The change of tense irritated me in the first chapter, so I've split it and made it a prologue. Chapter 4 is still not up.

A start of a story: I may update more often than my other things. Will contain pairings – Link/Midna, Reincarnated!Sheik/Link, possible hints of Telma/Renado, Ralis/Colin and Shad/Ashe.

Disclaimer: The characters therein do not belong to me; they belong to Nintendo.

Twilight Messenger

Prologue

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In her palace of Twilight, Midna, the ruler of the Twili, gazed out at the shadow-shrouded land before her. It truly was a beautiful place. The light of the Sols dispelled swirling shadows where many of the younger Twili played, watched over always by a caring elder. The sky was never fully dark; there was always some form of dim light from it, sometimes in tints of royal blue or regal purples. It was a wonderful place.

Sighing, she looked down at her hands, which rested upon the balcony. It was a beautiful place, yes, and a very safe place. Her power as the Twilight Princess saw to that. She held all the ancient magic of her people, and also the embodied, physical power of theirs: the Fused Shadows.

It was that which worried her.

The Twilight realm, her realm, her kingdom, was safe and secure. The Light realm, Princess Zelda's realm… Link's realm… that was not. Three of the Fused Shadows were in her hands, but one remained in the light world. Her helmet, back when she was that bizarre little imp. That remained in the Light realm.

She shivered slightly, remembering when Link had told her of the great serpentine spirt's warning. Lanryu had told him of the corruptive power that the Fused Shadows had on denizens of light. Her helmet had been the most powerful piece of the four segments; she could hardly bear to think of the danger the light world could be in because of it. Before she had not cared for it, but after all that Link and Zelda had done for her, it would haunt her that she had left them in danger.

The fourth part of the Fused Shadows had to be returned to her. It was a danger to those she cared for but could no longer see.

Turning away from her window, she descended the steps into the deeper area of her castle, where she kept all of her artefacts. A small, shimmering Sol floated near her as she walked, lighting the way in the darkness. She paid it almost no heed, and continued upon her way. It was a veritable labyrinth down in the depths of the Twilight Palace, but Midna knew the way to her treasury. Prison cells were also down here, where the guardian hands, which Zant, the usurper, had used to imprison the Sols, kept a tight hold of those who dared upset the tranquillity of her realm.

Left, right, down the middle of a fork, right, right, left, right. Her footsteps echoed in the silence. Right, right, left, and then she faced the door of her treasury. Deep grey grooves showed that it was inaccessible to anyone, but when she laid her hand upon it, the grooves began to glow turquoise and pulsate, and the door raised itself up. She stepped into the room.

Dust did not fall in the Twilight, but there were many black flickers of the stray curtain in this place. They vanished when the Sol came near them, but flickered back into existence as it passed.

There were various things down here. Midna believed she had a Moon's Tear, a small dagger of some kind, two very powerful masks, a dangerous lyre and, of course, three of the fused shadows. They floated, sometimes elegantly, sometimes with the jarring, crazed loops of their power, in the darkness. No one but she should be allowed to touch such dangerous artifacts. With them, she had destroyed Zant, empowered by his false god as he was, and she had destroyed much of Ganondorf's power with them also. The final part was missing, though, and its absence worried her. She had to have it back.

She walked past the rotating Fused Shadows and lifted up a bundle of cloth. She could feel the weight of the thing it surrounded, and the heat that radiated from it. She paid it no heed, and exited the room as quickly as she could.

She had her misgivings about her plan, but if she was to retrieve the helm, then she really had no other choice.