Fan Fiction Friday: The Era Without a Hero – Part 61

||  Part Sixty  ||  Part Sixty-Two  ||

Part Sixty-One

My sword… Where is my sword…

“Come with me,” he heard the woman say. When she spoke this time, her voice was cold and cruel.

He tried to protest and resist, but she gripped his arm and led him to a passage in the back. A flight of stairs led him below and soon he found himself in a narrow stone hallway. The smell of water and rock filled his nostrils, almost bringing his senses back but the woman quickly subdued him again by pushing him ahead of her and into a small windowless room. A small pile of hay in the corner greeted him as she shoved him to the ground.

“Wait here.”

He reached a hand out, only to have her smack it away, “My sword…”

“Do not speak unless spoken to.”

The edges of his vision went dark as she stood in the doorway.

“Where…”

Moments later, he felt himself being dragged by his ankles back out of the cell.

“I found him!” a small and familiar voice shouted.

Everything faded away again.

A flash of a face he hadn’t seen in some time.

“Aldwin…?”

“Not likely, kid,” this voice was rough. His hair was matted down as if it had been under a helmet for some time.

“Get him out of here, Ralphine!”

“You need to get out of here too!”

More flashes of the scenery.

Osmond saw the gloomy bar from before, but with bodies strewn about. A fire was burning in the corner and beginning to spread around the room. Near the door, Osmond caught a glimpse of Fado arguing with whoever was carrying him.

“What about Liam?”

“He insisted I get Sir Osmond out.”

Osmond focused slightly, “Lord Liam?”

The bright light of the street nearly blinded Osmond. As he felt his body lean up against a nearby crate, Sir Ralphine’s face came into vision.

“Looks like you’re coming around,” he said, a smile hiding his concern.

“Wha… What’s going on?”

A body suddenly exploded through a window on the building’s second floor. It hit the ground with a tremendous thud and snap as the victim’s arm was pinned underneath their body. A second body then leaped from the broken window and landed with a roll next to the first body. When they lifted their head, they grabbed the first person by their collar.

“What did they do to Huron?”

The first person clenched their bloody mouth and forced words through the blood pooling in their mouth, “Hail… the dead king… Hail the… Lord of Shadow…”

“Tell me!” he violently shook the body.

When no response came, he stood up and kicked his boot across the corpse’s face.

Fado came running out of the door on the first floor, “Liam! Enough!”

Liam turned around and looked at Osmond. Osmond looked back. For the first time since the Battle of Lake Hylia, Osmond was looking at the man who had been his mentor’s teacher, a legend in the Knights of Hyrule, and the one person they had more questions for than anything.

“Lord Liam! Where have you been?” Osmond blurted out.

Liam glanced his eyes away, then turned back to Fado.

“What was he doing there?”

“What was he doing there? What were you doing there? His question makes more sense than any of this!” Fado replied.

“If you knew half of what I do, you wouldn’t be asking me!”

“Well fill us in, Lord Liam of Lanayru! We’re supposed to be on the same side!”

“I can’t trust you!”

“You went missing for seven months! Who are you to talk about trust?!”

“I have to find Huron! If you can’t help me, I’m leaving!”

“Leaving? Like hell you are!”

“Enough!” Ralphine stood up.

Fado and Liam fell still, their eyes staring holes into each other.

Ralphine, with a stern face that reminded Osmond of the days when he was the Swordsman Tournament Champion, stepped in between them.

“Lords Liam and Fado, that is enough. Let’s go back to my ship and discuss this like allies.”

Liam wiped a bit of blood from his lip, “I cannot be near any member of the Sage council until I know I can trust them.”

“What have I ever done to betray your trust?” Fado scolded.

“Why was the Princess in Castletown alone?”

“Zelda was alone? What about Rassa, Lindsey, and Yoon?” Osmond tried to stand but fell back to the ground.

“Rassa was with her?” Liam looked down at his feet and began searching through his memories. “Who… Where… Huron. Where is Huron?”

Fado, Osmond, and Ralphine took a moment to look around at one another. Liam pressed a hand to his head and began talking to himself.

“He was there… Then she died… He disappeared… I went to the woods… Why? Why did I go there? Why did he disappear?”

“Liam, what is going on?” Fado stepped forward and placed a hand on Liam’s arm. “Who died?”

Liam’s eyes shot back and forth.

“Liam!” Fado gripped both of Liam’s arms and shook him.

Something lined up finally in Liam. His erratic eyes, the confusion that seemed to be holding him back, it evaporated in an instant then.

“What did you just do?” Liam asked.

Fado let go and stepped back, looking down at his hands, “I… I don’t know.”

“You have a healing power,” Liam pointed his finger at Fado.

“Not that I’ve ever known,” Fado said.

“Whether you know it or not, you seem to have inherited it from somewhere,” Liam suddenly became lost in a thought, then looked back to Fado, “You found her… Didn’t you.”

“Rutela?”

Liam nodded. “Tell me everything.”

The sounds of armor-clad footsteps began to fill the nearby streets.

“Perhaps back aboard the Monarch?” Ralphine interjected, motioning to the chaos and then to the docks.

Liam drew his sword and clicked the chain loose, releasing the blade into the chain-whip weapon he was renowned for.

The soldiers, wearing Hylian armor suddenly came flooding out of the alleyways and surrounded the group.

“Lord Liam, Lord Fado, Sir Ralphine, and Sir Osmond!” the captain began with a booming voice, “You are hereby ordered to lay down your weapons and surrender.”

“So… This is what the plan was,” Liam grinned. “Who’s pulling your strings?”

“I serve His Majesty, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule. You are the ones who have been deceived and led astray.”

“Liam,” Fado said, turning to cover their backs, “perhaps a very, very brief summary of what’s going on might be helpful.”

“Hyrule’s rotten to the core — has been for a while. Not sure who’s really in control, but everybody’s been played. These guys… they’re just the next pawns to be taken.”

“Seems about right,” Ralphine said, drawing his rapier.

“Protect Osmond, kill the baddies,” Liam said.

“I’ll protect myself,” Osmond said, forcing himself up to his feet. “But does anybody have my sword?”

Liam reached under his armor and pulled a black sword from his hip. He tossed it over to Osmond.

“You sure about this, kid?”

Osmond stood firm, readied his blade, and said, “I am a Knight of Hyrule. I will fulfil my oath and defend this land.”

 

This story is an imagining of the final days in Hyrule prior to the Great Flood talked about in the opening cinematic of The Wind Waker. The story is getting an audio version in podcast form set to begin releasing sometime in 2022 and there’s a complete soundtrack for the first volume here. Head over to erawithoutahero.wordpress.com or follow the story account on Twitter @ZeldaTEWAH where you can keep up on information regarding the future of the podcast, soundtrack, and other TEWAH news that will be coming soon! Every Era Has Heroes…