Holy Moly, where have I been? This next chapter will be part of an arc, if you please. There will probably be several chapters that are part of one big story; for that reason, if the chapters feel like they don't have much of an ending, it's because these next few are going to play out a bit differently. Um, Never Fear? Thanks for reading.
It was still dark out when Ashei awoke the next morning. Actually, she never really awoke. She had spent the entire night drifting in and out of sleep, body bent in discomfort. For some reason she had been unable to really get comfortable, and whether that was because she was feeling ill from the party or because she had a lot on her mind, she wasn't quite sure. It was probably both.
It had taken a long time to empty the bar of its occupants. After Link disappeared Ashei's objectives for the night disappeared. She was still in complete shock from the disaster that was spin-the-bottle, not to mention Shad and Ilia's reactions to it. Shad had seemed terrified by the whole thing, knowing that Link and Ashei's actions would lead to disaster. And Ilia had been strangely distant after the entire ordeal, something which just added to the layers of questions that Ashei had compiled.
She turned over on the mattress and observed Ilia's silhouette. Ilia riddled Ashei to no extent. Ashei had expected her to be dull and drab, hanging over Link's shoulder at every opportunity. But the farm girl had so far proven herself otherwise. She was quirky, she was fun, and while she undoubtedly loved Link with all of her heart, she had become best friends with Shad as well.
And there was a part of Ilia that Ashei would never admit she admired. She knew the basics; Ilia had lost her memory during the dark days. But even when she was lost, even when her own heart made no sense to her, Ilia's bravery shone through. She had taken care of an old woman in a village overrun by bandits. And when she had found the dying zora boy in the streets, Ilia had done everything she could to save him. Yes, these were stories from a time that had scarred everybody. And Ilia had been no exception.
And that was the part of the girl that Ashei admired. The part that was secretly strong, the part that stood out and shone through the darkness like a single candle. And although Ashei would never, ever confess to it, she was beginning to understand exactly what it was about the farm girl that Telma, Link, and Shad all loved so much.
It was her spirit, so pure and good, that burned like fire but had the tranquility of water.
Ashei sighed, her eyes falling shut. She knew herself to be flawed. She was well aware of her capacity for anger and violence. She was always quick to react, quick to speak without meaning to. She often became frustrated by herself. Her personality was thwarting in every way. And of course the past few hours had been pretty eye-opening, especially concerning Link.
Link. Gods, the poor kid. He had been so embarrassed by the prior night. And he had every right to be, of course. He had initiated a kiss that Ashei hadn't wanted. And she had to admit, while the kiss was… interesting, to say the least, it was also embarrassing and clumsy and she really didn't want any of it. The last thing she wanted was to get tangled up in Link's love life, and that would mean avoiding him for a really long time.
Ashei passed a few more minutes in silence, trying to fall back to sleep. She soon realized, however, that rest was futile and decided that she might as well get up. She dressed in her burgundy tunic and whisked her hair into a ponytail, strapping on a belt, boots, and attaching a dagger to her hip—as always. She had a leather bag that she swung across her shoulder, dropping in a few notepads and quills, just in case she needed to write anything down.
Ashei stole across the room as quietly as she could so that she wouldn't wake Ilia. However, just as her fingertips were resting on the doorknob, a voice stopped her.
"Ashei?"
Ashei froze in place. Then, she sighed. "Ilia? You're up?"
"Yeah. I've been awake for awhile." The blankets slid from the thin farm girl's shoulders as she sat up, drawing her knees up to her chest and meeting Ashei's gaze.
"I don't like what you're doing," she whispered.
"What does that mean?" Ashei asked accusingly.
"Snooping, I mean," Ilia was saying. "It's really rude. You're invading Link's privacy, trying to find out all of his secrets... I think you should just leave him alone. I really think you're going to unearth a real mess if you don't stop soon."
"And why do you say that?" Ashei asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I said it already... Link's a really complicated person. He gets hurt easily."
Ashei let out a slow sigh. "I know," she finally said. "I agree."
"You- what?"
"You're right," Ashei continued. "This is going to unearth a real mess, and it is going to hurt Link, but it has to be done. Things have to get worse before they can get better." She took a few steps toward Ilia. "Link's got a lot bottled up. I know what that's like because I'm the same way. I've got a lot of anger that I have to suppress and if we don't help Link, he'll just stay that way."
"But what if he gets upset? What if he tries to hurt someone?"
"Then at least he won't be fighting himself!" Ashei argued. She paused. "I don't want him turning out like me."
Ilia fell silent, perplexed by that last statement. What did that mean? Ashei made to leave, but Ilia cut in just as Ashei opened the door to go.
"Ashei?"
"What?"
"You didn't want to be a soldier, did you?"
Ashei paused. "No," she answered sternly, "I didn't."
And then she slammed the door shut behind her.
…
Hyrule Castle was prestigious; it was pompous; it was filled with haughty nobles and haughtier servants, each occupant thinking himself more important than the others.
Within the stone walls of there was but a single humble soul. And that soul belonged to Princess Zelda.
"Ah, good morning, Auru," she greeted, descending a staircase into the entrance hall and catching sight of her old tutor. He was inspecting a new marble statue with a rather bizarre expression on his face.
"Your Majesty," he addressed, "may I ask what inspired you to invest in these projections of… well…" His brow furrowed. "Um, Princess, if I may… these statues, they're… well…" he turned to her, frowning decisively. "They're in the nude."
"I think they're cute," Zelda argued, brushing it off as if this was the millionth time she'd heard the same comment. She took a few steps closer and shook hands with Auru.
"How have you been?" she asked. "I hear that it's your last day in our beloved Hyrule Castle."
"Alas," Auru affirmed, "my departure is this afternoon. I must thank you for your generosity. Your library is extensive and my research was quite full, quite vast, if I do say so myself. In fact—"
"Your Highness!" a voice cut in from an adjacent corridor. Armor clanged as a soldier turned the corner, jogging in the direction of the princess and Auru.
"Your Highness," he repeated, "there is a woman at the gates requesting an audience. She claims to be Ashei of Snowpeak, and she demands immediate consultation."
Auru's face hardened. "Oh, no," he said darkly. Zelda appeared rather puzzled.
"Oh, no?" she repeated.
"Oh, no," Auru clarified.
"Say no more," the princess sighed. She turned to the guard. "May I inquire as to the exact nature of this… consultation?"
"The woman has stated that such matters are confidential and are to be kept strictly between Your Majesty and herself."
Zelda's shoulders slackened considerably. She had a certain aversion to secrets.
"Very well," she declared. "Let her in." She remembered Ashei; she had met her before. She remembered almost mistaking her for a man, for her brusque nature and manly swagger were enough to confuse anybody.
The soldier disappeared around the corner. A few moments later, Ashei appeared with the soldier in tow. Apparently, she had no patience for an escort. She approached the princess without so much as a bow.
"Your Highness," she said, and it was clear that she disliked the term, "we need to speak privately."
Auru gave a small cough that sounded exceptionally like "Bow!" Ashei started at the statement, and then gave the slightest hint of a bow in response. It was clear that hierarchy did not suit her well, and Zelda was reminded very much of Midna in the gesture.
"Please," Zelda said, fully aware of the bitterness in her voice, "follow me." She was halfway up the staircase when she realized that Ashei was not following her. She turned around to find Ashei staring shamelessly at one of the nude statues.
"Poor man," was all Ashei said. "I've been a soldier for ten years and I've never seen a guy with such a small—"
Auru coughed loudly and pushed Ashei up the stairs before she could finish the sentence, and Zelda expressed her thanks through a grateful nod of the head.
...
"Never, in all my years living in the city, have I experienced the delight that is a urine stain eleven feet high," declared Shad as matter-of-factly as he could.
It was about eight in the morning. Ilia had slunk downstairs in a bathrobe declaring angrily that Link was sleeping off a hangover, meaning that she and Shad would have to clean the party-wrecked bar all by themselves.
"What about Mildred?" Shad had asked when Ilia brought him the bad news.
"She's sleeping off a hangover, too," Ilia declared, which Shad honestly found more confusing than disturbing.
"Well, now what do we do?!" cried Ilia, referring to the urine stain on the wall.
"Clean it, I guess," Shad answered. He sighed. "But how to reach it?"
Ilia paused. "You could climb on my shoulders," she said, to which Shad answered that he was not very good at climbing women, causing Ilia to blush quite thoroughly, and spurring a great deal of confusion in Shad.
"What?" he asked when her face went beet red. "What? What is it?"
"Maybe we should just try climbing up there on some of the empty crates," Ilia theorized, and Shad, quite upset at having embarrassed her, stormed off to retrieve them. He dragged a heavy wooden crate to the other side of the room, wet a dishrag that he thought might do the trick, and then went to reach for the stain. As he did so, however, his foot crashed through the lid of the crate and got stuck. He tried to pull it out, lost his balance, stumbled over, and ended up knocking over a cheap wooden table. It would have ended there, but instead the table, which was round, rolled just enough to knock into another stack of crates, which toppled over, causing a dozen wine bottles to roll in a perfect line across the room, spilling as they went.
Shad sat up wearily, shook his head clear of confusion, and then, having come to his senses, gaped at the destruction he had spurred. Then his face turned red.
"Oh, Goddesses," was all he said, and his face fell into his palms. "My head is stuffed with cotton, isn't it?" he declared. "I'm such a fool…"
A few seconds later, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Ilia kneeled down beside him, and he didn't dare to look up at her.
"You are not," he heard her say quietly, and he liked that she said it quietly, even though there was nobody else in the bar. "You are the best, brainiest man I've ever met."
Shad didn't know why Ilia had become so deep all of a sudden but it really did make him much happier to hear her say that. He'd been called smart before, and intelligent, and bright, but never brainy. And when Ilia called him brainy it made him smile just the smallest bit, because who else would think to use the word brainy? And who else would consider climbing on each other's shoulders to clean off a pee stain? And who else would like that he couldn't open a bottle of beer, and who else would think it was silly that he didn't know how to fish, and who else, when he was injured, would sit at his bedside for hours simply because she liked his company? Who else, besides Ilia of Ordon, would go on for days about how Shad should be a doctor because he wanted to, and because she knew, in her heart, that he was brainy enough for it?
So he just picked his head up out of his palms and smirked just the tiniest bit, looking her dead and the eye and stating in the brainiest way he could, "I calculate a 100% chance that Telma will not be pleased."
…
"My private study is this way," the princess declared, leading Ashei down one final corridor and into a finely decorated room. A perfect wooden desk sat before a set of arched windows, the afternoon sunlight streaming in between the perfectly styled curtains. A clock on the wall ticked rhythmically in the otherwise quiet room as Zelda shut the heavy door behind her, leading Ashei to a chair placed before her desk. Ashei sat down facing the windows, and Zelda sat down opposite her, and then the princess folded her hands and waited for the girl-soldier to speak.
"It's about Link," Ashei said immediately, and Zelda's face fell.
"I should have known," she remarked, and her eyes fell shut. After a few seconds, she opened them, but she kept them downcast. "The last I saw of him, he did not seem well. I suppose, in retrospect, that it was nerves. It's not very often that a commoner requests a matrimonial union with a princess. But you were there… yes, I should have known that you would be strung with jealousy. I knew that you were interested in him just as he was interested in me, and that such a union would upset you at the core."
The two women stared at each other blankly for a few seconds, and then Ashei spoke.
"Your Highness," she said openly, "what the hell are you talking about?"
"I rejected Link's proposal of marriage a few months ago," Zelda clarified. "You were there. You accompanied him, and I could tell that you were—"
"I'm not in love with Link!" Ashei countered. She almost smirked. "Believe me, if I were in love with him, the kid'd be damn happy. No offense, Your Highness, but he's kind of really over you. Listen," she said, "I'm not here to talk about something stupid like that. That's not important. I'm here because I need you to tell me everything you know about Link and the Dark Days."
Zelda shot up in stature, obviously shocked by Ashei's request. "I beg your pardon," was all she said, not used to being treated this way but not exactly minding it, either.
"Something happened toward the end of the Dark Days that screwed Link up in the noodle," Ashei spelled out. "In case I wasn't clear, I want you to tell me what it was, yeah?"
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to begin—"
"Fine," Ashei said, knowing full well that it was too early to be growing impatient, but losing patience all the same. "I'll begin. The Dark Days ended about eight months ago, yeah? So that means that I met him about ten months ago. Now, when I met Link," Ashei said, standing up and beginning to pace, "he was a great guy. Very virtuous, great bout of courage, probably the stupidest human being on the face of the earth. But he was genuine, thoroughly genuine, and I knew that right down to the core he had his heart in what he did. And he smiled, always smiled when he saw us, eyes sparkling and chest swelling with pride, like he knew what he was doing was great. He was exhilarated. He was saving the world and we—the group and I—were watching him do it."
"I don't see how this ties into—"
"Then, when Hyrule was restored to peace, he disappeared for a month. Right off the face of the earth. Things started returning to normal, except the Link we'd come to know and love over the course of two months wasn't around. We don't know where he went. And then all of a sudden, a month later, he just entered the bar one day and ordered a drink. And we did some catching up, and all he said was that he'd been away for a bit. And he seemed empty. Like he was a shell of who he'd been before. Polite—yeah, real polite, but he didn't care a bit about any of it."
Zelda had grown quiet. When Ashei paused to see if the princess had an input, she just shook her head.
"Go on."
"By then, Telma had done some renovations. She'd added ten new boarding rooms upstairs, so the group and I decided to move in. I took a room, Shad took a room, Auru took a room. And then Link decided one day that he wanted to move in, too, so we dragged an extra bed into Shad's room, and that was it. The deal was sealed, and Link lived with us then on out.
"Except he still seemed really weird. Sometimes he was drawn and quiet. Other times he was a little more outgoing. We thought maybe he was in a bit of shell shock or something. We talked about it a lot—Rusl and Telma and Shad and I. Rusl had known Link since he was a kid and I guess Link was typically humble and really funny, and a lot of that was missing. Then, after another month or so, Link started really opening up. And he got loud, and he cracked jokes all the time, and he laughed at things that were inappropriate… we really thought he was changing. And then he took an interest in you, and we thought, well, good, he's improving. He wants to be social. And then we took a trip here, and he meant to ask you out to coffee, but he—uh, well, slipped—and you ended up kicking him out—"
"I did no such thing," Zelda interrupted. "I very politely declined his offer of marriage. I have taken a vow to the throne, and reject such petty things as marriage—"
"Yeah, yeah," Ashei said, much to Zelda's distaste. "Point is, Telma must've felt really bad because she thought Link was finally getting better, so she invited Link's childhood friend Ilia. Which sucked. Sucked thoroughly, because that meant I'd have to room with her, and she's a girl—a real girl, a girly girl—"
"And you were jealous because you thought Link might prefer a girly girl over a woman like yourself?"
Ashei paused in her rant, actually taking Zelda's words into consideration for once. "Well, maybe," she remarked. "What would you know about it, anyway?" she asked skeptically, wondering suddenly whether she could get some dirt on the "chaste" princess' love life.
Zelda just shook her head, freeing Ashei of her suspicions with a smirk. "Just because I've taken a vow to chastity doesn't mean that I haven't fallen in love."
Ashei's eyes widened. "With who?"
"Never mind with who," Zelda said, brushing Ashei's comment away with a wave of the hand. "Please excuse my interruption—it was highly unnecessary of me to accuse you of such things. Continue, if you don't mind."
"Okay. Anyway, Ilia showed up a few days later, and she and Link—who I'm not in love with, by the way—really hit it off. Which makes sense, I guess. I don't know, he just seemed really happy around her. And then he started getting better exponentially, going outside all the time, taking trips out of Castle Town for once, interacting with us more. It's like he came back to life or something. So I figured that it might be a good time to finally figure out what's wrong with him, since he's not ill anymore. So I kind of got him really drunk—"
"You what?!"
"And forced him to talk. And he did talk. A lot."
"About?"
"…Midna," Ashei finished, and Zelda's eyes widened.
"Oh," she said quietly. "I see." Now she stood up as well, pacing to the other side of the room and turning to face out of the window. "Midna was Link's companion during his travels throughout Hyrule. I think she kept him grounded. She was very loud, very brusque—you remind me of her."
"Link said that, too," Ashei muttered.
"Did he? I'm not surprised. He must think about her endlessly." The princess turned to face Ashei, frown widening. "He loved her," Zelda declared. "With all his heart, I think. And when their journeys together came to an end, the pair had to part ways. You see, Midna was from a parallel world—the Twilight Realm. Are you familiar with the nature of their world?"
"Auru's talked about it some," answered Ashei. "I know the basics. The two worlds were connected by a mirror, and that's how Hyrule fell under its curse. But the mirror was broken, I thought, to stop it from ever happening again—" Her jaw dropped just the slightest bit. "Oh," Ashei said. "Midna, she—she was from there, wasn't she? She was from the Twilight Realm."
"Losing her likely spurred the depression that followed the dark days," Zelda explained. "It was probably his breaking point. He fought through countless battles in his journey to save Hyrule, but each was done with Midna at his side. Then he fought Ganondorf, and although it affected him mentally, he had Midna to keep him grounded. To keep him sane, so to speak. Then, when she left, he was on his own. Suddenly, he had to cope with the exact depth of what he had done—and I think the voices in his head got to him after awhile."
Ashei had grown quiet. When she next spoke, her voice was low. "You know something. Tell me what you know," she ordered, and Zelda gave a slow nod as she turned from the window and looked Ashei in the eye.
"You are his friend," she began, "and I will entrust you with this information with the faith that you will not use it to spread rumors. This information is for your ears only. I am the princess of Hyrule and if such news were to get out, it would be implausibly problematic. Do you understand?"
Ashei gave a slow nod.
Zelda nodded and exhaled slowly. She kept her eyes downcast as she spoke. "After the Dark Days ended and Midna left, Link fell incredibly ill. He was injured from that final battle with Ganondorf—does he ever speak of it? No? I didn't think so. Of course there were battle wounds—minor head trauma, and of course injuries to speak of… if you want the details, I would suggest that you consult Doctor Borville on the Western Thoroughfare. He will be able to tell you more about Link's condition."
"Condition?"
"Link," Zelda explained, "is mentally unstable."
Ashei paused for a second. "Yes," she agreed flatly. "Yes he is."
"I do not say these things in jest," the princess continued. "Doctor Borville is more educated on the subject than I, but I can tell you this… after Midna left for the Twilight Realm and left us all behind, Link fell very, very ill. Fearing the worst, the castle staff and I took him in, housing him in the castle infirmary under the hopes that he might heal. Instead, things only worsened. He fell into a pit of depression, and for weeks I thought he might never climb out of it. He was sick, too—headaches, nausea, bruises—and to add to it all, he was plagued with nightmares… some of the worst I've ever heard of. Monsters flocked his dreams, Ashei. And all he did was complain that he couldn't kill them… all night he moaned in his sleep. The number of times he cried aloud that the blood was drowning him—" The princess stopped short and her eyes fell shut. "It was a very difficult time for us all," she finally said.
Ashei was quiet for a long time after that. Then she stood up and moseyed over to a shelf, fiddling with a ceramic dish as she tried to find words. When she found them, they were like bruises.
"So Link was dying?" she finally asked.
"Yes," Zelda answered. "He was."
Another bout of silence followed. Ashei let go of the dish and then turned to Zelda, resting her hands on the back of the chair.
"Has he stopped?" she questioned quietly.
"Stopped what?" answered the princess.
"Dying."
"I don't know," Zelda answered. "Has he?"
Ashei just shook her head. "No," she answered slowly, the words coming out broken and numb and painfully real. "No, Your Highness. I don't think he has."
And then she turned on her heel and fled the room, wondering as she went how Doctor Borville might feel about making a house call that afternoon.
Not that she would give him any choice.
End Part 1? The next chapter continues with the same arc as Ashei meets with Doctor Borville, Ilia and Shad keep trying to clean the bar, and Link thinks over recent events while loafing off a hangover… well, maybe a little more than that. More will be revealed on Link's inner conflict…
In other news, I'd really like to see who's still reading. If you've read this far and would like to see further, faster updates, please let me know! Honestly, I just want to see who I've got in my audience. I may or may not base the rapidity of my updates off of the quantity of reviews… I know that's kind of terrible of me…
But I digress. Thanks so much for your amazing patience, and I hope you're looking forward to seeing this continue!
