When Zelda looked into the mirror, she saw her mother, not herself.
Her dress was far too gorgeous. Daltus had given a bonus to the seamstress to create an even more stunning dress than she'd been given before. He'd been surprisingly passive towards her over the past four days. Perhaps it was just the anticipation of Auru's arrival. Perhaps he'd finally taken Zelda's threat seriously.
But as she spun slowly, staring at herself, the image in the mirror slowly began to fade, replaced by an old memory.
"Zelda, come away," her mother had said waving her over away from the mirror. "I have to talk to you."
Zelda had been surprisingly clumsy as she grew into her height, so at ten, she still tripped over herself often.
Her mother caught her arm, steadying her. "Love, are you okay?"
"Yes, Mama," she'd said. Thanks to Aelia's birth, she'd still heard her mother called this most often, and she had no great desire to prefer addressing her any other way, not even if royal advisors told them she had to start speaking properly. "Why can't Aelia come with us today?"
Her mother ran a hand through Zelda's hair. "This is just for you, me, and Papa. You understand what's happening today, right?"
Zelda shrugged. "I'm getting married, I think Impa said?"
"No, baby, you're not getting married today. Something happened, something you don't have to worry about, and you now have a new betrothed. He's a Prince, and he's your age. You'll meet him today. His name is Cado. You have to be nice to him, okay?"
"I'm always nice."
Her mother laughed and planted a quick kiss into Zelda's hair before calling over several of her ladies to help fix it. "Are you okay with this, Zelda?"
Again, the young girl shrugged. "I guess."
And though Zelda never understood why, she remembered seeing her mother's sad face as she leaned against the doorframe, a tear in her eye. "What have we done to you?"
Zelda placed the circlet on her head, letting Seres pin it securely in place. She grabbed the girl's hand, letting out a deep breath. It wouldn't be long now until Auru's arrival, marching his soldiers to her aid.
This is how she saves her people.
"Aelia," Zelda said, bursting into her sister's room without waiting. She immediately threw herself onto the bed, her long blonde hair fanning out. Her sister, only ten, sat on the floor with a doll in her hand, unaffected by her sister's abrupt intrusion. Zelda flopped her head over to the side to see if she had her sister's attention. "Gemma isn't here so I need you to listen to me, okay?"
"Sure," Aelia said, reaching for the brush to run through her doll's hair.
"Okay," she flopped herself upside-down off the bed. "You'd tell me if you had your first kiss, right?"
Aelia slowly turned to her sister, disgust written all over her face as her response.
"Well I don't mean now, I just mean… whenever."
"Fine. I'll tell you."
"Great, because now I don't feel so bad telling you that Prince Cado kissed me."
Aelia was not as impressed as Zelda hoped she'd be. "Aren't you marrying him? Isn't he supposed to? What's the big deal?" Though she knew Zelda, only fifteen, was too young still to actually get married.
Scoffing, Zelda rolled off the bed. "Well you're no fun. I wish Gemma was here instead of you."
"That's rude," she muttered as Zelda left the room.
Sitting with ladies fussing over the perfect slight curl to her hair, or the right amount of black kohl around her eyes to make the best first impression had her mind racing. Racing through all the little moments that she fought to remember. The moments where she was reminded over and over again that this was her duty to Hyrule, as it was every royals' to their kingdom.
"No, the soldiers are dying out there!" Zelda had all but yelled at her parents when the war had first begun. Back when their troops were numerous and strong and Ganondorf still hadn't set foot in Hyrule. "I want to help them. I want to take the training course they're offering to volunteers. There are more important things to worry about besides marriage and who you're going to throw me at next. You use me as a babysitter for Aelia, and I'm sick of wandering around between lessons with nothing to do. Please don't end the betrothal to Cado. At least I know him! I don't know… whatever his name was."
"Zelda," her father had said calmly. "You are still young, you don't understand just how important this is."
"But father, why does it have to be me? Can't it be a piece of land you trade? I just want to go to Hyrule Field. I can do more good there."
"Zelda," her mother whispered. "You can stop this war before it ever begins. We don't want to have to ask Aelia to do this, but we have to have one of you help us here."
"So I'm the oldest, so I can be sacrificed first?"
"You'd rather we ask your sister?"
"Of course not," Zelda spat. "Of course I'll do it. All of myself for the Kingdom of Hyrule, right? I just mean that I want to do more than exist to be a bartering chip."
Her mother had a comforting hand on her arm. "You are far more than that, darling. Go back to Hyrule Field. Keep doing your good work there. Your marriage wouldn't happen right away, so go. Your father and I are both alive and healthy, so there won't be any need to rush you to the altar."
Zelda had gone to leave, but stopped herself. "I'm sorry. I am happy to do this for Hyrule. I just wish it was more pleasant circumstances. Meeting him first. Spending time with him."
"We'll see what we can do," her father promised with a grateful head nod.
Descending the stairs, Zelda could feel every eye on her. The halls were crowded; Daltus had invited many people inside to witness everything. Her feet guided her blindly to where she knew Daltus and Niko were waiting. There was no sight of Auru, and for that, Zelda felt relieved. It gave her another minute to compose herself. In his rush to get to Ganondorf, this might even be the only day she meets Auru before his call for their marriage.
"Aelia?" Zelda had called just before feeling her sister crash hard into her. "Oof!"
"Zelda's back!" she screamed into the echoing halls. "Tell me everything."
It had been her first visit home from training after weeks away. Coming back, she realized just how sheltered the palace was, with its fine things and pristine rugs, stainless silverware, and buffets of meals.
Zelda clung to her sister, spinning her around before leading her down a long hallway. "The first thing I want to teach you is how to make tea without asking Jessa to do it for you."
"I'm sure I can do that," Aelia said, youthful confidence exuding from every one of her pores.
"Okay, I won't help you then."
"Fine, then I won't tell you the good news that mom and dad managed to forgo your betrothal. You're free again. I'm not. Not yet, anyway."
Zelda was beyond excited, but she knew that there were likely secret meetings with the council, already deciding who the next tactical match would be. "You're a rat, Aelia. Remind me not to tell you any secrets."
However, when she'd been taken prisoner by Ganondorf, she'd just been on the heels of another betrothal. He'd been unfortunate enough to be at the castle to meet when the massacre happened. She never even saw him.
When Zelda finally snapped back to reality, she was beside Daltus, outside. They were both watching a large procession of troops that Auru brought. Their armor was impeccably clean, shining in the glare of the sun. Zelda found herself squinting at times just to manage to keep her eyes on them.
But it was not every soldier in his army, just a small contingent for show, and eventually the line ended with an man in a very large crown staring at her with steeled eyes, the trained look of impassivity that monarchs perfected in their youth.
"Princess Zelda, it is an honor," he said, monotone and without bowing.
She, however, still had the lower rank, and found herself in a low curtsey. "King Auru. The pleasure is mine."
"Let us clear some things up now, Princess: when we wed, we will live in my kingdom. Hyrule is but a memory of its former glory. I'll not live here in its current state. Our armies will merge the instant we consent to marriage at the altar. We will then march to reclaim Hyrule and end this stalemate we are in." He bent forward and kissed her cheek, then the other, before planting a dull kiss on her lips. With a sharp nod, he continued on his way, content with that meeting being sufficient introduction.
When he'd gone far from view, she let out a sharp breath into her hands and turned to Daltus. He was giving her a look of superiority. "What?" she demanded.
"Well, cousin, he's just done what you did to me. He's lowered you, even in your own eyes. Does it make you want to lash out? I would understand if it did."
Zelda scoffed. "If I die, he has a sister and that would be your fate, you know. This situation doesn't work well for any one of us. He looks about as pleased as I am to be here."
"Possibly less. He's a bit of a hermit."
"So I've heard."
The two exchanged a sidelong glance and a mutual look of annoyance at Auru's existence. Zelda felt herself smile with him at their one commonality.
The rest of her day went by in another blur. There were few days that she barely remembered thanks to her ability to recede from reality.
Zelda threw her things into her bag with haste she didn't even know she possessed.
"Please, Princess, you can stay here where it's safe."
She ignored Owl. Though he was her superior in the medical tent, she was his in every other way. "Stop trying to convince me. I'm going home. Did you even see the letter?"
"You read it aloud to me, Princess. Here, you are surrounded by an army, people who would die for you, who owe you their lives. Stay here with us where it's safe, I'm begging you."
"I need my horse. I have to go home. Ganondorf is coming."
"What good will you be able to do there?" he tried once more.
"They're my family. As much as I love all of you, my priorities are to Hyrule and to my family, first and always."
Owl grabbed her hand and bent his forehead to it reverently. "Then I'll say to you what I say to the soldiers: do not look back, and do not die."
"Sound advice," she grinned, though it didn't reach her eyes. "But I may struggle with one of those. Stay safe, Owl."
She was braced against her bedpost, blinking back the memories again, as she had done all day. All day, she had been lost, floating in the recesses of her mind just to get through it. Auru had spoken of his plans for Hyrule. He'd talked to Niko about promoting his house's nobility for his sacrifice during these times. He'd talked about heirs, and how quickly Zelda would need to have them to keep both kingdoms safe.
It made her sick, and her only escape had been to sink within her memories. Most of them were painful enough, just seeing the smiling faces of her family was enough to make her heart feel like it was tearing in two, but worse, they all reminded her of her duty to Hyrule. It was her sole responsibility to keep it safe. And Auru was the only way that happened now.
"Princess?" Seres said, rubbing a comforting circle on her back. "Are you okay?"
Zelda's head shook.
"Is there anything at all I can do?"
Her head shook again.
Seres went to move, but Zelda caught her arm, a vacantly horrified look on her face.
"Seres, have you ever thought of having children?"
"I've thought about it, yes. Why?"
"Could you ever imagine them in my situation? Would you allow it?"
Seres cleared her throat and put her things down. "Princess, I was raised differently than you. I could never envision your life."
"I'd have to do this to my child too. Make him or her marry a stranger because it makes the kingdom stronger. Does that make me a monster? Does it make my parents monsters? We've done this to almost every royal. Are we all just cruel, horrible people? I keep hoping that my family is with the Goddess, but only Aelia was innocent. Perhaps the rest of us find our way into one of the nine hells because we do this."
Pulling Zelda down onto the bed, Seres clasped Zelda's hands. "For me, sacrifice was knowing that I'd have to be the one to clean the young Rutherford's regurgitations off of the furniture because my masters were in a financial meeting. For you, sacrifice is knowing that you may not have the life you wanted. Sacrifice is giving up the man you love to marry a stranger so Hyrule can survive. I have no right to judge your family, Princess. And you shouldn't judge them too harshly either."
A loud thud in the hall had Zelda jumping in her skin, hand on her chest before letting herself breathe again.
But then the thud came again. And again.
"What's happening?" Zelda muttered, not specifically to Seres, since the girl knew as much as she did.
But as she went to stand, the thud hit her door.
Gasping, Zelda leaned back and reached for the knife under her pillow before sitting up and pulling Seres behind her.
They clung to each other as the door flew open as one panting soldier hulked toward them. His hair was wild, sweaty and entirely obscuring his face in its chaotic layout. He had a knife in his hand. But he made it only one step inside before he was tackled by another man, equally disheveled.
Zelda pushed Seres back until they were both against the wall, feeling Seres move to block her from the bloody soldier. They squinted at the armor. Both soldiers were in King Auru's armor, the symbol clear in the armor's shine, despite the blood that coated both of them. In fact, it smeared her door as well.
She felt her heart skip about a hundred beats, leaving her chest hurting as she heard the thundering of footsteps down her hallway, following in pursuit of the two men. All she could do was hold the knife closer.
Although she hoped that the arrival of the other soldiers was a rescue, a small group who'd known about these two men, it didn't comfort her when five more soldiers reached her door, all with swords drawn and wearing Auru's armor. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect.
She felt ready to throw up. She was dead already.
"Don't fight them if they take me," Zelda whispered to Seres. "Stay invisible and find Finn."
"He should already be here," Seres whispered, remembering the first thuds in the hall with dread. Neither could see past the skirmish in front of them to check that Finn wasn't lying dead in the hall with her other guards.
The one soldier continued to fight against the others, defending her—or perhaps wanting the glory of killing her all to himself—and took three of the five new arrivals down at the chokepoint the door offered. After a brief melee, they were dead as well, piled with the others.
"Finn?" Seres whispered, hoping that he was under the helmet and not in the hall. Whether his name was an actual question to the soldier or just a breath, she wasn't sure.
The soldier took off his helmet and tossed it onto the floor, breathing heavily and skin covered almost completely in ripped skin of dripping blood and caked-on dirt, nearly unrecognizable if it weren't for his voice.
"Sorry I'm late. Miss me?"
Zelda's heart lurched forward. "Link?"
He smirked, lopsided and with a hint of a pained grimace, adjusting his grip on his sword and wringing his jaw as more footsteps approached through the hallway.
"You're not going to believe the day I've had."
A/N: First off, thank you for the reviews! I know I'm not answering individually on this fic, but I really appreciate them so thank you!
SECOND: I just realized that as I copy and paste, the formatting has been disappearing for the past 10 chapters, so there have apparently been no italics in-text or anything like that, which is now giving me anxiety. I'm going back now and fixing them, so I'm sorry if there's been weird confusion because of it. This chapter would have been so hard to follow without italics. I'm going to try to be more diligent about making sure they go through from now on.
I'm just going to put this here that this chapter and the next were originally all one chapter that kind of flip-flopped between perspectives, but I felt like splitting them up because it worked better, so the next chapter ISN'T going to start where this one ends. It's going to be this same day but Link's perspective until it reaches this same point and THEN it will move on. Just warning you because I'm not fancy enough to make that a seemless, non-confusing transition without a heads-up.