You are naught but a shadow. Ever present, ever silent. No attachments to any person but one, and even around them you merely fade into the background.

So Impa learned very early on, from as long as she could remember. Few Shekiah remained to serve the Royal Family after years of war, so she needed to start early. So early that at first she had a shadow of her own, the elderly woman Ama, who watched and instructed and disciplined when necessary.

She was only eleven when brought in to guard the infant Princess. Death during childbirth seemed to curse the Hyrulean queens.

"It's because the spirit of the Goddess can only inhabit one person at a time," Ama told Impa as the young girl held the wriggling baby swaddled in black, both of them standing at attention at the late queen's funeral. "The line that began with Hylia still carries the power of the Goddess in its blood."

Impa glanced over to her grandfather Madu, the King's bodyguard. Up until the birth of the Princess, Madu had been the most important Shekiah in the castle. But now that there was an heir, the burden of protection had been shifted onto Impa's young shoulders.

The dire predictions at both their births didn't help. Impa had been named after the original Servant of the Goddess, at five years of age when her physical prowess and attunement to the spirts of shadow had come to the fore. Previously she had just been "Madu's Fifth", third child to Madu's second daughter.

The Princess herself had been given the name Zelda, a name only offered by the Sages when they sensed some sign that the Darkness was once again attempting to permeate the world. They hoped to call back the spirit of the first Zelda, the mortal Goddess.

Under Ama's tutelage, Impa assumed the role of Zelda's nursemaid. Ama and Madu laid out the tasks for her in detail, right down to changing diapers. They introduced a plethora of other servants that would also be taking care of the child. A wet-nurse, for as long as the baby needed her. Someone to cuddle her and play with her. Tutors to teach her when she got older.

Impa resented the young Hylian woman who would take the changed, fed baby from her and then shower Zelda with toys, babble at her and elicit giggles. When Zelda threw a ball that the two had been rolling back and forth, Impa picked it up and offered it to the baby, smiling. But the other woman snatched it out of her hand with a look of fear, and Ama jerked her away by the arm.

"Why can't I play with her?" Impa demanded. Playing was certainly less difficult than dressing the squirmy baby or changing her diapers.

"You're a Shekiah," the playmate huffed. "What do you know of it? Would you have her tossing bones on the floor to call the spirits?"

"They are afraid that too much time with the Shadow People will cast a pall on the baby," Ama gently explained. "Besides, your role is to watch and guard. The Princess needs to be with her own kind."

"But her father has a guard too. And her mother did as well."

"Only immediate members of the Royal Family have bodyguards." Later, after the woman had gone away and the two of them were preparing Zelda for her nap, Ama explained further. "To the Royal Family, we are their guards and protectors. But to the rest of Hyrule we are bogeymen, shadowy enforcers that steal people in the night and torture them in the dungeons."

After that Impa began paying more attention to the other Hylians around her, as well as the other races that visited the King from time to time. Impa had grown up in the shadows, among a handful of other Shekiah, the only outsiders being the King and his family. She knew the Shadow Temple intimately, every dark corner and fleshless specter, guarding the secrets of Hyrule itself. She had been in the Well, where threats to the Crown were detained and interrogated. The little time she spent outside was in the graveyard, where her people's spells held safe the remains of the Goddess's descendants.

But these outside people were different. They shied away from shadows. Even the Gerudo, who could talk to the spirits, kept their feet planted firmly in the World of Light. There was a line they would not cross, that the Shekiah straddled constantly. To the Hylians, the Gorons, the Zora, shadows were feared and loathed. They did not distinguish between shadow and demon; to them, both were children of the Darkness.

As Zelda grew older, her protectors allowed her out of her little nursery, and Impa began to see more of Hyrule's inhabitants. Ama left the job to Impa alone – Goddess forbid the child should have two Shekiah casting shadows over her! And here Impa began to see what the Shekiah meant to the rest of Hyrule. They flinched at the sight of the bleeding Eye stitched into her clothing. They eyed her dagger belted at her back. They whispered behind their hands, staring at the muscled arms and legs that she had acquired from years of training.

Impa pulled back from the Princess. She dressed her, brushed her hair, spoke a few words of greeting and bid her good-night. But she stood back as the girl sat at her lessons or formal dinners, always an arm's length away, but lost within the shadows.

Until a few days after Zelda's twelfth birthday.

Panicked screams erupted from the washroom. Impa bolted to the door, knife drawn, and a disheveled Princess collided into her. "Impa! Impa, I'm dying!"

Impa sheathed her knife and checked the child over. "Where? Where are you hurt?"

Trembling, eyes wide, the girl said haltingly, "I-I'm bleeding…from the inside…" She showed Impa a small trail of blood down her leg.

Impa began to lift the hem of her dress, then stopped. "Do you have pain here, just below your stomach?"

"Y-yes, yes!"

With a sigh of relief, Impa said, "Calm down, your Highness. You're not dying. Clean up in the washroom and I'll explain everything. Go on," she urged, when Zelda stared at her, speechless. "I promise it's nothing bad."

Wordlessly, Zelda did as she was told. When she came back into the main room of her chambers, Impa asked her, "Your tutors, they never told you what happens to your body when you come of age?"

Zelda shook her head. "What do you mean, come of age? I'm only twelve."

Impa frowned. "I can see it came early, but I don't know why they wouldn't mention…never mind. Listen, Highness. A woman's body builds a nest every month. If there is no baby to put in the nest, the body dismantles it and makes a new one."

Zelda stared. "But…how does the baby get in the nest?"

Impa spent the rest of that evening explaining to an incredulous Princess. She ended it with, "See, every woman has this happen to them. Your mother did, and so did I."

"How old were you?"

"For me, not until fourteen. But I knew what it was…my parents had told me years beforehand." Impa attempted an encouraging smile as Zelda's gaze fell in fear and confusion. "I was late, so I had lots of time to prepare. Perhaps no one thought it was time yet to tell you."

Impa didn't believe that the child's guardians could neglect something so integral, particularly considering that the bloodline of the Goddess depended on Zelda herself producing an heir at some point. But her encouragement seemed to calm the Princess, who went to sleep that night without any further questions.

The next day, while Zelda was occupied with a visiting relative, Impa spoke to the King. "You asked me to inform you of the Princess's menses. It happened last night."

His eyes lit up. "So early, eh? Well, she has matured quickly mentally, I shouldn't be surprised that it would happen physically as well. I'll get started finding her an appropriate husband immediately."

Despite her training, Impa's face must have registered shock, because the King began laughing. "No, no. I just need to find someone appropriate, get everything signed and ready, that's all. I'm not going to marry her off at twelve!" He wiped his eyes and became more serious. "I shouldn't have to mention this, but I suppose all fathers worry…you'll have to be watchful of any young men who start courting the Princess. I know she went through a phase around five years old where she kept trying to ditch you."

Impa cringed inwardly at the memory but replied, "I should think the Princess has better manners now, Your Majesty. I certainly haven't had any trouble with her since then." After a pause she said, "In fact, the Princess didn't even seem to understand what had happened."

"Well, of course not. We can't give her that sort of knowledge before her wedding night, can we? But I'm assuming that you told her it was normal, and nothing more."

"Of course, your Majesty." Stunned at his insistence on keeping Zelda in the dark, Impa decided not to tell him she knew much more.

"Obviously, though, I want you to explain to her all she needs to know if she is…marked." He said this last word in such a low whisper that Impa had trouble catching it. "We'll have a lot more to prepare for if she is. I was speaking to Ama, and I want to raise the possibility that she may need to be…contained."

Impa blinked. "What on earth do you mean? You do not think that Wisdom is a dangerous force, do you, sire?"

"Certainly not. But It's my job to ensure that Hyrule prospers, and we can't do that if we have Power tearing up the country and Courage following after, can we? Best to hide the fact that she's blessed from the rest of the country. Then maybe we can stave off any attempts on the throne…mine or hers."

Impa struggled to keep her face passive. "And what do you mean by…contained?"

"Don't worry about that for now. This is between me and Ama. I want you to stay out of it until you receive orders."

"Of course, your Majesty," Impa said reflexively, her eyes straying to the cheerful face of the oblivious Princess.