Myozunitonirun the Wise

Chapter Three

Zelda walked through the hedge maze outside of the Valliére estate. She had never understood the appeal of mazes. They were a place to hide, but provided no escape.

The labyrinth shifted as she made her way through it, changing just outside her view. Such were the way of dreams. Zelda could force the way out to reveal itself—this was her dream too—but brute force was oft the worst way through a problem.

She heard a group coming from around a corner just ahead of her, speaking in disgruntled tones. "Louise!" one of them called out. "Are you here? Don't make this harder on yourself than it needs to be!"

The group emerged, led by a stately woman with hair the same shade of pink as Louise, tied up in an austere bun. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Zelda.

"You. Familiar. Have you seen your master lurking around here?"

"I have not, your ladyship," Zelda replied.

"Bah. You're as useless as she is. If you do find her, tell her to stop sulking and get back to work. Honestly, if that child spent half as much studying magic as she did feeling sorry for herself, she wouldn't be such an embarrassment."

The woman swept past Zelda without another word, and her entourage of household staff followed in her wake. Zelda waited for them to leave then took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Alright. I've seen what you wanted to show me. Now ... open.

She took a few steps forward, opened her eyes, and found herself at the end of the maze. The labyrinth surrounded a clear lake. It was perfectly round, designed by man instead of nature, and there was a small white house on an island in the middle. Off to the side Zelda spotted a small rowboat floating free with a tuff of pink hair sticking out.

She waded out into the lake, and the water barely reached past her waist. In the boat she found Louise as she had expected, but a much younger version of her.

"Z-zelda!" the child said. She wiped her eyes, sat up, and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. "What are you doing here?"

She was young, younger than even Zelda had been when she had fled into exile. "I met your mother," she said. You showed me your mother. At least, your dream did.

Louise shrank back even more. "What did she say?"

"Exactly what you expected her to say. This is, after all, your dream."

Louise hesitated. "I'm dreaming?"

Zelda nodded. "I explained as much before we fell asleep, but those moments are always the most difficult to remember. It will come back to you."

Louise eyed her. "Tell me."

"It will come back to you," she said again.

Slowly Louise grew to her sixteen year old self. "I used to come here all the time when I was younger. When I didn't want to deal with anyone. Even when they knew I was out here, they couldn't find me without getting lucky."

Zelda nodded. "Solitude is a precious treasure, moreso for the lonely."

"I wasn't lonely. I was ... frustrated. Mother would always want me to be more like Eleanor or Cattleya, but I was never good enough."

"You were never good at being them," Zelda said. "You never will be. You may become better at being yourself."

She scowled. "I've been myself my whole life, and it's never gotten me anywhere."

"No. You've tried to be other people your whole life. You've tried to be Eleanor and Cattleya—your sisters?—your mother, your other friends, and maybe even your father for all I know. But being yourself isn't a path that has been tried and found wanting, it is a path that has been found difficult and left untried." She gestured to the expanse of land, of sea, and of sky. "This whole world is you, Louise. Shall we find out what you are?"

Louise raised an eyebrow. "By going through my dream?"

"The words are inside of you. If you cannot learn magic from others, you must learn it from yourself."

She let out a sigh. "Well, why not? I've tried everything else."

She lacked conviction, not just in the goal but in the current form of reality. But that was to be expected; Louise was thinking with the dreaming mind which thought sluggishly just as it felt vibrantly. She would get better at it in time, and until then Zelda would guide her.

"The first step is to access your temple of knowledge, a place where you would believe important knowledge to be held," she said, dragging the boat to the island shore. "The dream can be divided into diverse temples, temples of knowledge, fear, joy, regret, and others, each of which reflect the dreamer. Your temple of knowledge contains all that you know, including all that you do not know you know. Do you understand?"

"Temple of knowledge," Louise mused. "That sounds familiar. Did you explain this to me before?"

"Yes, I went over all the details with you before you fell asleep. You have a sharp mind to remember even that much."

Louise sat up a little straighter in her boat. "So where can we find this temple of knowledge?"

They reached the island and water dripped from Zelda's dress. As it was not real water, it wouldn't take long to dry. "That is something only you can know. Where would you go to seek truth?"

"Ugh," Louise said. "This is so confusing, and if my brain weren't half asleep I think this all might make even less sense."

"The waking mind knows, the sleeping mind understands, Louise. Only your sleeping mind can guide you through this dream."

She took a deep breath. "Alright. I've decided where to go." She looked around, but there was little in the distance besides her family estate. "It's ... a little far."

"No it isn't," Zelda said. She gestured toward the small island cottage. "It's just beyond this door."

Louise nodded. "I guess that makes sense." She stopped. "Does it make sense?"

"It doesn't need to."

Louise paused to consider that. "Huh." She took a step through the door and into the academy library. "It doesn't!" she said, turning around triumphantly.

Zelda followed her through. "It doesn't make sense, or it doesn't need to?"

Louise hesitated, then scowled. "Argh. Ask me again after I wake up."

They had spent much of the day before in the same library, seeking truths so basic that few who knew them bothered to write them. Once more Zelda followed Louise through the aisles where bookcases towered over them like trees. Louise scanned the titles on the leatherbound spines, picking one out at random and skimming the pages before tossing it over her shoulder.

"Louise," Zelda said sharply.

"What?" she asked, discarding another book.

"Miss Vallieré!" A short, portly woman with grey hair in a tight bun stepped around a corner. "What in Brimir's name do you think you're doing?"

Louise glanced at her, then at one of the books she had left on the floor, then rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't make such a fuss over it. The books aren't real and neither are you, so go away."

The woman huffed, but just when it seemed as though she was about to scream she turned and left."

"Louise," Zelda said again.

"What?" Louise said, flipping through a copy of Basics of Thaumaturgic Resonance.

"That was the librarian."

"I thought that was just a dream of the librarian. My dream."

"You were still rude to her." No temple, not even an inner temple, should be treated with disrespect.

"So?"

"She might have been able to help navigate this place."

Louise blinked. "Oh. Do you think it's too late to ... it's too late. No one holds a grudge like Mistress Alexandria."

They continued on, navigating the narrow aisles in silence until they encountered Louise's classmate, Kirche.

Louise glared at her. "Ugh. What are you doing here?"

Kirche shrugged and gestured toward another girl, shorter with blue hair and spectacles. "Tabitha won't leave until she decides which twenty books she wants to check out, so she's reading all of them to figure out which ones she wants to read. Yes, I know it doesn't make sense. How about you, Zero? I think there was a book on love potions somewhere around here, but knowing you, you'd probably just make your prospective boytoy explode."

"Kirche ..." she growled.

"And not in the fun way."

"If you must know, I'm looking for the symbolic representation of my inner truth to unlock my magic and finally claim the power that is mine by right! So there."

"Okay, have fun with that."

"Thank you, I will."

"Have you checked the forbidden section?" Kirche asked, gesturing towards a nearby aisle. "That's where they keep the good stuff."

Louise threw her head back and turned away. "I was going to look there anyway. I don't need your help." She tossed aside a thin, iron chain that blocked her path, ignored the warning sign, and pulled a book off the shelf at random.

Zelda didn't see what was inside of it, but as soon as Louise opened it, she let out a squeak, slammed it shut, and she glared at Kirche over a glowing blush in her cheeks.

Kirche began to laugh. "Like I said, the good stuff. What, you can't handle the forbidden section?"

"You ... you cow!" Louise spluttered. "You ... you ..." As words failed her, Louise hefted the book in her hands and hurled it at Kirche's face.

"Ow! What—what the hell?"

"Shut up, dream Kirche," Louise said, pulling another book from the shelves. "You're just as bad as the real thing."

"Dream Kirche?" she said, blocking the second book with her arm. "I'm your worst nightmare, Valliére." She drew her wand and shot out a burst of flame, engulfing Louise. It passed as quickly as it came, not even singeing her hair, but it turned her clothes to ash, leaving her bare from the stockings up.

"Aah!" she yelped, covering herself. "You—you horrid little—"

The librarian returned even as Louise spluttered, leading a tour of students. "And here in the forbidden section," the woman said, "you'll find a stupid, naked girl who has no respect for knowledge."

Louise let out a shriek and fled as the students began to laugh. Zelda darted after her. "Oh, Founder, I hate this!" Louise cried. "Get me out of here. I want to wake up."

No. Not yet. There was still one last place to look, and it was the last place Zelda wanted to go. But if Louise's dreams didn't have the answers they sought, then Zelda would have to take her into her own.

"Follow me." Zelda took her by the hand, through a door, and into another world.

WWW

Louise stumbled out of the library and into ... a bedroom? It was lavish and large, and even though it didn't look like Princess Henrietta's bedroom with different styles and decorations, it had a similar sense of grandeur. Still burning with embarrassment, she scanned the room for onlookers, but the only person besides herself was ... a little girl.

The girl was Zelda, but a much younger version. She was a head shorter than Louise with her hair covered in a silk headdress, but Louise could still recognize her. Zelda pointed toward a walk-in closet without looking. "You'll find something to wear in there," she explained, and she walked over to a balcony.

We're not leaving? Louise thought. Because there was nothing she wanted to do more than to wake up in her own bed wearing her own clothes, and she knew this was all a dream, but it wouldn't feel like a dream until she woke up.

But she wasn't exactly dressed to argue with anyone, so she went as instructed to fix that. She looked through the clothes Zelda had provided for her, trying to distract herself from how Kirche had humiliated her just moments before, or how Louise had humiliated herself. Because that was how it worked, wasn't it? It was her dream, so everything that happened was her.

Eventually she settled on a deep violet gown and a white cloak with the hood down, pinned around the neck with a diamond broach. Was she overcompensating? Yes, but she had a right to. The shoes didn't match the rest of her outfit and she felt like she ought to do something with her hair, but ... nah.

She left, trying not to wonder why child-Zelda's dream closet had clothes exactly Louise's size because she doubted that the answer would make any more sense than the question did. Part of her still wanted to ask Zelda about that, but when she joined her on the balcony, that question left her.

The view was beyond breathtaking, the cityscape stretching into the distance, tiny people filling the streets like ants. But what made it all the more wonderful and terrifying was that the balcony she was standing on wasn't part of a tower or a manor, but a castle.

"Founder," she whispered. "You're not just an elf, you're an elven princess."

Zelda shook her head. "Hylian."

"But you're still a princess!" The room, the clothes, the jewelry. Founder, even the way she carried herself when Louise first summoned her declared royalty.

She shook her head again. "Not anymore."

Louise stared at her. "How do you stop being a princess?"

Zelda looked out into the distance. "When I was a little girl, I would often come out here and watch people live their lives, sing their songs, and wait out the ticking of the clocks as the sun rose and set over them. There is a ... mercy, and a peace to forget the past and not fear the future, to see only the present and believe that the calm before the storm will last forever."

"I ... I don't understand."

Zelda remained silent for a moment. "Your peers mock you for your failures Louise, but your failures have not brought ruin to civilizations. What you see now is only a memory of what was, when light still shone on this kingdom, before Hyrule died."

"What happened?"

Zelda let out a sigh. It was strange, seeing her look so young while feeling so old. She turned toward her and Louise realized that the familiar runes on her forehead were gone entirely. "Someday I will tell you. But for now, know that I will do all I can to help you attain the fullness of your power, and that the day will come when I will need to call upon you for aid. Let that be our familiar contract, Louise, and I will see myself forever in your debt."

Louise swallowed. "Okay." She should have said something more definite, but Zelda seemed satisfied.

"Follow me," she said, and led Louise through one corridor after another, passing paintings, tapestries, and royal guards.

"Zelda?" Louise asked. "Or should I call you your Highness?"

"Just Zelda."

"Zelda, why didn't my dream work?" Losing her clothes at school was bad enough, though she would have been lying if she said that that was the first time such a thing had happened to her in a dream. But ... but she thought that if she could succeed anywhere, it would be in her dreams.

Zelda slowed her brisk walk, and looked up at her. Even with the body and face of a child, those eyes were still the same, eyes that didn't just see her, but knew her. "Your dream did what it was supposed to do, just not what I wanted it to. Dreams exaggerate the heart, magnifying all the things you hold dear to you. But, as the librarian said, you do not treasure knowledge, so you would not have a temple dedicated to it. I do."

That didn't sound too bad. "But what are my temples, then?" How had her dream started? With her hiding from her mother's scorn, and it ended with her fleeing her classmates' jeers. Not ... not a flattering picture of herself.

Zelda cocked her head thoughtfully. "I do not know. Thus far, all I've seen are nightmares."

Louise looked down at her feet. "I think ... I think that's all I get. Hey, do you think that when we're done, we could come back and see the good parts?" There had to be good parts. Zelda had her own kingdom here for crying out loud.

"Perhaps," Zelda said. "But I caution you now against spending too much of your life in dreams. A dream is as a mountain spring. Drink from it, water your life with it, use it to wash away the grime of life, but if you try to live in one you will drown." She pushed open a wide door into a library that put the academy's to shame. "Much like a good book."

Louise followed her into the room. "You're sure that one of these books will have spells that I can cast? Because so far, books haven't managed to make me any stronger."

Zelda took a deep breath, smelling the warm, dusty air. "When I was a little girl, I believed that every book in the world was on these shelves. Impossible, but that belief should still hold power in a dream." She closed her eyes and brushed her fingers against the spines of one of the rows of books. "Your book is here, but its knowledge will only grant you power. Strength must come from within. Never forget that."

Louise didn't understand what she meant, but she voiced her agreement anyway. She closed her eyes and felt her way through the book cases, mimicking Zelda's actions, and ... she felt like she was getting closer to something. No, she felt like she was walking in place and something was coming closer to her.

She stopped, feeling something cold and hard. When she opened her eyes, she saw a skeletal hand wrapped around a book, standing out like a corpse at a wedding. She pulled it out to read the title.

The Founder's Prayer Book.

Would Zelda's people have worshipped the Founder? No, Founder Brimir was the savior of humanity, not the Hylians. This book was hers ... but why was there a dead, dry hand holding it closed?

"Have you found it?" Zelda asked, striding toward her.

"I ... think so?" She tried to pry it open, but the long bony fingers wrapped around it from front to back. And those fingers were wrong. Normal fingers had three bones each, but these ones went up to seven. "What do you make of it?"

"It's sealed." Zelda frowned. "Who would seal your words, Louise? Who could?"

"I don't know. Why is my book the Founder's Prayer Book? That's a religious relic, not a book of spells." Questions for later. Besides, it wasn't like anything else in these dreams made sense. "So how do we remove the seal? I could use magic, but ..." But that could blow the book up.

Zelda reached up and took the book from her to examine it. Louise didn't know what she figured out, but her hands began to tremble.

"What's wrong?"

Zelda looked up at her, eyes wide, looking every inch a frightened child having a nightmare. "I can open this."

"Good? That's good, isn't it?"

Zelda shook her head. "Dreams ... exaggerate one's fears like I said, they crystalizes the detritus of the soul to a razor's edge. You've felt your own insecurities brought into terrible focus. You may soon see mine."

"But, it's just a dream," Louise said. "Dreams can't hurt you."

Could they? Zelda's expression seemed to suggest that hers, at least, could.

"As soon as you can," she said, "wake me up. Do whatever it takes, but no matter what, do not let me sleep. Do you understand?"

"I ... alright. Yes. I promise."

Seemingly satisfied, Zelda took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and aged. Years of time passed in seconds for her, and Louise saw the little girl blossom into a young woman in moments, her body growing and her golden hair cascading down her shoulders. The rest of the room aged too, falling into ruin in a heartbeat, books being strewn across the floor and the light of the sun turning into darkness.

The familiar rune on Zelda's forehead reappeared, and it began to glow in harmony with the triangular symbol on her hand. The skeletal hand loosed its grip and clattered to the floor.

Then the whole library, the whole castle started to shake as Zelda opened the book and began to read. Louise felt the air shift, growing stale and tainted, burning at her throat and lungs. Then a figure appeared in a thunderclap, floating in the air and looking down at them.

"Seven years you hid from me," the man said, his voice reverberating through the room. "And twice in one week I find you in the heart of my power."

A crystal formed around Zelda, trapping her in place, but she kept her eyes on the book in frantic focus.

"You leave her alone!" Louise demanded, stepping in front of her. "If you want her, you'll have to go through me!" She reached for her wand ... and found nothing. She ... she must have lost it when she changed clothes. It might not have done much good, but it would have been something.

"Still sending children to fight your battle for you?" There was something wrong and wild about the man. His skin was venom green, his hair was blood red, and just looking at him hurt like looking into a sun that gave no light.

Louise glanced behind her, wondering what Zelda's plan was, hoping that there was a plan. Zelda closed the book over her thumb and gave Loiuse a look that seemed to say I'm sorry. It passed in a moment, and she drew herself up to face him. "You would be wise not to underestimate her, usurper," she said through the crystal barrier. There was no quaver in her voice, but her hands still shook even as her face twisted in a sneer. "But you have ever been the mightiest of fools."

The man looked down at Louise in contempt, and Louise stood her ground. Don't run away, don't back down, Rule of Steel. The words felt less like a code than a prayer.

A ball of blinding light appeared in his hand, and he tossed it at her like a man might toss a stick at a dog, and she burned. Every part of her, every spec, cell, and memory ripped a part, ignited, screamed. There wasn't even enough left of her to realize that she was dying when ...

She woke up.

She was lying in her bed, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat, the echoes of the phantom pain pulsating in her skull from her nightmare. But it was all over.

She rolled over, shifting her head off the damp spot on her pillow when she found someone in her bed with her. Zelda. What was she doing there? Hold ... hold on. Louise remembered it now. Zelda had said that the spells Louise could use were in her dreams, and she was going to help her find them. Then Louise had a dream about her, and ... and ...

"Wake me up. Do not let me sleep!"

Louise sat up and shook her by the shoulder. "Hey, Zelda! Zelda!"

Nothing. She didn't move. Was ... was she even breathing?

"Zelda! Wake up! You have to wake up!" Still nothing. Whatever it takes. Kneeling over her she drew her hand back and slapped her across the face. Nothing. Too gentle. She slapped her again and again, the palm of her hand cracking against her soft cheek until ...

Zelda's whole body spasmed and she fell out of the bed, tangled up in sheets on the floor.

"Zelda?"

There was no reply other than the sound of her familiar gasping for breath. No, she wasn't gasping for breath, she was sobbing, curled up on the floor, shoulders shaking. After a few moments, Zelda calmed herself, rose up, and strode over to the desk.

"Zelda?" Louise said again.

She turned on the desk light, dipped a quill in the ink pot, and began to write. "Excuse me, I need to write down what I've read while it's still fresh in my mind. It's safe to go back to sleep now. For you."

Safe? Safe? It didn't feel safe, and Louise couldn't even make herself want to go back to sleep. Instead she sat up in her bed, propped up on her pillows, watching Zelda work.

Minutes passed, silent save for the scratching of the quill. Say something.

"This is good," Zelda said, staring straight ahead. "We got everything we needed."

WWW

A/n Well, it's been a long time since I updated this story, but when I started working on it to take a break from some of my other projects, everything seemed to come out. Instead of writing, deleting, and rewriting everything again and again, writing this story was surprisingly easy and I didn't hit any real roadblocks since I started it up again.

Zelda's powers were never fully explained, but she never explicitly didn't have the power to go into people's dreams, and Link's Awakening was set entirely in a dream, so ... yeah.

My thanks to my s, Exiled Immortal, Prime 2.0, Sphinxes, Kelsey Bull, Hubris Prime, Apofatix, Janember, Yotam Bonneh, and Svistka, and to all my readers and everyone who left comments and reviews.