Chapter 52: Empty Ambitions
Turmoil in Gylomecia Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda; this is just a Fan fiction.
Featured Music: "Bittersweet Victory" – Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Roer, The Industrial Metropolis" – The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Night Ambience" – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST. Scene 3 (First Half).
"The Marshalling Yard" – Resident Evil II (1998) OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).
With their conquest and impressive showing of fighting skills at Stralanavia at last complete, the surrounding group of heroes led by Impa of the Sheikah soon find themselves up one member; the Stralanavia Skirmish's grand finalist alongside Link himself, a young girl seemingly of around similar age by the name of Veronika Fedoroa. With her oddly-knowledgeable and likewise mysterious assistance, Link soon finds the cage that holds his demonic side, the chaotic Kage Narumono, strengthened with her impressive use of sealing-style Aegir Art; a feat that not even the wise Zelda has managed as of late.
Bolstered by her surprising connections to those within the deep abyss of sea-travel, the party of adventurers are soon given passage on a foreigner's ship already enroute to their next destination and, indeed, the Prima World Tour's next destination: the far-off kingdom of Gylomecia. On the way however, their once-thought pleasant cruise is interrupted by what seems to be a random occurrence; an attack instigated by a seemingly rogue creature, a sea-beast that the crew of the ship deem the 'Kraken'.
Having easily taken care of much more threatening dangers, the heroes manage to immediately save the surrounding passengers and crew of the ship they travel upon, receiving praise and gratitude in response. Thanks to the sea-creature's suspiciously-intended purpose, however, the group's course is soon veered off its original path and they all soon worryingly find themselves in unknown waters; a fact that begins to knead at the anxieties of even some of the more experienced men at the helm.
When they all begin to approach what looks to be an uninhabited spit of land, captain Reading makes the suggestion and the humble request that the party of adventurers briefly explore the island for them, all in an attempt to determine not only if the island is safe to get off onto but whether their positioning was safe or not while he worked to get their bearings. It is only when the heroes choose to assist the crew and passengers in their perhaps inevitable expedition, that they soon discover the far-off island's worrying secrets.
Rather than having been suggested as uninhabited, the island appears to not only have connections to a group the worried Link know fairly well as the 'Himitsu Shakai' but are also seemingly suffering from a second group of intruders and two that Link also know very well from his previous adventures across Hyrule and time itself.
The former aide to his enemy Ganondorf, Scaverin Estienne and his companion-turned-foe, Raynard Van Garrick.
Although there is little evidence to support the idea that the second group of intruders are indeed Link's two associates from Hyrule, some within the group after having confronted them beforehand make the possible argument that only they could have managed to not only infiltrate the difficult-to-penetrate barriers of the Himitsu, but that they have ulterior motives in doing so. These fears are proven to be well-founded for when the group of heroes make the final descent into what appears to be a recently-attacked dilapidated-like dock carrying only a ship with it, they find what seems to be a fallen corpse of a simple woman in the ship's brig, joined only by a grieving young Aurelian boy with no memory of the events around him.
Some of the more astute and older members of the group, such as Impa and Alwyn, posit forward the speculation of Scaverin's potential motives in fighting the Himitsu and murdering an innocent captive of them. Compounded by the strange discovery in the unknown boy being left alive, those within the group can only speculate to Scaverin's oddly-working mind. It is Link, however, that makes the correct inward assumption that it was Raynard who must have saved the poor boy's life.
A growingly worrying state of affairs that leaves Raynard on the wrong side of their rapidly-ascending fight together.
Carrying the surviving boy with them, and the boy's mother's corpse perhaps out of obligation, the group of heroes make their way back to the ship headed for Gylomecia and relay their information back to captain Reading. He agrees on allowing safe passage for the poor boy and his deceased mother, choosing to bring them back to their seeming homeland of Gylomecia and to turn them over to the local government. When they arrive to the far-off land of their destination, at long last, they take faith in their lowering morale of the upcoming Prima World Tour; a national martial arts championship tournament to hopefully lift their spirits after the demoralising experience on the Himitsu's island.
Unfortunately for them, however, they will not be so lucky.
Scene 1
"Here we are… Gylomecia… at long-fucking-last."
The saddened sigh upon Captain Reading's lips was the melancholy call to suit the saddened atmosphere that filled the air around the surrounding group as they stood all spread out around the main deck, their necks and eyes craned 'round in Reading's direction before soon swinging their curious-eyed looks in the next land's area. Sure enough, far ahead of them appeared to be Gylomecia and the dock they were arrowing after; Warwick Landing.
"Impa-sensei…"
The curious Sheikah swung her silver-haired head 'round in the speaking Link's direction from the port side of the ship just behind her, eyebrow propping up as she did. "Yes?"
"What are we gonna do about… you know." The former Kokiri began, a kind of knowing little wince upon his features as he did. The listening Zelda, ever present on his left, exchanged quick looks between her Sheikah guardian and close companion, opting to remain in respectful silence as she joined her hands at her centre in awaiting Impa's next answer.
"You mean…?" Impa began with a rise of both eyebrows, nodding her head in the direction of the cabins inside the ship, located to her now upper-right behind her.
This time it was both the listening Zelda and Link that nodded in understanding and eagerness, their conversation soon being joined by the curious remainders of their party, some striding over from the starboard side to unite with them.
She sighed very quietly, almost as if to herself, and even expressed her fatigue and hesitancy with a small shrug. "I suppose all we can do is take them back to Gylomecia."
"And that's if that's where they were taken from," Alwyn pointed out wisely from Impa's front, casting his hardened business-like frown into the conversation, dotted ever with his folded-armed complexion. "We still have no idea if that's the case or not yet."
"He still hasn't spoken yet…?" Malon spoke up quietly from the Zoran's side, a kind of frustrated yet understanding wince around her face as she did. Alwyn shook his head.
"Not a word."
"You try speaking or even functioning properly after seein' what that kid saw," Barkner claimed on the former soldier's right, his own chunky Goron arms folded similarly as he nodded his head up in the curious Malon's direction. "I wouldn't be able to do much of anything after that."
"Do we still have any idea who caused it…?" Vassia spoke up as she sauntered over to join the growing group of heroes. The frowning-faced Impa exchanged a knowing little look with the similarly firmly-frowning form of Link before her and an understanding nod from Zelda on his side.
"We have some theories…" The Sheikah responded with, her armoured arms ever folded as she cast her frown back in Vassia's direction.
"Well we're all the 'volunteer pioneers', aren't we? We love theories. Spin us one miss Impa."
The woman's voice, soon contained with the small and surprisingly childish form of Veronika, made them all turn their heads in her direction as she glided over to meet them. The watching Link, more surprised she used the title they were awarded in another country, could only open up his mouth as if to speak before furrowing his brow contemplatively at her. She gave him a light-faced smile before re-opening her own to elaborate.
"Fortune-teller," she spoke up in a lightly-amused chuckle, drawing out small smiles from some of the more sociable members of the group. Finding the cheer in her mezzo-soprano and the humour itself in her response, Link could only roll his oceanic eyes back at her briefly, the ghost of a smile of his own present on his exterior. "It wasn't hard to determine who these odd group of travellers that were in Stralanavia, my home country, were crowned this name."
"I guess we're kinda hard to miss huh?" Barkner quipped at her side as she had squeezed in between the grinning Goron on her right and the frowning, folded-armed Alwyn on her left. Veronika gave the grinning Barkner a brief smile of her own in response.
"Well-"
"We think it's Ray."
The group, surprised by Link's opting to interrupt Impa's words, could only double-take in his direction, eyebrows risen as they did. The frowning-faced Kokiri-born-Hylian merely gave them all an impassive-faced frown in response to their curious and quizzical-laced looks.
"Any evidence to support that?" Alwyn asked in an objective-eyed frown, ever the professional one.
Link shook his head. "There ain't much to base it on, unfortunately," he claimed, near shrugging in sheer futility. "It's just a feelin'."
"If that's the case… then that creepy bastard's gotta be with him; that Scaverin guy," Barkner began discussing the case ahead of the curve before soon double-taking in some of the children's direction and wincing in a lightly sheepish-faced smile. "Oh… sorry." He apologised, presumably for the profanity. The smirking Vassia merely shrugged, reinforced by Malon merely shaking her head in an amused little smile of her own, receiving similar looks from Veronika and Zelda.
"I wouldn't think Raynard would be capable of murdering a woman in cold blood," Impa agreed with the Goron, nodding as she did in her light-eyed frown. "But I suppose it could have been either one of them," she sighed this time, unsure. "Right now we're operating under the assumption that if it was Scaverin and Raynard that were the second group of intruders, then it would have been Scaverin that killed the boy's mother."
"What an absolute savage," Vassia spoke with a prim and improper turning up of her nose at the sound of the notion. "You'd think he would have had his fill of such things in Kaiohdrahl."
Link nodded along in silent-voiced agreement with Vassia for a change, a thoughtful-faced frown adorned on his expression as he lowered his blonde-haired head in rumination.
She's not wrong, he thought.
It was a hell of a way to go; he nearly died if I recall.
He remembered Raynard telling him (when they were still on speaking terms) of Scaverin's near insane decision to be taken prisoner of Velkarez and his fearsome company of mercenaries; the 'Templars of the Weeping Stars', in an attempt to fulfil some strange prophecy written of in ancient Hylian books.
"What could it all be about…?" Zelda propped into the conversation with, a concerned frown on her own exterior as she joined her fingers softly at her centre.
"There's no way to know for certain…," Impa sighed in response, shaking her silver-haired head in frustration as she did. "If our boy here was still on speaking terms with Raynard… then we'd perhaps have someone on the inside, but…"
Finding himself being referred to, Link could only wince in response and turn his head away in what seemed to be shame.
"That's not fair Impa…," Zelda spoke up for the boy, reaching toward him to pull him in. Surprised and embarrassed, he gasped and instinctively made to jump out of her grasp before realising who it was and settled himself down, though not without adorning an abashed expression on his face; zig-zag and cringing. "It's not his fault that Raynard's chosen the wrong side…"
While Impa and Zelda remained on the topic of conversation, everyone else watching the scene unfold had mostly the same reaction of their own; sheer amusement. Some such as Malon and Vassia however, rolled their eyes or gnashed their teeth respectively in what seemed to be light envy.
"I know…," the Sheikah nodded in acknowledgement before soon casting a well-to-do smirk down on the blinking blonde boy below her. "It's how he says…"
"Banter?" Link batted back, eyebrow shooting up as his quizzical frown very slowly upturned into an amused smirk of his own. The wise Sheikah merely smirked back silently, her expression widening as she did. Link chuckled, drawing out further smiles from the surrounding group. "Touché."
When the group had at long last made port in Gylomecia's 'Warwick Landing', they (and the rest of the passengers filling the ship they travelled upon) opted to place their legs on civilised land for the first time in what felt like ages; a brief reprieve from their constant fighting out on the sea and from the horrific nature of what they'd witnessed on the 'Forgotten Haven'. Soon following their earlier discussion regarding the recently orphaned boy they had rescued; they gave the ship's Captain Reading and his first mate one last grateful goodbye before following his well-given advice – to take the boy back to his original supposed home in the council's building within the city's capital.
A decision that left those sensitive to the poor boy's plight curious and saddened but obligated all the same.
In returning the boy to the 'Whiteblood Cardinal', the city's council headquarters, the group were soon met with gratitude and open arms; a far cry to their initial landing in Stralanavia. The mute boy's last known caretaker before his kidnapped mother, an older man and seemingly his grandfather, expressed his recognition and thanks on behalf of not only the rest of the council but the rest of his quickly-dwindling family.
"The Whiteblood Council thank you all for your assistance in saving one of Gylomecia's citizens."
The sound of the boy's grandfather's voice, a deep bass, filled the large room in which the group all now stood within; one seemingly used previously for church gatherings. Before them all seated on what looked like a jury panel somehow were other members of the supposed Gylomecian council, a small group of only three members, including the newly-introduced Baltus himself. Two others sat around the elderly man's sides; two women, one of similar age to Baltus and one much younger.
"And also… for bringing Jada's body back from… that place…," the older man spoke, this time lowering his grey-brown eyes as if in light sorrow, joined by the women at either side of him. Impa, seemingly the representative of the group standing before them all, opted to nod in a saddened frown of her own, placing her hands softly under her elbows at her front as opposed to her usual folded-armed posture, perhaps out of respect. "I am glad the boy's mother at least gets a chance to be buried where she was born."
The gaggle of people were drawn into a near-minute's silence, seemingly out of respect for the fallen, before at long last one of the council members before the heroes spoke back up again.
"You do all realise why Baltus made the decision to invite you all up here, don't you?" The elderly woman claimed, running her furrowed brow across each member of the group before her, a kind of half-suspicious look to her frown. Link chanced a quick look up at his mentor Impa, almost as if to press her in being allowed to reply himself (usually in some kind of sarcastic quip), however the wise Sheikah gave the blonde youth a quick glance of warning before turning her softer-faced frown on the woman before him.
Link, much to the amusement of the smiling-faced Zelda next to him, could only roll his oceanic-eyed gaze in light irritation before opting (rather wisely) to remain in obedient silence.
"We… got the gist," Impa nodded in acknowledgement, following the Gylomecian customs as best she could. "Some of us here are still fairly uncertain however. Politics are… not most of our members' strong suit." She added, this time in a half-amused small smile of her own. Almost as if reacting to her words, every affiliate within the group all swung their heads in Link's direction, making the surprised youth double-take in everyone's eye.
"Hey!" He called out, genuinely offended. "You all make it look like I'm stupid!"
"It's okay, mon amour…"
Link held back from groaning when the owner of the soprano that spoke in Palashian, ever recognisable, came leaping at his side to grapple at his small left arm as she did, a kind of knowing smirk on her expression.
"I'll still love you." Vassia added cheekily, pulling laughs and smiles from most of the watching group surrounding them. Others such as Malon and even Veronika however, shot them annoyed and neutral-faced frowns in response.
"Hands off me…," he muttered out in Vassia's direction as he yanked his arm out of her grip, lightly miffed at her constant need to touch. The violet-haired princess drew a look of irritation of her own upon her usually-pleasant if, superior exterior; a response well-fitting to the annoyance dotting Link's own complexion. "Last thing I need is cooties… especially with the next tournament comin' up."
While the younger woman in the judges' seats watching them let out a small amused smile as she watched, joined by her older male friend on her side, the elderly woman instead opted to shoot them a look of disapproval before opening up her mouth to address them.
"Is that any way for a princess to behave young lady? And all the way from Palashia." She admonished the group with, pulling an annoyed glance from the listening Vassia. While she made to open her mouth and voice her easily-spiked anger, the surprisingly-wise Link lowered his arm to her side, almost as if to dissuade her from letting out an obviously-incoming outburst. Vassia double-took in his direction and rose up both eyebrows in her annoyed scowl, almost as if to ask him silently:
'But why not?!'
"Oh, take it easy Freda," the elderly man, seemingly Baltus spoke up in his well-to-do smile. "They're but children, after all."
"Hmph…," Freda muttered in disdain, swinging her wrinkled frown back on the group before her. "At any rate… if it is this 'Prima World Tour' thing you are all following… I'm afraid you're too late."
Freda's answer surprised the listening group; some murmured and exchanged unsure looks with one another while others swung their frowns on her ahead, opening their mouths to respond. It was Impa, their leader however, that spoke for them.
"We've missed it?"
"In a way, I'm afraid so," the young woman spoke up in an apologetic frown and a positive nod in response. "Point Spotting this year has been cancelled."
"Cancelled?!" Barkner parroted out in a wide-eyed frown, genuinely shocked. When his sudden outburst managed to pull the attention of everyone in the room, the young Goron could only turn his frown into a zig-zag-like embarrassed smile, sheepish and all. "S-Sorry…"
"Eryll speaks the truth," Baltus nodded along in agreement. "You all are outsiders here, yes?" He pressed as he leant a little forward past the table he placed his elbows on. When he received silence and nods from some of the younger members, he opened back up his mouth to continue elaborating. "Point Spotting this year was cancelled because of our recent civil war issues I'm afraid."
"There's a civil war happening…?" Impa pressed the man curiously, opting this time to fold her armoured arms, placing herself in business-mode once again.
"I'm shocked your little Hylian scouts couldn't report this to you…," the watching Freda turned up her nose at the Sheikah past her desk. "Yes we've been embroiled for the better part of a year now."
Impa cast the older woman a neutral-eyed frown, opting not to open her mouth in respect.
The listening Baltus cast Freda a briefly-annoyed glance before turning his apologetic frown back on the group before him. "It's been… difficult the past twelve months," he admitted. "After our last country's queen passed on, she named no successor. As a result…"
"You've all been trying to keep the country together…" Zelda spoke up knowledgeably, hands joined ever at her centre from the surprised Link's side; he darted his blonde-haired head in her direction before swinging it back on the statesmen ahead, almost as if to wait for their response.
"Precisely," Baltus chuckled back in response, a kind of sheepish smile to his own exterior. "I'm afraid with handling the country's citizens, we've not had enough time on our hands to help organise a martial arts tournament."
"Damn," the frowning-faced Link murmured out, genuinely surprised. "I guess we'd better head for Draerith then."
"No!" Malon suddenly shot out with, shooting the surprised blonde with an annoyed glower on her face, grasping at his right arm behind him as she did. "We can't just leave these people!"
"I agree," Alwyn nodded in agreement with the fire-haired farm girl. "We've already helped Stralanavia and Kaiohdrahl anyway so…"
"Ahhh…," the smiling Eryll spoke up, raising her own blonde-haired head from the seat of judges before them. "You all must be those travellers we've heard so much about!"
"The 'volunteer pioneers' is it?" Baltus pressed them with a cheeky little grin adorned on his expression as he tilted his grey-haired head at them in a friendly manner. While some in the group chuckled in sheepish acknowledgement, it was Link that chose to smirk back at the older man, an opportunity to stroke his ever-growing ego.
"Yeah, ain't no biggie to us," he smirked back toothily, running a small finger under his nose as he did. "What can we say? We just too good ain't we boys?"
The listening Malon, Impa and even Vassia couldn't help but roll their eyes in response, drawing out chuckles instead from Barkner, Alwyn and even the smiling Zelda and Veronika.
"Were it only that simple…," Impa spoke up from the boy's left, turning her frowning, folded-armed disapproval down on him as she did in a brief glance before soon swinging her more relaxed-faced frown on the three council members before her. "We were already in those neighbouring nations when they were having trouble regardless so…"
"I guess you guys get our help this time then!" Barkner finished for their group's leader, a smarmy little smile on his face as he brought up his chunky rock-like arms up in an exaggerated shrug, extorting lightly-amused chortles from within the group around him and the more amiable members of the council ahead.
"Truly… we are lucky to have you," Baltus chuckled similarly in a grateful-eyed nod. "Oh travellers hailing from Hyrule."
"Hey, no need for all that formal garbage with us," the ever-insensitive Link shot into the conversation again with, a grin adorned on his youthful complexion as he shrugged similarly to his physically-older companion behind him. "We're Aurelians, just like you guys."
"Link…!" Impa admonished angrily, turning her folded-armed firm-faced frown down on him; he couldn't help but wince and flinch in response to her abrupt hiss, drawing out further looks of amusement and entertainment from the rest of the group.
"No it is quite all right, lady Impa," Baltus smiled forward. "It is… refreshing! Especially for us after all the horror of our issues of late," he began again, this time in a saddened sighing frown of his own. "In any case… we'll set you all up with a room here, seeing as you're all so gracious, and I'm sure I speak for all three of us when I say… thank you all."
The Gylomecian council leaders all bowed their heads in response to Baltus' final sentence; a show and display of respect that the watching group all smiled at. Impa opened up her mouth to respond, a rare smile of her own present on her exterior.
"We'll do what we can."
2
"Do ya really think it's a good idea to involve ourselves here Impa?"
Having climbed up the stairs to their rooms and remained speculatively quiet, the group's attention was soon gained by the curious words of the now-frowning Barkner; Impa swung her silver-haired head in the Goron's direction, eyebrow shooting up as she did.
"In this civil war?"
He nodded, eliciting some genuinely curious looks from the rest of the group.
She sighed through her nose and briefly shut her eyes before re-opening them, tilting her head as she did. "Well normally I'd have said 'no', but…"
"Well we gotta!" Link spoke up for his mentor, an enthusiastic grin written across his face. "They're in trouble! It's the right thing to do."
Zelda, as always impressed, could only smile over at him from his right.
"What about the Prima World Tour?"
Alwyn's curiously calm call, quiet and careful, made the former Kokiri blink both oceanic eyes before swinging them in the Zoran's direction behind him. He flashed his usual grin however in response and readied himself to answer once more.
"I'm sure we got time," he shot back, a cheery disposition managing to infect even the more stoic-watching Zoran before him. "Besides! It ain't like I ain't got no chance to win the next one."
"Yeah you'll just probably end up getting second place again…"
The sarcastically-spoken sentence, sung out into the air by a low-smirking Malon, could only make the wide-eyed Link snap his offended head 'round in her direction behind him only to find her having skilfully moved to his back as if to stand near and irritate him.
With the added chuckles of most of his companions surrounding him, she was successful; the listening Link groaned back at her, his brow dropping to match his limp-eyed annoyance.
"That ain't funny," the offended young Hylian shot back. "I was cheated the first time!"
"Yeah, I guess you were," Barkner at least relented amidst his low-toned chortles, placing one of his chunky rock-skinned arms on his Goron hip. "That fight with Raynard could have honestly gone either way; I'm shocked it wasn't him that dropped to the ground first."
"Tell ya a secret?"
The surprisingly-calm comment made by the now frowning-faced Link made the previously-grinning Barkner drop his expression in favour of a curious-eyed blink. The young Hylian leant in to the Goron's side in a humorous little grin of his own, blocking off the left side of his mouth as he opened it up to elaborate.
"Me too."
Almost immediately the pair of close companions found themselves bursting into laughter, drawing rolling-eyed smiles and frowns from most of the watching and listening girls.
"All right… you've all had enough for a single day I think," Impa spoke up in a half-frustrated sigh, casting her look down at them all in her folded-armed frown. "If you're serious about helping these people… then we should at least all make sure we're well-rested up."
The smiling Vassia very skilfully slinked over to the grinning Link's side, snaking her left arm softly and yet forcefully through his right; he double-took in her direction, straw-haired eyebrows suddenly risen up as he lost his earlier grin. "Perhaps I should accompany our saviour to-"
"To the battlefield in the morning maybe."
Impa's abrupt interruption, marked by her similarly-sudden grip on the Palashian princess' silk-clothing managed to make her blink in surprise humorously as the Sheikah effectively pulled her up by the scruff of her dress, watching her suspiciously as she re-opened her mouth to speak further.
"The last thing we need is an international incident because you can't keep your hands where they should be." She admonished the now-scowling Vassia, her tactfully-chosen words eliciting childish chuckles and giggles from the watching Barkner and Link. While hardly benefitting from the exchange, the amused Zelda and Veronika's smile as well as the smirking Malon's face told a different story to the surrounding companions around them.
"Yes… oh fearless leader…" Vassia sighed in a conceding rolling-eyed frown of her own.
"All right, same pairings as usual," the Sheikah began again with a second light sigh on her lips as she lightly dropped the frowning Vassia to her front. "Up early, as always. Don't sleep in."
The sound of wind whistling by gave no reaction to the women sitting patiently atop their seats in the small Gylomecian open-temple, leaves and grass flowing through and across it. The pair of women, unlike most of all around Gylomecia or perhaps even Aurelia itself, were both suited out in plates of armour fit for warlords; one in green and one in blue. On the table in front of them sat two goblets, an expensive-looking bottle and numerous little bowls presumably for snacks.
The woman in green reached forward to grasp at the goblet sitting ahead of her, raising it up to her lips in a slow-eyed frown as she did.
"Cyna…"
Having been named so suddenly, and by the blue-armoured woman sitting opposite of her, the frowning-faced Cyna lowered the goblet she previously-rose into her mouth, placing it softly back on the table as she carefully ascended her own head up to face her caller. The short-haired woman before her slowly rose up her own black-haired head as she opened up her mouth again to address her.
"In Gylomecia… today…," she began again, her low-voiced contralto carrying her words as she slowly and carefully hovered her head away from Cyna's. "There exist only two potential heroes…"
The listening Cyna furrowed her brow in curiosity.
"Can you name them…?"
The unnamed blue-armoured woman's words carried out into the Gylomecian air as she stood up from her seat, joining both hands to her back as she began to march slowly toward one of the small open-temple's banisters as if to cast her eyes out past it. Cyna watched her curiously for a moment before choosing to open up her mouth and shake her head, the green-shaded helmet she wore spilling the light ponytail of dark-brown hair she carried with her.
"No… Bryda…," she answered her. "That's… not quite something that I can-"
"Hmm…"
Bryda's sudden interruption, although softly-spoken in her hardened contralto, made the frowning-faced Cyna re-raise her brown-haired head to eye the first warlord once more.
"Then I'll tell you."
Bryda at last turned back 'round to fully face the green-armoured woman behind her, unjoining her arms to place them both at her sides.
"The two with most ruling potential, in this land… are…"
3
The sound of Guays crowing out into the distance of the Gylomecian air filled it fairly well; a quality that Link had to admit he was all-too-familiar with.
Having been unable to sleep, a common problem since his first childhood growing up in Kokiri Forest, he found himself getting up mid-very-early morning and stalked carefully out of his room within the building the councillors' so graciously let them use to sleep within, taking special care not to awaken Barkner or Alwyn. He walked on out into the Gylomecian balcony that sat just outside the large room he shared with his close companions from Hyrule and leant forward on the royal-white banister that sat across its similarly spacious veranda.
"Link?"
The former Kokiri blinked both oceanic eyes in surprise and, recognising the soprano with which his name was spoken, swung his blonde-haired head 'round to quickly gaze at its owner. As his small green hat whipped 'round with his movement, he soon found the similarly frowning-faced Zelda standing on the balcony next to his, her room shared with the other girls seemingly nearby. He couldn't help but crack a low grin and nodded his straw-haired head upwards at her in greeting.
"You couldn't sleep either?"
"Not a wink," she answered in a half-amused chortle, shaking her own blonde-haired head back at him, her ponytail bouncing lightly with it. "I keep thinking about… that woman…"
Link's own grin very quickly dissolved when he realised what she was talking about.
The image of the savagely-killed woman on the strange uninhabited island they stumbled upon was seared into his own mind; a horrifying reminder of the brutality of man.
It was something he had forgotten briefly about following his excursion in his original era.
"Yeah…," he agreed. "Me too."
They shared a small moment of silence together, almost as if in respect for the deceased woman, before Zelda made the decision (much to Link's appreciation) to break the silence.
"Come over here."
The blonde youth couldn't help but blink in an odd mixture of curiosity and inquisitiveness, raising his head to meet hers. "Huh?"
She smiled over at him. "I mean move over here," she giggled back at him, almost as if finding his dumbfounded nature particularly amusing. "I don't like talking to you when you're standing all the way over there."
He cracked another grin and laughed in a single quiet breath to himself before opening up his mouth again to respond. "Sure."
FWIP
With the athleticism he had gained in his first two adventures, and tempered with his ongoing third, he easily made the bound over to the balcony his accomplice stood on before soon dropping down in a light hop to meet her. He found himself stiffening suddenly however when she abruptly stepped into him with a simple hug, eliciting a blinking wide-eyed frown from him.
"W-What's- what did I do?"
"We were all so worried about you…"
He propped up a blonde-haired eyebrow at her in quizzical curiosity, opting to tentatively raise up both small hands of his own to rest behind her. "What for?"
She pulled back from the embrace but only to cast her own frown back at him, lowering her hands to skilfully slide to the small of his back. "When you and Veronika went missing? When you both fell down that hole together?"
Both eyebrows rose up this time in realisation and he opened up his mouth to voice his understanding. "Ohhh…," he murmured out in a positive nod, his eyelids lowering and his pupils to match. "Yeah I guess that was kinda scary… for a second." The youth finished, this time in another overconfident smirking chuckle.
"Did… anything happen?"
He shot up both eyes in half-surprise, cocking another eyebrow at her. "'Happen'?"
She gave him a similar expression, a single side of her mouth upturning into a knowing smirk of her own. "You know what I mean…"
He did.
"Um… yeah… I guess it did." He answered, wandering his oceanic eyes away from her light blues, a half-wince to his face as he did.
She remained silent, tilting her head to the side as she did, almost as if to silently press him into saying more.
"Um…," he began again, holding back a painful cringe, his cheeks growing a shade of red. "We… kissed."
When he double-took his eyes carefully back up to hers, a kind of careful reaction, he blinked again when he found her smiling sadly and casting her look below them both. "A-Ain't you mad?"
She shook her ponytailed head and re-rose it up to face him again, her smile still remaining strong on her face. "Of course not…," she began. "It was just a kiss, wasn't it?"
He pursed back his lips into a kind of awkward zig-zag-like frown, tilting his head to the side and raising both eyebrows as he re-opened his mouth. "Well… yeah, but…"
"And besides… it's not as if we're together yet, are we?"
Again he found himself blinking in sheer shock and felt horrible for it.
She's being so damn mature about this, he thought wisely.
"And I'm supposed to be the one with the mental age advantage…"
"I like you… but I realise that Malon and Vassia do too," she started again, drawing his attention. "And… now Veronika does too… I suppose…" The Hylian princess chuckled, briefly shutting her eyes in realisation.
He smiled back at her, nodding. "I like you too Zel." He admitted.
If anything he wasn't lying; it was still a sentiment he carried for her back in his original time. And although it wasn't necessarily this Zelda that he had feelings for, and the fact she had tricked him into sending him away in the first place, he still found himself drawn to her.
Maybe it's all that adventuring we did, he wondered silently to himself.
Could be anything at this stage.
"I just… dunno what to tell Vass and Malon." He admitted this time, finishing his earlier-begun sentence with an unsure look, lowering his blonde-haired head into a similarly dubious-faced frown.
"And… Veronika…?"
He blinked and swung up his surprised frown to face her, only to find her propping another eyebrow at him as she cast him a little amused smirk on her expression.
"Oh," he began again, chuckling back at her, taking a hand off her back to rest behind his head as his frown soon upturned into a sheepish-faced smile, his oceanic eyes briefly shutting to match his well-meaning expression. "Y-Yeah… her too."
"Even now I forget how popular you really are now…," Zelda began again, morphing her smirk into another warm-faced smile. "I hear you were quite the opposite back in your original time." She added, her smile growing a little. Link rolled his eyes, half-embarrassed she remembered his stories.
"If it wasn't for Saria no-one'd know that," he quipped back, returning his arm to her back as he grinned before soon wandering his eyes from hers, his grin quickly dropping in favour of a thoughtful-faced frown. "Oh. And Mido too I guess."
She held back a laugh, perhaps for fear of waking those behind her. "We should probably get back to our own rooms…"
"Yeah…," he agreed along with her, a kind of annoyed take to his frown as he wandered his eyes away again, as if in thought. "Last thing I need is Impa-sensei tanning my hide just for talkin' to you."
"She's very protective…," the Hylian princess chuckled, amused. "But I'm sure she'd make an exception for us."
Realising just what the surprisingly-wily little blonde was getting at, Link couldn't help but find himself growing red in the ears and cheeks, his frown soon turning zig-zag. It was only when he, perhaps inevitably, found his eyes wandering back in her direction that he realised she was looking at him a certain way; a way that he recognised from her counterpart in his original era.
Her earlier amused smile and smirk were absent now from her expression, replaced instead by a kind of pleading, head-tilting frown; an oddly entrancing look that Link found himself slowly relenting to.
I know what she wants, he thought.
But if we get caught…
Against his own inner cautions, he chose to oblige her but not before casting very quick look to his sharp left in order to double-check whether there was anyone waiting for them inside the glass door and windows. Satisfied, he leant forward and shut his eyes with hers as they locked lips in a kind of childish and tongueless little kiss.
"Mmmm…"
The sound of her voice brought him back to their ill-fated adventure through Hyrule's Spirit Temple, and the events therein; a memory he held dearly and yet still opted not to tell her.
At least not yet.
I'm gonna get mocked so badly if the others find out about me crying like that, he thought.
She wouldn't though.
Not her.
"Especially given it was because of her."
"Like a forest…"
He blinked out of their kiss as she pulled back, clueless. "Huh?"
She smiled back at him. "Like a forest," she repeated herself in an amused little chuckle. "I said you taste like a forest."
He cracked another grin, eyebrow shooting up as he did. "Ohhh… I gotcha now," he added before nodding his head diagonally in the direction of the way she came. "We better get back. I think Bark wouldn't mind but if Al catches me up doin' this he'll tell Impa-sensei for sure."
"Yeah…," she agreed with him half-heartedly and hesitantly, running her fingers around the back his weathered green tunic as she did. "I guess… I'll see you in the morning."
He gave her his own well-meaning smile in his first answer. "Yes…," he began before transforming his smile into another little smirk, knowing and childish. "Mistress."
She held back another giggle, her smile extending forthwith to a match the rosy shade her cheeks took.
"Things are heating up, aren't they?"
"Yes…"
The sound of running water, so oddly peaceful in the pair's setting, was a backdrop unsuited to the two that spoke together; a beautiful garden filled with flowing ponds and surrounding wildlife, seemingly built around what looked like a huge and very personal manse. The woman that spoke her initial sentence stood overlooking the main height of all at the top entrance of the manse itself, watching over the garden below her as a second figure – a man – hung in the air, suspended and very slowly rose in and out presumably through use of his Aegir.
"It has been truthfully said that 'knowledge is power'…"
As the man added on to his initial flimsy response, his eyes shut as his long dark hair spilled down his back, a single chunky strand dropping down to his front.
"A notion never more relevant today… than any other day of Aurelia's history." The nameless man began again, snapping open his cat-like yellow-shaded eyes, his armoured legs crossed and his olive-green gloved hands hanging at his sides as if he were meditating. The woman turned her long blonde-haired head 'round to cast her curious-eyed frown on her seeming superior, a single thick strand of her own spilling down her left shoulder onto the oddly-professional robed suit she wore; a high rank in the man's seeming organisation, whether small or large.
"'He who controls the past, commands the future…" She answered, clutching the leather-bound tome she carried at her side as she did.
"'And he who commands the future… conquers the past'," the man finished, a knowledgeable little chuckle dotting his pale-faced features. "Alphanion the Absolute may have been merely a fairy-tale… but he was a powerful one."
"The Himitsu…," the blonde woman began again, her icy-blue eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Surely they wouldn't try to…?"
"No," the man answered her, dropping his smirk to cast his furrow-browed glare forward out into the beautiful distance of the garden he owned below. "I haven't sensed their forces anywhere near Gylomecia."
"So then, who could you be…?"
"Aside from our country's two recently-crowned warlords…?" The man quipped back, cracking another very small grin in her direction briefly before re-facing the front. "The one from the prophecy."
"The prophecy…?" The woman murmured out, her own brow furrowing as she did. "Lord Kaius… you don't mean…?"
"Yes, Amalda…," the armoured man started again, lowering his dark-haired head to cast his growing smirk forward as he did. "The one who is said to appear but only once in Aurelia's history…," he spoke one final time before chuckling, his smirk toothy and hungry. "Akuma."
