he was always good at hearing things coming, so …"

As Alicia rambled on, they came to the grave site. It was behind a nearby building and underneath a tree. There was a marked grave with a wooden sword meant for a child which had been battered by the elements. There were shiny rocks and dried flowers there as well as some kindling of old fires. Offerings, although from who wasn't clear.

Amaya swept over to the grave. She knelt down to investigate the wooden sword that served as the gravemarker. Hyrulean print carved out his name horizontally across the handle guard, Killian Serwen. Wasn't Kubera going to get a wooden sword for Ventus' birthday? It felt like ages ago, another world even. Her black gloved thumb rubbed the carved name as she rested her fingers against the back of the hilt.

The wooden hilt was splotched in dark spots. Upon closer observation, she could see the hint of red in the dark crusted brown. It was dried blood. Her own son now came to her or Leita with his hands speckled in blisters from hours of training, longer and harder than he had trained before. Ventus was the same.

If it had truly been Ventus', she could use it to scry for him. When one lacked the necessary emotional bond to scry on a person, the next best thing the caster could use was an item of theirs that they cherished or even hair clippings of the person, blood worked too.

It would be a waste of mana though. She was already going to return to Kakariko with the refugees she found here. Yet, she would prefer to spare Eli the burden of reporting more deaths if she could. There was no guarantee that the Agni children were still alive after leaving Sakirven.

"Alicia, please go inform the others. I need a moment here."

"Of course Miss Amaya. I'll let them know." The girl gladly sprinted off.

Amaya grasped the hilt of the wooden sword and closed her eyes, letting the sound of the wind in the trees scatter her thoughts. She breathed, "Seishin ni hito," into her quiet mind, her lips whispering the words.

The blackness in her mind's eye was calm and quiet like the surface of a dark and still pond. It rippled and faded away, bringing in color and light. At first her vision was blurred with various shades and hints of green, brown, and gray. It gained clarity with each moment, soon bringing her the vision of a boy on the shore of a lake, near a bridge that connected to another shore. She knew this bridge and this shore. It was Lake Hylia, where her home was. The boy was Ventus, clear by just a glimpse of his wild, blond hair. He was alive, but where was Rini? The glint of metal in the sun brought her attention to a large sword in his hands.

There was a strange thicket of trees she did not recall ever growing there by the shore he stood on. A Gerudo woman stomped roughly out of it. Ventus ran from her. She threw a knife into the back of his calf, causing him to stumble and fall. Damn it. There was nothing she could do from this distance except watch and pray to Farore.

He grunted in pain, yanking the knife from his leg, and lurching to his feet, but the Gerudo had already caught up to him. She held her blade to his throat and told him to drop his. Amaya breathed in with relief. The Gerudo did not instantly cut his throat. So what purpose would she keep him alive for?

As he dropped his sword, she spotted something slithering in the grass near them. At first, she thought they were snakes, long and green and moving. They coiled around her ankles and up her legs. The Gerudo was yanked flat. She grasped a fist full of Ventus' tunic, pulling the boy down to the ground with her as the vines pulled her toward the thicket of trees. Eventually, she was pulled from the boy, vines coiling around her wrists and forearms, and up against the trees. The vines wound around her, securing her to the thin trunks.

Ventus grabbed his sword and her scimitar. He threw hers away and barked, "Stand down."

Another person emerged from the thicket of trees. He was a tall, slender Hylian in caster's robes of green and brown. Then she recognized his long and dark green hair. Nouka Ottau? They had been peers at the academy. Suddenly the thicket of trees and the moving vines made sense. He was a forest caster, after all.

As he approached the boy and the Gerudo, Amaya heard a sound she had not heard for many years. It was the clack-clack of Nouka's casting beads. His face was flat and still. No doubt, he was in his meditative state. It helped with maintaining one's focus while casting.

"Ventus, the other one?" Nouka asked him, his voice soft and distant. There was another?

"I knocked her out," Ventus whispered. "She might need some medical attention for her shoulder though. She'll live, don't worry."

Nouka nodded pensively, the only indication he heard Ven. His placid face remained motionless. The beads were still ticking through his fingers. Then he turned his brown eyes back to the woman. He took a step, two fingers reaching out toward the Gerudo as he breathed, "Kono karada to shite kōzan baransu keiyu—"

A bright blue aura enveloped the Hylian caster, typical of when one cast a Guided Healing spell. She knew those Spirit Words in any case. Nouka was a kind soul. She could sense that much from her brief interactions with him at the academy. It wouldn't have surprised her if he was healing the Gerudo. However, Amaya did not see any wounds on her that needed healing yet.

The Gerudo gasped through clenched teeth and the vines twisting around her windpipe, "It doesn't matter, Ganondorf-ti will—"

"—ishi." The tips of his slim, pale fingers pressed against the dark tan skin of the Gerudo's forehead. Upon touching her, the Gerudo glowed with another familiar light aqua aura as well.

"—kill all you filthy fihplat javehse …!"

Nouka's other hand still ticked wooden beads over and over. He held his fingers there at her forehead for a breath. Then the auras faded, and his hand lowered to his beads once more. "Come with me, Ven."

"You healed her?" he asked, swallowing, still holding his sword at her, inching closer to Nouka but not turning his back to her.

The caster himself turned away from the Gerudo now and toward Ventus. "If only I had such power. You, however, I can manage just fine. Kono karada to shite kōzan baransu keiyu ishi."

A slender and pale hand touched his cheek with the same light blue aura as before. Another breath passed as the boy glowed with the light aqua aura for a moment. Amaya heard the wooden bead clack against another. Looking down, Ventus ran a hand over his leg where the wound had been.

"Thanks," he said before looking up at Nouka. "We should go check on the girl. She's not that much older than me."

Nouka nodded, but his face was still an undisturbed pond. His arm went around the boy and began to guide him back to the house. That's when Amaya heard and saw the Gerudo woman begin to cough, sounding almost as if she was starting to choke.

Turning slightly in shock, Ventus looked at the adult woman as he was guided along by Nouka.

"I think... I think she's choking on something," he said, tugging on the caster's sleeve slightly.

"Leave her," Nouka said softly, his arm ushering him along and his voice still far off and distant.

Then Amaya knew. No, he had not healed the Gerudo. The Guided Healing spell was mostly intended for the purpose of which it was named. This spell gave one power over the systems of the body. It could adjust the immune system so as to not overreact to allergies caused by harmless pollen and such. However, it could also tamper with the immune system and make it highly over-reactive to almost anything.

The Gerudo woman's face was turning red, her lips swelling, her eyes becoming bloodshot and dry. Amaya knew her throat was swelling closed on her. She would soon suffocate. This was typical of a deadly allergic reaction. The look on Ventus' face told her that he had some idea of the harm Nouka had just inflicted on the Gerudo. His lips parted at first but then closed.

"What are you going to do with the girl?" Ventus asked quietly.

Nouka sighed softly. "Heal her, like I did you."

Amaya hoped so. However, she had never seen Nouka be so brutal. It was part of what he struggled with during the previous war. Like her husband, he had a gentle heart, or so she had thought. Amaya followed the pair across the bridge and into her house.

"Where is she?" the caster asked.

"In the storage room, there," Ventus said, pointing at the door.

"Wait here just in case," instructed Nouka as he turned, as calm and serene as he was when he first came out of the thicket. The caster cautiously opened the storage room door and then paused.

"Nouka?" Ventus asked uneasily. "What's wrong?"

The caster did not answer, but he did move further through the door threshold and bent over for a moment. Amaya was able to see what Ventus did not. A young Gerudo girl lay on the floor of the storage room. Blood pooled around a gash in her arm and a spot was bloodied on her head. Her golden bronze eyes were open, her lips slightly parted.

She was dead. Nouka brushed his hand down her face, closing her eyes. This was what happened to the "other one" mentioned. Noka was soon straightening up and turning back around. He closed the storage room door behind him.

"She must have escaped while we were distracted."

He was still kind, still trying to protect the boy. Ventus looked at him and then at the floor. He clenched his sword tighter. The sword was Kubera's. She had thought it looked too big for him. It didn't fit, like how killing did not fit the boy.

"She... she died, didn't she?" he asked, his voice breaking.

The soft pulling of Nouka's brow together signaled the end of his calm trance. Soft sadness returned to his brown eyes. The beads in his hand were now still and quiet on their string. He approached, slender and long arms wrapped around Ventus. Amaya watched the caster attempt to soothe the boy, explaining how fragile life was. It put her at ease to see his gentle side once more, especially while Ventus was in his care.

"What should I do then, for the next time?" Ventus said in a small voice.

"We can discuss that more when we are safe at Sickle's Hollow, okay?"

"Okay."

That was all she really needed to know. He was safe with Nouka, and she knew where he was going next. She let the vision fade to black. She opened her eyes slowly, staring at the blood stained wooden sword. That had been a close call for Ventus. He and Rini were with Nouka now? Why were Nouka and Ventus at their house in Lake Hylia? She supposed it didn't really matter so long as they were safe. Rini was most likely safe at the mentioned location, she hoped.

She stood up, releasing the hilt of the sword. Sickle's Hollow? It was likely one of the other outer villages. She would consult the map upon returning to Kakariko. A teleport point had been established before she left. It would not take her long to return. It remained to be seen how long it would take her to reach this Sickle's Hollow.