Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda: The Ballad of Fallen Angels ❯ Gathering Information ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 5: “Gathering Information”

There was much to be done before the day ended. Saetoushei and Tael stepped out from the awning and stepped into the bustling crowds. People of all different races mingled and hurried around them, some heading towards the various shops and stands set up throughout the square, some heading towards different sections of the town.

Saetoushei walked quickly to the archway leading into West Clock Town: the merchant district. He glanced around him, old memories coming back in a rush. The old shops still stood; the Curiosity Shop where Mr. Johans sold rare and exotic items gotten through almost-illegal ways, the Trading Post General Store, the Bomb Shop. Further up the district were the Swordsmen's Academy, which Saetoushei himself had graduated from during his original stay in Termina. The Post Office and the Lottery Store-

-There! The giant metal safe with the odd-looking young man kneeling on a rug in front of it: the Clock Town Bank. Saetoushei hurried up to the Terminian, grinning at his old companion.

“Gabriel, are you still running this thing?”

The young man started. He had apparently been trying to nap for quite a while. His hazel eyes were puffed with lack of sleep and his tunic was frayed along the edges. He hadn't shaved in a couple of days.

“Wha…-? Sorry, what can I do for you, good sir?”

“Oh knock off that `good sir' with me, mate. I'd like to make a withdrawal.”

Gabriel nodded slowly, his eyes shifting to the rolls of parchment piled in a heap next to him. Saetoushei noticed it was considerably less than when he was last here.

“Alright, mate, name and how much you want please?”

“Link, and I'd like to buy you some ale later, friend.”

Gabriel spun to look at him. “In the name of the Queen Fairy…Link? Link, is it you?”

The ragged young man flung his arms around Saetoushei and hugged him tight. “Link, me old shipmate! It is you! Where have you been for the last seven years?”

Saetoushei embraced his old friend back. “I've been traveling, seeing the world. You, same question.”

Gabriel released his friend and leaned back on his knees. “Same old, same old. I'm still here runnin' the bank, though I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stay in business. You're one of my last customers. No one uses a bank nowadays, they horde their Rupees for themselves. Sakon's been having the time of his life.”

Saetoushei frowned. Sakon was a notorious thief who live in his heavily guarded hideout in the lower valley below Ikama Kingdom. He had caused Saetoushei quite a bit of trouble the last time he was here.

“I was kinda hoping he wasn't still in business. I'll see to him later. Listen, not to be rude, but I've got lots to do. Can I get a grand score of Rupees? And do you know if the Inn's full yet?”

“I don't think so yet,” Gabriel commented, counting Saetoushei's money out as he spoke. “You'd better hurry; if it isn't yet it soon will be. I close shop in two hour's time. Want me to meet you in the pub?”

“Pub?”

“Oh yeah, you've been gone. The inn's more a hotel now. Has a homely little restaurant on the lower floor and everything. I'll be there.”

Saetoushei pocketed his money. “Two hours then. That should give me plenty of time to get settled. I'm go there now and get a room.”

Saetoushei started walking up towards the higher levels of the alley. Waving back, he called, “Remember, Gabriel, Who Dares, Wins!”

Gabriel laughed, waving back. “Who Dares Wins, Link!”

Gabriel had not been joking. The Stock Pot Inn was at least three times it's original size. The original building appeared to have simply been built upon; five full floors had turned the pleasant little hideaway into a full-fledged hotel. Saetoushei wasn't sure if he and Tael were in the right place when he first walked inside. That is, until he caught sight of the receptionist.

She was naturally older than the last time he saw her, but still had the plain beauty about her. Her crimson hair had grown to her shoulders and her manner was crisper, more confident, but even with these differences, Saetoushei recognized her at once. He walked to the main counter and politely rang the small bell that was there. She came over to him, smiling sweetly.

“Good evening, and welcome to the Grand Pot Hotel. Do you have a reservation?”

Saetoushei was about to respond when something, he couldn't say what, made him stop.

“Um, eh, yes. I do have a reservation. Under `Link'?”

Her eyes widened for a moment as she quickly rifled through the reservation book. “Oh my…yes…yes, you're right here. Link?”

Saetoushei smiled. “Hello Anju. How's life been?”

An hour and a half later, Saetoushei was sitting at a corner table drinking a flagon of dark Terminian red wine, commonly called, `Blood of Termina' wine for it's color and thickness. Tael sat on the table beside him, half-submerged in a bowl of Chateau Romani milk. Saetoushei sat thinking hard. Many things were bothering him, not the least of which was the fact that he was sure that he knew the young man waiting on him, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember who he was.

All the good cheer that had filled him earlier had vanished. Gabriel was late; Gabriel was never late, or at least he never had been. Anju had brightened him up somewhat: her life was wonderful. She had married Kafei as planned, and everything was going fine; married life was wonderful, business was better than it had ever been. There were two drawbacks, but they were big ones. Gretchen, Anju's old grandmother and the best storyteller Saetoushei had ever had the pleasure of listening to, had passed on a couple of years before. But the real kicker was that, for one reason or another, Anju was physically unable to have children.

This was the worst thing that could have happened to Anju. If there was one thing Anju loved more than Kafei and the old family inn, it was children and motherhood. Saetoushei had always suspected that was the biggest reason that Anju had taken to him so well when he arrived in Termina the first time, when he was ten. Anju had recovered emotionally, but Saetoushei thought that some scars would be there forever.

The main door opened and closed. Saetoushei glanced up to see Gabriel chatting excitedly to a tall, muscular, blue-haired man. Saetoushei stared at the young man with Gabriel, trying to think of where he knew him from.

It clicked.

“Gabriel! Kafei!” Saetoushei called over the drone of the pub, raising his hand to them. The duo picked their way through the crowed restaurant to join him in the shadowed corner. Tael was startled to note the patches of still-drying blood seeping through Gabriel's tunic.

“Now what happened?” Saetoushei snapped. Gabriel shrugged, wiping his dagger's blade clean on one of the napkins.

Kafei groaned. “Anju will kill you when she sees what you've done to her napkins.”

“No she won't,” Gabriel replied. “I'm you're best customer.”

Saetoushei interjected, “Fine, may we proceed?” He gestured for the waiter to come over. “Another pitcher of wine.”

The waiter bowed.

Gabriel shook his head, glancing at Kafei. “I thought we agreed he was supposed to talk once in a while.”

Kafei raised and lowered his left shoulder. “You try making `em talk, `tis like trying to make a cow recite Shakespeare.”

Gabriel nodded to Saetoushei and Tael. “Don't recognize the lad, Link? Ain't your fault, he looks totally different from the last time you was here. It's T.K..”

Saetoushei spun his head to look at the waiter, who had started at the sound of Saetoushei's former name.

Takeru Saotome, called “T.K.” by his friends, was the younger brother of Saetoushei's friend Ryojen, the leader of their old childhood gang, the Brotherhood of Bombers. T.K. was the youngest and thus was left to guard the entrance to the old hideout.

Now, the little boy was a defeated young man. He was tall and skinny, too skinny. His once short, shiny blond hair had dimmed and grown raggedly past his shoulders. Much of his face was hidden behind the unkempt strands, but the one blue eye Saetoushei could see, once bright and hopeful, was now dark and sunken.

Kafei gestured to T.K., “Get yourself a drink and take a break, sit with us.”

T.K. slowly lowered himself into the seat next to Saetoushei, refusing anything to drink.

Gabriel leaned forward towards Saetoushei. “You seem preoccupied and antagonized today, me ole matey. Tell us, what's on your mind, Link?”

Tael spoke up. “I brought him back. Back to free us from Descrod.”

Kafei turned quickly to check that no one had heard the fairy. T.K.'s fists closed tightly. Gabriel shushed Tael. “Doyour's made it abundantly clear that nothing is to be said about Ikaylimu Descrod. He might have supporters listening anywhere. Fairies aren't exactly the hardest things to kill in the world, you know!”

“Enough!” Saetoushei snarled in a loud whisper. “Enough. First things first, stop calling me `Link'. My name is `Saetoushei' now, get used to it.”

Ignoring Gabriel's startled gasp, Saetoushei continued. “I don't know what's really happening out there, I just arrived today. Listen to me, the Skull Kid is dead, and Tatl is missing. I don't know where she is, but that's not the point right now. Skull Kid died bringing me Tael, the tools necessary to return to Termina, and a message. Tell me now, does the mask still live?”

Kafei said, “This isn't really the time or place for this conversation, Li-, sorry, Saetoushei. Come back later-“

“Storeroom.”

Every head at the table turned at the sound of the raspy, whispered voice. It belonged to T.K..

“The back storeroom; no one but hotel employees use it for anything. It will be safe.”

The storeroom was a good-sized room behind the kitchen. The group filed inside and Kafei locked the door behind them. Little light entered the room, the only illumination coming from a small lantern on the far wall.

“'Been telling Anju we need more lighting back here.” Kafei muttered.

Saetoushei leaned up against a rack of canned goods on a shelf. Gabriel started in.

“In a nutshell, after you bested the ghost of Igus de Ikama, the Kingdom of Ikama, Stone Tower, and Ikama Canyon were uninhabited by any civilized creature, save maybe Sakon but I don't think we're counting him. The fiends and creatures ruled the kingdom. That was until Augustine Descrod arrived. No one knows where he came from, but it was obviously from over the mountains. That's the only way to the canyon besides the ravine. Anyway, he shows up one day with an enormous army; all humans, as far as we can tell, and takes command of Ikama. Nothing really wrong with that, since no one wanted to claim the land of the dead as their own anyway. But then he comes and tries to take over Clock Town. He didn't get that far; Doyour's forces stopped and defeated him at the entrance to the ravine. `Twas a long and bloody fight, much death. Descrod drew up an armistice with the Mayor. He kept the entirety of Ikama and agreed never again to wage war with any people of Termina, unless provoked, naturally.”

“And that's that, in a nutshell.” Kafei grinned.

Saetoushei nodded over to T.K. “And him?”

Gabriel's usual smirk faded from his face. “The Bombers fought at the Battle of the Ravine. T.K.'s the only one that's left.”

“They turned on us.” T.K. whispered, startling everyone in the room. “All six of us went in together, just like always. The two of them, Jasper and Godrick, they turned on us. Godrick killed Randel, he killed Nicolas. Jasper murdered my brother in front of me. But they couldn't kill me. I slew Godrick myself; Jasper had to hit me from behind to take me down. He's still in there, in Ikama. And one day I will avenge my brother…and myself.”

Saetoushei gasped as Takeru pulled the hair from his face. The majority of the right side was ripped to shreds; scars and dead tissue covered it. The socket of his right eye was stitched shut, obviously empty. T.K. let his hair fall back into place.

“Commander Takeru Koushiro Saotome, retired, age sixteen.” Gabriel whispered into the silence. “The Ravine earned him the Iron Cross, First Class. Damn proud of him about that, we are.”