Chapter 3: The Light Arrow (Revised)
Vaati's palace, a massive fortress built atop the ruins of the destroyed Hyrule Castle. This structure was far bigger than its predecessor and looked very different.
The most notable difference was the presence of a single tower that was so tall that it almost reached the clouds and could easily be spotted from afar. The tower had many functions, from here, Vaati could easily organise his entire army with ease. And it also allowed him to gain a larger perspective of the land he was holding in his iron fist.
The hallways inside were decorated with expensive green carpets and purple stained windows that had an ominous single eye depicted on each of them. In almost every corridor, Darknut guards were stationed on both sides very much like the royal guards did before them.
Just outside the door to Vaati's throne room, Lord Ghirahim magically appeared in a ray of diamonds. He quickly prepared his voice for the meeting with his master and then opened the door.
Sitting on the throne was none other than Prince Vaati himself, clad in his purple and gold royal robe. But he was not alone. A young woman with red hair and a purple dress was sitting beside him. She was Vaati's bride and was called Lady Duelia, though some called her 'Vaati's Shadow' due to the fact that she often stood in the sorcerer's shadow.
Vaati was gently caressing her chin, but stopped when he noticed Ghirahim's presence.
He then quietly said "Please excuse me, my love, this will hopefully not take too long."
She nodded and looked away uninterested while Vaati shifted his attention to the lord that just arrived. In respect to his master, Ghirahim politely bowed before reporting.
"My master, I have searched all the villages in the southern region. But unfortunately…I have found no trace of her yet."
Vaati had a puzzled expression on his face when he asked "Ghirahim, are you sure she was not in Ordon?"
"There were no hylians in Ordon at all, the mayor herself confirmed it."
"A woman? Interesting. Is it possible she was lying to you about that fact? Because the rumour I heard was very specific that the one we are looking for lived in Ordon Village, and that she was a Hylian."
"I didn't see anyone else than those filthy Ordonians when I inspected the village, but it is possible that she was deliberately hiding from me."
"Then she might know who you are, and that is not good news. However, since she now knows that you didn't find her, she might go out of hiding."
"I am certain that the mayor knows the truth about her."
"Then get the truth out of her! Of course the manner in which you may do so is up to you, but I want the princess alive."
Ghirahim started to grin wickedly and snapped his fingers, thus vanishing into glowing diamonds.
Duelia then turned back to Vaati and asked "What is it about that girl that interests you so much?"
"Duelia, are you…jealous?"
"Possibly…"
"Hahaha, No, it's not something as…human as female companionship I need from her. It is something far more important, she is in fact all I need to take my rightful place among the gods. And I will not allow her to escape from me, not again."
Back in Ordon, Ilia and Zelda were talking in the mayor's house. Ilia was sitting at the table while Zelda was standing next to her.
While Zelda was listening to Ilia's story about the unusual guest from earlier, she grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and took a bite from it.
"…then he just left, I have to say he was the scariest man I have ever met."
"Why's that?"
"There was something in his eyes, although he did talk politely, most of the time, he looked like he was ready to murder someone and enjoy doing it. Maybe I'm just being paranoid?"
"I guess you have to be a little paranoid to be the Mayor."
Ilia sighed before confessing "I don't even know if I can do this, being the mayor I mean."
Zelda put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said "You're doing fine Ilia, why do you doubt yourself so much?"
"I am only 19 and that's way too young to be the mayor in the first place. But it was also way too sudden. I didn't even have time to prepare. He just left me in charge and ran off to Death Mountain."
"You know he didn't just "run off", he had no choice but to leave."
"I know, but I am still mad at him for leaving me here with this job. I mean…me? As the mayor? Why would anyone think that was a good idea? If anyone should have to take his place, it should have been you."
Zelda was slightly surprised by that statement and asked "Why me?"
Ilia looked her straight in the eye and explained "You're a natural leader. You always made the right decisions. I mean you were right about how to deal with the monkeys, you were right about not building a second windmill and when have you ever lost in chess?"
"But you were the first one ever to stand up to Groose and his gang, you always defended me from anyone who bullied me, you even gave up more than a few friends just because they were mean to me. I didn't have the courage to do anything like that."
Ilia put a smile on her face and looked away while blushing "Thank you, that was really sweet, I hadn't thought of that, but I suppose you're right."
Zelda took another bite of the apple in her hand and smiled herself for succeeding in cheering her up.
"By the way, there was something I forgot to tell you about that Lord Ghirahim guy."
"Okay…?"
"He was definitely looking for someone when I was escorting him around the village, and then he asked if there were any hylians living in Ordon, I have a strange feeling he was looking for you."
Zelda realised 'That strange owl was right, he was looking for me.' Then she asked "What did you tell him?" in a serious tone.
"I lied. I got a real bad feeling about him, so I told him there were only Ordonians in this village."
Zelda sighed in relief and gasped out "Thank the goddesses for that!"
Ilia was slightly surprised by Zelda's sudden enthusiasm and put a confused expression on her face.
Zelda then looked out the window and noticed it was getting darker outside
"Oh, it is getting late, I better go home, see you later!"
She took Ilia off guard by hugging her tightly, then abruptly left through the door.
On her way home she ran into Rusl and asked "Dad, what are you doing here at this hour?"
"I should ask the same question about you, but for your information I am actually out on a nightly patrol."
"Are you worried that there might be bandits hiding in the bushes or something?"
"Maybe…Uli thought she saw a strange man sneaking around the village and asked me to take a look."
"Do you want me to help?"
"I want you to go to bed. Your mother said that she needed you to be up early tomorrow."
"Hey I'm not a child anymore, you do know that I'm 18 now?"
"Need I remind you that your birthday was only two weeks ago. Besides, it's not like you magically get more mature by some number on a calendar."
"But dad!"
While they were bickering outside, Ilia was sitting in her room for a while. She remembered that she had something to tell Zelda that she didn't have the chance to do.
She made a decision to say it anyway and ran up to the door. But when she opened it, Ghirahim was standing in the doorway.
He had a devilish grin on his face when he said "Hello Ilia, am I interrupting something?"
Then he summoned several magical diamonds that restrained her and then sent her flying into a wall. She was now pinned to the wall and unable to move.
He then walked slowly towards her while calmly saying "I happen to have found out that you have been lying to me, hid someone my master desired and disobeyed an order from your own prince." then his voice started to rise "Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside?" and then his voice became rampant "FURIOUS! OUTRAGED! SICK WITH ANGER!"
He then teleported right next to her and summoned a floating diamond-shaped knife while shifting to a very sinister voice "For that reason I will absolutely enjoy torturing you senseless until you can feel nothing but pain, but if you tell me where to find the Hylian you adorably hide from me, then I might be more merciful."
Then he made the knife move slowly towards her neck and she could not stop herself from screaming in panic.
Rusl and Zelda heard the scream and almost instinctively rushed to her aid. When they reached the open door, Rusl took out his sword and confronted the stranger who was threatening one of his people.
At the sight of Rusl, Ghirahim commented out loud "Why do girls always scream when I threaten them?"
Rusl pointed his sword towards him and demanded "Let her go!" in a very serious tone.
The lord glanced at Zelda who appeared behind him and a sly grin creeped up on his face.
Then he unexpectedly answered "As you wish" and snapped his fingers, thus releasing Ilia from his magical hold.
The first thing she did after getting freed was to run out through the door as fast as possible.
Just after she left, Ghirahim revealed "Because it is not her that I'm after, it is in fact that little Hylian girl standing next to you that I desire."
That comment made Zelda freeze in realisation, the words 'Don't allow Ghirahim to see you' swarmed into her head as she realised just what kind of mistake she had just made.
Rusl silently told Zelda "Get out of here, now" without turning his eyes away from Ghirahim, and she obeyed without question.
When Ghirahim started to move towards her with intent, Rusl warned "You won't get near her!"
Ghirahim mockingly asked him "Are you going to stop me with that puny excuse for a sword?"
Rusl answered "If I have to!" and slashed his sword towards the lord.
But Ghirahim easily caught the sword between two of his fingers, he laughed as Rusl tried to pull it out of his grip. Then he yanked it out of Rusl's hands and sliced his stomach with it.
Rusl collapsed on the floor in pain and Ghirahim licked off Rusl's blood on the sword with his unnaturally long tongue. Then he just tossed it on the floor and teleported away.
Zelda ran as fast as she could towards the targeting area as she remembered she left the bow and arrows there, which were the only thing she could think of to defend herself with.
Ghirahim then teleported right in front of her, and she quickly dashed the other way. He then summoned several of his diamond shaped knives and sent them to hit the ground in her running path, and she was forced to change direction again and again and again.
They continue this game of cat and mouse for a while, but then Zelda reached her destination.
Ghirahim teleported on top of the tree Keapora sat on earlier, and said "As much as I enjoy watching you run around in circles, it would be best for everyone if you just gave up."
Zelda picked up the bow from where she last left it and quickly loaded an arrow, pointed it at Ghirahim, and sent it flying towards him. But he simply bashed it away with his hand and taunted "Is that the best that you can do?"
A faint light then started to appear on Zelda's left hand and she could hear words that were in a very old language, one so old that not even she could translate them. And almost subconsciously, she knew what she had to do.
She loaded another arrow and aimed it at him. But this time she said the words that she heard in her head out loud, and the arrow suddenly got enveloped in a bright light that altered the very form of the arrow itself.
With this new magical arrow prepared, Zelda sent it flying right into Ghirahim's chest. The magical light from the arrow enveloped his entire body, causing him to scream in agony while falling down from the tree and landing on his back.
After lying on the floor and panted for a while, he pulled himself up and stared at Zelda in disbelief.
"The demon lord Girahim beaten by an adorable little girl like you, how inappropriate."
Zelda repeated the same strange words again, thus creating another glowing arrow, and aimed it at his head while asking "What do you want from me?"
Ghirahim then abruptly changed his temper and started to laugh hysterically at the question.
"Muehahahahahahahahaha! You don't even know who you are? Hahahahahahahaha! My master has waited a long time to get his hands on you…Princess Zelda, and now he has found you."
"What did you just call me?"
Instead of answering her question, Ghirahim just snapped his fingers and disappeared.
The magical light from the arrow disappeared and it reverted to a normal arrow again, but Zelda was puzzled about what just happened.
'What did he mean by 'Princess'? I am no princess, or am I? I never knew who my real parents were, but what if they were the…no, that's impossible. Wait a minute, what happened with that arrow anyways? And those words, those words just came out of nowhere, but what do they mean?'
While she was thinking heavily about the situation, she didn't notice that a faint triangle-shaped light was emanating from the back of her left hand.
Author notes
Yes I changed the goddamn title in this chapter, deal with it! Just kidding, I'm not that rude.
The reason for the change was that I was not that pleased with the original title, while it was good, the chapter itself didn't do it justice. And looking back, the first time Zelda uses a Light Arrow was far more important to note in Zelda's story than just that Ghirahim attacked her.
Also here is my first OC, Lady Duelia. I originally didn't think much of her, but later I realised that she had a lot of potential. So while she might not seem like a particularly important character now, she will be very important later in the story.
I have a list of all my current original characters in my profile page if you're interested. And while I am not having a story full of OCs, there are quite a few that will show up later.
