Blinded Truth

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Chapter 4

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Get up…Erebus…

Wake up…

Open your eyes, you idiot!

Erebus’s eyes fluttered open, and a blinding light greeted him. Pain pulsated through him, burning like fire in his eyes and twitching his body to life. He groaned, rolling onto his side but leaving his eyes shut tight.

Finally…

Erebus groped for the ground under him, hoping for something solid under the spinning world. Everything else around him was sputtering, spitting up pieces of dry grass or dirt and discernable black sky.

Erebus… A voice entered inside his head, like the sound of a calm stream or a breeze swirling around his ears.

You must listen to us…

But the voices intensified the pain inside him, and he fell to the ground. His muscles refused to co-operate, and he finally gave up. The world spun endlessly- even to the point where closing his eyes didn’t help dull the nauseating pain.

You’re people have ignored their duties… And they must be stopped.

“That’s ridiculous,” Erebus wanted to snap. His people were loyal. It wasn’t their fault they were forced under Ganon’s rule!

But they were born to fight until death, Erebus, the voice interjected, Surrender is ludicrous. That is what we created you for…

The Sheikah wanted to scream, but his lips were dry and chapped, his throat parched, and his tongue like glue stuck inside his mouth.

They have gone against us, Erebus, and it is up to you to stop it.

“I am a Sheikah as well, how could you force upon me something so hideous?” Goddesses or not, he had the freedom to speak his mind- or at least express it inside his head.

It is your task to serve us, Erebus…

Do as we ask, and we shall spare you.

“You cannot force upon me any task,” Erebus thought angrily, as thoughts of his wife and son and Impa plagued his mind; “I will not agree. I will help them free themselves.”

Forget your family! The voices screamed inside his head, and he curled into himself, teeth clenched tightly and jaw set. They echoed commands, monotonous incantations. His body burned with frightening cold. His vision blurred, his eyes drying, and his skin tightening painfully.

We are All you will listen to, we are All you will believe and follow…

Do as we ask, or suffer the same consequences…

The voices faded, droning and calling but receding nonetheless. They left him in a heap, his body too rigid and cold to move. The grass under him poked through his beaten clothes, the dirt sticking to his sweating skin. But he refused to move, refused to listen to the voices that had told him what he needed to do.

So cold… He wanted to shiver, to warm his body. But even the slightest breeze rattled him, forcing his eyes wide open. Crystal clarity greeted him in hues of blue that blanketed his vision. He felt so rejuvenated, so alive. He could feel the slick, cold blood running through his veins, driving him to move and to feel and to taste. He craved warmth, and his eyes roved for something other than the sun.

He drew himself upward, as his skin tingled and a sensation of awareness greeted him. He glanced downward- at his hand that gripped the cold earth underneath; it was inked in black. Swirls and vines and thorns ran along his skin in endless black, leaving his eyes to scale the patterns that wrapped around his fingers and up his arms. To his torso, it ended, its sharp thorns piercing his ribs and spreading in vines up his neck and down his back. He lowered his stocking, and realized his legs were covered in the dark ink.

Slowly and cautiously, he ran his fingers along the dark markings. It played in his vision, growing and changing and morphing into vines that crawled along his skin. He shuddered, as his skin tightened around him. His hearing grew sharper, his vision clearer than it had been seconds ago, and his touch keener as he played with the rigid grass beside him. He realized he had somehow pulled himself away from the bridge; its wooden being too taught and stiff for his sharp senses to catch movement that he would need.

The sound of water reached his ears- the rush of the river greeting him frantically. He noticed the addition of stars in the sky, their brilliance ablaze in the darkness. They called to him silently, twinkling menacingly but lovingly, adoringly but resentfully.

Voices. Screams of horror and fright, anger and frustration... Something was beyond the hill. He could feel it vibrating in his bones, like the aftermath of an earthquake leaving your insides rattling. It didn’t stop there, however, as he stood to his full height. His skin was tingling like cold icicles running along his Goose bumped skin, making his nerves jump in spite of himself.

He gazed around him, imagining the tentative feel of cold grass against his cheek, the burn of fire under his fingertips… It rose high in the air, daring to blot out the stars high above. The smoke morphed and grew and smoldered. Angry. Envious…

Erebus growled- a sound so low yet menacing that even the wind was forced to hush itself. He listened for a second, and then cracked his knuckles- and then his neck. Blood flowed freer and faster through his veins. He felt alive. Cold…but alive.

Grass crunched under him as he hiked up the hill before the wide and open stretch in the fields. He sniffed the smoke-filled air, tasted the fear and anger on his tongue. Movement. He crouched low, nearly on his hands and knees, and crawled ever so slowly forward. Worms dug through the earth below, ants carried half-eaten little leaves along their back, and the dirt churned under him. The earth was constantly changing beneath him- slowly but surely, and he could feel ever bit of it. Every sound, every pound, every footstep.

He could see the tops of dirty, dusty, brown tents, like ugly thorns poking the helpless sky. Held up by sticks, anything could suddenly send them tumbling down and into the lit candles inside. Silhouettes shaped into the light- moving, changing, disappearing… A sickening, electrifying chill ran up his spine, and his eyes ran cold and nearly dead. Unable to blink, he was forced to rub around his eyes- try to find some way to end the aching throb inside him and his burning, dry eyes.

But there was something that drew him away from his problems, and rather to focus once again at the camp. They were in plain view, he realized, but his enemy probably knew well enough there would be no one to stand up against him after such a change of luck. Of course, Erebus wasn’t like “no one” and “no body”. He was different- completely different, and he refused to leave Ganon alone and in charge.

He recognized instantly Semele’s figure near the campfire. Her back was to him, but her blazing red hair was enough to signify the familiarity that coursed through him. And without realizing it his mind did something other than encourage a warm welcome. Instead, his mind told him to hate her, to despise her. His body wanted badly to wrap his hands around her neck, to see those dark, blood-red eyes lose their source of sight and life.

As Ganon’s burly form stepped into view, Erebus felt nearly the same as he had before: hatred, contempt…but then his thoughts strayed to red eyes…lifeless… He shook his head, teeth clenched, and nostrils flaring. What was wrong with him? His enemy was Ganon- not Semele…! Not the Sheikah race…

He pulled her hair, forcing her to stumble backwards with hands fumbling to free herself. She choked out a horrid cry, begging for mercy. Those once scattered amongst themselves gathered around the blazing fire where Ganon and Semele stood beside it. She stepped awfully close to the blazing fire, and Erebus found himself wondering if Ganon would actually bring harm to her.

“Do you see?” Ganon’s voice rang clear as the midday bell in Hyrule Castle Town, “Disobey me, and this will be what you will wish for.” He threw her down onto the ground, head hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Whimpers, whispers.

Ganon disappeared inside one of the larger tents, large silhouette blocking out the glowing candle inside. He had left, but those outside feared him enough to leave the leader’s wife to fend for herself.

Erebus grimaced. His body told him to go to her, to finish what his mind wanted. But somehow that hadn’t been his very first intentions. For the first time, he wished he hadn’t left the safety of the village. Foolish… Impa’s words echoed in his ears.

Minutes past, and the only movement that gave recognition that she was still alive was the shaking of her fragile shoulders. She was sobbing into the ground, fingers grazing the cold dirt. The other Sheikah were in their tents, covering their ears, and praying to the goddesses she would stop crying so their guilt could finally subside.

But it didn’t, and Erebus was the one to respond to the guilt. He deftly snuck toward the campfire, his form nearly shapeless in the dark. Merely his eyes glowed, but no one was there to see it- not even his wife.

Once he reached her, he took hold of her shoulders, but bit his lip in the process. He almost convulsed with shaking, fighting off the sickening ache to cut off her lifeline. But when her breath caught, he slowly but gently rolled her onto her back and placed a hand to her mouth. Her skin paled, her once pink nose draining to a deathly pale color. However, Erebus wasn’t focusing on her skin, but rather her eyes. She whimpered, heart hammering… Her eyes. Her jerky movements that were a useless attempt at trying to get away were nothing against him. He was too busy searching for her eyes, hoping her stitched eyelids would suddenly open.

“Semele…” He said softly, his voice cracking in the process; “Semele… What happened?”

Anger died away inside of him; the burning, itching ache that crawled through his very skin and bones slightly receded, and his body no longer wished to wrap hands around her neck. Relief, and he pulled away his cold hand.

Her lips were blue, he noticed, as she stuttered for words, “Who are you?”

“Semele,” he whispered frantically, “It is me, Erebus…”

She found way with her hands to his collar, and to his face. They were hesitant, yet warm. They traced the outline of his face, while he watched her bruised eyes in horror. “Erebus…love…” She choked a sob, “Why are you so cold?”

“Cold?” He repeated mutely; “I’m so sorry… What have they done to you? Oh, Semele…”

She smiled bitterly, shivering uncontrollably, but nonetheless gathered herself into his hesitant arms. “I am…I… I only thought of Fido… I’m so sorry…”

Shuffling… Others were waking, others he didn’t want to see or hear from. Old anger arose, and new anger as well.

“Hush,” he stroked her hair, breathing in her scent, “They are waking…”

“We must leave, Erebus…” She continued on, head whipping upward as if she were to look at him; “We must get home…”

“No, no…” Erebus wanted to shut his eyes, to feel warmth in them. Everything was becoming unfocused and uneven. And yet, he couldn’t cry. “I cannot stay, Semele…”

She gripped harder his shirt, but her strength was no match for him. He quickly but cautiously removed her hands from his shirt, placing them on her lap. “Do not leave, Erebus, please…”

“I…” Erebus held his breath, wishing that his body wouldn’t go rigid like that, or wish for blood-red eyes to fill his ugly blue vision.

“Take me with you, Erebus…” She grew urgent, whispering fiercely and desperately into his ear.

But he couldn’t, they wouldn’t let him… If he took her, he would follow, and she would be a horrible bystander in case something happened. Erebus just couldn’t let that happen.

“I will return, I promise you,” he said, jaw setting arrogantly, “But I must go…”

“Erebus,” she cried, as blood seeped through the closed stitches, sticking to whatever remained of her eyelashes; “Don’t leave, please…”

He stood up, as footsteps pounded in his ears and shuffling grew more frequent. “Semele, I love you, but you must listen…”

“No…” Her voice rasped, and then faded.

“You!” Ganon’s voice boomed.

Semele froze, grip loosening on Erebus’s shirt. He pulled away completely, but kept himself firmly planted between Semele and the tawny-eyed Gerudo. Until the other Sheikah arrived, he had been sure whom he had to fight.

Now his skin crawled, his bones ached, and he longed to turn his head and gaze at the beautiful people surrounding him. He bared his teeth, growling, and squared his shoulders.

“Something has changed you, Erebus,” Ganon remarked with a smirk, “Your eyes have become black like my heart. A change I rather like. Have you finally sided with me?”

Erebus laughed bitterly, harsh and unexpected for the Sheikah tribe that had looked up to him so often. They shivered with fright, now, and Erebus reveled with pleasure. He would enjoy this.

“Something has changed…”

“Much has changed,” Erebus interrupted, “But you will be begging for mercy even before I am finished.”

Ganon laughed, “I see, then. Your power comes from those too foolish to know what they do. But, what do you plan to do, Erebus?”

The Sheikah grinned, pearly whites appearing eerily sharper than normal in the blushing flames of the campfire. “Much that you will regret.”

“Will I?” Ganon mused, folding his arms across his chest and gazing around him- at the Sheikah tribe. They cowered closer to each other, red eyes duller but overwhelmed with tears nonetheless.

“Yes,” Erebus hissed, enjoying every word that came from him, knowing he would be undoubtedly true to his word, “You see, you forget how the goddesses rule this land, and…” He laughed gruffly- unlike him terribly, “You believed you could get away with taking half the Sheikah tribe and forcing them to actually work for you…”

Ganon’s smile slowly faded as Erebus continued: “So you must be wondering what I am here for… Well, I will tell you…”

“Please do,” Ganon said venomously, eyes ablaze.

“I am here to destroy you,” Erebus remarked simply, “And your supposed army.”

“Erebus!” Semele voiced after the sudden silence. She struggled to stand without help, but managed otherwise to right herself. “Please. What are you thinking?”

Ganon suddenly laughed, lips curving upward in a vicious smirk, “Your darling husband has been reborn into a puppet. If only you could see, dear Semele. He has changed completely.”

“Reborn,” Erebus repeated numbly, an electrifying sensation traveling through his body on invisible currents. He lost sense of the ground underneath him, forgetting the cool breeze or the twinkling stars. The icy chill inside him took over, turning his bones into stone that forged him into something more than unmovable. Instead, his body moved for him, taking complete charge, and left his mind to wander into inexcusable ecstasy that strived for blood he would soon have.

And as soon as this chill took over, climbing surreptitiously yet quickly in strength and in volume, everyone knew. The Sheikah tribe felt old power well inside them, as their eyes burned with tears, and their hearts pounded in excitement. A fight was waiting to be had, and even their mind power wasn’t enough to stop them from what their skin desired so badly. Their eyes blazed, and their shoulders squared. They watched a dark-eyed man instead of the tawny-eyed one that now ordered them to fight against their once leader.

But they blazed forward, faster than the speed of sound, toward Erebus. Teeth bared and hands more like claws, they reached to tackle him to the ground. Air pulled them downward onto the ground, empty-handed. They growled, a few in crouched positions, sniffing around them for a clue. Erebus had disappeared from under them. Faster than the speed of light, he finally appeared. Eyes menacing black depths, he watched them steadily. Their moves were precise, perfect as a Sheikah was meant to be. But he was something other than Sheikah. He was what the Sheikah had been deprived from. His strength and cruelty had become his strong points, and his weak points were very little.

They would have to control him to weaken him, but there was no controlling someone like him. A puppet, he remembered. He hated himself, but nonetheless, he felt appraisal as his skin tore against another person’s flesh. Blood was vivacious and red, and eyes dulled and died and disappeared before him.

Reborn. Again and again. But his heart felt like dying.

XxxxXxxxX

The moon disappeared below the horizon a few hours later, drawing out hues of pinks and oranges and purples as the sky changed. The sun rose steadily, beaming its rays mercilessly onto the blood-soaked ground and highlighting the silhouettes of still bodies and their pale, white faces.

“Ganon is gone,” Semele croaked, wiping dry blood from her cheeks, “Erebus, kill me.”

Erebus held tighter onto her hand, closing his eyes for a few seconds and biting back a sob, “No. Never.”

“Do it,” she said harshly, placing cold fingertips on his now warm skin, “Must I tear these stitches for you to do it?” She reached for her eyes, face distorting in pain.

Erebus pulled her hands away quickly, “I won’t let you… Semele…” He stopped, eyeing his blood-soaked hands and the dirt and flesh under his fingernails. They held tightly onto Semele’s cool, pale ones, and he felt dreadful and sick to his stomach. “I will take you to the village, but I cannot enter. Not now…not with this…”

“What have they done to you?” Semele whispered harshly, as Erebus ran fingers along her blazing hair, becoming lost in the now limp but soft curls that shone in the sunlight.

“It is something that has been placed upon me by the goddesses, Semele,” Erebus replied, “There is nothing I can do, now. Gannon will continue this war until the last of us is gone, but I cannot allow it.”

“But, whose side are you on?” Semele asked anxiously, “How can you fight for the Royal Family yet kill those that have been placed to protect them?”

Erebus chuckled, cold and lifeless. She was right. If it were up to him, the entire Sheikah race would be destroyed. Wherever they were during this war, he could find them. Always.

“Do you see those walls, Semele?” He whispered into her ear, and she would have interjected hadn’t he quickly shushed her. “You remember them, and I know you can see those rock walls towering over us like prison walls. There is freedom beyond those walls- where I will never cross. You must escape from there, and promise me to take Fido with you…”

“No,” Semele’s tone shocked Erebus, and she was the one to hush him now; “I will not leave you…”

“Think of Fido,” Erebus interjected, eyebrows furrowing; “Think of the others in our tribe, Semele. They will vanish if they stay here. I will come after them, I know I will. And I cannot let myself, or allow for the goddesses do such a thing. They do not rule the lands beyond this one, Semele. You will be free, until I have been rid of. I will turn to the Royal Family, plea for my life, but also plea to be hidden from the outside world.”

“No…” Semele had lost sense of her words, and they came from her mouth jumbled and uncontrolled. She was outraged beyond any knowing, and she shook with hurt and deprivation. She grew nauseated, delusional, and hallucinated in the midst of being in her husband’s arms.

A few minutes later, she was still. Hunger had deprived her, and so her body shook with cold. Erebus wrapped his arms tighter around her, but continued nonetheless to lift her up. He carried her in his arms, exhausted as he was, to the village. Impa was at the steps. Erebus felt her before he saw her, and froze for a second in his tread

“Erebus, where are you, you idiot?” He heard her whisper in aggravation.

Erebus felt the familiar rush of adrenaline, the chill up his spine, the burning in his eyes that he could not blink away. But he forced it back into the smallest corner of his mind. His skin crawled, yet he continued.

“Impa!” He called to her softly at first, and then another time. He heard her head snap his direction, her breath catching. She could see him, and Erebus saw her, but he refused to look her way. “Don’t come closer!” He called.

“What?” She screamed in anger, red eyes glowing, “Where have you been? Who is that? Erebus!”

“Impa!” He warned, “Stay away from me, Impa. Please, trust me…”

“But, why?” She nearly pleaded, eyebrows furrowing.

Erebus dared to step onto the small, stone bridge. “I’m cursed, Impa. And you must listen to Semele…”

“Semele?” Recognition crossed Impa’s features, and it took all her might not to run toward them.

“Semele,” Erebus whispered into her red hair, kissing her forehead soon after, “Semele, you must tell them what I told you, and what I will tell you now. You will go to the Zoras, do you understand?”

She nodded slowly, lips quivering, but remained silent.

“The Zoras know the way out of here, Semele. Tell them that I, Erebus- the leader of the tribe…” He laughed softly, kissing her head again, “Yours always and forever, sent you. You will take the tribe- as many as are willing, to this place without anyone else knowing. Do you understand? Not the Royal Family, not even Ganon shall know. Keep it a secret, Semele. You must disappear…”

“If you follow, Erebus…if not, I will stay…” She replied softly.

Erebus grimaced, unable any longer to look at her stitched eyes. It was all he could do if he wanted to hide the truth from her. “I will follow…”

She sniffled, and then placed a hand on his cold cheek, “Do you promise me?”

He nodded stiffly, mournfully, “Yes, I will… I do…” His eyes didn’t sting with the lie, nor did tears drip down his cheeks. He carefully placed her on the ground, allowing for her warmth to dissipate into his skin and then quickly evaporate. He ran a cold fingertip along her jaw line, memorizing every detail of her into his mind. And then, he pushed away and disappeared.

XxxxXxxxX

The remnants of night slowly dissipated into dawn, and Erebus found himself wandering in the nearly empty market. Merchants were just beginning to set their stands, and townspeople had just begun to wake. It would be a while, he realized, until someone would find the corpses in the abandoned camp out in the fields.

Until then, he needed to rest. It would be soon before he turned himself into the Royal Family, and he wanted to spend his last moments as a free man in peace. He found a spot on the stone steps leading to the Temple of Time, but to a surmounting guilt, he couldn’t leave his back to the towering holy ground. Instead, he pushed himself back up, ignoring his aches and pains, and strode across the garden. He passed the pond with slight indifference, unable to look at his reflection in the water as much as he could look upon his wife without feeling horrible remorse.

He had become a monster, and he told himself that over and over again, but unable to come to any conclusion as to whether it was really true or not what he repeated to himself. Nonetheless, he entered the temple, marveling at its stone structure and mosaic windows and marble tiles. As he stepped inside, the steady rhythm of the monk’s singing entered his ears. It calmed him immensely, and he relaxed for the first time since he had left the village the night before. His boots pit-patted on the red velvet of the carpet beneath him, and he gazed at it almost lovingly. Red, but it welcomed him further inside the sanctuary.

The mosaic windows glittered in the sunlight from outside, sending shadows and waves of colorful lights shimmering on the gleaming marble tile. The pictures the colorful glass sent shivers up Erebus’s spine, and he hated having to look at them with such ease. They told of a story he hated to remember, but even the truth he could not hide from now. The coldness inside of him was still there, sleeping but breathing, and it allowed for once silenced Sheikah ways to re-enter. So he stopped just before the pedestal where the Triforce was marked, and one by one retraced the story of the gods through the mosaics.

An everlasting hatred built inside him, as he remembered the ways that the goddesses inhibited the dead lands, and created a place with animals and beauty and order. And with it, he knew the Sheikah had been ruthlessly created for one purpose after the growth of evil in the Gerudo tribe. He shuddered, and looked away. Closing his eyes, he allowed for the dooming voices of the monks to seep inside him. The songs reverberated through them, and he listened to the drawn out words carefully despite the difficult clarity of their meanings. They sung of Hyrule and the goddesses, and most importantly, the Triforce. It repelled him, as his fingers numbed to coldness and traveled inside his body electrifyingly quick.

The Sheikah were nearby- he could feel it, and they weren’t alone. Before turning around to face the exit, or entrance, he willed himself another last look around the temple, memorizing everything as he had earlier with Semele. He didn’t want to forget- in case something happened and he never saw anything this grand ever again, or anyone as beautiful and loving as Semele.

One last blink, and then his eyes froze open. Cold withered his old thoughts away, and he stood tall and straight, and unblinking. This was it, he realized numbly. They had undoubtedly surrounded him- quicker than he would have thought. But, then again, Semele could have told Impa what had happened, and despite Semele’s objections, Impa had gone on a whim to see the campfire; she had seen his destruction, ordered the tribe to follow him here, and now even the Hylian army had gathered.

“Perfect,” he growled, taking an icy inhale of breath. The monk’s lyrics entered his mind clearer now, and he wanted badly to shake them away.

Lie still, in the guardian’s keep

Nothing can protect you, keep your wit

For the goddesses have a plan

Thou shall never know

Until the plains heave gold

And the stars turn to pearls

When ruler is all and everything

And evil has vanished from the sight

It was nothing to him, until he remembered the part to come. His fingers itched to crawl up warm skin, and his eyes burned with ferocity to see living blood before him. But he stood still to listen.

Cold stillness bites like venom

Burns and aches like a spear to the chest

Throw away your anger, subside to the Ones

There is nothing to fear, nothing to hide from

Do your will, end your pains

A loud, pained sound came from his throat, and he didn’t realize it had escaped from his own lips until it echoed in the sanctuary and rattled his bones.

Fear flamed from his chest, beating with the momentum of the hundreds of men and women waiting outside for him. They had heard his anguished cry, and their ears flicked away with torment. He had no choice, now, but to go forward. The monk’s song repeated over and over inside his head and it slowly but surely coaxed him forward, and out into the dawn’s light.

XxxxXxxxX

At the crack of dawn, the Royal Family had been notified of the massacre in the fields. Outraged, they placed the best of their men in the forefront, in search of the killer. With the remaining Sheikah tribe, they followed the killer to the Temple of Time and waited with a militia of men carrying weapons such as swords and spears, bows and arrows, clubs and knives, twisted daggers and sharp swords. They surrounded the sanctuary, anxious but ready for a fight with Hades himself.

Unfortunately, they were encountered by someone other than the god of the Underworld. They encountered someone that seemed more like the god of war. His siding was uncertain, and although the goddesses had bestowed him with powers, he was sent to kill the Sheikah tribe. It remained true that the Royal Family would simply have to fight for the cursed tribe to gain protection so wrongly given to them at a time of confusion and despair. Ganon was lucky with this, however. He wouldn’t have to face the strong tribe at the battlefront in front of the market where he waited. His own men and Gerudo women were ready for a bloody fight alongside him, and without much of his knowing the one that became known as the Bearer was just about to help him gain a step forward.

XxxxXxxxX

Erebus lost complete control of his body once he stepped outside. The bright sun blinded him, but his body seemed to know what to do. In an instant, he was dodging arrows and blocking attacks from angered Hylian soldiers. They were too weak for him, and he easily cut through them, throwing them aside like rag dolls with sharp, little toys. But once he reached the first Sheikah, he was completely aware of it. He felt nauseated, his mind reeling. Red eyes clouded his vision and disgust crawled under his skin like the slithering of snakes across rough bark.

Snap. He was done.

“Erebus!” His name sounded somewhere in the distance, but he didn’t see where it came from- nor was he allowed to look away.

Another fell dead in his arms, and he tossed the body away. The red was gone from its eyes anyway.

“Erebus, stop!” And he was tackled to the hard ground. He wrestled angrily, wishing he could dissipate into the dirt and reappear elsewhere. But it was useless. He made the mistake of looking up, now, which sent his blood rushing through his veins faster and faster.

Blood red eyes. Bewildered. Angry. Worried. He wanted it all to go away. But the Sheikah blinked, trying to shake away silvery hair.

“Erebus,” Impa gasped, “What has happened to you?”

Erebus snarled, wanting to bite her hands away. “Get off!” He growled, “Leave me be…”

“Don’t talk to me like that, boy,” Impa matched his tone, but the harshness of his voice was left missing, “Who has done this to you? Tell me! And don’t give me that look!”

“Your precious goddesses,” Erebus snapped, sarcasm dripping in his remaining ferocity, “They have sent me to kill all of you…”

“All of us?” Impa remarked, “The Sheikah?”

“Yes,” Erebus lessened his writhing, waiting painfully for Impa to loosen her grip, as her touch burned his skin, “Cursed, are you not? Like me… We have all been told our parts in this twisted world, Impa, and I will die if I do not obey… As will you…”

“Despicable,” Impa spat, “You cannot do this…” Her grip gave the slightest hint of weakness, and Erebus pushed her away violently. She flew a few feet, and then hit the bricked ground headfirst. She groaned with the last remnants of strength, and then went unconscious.

Erebus pounced up, just barely dodging an arrow. Hmph, cheap shot, he thought bitterly, stealing the sword of a retreating soldier only to rear it into the man’s stomach. He drew it out swiftly, and glanced at the blood that dripped from the blade’s tip, wondering if the quench he thirsted for would soon be relieved. It wasn’t, and he continued in search of the remaining Sheikah. Most had already dispersed, backing away from them due to a gold-clad soldier screaming orders.

The Sheikah were evacuating, their short onslaught upon him becoming a nightmare. He chuckled lowly, feeling the strength he desired so much reign inside him stronger and fuller. He then turned around to face the fallen Sheikah, whom was barely waking. Her eyelids fluttered open, as she placed a hand to her forehead.

“Are you ready to surrender?” Erebus asked, placing the bloody tip of the blade to Impa’s throat.

The Sheikah glanced up at him, red eyes glistening with brimming tears, “So it is true, then.”

Erebus grinned, fighting back the urge to plunge the sword, “It is.”

“You did not choose this fate, I understand,” Impa continued, unmoving in her position but looking quite calm as she lowered her hand from her head; “And you must miss terribly your family, now.”

“Impa,” Erebus seethed, hands twitching, “What are you doing?”

She lifted a brow in questioning, “What do you mean?”

Erebus scowled, finding it harder to look at her with such disdain, so in place of it took a nauseous feeling, “Stop it, Impa.”

“Your family, Erebus,” she ignored him, “Fido, he was distraught when he saw you gone. Only when Semele appeared did he finally become a little better…but her eyes…”

“Impa,” Erebus grinded his teeth, finding it harder to speak or to stay still at all, and it became much more difficult with every second to not wrap his hands around her neck or to plunge the sword into her chest; “Quiet. Do you believe this is my doing? This is the work of your goddesses!”

Impa grew silent, testing Erebus’s patience. And just as he was to lift the sword and plunge it back down, one beautiful blade glinted in the corner of his eyes. With so long of standing still, he felt too lightheaded and sick to move in time. The sharp sword was thrust brutally into his side, sending him to the ground like one of the many heavy rocks falling from the skies above Death Mountain.

“I am so sorry, Erebus,” a familiar voice whispered to him, just after his knees had buckled and the blade was yanked away.

His head hit the hard ground, and the last of his blue-hued vision faded to blurry but colorful things. No longer did the reds of Impa’s eyes stand out. Instead, he saw her skin and silvery hair. Beside her was a black-haired girl, a sharpened sword bleeding with his blood in her hand. She dropped it, and kneeled next to him.

“Evane?” He croaked unsurely, as the taste of sickly sweet copper entered his mouth. Bile then rose and he swallowed it down, gritting his teeth and shutting his aching eyes.

“I am sorry, Erebus, really,” Evane repeated again, “I couldn’t have let you…no… Please, forgive me.”

He laughed suddenly, glancing up at her, “Do not be… You did the right thing…”

Impa took him by the shoulders slowly, placing his head on her lap. She rubbed away dry blood and pushed away soft curls from his eyes. “You are a brave one, I must say… You did the goddesses bidding, you did…”

Erebus smiled bitterly, “Will you do me a favor, then…? Even if I so blindly tried to kill you…”

“Of course, boy,” Impa replied softly, sadness gripping her despite her more light-hearted tone, “Anything for you.”

Erebus heard footsteps approaching, the clank clank of metal, and waited while Impa shooed the weary soldiers away. He heard them grumble, but it left his mind as he remembered his request. “Get out of here, Impa…” He said finally, “Take Fido and Semele and leave Hyrule…”

“What?” Impa remarked in bewilderment, “Have you gone daft?” Then she stopped. Maybe those hadn’t been the right choice of words.

“Evane,” Erebus whispered, “You must listen. Take it upon all of you once you leave. You mustn’t stay…”

“But…” Evane pursed her lips, glancing at Impa’s still-puzzled gaze, “Why?”

“Because…” Erebus wanted to snap at her, as if she should already know the reason, but responded as fully as he could. “The Sheikah will not last…” A deep, shuddering breath, and then, “Ganon will come for all of you, if he must, and I cannot trust that the Hylians will do much to aid your quest unless it for their own benefit… “

“But we are the benefit,” Impa said, “They will help us, Erebus…”

Erebus closed his eyes tightly, the pain suddenly worsening so that it became harder to breathe, or to think. “No… I will not have Fido live here like this…nor Semele… There is a world outside this one, Impa… They will live there…”

“Is it any better?” Impa replied sardonically, “This world is the one that we know best…”

“One…” Erebus opened his eyes to glare, digging his nails into the ground. He willed himself to keep breathing, keep thinking…forget the wetness under him, reaching his hands to coat the palms in sickly red. “That will pass through famine…and disease… The other world we can fight better... This one…they cannot fight the goddesses…”

Impa bit her lip, unknowingly drawing blood during her wistful thinking.

“I will go.”

“What?” Impa shook her head, “Evane…I…”

“Yes,” the girl interjected, turning to Erebus, ready to agree to his terms, but stopped.

The red from his eyes had disappeared, leaving black tendrils to spread like vines across his pale skin, wrapping like ivy around his neck and to his face, where they reached the corners of his eyes. Like pinpricks among the sclera and its veins, it reached to the very center of his pale eyes, spiraling until it disappeared in the dark abyss of his dilated pupils.

“Oh, Erebus…” Impa sighed, tears once again falling from her eyes as she sobbed for her cousin and the very first death of the first Bearer- that would bring others in his Sheikah bloodline the very same fate.

“This will not end, will it?” Evane whispered.

Impa shook her head, eyes burning, “You will go, Evane. Half the tribe will be in your care, and you will- with the help of those with you- do everything in your power to stay alive in that world.”

“No matter what?” Evane murmured.

Impa placed her hand over Erebus’s eyes, slowly closing them shut forever, “No matter what.”

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The last piece of the short story. Also found in Seeing Past Darkness.