The Legend of Zelda: The King Sword (Revising)

Part Two: Forbidden Power

{Zelda}

The Festival of the Moon, an event in which all of Adrift, young and old, comes together for dinner, dancing, and a sip of the purest life-giving water, has finally arrived. My heart pounds as I wait for Sio to acknowledge Link and me. I'm afraid the mass of strangers, although curious and well-meaning, will mob us or ask invasive questions.

But I close my eyes and breathe steadily.

Sio stands at a podium etched with the words but seldom reads from them since she has officiated this ceremony so many times. The stone plaque was written by the first queen of the Zonai, Delta, whom Sio calls me for my 'heavenly look.' Perhaps she saw in me what I didn't know until years later.

"Our Queen Delta was instructed by the goddess Nayru the Wise to write this honored tradition into Adriftian history." she says.

I can't help but wonder, and I forgot to ask, why Sio's third eye is closed and why a white teardrop appears to run down her nose from it. I knew the symbol Impa wore so often on her body was familiar. A few of the faces in the audience bear the same third eye, watching as the moon climbs higher into the sky, her beams echoing through the clouds. I hope her like can make it through to the sapphire orb, which nests in a winged golden scepter on a fluted pillar at the center of the stage.

Sio introduces Link and me as her very dear friends, not as the mortal form of Hylia and her Chosen Hero, thank goodness.

The audience claps quietly as we cross to the stone plinth to give our sacred offering: a drop of blood. First, Sio bestows me with a silver medallion shaped like the full moon and engraved with the fledgeling, tied to a deep blue ribbon about my neck. It is a blessing of good fortune. Sio hands me a shining white needle to prick a small bulb of blood from my pointer finger. As it drips into the large white basin, I fear that the ripples will cause it to overflow from the rim. A tall and skinny Zonai woman with large, curved horns draped in a sheer white cloth presses a tiny purple flower to my finger and wraps it in a silk ribbon. Link arrives at my side, grinning and showing me the silver medallion pinned to his chlamys.

The crowd's silence is thick, apart from the waves in the glassy black pond beside us. The full moon rises past the thick mist, shining into the blue gemstone and beaming into the bowl. The water becomes bright like the moon itself and turns as white as milk.

"Our offerings are now transmuted into the nectar of the moon," Sio announces to rising cheers. "Let us partake of our night protector and feast!"

The pilgrims to the mirror pond are to drink of the bowl, which Sio pours into my mouth using a tiny silver ladle. I'm not sure that the glowing moon water tastes like nothing. I can't even feel it course down my throat, but the slight savory flavor lingers on my tongue.

I sit between Sio and Link at a long marble table during the feast.

"So, do all of your delicious drinks glow white in Adrift?" Link asks.

"Of course not!" Sio laughs over the chatter. "It's just a theme for the festival season to have brightbloom tea that emulates the glow of the moon water."

A large bread pudding is served as the citizens move into the orange lantern-lit streets, where fast music is played by tambourine, drums, flute, and a dueling lute and harp. The pudding is smooth and white as the moon water, but is sweet and slightly nutty. Sio pressed me to duel Link on the harp, but he and Toru have already disappeared off to the lagoon we visited earlier today.

After tasting Sio's favorite fruity wine, I bid her farewell as I start to the lagoon to retrieve our men. There are still some Zonai who haven't received their blessings yet, so she goes back to help them. This path is much more ominous than the fully-lit dancing square, and those who have decided not to attend the revelry are already home. There is an eerie lack of floating lanterns here, and it is a longer way to the lagoon than I remember. No one else is out here.