With Eyes to the Heavens
Chapter V
Once upon a time, she had been one of the most beautiful women in Hyrule. She still was, really. To strangers, she was at first startling, and then stunning once the beholder got past her strange coloration and appearance. Her looks were part of her talent for deceit and chicanery. She lured the unsuspecting in with them.
She was a woman of entirely ivory, as pure and simple and exquisite as an angel. Her hair was rarely worn lose, it's bearer preferring something more practical and out of the way, yet never being able to cut it entirely, remembering happier days of a childhood where she had always worn it down and been nicknamed for it. It was long and straight, and pure white, the same tone as her shockingly pale skin. She had been raised in the mountains of Northern Hyrule, historians would one day say when her name was mentioned. She never saw the sun as a child, and now, as an adult, hated it, its rays seeming poisonous against fair and delicate skin once nurtured with the finest creams, now desperate for a cleansing long overdue. On most people, such pallid hair would have been startling, even frightening. With her snowy skin, it looked as healthy as one could ever imagine a woman so truly sick.
She never hid the fact that she was ashen and wan as a dead man. Instead, she emphasized it by wearing only blacks, dark blues, and burgundies. She didn't want to be forgotten so quickly. She would find she had little to worry about.
The only color on her body was her eyes. Large, cynical, yet striking red eyes, the trade-mark of her people, the Sheikah. Only one man ever had the chance to see them closely. He had seen sadness and horror, hatred and fear, and a girl, drowning in her own insanity and agony. The man never spoke of what he had seen. He knew no words to describe such terror.
To everyone else, she was a night rider, a demon that penalized and smote her enemies, destroying with a fury few could understand, and fewer would ever forgive. She was Beauty and the Beast, Seraph and the Demon, Day and the Twilight. She was terrible, and no one would ever understand her or her inhumanities.
But, thought Zosime as she stood alone in the Temple of Time, I want to be understood. I want people to know why I'm doing this. What is the purpose of retribution without its justification?
The shrine built in the center of Arcé, or Hyrule Castle Town as the Hylians so affectionately called it, was art in its full glory. It wasn't built in the same towering, modern manner as the dwellings, tall and narrow, nor was it as sleek and simple abstract style of the Wood Age, or the Stylized fashions of the Warring Age. It lacked the elegance and decadence of something from the two thousand year old Age of Degradation, or the natural beauty of the five-hundred year old Middle Age. It mystified Zosime. Try as she might, she could not place the pagoda in its era.
They, the Hylian Monks, had claimed that it had been erected over ten thousand years previous, but Zosime saw that that made no sense. The entire structure was too perfect, too beautiful, too well-built to have been constructed so long ago. The ancient Hylians lacked the funds and discipline to even build a proper infirmary. How could they have built this magnificent place, whose ceiling beams were engraved with the names of religious heroes, whose very windows seemed to gleam, even then, in the dead of night?
For a building that had seen such war and slaughter, it was in astoundingly good state. The harsh flow of time seemed not to have passed at all over the magnificent temple, and everything was kept in such a way so that it looked as though it may have a thousand years earlier. The reason may have been simple: the Hylians, even Hylians waging war, respected their religious beliefs.
When I'm in charge, that'll be the first thing to change.
The other reason she had in mind was more theological, and far less simple. Perhaps what the mad nun, Rugia, lover of the King, had said was right. The Gods protected Hyrule. Well, good for them. She didn't need Gods. After spending a life without hope or faith or any kind, she was not about to reform now. At any rate, she wasn't so sure she wanted to alert the Gods of her presence and doings.
She heaved a great sigh and straightened her stiff shoulders, leaning back from examining a pillar of solid platinum into which was etched runes and patterns she could not understand. Languages had never been her specialty, even with the expensive schooling her father had paid for her. No matter where she traveled, or who she spoke with, be it religious leaders, dukes, or the impoverished, she always communicated in the Domestic Tongue of Hyrule, her home. In a way it was good. At least then everyone could understand what she was saying.
Behind her, she heard the creaking sound of massive granite doors opening, and felt a light breeze on her neck and back, lifting her hair off her shoulders. She didn't bother turning to face the newcomer, thinking it to be another nosy priest or do-gooder monk, or someone equally vexatious.
"Lady," someone said reverently from behind her. It was a woman, and, Zosime could tell from her accent, not just any woman. A Gerudu. She sighed again, this time in resignation.
"What do you want, Laila?" she asked wearily, not bothering to hide her irritation and anger at being disturbed.
"High Zosime, we have found her," Laila said matter-of-factly, a note of disapproval in her voice. Zosime reeled on her, stunned, her eyes wide.
"What? What did you say?" she demanded.
"We have found the Priestess Rugia," said the Gerudu, smiling with pride and flicking her red hair over her shoulder. Still, her gold eyes seemed glazed with a deep anger.
Zosime was not pleased at all, and the defiance she sensed in her soldier did nothing but add to her discomfort. "Where is she? Why didn't you tell me sooner, Laila?!"
Laila seemed affronted as she placed her hands on her hips, clicking her tongue and rolling her eyes. "She's in the barracks, Mistress."
"Is she talking?"
"Oh she's talking alright. She's been lecturing the troops for about an hour now, ranting about the Gods and how she could hear them, and how the Emperor was a direct descendant of them." Here Laila snorted with laughter, covering her mouth politely. Zosime took a step towards the door, and pulled her black cloak over her shoulders.
"Has she mentioned the Queen? Has she mentioned Our Lord?" Zosime asked without missing a beat as she hastily pulled her hair back into a messy plait. Laila shook her head.
"Nah… nothing that good. I'm beginning to think she was a waste of time, with all due respect of course, your honor."
Zosime ignored her comment and swept past her towards the door, her eyes fixed ahead of her. She pushed open the heavy doors and stepped into the chilling night air, cringing as the wind struck her across the face in a frigid slap. Glancing up quickly, she saw that the clouds had begun to move in, blocking the moon and stars from view and considerably darkening the landscape. She smiled briefly, pleased at her good fortune. Darkness was her ally.
As she mounted her horse, a sleek, gray mare, she saw out of her peripheral vision Laila heading towards her, her red hair bouncing behind her. Laila stopped before her, out of breath, placing a hand on the horse's side to steady herself.
"Hey!" she said suddenly, sounding angry, "You can't go now! The bridge's up! You'll never get past the canal!"
Zosime shook her head in disgust at Laila. "I'll get around them. Say it's an emergency."
"They won't believe you," Laila insisted, "They'll try and stop us."
"We'll kill them if they do," said Zosime, "Hurry! Rugia's tricky for such an old bat. Give her and inch and she'll take a mile. She's just like her son."
"Son?"
"Never mind. Come! The trip to the border will take us at least until dawn, and time is a luxury we do not have."
I know! Don't say it! This isn't very good. I know I promised you a big old good thing, and it took me long enough, too, but I just got writers block… and… and… this is all that came out! I'm sorry! Read and review anyway!