I don't know when I first realized that something was wrong. It was more of a bunch of little things that tipped me off, not a sudden moment of reckoning. The blankets felt a little too scratchy, and my neck was pressed up against something hard. The room was too bright, and the light seeped under my eyelids. The air smelt funny. I can distinctly remember all of the tiny sensations, the little weird feelings that created prickles of nervousness in my stomach. All this happened before I opened my eyes, before I was fully conscious.

By the time my eyelids slammed open, the seeds of full blown panic were blossoming inside of me. When I was younger, I used to have dreams about falling, where I'd wake up and for a moment I could still feel the air whistling past me and I'd open my eyes and look around for the fast approaching ground. This felt a lot like those dreams. I snapped my eyes open, feeling breathless, confused, awaiting impact.

There was no collision, but there might as well have been. At first, the morning light was blinding. The windows in the room were huge and high, so my first impression of the room was one of brightness. The glass panes interspersed with intricate, curving iron supports invited the light into every corner. The room was circular and the floor was made of a light blue, glassy tile. High above me towered a domed ceiling. There was little furniture and it was well dispersed to give the impression of openness and freedom. Heaven.

I screamed. Loudly. I heard a little gasp in response and the sound of something heavy crashing to the ground.

"What in the name of the Goddesses?" a girl shouted. The voice was low and angry, but I was too scared to care. I had attempted to throw off my blankets and stand up, but in my rush, I had only tangled myself up further.

"I think she's awake," another girl chimed in. This voice was higher and airy. I looked around, breathing heavily, letting a string of obscenities that I hadn't realized I knew flow out of my mouth. By the time I turned around successfully, the two girls were standing and facing me.

The taller of the two can only be described in one word: white. Her skin was pale; her hair and poofy dress were pure white. Even her eyes were the lightest shade of blue imaginable, almost clear. In the bright sunlight she looked positively luminescent. It was disconcerting and kind of Cinderella-ish at the same time, like looking at a spirit or a ghost made solid. My eyes hurt a little bit just to look at her. She stared at me with a confused expression, but I could see her strain to keep a hesitant sort of smile on her face.

Beside her stood a shorter girl rubbing her head painfully and glaring at me beneath heavy eyebrows. Much like her friend, she wore a formal red dress to match her hair. With her round cheeks flushed in anger, she looked kind of like a tomato. An angry tomato with a welt on her forehead. In a strange way, maybe it was the dresses, the girls seemed to match, like they were part of a set. Even before I knew who they were, and the great significance attached to their dresses, their hair, and their every movement, I felt like something isolated them.

In spite of everything, the first words out of my mouth were vaguely coherent, if a bit of an odd choice.

"Do you all dress like that?"

The white girl's smile faded and gave way to a slightly fearful expression. The red girl just continued rubbing her head angrily. "Heavens, you're loud," she told me, "You know that?"

I backed up a little bit from the strange, matching girls. "Never thought about it." Looking back, I must say that I am impressed by my own ability to continue speaking, even though my brain was spinning out of control. Internally, I couldn't even organize my thoughts into a decent escape plan.

"Perhaps you ought to," the red girl answered. "Ow, my head."

The white girl smiled wryly and answered, "Perhaps you ought to take more care to not fall a couch next time." Her friend just glared and lightly elbowed her. The two exchanged half-joking glares with each other. I couldn't quite tell if they were friends.

The white girl looked back at me, where I stood. Under her stare, I could feel my legs shake. It wasn't just a light tremor in my knees; it was a shaking that traveled all the way to my ankles. It was a wonder I was still standing. The girl just looked at me more, with a pensive expression on her face.

"You look confused," the white girl said, acknowledging me at last.

"Confused," I answered, barely understanding

"Believe me, I understand. I know this must seem sudden."

"Sudden?" I asked. "Sudden?"

"But we couldn't wait any longer. There was no other way."

"Other way?"

The red girl rolled her eyes. "Do you ever say anything but the last thing you hear? Oh, brilliant. The last maiden and she's got no more brains than a parrot."

Finally, I shook myself out of my reverie long enough to ask, "What? Who? Who are you?"

"The maidens," the white girl answered slowly, softly. "Protectors of the ancient seal."

"The ancient seal? What the Hell are you talking about?"

The girl walked towards me. "Come, sit. I will explain." She reached out towards my arm.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, shoving her away.

"Hey," the red maiden cried, storming up to me. "Don't you touch her like that!" She reached out to grab me. Without thinking, I punched her in the nose. I had only ever punched one person once, when I was six and I punched my brother. It didn't prepare me for what it felt like to feel a person's flesh give way under your hand. There was a crunching noise, as something hard cracked, and I heard her scream, more in rage than in pain. I didn't know I could punch so hard. Then again, I had never tried.

There was blood on my hand when I pulled it away. Red blood for the red maiden, I thought, vaguely. She really does match. Then, I saw her face, which, between the blood, the start of the swelling, and the rage in her eyes, was enough to bring me back to my senses. I started to run. I don't know where I was intending to go. Just away, to where the red girl couldn't reach me. The round room opened up into a large hallway, with any number of doors coming off of it. Whatever this place was, it was big. And expensive. Amidst the blue tiling, there was solid gold trim expertly worked into the walls and the floors. Jewels and ornaments lay about, unguarded.

I took the first turn that I reached and sprinted as fast as I could, which was depressingly slowly. As I ran, I made a silent vow to myself that I would start endurance training, or something, if only I could escape these so called maidens.

But the girls were fast. Faster than me at any rate. In spite of her broken nose, the red maiden was almost at my heels, reaching out to grab at me. Her hand was within inches of my hair. She would have succeeded, too, if her counterpart, hadn't pulled her arm away with a sharp glare. Behind me, the footsteps suddenly stopped. I wrenched my head around, still running, to see what had happened. The two had stopped in their tracks and were staring into each other's eyes. Slowly, the red girl nodded.

Inwardly, I prayed that this meant that they were giving up. I redoubled my efforts to run, but the sharp pangs of a cramp were beginning to bother me.

"Stop! You have to listen," the white girl shouted to me from where she stood, while she was still within earshot.

"No way in Hell," I responded, and ran, though I could feel myself slowing down. An exit, I thought, there's got to be an exit. But this particular hallway was just as long as the last, and it didn't even have any windows to help guide me. There were five doors that I could see lining the walls, each almost identical. At the end of this hallway, the path branched into three separate directions. This entire place was built like a labyrinth. If you didn't have the layout of this building memorized, you'd never find your way around.

It wasn't long before I ran into the first of the Maiden's Guards, waiting calmly around a corner. I would later come to recognize them by the blue symbols on their uniform, their brisk professionalism, and the fear that always hung in their eyes. For now, however, all I recognized was two men with spears, who reached out to grab my arms. I must have screamed more, but I don't remember. I can recall struggling, or trying to struggle, but failing miserably. Their grips were tight on my upper arm. Perhaps it was a sign of hysteria, but all I could think about was whether or not that could cut off the circulation. I twisted my arm around, trying to loosen the grasp. I was just being stupid, really. They were far larger than I was, and they were trained at this.

Then I could hear her light footsteps. It was the white maiden, again, slowly walking down the hallway, but she looked somehow different. She carried herself higher, prouder, her shoulders back and her eyes steely. She approached fearlessly, and I saw one of the guards shift uncomfortably, just a little, although she was shorted than him by at least a foot and a half.

When she behaved like this, it was eerie. She already looked ghostlike, but now she carried herself like a queen. She could have passed for the specter of some long dead royalty. She nodded to the guards.

"Release her and leave us," she said simply, quietly. The guards obeyed instantaneously. Dropping my arms they saluted and retreated hastily. It was amazing and terrifying to see the respect that this girl, who looked only about eighteen, could garner.

"Who are you?" I asked, backing up slowly, trying to subtly edge away.

"I can call them back you know," she told me, authoritatively, and I stopped walking. She breathed deeply for a moment, closing her eyes and exhaling.

As I stood there and watched her, her eyes softened and her body relaxed. They were subtle changes. Her shoulders lowered just a little and her face assumed a tranquil expression. But the change was remarkable. She looked approachable now, almost friendly, like a girl, not a queen. I was relieved to watch the changes. This girl could be scary.

"You must listen to me," she told me, "You cannot leave until you do."

"You can't keep here," I answered, although I knew full well that she could. "I have rights." It sounded stupid even as it came out of my mouth. The girl just considered me, strangely, before choosing to ignore my outburst.

"I am the white maiden. The maidens guard the seal, binding the ancient wind sorcerer. We maintain peace and equilibrium. You are the descendant of a maiden, and as such, this is your calling," she said simply, as though this should have been obvious all along. "Do you understand?"

There was silence. "Yes," I answered slowly, "I think I do." Silence. "I've gone insane, haven't I?"

"No! This is your calling. You feel it. You are a maiden. You are-"

"Let me guess," I said, casting an offhand glance at my braided blond hair. "The yellow maiden."

"Exactly," she said, sounding hopeful.

"Spare me the bullshit," I shouted, my voice high with hysteria. I danced around her as I talked, waving my hands. "You, you come in here, with your guards, and your stupid dresses, and your talk about maidens and sorcerers, and you want me to believe you? Well there are a hundred better explanations. I'm dreaming. Yes, that's it. Or I'm in a coma and this is what my brain's come up with to pass the time. Or I took some kind of drug, and you guys are just a weird hallucination. Or maybe, just maybe, I've lost my mind."

"You haven't lost your mind. If you'll listen and think about it, you'll know what I'm saying is true."

"It is not true, because you are not saying anything. You do not exist. You're not real. None of this is real." I threw my fist again the wall. I half expected it to plunge straight through and prove my point. Instead, my knuckles landed painfully against it and a shock traveled up my arm "Ow," I acknowledged painfully, nursing my right fist.

"I must say, you're the first maiden to react this badly." I just bit my lip and glared. She sighed. "Look, I won't keep you prisoner or anything like that. But if you won't acknowledge your past, I don't know what I can do."

"You can disappear," I told her frankly, "Go away and don't come back."

"Please, just try!"

"No!" Silence again.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. "I can't change the truth. If I could, I would. You are who you are, and that's the yellow maiden."

"I am nothing you say I am. I'm Ella, okay? I'm seventeen, and I like math, and I don't know a God damn thing about sorcerers and seals and whatever."

"Listen to me."

"Shut up!"

She sighed once more, this time in resignation, and reached into her pocket, removing a purple gemstone. "If you really want to leave, go. I can't stop you."

"Thank you," I exclaimed, exasperated.

"But take this. It's worth fifty rupees. When you leave the palace, take your next right. Pass three streets and then take a left. There's an inn, called Eldicott. It's run by a woman named Bea, and it has a reputable clientele. You'll be safe there."

"Safe? From what?"

She gave me a piercing look and looked as though she were about the say something. Finally, she just shrugged. "From the streets."

I nodded slowly.

"This," she gestured to the gemstone, "will pay for a meal and night's stay in a private room. That's thirty five for the room, five for the meal, with ten left over." She ran her fingers through her hair and thought for a minute. "That would be paid in one yellow rupee. Or two blues. Or maybe even ten greens. Don't let them cheat you just because you're new out there."

She handed me the gemstone and I fingered it lightly."You're really just letting me leave. Just like that?"

"There's a lot I wish I could teach you, before you go into the world."

"I can handle myself."

"Can you?" she asked. As much as I hated to admit it, I had never been alone before, unless you counted sleepovers down the block. That's one thing about growing up in the suburbs. You're always safe.

"Sure," I answered, but my voice shook just a little.

"Confidence," she whispered, "The key is confidence. Act like you know exactly what you're doing and why. And if Bea gives you any trouble, tell her that Lara sent you."

"Who's Lara?" I asked. She didn't answer, but I could tell from her face that that was a stupid question. I had been talking to Lara all along. "Oh."

She squinted in concentration once more, and then looked at me regretfully. It looked as though this were paining her, as though she could cry."Keep your money close to you, and look after it. And be careful. I'll call a guard to escort you out. Are you sure you won't stay?" I nodded and waited for her to shout out to the men, but instead she stood silently for a moment. Before long, I could hear the footfalls of the men in armor. Glancing over at her, looking for some sort of signal she could have given them, instead I saw that she had straightened up once more. She stood again like a queen of some kind and I did a double-take trying to see how that had happened.

When the men rounded the corner, Lara simply nodded to them. They knew their orders, somehow, and took their places on either side of me. As we started to walk away, I twisted my head around to see Lara, dignified and erect, as stone-faced as a statue.

The new yellow maiden and the guards had long since turned the corners by the time the red maiden showed up. "Where is she?" the girl asked, fuming. The maidens each carried with her a charm that activated when they were hurt, summoning any healers or guards in the vicinity. Her broken nose had turned on the charm, and the onslaught of medics had kept her occupied for the last few minutes. Granted, she was grateful that her nose was no longer broken. The pain was gone and the swelling had disappeared, although her nose was still bright red. All the same, she would have liked to have caught up with the future yellow maiden.

"She's gone," Lara responded calmly, watching her friend. "Your nose looks better."

"Never mind my nose, where has she gone? How did the guards lose her?"

"They didn't lose her. They caught her and we spoke."

"And then what? She didn't hurt you, did she?" the red maiden asked, her voice growing dangerous.

"Asa, I'm fine," Lara answered, almost laughingly. "I couldn't keep her here. She wasn't responding well. She convinced herself that I don't actually exist. Strange girl."

"So you let her leave? Just like that? We spent a year trying to call her here, we finally bring her and you just let her out the door! Lara, what were you thinking?"

"Her world has just been turned upside down. You can't expect her to accept it overnight," Lara answered defensively.

"Lara, the seal is weakening. Every day more. If that thing breaks, chaos will spread over all of Hyrule. Everyone will suffer, not just us. And you expect me to sympathize with one little girl who doesn't know where she fits in the world?" Asa answered, almost screaming. Lara gently waved her hand, trying to lower the volume of her voice. The guards would hear soon.

"Shhh… Listen. The path of a maiden is not a kind one. This girl has had no preparation for this. It's worse for her than it was for any of us. You of all people should know what it's like, Asa."

Asa calmed down and quietly spoke. "The day I found out I was the red maiden was the worst day of my life."

"Exactly. Now think of what it's like for her. She had never even heard of us. I'm sure her mother saw to that."

Her friend nodded and stamped her foot. "Goddesses damn that Silke. Silke and all her followers."

Lara laughed a little, before the smile faded from her face. "Indeed. But if we kept the girl here, against her will, she'd turn out just like Silke. She'd hate us, and do everything she could to stop us. We need her to come to us, to join us. And that's why I had to let her leave. She has to meet this land, and love this land as you and I do. She must want to protect it before she comes back. That's the only way we'll earn her loyalty."

Asa looked sadly at her friend. "Lara. I know why you did what you did, but we don't have time for that. The seal keeps growing weaker, we don't have much time."

Scoffing, Lara responded. "There hasn't been a full organized council of maidens for a thousand years, maybe more. I know that the seal feels weak, but we have nothing to compare it to. We don't know how fast it's breaking. It might not open for centuries."

"Or it might break tomorrow."

"There's no need to panic."

"Lara," Asa began, "You know that I'm right. I see your mind. I know you can feel it coming. The townspeople feel it too. There's an agitation beneath the surface, a palpable and growing fear. Whatever's coming, it's coming soon and it's going to end badly."

"Maybe, Asa, only maybe."

Asa just shook her head. "Where did you send the girl? Or did you just turn her loose in the city?"

"I sent her to Bea's place."

"Endicott Inn?"

"Yes."

"You think she'll be safe there?"

"As safe as anywhere. And if there's anybody in the whole world who inspires love, it's Bea. She's a mother to us all."

With a tiny smile, Asa nodded. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there is hope, after all." The smile grew, "But only maybe," she teased.

Her friend whipped around to see Asa already running down the hall. She took up the chase, laughing a little. They vanished from the hallway, making tracks towards the big round room, the only sanctuary left for the maidens.

And thus ends chapter one.

I must admit, I was rather nervous about posting this. Part of the reason I wrote this is that I wanted to prove that you could do a "sucked into the story" type thing and still have it turn out okay. Also, this was weirdly inspired by a dream about a chair and a hotel room. You'll see why (sort of) in the next chapter.

Anyway, I thought that I'd take a pretty minor character for this idea, because I didn't want to screw with too much in the original story. I figured that the maidens are sufficiently minor, in that they don't get names, or personalities, nor are they designated as characters by this fan fiction "select the main character" bar thing (you know what I mean). Also, the most you ever find out about any of them is that at some point the blue maiden lived in a village. So, I figure, that gives me a lot of room to work.

I hope that you've enjoyed chapter one, and should have chapter two up very soon.

-Ornamental-Reciprocity