Fan Fiction Friday: The Era Without A Hero – Part 35

||  Part Thirty-Four  ||  Part Thirty-Six  ||

Part Thirty-Five

A fresh log crackled in the fireplace. Zelda was asleep in the bed, covered in a warm blanket and shadows from the dancing flames. Osmond smiled as he looked at her and slipped his arms into the sleeves of his shirt. She stirred a bit as he slipped his boots on, failing in his attempt to be silent.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, trying to force her eyes open.

“It’s nothing, go back to sleep.”

She needed no further instruction and laid her head back down with a warm smile on her face. Osmond kissed her cheek and pulled the covers up over her more, and then slipped out into the hallway.

It was nothing. He had simply woken up and not been able to get back to sleep. His mind had become a machine in his time in the mountains. When he awoke out there, it meant the camp could be in danger. It meant it was his turn to take watch. It meant it was time to launch a moonlight raid on a monster or enemy camp. Laying next to Zelda, he felt anxious and needed to clear his mind.

As he walked down into the main hall, he was only partially surprised to see Impa, Fado, and Sagesse having a conversation near one of the wings.

“Ah, good evening Sir Osmond,” the Sage of Shadow greeted him warmly.

Osmond nodded in acknowledgment. “Good evening, my lord. Lady General. Fado.”

Impa nodded back, and Fado grinned with knowing eyes.

“What brings you out this evening?” Sagesse asked.

“A bit of a restless mind. I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t report to the king when I arrived this afternoon.”

“Yes, well,” Sagesse trailed off for a moment, biting his lower lip slightly. “I’ll see to it that you can give a full report in the morning. How has the field been treating you?”

Osmond shrugged.

“Sir Osmond has performed surprisingly well,” Impa reported. “I had many doubts about you, but in every situation, you have handled yourself with poise.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Yeah, the lad’s a natural,” Fado chimed in. “It’s a shame it took so long to get him into the service. Had he arrived when he was younger like many of the other trainees, he might have been interesting enough to keep Liam around.”

“Sir Osmond, I’m curious what your take is on Lord Liam’s location?” Sagesse asked picking up the conversation cue.

Impa glared at Sagesse, and Osmond felt as though he’d stumbled into a hotly debated topic that he had no reason to be a part of.

“I-uhh… umm…”

“Sir Osmond’s focus has been smoking out the Dragmire Clan and Lady Rutela. I have undertaken the search for Lord Liam myself, sir.”

Sagesse turned to her with a cold stare. “Oh, I’m aware. Hence why I’m asking the young knight. Perhaps he might have a fresh tactic that would be more successful.”

Impa’s face twitched at the words, but she said nothing in her defense. Osmond simply stammered and couldn’t figure out how to respond.

“I think Lady Impa’s doing all that I would. I have faith that she’ll locate him before long,” he finally spat out.

Sagesse nodded with a shrug. “I suppose. I have many questions I’d like to ask that man. Best of luck. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must journey back to Castletown in the morning and I think I’ll head to bed.”

He bowed and bid them farewell.

Once he was gone, Impa let out a frustrated sigh.

“Well that was delightfully terrible,” said Fado.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what-”

“No, no. You did fine. He was trying to get a rise out of me. He was testing me,” Impa groaned. “It’s part of his old-world Sheikah style. One of the many traditions he swears by.”

“Being a jerk?”

“Demanding excellence. In the traditional Sheikah role, we are to protect the Royal Family at all costs and there cannot be any mistakes. He sees my failure to bring Liam in yet as a risk.”

“The only risk is how many soldiers are out on this hunt for him,” Fado rolled his eyes.

Impa nodded in agreement.

“One of the few things Lady Impa here and I have always agreed on,” Fado pointed in the direction Sagesse had left by, “was that Old Man Shadow there is living in a different time.”

“Do you think he’s dead?” Osmond asked.

“Who? Liam? Not a chance.”

“Why’s that?”

“Besides the fact that there’s no body, it’s because there’s no way he’d let me off the hook so easily,” Impa smirked.

Osmond gave a curious glance to her, then down to Fado. Fado shook his head and looked away, not wanting any part of this conversation.

“I… I don’t think I follow.”

“Up for a drink?” she asked.

Impa led Osmond down the hall, with Fado following along as he was not one to miss an opportunity for a beverage. A few moments later, they were in the kitchen where some of the cooks were beginning to make bread for the breakfast that would be served later. There was a decent amount of noise and the cooks were all so busy that they hardly paid the pair any mind. Impa grabbed a few ales and then they sat down at a table in the corner.

“How much do you know about Liam’s past?” Impa finally asked once they’d settled in.

“I mean, I know he’s one of the most celebrated Knights in the history of the Order. He’s got a custom-built sword that he commissioned by some of the elders in Kakariko. He was Aldwin’s master for a time. And that he left the Knights of Hyrule at some point for some reason. That’s about all.”

“Yeah, that all matches up. Do you know why he left the Order?” Impa asked coldly.

Osmond shook his head.

“Outside of you, him, the sages, and a couple Sheikah and Kokiri, not many would even have a clue,” Fado said, leaning back and sipping his very full mug.

“Would you believe me if I told you that the Lord of Lanyru is also known in places as Liam the Bloody?”

Osmond shivered at the name. He’d heard it before but never realized that the Liam he knew and the Liam of the bedtime story to keep children in line were the same.

“So, you know the tale,” Impa said, observing the fright in Osmond’s face.

He nodded.

“Let’s hear the story you know. I’ll fill in the facts and filter out the lies.”

“On a dark night with a full red moon, Liam the Bloody set out with no impugn,” Osmond began to recite the tale. “One with an axe, one with the sword. There was so much death they thought it caused by a horde. The red in his eyes and the red in the sky, drown out every victim’s cry. On nights when the moon is crimson, children beware, for Liam the Bloody is seeking to cut more than hair.”

“Suppose old Aldwin told you that version,” Fado smiled.

Osmond nodded.

“Not many include that last little bit. Most have changed it to something like ‘hide your hood’ and that he’s ‘cutting more than wood.’”

“I suppose he’d like that one better,” Impa chuckled.

“I’m still not sure I follow,” Osmond said, overlooking the fact that this was the first and only occasion he could recall something resembling a smile cross Impa’s face.

“Liam’s first profession, long before he took up the sword, was a barber in Kakariko Village,” Fado explained. “In most of the older versions of that poem, they reference that in the cutting more than hair bit.”

Images of the scruffy, unkempt stubble that grew on Liam’s face returned to Osmond. Likewise, his somewhat messy gray hair also didn’t match up with this backstory.

“So, what happened? My understanding was that Liam the Bloody was a sort of specter to keep kids in line.”

Impa took over the explanation as Fado downed the last of his drink and went to get more.

“Some years after Liam joined the Knights of Hyrule, he crossed some bad people and made a few mistakes. One night, after he’d returned from a very dangerous mission into the Haunted Wasteland to recover a lost artifact at the behest of the queen, he was followed. Assassins with the Dragmire Clan infiltrated Kakariko City and crept into his home. Or, they thought it was his home at least. Turns out it belonged to a young knight and his family. Liam and the wife were apparently very close.”

Osmond raised an eyebrow.

Impa nodded and looked solemnly into her mug. “He had been seeing her for about a year. She’d been married to this young knight for about three years at that point, and they’d had their first child, a daughter. However, with him being gone so much and the stress of the baby, she fell for the first thing that gave her a break. That turned out to be Liam.

“Anyways, these assassins snuck in and killed the woman and child in front of Liam, thinking they were his. He managed to break free from his restraints and kill the bastards, but he was so destroyed by the events, that he resigned from the Order immediately. I was stationed in Medina at the time. By the time I left for Kakariko to find him, he had already disappeared.”

“Where’d the story come from then?”

“Well, Liam left his home, covered in blood from head to toe,” Fado injected himself having returned with a fresh pint. “Nobody knew what had happened and so, speculation ran wild. He, did of course, inform the local authorities as well as Lords Sagesse and Kalia.”

“But even they couldn’t quash the rumors that took off.”

“So, they covered it up. They didn’t want their star knight to be exposed for sleeping with his protégé’s wife, nor could they let the reason for the assassination attempt slip out. They let the legend of Liam the Bloody take over, and Lord Liam of Lanayru was exiled.

“Well, mostly,” Impa said quietly.

Fado nodded.

“He did one last mission, off the record,” Impa leaned in. “The artifact he recovered that cost him everything. He was instructed to hide it away. Liam, with as much dignity as he could cling to, agreed and did as he was instructed. It wasn’t until Adok’s assault that the Sages quietly lifted his exile and brought him back into the fold.”

“And that went well, from what I’ve heard,” Fado rolled his eyes.

“Let’s just say, he wasn’t pleased when the sages showed up at his door.”

“Why’s that?”

“He was always suspicious of them and said that they held too much power. He believed they needed less say on matters of the state. That was part of why he joined the Knights to begin with. Thought himself a check against them.”

“He seems friendly enough with Fado and Huron,” Osmond recalled. “And he was willing to go into battle for Laruto. That’s got to count for something.”

“Laruto and I weren’t sages until after those events. And Huron served as part of Liam’s garrison as a youth exploring the North Sea. Sometimes I think Liam and Huron are more like brothers than Huron and Erie.”

“Anyways,” Impa resumed, “I trust that Liam is still very much alive, but keeping his distance. He doesn’t trust the sages, especially not now with Rutela having betrayed us. He knows the state of the King, I’m sure, and doesn’t trust his judgment because of Daphnes’ reliance on the Sage Council. And lastly, I know he wouldn’t leave without leaving something for me to find this lost treasure. No, Liam is not dead. And I’ll find him if it’s the last thing I do.”

She downed her ale and slammed the mug on the table with authority. There was a fire in her eyes, not seen often. She was more accustomed to stoicism and cold glances. There was something deeper driving this ambition though. Something Osmond couldn’t place.

“And I’ll drink to that,” Fado raised his mug and downed it as well.

Osmond raised his mug, but with reservation. He quietly mulled the story over in his mind, and slowly sipped the drink down. The other two changed topics and discussed their travels throughout the years. As the ale drained down and the candle on the table burned away, Fado was nearly about to pass out and Impa could barely keep herself upright.

“That’s no way for a general to sleep,” Fado mumbled, his face pressed against the table.

“I suppose I’m not a general tonight. Not until the sun rises in the morning.”

“Morning?” Fado hiccupped. “Goddesses smite me. It’s probably almost morning now.”

Osmond looked up at the clock on the wall. It was quarter till four in the morning. He rose and started off when Impa reached out and took his wrist.

“What we discussed…” She shook her head, eyes barely open.

“I understand.”

Osmond retired to his room. When he arrived, Zelda had rolled into the center of the bed, blankets wrapped around her in a tangled mess. Osmond leaned down, kissed her forehead, then crossed the room and sat back in the chair by the mantle.

Silently, he dozed off to the crackling of the flames.