"Hey," a voice called to Tantari through a black haze. "Lady, you're going to have to get up. I know being dead is a pisser but it's only your physical body that died. Trust me I know."

Tantari opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the colossus. The sun was setting and it backlit the spirit temple with scarlet fire. It was so beautiful, the First Wife felt her eyes sting, then she remembered the events of the last 5 hours. She was dead, Shafali was too and Ganondorf was- She sat up and looked around frantically. Where was Ghanee? Her head whipped around to the left and she saw another woman sitting on a bolder, watching her with curious black eyes. A hand rolled cigarette dangled from her long fingers and the smoke drifted lazily upwards.

Tantari stumbled backwards a step, this woman was a Hylian...or a Sheikah perhaps. With her pale skin and short black hair, Tantari couldn't be sure. "Who are you?" She asked, "how did you get here and what..." Her voice shook, "what happened?"

"M' name's Parapa," The other woman answered as hopped off her rocky seat and came forward. "I was sent here to collect you now that you've gone over."

"So I am dead." Tantari said softly. "I was hoping my husband or my mother would be the one to meet me."

A look of sympathy touched Parapa's ivory features, "I know, that's what I thought to. But the thing is you aren't really dead, not the way most people die. See, now you're a spirit, an elemental, take a look around and tell me what you see."

Tantari obeyed and realized that the world looked different to her eyes. The colors appeared muted and lifeless, but other spirits unseen by the living, were going about their business. The world of the living seemed dull and gray, but the world of the spirits was alive and humming. Every rock and grain of sand shone with it's own light. Each cloud and gust of wind laughed and chittered, blowing by Tantari with purpose. When she turned and looked back at the colossus and it's twin formation, the Vision Rock, Tantari was almost blinded by the radiance of their spirits. Awe filled Tantari, here was the world she had always sought and had always hoped to see, the world stripped of all material illusions. She just hadn't wanted to die to see it.

"I don't understand." Tantari said, "why is this happening? What are you?"

"Well," Parapa began. "There's this place called the Sacred Realm-

"I know that."

"Yeah, who doesn't? But there's these folks called sages too, there's the elemental sages- fire, forest, spirit and so on. Then there's the sages of alchemy- beauty, knowledge, the fool-that's me." Parapa grinned sweetly. "You see, Tantari, you're the Sage of Medicine. It's your job to keep the unwashed masses of Hyrule from killing themselves with junk like leeches and eating mercury as a birth-control. We all have a sacred task. Mine's to keep the world from getting to serious. Kasuto's is to keep the world from getting to stupid. Coraliss' is to keep the world from getting to ugly, an so on and on and on."

Tantari couldn't help it, she started laughing. It was so utterly ridiculous, the whole story. Parapa waited patiently for the hysteria to subside. She understood well enough the oddity of the situation. Five years ago she'd been in Tantari's place. "You all right?" She asked Tantari, and that question brought forth a new explosion of insane laughter from Tantari. All right? Obviously nothing was ever going to be all right again.

"We have to leave whenever you're finished." Parapa breathed, dragging on her cig. "Damn desert. Already I can feel my skin peeling."

Tantari straightened up and gave the Hylian a sideways glance. "Didn’t you just say you're a spirit? You don't have skin anymore, I don't have skin anymore....Goddess, this is going to take some getting used to..." She wiped a hand over her face and paused, realizing she could see through it as if her flesh was no more than thin leever parchment.

Parapa patted her shoulder and oddly enough it produced a sensation. "First lesson," the girl said. "Creatures, live critters of the flesh can't hurt us...." She paused, "well unless they're knowing magick. But it's the shadows and boogies, our dark brothers and sisters that govern the less savory parts of the unseen world that you have to watch out for. Spirits can hurt spirits. And the dark ones HATE us."

Tantari nodded slowly. In an odd way it made sense, and her mind wandered back to Shafali. What happened to her spirit? Was she now one of these dark spirits that Parapa was chattering about?

"We should go now," the Hylian girl was saying. "There's others- especially Rauru- who are keen to meet you. You're a part of our big happy family now." She pinched her cig out, grinning. Then she shouted a stream of words, a fast slick sentence in Hylian, and a pale green-glowing portal materialized before them. She made a polite gesture and said giddily, "after you o queen of the desert and mistress of Medicine."

A new life was waiting beyond that softly luminous doorway. A new life far away from this place of heartbreak, a safe place maybe. And if Parapa was any indication, the folks there might not be to bad either. But Tantari knew she couldn't step through that doorway, not yet anyhow.

"I can't go." Tantari said.

"WHAT!?" Parapa wheeled around so fast, Tantari instinctively ducked. "Oh, but you have to!"

"I can't, not until I know Ganondorf is safe."

A horrible look contorted Parapa's face, "oh no, Hell." She sighed. "Tantari, there's something you should know about the kid."

Terror crept up Tantari's spine and roosted in her skull. If something had happened to Ghanee, then that was it. She wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't worth it anymore. "What, what? Is he all right?" She clutched at Parapa almost desperately for any knowledge of her son.

"Physically, yeah, he's fine. But, " Parapa tapped her temple, "here is the problem. He's a bomb waiting to go off, Tantari. Not you, not any one can, or could stop it. It's how it's written."

The memory of the night of Ganondorf's birth, of the burning sand upon his brow came slamming back to Tantari. She wanted to deny it, and scream to the sky that it wasn't true. But she just stared at Parapa's earnest face and found no trace of falsity there.

"I have to go back to the Fortress." she muttered, "I'm sorry but..."

"I'm coming with you." Parapa announced. "Rauru said to bring you, but he didn't say anything about detours along the way. Let's go and I'll fill you in some more on the way..."

The two sages floated along the desert, it wasn't really walking, Tantari noticed. Her feet didn't exactly touch the ground now, they rather slid over it-or through it. Parapa chattered away, her voice might have been annoying, but Tantari found it flowed over her senses like cold water. The girl had the grace and drama of a born story teller. "...The Goddesses, they're failing." Parapa said as they passed the first marker flags. Tantari noticed a spirit glancing back from inside the battered wood post and felt awe anew at the world unveiled. "you know the three make up all of creation. One creates it, one puts it to use and the other destroys the overspill, so there's not overpopulation and suchlike. Din the lady of Power was the destroyer. But see, in recent years she's gone a little...crazy." Parapa finished in a small whisper. Tantari noticed a flicker of fear or sadness within her eyes.

"Din can't be crazy." Tantari admonished Parapa dryly. "why-"

"Oh think about it." Parapa returned, " all the recent wars, the death and killings. It's true if you think about it."

Tantari frowned and let herself think about it, as unpleasant as the ideas that popped into her head were. "I always was taught that Din is the creatress of our planet and Hyrule Not a destroyer."

"She is! But the thing is she...well she creates by destroying. I thought this was the type of thing you Gerudos were really up on." Parapa smiled faintly.

Tantari made no comment, just kept frowning. "What does this have to do with Ganondorf, and me?"

"Because of her...questionable mentality, Din is nearing the end of her godhood. Within at least 600 years she will be discarded and a new deity will take her place as the Patron of Power. The Powers that Be decided it was time to pick a new God. 600 years is a pittance of a time to them." Parapa let her words hang in the quiet desert and stared hard at Tantari. "And let me tell you, they're not interested in no merciful god either."

The full weight of Parapa's words struck Tantari.

"You can't be serious."

"No I'm not, most times...." Parapa agreed. "But this is real. Your son is bound to be the holder of the Triforce of Power and the eventual successor of Din."

A deep gulf of new understanding opened within Tantari. The possibilities, the fear and astonishment of what Parapa was implying. The First Wife had known Ganondorf was special

Known he was the future King of the Gerudo.

But a god?

"It sounds grand, being the avatar of Power, but the way is madness. It requires madness. To be-- to take up the mantle of the Destroyer, the Chaos Bringer. "Parapa paused her babbling to search for words. She wished she were Rauru with all his religious fervor, or Kasuto with all his dry worldliness. She was just a Fool who only had a vague idea of the cosmology's hidden agendas and power plays. Her heart ached for Tantari who must suffer for this little knowledge. To know the child she had nursed and loved as her own was essentially the Apocalypse embodied.

"Why Ganondorf." Tantari finally asked hollowly. "Why him?"

Parapa didn't know the answer to the question, she just looked Tantari in the face and said, "I can't say, there are others better suited to this task than I."

"It's just impossible..." Tantari said. "The Goddesses are forever. They can't just...die. Can they?"

Parapa gazed at the looming shelf of red rock that cradled the Gerudo's fortress. "Nothing's forever, Tantari. Open your eyes."

~*~

The scene awaiting them at the fortress disturbed Tantari. Her kinswomen were gathered in the courtyard, eyes weary and bleak. Then Tantari realized they mourning for her. A pain of guilt welled within her, she saw her friend Naomi holding her daughter Rohana, looking disconsolate. The warm glow of their life-lights made Tantari's eyes water. The gentle, feather light touch of Parapa's hand on her shoulder startled her. The Hylian's dark eyes were full of sympathy.

"They must've loved you well." She said softly.

Tantari nodded bleakly and walked on into the fortress with Parapa trailing behind, curious of the Gerudo artifice. Tantari moved with the sureness born of living almost 100 years in the building. The complex was a madman's dream of labyrinth twists and turns. The rooms and corridors strikingly intricate, and at the same time sparse. An intruder would be forever lost in these winding hallways, Parapa noted.

The hall Tantari chose became more elaborate in furnishings and decor. The sandstone walls glowed in the light of fine beeswax candles. Lines and lines of crude, yet beautiful pictograms had been carved into the wall and the light made the figures dance. Sandalwood and patchouli made the air warm with fragrance. These were the royales chambers.

"This is where I and my husband, his two other wives, concubines and the king's children lived." Tantari told Parapa as they descended deeper into the fortress. "I pray that I may find Ghanee here."

"Why do you call him that?" Parapa asked, genuinely curious.

A hint of a smile tugged at Tantari's mouth as she remembered the night Ganondorf was born. "Shafali named him Ganondorf but it is not a truly Gerudo name. The 'dorf' is an old suffix. But I know Ganon is an old Hylian word." She looked briefly at Parapa, noting her paleness again. It was most unbecoming.

The Hylian grinned unabashed. "A poor name for a Gerudo lad. Ganon means fair."

"Yes, and Ghanee is a good Gerudo name, it means wealthy. It's close enough."

The pair rounded a corner and entered into the wives' chambers. Then Tantari froze and Parapa just stared. There were the hags, Koume and Kotake, and there was Shafali's withered body spread out on a table.

"Foolish wench." Kotake admonished the body. "Foolish and-"

"Stupid!" Koume supplied. "Stupid stupid stupid! Oh yes wonderful! Let her die, forget we need a nurse maid for the brat-"

"Now we have to expend our energies to revive her."

Tantari forgot about the Hylian and ran to the table. "NO!" She shouted at the old witches. "Oh no..." Of course Koume and Kotake didn't here her, they were already lining up components for the resurrection spell along the body. She glared at her enemy's corpse and tried to grab it, but her hands passed through as if she had merely dipped them in water. Parapa skidded up to her side and grabbed her arm. "THAT'S Shafali?"

"That's her."

"Oh Kotake," Koume called as she dug around for some ingredient, "do you feel a draft?"

"Yeah you bitches, it's ME!" Tanatari muttered as she paced the room.

"Ah...no" Kotake returned, "but do we have any more powdered rat caul?"

This charming conversation went on for awhile then the two got down to business. Koume began chanting lowly while Kotake mixed together the evil smelling potion in a copper bowl. Tantari was powerless to halt their dark ritual; she stood with clenched fists, battling her urge to run as far away from the scene as possible. Parapa bit her lip in frustration and looked from the hags to Tantari for some idea of what to do.

"Umaria...conijac....retia...retalia..." Koume droned on, calling on the powers of the undead and the damned. "Umian..icares...droiash..." Kotake joined in as she lifted Shafali's battered head and poured the black liquid down her throat. Streams of it drooled down Shafali's cracked lips, but most of it went down her gullet. The body twitched once then stilled.

Both witches took up the chanting, one on either side of the table grasping Shafali's hands. Despite the warmth and light of the day, the room suddenly became dark. A gust of cold wind blew through, making Tantari and Parapa shuddered. Their spirit eyes saw what was riding that wind. The demons and darklings that lurk just beyond the light of the elemental plane. The wraiths and nightmares, boogies and incubi. All the things that made up mortal fear seemed to heed the witches call. They swirled about Shafali's body, laughing and chattering madly. They recognized her as one of them and danced across her body, flickering their greasy light over it, giving it animation once more.

Shafali stirred again and moaned, Kotake cackled but was shushed with a pinch from her twin. The demons continued their dance, one large shadow broke away and breathed its rancid breath into Shafali. She coughed and retched up the witches' potion then sat up, alive again.

Tantari stormed forward, and it was then that the demons saw her. The big one whose breath awakened Shafali leapt at her, but she batted it away easily. They swarmed upon her, seeking to rend her ghostly form. Without any hesitation, Parapa jumped into the fray, swinging her small, hard fists in a confusing pattern of blows that sent many of the lesser demons scurrying.

Koume and Kotake realized their spell was being interrupted and began shouting strings of spells to bring the demons back under their command. It wasn't working.

Tantari swatted the interfering demons away, intent on only the one who had awakened Shafali. It shrieked at her and raked her with it's cold claws, causing Tantari to duck away. She slid through the table and through Sahafli, gagging as she momentarily merged with her enemy. The demon followed her while the others fled the destructive force of Parapa. Tantari turned and face the wraith over Shafali's listless body. She lived but her eyes were still dead, devoid of the malicious spark that once lit them. The two spirits tangled, Tantari and the demon, light and dark collided and the room filled with flashes of supernatural energy. She dragged it away from Shafali, "No, no, no..." she panted doggedly. "I won't let you bring her back, not now, not ever."

Her shadowy nemesis surged and threw her off then bolted for Shafali once again. With a cry of helpless despair, Tantari threw herself at it, dragging it to the floor and pinning it beneath her. Demons are nothing if not opportunistic. One of the lesser boogies saw it's chance and squirmed away from Parapa. Gleefully, it swarmed over the sprawled and struggling forms of Tantari and the big demon. Parapa dove after it, but it's tentacles slid through her hands. She swore and it whooped maniacally and let itself be sucked into Shafali's body, merging its psychotic essence with her own half-life. The demon pinned beneath Tantari screamed helplessly cheated of its host. It flared off its dark energy and disappeared back into the shadow realm. The other shades and wraiths followed, it riding that dark wind back to their hell hole plane.

Shafali was sitting up looking dazed; the demon that infested her was obviously not very bright. Tantari groaned and cursed, "son of a..." she swore, "This is wonderful." Her disembodied hands curled into misty fists.

Koume and Kotake were still recovering from the strain of opening the portal to the demon's world. They looked at each other than Shafali. Things had not gone as planned, but still she might make a decent puppet. That was all Shafali had ever been, a mere link in the chain.

"Shafali?" Kotake asked hesitantly.

The cold, dead eyes of the Third Wife turned on the witch and she shuddered. The expression in them was not alive, sane nor humane. "Yes...?" Shafali drawled in a icy voice. "What do you command?"

All Tantari and Parapa could do was share a despairing look.

~*~

Days passed, and Tantari had to resign herself to the fact that she could do nothing. She watched Ganondorf, watched him every second of the day. He was so different from the happy child she had raised, most of his time he spent staring sadly into space or playing halfheartedly with the clay dolls Tantari had made. He didn't cry, Tantari realized with pride, but he didn't smile or laugh either anymore. Even when he was occasionally put with the other babies, Ganondorf remained somber and it broke Tantari's heart. She reached out to him constantly, trying to hold him with nonexistent arms, tried to hold him against a ghostly breast.

Koume and Kotake's treatment of him was negligible, most times they acted as if Ganondorf was not there at all. Tantari could live with that, but it was Shafali's continuous abuse of him that drove her half-mad with frustration.

The demon that was infesting Shafali's rotten, half-dead brain, was the sadistic sort. It seemed to have awakened the Third Wife's own cruel tendencies. Her fists were fast, tongue sharp. And Tantari was the helpless spectator to the brutal treatment of her beloved child. She wept and sought to comfort him, to nurse the bruises and pain, but the limitations of spirit and flesh made her a mere shadow in her son's world.

"I can't bear this," she finally confided in Parapa.

The Hylian sage had been waiting for Tantari to make her decision. The Sacred Realm was calling, and the call was getting louder and more insistent everyday.. Parapa had spent her time watching the Gerudo, and she was beginning to understand a few things. Two tiny girls had caught her attention. Both, Parapa came to know, were nobles- according to the Gerudo hierarchy. And both were destined to be brides of Ganondorf at some far away time.

The eldest, Parapa learned, was a little ruby eyed chit named Rohana. The other, was the daughter of the Mistress of Arms and called Nabooru. The children fascinated Parapa. Here was a tiny version of the Triad right here. Power, Courage and Wisdom. Young Ganondorf obviously was destined for Power, but where did the other two fit in?

It was a piece of the puzzle Parapa was willing to let alone for now.

"Then come with me, to the Sacred Realm." Parapa implored. "There's nothing you can do for Ganondorf now. If you come with me, there may be a chance that someday....someday you can help redeem him."

"I can't leave him." Tantari whispered. "I love him."

"I'm sorry. But Tantari, you're already dead to him here and now."

For a long while, Tantari sat unresponsive. The world was moving on without her and it was time to catch up.

She looked up at last and met Parapa's eyes, "all right, let's go to the Sacred Realm."

The two moved into the courtyard because according to Parapa, she need space to open the portal ("I'm no good at it yet." She'd muttered to Tantari). Tantari was silent, withdrawn. Her eyes swept the expanse of her home and she wondered if she'd ever see it again. On that came the inevitable: would she ever see Ghanee again? Her throat threatened to close up with bitter sorrow, and she instead focused on Parapa.

"Are you ready?" The Hylian asked.

"Yes."

Parapa made a few slightly ridiculous looking gestures while chanting nonsense. The pale green portal opened again and this time, Tantari was the first one through. A step forward into her new life.

~*~

Water. It was the sensation that met Tantari's eyes and ears. Walls made of water, blue and white and shimmering. She looked around and saw shadowy figures lurking just behind the strange water facades. Am I truly, truly dead now? She thought, am I dreaming?

Welcome, Tantari, Sage of Healing!" A commanding voice sounded out through the odd aquatic stillness. "Be welcome, says I, Rauru, the Sage of Light."

A platform appeared in the blue nothingness, glowing golden. An elderly Hylian man wearing regal robes and a large graying mustache stood on it. He smiled reassuringly and made a motion toward her.

"We all welcome you," he continued. "Here now, are your fellow sages..."

"Kasuto, the Sage of Knowledge." A tall, dark haired Sheikah man appeared beside Rauru and bowed gracefully to Tantari.

"Moruge, the Sage of Emotion." Another figure materialized. This one was a hefty Goron with dark, angry eyes. He glared at Tantari, then nodded differentially.

"Coraliss, the Sage of Beauty." A willowy female Zora with skin the palest shade of azure blue, shimmered into being beside the Goron. She smiled prettily, yet smugly.

"Birche, the Sage of Compassion," A tiny Kokiri boy appeared wearing green and brown. A fairy hovered over his shoulder. He grinned and waved shyly at Tantari.

"And you know Parapa, the Sage of Fools. Here, we are the Alchemical Sages."

Parapa wasted no time on being subtle. She bounded up to Tantari, grinning, and led her into the embrace of her new family. And for the first time since her physical body had died, Tantari felt hope. Hope for the future, and hope for Ganondorf.