So Xu’s keen eyes had spotted the animal-like visage far in the distance, standing perched within the tree, perhaps thinkably out of sight in his mine. Xu's eyes had been trained, not just by skill but by magic. Whenever she held the bow, her eyes had felt the magic of her fingertips, throbbed with the passion of magic. It was as if she could see things no others could ever see. She had become so used to that feeling, holding the bow in her arms was no longer necessary.
And the end result was that she had seen him, watching, his eyes scanning the very scene unfolding about her, merely from the perspective and mind of another. Normally, to see such a sight, from one of her heritage and background, it would have been unprecedented and impossible, unable to ever be achieved. She had been then just shy of a noble, residing upon Lon Lon Ranch in the prime spotlight of Hyrulian society. She had been one of the most gawked at femmes in the country, and she had almost fallen prey to many of the men’s wily desires and attempted seductions. But they never felt like the right one for her, and somehow she had held out despite them and their desire to persuade her father, and magically one day her childhood friend had returned to her lap suddenly, herself completely taken off guard. It was the beginning of a long chain of memories.
But he hadn't come home that day alone, it had seemed. He had followed a girl with blue hair into the ranch; that was the moment Phalon had first seen her. How it interconnected, him and her, had boggled her mind, but he did have an explanation. Somehow it had made sense in the end. There had been a disturbing battle, something Phalon hadn’t expected to see in her own home. Such emotion had stormed through the ranch as never before felt, even within her own now-tortured mind, that all the chickens retreated to their nests in the coop, the horses galloping into the fields from the stables. It was never to be resolved at that moment, for the one she had just spied came and--whether it was a rescue or a distraction, she would never know--took the girl away.
Such bittersweet memories.
The first rekindled moments of the friendship of her and her husband, if indeed he could be called that, faded quite suddenly as a slap of water had hit her back unexpectingly. Her limbs pushed her body inches forward, her eyes forgetting the scene moments prior. Mind distracted and unfurled into chaos, it took the lyremage a few seconds to notice that she was suddenly wet, nearly drenched from head to toe. Her entire backside, and even part of the front of her blouse was given the gift of the annointment of water.
"How in the...?"
Xu would be unable to forgive herself for losing herself in daydream because of the next few moments. Having lost track of both the being far off in the distance as well as her quarry for the evening, a strict disobeyment of her own laws as an archer-hunter (and even common sense!), Xu failed to see the tackle Meredia had coming to her. The blue-haired one was soon atop her, striking and hitting her, leaving small sheets of ice embedded into her silky flesh, a chill seeking her very bones as if to crack them under its frigid temperature.
Meredia then backed away, seemingly nonchalantly, but despite her pain Xu could spy a stiffness to her that implied a sense of need, a sense of danger, of urgency. That coupling with the girl’s metallic eyes and tense body generated suspicion by the wagonload.
“Leave...”
“Now.”
Her head and shoulder throbbed in pain from the ice eating away at the flesh, preventing the flexibility of her skin from stretching it properly. It felt as if the icemage before her were seeking to twist the ice with her very hands, contorting her skin into even more painful configurations. This wouldn't do at all...
The lyremage took her lyre, an unconscious and unplanned frown appearing on her face, and holding it up as far as her shoulder would allow, her fingers touched the bottommost strands of wire in a run of eight notes, its pace just behind the heels of a bolero. Her arm ached terribly as she played, the small reverberations of the lyre carrying over to her lyrearm to where some of the ice daggers had been placed. As her song warmed with emotion, its essence permeating the air, so too did the forest about Meredia and Xu. Xu's entire body filled with the warmth of spirit, the intensity of fire, the heat of passion, and a translucent red flame engulfed Xu's body as she played, heating her, warming her, keeping her in its grace. As she stood within its flickering reach, the ice upon the surfaces of her body melted and evaporated into steam. Tension upon her skin had been relieved, and her body had been restored.
But as she slitted her eyes open, she knew there was still more to worry about. “Crystanthia...” she whispered. There was a slight tone of irritation in her voice, but otherwise neutral.
Once the last of the ice had disappeared into the confines of the air, Xu began adding accidentals into her song, switching over into a diminished key, the most treacherous of all scales or so it seemed to the musician. The switch alone was enough to make the sky rumble in fright, the rainclouds scattering to destinations unknown, seeking other populations to which to charity their gifts.
The animal was no longer in sight; indeed, she was disoriented enough that her sense of bearing was impossible without her star charts. She knew them well enough, but these longitudes never before travelled.
The song pierced the thick air, augmenting it with the darkness of the wicked key. The world began to disappear, fading to black slowly as one by one the stars in the sky were distinguished, the leaves being consumed by magic. Soon only a local perimeter of visibility remained, a hemisphere perhaps fifteen metres in diameter splicing the ground in a perfect circle. The one she had formerly spied was forgotten, for now there was a greater need, a greater attention spotted within her ring of shadow.
“All that concerns me at this moment remains visible to you and I, Crystanthia,” Xu said scoldingly, albeit directly. “Your presumptions are incorrect. I wish not to fight you; I wish only to find you. You are the only link to him that I know of any depth.”
If this is what it takes... The child of Destiny analysed the child of the water critically, her eyes examining her features, noting so many things at once. None of this she had seen before now, yet it was at the same time so intimately familiar to her, as if she had known all of this a priori, as if her body had once been hers and had fragmented from her spirit.
...to earn your respect... She played the last note of her song.
“You, however, are leaving me little choice.”
Spinning around, she curled her lyre into her arm, and a full circle later she let it loose of it as if it were a frisbee, tossing it with all her might. It flew with all due speed towards the watermage, towards Crystanthia, but before it reached her torso, it took a dip towards the earth, as if guided by some unseen law of physics or nature, dropping like bricks into the soft soil, embedding itself there sharply.
Then there was light. Blinding light.
...then so be it. As the light faded to reveal the illusionary sphere of midnight once more, Xu could not be seen. Crystanthia’s eyes unblurred quickly, more quickly than was expected, but not quick enough. An arm was flung about Crystanthia’s neck, and a dart with some liquid residing upon its tip was just millimetres away.
But it was not Xu.
She was Aekorra the Sheikah.
“You have one more chance. We talk now, or we fight until we are tired.”
Bringing the light into the darkness.
Bringing the darkness into the light.
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