The Legend of Zelda: The King's Sword

Part Two: The King's Sword

Zelda's POV:

The Unity Festival, an event in which representatives from each corner of the land gather for feasting and celebration, happens tonight. Now that we've met the races of the Surface, more participants join the festivities.

Two strange kikwi come from Faron Woods decorated in bunches of daisies. A couple of Mogma from Eldin Volcano arrive wearing steam-colored scarves around their necks. My eyes widen when I see a familiar face, a tan-faced girl with her husband stand before us, waiting for their names to be called. The two have red eyes, pointed ears, and matching white robes with purple sashes and gold necklaces.

Sheikah.

The girl has pale lavender, shoulder-length hair with a small braid apart from the rest of it. The white triangular lashes sit above her right eyebrow, and the painted teardrop runs below her eye, like the Sheikah Eye that Impa wore tattooed on her face. I never expected that two Sheikah would emerge from the shadows of their endangered tribe.

After the rest of the featured representatives cross the stage, Link and I of Skyloft are called to the stone plinth to give our sacred offering into the ceramic vessel of water: a drop of blood. We prick small bulbs from our pointer fingers using the slender silver daggers and hold our hands over the bowl to add our fluids. While our hands are wrapped in silk by servants, Sio sets the bowl beneath an ornate golden staff planted in the ground that holds a sapphire blue orb. When the hour strikes, the full moon shines into the gemstone, reflecting into the watery blood mixture, turning it white as milk, and purifying our offerings into what is said to be the nectar of the moon, Alconia's night protector.

The pilgrims to Alconia are to drink from the bowl and are given silver medals matching the symbol on the Unity Flag, hung about the neck by a blue ribbon as blessings of good fortune.

Sio announced these things from a traditional tome written by her kingdom's first queen, Delta, which she calls me for my 'heavenly' looks. Legend has it that Delta was instructed by the goddess Nayru the Wise to write the tradition into Alconia's history.

I sit between Sio and Link at the long dinner table during the feast. A cake is served as the citizens move into the plaza, where dancing music is played by tambourine, drums, accordion, and a dueling lute and harp. Sio pressed me to duel Link on harp, but he and Luca have already disappeared off to the lagoon we visited earlier today.

After partaking in my second and final piece of cake, I bid her farewell as I start alone to the lagoon to retrieve the two men. This way is much more ominous than the fully-lit dancing square, and those who have decided not to attend the revel have already gone home. It's eerie out this way, and it's seeming a long way to the lagoon. My body is feeling weaker, my head is beginning to ache as I walk slower. The cake must be getting to me. My legs have given out from numbness, as does my aching head.

Link's POV:

The lightly rippling lagoon reflects the black sky and orange lanterns glowing at the road, and Luca stands a few feet behind me while I admire the water over the edge. When we arrived, I couldn't help but ask him about the bronze scepter adorned by a crescent moon shape that holds in its points an emerald orb, driven into a stone cylinder cracked heavily with age.

"A rumor says that if that scepter is ever removed from this spot, something evil will escape, and a tragedy will happen. Most likely, a spirit will strike and kill someone important." Luca whispered with a mocking grin.

"I always liked ghost stories." I laughed with him.

"Alas, it won't be long until that one is forgotten." he turned away from the relic into the darkness.