***ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**
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In Sotto Voce
By The Wolfess
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Chapter 9
The sun held its dominion in the sky longer than normal. The short days of spring were tilting into the long, warm days of summer, and it seemed that the goddesses would bless the Hyrulian army with extra light on this dark day. The soldiers took this as a good sign. To those assigned to the front lines, the air seemed especially crisp and fragrant, the birdsong especially sweet. Some of the more experienced men, who knew what the front liners were going to face, gave them extra rations and tips for survival as they passed. Others wished them well, or said a prayer, or just shook their heads and looked away.
In the Castle Keep, King Daphnes sat on a large black war horse covered in golden, bejeweled armor that shone in the early evening sun. With his great beard and broad shoulders, he was a sight to behold, the picture of royal authority and power. Around him, the Hyrulian Generals and Captains were finishing their last brief and the soldiers assigned to the Castle Keep were moving into position. Carrion birds were starting to circle in the distance—a sign that the enemy army was almost upon them.
Princess Zelda approached the keep on foot. Unlike her father, she preferred to stand on the ground with the men rather than above them on horseback. She glimmered and shone as well, and all eyes followed her as she passed. The soldiers stood taller, and those going to the front lines felt a little braver. She was a reminder that the soldiers of Hyrule were not dying for her father, not even for Hyrule itself. She was their reason. They were dying for their Zelda, their true heir and queen, as had been their way for generation upon generation. She looked upon them with all the grace and love of her station, even reaching out to some of those headed to the front lines to allow them to touch her hand and receive her blessing as they passed.
Impa walked behind her princess silently, watching. If Ruto had been among them for so long, who else could be hiding amongst their ranks she wondered? Every soldier received her suspicious glare. She was relieved when they finally reached the Castle Keep. The sheikah felt she could be sure that Zelda was safe here. As safe as possible at least.
Link rode up to her on a horse that belonged to him, a beautiful chestnut mare named Epona that had been his last gift from his uncle before he died. He had his sword and shield strapped on and looked as ready as ever for the battle.
The trainee dismounted when he got near to the sheikah and the princess. "Impa," he said, pulling her into a tight hug. "Please be careful."
Impa blinked and then laughed and patted his back. "I will," she said. "Come on, you're embarrassing me. You've trained with me—have more confidence in my skill. I'm going to be fine."
Link let her go and nodded. "Okay," he said. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just…" he sighed and shook his head. "You should be back here, with her, and I should be up there. You're more skilled than me. You should be protecting her."
Impa shook her head. "Well, that's not what's happening, so no use wishing for it to be different," she said. "I, for one, will have more peace of mind knowing that you are at her side. I would trust no one else with her protection. I mean that."
Link nodded and smiled, swelling with pride. "That means a lot to me," he said. "You know that I will protect her with my life."
Impa smiled. "I know. And Link…" she lowered her voice and stepped a little closer, trying to make sure only he would hear. "If I do die out there, like the prophecy says…keep her safe for me. Make sure you are the one who guards her, for the rest of her life, on my behalf. Okay?"
Link nodded, his expression grave, but he didn't say anything. He looked over at Zelda and frowned, then stepped back and guided Epona away. The princess and her guardian would want a moment to themselves.
The princess was talking to one of the generals when Impa approached. She excused herself from the conversation and stepped to the side with her sheikah. They stood apart and did not touch, knowing that all eyes were upon them. The whole army had heard of the situation by now and more than a few eyes watched, curious and ready to gossip later, from every corner. "I need to go to the front," Impa said. Her eyes pierced Zelda's, trying to hold her with her gaze.
Zelda nodded, her face as impassive and stone-like as possible. "I understand," she said. "Impa, I….please take care of yourself."
Impa nodded. Knowing that she couldn't touch her, the sheikah bit her lip and went down on one knee. She fisted a hand over her heart and held the other out, palm up—exactly as she had the first day that they met. Tears did swell in Zelda's eyes then, shimmering there like waves of glass, but she controlled herself and placed her hand in Impa's. The sheikah raised herself up just enough to kiss Zelda's fingers, where the littlest bit of skin shone beneath her gloves and armor. Impa's lips lingered there as long as she dared, until Zelda withdrew her hand and the moment was over.
Impa stood again and gripped her naginata a little tighter. The two women looked at one another without speaking for a long time. Finally the general commanding the front line troops called her name and she knew that it was time to go. "Goodbye, Princess Zelda." I love you. The words were implied, even if they could not be spoken.
The princess nodded, but she could not keep the emotion out of her voice when she spoke. "Goodbye, Captain Impa. Thank you…for everything."
Impa turned and followed the general toward the front. Link brought Epona alongside Zelda and they watched her go. Neither of them knew the manner in which they would see her next—one of many bodies on the battlefield, or wounded on a medical stretcher, or even victorious and coming shrouded in battle glory. Her fate would be decided that night, along with the fates of hundreds of other soldiers, before the first red light of dawn broke in the eastern sky. Link and Zelda both said their own private prayers and settled in to wait.
!
The enemy army approached from the north in a cloud of dark magic. On the front lines just north of the central keep, Impa could see the red of the enemy's eyes in the distance as they spread through the northern part of Hyrule Field. Red and green-faced bokoblins mingled with skeletal stalfos, towering Lizalfos, and a couple Darknut Captains. Initial reports showed that they had made their base in the northern-most keep, and their general waited there for the right time to advance. The reports described him as a man in a suit of red dragon-like armor with a great dragon's head helm. As soon as she overhead the description, the sheikah captain knew exactly who it was.
Hyrulian troops were stationed in the central and southern keeps, with orders to advance to the two abandoned forts and the eastern keep. Impa's unit was to advance to the north-central keep and fend off the enemy attack until the other keeps could be captured. The fairy fountain would be near the troops stationed back in the southern keep just in case they needed the aid, but the generals hoped that the battle wouldn't come to that.
General Xao was in charge of the front lines. He nodded his head when the scout's report came. Before he could send the man back with the message, Impa shouted to catch his attention.
"Yes, Captain Impa?" he asked. Xao knew Impa from training, and he knew that she was no traitor. He had already made it clear that he would depend on her leadership and power in the battle.
"I know who their captain is," Impa told him. "His name is Volga, and he calls himself the Dragon Knight. He is a fire-wielder who studied under the same master as I did. He is strong, but he knows no defensive maneuvers and is overconfident, so he can be taken down easily."
General Xao nodded. "I will leave him to you since you seem to know of him," he turned to the messenger. "Include that information in your report."
"Yes Sir!" The messenger saluted and ran off.
General Xao looked ahead and his eyes darkened. He was an older man with salt-and-peppered black hair and a well-kept beard in a full suit of Hyrulian armor. It was time to advance, but he held back for just a moment. "Captain Impa," he said, not turning his helm to look at her.
"Yes Sir?" she asked.
"Do you know why they sent me up here?" he asked. His hands gripped the hilt of his old sword in its sheath on his hip.
Impa frowned and shook her head. This wasn't the time for such talk, but if he needed to say it before they advanced then she would let him. "No Sir, I don't."
General Xao drew his sword and hefted his large shield. "They sent me here because I spoke up against the king's sudden change in policies and irrational behavior." He turned his head, and through the slit in his helm Impa could see his eyes, brown, full of determination and fear. "He shouldn't have locked up the Zora princess, and he shouldn't have sent you up here. He has been full of such irrational and harmful policies of late. This is why he stopped speaking to the princess about matters of importance and forbad us to speak with her either—she is too wise, and he knew she would poke holes through his schemes."
Impa frowned. "Why tell me this now?" she asked, her grip tightening on the shaft of her naginata. "Now, when we are about to engage in battle and there is nothing I can do about it?"
"Because," General Xao said, "I want you to understand why I am about to defy the orders of my king. I want to be remembered honorably." Impa swallowed and nodded, awaiting his orders. "The king plans to advance into the central field, in open battle, despite all of our recommendations not to. He and the princess will be exposed to great harm. This is where you come in. We will cut a path for you to get to Volga. After you take him down, I want you to retreat back to the princess's side. Protect her, Impa. Protect her in my place."
Impa nodded. "I will, Sir."
General Xao grunted his acknowledgment and then stepped to the front of the lines. A Darknut Captain with his whole battalion was filing into the north-central keep above them, and another was already capturing the Eastern Abandoned Fort just to their right. The general raised his sword in the air. "FORWARD MARCH," he shouted. The men on the front lines drew their weapons and started shouting. "FOR HYRULE!"
"FOR HYRULE!" The cry rang into the air at the same time and the front line troops started running forward. They filtered into the two keeps and crashed into their foes, swords and arrows and spears flying. Impa could hear dying screams from both sides, and blood ran red on the stone floors. Impa hung back for a moment to take stock. General Xao had advanced into the North Central Keep and was leading the battle in there, so Impa ran to the east to support the troops taking the East Abandoned Fort.
When she got there, a Darknut Captain and a Lizalfos were in the middle of the keep. One swipe of the Darknut's sword or the Lizalfos' spiked tail sent their hylian soldiers flying. Impa knew that she had to reach Volga as soon as possible, but if she left the soldiers to fend for themselves then the keep would be lost. She couldn't give the enemy that direct line to their central field if that is where Zelda was going to be.
"HEY" she shouted at the raid captain trying to take the keep. He looked at her briefly and nodded to show he was listening as he continued fighting the bokoblins surrounding him. "You focus on the Lizalfos, I'll take big ugly here!" Again, the raid captain nodded, and he and his men shifted the focus of their attacks on just the giant lizard.
Impa crouched into a battle stance and approached the Darknut. The armored giant turned his head toward her, the metal of his helm scraping against his shoulder armor. Their eyes met for just a moment. Impa grinned and beckoned him forward with her upper hand.
The Darknut took the bait. He launched into a running charge, leading with his armored elbow intent on smashing Impa's head in, but the sheikah was too nimble. She leapt out of the way and spun around him, slashing at the armor on his back with her naginata. She caught some of the cloth chords that bound the armor together, and a single piece on his hip fell to the ground. He jumped back and swung his sword, his attention fully focused on her now.
Impa dodged his next attack as well, and got another piece of armor off as a reward. As they played this game of chicken, however, Impa was also focusing on the battle around her. She might be winning, but their army was not. Right and left, the Hyrulian soldiers were falling. The raid captain she had spoken to took a spiked ball in the face and died instantly. His body lay bleeding by the northern wall of the keep. Around his corpse were multiple other corpses, most of them clad in Hyrulian blue. Around her, Impa could sense the enemy bokoblins closing in. One brave soldier was holding the Lizalfos's attention, but Impa knew that he wouldn't last long. There was nothing she could do to help him—she only prayed he could hold on long enough for her to get a straight shot at this Darknut's weak point.
Unfortunately, Impa was not so lucky. The soldier screamed as he fell, the arm that used to be attached to his body falling two feet away from where he was bleeding out. The Lizalfos turned his attention on Impa, approaching her from the side. The Darknut still hadn't lost his breastplate yet, and he didn't seem to respond much to the chunks of flesh she had already taken out of his arms and legs. Such was the problem with fighting magical creatures.
She was the last Hyrulian soldier standing in the East Abandoned Fort. Reinforcements had not yet arrived, and she knew that she had to hold the keep until they could get to her. There was no one alive to hurt now, so Impa knew exactly what to do. Gritting her teeth, she summoned a wave of fire around her. It swirled up and down the length of her Sheikah Naginata, its heat rising by the moment. At the peak of its heat and size, when she wasn't sure she could control it any longer, the sheikah leapt into the air and swung the naginata around her body. Fire spread outward in waves, sending bokoblins and Lizalfos alike flying. They crashed into the walls and started screaming as the blaze rose around them and seared their flesh. Most of the Bokoblins fell right there, their corpses stinking of charred flesh. Even the Lizalfos tried to run, but it couldn't get out of the circle of flame that had surrounded them. It hissed in pain and anger, a thread away from death but not defeated.
The fire burned away the last of the chords securing Darknut's armor, and the pieces dropped to the ground. Seeing her chance, Impa let the flame fly away from her and darted forward. Her naginata came down in an overhead slice and chopped right through the monster's shoulder and chest. He blinked for a moment. His sword fell to the ground, clattering on the stones at about the same time as the two halves of his torso separated and his corpse fell to join the others.
Impa panted and looked about. Only the Lizalfos was left standing in the keep. All the rest—every Hyrulian and enemy force that had entered the keep, lay dead and burning on the ground. Ahead of her, enemy forces were running by. Some noticed her and ran down to engage her. Impa started to brace herself, but just then the Hyrulian reinforcements arrived.
"Sorry we're late!" shouted the raid captain as he ran over to the stumbling Lizalfos and put it out of its misery.
"That's okay," Impa shouted back. She gestured around her. "It's probably better that you weren't here yet."
He nodded his agreement. The rest of his battalion was filing in behind him. "We can hold this keep now. You go do what you have to."
"My thanks," Impa said. She didn't waste her time. She ran out of the keep's northern door. Enemy forces filled the northern field, but Hyrulian forces were pouring out of the north-central keep and the path by the Goron Mine on the far northwest side of the field. The enemy forces were engaging them very close to her, as well as advancing toward the East Keep. Impa could only hope that the troops by the fairy fountain were advancing to meet them, because she had her own mission to accomplish.
The enemy base was straight ahead of where she had exited the eastern abandoned fort. Seeing the gates already open, miraculously, Impa ran toward it, cutting down bokoblins as she passed. It made her advance slower, but she thought that it was better to try to help the raid captain who was holding that new keep as much as she could.
Impa and Volga locked eyes the moment that she entered the enemy base. It was teeming full of bokoblins, with the self-proclaimed Dragon Knight standing by the northern-most wall. The bokoblins started to advance to protect their keep, but Volga laughed. "Stand down," he said, a cocky grin on his face. "This one is mine."
"Just as self-assured as before, I see," Impa said, advancing into the middle of the keep. The bokoblins stood back as instructed and didn't touch her.
Volga swung his spear around him, sending of sparks of fire as he did. "For good reason," he said. Then, as the sheikah was starting to advance to engage him, the Dragon Knight raised his free hand in the air—and it turned into a giant dragon claw.
Impa jumped backward as the smoldering claw swiped at her. "What the hell was that?!" she shouted, mostly to herself than to him. Still, Volga swiped at her again with the claw as he answered.
"I might have been holding back before," he said, laughing as she dodged again. "This might be…a much more heated battle, if you know what I mean."
Impa rolled her eyes. "Oh, please," she said. "You could have thought of a better line than that."
Volga gritted his teeth, bursts of flame puffing out of his mouth. Letting out a battle cry, he charged at her, spear leading the way. The sheikah knew this move, though, and she dodged just in time. Just as before, his back was exposed and she swung at it, but before her attack could land a hit, a giant, fiery tail appeared on his backside and slammed into her chest. She hit the western wall hard and slumped to the ground.
"Ow," she groaned, clambering back to her feet. Volga stood back and laughed, waiting for her to be ready again. The sheikah realized that he was toying with her and growled under her breath. She was not a woman who liked to be toyed with.
"Did I hurt you?" Volga laughed. "Sorry. I'll play fairer next time, I promise."
Impa didn't respond. This time, she pressed the attack. She started with a forward slice that sent the blade of her naginata falling in overhead slices around her tumbling form. Each of these, the Dragon Knight blocked. Just when he was settling into his defense, however, Impa suddenly pushed off of her right foot. The naginata swung around her body and slammed, blade-first, into the Dragon Knight's left side.
The black metal sunk into his flesh, and Volga looked down at it in bewilderment. "Where did…" he started, but he grimaced mid-sentence as Impa yanked it out and swung it around for another hit from the top. Volga manifested his dragon claw and raised it just in time to block her, but he fell to his knees and dropped his spear at the same time. His right hand went to the wound in his side where Impa's weapon had sunk in, trying in vain to stem the blood pumping from it. Volga shook his head. "You won't kill me this easily," he snarled.
He grabbed his spear in his left hand and used it to hoist himself to his feet. Impa stood ready, waiting to see what he would do. Instead of attacking, as she had expected, the Dragon Knight let out a roar that sounded as if it came from the throat of a real dragon. He leapt into the air and, before her very eyes, transformed his whole body into a dragon. Great fiery wings flapped in the air, and his long serpentine neck arched downward, green eyes piercing Impa with a hate-filled stare. He took a deep breath. The scales of his belly turned bright red with the heat of dragon-fire.
The blast came straight at her, and Impa dodged out of the way. She tried to use some of it to redirect back at him, but dragon-fire was too powerful to control and the dragon had used the blast as a distraction. By the time the sheikah managed to redirect the powerful flames, he was already flying away. She watched him go, glaring at him until he was a speck in the sky.
The sheikah captain was not the only one who saw Volga's retreat. His own troops had turned to watch him fly away, and the Hyrulian troops could tell just by looking at them that their moral was gone. The only leader left to them, now, was the one remaining Darknut Captain advancing on the Eastern Keep, which Hyrulian troops had managed to successfully capture, and some confused-looking stalfos raid captains who weren't sure if they should run or fight.
Now that Impa had caused their general to retreat, she knew should follow General Xao's orders to retreat to Zelda's position. She was more than willing to obey. As she started to turn around, however, she felt a sharp pain in her side. When she looked down, she saw that Volga's last blast had caught her left side a little and gave her a good burn. It was nothing she couldn't power through, of course, but she wasn't the only one who had noticed the wound.
The sheikah was in the middle of the enemy base. Their leader may have run, but Impa was still surrounded by bokoblins, in the middle of enemy territory, wounded, and with no aid on the way. The monsters looked at her hungrily and licked their lips. Laughing, they swung their weapons around and advanced on her. Impa backed into the corner, where she wouldn't have to worry about protecting her back, and started fighting them off with her naginata.
"IMPA! HOLD ON!"
The sheikah looked up to find the voice and saw Link riding Epona full charge through the enemy ranks. He burst into the keep, horse hooves and sword flying. Behind him on the horse was Princess Zelda herself, brandishing her rapier with bursts of light flying from her sword. Between the three of them, they made short work of the remaining bokoblins in the base, and a battalion of Hyrulian troops was pouring into the north field from their success in the west.
Impa rounded on Link. "What the hell are you doing here?!" she demanded, her voice full of fury. "And with the princess in tow! I should kill you myself!"
Link swung off of Epona, leaving Zelda with the reins. Once he was a little closer, the sheikah could see the real distress on his features and knew that something was wrong. "Impa, it's the king," he said. "When he saw the dragon flying away, he screamed and…and his head…" Link's face turned a little green.
"Spit it out," Impa said, her tone stern. This was no time to grow squeamish.
It was Zelda who answered. "His head turned around backwards," she said, "and he started screaming. Link picked me up on Epona and here we are."
"You need to go," Link said. "I'll help them finish things up here. Go with Zelda, help King Daphnes. If he can be saved…."
Impa nodded. She was already swinging up into the saddle, ignoring the pain from her burnt flesh. "I'll do what I can," she said.
Zelda wrapped her arms around the sheikah's middle and held on as Impa spurred Epona into a gallop. "He's down in the south-eastern field," she said, and Impa turned Epona's head in the proper direction. They went through the North-Central Keep, where Impa noticed General Xao's body on the ground and a pang of sorrow went through her heart. There was no time to stop and mourn him, however, and they exited that keep and passed straight into the Central Keep. From there, Epona went to the right, and Impa pulled her up as they exited into the middle of the Eastern Field.
To their left, just where Zelda said he would be, King Daphnes appeared to be stumbling around in his golden armor. His horse was dead behind him, slain by some unknown dark power. Impa dismounted, her movements slowed by her wound. "Take the reins," she said to Zelda. "If I fall, ride Epona back to Link and escape." The princess nodded, but her eyes were locked on her father.
Impa advanced slowly. "King Daphnes?" she called, shifting her grip on her naginata. "Your Majesty, are you okay?"
The king's head turned all the way around to look at her before the rest of his body followed. His skin was gray, black veins tracing lines up his neck and through his face. His eyes were grayish purple with strange black lines through them. He grinned at her, and a black sludge oozed from his mouth. "Sssoo, you live ssshiekaahh," he drawled through the sludge. "Currrssse that drrrraagon."
Impa crouched down into a battle stance, holding her weapon at the ready. "Who are you, and what have you done to the king?" she growled.
Something inside the king's belly started to bubble, as if his very flesh was boiling. His head started twitching and his limbs flailed in unnatural directions. A scream rose from inside him, and suddenly his whole body exploded. Chunks of flesh flew at Impa, and she dodged what she could. Wiping a chunk of bloody flesh off of her cheek, the sheikah looked at the creature that remained in front of them.
It was a poe, that was clear at first sight, but some malformed poe with powers greater than she had ever seen. He wore ornate purple robes, and a single grotesque eye protruded from the middle of his blackened hood. As she watched, the eye opened into a fanged mouth, and the mouth smiled. "My name is Wizzro," it hissed, "and although you may have won the day, sheikah, you will not win the war. My master comes." It laughed then, a hideous, haunting sound, and disappeared.
"Hey, you," Impa called to the two captains nearest her. They jogged over and awaited orders. "Get a party together and search he castle. The king is missing, and we have to be sure he's not hidden somewhere. Also, go down to the dungeons and free Princess Ruto. She was never a traitor and we have need of her knowledge." The captain in question nodded and ran toward the castle, his battalion behind him. Impa turned to the other one. "I need you to take stock of the progress of the battle. When you are sure that every one of the enemy has been killed or chased away, I want you to report back to me." The captain saluted and ran to do as he was told.
Sighing a little, the sheikah turned her attention back to the princess sitting on the horse behind her. Zelda was staring, blank faced, at where her "father" had been standing. Her hands had dropped the reins and she just sat there, still as a statue, staring.
"Zelda?" Impa said, stepping forward. "Are you okay, princess?" The blond hylian blinked slowly. She looked a little pale, but she was showing none of the physical signs of possession that the king had shown. Still, Impa wanted to be careful. People in shock could be unpredictable, and she knew that with the power of the Triforce Zelda could be a particularly dangerous woman when she wanted to be.
Impa had reached the side of the horse. The princess still hadn't moved or responded. "Zelda?" she asked again, her voice soft. Slowly, carefully, she reached her hand up and touched the back of the princess's calf, behind her armor.
Zelda turned her head slowly, looking down at her guardian. "Impa…he…he…you…."
Impa rubbed Zelda's calf gently, recognizing that it was the physical contact that seemed to be waking her up. "I know, Zel," she said. "Come down from there and we'll get you inside the castle."
"But the battle—" Zelda started, looking around as if in a waking dream.
"The battle is won," Impa said. It may not be over quite yet, but she trusted their troops to finish off the stragglers. "We need to take care of you now. Hyrule needs you, Princess Zelda."
The princess nodded. She swung her leg over the horse and started to slide down. Impa caught her partway down and eased her, ever so gently, to the ground. The princess's legs seemed unstable, as if she didn't quite have the strength to walk on her own. She was still staring at the place where her father's body had been, and her skin was deathly pale.
"Come on," Impa whispered, hooking the arm on her good side under Zelda's armpits. The sheikah was bearing most of her weight at this point, despite the pain of her own wound, which felt worse than it had at first. "Let's get you to the medics." They hobbled inside. A room near the entrance had been turned into a hospital ward, and it was full now with wounded soldiers. There were so many that some were being treated out in the hallway, and still others waited for their turn.
The sheikah captain caught the eye of the head doctor of the medical order. "Excuse me," she called, her knees sagging a little. The pain of her burn was getting to her, but she grit her teeth and kept moving forward. "The princess needs help," she said once the doctor was close enough to really hear her.
"As do you, Captain Impa," the man said. "Come, both of you, to the back room."
A couple younger medics swooped in and took the princess from Impa. They tried to help her too, but the sheikah waved them off. "Just help Princess Zelda," she said. "I'm fine." They took the princess into a curtained area. By the time Impa managed to reach them, they were already laying her down.
"You should lie over here," the head doctor said to her, gesturing to the bed beside the princess's. He was bending over to try to see her burn better. "Your wounds look grave and needs treatment."
Impa shook her head. "No," she said, gritting her teeth a little. "I need to make sure that she's okay. Examine her first, please."
"Very well," he conceded, "but at least sit down." Impa nodded and moved around to the bed in question as the old man got to work examining the princess. He shone a small candle light in her eyes to check her pupils, and then checked the rest of her vitals. After a few minutes he sighed and straightened. "Princess Zelda is fine," he said to Impa. "She is just in shock. Was the battle too much for her sensitive composition?"
Impa shook her head. "She is the strongest person I have ever known," she said. "But she witnessed something so horrible that most grown men would have fainted. Something no daughter should ever see."
The doctor sighed. "Well, we will have her drink water, but she will have to snap out of it herself. You, however, I can do something about. Lie down and let me examine you please."
Impa did as she was told. While the old man looked at her wound, the sheikah watched the princess. "This wound is still burning," the old man finally said, surprise in his tone. "It is unnatural. What caused this?"
"A dragon," she answered. "The fire only grazed me so I thought I was okay."
The old man shook his head. "I have never seen dragon-fire," he said, "but the ancient tomes say that, untreated, it will never stop burning. It may have been okay at first, but it is not okay now. If you had not come to me, it would have burned a hole right through you. Luckily, you are here, and the ancient doctors also recorded a treatment." He turned to his assistant. "Bring me some maggots and Princess Ruto," he told the man.
"What are those for?" Impa asked, suddenly concerned. The old master patted her shoulder and didn't answer.
He shuffled out of the room to tend to his other patients while he waited for the apprentice to return with Ruto and the maggots. Grimacing a little as the burning continued, Impa looked over at Zelda again. She shifted a little, wincing as she did, and reached a hand out to touch Zelda's fingers. "Hey, Zel, can you hear me?" she said. The princess turned her head slowly. She blinked at the sheikah's face, as if just remembering who she was. Impa smiled. "There you are. Hey…you gave me quite a scare. Are you okay?"
Tears welled in Zelda's eyes. "No," she said, her voice croaking a little, as if her throat was raw. "I just saw my father's body explode Impa. No, I am not okay."
"Shh," Impa whispered, taking Zelda hand more into her own. She rubbed the back of the princess's hand with her thumb. "You might want to try to keep your voice down. If the soldiers hear you, they will lose heart."
Zelda jerked her hand out of Impa's grasp. She sat up, and her expression was full of anger. "Maybe I do not care if they lose heart. They should! The king is dead! Who knows how long that…that creature…inhabited his body? Who knows what damage he has done to this court without my knowledge? All of those secret meetings…what poison has he fed to my leaders? What lies?"
Impa frowned. She tried to sit up, but the burn was delving deeper into her flesh and the pain was too great. "N-nothing you can't correct," she gasped. She could feel the fiery embers approaching her insides, searing the outside of her internal organs. It was moving a lot quicker than she had thought it would. "I-I'm sorry I didn't s-see…"
Zelda curled her hands into fists and glared down at the floor. Her eyes moved back and forth, as if reading something. Impa could see the wheels in her mind turning. "That thing appointed you, didn't it?" Her knuckles were turning white and her body was starting to shake, but the sheikah couldn't tell if it was anger or sorrow that was causing the tremors. "Yes, I can see it now…I did not start feeling those unnatural feelings until you came. Once I started feeling things for you and all my attention was on you, I was blinded to the signs. The strange things my father was doing. The way he cared so much about my dreams but nothing else. His sudden change in policies and how he was keeping me out of the council. I noticed it, but I was so focused on you that I did not pay attention to it."
Impa's brow furrowed. "Zelda, you…you can't think that I had anything to do with Wizzro? I swear to you, I had no idea. I had nothing to do with it!"
Zelda turned her gaze on the sheikah, and there was a deep hurt in her eyes along with a little touch of something that looked remarkably like madness. "Did you not?" she whispered, tears shaking in her eyes. "Even if that were true, that does not mean that he did not use you to distract me, and it does not mean that he did not create the things that we thought we felt for each other using his magic."
Impa did force herself to sit up now, and a small cry of pain escaped her lips. The edges of the burning flesh were smoldering red hot, like coals, and her ribs were now visible in the hole. "I-I…ungh…I was not under a spell," she hissed through clenched teeth. Tears were filling her eyes and trickling down her cheek. "E-everything I felt was r-real! I l-love you, Zelda."
Princess Zelda stood. She was a little shaky, but the color was returning to her cheeks, and the madness was burning in her eyes. "Do not call me my by personal name," she said, her tone cold. "I do not know you anymore." The princess turned on her heals and strode out of the room. Impa called after her, half delirious with the pain of her burning flesh, but Zelda didn't return. The sheikah collapsed back on the bed. Tears streamed from her eyes, sobs shaking her body. It wasn't long before the black depths of unconsciousness took her.
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Author's Notes: Hello! To celebrate the SCOTUS ruling today in the US in favor of Gay Marriage, here is the next chapter of In Sotto Voce. I know it doesn't end happily, but at least it's a new chapter. And hopefully the battle was fun to read.
Thank you for reading!
~The Wolfess
**If you enjoy my writing, please check out my major work, the Doppelganger Trilogy. You can find books 1 and 2 completed on my profile.**
