Water

In the far-off distance, a low growl of thunder sounded. It gradually built up as it neared and rolled over the land like a wave. A soft rain was falling, swathing everything in a white mist.

Framed by the roots of two huge trees stood an ancient stone doorway. In front of it now were stood two women, gathering in the shelter provided by a nearby rock.

The first one to speak was taller then the other, and looked older. Her hair was snow-white and cut short and practically. Her face was stern and matriarchal, but tattooed and decorated with what appeared to be war-paint. She wore practical clothes that would make for easy movement and had a metal cuirass over that. She seemed to be continuing on from an earlier conversation. "There are many obstacles that you will face as queen. This test is designed to prepare you to face the one greatest and most dangerous threat to your reign." She indicated the door they stood near. "You must enter here, and do not come out until you are ready."

The other woman, or perhaps girl for she seemed on the cusp, was watching water dripping off the edge of a nearby leaf. She looked much more innocent then her older counter-part, but there was an intensity and deep understanding in her blue eyes. She was dressed in a simple dress, but it seemed regal and elegant, and was marred by their contact with the deep mud around her. Her hair was shoulder-length and golden-blonde. "How will I know when I am ready?" She asked apprehensively. The older woman's lips tightened: it could have been a smile, but for the utter lack of humour in it. "You shall know."

The younger girl turned and headed towards the door. "Your majesty," The older woman called, and took something off her shoulder, "You may want these." The young princess came back and took the bow and quiver offered. She looked up at her teacher: "What will I find in there?" The older woman again smiled her blank, mysterious smile and her eyes seemed to be looking back into deep pools of memory.
"The worst enemy you shall ever face."

Filled with no small trepidation, the girl took a deep breath and turned her back on the armoured servant, walking slowly towards the stone portal. It seemed to grow much larger as she neared it, a great and imposing thing: it was firmly shut. The princess fought an urge to look back towards her tutor: such a sign of uncertainty would not be tolerated, she knew. Setting her eyes resolutely forwards, she leaned against the stone frame of the door and pushed with all her might. At first there was no change, but gradually her strength and weight won out: slowly, the heavy thing grinded open. She stepped inside without looking back. Behind her, her lone attendant sighed and shook her head. "Good luck." She muttered under her breath, "You'll need it and more."

Upon passing through the doorway the girl was struck by a deafening peal of silence. On the other side was an empty room with no distinguishing characteristics except for a shallow covering of water over the floor and a seeming lack of wall and ceiling and, a long distance in front of her, a simple tiled platform rising just above the water. The shocked girl glanced around to either side: the room continued in every direction for as far as the eye could see, an unchanged image of eternity. The water that covered the floor was utterly still until her footsteps disturbed it, but even when rippling it cast a clear reflection of her shape, standing apparently upside-down in an identical room that existed below her. Aside from the platform further ahead there was nothing but empty expanse of the shallow water over the floor in every direction and for who knows how great a distance: perhaps an infinite one. The princess figured that it had to be some kind of trick, an illusion: there had been no sign from outside that the space within was this large. Steeling herself with this comforting thought, she walked on towards the platform, seeing nothing else to head for. The steps of her reflection matched her exactly: two girls, both identical, both unsure and unnerved but still determined, heading towards two identical locations.

Finally she arrived, at the tiled surface and stepped onto it. Now close enough to properly observe the thing, she noticed that it was shaped and painted like a yin-yeng: a circle composed of two halves, one white and the other black. She stood now on the black circle, which was the one closest to the door she had entered from. Nothing happened. She proceeded to the next half of the circle, looked around in front of her, and then walked off the platform and into the water once again. There was nothing else in the room. Confused, she was about to turn around and head back out when something caught her eye. Slowly, inexorably and almost against her will she looked down. Her reflection was missing. Instantly the revelation hit her, all of the symbols and the dark hints latched into place, and she knew exactly what manner of enemy she would struggle with today. Training took hold: instinct which had been drilled into her since birth awoke immediately. She unslung her bow and fitted an arrow to the string with a speed born of long practice, spinning around and kneeling down to allow for a better shot and face the foe that she knew would be there.

Standing on the dark side of the circle was her reflection, smiling coolly at the apparent threat of the arrow. She looked exactly the same as the princess: the same dress and features, proportions and colours all identical, right down to the marks of dirt and rain gained from outside. But her expression was wholly different: arrogant and collected for the moment, but the true princess could see with her piercing sight the unbridled hate and raw malice in those eyes, the air of regal superiority, the fury that could be loosed like a weapon whensoever its master desired it. "Oh come on." The reflection said, in a voice completely identical to its former master's but for the tone: smug, sarcastic and bitingly cynical. "You can't really expect it to be that easy can you? Put that thing down before you hurt yourself." The princess did not hesitate, barely even thought: she let go of the string, letting the arrow fly. Immediately her double leapt to the side, pirouetting gracefully through the air and landing like a cat with a grin, but still the original did not hesitate. By the time her enemy had landed already she had another arrow fitted and again she fired it promptly. Her reflection anticipated the attack and bent quickly to the right, letting the dart fly past. As the kneeling girl fitted a third arrow, her opponent stood up and folded her arms, staying perfectly still. The girl grimaced: was she really going to shoot an unarmed enemy who wasn't daring to move? "You won't do it." Her reflection said in a smug, matter-of-fact voice, "You can't. We both know."

The string twanged. The arrow sang through the air. The reflection didn't so much as blink: the dart passed by to the side of its head by less then an inch.

"My, my, what an amazing surprise! I told you that you couldn't, but did you listen? Oh no, of course not: after all, who am I to know about your faults, your deficiencies, your failings?" The smug figure said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. The reflection shook its head, "For example, your rank stupidity. Little girl, how was it going to be that easy? You just shoot me through the heart and then I'm dead and everything is done and finished? Very well thought out: an excellent plan. I'm sure your tutors would be proud of how calmly you assessed the situation, how well you kept your head when faced with a crisis, just like a true queen would. Ha!" the image spat into the water nearby. "But then, you always were rash. Never thought things through."

"That's a lie." The princess interjected. There was no trace of outrage, no insult in her voice: she was stating a fact that she knew to be true. Deep within she took comfort from the fact that this apparition was wrong, but not a jot of that appeared on the outside: she was as calm, as tranquil, as focussed as ever. This did nothing to unnerve her reflection however: she just smiled.

"No, it's quite true, and in your heart of hearts you know it, otherwise you wouldn't think enough of it to bother claiming otherwise. Don't bother trying to lie to me little girl, it's pointless: I am you."

Alright, so you like to talk the princess thought as she stood up, slinging her bow over her back again. Playing mind-games and taunting to catch me off guard. Good luck with that! I'm not that stupid. Without a verbal reply, she breathed deeply, centring her energy, and dropped into a combat stance taught to her by her aide outside. "Ah, you want to play now? Alright, your majesty, show me what tricks you've picked up from that old hag of yours."

The girl charged forwards almost before her enemy had finished speaking, leaping into the air once she reached the platform and flying towards her with foot extended. The reflection swerved out of the way and struck out with her hand at the base of the princess' neck, but found another hand there already. The princess twisted about and held her fingers out, palm flat to the ground, then jabbed it like a snake towards her reflection's wind-pipe. She jerked back from the blow but was still caught and bent double, coughing. The princess rushed forwards, unslinging her bow and knocking an arrow with lightning speed, aiming it towards the base of her opponent's skull. At the last moment her reflection stood up, letting the dart scatter across the tile floor: the coughing fit had been a feint, the blow had never made contact. The reflection's arm whipped out, grabbing a handful of hair from her opponent and yanking it backwards, while her leg kicked out her knees and bought her to the ground. She finished by kicking the head forwards, sending the girl face-first into the shallow water of the floor.

"What's this?" The reflection cried in a voice of mock outrage, holding her hands to her face ineffectually, "Fighting dirty? Shock! Horror! How dare I do that to the daughter of the king, to his pampered little darling?" The triumphant reflection began to pace around the princess, who was already picking herself off the ground, mastering the dizziness prompted by the blow to her head and wiping away the trail of blood from her nose where it had hit the floor. "I already tried to tell you, you stubborn, stupid little girl, that you're not going to beat me that easy, but you didn't listen. After all, you are worth so much more then all other people, you've always been so much more intelligent then them, that their opinions have never mattered, have they? So why start paying attention now?" The princess looked up at the figure: its smug grin had now gone and was replaced with a look of accusation and revulsion, circling her prey like a shark. Don't listen! Don't let her throw you off guard! The girl thought desperately, and launched herself again at the image of herself. The reflection grasped both of her hands and kicked her in the stomach "Now, now my darling." She hissed, as she bought the girl's head hard down onto her knee, "Let's not interrupt while I'm talking. Now where was I? Oh yes! Not listening. I can see that you're still not bothering to do it. After all, it's not as if you came here to learn anything now is it? Oh no, wait! That's exactly why you came here! But I'm not saying what you want to hear, am I? I'm not one of your prancing, effete castle knights or heralds singing praises about the wise and just future queen. I'm you, and I'm telling you what you know is the truth. And that isn't nice to listen to is it?"

The girl now lay, once again, face-down in the water. Her head swam and bled, her body ached from the punishment it had sustained. The jibes of her counter-part were ringing in her ears: it would be so much easier if they were nothing more then jibes and insults intended to catch her off guard. To consider them as such would be delusional: these were her thoughts, her observations, tried and tested and proven true, but constantly silenced and shut away because to live with them would be to live with despair. Now, though, another was speaking them: the words were audible, falling into her living ears and finding shelter in her waking mind. The reflection didn't bother to bandy about with lies. It knew all of her deep, dark secrets: it was all of her deep, dark secrets. She couldn't fight it: she did not know how, and in being stupid and attempting to tackle it with brute force, on its own terms, she had wounded herself to the point where victory was now unobtainable. The princess struggled to her feet and made for the door: the reflection did not bother to impede her progress, as she knew it wouldn't. Instead, it folded its arms and yelled after her:

"That's it, run away, flee! Block out your ears and sing if you want to! Ignore the truth, and the truth will go away: isn't that the Sheikah spirit? No eye of truth to pierce the darkness for you: the darkness is too frightening, the shadow too deep for your mind, isn't it child? Better to hide in it, to blot it out from your existence and create for yourself an imaginary sun of idealistic deceit to shine upon a world of crude pettiness and simplicity, too shallow to accommodate anything that might threaten or enlighten you!"

Stumbling and wounded the girl continued for the way out as quickly as she could, trying to ignore her shadow and suddenly realising that by doing so she was obeying its sarcastic order, heeding its cynical advice. She stopped in her tracks. "No, don't bother. You've tried already. Go back to running. Throw yourself at the feet of the crone standing by the door, who you know will give you neither mercy nor even pity. She thinks you strong, thinks you wise enough for this kind of test: she does not know you as we do. She has already passed, has already with steely resolve and unflappable courage stared into the face of death itself and defied it; for all her plainness and all her icy countenance she is a far greater woman then you will ever be, your majesty, and would make a true queen, though she will never be given the chance. Go! Weep in the lap of your father, who will pamper you and spoil you and imprison you in a gilded cage to keep any threat from again nearing his precious but ever so fragile treasure, until you wither away like a plant when shut off from sunlight."

The princess, however, did not move. Her vision was obscured through dizziness, her head swam and her nose bled, her injured knees threatened to give way, but her mind remained as unclouded as ever. The intense gaze of her eyes now turned inward. Everything the reflection said was true and she knew it to be true. Therefore, there remained two courses of action: to take its advice and run, maybe return to the test at a later date though she knew that if she couldn't defeat it now she would never be able, to hide in a shallow world of superficiality where such dark hollowness could not attack her. Or, the second choice, to turn and defy the thing behind her, to listen to what it had to say and to use that advice to better herself. The princess straightened, standing tall and regal: the daughter of kings, her own mistress, and not one to flee blindly from pain and darkness, and turned on the spot.

The reflection had now changed. Still its form remained the same: identical to that of the princess down to the last detail. But now behind it there was a huge shadow that followed in its wake: a formless shape of dark despair and fear, of choking, noxious fumes that rushed forwards like a horde of demons to overrun the girl. Visions assailed her: fragments of nightmare and of prescience that she knew to be as true as everything else spoken that day. She saw a great and jealous power like a storm overthrow her father and her world and spread its dark tendrils across everything she knew, upending it and ordering it as the darkness saw fit, to suit its unquenchable desire for domination. She saw a bold warrior, a green bolt of lightning, formless, directionless yet filled with potential rage at the storm: it had no focus, it could do nothing. She saw herself: a pure and unsullied light of reason, imperceptible to the dark cloud, shape and guide the bolt to its purpose, mould it into a great weapon, a true hero, and with it in her arm disperse the clouds and bring about peace. She then ascended to the throne the cloud had left to guide the realm. But the hero, the youth that she had shaped and in shaping come to love, was now changed irreparably from what it had been. Now a hero, a device needed by the people, it left to where its aid would be required. And then she alone was left, guiding over people who could never understand her, alone, forlorn, until age and weariness tore her down and eliminated her wards, letting the storm come a second time.

"You are doomed!" The reflection bellowed, advancing on her while surrounded by the wings of shadow and inevitability that flanked it, "Run, hide, stay, fight, defy; whatever your choice will be, you remain bound either to a world too false to satisfy or too dark to contemplate. Fight me and you shall be rewarded only with pain and the burden of the truth, flee from me and you shall cease all feeling and sacrifice the very nature of what you are! Whatever path you choose, you can never destroy me!"
"No!" The princess shouted, and now she strode forward, ignoring the demons of darkness, shouldering the visions and marching towards her own image, "I cannot: but even were I capable then I would not. You are a part of me; you are my shadow that must be cast. For what is hope if fear is not present, how is there humility without doubt, what sweetness exists in love if hate is not an alternative? You are my Sheikah side, my darkness and my reflection and therefore I embrace you, for I need you. I will not flee from you and throw my life away to be unmarked by achievement or gratification. If I must suffer to be the greatest that I can be, then so be it! If I perish old and alone once the storm has been weathered, then that is the path I choose, so long as by choosing it the storm can indeed by waited out, the realm saved, the hero met and loved and promptly lost thereafter. I choose to remain complete and full, and observe the world in all of its wonders, both bitter and sweet!"

At this the wings of shadow broke apart, fluttered about in fury and then reformed behind the princess. The reflection walked forwards, now in silence, and reached out with one hand. The princess touched its fingers with her own.

And then, suddenly, without flash or noise or other showy affect, the room and the shadow was gone. She now was kneeling in a tiny chamber with earthen walls and roots penetrating the ceiling, on a tiny, dirty, old wooden platform with a faded yin-yeng inscribed upon it. The floor was covered in water that had leaked in from the rain outside. In front of the kneeling girl was a mirror, which she was touching gently, her fingers joined to the digits of the reflection that neither moved nor talked without her consent. Still she felt dizzy and injured: her dress was saturated from being knocked onto the floor, her head badly bruised from the knocks taken. The door behind her still lay ajar, and the soft noise of rain could still be heard from outside.

Now mirroring her movements in servitude, the reflection stood up as she did, and smiled.