Prompt: Sheik writing a letter to give to link after he leaves and zelda takes his place (he can be his own person or a soul or w/e, up to you!)
Verse: Post OOT.
Characters: Sheik.
Pairing: Shink.
Warnings: character death.
Additional note: Aspects of this fic were taken from Ryttu3k's 'The Triforce Wars'. If you like this pairing and haven't read it, go and read it. It's amazing.
Link,
If you are reading this, then everything that you have worked for has finally come to pass. Unfortunately this means that I am no longer here.
I want to explain it to you…but I don't know how. I suppose the only way for me to do so and have you understand is for me to do the one thing I always avoided doing while we were journeying together. You always told me you wanted to know more about me, so in order for this to make any sense, I've decided to finally do so.
Please understand that there is a reason I struggled to keep this from you. I fear that when you truly know me, you will despise me. It's a risk I'm willing to take however, because I want you to know me. The real me.
I was the third and youngest child of my parents, born in the year 344 after the great war between the goddess and the king of demons, during what is now known as the Era of Decline. I had two older sisters named Aatmaja and Majila. I was given the name Samaya. Loosely translated, it means 'Celestial music' in modern Hylian. My parents were loving and cared for us well, until we all respectively entered our tenth year.
In Sheikahn tradition, when a child reaches ten years since birth, they undertake eight years of rigorous training to become that which the Goddesses created them to be. Until thirteen, we are all trained equally in various arts, from singing to warfare, and from then on our training is condensed into only that in which we excel. My parents were both dancers for the Hylian court, and my oldest sister Aatmaja followed in their footsteps. My second sister, Majila, became a gifted healer for the common populace. I had always hoped to be a musician; my mother always told me I had a gift for composing songs. You'll recall the songs I taught you during your journey; I wrote them myself, specifically for you.
Fate had other ideas for me. When I reached thirteen, it was decided I was to become a Shadow Warrior for the King's army. I never resented it, for it was the Sister's divine purpose for me.
And so I spent five years training. A Shadow Warrior is different from an assassin (you used to call me an assassin from time to time, which is why I'm explaining it now), because we are not merely trained in the art of warfare. We learn the art of magic alongside our fighting skills. We are taught to see the Truth, whereas assassins do not and are not.
All Shadow Warriors are trained to cast away material, earthly attachments. It was pointless for us to have such things, because they would only hinder us. I was forced to give up music, friends, my family, and eventually my name. I became Sheik, one among countless others, all who were no longer individuals and who lived only to serve the Royal Family.
When I was eighteen, I was officially initiated into the cult of Shadow Warriors. You mentioned the scar on my right wrist once; the scar of the Eye of Truth. You asked me why I had that scar, and I avoided the answer. The scar was branded into my skin the night I was initiated, as a reminder that my duty in life was now nothing more than to be a Sheikah servant. A servant to the will of the Hyrulian Monarchy.
Many Shadow Warriors were initiated into the ranks of the military, as the final and strongest legion of fighters who ensured the protection of the Royal Family and their subjects. I was one of them at first, until an assassination attempt on the King. My role in bringing down the assassin earned me a higher honor than many Sheikah ever hope to achieve. Because the King himself witnessed my part in apprehending the assassin, he insisted I become a personal bodyguard.
My subject was the very first Princess of Hyrule; Zelda Nohansen I. She and I were quite good friends. She often asked me to play for her, and through several studious months of work on her part, she succeeded in chipping away at some of the hard Sheikahn duty that sealed my true self. I used to play for her on my lyre; the very same one that you and I played duets on.
Three years after I became Zelda's bodyguard, war befell Hyrule. It was discovered that some Sheikah deserters had begun to dabble in black arts, and in doing so had facilitated the revival of a great evil. That was the time when the tear was added to the Sheikah emblem; a symbol of the betrayal of our very own brethren.
The King declared all Shadow Warriors be sent to eliminate the source of the evil. I was among them, despite my duty to the Princess. In the year I turned twenty one, I was sent away to fight a war that ended tragically with the Princess suffering a cursed Sleep. To my knowledge, she sleeps to this day. Suspended in time, she will never wake until one arises who is capable of breaking that curse. I don't recall where she is hidden away. The current Royal Family may very well know, however I have never asked.
I don't recall much of my time among the Shadow Warriors. It's hazy and I suspect my unwillingness to recall it is what blocks it from me. All I know is that during that war, I was killed by a rogue Sheikah.
When a Shadow Warrior dies, their spirit becomes locked between life and the afterlife. I was doomed to wander the river of the dead for eternity, until either released by a member of the Royal Family, or until the Sheikah race died out. But I could be recalled in times of dire need.
The Princess you know was the fourth member of the Royal Family who recalled my spirit. Several times before her calling, I was utilised as a Shadow Warrior. I served during the Hyrulean Civil war and the Unification War, and when my duty ended I returned once more to the River of the Dead.
She recalled me on the eve of her twelfth birthday. Her body was put to sleep in the sacred depths of the Temple of Time where it would be safe, and I became her companion for the next five years. We shared a body, though I was the one who controlled it.
She spent many nights mourning, but many others telling me stories of you. I knew you only as the Hero of Legend; one prophesied to bring the end of a terrible darkness and return light to the world. I considered myself the most fortunate of shadows to be able to assist in your journey, though I never wanted recognition. My duty was still foremost to protect the Princess.
It changed, however, when I met you that first time. Zelda knew instantly, but I rejected all of her notions, as it was against my code to form such attachment. I tried to maintain my distance and keep you at arms length, but in truth I was tailing your every move. I'm sure you nearly caught me once or twice.
When you asked me after you defeated the evil in the Lake why I never stayed, I told you it was because I was only a guide, and was sworn to never interfere with your divine purpose. I lied.
The truth was, I fled because I was scared. I knew what was happening, what wouldhappen, and it terrified me. Everything I learned from my training was warring with my emotions, and I was at risk of breaking my own vows.
I don't think Zelda was ever more furious with me than she was that day. She told me it was stupid to stick to such rigid codes, that I was one of the last two Sheikah in the known realm and that I no longer had to live by the code of a dead race.
We didn't speak for days afterwards.
I'll never forget the night the evil of the Shadow Temple escaped. You jumped in front of me, tried to protect me from something you couldn't see and couldn't fight. You told me it was because you cared about me. That you loved me.
It was the night I finally admitted the Truth to myself.
I knew what would happen if I let it go too far. I was doomed the moment I was recalled from the River.
You're in the Spirit Temple now. Which means our time together, my time with you, is at an end.
When you return from the Temple, it will not be me waiting for you. Zelda is going to break the spell that binds us when the Spirit Sage has awoken. She will be wearing my clothes, but it will be her and her alone that greets you. She will tell you it was her all along, but I know that it will break your heart.
I have asked her to give you this letter without reading it, for I fear that if she does it will never reach your hands. I'm ashamed of myself that I fear she will keep it from you, for I know that she will eventually want you to know. It's ridiculous of me to be so paranoid, but those who utilised me in the past did this same thing, and those who knew me were never aware that I actually existed.
It wasn't her all along. It was both of us, but me first and foremost. She told me what to say, but I made the music. I played the songs with you. I watched you grow from a child in a mans body to a true Hero. I was injured in Kakariko. I tailed you from temple to temple, anxious for your safety.
I fell in love with you.
Link, you have always been the Light in the Darkness. You banished the darkness in my heart and allowed me to be who I always wished to be. For those long, weary years of waiting, you were worth it. For every century I spent wandering the River of the Dead, wishing for eternal rest, you became my reason for living. And for all eternity, I will wait for you.
Please do not come looking for me. You will not find me. I have asked one final request of the Princess; that when you finally overcome the evil that has destroyed this land, she will release me from my prison within the River. I will finally rest peacefully amongst my family and tribe, until the day we meet again in the afterlife should you choose to.
And with this, I have one final request of you. Live. Live and enjoy life, for you may never know when it will be snatched from you. Enjoy the fruit of your labours. Love, raise a family if you wish. Know that I will be waiting for you when your old, weary soul is called to the table of the Goddesses.
Do not despair me. For a fleeting moment in my centuries of existence, I was truly happy, and now I am content.
Link, I will see you again.
Sheik Samaya.
