Establishing Hyrule

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

I walk steadily, with a demon in front of me, behind me and another two at my sides. I can't see a thing thanks to the blindfold over my eyes, and my hands are tied behind my back, leading to a lot of stumbling as we climb stairs. I swear I can hear one of the guards chuckling. 

We step outside, at least what feels like it, the temperature picking up immediately. I shift uncomfortably in my new clothes, black with a long red sash around my waist. 

"We would have to be in the middle of Lanayru," the guard to my right complains. "The heat is ridiculous."

I make a 'hmph' sound in agreement. I falter when I feel something, or someone trying to contact me in some way. A message of some sort...? I'm about to investigate when whoever the guard is in front begins talking for the thousandth time, briefing me on our course of action.

"You must appear genuine," he says, "smile, maybe even laugh, if you think you're up to it."

I can feel his smile in his words, and I wish I could roll my eyes at him. "They wouldn't believe it was me if I did smile, actually."

Finally, just when I'm about to start conplaining, the guards stop. I bump into the one in front, stumbling back a step. 

"Can you take this off of me now?" I ask irritably, gesturing vaguely to where the blindfold is. One of them comes from behind and begins unravelling the elaborate knot tied at the back of my head. 

I open my eyes, and have to shield them against the sun. When I adjust, I find Blagdan waiting for us a little distance away. We walk over and he looks me up and down.

"Very nice," he says. "I assume you know what you are to do, then?"

"It's only been said about eighty times," I reply drily. Blagdan gives me a thin smile, then turns to begin walking again. I follow after a moment, taking in the drab scenery around me. After a moment, I spot a group of people some distance from us. Undoubtedly Fintan and the rest of the Hylians and Sheikah.

"Here we go," the guard to my right says, actually offering me a smile, though it doesn't seem all that genuine. His pale skin glows under the sun. "Now we'll see what you're capable of."

Rolling my shoulders, I let him accompany me, directly behind Blagdan. 

"Hylians," he calls out, "Sheikah!" 

The group approaches, all of them wary-looking. My guard moves me so that we stand to the forefront. 

Melaina recognises me immediately despite my change in clothing, and some of the others let out sighs of relief. I just watch in silence, trying to smile and failing.

Fintan and Leoni approach, and we move at exactly the same pace. The silence is deafening, even with the harsh wind whipping my short strands of hair about.

"The shard," Blagdan requests simply. Leoni removes it from his pouch, and it gleams under the sun. Fintan moves in my direction, keeping his eye trained on Blagdan.

"On three," Fintan says, still approaching. My guard steps back to give him room. 

"One..." Blagdan says. Leoni takes another step, as does Fintan. 

"Two," Fintan continues, reaching out to me with one hand. 

"Three," I finish, stepping forward and allowing Fintan to take me by the arm just as Blagdan takes the blade shard from Leoni. 

Fintan pulls me back, and Leoni moves with us. 

"Caoilainn," Fintan says as I'm brought away. "You'll be alright now."

I say nothing, just nodding. Fintan takes my arm and produces a knife. For a moment, I panic, but then I realise he's severing the ropes that bind my hands. 

For a moment I'm comfortable, and then I hear the low whistle coming from the guard that had been assigned to me. 

I whirl, whipping out the knife given to me earlier, and grab Fintan by the waist, spinning him so that I can place the knife at his neck. 

Startled gasps come from the Hylians and the Sheikah, and Melaina looks as if she'll break down. Nobody moves.

"Did you think I was that idiotic?" Blagdan cries into the open air. Fintan tries to squirm from underneath my grip, grunting. I grab one of his arms, and twist it until he hisses in pain. The knife hasn't been lowered.

"Did you honestly believe you could get away with giving me a fake?" Blagdan continues. "Oh, you foolish children."

[ElwayGuy7 10]

"Did you think we wouldn't know?" I start laughing, holding my sword across Blagdan's throat. I had snuck up behind him while he gloated about the fake, just as we'd planned. " We knew you wouldn't be honest enough to give up Caoilainn, even if we did give you the real shard. So, the proposition has changed. I let you go, if you tell Caoilainn to let Fintan go, and you release her. Does that seem reasonable?" I wrap the sword tighter around his throat, and I take another knife and poke him in the back to urge him along. He doesn't speak, so I take the liberty. "Do you not think I have it in me to kill? Because that was your second mistake. I'm not just a wishy-washy ball of emotions; I will kill for my friends, and I will kill for those I love. All those things you told Caoilainn, they were lies. Not just to her, but to yourself. You tried to convince yourself that we would not care enough to come and try to save her. And you were wrong. The only truthful thing you told her was of her heritage, and that doesn't matter to me at all. You came after the one I love, so I will come after you. Has that penetrated your thick skull, or do I need to repeat myself? Mess with those I love, and you will die!" I yell, stabbing him in the back and slashing his neck at the same time. He falls to the ground, limp. The other demons just stand there in shock. "Anyone else care to try today's special? Cold steel with a side of death?" I say, and they turn and flee back to their base. I turn back to face the group, standing over the dying Blagdan. Caoilainn drops the knife, and we all look at each other, a smile lowly crossing my face. Everyone stares at me, just as shocked as the demons were. "What? Was I too dramatic?" I ask, and Sault snickers.

"I guess it doesn't matter; it got the job done!" Sault yells, and we all smile.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

Caoilainn drops her grip on my arm, letting me drop down to my knees. I press one hand to my throat, running my fingers along where the knife just was. She steps around me, never taking her eyes off the beaming Leoni.

"You have no idea what you just did, do you?" she says, her voice barely above a whisper.

Leo grins. "Of course I do! I killed Blagdan, I saved you!"

She shakes her head slowly, stepping closer to him. "You're so naive... you can't even comprehend what you've just done!"

His smile falters. "What I've just done is kill the man who kidnapped you and held you against your will! The man who cloned our friends! I made it so that we can keep the Blade of Duplicity... I rescued you!"

She snaps then, reaching up and slapping him across the cheek. "Did it ever occur to you that I don't need saving? I don't know how things are done in Skyloft, but in the Sheikah tribe women look after themselves! What did you think was going to happen, Leo? That I was going to be oh-so-grateful and swoon at the very sight of you, strip off my clothes and beg you to ravish me right here, right now? Stop trying to be my hero, I don't need one! I'm my own hero!"

She turns them, storming away from us all in a whirl of black and red, her blonde hair flying out around her.

I climb to my feet, swallowing the bitter taste in my mouth. "We don't look after ourselves," I remind her. "Not in the Sheikah tribe. We work as a team, as a unit, progressing towards one collective goal. I would have thought you understood that."

She turns back, glaring daggers at me. "I'm not a Sheikah, Fintan! You know it as well as I do. I'm not like you... I don't belong with you."

"Where are you even going to go?" Melaina yells out. "We took you in when Demons killed your parents, and now you want to abandon us for Demons? You don't even have Blagdan to go running back to!"

Caoilainn lets out a grin that looks almost malicious. "Don't you realise? Blagdan wasn't the boss - he was the henchman."

And with that, she vanishes in a whirl of black magic.

[Knuckle 484]

((ah sorry, I was in class so I couldn't get my post in earlier. If it's okay I'll just squeeze in what I was gonna post after Nayru and skip ahead.))

 

"Oh man, where to begin!?" Sault replies. "First of all, I visited Batreaux last night and he told me the location of the hilt!" Everyone gets excited at this; apparently nobody else knew for sure where the last part of the Blade of Duplicity was. "It  gets even better though, because Batreaux has figured out a way to transform demons into humans. We can save Caoilainn and turn her into a full human!" Everyone is even more surprised by this, and Leo is so happy his eyes have begun to water. "I'd like to add to this good news," Fintan speaks up, "by telling you all I know the general location of Caoilainn and Blagdan. They're in the middle of Lanayru." The day just keeps getting better, and now everyone's incredibly eager to get moving. Link runs off in a hurry to get the nearly completed Blade of Duplicity and the duplicate shards, while Fintan lays out the plan for the exchange.

 

---

 

Hours after that meeting, everything has changed. Caoilainn is gone, Blagdan appears to be fatally wounded, and the team is still one person down. It's all been so utterly chaotic when a nasty splatter erupts from the dying Demon Lord. "Don't think you've accomplished anything." He wheezed. "This is only the beginning of the end. You may have broken my pathetic body, but I will live on... through my... great...est..." Blagdan suddenly gives a final sputter of air and stops moving, but everything feels wrong. How did Leoni's knife cut Blagdan's throat? Even Sault's own falchion, a much thicker blade, cracked on the knee of that Demon Lord without breaking the skin during that fight weeks ago. And why didn't Blagdan or his guards do or anything?

 

And, most importantly of all, where is the clone of Link?

[ElwayGuy7 10]

((I'll post later this evening, I have to get back on the road to head home soon... I never even thought about changing Caoilainn from Demon to Human... XD))

[ElwayGuy7 10]

"Well, what now? Go and get the hilt, I guess?" I ask, deflated. 

"That seems to be the best course of action. We've already had one disaster today, let's not make it two. And something about this whole encounter is throwing me off. On paper, we won, but why I do I get the feeling like we've lost?" Fintan asks. 

"I feel it too," Sault adds. "The other question that has plagued my mind has to do with the supposed clone of Link that Blagdan made. Where is it? We've kept an eye on Link, but we know the clone is about. What is its plan?"

"I have no idea," I reply, too depressed and tired to think straight. Who knew that killing a Demon Lord took so much energy? Sault speaks up again.

"Why did your smaller sword kill Blagdan when my large Flachion cracked on impact without leaving a scratch? That's the other thing that bothers me," Sault adds. I shrug my shoulders, looking defeated.

"We should meet up with the others and head back to the Sky," I say.

"Right," Fintan says, walking over to the group and signaling for the Hylians to call our birds. Everyone mounts up, and we soar into the clouds. We land shortly thereafter, and I turn to Sault. 

"So how do we get to the hilt's location?" I ask. 

"Batreaux told me that Zurin could take us there. It's inside the island," he replies. We all search for Zurin in a group, and we find him in the bazaar. 

"Could you take us inside the island? We need to find the last piece of the Blade," Fintan says.

"Very well. Be warned, though. That blade has mysterious power once it is assembled. Hylia didn't break it into pieces and scatter them for no reason," Zurin replies. "Everyone grab hold of each other." Everyone does, and with a snap of Zurin's fingers, we are inside Skyloft. Since the island is not that big, and the cave walls have to be thick enough to withstand wind and rain, the cave inside is rather small. The only thing there is a small box, just like the one we got from Lanayru. Fintan opens it and takes out the hilt, and attaches it to the blade. Nothing happens, and then we all realize that he tried to put the hilt on the fake blade. We all laugh heartily at that, even Fintan, who switches the blades. When he puts the pieces together, there is a small flash, and the sword is whole. 

"Now we just have to defend it," Fintan says with a sigh. Zurin teleports us all back, and we decide to spend the night at the Academy again. 

We arrive shortly thereafter, and I sit alone in my room, aside from Fintan. I turn to him. 

'Can I ask you a question?" I say.

"Sure, go ahead," he replies.

"Sorry if I sound blunt, but has Caoilainn always been this thick? I am not trying to save her as one would a damsel in distress, but I am trying to show her that I love her, and she keeps seeing the latter as the former. I hate it when she rejects me and runs off because I can't explain it to her. I'm not trying to save her, I just want to show her that I care. Do you have any advice, speaking from experience?" I ask, and I pause for a second. "And by the way, if you want Melaina to like you more, just tell her how you feel. She'll understand, and you two will be great together..." I trail off, waiting for a response. 

[Knuckle 484]

That night, Link and Sault relax together in their shared room, examining the Blade of Duplicity. It's an odd weapon, more like a very long knife or a short sword, with a wide ovular piece of metal in place of a crossguard. The oval was imprinted with a picture showing a disturbing two-headed human bickering with itself on both sides; such bizarre imagery could have only been made by demons. "Guess I'll have to get used to using this thing..." Link said before putting the blade in a modest scabbard. "Yeah, I don't care for short blades either. Sneaky demons make sneaky blades though, right?" Sault mused. It was a lighthearted comment, but something about it put Link into deep thought. "I wonder if the demons really made such a thing." he answered after a bit of thinking. "Sure, it looks scary, but when I hold it I get the feeling it somehow belongs to both good and evil. It's a weird object, a thing that sits on the line between all the worlds' opposing forces and doesn't really pick a side." Sault didn't really get deep stuff like that, but he did feel what Link was talking about. No doubt about it, this small sword was the epitome of neutral, and could slay a hero as soon as it would cut open a Demon Lord.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

I blink. "How did you know about-"

He grins. "It's pretty obvious..."

"Oh..." I say with a slight nod. "Anyway, back to the point at hand. My advice to you? Stop pursuing her."

He frowns. "But I-"

"I know, you love her," I say. "But Caoilainn isn't herself, or at least, she's a different version of herself. She's built up this state of confusion and paranoia, and no amount of kind words or loving gestures will penetrate those walls. Trust me - I know her. Something inside of her changed when you Hylians arrived and it triggered this state of paranoia. Since then, she's punched me twice, shot me once, and held a knife to my neck. Believe me when I say that she's not making rational decisions right now."

"I guess that makes sense..." he sighs. "Maybe now's not the time." He turns to me then, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "How can you be that perceptive and yet you still don't notice that Melaina likes you?"

I press my lips together, glancing away. "It's not a case of not noticing... I think she might like me, or at least be willing to try... but it's more of an issue that I don't make a habit of displaying my emotions. Don't get me wrong, I have emotions, I think they're important to keep you in balance - but I'm very bad at sharing them with other people."

[ElwayGuy7 10]

I chuckle a little. "Now that doesn't surprise me. You are like I was before I met Caoilainn: seemingly cold and logical, with little emotion to show. But now that you have the chance, you have to show Melaina that you truly love her. If you don't, the chance of being with her could be gone forever. Trust me on that, I know from experience," I say, turning towards the window. 

He smiles. "I will," he says. "And how do you know about this from experience? You said that you were cold and logical..." 

"After my time at the Academy. I thought I loved someone, and they obviously didn't love me back, but I was too blind to see it. And they rejected me and went out with one of my best friends. We didn't speak much after that, and I became a loner, caught up in books all the time. In fact, I was reading a book when Link found the arrow that started this whole mess," I say, laughing, and he laughs too. 

"You know what?" he says. "So was I..."  We both laugh at that, and after that, a silence grows between us. 

"So what do we do next with the blade?" I ask. "Take it back to the camp?"

Edited 18 Apr 2014 by ElwayGuy7 (see edit history)

[ButterflyBabyBlue 2]

I reappear in a swirl of black and red, landing squarely on my feet. I'm met with the dull walls of the demon settlement, and the guard that had been by my side this whole time. He smiles thinly at me, hands on his hips. 

"You've impressed us," he says, affirming with a nod. His blue eyes are satisfied. 

"Thank you," I say, dusting down my clothes. "I'm sorry about Blagdan."

"Don't worry about it," he shrugs it off, flicking his long red hair from his face. "We've suffered worse losses."

I nod my understanding. "Are you going to tell me your name now?"

"Do you deserve to know?" he asks with a grin. "I think you do. It's Ardaia."

"Ardaia," I repeat. "It's unusual."

"I could say the same to you."

Rolling my eyes, I tighten my sash. "So... What now?"

"You're wanted," Ardaia informs me. "Probably best to head straight to it."

I nod, seeing no point in delaying. Ardaia strides ahead of me, hair swishing, and I follow him along corridors lit by blue flame.

"I'm going to assume we're undeground?" I venture. 

"You'd be right," Ardaia says. "Safest, if you ask me, and we can keep cool."

We arrive at a pair of double doors, heavily guarded. At first, the demon soldiers are hostile, lifting their weapons. But their eyes fall on Ardaia and they move back, granting us entry. 

I step into the massive room, my eyes going straight for the person - or rather, the thing- seated in a gargantuan throne.

"Caoilainn," the demon next to the throne speaks, appearing possessed. "At last I have the satisfaction of laying witness to you."

Ardaia descends to one knee, and I follow his example, one fist on my chest while the other hits the ground. 

"The satisfaction is mine... Majora."

[ElwayGuy7 10]

((Oh shit... Majora... Crossovers all over the goddamn place))

Edited 18 Apr 2014 by ElwayGuy7 (see edit history)

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

(( Well... technically Majora wasn't even in Majora's mask... just the mask which housed the Demonic spirit or whatever... I sense an origins story coming up!!! ))

 

I stare up at the blank ceiling of Groose's room. Ok. It's decided. I definitely don't like sleeping indoors. It feels so much more restrictive than a tent. In all truth, I don't really think that's the reason that I can't sleep right now. Caoilainn's words ring in my mind every time I close my eyes... Don't you realise? Blagdan wasn't the boss - he was the henchman... and I can't shake the feeling of her knife against my neck. I pull my blanket a little tighter around me, willing the thoughts out of my head.

Suddenly, there's a soft clicking sound and the door of the bedroom opens, a crack of light spilling in. I sit bolt upright in the bed, expecting the worst, but it's Melaina. She gives me a soft, apologetic smile.

"Did I wake you?" she asks.

I shake my head. "No, I can't sleep." I smile a little. "This is like when we were kids..." When we were younger, and she or I couldn't sleep, we'd sneak into each others tents and I'd read her stories or, very occasionally, I'd let her plait my hair. She used to love plaiting my hair...

She giggles, and I lift up the corner of my blanket, allowing her to clamber under with me. I lie back on the pillow, one arm draped lazily around her waist.

"I'd offer to read you a story," I say. "But my books are all at the Sheikah camp."

She smiles. "Can I plait your hair?"

I hold back a laugh for fear of waking anyone. "Absolutely not," I say. "Although..."

 

"You know... I really only need it tidied up... you don't have to cut off much." I sit in a chair in front of the reflective glass in Groose's room. Melaina stands behind me, a pair of scissors in hand.

"Oh come in Fintan, it's about time you lost the ponytail." She leans down next to me, whispering in my ear. "You look like one of the tribal elders."

I chew the inside of my cheek. "I'm really not su-" But before I can even get out the sentence, I feel her grab onto my pony tail and hear a loud snipping sound. Seconds later, she dumps a fat, long lock of hair in the palm of my hand. I blink at it in silence, astonished.

"You-"

"Yup!" she smirks, pulling out the band I use to hold my hair up and dumping that in my palm too. "Now I just need to neaten it up..."

And so she sets to work, scissors snipping away as I gawk at the clump of blond hair in my hand. I'm really not sure how to process this, and my mind still hasn't quite wrapped around the idea when she taps on my shoulder a little later.

"Finished!" she says.

I look up at the mirror, but I don't recognise the man staring back at me. My hair is significantly shorter, falling with a parting slightly to the left. It makes me look younger... my eyes a little brighter... I think I like it.

"Thanks," I say, smiling as I turn to face her. "I think I needed to shake off some old skin, after everything with Blagdan..."

"For what it's worth," she says. "I don't think this whole ordeal is over yet, but you're right- and you're welcome." She grins. "I can't wait to see everyone's reaction to this."

[Franne 2]

"We'll see tomorrow, I'm not waking anyone up to look at my hair," Fintan smiles. 

I smile back. "Sounds good. I should probably go back to bed..."

"Will you stay?" he asks abruptly. 

I look at him with a questioning look. 

"Just for a little more," he says quietly. 

"Sure," I give him a small smile. I sit back with him on his bed. 

"What are we going to do with Caoilainn? I mean she's a demon... We can't take her back as one of ours," I sigh. 

He looks at me, a bit shocked. "Melaina, she's our friend-"

"She almost killed you," I remind him. 

"I know that. But that was not her, and you know that," he says. 

I sigh. "I know... But still, she tried to kill you, and I don't think I can forgive her that. Not right now at least."

"We'll see what happens the following days," he concludes. 

"Yeah, we'll see..." I repeat softly. 

[ElwayGuy7 10]

I sit alone in my old room, staring at the ceiling, with far too many questions swirling in my head to sleep. Most of them are about Caoilainn: what she's done, where she's gone, and what she'll do next. I even wonder how she would react to being told she could become human. She would probably freak out and run back to the demons, I think. There isn't a chance. The last, most perturbing question is the one of my blade. The short sword with which I killed Bladgan is significantly smaller and weaker than Sault's Falchion, so why did my blade kill when his broke? I examine the blade, holding it up to the dawning light. I can see a faint inscription, in ancient Hylian. I copy it down first, and then I sheath the blade, looking at the message. I translate it slowly, struggling to remember all of the ancient Hylian I learned in school. This is the translation, as I made it out:

 

The Blade of the Pure - One whose soul is true in heart, may use this to break other souls apart. With darkness dark, and light so bright, this sword brings demons back to light. 

 

I stare at the translation, trying to see if I made any mistakes anywhere. The first part makes sense, but what happens when you break souls apart? And what does the second line even mean? Does the sword contain both dark and light? And it can bring demons into the light, but does that mean death, or humanity? I suppress a howl of frustration as I realize that I have only made more questions. I close the book and sit perfectly still, letting the silence fill the space around me. I visualize the possible scenarios as I see them. 

#1) I try to save Caoilainn in some way - Result: she rejects me, runs away, or kills/injures me.

#2) I wait for Caoilainn to save herself - Result: most likely, she will carry out the demons' plans, endangering us all. There is a minuscule chance that she could escape and return, but my chances of being with her are non-existent.

#3) I surrender myself to the Demons - Result: Instant and sudden death. Or long-standing captivity.

#4) I join the Demons' side somehow - Result: Probable death, but a possibility of being with her.

#5) ...

I run out of stupid ideas after 4, so my mind turns back to the blade, which is the only other thing I can concentrate on right now. The first part reflects what happened to Blagdan. Even though he has great physical strength, I broke his soul, killing him. The second part worries me. Could I turn Caoilainn into a human with it? With a combination of darkness and light, could I bring her back? I would need a great evil and a great light...  

[Knuckle 484]

Everyone wakes up a bit late the next morning, getting extra sleep after yesterday's exhausting ordeal. Sault, for one, is still anxious at the lack of a goal to focus on; even with their quest for the Blade of Duplicity complete very little feels accomplished. As he gets breakfast with the others and sits at the table, Link begins to address these concerns. "With the permission of the Sheikah, I would like to hold onto the Blade of Duplicity as we move to our next goal." he proposes. "I need to be ready to strike down that clone at any time, and this weapon will help me." The others agree to that logic, and right now Link is the only person who can take advantage of the sword's power anyway.

 

"I know this sounds tough, but before we look for Caoilainn I'd like to find and destroy that clone." he continues, but this point is contended quietly by all the Sheikah and Leo. Their faces, along with Sault's, project what the lack of words does not; they all want to find Caoilainn as soon as possible. "It seems wrong to leave our friend for later, but right now even I don't know how we can save her. Sault mentioned a possible fix, but we need a lot of time to collect those gratitude crystals and try Batreaux's spell. If some of you want to stay here and work on that, I absolutely don't blame you, but I for one need to put this problem to rest."