Chapter 6 - Castle Under the Black Curse

Castle Under the Black Curse


As the hours crawled by, the night began to smother the daylight and cut the sun to make it bleed as it brought the black cloud further over the horizon. The cloud appeared to be a hand reaching over all the plains and shattering the pure clouds of snow into nothing. The birds flew in one flock fleeing from the dark cloud looming overhead. As it drew closer, the more lifeless things became. This was not merely a storm cloud, as Link had first thought.

As the worry in Link’s heart began to grow, he quickly stood up from his bed and faced the door to the hall. When he reached for the handle, a cold numbness shot through his fingers and raced through his arm. Link shivered as he touched the cold handle and began to push it slowly open. As he did, his breath turned to a white mist and his teeth began to clatter. The wider he opened the door, the more distorted things became. When he opened the door, Link stumbled out of his room from noxiousness and tried to balance himself on the door frame. However, he quickly lifted his hand with a gasp and found a slimy substance streaming from the door frame to his hand.

When he looked around, he found that the hallways that were once beautifully decorated with elaborate ornaments and decorations were now twisted and grotesque. Shadows loomed everywhere from the dark of the night, clouding the image of blood running down the walls. When Link stepped out, he nearly slipped from the blood on the floor and he covered his nose to shield it from the disgusting aroma in the air. The hallways seemed to move, swaying back and forth with its distorted walls and floors. Link narrowed his eyes and looked farther down the hallway into the darkness. The shadows were still… but something had emerged for a second but retreated back into the shadows. Link fell back in shock when seeing the figure. He knew that it was most certainly not Zelda, but some sort of monster or demon. In that brief moment, he saw that it was in a sick and twisted form, limping and letting out gurgling sounds. He dashed back into his room to retrieve his bow and quiver before proceeding.

Normally, Link would have just remained in his room to wait for this strange phenomenon to pass, but on the back of his mind, the thought of Zelda kept coming. He knew that he did not want her to get hurt, even though it seemed that she was well capable of taking care of herself, but that alone wasn’t enough to calm his mind. Now was a time she was most in danger.

Link pursued the figure’s path through the unwelcoming hallways. In the darkness, he could hear it breathing its crude breaths, but as each second went by, its volume became less and less until a door suddenly slammed; it was suddenly nothing. Link stood still for a moment and knocked an arrow before cautiously proceeding in the dark while reaching his hand out to feel. When his fingers lightly touched the wood of the door, he slid his hand down to the handle. Link pushed it open to find more darkness before him and took a step forward. When he was clear into the next hallway, the door behind him let out a squeak followed by a slam with a dooming echo. Link bolted his body back around and looked at the door with wide eyes. However, he couldn’t see anything at all because it was far too dark. With his body stiff, Link looked around himself, feeling ill down to his stomach. His head became light and his limbs began to feel numb. Panic twisted his mind to the point where his consciousness was almost nothing until a withered thing touched his shoulder. With a shriek, Link turned and pulled his arrow back when he saw the face of a sickly thing staring at him.

This thing was as tall as him, but deformed, decrepit, and hideous. Its skin was dry and wrinkled as an old man’s but tough and hard. Its body was bony and frail, skin sagging where bone and muscle was absent. But Link still did not release his arrow, for he saw distinctly in this thing’s black eyes was humanity. He still held his bow high, and prepared to strike at any time, but in the back of his mind he did not want to shoot this thing. Then, the withered creature spoke with a hoarse and timid voice.

“You haven’t been taken.” It said, “You still dwell in the day.”

“What are you?!” Link gasped.

“You haven’t been taken.” It repeated, “You still dwell in the day.”

Link lowered his bow and stepped backward, noticing that this creature still stared at him without blinking or moving its eyes at all. When he drew farther away, he noticed that the creature did not come after him or do anything else. Though no harm was done to him, Link’s stomach turned in fright, and he turned to run as the hairs on the back of his neck shot up and the skin on his forehead tightened. Every moment, something seemed to chase him and every moment, the walls seemed to breathe on him and smother him with freezing air.

When he had at last made it to the grand hall, he ran down the stairs that climbed to the west part of the castle and stopped for a moment at the bottom of the stairs to catch his breath. When he looked up from the floor, there he saw Zelda staring blankly out toward the two large double doors that led to the outside world. Her arms, legs, head… everything was still, she did not move one muscle despite the horrors happening around her. Link stumbled toward her and caught himself when he was about to fall by clinging to her shoulder.

“Zelda…!” He gasped, “What is the meaning of all this?!”

Zelda briefly glanced at him, but then turned her head to where she was staring. Link looked in the same direction as well, and saw a dark, glowing orb float in front of them. Zelda sneered as her eyes seemed to flicker like fire.

“An unwelcome guest, I see…”

As she said that, a different sky spread from that orb of darkness and engulfed them, seemingly bringing them to a different world. They floated up in a sky surrounded by thick, black clouds swirling around them. Tiny lights shot up from below and dimmed as they reached the level to where the orb of darkness lay. Zelda spread her wings at that moment, to keep herself afloat while Link had almost fallen if he had not clung to Zelda’s waist. However, his main concern soon turned to the orb, as it emanated a familiar energy. He stared as his heart and stomach turned with distress. When sparks had started to fly from the orb, Link’s memories shot through his mind.

“Winged Darkness!” He cried, almost hearing the whisper echo through his mind, “Zelda! Don’t look at it! It’ll ensnare your heart and mind!”

As if she had not heard his words, Zelda continued to stare, and as she did the fire in her eyes seemed to grow larger and larger until they became a shade of red. Her nails grew into claws and when she smiled, her teeth grew into fangs. She bore her fangs at the orb of darkness before her and began to try to fly to it. However Link tried to pull her down toward him.

“Zelda!” He shouted, “Zelda, no!”

Zelda reached down and dug her claws into Link’s arm. Blood shot to the surface and streamed down his clothes like tears running down cheeks. Link winced in pain, but still held on to Zelda. With his unscathed arm, he once again reached for her and cried her name, more desperate than ever. He grabbed the back of her head and pulled her down and in, averting her gaze of the black orb. They then fell together, wind rushing up as they were pushed down. Link tightly clung to Zelda, in an attempt to keep her from falling away from him.

But suddenly the wind, the falling came to an abrupt stop and they were back in the dark, twisted grand hall. Link’s back fell to the ground first and Zelda fell on top of him, being cushioned. She lifted herself as her eyes and fangs returned to normal. She then looked at the unconscious Link’s arm and found that her claws ran deep into it. She quickly pulled them out and soon after her hands had returned to normal, but was now stained with scarlet blood. Zelda looked and saw that the orb of darkness had disappeared, but then looked at Link. She blankly looked upon his angelic, pale face, gently resting, but also strained from the events just moments before. Gently, she placed her hand under his neck and lifted him over her shoulder with ease. Carrying him, she disappeared into the darkness of the hallways…

‘~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~’~‘

Link’s eyes drifted open and slowly his consciousness swept over him in a wave of pain. He reached his left arm over to his right and clutched onto it, feeling that it was bandaged. He shot his eyes from half-open to wide and quickly sat up and looked at his arm to find it neatly wrapped in fine cloth. Link’s attention was captured when a black shadow drifted in front of him. Link darted his head from place to place and found that he was once again in the library, but the darkness of the castle that had come at the sun’s blood had not been lifted. Zelda sat on the small table staring blankly at nothing.

“We escaped from the orb of darkness…” Link recalled, “But why has the darkness not been lifted? What have we not done?”

Zelda paused for a moment as she wrapped her arms around her elbows and spoke without any emotion; not sadness, anger- nothing, “This is my punishment… my price… for consuming a demon.” Zelda began as she turned toward Link, staring at him with her ghastly blue eyes, “By night, when I’m here, I’m surrounded by darkness and the horror of lost and consumed souls. By day I am the vessel of true power.”

“Zelda…” Link gently whispered as he softened his eyes as he looked at Zelda.

She looked away from him with a hard and cold face, resting her hand on her knee and sitting alone. Link began to wonder at her image, her loneliness, and the absence of her tears. Her heart seemed frozen, her face standing still in the unwavering time, and her limp hand hanging off her knee like a hung man. Link felt inclined to go to her, but the other side of his conscience held his ground, and he remained still. An empty distance remained between them accompanied by the uncomfortable silence. Zelda moved her lips and broke the silence with her deep voice,

“However, that orb of darkness was not of my price, but of Winged Darkness. Ever since the star has been unsealed, many of those have been wandering the world, being portals to the world of Winged Darkness.”

She straightened her legs and jumped down from the table and paced around the room, stroking her hand along the books until she at last came close to Link. Zelda lifted her hands and placed them at her side when she stood face-to-face with Link.

“You hold the Star of Winged Darkness.” Zelda began, “That is why you were banished from your village were you not?”

“How’d-”

“I know these things… I believe it would be the best in both our interests if you told me the whole story.”

Link gave a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, once again playing back the memories in his mind. Clenching his fists, he began to speak, “It began in my farming village… where I have been spoken of in awkward conversations and discussed in suspicious talk. I was found as an eight year-old boy with no previous memories and this mark on my left hand. Luckily, I was taken in to live with the woman I called my mother, who eventually died, my sister, and my grandmother.

“I had begun to live a life like a normal person until one day; I ventured into the forbidden part of the woods without knowing, and came across a stone of a peculiar aura. It spoke to me… saying ‘Winged Darkness’, and burrowed itself into my body. Shortly afterward, a monster with a sickly countenance appeared in our village and began to rampage and cause destruction. One of my dear friends died trying to get rid of it… I couldn’t stop him. The mayor and the village council blamed me because of my mark, and I was banished from the village, leaving my grandmother and sister behind. Eventually I found myself here.”

One word fell after the other until a pile of them drifted to Zelda’s ear. The words slipped out of Link’s mouth so easily. Zelda had stood up from the table she had seated herself on during the discussion and approached Link.

“So at last the Star of Winged Darkness is released in this world.”

Hearing those two words constantly kept stirring curiosity in Link’s mind. The ignorance in him became too overpowering to bear, and he spoke, seeking to dispel it.

“What is this Winged Darkness?”

“I’m not quite sure myself, but it is an intelligence, no doubt. And it seeks to exist in this world.” Zelda began, “In an attempt to gain a human heart, it sends its servants to consume the living and their conscience. Its minions, much like the one you encountered at your village, are much like the orbs of darkness; only their eyes give the essence of her world of emptiness.

That stone you carry, the Star of Winged Darkness, is its last resort to gain a body of flesh and bone, a human heart… a spirit…”

Link clutched onto his chest, “So you’re saying that it is trying to devour me?”

“In a sense,” Zelda said turning toward the small desk, opening a drawer, and taking out an old, brown map, “which is why we need to bring it out of your body.” She pointed to a specific spot on the map, “Here, in the Forest of Twilight in the far east… I hear such miracles are possible in the Pool of Purification.”

“I have never heard of such things.” Link said, “It must be-”

“I would suspect that deprived folk such as you would have never heard of the Forest of Twilight, or of the things that lead us there.” Zelda glanced at Link’s bow and then to his face, “Come this way.”

Zelda turned her head, her hair twisting behind her as a shadow crossed her path and encircled her and disappeared into a green flame that disappeared with a moan. Link hesitantly followed her out of the library and was led down the dark, empty halls. The silence between them continued and dragged on as time’s face stared at them. What had happened to the Zelda during the day? Being with this Zelda was like staring at her from across a chasm and not being able to reach her or touch her. Link couldn’t lift his voice, for it seemed that the sound of it would be smothered by her intensive aura.

Zelda had taken a torch lit with blue fire and turned back to see Link catching up to her, the blue fire reflecting in the sea that was her eyes. Facing the wall of darkness before her, Link saw her step forward into it and saw her seemingly sink into the abyss. He followed, plunging into the emptiness himself. It seemed as if an eternity had passed as they traveled down the cold, stone steps and finding themselves to face more of the never ending time. However, time had stopped when Zelda’s feet had reached level ground. She stepped further into the room held up by brick pillars and went behind a stone altar. She looked at Link, who had just come upon the level ground and now remained staring at her. She eyed him, then the altar. Reading her intentions, Link stepped in front of the altar and stood face to face.

Zelda’s hand holding to torch glowed for a moment, and then let the flame go, but instead of dropping it still remained in the air, shedding its light brightly as streaks of shadows passed it in the air. The young maiden touched her hands together and slowly spread them apart, forming an orb of light in between them. She then positioned them as if she cupped something in her hand, and the light was pushed over the center of the altar. Her eyes were closed as it grew brighter and brighter.

“I need some of your essence…” Zelda whispered, “Don’t worry… this won’t kill you.”

Something that seemed to be a little bit of mist came from Link’s mouth as he stretched his head back. Zelda guided it with her hand as it formulated into another orb of light and led it above the center of the altar. She then brought her hands farther and farther apart, extending the light to a greater length. What seemed to be glowing fireflies came and danced around this coming shape and gained speed. Link watched in amazement as he saw the look on Zelda’s face become more and more focused. He then recognized the shape to be of a sword, and when Zelda had opened her eyes, its image became vivid. She brought her hands down as the sword drifted toward Link. The sword gleamed with a radiant light from its fine steel, and the gems embedded in its hilt glimmered brilliantly. It was flawless.

“This sword was created from both our essences.” Zelda exclaimed, “Though it’s nothing much… it’ll do for now. You can’t just survive on your bow.”

Link placed his hands on the handle of the sword, stopping the light from gleaming as Zelda took hold of the torch. She moved beside him and glanced at him for but a moment, then turned toward the dark emptiness leading upward once more.

“We leave in the morning.”

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