Eyes of the Pandus Rex rgis
By Kingdom-of-TJ
Disclaimer: TLoZ:TP is not mine. Nor is it yours. So flames will not be taken seriously, though they are perfectly welcome. xD
The insanity has fled from the chest of the usurper and into mine.
My feet rub the gentle ground, and I am back in my homeland: the Twilight Realm. Behind me, the last light of the mirror shatters, and its miniscule shards float like teardrops to the floor of our earth. A second tear carves its way down my face; this time, it will not destroy mirrors. This one is mine only, and thus will destroy me alone.
"You have done well, My Midna."
My reluctance to see into the eyes of the king is overpowered by the need to feel them. As I trace my line of vision to the figure in front of me, the cold, stark eyes of Zant are boring holes into my face. I am rooted to the spot; movement is behind me.
"Zant."
He stands there tall, sly, and cunning. He is like a snake coiled about a tree: cunning, but twisted in so many ways. He sees the world through more than just one set of eyes.
"It was wise of you not to kill me, My Midna. You should see by now, whelp, that you and I need each other. It was simply made that way."
He is not talking about love. The words that slip through his teeth are those of pure malice and hatred. It is loathing that has brought us together. We know each other inside and out due to our rivalry.
No.
It is more than rivalry. It is a distinguished battle between the life I hold and the death he pursues. But Zant can never seek death if he knows that his enemies still breathe. That is why I was given this task. That is why he tried to destroy Hyrule, but I stopped it. That is why he was almost killed at my hands.
That is why I failed.
His rusted, slender hands reach out and caress my own. His thumb slips into the crevice of my palm, and he squeezes. Hard. So hard, that I feel my eyes begin to sting. Rage is what keeps me standing still.
"Your pulse is slowed," he whispers. "Are you giving up?"
He may as well ask if I feel like living. A ridiculous question, beyond all means. Link…
"Frightened."
Zant pulls back. "And well that you should be. Do you have it?"
From the folds of my dress I draw out a small, glass vial. It is empty. I allow Zant to retrieve it from my hands, and a look of wonder reaches his eyes. The eyes of Zant are frightening. Insanity positively glows from them, and the resurrection of his malice in my life is just as prominent to me as his eyes are to his face.
"He drank it all?"
He is tracing a grey finger around the brim of the vial.
"Yes."
A grave smile streaks its way across his countenance.
"Of course he did. It is wet."
I could never have killed Zant, I realize. Having him alive is much safer than rendering him dead. He would no doubt haunt me forevermore, his ghost would be in my dreams, my waking life, and would rattle in my head until I stabbed myself lifeless.
Too late.
Zant releases the vial from the grasp of his digits. It rolls across the floor and hits a statue of my mother. She should still be alive, but after all, Zant does not like to have his enemies living.
"I will admit, I was quite afraid that you would… 'forget'. That is not unlike you, My Midna."
I say nothing. I want him to continue with his soliloquy. I want words to distract me from what is to come. I can already feel it beginning.
The feeling in my feet and in my hands begins to fade.
Dark strands of crimson hair fall around Zant's narrow head. At times like these, I wish he would don his mask so that I wouldn't have to see him. He is the shadow of an old, old friend. A friend who disappeared with childhood.
Friendship doesn't last forever, I realize. Jealousy takes the reins of friendship and leads it down a sour path, until one friend desires to kill the other friend.
The other friend is too afraid to fight back.
The vial is still across the plaza, leaning against my mother's feet. Her face is soft, tender, and loving. She was always that way. She knew this would happen. She knew that Zant couldn't be trusted with power, and that is why she gave it to me.
The righteous heir to the throne, her husband's apprentice, was overlooked. Zant.
"You are sure he drank this?"
"It is gone, isn't it?" I cry. I feel my breathing grow hard, and I fall to the ground. Zant is watching me, laughing.
"It is hard to lose what you have always dreamed of, isn't it!" he scorns, and stands tall to his full height. My lungs give way as he kicks my stomach. I roll onto my back.
"It hurts to watch what you wanted die!"
I cannot fight him now. He has already won.
"Tell me, My Midna, what did he say to you! What were his last words!"
Another kick. Another blow to my flesh and to my heart.
I don't need to be reminded that my task was to feed Link a poison that would kill him. I don't need to be reminded of the many nights I spent beside him as he slept, the vial open above his parted lips.
I don't need to be reminded of how I killed Link…
…inside.
The pain of watching his face as I left was unbearable, but at least he knows now that though we are living apart, at least we are still doing just that—living.
For a time.
As the feeling fades from my arms and legs, I decide I should tell him.
Or… maybe not. Let him find out on his own.
"There were none," I whisper. "He died quietly."
At first, Zant seems faintly disappointed. Then, he grins. As he's walking away, there's a new hop in his step.
"Nobody can kill the King of Shadows," he declares.
Princess Zelda always called him the "Pandus Rex rgis". It translates to the Crooked King.
The heavy door slams shut behind Zant as he enters the palace, and his footsteps fade.
My heart starts to slow. For many years, Link will live on in Hyrule, unaware that from the time we "defeated" Zant, up until the time I left, I was supposed to kill him. He will be unaware that Zant lives on in the Twilight Realm as leader. In time, Zan't life will fade as he grows old and incapable of carrying on the functions of life.
In time, the Twilight Realm will readjust.
And Link will continue to live on unaware that the poison that was in the vial, the poison that was supposed to go to him, now rests in my sleeping body.
I drank it all so that I would not have to give it to Link. I drank the poison to save his life. And when Zant comes back to find me dead, he'll realize that I drank the poison.
It does not matter. I have single-handedly destroyed the Mirror of Twilight. Zant will never return to the Realm of Light. They are safe from his rampage.
I should have killed him after all, I realize. But killing is beyond every one of us, unless we want to become what Zant has.
Link managed it, though. Many, many times. Yet, nothing he ever took life from had the heart, the malice, or the eyes of Zant.
A/N: Just a short piece I came up with this morning while carrying laundry up and down the stairs. "Pandus Rex rgis" is SUPPOSED to be Crooked King in Latin. But who knows. Google: Translate can't always be trusted. x)