Zelda poured over stacks of research notes at her writing table. As organized as it was, it was still proving difficult to locate what she was looking for.
The elixir recipe has to be in here somewhere…
She searched through the drawers, finding a neatly folded piece of paper tucked in a journal she'd used to write down field research notes.
Yes, I think this is it...
Zelda unfolded it, quickly appraising the recipe for the spicy elixir she had written down some time ago. She collected these recipes out of morbid fascination, never imagining she'd be putting one to practical use.
It would be simple to gather the ingredients for the elixir, although she dreaded having to ingest the concoction that consisted of at least one monster part, likely from a bokoblin since they were so common and at least one creature that could give the elixir cold-resistant properties, likely an insect. These elixirs could be strengthened in effect or duration by adding additional monster parts, creatures, or plants.
I'm turning into Link, she thought grimly, recalling how Link had eaten rocks in her presence at least twice during their travels. It would be just like Link to drink one of these bizarre elixirs… Or all of them…
Zelda grabbed an empty corked glass container to hold the elixir. She wrinkled her nose, imagining the taste of a potion that was created from the internal organs of a bokoblin, and decided to bring an additional bottle to hold some water to wash it down.
She thought of Astor and what he might say.
"You have bokoblin breath, Your Highness..."
That is if he ever got close enough and we...
Zelda's heart fluttered in her chest, and it took a moment to compose herself and focus on the task at hand.
She picked up the Sheikah Slate, pulling up its map function, which Purah had shown her recently after she and her fellow researchers had successfully activated the towers all over Hyrule. She studied it and decided the path she would take. The way through Dueling Peaks stood out to her at first, as it was the most well-established path, but taking a second look she saw a quicker, more direct route. Either way, she'd be passing through Kakariko village, which made her a little nervous. What if someone recognized her? Not that it would be the end of the world if someone did, Zelda reassured herself. It just wasn't often that she went anywhere without an entourage of guards. The worst that could happen is one of the villagers would tell Impa she'd been spotted walking through the village alone. They probably wouldn't guess where she was going, as Mount Lanayru was still some distance from the village.
She went to her wardrobe to grab a plain, dark cloak and put it on over her dress, adjusting the hood over her head. The cloak sat awkwardly over her long hair. She adjusted her hair so it would all fit comfortably inside the hood at the nape of her neck.
Leaving the comforts of her chambers was difficult. She had never done anything like this before. Still, the thought of staying put and doing nothing when the people of Hyrule were preparing for the worst was unconscionable. Soon there would be a mass exodus of people from Castle Town and she knew what they would think of her, thanks in part to her father's never-ending scolding.
Outside, she was relieved to see the castle grounds were free of any guards, allowing her to walk out without incident. She supposed they had already been excused to retreat from Castle Town with their families. Her father was at least a benevolent king who cared for his people, despite his stern and sometimes harsh treatment of her. Her nervous thoughts dissipated and she breathed deeply of the night air, looking out over the town from her vantage point as she made her way down the winding path.
Zelda cleared the gatehouses and then the main gate that led out into Castle Town, arriving in the central square. The gentle trickle of the fountain greeted her as the town slept. Zelda navigated through the empty cobblestone streets, heading for the final gate that would lead out into Hyrule Field. Once she had cleared the town's gate, she headed east.
The grass swayed in the gentle breeze. The moon was high and bright allowing her to see her destination in the far distance. The Sheikah Slate shifted in the pocket of her cloak as she walked in quick, long strides. She let her mind wander, trying to focus on sweet daydreams to overcome the sense that she was in a race against her kingdom's demise. She remembered how conflicted Astor had sounded the last time she spoke with him. Her heart swelled and she walked a little faster, feeling hopeful and foolish at once. She focused on the sound of crickets chirping. She didn't look back at the castle as she moved further and further away. If she looked back, she knew she would lose her resolve.
She neared a bokoblin encampment. There were three of them, and fortunately for her, they were all in relative proximity to each other. She grabbed the Sheikah Slate from her cloak's pocket and charged forward, giving a grunt of effort as she activated the remote bomb feature. By the time they noticed their unwelcome visitor it was too late. The pig-like creatures gave a chorus of animalistic shrieks just before they were blown sky-high.
Zelda sighed in relief looking around the camp for whatever she could pillage for herself. There was a thick and juicy steak cooking over an open flame. Her mouth began to water from the inviting scent of cooking meat, realizing how hungry she was. She could almost taste it.
As she moved towards the steak, what remained of the bokoblins succumbed to gravity and began to fall from the sky. She flinched as the purple guts rained down on her with a chorus of wet plops, some of them bursting upon impact. She wasn't hungry anymore.
Zelda got to work on the elixir once she had gathered the nerve to collect the bokoblin guts and placed them in a large cooking pot that already had a fire going under it. She remained at the camp a few more minutes waiting for a warm darner to appear and when one presented itself she caught it and added it to the pot. Slowly, everything began to liquefy, becoming an orange-red viscous substance. If she stood too close to the concoction her eyes began to water. Breathing in the peppery aroma of the elixir made her break into a coughing fit.
Success… Zelda thought to herself.
She carefully dipped the rim of the bottle through the liquid, letting it flow into the container. She corked it and returned it to the pocket of her cloak. Down an embankment, where the Hylia River flowed, she bent to scoop up some water in her cupped hands, greedily drinking to quench her immense thirst. She savored the crispness of it, and found it sated the burning in her throat. Then the second glass bottle was filled with water for later. She placed the cork and climbed back up the embankment and crossed the Rebonae Bridge.
oOo
By late morning it was discovered that Zelda was missing. The remaining staff that was left descended into a frenzy, searching the castle and even spreading out into Castle Town to look for her.
Link and Impa knelt before King Rhoam who was furious.
"It seems my daughter has forsaken her divine duty and has fled. I fear all is lost…"
"Your Majesty, with all due respect, I don't believe she would do such a thing. I'm sure that wherever she has gone she has a good reason."
The king narrowed his eyes at the Sheikah advisor. "Then where has she gone and what is she doing? This is unacceptable! You two are her closest companions. You must know something! If you are hiding something from me, I will hold you both personally responsible!"
Impa shifted nervously, shooting a brief glance at Link for support. "Uh… She might be with a certain individual… He… He might have taken her, but then again, she could have gone with him willingly. I really can't say for sure either way…. I don't want to point any fingers, though, and I mean no disrespect towards Her Highness."
"What do you mean 'went with him willingly'?" Rhoam raised his voice, almost to a bellow. Impa's insides roiled at the horrible mixture of worry, confusion, and anger in the king's voice and the scenarios he must have been envisioning. "Who is this individual and why is this the first I'm hearing about this?"
"Uh… Let's just say he's a prophet with exclusive knowledge of the Calamity."
Link gave Impa an incredulous look, and she could only imagine what the young knight thought of her explanations.
Smooth, Impa, real smooth. You really know how to spin things.
"Hmm… A prophet…" Rhoam paused, contemplating this. "That does little to quell my reservations… You don't sound very certain about this man's intentions at all... Send word to the Champions at once to leave their Divine Beasts for the time being. Inform them of the situation and have them assist in searching for my irresponsible daughter."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Impa bowed, and they turned to leave the Sanctum.
"It can't be true, can it?" Impa whispered to Link. "The other night when Astor interrupted Zelda's prayers at the Spring of Courage… We have no idea what was said between the two. What are the chances Zelda's disappearance has something to do with him? What if… What if they both turned from their respective roles and ran as far as they could?"
Link regarded her. He seemed to consider what she was saying, a serious look in his blue eyes but refraining from expressing his thoughts on the matter, committed to silently bearing his duty, no matter what unexpected turns fate threw at him.
"Ugh… Sorry, I'm just rambling, I guess." Said Impa. "I don't want to believe Zelda would just give up like that, but if she did... I guess I would understand why… I couldn't fault her."
oOo
Zelda had, at last, reached the gate that marked the entrance to Mount Lanayru. At the base of Mount Lanayru was a beautiful, tranquil field. This would probably be the last moment of relative comfort—for once she started her ascent the air would only grow colder the higher she went.
She had to do some light climbing to reach the beginning of the path up the mountain. She followed the winding path up and onwards, and soon she noticed it was snowing lightly. The change in temperature was dramatic, and when she became too cold for her liking, she took a small sip of the spicy elixir. It wasn't as foul as she'd been anticipating, so she was able to consume the rest, although slowly. Even after chasing the elixir with water, she could feel sweat beginning to bead on her forehead. The cold became tolerable, and soon, any unpleasant burning aftertaste faded.
The path up the mountain was steep, marked every so often with a segment of stone steps. Her legs began to ache but knew that if she stopped it would hurt to resume moving again. She wouldn't stop until she stood before the Goddess statue at the Spring of Wisdom.
She was at a high altitude now. A cutting gust of wind snapped back the hood of her cloak and violently ruffled her thick hair. As she tried to pull the hood back in place, the gale hit again, stronger this time, and it took her breath away for several beats. She struggled to take another breath, gasping for air. Still, she pushed up and onward.
Her legs were about to give out when she, at long last, reached the spring. She wondered how the water wasn't solid ice given the frigid temperature. She stepped into the spring, starting to shiver as the ice-cold water touched her skin up to her calves. She couldn't turn back now; she'd come too far and was finally at her destination.
She forced herself further down the spring, following the stone path below the water's surface, coming to stand where the crest of Hylia was etched. She clasped her hands together, barely being able to form a coherent thought.
Are the effects of the elixir wearing off, she wondered, her worst fears starting to come to horrible fruition.
She braced herself against the immense cold, squeezing her eyes shut. "Goddess Hylia, please… I came all the way up here... I don't understand… Don't you want me to awaken my power?"
Her chest felt so tight. She could feel the bones ache in her fingers. She couldn't stop herself from visibly shivering. The cloak that had felt so heavy and substantial during her journey suddenly felt paper-thin.
Had she made a mistake? One she would pay for with her life? There was no way she was going to make it back down the mountain. She was far too cold, and far too exhausted from the hours and distance of travel to turn back.
"Please… Didn't you call me here?"
oOo
The seer awakened with a start from an intense dream. In it, the princess was praying at the Spring of Wisdom, just as she had said she would. The girl's breath was visible, coming out in steady puffs from her pale lips.
Astor looked around, his eyes still bleary from sleep, seeing the faintly glowing Silent Princess flowers all around him. The Goddess' voice resonated in his mind. "Go to her..."
The seer hesitated. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The princess was never meant to make it up to that spring, especially not alone and not this early. Astor stifled a curse meant for the Goddess, loathing that she was altering fate and forcing his hand.
To act and rescue her would mark him as an enemy of Calamity Ganon, and the idea turned his stomach to rot. He wasn't unaware of what happened to those who lost favor with Lord Ganon, or were deemed unworthy.
He had once sworn to crush beneath his heel those who were trying to defy fate's rightful course. No, not fate… It was Calamity Ganon's will he'd been trying in vain to further. It was a distinction he was struggling to get behind, feeling as though he was slowly waking from the deep sleep that was his delusions surrounding the Calamity.
Fate had a true course, and even that was being rewritten. The hardest thing to accept was that it was being rewritten for his benefit. Why him? He never would have considered that the Goddess would give second chances to those that turned their back on her in favor of serving an all-consuming evil entity.
Hyrule's two most powerful beings were at war over him. He was a tool to both, although he had to surrender to the fact that the Goddess had far more benign plans for him. He'd be a fool to fight Hylia's plan, but it still felt unfathomable. He'd repressed human desires for such a long time, or rather his devotion to the Calamity had nearly destroyed all those desires, leaving barely a whisper of humanity in him.
Could the princess really be his? He could no longer fight or deny this yearning… Or was it he who would be hers? Astor wasn't sure. It was the princess who had pursued him and won him over. He was all too aware his thoughts of her were consuming him, slowly changing him.
He recalled the last thing she had said to him.
I hope you will allow me to give you what the Calamity cannot.
The words that would forever be etched into his mind. Did she...know? Those words had sent him spiraling. He wanted so much to do the same to her somehow.
And so Astor willed himself to that place. He appeared behind her on the stone platform, the frigid temperatures immediately hitting him.
Zelda turned, taking notice of him. Her eyes widened and her lips parted to speak, but she had no words. Overcome, Zelda ran to him, up the steps, and onto the stone platform where he stood.
"So...cold!" She barely managed to get the words out as she threw herself at him, trying to bury her frozen hands deep into his robes. Astor cried out in surprise, vanishing from the Spring of Wisdom, taking her with him. And for a brief moment in time they were neither here nor there, but still locked in that embrace.
The princess was still shivering intensely when they reappeared at the base of Mount Lanayru, back in that tranquil field.
She clung to him, trying to steal what little warmth his body and clothing could give. It occurred to her that he must have been watching her, knowing exactly where she was and when she was in trouble. "You… You came to save me?"
He didn't know how to act towards her. He doubled down. "Quite bold of you to make that assumption." He said coldly. "Perhaps I only came to witness your demise brought on by your ill-conceived plan, but alas it seems I have inadvertently saved you…"
He pried her off of him and pushed her away, yet it was far too gentle for someone who had once plotted her death. His fingers brushed against her ice-cold ones, and he flinched from the contact.
Zelda's heart fell. "If you were still loyal to Ganon, you would have just left me to die… Please, stop playing games with me... I can't stand this… I'm so cold."
She came close again, trying to bury herself in him once again. She must have been starved for affection and validation to be seeking it from him of all people. Astor halfheartedly held out a hand, trying to keep her at bay. He wanted so badly to give in to her, but her touch was paralyzing, for it ignited a chain of images in his mind's eye. The visions were too rapid to interpret or understand, but still, they left him with an inexplicable, profound feeling. She may not have been able to find her power, but she had certainly managed to awaken something in him.
Zelda gave him a dejected look. "Thank you for saving me..." She said self-consciously, before beginning to head back toward Lanayru Promenade. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, still feeling the effects of the cold. Astor couldn't help but follow, each step a subconscious desire to stay at her side.
They walked for a while in silence down Lanayru Promenade, its beautiful ancient stonework covered in moss.
Zelda came to a stop, near the edge of the path, overlooking the water. Her fist was wrapped tightly around the handle of the Sheikah Slate.
"That was it… That was my last chance… Looks like I'm just not meant to awaken this power… But why…? Why won't it awaken for me?"
Astor paused, her words deeply affecting him for reasons he couldn't understand. Was this...pity? He felt like a ghost of his former self, now numb to Calamity Ganon.
The vision of the princess and the knight at Blatchery Plains ran through his mind, sobering him. It made Astor anxious that she would ultimately give up on him and find validation in the most obvious of places—that boy. Was it possible for fate to circle back around and bite him in such a cruel way? He acutely felt the pressure to comfort her, but he didn't know how.
"My seventeenth birthday is...tomorrow… There's no more time…" Zelda's voice cracked in a haunting way. She stood perfectly still, her back to him. "I really am just a failure!" Zelda gave a horrible, soul-rending sob and pitched the cloak she'd been wearing into the waters below.
Laughter erupted through the promenade, catching Astor and Zelda's attention. They glanced up to see Kohga and Sooga watching them from a perch high above.
"Well, well, well… Look here, Sooga… The doomed prophet and the heiress to a throne of nothing together at last… I never saw this coming." Kohga howled with sarcasm. "Is that a banana in your pocket, prophet? Or are you just happy to see the pr-"
Astor clapped his hands over his ears, his irises constricting. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" Astor screamed. "I'm going to consign you degenerate pests to oblivion if it's the last thing I do!"
Zelda sniffed, blinking several times as if caught off guard and deeply confused.
Astor was dying inside, the desire to throw himself off the edge of the promenade only increasing. He fantasized about all the ways he could kill Kohga, but he couldn't help but admit Zelda's reaction was strangely endearing. Had Kohga's terrible joke actually got her to stop crying?
"Yiga assemble! Cut down the false prophet and the girl who carries the blood of the goddess!" Kohga clapped his hands together, summoning his footsoldiers, each bursting into the scene, paper talismans falling around them. The footsoldiers began to swarm Zelda and Astor, while Kohga and Sooga vanished.
One of the footsoldiers took a running jump towards Zelda, swinging his sickle. She gasped, losing her footing as she stepped back, nearly plummeting into the water. But Astor moved quickly, grabbing Zelda by the arm and pulling her close to him.
With his free hand, Astor summoned his orb, hoping Calamity Ganon's power hadn't forsaken him yet as he called forth a Hollow. The Hollow of the princess's appointed knight appeared in an instant and rushed at the Yiga footsoldiers with horrifying speed.
The footsoldiers screamed in recognition of the hero's likeness, holding their sickles at the ready. The malice-being wielded its 'sword' just as skillfully as the hero himself, expertly blocking any attacks the members of the Yiga Clan threw at it. It made short work of the footsoldiers, hacking and slashing until they each fell, nearing death. The Princess stood very still as she watched it all play out before her in morbid fascination, wide-eyed, still being held in Astor's grasp.
The footsoldier's bodies jerked and spasmed, giving up the ghost, or in this case red-purple spheres of energy that rose from their chests one by one, being drawn out by the power of malice Astor wielded. The spheres floated delicately in the air, and Zelda could just make out a faint electrical pulse within. Astor raised his chin in a 'come here' motion, and the spheres barreled through the air with a ghastly howl towards the pair. Zelda shut her eyes and flinched away, only to realize that the spheres had been absorbed into the orb Astor held.
Astor released Zelda from his grasp and stepped away, looking surprised. He had saved her, again, on his own volition this time. He had held her so close, and the moment had passed too quickly, barely having acknowledged it at the moment due to being under attack.
Zelda regarded him silently, waiting for him to speak. He looked as if he was waiting for Calamity Ganon to strike him down for using the power of malice to save her.
"If you're going to perish, it must be by my hand..." Said Astor, as a way of an excuse, as confidently as he could muster.
Zelda's face fell. The fear and anticipation of the impending Calamity hung palpably between them. Zelda thought of her father, her anxieties mounting. She didn't know how she was going to face him after she'd broken Lanayru's decree and failed to awaken her powers yet again.
"Well... I don't suppose you'd like to accompany me back to the castle? Father might want to kill me when he finds out where I've been." Zelda gave a nervous smile.
Astor allowed himself to smile faintly. This girl thought she was clever. "I can do that…" In truth, he'd follow her anywhere at this point.
This took Zelda by surprise. Her features contorted a bit, nearly breaking into tears again. She gave a small exhale of relief. "Thank you…"
Faylian: It was a lot of fun to write that part, and give Impa new things to say to better reflect the situation.
"Astor-dot-exe has stopped working."
It was a good joke, unfortunately this site ate part of the sentence. LOL
Always enjoy your sense of humor.
Prometheus17: Thanks for your kind words! Maybe Nintendo/Koei Tecmo will shed more light on Astor with the upcoming DLC in November. They could really go into depth with him about what motivates him like they did with Cia (although I doubt they will. But here's to hoping). Your reviews are always so fascinating to read and always spot on. (slow clap for Astor for slowly coming around and accepting his feelings towards the princess, but doesn't know how to go about expressing it, being the misanthrope loner that he is. I think Astor could take a lesson from Yuga.)
James Birdsong: Thanks for the review!