AN: Geez! It's been awhile! We'll just blame my lack of time on a certain class I'm taking at school :) I'm beginning to think that maybe I need to write out my thought process behind all these chapters, because what I perceive when I read this and what you get out of it are possibly different things. The gist is the same, but the depth (which I find to be important) isn't. I might repost this chapter later with more explanations, but right now I'm too tired and just want to get this thing uploaded!
Hey Cassidy, when's the next Eternal Valkyrie update? *poke*
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fallen King
Zelda flew out of the throne room only to find Link awaiting her with arms folded and a smug smile on his face.
"I knew you'd come around," he said triumphantly as she glared at him, understanding that once again she had been defeated. She saw the victorious gleam in his eye. He had known she would surrender, damn him, and played her as skillfully and as easily as he did the ocarina.
His games…Zelda thought with distain as she straightened her shoulders and raised her chin high in that regal manner that was natural to her. She had always disliked his little games, and now she particularly despised them. Brushing past him, Zelda headed through the corridors and smaller halls until she ended at an uninhabited section of wall. Link watched as she reached out and touched an inconspicuous stone, pressed in into the wall, and a hidden door swung open in response.
Behind the stone door curled a narrow staircase that Link noticed by the lit braziers fixed to the walls, had been recently used. Zelda began to ascend the flight of steps and Link was right behind her. It was not more than a moment however that the stiffness in his chest began to slow him down and the discomfort of standing grew worse. When Zelda found the hero lagging sadly behind, she found herself walking slower so that he might keep up. She was irritated at him, but that did not allow her to be cruel. He was wounded on account of her, after all. When she slowed down Link fell into stride next to her and they took each rising step of the staircase together.
"What's that around your neck?" Link asked suddenly. He did not look at her, just kept his eyes forward and his lips pressed firmly together. Zelda's hand immediately flew to her throat to find her treasured prize hanging freely and in the open and she gave a little gasp of shock. How long had that been there?
"It's nothing," she said, shoving the worn torn rag back underneath the folds of her dress's neckline. Link did not say any more about it and by the time Zelda had securely covered the scarf they had reached the top of the stairs and walked through the jointed corridor to the cloistered chambers high in the western keep. The walkway open up to another landing and the three guards posted fell back into a state of ease once they saw who was approaching.
Zelda gulped hard and so did Link as the two of them stared at the door. It was as if it contained the end of the world. Perhaps it did. Link stepped forward however and nodding to the soldiers stationed outside the chamber, grabbed the door handle and opened the door. It did not creak and moved smoothly, and Link made a move to go inside.
"If I may say, Master Link," it was the tall blond knight that had questioned Nabooru, "Ganondorf is in no state to be questioned, he won't answer anything, the damned fool. Beating him wouldn't even do much good either, the man's near dead already."
Link turned and looked at him and the simmering temper in his eyes made even the large knight break his gaze and turn away.
"The Queen wishes to see him, Odo, I'd ask that you and your men step aside." Said Link, his voice steady and controlled.
"But Link…"
"I'd suggest doing as he says, sir knight."
All the men turned to behold the young queen standing firmly and regally at the topmost step, lips drawn and face pale. She looked tired and worn, but every bit of her was royalty, from head to foot. The little amount of sunlight shone dully against the golden circlet in her likewise golden hair, and the knights lowered their eyes in respect.
"Lady Queen," Odo had lost his poise and stumbled over his words in Zelda's presence. "I…I have served your father from the day he was crowned, and I pledge the same loyalty to you, but I must think of your safety."
"The Queen will be safe with me," Link said curtly and went inside before the knight could protest further.
Link dismissed the men guarding inside with another nod of the head and Zelda waited until each of them bowed respectfully to her as they filed past and down the hall. When she looked up, Link was staring at her patiently then held out his hand as if to guide her inside, but Zelda bit back the fear that was bubbling violently inside of her and brushed past Link.
The western tower's only windows were high, thin slots in the stonework that allotted for the half-decent sunlight that brightened the room. When Zelda entered however, the firelight from the torches sputtered and rose in their braziers on command and cast out the dankness of the chamber. Link smirked at this little trick of hers despite himself. It was then he set his attention on the unconscious body of his enemy lying chained and bounded to the heavy table in the center of the room.
It began to finally sink in, the seriousness of the situation, when Link beheld the calm and stoic face of Ganondorf for the first time since their great battle. Link's eyes flew up to see what state Zelda was in, and he saw that the color had gone from her lips and cheeks. She stood as far away from the table as he did. She looked back at him and knew that he was afraid too.
"Perhaps we should send for the others, on second thought," Link said, secretly thinking that maybe it would bring him more comfort, having the others there.
"No," Zelda replied quickly, "I want to do this alone."
She moved closer to the table and looked upon the body of her enemy from behind a mask of control. Ganondorf's eyes were closed as if he was sleeping, but Zelda could sense his absence was even deeper than sleep. His mind had fallen deep into the cracks of dreams, and she was unsure that even her magic could pull him out.
Her mind slowly reached out, like fingers searching in the dark, trying to find a small glimpse of life in the Gerudo king. Link watched Zelda perform this delicate and dangerous act apprehensively, unknowing of what would come of it and how he was to protect her if something did turn wrong.
"Don't strain yourself, Zelda. We don't know what he's capable of," beside her now, Link's eyes darted from her closed lids to Ganondorf's.
"No, you wanted answers, so do I. I will not back down."
Zelda's hand reached out and skimmed along Ganondorf's chest, calling up his life force, until her fingers finally rested gently on his forehead just below the ornate Crest of his people. The Queen took a steadying breath and the air around her seemed to still and freeze. Though Ganondorf had slipped into unconsciousness, his breath began to come quickly as a warm sensation began to wash over him, emanating from where the three points of flesh met his brow. He prickled from head to toe and the light that glowed through his closed eyelids became dimmer and darker.
Damn you! Get away from me! Ganondorf wanted to shout, but he felt his head go light and then there was nothing.
Link watched and his nerves knotted and clenched, unsure of what he was to do. Zelda's slender frame quaked once, which had the hero by her side in an instant.
"Zelda, can you hear me?" Link's voice was hoarse and came to Zelda's ears as if he were far away.
"Sh," she whispered, attempting not to break her control and concentration. "Do not break the spell."
She began to hear the quick, heavy breathing in her head now, hard, gasping, deep, and not her own. When Zelda opened her eyes again, she was greeted by more blackness. The room, the dim sunlight, Link, they had all dropped away and she found herself standing alone amidst a great shadow. Panic briefly seized her and her heart skipped a beat, until a moment more had passed and she regained focus.
Walk, Zelda, walk, she told herself and slowly she placed one foot in front of the other. The air seemed cold, and she was sure that if light were available she would have been able to see her breath. However, the blackness surrounded her on all sides and she was unsure whether or not there was an end. Had Ganondorf's entire mind been so damaged that there was nothing left?
It was then that Zelda caught a peculiar and strangely familiar scent drifting to her through the shadow, and while she could not place it, it brought her comfort. The scent moved and Zelda followed it, and was pleased to find it grow stronger as she went. Then the darkness opened suddenly and left the Queen blinking helplessly in the light. Her eyesight returned just in time to see Nabooru disappear behind a doorway.
"Nabooru!" Zelda called, but the Spirit Sage did not return. The smell had also ended.
Zelda turned to investigate her new surroundings with curiosity. She found herself standing in the Central Quarter of the Gerudo Fortress, only it was fragmented and mixed with objects and walls she recognized from her own home, Hyrule Castle, and from the terrible fortress that Ganondorf had built during his reign. The ceiling was high like the Main Hall, and the stones were freckled with gray and brown bricks, a chance pattern blending the materials of both buildings. Gerudo ornaments decorated the walls and tables with spears and rich colors. Zelda looked to the front of the massive room to see the giant throne Ganondorf had occupied while he ruled, and that is where she found him now.
He was old, laden with heavy armor, and looked too preoccupied in his own thoughts that he did not notice her presence. Should she approach him? What was he going to do?
"I knew you'd come, sooner or later I knew you'd come. Meddling wench, even now, after everything, you cannot leave me alone. Have you not done enough?" Ganondorf's tone was low and heated. He sat upon his throne with his right leg flung over one of the arms and was reclined in such a way that one did not need to speak with him to see his arrogance. At the moment he was analyzing the back of his hand very closely and a deep frown sat on his stern face. Zelda could not find the words to speak, she was so taken aback that all reason for why she was there flew from her head. Ganondorf looked up for the first time and regarded her over the tips of his fingers, smiling weakly.
"This you've taken from me too, able to do what I could not," the fallen king flipped his hand around and bore the back of his it to Zelda. There was no glow of the Triforce now, only bare, brown skin. "Maybe I should thank you and Link, your little victory has saved me from a long and tiring life."
Ganondorf lifted his massive frame from the throne and walked to one of the long tables where a pitcher and cups were present. His armor creaked with age as he lifted the pitcher he poured himself a glass of dark red wine.
"Come, Zelda, join me in a drink to your new queen-ship," he said darkly and took all of the contents of his glass in one large gulp.
"I will not drink with you Ganondorf," Zelda found her voice and poise again. "I am not here to revel in your sadistic musings."
"Then what are you here for, Princess of Destiny?" Ganondorf spat. "Because that's all you will be getting from me. Did you really think that I would let you search my mind? It is the last thing I have left, and even then, it is failing me."
"Then what do you have to lose, Ganondorf?" Zelda returned his anger with little effort. "What are my final questions to you, save some annoyance? Perhaps you fear that you could unburden yourself from some of your bitterness before you---."
"Before I what? Die? Oh, surely it will come to that soon enough. And think, then you will be rid of me forever. Why don't you revel in that instead of coming to harass me in my final hours? Be gone." He turned and walked to the nearest door, which was covered by a simple cloth.
"Ganondorf!" Zelda shouted just as he disappeared behind the curtain. She ran after him, and when she entered the same door he had departed from, she found the form of Nabooru walking away down the end of the short hall. The Spirit Sage glanced over her shoulder at Zelda, just as she too disappeared behind a corner. The smell had returned again.
Zelda followed them both and as she reached the end of the hall there was another bright flash of light that left her hindered. When she regained sight, Zelda found herself standing on the steps of the Spirit Temple amidst the cool evening air and the wondrous twilight sky. Zelda heard a noise behind her and spun around just as she saw Ganondorf, expression dark and eyes alight with rage, storming up the steps to the temple. Fear gripped her and she nearly stumbled backward.
"I thought I told you to be gone!" Yelling, Ganondorf reached for her and missed. He had grown even older since the moment before, and the weight of his armor was debilitating. He turned again, crazed, and Zelda clamored back onto the sand of the desert.
"Get out, get out, get out!" He roared as if possessed by a demon worse than himself.
Then there was a change in him that happened so quickly that Zelda did not catch the transition between the two. Looking upon him now, however, the change was unmistakable. Nearly twenty, thirty years must have fallen from his face, and now he stood as a young man, full red hair, vibrant with life, even handsome, though not to Zelda's liking.
"What games are you playing?" Zelda gasped, her heart still racing from the terrifying scene. Ganondorf looked down at her, as she lay sprawled in the sand and his golden eyes held sorrow so deep that she was stunned. Shockingly he held out his massive hand to her in assistance, but Zelda refused it.
"I apologize, Lady, that Side is passing, but it still holds much control," he said, frowning. Zelda stared at him, afraid of what his troubled mind was doing, and what it might be doing to her.
"What? How? I don't understand," she stammered, alarmed at his changed form. He smiled at her, free of malice and spite, and looked out onto the desert with longing.
"I have been a prisoner for many, many years," the younger Ganondorf said quietly, regarding his surroundings as if they were real and he had not seen them in decades, "but I am free now, because of what you've done."
He began to walk a little ways past Zelda and out onto the sand where he inhaled the air deeply, and let his breath out slowly again.
"Who are you?" Zelda could not help but asking. Ganondorf chuckled to himself and then turned back to her.
"The same man, and then again not," he said simply. "The person I was before the Dark Force came, before I followed the wrong ambitions and let Koume and Kotake teach me their black art. Before, when I was the king of my people, when all I wanted was for us to prosper and be strong…" He trailed off softly, paused in reflection. "Before I sold my soul."
A great groan ripped through the evening air and Zelda spun around just in time to see one of the hands of the Desert Goddess carving tear away and crumble to the ground. It's massive pieces crashed upon the stone stage in front of the temple and showered Zelda with sandstone dust. Ganondorf looked at the now amputated statue with resigned regret, as if he had been expecting it.
"It won't be long now," he said calmly, looking to Zelda again.
"You're dying," she replied softly and with an uncomfortable grunt, Ganondorf nodded.
"Very good," almost surprisingly, his voice snapped in irritation. "I thought that maybe you had forgotten how your young hero ran me through with the Master Sword."
Taken aback, Zelda blinked, stunned. Immediately after Ganondorf shook his head in frustration as if trying to shake loose something from his mind.
"I apologize, Princess, that is behind us now," he said wearily, the truth of his age seeping out through his voice. "I am just so tired."
He sat on the steps to the temple and let his shoulders droop and propped up his elbows on his knees. Zelda narrowed her eyes and felt the passion she kept submerged hitch in every fiber of her being. Walking before him she finally allowed her anger to bubble up and leak out.
"You just do well to remember that it was you who made my life what it is. It was you who killed my father!" She spat and felt a slight relief in her exclamation. Ganondorf looked up at her thoughtfully.
"True, I do not deny my misdeeds," he said regretfully. "But my sins are not what you have come here to chastise me for. You have questions to ask, and as I owe you my life, I will answer anything to the best of my power, though what is left is weak and will soon be of little use."
Zelda was taken aback and did not understand if she should trust this new form or not. He looked just as her enemy, the man who had changed her life and killed her father, but he did not act and sound as he should. There was not a single tone of hatred, not a gesture of violence or corruption, but instead the words and manner of a young king that threw her off her guard. The redness in his eyes had gone, leaving them as they once were, clear and golden, and apt to mischief. His skin was smooth and free of care-worn lines, and his demeanor revealed a man who had nothing to gain from hatred. Despite herself, Zelda knew that he could be trusted.
"Where is the Triforce of Power?" she whispered.
"I do not know, and that is the truth."
"But at the Temple, what happened? It was there that it was lost."
"At the Temple of Time…hm," Ganondorf thought to himself, raising his hand and rubbing it over his chin as his brow came together and he was silent for several moments. Zelda grew tense waiting for his answer and she began to feel the fatigue from exercising her mental abilities for so long.
"Forgive me, Princess, but it is difficult for me to remember," he said finally, still looking away from her. "I do not remember much…Something is missing…yes, missing…" Ganondorf was pacing up and down the stone platform, muttering under his breath to himself as he went. An unsettling look fell across his face as he finally stopped, and turned back to Zelda.
"I was at the Temple, I remember. I wanted vengeance," a dark tone touched his voice momentarily, "vengeance on the Sages, vengeance on Link, vengeance on you." For a split second Zelda saw him age again into the miserable, bitter man she had seen him as before, whose voice ran cold and had eyes filled with loathing. But when Zelda blinked again, she found him still young.
"I, I remember being victorious," his voice suddenly dropped to a whisper and he stretched out his hands before him as if half expecting to see some mark there. "The Triforce pieces were to be mine, after all those long years, they were going to be mine at last…but then Din came." Ganondorf's face twisted while trying to dredge up the memory and then suddenly his expression contorted in pain as he remembered.
"She came down from the heavens and she…she struck me with her Flame. It burned so terribly, like nothing I've ever felt before. Then that boy came…ended everything. How did I let myself be defeated? I was close, so close!"
Ganondorf's body suddenly jerked and he grabbed his head between his hands. He shook his head from side to side violently, fighting a war within himself it seemed. Zelda thought for sure that he had gone insane.
"Let me be!" He burst out and made Zelda's nerves skip. "Do not taunt me further! Your Master is gone! There is no more for you here! Let me be!" He called toward the stars, which were now shining above them in a great sea of midnight. Ganondorf's breath shuddered and he clenched his eyes tightly shut as his knees began to buckle and he staggered. Despite her fear of him and her already drained strength, Zelda flew to his side, but stopped herself before she could touch him. He kept his eyes on the ground while his breath was still ragged in his lungs, and Zelda watched as another shudder ran across the great berth of his back.
"Ganondorf," she called sharply, trying to rouse him back to her. He looked up and found her brilliant violet eyes staring into him amidst a frame of long golden hair.
"Hm…forgive me," he managed to force out in a ragged breath. His eyes still had a wild look in them, but Zelda could see that the wildness was from fear, not from anger. She blinked, expecting that to be the last thing she ever saw in his eyes.
"What has happened to you?" She whispered, only half expecting to receive an answer. Ganondorf stared at her, then up again to the stars.
"He's gone," he said.
"Who is gone?"
"I was…changed, afterward. The Dark One, He had gone…I was alone."
"Who? The older you that was here before?" Zelda replied. Ganondorf looked at her calmly and shook his head.
"No, the Dark part of myself," he said again elusively, an all knowing smile playing on his lips. Whether he was purposely trying to be evasive or not, Zelda could not tell, but as she watched the vigor drain out of him she felt a powerful dread enter her heart.
"Can't you tell me more? The dark part of yourself, but is that not…"
"Me?" Ganondorf chuckled. "True, Princess, very true, for many years it was, but understand that there are larger and more potent things in this world than a man's ambition."
"Can you explain? I don't understand you," Zelda pressed just as another shudder shook the ground and more of the Spirit Temple came crumbling down. The tremor caused Zelda to lose her balance and fall. She looked up and saw the face of the Desert Goddess fall to pieces above her, and she was now almost too weak to move.
Ganondorf leapt and scooped her up in his arms just as the stones were to crush her. He set her down after the shaking had stopped and though he saved her life, Zelda instinctively backed away from him. He looked her in the eye and she knew he understood.
"No, there is no time," he said. "I am sorry I can't help you further, but hurry, you must leave, I grow weaker by the hour. After everything that I've done, I do not want more harm to come to you. Go, before it is too late."
The wind began to blow, and with it great swirls of sand licked up and closed in on where they were standing. The outer stone landmarks of the Desert Colossus were hidden from view in the churning sand and Zelda knew indeed that she could not tarry long. Ganondorf's attention turned from her and Zelda followed his gaze to find a dark rider had appeared on horseback some distance from them out on the desert sand. When Zelda looked back at Ganondorf, she found him smiling.
"Who is that?" She asked.
"It is Nabooru," he said happily, taking a single step onto the sand. Zelda looked again and this time could make out Nabooru's face: the strong nose, the high cheekbones, the deep set, amber eyes.
"Is she often in your thoughts? I thought that you two hated one another."
"No, it is not that way," he sighed, "though after everything I have done to her, I would not say that on her part it is untrue."
Another tremor shook the ground as Ganondorf's mind grew weaker and weaker. After, Zelda noticed the same familiar scent, fragrant and female, only now she felt this swelling emotion in her breast that causes her breath to shudder.
"You love her, don't you?" Zelda asked shakily, averse to the sharing of emotions.
"I have loved her since the first time I saw her." He replied. The horse and the figure reared up impatiently in the distance, to Zelda seeming to await Ganondorf's arrival. After all this time, Zelda thought, Nabooru had never shared this with her, or even hinted at it. Zelda realized how deep the pain of betrayal and love must run in her friend's heart; she had buried it so completely.
"I had just come of age," Ganondorf continued, "a king not even for a day yet, when she pledged her loyalty to the Nation, and to me. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She shared my bed that night…not my first, but She was my queen, my Desert Goddess. I curse the dark Power that led me to betray her. Tell her that for me, would you not?"
His eyes shone so brightly with hope that all Zelda could do was nod silently, giving him a wordless promise. This seemed to satisfy him and he smiled.
"You must go," he said again. "I do not wish to be here any longer."
With that he turned from her, and Zelda did not see his face again. She watched him walk away through the sand until he was no more than a shadow in the distance where he met with the form of Nabooru. They rode away together, until the swirling sand swallowed them up and Zelda could no longer see them.
It was time for her to go back.
Zelda began to release herself and felt her head go light. Swirls of images and emotions from Ganondorf's past bombarded her as she was releasing herself, images of he and Nabooru, the strong, dauntless devotion to his people…Koume and Kotake in their manipulative lessons, secretly twisting him to their dark ambitions. His mother's face.
She surfaced in her own mind and body in the same effect as if she was coming up from deep underwater. With a consuming gasp Zelda found herself again in the western keep, surrounded by torches and dim sunlight with birds faintly singing not far outside of the high windows. Link was standing next to her, his arms on either side of her for support. She stared at him for a moment, trying to get her bearings back again. Glancing down, she saw the great stretched out frame of Ganondorf on the table, taking the last breaths of this lifetime. He was dead within the hour and only one other person in the castle felt his passing with the same intensity that Zelda did.
AN: Okay! *whew* onto the next chapter now…thank goodness it's thanksgiving break…