Chapter 17: Those Who Are Sacrificed

The distant rumbling of celebration ringing from the city walls broke the reverence of the graveyard. Ganondorf thought it the perfect meeting place when he sent his message to Nabooru. Everyone would be at the Sky Festival, and if any passersby happened to see him, it could be disregarded as sentimentality. One does not bring their bodyguard when they visit the dead.

He could meet with Nabs and his honor guard and no one would be the wiser they had separated at all.

But now that he arrived, standing among the dead, he could not help but wonder about them. He did not stand in the sections separated off for the rich, with the gaudy mausoleums of the Hylian nobility. Instead, simple stones surrounded him, marking the passage of common people. He walked among guards, peasants, shopkeepers, servants, and some of the poorer knights. People with no power to right the wrongs of their people, just swept away in the tides of history. Forgotten except for these small stones.

How many had he put in the ground?

With Nabooru nowhere in sight, he paced through the graves looking at the names and dates. Many could correspond to something he had done. Some young woman named Dairri passed three years ago. Was it one of his raids that cut her down? This one, Sir Egbert was definitely one of his. The family had spent the extra rupees to carve 'Hero of Terry Town' below his name. A battle where the knights had almost broken through their flanks with a well-timed charge. He had won that battle, but it had been close, and his force was delayed for weeks recuperating.

Was this baker struck down by a broken heart from a son that died in the war? Was this old woman starved when Ganondorf cut off supplies to Castle Town for a month?

Each of them could be, and he had no way of knowing.

Then he stopped by a newer grave, perhaps only a few weeks old as the grass had not yet spread over the disturbed ground.

Ralph

Faced monsters in service of the King

Ganondorf sat down in front of it. He knew this man; a lowborn guard that used to watch his bouts with the knights. After the third or fourth day of noticing the man just standing there, Gan had invited him to train along with them. The man had stammered a thanks and then spoke how it was not the place for a guard to face a king.

"Nor is it to refuse a king's invitation," Gan had told him with a clap on the back and then proceeded to beat him bloody throughout the training yard.

But once Ralph got his senses back, he had thanked Ganondorf for the honor. And the next day, Ganondorf overheard the man bragging about it to the other guards. After that, Gan had always invited him to train, letting him face down other knights who wouldn't dare refuse practicing with a low guard with Ganondorf watching them.

He had liked Ralph, as much as he allowed himself to like any of these Hylians. He had promised to take him along with the other knights on a hunting trip. It had been a lie of course, but now that Ralph would never go hunting he found the thought disturbing.

"I'm sorry," he said. The moblins, it had to have been the moblins. There were always going to be casualties, he couldn't build his better world without them. It would be worth it. He knew that, but the knowing made the weight no lighter to bear.

His mind wandered back to the Zora. The Princess Ruto had screamed when he appeared before her. His spells warped her mind, but still she screamed and screamed. She did not stop until his spell was complete and he erased himself from her memory. But then she just stared at him with empty eyes, the same eyes as the knight that trained him in swordsmanship had. The one that his mother's dominated with the same spell.

It made him feel sick.

Why should it? I have dealt out death by the thousands. I inherited this war, I didn't start it. He was just a guard, she a spoiled brat of a princess. So one is dead and the other had her self stolen from her. I've seen worse done to my people.

ALL SACRIFICES BEFORE YOUR GLORIOUS WORLD.

Ganondorf frowned, shook his head to clear it of the voice. But this time the voice made sense. A better world required sacrifice. The scrolls in the Hylian Library dressed it up with flowery words of noble royals and brilliant architects, but he knew the truth. The stones of progress and civilization were paved in blood.

"There are no innocents in war," he said to the empty air. "Only tools to be used."

"Are we quoting your mothers so early in the morning?" Nabooru said from behind him. "This bodes well. Savaaq, by the way."

"Nabs," Ganondorf stood and embraced her. "You got my message."

"Hard to miss," she shuddered. "I hate when you send your image in the middle of night. Woke me from a perfectly good dream."

"Oh sorry," Ganondorf released her. "How inconsiderate of me that the most efficient means of communication might disturb your sleep. Whatever was I thinking?"

"Well you should be sorry, after the time I had."

"I was going to ask, you look thinner and," he held out his hand beside Nabooru's head. "Are you burned?"

"The well at Sar'kara has gone dry."

Ganondorf groaned, one more gone. They were running out of time. "Did everyone make it?"

"Who do you think your second is? We all survived, had to cut most of the horses loose. Oh, we're missing Jocqueline, she's fine. But she suffered sun sickness the worst, so I told her to stay at the Oasis to recover. And maybe, don't mention Bethe's spear."

"I'm so sorry. I should have checked, or verified the passage was safe before sending you. This is-"

"If you say that somehow a well going dry is your fault, I'm going to hit you. The Sun does not rise to spite you, and wells don't go dry to teach you a lesson. These things happen. The important part is," and she gave Ganondorf a grin. "I got them."

"The Matrons? They'll gather the armies?"

"Most the important ones anyway. I had to tell the Old Sandstorm about the plan, and I may have offered her tribe the lands around Lake Hylia."

Ganondorf grunted. "A Hylian noble family owns those lands, they won't just give them up if we ask nicely."

"I know, but I couldn't think of anything else to get her to agree."

"It's fine," Ganondorf scratched at his chin. "By the time we have to deal with that perhaps they'll recognize that facing me is pointless."

"Yes, I'm sure you've found dealing with Hylian nobility over the last few months that they are all completely rational. You definitely haven't spent nights complaining to me about them at all."

"Point taken. I'll face that challenge when we get there."

"There's something else, I saw mother while I was there."

Now that was a surprise, Ganondorf grinned. "Bulira was at the Oasis? Now I'm sad I did not go with you. How is she?"

"She is well, she's a Matron, of the Boar-Head Tribe of all things."

"Hah! Is she? I can think of no one more deserving." He meant the words, Bulira was perhaps the kindest vai he ever knew. But that didn't change how ridiculous the image it was for the little of maid seated among the likes of Konoru and Shabonne, or goddesses, Ashdin. But perhaps she could help getting those bickering old vai to agree on things. She had a talent for guiding the more powerful.

"She knows about our plans as well."

"Oh," Ganondorf felt a pang of guilt sweep over him. Which was of course ridiculous, he had nothing to be ashamed of. "I would have wished she did not."

"She made some points about the plan. I don't know if you want to hear them."

He already knew what the kindly woman would have said, but it would be good to hear it. "I respect Bulira too much just to ignore her."

Nabooru sighed. "She wonders why we're even doing this. You already outmaneuvered the king, he's sent his people to start planning the aqueduct. And we have peace. Isn't that what we want? Doesn't that mean we succeeded?"

"She convinced you, has she?"

"No," Nabooru said, far too quick. "But I didn't really have a good argument against her." Though her doubts were written plain across her face.

"In a perfect world, vai like Bulira would rule every kingdom. They would all sit down and share their grievances and make a better place between them. But this is not a perfect world. I have met with kings and lords and matrons. They will, all of them, grab what they can and fight over what they can't. One way or the other, our Gerudo and the Hylians will face each other in battle. Maybe not in our lifetime, but likely the next."

"But that doesn't mean we have to be like the rest of them. You're not that fat toad Liotidos, nor are you any of the lords or Matron Konoru or your mothers. Why disgrace yourself just to act like the rest of them?"

"Because that's the only way to beat them. If there is some vile thing that needs to be done, I'll do it. So, the Bulira of the world will never have to. And it does need to be done." Nabooru still did not look convinced. And in truth, some of the words did not ring as true to Gan as they once had. But in their heart, he and Nabooru were soldiers. They had to recognize the practicality of a situation. "You know this, you've fought in as many battles as I. Tell me, if you were a Hylian King in some future war against the Gerudo, and their primary source of water was right there on your lands, what would you do?"

"Destroy it," Nabooru sighed. "Turn their Oasis to mud, make their armies thirsty and easy to beat."

"Exactly, we can't bring peace in this life just by leaving a dagger at our future sister's throats. Our victory must be total."

Nabooru looked as if she wanted to argue further. To give some last biting comment that would make Ganondorf feel as disappointed in himself as Bulira could with a look. "You're right."

"Let's hear that one again."

"Don't push it, Gan." She kicked at some of the loose dirt. "It was just easier when they were a horde of faceless knights that needed to be dealt with."

"I know. It's going to be hard going forward, for all of us. But it must be done." He smiled at her. "But that doesn't mean it has to be a horrid bloody coup. Once I unlock the Door of Time I can shape the world as I wish it. With enough power, perhaps I can depose a king with no casualties at all."

"So you'll just wave your hand and all the Hylian Knights will just bow to you?" She mocked the motion of shaking her hands about him.

Hylian knights, was it? She was thinking of Sir Jora. "They won't be happy about it. But a few displays of power, and they'll get in line. I mean to make this world a better place, Nabs. For the Gerudo first. But I don't plan to set Hyrule ablaze. Perhaps the smarter among them will see that. They'll realize that what I do will be the best for them in the long run."

"It's a pleasant dream," Nabs said. "But I can't help but notice that you still don't have any of those stones."

"True," Ganondorf admitted. "But I divined the one the spider marked this morning. It is in Castle Town, and I'm certain they'll try and hide it in the Temple of Time. The Great Deku Tree must know of it. He was holding one of the keys to open the Door after all. He'd know that the Temple is the most magically protected place in the city. And he'd have no idea that I know how to get. Why stop them from doing my work for me?"

"And the other two?"

"King Dodongo is closing around one and I have someone getting close to the other. It's all still working. Maybe a little slower than I'd like, but I'm almost there."

"Hmm," Nabooru said. "And what if this plan doesn't all come together?"

"It will."

"Humor me. You don't get the stones, what then? We still try to overthrow Hyrule and rule?"

Ganondorf looked past Nabooru to Ralph's grave. "It can't all just be for nothing."

"No, Gan, I need you to promise me. If this doesn't work out, if that power you seek slips through your fingers, we drop this. We don't start another conventional war."

And have that be it? Just live under the yoke of Hyrule? Can I even exist like that? He had spent his entire life planning ways to defeat the Hylians, from the moment he was old enough to understand he had been shaped into a weapon to fight them. He had never been allowed to be anything else. There are no innocents in war, only tools.

"Gan," Nabooru took his hand in hers. "For me."

"Very well. If I cannot get my hands on the stones, if I don't unlock the power of the Goddesses, then I will give this up. I'll try to find some other means of keeping the future of the Gerudo safe."

"Good," Nabooru said, letting his hand go, only so she could grab as far around his waist as she could in a side hug. "I know that's hard for you."

"What about you? You have my word, but you're not planning on hindering me in this are you?"

Nabooru's eyes widened, and she immediately backed away from him. "How dare you?"

I should not have said that.

She set her jaw, and her eyes narrowed in pure rage. "You're questing me? My loyalty?" She prodded at his chest with her finger. "I've bled for your cause. I've dedicated my entire life to helping you. Ever since you were a sad, bruised little boy without a friend."

Ganondorf held up his hand. "You're right, you're right. That was uncalled for."

"Sands take you, that was more than uncalled for. Were you anyone else, I'd call for swords right now."

"I get it. It was a momentary slip of the tongue. It's just- this is harder than I thought it would be."

Nabooru took a long deep breath to steady herself. But he could tell she was barely containing her anger. And she had the right to be angry. "By the Goddesses you're infuriating. You're the one who keeps saying it will only get worse. Augh. I want to hit you so hard right now. Of course, it's hard. You try to take up every burden on yourself, you blame yourself for everything, and you seem determined to push me away."

"I'm not trying to push you away."

"Then let me help. You're so secretive. Giving vague half answers to half the details of this master plan of yours. You can rely on me to help you. Whatever you have done or will have to do."

Could he? Just sending her back into the desert had nearly killed her and his guard. And he knew Nabooru, none knew her better. She was a warrior as good as any other. She had faced challenges that would send most people into despair and always clawed her way to victory. But she was still Bulira's daughter, and he was his mothers' son. He could break the mind of an innocent and send her into the belly of a whale, and she would never want to hear it.

"I know," Ganondorf said. "You'll always be there for me."

"Until the end, and whatever comes after."

"Ominous statement in a graveyard." Gan smiled at her. "It's time. We have a king to meet, and a war to plan. Our sisters?"

"Waiting outside the grounds, except Jocqueline, as I said."

"Let's not keep them waiting any longer."

His guard all cheered for him when they saw him. It should have annoyed him, anyone watching would know that something was off. But he found he missed them too much to care, and besides he had not seen anyone but gravestones.

Together they rode into Castle Town, now deep into the celebration of their Sky Festival. Most of them in their cups, or just happy at the time of year. As he rode through the marketplace some few of them cheered him, raised their tankards, and bid him enjoy himself. And for not the last time that day, he had to remind himself that whatever he did he was building a better world.