The Legend of Zelda: Wisdom and Courage

Chapter 27: Night of Anguish

"Termina…" Veran muttered to herself with distain as she emerged into the empty nighttime streets of Clock Town. "Of course they'd come and cower here… Now all I have to do is lure them out…"

The sorceress grinned wickedly to herself and prepared to unleash her wrath upon the unsuspecting town in order to draw the princess and the hero to her, when she suddenly felt an unexplainable surge of dark power emanating across the landscape, power that she immediately thirsted for. It was almost as if it was calling out to her, just asking her to take possession of it and Veran wasn't the kind to let any sort of might simply slip through her fingers.

"So…" she whispered darkly, her malicious smile growing. "There is power hidden within this goddess-forsaken land after all…" Laughing triumphantly, she held up her hand, where the mark of the Triforce shimmered. "Listen to my command…" she spoke to it, wishing on the golden relic once more. "Deliver this unknown power into my hands and allow me to subdue it, so I may use it to raze this useless land that was abandoned by the goddesses themselves and destroy all those who oppose me, especially those two foolish children!"

The Triforce's glow grew even brighter in response to its mistress' nefarious wish as it sought out this strange power, unable to resist her evil will. And sure enough, the power that she craved materialized above her outstretched hands less than a minute later in its simplest form: a mask. Veran stared at the mysterious object intently for several minutes, not in disbelief, but rather in observation. Indeed, a strange and seductive power was emanating from its heart shaped form, its yellow eyes glowing with untold malice and a lust for chaos. And as Veran felt this malice and craving for destruction, her lips curled into a malevolent smile. "Ah…" she said to herself with satisfaction. "So, the myths about the demon that the ancient tribe of this land once worshiped are true; Majora is real after all… It seems that my search for more power has not gone in vain…" The Triforce flashed once again, and Veran nodded to it, giving it the silent instructions to begin its work. Under the control of the sorceress and her golden relic, the mask floated into the air and hung there in anticipation as Veran prepared to receive its power.

"Come to me, ancient demon of Termina," she said to the mask as a violet aura began to form around it. "Grant me your power and I shall fulfill your desire for discord and chaos by showering our combined might upon this land."

The mask's eyes seemed to glow even brighter as Veran said this and when she was finished, it spoke in a quiet yet sadistic voice. "You will not control my power…" it said defiantly, dark power pulsating from it even more. "For it is I who will control you!"

Veran smiled at the mask with confidence, not concerned at all with what it had told her. "So you think, Majora," she said haughtily. "But I come to this land yielding a power that you do not know: the power to submit even your corrupting might under my control, the power of the golden relic of the gods, the Triforce. And so I leave you with a choice: either be conquered by force or resign your dark strength to me. If you choose the latter, then I can assure you that we will completely destroy this wretched land that you so despise."

"Your offer is tantalizing," the mask mused amicably after a moment of thought. "And I would be willing to accept if it weren't for one possible hindrance to both of our ambitions. Seven years ago I was completely poised to wipe Termina from existence forever. That is, until a vexatious little hero, nothing more than a mere human child at that, appeared out of nowhere and stood to oppose me. He did not come from this land, but rather from the cherished land of the goddesses, bearing the crest of Farore and the Spirit of the Hero. My conflict with that supposedly 'unbreakable' spirit runs deep through the annals of history, for eons ago, I had almost corrupted it once and for all, twisting it into one that would serve only me for all time. But my hold on it was broken by the goddess Hylia, who freed both the Spirit of the Hero and its bearer from my grasp. I cursed that wretched spirit, vowing that I would submit it into my control one day, and so, as you can imagine, I reveled in the belief that perhaps that day had finally come upon facing the descendant of Hylia's hero himself. And yet, he somehow managed to defeat me by turning a product of my own corruption against me, and I was sealed away once more until you called upon me… My hatred for the Spirit of the Hero and all those born of it is stronger than you could ever know. It is a fire that has been ignited for centuries, and it is one that will burn until the day I finally cast the Spirit of the Hero into eternal darkness!"