if i die tomorrow - permanent hiatus

truth

A/N: This. This is the chapter where it happens. Where everything changes. Where the entire world falls apart. Everything you thought you knew about our two characters are utterly destroyed.

If you, at any point, should feel confused with everything that's going on, please feel free to drop a comment. I will answer any question that might not have seemed clear to you.

Enjoy~

     We reached the mountain just as the sun broke over the horizon.

     The young rays of sunlight set the glittering snow on fire, streaks of golden light creeping over the smooth surface, delicate as the pedal of a flower. Yet, a bitter wind so unmatched to this ethereal beauty sliced through the this tunic I had on, the sharp scent of the chilly air settling on my tongue.

     Here at last. Fate alone would lead me from this point on, Sadie too young to be worthy of entrance.

     I steeled myself against the cold as I made to cross the span of sparse, cold-wilted grass into the winding path embedded up into the mountain's heart.

     Like a lightning flash, Sadie's arm shot out to bar my way.

     My pulse leapt. I stared at her, trying to read her expression and failing.

     Slowly, as though she was fighting an invisible magnetic force, she turned to me. The look in her eyes was unfamiliar, liquid hazel hardened into something jagged, something unyielding.

     A knot of dread colder than the bite of Mt. Lanayru tightened in my chest.

     "I know what you think I am." Her voice was soft, as always, but beneath this thin veil hid something sharper than a blade's edge. I had never imagined that Sadie could sound like this. 

     I said nothing, a million thoughts flooding my mind, then dispersing all at once.

     She raised her eyes to meet mine. I saw in them what I had always seen throughout it all: a clear purpose like a straight path, alight with conviction, something I could never make sense of, never unwind to reveal something greater. 

     Until now.

     The truth hit me out of nowhere, a punch in the stomach, an electric shock coursing through my veins.

     "Her." I breathed, stars dancing at the edges of my vision.

     Sadie was thrown entirely off track, her eyes wider than moons. I almost felt bad for her. All she wanted from me was the fragment of the truth she thought I held. And now, I had the truth, the whole truth, the terrible truth. 

     Oh, but hadn't I known all along? That breathless moment, that frozen moment, that moonlit moment. 

     My heart didn't seem to be working properly. It was both beating too fast and not at all.

     "She told you to run." I started pacing, my thoughts a tornado, seizing up everything I thought I knew about my quest and reducing it to dust. "She knew all along who I was, who you spoke of when you told her of a stranger spending the night in the stable. She told you to run and knew that I would find you wherever you were, track you to the ends of the world." 

     "What?" She said, utterly bemused.

     I took a deep breath, and, with a massive effort, forced myself to stop pacing. "Okay, from the beginning."

     A picture began forming behind my eyes, and I focused on its every detail, silently reciting everything I remembered from that lamplit instant. "That night at the stable. The first time I'd ever seen your face. You talked to her, didn't you? You told her of this encounter. You trusted her. You confided in her."