#[ ◈ ] divination from shattered glass [meta.]

[artibard]

[ ◈ ]  - Tags

[eponymous-rose]

That whole opening sequence was so much my particular brand of nonsense that I had to go back and watch it again in order to more accurately yell, parrot-like, my favorite parts into the void:

“Luis. I need you to describe your character and tell us your character’s name, but I would love for you to do that with the understanding that your mouth is filled with blood.” -- WE ARE LESS THAN A MINUTE IN

“Something is wrong, and not in the sense that you’re in a bad situation - if anything, that’s a place of comfort for you. Something is wrong in the spirit.” --  This sequence works so nicely with that meta-knowledge we have that this story does not end well. I cannot express how much I adore the creeping dread that comes with the realization that something is wrong, that something has already ended and we haven’t realized it yet, that everything any character does in this story is fundamentally late because the harm has already been done, and it was done quietly, secretly, when no one was even thinking to look. All that’s left is to stanch the bleeding.

Explosions snapping from unfathomably fast to oozing through the liquid-glass of slowed time. Zerxus floating up and back, dreamlike, from the blast. I love Brennan’s little smile when Luis says he’d be looking for someone he knows. “Someone you know. Moments in time, disconnected. Someone you know.”

“You look into the hole expecting to see only darkness, and you see... stars. These are the stars you learned to fly by.” Cue new music, new lighting.

“So this is how it’s gonna be, Brennan, you son of a bitch?” “It’s not called ExU Fucking Party Time, okay?” “Can we? Is it too late? Come on, we’re only like five minutes in!”

“Elias looks up. ‘Are you listening for something?’“ And the first appearance of the words “Ghor Dranas”.

“Elias holds your arm. ‘You know I won’t look like this when you get home.’ ‘I know. Wait, come back here.’ ‘Dad. I think I caught something.’“

“My child, I fear I am too late. There are secrets they did not tell you.” Definitely getting the notion that we have some history-is-written-by-the-victors things going on here. The Calamity happened a millennium ago and wiped out two-thirds of the planet’s population - we’re primed (no pun intended) for the details to have been twisted and changed.

“Can you do me the favor of describing what your husband looked like in life?” OUCH.

The appearance of the Dawnfather shattering the image of Zerxus’ husband is both a great way to highlight the absolute horror of what we’ve heard referred to as “unchecked divinity”, and another way to highlight the “Something’s wrong” of the narrative we’ve been running with in the main campaigns.

“The face of the being above you is no face. There is no warmth to the eyes. You see the pitiless, featureless glare of the sun itself.”

“What has he done?” “He has betrayed his kin.” “It’s all right. It’s all right. Just ask yourself, Zerxus, whom did we betray?”

“Zerxus... if you look down and see the stars, what will you see if you look up?”

[moiraineswife]

Of Odium - Seeing the Future Meta

I’M BACK AND I’M READY TO THEORY/META ON RENARIN. BECAUSE WE ALL DESERVE THAT IN HER LIVES. The TL;DR is: Renarin Kholin is basically Atium against Odium and I’m hype. 

THE EVIDENCE: 

So everyone on Roshar is fairly anti-clairvoyance, especially Vorinism, wisdom of the Heralds and all that jazz. Seeing the future: bad news. It’s of Odium. But I think that it is LITERALLY of Odium. As in, any instances of foresight people have come from Odium/are drawn from Odium/are what Odium sees/believes is going to happen. 

Please consider: 

“Voidbinding is a dark and evil thing, and the soul of it was to try to divine the future.” TWOK, 18, Highprince of War

Kadash tells Adolin this when he asks about Dalinar’s visions (as they don’t realise at this point he isn’t seeing the future). Odium is the soul of voidbringers (whether human or parshendi) and the soul of that is future sight. 

Moelach is very similar to Nergaoul, though instead of inspiring a battle rage, he supposedly granted visions of the future. In this, lore and theology align. Seeing the future originates with the Unmade, and is from the enemy. —From Hessi’s Mythica, page 143 OB, 101, Deadeye

Odium grants power to the Unmade, and one such power is the ability to see the future. (We be heavily side-eyeing at all of the Death Rattles, yes we be). But glimpses of the future are from Odium. He provides them. 

“They [the Fused] knew,” Adolin said. “They led us here with that cursed vision.” “Be wary,” Shallan whispered, “of anyone who claims to be able to see the future.” “No. No, that wasn’t from him!��� Kaladin looked between them, frantic, and finally turned to Syl for support. “It was like when the Stormfather … I mean… OB, 115, The Wrong Passion

Poor Kaladin got played like Hoid’s flute. Dalinar being in danger was a true glimpse of the future, but it was what Odium gave to Kaladin in order to lure him, Adolin, and Shallan to the Oathgate at Theylen City, where an ambush was waiting for them. An ambush they only survived because Dalinar pulled off the unthinkable/unanticipated. 

Hoid was the one who warned Shallan to be wary of anyone claiming to be able to see the future. Odium can plant visions of the future onto people to have them do what he wants/to manipulate them. 

Renarin: 

Renarin sees things that turn out to be untrue:

For he saw the future. He saw his father in black armor, a plague upon the land. He saw the Blackthorn return, a terrible scourge with nine shadows. Odium’s champion. “He’s going to fall,” Renarin whispered. “He’s already fallen. He belongs to the enemy now. Dalinar Kholin … is no more.” OB, 118, The Weight of it All

But, importantly, he sees things that turn out to be untrue, but he sees things Odium also thought would happen. 

Honour tells Dalinar that: 

The figure squinted at the horizon. “I cannot see the future completely. Cultivation, she is better at it than I. It’s as if the future is a shattering window. The further you look, the more pieces that window breaks into. The near future can be anticipated, but the distant future… I can only guess.” TWOK, 75, In The Top Room

The window breaking imagery is repeated in Renarin’s views of the future, which appear to him as different stained glass window panels. Seeing the future is, as one might imagine, not an infallible process. 

We know that Renarin was responsible for the countdown to the Everstorm - something that Odium, via voidspren, orchestrated and made happen. It was a date he knew/planned for.

Renarin’s visions are wrong about two things: firstly that Jasnah will kill him, rather than let him live bonded to a voidspren. Secondly: that Dalinar will turn to the enemy’s side. 

This is clearly what Odium believes as well. He sets up the battle, with Amaram’s troops possessed and turned against their former allies, Dalinar at their head. Dalinar, who he has honed for years via the Thrill to be his Champion, the Champion with nine shadows. 

He lured Kaladin and the others into an ambush, as noted, where they would have definitely been killed, if not for Dalinar’s intervention. 

Odium was wrong about Dalinar; and so Renarin’s vision, from Odium, was also wrong. 

I think, in seeing the future, the person sees what Odium sees/what he expects to happen. It’s noted that Honour and Cultivation can both see into the future as well, with varying degrees of ability. 

However, something I find interesting is this: 

“People who claim to be able to see the future, living off people’s hopes. Your society was right to forbid them. The spren do likewise… OB, 97, Riino

Azure tells Shallan this. We know very well that Vorin society condemns visions of the future. But I find it interesting that the spren do also. This implies to me, perhaps a little tennuously, that though Honour and Cultivation can see the future, too, Odium somehow has control/influence over it now, to the point that the sentient spren also forbid divining the future. 

Though all of them have some relevance to precognition, Moelach is one of the most powerful in this regard. His touch seeps into a soul as it breaks apart from the body, creating manifestations powered by the spark of death itself. —From the Diagram, Book of the 2nd Desk Drawer: paragraph 15, WOR, 82, For Lit

This sounds very similar to what Ruin does. He can seep into the minds of people via cracks in their soul - pierced either by hemalurgic spikes, or by something that causes instability and madness. Moelach, similarly, infiltrates people when their souls are fractured/damaged at the moment of their death. 

I wonder if Odium, similarly, can give people visions of the future, inserted via breaks in their Spiritweb, to manipulate them. 

The most interesting point of this, and what I’ve kind of been driving towards a bit, concerns this little gem of information: 

Taravangian saw that the words were blacked out into eternity starting from this point on his wall. As if something had happened here. A ripple in what Odium could see...

At its root, a name. Renarin Kholin. 

OB, 122, A Debt Repaid

This strikes me as the effect that’s produced when two mistborn burn atium at the same time. Both of them can see a little in the future. In being able to see what their opponent can do, that changes what they would do in response, which then changes what their opponent would do etc etc. 

I think Renarin either has, or at the very least has the potential to, understand that what he sees is what Odium sees. Even if he’s being fed his visions by Odium, that can give them an advantage, a window into not specifically what might happen in the future, but what Odium thinks might happen in the future. That could give them a distinct advantage. 

It also potentially ties into Sja-Anat’s upcoming narrative. 

Sja-anat is an Unmade that corrupts spren - she corrupted the Oathgate spren in Kholinar, she says, so that they would not work properly when Shallan tried to activate them. 

However, though once the most feared of the Unmade, at least as far as the Radiants were concerned: 

Of the Unmade, Sja-anat was most feared by the Radiants. They spoke extensively of her ability to corrupt spren, though only “lesser” spren—whatever that means. From Hessi's Mythica, page 89, OB, 97, 

It appears that Sja-anat has now learned how to corrupt far more powerful spren - like the spren of the Oathgate and also, presumably, Glys. 

“Glys had once been a different kind of spren, but something had changed him, corrupted him.” OB, 117, Champion with Nine Shadows

It seems unlikely to assume that something other than the Unmade that specifically corrupts spren has corrupted this spren. 

“Radiant, the thing said, mouthing the words. My name is Sja-anat. And I am not your enemy.  [...]

“What are you?”

They calll me the Taker of Secrets, the figure said. Or they once did. 

“One of the Unmade. Our enemies.” 

We were made, then unmade, she agreed. But no, not an enemy! The figure turned humanlike again, though the eyes remained glowing white. It pressed its hands against the glass. Ask my son. Please. 

“You’re of him. Odium.”

The figure glanced to t he sides, as if frightened. No. I am of me. Now, only of me. OB, 84, The One You Can Save

Ooh, Unmade switching sides!! Maybe. Call me gullible (Taryn, ur gullibe), but I...Kind of believe her?? She warns Shallan not to use the Oathgate, as Odium had her touch it in order to corrupt the spren and make them kill them when they try to transport. 

She instead doesn’t kill them, but also doesn’t take them back to Urithiru, instead abandoning them in Shadesmar. But hey they’re not dead! 

Committing to the whole ‘Sja-anat actually DOESN’T want to serve Odium anymore and is trying to help you guys out’ theory, we’re just going to double-down on it and say: 

If you’re a crafty, thousand year old Unmade who just wants to belong to yourself and is tired of serving Odium who is, let’s be frank, A Bastard, and you want to fuck with his plans but like, sneakily, how do you do it? 

Do you, perhaps, corrupt the spren of a young Truthwatcher so that he now has access to visions of the future. Theoretically this gives Odium a spy, and a willing victim onto whom he can plant visions of the future and manipulate him to act in different ways. 

It would, however, theoretically, like counter-burning atium, give Renarin an advantage as well. If he can learn to use what he sees against Odium. 

Sja-anat’s “son” is likely Glys, though Renarin says that Glys has claimed he can’t remember his corruption, as it happened before they bonded, and spren memories are fuckerdly before they’re bonded. But they usually recover, and come back. I wonder what Glys will remember of his ‘mother’ if given the chance... 

TL;DR: Renarin is Atium, Sja-anat honestly wants to fuck Odium, Glys is her son who is her way of helping, Odium is going to get fucked by underestimating Renarin Kholin and I WANT IT. 

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK 122 - Avalanche

Who would have thought when it happened that Eren kissing Historia’s hand would be THE moment of Shingeki no Kyojin. Imagine you’re picking up this lovely series for the first time. You see a fresh take on the survival-horror genre and think, “I could get into this.” A couple volumes in, you discover the zombie horde tale was a clever cover for a fleshy mecha gimmick. “Weird,” you think, “but ok.” Now it’s ten years and 130+ chapters later. We’re all reading a retelling of the Norse Myth of Creation wrapped in a cozy WWII disguise.

What do any of these words mean? Join me under the cut. It’s time for lore.

Thoughts on the chapter first. We finally get to see the life and times of Founder Ymir. Not surprisingly, she appears to be of vague Northern European origin in what appears to be the Middle Ages. The ancient Eldians were Vikings basically, but back then they weren’t even Eldian. They were human just like everyone else…until they weren’t.

Founder Ymir’s story eerily mirrors that of 104th Ymir. As a small child, she was nothing more than a scapegoat. Born a servant girl, she empathized with the group of pigs that had been captured. She released them, no doubt ruining someone’s feast in the process. A soldier asks who the offending party is and we see a great panel of Ymir surrounded by pointing fingers John Wick style.

Much like Mr. Wick, Ymir goes on the run only in a much different context. John Wick, in his universe, is the most prolific assassin alive. He’s on the run, but he’s not defenseless. Ymir is a child and is defenseless. The men (and I do emphasize the grown men) that chase after her never perceive her as a threat. They’re having a sporting time terrifying and slowly killing this innocent child. Running out of energy and time, Ymir happens across a humongous tree and decides an odd hiding spot is better than none at all. Entering the base of the tree, she falls down into an unseen hole – like Alice into the looking glass – and just as she’s about to lose consciousness, she comes in contact with what can only be described as…this.

A parasite? An alien lifeform? An ancient Eldridge manifestation? Maybe. Just like another old Myth there isn’t really a clear answer nor will there be. ‘Tis the Source of all Organic Matter and it was always there it was, lad.

We get several lessons here about how history can warp our perceptions of the individual players in both a positive and negative sense. Ymir never made a deal with the Devil to get her overwhelming power. She literally fell backwards into a divot and came out big as a mountain. On the other hand, the Founding Titan was not this ethereal being of divine beauty. The First Titan was grotesque to look at. It had no true face and its ribs were exposed, which I guess makes sense for a creature that large. Founder Ymir was a victim of circumstance and oppression. She has the power of nature and God at her fingertips but has only known servitude. That’s why there is no objection when she hears the following.

Not only is there CLEARLY no consent here, but I’m fairly sure Ymir is barely a teenager here so – Double Dose of Yikes!

Fittingly (or tragically, who can tell at this point), Ymir has three daughters: Maria, Rose and Sina. She raises her children while helping her nation conquer the lands around them with her unmatched power. However, thirteen years after her eldest child is born, a rogue soldier makes an attempt on the king’s life and Ymir leaps in front of the spear; one final act of indentured service.

Sort of. She is told correctly that she isn’t in danger. No doubt she has come back from far worse injuries than a spear to the collar. King Fritz tells her to get up and continue being a slave and Ymir says fuck you with her whole chest and gives up the ghost right there.

This shocking development leads to two things. First, we see the most graphic panel in a series full of gore and body horror as the children of Ymir are forced by Dear Old Dad to cannibalize their mother’s still-cooling corpse in order to obtain her power. Then, we see Ymir wake up in what we now know as the Paths dimension. Here she shall stay until a certain someone is able to receive and respond to her call for help.

That’s all for the backstory, now what about the source? It’s been documented well that Isayama loves myth and folklore especially of the Norse variety. Near the beginning of #122 we see Ymir fall into a tree that Momtaku and her co-host Luna succinctly describe as “both phallic and vulvic at the same time.” This seems like a clear reference to Yggdrasil, The World Tree. Yggdrasil is an interdimensional bridge with each branch connecting to a different realm, not unlike the branches we see in the PATHS dimension. Then we have the spine-like creature that latches on to Ymir like Symbiote under the tree. See if this looks familiar.

Nidhogg is a serpent that is known for eating away at the roots of the World Tree. It also has a famous rivalry with an unnamed eagle that sits atop Yggdrasil. A constant struggle between freedom and entrapment which is of course a central theme to this story. I’ve seen meta theorize that if the briny parasite represents the serpent of the Tree, that Eren Jaeger would represent the eagle the overlooks it and seeing how he’s spent most of this tale with wings on his back, that makes about as much sense as anything else.

It’s all a lead-up to Ragnarok: the End of the World.

Yup, that looks like the end to me.

When the First King lined up those Titans to form those walls, he couldn’t have known someone would find the one loophole to circumvent his failsafe. The reason the Coordinate Powers only fully activate for those of Royal Blood. It isn’t because of their genes alone. Ymir is a slave to the Royal Family, even centuries after her physical death. It isn’t until someone gives her a choice that she even thinks to take a different course of action.

What a charmer. This panel and the one that follows are both very important to me. Zeke, in his frenzy is a spitting image of King Fritz. Yes, the are directly related but also, I think there is something to be said of him taking on the form of Ymir’s greatest oppressor. After she hears Eren’s pitch to lend him her world-shattering power we see her eyes, full of tears, for the first time. Not an accident. It’s the first time in 2,000 years anyone has treated her like a person.

This is not an official theory or anything but it’s how I interpret this. The title of this chapter ‘From You, 2,000 Years Ago’ is of great significance outside of how it mirrors the title of the very first chapter. Ymir was sending a message and when we remember the Attack Titan’s special trait of moving (and looking) forward it’s clear who the messenger was. The question then becomes, was Eren the only one who was able to answer the call? Yes, just not for the reasons you would think.

 Technically, any of the Attack Titans (or any of them, I guess) could have unlocked the PATHS with enough work. The problem is, the only knowledge of Ymir’s story and the history of the Eldian people was with the Coordinate which, historically, was possessed by the Royal Line. It wasn’t until that fateful night when Grisha stole the Coordinate away that a very specific set of conditions could be met.

Once a single person of their own free will got even a glimpse of the tortured history and fate of Founder Ymir it was enough to set an incredibly complex series of events into motion. This is why the Attack Titan, even during the Great Titan War, can never listen to reason. They know what the end game is, thanks to Eren sending them snaps of that scenery.

Eren was special after all. Just not in the way we first thought. Funny that.

  Stray Thoughts

- Keep in mind that the final panel of Eren’s new Titan exploding out of his severed head happens the instant it lands in Zeke’s hand. How must Gabi be feeling right now? You think you’ve slain the Devil of the Earth and all you’ve done instead is give him immense power and an army of unstoppable giants. Someone get the Bart cake gif in the replys.

- The most impressive part of seeing Ymir’s backstory is that it was largely done with no dialogue. Almost felt like we were reading a scroll or ancient tome. Credit to the author for crafting such a deep, rich world to explore. Somehow, Shingeki no Kyojin isn’t the story he’s always wanted to tell but it will rightfully be the one he is best known for.

- Once again Zeke blows a 3-1 lead by being an entitled shithead. He and the rest of his family knew the story of Ymir and the fate she suffered and still saw fit to not only keep her imprisoned but to use her as a tool to subjugate their own people. No tears from me, muchacho.

[pocketseizure]

The Price of Wisdom, Chapter 6

A Thousand Years of Solitude

Zelda finally discovers the ancient Sheikah laboratory and the horror that dreams within it.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Special thanks to @corseque, whose meta, speculation, and moral support enabled me to write this story.

Chapter 6/6 ☆ 3,300 words ☆ Also on AO3 ☆ Cover Illustration

* * * * *

Zelda yanked her hand back from the windowsill, and her vision exploded into itself. Her stomach plummeted, but the sensation no longer bothered her. When she could finally see clearly again, she walked over to the book of legends lying on the floor and kicked it as hard as she could. It catapulted across the room and crashed into a table covered in glass beakers, which went flying and shattered on the stone floor.

She'd told herself that she didn't care who Ganon was or why he attacked Hyrule, but now that she knew she could never return to a state of not knowing. Had the Champions been aware of the danger of reviving the Divine Beasts? Had Link understood the cycle of destruction he was instigating by drawing the Master Sword? Had Purah known that the Guardians were specifically engineered to storm the castle? Did her father understand that her role in this drama was to be nothing more than a sacrificial figurehead? Is that why they had kept her innocent and stupid?

"May the goddess damn you all," Zelda whispered, clenching her fists at her sides. Despair and frustration overwhelmed her, but she had no tears left to cry. She felt a new power swelling within her, fueled by the white-hot core of a growing rage.

While she had been lost in her vision, the black slime had oozed its way across the floor and puddled at the base of a bookcase on the far wall. What did it want from her? She stepped over the trail of muck and approached the bookcase. It seemed to be tilting to one side. Not caring what sort of mess she made, Zelda gave it a strong push. It fell on its side with a crash, and books slid off its shelves like paper snakes.

On the wall behind the bookcase was a door. Zelda was certain that there had never been a door here before, as the tower wall was not wide enough to accommodate any sort of passage. Although the door seemed as real as anything else in the room, it shimmered with the same sort of golden light that had burst from the palm of her hand only hours before. Had it really only been a few hours? She couldn’t be certain, but it no longer mattered to her.

Zelda twisted the knob and pulled the door open, revealing a stone staircase. It was impossible for there to be a staircase on the other side of the wall, but it looked like any of the other narrow and utilitarian corridors used by the castle staff to move behind the scenes of the large audience halls. Holding onto the edge of the wall for good measure, Zelda tentatively placed one of her feet onto the landing to test it. It seemed solid enough. She looked over her shoulder at her ruined study, where the eerie half-light of the dark sky pooled in the shattered glass on the floor. There was no longer anything for her here, so she might as well move forward. She crossed over the threshold and, not giving too much thought to what she was doing, pulled the door closed behind her.

The stairs curled around a central support column in a spiral as she climbed down, and down and down and down. As Zelda walked she heard echoes of voices speaking in strange languages, only some of which she recognized. She wondered how this magical staircase had been created and how long it had been here, just waiting for the right person to find it. Did it exist outside of time, or was she perhaps passing through time as she descended? A multitude of questions drifted through her mind as she climbed, but none of them seemed particularly urgent. Her ankle had stopped hurting, and she felt no weariness or hunger or thirst. The repetition of her equally measured steps was calming, and as her mind settled it gradually occurred to her that she herself had now passed out of time. Within the seal she had created, the concept of time no longer held any meaning. Ganon would remain here for as long as the seal was maintained – but so too would she.

After a dozen minutes of climbing, or a dozen hours, or a dozen days, the light in the stairwell became marginally less dim, and finally the stone steps ended in another shimmering golden portal. Zelda stepped through it to find herself in the large cavern on the north side of the castle complex that housed a small and mostly forgotten wharf. At the edge of the slope above the water was a shrine. Its glow cast an eerie illumination into the darkness.

Surely there hadn't been a shine here before. When she was still a girl, Zelda had occasionally used the hidden passage in the library to venture down to this cave, which was filled with empty crates and broken furniture and other castaway detritus of the castle. The docks themselves were a shambles. The wood of the piers rotted into the water, and the moored boats were filled with spiderwebs and already half waterlogged. No one had any need to escape from a castle that hadn't been under siege until the present day – if one could even consider this a siege. Truly, Zelda thought as she watched the febrile magenta light leaking from between the swirling cracks in the shrine disappear into the inky water, this can only be called a haunting.

As she walked toward the shrine, a soft wisp of white light caught her attention by one of the docks. She squinted and drew closer until she could make out the figure of a woman. She wore heavy silver armor on her small body and tight braids in her hair, and though her face was older Zelda could see that this was the same princess from her earlier visions. The princess was pulling someone from a flat-bottomed skiff, which was poled by a large Moblin wearing loose robes dyed in a bold geometric pattern. The princess reached out to the Moblin, who clasped her hand as she bowed her head. She began to speak to it with complete fluency. Zelda couldn't understand a word, and she felt a piercing shame that it had never occurred to her to speak with a Moblin or Bokoblin herself. Link had always stood between her and the enemy races, and...

The figure huddled on the dock groaned, cutting through the tangle of Zelda's thoughts. She could see a dark puddle of blood forming around him. The princess must have seen this too, for she leapt lightly from the boat and knelt next to him. She helped him to his feet, and when he raised his face Zelda was not at all surprised to see that the injured man was Ganondorf. He was wearing obsidian armor adorned with the same ceramic swirls and glowing nodules that patterned the exteriors of the Guardians, but the surface of his armor plating was cracked and broken. He held both of his hands pressed against a hideous wound that split his torso from his sternum to his belly, and it seemed that he was only keeping himself together through the sheer force of his will. As the princess guided him up the hill to the shrine, he trailed bloody footprints, and an oily grime fell in heavy drops from the tattered cloth of his cape.

When they reached the raised platform in front of the shrine, the princess helped him sit, carefully leaning his back against the command pedestal. She waved her hand in front of her face, and a Sheikah Slate materialized from thin air and floated into her waiting fingers. Surely this must be magic. So it was true, then – the daughters of the royal family did indeed have special powers. Zelda moved closer to get a better look. If she wasn't mistaken, this was the very same device that she had carried herself.

"Hold on just a little longer," the princess said to Ganondorf as she tapped the screen of the slate. "I'm going to take you to the stasis chamber in the main laboratory. It's not perfect, but it's the best chance we've got to save you. The place should be deserted, so no one will try to stop us. It's just a little farther..."

"I won't make it," he slurred. "I won't... the teleportation."

There was something horribly wrong with the way he was speaking. Zelda closed the distance between them, and she immediately understood why. Ganondorf's injuries were severe, and his face was a mask of pain. It was a marvel that he was still alive.

"If we haven't killed you yet, you'll survive this," the princess said in a dry and brittle voice. "I'm initiating the sequence now. Just try to relax. You'll probably pass out, but I'll make sure you get to the stasis chamber in one piece."

The panel in front of the shrine began glowing with cyanic light, and the princess knelt to take Ganondorf in her arms.

"When all of this is over," he said, reaching up to stroke her face, "will you come to wake me up?"

As a circle of light surrounded the pair, their bodies were lifted several inches above the surface of the platform, and their shapes began to fade. Zelda jumped forward into the warp field, and she felt herself rise and dissolve. Suddenly the world was snatched from her blinded eyes, and her skin was pricked by millions of needles before a strong force struck her like an explosion.

When she recovered her senses, she was lying on a cold tile floor. She opened her eyes but could see nothing. She raised her head and was overcome by nausea. She pulled herself into a sitting position and took several deep breaths, keeping her eyes open all the while. If she could survive the freezing waters of the sacred springs, then she could survive this.

Gradually her vision returned to her. She was surrounded by Sheikah machinery whose tubing glowed with an eldritch light. Above her was a huge dome covered in patterns of golden lines and circles. These patterns resembled constellations, but there was an order to them that suggested writing. The dome was impossibly large, perhaps larger than the entire castle. To think that it had been underneath her this entire time! It had obviously been built to last for centuries, so perhaps the constellations drawn across the ceiling were indeed meant to be writing. Perhaps there was a code in the patterns that transcended time and culture. Despite everything that had happened to bring her to this place, Zelda was mesmerized by the possibilities, and she had to force herself to look away from the magnificent spectacle.

The dimly lit space around her was filled with machines that Zelda couldn't even begin to understand. Some were ceramic, and some were metal, and like the room itself they were all built to an impossible scale. As she walked through the maze of glowing lights, Zelda began to realize that this must be the factory where the Guardians had been manufactured, and perhaps it was the birthplace of the Divine Beasts as well. Despite its dereliction, everything was clean and untouched by decay. There was no dust or debris, nor any of the black ooze that had infested the rest of the castle.

Although she had no way of knowing where to go, Zelda felt as if her feet were being guided to her destination. When she arrived, she knew it immediately.

In the middle of the graveyard of abandoned machinery was a large glass tube, and the tube was filled with slime. Zelda felt a chill pass through her, but she still walked directly to the tube until she was so close that her nose was practically touching its surface. Looking closely, she could see that the slime was cocooning some sort of hellish nightmare imperfectly assembled from tangles of wire and twitching clumps of flesh and hair.

She reached forward to touch the glass, and there was a sudden movement on the other side. In the endless horror of a split second she caught a glimpse of something resembling the sweep of an arm, but it was like no arm she had ever seen, twisted and necrotic and entirely inhuman. Was this the stasis chamber where the princess had brought Ganondorf hundreds of years ago? Was this what remained of his body? Was the fleshy tar surging up through the castle not a manifestation of Ganondorf's malice, but a biological byproduct of the monstrous creature he had become?

Zelda understood that there must be very little of this man's human mind left. How long he must have slept, and how terrible his dreams must have been. Did he ever wake, encased in this grotesque prison of flesh, and experience a moment of hideous lucidity? Or had he long ago descended into complete madness? The only trace of him that remained was the overwhelming rage that guided his terrible purpose, and this was the diseased tumor at its core.

If the legends were correct – and they had been correct, even despite being clumsily varnished with convenient lies – then only the divinely endowed blade of the Master Sword could destroy this thing. With the Master Sword she could end everything now; if it had been in her hands she could vanquish this evil and restore peace to her kingdom. But she was just a princess, just a girl, just a sacrificial vessel. She was not meant to wield the sacred sword, or to access the secrets hidden within the shrines, or even to save herself. She had no choice but to wait in this haunted castle with this horrific monstrosity and wait for Link.

"Damn it!" Zelda hissed. She balled her hand into a fist and punched the glass of the stasis tube. The mass of flesh inside did not react in the slightest, and she continued to pound the edge of her palm against the smooth and unyielding surface as the tears she had been holding back for so long finally began to leak from her eyes.

Once again she felt weak and useless, and she cursed herself. How could she keep the incredible malice generated by this ancient and awful thing contained? If the magic that created the seal enclosing the castle sprang from the strength of her spirit, what was to become of her? She reached for any shred of hope in her heart, but all she could feel was bitterness and an overwhelming sense of wanting – wanting a power that had not been granted to her, and wanting the freedom that she had never been allowed to have.

Zelda bowed her head and allowed her tears to fall freely, and when she looked up again there was a hazy shape behind her reflection on the glass. At this point there was very little that could cause her to feel fear, so she simply dried her eyes with the back of her hand. She blinked, and the shadow behind her reflection was clearer.

It was Ganondorf, his face unscarred and his armor unbroken. It seemed as though he were standing only a footstep or two behind her, but she sensed no other presence in the room, no warmth of proximity or even the slightest sound of breathing.

Zelda met Ganondorf's eyes in the reflection, and for a moment they regarded each other in silence.

She had dozens of questions, but they all evaporated in the sudden glare of her anger.

"You did this," she snarled.

"I did," the reflection agreed, speaking to her in her own language. Despite the ferocity of his appearance, his voice was smooth and mellifluous. "But I could not have done it alone."

Zelda frowned, wanting to accuse him of lying to her, but she knew he spoke the truth.

"That princess, all those years ago... Why did she do it?" she asked.

"She desired peace, and she attained it." Ganondorf's eyes softened. "There has been peace in Hyrule for hundreds of years. She knew what the price was, and it was her decision to pay it."

Zelda shook her head. "Why did you show me those visions? None of this changes anything. We will still defeat you."

"I can only pray that you will, but first you must understand what happened to Hyrule."

"And what am I supposed to do with this knowledge? All you've done is cause me pain."

"Wisdom also has a price."

"And why do you care whether or not I'm wise? If the price I have to pay is constant doubt, how can I rule this land? If I don't even want to be a princess, how can I serve Hyrule?"

"Hyrule no longer exists," he answered her, smiling for the first time.

"Then where will I find the power to defeat you?"

"You've had it all this time. It's a shame no one taught you to use it."

"But if I've had it, why hasn't it come to me when I've needed it?" Zelda asked in desperation. "Why haven't I been able to fight you?"

To her surprise, the reflection behind her laughed. "You remind me so much of her," he said. "They probably told you to pray, didn't they? They told you to deny yourself, and to purify your heart. They treated you like a sacred doll, I'm sure they did. They must have, to think you could walk into battle wearing that ridiculous dress."

Zelda nodded, biting her lip to prevent herself from answering Ganondorf's smile with one of her own. Now that he said what she had been thinking, in a gentle tone with laughter in his voice, it all seemed so silly. Why had she ever taken any of that nonsense seriously? Why had she felt compelled to perform her duties so assiduously even though they clearly benefited no one?

"They told you that you must only care for the good of your people," Ganondorf continued, "but they lied. They lied to you because the power you wield is great enough to break and remake Hyrule many times over."

Zelda placed her hand on the glass of the stasis tube, no longer disturbed by the writhing mass within. "Then tell me," she murmured, hardly daring to believe that she spoke these words aloud, "how do I claim this power?"

The reflection behind her leaned forward, and she saw the faint ghost of a hand cover hers. Suddenly the three triangles of the royal family's Triforce crest appeared on her skin, shining a warm golden light into her face.

"Your power belongs to you, and no one else," a soft voice said in her ear. "If you can be wise enough to understand what you really want and brave enough to trust your heart, then you will find the power to achieve your desires. For once in your life, be selfish... Zelda..."

When he said her name, his hand vanished, but the Triforce crest remained.

"Ganondorf?" Zelda called out, but there was no response.

"Ganon?" she tried again, but there was only silence.

Zelda took a deep breath. What do I really want, more than anything? she asked herself, but her heart already knew the answer.

"Link..." she whispered. The light of the Triforce on her hand gleamed brighter as the desire in her heart grew stronger.

"...open your eyes," she commanded, and then she could see him, floating within a stasis chamber much like the one she stood in now. His body had wasted away, and he looked dreadfully weak. Zelda willed the stasis tube to deactivate, and its fluid began draining away, placing Link gently in the cradle at the bottom. She saw his eyelids flutter, and she could feel the thrum of her power flowing through her veins.

"Open your eyes!"

[bookwurme]

[ ◈ ]  - Tag Dump