Author's Note: There are mentions of sex in this chapter- nothing explicit- but if you're uncomfortable with that then don't read ahead. Also, if anyone can guess what book I took the inspiration for this myth from I will write them a 500 word drabble about the topic of their choice. It'll probably be hard to guess considering it's mostly vague parallels so if you can guess it then you definitely deserve a reward!
This is an ancient Sheikah legend…
Long ago, in the days before the Hero of Time, there lived a great Gerudo king who, although well into his ninety-fifth year, had not yet married. Though he still had many years of life left and still appeared young and strong (for as was well-known then, Gerudo men lived to far greater ages than Gerudo women, or indeed, most any other race), it was time that he begin to look for a wife amongst his people. The king began his search and, though there were many strong warriors to choose from, the king soon fell in love with a powerful and clever sorceress. She was as a cool drink of water in the desert to him, and they soon married. The queen, being one of a set of twins, agreed on the condition that the king let her sister come and live with them in the palace. The king agreed and gave her sister a position as magician to the royal household, for she, too, was a powerful sorceress, and they all lived happily for a time. But soon the presence of the queen's sister grew to disturb the king's heart; for although he loved his clever and beautiful wife, her mind was like ice, and he longed for the passion of her fiery sister to warm him.
One day, while the queen was out, the king went to her sister and seduced her into his bed. Having experienced the heat of her flame, he once again longed for the coolness of his wife but could not bear to choose between the two. The king waited in dread for the queen's return. He was certain that when she returned her sister would tell her what had passed between them; for the sisters had a bond with each other that surpassed all others as they were of the same flesh and like two halves of the same soul.
So the king spent the day in agony over the fury he was certain would come. Would she curse him? Would she freeze his heart solid? Or perhaps he would burn in her sister's flames while she looked on. However, by the day's end, the queen had said nothing of his transgression to him and seemed her usual self, so the king thought to himself, "Why should I choose between them? The one is content to say nothing, and I am content to enjoy both the heat of the desert and the cool of the oasis."
For many months, things remained as they had been, but for the addition of the king's many visits to his queen's sister. One day, the lovers were lying in bed when she said to him, "Since I am now the lover of a king, should I not dress as finely as a queen?" but the king was afraid that his wife would find something suspicious in her behavior and asked her not to change her dress. She only laughed at his wariness and said "I will tell my sister that I wish to start dressing in a manner befitting of my stature and she will dress me as richly as a queen herself!"
And so it was: the queen gave her sister clothes from her own wardrobe and they were indistinguishable from each other in body. The only way the king could tell them apart was by their characters, which were still as different from each other as fire and ice. Still, the king grew nervous; afraid that he would one day mistake his queen for her sister and so reveal his infidelity. He decided to be cautious and no longer called either one by name in moments of passion, out of fear that he might call them by the wrong one.
As time went on, the king grew afraid that the queen had noticed that he no longer called her by name when they were together and became convinced that she knew of the affair. He acted colder towards his lover, hoping it would abate any suspicion on the queen's part, but this made his lover angry and she demanded that he stop sleeping with her sister or she would go to her and tell her everything.
Having now two lovers to hide his infidelities from, the king grew cold towards both of the sisters and was always wary of being too attentive to one, lest the other discover his secret. As his fears grew, his love-making grew furious as he searched every inch of the sisters' bodies for a way to tell them apart. When he could not find a difference, he began to try and mark them visibly, ferociously biting and scratching in the hopes that he could tell them apart that way, but the marks always faded quickly from their tough, desert skin and he would be left once again with no way to tell them apart; for not only did the sisters now look exactly alike, they also were beginning to seem alike in character. His fiery lover grew cold towards him and the temper of his cool and collected queen began to shine through more often, until they truly seemed one in both body and soul.
They grew so alike that the king could no longer tell them apart and the uncertainty of which sister was which drove him half mad. Their chill was no longer like a cool drink of water in the desert to him, but instead was as deadly as the breath of a freezard, and their heat was no longer like that of a fire on a cold desert night, but was as searing as the flames from a dodongo's belly. Desperate for a way of telling them apart permanently, he began to have sinister thoughts: a lantern full of hot oil tipping over, a training session with their scimitars gone awry, or perhaps an accident in the chamber where the sisters brewed their potions.
Thus, when the sisters came to him saying that, as sorceresses, they wished to make a pilgrimage to the Spirit Temple in order to learn the secrets of magic, he was relieved to have respite from the tension he lived with daily. He granted them permission to go, and though he yearned for them both each day of the half-year they were gone (all the while knowing he would still not be able to give either of them up when they returned), he also relished his brief release from the tyranny of his secrets.
When the sisters finally returned, the king's heart grew glad even in its misery, but his shock was great when he saw them approaching, for one of the sisters was carrying a baby boy! The child could only be his due to the timing and the resemblance, but he did not know which sister was the mother, for neither had shown any sign that they were with child in the days before leaving. His shock quickly turned to shame, though, for his infidelity was now plain no matter which of the sisters had had the child, and he was afraid to face them. Yet even though his shame was great, he could not help but also feel a twinge of pleasure when he realized that he would now be able to tell the sisters apart, since the mother would surely be the one to care for the child.
The king welcomed the sisters warmly and was overcome with joy that he could proclaim his son heir to the throne, but did not ask who the mother was, for he was too cowardly to admit to his shame openly. When neither woman confronted him about his infidelity, the king began to hope that they had forgiven him and, assuming that the queen (he knew her to be his wife only because her sister had called her by name when they entered the palace), who was holding the child, was the mother, he commanded that a nursery be prepared in their chambers: to which the queen replied, "Oh great king, as is tradition, the raising of the child is to be left to the women- I will stay with the child in my sister's apartments so that we may raise him fine and strong." The king, knowing that it was, indeed, tradition that the raising of a Gerudo child be always left to the mother and whichever women she chose, could not protest, but was disappointed that he hadn't discovered the truth of the child's mother.
With the arrival of the child the king saw very little of the sisters, and now that they shared chambers, whenever he came upon one of them he had no way of knowing which sister he was speaking to. When he attempted to romance either one, they would have none of it unless he could call them by name. When he could not do so, their fury was terrible and they made him feel both the icy sting of hurt pride and the burning heat of intense shame. If ever they came to him in his chambers anymore it was only to toy with him, for they played cruel tricks, making him beg to know which one they were even as they pretended to be the other. Yet still he loved them, his guilt and the child binding him to them even as he began to fear and resent them.
The king did not see much of his son for the first 5 years of his life, as was customary. By the time the child was old enough to begin to know his father, the king had already been driven half crazy with the need to know which sister was which and thought the child the key to knowing the secret. He told his son that if he could discover which of the sisters was his mother he would give to him anything he wanted.
But the prince did not understand what the king meant, for he knew only that he had two mothers and could not understand why the king believed he only had one. When he asked his mothers why the king did not believe him and why he always claimed to be his father, his mothers told him that the king was an evil man who wanted to take him away from them and raise him as his own son since he had none.
Every day, the king asked the boy if he had discovered who his mother was, and when the boy couldn't answer he punished him harshly. His mothers comforted him and tried to keep him away from the king, growing fiercely angry whenever the child and his father were near each other. They taught their son magic and bade him practice with the warriors to learn how to defend himself from the king, in case he should he try to harm him again.
Slowly, however, the king grew more insane due to the sisters' cruel and unceasing mind games and his son's inability to discover the identity of his mother. He began to suspect the child of plotting with the sisters; suspecting that they had told him long ago which one was which and that he was withholding the information deliberately so as to torment him. So one day when his son could once again not answer his question, he lunged for the boy, threatening to kill him. Frightened for his life, the prince fought the king fiercely, but the old man was stronger and began to strangle him. The prince, desperate to live, grabbed a piece of glass from a mirror that had been broken in the struggle and stabbed his father deep in the heart.
Having heard their son's cries, the sisters rushed in and found him covered in the king's blood and trembling fiercely. The queen and her sister approached the dying king, who lay on the floor, gasping for air and begging them to tell him which of them was the child's mother. The sisters smiled a terrible smile and whispered in each of the king's ears, as one, "Oh great king, can you not tell? His mother is the one he most takes after." Upon hearing this the king died, a look of horror and sorrow frozen on his face.
With the king dead, his son succeeded him and that is how, in the days before the Hero of Time, the young prince Ganondorf came to rule over the Gerudo with his two most trusted advisers, Koume and Kotake, at his side.