The Four Mirrors
Sequel to ‘Legacies’
By MMM/AJ
Part I – Brotherhood
Chapter V – V2
Tossing and turning, twisting and aching. Venius couldn’t get any sleep no matter what he tried. His body was sore, his stomach raw with pain, and his mind danced with the visions that had plagued him in Hyrule. He was torn between a fear of his nightmares and a primal need to rest, and in between those two poles was a state of agonizing inability that paralyzed him where he lay in the normally welcoming soft sheets of his bed. It was in this manner that Venius whiled away half of his night, too tired to do anything.
Sometime around 2 AM, something finally clicked inside head, and he finally gained the resolve to get up out of bed and do something. The moon glow that poured through the window into his room provided adequate light to guide him by, but it also cast eerie shadows over everything in his room. It almost made him eager for the darker rooms of the house where he was about to go. He opened his door ever so slightly to check and make sure nobody was about, and then crept into the hallway.
Venius’ room used to be on the ground floor when he was a child, but when he had reached his teen years, Venius had asked to move up to the second floor and have a room near Shakara and the sisters. It was an odd quirk of his, he liked sleeping farther away from the ground for some reason.
Creeping past Shakara’s door and down the hallway, Venius thought he sensed a little twinge of energy from Melicia’s room, but he ignored it and began creeping down the stairs. If she was awake, then he didn’t want to attract her attention, and if she was still asleep, all the better. He avoided the three squeaky steps near the bottom of the staircase and entered the ground floor still undetected. The doorway to the basement was at the end of the hall, past his brothers’ and father’s rooms. He crept pas them and felt another flicker from Cygnus’ room, but again he ignored and proceeded onward, he was almost there now and so far had made it without being heard.
The stairwell down into the basement was filled with impenetrable inky blackness, and Venius had to probe ahead of himself with his feet to make sure he didn’t stumble or miss a step. He reached the bottom safely, but now had to grope around the darkness to find the doorway into the secure store room without hitting the lights. He didn’t want light shining underneath the crack of the basement door, which might catch the eye of someone getting up to use the restroom. In this situation Venius found it quite frustrating that the access panel to the store room didn’t emit any sort of light. When he finally found it after feeling along the walls, he placed his paw in the scanner and breathed on the sensor, triggering the door to slide open with a succinct and sharp hiss. He made sure it was completely closed behind him before turning on the store room lights.
The lights stabbed at his unaccustomed eyes like little swords, and he stood there blinking dumbly for a few moments before setting his mind straight and walking across the room toward a display case on the far wall. Inside that little steel and plexiglass case was an innocent looking little metallic disc, a disc which Venius had stupidly touched the night before. This little disc, he theorized, was what had caused him to see all those visions during his trip to Hyrule. Since his brother had touched a similar one in the Spirit Temple, and had regained his aura sight ability, it was a reasonable assumption that they contained some power of sight within them, and Venius hoped he could figure out how to make this sight go away. He didn’t really know how he was going to do it, but he knew that he had to try or he wouldn’t sleep at all that night.
Venius popped the latch of the case open and lifted the lid gingerly, still instinctively being as quiet as possible despite the fact that the room he was in was well insulated against sound. He reached for the Medallion and hesitated, worrying about what might happen. He took a deep breath and scooped it up in his hand in one smooth motion, cringing from expectation. No bright flash of energy filled his senses this time, in fact nothing happened at all. He stood there dumbstruck, wondering what to do next.
A few moments later, something did happen, but it wasn’t what he had expected. His vision fuzzed out, slowly replaced by a swirling mix of visions in his mind. At first, they moved too fast for him to discern what they contained, but eventually they slowed down and resolved into a series of images of different people. Venius saw Kalana and Ruru, several nameless Gerudos he could not recognize, his grandfather, a stately Hylian woman wearing the Royal Tiara, his father, Aunt Shakara, and then himself holding the Medallion. The vision concluded in a split second and Venius dropped the Medallion reflexively.
Venius didn’t know what to make of what he had seen; it didn’t seem to make any sense. He hadn’t seen any visions like that the last time he had touched the Medallion, but then again, he hadn’t held it in his hands like that last time either. Maybe the prolonged contact had allowed it to make a more meaningful connection to his mind? He realized that if that theory was correct, he might be able to ask it to take away the spirit-sight. He picked it back up and closed his eyes, concentrating on sending his message to it. He could feel it starting to get warm in his paws, and wondered hopefully if his idea had worked.
Suddenly Venius’ senses detected that someone was awake upstairs, and he frantically sat the Medallion into its case, closed it up, and stumbled across the room to turn off the light. He sat in the Darkness for a short while, trying to sense whether anyone was coming down the stairs. He felt that there were two people awake upstairs, and that they were leaving the house. When they were far enough away, he slowly opened the door and crept up the stairs, deciding to investigate. He couldn’t think of any reason why any of the members of his family would sneak out and leave the house like this at night, so he made up his mind to follow them and find out. He kept a fair distance behind them as they left the grounds and made their way towards the bike-path in the forest, and he moved slowly and cautiously, without using any of his powers, to ensure that he wouldn’t be detected. He still couldn’t tell who it was who he was following, and he became increasingly worried as they trekked along the bike path now in the open. They could run into humans out here, and father would be very unhappy if there was some kind of fight. Venius still had a lingering hatred for this little patch of road too. Walking along it was an exercise in steeling his nerves, as an old rooted phobia of his urged him to find cover.
After they had gone significantly deep into the forest, Venius’ quarry suddenly kicked off of the ground and flew off in psychic flight. They left no visible energy trail, but Venius could still easily track them with his mind like a bloodhound on a scent. He waited until they were several miles away before taking flight in pursuit as well, he didn’t want them sensing his flight so he needed to keep an even greater distance, as well as actively masking his own psychic signature. The darkened woods soared past underneath him peacefully, and the stars twinkled silently above. He would have stopped to admire the beauty of the night if he hadn’t been too busy concentrating on tracking.
10 or 15 minutes later, they flew over a fairly large lake. There wasn’t enough moonlight to make any significant glimmerings on the waters, so they laid dark and still like a pane of black stained glass. In the middle of the lake was a small island, and on it the remnants of what appeared to be an abandoned human settlement. Venius could barely make out rusty, run-down shacks through the darkness as he approached, and his quarry had gone into the town. He felt a lump form in his throat when he considered the prospect of going down into the ghost town, and he felt himself begin to sweat. He hated being near human domains when they were clean and well lit, so a deathtrap like this one was setting his instincts on fire with unease. He knew he would have some strong words for whichever of his family members had decided to come out here at night. He slowly set down on the grassy ground just outside the town and continued the pursuit.
The town was just as creepy as Venius had predicted. There were humble little ranch houses that had collapsed roofs, chipped paint, and broken windows. In several places there were piles of rubble where buildings had completely collapsed, and the jutting, rotten timbers looked like rib cages of some long dead corpse. He passed a water dock where a few ancient wooden boats were sitting silently on the water’s glassy surface. The piers that jutted out into the water were full of holes and were covered with moss and algae. Venius saw his targets stop and sit on the shore near the docks. He heard them talking and crept closer, trying to make out what they were saying. He still couldn’t make anything out after getting much closer, but he could recognize the voices of his brother Cygnus and his cousin Melicia.
Venius sat and waited in his hiding spot while they talked. He saw Melicia produce so kind of plastic bag, and she began eating some kind of snack food out of it. She shared it with Cygnus and the two of them ate and talked together for almost 20 minutes. After the food was gone they laid on their backs and looked up at the stars for awhile, and Venius began to get bored watching them. He considered going home since he had ascertained their identity and the general purpose of the trip, but before he could get up, they sat up suddenly as if surprised by something. Melicia pointed somewhere, and Venius looked to where she was pointing. At the top of a nearby hill sat an old decrepit church, and in the windows of that church there were glimmering lights of candles. Melicia and Cygnus stood up and then disappeared behind their own personal cloaks, and Venius felt that they were walking towards the church.
Venius wanted to warn them to stay away from the church, but he was suddenly gripped by a sudden wave of fear. His instincts screamed that he needed to stay secret, stimulated by the possibility of getting in a fight with a group of humans. He only followed behind them quietly, watching as the doors to the church opened.
There were several moments of agonizing silence, and Venius felt like they had been in there for an eternity. Then, he heard a shout, a scream, and a crash, and he ran towards the church door as fast as he could. As he entered he saw a group of about 12 humans in the room, 2 of which were holding onto old, outdated laser rifles. Melicia was slumped over forward, her upper left shoulder carbonized jet black and crisp from an obvious hit from one of these rifles. They were old enough models to have enough charge to piece a body all the way through, but were obviously powerful enough to be deadly. Cygnus had bent over to try and heal her and the other human was aiming his rifle at him, about to fire.
The sight of this stirred a great and unquenchable rage in Venius, and his vision began to fill with a red glow. For the first time in his life, his rational mind was completely overwhelmed and he was swallowed up in the emotions of the moment. He charged an energy sword in each paw, leapt forward, and indulged the darker cravings of his subconscious. It was a sick pleasure for him to watch their bodies writhe and burn in agony under his sword, and he had slain nine of them before the yells of his brother stopped him.
“For the love of all things holy Venius, stop!” Cygnus boomed, and ran over to put himself between his brother and the last three humans, who were now cowering on the floor in terror.
In an instant Venius’ rational mind leapt back into control, and his swords flickered and faded away. His face was suddenly painted aghast, and he looked down at the three people he had been on the verge of murdering. They were two teenage boys and one teen girl, all three with brown hair and strange blue and green uniforms. One of the boys slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Venius, and after a moment, uncurled and sat up.
Venius turned back and looked back at the corpses he had just made, is blood now like icewater in his veins. Disbelief welled up in his mind, and he felt sick to his stomach. He turned to his brother and spoke in a faltering tone.
“Is Melicia alright?”
“I healed up the wound, but she’s still unconscious.” Cygnus said.
Venius turned back and looked at the human boy who had sat up. A vile grin was now painted upon his face.
“What happened to your strength? Can’t find it within yourself to finish us off?” he said.
Venius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This human had been cowering in fright a few moments before, and now was rebuking him!
“Well, I must thank you for it. Because if you let me and my companions live, then we’ll go back to the council and report your murders, and then we’ll finally be able to expel that meddlesome Shakara and dismantle her protectorate for your crimes! We may even be able to have the rest of your pitiful family locked away where you belong!”
Venius was shocked at first, but then his mind was filled with an icy steel resolve. He formed another sword and held it up to the belligerent human’s neck.
“No, wait! We don’t have to kill them! We can just erase their memory!” Cygnus protested.
“Oh, I’m afraid that won’t work. You see, we’re a pretty tight group, and you won’t be able to just explain away the loss of nine of our comrades with some silly memory reprogram. We’d know that something was wrong and eventually come to the conclusion that our memories had been altered. Not to mention that the others who didn’t come to this meeting will just as easily realize what happened here.”
Venius very gently brushed the blade of his sword against the boy’s neck, and he cringed and pulled back as it burned his skin.
“What does your group call itself?” Venius asked.
“The Psi-slayers.” The boy replied.
Cygnus grabbed Venius by the shoulders. “Come on brother, there’s got to be another way!”
Venius looked into his brother’s eyes and saw the fear behind them. But they also pleaded for him to not bloody his hands any more than they already had been. He felt torn inside, and still sick from the killings, but now could find no other way. He turned from his brother and beheaded the boy with a flick of his wrist. The other two humans, who had been crawling away to escape during the conversation, suddenly clutched their heads and fell on their sides screaming as Venius cooked their minds.
Cygnus let go of Venius’ shoulder and looked down at the ground in despair. He sighed heavily and walked over to help Melicia some more.
“Now what?” He asked, turning to give Venius a woeful stare. “How do we get out of this?”
“Listen. Father has no reason to suspect that we were the ones responsible for this.”
“Don’t you mean you were the one responsible?” Cygnus snapped.
“Oh right! If you hadn’t decided to come on this foolish jaunt with Mel then none of it would have happened! And you had to be stupid enough to go into the church too!” Venius yelled.
“Oh don’t blame your own violence on us! If you hadn’t rushed forward and butchered so many of them we could have erased their memory and left as if nothing had ever happened!” Cygnus bellowed.
Cygnus’ logic hit a nerve of truth, and Venius felt sick to his stomach again. He lowered his head in shame and stared down at the floor. After a few moments of pause he spoke again, “If we dispose of the bodies properly, we’ll never be found out.”
“Don’t you remember what that kid said? The others in his group will know what happened!” Cygnus replied angrily.
“But if they never find any evidence that a crime was committed here, then the authorities won’t be able to charge us or our family.” Venius said.
Cygnus sighed. “What must we do?”
“I’ll do it. I’m the one who made these corpses, I shall be the one to dispose of them.” Venius said, his voice now full of regret.
He lifted the dead ones with his mind, gathered them together into a pile, and began psychically burning them, making sure to do it in midair to keep from leaving telltale scorches on the ground. He burned them until there was nothing left but bones, and then shattered the bones into smaller and smaller bits until there was nothing left but dust. He then gathered the dust up into a ball, and teleported that ball to the bottom of the lake, where it would dissolve and disappear. There wasn’t a single trace of anyone or anything left now except for the candles, which still burned on through the night.
Chapter VI – C2
The next morning Cygnus slept in late, and when he finally woke it was only with great effort. He felt as if his eyelids weighed 10 pounds each, and the bed seemed to take on a gravitational field of its own. He wearily rubbed his eyes and clambered out from under the sheets, feeling as if he hadn’t slept at all. He was haunted by the events of the previous night, and wasn’t confident that he could maintain a façade of normality for his father. Since he had broken his antique clock yesterday morning he didn’t know how late it had gotten, so he dragged himself out the door and down the stairs at a snail’s pace. When he made it to the dining room, he found that his breakfast was still sitting there waiting for him, now cold and unappealing. There was nary a sign of anyone else there, and the house was oddly silent. A solitary note sat on the table next to the bowl of soggy cereal. Cygnus picked it up and read it.
Cygnus,
The family and I have gone to the Pokemon University for the day to visit Asha and Ashley. We won’t be back until dark. Dinner is in the fridge if you decide not to fly over and join us. Hope you feel better.
Love,
Dad.
There was a little cartoony doodle of Tanis underneath the signature. Cygnus tossed the note onto the table and collapsed into the chair. He poked at his food for a little while until he decided that he didn’t want to eat, and debated on whether to join the visit. He looked out the window and saw contrails of five human ships flying overhead in the azure sky. He watched them until they vanished over the horizon, and descended into his own ruminations.
Last night, Melicia had promised him that they wouldn’t run into any humans on that island. She told him that she had visited the place at least 4 times before and that it had always been deserted. It meant that those humans they encountered, the ‘Psi-slayers’ as they called themselves, must have just set up shop in that old church recently. He wondered who was leading their group, and why they would let a group of teenagers hang around abandoned churches in the ungodly AM hours. He also worried for Venius, who had seemed a completely changed person when they flew home last night. Even with Melicia’s comfort and support, he had this cold, stony exterior afterwards that scared Cygnus. Usually Melicia was the one that Venius confided in the most besides father or Shakara, so his coldness to her that night was extremely worrisome. But then again, the whole night had been worrisome at best, and he wondered if he himself had been changed a lot too. He felt this claw of nausea gripping his stomach, and he still felt exhausted enough to go back to bed, which was highly unusual for him. It was the second time that week that he had had difficulty getting up in the morning now, and the thought crossed his mind that something was wrong him. He decided that if his body was telling him he needed sleep, it was best to follow the advice, so he sluggishly climbed back up the stairs and went back to bed.
But despite his exhaustion, Cygnus could not get back to sleep. The light that endlessly poured through his window was blinding to him, and even when he closed his blinds and faced away, it cut through his eyelids and interrupted his rest. Eventually his stomach decided that being empty was not in fact a good thing, and hunger pangs drove him to get up and eat the mush in the cereal bowl downstairs. Though it had lost most of its taste and was lukewarm by then, he still ate it eagerly. He finally looked at a clock and saw that it was almost 3 PM. After doing a double take, he sat up briskly from the table and walked quickly out the door into the backyard.
Cygnus had never slept so late in his entire life, it was as if half of his entire day had been wasted. He was now heading out toward the greenhouses to get started on his chores. He opened the door to the first one and walked down the first row of plants, psychically pulling weeds and tossing them into the garbage as he went. Normally, he hardly ever used his powers to do his chores for him, he liked the exercise and he wanted to follow Venius’ example and not use his powers unless he really needed to. Today he needed to, because he had many chores to do before sunset, and he was feeling too sick and tired to do them with his hands.
With the aid of his powers, Cygnus breezed through the weeding in about 15 minutes, and he then jogged back to the house to empty the trashes. He teleported the trash out of all the cans and out into the compactor, making sure to sort out the biodegradable waste and send it to the compost piles in the greenhouses. He then poured bleach into all the toilets and lifted the brushes with his mind to scrub the bowls. After a few minutes of scrubbing, flushing, and rinsing, the toilets were clean. Knickknacks lifted off of their tables and dusting cloths danced over them and the surfaces upon which they had sat. Cans of water were filled and then traveled through the house on their own, pouring water into the pots of every house plant.
Cygnus finished all his chores in a little over an hour, nearly five times quicker than normal. When he finally finished scrubbing the last floor and dusting the last sculpture, he sat back down at the table again to rest. He knew he had some extra time now, so he laid his head down onto the table and closed his eyes. It was bizarre how fickle the sandman could be. Before when Cygnus couldn’t get back to sleep in his bed, it was because the light from his window was too bright. Yet sitting at the table, where it was even brighter than in his room, he finally managed to drift off, only involuntarily. He dozed lightly and dreamlessly for a handful of hours, until his mind suddenly drifted awake again. When he opened his eyes and saw that the light of day was now fading away, he sprang up and ran through the living toward the hallway that lead to his room. He ran carelessly however, and the carpet in front of the fireplace slid under his feet, causing him to fall forwards. He reached up and caught ahold of the mantle, but by doing so, he jolted it sufficiently to knock several items over. Felix’s Sol Blade, a brass statue of a Hylian Goddess, and Ashley’s hand mirror all tumbled down, and Cygnus lunged to try and catch one of them. He successfully caught Ashley’s mirror, but the sword and the statue struck the floor loudly.
Cygnus put the mirror back hastily and checked to see if the other two items were undamaged. The sword was fine, but the statue was not solid brass so it had a small dent where it had struck the floor. He nervously put it back where it had been, but turned it slightly so that the dent wasn’t visible. When he was satisfied that everything was back in order, he proceeded to walk towards the stairs more calmly this time. But before he could get far, he could see the mirror moving out of the corner of his eyes. He turned and saw it falling again, and he had to really jump to catch it in time. He landed hard on the carpet and it chafed his skin as he ground to a stop with the mirror safe in his hands. He stood again, holding the mirror and looking into it. He idly used his power to recover the rug burns on his legs, and Cyngus suddenly sensed some strange vibes from the mirror. He saw something moving in his left peripheral vision, and when he turned to look he saw Ashley’s mother and father standing there in the room with him.
For several seconds, Cygnus stared dumbly at them. He knew that they both had died at least eight years ago, but now they were standing right in front of him, as solid and real as himself. There was even a cute little yellow Pikachu sitting on Ash’s shoulder, which was even creepier, since the Pikachu that Ash had owned had died long before he had. When Cygnus finally blinked, the figures instantly vanished, leaving him alone in the room once more.
Cygnus slowly placed the mirror back on its stand and stepped back several paces so he could watch it and the spot where the phantoms had stood at the same time. He stood there like that for several minutes as the sun set. When he finally found the will to move, he ran down the hall to his room, closed the door tightly, and locked it. He calmly sat at his desk and the computer console beeped and hummed to life. He tapped the word processor with his stylus and began recording his experience in his journal. He spent the better part of an hour like this, and when he saved the entry, it was time to start writing some song lyrics for Tamista
Tomorrow was his father’s second ever public music concert, and this time he had invited any of the family to participate if they felt inclined. Tamista had volunteered to sing and had written a song of her own, but she had also asked Cygnus to write a song for her as well. He needed to finish it tonight, but now he was so rattled and tired that he wasn’t sure he could rattle any inspiration out of that stubborn head of his anymore. He gripped the stylus in his paw and sat in thought for several minutes. He felt the need to finish it before everyone got home, even though the worst that would happen was that Tamista would give him a funny look and tell him to hurry up. They would already know something weird was going on with him from the sheer fact that he had slept through their visit to the Ketchums, he just didn’t want it to look any worse than it already did. He began dashing off a few slipshod lines of poetry, but nothing good came of it. His mind was too occupied by the visions he had seen earlier.
Soon darkness filled the house as the sun descended below the mountains, and he became increasingly anxious to finish, knowing that the family would be home at any minute. After 20 minutes of scribbling he finally managed to finish a half decent song about love, and resigned himself that it was the best he could do. He plugged his palm computer into the desk terminal and transferred the document to it, and then laid back in his chair to relax until the family returned. He still felt tired, even though he had slept the whole day, but not enough to drift off. He sat there, boredom encroaching on him, until he decided to watch a little holo-TV. He switched on the little projector next to his desk and flipped through all the different channels, finding nothing really interesting. Humans doing tired soap operas, humans doing hackneyed action movies, and humans in romantic relationships. But he came upon a news broadcast that caught his attention right away, there were pictures of the humans from last night on the screen, with the letters ‘Missing’ glowing red beneath them,
“…They were each brilliant students at Lakeside Pokemon Institute and were members of different activist and extracurricular groups at the school. Their parents reported them missing this morning, since they had not returned from an overnight camping trip in the mountains the night before.”
Cygnus turned off the TV and sat in silence again for several minutes, now swimming in another lake of mixed emotions. He was now quite convinced that these humans hadn’t been of the most scrupulous variety after seeing how their parents had lied to the authorities, but he still felt horrendous about their death. He also felt incredibly nervous about being caught now too. Undoubtedly there were investigators already on the job, and a nagging voice in his head told him that he was going to be found out soon. His rational mind knew that the actual likelihood of being caught was very low now thanks to the misinformation the parents had fed to the police, but that little voice wouldn’t be quelled by logic. It ate at him now that he was awake enough to be rational, and he wondered how long it would keep chewing at him.
“Hey, we’re almost home. What have you been up to all day?” Tanis’ psychic voice asked in Cygnus’ head.
Cygnus jumped a little in surprise, and spoke, “I’ve been feeling sick. I did my chores, but I spent most of the time in bed. How much longer until you return?”
“We’re about to land on the lawn.” Tanis replied.
Cygnus stood from his chair and prepared to walk down the stairs to greet the family, but he suddenly felt a massive wave of stomach pain flare up through his abdomen. He staggered and stepped backwards to grab ahold of his chair, and stumbled to his knees in front of his bed. It felt like his intestines were dancing the can-can inside of him, and the urgent need to vomit was overwhelming. He tried to resist it and failed, and the ensuing mess that spilled over his carpet was full of blood. He had time to stare at it in terror for a few moments before blacking out completely.
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