Chapter Text

Chapter 1: What Do You Do With Dark Tomes?

Thunder and lightning play as she trots through the forest in the pouring rain. His head hangs low as droplets pitter and patter onto the dense forest surrounding the road they travel on. His left-hand holds onto her reins, but he does not steer her. She knows where they need to go.

He shivers; the rain soaked through his cloak a while ago. His once brilliant green tunic was now torn and dull. His body wasn’t much better off. He was grungy and damp and hadn’t taken a bath in a while. He knew his sword was starting to rust, but he paid no attention to the state of the rest of his equipment. It didn’t matter to him much; all that mattered was that they continued to handle his abuse and that he made sure to care for his horse. After all, he had to find her.

Why did she destroy the mirror? 

At first, he thought he agreed and understood her. Yet, a hole in his heart sprung over time, growing larger each day and beyond. That hole made it harder and harder to see her reasoning til it was doubted in every sense. Why do all this for her? He wasn’t sure. Perhaps he had fallen in love with her or maybe it was something else. Quite frankly, he didn’t want to process it. He wanted to get back to her because then he would know. He hadn’t seen her for so long now. He believes it’s been about two years now. 

He clutches his newest acquisition closely. He had traveled to the farthest region of the kingdom to find this after all. He couldn’t even remember where he found it nor the effort he put into that journey. This had become a habit. His obsession had rendered those details less and less important. 

He didn’t even remember why he quested for it. He only read them when he was too tired to collect more. If he were exhausted, then the disappointment wouldn’t sting as much. Still, he knew it was a dark artifact; he had learned to sense that magic long ago. 

Now, hHe knew he shouldn’t strive for them but he stopped caring about a year ago. At this point, anything that might be useful. If it contained spells, hexes, or anything else, then he might be able to repurpose their incantations, their recipes, or do something else. Maybe it would guide him to the next potential disappointment; maybe it contained more forbidden knowledge. It had to have something, and he was desperate for anything that could lead him to her. 

Why… why did she destroy the mirror? 

 He repeats that question to himself to escape the dread he would feel at home. He had barely spoken to anyone for a long time, and when he was home, he would lock himself up to avoid them. They had tried everything to get him out of the house, but they didn’t understand. They couldn’t. 

He didn’t have time for them.

It was more important to keep searching. 

He can’t give up.

She stops and so he looks up. That old tree. He was home now. He looks down at his horse, the poor girl. He’ll stay a few more days than usual to take care of her and let her rest. He scrunches his face, he didn’t want to stay for long but he could tell…

She needed rest, and maybe he did too.

 An ugly, wet scent enters his nostrils and his face scrunches up. It’s been a while; he might as well bathe once the rain lets up. He gets down from his horse carefully.

The book must not get wet.

He grabs her reins and guides her to the stable, where he finds a man, lost in thought, sitting on the dryest patch of hay in this small stable. Damnit, he was hoping to avoid him most of all. He quickly hides his scroll in Epona’s ruck sack. It was wet from the rain, but that man was notoriously curious and he can’t let him see the scroll.

Link takes Epona and ties her to the stable, “Rusl, what are you doing out here? You should be staying dry with your family and having dinner.”

Rusl looks up at the young man, “I could say the same to you. You haven’t stopped by for a while now! I decided to wait a bit after calling out for you, I was hoping you could have dinner with us.”

Link looks back at Rusl confused as he finishes tying Epona to the reins, “I just got back. How long have you been waiting for me?”

Rusl gets up, “I’m not sure but I don’t think it’s been very long. I noticed light coming from out your window and called out to you since I thought—” He stops as a realization dawns on him, “If you just got back, then why is there light coming out of your house?”

Link rushes over to the edge of the stable and peaks from the corner. He squints his eyes and sees a faint shape of smoke coming out of the chimney. “Someone has broken in,” he states grimly. Damnit, he locked his house for a reason—his collection! No one can know about it.

Rusl peaks out with the boy, “It must be a drifter hiding from the rain… We must investigate.”

Link quickly weighs his options before shaking his head, “No. Go home, Rusl. I’ll take care of this.” Rusl is a greater risk than the intruder. He cannot risk him, of all people, finding his collection.

Rusl places his hand on Link’s shoulder, “Link, let's go together-”

The boy looks at Rusl with razor-sharp eyes as his voice rises above the thunder, “No! I don’t need you!” He brushes his hand off and runs to the ladder.

As he climbs those steps, he starts to fear for the worst. What if this drifter had found his books? No, he’s taken great care to hide them. Yet, what if this drifter found them all the same? What is he going to do? He can’t afford to let anyone know what he has been up to. If they found out… what would they do? 

They would— it doesn’t matter anymore; the books are too important to him. He tried to find the broken shards of mirror but he only found one. Worst, it only contained a fraction of the power it once held. The crystal that he used to turn into a beast had also lost it’s power when the realms separated. His only options were shots in the dark and he couldn’t afford to lose any ammunition.

He dared not to think about the village discovering his books but as he put his hands on the door. He thought of the man reading those tomes, he thought about that man rushing to the village and alerting everyone to what he was hiding, so, he began to ask himself.

What will he do?

He pulls out his blade. Hopefully, he won’t have to find out.

He opens the door with the utmost care. Don’t alert whoever is in there.

The house was awash with light from the fireplace and burning candles as Link stops dead in his tracks. The place looked as if it was recently cleaned. Stuff was put back in place but not in the order he left it. Atop the table laid a sword and shield. A stool was missing but it had not gone far for the drifter sat on it near the fireplace with a pile of scrolls, books, and tomes next to him.

The drifter looked like a stalfos yet, he looked so very different as the light glimmered off his golden armor. He wore a most familiar and distinctive helmet, just as bright, with two horns adorning the side of the helmet with a third shaped like a snake totem on top of it. Its pauldrons are adorned by vines from some ancient battlefield.

Link’s mouth dropped as he sheathed his sword; he could never forget that distinctive armor and helm. It can’t be. He’s supposed to be dead— he eased his regrets two years ago!

The stalfos grabs a scroll from the pile and stares at it. He opens it and then quickly reads through it. His mouth does not move, yet a most haunted, booming, butshriveled voice is heard…

“Hmmm, a spell to crash the moon into the earth…” 

Link silently grabs a stool by the table and walks over to the stalfos. It pays no mind as it stares blankly at the scroll; lost in some ancient memory. As Link sits down, the stalfos throws the scroll into the fire, chuckling like a vengeful child.

The young man silently fumes as his efforts turn to ash. He finally makes his presence known, as the monster continues chuckling, “What are you doing?”

The stalfos fumbles off the stool in fright and crashes onto the floor along with his stool. Who was that? Wait! He looks up at the filthy boy. His face shows no emotion, yet he hurriedly gets up and leaves the stool on its side, “Oh, you’re back! I’ve been waiting for you!”

Link asks the shade again, “What are you doing?” He still couldn’t believe what he was looking at. Why is he back? Why did he break into his house? How did he even know this was his house?

Why is he burning his freaking books?

His mentor looks him dead in the eye as his left-hand shakes slightly. “I…” His hand shakes even more, “I…” He looks away from the boy.

Link ponders as the shade struggles for words. Was this the work of the goddesses? Is this divine punishment? Was there a new threat to the land, a new infuriating distraction, and he’s been sent to aid him? Do the goddesses think he needs to brush up on his technique or something? No, this must be divine punishment and—

“I’ve come to visit you!” The shade exclaims as he stops his shaking hand.

The boy snaps out of his thoughts as he crooks his head in shock. That… that, he wasn’t expecting to hear that, “You’re kidding.” 

The shade tilts his head, “Kidding? Why would I kid about wanting to see my heroic son, er… grandson…” He puts his once shaking hand on his jaw and thinks aloud, “Great… great, something grandson…” 

He waves the conundrum away as he pivots to the pile he had made and laughs, “You know, I can tell you’ve been working very hard here. Just look at all these dark and forbidden tomes!”

Link looks at the pile, and his eyes begin to twitch slightly. He found all of them, every single one.

The shade continues to laugh as he picks the stool up, “A word of advice though: you should have burnt these abominations where you found them. It's much more entertaining to watch the buildings burn.” 

He looks back at the boy. The way the light hit his face and that ugly twitch. He’s never seen the boy angry before. In his mind, the shade starts worrying: Oh no, you stupid old man, you inconsiderate corpse. He’s insulted! You shouldn’t have said that! 

The shade reaches out to touch the boy’s shoulder but stops himself and sits down, “I’m sorry. You’re doing a great job here. I mean, you’ve just gotten started; I’m really proud of you.” He tries to emote, but if only this skull could show his smile. 

Link says nothing… did he just apologize? What the hell is this? This man was one of the most serious, grave beings he had ever met in his life. The training he had put him through. He never let up on him; it was difficult even to describe the hell he put him through. Yet, here he was, acting the exact opposite with no sense of courtesy. No sense of xenia. No sense of— hell, he had no sense!

There was a brief and awkward silence. The shade was content to let it hang like that. After all, the boy didn’t really know him. With Hyrule being under threat when they met, he had to focus on training him to be the best hero he could be. He could imagine feeling the same if that one dark god he became started joking with him and telling him how proud he was. Not only that, but the boy wasn’t expecting him, and he did let himself into his house uninvited. Yeah, that wasn’t the best idea, but that’s what heroes do! They let themselves in…

They continue to sit and bake in that heated awkwardness. It felt like hours had passed to the shade. Something was off. He had to lighten the mood, somehow, “You… you wanna hear a joke?” Link leans back, a joke? He’s gonna tell him a joke, now? 

How about you leave instead?

The shade looks down, grabs a scroll from the pile, and holds it in front of Link; he has been saving this one for centuries. Well, actually, he came up with it when he started his little book burning, “So, what do you do with a dark tome but never with a book?” 

Link remains silent as the shade waits for him to play along.

He takes the silence as an answer, it sure was a conundrum, “You burn it!” He throws it into the fire as soon as he finishes speaking. His jaw flies open as he laughs louder than he thinks he’s ever had, ignoring the deadly intent pouring out from Link. 

A sword cleaves the skeleton’s stool in half. He rolls a great distance to the table and grabs his blade with his right hand. He stares his boy down and points his blade at him.

“Link, a sudden duel!? Here!? Now!? How exciting!” The shade delights.

The boy charges at him but he side-steps away from the table and begins meeting Link’s blade with his own. Their blades soon dance about each other in a rhythmic pace before the boy taps his blade and commits to an attack. He side-steps it and allows the boy to return to neutral. His face couldn’t display his surprise, when did the boy learn to fence?

The boy’s blade slams against his and slides along it to stab the old warrior. The shade bends his body to dodge the blow and admires the boy. What a terrific poke! He backs off and returns to stance but Link continues his offense and forces the shade against the table with a powerful lunge and then a quick succession of fast jabs. Link doesn’t let up; the old warrior jumps atop the table as Link pushes his advantage.

The tides change as the shade continues to hold off the offense atop the table, “A transition from Agrippa to Capo Ferro?! Link, since when did you become a master fencer?” 

More rapid strikes have the blades bend and ripple. The shade side-steps a lunge and commits to a counter. Link feels the flat of his opponent’s blade beat against his hat which sends it flying off. He backs off which has the shade lean into his counter attack. 

Link grunts in frustration as he deflects that last lunge. He can’t fight him like this. He needs to rethink his approach. 

“Your capo is marvelous, but you face my specialized Bonetti’s Defense as I stand atop a table!” The shade boasts as he returns to a neutral stance. He just knew he would fence atop a table one day!  She was wrong and he can’t wait to gloat to her about that.

Link spits at his boast and answers it with quick horizontal slashes, ducking and weaving through the shade’s defensive strikes ‘till he’s close enough. 

The boy sends the table off with an almighty kick which causes the shade to jump into the air. Link immediately follows the kick with an upward lunge and the shade contorts his body. The blade sparks against his armor as he crashes feet-first onto the floor. He stabs at the boy before he can take advantage, and the two jump away from each other.

The shade sings out, “By Din, that’s a first! My bonetti must be rusty!”Great stuff, lad! He will have to theory-craft that situation again when this is over.

Link grunts in frustration as his rage and blade clash against the naive joy of his old mentor. What was wrong with this man? Does he not see? This isn’t for fun!

Their blades ring off like wild trumpets as Link backs away once again. Damnit, nothing is working and feels worse knowing that the shade continues to think this is a game!.. He stomps his foot on the ground, think man, think! 

A smile flashes, if he thinks this is a game, then a show of skill, a little trickery, and some flash will lower his guard… 

He commits to that scheme as he rushes back into the fight and jumps into the air with a powerful downward slash. The shade jumps back and counter attacks with a playful yet powerful lunge. Link reaches into his bag.

A blinding flash stuns the shade. A deku nut? That’s cheating! He can hear the boy rolling across the wooden floor. Oh, he's going to use the back slice… He remembers his techniques! He must be forgiven, then! He turns to block as his sight returns to him.

He watches his boy jump into the air. Wait, that was a faint! He meant to trick him and catch him off guard with a helm splitter! He’s gotten so inventive with their use! He understands the theory of those moves and when to apply them! He becomes flush with pride, and  can’t even bring himself to respond! The boy has earned this!

He feels the blade’s edge conk against his helmet and sends him rocketing to the ground as his helmet flies off his head. He rolls over onto his back and sighs in complete satisfaction with the boy’s victory—wait.

He rolls into the pile of books and scrolls as the boy crashes into the ground like a boulder. His blade pierces deep into the wooden flooring.

The shade gets up as he finally makes sense of the deadly aura emitting from Link. It chills his mind just like death when it visited him so long ago. He taught the boy that technique, and he remembers what his wife named it: The Ending Blow.

He remembers her off-hand remark back when she first witnessed it. It was a simple thought, but one which shaped the philosophy… the use case for that move. The Ending Blow always hands death to your opponent. He switches his blade to his left hand; there is only one conclusion to draw.

Link returns to face him; his eyes are not adequate enough for his murderous intent, so his entire face contorts in a horrible expression of rage.

Murderously loud fury clashes against joyless silence as they circle around each other.

Swords bite as Link yells and spits in the shades face. The shade deflects Link’s blade down and kicks him. The boy recovers and responds with a frenzied  downward strike. The shade lets the blade fall to his side, and split the flooring. Link pulls it from the floor quicker than he struck and spins his blade around him. The shade jumps into the air.

He lands and swipes at Link. Link jumps back as it slices his tunic and glances against his chainmail. They begin to circle again.

For one moment, there was naught but the sound of footsteps. Both could feel it; this next act was the finale.

Link screams out a curse and rushes the ancient warrior. The shade could tell the boy is out of patience. In that final clash, he uses the flat of his blade as he swings at Link’s sword with all his might. .

The sword flies out of the boy’s hand. He feels the tip of steel push against his neck.

The shade carefully pushes it against the boy’s neck and forces him to back up. It’s not long before he slams his back against the wall but, all the same, the blade does not leave his neck.

They stand silently as the shade looks deep into the boy’s eye. He focuses on the reflection he sees of himself and it unnerves him. By the three, He looks like a grim reaper out to collect.

The shade pulls his blade away from Link’s neck, “I’m not going to kill you.” Link drops down and gasps for air as he tries to grip the wall. The shade asks, “Why did you try to kill me?”

The boy responds with hellfire between each desperate breath, “You are burning…” He breathes in and exhales, “My stuff!”

“Your stuff?!” The shade responds, most surprised. What the hell is he talking about? The books, is he keeping the books? He didn’t mean to destroy them? What is going on here?

He could feel his anger rise as he tries to understand, “Why do you care about the books? Do you mean to use them? For what purpose?!”

Link looks away from him as the rain patters against the treehouse.

The shade stomps his foot, “Answer me! I have felt the dark power emanating from those books! They are not simple and trivial tomes! These are powerful artifacts fit for a demon king! What do you intend?!”

Lighting strikes as the shade realizes, in horror, that the boy must mean to use them.. Damnit! Why? What has happened to him?

He grabs Link’s face and forces him to meet his eye, “You’ve meant to keep them, boy! You meant to use them!” He looks over at the disheveled pile; oh no… oh no, how could he forget… “You’ve collected too many! As light will attract light! Darkness will attract darkness!” Link looks away, and the shade grips his face even harder, “Do you understand what I’m saying!” Link grabs his arm, forces his face free, and looks at the ground with wide eyes.

Multiple bells toll in succession. The way they ring plus their ominous rhythm sends Link into a shock as he slams his hand into the flooring. The shade studies the boy. He does not know the village's customs, but he can only guess. He looks at the door and forebodes, “It’s no longer a matter of when now…”

Link gets up, picks up his hat and sword and leaves the house in a flash. The shade follows, watching the boy jump off the ledge toward the village. He goes to join him but stops as soon as he is outside. It was pouring, and strange red lightning was striking everywhere.

“The rain is falling harder than it has all day…”  he laments.

He had come here to ask a small favor. He figured the boy was doing well, better than well, and that he might have time to help his ancestor out. He knew his hand would be invaluable for this favor. He foolishly figured he would be the only one with a problem to solve.

That dreadful red lighting flashes and strikes the ground in rapid succession out in the distance once again. It isn’t natural… it must be the work of Wizzrobes. He’ll separate from Link and handle that while he finds his friends.

He hears the boy shout, “Quickly! Quickly! Take us to the village!” followed by the panicked neighing of a horse. He watches the boy ride off to the danger that awaits them.

He shakes his head, “You’ve really messed up, kid.”

Then, he jumps off.