A Life
"Are you sure they won't attack us?" Link's trepidation was clear.
"We're nearing the alcove," Midna nodded to herself. "These golems were Goddess-spawned, just like all the others, but Lord Tyrant-britches himself forced them under his command. It means we're in his territory. Figures it's where he'd put the sword, the smug bastard."
Link nodded, but his eyes darted uneasily from one prone behemoth to the next.
"Where I come from," Midna continued from before, and Link listened despite the churning of his stomach. "Isn't too different from Hyrule. Or what's left of it, anyway. Like you, the Twili and their very livelihood revolved around the Goddesses. We worshipped them, and you could say our artifacts were our entire culture."
She held pale fingers in front of her, flexing them wistfully.
"Our artifacts. The Sols. Beacons of our only light, blessed by the Goddesses from generation to generation, and always everything to us. Imagine our surprise when this time around, the Sols manifested as people instead of objects."
"But," she barked out laughter. "We might as well have been objects anyway, the way everyone looked at us. Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered when everything went to hell."
She shoved him, and it was very nearly playful.
"And you don't know a thing, do you? Where were you when our creators went berserk? It's like you've been removed from all the tragedy," she laughed.
Link had never heard her laugh so much in one sitting, and it was uncanny, because he for once didn't find much remotely funny.
"My parents were among the first to get slaughtered when the Master Sword first attacked us," she mused quietly. "They tried protect me, and I guess it must've worked. I don't remember much except their faces as they died. I was about ten, and all."
She idly stole his hat as they walked, twirling it lazily around her finger.
"Most of my people soon followed. It wasn't long after that, I think, when I went insane."
At the stricken look on his face, she scoffed.
"All the Sols did. We and the blade are cut from the same cloth. Artifacts of the Goddesses. So it was only a matter of time before we follow suit and wreak our own havoc, wouldn't you agree?'
"Midna, please, you don't have to tell me, I…I get the picture-"
"Oh, but it's so elegant of them, don't you see?" she shouted, and it seemed like she was unable to stop.
"We very nearly wiped out what was left of us, but the tribe adapted! We tore down villages and piled bodies upon bodies, but it wasn't like they weren't attacked before!"
Her tone was so bitter, she could taste it on the roof of her own mouth.
"The sword left them prepared for magical onslaught. They subdued us eventually, the few of them that were left, and one by one, the Sols were executed. They were glad to do it. I would be, too, if I were them."
"Don't say that," and Link was desperate. "You can't say that."
Midna let out a breath, tickling strands of unkempt orange.
"But you know the rest. It was pure chance that I was the one spared. It was a waste to dispose of all of us, you see. Wouldn't it be so prudent, so elegant, to have my death be fruitful? The sword was still out there."
She breathed life, breathed death and earth and fire all at once.
"Don't you get it, Link?"
And he had a dreadful feeling that he really, really wouldn't.
"I'm the luckiest girl in the world."
Author's Note: I sincerely, sincerely hope this didn't come off as just lengthy exposition (our worst nightmare!) This is the longest chapter yet, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. It makes sense, though, since things are about to boil over something fierce!