Chapter 88: The Waking of the Dead
The darkness clung to her tight as a fist around her throat, as oppressive as the Great Mother's constricting love, as lifeless as the temple's cell. Navi wanted to scream, to flee from the fog. It went against everything she knew. Do not enter the mists. Do not awaken those that dwelled in the dark. She'd given that lecture to the children so many times, and yet, here she was, following one of them into that very fog.
Somehow her wings kept beating, despite the fear threatening to weigh her down. The thin veneer of fog dissipated. It could not have been more than four wing lengths from beginning to end, and yet her heart raced as though she'd flown for a day without pause. Why had it caused her such distress? Why was she always the one who was weak?
Sheik grunted as he stepped in front of her. "Of course, they ran off. An unknown territory that may have already taken one person, and they dash about like it's the Sun Festival."
"Saria!" Link's shout came from deeper within. "Saria! Are you here?"
"Come on, dummy! Show yourself!"
"At least they won't be hard to find." Sheik squinted toward her. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Navi said. "I'm fine now, truly."
Sheik squinted at her. "Saying 'truly' when you lie, doesn't make it less of a lie."
"But I am." Navi frowned, but her heart still beat louder than thunder. Staying still wouldn't bring her peace or any closer to finding Saria. She flew past Sheik and followed the sounds of Link and Skull Kid. The hallway was long with doors at either side. Some had been opened, a century of dust floated through the air in Link's wake. The hall ended in a corridor that came around both sides to surround a garden.
"How big is this place?" Sheik asked.
"Three stories, if my memory serves. And there's a basement and I think a cellar. I don't know, I've never been much further past the front door."
"Did you know those who lived here?"
The Alcott sisters. Navi grimaced as she remembered when they came to speak to the Great Deku Tree last. It hadn't been her decision. Whatever happened to them, they had been given warning. "No."
The sound of Link and Skull Kid rattled about the building. At times they seemed to be coming from two different directions, but Sheik seemed to know where they were. He walked through the mansion as though he'd been there before. It took longer than Navi would like to admit to realize her companion was following their tracks in the dust.
They rounded the right wing and found Link and Skull Kid screaming into more rooms, with Tatl and Tael lighting their way. They glanced at each other, but the pair did not stop. Skull Kid ran toward a flight of stairs.
"Wait!" Sheik called when Link went after the boy.
Link looked over his shoulder but still moved toward the stairs. "Is something wrong?"
"Of course there is," Sheik sighed. "What are you doing?"
"We're looking for Saria, dummy."
"Obviously, but how? You're running around without thought or pattern. How many rooms have you searched, and why did you pass others by?"
Link looked sheepish. "I figured if Saria could hear us yelling, we wouldn't have to check every room."
"If she was conscious, she would have come running by now." Sheik approached the Skull Kid, at the stairs. "Don't move." He leaned down until his nose almost touched the steps. "Neither of you stepped this far, correct?"
"No, because you stopped me."
"So, these footprints," he held his finger over the stairs to the rough patch where the dust seemed slightly lower, "are not from us."
"She was here." Link ran to Sheik's side to look. "How long ago?"
"It's been some time for dust to collect over it as it has, but someone stood here."
Navi landed on Link's shoulder. As she tried to make sense of the shapes in the dust, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She spun around, but there was only the empty halls behind them.
"Is something wrong?" Tael asked.
"I… I had this sense that someone was watching me."
"You think it's Saria?"
"I don't… I don't think so."
Tatl scoffed. "No one else could be here."
"Sisters," Tael gestured for Navi and Tatl to follow him. Navi left Link's shoulder and flew high, he did not seem to notice as he watched Sheik try to discern where the footprints headed.
"Yes?" She asked once they were out of the big one's hearing.
"Is it right to give your boy false hope? He still thinks she is alive. He will be crushed when we find her body."
"She is not dead."
"It would take someone attuned with the Great Deku Tree to alter the mist enough for someone to survive for seven years."
"Saria is attuned with his magic. She's closer to it than anyone, even us."
"But has she been taught how to manipulate the enchantment?" Tatl asked. "No. The Great Deku Tree wanted his secrets kept."
"She wanted it, too. You weren't there. I was. She begged-"
"Who was the adult?" Tatl hissed.
The big folk had started to walk away. Link called over his shoulder at the fairies. "Are you three coming?"
"Of course," Tael said. He and his twin flew to Skull Kid, circling over his head and letting the yellows and purples of their light brighten the path through the mansion.
Navi returned to Link's shoulder.
"What were you three talking about?"
"Oh, nothing. Simply trying to remember anything useful about this place."
"I can't believe this was here, the entire time I lived in the village and not one of us knew this place existed."
"In truth, I thought the building would fall apart by now. It's ancient."
"It is," Link said. "Navi, who lived here?"
"The Alcott sisters; Joelle, Beth, Amy, and Meg. They were nuns in the service of Hylia and this was their convent. They offered rooms and food for those who visited the forest. A long time ago, before the fog overtook the woods."
"Did you know them?"
"No," she lied. "They were before my time." Again, she felt the eyes upon her, the pressure at her back. The symbols of Hylia which decorated the halls stood tarnished and befouled. This place had once been welcoming. Now everyone crowded behind Sheik as he stopped and prodded at the grime to find some trace of Saria. Several times he had to reprimand Skull Kid for jolting ahead of him and scattering the dust of the tracks. At first Skull Kid apologized, but by the fourth he just grunted and complained that Sheik moved too slow. Sheik's patience with the child seemed to grow shorter and shorter as they passed through the dead halls of empty rooms.
Once the voices of Hylians, Gerudo, Goron, and Zora all sang, prayed, and laughed within those rooms. If Navi listened, she could hear the whispers of their lost memories. Had anyone been hiding in here when the fog came? Or was it only the sisters who refused to leave?
"Navi," Link said. "I never asked, why did the Great Deku Tree create the fog?"
"Because it was the only way to keep us safe." It was for the best. The outsiders could not be trusted, that included the sisters. They had been warned. It was not her fault they didn't listen. It was not her fault.
Sheik stopped, his brow furrowed as he started looking about them. "No," he said as he held his hand out toward the others. "No, don't move. None of you move."
"What's wrong?" Navi asked.
"Don't talk, I need to concentrate."
"I can talk if I want to."
"Would one of you silence the imp?" Sheik took a tentative step forward then went to his knees, holding his hand over the ground.
"He doesn't get to tell me what to do!"
"Skull Kid," Tatl sighed, "now we play the quiet game."
"Ugh," he muttered. "I hate this game."
But he kept quiet, at least until Sheik had searched every foot of the room and even tracked back behind them a few paces. Then he stopped and muttered, "Hylia's crown."
"That doesn't sound good," Tael said.
"I lost her." He pointed toward the ground. "See here? The track just disperses, the dust has been swept up and smoothed out."
In truth, the ground didn't look much different to Navi's eyes. But what did she know of tracking? "So now what do we do?" she asked.
"She was heading this way, roughly," Sheik continued through the room, until he reached a back door. Once more he looked around it for signs that Saria had come this way, then he sighed and opened it. The rusted hinges screeched as they revealed the pit which lay on the other side. A stairwell with a broken banister, which sunk deep below the earth into utter darkness. A rush of air came from the depths, making Navi cough of the foul odor of it.
"Come along," Sheik said as he headed down. Each step creaked from his weight, setting Navi's teeth on edge at the sound. If Link followed, would the steps collapse beneath him?
Skull Kid stood frozen at the foot of the step, standing in Link's way.
"Is something wrong?" Navi asked him.
"I wasn't scared!" Skull Kid said, as he scampered after Sheik. The twins flew behind them, their light offering some glimpses at the lower level. Cobwebs thick enough to snag her hung along the wall.
"Navi," Link did not descend the stairs with the others. "What if we don't find Saria?"
"I don't know."
"What if - what if we can never find her?"
"We will. Can I tell you a secret?"
"Of course."
"I know she's alive. She may not be in this building; she may have travelled the world just as we have. But wherever she is, she's alive."
"How do you know?"
"I- I just do. You'll have to trust me."
From the depths someone screamed. Link's eyes went wide. "Skull Kid?" He ran down the stairs. Each of his heavy steps caused the wood to bend, but they did not break. The basement curved in on itself, hiding their companions somewhere in its tangled depths. As they rounded the corner, Navi thought she saw lights ahead of them. Three lights. Tatl and Tael she recognized even at a distance from their color, but who was the third?
A torch, she realized when they drew close. But one which shone with a purple light. And beneath the light, Skull Ki pouted. "Don't laugh at me."
"I wasn't laughing," Sheik's voice came from the dark. It wasn't until the guide stood that she saw he had been stooped over just beyond the lamp.
"What's going on?" Link stopped running when he reached the others. But he need not have asked. The fairy light showed what had startled the child. Though only one of the torches was lit, there were four which stood in a rectangle in the center of the room. Between them sat a large seed, near the size of a Hylian's head. On its surface the symbols of an enchantment were etched, but the magic within them was weak, hardly holding after a century of use.
But the seed was not what terrified the child. Beneath each of the lanterns a corpse lay strewn. The veils that once covered their modesty had fallen off or been swept aside by the ages. Their revealed skin was sunken and browned, their eyes gone, every line that once defined their face had gone smooth as their skin had flecked away. Their hair had turned to bristles, and their lips had disintegrated, freezing the four women's once kind faces into eternal sneers of pain.
"So, this is what happened to them," Tatl said. "I always wondered."
"Perhaps we should leave," Tael said. "There is no need to disturb the dead."
"Hold a moment," Sheik walked past the corpses toward the seed.
"Don't touch that!" Navi flew ahead of Sheik.
"What is it?"
"A deku seed, from the Great Deku Tree himself," Navi said. "You asked how this place was free from the effects of the fog, this seed may be the answer." Whatever enchantment marked the seed had twisted its magic. The deku's potential for light and life had been worked such that Navi could no longer feel the guardian upon it. The Hylians would not sense it, but something transformed his magic, stretching it out, turning it stagnant and fetid.
Sheik took in the surroundings. "It did not work as well as they wished. But what does the torch mean?" He moved from the seed to the fire, staring into its purple flame. "It's also magic, clearly. But what does it do?"
"Maybe we should do what Tael says and leave," Skull Kid said.
"If you're frightened, you can search the rest of this level, but there is still more to learn here."
"I'm not frightened," Skull Kid said. "Why would I be? They're just like the idiots that stumble about in the fog. But they're even less frightening since they don't move. Nothing to be scared of."
"Whatever you say." Sheik turned from the child and returned to looking at the torch. Who taught that one to handle children? That was no way to treat them.
"I'm not!" Skull Kid shouted. Then he bound closer to the nearest corpse.
"Don't!" Tael and Navi shouted.
Skull Kid grabbed onto the dead woman's shoulders and shook her. "See? I'm not afraid!" But where his fingers touched the corpse's flesh stuck to him. When he pulled his hand away the skin tore free. Skull Kid screamed, whipping his hand about, trying to get the dead peeling flesh off him. Link tried to calm him down, but as Skull Kid shouted he knocked against the corpse. The body lurched, it's head lulling to the side so sharp the bones cracked and remaining flesh around her neck tore. The head smashed against the ground and shattered into bone and dust.
Skull Kid fled, screaming. Not stopping until he ran back up the stairs.
"Skull Kid!" Tatl flew after him. "Wait."
Navi reeled on Sheik. "What was that?"
"Who can say?" Sheik said. "I have no idea what that creature expected to happen."
"Not him. You!"
"You can't possibly think that was my fault. I didn't force the child to play with a corpse."
"Link! I-"
"What did I do?" He sounded indignant.
"Nothing!" Navi huffed. She was so used to only having to chide one child. "Stay with Sheik, I'm going to help calm Skull Kid down. And when I return, I expect you to give Skull Kid an apology."
Sheik turned from the light to give her a bewildered look. "You can't be serious. I'm not a child."
"But he is!" Navi flew away from Sheik before he had time to come up with some witty retort, he always seemed to have something to say.
She did not fly fast enough, as behind her back she heard Sheik mutter. "He's older than I am."
Skull Kid had run far, from the lower stairs to the upper. She followed him to the third floor. He'd entered one of the rooms and huddled in a corner, behind a table. Tatl and Tael stayed over him, flying just before a painting of the three Alcott sisters, Meg with her Gerudo headdress stood stern with the others at her side. Wise old Joelle held the scriptures in her hands, with the young Beth and Amy covering their faces with veils. Each of them stared forward, in silent judgment of those who had disturbed the sister's final rest.
"How is he?" Navi asked, looking pointedly away from the painting of the dead.
"He's a little shaken up," Tael said.
"But he's fine," Tatl said. "Aren't you, Skull Kid?"
He mumbled some agreement, but he didn't look it. He'd wrapped her arms around his legs, and he covered as much of his face with his mask and hat as he could.
"He'll be back up and about, soon."
Navi flew to him and landed on his knee. He looked up at her, his bright eyes gleaming beneath the shadows. He was holding back tears.
"Oh my," Navi said, "that was terrifying. Do you mind if I sit here to catch my breath?"
"If you want."
"It's not too much trouble? If you don't want me landing on you I'll understand. I just like being close to people when I'm scared."
"It's fine," he sniffed, while staring at the ground.
"You're so kind."
"I'm not kind," he muttered. "I'm scary. I'm the Skull Kid."
"You can be scary and kind. Scary things can even be frightened themselves. That doesn't make them less scary."
"I wasn't scared."
"How could you not be? You must be so brave. The way you ran at Mido when we thought he was an enemy, that took such courage."
Finally, he looked at her. "Really?"
"So much! Let me tell you, when the winds came, what did I do? Nothing."
"But you're the one that got him to stop."
"Oh, but I was so scared the entire time. I'm always scared. And that was just wind, nothing like what we just saw. That was terrifying."
"How did you stay still?" he asked. "If you were so scared, why didn't you run?"
"Oh, I was too scared to run."
"How can you be too scared to run? You can always run."
"Oh, but I couldn't. I couldn't move at all. See? Even when you're terrified, you're still braver than I am."
"I wasn't scared," he repeated, though less insistent this time.
"My apologies, you told me. But you remind me of another young boy I knew. When he was about your size, he used to get so anxious. Everyone was bigger than him and stronger, and he would get so worried. He'd cry alone sometimes and shut himself out in his bed."
"Did you help him?"
"Well, I tried. I sat him down and we talked through what was worrying him. Then we thought of what he could do to calm himself, if he needed to."
"And what did he do?"
"Well, we tried a few things. For him, it was moving. He never could sit still, so he'd move. And when he was worried I had him pace back and forth or make small jumps."
"And that worked?"
"It did for him. But not everyone's the same. Other children may grow calm if they talk things through, some would breathe too fast and get light-headed, which made them get all the more worried. For them I worked to slow their breathing. Oh, and another of the Kokiri used to tense every muscle, so we had her focus on every part of her body and relax it."
Skull Kid nodded and then stood up. He started to pace around the room.
"That feel any better?"
"I think."
"Good." She paused and looked up at the twins, who hovered nearby watching the exchange. "You know, Tatl and Tael would never let anything bad happen to you. They love you so much."
"I know."
Tatl flew past her, pausing only briefly to nod to Navi. She fluttered over Skull Kid's head and whispered her own attempts to calm him.
"That was well done," Tael said. "I've been with him a hundred years and I don't think he's ever responded to us like that."
"Telwi taught me how best to handle fearful children. You and your sister were always out and about, watching over the wood. I tended the Great Deku Tree's children, you learn some things over the years."
"Telwi, hmm, haven't thought of him in a while." He paused. "I suppose he passed sometime in the last century."
"He did, near sixty years now."
"I would have liked to have seen him, I think. At least one more time. Tatl would have as well, though I doubt they would have said more than a few words together before one of them started shouting."
"I know you don't wish to hear it," Navi began, though she found it hard to say the words. "But what happened, it was for the best."
"You truly still think so, sister?" Tael sighed.
"You weren't there, neither of you, you didn't see what happened. Burying all of them. You would never have defied the Great Deku Tree if you had."
"Sixteen," Tael said.
"What?"
"There were sixteen travelers coming through the forest to see the Great Deku Tree or merely enjoying the shade when the veil was cast. They had caused no harm. Tatl and I saved one of them. Only one. But I've seen the others over the years, still walking, still hunting in the dark, treated as terribly as those that… as the guilty. It was wrong then, and it was wrong now."
"But it had to be done."
"And the Alcott sisters?" He looked at the painting that stared down on them. Once the nuns may have laughed and sang their praises here, but now it was silent. Now there was no laughter. "Did that have to be done as well?"
"Yes," Navi said, though she did not know if she believed it. Everything had been so clear when she was young. The Great Deku Tree made his decree and Telwi called it wise. She had been angry and tired and afraid. Afraid most of all. Why should she now feel guilt after a hundred years? "They made their choice. We warned them."
But no sooner had the word left her mouth, did she shiver. The lights of Tatl and Tael dimmed, as though the veil of fog had descended upon them. But there was no change in the room. She looked about to find the source of the darkness, but it was gone. Her light brightened the walls around her and spilled out into the hallway, just as it should. What had made her feel cold?
It must have been nothing but her mind. She could not flee the dark cell, no matter how far they traveled. This was not her prison. I am not alone. Stay calm. Nothing has happened.
Tael did not seem to notice her sudden discomfort. "You can love and respect someone, and still believe they made a terrible mistake."
It took some more encouragement, but after Skull Kid had calmed, they left the room. The boy's spirits had lifted, and he muttered to himself how he'd show Sheik and Link how brave he truly was. Before they reached the stairs, a creaking came behind them. Footsteps and the opening of a door. Navi froze, though every part of her wished to flee down the stairs.
"Navi?" A voice behind her rasped. "Tatl? Tael?"
"Saria!" Tatl called and flew past Navi toward the voice. Tael flying and Skull Kid bounding just a few paces behind.
Slowly, Navi turned. There Saria stood, half-starved and gaunt with sunken eyes that stared at them. Gone were the emotions that had always consumed and overwhelmed the child Navi knew. This figure looked as though she'd never danced or sang before in her life.
"You're Saria?" Skull Kid reached her, pulling on her arms and scurrying around her. "We were looking for you. Link was. I'm helping him. He'll be so happy to know you're here."
Those eyes did not leave Navi, as Saria stood stone-faced, ignoring Skull Kid's questions.
"You look starved," Tael said.
"Here," Tatl landed on her head and pressed her hands into Saria's hair. There was a soft swell of magic as energy passed from the fairy to the Kokiri.
"Look at her legs," Tael tutted. "She can barely stand. Skull Kid, help her back into the bed."
That husk of Saria let Skull Kid take her hand and lead her back into the room she had just left. Navi followed everyone into the bedchamber. Her every instinct howled that she should not enter the room, that something was wrong, that the magic of the Great Deku Tree did not flow from Saria as it should. But she could not bear to be left alone.
Even before the calling of the mists, she had never entered any of the sister's bedchambers. This one was sparse with only a bed and clothes folded in a corner. Religious symbols of Hylia and the Golden Three hung upon the walls.
"How long were you here?" Tael asked as Skull Kid brought her to the bed and let Saria sit down.
"A long time," was all she said.
"Why didn't you leave?" Tatl said. "You are only a few yards from the village. If you shout, I'm certain someone will hear you."
"I cannot leave the dark," Saria said. "I am bound to it."
Tatl and Tael shared a glance between themselves.
"Navi," Tael said, "you want to help?"
"No," she whispered.
"What?" Tatl turned to her.
"I mean, that isn't - she shouldn't know who you are," Navi said.
"Of course, Saria knows us."
"But she shouldn't."
The thing with Saria's face continued to stare at them. It listened as they spoke, but her expression did not move, did not change. She showed no weariness or pain from the withering of her body, if anything she simply looked lost. "Why did you leave us?"
Navi did not know what to say, or if she should be speaking to the figure at all. But she was looking toward her, not the twins, nor Skull Kid. "Because Link needed someone."
"Link?" Saria said the name as though she did not know it.
"Yes, Link," Skull Kid said. "Your friend."
"I'll get him," Tael flew toward the open door. "He'll want to know you're safe. Though, I expect he's changed some since last you saw him."
Yes. Someone needed to go get Link, and Sheik. Navi wasn't certain how they would help, but she wanted more people between herself and the child that stared blankly toward her. They waited for some minutes while Tael fetched the others. Skull Kid spoke to Saria of the lengths Link and he went to find her. Saria did not seem to listen.
"Why did you leave us?" She asked again, her empty eyes never leaving Navi.
"I don't know what you mean."
"We lived here in peace. We never caused harm to anyone, and yet you left us to the dark."
Tatl flew before Saria's unblinking eyes. "You're confused, Saria. Rest, now. We'll bring you out of here soon."
"Tatl, get away from her." Navi said.
"What has gotten into you?" Tatl hissed, before she returned to care for the child.
"Why did you leave us?" Saria asked again.
"Navi went on adventures, like I told you." Skull Kid gave an exasperated sigh. "Her and Link went up mountains and fought battles and fell down a waterfall. Link's my best friend and he says he's your best friend, too. But I decided we are going to share best friends."
Finally, Saria broke her gaze at Navi and looked at the Skull Kid, her weak hand reached out and touched his face. "I do not know you." Her finger ran down one of the lines of bark on his face.
Skull Kid swatted her hand away. "Don't do that."
"He is not of the Woods," Saria whispered. "He is twisted, warped and changed, stunted so he may never grow. A Hylian is meant to rise and fade."
"I'm not a Hylian, I'm the Skull Kid."
"You saved this one," Saria whispered. "This fool, this child, but you would not save us?"
Finally, Tatl stopped. "What?"
Saria sat upright in her bed, and her dead eyes turned to hate. "We built our home upon the foundations gifted us by the Lord of Root and Leaf. We trusted in his works and the protection he offered. And you all forsook us."
"Meg?" Tatl asked.
Navi did not need to hear anything further, she took hold of Tatl's hand. "We need to leave."
"But Saria."
"That's not Saria," Navi pulled her away from the bed.
"What did you do to Link's friend?" Skull Kid grabbed the front of the thing's smock. "You let her go!"
Dead eyes found Skull Kid and she whispered an old Hylian a prayer Navi used to hear every morning when the sisters sang, but now the words were harsh and joyless. "We await your judgment, and prepare your children to face you." The thing stopped her song. "You should have faced your judgment many years ago. You were supposed to choke in the dark, just like us."
Skull Kid let go and stumbled back. "I… I don't…"
Navi flew toward the scared boy, Tatl, a wingbeat ahead of her. "Run! Skull Kid! Run!" she screamed as they pulled on the back of his collar.
Saria lurched forward and rose from the bed. "There is time for life and time for joy, a time for love and beauty. But time as well for sorrow and death to finally greet thee." She reached for Skull Kid's throat.
He fell onto his back, stumbling, scrambling, screaming. Navi tried to let go, but he fell too fast. She couldn't get out from behind him. The floor rose up to crush her beneath the child. But somehow Skull Kid flipped about like a cat, landing on his knees and hands, he threw himself forward, bounding out of the room.
Navi looked over her shoulder as she fled behind him. Saria followed, but she did not rush. Simply walking from the bed, her jaw set and eyes looking forward in hate. "Time as well for sorrow and death to finally greet thee. Time as well for death. Time as well-"
Skull Kid slammed the door shut and ran down the hall.
"That was Meg," Tatl said. "How can that be Meg? She's dead."
"I don't know," Navi kept looking behind them, but the door did not open.
"That doesn't make sense," Tatl continued. "We saw their bodies. All four of them were in the basement. It doesn't make sense."
Saria. They had Saria. They'd captured her and were using her for whatever purpose the dead had. She must be so scared. Once she returned to Link they would leave this place and gather the fairies and Kokiri. She needed to flee. She needed to run away, or they'd take her as well. Drag her back into captivity, frozen, alive but lifeless. Her breath started to catch in her throat. No, not again. Please. But her voice could not even beg. Her wings slowed their beating, and the others pulled ahead of her. She clutched at the ache in her chest as she tried to slow her heartbeat. She was wheezing.
Ahead of them, a light appeared before the stairs. Tael stayed fixed in place, watching them as they ran.
"Tael!" Tatl said. "Where are the others?"
Navi tried to follow, but the corridor seemed to twist and stretch. It spiraled around until she knew not which direction was up, nor down. Everything twisted and rotated with the warping walls. Only Tael's purple light remained constant at its center. Navi shut her eyes. "I'm safe," she whispered. "I'm safe, I'm safe."
Tatl screamed.
When Navi opened her eyes, she'd hoped that the world would make sense again, but if anything, all of it seemed more coiled and demented. Tatl and Tael flew together, but now Tael clutched at his twin while she struggled to break free from his grip.
"I know you," his voice unmasked in rage and hate. "I know you, I know you. I cared for you, I helped you. I prayed and prayed and prayed, I cried and cried and cried, but you didn't listen. You killed me. You killed me."
"Get out of my brother!" She tried to call the wind to force him away from her, but the air whipped through Tael, battering his wings and he refused to release Tatl.
Skull Kid was trying to grab them both, but no matter how he ran the hallway stretched and turned so they were always out of reach. He was crying, or was that gasping sob coming from her? Navi didn't know anymore. She needed to help them, but she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything.
"Link," she tried to call for him, but her voice was a ragged whisper. There was no way he'd ever hear her. She didn't know what he could do if he had. He was in the basement. But perhaps he could run, he could save himself from whatever fate had befallen Tael and Saria. Please, let him leave and be free.
Hands grabbed her and scooped her off the ground. When had she fallen? It didn't matter. This was it. Let it be quick. Let it be painless. But the hands did not crush the light from her. They carried her away. A door opened and slammed shut and the hands stopped moving, besides a ceaseless quivering shake.
Her vision cleared and the world now looked straight. Skull Kid cradled her in his hands, he was crying, and together they were huddled in the corner of another cramped bedroom, this one empty of Saria.
She needed to calm him, soothe him, somehow. But the words would not come. She still heaved and choked on her own breath and her wings would not beat. The room had no window, nor other exit. The only way out was to return the way they came, right into the hands of the ghosts of the dead sisters. Impossible. They were doomed, and she could offer this poor child not even words of comfort. Why were the dead still here? They should have become the wandering corpses that guard the forest, how had they bound themselves to remain for one-hundred years?
The door creaked open. Skull Kid's hands pulled her close to his chest. She looked at the child's face as footsteps creaked behind her. His eyes were clenched shut, and tears ran across the lines of flesh and bark, his mask had been lost in the flight.
"Navi," he groaned as a shadow passed over him, cloaking the child in dark. "Navi, I'm too scared to run."
A gnarled old hand reached toward him, and Navi clenched her eyes shut. "I'm sorry," she managed to rasp. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." They were lost. She was lost. Alone. Again. Forever. Would her mind know what was happening when the Alcott sisters took their revenge? Would she watch as they wasted away in her body, still bound to this house of the forsaken dead? Or would this be oblivion? Would she face judgment, like the Hylians believed awaited them after their death? Or does a being spun from magic simply return to the energies of the world? Perhaps that would be preferable to once more being captured and locked in a dark cell for all her life.
The footsteps thumped closer and closer. Why couldn't they get on with it? Did they wish her tortured? Did the sisters enjoy tormenting her? Perhaps she deserved it for not speaking out against their treatment.
The door creaked open, again.
"Navi?" Link asked.
She opened her eyes. She sat on the floor, Skull Kid nowhere to be seen. Link stood in front of her, squinting in confusion, Sheik a step behind him.
"Are you alright?" Link asked.
"We searched the basement," Sheik said. "We were waiting for you, as you said, but then-"
"Navi, the torches all took flame. We don't know why, but they're burning again. Where is everyone?"
Somehow, Navi's wings found their strength. She flew to Link, buried her head in his shoulder and cried.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, work and dissatisfaction with my first attempt writing a haunted house. I still might tinker with this one when I have time.
Regardless, thanks everyone for your patience, and a special thanks to SoulPieces. I like to respond to reviews, positive or negative, but your messages seem closed. As such, if you have continued on and are reading this: Thank you for taking the time to read. I'm glad you've enjoyed the parts you've gotten to, and hope you pull through further. As to your questions:
No, I haven't read Stormlight, actually my only real interaction with Sanderson are his free writing lectures which I have listened to repeatedly. For anyone who wants to write genre fiction I would heartily recommend them. So his influence on how to weave magic into stories may have gone through into my writing a bit, and I think we probably both just wished to make some sort of internal logic to being able to bend light around, which is what illusions kinda are.
As to Happy Mask Salesman, in truth my initial idea was to continue on, eventually, to Majora's Mask which is why he shows up being weird so often. But those plans were when I thought this project would only take about 50-ish chapters to get through the whole game. I'm uncertain if I would continue on after this story is done, it's been a fair few years of my life now. I will need to tie up his story in some way, and I have ideas that I will not be spoiling here, but that's why he has a bit more predominant role than you might expect when looking only at Ocarina of Time.
Thank you again, all who are continuing to read and enjoy.