Chapter 16: Memories and Nightmares

Ana couldn't believe it when she got the order, but it came down from the queen herself, and she got it on paper with the royal seal and everything. The wizard had remained in the cell for the entire previous day and night, and from what she'd heard from the city guards, he'd been a model prisoner. But now she walked back into the jail and showed the paper with the seal to the clerk, and then it was back to the cell, and Suma Gi looked up at the click of the key in the cell door.

"Will that be all?" the guard asked.

"Yes, you can return to your duties," Ana said, and with a short bow, the guard turned to walk away while Ana turned back to the cell.

Suma Gi had been laying on the bunk on one side of the cell, but now he sat up as Ana stepped through the door. "Am I being released already?" he asked.

"Not exactly," Ana said, and opened the long hanging sheath at her belt that contained the royal order, holding it up where he could see, "No evidence has been found implicating you in the event, but you and several others remain suspects. In the meantime, your aid did likely save lives, so I've got the order here you're being released into protective custody. You'll be allowed to walk free in the city, but not to leave it until the investigation concludes."

"Protective custody is what you call it?" Suma Gi said, and let out a small chuckle as he smiled, "In other words, I'm going to have a guard following me to make sure I stay on the leash."

"Essentially," Ana replied.

He shrugged. "Still more welcoming than I'd receive in my homeland. So when will the guard be here to collect me?"

"As a matter of fact, I already am," Ana said, returning the rolled note to its sheath on her belt, "I've already been released from my formal duties to my patron to act as your escort."

"Oh, I see," Suma Gi smiled at this, "Well, if I have to be followed around, at least it's by someone easy on the eyes."

"Whatever you say," Ana sighed, and fished in her belt pouch for the other key.

Suma Gi's hands were still bound by the iron mitts designed to prevent spellcasters from using their power. Now she approached with the correct key and with a click, unlocked them, allowing them to fall free as Suma Gi flexed his fingers, grimacing as he felt the ache of them being held rigid for so long.

"Did they at least remove the cuffs long enough for you to eat last night?" she asked.

"They did not," he said, "One of the guards came in to feed me some bread and water."

"In that case, I'd assume breakfast is the first thing on your mind," Ana said.

"Please," Suma Gi said.

The market square at the center of the capital was busy as it always was at this time of day as Ana led Suma Gi there. The fountain was at the center, and in three seperate rings around it were the stalls of the sellers, hawking their goods. Everything one could need on short notice was here, the local weavers with clothing, farmers from just outside the city with fresh vegetables, bakers with the still steaming morning bread, and even smiths with weapons.

It had been remarkable the first time Ana had seen it, after having grown up in a small village far from the city. To see the crowds of buyers, so many people in one place had been a new experience for her. Suma Gi, in spite of his clothes making him stick out like a sore thumb, seemed at home in the crowds as he looked from stall to stall.

Ana did have money given to her with orders to pay for whatever the wizard needed, she was slightly surprised to see he had his own rupees on hand as well. Of course, it made more sense when she remembered he came from the far east and had crossed Imperial lands to get to Hyrule, and they used the same form of currency. So he'd obviously earned or traded for some along the way.

They had found a stall tended by a woman cooking meat and vegetables on skewers over a small fire right there, and soon Suma Gi had made the purchase of two skewers. Ana was surprised when he turned and offered her one of them.

"I may be your prisoner for now, but there's nothing saying we can't polite to each other," he said when he saw her surprise.

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to be taking the situation so well," Ana said as she took the skewer from him.

Suma Gi shrugged. "I could be angry, I suppose," he said, "But I know I've done nothing wrong. So it should be just a matter of time for your investigation to find the real culprit and then I'll be free to go. So why waste energy being angry?"

They left the stall, walking through the rows and crowd out toward the edge of the square. He then held up the skewer he still had and carefully pulled the first piece, a roasted slice of carrot, from the tip with his teeth. He groaned through his lips as he chewed and swallowed quickly. "Still hot," he said, "Not bad though. There's something to be said for simple foods, you know?"

"I imagine it's quite different from food of your homeland," Ana said.

Suma Gi nodded as he blew on the next piece, a cubed slice of meat. "The first foods I tasted when I left Kurran were so bland, I equated it to eating paper," he said, "I came to realize in time, though, it was the fact other civilizations prefer less spice than my people. I realized that the intense spices I was used to were in fact what deadened my sense of taste. But over time it has gradually come around, and I realized I never even tasted the natural flavors of foods before.

"In fact, if I were to eat proper Kurranian food again now, I'd probably be sweating and red in the face like any foreigner not used to the heat."

"That might be frustrating," Ana said, and sighed. It was truly sinking in that this was her life for the foreseeable future, to follow around this man that was effectively on an extended tour. She'd take extended patrol duty down by Lake Hylia over this. And there was nothing down there except for the fishing spots, Zora's Domain, and that one lunatic inventor trying to outpace the Goron's cannon technology.

"What are those statues?" Suma Gi asked, shaking her from her train of thought.

Ana turned to where he was looking. The three statues in the center square, above the central fountain. They were arranged in a back-to-back circle facing out with two men and one woman, with one of the men standing nearly a foot and a half taller than the others.

"Those statues are a monument of the Blighted War, which was about twenty-five years ago if I remember correctly," Ana said, "It was before I was born, but the three statues represent the heroes who killed the demon named Shaklator."

"Are they still alive?" Suma Gi asked.

"Two of them are," Ana said, "The woman is our current queen. And the smaller of the two men is a knight."

She didn't want to say he was her father. Would really heap the shame that the child of a hero was on this kind of menial duty.

"And the other man?" Sumi Gi asked.

"A wizard, according to the story, named Ganondorf Dragmire," Ana said, "If the legend is true, he was the same man that was called the King of Darkness that attempted to conquer Hyrule over four thousand years ago. That legend is all in the book 'The Ballad of the Hero of Time,' but true or not this one is dead. He had his head cut off after the Blighted War for other crimes he had committed."

"So being a last minute hero wasn't enough to save him," Suma Gi said, "And yet there is still a statue in his honor."

Ana shrugged. "I don't understand it myself, but I wasn't there."

"Fair enough."

He stared at the statues for a long moment as he finished the last few pieces of his skewer.

"I take it your queen isn't exactly the 'lead from the throne' type, is she?" he finally asked.

"No," Ana said, and actually realized that made her smile, "She is quite a woman, and you'd understand if you met her. I'm not even sure how to describe it, but she just has a presence that you can't ignore. It's the strangest thing, she's actually smaller and weighs less than I do, and yet it feels like she's ten feet tall and a juggernaut."

"I see," he said, "It takes a truly incredible person to command a presence like that."

"Yes," Ana said, looking back up at the statue, "Yes it does."

Two years ago…

Ana had come to the capital when she was just twelve years old, and was entered into the royal academy, where she spent the next four years gaining the education all would-be knights of the kingdom must have. From the basics like mathematics and geography to more advanced subjects like government and military strategy, it was an exhaustive education.

Four years later, at the age of sixteen, Ana had passed all these courses and entered the physical part of the education. Combat training, on foot and on horseback, with every weapon Hylians had ever conceived of. Swords, axes, spears, maces and morning stars, and then ranged weapons like bows and crossbows.

Then there was the conditioning, mainly running and other exercises while wearing heavy training armor. It was much heavier than real suits worn in combat, specifically so that real armor could be worn easily. Ana was rather shocked herself after wearing that training armor for so long when later she realized she could run at a full sprint in real armor for much greater distances than she'd expected.

She became quite proud of her strength, rivaling even her male peers, able to fight on near even footing during sparring, and what her father had taught her prior to coming here made up the difference there.

Link's fighting style had less routines and rote stances than the military's training, and was more reactionary. It was not as though the training here was bad, or hammered in set techniques with no flexibility, but it was the fact Link's entire style was about reading his opponent and finding openings that others might miss. To put it simply, Link would never strike simply to try to unbalance his foe or intending to keep their guard up. Every blow from him was aimed to at least injure, and most likely to kill.

He had even warned Ana that what he had taught her would be frowned on by some of the higher ups when it came to sparring and fair fights in tournaments. In those environments, Link's style was as much about cheating as it was about fighting.

"When you're in a fight that will end with someone dying, all rules are off the table," Link said, "There's no such things as right or wrong, honor, or fairness. When it's him or you, you make damn sure it's him."

With the knowledge she gained from him back then, Ana understood how her father was such a legend with his blade. She had learned much more of his deeds since coming to the capital, which he had never told her, such as the story of when he fought a dragon while thousands of feet in the air, and when he dueled a wizard in a flying castle.

Ana knew both of her parents, and her mother may be a powerful sorceress able to command fire and lightning themselves while her father was ultimately a mortal man with a sword, but in his way, her father was the far more dangerous of the two. It was something in the eyes. Link would be smiling, perfectly relaxed and talking with a friend about the coming harvest, and yet there would still be something there, like a twinkle in his eye. Something kept restrained when it wasn't needed. Something dangerous, which even Kilishandra did not have.

But while like might not like to speak about some of his accomplishments, they were an inspiration to Ana, and what he had taught her gave her the edge she needed to rise to the top of her class. It wasn't even surprising that she started to develop a real ego about it, which was then subsequently shattered the first time she met the queen in person.

Queen Zelda made inspections of the coming recruits every few months, and Ana had seen her in the distance many times. The queen had a somewhat odd tradition, in which she would personally test the top of each coming class in a personal sparring match. It was shocking the first time Ana had seen the circle being cleared and the queen dressed in nothing more than some padded training armor face the top ranked swordsman in his group in a full contact match.

And in record time, the queen introduced the young man, maybe a third of her age but more than three times her weight, to the dirt.

And then she told him to get up and try again.

It was a true "blink and you'll miss it" kind of match. Over so quickly one might not even realize what had happened. But Ana saw it in the way the queen moved, how she watched her opponent move before making her own, and how she used his own weight against him, tripping him at the last second and striking her training sword into his shoulders just below his neck as he fell.

The queen had been trained by Link as well.

And with each of these visits, after laying low the best of the class, she then helped them up and gave a lecture to the rest of the class, always about being flexible and not adhering to rigid routines, or they'd be caught off guard by a less honorable opponent just as she had caught this champion. It was a lesson in itself, Ana realized, and the reason she always fought the top of each class was to prove that they still had much to learn.

So Ana had been quite adamant that she rise to the top of her class. She wanted the chance to fight the queen to see just how much her own education from her father would hold up, so see if it was just the dirty tricks or if experience played a real part of it.

When the chance came, she was the one at the peak of her class, and had entered that circle in the training field, all the other recruits gathered around the edges to watch, and the queen waiting near the center for her. There was a polite greeting, and when she introduced herself the queen reacted in a pleased way, realizing that Ana was Link and Kilishandra's daughter. And then she asked how Ana thought she compared to her brother's skill when he was this age.

Even then, Ana felt she was always just following in her brother's shadow. Well, that would be different, she believed, because she'd be the first recruit to put the queen down in this match.

And how wrong she was.

She lasted longer than the others she'd seen spar with the queen, and even got in a good shot to her side with her training blade, but that only resulted in the queen putting her down harder, when Ana suddenly found herself disarmed and on her back with the queen's knee under her chin and pressing down. She didn't hold it there long, but Ana could also tell that if she'd wanted to, the queen could have been able to choke her unconscious like that and there was little she'd be able to do about it.

Then the queen let her up, and as Ana gasped for air, she looked up to see the queen leaning down, offering a hand to help her up.

"I do see what your father has taught you," the queen said as she pulled Ana to her feet, "But you have a long way to go yet."

"And the way you move," Ana said, "Did you have the same teacher he did?"

The queen had smiled and let out a small chuckle at that. "Your father was my teacher," she said, "Well, at least the main one. I had other instructors among the knights. But many of them, before I met your father, were rather old and stuck in their ways. Put the recruits in armor and set them bashing at each other kind of training.

"I lack the size and weight of a man in armor," the queen went on, "I can't match one head on. Your father taught me to not try it, but to use my size to outmaneuver them. And more importantly, he taught me to cheat at every chance."

"When it's you or them, you make damn sure it's them," Ana said.

"As Link is fond of saying," the queen said.

The queen did not have much time, and Ana did not get to ask any more questions before she excused herself, but that day left a mark on Ana's memory.

Queen Zelda was not what one would call a large woman. Of slender build and nearly a foot shorter than Ana herself, she should not command the presence that she did. But it was in the way she walked, how she spoke, and even the look in her eye.

This was a woman who, according to the history Ana had studied, had survived two invasions of Hyrule, and during a journey overseas two decades ago, watched five nations perish at the hands of a nihilistic necromancer and his cohorts, and to top it off, had dissolved the royal council that once advised the princesses that led Hyrule, and was the first to take the title of queen in four thousand years.

It was over a month before she saw the queen again, and then it was just in passing. Ana did not know what had been happening at the time, but she saw the queen wearing her full armor, made by the greatest smith in the land. Metal with a near mirror sheen, and a design of golden wings crossing over her chest and back, with matching golden feathers on her elbows, knees, and even the fingers of her gauntlets. Not real gold, of course, the metal was dyed during the forging, but the intricate designs were what one might expect on ceremonial armor, not something made for combat. But there was no doubt that was one of the finest suits of armor ever forged, made for the queen alone, and if it were ever appraised it likely would cost as many rupees as a wealthy noble's entire estate. The knights wore armor with a similar design, but the crossed wings were not nearly as detailed, and had no gold.

The queen had seemed to be an overwhelming presence at the first meeting, and when she was in that armor, Ana would have sworn she must be invincible. Ana understood why so many of the military and even the citizenry looked to the queen in such awe now. She was a woman that one wanted to follow. It wasn't long before she also realized that her own parents, Link and Kilishandra, were frequently at the castle, even if they were not around for long, and it also didn't take long before Ana realized they did not have to make any arrangements or send word, they simply asked where the queen was, and then went there. And the queen had more than once excused herself from whatever matter she was involved in to speak to them, and then they'd leave again while the queen returned to her previous task.

And this made it more clear it wasn't just her brother's shadow Ana was living in, but her parents' as well. But this only increased her resolve that she would rise above that. One day she'd be the knight that stories were told about.

Present day…

"You still with me?" Suma Gi asked, which brought Ana back from her memories.

"Sorry," she said, shaking her head, "I spaced out for moment."

"Something wrong?" Suma Gi asked.

"No, just… nostalgia," she said, and turned to look at him, "Best I can explain it, Hyrule is not a land that follows their ruler solely out of obligation. The people love and respect the queen, and even the common citizens would be ready to lay their lives down for her if needed. What little I've been able to know of her in person, I fully believe that love and respect is completely earned."

"I believe you," Suma Gi said, with a soft smile, "If the last emperor of Kurran had such a reputation, the rebellion likely wouldn't have happened."

"I don't know much about that, I'm afraid," Ana said.

"That makes sense," Suma Gi said, "It's hard for such news to travel this far, even nearly a decade after."

He turned and walked away from the statues, and Ana followed him. She had orders he wasn't to leave the city, but beyond that he had free reign, assuming he broke no other laws.

"I don't suppose there's any other interesting landmarks in the city?" Suma Gi asked.

"I've lived here too long, I'm afraid," Ana said, "If you're still hungry, there's a bar not far from here owned by a woman named Telma. She's the best cook in the city, if I'm honest."

"Perhaps later," Suma Gi said, "I just want to stretch my legs after spending the night in the cell."

Ana could feel the eyes of the citizens on them as they walked, with no particular destination in mind, but no one stopped them. Not wanting to just walk in awkward silence, she decided to ask a question for her own curiosity.

"So, what I picked up was that wizards ruled Kurran before the rebellion," she said, "Is that why you fled?"

"Well, yes, but I was no ruler," Suma Gi said, "A fifth son doesn't stand to inherit much from his family. So, expecting to have to build my own estates from the ground up, I spend much of my younger years studying and honing my magical skill. Wind magic, specifically."

"That's what you used to hold up the building when it fell," Ana said.

"That's right," Suma Gi said, "My intention when I was younger was to learn to control the weather. To summon rain in times of drought, and end deadly weather like hurricanes. It's not that simple, though. I can't create weather, and as far as I'm aware, no wizard has ever been able to. But there's nothing stopping me from using the wind to blow bad weather away elsewhere, for example.

"Unfortunately, as I learned, the primary use of all magic, even wind, is simply killing. That's all those who sought my services ever wanted, in any case."

"So you're a mercenary, then," Ana said.

Suma Gi grimaced, letting out a sound of distaste at the word. "Not in the sense you are thinking," he said, "Mercenaries, or at least the ones I'm familiar with, fight for money first of all. Most of them will change sides in an instant if given a better offer. I at least have standards.

"I would say I am simply a survivor. I have taken payment for my services in combat, but I keep my word. And because I keep my word, I'm very careful before I give it. And surviving is what I've been doing since the civil war in my homeland."

"I see," Ana said, "I'm afraid news of that did not travel this far. I think you mentioned something about the people rising up against the ruling class of wizards?"

"Yes," Suma Gi said, "I managed to avoid the worst of it by simply being far from the populated cities when it began, because this was not an uprising of farmers with pitchforks. Assassins and the like, very knowledgeable on the subject of killing wizards, were chief among those leading the rebellion. They coordinated, and threw the nation into chaos in a single night.

"Wizard or not, a silent blade slashing the throat will end a life. By the time most of the ruling class realized we were at war, most of us were dead. By the time I realized we were at war, it was practically over. The entire nation overthrown in less than a day."

Ana wasn't sure what to think of that. The idea of a country falling in a day seemed absurd, at least by all manners of warfare she had been educated in. There were countless contingencies to prevent exactly that, from the chain of command to Hyrule's clear laws of succession. It was the main reason that outside of the direct royal line, most members of the Daphnes family did not live in the capital. Even if the queen and her heir were both killed, it would take a matter of minutes to determine the next in line.

But thinking this about the royal family also made her realize that Suma Gi was all alone for this reason.

"I'm sorry," she said, "You must have lost your family in that."

"Yes," he said, "As far as I know, I'm the only survivor. Hell of a way to become the heir of the name. But by that point, I wasn't exactly close to anyone. I was more focused on what I had to do to stay alive, and getting as far away from my family's home as possible seemed a good idea at the time."

"Do you think they're still hunting you?" Ana asked.

"I doubt it," he said, "No doubt more important things have come up. After all, overthrowing a nation so quickly doubtlessly created a power vacuum that all too many would-be little tyrants would be gladly trying to fill. I'm quite certain they're too busy fighting each other to worry about one wayward escapee."

"I wonder," Ana said, glancing over her shoulder, not sure why this thought suddenly made her nervous, as if there were other eyes on them.

Fortunately, though, the only ones watching them at this moment were the black-clad ninja of the royal bodyguard, from out of sight. For all the freedom the wizard seemed to have been granted, there were more than a dozen sets of eyes on him now.

As the pair walked, their conversation drifted back toward the city and Ana telling Suma Gi about different shops she knew.

"Definitely not acting suspicious now," one of the hidden ninja said to another.

"If he is going to try something, it'll be at least a few days," came the reply, "And who knows, maybe he did have nothing to do with the attack. The queen's order is an order."

"Maybe we should spread the word that this wizard might have other assassins after him," said the first.

"Yeah, though I doubt any Kurranian assassins are even as close as Riastad," the second replied.

One such assassin was in the Empire, in fact. Riding with the small group out of the capital, their first destination in mind, Huang Shi rode behind Gaius and Lucia, while the big northerner Godrick rode at the rear of the group. The other member of their group, Askall the Rito, did not use a horse, instead flying high in the air above.

But half a day out of the capital, and their first destination came into sight in the distance. A small farmstead near the edge of the forest, with what was less of a house and more like a small cottage, a nearby animal barn, and a small field area. It seemed a farm of size to feed its own residents with perhaps some food left over to sell in the nearby town, but not much else.

The reason Gaius and the others had come here was information provided by Lucia from a number of sources that the bounty hunter they were looking for had been seen in the area, and likely even resided here. As the group approached, they heard shouts from up ahead. There were guards around the farmstead, and the first to see the group had alerted the others.

"State your name and business here!" one of the guards near the road shouted toward them.

"My name is Gaius Erron!" Gaius called back, "We're from the imperial palace. Just want to talk to the owner."

The guard turned his head and motioned with one hand to one of the others, who turned and moved toward the house at a jog.

"I count at least eight of them," Lucia whispered as she pulled her horse up alongside Gaius'.

"Same here," Gaius replied, "Look like mercenaries to me."

The guards were on alert, but other than the immediate reaction, the party's approach did not seem to have caused any real upset for them.

Hearing movement behind himself, Gaius turned to see Huang Shi removing a red gemstone about the size of his thumb from a pocket inside his jacket. Shi held the gem up at arm's length, slowly rotating his arm while keeping his eyes on the gem.

"What are you doing?" Gaius asked.

"Checking for active and residual magic," Shi said, "I'll tell you how it works later if you're curious."

After slowly moving the gem around himself in all directions, to seemingly no effect, Shi shrugged and tucked the gem back into his pocket.

"Nothing," he said.

The group waited there another moment when the door to the farmhouse opened again, the guard stepping back out and behind him came a smaller figure. Stepping into the light, she seemed to be a middle-aged woman with sandy brown hair, and dark rings under here eyes, as if she was sleeping very poorly lately.

Gaius stepped down from his saddle as the two approached, and Lucia did the same.

"I'm the owner of this land," the woman said as she approached, "You want to see me?"

"We're from the imperial palace, ma'am," Gaius said, "We just want to ask a few questions, specifically about a man who has reportedly been living here."

The woman lowered her gaze from his, thinking, then let out a sigh.

"You're looking into the kidnappings?" the woman asked.

"That is part of it, yes," Gaius said.

"About time the palace does something," she replied, then looked at him again, "My daughter was taken by the kidnappers. She's just sixteen, and almost four months pregnant now. They killed the child's father when he tried to stop them. They talked like they were going to kill me too, but seemed in too much of a hurry to finish the job.

"The man you're looking for didn't come back from town until hours after they were gone. He went after them, and I hired the guards here to keep watch until he returns."

"Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about the man and the kidnappers?" Gaius asked.

The woman looked him in the eye, as if looking for something there, and after a moment, tilted her head toward the house. "Come inside. We'll talk there."

She turned and started walking toward the house.

"Make yourselves comfortable," Gaius said to the others of the group, "We might be here a minute."

"Here's hoping she's not with the cult," Lucia whispered as she walked beside him toward the house. The guards watched them, but made no move from their places.

The woman opened the door to the house, stepping inside and leaving the door open. Gaius stepped inside. The was a strong smell inside, but a pleasant one, and he spotted the source. Over by the burning fireplace, a rack of drying herbs filling the room with their scent. The room itself was a combination of a kitchen and dining area, with a stove and surprising amount of counter space, and a large table in the center with four chairs. There were three doors leading away from the room, and Gaius assumed they led to bedrooms and likely a storage room in the back.

Another part of the smell, Gaius realized as the woman retrieved a steaming kettle from the stove, and poured tea into a waiting cup, then opened a cupboard and took out two more for them, setting them on the table.

"Close the door, please," she said as Lucia stepped into the room behind Gaius.

Once she had done so, the woman sat down at the table, and gestured to them to have a seat as well. She took a moment to blow on the hot tea before having a sip as Gaius seated himself across from her.

"If you want to know who the man is, I'm afraid I know barely more than you," she said, "He's never told me about where he came from, or what kind of life he lived before coming here."

"Does he at least have a name?" Lucia asked, seating herself at the table as well.

"He introduced himself as Zero," the woman said, then chuckled, "Pretty obvious for a fake name, I admit, but given the circumstances of how we met, I was just grateful he got here when he did. And with other circumstances..."

She paused, looking across the table at them.

"What do you want with him anyway?" she asked.

"Like I said, we're from the palace," Gaius said, "We're under the emperor's orders to find these monsters kidnapping people, save everyone we can, and put and end to the whole thing."

The woman took another sip from her tea. "About twenty years ago, I'd think a small band like yours wouldn't be able to do a thing," she said, "But that was before I met Zero."

"What did do for you?" Gaius asked, "Is he your husband?"

The woman shook her head, but was smiling softly. "No, at least not in the manner you're thinking," she said, "My husband was the owner of this land, but he died in the winter about twenty years ago. The land fell to me, and I didn't have the money to leave. Not that my family would have me back, marrying an imperial and all."

She reached up to her neck and pulled her hair aside, letting them see the pointed ear that had been hidden underneath.

"You're a Hylian," Gaius said.

"Yes, and tensions between our lands were even harsher back then than today," she said, "My father was a merchant, though. He dealt with imperials back then, and my mother and I would often come with him on the longer trips. Met my husband on one of those trips, and foolish girl I was, believed that whole thing about love defeating all challenges. Even didn't relent when my parents disowned me for it. Just my luck he died only two years after we were married, huh? Pneumonia, the doctor said."

"I'm sorry," Gaius said.

She shook here head. "It was a long time ago now, I'm not a little girl anymore, and after what happened next, I doubt anyone would keep their naivete."

"When this Zero showed up?" Lucia asked.

"He came at the right time," the woman said, "I'd been trying to get by that year, working as much of the land as I could alone. I figured if I could make enough money from the harvest, I might be able to buy passage back to Hyrule and figure out something else once I was there. But it's dangerous for a woman to live alone out here, far from the nearest village.

"I got up one morning, got dressed, and went out to check the irrigation for the field, and they were just out there. A group of armed men, bandits most likely, though I didn't have time to ask. I did tell them they were trespassing on my land. Several of them grinned, and one asked, 'And who's going to stop us?' I realized too late just how much trouble I was in."

It was too late to run when the men approached her. Maria turned, realizing there were more coming from behind the house. There were at least ten of them. They were dirty, their hair and beards wild, and their clothing torn and shabby. As they came closer, she could also smell the stink from their unwashed bodies.

In a panic, she turned to run, intending to lock herself in the house, and didn't make it two steps before a fist struck her across the head. Pain shooting through her skull, her vision filled with stars, and it took a moment for her to realize she had fallen to the ground. She managed to roll over onto her back, only to suddenly feel one of the men's large hands wrap around her throat and pull up. She choked and wheezed, fighting for breath against the pain as he dragged her by the neck, her hands clawing at his wrist and kicking her feet uselessly as she slid across the ground.

She heard the door of her house crash open as he kicked it, and then with a jerk at her neck, she felt his grip release as he tossed her inside. The pain of landing on her back on the floor was nothing compared to the ache of her throat as she was gasping to regain her breath and coughing painfully.

The men were talking, but her head was still spinning and she couldn't understand them. She turned, trying to rise and go for the back door, but didn't not even rise to her feet before two of the men grabbed her by the arms, hauling her up and lifting her feet off the floor by painfully wrenching her shoulders upward.

"Get off me!" she screamed, kicking at them as best she could, only for the world to whip past her, and then the wind was knocked from her as her back slammed down hard on the table. She gasped for breath as one of them stood over her, but her vision was now being blurred by tears from the pain and fear.

He must have been the one in charge, for the other two held her down by the arms while he leaned over her, and she could do nothing but try to turn away at the smell of his stinking breath, and she cried out in revulsion as she felt his tongue sliding on her neck.

The sound of her clothing ripping was almost drowned out by their laughter and her screams.

She had no idea how long it went on for. There was no one around to hear her screams, and she could not fight them off. Exhausted and with no energy left to fight, she was barely conscious enough to realize they had stopped when a new figure entered the house, but when the torment stopped for a moment, she realized the laughter had been replaced with shouting and threats, and she was able to raise her head enough to see him standing there in the doorway, with a dark cloak pulled over his head, and he looked at her.

And a chill like nothing so far went down her spine when she saw the inhuman red eye looking at her from beneath the hood.

"I didn't know it at the time," she said, "But that was Zero. I don't know if he heard me screaming before or had just happened upon us at the right time, but I was so terrified that when I saw that eye, I thought he was a demon."

Gaius looked at Lucia. "I've never heard of a race with large red eyes," he said, "Have you?"

Lucia shook her head, but the woman spoke before she replied. "Not eyes," she said, "Just one. The other eye was like a normal person's."

"That sounds bizarre," Gaius said.

"Yes, I've never heard of anything like that," Lucia said.

"Well, I thought he was a demon, and happened next didn't exactly change my mind," the woman said.

One of the men drew a large knife, moving toward the figure in the door with a scream and drove it into his chest. The new figure did not even attempt to dodge or even move. The attacker smiled for a second, then let out a yelp of terror as the cloaked figure swiftly grabbed his face with one hand and pushed forward, forcing him down onto his back. The man struggled for a moment, and then other shouts of terror from the men were heard as they realized the cloaked figure's hand had expanded, becoming a mass of flesh that completely enveloped the man's head, then with an audible crack, the man's struggles suddenly stopped.

Like a great club, the figure stood up again, and Maria's eyes went wide when she realized the man's head had entirely been torn off, and her eyes now went to the massive globe of flesh that had been this man's hand, which was now shrinking and in just a second reshaped back into a normal human hand. But the head was gone, as if absorbed, or even eaten, into this figure's body.

Then with that hand, he reached up to the dagger, still visible in his chest, and slowly pulled it free. It dropped to the floor with a thump, and there was no blood on the blade, nor was there a visible wound through the hole in his shirt.

"The hell is this guy?!" Maria heard one of the men say, and more of them moved to attack him.

It was a blur after that, as bodies moved and fought, and the lone figure cut through them with seemingly little effort. Arms disappeared, screams of pain, and very loud crunching of bones from each of the figure's blows, and in a matter of seconds, it was over, the figure now standing over a pile of bodies.

It was only then that Maria noticed the black sword hanging from the figure's hip. A weapon he had not even needed to draw.

Then he turned again to her, that red eye fixed on her. It was probably a combination of her already exhausted state and the terror, but that was the last thing she saw.

"I fainted," the woman said, "When I came to, I was lying in my bed. For just a moment, I hoped it was all just a bad dream, but when I started to move I was… sore. Everywhere."

"I'm sorry," Gaius said, "No one should have to go through that."

She shook her head and kept going. "I got dressed, went out into the main room. The bodies were gone. There wasn't even any blood, and I know I saw plenty of it during the fight. I thought maybe he'd cleaned up and left me, but when I looked outside, there he was, leaning on the fence and looking over my field.

"I didn't know what to expect, but when I walked over to him, he just asked where my husband was, and when I told him, he asked how I stayed safe out here. I told him the truth, that I wasn't, and I'd just been lucky until now. He just nodded, then told me to go rest, that I was in no condition to work.

"Then he did the last thing I expected. He picked up my hoe, and went to work in the field."

She paused for a moment, draining the last of the tea from her cup.

"I don't understand," Gaius said, "What manner of creature is he?"

"I don't know," she said, "And it's not for lack of asking. At best, he'd just tell me not to worry about it, and at worst he'd ignore me. It's obvious he's not human, of course, but I did hear him mutter to himself on occasion. Something about doing it your way, he said, though I don't know who he meant.

"And he just stayed around. He'd never be gone for more than a day, and typically came back with money. I figured out before long that he was doing work as a bounty hunter. I don't know what brought him to stay here, but before long, I felt far safer with him around than I ever did before. I was having nightmares of what happened every night, but after a few weeks, just the knowledge that he was sitting outside perhaps was what started to help them fade.

"He never made any kind of approach on me, and he never asked for me to even feed him. I never saw him eat, either, or sleep for that matter. But with his help, I managed to repair the damage those men had done to the house, and was back in line to have a harvest that autumn.

"Of course, then came all the worse thing," she went on, her tone sinking, "I think it was about five weeks after the event that I realized I was pregnant."

She took a deep breath before going on.

"I was horrified. The nightmares came back, and now I was having nightmares of a monster child growing inside me. It was, in its way, even worse than what happened before. So, I told him. And I asked him to go to town and find a doctor, and get me a child cleanser."

A child cleanser was a polite term for a poison that, while typically not lethal to a grown adult, would kill the unborn child and force a miscarriage in a pregnant woman. It was not without risk, and it was possible the would-be mother would not survive the process, though.

"For the first time since that day, he looked at me in the eye, and he approached me. I thought he was going to kill me, and then back was against the wall, his face was right up in mine..."

The huge red eye seemed to pierce through her as if it could reach her mind, and Maria trembled, not sure what Zero was about to do. Then she felt his hand, gently placed flat against her stomach. What was he doing?

"This child..." he whispered, "It did not choose this. It had no hand in what happened to you, and did not ask to be given life. It is weak and helpless, and cannot save or defend itself."

Zero did not break eye contact as he tilted his head slightly to one side.

"Does the child inherit the sins of its father?" he asked.

His tone was flat. There was no threat in his voice, and he did not sound as though he was trying to convince her of something. It was like he was genuinely asking the question.

"I will get the child cleanser for you, if that is what you truly desire," he said, "But first answer my question. Does the child inherit the sins of its father?"

"He wanted me to think about what I was doing," she went on, "That was the point. He wanted me to think about the fact that my first thought upon realizing that I was pregnant was to get rid of it, and whether that was the right thing or not. I think wanted to know what I believed.

"And in the end, I kept it." She turned, looking to the door leading to the bedroom. "For how many nights I had those nightmares, cried myself awake at the thought of raising a child born of rape, and that it would be a constant reminder of what happened to me, but the child would be innocent, and had no hand in it.

"And I am glad for it. Nine months later, I gave birth to my daughter, Leselle. And she's the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me. Zero stayed, helped with the farm and kept up his bounty hunting. And Leselle never had any fear of him. Between the two of them, it's why I decided to stay here. From that nightmare came I think the first real happiness I've ever had." She paused for a moment and smiled. "I remember when she was still an infant, he held her in his arms one night, and maybe he thought I couldn't hear him, but I heard him whisper to her that if anyone dared to harm her, he would personally end them. I think that's when I finally understood him. I don't what kind of creature he is or where he came from, but now I understand that he is a monster that desperately wants to be a human being. One of those bastards might have supplied the genetics that day, but Zero is Leselle's father."

The woman turned back to Gaius. "I actually feel somewhat bad for those kidnappers when he catches up to them. They're going to regret ever laying so much as a finger on her."

"Would he attack us if we find him?" Lucia asked.

"I don't see why," the woman said, "So long as you don't try to stop him."

"Where was he headed?" Gaius asked.

"He said the kidnappers had gone west, out toward Hyrule," the woman said, "If you plan to follow him, that's probably the way to go."

A high mountain pass stood as the fastest means of entering Hyrule from this direction, passing north of Death Mountain and descending into the eastern plateau near the Great Bridge over the great ravine east of the capital. This pass was frequented by merchants traveling between Hyrule and Riastad.

Now at the highest point of this pass stood a solitary cloaked figure, looking out over the land he had left behind more than twenty years ago. The place where he had a hand in summoning a demon god, only to have his path changed by the influence of one he sought to kill.

Zero paused a moment, taking in the sight before starting his descent. Last time he was here, it was try to destroy the nation. Now, his goal aligned with saving it from their common foe.

"Gods damn you, Link," he muttered as he walked, "This is your damned influence."