One

The Shadow People, the Sheikah were called. Most assumed because they operated in the shadows, in the dark spaces the royal family could not tread nor acknowledge. In reality they were the shadows cast by the light of Hylia. The first Impa was the first Zelda's other half, ever at her side. Just as Zelda, first of her name, would have her bloodline blessed by the goddess, so Impa would have her descendants always by the queen's side, as close as a person and their shadow.

People were always messier than gods.

Even if one believed in the purity of the Zeldas, those around her were not so blessed. Shadows were thrust into darkness. Companions became assistants became servants. Royals and nobles kept their hands clean by having their shadows butcher and torture instead. Priests became sanctimonious, abhorring the shadows as something sinister to harm those who walked in the light. Tidy graveyards hid necropolei underfoot, tainting the water supply. Who cared about the poor and the gravekeepers? Another story of many. One more bloodsoaked record of atrocity, murmured by the restless dead.

Even before the latest Zelda could not call upon the blessing of the goddesses, a schism developed when their technology turned on them. Some were done being servants, some resented the blessed being royal, but many agreed that their place in the darkness was a gross reversal and a betrayal of their people, unfairly blamed for the tools that killed their makers even more than other innocents. If the goddess and her supplicants would not uphold their ancient covenant, if the Sheikah would once more be a scapegoat, then there was no reason to serve. A schism might have been a grim but peaceful parting of ways were it not for a new idea.

The author's name was merely signed as "Yiga". An unassuming booklet, untitled but for the Sheikah eye, held heresy within. Why should mortals fight on behalf of the gods? it questioned, why should Hylia spill the blood of thier mayfly lives battling another immortal? What, it even questioned, was the evil of the Calamity? An era of darkness? Did their people not already face such strife, come out the other side, flourish in the shadows where others withered? The ones who sided with Calamity already were granted immortality, how was that any different from the blessings of Hylia except politics? Instead of a single hero reborn between eras, each individual was equally blessed every blood moon.

The books were burned as heresy.

The readers were killed as heretics.

With Sheikah killing Sheikah, the schism irrevocably tore the two groups apart. The new heretics took the penname as their name, the Yiga.


Two

"So I was thinking, with the centennial coming up..."

"Yeah? I've got a new dress ready and everything!"

"Do you think the Calamity will ever triumph?"

Her friend hissed through his teeth. "It's not like you to lose faith."

"It's not a question of faith!" she protested, "But these things usually get resolved quickly, right? Not deadlocked like this. Even the hero isn't dead this time, and if they're not dead, then they can't reborn."

"So?"

"So... I wonder if this is a stalemate. Not just for our lifetimes, but even longer. Maybe forever."

Her friend thought about it, then shook his head. "The Calamity's been around for even longer. The gods operate on such long timelines, a hundred years is just a day for them. Nothing can last forever, we just have to be prepared to support our lord."

She nodded. "True. I just worry about the future sometimes, yknow? Like we're on a cliff's edge."

Her friend laughed. "And we can handle cliffs, so don't borrow trouble, alright?"

"True. Thanks."

"No problem. C'mon, enough with the gloom, we're gonna have a real blowout for the centennial festival!"

"Yesss I'm gonna eat grilled noodles and fried bananas until I burst!"

"You and your stomach. I wanna dance til I drop!"

"You just wanna show off your dress."

"Yeah so? I've been working on it for a year! Everyone has to appreciate my embroidery."


Three

For a bunch of assassins and warriors, they never seemed to look up. The traps in the gorge were all set up for anyone walking up at the base, but dropping down from the top was a breeze. Literally, with Link's paraglider. Maybe it was more for the Gerudo?

"What do you think?" Link asked without speaking in the way of fairies, to the Korok.

"It's for an army!" she chirped, "Individuals like you are easy to off, but a larger group needs to be bottlenecked and crushed."

Link nodded at this wisdom. The little lady sure knew a lot of battle tactics, but she had probably witnessed it in action. They gave her another apple, since she had finished the one dropped on the offering bowl.

"Shouldn't you be protecting them from me?"

"Not our arrangement." she said, eagerly crunching into the second apple. "I'm here for favorable winds and water for their crops, and I get their tasty fruits and grain. Besides! You're playing hide and seek, it'd be no fun if you were stuck. It's only been twenty years!"

Link laughed. Twenty years for a wood fairy would be short indeed. "You don't mind the Yiga? They worship Calamity Ganon right?"

The Korok blew a raspberry behind her mask. "Who cares about fights like that? We serve Farore. We don't need to squabble over the Triforce or keep Hylia happy to keep our forests strong."

Unused to theological debates, Link thought for a minute about that. She did have a good point, but...

"What if Calamity wins and burns your forests down?"

"Oh, he can't burn them all down, silly! Even if powerful demons didn't need to breathe, their followers do!"

Sometimes Link really didn't understand fairies (did trees blow air?), but they couldn't deny the Korok's logic.