Chapter 17 - A Change of Plan
Link, who had thought that Zelda would not be back for a couple more hours, was grateful for her prompt return. Still, he could not help but feel slightly confused by this as he followed her out of the room and back into the hallway. Zelda had continued walking without stopping to wait for him, so Link had to hurry to catch up to her quick pace.
Zelda led him through a network of hallways and up a few staircases until he they had reached an area of the castle that he could fully recognize. It was a large spiral staircase, made of bare stone. There was a small window up high on the wall, and this was a window that Link was very familiar with, having entered through it on a number of occasions. And up at the top of the staircase, there was a large door that Link knew to lead into the Princess' chambers. Zelda opened the door once they had reached the top of the stairs, and she stood aside to let Link into her chambers. She followed him in and closed the door behind her, making sure to bolt it as well.
Once safely inside, Link drew back his hood. Zelda had taken a seat at her table so Link followed and sat down across from her.
"Aaron is not coming?" Zelda asked quietly as Link sat down.
Link shook his head. "I'm not sure if we can trust him. Not yet, at least."
"If this has anything to do with him leaving me…" Zelda said, her voice trailing off.
"No, it's not that." Link replied. "It's just…his past, what he's done…he needs to prove to me that he has changed first."
"What do you mean?" Zelda asked hesitantly. "He is just a servant that my father hired, with hardly anything to his name. Surely you don't think that he could be a threat?"
"You mean…he never told you?" Link asked quietly.
"Told me what?" Zelda replied quizzically.
"Zelda, Aaron worked for him…" Link said a sigh. "For Ganondorf."
Zelda stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded. She had a strange look in her eyes, as if she was trying to tell herself it wasn't true. But it was in a losing effort. She soon acknowledged that what Link said must be true, and any other lingering doubts in her eyes turned to repressed spite.
"Aaron was working for him…the entire time?" Zelda said as indifferently as she could.
Link shuddered at her cold voice. He had never heard her speak that way before. It was reasonable though, Link came to realize. She had just learned that anything that had existed between her and Aaron was completely forged, even though the real effect lived on and continued to grow in her womb. And even though he could not even imagine how she might feel right now, Link, perhaps slightly selfishly, tried to change the subject to what was most relevant in his mind. "Yes." He said quietly. "But Zelda, we…"
"I think it is time for him to leave." Zelda said abruptly, interrupting Link mid-sentence.
"What?" Link gasped, startled by her sharp response. "Zelda, he can help us in a way that almost no one else can. I know it must be hard for you…"
"Hard?" Zelda exclaimed, finally showing some emotion through her previously-stoic behavior. "I've been betrayed by the same man twice now while I carry his unborn son around, and that is just 'hard' to you?"
Link wanted to say that he really only betrayed her once and that she had not gotten the full story at first, but he bit his tongue. He could only imagine how she would react if he said that. "I'm sorry, Zelda." Link said sheepishly, bowing his head slightly. "I meant no disrespect."
Zelda swiftly jumped out of her chair and turned to look out her window, but Link caught a glimpse of a small tear welling up in her eyes before she did so. "This is…a nightmare." She said with a sigh.
Link could only feel pity as he looked at her. She continued to stare out the window, perhaps in an attempt to hide her face from him. And it was for this reason that Link almost felt sick of himself as he said, "But Zelda, Ganondorf…"
"Ganondorf is not high on my mind right now." Zelda snapped. "I cannot do this right now, Link. You have no idea what this is like."
"I am the father of that child, or at least, that is what all of Hyrule thinks." Link replied coolly. "I think I know a bit about forged relationships."
Zelda felt a stab of pity as she remembered exactly how much she had put him through. She finally turned around to face Link again and said softly, "I'm sorry, Link." She shamelessly wiped a tear off of her face as she gave a light smile.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for." Link said dismissively.
Zelda cautiously took a few steps forward and sat back down at the table. "Well," She said awkwardly. "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"
She had given her consent, but Link could tell, now more than ever, that she did not want to talk about Ganondorf's return or any possible plans moving forward, or anything else for that matter. Her mind was in a completely different place right now. And he knew that, even if she did force herself through the conversation, she would not retain much of it.
Link sighed lightly as he said, "I think you're right. We need to do this some other time."
"What are you going to do?" Zelda asked quietly.
"Well, first and foremost, I would like to try to revive Midna." Link replied. In truth, he probably would have chosen this choice of action anyway, even if Zelda did not approve. "She would know what to do. I'm not giving that too much hope, though. And after that, with Midna or without her, I guess I will have to start chasing down Ganondorf."
"Be careful." She said with concern.
"One thing is all I ask." Link said. "Please, allow Aaron to stay here. I know you will not want to, but if what he says is true, then this is probably the safest place for him to be. If he did indeed betray Ganondorf, I am certain that Ganondorf would like nothing less than to exact his revenge. Out in the wild, he will be exposed. But Ganondorf would have to be foolish or arrogant to attack Hyrule Castle now."
"Yes." Zelda replied concededly. "I suppose that we must keep him around for now, if he is as important as you say he is."
"Thank you, Princess." Link said with a small smile. "You could just get him a room now, right? It should be easier without me around. And you won't even need to see him again after that."
"Yes, it should be." Zelda replied distractedly.
Link nodded slightly as he rose to his feet. He drew his hood back over his head and said, "Could you lead me back to the room?"
"Link, wait." Zelda said quietly, halting Link as he began to rise from his seat. He looked back at her curiously as she continued, "Thank you. For everything."
Link had no idea what she was referring to, but he smiled nonetheless and replied, "It's been my pleasure, Princess."
Without another word, Zelda stood up from her seat and began to walk out the door, with Link right behind her. They walked back down the stone staircase, through the maze of rooms and hallways, until they had reached the room that Link and Aaron had slept in the night before.
At the door, Zelda stepped aside, allowing Link to open the door and walk inside. Aaron was, to nobody's great surprise, still lying stubbornly on his bed, but his head rose when Link stepped into the room. "Done already?" He asked as Link stepped inside and started packing some things together at the side of his bed. "You weren't gone long. Did Zelda have any insight for you?"
"We didn't get a chance to talk about it." Link muttered quietly, although Aaron did not seem to hear him.
In the absence of an audible answer to his question, Aaron turned to Zelda, who had walked into the room and stood passively next to the door, and said, "Hello, Princess."
Zelda did not give him a reply; instead, she gave him a sharp glare before turning her eyes away from him.
"What's going on?" Aaron asked quietly to Link, his eyes full of bewilderment. "Did I do something wrong?"
"I'd count yourself lucky that she's allowing you to stay here." Link mumbled under his breath, but his response again did not fall upon Aaron's ears.
But he heard another's response. "Wrong?" Zelda exclaimed, her voice cold and sharp. "Do you not consider working for Ganondorf as 'wrong'? Is using the Princess of Hyrule like some damn puppet not 'wrong' to you?"
Aaron silently cursed under his breath as he ran an idle hand through his short, black hair. "Link told you about that, huh?" He sent a sharp glare at Link.
Link simply looked down at his feet. "I didn't mean to." He muttered pathetically, which was sort of true. But his response again fell upon deaf ears.
"And he was right to!" Zelda shot back, continuing on as if Link had not said a word. "So now I can add conspiring against the Princess to your list of 'wrongs' too."
The scene suddenly became incredibly awkward for Link. In the midst of their fervent argument, they seemed to have completely forgotten that Link was still in the room. So Link had taken on the role of an uncomfortable eavesdropper; these words were not meant for his ears and he never wanted to hear them. He tried to tune their voices out, but their argument had grown heated and was hard to ignore. He had resorted to packing his few possessions in the noisiest ways that he could think of in an attempt to drown out their voices, but he could still hear every damned word that passed out of their mouths.
"I had no choice." Aaron replied hotly. "I never wanted anything to do with this. But Ganondorf…he drew me in. He gave me this task, he commanded me to win you over and gain your trust. But I didn't want to do it, Zelda, I swear it!"
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Zelda asked tartly.
"Uh…that came out wrong." Aaron replied quietly, his cheeks growing slightly red. "What I meant to say is…that I very much want to gain your trust, and more if you would let me, but…I didn't want to have to betray that trust. You deserve better than that."
Link, having brought so few possessions, had finished packing in almost no time at all. That meant that, with nothing else to do, he had no more distractions to keep his attention off of their painful conversation. The thought of leaving the room immediately without saying his good-byes to either of them had crossed his mind. Certainly, neither of them would notice, as fixated as they were on each other. But Link knew that he would stick out far too much to the guards of the castle as he passed through the hallways to the exit. That, combined with the fact that he probably couldn't even remember how to reach the exit again, made him quickly discard that idea. He needed Zelda as a guide and steward if he wanted any chance to leave the castle, even if it meant sitting through this whole argument.
Link felt himself growing weary as he watched the two trade shots at each other and allowed himself to fall back onto his bed. He soon realized that he was not the only forgotten one in the room though, as he had nearly sat right on top of Midna. He quickly jumped up to make sure that she was alright before sitting back down closer to the edge of the bed, taking more care for her safety this time around. She had not stirred in her slumber, but Link, more out of habit than anything else, made sure he gave her plenty of room.
Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched scream began ringing through his ears. Link soon realized that this scream was very similar to the one he heard just last night when he had touched Midna's forehead. Link looked all around and proved to himself that he wasn't touching her in any way, but still the scream went on. He could only assume that he had accidentally touched her just a second ago when he almost sat on her, but that was no consolation. The screaming still went on even though the connection could not have lasted more than a second.
The ringing in his ears caused by the noise soon developed into a very sharp pain, and Link squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears with his hands in an attempt to dull that pain. At first, his efforts were thwarted and the screaming continued. But soon, the noise began fading away, and in its place came some sort of grotesque image. Link had his eyes shut, but somehow, this image appeared to be right in front of his eyes. It was a dark, shadowy scene, at first; Link tried to convince himself that he was simply looking at the back of his eyelids. But he was soon proved wrong, as a large, dark-brown figure was emerging in the darkness. Link had no idea what it was, but it definitely was not human. It walked on two feet, but it was covered all over in long, matted dark-brown hair. It almost resembled a bear that had reared up on its two back legs, although it was far more sinister than that. But its most fearsome feature undoubtedly was its sharp, glaring, dull-red eyes.
As stunning and confusing as the strange figure was, Link did not even get a chance to examine it in all of its terrifying wonder before it was swallowed completely by shadows again. Link, once more, found himself staring into complete darkness. It resembled the darkness he saw whenever he closed his eyes, but he knew this time that it was not the back of his eyelids. As if he needed more proof, Link realized that he was unable to open his eyes at all. Indeed, his whole body was completely immobile at this point, as if he were in some sort of trance. With nothing happening in the passing seconds, Link silently wondered how he would ever get out of this. But, right on cue, the entire scene began to shake and his trance was breaking. But before Link regained his consciousness, a loud, booming voice resounded through his ears. It said simply, "He watches." And with that, Link's eyes sprung open.
Link was sweating and panting lightly as he tried to shake himself awake. It was almost like a dream, what he had just gone through; he had absolutely no idea how much time had passed in the real world during his vision. But by the fact that Aaron and Zelda were still arguing, he knew that it could not have been long.
With no interest in listening to the other two bicker, Link rubbed his eyes lightly as he tried to make sense of what he had just seen. The image itself was mysterious enough to hold his attention for days, but what had Link's attention more was the cryptic message at the end. The bearer of the voice was undeniably Midna, but she sounded nothing like the way she sounded as she screamed in the beginning. Her voice was not fearful or cautious. It simply sounded angry.
The message and the image were related, that much was clear, but Link was completely perplexed as to how so. What was this creature? Does it even exist? And, in response to the last message, who watches what?
"Link?" He heard someone say, interrupting his thoughts. "Are you alright?"
Link's head begun to feel dizzy, and he felt sure that he was swaying slightly in his seat. In truth, he did not feel alright, but instead, deeply disturbed. Even so, Link slowly looked up face the others and said, "I'm fine. A little tired is all."
He tried to give them a reassuring smile, but by the looks on their faces, it was obvious that they did not buy it. Somehow, they had come to the silent understanding that their quarreling was to come to a halt, at least temporarily, for the sake of Link. Link was very grateful for this, even though it mostly aroused from their pity on him.
"I'm fine." Link reiterated dismissively as he stood up. "And I'm ready to go. Zelda, can you lead me out of here now?"
Zelda gave him a long, hard look without saying a word. She then glanced at Aaron for a split-second before saying, "Come."
"What about Epona?" Aaron asked quietly as Link grabbed his bag and began picking up Midna.
"It would be too risky for me to try to reclaim her now, with the number of guards out there looking for me." Link replied regrettably as he sighed deeply. It was hard to think about Epona. "I'll have to go on foot this time."
"I will try to free her while you're gone." Aaron said quickly.
After Link had grabbed his stuff and positioned Midna in one of his hands underneath his cloak, Link turned around and gave Aaron a quick smile. "Good idea." He said. "And thanks."
Aaron gave Link a slight nod, and Link took this as his cue to leave. Link turned to Zelda and said, "Lead on." With that, Zelda opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, and after Link had drawn his hood over his head, he followed her.
Link followed Zelda down the somewhat-familiar path back to the entrance of the castle. His cloak certainly drew the ire of the on-looking guards, but with the Princess walking right beside him, none of them caused any trouble. At one point during the journey, Link overhead a portion of a conversation between two guards that went something like, "…good hider, I'll give him that. My sister claimed to see him yesterday, draped in black, but she was probably just blubbering on, as usual. Does make me wonder, though…"
Fortunately, they rounded a corner at that point, so Link was able to escape the guard's suspicious looks. It was not much further to the exit from there. In the matter of a couple minutes, they were crossing the bridge out of the castle and into the city below. It was high noon by now, and the people of the city crowded the streets. Shops were buzzing with activity and street performers surrounded the busy alleyways.
"Whenever you come back to the castle, send a postman up to get me." Zelda said quietly as they came to a halt next to the fountain in Castle Town's central square.
Link noticed that there were many guards patrolling the streets, so he dared not remove his hood yet. He nodded slightly under his hood and said quietly, "I'll be back soon."
"Good luck." Zelda replied. With that, the Princess turned around and began to walk back up to the castle. Link watched her go, silently wondering how long it would be until he returned to the castle. He only planned to try to figure out how to revive Midna, but only the goddesses knew how long that would take.
And even though Midna was his priority at this point, there were so many other thoughts clouding his judgement. There was Ralis, living in near solitude with the Zoras. Did he know of the oncoming threat? Should he be warned? There were also the citizens of Ordon, who were captured by Ganondorf after their homes had been razed. He had to rescue them, but where they? And then there was Ilia. After all this time, Link had to assume that Ganondorf had found her and she was reunited with her friends and family. But she had left Ordon before the attack, so there was still a chance that she was out there, somewhere. And then, of course, there was Ganondorf. The source of all of this uncertainty. What is he after?
"A rupee for a frail, old man?"
Link was jarred from his thoughts by an elderly beggar, who held his hands out expectantly. Link could see the anguish in the man's eyes, and he reached into his pocket and placed a yellow rupee in the man's outstretched hands.
"Many thanks, friend." The man said weakly as he put the rupee in his pocket and walked away.
Link watched blankly as the man shamelessly approached the next-nearest person, asking for more money. Soon, though, a couple of guards arrived on the scene and attempted to apprehend him. The man had clearly experienced such an action before though, and had grown adept at countering it. He was able to quickly navigate through the crowds at a pace that was at least twice as fast as his pursuers could manage, and he soon disappeared down the path to the southern part of town.
Watching him pass by the entrance to Telma's tavern, Link was suddenly thinking about Colin, having dropped him off there only a day prior. He even had thoughts of going back and allowing his childhood friend to come with him. Colin would undoubtedly jump at the opportunity and the goddesses knew that Link could use a travelling companion. But, in the end, Link knew that it was best for Colin to stay safe for now. His wounds needed time to heal, and that aside, Link himself had no idea of the danger that could possibly lie before him. Asking Colin to face a threat that he was too innocent to comprehend would be a disservice to their friendship.
With that, Link spun around and began to travel east. It was no easy task, given the hordes of common citizens and guards. But Link soon found himself at the gates of Hyrule Castle Town, looking out at the cave through the mountains, which he knew led to East Hyrule Field. From here, it would take a single day of travel, at the very most, to reach his next destination, Kakariko Village.