Chapter Five: An Interlude: the Many Shades of Truth

"And I believe in my heart that a day will come when I shall meet you again..."

—Princess Zelda

Princess Zelda walked into the Soul-Room, her cloak ruffling around her confident strides as she made her way to the dark figure standing in the middle of the room. "I seek audience," she said, staying well away from the long reach of the figure's sword and keeping a firm grasp on hers.

"Granted," the figure grunted rather impolitely, after pausing in contemplation for a moment. "To what do I owe this…pleasure?" The derisive tone made it evident that it most certainly was not. Its face would be contorted in a sneer if it had the ability.

"Link has gone missing," Zelda stated this bluntly, knowing that beating around the bush would do not any good around the Stalfos.

"And that concerns me…how?" the shape asked.

Insufferable being! "Neither child nor midnight can find him. I implore you to help in this search. You are his mentor! It is your duty to—"

"Duty? You are talking to me about duty?" the figure snorted. "Funny that. Tell me about your kingdom, Princess. Is it still standing? Are your parents deeply slumbering in their sepulchral chambers?"

"You dare to—!" In a burst of blind fury, she reached out to slap him only to have him grab her so hard on the wrist it made her hand hurt. The shock of the action brought her back to her senses. She wondered how he could do that as nothing but an essence.

The figure's tone was cold. "If you were anyone else Princess, your soul would not survive to see your body again. This is your first and only warning. These are my realms, Princess. I do as I like with them. Not even your status as a vessel of the Triforce will be able to help you if you do that again."

"Understood," her shoulders hunched as she wilted. "I apologize for my anger." She sighed. "It's just nothing is going as it should, and we are running out of time."

This close to the figure, she could see him in his entirety. He made a frightening picture with one red eye set deep set in his skull, the right eye missing, guarded by a fierce helm. The fact that he was bone and nothing else added to her unease. His body was made of fog where the bone ended. It did not help he was over a head taller than her and imposing in his antique burnished armor. This particular style of armor was old even when her grandfather was a boy. Old withered leaves twined around the surface in detail.

A deep guttural laugh. "Time? Surely, you jest. I shall never run out of time. Funny how you come here begging my help only to do everything in your power to make sure I shall not. Enlighten me, Princess; are your plans for our little hero not coming to fruition? Has he, perhaps, tired of your manipulations?"

"It has never been like that."

"Has it not? Was he not forced from his sleepy little hamlet to Hyrule to fight a war far larger than he was? Was he not forced to leave everything and everyone he had ever known to grow the strength to defeat an Evil so insidious he has been locked away for over a century? A terrible loneliness lies in that, your Majesty. He will be forced to mature faster than his peers do, and perhaps he will mature more than they ever will. They will never understand him. To take a life, even that of a monster…" He laughed darkly. "Already the changes wrought make him a stranger to those he loves. To say nothing of his curse—"

"Careful, Shade. Coming from you, that tone reeks of bitterness. Nevertheless, I am not certain it is him."

"I am completely certain. You know as well as I do the usurper Zant is nothing like the rest of the Twili. To think the Sages were imbecilic enough as to lock him in with them. Were their crimes that terrible? I never held with the son suffering for the sins of the father, and the Goddesses have doomed their entire race for the folly of but a few. You do not know him as I do. That man is a political puppet master. At one point in time, all of Hyrule danced under the control of his marionette strings. The mask he dons does not matter. It is he. If you remember, that is why I decided to instruct the Courage bearer. He will need to learn everything that I know in order to defeat him. Maybe he will have a choice, whereas I did not. If I am truly bitter, it is for a good reason. Your soul knows as well as mine what has been lost."

The Princess nodded. "Yes, but your sacrifice was not in vain. Without you, he would have succeeded and Hyrule would have been doomed to the Dark Realm."

"My sacrifice was not in vain?" Shade laughed self-deprecatingly. "Everything I did was erased. Everything I had made myself into was made null. I am doomed to be remembered by no one, save a scrap of a dead Goddess, who then only visits because she needs help. You do not call this vain!? I am a monster, your Highness. I am a monster doomed to wander this Sacred Realm for all eternity. This meager Soul-Room my kingdom. I will never again see those that I love alive or in death. I will never know them. I will never know true rest."

"You blame me for something I did not do."

"I blame your soul for something you did willingly and gladly without regret. The casing is new, but the soul is all you, Princess Zelda. Pardon your sensibilities if I regret the path my life has taken."

"You would regret all the good that you have done along with the ill?" She asked, bewildered.

"For someone with the Triforce of Wisdom, you have a singular way of remaining obtuse. I am, as you know, essentially in purgatory, your Highness, for all this is likened to the Heavens. I shall never see my goddaughter grow into a beautiful young woman. I will never see my friends, my loved ones, for the rest of eternity, and you dare say that I am bitter. I am entitled to my bitterness, and I carry it around like a child. If there is any vanity at all, is that I thought that I should be so confident to escape this future."

"The Goddesses have their will—"

"Damn the Goddesses!" the Hero's Shade shouted over her. "I am tired of being Their plaything." He pitched his deep voice higher. "Yes, yes, the Shade's a toy. Let's add strings and dance him around like a puppet. It'll do nicely for laughs," He laughed darkly. "To answer your question, I would never throw everything I have done away in order to go back to where I was. How I wish I could. How I wish that I were that weak in spirit. It is not only my form that is a monster, Princess. I am a monster in body and soul. I deserve this. I deserve this for being able to cast aside my family so easily. I deserve this for being so weak as to fail everyone."

"—and we must follow it." Princess Zelda continued as if he had not interrupted. "Mortals should not speak of what they do not know! That way lays madness! And what if the Goddesses were to take offense at your words?"

"Let them," he said stubbornly. "This is already a fate worse than death. Death would be kinder than this."

"The Goddesses have their reasons," she affirmed more to herself than to her companion. "The Goddesses have their reasons," she repeated louder still, trying to convince herself. "They have to have them. To take away Their plan for the universe would be to take away the very reason that mortals such as ourselves exists. Nothing happens without Them. Nothing exists without Them."

"Yes. The Goddesses have their own reasons. They always do." He snorted. "Do you not see the irony in you lecturing me about mortality?"

"No, I do not," Princess Zelda said stiffly.

"Perhaps it is better that you don't remember. They created mortals for Their own enjoyment. They are nothing but Sadists that love to watch mortals suffer."

"If we suffer, it is for our own betterment. To know pain and loss is what makes us human and differentiates us from monsters! The fact that you regret speaks volumes! Why can't you see that?"

"Because I became what they made me. I was a Hero. I followed the Goddesses' plan in its entirety and look where it has led me. I may deserve what I have become, but to have a choice between destiny and the fall of my home is to have no choice at all. I did what I had to, and I do not regret it. I resent that my hand was forced, yes, but I regret only that I shall never see my loved ones or have any children of my own. I could not even pass on my legacy."

"What legacy is that?" Princess Zelda asked softly.

"My skills, my honor, my beliefs. Even now, I am nothing but a Shade of my former self. Although I accepted life as the hero, I could not convey the lessons of that life to those that came after. My sacrifice was in vain. They died without me there to save them. Nothing is left of who I am. Even this little bit of my soul that I hold on to changes to resonate with the Courage bearer. He is the Hero and I am the Hero's Shade. When he learns the last of what I have to teach, I will fade, and the cycle will be complete. Perhaps that will be a blessing. I shall cease to exist and everything will be as it should. That is why I will not help you find him. It is naught but my own selfishness that I do not help you. Keep that in the forefront of your mind and never call on me again."

"I will remember you."

"You will remember nothing. When the Twilight Princess wakes, this will be less than a half-remembered dream."

"But—"

"You do not even remember how you came to this Soul-Room."

"I prayed to the Goddesses for help and they led me here. That is all I need to know."

"Yes, Nayru's slave. Your faith serves you well, Princess, though I have little use for it. Damned meddling Goddess intruding where She does not belong, as usual. Was your purpose in coming here fulfilled?"

"Yes. I believe so."

"Be gone with you then." With that, he turned his back on her.

"Will you really cease to exist?" she had to ask.

The shade breathed in unnecessarily and stared straight into the far cloudy distance. He thought back to his life, his failures, and his pain. He knew exactly where the Courage bearer was as his memories had just adjusted to accommodate…No. No. It just couldn't be. There was no way that the Goddesses had allowed something like this to happen. Things were never easy for him, and he had deliberately insulted Them to provoke reaction but not in this way…Oh. That was the reason. By Din's Fire!

"If not for Time, I would have already." With that cryptic statement, he faded away leaving Princess Zelda alone in the Soul-Room.

Zelda watched the back of him fade with no small hint of sorrow. She felt Midna tug at her consciousness, and she fell into oblivion once more.