"Save him."

Rebecca wept. Nabooru grew weary. The voe was heavy in Nabooru's arms.

The voe's dark blue armor was filled with water. Nabooru heard it sloshing about within the suit as she carried the body to the fortress. 

She didn't rush to bring the boy to a bed. It wasn't necessary.

After all, the child wasn't breathing. He died before arriving at Gerudo Valley.

"Take it off."

Rebecca tugged at Nabooru's pants. The child's eyes were as red as her fiery mane of hair.

"He's going to get really sick," Rebecca said. "Worse than he already is. You have to do better than that!"

"It's not necessary," Nabooru replied, keeping her eyes forward on the path ahead. The fortress waited not too far from them, elevated on its natural platform of stone and sand.

"He's going to get sicker!"

"He won't have to worry about that."

"Until he wakes up."

"He won't wake up."

Nabooru stopped walking. She realized how tired she had become. Everything made her weary at this point. 

Rebecca's appearance in the wasteland. Dissension amongst the Gerudos. 

Uncertainty about the Hylians. And now, a young man who had to be buried. 

The child could have been a ten ton boulder in her arms and she would have struggled to know the difference between either.

"There's nothing to be done," Nabooru continued. "He's dead, Rebecca. Whoever this boy is, this friend of yours. He passed away. I'm very sorry but there is nothing we can do."

Rebecca her gritted teeth. "His name is Trevor. And he's alive. I can feel it."

"You're imagining things again."

"No, I'm not. I can feel him. He's really hurt."

"Rebecca, is it not difficult enough for us to deal with—" Nabooru stopped herself short of what she was about to say. She needed to be careful, especially after the argument with Rebecca from earlier. "Having a voe among us is very serious. This...this really endangers many parts of my plans. Including the one that involves protecting you. They see you as an omen now."

"Fine!" Rebecca threw her arms in the air, not caring about her chains. "But help Trevor! He's not dead! Can't you feel him?"

Nabooru almost protested. She stopped and cradled the voe with one arm to show his heart stopped beating. 

Her palm pressed down on his chest, then flung back when a faint thumping met her touch. She stared at Rebecca with widened eyes.

The voe was alive.

Nabooru pried the Zora Armor open with both her hands. It took her some time to find the right places to loosen the metal plates fastened to the boy's body. 

Water spread across the sand, darkening every grain that drowned beneath the puddle. Nabooru scooped the boy back up and dashed to the healing wing. 

It was near the back of the fortress, as far from the front entrance as possible. There were strategic reasons for this, reasons that saved many lives during the war that ravaged the land ten years ago.

When she ran into the room, her sense of smell picked up the sweet herbal scents and peculiar aromas many a Gerudo had known since birth. Two rows of beds stretched down a long room with plant covered tables at the end. Several of the beds were occupied.

"Ishtar!" Nabooru called out.

A woman in black attire rushed from the back of the room. She moved like a ghost or a living shadow. 

As the woman drew closer, her eyes met Nabooru's. Her irises were a deep hazel hue.

"He's barely holding on," said Nabooru. "We have to work quickly."

The woman in black looked down at the voe. Her eyes widened, then narrowed.

"Nabooru," said Ishtar the healer. "This isn't a traditional patient."

"He's worth our help nonetheless," said Nabooru.

"How did we come across him? Did it have anything to do with the commotion at the valley?"

"I don't know—the water spirits gave us a boon—Ishtar, we haven't much time. Please"

Ishtar removed her hijab. Her face was very similar to that of her Gerudo sisters—she had the sun-kissed skin, the golden irises and other sharp features. 

One difference was the long mane of black hair that went down to her waist when she didn't tuck it in her robe.

"Give him to me," Ishtar said.

The Gerudo healer gathered the voe in her arms. She whisked him away to a nearby cot. From there, the work began swiftly. Ishtar went back and forth in an effort to save the voe's life.

She used a bowl carved from a dried gourd. After pouring multi-colored powders with powerful aromas into the bowl's mouth, she mixed it together with water. 

Ishtar gently pressed the concoction on the voe's wounds. It was a dark violet gel that closed the cuts and gashes while hiding the many bruises. Nabooru's stomach sloshed around at how still the child was.

Rebecca couldn't stop shaking. Her chains clattered, resonant throughout the healing wing's vast space. 

Her tears kept falling. She kept her eyes on the voe, waiting for him to breathe, wake up and open his eyes.

Nabooru fought the urge to look down at Rebecca and stare at the child in the same way. As time passed, the girl looked more and more like her, like the woman Nabooru grew to admire as a young vehvi. 

The features Rebecca had—the eyes, the hair, the dimples, the defined cheekbones—caused Nabooru to reminisce of this friend who was long gone.

It made her wonder if her suspicions were right.

The suspicions were all that kept Rebecca alive—for now.

"He'll be fine," Nabooru found herself saying. "He'll be fine." She couldn't bring herself to comfort Rebecca. She was unsure of what the child thought of her.

After a time, Ishtar stopped. She pressed the back of her hand against the voe's drenched forehead. 

Nabooru prepared herself for what was next. From the corner of her eye, Rebecca didn't seem ready. Neither of them knew what was happening.

The voe's chest rose and fell. He even uttered a strange, indescribable sound. 

His breathing steadied. Ishtar looked down upon the boy and smiled.

"I don't know what he went through," said the healer. "But he's very strong." Ishtar looked at Rebecca, keeping her bright expression. "I see my other patient is awake, out and about. Did we make a new vehvi friend, Nabooru?"

"She knows the boy," Nabooru said. "She told me so in the valley."

"Ah." Ishtar rested her chin in the palm of her hand. "She's from the part of the world where voes and vai live together? How interesting. "No wahud eyne nakh alem, Nabooru? Mutae al'ukhua se enojarán?

"Al'ukhua zenen shoyn. Nish key. Ishtar, common language. She doesn't understand what we're saying. We owe her that much."

"You don't owe me nothing." Rebecca said with a hurt, angry look in her eyes. "I don't want anything from you. Say what you want, how you want. It was probably all mean, anyway."

Before Nabooru could say another word, Rebecca walked to Trevor's bedside. She cupped a hand over his before squeezing his fingers. Rebecca wouldn't leave the voe's side anytime soon.

"I'll check on you every few hours," Nabooru said.

"I don't want you to do that," said Rebecca. "Watch after your sisters instead."

"Rebecca, I...I know things didn't go well from our talk earlier, but—"

"Leave me alone."

Ishtar almost started to correct Rebecca, but Nabooru raised a hand and shook her head. Perhaps after all the times Nabooru fought to save Rebecca was merely a good deed that would eventually get punished. 

The punishment already began. She was slowly losing the child she tried to save. It was deserved.

It took just one night for someone to speak up. Nabooru made her checks with Rebecca, bringing food during meal hours and seeing her for a time between the times of eating. 

She'd look at Trevor as well, though the sight of him made her uncomfortable. In the afternoon, after Rebecca finished the last of a cake of dates, Mira stormed into the healing room. 

She was unarmed and unmasked. She braided her hair into a ponytail.

"Nabooru."

The thief turned to Mira. She removed her mask, revealing the scowl that showed up more often than not nowadays.

"A moment of your time," Mira said. "Please."

Though she already knew the conversation wouldn't be pleasant, Nabooru nodded and took her friend aside. After they walked outside the room, Mira glared at Nabooru.

"This is an omen," she declared. "We have two strange children in our midst and they are not normal, Nabooru. And worst of all, you're fine with this!"

Nabooru hoped Rebecca and Ishtar weren't overhearing the quarrel. "There's no proof you have of them being our enemies."

"And there's no proof of who you think the girl is," said Mira.

"We saw enough evidence in the wasteland and you know it."

"I know that this child is capable of destruction. It's why even now she's in chains. That's a mercy. It may be fatal to us." Mira ran a hand down her face, frustrated by Nabooru's stubbornness. "What we saw coming out of that girl could have been a trick. Demons aren't above deception."

"This is ridiculous." Nabooru stifled a laugh from Mira's response to everything...even though Nabooru had her doubts.

"Yes. Yes it is." Mira shook her head. "I want no part of this anymore, my sister. You are the closest friend I have in life, but I didn't think my best friend would lose her mind over this."

"I'm quite sane—"

"Deedrah is dead, Nabooru." Sadness overcame the guard. She blinked her eyes many times to keep tears from coming out or even forming. 

A pit sank somewhere in Nabooru's own being, making her a little sick. The name wrenched at her heart. It was a name that hadn't been uttered for a decade and wasn't expected to be brought up again, even in the most private of conversations. 

However, it was said when the child was being discussed and was on the verge of being prevalent again amongst the Gerudos.

Mira pointed into the hospital room. "That girl? She's not the legacy you think she is. She can't be. The war that tore Hyrule apart destroyed everything that died with it. The fires of battle consumed both mother and child."

"You will not say something that can't be proven."

"Can you prove for a fact that this girl is—" Mira sighed. "You can't, Nabooru. It's not possible. Both of them are gone. Accept it, for Din's sake. And for your own."

Nabooru's hands shook as they balled into fists. Mira's words were knives. 

They cut through her heart and the betrayal of her friend's honesty brought out a rage that tempted Nabooru to curse out at her. However, Nabooru swallowed down her anger and kept a steady voice.

"You can leave."

Mira's eyes widened with shock. Nabooru felt the same way. The challenge rolled off her tongue without effort, adding more discomfort to the fortress' air.

"Rebecca will stay out of her cell so she can be by her friend's side," Nabooru continued. "I'll take her to her quarters when it's time for her to sleep. She'll be my responsibility and mine alone. I can guard her myself as well. You can stay the hell out of my way while this happens. Everything she does can fall back on me."

Mira took a deep breath, as if it were the first time she allowed air to fill her lungs.

"Nabooru..." she started. "Consider what you're do—"

"Thank you, Mira."

When Mira realized that Nabooru wasn't budging, she took a step away from her friend and turned her back to her.

"You'll allow the safety of our people to crumble," she declared. "Over two outsiders. I'll pray for you hard tonight, Nabooru. What a pity."

"PREPARE FOR WAR."

Everything grew quiet. There was the sound of fire crackling on a torch. 

A desert wind blew into the room, bringing a chill with it. The wind was just like the voice; Cold and icy. Authoritative and unfeeling. 

All the women in the healing chamber stayed still, wondering if the voice was of this world.

"YOUR KING IS SUMMONING YOU."

The voice that followed was fiery. A temper rested in the call's cadence like an arrow drawn back with a bow. 

When the time came, it would fly and do its damage, destroying everything in its path. Until then, it made its dangerous power known before the pull, before the release, before the destruction.

"THE GERUDOS WERE MADE TO GO TO WAR," declared the chilling voice.

"SO SERVE YOUR PURPOSE TODAY," said the fiery voice.

"COME FORTH, GERUDO NATION!" said the tandem of voices together.

"It can't be." Nabooru murmured. She rushed back to the healing room. Rebecca and Ishtar looked stunned by voices echoing across the fortress.

"Seal the room," Nabooru hissed at Ishtar. "Close the door and barricade it from the inside."

"But it's..." Ishtar started.

"I know, I know...but you never know when the day will come." She turned her attention to Rebecca. "Quiet. Stay here and do as Ishtar says."

Rebecca didn't look angry anymore. Fear filled her eyes as Ishtar rose to obey Nabooru's command.

"What about you?" asked Rebecca.

"Think of your friend, OK?" said Nabooru. "He needs you."

"What about you?"

"Dammit, don't worry about me. Don't ever worry about me. You worry about yourself, always. Understand?"

When Rebecca nodded, Nabooru turned and stormed out the room. She heard the door shut itself behind her as she observed her fellow thieves cluttering the fortress' mess hall. 

All the Gerudo women outside the hospital wing gathered at the foot of two stairwells. They faced the same direction, hearing a synchronized multitude of ominous footsteps. Many in the crowd whispered...

"Who?" asked one of the guards. "Who spoke to us all now? It was strange hearing them from so far away."

"I have a feeling," said another voice.

"Me as well," said yet another.

Nabooru already knew herself. She didn't understand the presence of the men who filled the fortress. 

They wore blood red outfits over their chalky complexions. Their eyes were abnormal and bizarre. 

They stood in perfect lines, facing opposite the Gerudos who stared at them. Then, they spilt to make room for three more figures.

There were two small women on floating broomsticks. Their faces were wrapped in black cloth not unlike Ishtar's hijab. Their eyes showed up beneath the veils, revealing wild, ungodly expressions.

"He-he-he," said one of the women. She had a blue jewel grafted to her brow and owned the chilling voice that kept you quiet.

"Ho-ho-ho," said the other, who's deep laugh revealed her as the fiery voice. She looked just like her peer except her jewel was red.

"THE ARMIES AND WARRIORS OF GERUDO! OUR TIME IS NIGH! IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO OBEY EVERY COMMAND GIVEN TO YOU BY YOUR KING! OBEY AT ALL TIMES, TO THE POINT OF DEATH IF NECESSARY! JUST KNOW THAT IF YOU FOLLOW THE TRUE KING INTO WAR..."

The women stopped their announcement and acknowledged the footsteps behind them. Nabooru despised the two for coming in. 

She also hated the men in blood red garments who came before them. However, her hate couldn't be any worse than what she had for the man who arrived.

He was garbed in a darker black than anything anyone could know. Patterns were etched on the surface of his armor in gold, depicting scenes Nabooru would rather not speak of. 

He wore a skull mask with twin horns jutting out from the crown. When he stood in the center of the processional space, he removed the mask and revealed a smirking, swarthy face.

"Victory," said Ganondorf, the King of Thieves. "...Is guaranteed."