The Queen and the Darkness
A one-shot that I wrote for Halloween. I wrote this in hopes that it might give me some inspiration for Taming the Tiger. This has no specific place in the time-line, and I simply used the Twili as a plot device for convenience. By the way this was inspired by the fantasy series Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Gregory Keyes, and I don't own the Legend of Zelda or anything in it. Please review and let me know what you thought.
Zelda's breath fogged in front of her as she toyed with the key strung around her neck. The cold iron against her fingers sent a chill down her spine as the weight of what she was about to do hit her. There would be no going back after this. She hesitated for a moment as she started to cross the breadth of her chambers. Was this the right decision? Surely, there had to be some other choice, some other path than the one she was preparing to take.
The boom of a cannon echoed in the distance. The Queen of Hyrule stumbled as the castle shook under the impact of the shot. Dust rained down on her from the ceiling. She could hear the yells of soldiers running down the corridors, shouting for reinforcements. She already knew though that there were none left to aid them, and no one would be coming to save Hyrule. All of her allies were spent or cowering in fear behind their own battered walls. Her country would fall if she didn't act now. She already feared she had waited to late to use her one last desperate weapon.
The woman steadied herself and forced her away across the shaking room; fear that the floor might give way beneath her feet at any second dogging her steps. With a trembling hand, she reached out and grasped the candelabra attached to the wall and pulled. There was a rumbling sound as the wall pulled back to reveal a stairwell leading down into the unknown depths of Hyrule Castle.
A chilly, damp wind greeted her as she inched one foot closer to the first stair. She could smell the mold clinging to the walls and was reminded of the one time she had visited the Shadow Temple. Old Death lived down there. It grew and coiled in the darkness in front of her. There was no room for the still beating heart in its recesses.
She lit a small flame in the palm of her hand though it was useless against the ever pressing blackness that surrounded her. The clack of her heel hitting the first stone step reverberated down the long, dark hall in front of her. She took another and then another. Before long she could no longer make out the rectangular entrance to her room. Soon the sounds of the battle going on outside the castle were swallowed up, and the only noises left were the sounds of her footsteps and her own uneven breathing.
She held her hand up and tried to get a glimpse of the ceiling she felt looming overhead but saw nothing. She couldn't even make out the lichen covered stones that she knew must be there. There was only the princess and the dark.
In order to take her mind off of the primordial fear growing in the base of her brain, she started remembering the details of the war that she had tried up until now to forget. It still seemed like a nightmare. Had the war only been going on for six months? She shook her head. The Twili had come so suddenly without warning. For months, her foresight had been cloudy with visions of dark clouds rolling over Hyrule but nothing more substantial than that. A portal had simply opened on Hyrule Field one day, and the strange creatures had come pouring out of the air. The villagers hadn't stood a chance. From there on, Zelda had fought an uphill battle. From the start, she'd had a sinking feeling she couldn't win this war. With threat and sorcery, they had overtaken her allies from the other tribes, leaving everything they touched in shadow and ruin. Now she would have to fight fire with fire. She would have to use darkness in order to defeat it, and there was only place left to turn. Her stomach twisted itself into a knot at the thought of what she was about to do.
She continued to descend into the bowels of her home, her shoulders hunching beneath the gravity of the air around her. She could almost feel the age and weight of all the stone above her. Her eyes could almost make out every crack and fissure in the masonry. At any moment, it could all come tumbling down on top of her, breaking her and leaving her to die alone down there. Her heart pumped a little faster at the idea, and her steps quickened. The flame flickered in her cupped hand, dancing against the wind of her increasing speed. It went out.
She halted with her hand pressed against the wet stone. Her eyes closed, and she drew on the reserves of her magic that sat deep within her. She could feel the sparks flooding up into her arm and out of her palm. Nothing happened. She tried again, focusing harder and seeing the flame take shape in her mind. Still nothing.
Panic started to rise from the soles of her feet slowly working its way up to her heart. The organ was thundering so hard she thought it might fracture her rib cage. Her one small comfort in this perpetual tomb had been taken from her. She couldn't even summon a Din's Fire in this goddesses-forsaken place. She should have never come. She must have been mad.
Tears began leaking down her cheeks when she felt that state of calm overcome her. It happened sometimes when she needed it most, when she was about to crumble in on herself. She had often wondered if it wasn't the Triforce of Wisdom but was never sure. Either way, it didn't matter now. She once again remembered the men bleeding and dying above her. She could see the monsters tearing her countrymen in two like parchment. She felt sick at her own cowardice. She had no choice.
She took a step forward in the darkness and held her hand out in front of her. Her palm pressed against an ancient wooden door surprisingly sturdy and unwarped despite the ever present damp. She had finally reached her destination. Her fingers made out the etchings of old spells, and they sang through her blood. The power of them made her drunk and lightheaded for a moment. The intricacy astounded her. So much time and effort poured into this one space and thing. She could feel the skins of the conjurers' souls sliding over her gloved hand. They had left pieces of themselves in order to ensure what they had created, and she was about to destroy it all.
She blew out one last breath and gathered the scraps of her courage around her. With numb fingers, she drew the key from around her neck and inserted it into the simple lock. It clicked and released the tumblers but remained closed.
She could feel the spell buzzing around her in agitation and question. It demanded to know who this intruder was that had somehow gotten the key to the treasure it so fiercely guarded.
She licked her lips and threw her voice into the open, still air. "It is I, Zelda ,Queen of Hyrule, daughter of Daphnes and Adelaide, Keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom." For emphasis, she held up her left hand and took off the silk glove to expose the mark of the holy relic.
The enchantment paused for a moment as if in thought before the door creaked open on its long unused hinges. The scent of the grave grew stronger in her nose. The air coming from the forgotten cell was stale and smelled faintly of rotting meat.
She waited for something, anything to happen. When nothing did she took a step further into the prison. The weight of time she felt earlier grew heavier, and Zelda began to truly understand the pass of centuries this old part of the castle had endured.
"It's me," she hazarded, "I've come to. . .to. ." she stopped speaking as a sinister chuckle broke the silence.
"I know what you have come for Princess. I have known for quite some time." The voice rolled around her in a spiral of sound. It licked across her bare shoulders and left hand like rough velvet. It wrapped around her in a suffocating fold of intimate and forbidden knowledge.
"How?" she asked, trying her best to sound defiant and keep her voice from quavering.
"Oh, do not worry. I have not been gifted with the power of prophecy as you have. It is merely-how should I put this?-the pattern I have learned. I have watched you and known you from the moment you entered this world screaming and crying in futility. I know your darkest secrets and your greatest fears." The voice was surprisingly powerful in its timbre as if its bearer had not spoken in a human tongue for decades maybe longer. She had expected it to be wizened and crippled with disuse, a fragment of what it had been so long ago.
"Are you trying to scare me?" She turned her head right and left trying to locate a physical presence in the close quarters. She shook her head stupidly. She was still trying to pin this thing down in a human body controlled by the laws of mortal flesh and bone. If it was then she wouldn't be here calling upon a power that the priests would say was cursed by its very own creator.
It laughed again, sighing like a serpent upon spotting a mouse in its burrow. "I think the real question is do I have to try? I can smell it coming off of you in waves. It coats your skin like sweat. You were frightened long before you set foot in my prison."
She ground her teeth at the truth of the statement. It was trying to trick her and outwit her. It was trying to use her emotions against her, an old and useful tool of cunning that had no doubt served it well in times past. "Show yourself to me," she commanded.
"What you see before you is what I am. I am darkness and shadow and vapor. That is what has been made of me. I was a man once but no more."
"Show yourself to me," she repeated, throwing out her arms to her sides to try and ward off the feeling that something was caressing her. "I am your master, and you are my slave. Show me your mortal form."
The air began to boil and bubble in anger around her. The smell of burning flesh stuffed into her nostrils and mouth like oil soaked cotton until she could hardly breathe around it. She choked, gasped, and stumbled, trying to remain upright.
"I serve you only because of the blood that runs in those frail veins of yours. It was your ancestress and those cursed sages that bound me to this ruin not you. Never forget that. You are not her."
She straightened her back and let her fear drip out of her and onto the floor. "Do it. I will not ask again."
There was a moment of perfect silence before a roar burst it open like a thundercloud in a rain storm. The Queen clapped her hands over her ears and fell to her knees under the force of it. It was not the mere sound that set her heart pounding but the shear emotion contained within it. It was the anger of a beast caged and set on display for the amusement of what it amounted to children. So much rage and indignation bottled up in one long expulsion of noise. She could feel it tearing at the edges of her mind, picking at the raveling and frayed ends. When she thought she might submit to it at last, a pinprick of white light appeared in front of her eyes.
It grew and expanded until it took the form of hulking animal. Her eyes had seen nothing but darkness for so long that it took her a moment to make out what was before her. Yellowed tusks curved up from a boar-like snout. A red mane grew in coarse locks over a broad head with shrewd yellow eyes. Enormous clawed hands fisted on the floor of the suddenly too tiny space in front of a pair of platter sized cloven hooves.
She took a stumbling step back out of surprise, her back and hands pressed against the rough bricks of his prison cell. A foul breath of air blew out of the creature's nostrils with the grumbling of laughter underneath it.
She swallowed and took a deep breath in order to control her rapid heartbeat. Those amber eyes were boring into hers, and she could feel them rummaging through her thoughts and soul. They could see every doubt she'd ever had, every selfish thought that had ever come to mind, every lie she'd ever told. All of it was laid bare before him, and he reveled in her guilt and humiliation.
She stiffened with pride, remembering herself for a moment. She was the Queen of Hyrule, the descendant of a proud line of kings, carrier of the Triforce of Wisdom, and she would not be cowed by some overgrown swine bloated on his own pride and arrogance. Her chin jutted out towards him, a tusk coming dangerously close to her exposed throat. It was only the knowledge that the spell on him forbade him from harming her that kept her chin from trembling like a child's.
"So you thought you would be clever?"
"I merely did what was commanded of me, Master," he hissed, the sound coming out of his inhuman throat like a fall of stones racing down a mountain.
"You know this isn't what I meant," she spat back, leaning forward so that she was nearly touching his snout with her nose.
"It is not my place or purpose to do what you mean or want but merely what you ask. That is the bargain. No more and no less." He held his ground with his huge head hypnotically swaying from side to side.
"Then allow me to be more specific. Show me the form you once held as a man. Is that clear enough for you?" She narrowed her eyes at him in hostility but knew the effect was probably lost on him. He wasn't a noble or servant she could intimidate into doing what she wanted. It was merely the old enchantment that kept him here under her will.
The creature heaved its shoulders in what must have been a shrug. "What does it matter what skin I wear if the result is the same? You will make the same request regardless of my form. It is simply that frightened heart of yours that demands I take a form that is no longer truly mine."
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. There was no point in denying it. He would know she was lying. "So it is, but it doesn't change the order I've given or the fact that you must do as I say."
The lips around one tusk lifted into a bizarre smirk before the beast shrunk away to reveal the body of the man he had once been. Almost instantly she regretted the decision. Somehow his human shape seemed to fill the room up even more than his animal shape had. He towered above her with broad shoulders and massive arms. His face loomed over her and seemed to be etched in a perpetual snarl. Those eyes though remained the same. They were still as feral and angry now as they had been in the face of the gigantic boar.
"Better?" he asked sarcastically. He knew the answer already.
She overlooked the question and said, "You know why I have come, and you know what I will ask, but it still must be said. Hyrule is falling around us as we speak. I cannot allow that to happen. You must use whatever power you have within your grasp to save it."
He raised an eyebrow at her, lowering his chin nearly to his chest. "Hyrule is not falling. It is only being transferred from the hands of one tyrant to another. The land will survive and live on as it has for eons as it did before your ancestors came here. It will be called a different name, but it will remain the same."
Her brow crinkled at his words. She thought a moment before rephrasing her command. "Then use whatever power you have to win me this war and to banish the Twili to whatever realm they came from. Is that more to your liking?"
His lips twitched again into that slow, mechanical smile. Her heart stopped in her chest. He was up to something she could tell.
"That is a very large request, milady. The Twili are powerful. They have magics at their disposal that your people have never seen. Your reign is now dangling from a rope on the hangman's gallows. Within the spell that binds me here, there are certain limitations as to what I am allowed to do. Something of this magnitude would require a trade."
"No, how? The first queen bound you here herself. It is your punishment to be subservient to the current monarch of the country. That is me."
"Ahh, but you see there were boundaries set in place to make sure that my abilities were not used by the king or queen for morally questionable purposes. After all, you never know when madness might strike suddenly, and you might take a fancy to burning all of the townsfolk what with the royal inbreeding and all. Not that I would object, but still everything comes with a price. That is the only way to balance this. . . compromise."
She swallowed and blinked. There were only three things she could think of that he might possibly desire. His freedom. The Triforce of Wisdom. Her life. She would give her life if that is what it came to. The other two were out of the question. She would not have him save Hyrule only to gain the pleasure of destroying it himself. Better to see her country torn apart and ravaged by those demons outside her walls than be subjected to his will again.
"Name your price." She bowed her head waiting for the hammer to fall.
"Your soul."
"And what does that mean exactly?"
"Oh do not worry, I do not intend to end or shorten your life. It does mean though that when this is said and done and your heart stops and you breathe your last your soul becomes mine, and you will remain trapped down here with me forever." His face remained an impassive mask as he spoke, but Zelda knew that he must have smiling wickedly to himself.
"But why that when you could ask for something more?"
"When you have been trapped in one place for so long there is nothing more than revenge. I want to inflict upon you what your ancestors inflicted upon me."
"I see."
He lifted an eyebrow again and spread his hands in a patient gesture.
She shut her eyes against the sight of him. Death was one thing. It was quick and sudden and even merciful at times, but that would be a long and persistent torture. She breathed once before answering him.
"Done."
His mouth curled into a long, twisted slash across his jagged profile. His shoulders began to shake with silent laughter, victory gleaming in his eyes. "Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you, Queen Zelda. I must go to uphold my end of the bargain. I will return for yours later."
With those parting words, he vanished. The wind left her in one breath and she slumped to her knees in the dark of her future prison.