Seven Pyres

I couldn't believe I had my wife in my arms, trembling like a cold little bird. I thought she would disappear, that maybe she was a mirage or a dream, like the one I had in Ikana. The truth is I couldn't find the words. She on the other hand, began to spout a myriad of words, to protest and say that I'd frightened her, that I'd have shouted my name instead of appearing like a ghost in the fog, that she didn't expect to find me there and I don't know how many other things. I could only think that she was real and was there with me, and that she was alive.

"You haven't listened to anything I've told you," she protested, when I finally decided to separate from her a little.

"I've listened it," I cupped her face with my hands. Her cheeks were freezing, but her eyes were burning, as usual.

She stared at me with a frown and this time she was the one who hugged me, she clung to me much more gently than I did to her when I saw her and crushed her against me. She just dropped on top of me, let her cheek sleep a little on my shoulder.

"Captain, I don't want to interrupt," Fridd interrupted.

The five rito traveling with me had regrouped and landed around us. Zelda didn't move, she was so icy, I hoped she warmed up staying close to me.

"Thank you all so much for your help. As you can see, the princess of Hyrule is safe and sound."

"Captain Link, we can go with you anywhere, even to rebuild the damage of the battle. Lord Tyto's orders were very precise in that regard, we are at your disposal."

I thought about it for a moment. Any help was good, the defences had to be raised as soon as possible because I would never, ever, ever allow Zelda or my family to be exposed to danger again. This time it had been too close and that was worrying.

"Fridd told me everyone's safe in the Nest, right?" I whispered to Zelda. She nodded on my shoulder, "listen to me all. I need one of you to inform Lord Tyto about this, he's waiting for news. The rest... If you want to join us, I'll appreciate your help to rebuild the wall and other damage we've suffered with this attack."

"I'll go and report Lord Tyto right away," said one of the rito, and flew away.

We all set off back to the Nest, but I was a little behind. I knew that trouble was at my back, it was almost as if I could hear it calling me, as if I knew we were travelling in the wrong direction. The shadow had left Ikana to settle in Hyrule, and that made me feel uneasy as well as dejected. When I reached the group I saw that I wasn't the only one struggling with thoughts, Zelda seemed to be immersed in hers as much than I was with mine.

I don't know how we made the journey home, because with everything that had happened I'd stopped feeling, I was no longer hungry, no longer sleepy, no longer cold. The realisation that everything was out of my control, that there was something bigger behind our worst suspicions made me feel as if my body didn't belong to me.

Apparently they had shored up the gate, there was a gate again, and they opened it as soon as they saw us on the horizon. We entered the inner yard, it was muddy: the snow, the footprints, the ashes... everything formed a greyish paste. I dismounted and advanced towards Ardren, who immediately came to the door, and we both fell a little behind the others.

"Captain, we've shored up all the gates, the wall still has work to do, but once we're done it'll be stronger than ever," Ardren said, catching the horse's reins from my hand.

"And the dead?"

"We were going to give them burial today. There hasn't been time so far."

"Do we know who they are?"

"We know," he sighed, looking down.

I entered the fortress. They had begun to tidy up there, had cleared away the debris, put out the small fires that were everywhere when I first came to the Nest. The monsters had searched everything, they had scavenged or burned what they saw fit, they had razed most of the supplies, they had burned or broken what they chose not to take, like many of the winter preserves that Frea had made or that I had been given after the wedding.

The kids were fine, safe in Zelda's quarters. I stood with them for a long time, they told me how my wife had woken them up in the middle of the night, how in an impulse she knew something wasn't going right, how she came up with hiding them in an old cellar that I didn't even know it existed. Zelda's impulses frightened me almost as much as mine.

Together with Jannie and Leri, I had my first bite to eat for many days. Some food could be salvaged, and Impa and Ardren had already started to get more provisions for everyone. Somewhat more recovered I left the kids alone, much calmer now that we were reunited, protected and with a cheerful fire crackling in the fireplace.

I found my wife in the little living room. She was determined to open one of the jars of jam we'd managed to rescue from the pantry. I wondered if she had eaten anything in all that time.

"May I?" I took the jar out of her hands and in a small effort I managed to open it.

"Thank you," two huge tears crossed her face, and her eyes seemed full of many more, but she was acting as if that wasn't happening.

"I've been with Leri and Jannie, they're fine, I've left them in your quarters. Have you been able to eat anything?"

She sighed and then smiled, her face wet with tears. She really was so special that sometimes she seemed to belong to another world. Certainly not my world.

"Mabet is in the greenhouse. He's not right, Link, I've tried to talk to him, but... you can help him more than I can."

"I'm going to look for him now," I nodded, "you... you have everything you need, don't you? At least you'll get something to eat..."

"I'm insultingly fine."

She met my eyes, just for a moment, and I felt a jolt. I was far, far from being able to protect her as I'd have liked. And now I saw her in pain, the same pain that squeezed my heart like a fist. It was unbearable.

Half the greenhouse was crushed. It looked as if a giant fist had unloaded there, sinking everything to the ground. Who knows? It may have been like this.

"Captain Link, Ardren has told me to try to save what I can from the greenhouse," Mabet said, a little defensively, when I showed up there.

"Nice work. Can I help?" He shrugged and I helped him remove the rubble.

Work was a kind of medicine, he knew that well. I wasn't going to be the one to stop him if he decided to dull his pain by chopping tons of firewood, moving stones for the wall or removing the twisted and useless iron from the greenhouse. We worked for a while until it started to snow heavily.

"We have to stop for a while, let's warm our hands, your grandmother has lit all the chimneys of the fortress."

"No," he frowned, insisting on lifting a piece of fallen wall too big for one man.

"Come on," I pulled on his arm and he resisted.

"I don't know why this happened, we were all fine, we had been lucky..."

He started crying, even though he didn't want to, not in front of me. I pulled him and he hugged me tightly. He had grown so much in the last few months, I could feel the strength of a young man and not that of a child. He would never be a child again.

"It's my fault, you hear me?" I pressed him against me, "I shouldn't have left you without securing the defences."

"Why him?"

"Your father would have come from hell itself to defend you and your grandparents. You were the most important thing to him. And that's why he gave his life defending the Nest, it's the most honourable gesture."

Somewhat calmer, he released me to wipe away his tears with a fist.

"I need you by my side," I said, "we have to raise all this mess and be stronger. And now you have to take care of your mother and grandparents. They need you."

"Yes, Captain."

"We must give rest to your father and the other soldiers of Nightfall and Fort Hawk. They're heroes who deserve to be honoured. Will you help me with that, too?"

He nodded, clenching his fists, and I saw him a little (just a little) more refreshed. The weather was starting to get very bad, the sky was a whitish grey, threatening more and more snow. I proposed to my men to bring forward the funeral for those who had fallen in the assault on the Eagle's Nest.

There was a family cemetery on a plot of land very close to the wall. It overlooked Lake Or and the stone gorges, from where one could see rows of tall, snow-laden pines, the same ones that were green and fragrant in summer. Manroy was determined to come and dig his son's grave himself. He was so broken that I could not deny him that, though his hands were shaking and I could see his knees weakening. Unfortunately, there were more graves to finish digging, and that was taken care of by Fridd, Ardren and myself.

"Wouldn't it be better to send them to Nightfall or Fort Hawk?" I asked Ardren.

"It's an honour for their families to give them burial here with your family, Link."

"Yes, of course. We need to send hawks to their families and-

"It's done."

"Good… good."

The funeral was simple and quick. The seven pyres were arranged over the seven holes we had made in the cemetery. We wrapped the bodies of the fallen in oil-covered cloths, and Fridd hand-carved some stone amulets with runes and symbols. We placed pedestals with firewood, and when Or's fire took the bodies away, their ashes would rest in the ground, as was the custom.

"Why are you burning their bodies?" Zelda whispered over my shoulder, at some point she got near me.

"Don't you burn the fallen in Hyrule?"

"We don't. Maybe during the ancient times, but... not nowadays."

"Or manifests himself in the fire."

She kept chewing on that information, maybe writing it down in her mind notebook.

"I knew it was very important for Mabet to talk to you, Link. Now he's feeling better, he just wants to take care of his grandparents and his mother."

"I lost Mom when I was almost his age, so..."

"It's very unfair."

"It always is."

As it snowed, the flames rose high and became visible in the rising darkness. Then we covered the ashes and remains of the pyres in their graves and waited a while longer. The bodies could not be veiled, and some were already somewhat charred by the attack fires, so they were quickly consumed. I asked Mabet to take his grandparents from there, it was cold and we all needed to rest, especially them.

"Link, don't you come inside?" Zelda asked when she saw me lagging behind.

"No, I'll come later."

She stared at me, she was hesitant and probably cold.

"Go with them," I said, encouraging her to come in, "I won't be long."

Once I was alone, I took the opportunity to clear the snow from Mom's grave. I didn't visit her as much as I should have but being there with her always moved me deeply. I wondered if Mom would want to be buried according to Hyrule customs rather than Western ones. I remember her pyre, the high flames in the middle of the night, on a day as cold as this. I remember I promised myself not to shed a tear, I was the son of Chief Grenmak, I couldn't show that weakness in front of other barbarians. Sometimes I put white flowers on her grave as she taught me, they were a symbolic offering to the goddess Hylia. I wondered if Mom would want things to be like this. If she would let dad arrange my marriage to a princess and all the rest of it. I couldn't find an answer, it was hard to imagine what she would think of it all.

"What do I do now, Mom?"

She didn't answer. She didn't answer my questions, nor did she help me to understand what the fire I felt inside meant, that impulse to act, what had dragged me to Ikana and jeopardized what was most important to me. Nor did she respond when I asked her about Zelda, about how should I act to keep her safe. I felt more and more like there was something in Zelda, something valuable that made me feel like she was in constant danger. How to protect something like that? Was Impa right all those times she tested me? I had almost lost her to poisoning, and now death was back to haunt my loved ones, threatening everything I cared about. And I had failed as lord of the Nest.

"How can I save her?"

Dad couldn't save my mom, and neither did I. Death took her too soon. Maybe I was cursed, that's why Mom died, and later Bri, Eve's little sister. Maybe that's why the attacks. That's why Mopai has been around me since I was a kid, and some old men on the mountain always looked at me with suspicion. That's why Zelda was in the worst possible place.

Once in the fortress, Fridd and Ardren had lighted a big fire in the main hall. They roasted rabbits they'd hunted with the bow and filled their horns with wine and liquor. The rito were there too, as were Impa and her Eyes. And my wife.

Fridd offered me a horn full of liquor as soon as he saw me show up.

"Warm up in the fire, Captain."

"Thank you, Fridd," I took a drink and kept near the flames to warm up.

"Frea and the others are resting," said Zelda, who appeared beside me, almost magically, "we've arranged all the quarters so that we can all rest here in the fortress."

"Well done."

For a moment I'd forgotten that there was nothing left of Manroy's cabin, so they would stay with us as long as necessary. In addition, Ninred, Mabet's mother, would be moving with us to the Eagle's Nest. Nightfall was also devastated and I planned to offer her the safety of our home as soon as possible. She was holed up at Fort Hawk, so it wasn't advisable to make her travel right away, especially with so much danger lurking.

"Link, we've got a message from Hyrule," Impa said, holding out a still-sealed message.

"Haven't you opened it?" I looked at Zelda.

"I wanted us all to be here. And especially you. It arrived while you were with Mabet in the greenhouse," she clarified. Again I was moved by her eyes and I had to look away.

I sighed and broke the wax seal with Hyrule's royal emblem. You didn't have to be too smart to know it was a message from King Rhoam. This time he decided to risk the message being intercepted or... I don't know what kind of precautions the king would take, but that was written without any mystery, and it was signed by him.

"The King demands my presence and that of Princess Zelda in Hyrule," I announced, "King Rhoam wants to celebrate his own kandar, so to speak. He has also summoned the representatives of main Hyrule lands and of some neighbouring kingdoms."

"Doesn't it say anything about Ikana and the enemy army?" Zelda couldn't suppress her curiosity anymore and took the paper out of my hands to read it.

"Nothing."

"I don't get it," she frowned, and re-read her father's words.

"We will make all the preparations to depart as soon as possible, but I cannot leave the fortress defenceless now that we have managed to rise again."

"The fortress is stronger now. They won't get in again," Impa said, "and they're not interested in anything here anymore. Their target is to the east."

"Yes, but I can't let this happen again. I can't leave my family unprotected while I'm away."

"You can't protect them at all costs either, that army would have entered the Nest if you had been here or not," Impa snorted.

"You don't understand, you don't understand how things are in the West." I grumbled.

"I do understand, Captain Link. I've been here during the attack, with your wife, and I know very well what's possible and what's not."

"This is not a Hyrule or a sheikah issue," I said, starting to get upset.

"This is a sheikah issue as much as it is yours."

"Enough," Zelda intervened, standing between Impa and I. "It's better to think calmly and agree tomorrow. We're tired and maybe Lord Tyto can help us."

The rito in the room nodded with conviction. Impa relaxed her posture and stepped aside with the other sheikah.

Gradually we retired to rest, though I was almost the last to do so. My quarters were a little trampled, but they had hardly ransacked anything there; the bed was still standing, and the fireplace, and many of my belongings. They had thrown out furniture and emptied chests, little else. I fanned the fireplace and took off my robe and shirt. My right shoulder ached badly, and I remembered that I had fallen on it when Ikana's dark snake had thrown Ardren and I into the air. Where had the pain been hiding all that time? I tried to massage the sore area, but I felt a prick that made me change my mind. Surely Frea had some healing ointment or something to spread on the muscle crushed by the blow. I filled a horn with liquor to soothe the discomfort, so I could sleep through the night without uncomfortable pain.

I heard three gentle knocks on my door. Zelda was on the other side, barefoot, in a nightgown and with her hair loose.

"The kids are sleeping already," she said, and entered uninvitedly.

I didn't expect her, actually, I thought she'd stay with the kids, she seemed as tired as I did. She also uninvitedly took the liquor horn out of my hands and gave a small sip that made her nose wrinkle.

"It's strong," I observed.

"It's okay."

I looked for something to serve her a few drops of liquor and found an empty bone vase. It didn't look dirty, so I poured some liquor there. She sat in front of the fire. She stared at me until I did the same thing, only then did she relax and look at the flames.

"Drink it all. It'll make you sleep well." I told her.

"What did you see in Ikana, Link?"

Then I told her all about it, as the fire burned and we stoked it with more wood, or with the remains of wood that had been chairs or furniture before the raid. It didn't matter, they'd be more useful for warmth. As I told her about the dark snake or the spirit, she would alternately dart her eyes to mine or to my body, looking for visible damage to the skin.

"Is that why you have your shoulder like that?" She reached out, but I moved away before she got to touch me.

"It's nothing, just a blow that will heal quickly."

She sighed and drank of her liquor vase.

"I see that the sword is an important thing, Link. It must be found, the real one, the one that appears in the inscriptions we found in the cave," she murmured. The flames drew her lashes in a much lighter colour, almost like gold. I'm sure a lot of barbarians would think they were made of gold if they could see them the same as me.

"And what does the other thing mean, the light?"

"I suspect what it can be. The old prophecies might be right. And in that case the legends of my country speak of the Triforce, you know, the treasure my family must protect. We are the guardians."

"Can your father help us?"

"Honestly… I don't think so," she said, thoughtful, "he's king consort. He only adopted his name when he was crowned, after marrying Mother."

"Do the kings of Hyrule change their name when they marry?"

"Of course!" She chuckled as if that were the most obvious thing in the world, "it's tradition. But, even if Father wanted to… He's never used that power. We don't even know if he can do it. In fact, we don't know if anyone of us can do it, it's not that simple."

"Could you do it?"

"No, no way! Surely Kahen..."

I noticed the doubt crossing her eyes and how she bit her tongue.

"I think we have to find a way," I drank from my horn, "and find the magic sword too."

"Us?"

"It's stupid, I know, but I feel responsible."

"It's not stupid at all. Mopai... she told me about this."

"Mopai? When did you talk to Mopai? "

"Uh-once. When we were visiting Fort Hawk for the winter banquet."

"She always talks about weird, dark stories, Zelda. I don't want Mopai to go around scaring my wife."

"Link, this time that we have been apart I have felt an anguish that I have never felt in my whole life".

I felt a jolt as she said that. My own anguish knotted my throat and I couldn't get the words out to tell her that I hadn't either, that I had never felt worse than when I thought she was dead, that she was one of the charred bodies on the yard.

"When I got to the Nest, the first few days, I was also separated from my family and my whole universe," she continued, "it's weird, don't you think? I, the princess of Hyrule should be anguished and miss everything... and I did, but it was a different feeling, it's not the same with you. And it's not just because you went to that dangerous place, I was sure you'll get back. It's that what I've felt now is very different."

"Zelda..."

"It's okay if you don't feel the same way," she wrapped her knees with her arm, squeezing them against her chest, "I know it's different for you, and I accept it."

"Why do you think that?"

"You're distant again."

"I don't want to get too attached to something I can lose," I admitted, clenching my fist.

"And why do you think you can lose... that something?"

"Because your father has summoned us, and he already tried to separate us once."

"And it didn't do him any good, remember?" She grabbed my hand.

"Not that time. But maybe your father's right," I drove her hand back to her knees. I could see the desolation in her eyes, and by Or and all the goddesses that it was the hardest thing I'd ever done.

"Maybe I made a mistake coming here tonight," she stood up.

"No, wait, let me explain," I stood up to look her in the eye. She parted her lips but kept silent, "Zelda, look at everything that's happened in such a short time. I haven't been able to protect you or anyone else... I've put all my means, all my strength and it's still been too close. I don't know if... with all this mess, in that darkness, I don't know what's best."

"It's not true! You've done everything you can and none of this is your fault, I don't know where this stupidity comes from," tears welled up in her eyes and that was the last thing I wanted to see.

"I also feel something very different about you," I confessed, I knew it was important to say everything, but I didn't know how to explain it to her, "I feel a kind of need to prevent something bad from happening to you. A strong need."

"A strong need. Just that?"

"No, of course not just that," I reached out and stroked her cheek, now wet because of me, "but that turned out to be something very important, something that weighs a lot in my heart."

"Does it weigh so much as to... doubt our marriage?"

"I don't doubt the way you think," she blinked wet-eyed, and I didn't know if she really believed me.

"I thought you weren't going to take the ring off my finger even if an army of Hyrule showed up to force you."

"And I don't want to take it off, I'd never want to."

"Then?"

I swallowed hard. I had only a ruined fortress. The whole of the West was a dangerous ruin in itself, rife with treachery and enemies, where I felt unable to protect my siblings, let alone her, a stranger to many of my allies. Moreover, my weakness had been exposed before Hyrule, I still remembered my shaky speech to Lord Tyto, I know he promised not to warn King Rhoam, but I also knew that the king would call me to account, perhaps rightly so this time.

"Imagine if sending you to that prince of the East was the only way to protect you from everything that's happened and is happening..."

I saw her breaking right there in front of me. She didn't understand, the main thing was to save her first, to keep her away from the war. Maybe she could travel to that country of the East, near the sea. And if breaking up was the only way to achieve that goal... I would be willing to give up.

"I thought you wanted something else," she said, grimacing, "and that we were part of something."

"I wanted something else, you don't know how far. Until I thought I'd lost you."

"Alright," she sighed, drying her tears with the back of her hand, "I don't know how to feel now. I think... we're tired, that's it."

"You may be right," I admitted.

"Don't decide anything, please," she grabbed my hands, "don't decide to send me away from you yet. I think you're confused, you haven't done anything wrong, Link. Let's go to Hyrule, talk to Father. If you really think the best thing for everyone is to… to…"

"Break up," I helped her.

"... break up the marriage... then let's do it with a clear head, after listening to Father, after knowing more."

I caressed her cheek, enjoyed her touch until I sank my fingers a little into her hair.

"I don't want you to die, Zelda. This war is largely the fault of the barbarians and you are in the middle and I... I promise not to decide anything until I get back from Hyrule."

She got close and kissed me. I tasted the salt of her lips on mine, I felt the urge to deepen the kiss, I needed her so badly. I noticed her firm body under the nightgown, closer to me than ever, the thin fabric was the only thing separating her skin from mine and it made me break with desire right there.

"Goodnight, Link." She separated from me and stared at me before walking away to return to her quarters.

"Don't forget you're still my wife," I said. She stopped for a moment at the door. She closed it and I let her go, "and I love you."

Note:

I didn't know the difference between "cemetery" and "graveyard" in English, so I did a little research to understand if there were differences or if they were equivalent words. The most natural word for me is "graveyard", but after research I discovered that the best choice was "cemetery". The reason is that "hallowed ground" is associated with a graveyard, and implies that the ground and graves are located around a church. In the Middle Ages only the Church had the authority to bury the dead, so you could not arrange a burial or bury bodies in any ground that was not "sacred". Cemeteries are places not necessarily linked to a church, so a 'family' cemetery on private land fits the term better.

Take care,

-Juliet