Wow, thanks for all the reviews! Individual responses at the bottom so this header doesn't get too long!

Chapter 19: Ill Omens

The hour bell began to chime as Link hurried towards the upper doors of the Academy. Had it really got so late into the afternoon while he'd been taking care of his sword and armour? He braced himself for the crowd of students he knew would be leaving their lessons, and indeed, the doors opened before he could even reached them, pushed by Fledge and Roki. Both younger boys had been Link's classmates until the Wing Ceremony, and Fledge in particular tended to look up to him. His eyes brightened as he spotted Link, and he hurried over, Roki and a couple of others going their own way.

"Link! Everyone's glad you're back! Did you manage to find Zelda? Is she okay?"

Pipit's advice flickered in Link's mind, backed by his own sense of fear and urgency. "I haven't found her yet, Fledge, but I think she's all right. I found… she'd left a sign, in case anyone was following her. The headmaster will tell everyone about it this evening…"

Fledge nodded. "Well, we're all rooting for you! I know you can find her!"

Despite everything, the younger student's faith in him was faintly heartening, and he smiled, just for a moment.

"Thanks. Listen, Fledge… have you seen a little girl around here today? Kukiel? She's been missing since this morning."

"Huh?" Fledge blinked, some of Link's worry infecting him. "Kukiel's gone missing, too?!"

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she sometimes asks me to play with her, and, you know…" Fledge seemed embarrassed. Link imagined it was probably yet another thing Groose had picked on him for. "I tell her about being a student at the Academy and stuff. She says she wants to join when she has her own Loftwing. What happened?"

"I don't know," Link said, shaking his head helplessly. "I ran into Wryna up on the Goddess' Isle, and she's been looking for her since this morning. She says no-one she's talked to has seen her. And I… After everything that's happened, I'm worried."

Fledge nodded, seeming to take it as seriously as Link himself. "Then we've got to do something! I'll start looking too!"

"Thanks, Fledge." Link couldn't have hidden the relief and gratitude in his voice if he'd wanted to. "Can you get people searching here on this island while I go over to Skyloft?"

"Of course!" Fledge said bravely. "I'll make sure we search everywhere here!" He thought for a moment. "Kukiel was telling me the other day that she'd made friends with another boy… Maybe if you can find him, he might have seen her recently? I don't know anything about him other than that she said he liked loud games too, though…" He looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry that's not much use."

"It's somewhere to start," Link said, honestly. "Thanks again. I'll ask around and see if I can find him."

"Good luck!"

"You too."

Link turned and jogged down the steep stairs that connected the upper level of the island, almost more of a giant balcony that happened to connect to a rock outcrop, to the lower. Student legend had it that the small island had once been honeycombed with caves, before the rock had been mined away to build a large amount of Skyloft as well as the Academy itself. Of course, student legend also had it that all sorts of implausibly terrible things had happened in those caves – how else would they tell a good ghost story, after all, Zelda had once pointed out.

He missed her.

A thought struck him as he hurried down the stone stairs connecting the Academy island to Skyloft proper.

"Fi? Is there anywhere the aura you felt is stronger or weaker? Even a little bit?"

Fi didn't even pause before responding, her musical voice sounding in his mind. There are differences, but they are of low significance, Master. There is a 70% probability that its centre is on the far side of Skyloft. It is fractionally weaker upon the Isle of the Goddess, although this is most probably due to the traces of the goddess' power that linger there.

"Right…"

Link spun his mental map of Skyloft around in his head. What was opposite the Academy? Or perhaps… opposite the Goddess' Isle?

The houses across the river? The graveyard? The Light Tower? Nothing in particular stood out to him about any of them, but if Kukiel had last been seen in any of those three areas… it could only imply that his fears were, horribly, true.

Venturing into the bustle of Skyloft, headed for the plaza and the Light Tower, he could only hope that she was somewhere else, and there was nothing to his fear at all.

. . .

Clambering up the steep and narrow stairs of the Light Tower, Link stepped out onto the lower walkway to be greeted by Jakamar turning around sharply, surprised.

"Oh, it's you, Link." He sounded almost disappointed, but before Link could speak, he went on to explain himself. "Our daughter Kukiel's run off again. I was just up here looking for her."

"I am, too," Link explained. "I met Wryna searching for her on the Isle of the Goddess, and…"

"Wryna's practically hysterical about it. She's almost convinced herself our girl's been kidnapped." Jakamar sounded fairly blasé about it, but Link suspected he was more worried than he let on. One of Skyloft's better-known figures as the island's master builder, everyone knew he was bad with heights anywhere except on his loftwing. If he'd climbed even to the lower level of the Light Tower without an actual repair job to do, he had to be worried.

A loftwing squawked from above, and Link glanced up, sighting a dark-feathered bird peering out from the tower's top. He guessed it was likely Jakamar's loftwing, but couldn't be sure.

"But it's Kukiel we're talking about!" Jakamar continued. "You can bet she's just off playing somewhere." He paused. "Still, let me know if you see her, okay?"

"I will," Link promised. "I take it she's not here, then."

Jakamar shook his head. "My bird's up on top of the tower, and I've been all up and down the inside. I thought maybe if I stayed up here I might spot her. But nothing yet…"

"I think I might have a way to find her," Link ventured. "If you don't mind me visiting your house quickly?"

Puzzled, Jakamar shook his head. "Of course not, but I don't think you'll find anything except her toys. Still, if you think you can find her, do whatever you want. Although I'm sure she's just playing somewhere she shouldn't be again."

Link made himself smile, light, pleasant. "She probably is, but I'll help you look anyway. I'm still waiting for the Knight Commander to find me a new shield, after all."

Jakamar clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a good lad, Link. Thanks."

This time, Link's smile was a little more real. "Don't mention it. Well, I'd better go – I'll tell you as soon as I find her."

Jakamar waved goodbye as Link descended the stairs and headed back across the plaza, dodging the groups of people strolling around – visitors to Skyloft who'd landed there; Skyloft residents leaving the island from the diving platform; people just out enjoying the day…

Someone dashed across his path, and Link hopped back to avoid colliding with him, a little "Oops, sorry" escaping from the boy in a very familiar voice.

"Hey, Gully!" Link called. Gully turned around and came back, surprised, his tousled mop of brown hair as flyaway as always.

"Link? I didn't realise it was you! Hi!"

Link smiled. Gully was a good kid, if barely half his age. He'd helped him get aboard the Airshop once last year when Beedle hadn't noticed the boy too short to ring its dangling bell, and Gully had been pretty much eternally grateful.

"Did you find Zelda?"

"Not yet, Gully. But she left me a sign, so I know she's all right. But actually, right now I'm looking for Kukiel. You two are friends, right? Have you seen her?"

"Kukiel?" Gully frowned and scratched his nose. "Well, she's been playing over the river a lot lately… It's kind of a long way from my house, though, and anyway, last time it was yesterday evening and my mum called me home. Why? Did something happen?"

Link shrugged. "I hope not. But her parents are out looking for her, and they're worried. Apparently she hasn't been seen since this morning. So I said I'd help find her."

"You're… not going to get her into trouble, right?"

Link smiled. "No, I'm not, I promise. I just want to make sure she's safe."

"Well… okay. Kukiel said she met a new friend in the graveyard the other day. So, she's probably playing with him. I don't know who he is, though." Gully looked a little put out. "I wanted to meet him 'cause she said he was fun, but she said I had to come down to the graveyard and I didn't want to."

The graveyard…

"Thanks, Gully," Link said out loud, swallowing back his sense of dread. "I'll go look for her. If you run into her anywhere, tell her her parents are worried, okay? And tell them you found her?"

Gully nodded. "I can do that! Bye, Link!"

"Bye!" Link waved, but Gully was already running off about whatever errand he'd been running or game he'd been playing before their paths crossed.

. . .

Heading over the low hill towards the river, and Jakamar and Wryna's large, sturdily-built house beside it, by a zigzag path that let him check the back alleys, Link focused his attention briefly on his loftwing, soaring in lazy circles above Skyloft. The bird had picked up on his unease and sense of worry, of course, but hadn't seen anything that seemed worrying or different to usual. Link let him feel his gratitude and praise for helping him search, and the red loftwing's warm response was almost calming, an eternal constant in his less and less stable world.

"Fi?" Link murmured, casting a glance back over his shoulder. "Are you worried, too? I don't like that she's been at the graveyard. It's about as far away from the Academy and the Isle of the Goddess as it's possible to get…"

I do not experience worry, Master, Fi's unheard yet musical voice responded, the glow from his swordhilt subtle in the golden sunlight. However, I am aware of your concern. The information that we have uncovered to this point does fractionally increase the plausibility of the hypothesis that Kukiel may be in danger, as you fear. However, the data is limited, and highly circumstantial.

She at least didn't think he was being completely foolish, Link supposed. Though, given the circumstances, he might have preferred it if he was. It was getting harder and harder to keep his head and stay calm.

"Okay. Well… the graveyard's usually pretty quiet. So you'd be able to detect Kukiel's aura there, right? If she's been there?"

I predict that the probability of my being able to do so is at least 95%, Fi agreed.

"Good." Crossing the main road again, Link dodged a knot of people gossiping in the middle of the street, glancing to his left along one of the little side streets that led up to the market. "Tha-"

"Whoa!" A familiar voice stopped him in his tracks, looking back ahead sharply to see that he'd come within a pace of walking into Parrow, Orielle's brother and fellow loftwing doctor. Whenever one of them was on duty looking after a loftwing, the other would be out and about taking care of everything else. Like his sister, Parrow was a welcome and friendly sight.

"What's the matter, Link?" Parrow asked. "You look pale!"

"It's Kukiel!" Link explained, more worry in his voice than he'd intended. "Jakamar and Wryna's daughter? She's gone missing, and-"

"And what?"

The words suddenly spilled out. "And what if something followed me back here? Wryna's scared she was kidnapped, she's apparently made some sort of friend in the graveyard, I've been – where I've been, there's… all sorts of things, monsters even, and-…"

Parrow landed a hand on his right shoulder, heavy and familiar and reassuring, the same broad hands that had soothed Link's loftwing after a flight injury or in a bout of illness. Link took a deep breath, calming himself again, looking up into Parrow's concerned eyes.

"You don't think this has anything to do with all those silly stories about there being a horrifying monster living in Skyloft, do you?" Parrow asked, about half humouring him. "I'm sure you've heard them, haven't you? The one that comes out in the middle of the night to eat people, or whatever? Henya's husband says he saw it once, but I think he just made it up to terrorise his younger siblings, and can't go back on it now. You're not thinking about that, are you?"

"I hope it's just a story, Parrow," Link managed, aware how ridiculous he sounded. Despite their long history, the legend of how their distant predecessors had defended the goddess' people, the Knights of Skyloft had little to do beyond break up tavern brawls, patrol the skies in search of people in distress, and occasionally deal with hostile creatures. Skyloft – the whole sky, really – had been peaceful for far longer than anyone could remember. "I really do. But Fi – this sword – says there's some kind of evil aura up here, and she thinks it's centred opposite the Academy and the Isle of the Goddess, and that's where the graveyard is…"

Taken aback, Parrow frowned, and looked for a long moment at the pale hilt visible over Link's left shoulder. "Well… I suppose I have to wonder, then, don't I." He was looking increasingly uncomfortable, but he squeezed Link's shoulder reassuringly. "I'll look for her, Link, and I'll ask my bird to keep an eye out on that side of town. I'll tell Orielle, too, when I replace her in a few…" Glancing up at the sky, Parrow's eyes widened. "Oh no – in a few minutes! I have to make dinner before I relieve her!" He dropped his hand, looking back and forth uncertainly. "But, if something's wrong…" Coming to a decision, he faced Link again. "I'll buy her something from the market and tell her what you said. Don't do anything too dangerous on your own, all right? That's a Knight's job, and you haven't graduated just yet …Do they know?"

Link nodded. "They should by now. I'm sure Wryna's told them, but even if she didn't, I asked Fledge to search the Academy, so he'll have told the instructors, and they'll have passed it on."

"That's good." Parrow was clearly relieved. "Well, I'm sure if there really is something to the stories, they'll be able to handle it. We'll help look as well, but you stay safe, all right?"

Link nodded, not trusting himself to say anything more as Parrow hurried uphill towards the market. He supposed he was right – if there was something dangerous on Skyloft, it was the full-fledged Knights who were supposed to deal with it. His lessons over the years had even explained why in great detail. But the Knights didn't have Fi. Had never even seen a demon. Would have no more idea what they might be facing than anyone else… and that was if they could even find Kukiel in the first place.

"Come on," he muttered, half to Fi and half to himself. "We've got to find her before nightfall."

As Parrow had noticed, the sun was sinking worryingly low. They didn't have long.

. . .

Letting himself into Kukiel's family's house, Link had quickly found a small box of what had to be her toys, finely made of wood and cloth and worn from heavy use. Although she shared a bed with her parents, which Fi had explained had left the three auras too mingled to discern, the toys were probably rarely handled much by anyone but her. Fi had told him she'd memorised the girl's aura, and so Link had left again, taking care to latch the door against gusts of wind before hurrying back up to the stone bridge over the river. The far side of the river was almost entirely houses, each one with its own little rooftop garden growing loftwing-fertilised food or bright displays of flowers or sometimes both.

Once he'd crossed the river, Link had started calling for Kukiel, pausing at each side street to shout her name along it. Nothing had happened, and no-one he'd spoken to had seen her, and the sky was turning red and gold, his shadow swallowed up by the long shadow of Market Hill stretching out across the island, itself about to be engulfed by the upward shadow cast by Skyloft at the very end of the day, when the sun sank below the level of the island itself.

He stood at the top of the shady dip that housed the graveyard. It would have been a little valley, if it wasn't for the fact that two of its sides were open to the sky. The gravestones stretched out before him in regular rows, the grass clipped neat and short, wild flowers growing here and there. The old tree's spreading branches shaded the far end, where a little shed half-stood, half-burrowed into the steep hillside. Nobody ever went in there if they didn't have to; it held nothing but the graveyard tools: spades; wheelbarrows; tarpaulins; dusty coffins; uncarved headstones…

Fi appeared beside him with a chime, seeming almost strangely bright against the rapidly darkening backdrop.

"Master Link, I detect a fading aura that matches the one upon Kukiel's toys in this location."

"So she has been here!" Relief washed over him, and he called out again. "Kukiel!"

Only the wind whistled in response.

"Kukiel!"

Something squeaked shrilly in the old tree, and Link fell abruptly silent, hand reaching back to his sword, Fi springing back within it before his fingers touched the hilt. Of course some keese would be resting there; it was one of the more solitary locations on the island. He just hoped they weren't evid; as long as they weren't, they'd be too timid to even approach him, more likely to fly out to sky if he got too near the tree.

The leaves rustled, and as the first shape emerged Link saw it was wishful thinking, drawing his sword as the viciously hostile keese launched itself towards him, followed by a second, then a third. If it hadn't been for Kukiel, he'd just have run, the way he'd been taught since he came to Skyloft as a boy… but he couldn't leave the graveyard, and instead he stood his ground, a quick and well-aimed swing of the Goddess Sword cutting the wing from one; the other two circling, diving from opposite sides – Link spun, taking a risk, feeling as much as seeing the blade as his eyes swept from one to the other, as the very tip of the sword sliced through the head of one and, fast as he was, the second was bisected almost at the base of the blade. Glancing around quickly, Link checked there were no more before turning to put the keese with the missing wing out of its misery.

Drawing the sword back, he looked at it, its glow now clearly visible in the fading light, checking it was clean. Killing the keese still made him uncomfortable, perhaps more so for being on Skyloft – he'd barely thought about it in the moment on the surface, in the temple so close to Zelda trying to reach her, fighting off bokoblins and all manner of things far more horrible than a handful of evid keese.

"Can you tell where Kukiel went, Fi?"

Fi reappeared, gesturing with the floating substance of her arm. "I detect two concentrations of her aura, Master. One is beside the small wooden monument beneath the tree. The other is within the shed. Traces of her aura appear to continue beneath the shed, descending vertically."

"Beneath the shed?" Link echoed, confused. There shouldn't be anything beneath it – should there? It was just the shed, where things not yet needed for digging graves were stored, a place of spiders and… and children's make-believe tales.

It seemed almost impossible that there could really be something evil lurking inside the graveyard shed.

It seemed, in the twilight, having just returned from a surface full of demons with the spirit of a holy sword hovering at his side, all too believable that there really was something evil lurking inside the graveyard shed.

Link sheathed the sword and crossed to the shed, Fi floating gracefully beside him. He cautiously lifted the latch; pulled the door open. The hinges squeaked.

Several spades made an untidy bundle against one wall, pinned against it by two upended wheelbarrows. Blank stone markers to the left were ghostly shapes in the growing dark, and huge ragged steps at the far end were the outlines of the stack of coffins. Link stopped, knelt, lit his lantern, throwing the dark shed into flickering relief. The floor was dusty; the dust was stirred up. People had come in here – several people, or one many times. One of the wheelbarrows and the spades behind it looked recently dirtied. Had there been a funeral while he was gone? Who?

"Master," Fi said quietly, "I detect an anomaly behind the coffins. There is a significant amount of open space between the leftmost stack and the rear wall of this shed. The traces of Kukiel's aura continue over the stack. It is probable that she climbed over the coffins to the space behind."

Link very briefly wanted to rest his head in his hand.

"We've got to follow her," he said aloud, approaching circumspectly, his lantern held high. Now that he had light, now that he was looking, he could see scuff marks on the coffins, piled like giant steps. Taking a deep breath and bracing himself, he followed the trail, quickly having to duck low as he ascended onto the second, then third rank of coffins – and, just as Fi had said, saw that there were no more behind, each coffin slightly protruding from the one above it just enough that they made a very steep and narrow set of stairs to climb back down. Barely able to crawl in the narrow space between coffin and ceiling, Link swung himself around and clambered down, landing on what seemed to be a strangely clean expanse of normal planked floor. A faint breeze seemed to blow up past him – was he imagining it?

"Kukiel's aura descends through this region of floor," Fi informed him, drifting through the narrow gap as if lying on her stomach, her subtly glowing face looking down at him. She looked more ghostly than ever, and yet she was still reassuring to see.

"Then there's got to be something… some loose plank, or…" Link knelt and lifted the side of his lantern, holding it at a slight angle. The flame wavered and danced as he moved it, stabilising past certain points: he traced a rough outline along the short, stubby planks. "…Or a trapdoor…?"

The shadows shifted and swung with the motion of his lantern, and as Link sat back he noticed one deeper and darker than the others, a knothole at the end of one of the planks. Even holding his lantern close, he could see nothing but blackness, but the flame wavered wildly, and he could feel a cool breeze on his fingertips.

Link wished he'd gone back to the Knight Academy for his armour. All the way across Skyloft, it could easily take him an hour to get there and back, and by then it would be far too late. He couldn't risk it.

Sticking his finger in the knothole, Link pulled – and almost fell back, surprised, as the plank and two more on either side of it lifted far too easily on silent hinges, revealing a narrow tunnel down through wood-reinforced earth and stone, a rickety-looking wooden ladder clinging to its side. It went so far down the bottom was lost in darkness.

"Look at this, Fi," he breathed, and Fi's head all but appeared over his shoulder, drifting nearly upside-down with her head tilted as far back as it would go.

"The ladder contains a small quantity of demonic power, which is preserving its structural integrity, Master."

Link swallowed. There was only one thing he could do.

Fi returned to the sword even as he glanced back at it, hooking the lantern onto his belt and taking a deep breath before climbing onto the strange, terrifying ladder.

It looked like a very long way down…

This will forever be known as the chapter that saw Ardil's search history gain the phrase "standard coffin dimensions"!

Patch Notes:
- Game puzzle replaced with more realistic form of concealment.
- Link's worry shaded per conversation.
- Housing density increased to match increased Skyloft population density.
- Relevant marker added per continuing plot threads from Out of Time.
- Jakamar's fear of heights now consistent; parental concern secretly demonstrated.

Mimi and Birdie - thank you! Really glad you're still following along! Birdie, Batreaux will now definitely appear in the next chapter - I thought he'd be in this one, but then it just got longer and longer...! Hope you don't mind the wait too much. ;-)

Dragonknight1400 - Ah! I should go back and include it in the chapter notes, sorry! It reads "The memories of violent battles surge within this sword when you raise it to the sky. Your Skyward Strike is now
at maximum strength!" The violent battles bit seemed... interesting. ;-) Also, super glad to hear you liked it enough to reread!