[Nintendo holds all the rights to the Zelda Universe]
The room had been emptied of all the physicians, the servants driven out and the family members dismissed. Zelda looked around her bedchambers and marveled at how a place which had contained so much warmth could have turned so cold. A few candles burned, but for the most part shadows covered the room- shrouding the vanity and obscuring the trunks scattered about. The deep blue of the shadows fought with the warm glare of the wicks, slowly overtaking it and pushing it back. Normally, she would have lit a lantern to drive away the darkness, but the healers had said that harsh lights would be uncomfortable at a time such as this.
She turned her focus back to her bed, their bed, and to the figure laid upon it. Grimly, she wondered, what would their people think if they were to see him now? The legends which had begun to crop up told of exploits which no mere mortal could possibly accomplish, and yet here he lie, slowly passing out of this realm. She wanted to cry, yet she knew that by the laws of nature he should have been dead countless times already. The magic of the land, particularly the power of the fairies he always seemed to encounter, had saved him from death many times. A faint smile touched her lips- she had almost asked him once if he knew how many of the small, pink sprites who had helped him during his journeys, but ultimately decided that she really didn't want to know the answer. Alas, no magic was perfect in this realm, and the body which had been mended scores of times was finally breaking down from the strain. A bone can be set and flesh mended, but it was never as strong as it was originally.
A groan from the bed dragged her back from her musing. As the physicians recommended, she dabbed a cloth in the bowl of red liquid sitting by the bed and brought it to his lips. At her touch, he opened his blue eyes and fixed them upon her face. "I must be dead already, because the beauty I am seeing is not of the mortal world."
Zelda forced a smile and admonished him, "Now Link, you and I both know that the years have not been exactly kind to us." More specifically, she felt they had not been kind to her. Though her body had been permanently changed due to delivering five, Link seemed to have been able to retain his thanks to his constant adventuring that had not ceased even after he had taken the throne. Up until a week ago, she would have claimed that he was just as healthy as he had been thirty years ago.
Link held her gaze a bit longer, before sinking back into his bed and allowing his eyes to unfocus. "Perhaps, but that does not mean that any maiden of this kingdom could dare match the beauty of her queen."
Zelda shook her head, at any other time his flattery would lift her spirits, but the effect was lost upon her somber mood. "Link," she replied, "I have been having visions."
That caught his attention. His adventures had left him with an appreciation for the supernatural and the prophetic dreams of his wife had always come to pass. "I assume from your demeanor that they are not good?"
She contemplated for a moment, recalling the images that had periodically entered her mind as she kept her vigil at his bedside. "Not necessarily bad, just… they leave me with a feeling of melancholy. They feel most like memories of a past age."
Her husband raised an eyebrow, that simple movement seeming to strain his body, "I know some of the fairies mentioned our souls having fought a great evil in the past, and continuing to do so into the future. Perhaps you are having visions of these?"
She nodded, "That was what I decided, it seems that as… as our time grows short, the goddesses have allowed me to recall some of the memories of the past."
"Well?" he asked, "What troubles you then?"
She dropped her eyes to the thick fabric covering their bed, "It's just, if what I am seeing is true, we have lived many lives already. Many of our lives have been spent together after dealing with the great evil of the time." She did not mention that many of her memories involved him meeting a violent and premature end. In fact, she wondered, had he never died from just old age? Even though his body was in its mid-fifties, she knew that if it were not for the wounds from saving her and her kingdom he would easily live at least another twenty years.
He closed his eyes and contemplated, "Well, that seems like good news to me. Dying doesn't bother me as much if I can be assured we'll meet again in another life."
"But Link!" She retorted, "We've already met and fallen in love so many times- and I had no idea before a few days ago." Her eyes began to grow moist. "Even if we meet again, we shall have no memories of this life. Even if we start over, all of our time together, time which means everything to me, will be lost. I don't want to forget you."
Link was silent for a long time, and Zelda worried that he may have drifted off to sleep again, but right when she was resigned to being alone in the darkness he spoke up once more. "Zelda, I don't know what the future will bring, and I know that I don't want to forget you as well." He was silent for a moment, "but if it means that I will get to meet you again, get to rediscover you again, and to fall in love with you all over again, then it feels like a bright future to me. Even if I have to sit out a few lifetimes and let the stuck-up nobles have a turn."
Despite herself, she smiled, it had been quite a fight to get the nobility to accept their marriage, but being the sole heir to the throne meant that they couldn't refuse her outright either, lest she take off with the dashing hero. Of course, she would never do that to her kingdom, but they didn't need to know that. As she sifted through her memories, she recalled that there were a couple of lifetimes where that very thing had happened. Trapped by her station, she had been married off like a proper princess, but even then Link had always remained a loyal adviser and bodyguard. A few times he had taken a wife of his own, but often he had been content dedicating himself to the service of his country and his queen. Though ashamed of how she had sometimes disregarded his loyalty, she did feel reassured that Link would love her again even in the next life.
"You know," he added, "assuming that we haven't missed a few revolutions in between, you are probably your own great-great-great-great…" he paused to take a breath, just carrying on a normal conversation was taking its tole "…great-great-granddaughter."
She cocked her head to one-side, "Then I guess it is fortunate that you always seem to come from a peasant family and not nobility, otherwise things may be considered a bit scandalous." He started to shrug, but halfway through he tensed up and stopped the motion, taking a few more deep breaths. Finally, he seemed to gain his strength for another statement.
"Zelda, please tell me, has there ever been a life when I have not loved you?"
She paused for a moment and thought back through the memories which she had recently unlocked, "I can't think of a time when you were not at least dedicated to my safety and the protection of my country."
"I thought so," he said, "Even when I first met you, I felt bound to you, like I needed to protect you." He thought for a moment longer. "Though we may not remember our previous lives, I believe the goddesses allow us to retain the most important things about us. I love you Zelda… and I believe that I can say with certainty that I will love you to the end of time itself."
A single tear crawled out from the corner of her eye. This was the reassurance that she needed. Their souls were somehow linked, and through she didn't understand why they always had to return to the world she knew that they would do so together. She held his hand in hers as she slowly felt the last of his strength leave him. As it did so, she through that she also felt her own strength leave as well. The candles had burnt down and the shadows had almost completely surrounded her. Pushing his bangs to the side, she leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips. Keeping her head close to his, she closed her own eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
A week later, the herald stepped into the center of the marketplace and proclaimed the latest word from the castle. The wails of the people spread slowly throughout the town, reverberating off the cobblestone and giving life to the grief of the people. After slipping into a coma the night of the king's death, the queen had finally passed away. To lose one beloved monarch was terrible, but to have both taken from them in such a short time seemed like a curse from the heavens. Fortunately, the crown prince had been prepared for such a thing, his mother had told him a few days before her coma that she did not expect to outlive her husband for long. The coronation was already planned out and the transition of power was smooth, but the more important task was to heal the hearts of the people. Bards were already spinning tales about the final end of the king and queen, and how their souls, bound together by fate and love, had been destined to make the final trip to the sacred land together. The people, who had stopped just short of worshiping their monarchs while alive, latched onto these romanticized tales and the tales of the late monarchs' exploits which had been circulating even before their passing. As later generations grew, they would accept that these tales were probably just legends, created and fabricated to sooth the pain of a suffering populace. They would never know just how close to the truth these old legends were.
-A/N
Thanks for reading. I am considering writing a full length tale, of which this would be part of the prologue. However, I'll admit, creative writing has not been a strong point of mine and I really don't want to get into something I cannot handle. I would appreciate any feedback, positive, negative, or constructive, you may have as I decide if I shall undertake this task or not. My biggest weakness, I feel, is making sure I spend enough time working on details. In a one-shot like this, I don't think it is as important to describe the characters per say, as the reader can just apply this to their preferred universe, but in a longer tale I would have to work a bit harder in flushing that out- which doesn't come naturally. My other major issue, being used to scientific writing, is passive voice though I think that its appearance in this work is warranted due to the tone. So yea, thanks for reading, and I would appreciate your thoughts.
-Update
Fixed some grammar and formatting issues (which I can't believe I didn't catch while proofreading), as well as the word choice at a few spots. I also decided to go ahead and give a longer tale a shot, but am going to wait on posting chapters until I am a reasonable portion through. I hate abandoned projects, and I don't want to make one of my own, so I want to see if I will really see this through. I am currently two chapters in, and will be posting it as a separate tale though it shall still follow Bound in the chronology (so if you subscribed to Bound for any continuations, it would be better to subscribe to my profile). Finally, though I may not be planning on posting chapters until I am at least six in, I would really appreciate it if somebody would act as a Beta reader for me. PM me if you are willing/interested :D.