When the footsteps had subsided and Ashei was positive that she had made her escape, she grabbed Ilia by the shoulders and backed her into a wall.
"What the hell was that?!" she scoffed, and Ilia just stared back fiercely.
"Don't be so heartless, Ashei!"
"Ilia, this is war! You can't just screw around like that, yeah?!"
"Screw around! Screw around! What the hell does that mean? I care about him! You and I both know," Ilia added vehemently, "that if it had been Link back there instead of Shad, you would have done the same thing!"
Ashei was quiet. She let Ilia go and brushed herself off stiffly. "Whatever," she said gruffly. "Come on. The princess is this way."
Ilia followed down the quiet corridor tentatively.
"How do you know where she is, anyway? And where's Link?
Ashei stopped and half-turned. "After Link and I charged into the ballroom, we realized that the plan must have gone wrong. We got split up fighting. I… haven't seen him. But I overheard two guards talking about where Crevan, uh… stored Zelda. I consulted one of Shad's maps and was on my way to get her when I heard the alarm bells and came to get you. Now let's get a move on, yeah?" She advanced forward, and Ilia trailed behind her obediently.
"So, uh… where are we going?" Ilia questioned
Ashei's voice was quiet. "You're not going to like it, but… Crevan's quarters."
"His—what?" Ilia gasped. "What does he want with her in there?"
"Don't ask me," Ashei answered, and pulled a torch off of the wall as they began to climb a darkened staircase. Ilia felt vaguely sick at the idea of the princess being tied up in the chancellor's chambers, and yet she repressed the idea and focused on the task at hand.
"It's really quiet," she said unsurely.
Ashei bit her lip. "You're right," she replied, and her voice dropped down to a whisper, footsteps becoming lighter and slower. Ilia followed her example until the staircase had ended and they found themselves in another empty hallway. The door at the end was barred, and Ilia's face fell into her hands.
"You've got to be kidding…" she mumbled.
"What?"
Ilia peered up between her fingers. "Crevan keeps setting booby traps that only Link's supposed to disengage."
"Ah." Ashei stepped forward and examined the bars. "Well, we haven't got time for that, have we?" She pressed her ear up against the door, and her mouth fell ajar. "Ilia!" she whispered harshly. "Ilia, get over here!"
Ilia was at Ashei's side in seconds, and she pressed her ear up against the wood. Her mouth formed a small o, and Ashei nodded.
Somebody's standing right there, Ashei mouthed, and drew away. Two seconds later, she cleared her throat and hammered her fist on the door. There was a moment of silence, and then a shocking reply.
"LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR BAIT, YOU WRETCHED BASTARDS!"
Ashei sighed in relief at the sound of that voice and spoke again.
"WHO ELSE IS IN THERE?!" she demanded to know in a low, masculine voice. Ilia bit her lip as she realized what Ashei was up to.
"I SAID GO AWAY! YOU HAVE NO REASON TO SEEK A QUARREL HERE! FREE ME OR LEAVE ME TO DIE-"
"I DEMAND AN ANSWER!" Ashei cried in the same false tone.
"THERE IS NOBODY HERE! I AM ALL THAT IS LEFT, NOW EITHER LEAVE ME BE OR KILL ME-"
"DO YOU SPEAK FALSELY?!"
"I TELL THE TRUTH! LEAVE ME BE, LEAVE ME BE OR KILL ME-"
Ashei turned to Ilia and raised an eyebrow. The farm girl mirrored the action, and they they both pounded on the door at once.
"PLEASE! PLEASE, WRETCHED, FOUL MONSTERS-"
"SHUT UP, PRINCESS, IT'S ASHEI, YEAH?!"
The voice inside drew still, and then the muffled and hoarse tone seeped through the wooden door.
"…Ashei?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."
"Can you let me in?" Ashei now asked. "We're not here to hurt you. Obviously. Just had to make sure the coast was clear. You're alone, yeah?"
"Yes," the princess answered. "I am alone. The room is silent but the castle quakes around me…"
"Listen," said Ashei impatiently, "I need you to do us a favor. This door is barred, and I need you to let us through. Is there a switch in there? Can you reach it?"
A pause. Finally, "I'm sorry, Ashei, but…"
"But what?"
"I'm tied up," the princess answered weakly, and Ashei groaned, slamming a fist on the door.
"Wait," said Ilia. "The last time this happened, there was a puzzle-"
"Yeah, and the whole damn castle went into lockdown-"
"-so there must be yet another to be solved! Let's look around, let's find something, I'm sure there is- Ashei- what're you- ASHEI!" Ilia cried as Ashei pulled a heavy ball-and-chain from where it was mounted against the wall. She began clamping the ends around the bars and finally dragged the huge metal sphere over to the window, cranking it open and poking her head outside.
"Coast is clear," she said stoically. "Let her rip!" And with that, she dropped the ball out of the window, scrambling backwards as the bars were ripped mercilessly from the doorframe and crashed through the massive arched window, tumbling into the courtyards down below. Ilia's eyes bugged out of her head as she turned back to what remained of the wooden doorframe, reduced to shambles. Ashei brushed off her hands and knocked on the door almost too casually as if seeking permission to enter.
A weak cough sounded from inside, followed by,"You're going to have to pay repairs, you know."
Ashei cracked a grin and opened the door. Ilia had just enough time to grab a torch from the wall before she was dragged in as well.
Both faces fell at the sight that met them.
"Oh… my gods…"
"Princess!" Ilia cried in terror, her voice cracking. "Oh, Princess Zelda…"
The poor woman was dressed in royal garb, but her hair was tangled and hung in damp tendrils around a bruised and bloodied face. Her shoulders were slackened, her skin coated in sweat, and her dress was torn and dirty. She'd been bound with rope and tossed down on the carpet, and Ashei set to work immediately, hacking at the bindings with a dagger and scowling all the while. As soon as Zelda had been freed from the ropes, Ashei aided the princess in sitting up, but Zelda's balance was weak, and as a result she fell forward. Ilia steadied her as best she could, brushing the hair out of the princess' tired face and keeping one arm sturdily around her shoulders.
"There, there…"
Ashei sheathed her dagger and stood up briskly, pacing around the room and taking note of everything she encountered. Bookcases, a desk with half a dozen drawers, a cushioned chair… She tore through each of the desk drawers, withdrawing leather-bound volumes, paper, ink, quills, and even a small dagger. She flipped through the books, but there seemed to be nothing handwritten, no envelopes, no personal correspondence… Aggravated, she threw her findings down on the desk and turned away.
"You can't expect it to be that easy, Ashei," the princess said from her spot on the floor. "Crevan burns everything he's ever written, or that he's had written to him."
Ashei crossed her arms and turned to face a broad window. "You don't say," she mused, advancing forward. A silver tool, glistening in the moonlight, caught her eye. "What's this?" she asked, picking it up and admiring it. Zelda turned and squinted at it through the darkness.
"From here it resembles a spyglass," she mused.
"Maybe that's how he spies on everyone," said Ilia bitterly.
"It's plausible," Zelda answered, and gave another cough, falling forward.
"Oh my gods…" Ashei said, and the other two glanced up.
"What is it?"
"Ilia, come look at this…"
Ashei was pulling back a curtain that had covered half of the massive window, and as she did so, a heavy pit formed in her stomach. Instruments of all shapes and sizes made themselves apparent- telescopes and periscopes, giant mirrors, maps and diagrams, small lenses that could be angled to face a certain direction, and each of the lenses labeled with numbers…
"What does it mean?" Ilia asked, her voice trembling as the horror sank in.
"Look at this," Ashei said, having located a leather book and leafing through the pages. Numbers and letters seemed to correspond with each other, and suddenly she turned to the diagram of the castle, and to the numbers on the lenses and the mirrors, and it all fell into place and she stumbled back. "Oh, wow. He's- he's got it all planned out. You can see anything from here, Ilia, he's got it rigged so that you can see any room you like, yeah?"
"But that's impossible-"
"It's not impossible," Zelda's voice sounded from across the chamber. Ashei and Ilia whipped their heads around to catch sight of her struggling to stand up. "He's been spying on all of us for months. He knew- knew everything about me-"
"What does that mean?"
Zelda seemed desperate. "How did you think he got me up here in the first place?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself to block the tremors. "Did you really think he just tied me up and hauled me into his room? No, he had to talk me into doing this. Talked me into tying myself up here. Talked me into locking the doors-"
"That's phenomenal. Too phenomenal. What did he say?" Ashei pried.
"He- I mean, I-"
Now Ashei was getting angry. "What did he say, Zelda?!"
The princess was alarmed at being addressed this way, and she stumbled backwards suddenly, crossing her arms across her chest. "That is no concern of yours, Ashei!"
"No concern of mine, yeah? No concern of mine that he talks people into doing shit that could get them killed?! No concern of mine that he could to the same to me, or to my friends?! I've heard a lot about you, Princess! Heard that you've been a walking scandal; is that what he's got hanging over your head?! This is just why you lost control of the kingdom, isn't it, Princess?!" she accused suddenly, throwing the spyglass impossibly hard onto the carpet and striding forward. "You lost control of this kingdom because you couldn't keep your goddamn legs shut!"
Ilia and Zelda gasped, both faces going a ghostly shade of white as Ashei's countenance only reddened with rage.
"I beg your pardon!" Zelda whimpered at Ashei's unexpected outburst.
"Yeah, you'd know a thing or two about begging, wouldn't you?! Taking a vow to chastity- what bullshit, Zelda! And you knew- you knew that it would come back to bite you- damn it all, you're a government leader, the people's monarch! How could you let this happen?! Personal pettiness? Carnal lust? What the hell?!"
Zelda was shaking, and despite the support she was receiving from Ilia, she was clearly on the verge of tears.
"Is that what you make of me, then?!" Zelda returned. "I have put my heart into this kingdom, Ashei, and it burns me deeply to hear you make such accusations! A failure, perhaps, but a- a slut?!"
"Well are you?!"
"That's none of your business-"
"You are, then!"
"Stop it, stop it!" Ilia cried.
"Stay out of this, Ilia!" Ashei snapped, and turned back to face the princess. "Don't lie to me! We know that this kingdom came crumbling down because of you, Your Highness- Auru told us all about that!"
"He wouldn't dare!"
"He's our friend, too! Just because you have him trailing after you, protecting all of your precious little secrets-"
"I'M NOT WHAT YOU THINK I AM!"
"THEN WHAT ARE YOU?!" Ashei finally howled. "IF YOU'RE NOT A WHORE, THEN WHAT ARE YOU?!"
"I'M IN LOVE!" the princess answered. "In love! And even that is a stretch; it's been so long…"
Silence fell, and both women gasped for breath. Finally, it was Ilia who spoke up.
"…In love with whom?"
"It doesn't matter now; months have passed since we last met," the princess lamented, and turned to face Ashei with some vehemence. "If it makes you feel any better, Ashei, you're right about the vow of chastity- it was a ruse; a team of royal advisors helped to orchestrate it, seeing as it was… well, beyond me, at that point, to make such a statement in earnest." The princess was blushing heavily, but she soldiered on through her confession. "I took the vow once I was certain that my beloved and I had no chance at a future together. I wished to be with no other, and I would not betray either of us by seeking any sort of political alliance. So with Auru's help, I made the decision to abstain thenceforth from both sex and marriage. I have been honest, at least, to that."
"But why?" was all Ilia could muster. And Zelda just shook her head.
"Such matters do not-"
"Stop with that," Ashei said irritably. "We're not done yet. We need to know the whole story. Is that how Crevan got to you? He knew your secret, and threatened to let it out?"
"No," Zelda answered quietly, swallowing nervously. "He knew that I would have thrown away my reputation for the safety of Hyrule in a heartbeat. He skipped such… pleasantries. But he threatened my beloved with torture and death and exposure, and that was far too much for me to bear… I fell to his whims."
"Exposure?" Ilia seemed rather puzzled, and her voice dropped down to a whisper. "Princess… why exactly were you forbidden from being with your lover? Was he a commoner? Was he too old or something?" She thought about it for another second. "He wasn't already married, was he?"
But Zelda just shook her head. "Not too old, nor wed, nor even a commoner…" she sniffed quietly and closed her eyes. "My beloved was another princess, and there our error lay."
Ilia and Ashei were impossibly quiet as everything cascaded almost gently into place.
"We really must make haste," Zelda finally said after a long moment. "We have lingered here for far too long-"
"I beg to differ," Ashei now said, getting to her feet. "One thing's still bothering me, and that's the fact that Crevan left you here for a reason. We know by the nature of the puzzles that he was using you to lure Link here, not us. Which means," she pressed, "that he wanted Link to find his, um…" she gestured to the array of spying equipment behind her. "Well, I guess he wanted to show Link the view. But why?"
"I don't know," answered Zelda quietly. "I can't imagine what compelled him to do so. It is… confusing… to me." She closed her eyes and bowed her head."I have told you before that Crevan is impossibly secretive. I don't understand why he would want Link to find his greatest weapon. Unless-" Her head snapped up very suddenly. "We must go. We can dawdle here no longer."
"What? What is it?!" Ilia cried, but the urgent look on Zelda's face was mirrored on Ashei's.
"You don't think-"
"I do-"
"Impossible-"
"Very possible, actually-"
"Let's go!" Ashei cried, and they set off at an alarming pace. Ashei glanced over her shoulder.
"You can use a bow, yeah, Princess?"
"Yes, I can."
Said weapon was hauled through the air, and Zelda grasped it, slinging the tightly-packed quiver across her back and advancing through the quiet corridor. Zelda took the lead almost immediately, finding a torch on the wall and, having glanced both ways, pulling it downward with all her might. The section of wall gave in to reveal a narrow, cobweb-ridden corridor that she ushered her company downward. They were forced to navigate the narrow passageway single-file, and met with several intersecting passageways, which Zelda navigated deftly.
"I used to sneak out a lot as a child," she breathed at one point. "I know this castle better than anyone; follow me!"
They turned yet another corner and pressed forward, hearts hammering as they stamped onward in the torchlight. The corridors were damp and empty, and Ilia's breath was shaky as they came to a halt at a dead end. Zelda turned and caught her eye.
"I want to thank you," she said quietly, "for coming to find me." She glanced between Ilia and Ashei. "I owe you both, even if you can be… quarrelsome…" She hung her head and closed her eyes. "I do not deny that much of the turmoil that has wracked our kingdom has been my doing. I do not deny that I have much to learn. Now, let's go- we must find Crevan and I must confront him."
The three women were silent as Zelda pushed on the wall and it swung forward, opening into a large, empty hall. They exited the passageway and Ashei's grip on her sword tightened- something felt very odd about this room-
And then everything happened at once. Someone screamed- Ilia- and then there was an onslaught of attackers. They were caught in a hurricane of swords and shields and Ashei reacted at once, hacking and slashing at her armored assailants. She could hear the whizzing of arrows as Zelda aimed for clinks in the armor, and Ilia, unarmed and terrified, had withdrawn into a corner of the room. She was screaming, her arms thrown out defensively before her, heart thrashing in her ribcage as she wailed. She could merely watch as Ashei and Zelda fought relentlessly for ten long seconds-
And then she felt two arms grasp her from behind. A sack was dragged down over her head- oh, gods, they were going to suffocate her- she stumbled forward, fell to her knees… the fighting stopped… the world went dark…
Shad's heavy eyelids opened wearily, the blurry world coming slowly into focus. Drip… drip… But what was that sound? He moaned slightly, shifting his weight. The ground was impossibly stiff, and his back was damp from where something had soaked through his jacket…
Mind still foggy, he struggled to sit up. The world swirled around him and he registered a sense of nausea. Lightheaded and exhausted, he dragged himself up against a wall- stone, by the looks of it, although it was hard to see in this light- and leaned back against it, breathing heavily. He coughed slightly, combing his bangs out of his sweaty forehead and closing his eyes. He felt the lenses on his glasses- one of them had cracked, damn it all- and balanced them on the bridge of his nose. When he opened his eyes again, they'd adjusted more to the darkness, and he took a second to observe his surroundings.
He was in a small stone chamber, though one wall was simply a row of bars dividing him from a torchlit corridor. There was a leak in the ceiling, and he could make out the silhouettes of several other bodies in the cell.
I'm in the dungeons, he realized, recalling with some difficulty a castle diagram that had labeled the dungeons as being located in the sewer. Explains the leak, I suppose.
"Shad!" someone whispered, and the scholar glanced up.
"Auru?"
One of the silhouettes stood suddenly and walked into the light- Shad squinted- yes, that was definitely Auru.
"You're awake, then," Auru said, and kneeled down in front of the scholar. Shad noted some concern on the old man's face. "How do you feel?" he whispered.
"Terrible," Shad answered without missing a beat. Auru's brow furrowed.
"So I would imagine…"
Shad gulped. "Uh- Auru- if you don't mind my asking- how did we get here?"
Auru's face fell. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Shad racked his brains for an answer, but his most recent memories were foggy, like something out of a dream. He was sure he was making things up, because the last thing he remembered quite vividly was kissing Ilia, and there was no way that'd been real.
"I remember… begging Ilia to escape…" he admitted. No, no, that'd definitely been real- wait, he'd kissed Ilia- wait, she'd kissed back- oh, forget it, he'd have to save that for another time, but anyway- "I was dragged into a stampede of soldiers… I think they cuffed me or gagged me or something- maybe both."
Auru's eyes were narrowed as if he were calculating. "So… you remember nothing after that?"
Shad squinted. "Should I?"
"…No, I suppose not," Auru answered after a long moment. "They drugged you with gas before they threw you in here. It erased the last few minutes you had of consciousness- whatever happened to you between the time they gagged you and knocked you out is wiped from your memory, now."
Shad was somewhat alarmed at the prospect- what if he had missed something important? He searched through his pockets for clues as to what might've happened, but was even more startled when he realized that all of his belongings were gone.
"It's no use, mate," Auru lamented. "They searched you. Took everything."
Shad paused. "They did the same to you?"
"Can't remember a thing," Auru answered, "but I saw them gassing another man not ten minutes ago- I could only assume they did the same to us."
Shad bit his lip and sighed. "Great. Just great." He wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. "Now what do we do?"
Auru grunted and stood up. "We get the hell out of here, that's what we do," he answered, stumbling over to the bars and peering out into the hall. "Well, this is just grand," he mumbled and turned back around. "There are two guards in front of the door. There's no prayer of getting out of here."
Shad groaned and leaned back against the wall. "Fantastic," he deadpanned. "I finally kissed the girl, and now I'm going to die. What a way to go down. Rotting in a sewer, and bashful to boot." He kicked a loose stone and it tumbled forward, landing with a splash in a puddle in the corner.
And then the scholar's face lit up.
"Wait a second," he said, and wrapped his hands around his head as he struggled to remember the map of the dungeons. "Wait a second- I've got it!"
Auru glanced over. "Well?!"
"We're in a sewer, right? So there must be another way out of here- a, I don't know, a drainage system- you know, a waterway that we can escape through-"
"Sounds like wishful thinking to me," Auru interrupted, but Shad couldn't be stalled. He began to pace quickly, stepping over unconscious bodies and searching with his hands for some sort of cranny in the stone wall.
"There's got to be something- a chain or something- you know, to open up the drainage pipe-"
"You're a lunatic," Auru muttered under his breath, but at that moment Shad released a faint, "Aha!" and secured his hand around something. With a grunt, he threw all of the weight of his body backwards, dislodging a chain from where it had been weakly pounded into the wall. He raised an eyebrow.
"What was that you said, Auru?"
"I'm still skeptical," the old man answered.
"Be that way," Shad chuckled, and tugged at the chain with all of his might. Something clicked from within the wall- several rusty gears turned, and slowly, a section of the wall that had been covered in a sheet of iron slid up to reveal a barred opening. But to Shad's delight, the bars had already been bent away to leave a human-sized hole; apparently, this wasn't the first time someone had escaped this way.
"Fine," Auru mumbled, rolling his eyes. "I'm trusting you on this, boy…"
Shad just grinned in spite of their situation and got down on his hands and knees, squirming through the opening and beginning to army-crawl through the pipe. His arms were pressed unpleasantly to his side, the passage incredibly tight. The air was thick and hot; Shad was soon coated in a thin layer of sweat, and was only halfway through the pipe when he found that his glasses had fogged up. He was panting heavily when he called over his shoulder, "You all right there, Auru?"
"Just dandy," Auru deadpanned, similarly out of breath. Shad rolled his eyes and pressed forward, the air only becoming denser as the heat increased. They were getting closer to the sewer, now, if the stench was any indication.
Shad turned a corner and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the end of the pipe. He wiggled his way over and wrapped his hands over the ends of the pipe, dragging himself out onto the damp stones of the underground waterway. He lay his head down for a split second and let his tense, aching muscles relax. Then he dragged himself to the side as Auru slipped out of the pipe. Standing up, they both wrinkled their noses at the intensity of the foul smell. Shad glared down at the dirty water in disgust.
"I have a very bad feeling about this," he stated, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he glanced around. The pavement ended not twenty feet from where he was standing, leaving no room for progress except the murky, swirling water…
"Do a cannonball," Auru suggested far too lightly, and Shad realized that they must have come to the same conclusion. He turned and met Auru's eye, which had a mischievous twinkle to it. "Well?" Auru continued. "Ladies first," he added, which Shad did not appreciate in the least. They'd reached the end of the platform by now, and Shad gulped heavily, readjusting his glasses and taking a final step forward. Wincing, he sat down, dangled his legs over the edge, and lowered himself into the filthy water.
"Oh- ew-" he groaned, the wetness seeping through his clothes and against his skin. He shuddered; it was warm, just like the air- to think of where it had been- no, better not; he fought the urge to vomit and turned to face Auru, who had slipped into the water without a second thought. He raised a brow.
"Well? Proceed."
They waded forward through the dense water, fighting the tug of the current as they navigated the labyrinthine waterway. Normally, the scuttle of so many rats and spiders would have alarmed him, and yet he felt somehow weathered by now; he felt as if ordeals like this had become somehow minuscule in the grand scheme of things. He didn't know when he'd stopped being a coward- well, he supposed that he never really had been, or for that matter, even if at one point he had identified as a coward, he had only been a coward in the sense that it was the idea of fear that had perturbed him more than anything else. He'd found adrenaline agonizing; his heart had hammered in the face of death, and he had faced death during the dark days. Not to mention that incident with the cannon… but he preferred not to think about that. Either way, something had changed within him. Whether it had been Ordon, Link, or Ilia that had stirred him, he did not know- it might have been a combination of all three- but no matter the source of such a transformation, he felt that he was a very different man than he had been a month ago. Death and sacrifice… well, they did not seem quite so large anymore.
And it was there, surrounded by sewage and stink and soaked to the skin with drainage water, that it occurred to him that all of the things that had changed, had changed for good. There would be no more laughing over silly things, no more arguments over petty things, no more fretting over hormones or sports or money or who-kissed-who. The things that had seemed to matter so heavily no more than a month ago suddenly didn't matter at all. They existed in another world entirely; a world where Shad had been no more than a dorky scholar who had fawned over a silly farm girl and had pored ceaselessly over historical volumes he didn't much care for anyway. But this world, the one he lived in now, was entirely different. This was a world of sweat and blood and sacrifice, a world where Shad's knowledge of science and history had practical applications; this was a world where he had to strain every fiber of his being in order to be strong, a world where illnesses like Link's weren't romances but sick and bitter tragedies; this was a world where he had fallen in love with a woman whose spirit and kindness had shone through an ever-encapsulating darkness, and that light had helped him to thrive in a way that he never knew he could.
This was not the world of the teenager, but of the adult. He was an adult, a man, a grown man- wading through a sewer, yes, but he was still a man- and that was terrifying. His life would either charge ahead at this point or derail entirely, and it would all depend on the next few hours where he would go, what he would do- whether he would go anywhere or do anything at all- whether he would live-
"Oy! Having an existential crisis back there or something?!"
Shad glanced up. Auru had taken the lead, and they'd come upon a massive set of bars dividing the sewer from a tower with a spiral staircase.
"Sorry," he mumbled, which meant yes, and he followed closely as Auru found a broken section of wall and crawled through, bringing them onto the other side of the bars and into the massive chamber of the tower. It was relatively quiet but for the rushing of the water, and Shad took a few steps out into the circular floor. There were a few crates nearby that Auru had decided to pry open, rifling through their contents.
"Looking for something?" Shad inquired.
"Not sure yet," Auru answered, raising a cloud of dust as he threw the lid of one crate into a cobwebbed corner. He grinned as he retrieved a bundle, unwrapping it to reveal a cluster of relatively sharp swords.
"Better than nothing," he said after a moment, and tossed one to Shad. The scholar merely gaped at the blade blankly.
"I've only ever used a sword twice," he stated.
"You sliced the tip of my ear off," Auru recounted.
"It was… good practice for later," Shad admitted.
"What on earth-"
"-Never mind."
"Very well."
A silence ensued as Auru inspected his own sword, sheathing it after a moment with a brief sigh of satisfaction. "Enough dawdling," he stated, "we need to keep moving." They began to progress up the staircase, but Auru began to grow aggravated after he and Shad alike started tripping over ruts in the stones.
"These stairs might as well be piles of rocks," he said, and swore as he stumbled over a loose brick. The brick tumbled off of the narrow ledge; the resulting clatter rebounded throughout the tower as the brick hit the ground, and Auru let out a long sigh. "They're crumbling to pieces- what an awful way to die, falling to your death-"
He was interrupted by a sudden shout from overhead.
"THEY'RE IN HERE!"
Shad's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach, and Auru let out a faint, "Shit." Footsteps thundered as guards came pouring in from overhead, and Auru grumbled, "Use that sword, dammit." Shad's fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword; it felt heavy and awkward in his arms, and yet he retrieved it from his belt all the same as the swarm of guards became closer. At the last second, Auru withdrew his own blade and rushed forward.
He wasted no time in jumping into action, elbowing and kicking oncoming soldiers into walls and down on the staircases. In cold blood, he kneed one in the stomach; the guard, panicked, lost his balance and tumbled right off the staircase, his body flapping as it fell… Shad winced at the resulting crack, and tried to force the word "splat" from his mind because he knew how terrifyingly accurate it was…
They'd climbed to a reasonable height, now, and even as they progressed against the whirlwind of soldiers, Shad knew that one false move could result in a one-way ticket to his own demise, and so he kept his balance, raising the sword against oncoming blows as opposed to just swinging haphazardly. He wondered how on earth these soldiers had located him- how had they even become aware of his escape?! Had they, having realized he'd gone missing not twenty minutes ago, sent an entire squadron up to the roof to await him? Questions, questions…
A shout from behind him made his blood boil; Auru had been struck, and Shad made the foolish mistake of turning. He saw a mildly injured Auru, who was gaping at him, mouthing the word fool, and suddenly the world was rushing by- his stomach lurched- he was falling…
His head snapped back as someone grabbed his collar and yanked him back up. The blood swirled around and for a second he was lightheaded, fighting the pain in his neck and back from the action- and then he was dangling by his collar, one of Crevan's guards holding onto him.
Shad's face fell. "Please don't kill me," he stated, which he knew sounded very lame. Might as well try, though, he figured.
To his surprise, he was pulled up onto solid ground, and the fighting ceased. "Oh, don't worry about that," the guard said,
"You're… not going to kill me?"
"Oh, no," said the guard, and a small sense of relief filled Shad. But it was soon washed away with the sinister words of yet another soldier.
"He wants you alive."
"What- who wants me alive?!" Shad choked out, but he was silenced as a gag was slung around his jaw and a black cloth was tugged over his face. Seconds later, and both his lips and thoughts were silenced as he was dragged under…
Telma had always been remarkably good at two things in particular: drinking, and getting into bar fights. Her adoration for both had resulted into her decision to open a bar that catered to warriors, and she'd had no shortage of either drinking or fighting since then. All in all, it had been a rather fulfilling existence, and she had to admit that it paid off in situations like these.
There was a table laden with refreshments laid off in the corner of the ballroom. Of course, the ballroom had been immersed in chaos at Link and Ashei's entrance, and the two army's- Crevan's and Link's- were now head-to-head with one another. Telma, rather lax about the entire ordeal, poured herself another glass of wine and held it up to the surrounding blitz.
"Cheers," she said, and realized suddenly that two guards had caught sight of her. They began charging directly at her from either side. Startled only slightly, Telma smirked, downed her drink in one swig, and took a step back. The two guards rammed into one another and collapsed, and with a laugh, Telma rolled up her sleeves, and socked a third assailant in the face. Pleased with herself, she took a step to the side, admired her handiwork, and poured herself another drink. Then, glass, in hand, she sauntered around to the other side of the table, and caught sight of Rusl and Link.
They were back-to-back in the chaos, both wearing expressions that clearly said this is very, very bad, and Telma decided that she should probably give them a hand. It was only polite, she figured, and she barged into the fight almost excitedly.
"Hello, gentlemen!" she shouted over the roaring crowds.
"Nice of you to turn up!" Link answered, swinging his sword against Crevan's soldiers with a short grunt. He took a few long breaths, wiped his brow, and then threw his weight forward as he slashed at yet another soldier. The soldier, having suffered a wound to the soldier, dropped his sword and stumbled backwards into a comrade. They toppled over, one landing atop the other one, and Link, given a moment's peace, glanced back at Telma. "What's going on?"
"Hanging in there. You?" she answered. Link shrugged as Rusl gave a shout and finished off a rather aggressive soldier. He turned to face Telma.
"What happened to the chancellor?"
"He disappeared once the fighting started," Telma answered. "I saw him vanish through those double doors on the balcony."
Rusl swallowed. "So he could be anywhere…"
Telma glanced back at Link, only to find herself penetrated by his rather worried gaze. Finally, he asked the question she knew he'd been waiting for the right time to voice.
"Have you seen Ashei? What happened to her? Is she okay?"
Telma just shook her head. "She vanished… I haven't seen her since we all split up."
Link's face fell. "That's what I was afraid of- AUGH!" he shouted as another soldier rammed into him from behind, taking him by surprise. "Damn it!" he cried, barging forward with his shield and knocking the soldier back. He was caught up in the moment, his mind whirring- where was Ashei?! Was this part of Crevan's trap? What about Ilia? Was she okay? Shad? Auru? He couldn't keep his mind off of them, and suddenly he was fighting an onslaught of bad thoughts saying you did this and they're in danger and you risked their lives… he pushed them to the back of the mind, trying to exterminate them completely. Assuming a militaristic mindset in this past week had allowed him to clear his mind of those terrible thoughts and emotions, and he'd been able to focus on a mission having to do with debts and old friends and old enemies- it was all very much set in emotion, and for that reason he'd tried his best to be cold about most of it. Being robotic in slaughter fests such as these was a necessary trait- you had to calculate your actions, your movements… getting caught up with thoughts of other people- well, it just wasn't healthy. Not that he would know the first thing about healthy. But never mind all that! Focus, Link… And yet he kept thinking, mind whirring- damn it, where was Mil-
"AAARGH!"
He knocked out another soldier and watched him topple over, delivering a blow with his shield to the top of another man's head. They collapsed at his feet and he whirled around, gut filling with adrenaline when he realized that Rusl and Telma had both vanished from sight. Panicked, he called their names, glancing over the clash of swords and spears, but knowing deep down that they had vanished. He glanced around anxiously, and halted when he noticed suddenly two doors cast open that had been closed only moments before…
And just like that, Link knew what was going on. This is designed for me…
It had to be Crevan- that was the only possible explanation. This was some sort of trap- Crevan using Link's friends as bait, just as he'd used Zelda. Link's blood ran hot with rage and he barreled through the open doors without a second thought, navigating a dark, winding corridor and finding himself in a wide, empty hall.
He was caught off-guard as the doors slammed shut behind him. Shaken, he took a few steps forward, gaping about the empty hall. The walls were decorated with a few tapestries, but the only light in the room came through the arched windows. There was a slight draft; chilled, he allowed himself to shiver, but his grip on his sword tightened. There was something very, very wrong about this place…
And then it hit him. With a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach, he gulped and raised his eyes to the ceiling…
They jumped down as soon as Link had taken a defensive stance, landing lithely on their feet and unsheathing long, thin blades. They weren't like the rest of Crevan's soldiers- Link knew that right away. There was something alien about them, something almost feline, and it was haunting. They moved with inherent grace, brandishing their blades with tantalizing poise, and the only word that came to Link's mind was artist. They were artists, all of them, masters of their craft- the craft of war…
He couldn't tell what happened then. He could only register the swish of a blade- the glint of steel in the moonlight- and suddenly something happened to the cogs in his mind. They went into overdrive and everything turned into one white-hot storm. It was a torrential flash of stabbing and swinging and jumping and smashing, of shouting into an empty room as they swarmed at him, and he couldn't see, couldn't hear, could only feel the battle as they all closed in on him and fell… fell, somehow, at his feet, piling up, the stench of death filtering into his nostrils, poisoning his mind, fueling his fury…
And then it ended. It was too quiet and the heat faded and Link registered a numbness in his body that ended at his aching mind. His mouth felt impossibly dry as his eyes roamed over the still, quiet bodies. They were very still. Very dead. He touched one experimentally… they were dressed like the other soldiers had been, and he removed the hat from one fighter, running his fingers over the tender spot where the skull had been smashed in. The hair was tangled with blood- in fact, the tile below him was washed with it, glistening crimson in the night… he could feel nothing except for a rising sickness, his mind rushing. He went very lightheaded all of a sudden and clutched his gut, but it was far too late; he stumbled to his knees, body hot and weak, and vomited, coughing and sputtering, throat burning, eyes watering, heart beating like a drum in his ears…
It was all too much- this was it, this was as much as he could take- too much killing, too much killing- it was ending- oh, gods, this was more than he could bear- so many lives, kaput, smothered like flames-
He collapsed forward onto his palms and bowed his head, the strength fading from his body. That fight had worn him down to the core; he was sore and broken and tired. In utter exhaustion, he dragged himself forward, finding a staircase- the only other exit besides the door through which he'd entered- and all he could think was that he had to go on if he was ever going to save his friends… and that was all that existed of him at that point, if any part of him existed at all. He was very worn all of a sudden- emotion, or a lack thereof, had done him in. He might as well have been dead. And if his friends' lives hadn't depended on him, he without a doubt would have been.
Trembling, he hoisted himself up the staircase, his sword heavy on his back. All of his weaponry weighed more than he remembered, and his scars seemed ten times deeper than they had been initially. He didn't understand why every step seemed to drain his body further, didn't understand why he felt so weary, so frail, so beyond saving-
-And then he realized exactly where he was. He knew this part of the castle- it had crossed his mind half a million times, both in waking and sleeping hours- oh, gods, to think that he was here again after all this time… he was back here…
He found the door and grasped the knob, fingers shaking. He exhaled as steadily as he could, eyes pressed shut and stinging. And all that he could think was Crevan knows, he knows, oh, gods, he knows…
He opened the door and fell forward as if carrying the weight of the world. He crawled forward, dragging himself against paving stones, the open sky greeting him with a rush of damp, cold autumn air. His breaths were ragged as he grasped for oxygen, the acidic feeling in his muscles burning outwards, the fibers of his body stretching apart as he reached for energy that was now beyond recall. The world rushed and spun around him, and overtaken with exhaustion, he fell face flat onto the stones. And he knew this place- knew this place- his heart was beating against the stones of the castle balcony, for he knew this place like he'd never known anywhere else… the memories flashed through his mind, stinging him, reopening old wounds, and he thought of rain-soaked dresses and cold, clammy skin and the smell of Zelda and the feeling of her arms- memories he thought he'd never revisit- and Crevan knew-
His jagged thoughts were interrupted by a voice. A simple voice, spitting out words that slithered towards him like snakes. They wrenched at his gut and he was jolted by nerves, heart pounding as he broke into a cold sweat and gulped. Words… two words.
"Look up."
Aaaahhhh I have returned!11 no guys don't leave stop come back. What.
Um. Okay so. Down to business. Firstly and most importantly, it's my birthday! Yay! Secondly, back in June, someone left a ton of reviews (okay, so there were only 5) on this fic talking about how it was utter garbage, except they didn't actually read the fic, they just complained about the summary via anonymous reviews. Anyone know who it might've been? This is totally out of curiosity, because I don't actually care. (I deleted those reviews, btw. Sorry.) Thirdly (is that even a word), next chapter: angst like whoa.
Thanks again to all of you who expressed your thoughts through reviews, and a special shout-out to ZeldaFanAtHeart, who read the whole thing hitherto in the span of a few hours and left his/her thoughts continually. I get mildly upset when people review anonymously because then I can't express my undying love to them via PM. But oh well. Such are the woes of the world we live in today. [sheds a dramatic tear]
-Ctj
p.s. I love you all guys though omg. Just wanted to make sure you knew that. oh no oh no now i'm gettiNG EMOTIONAL
p.p.s. Buildin' up my MRMR playlist. The first song on there? "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. It's like the second half of MRMR in song-form.
