Chapter Four: Purpose

Zelda gazed out over the wide gap that encircled her current quarters. It was night time, and the clouds had cleared so she had a clear view to the land before her. She saw Hyrule Town, it's tiny existence only composed of a mass of lights that shined through the dark expanse of obscurity. Zelda saw other beacons of light radiating sparsely from various areas. From the layout, she guessed that the illuminated area below her was Lon Lon Ranch and those lights which were dotting the landscape far to the west were the Western Woods.

She looked out into the expanse below, and felt alone. Seeing the world, her world, from so high up, left her feeling insignificant. Her gaze wandered to the very edges of Hyrule. To the east, she could see Lake Hylia and the Minish woods; to the north, and Veil Falls. Southwards, she saw the southern Hyrule field, green and lush, and to the west the Castor Wilds waited for unsuspecting travellers. She knew Hyrule as well as she knew her own home, and they were alike in a way: unchanging and always welcoming, she always felt at ease with it.

Zelda had never left Hyrule, and she never knew what lay beyond it's borders, had only heard stories and legends of giants and oracles and great oceans she had never swam in. Seeing her home spread out, like a toy map before her, shook her. She rolled onto her back and sighed gustily. She would never be able to sacrifice her home like that, not for her sake or anyone else's.

A cold breeze drifted and swirled across, rustling her now-dry hair. She was glad her dress was made out of wool; it insulated her and kept her warm. She turned back onto her stomach and placed her head into her hands and pondered. Maidens. Farm boy. Zelda was not a fool, and although Vaati would have never willingly divulged such information, he had been on the brink of insanity when he had yelled it at her. Zelda thanked her ancestors that her father had insisted that she should be educated thoroughly. Never before had she thought that old legends such as these should be of any importance to her.

Zelda always thought of them as legends, even though they were written down into her country's official history books. They had been told to her by her mother, kind and caring as she had always been. Tales of princesses being kidnapped and young boys dressed in green always saving them. Even as a child, Zelda had been slightly repulsed that the princess was always being saved, never doing the saving, but she never commented because time spent with her mother was precious, and she wished to all the world that her mother would come back and tell her those tales again and again.

The stories, history had told her, always consisted of three main characters, as in the case of most sagas: one princess, one villain, and one hero. For some reason, throughout the course of the legends those three arch types were always one and the same, even though the records stated that the events had happened with a few hundred years between them. There was the princess who was always named Zelda, as was dictated by family tradition; there was the hero who, for some unnamed reason, was always called Link and continuously seemed to be dressed in green, and then there was Vaati.

The pattern, too, was repetitive. Vaati appears, kidnaps princess, Link collects some magical artifacts, seals Vaati away and saves the princess. In the past, the boy and the princess had always been friends, and the present Zelda lamented about the fact that she had never bothered to really acquaint herself with the farmers who lived scattered around Hyurle Town. She saw the lights illuminating Lon Lon ranch snuff out, and wondered what time it was. She had no sense of time, and was already beginning to lose track of how long she had been there, though she knew it could only be slightly more than a day. It was only when Zelda turned her back to a cold south-breeze that she saw a glint on the horizon. It was bright and strong and beckoned towards her, and it was coming from the Royal Valley.

What could this mean?

The light from the glint was different from the glow of the oil lamps from Hyrule town. It was startling white tinged with blue, violet and gold all at once and it blazed for a few seconds at a time before disappearing, and then blazed again. Zelda recognised a calling when she saw one. Zelda tried to bring forth to mind any other such like occurrences, but could think of none. To the east, she saw another light begin glinting, and it seemed to be coming from the wind ruins and from the west deep in the heart of the Minish Woods another light flared up. Zelda turned to face south and saw the final light shining from the Tower of Winds.

Four beacons of light. Four shattered pieces of the sword. The four Swords, the blade of legend; originated from the Picori sword.

All these facts swam through Zelda's head yet her face remained motionless as her mind whizzed to put pieces together, to form a plan.

The sword that vanquishes evil.

It would be useless without the hilt. Zelda's back straightened up as her mind set to work. Vaati hadn't sealed off her magic. Why, she did not know, although she had a rather strong suspicion that she was not much of a threat to him. With this in mind, Zelda knew that her plan would have to be subtle. She knew that she'd have to pull off advanced magic that she had never tried without supervision before, and she knew that if her plan failed, Vaati would kill her, violently and with much enthusiasm.

۞

The day started much as the one before, with Vaati arriving in a chipper mood to greet her, with the exception that he took her to have breakfast instead of to have dinner. The routine started as the previous day's routine. Zelda bathed and dressed, tried to ridicule Vaati and ate with him in silence. The food itself had been pleasant: cold cuts of meat lightly drizzled in honey with various fruits and types of breads and sauces littering the table. The delicious spread was questionable itself.

"Vaati."

Vaati's eyes slid slowly to look at her. "Yes, milady?"

"Who makes the food?"

Vaati laced his fingers slowly together. "It's quite good, isn't it?"

Zelda cut off a sharp reply, and patiently waited for him to answer.

"Lakitus make the food."

"Who?" Zelda had never heard of such beings before.

"Oh? You haven't heard of them?" Vaati's lips curved up into a crooked smile. "I'll show you, then." He slid up from his seat and when Zelda followed he held out his hand to her. Zelda eyed it with distaste but did not dare outwardly refuse it, lest he became furious. His smile widened by a fraction and Zelda took it as a warning sign before reluctantly giving him her hand. His grip around it tightened firmly, ready to cause her pain if she tried anything. He lead her through a hallway which had marble columns at every few intervals. A the very end of the hallway Zelda saw a suspended set of stairs in mid-air, with no railing or boundaries to stop one going over the edge.

Does he plan to push me off?

Zelda subconsciously tightened her hold on Vaati's hand. He looked over his should to shoot her a smirk and mockingly said, "Scared of a bit of a fall, princess?"

Zelda stared coldly back at him. "Did you bring me out here merely to taunt me?" Her voice was colder than the winds from the peaks of .

Vaati's hand constricted harshly, and his fingernails bit into her hand, engraving little crescent moons into her palm. He jerked roughly onto her arm and brought his face closer to hers before hissing, "Remember your place, Zelda."

Zelda's eyes narrowed, yet she did not antagonize him further. Once he was satisfied, he continued leading her and tried to scare her by jerking her roughly across the floating stairs. Zelda did not let her fear show and bit the inside of her cheek to control herself. Finally, after several terrifying more steps, they arrived on a solid marble floor. Vaati led her down one more corridor, before they came to the first totally enclosed space in the palace.

He swiftly opened the large doors and quasi dragged her inside. It was sweltering hot and steam hung in the air like fog over moors and foreign chattering boomed in her ears. The heady scent of sauces and stews jarred Zelda's senses. The walls were lined with shelves, spices and herbs piled neatly into jars staring out from their glass containers. None of them were labelled and some looked so similar that Zelda wondered how the Lakitus distinguished one spice from another. Pots and pans were hung on hooks which had been nailed into the wall, the steel of the skillets and saucepans gleamed strongly in the light. The effect caused a ripple of light as Zelda and Vaati walked forwards. There were several old ranges shoved against the wall and several heavy-duty wooden tables took up most of the centre of the room. Herbs, roots, meats and various other foods hung from the ceiling, bizarrely mimicking the goods that hung from the tents of travelling merchants. A huge fireplace blazed merrily away at the very back of the room.

Despite the industriousness of the room, that was not the aspect that caught her eye the most. Little turtles, with apple-green shells crouched on their back and rings of ebony embedded in circular designs into the cartilage, floated serenely on white clouds. All of them had a tuft of hair adorning their crowns and as Vaati and her approached, the chattering puttered out into silence and they swiftly fell into neat ranks. Where their clouds touched side by side, Zelda could see tiny currents of lighting forming and sparking out.

The Lakitus stared impassively at them, their small black, pebbled eyes still yet restless. Zelda was slightly unnerved and confused. They were obviously monsters, yet they prepared such delicious meals, with skill and efficiency. Zelda had been brought up to believe that monsters were, savage and ignorant of anything but violence. There had been no proof to plead otherwise. Zelda looked deep into the eyes of one of them, trying to find sentimentality, morality, intelligence, yet the black pebbled stones yielded nothing but blank indifference.

"How do you get them to work for you?" Zelda's question rang through the walls and arches of the kitchen, reverberating and echoing in the quietude.

"Similar to your system in Hyrule Town: Hierarchy."

"Do you mean to say that you employ and pay them?"

"Oh no, they know their place, the order of things. Like in a food-chain, they are lower than me and thus, not to be vapourized or something equally horrific, they work for me."

"That's anarchy, not hierarchy. Know the difference."

"Yet how easily hierarchy can turn into anarchy, hm?" Silence greeted him. "Well, Zelda?"

She knew what he was referring too, and hated him for it, and hated herself for it too. She had no idea how he knew, no clue as to how he had gained this information.

"Now, now, think deep inside that small head of yours. I'm sure you'll find it."

Her mother had been ill, a terrible sickness which no doctor had been able to cure. The Queen's family had been in turmoil. The King had ignored his subjects and had ordered his guards to harass any and all travellers for a cure, a hint, a mere whisper of rumour that could cure his wife. He'd had the librarians read through every single book to see if any hint of a remedy murmured from the dead vellum mouths; he had had the farmers working endlessly to produce herbs for his wife; tried quack remedies and superstitious rituals. In the end, he had even went to Syrup, the never-dying witch who he feared to impossible extents.

She had arrived at the castle and spent an hour locked inside the Queen's room, with no-one else accept her young apprentice. Zelda had spent that hour sitting outside her mother's room, her arms locked tightly around her knees, whilst her father paced fanatically, restlessly up and down the corridor. When the door had finally creaked open at the end of the hour, both Zelda and her father waited with baited breath. There had been no point in waiting. Even Syrup had not been able to do anything for her mother.

The shell that had housed her mother's spirit had been buried in the Royal Valley, her body placed next to the countless other nobles that had been related to her some way or another. After the burial, the King ignored his kingdom, shunned his duties, and secluded himself in his quarters. None were allowed to enter, not the servants to clean or present meals; nor his advisers to offer up knowledge and wisdom. Not even Zelda, his own daughter, who needed a loving parent at this time more than any other time.

The one time Zelda had gone to give and seek solace, he had thrown her out of his room and had left his hand print across her face as a warning. After that, Zelda resorted to making life very difficult for those around her, in an attempt to chase away the sorrow of not losing one, but both parents. She threw regular tantrums and refused to listen to the castle staff. She continuously snuck out of the castle, throwing everyone into a frenzy.

Zelda recalled a particular day when the entire castle had been making preparations for a foreign ambassador from Holondrum who was making a diplomatic visit. It would be one of the rare occasions that her father would leave his quarters. She had used the opportunity to make a head-way for Minish woods. She had not been very young, twelve at the least and it had only been half a year since her mother had passed away, yet the hurt had still been fresh. Zelda had stolen one of the guard's horses and had made off with it. It had only taken half an hour to get to her destination, and she had spent the whole day looking for the tiny fabled Minish, who were said to only appear to children and could grant wishes. She had spent hours searching through the bushes and old ruins, peeking into hollow trees and wading through streams to catch a glimpse of the tiny rodent-like creatures. Zelda had had one very specific wish in mind and she would go to great lengths to find the race who could fulfil her desire.

Alas, after several futile hours of searching, Zelda had to give up the hunt. It was getting dark and she needed that half hour of light to make her way home. So in an ill temper she had arrived, furious at her failure, and everyone around her was furious too. Zelda had never seen her father in such a rage at one of her disappearances; he had never really noticed or cared. She had gone to bed in tears without a single piece of sustenance in her stomach and that night she vowed that she would distance herself from her father.

Zelda kept her self-made vow. After a year had gone by, her father had managed to compose himself and once more ruled the country as his subjects remembered. Zelda had become civil and well-spoken. She never snuck out to anyone's knowledge and behaved well both in company and out of it, but her father and her were never close again. Over the last few years they barely ever saw each other except at meal times and social gatherings which they both had to attend.

The present Zelda's face contorted in sheer hate for Vaati, and he loved the pure venom in her eyes. "For all your supposedly civil upbringing and rigorous training, even you can't face your former self, can you Zelda?"

Zelda clenched her fists tightly and barely managed to control herself from flinging a pot of boiling water at his face.

Vaati's eyes glinted maliciously, forming twin pools of blood steeped with vindictiveness and rancour. "You think yourself better than everyone, don't you, Zelda? Yet you acted worse than any farm brat or wild savage. It was not pure grief that caused you to act the way you did, was it?"

"How do you know of my mother's death?" Her voice was a harsh whisper, raw and bare.

Vaati chuckled inauspiciously. "No, what you really mean to ask is, how did I find out about your true ugly self, hiding behind that Pharisaic veneer?"

"I am not self-righteous," Zelda hissed.

A glint of his fangs showed as he laughed. Vaati spread his arms wide and proclaimed, "Prove it! Prove to me, to your Kingdom, to all your subjects that you're on equal footing with them, that you're willing to do anything for them; die for them."

Zelda remained motionless, she was not even aware whether she was breathing. She did not blink, ever second was frozen in a series of baited breathes. "Is that why you brought me here?" Her voice was unwavering and unreadable. "To toy with me, mock me and then sacrifice myself all for your entertainment?"

"No, Zelda, not at all! Well, at least not quite so soon. You really are a dense girl aren't you? Oh, smarter than the first Zelda I kidnapped, yet you seem to pale in comparison compared to your predecessor."

Zelda remained quiet and full of fury, tight-lipped to seal her contempt for the man.

Vaati stared at her, his eyes narrowing softly and slowly. "Tell me, Princess, how do you manage to control your rage?" He studied as he took in her deepening breaths and clenched jaw. A side of his mouth quirked upwards. "Yet, back to the topic at hand," he leaned against one of the wooden tables and laced his fingers together and crossed one ankle over the other and his eyes scrutinised her face intently. "How far are you willing to go for your people?" he semi-whispered.

"As far as needs be."

Vaati levered himself off the table. His face broke into a wide smile, beaming at her, in quasi childish radiance. "Very good!" He exclaimed. "So, then, you won't have any objections will you now, to anything I ask of you?"

Zelda did not let her shoulders slump down in defeat. The battle was not yet lost. "As long as my people and country remain unharmed, I shall not object."

"How noble!" His hands grasped each other in excitement. "So, absolutely no objections to marrying me before the week is out?" His red eyes narrowed in sheer delight.

Zelda looked him in the eye, as hard as uncut diamond. "None whatsoever," she whispered.

"Good. Very good."

۞

Vaati had just dragged Zelda into a corridor behind the throne room, before he deigned to enlighten her. "I thought you'd like to see where we shall be wed," he murmured into her ear, before leading her through a wide arch into a beautifully sunlit open-courtyard. Zelda had to let her eyes accustom to the light before she could take in her surroundings. Before her was a lush garden, full of plants of all kind. Flowers and foliage alike flourished, nourished by the magic in the atmosphere. Dotted around the garden were several crystal sculptures, each depicting a state of weather. Their crystalline beauty caught the sun and reflected its light into a myriad of rainbow colours, forming arcs. Flanking a flight of steps were four pedestals, each supporting a stone statue of each of the elements. The marble steps reached high out into the sky, and gay way to a bare platform with gold markings each into its surface.

"A fitting place to be wed, don't you think Princess?"

Zelda did not reply, too busy trying to calculate an advantage, any advantage. "Who shall wed us?"

"Funny you should think about that," Vaati drawled, "but I have thought it apt that we use people from the wind tribe, seeing as they shall soon have to pay tribute anyway. Might as well reintroduce them to their new leader."

Despicable man.

"They were around before?"

Vaati sighed in amusement. "And once again, princess, who show your total lack of knowledge. The wind tribe, although small, were most probably here before your settlers moved in. So much so, that they have developed abilities to control the wind, and thus, thanks to their rather docile nature, have made your country flourish."

"When shall you inform them?"

Vaati pretended to thin about it for a while. "Say, over dinner, perhaps?"

Zelda suddenly knew how she was going to escape.

A/N: Well there you go, for people who still follow this story! Although you won't believe me, my most humble of apologies for the extremely delayed chapter (boy, you must be tired of hearing this by now.) Yet, never fear: I shall never abandon this story. I hope you're enjoying it so far! Reviews would be appreciated, but don't feel obliged. It's not like I get paid or anything for writing this ;) *GUILT TRIP GUILT TRIP GULT TRIP*

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :D