Thank you all for coming this far! Hope you're all enjoying this, and I hope you leave a review at the bottom.
And now, here I present you the chapter that I had the most writing:
Touch 4
Midna finally, finally gave up on prying her father's location out of him, which Sheik took some solace in for all of two minutes. Instead she concentrated on turning him into a meat-puppet, which she was also becoming very adept at.
Making him eat, drink, clean himself, that was something he had to do (well the third was personal preference, but it sure made life easier) to live, so given enough motivation (starvation, dehydration, stink) Midna could make him do it. More complex things, like writing a letter saying he was fine, or sharpening a knife in Midna's presence and not stab her, was something else entirely.
But after a few sessions she waved a fully legible, believable missive in her hand, and one blade was fully serviced without the need to clean it of blood.
This, Sheik decided, was not only getting old, but getting desperate. His defenses were going nowhere but down. Soon she could send him back and free her father with his own bare hands (the very thought was repulsive) and there was nothing he could really actively do to stop it.
Except keep stalling. If he could do even that.
-.-'-.-'-.-
Zelda was studying Calatia's map in the last dying hours of the day, marking the locations of the Zant family's mansions and holdings. She decided to add the extended family's holdings as well, using points instead of circles. Vhighew had been extensive in mind-warping his peers; it was easy to assume that he'd abused their properties as well as their minds.
Zelda shuddered just thinking it. Such unfettered power…
The orange light of sunset was fading to grey as she packed her papers away, thinking of seeing the progress on the gate, maybe offer a helping hand if she were able. She could at the very least thank her staff for bowing to her strange request, agreeing to the harsh hours without complaint.
As she was leaving through the Castle gates she saw the messenger thundering up the front yard on his galloping horse, bearing the green flag of urgency.
"Your Highness!"
"What news do you have?" Zelda demanded, rushing to meet him, searching his hands for a scroll or letter. The smaller the missive, the more urgent it was. Zelda still remembered the day a messenger had dropped dead at the front gates, his green flag flecked with blood, no message in hand.
Her mother had sent her away, fearing invasion. Her fears proved true, and Ganondorf had attacked.
This man's letter was of a casual size, for which Zelda was grateful.
"The Kakariko well has been drained, your Highness," the messenger proclaimed as he passed her the envelope, "The cause is unknown, though we fear sabotage of the mill. Another scroll has been sent to the Gorons, to request use of their mining streams."
She took the missive, unnerved. "Will the town survive without it?"
"We hope the pump can be mended before we face any real issue, your Highness."
"I take it this is a request for workers?"
"Aye, my Lady."
"There will be cryers and posts in all of the city first thing in the morning, and I can have the word spread tonight in taverns as well. That I promise."
"Thank you most kindly, my Lady."
"Have your horse stabled, and sit with my men for supper; let them know of Kakariko, it may be that some of them have brothers looking for work."
So Zelda left for the gate, troubled. Lin had said she would go to Kakariko, hadn't she? Did breaking the well have something to do with Tharlaigh's kidnapping? Was Lin in danger? The Princess prayed not.
Three full days since she bid Tharlaigh good bye. Zelda hurried to the eastern quarters, throwing her hood over her head.
-.-'-.-'-.-
Apparently the situation in that town had gotten exponentially worse overnight.
Just a little after dawn, when the cuccos started crowing, it was besieged by the dead.
Specifically one large undead demon that was apparently slain by one lady garbed in green.
When Zelda heard this she made a sound typically reserved for kettles at boiling point.
The well was officially gutted; the monster had dug itself up from under it, using its many, many hands. Apparently now its very much dead corpse had been turned to ash, set on fire by the girl in green, after she had hacked its body open and retrieved some sort of jewel or precious item from it.
On setting the dead thing on fire she had disappeared in a shower of bright light.
Of course she had. Of course.
"Why do you do this to me?" she exclaimed, startling the messenger who'd relayed the news, "WHY?"
"Uh, your Highness…?"
When she found that girl Zelda was going to kill her. "Are you sure the well isn't salvageable?"
"Well, uh, I mean, a carpenter was concerned with that as we-I mean, also, so he went down the ladder, but he said there were… other, dead things down there."
"...What?"
"He didn't say much more, my Lady," he said with a hint more confidence, "But apparently there are skulls that clack their teeth and flutter around, and corpses that groan, and they're trying to climb out of the well as we speak. The people, they're panicking. What are we to do?"
"Send a bird. Tell them to have the well sealed, and I want the priests praying for sunlight. Are there any rangers in town with faerie blessings? If so I want them to supply faerie tears; tell them to discuss terms with me later. Have the houses closest to the well evacuated, fifty yard radius to be safe, and for the love of Hylia don't let anyone drink water unless it's been boiled overnight, the last thing we need is a plague of gibdo flu."
"Yes, your Highness."
"And sirs," she snarled as politely as she could to the surrounding guards, "Find me my Civil Liaison, won't you? Lin Knightly. Right now!"
They scarpered.
Zelda pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes and threw back her head and had an internal shrieking tantrum. She'd worried that Lin was in danger. How stupid could she have been? Of course Lin was the cause. Of course.
What was the point of that anyway? How was this mean to help?
Zelda forced herself to calm down, and try to think like her. Which was a near impossibility that she quickly abandoned. Instead she thought of what that errant puppy of a Hylian might be doing, since the act of thinking was possibly giving her too much credit.
Lin would be doing what she thought would make finding Tharlaigh faster.
Zelda felt her stomach sinking.
She went to the armoury.
"Has Lin come by? Lady Knightly. My Civil Liaison. You might know her as That Weird One."
They were uncomfortable with admitting to referring to the Princess's mysteriously close friend as that weird one, but yes, she had come by yesterday.
Zelda was regretting ever using the words I'll give you anything you need.
"What, dare I ask, did she take?"
They weren't sure that she'd taken anything at all, but on reviewing the contents they found twenty palm-sized bombs, six bottles of blue potion, two quivers full of arrows, a sword, a knife, a small shield, four sturdy travel sacks and their contents of provisions, the one and only pair of silver gauntlets, and a helmet, missing.
Zelda assured the men in charge that no they weren't in trouble and no Lin didn't do this all the time. Probably.
One of the guards that she'd yelled at came looking for her, huffing nervously. "Princess Zelda,"
"Yes?" she replied, with a touch of desperate hope, "Have you found her?"
He looked most unhappy with being the one to relay the news. "She fled your offices by jumping out the window, my Lady."
Her office was on the fourth floor.
Zelda slowly, shakily, buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Goddess."
"But, but she doesn't seem to be injured my Lady, there's no body on the ground outside, we checked in the bushes and everything-"
"No, I meant, I'm so sorry." she whimpered, suddenly exhausted, "Whoever witnessed that must have had a heart attack. She doesn't realize that it's not normal."
The guard looked hopelessly confused.
"And why did she run away? She hasn't done that in months."
The guard wasn't even aware that the liaison was in the habit of escaping figures of authority, or the law. "Uh, she was going through your desk, my Lady. Should she be apprehended?"
The maps.
"No, please, go about your duties as usual. Actually, can you send a page to have one of my horses saddled? I'm going to have to handle this myself."
Zelda immediately left for the transport gate, hidden in a storage room of an eastern moat turret. As she trotted through the streets (it was illegal to gallop, as much as she wanted to) the Princess hoped that Lin hadn't found which turret held the gate, though her pounding heart dreaded that the Hero had found what she was looking for, practically immediately.
"Princess!"
Of course. Of, course.
"Maple," Zelda called, as the green-haired spellcrafter ran to meet the horse, "Is everything alright?"
"I wouldn't be up here if it was, Princess," she tetched, beckoning her liege, "Some ridiculous girl with weapons just kicked us out of the site!"
"Did she threaten you?" the princess was genuinely concerned about the possibility now, having seen what Lin had done to Zant.
"I almost wish she had!" Maple stormed, jogging ahead, "She just waltzed right in, and told Osfala that she was there under your orders, and locked the door! Grandfather's trying to have it opened, but nothing is doing what it's meant to. It's like suddenly the stone's impervious to magic."
At the turret entrance was Osfala, who looked harried and put upon and sulky, his white hair and purple robes impeccable as always. "Maple! And, Princess?"
"I hear your work has been rudely interrupted," Zelda dismounted and gestured for them both to lead on, "How did this happen?"
"Irene let this strange girl in-"
"It was you!"
"Irene let her in first," Osfala gritted out, face burning red, "She was the one keeping watch."
"And you were at the gate itself! Making it inside the tower I understand, we'd ordered some provisions your Highness so Irene probably thought it was that, but he shouldn't have let her inside that room, and it's embarrassing that she sweet-talked you out the bloody door!"
"She didn't sweet-talk, she, she threw me out! Physically grabbed me by the shoulders and chucked me out like, like-"
"Garbage? Laundry? A sack of sad potatoes?"
"You watch your mouth you-"
"Enough!" Zelda barked, making the two apprentices clam up, "Just take me down there, let me talk to her."
"How did you even know so quickly, my Lady?" was Osfala's query as they entered the dusty turret and began descending its spiral stone stairs, "This only happened ten minutes ago, more or less."
Maple had clearly wondered the same thing. "Do you know who she is?"
"She's a friend," Zelda found herself saying, even as her stomach churned and a little voice in her head chirped about all the potential damage that said friend could do with a half-constructed and unstable transport gate.
Goodbye, yoddled that little chirpy voice in her head, Eastern Castletown.
Equipment littered the entrance to the locked room, as if they'd been chucked out like so much cat kibble. Irene, Maple's identical twin sister (except for her indigo hair) and their mentor Sahasrahla were in the process of firing a rather powerful beam of light at the door.
When the light abated the door still stood, smugly.
Irene swore a blue-streak and was wapped over the head by the older and significantly shorter master. "Ow!"
"Watch your mouth around the Princess," the old man chided, bowing deeply enough for his head to scrape the floor, "Your Highness, as you can see, our project has come to an unforeseen halt, but rest assured it will resume in but a moment."
Zelda rolled her sleeves up and picked up a hammer with a mallet the size of her head from the pile of equipment. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to try something."
"Uh, but Princess, we've already attempted breaking the door down with physical for-"
Zelda ignored him regally before ramming the hammer three times into the door and hollered: "Lin Bloody Knightly, open this door right NOW!"
Astonished silence filled the antechamber.
Zelda knocked the door again, with much more force. "Lin!?"
"Uh…" came a muffled response, shouting back through the wall of stone, "I don't think I can, places have a thing for locking me inside until I beat monsters or finish puzzles."
"This is not a boobytrapped Temple! Open the door!"
"But I work well under pressure," was the rather cheerful response, "I've already finished half the gate."
"But that's impossible," the old man sputtered, "We only just managed to piece the smaller fragments together! Princess, I swear upon my service, this can't be-"
"I know, Master Sahasrahla," Zelda interrupted irritably, "Unfortunately, my friend deals with the impossible a lot. Including being impossibly difficult!"
From the impossible girl in question: "Thanks!"
"What were you thinking in Kakariko!?"
There was a rather uncomfortable pause from the other side. "It was an accident."
"An accident."
"I needed this piece of glass that lets me see hidden things, like Sheik and magic," came that voice from the door, sounding defensive, "And the monster was a lot more powerful than the last time I beat it. I set it on fire though! It's not attacking anyone anymore, right?"
Zelda slapped her forehead, sighing raggedly. "Your accident has turned the well into a pit of the living dead, Lin."
Another pause, longer than the last.
"I'll fix it when I get back?"
"Fix it now!"
"But I'm nearly done!"
"Oh, Goddess," Zelda whispered, spinning round, "Who's most adept at making barriers, Master Sahasrahla?"
The old man jumped at the Princess's quite frankly desperate expression and faltered. "Ah, well. Myself and Maple, I would say."
"Please head outside and create one around this turret. Right now."
"But Princess! Surely you can't believe-"
"I wouldn't have believed that the girl behind that door could turn the Kakariko Well into, as I said before and I do not exaggerate, Master Sahasrahla, a pit of the living dead. But she did! There are redead and gibdo and other such monsters trying to claw its way out into the town, and she unfortunately is responsible. Knowing this, would you still be sure that she can't put a transport gate back together?"
The old man gulped.
"We'll do it, Princess," Maple agreed in her Master's place, "Master, shall we use the blue crystals or the green?"
"The green of course, the green, the green," he muttered and led the way, Maple following with a box full of the stuff. Zelda sighed and turned back on the door, knocking the hammer upon it with not a little dissatisfaction.
"Lin! Would you please stop building the gate and listen to me?"
"Why can't I do those two things at the same time?"
"Because it's unstable! It could explode! You. Could. Get. Hurt!" the Princess punctuated each point with a slam of the hammer against the door.
"So can we," Irene muttered darkly, though Osfala snorted.
"I agree with the Master. Building the gate back up in such a short time is impossible."
The Princess only wished it was so as Lin yelled back that everybody should let her concentrate on stacking the blocks if it was oh so very dangerous.
Said wishes were promptly dashed when she felt the stone door thrum with an undercurrent of power, red light glowing from its edges.
"You were saying?" Irene snarked, as Osfala gaped.
"But those blocks can't be lifted! Not without magic, or, at least five people!"
Or one person wearing silver gauntlets, Zelda surmised, genuine panic seeping into her heart.
"Zelda?" Lin shouted through the door, probably hefting the last few blocks into place, "I'm really sorry about Kakariko, but I can't wait around while Sheik's out there. It's already been too long."
"That doesn't change the fact that this gate might very well explode once you go through!"
The pause seemed optimistically contemplative, this time. "...Would me going through hurt you? Even, even kill you?"
"That's the least of my concerns right now!" The two apprentices protested behind her at that and Zelda diligently ignored them. "A concern that will go away if you open this door and let us in!"
Another pause, then with more resolution: "How likely is it to kill me, then?"
Zelda slammed the hammer against the door again. "That, is, besides, the, point-"
"So, not that likely?"
"It could very well hurt you to the brink of it, yes!"
"Good thing I have potion with me, then," was Lin's response, and Zelda could almost see the grin behind it. "Alrighty, I'll try to be back in a week, hopefully less. And I promise to sort out Kakariko once I get back."
"Lin! I will not ask again! Open this door, and let my spellcrafters stabilize the damned gate!"
No answer, and the light around the door intensified.
Zelda spun back. "Run. Run!"
Osfala took a moment longer to obey, since he was still in denial despite the quaking of stones and the light that was intensifying from the gate. They managed to get out of the equipment-strewn room and climb a few steps before the gate did its duty, sent the traveller away, and exploded from use.
Outside, the turret burst with hardly a warning, shooting out in sparks of red light. Chunks of mortar hit the barrier that Maple and Sahasrahla had set up with enough force to clap like lightning, breaking up into a hail of rock as they collapsed back onto the still shuddering ruins.
Inside, the world roared in the darkness, shaking like a cat in a bag, pounding the ground with angry magic and godly fists of rock. Irene and Osfala held each other tight, screaming, screaming, screaming, petrified with terror as the very ground collapsed around them, the walls crumbled on top of them, crushing them into puddles of blood.
Except, it didn't.
They opened their eyes, gasping, tears streaming down their faces, but still it was dark, still the world grumbled, and there were two points of yellow light above them.
Their eyes adjusted. The light came from Princess Zelda's hands, raised above her head even as she hunched forward, breathing raggedly. There was a net of yellow light all around them, glistening like a spider's web as they held the rubble at bay.
The two apprentices gaped. This was near impossible. How many tonnes of earth was the Princess lifting above them all?
When the rumbling subsided, and the rubble settled, Princess Zelda spoke.
"You know…"
Pebbles of dust and rock escaped the net of magic, dropping and clacking very close to where the two apprentices lay prone. Osfala squeaked.
"I almost feel... sorry, for them."
They tried to breathe normally; their tears of sheer terror wouldn't let them.
"I actually feel sorry for all of them," Zelda gritted out, bracing her hands on their precariously ceiling, "Even Ganondorf. Maybe only a little for Ganondorf, but the point still stands. I genuinely feel sorry for the sorry lot of those sorry idiots. If this is the kind of thing that happens to people who try to help her, then I cannot imagine what absurd hell she puts her enemies through."
"Uu-um…"
"Do you know what my Sheikah Ambassador said to me?" she added disturbingly cheerfully, "I should send her on diplomatic missions, not just monster-hunting and rebellion-quelling missions. It would be fun, he said. Give her a chance, he said. Why not give her even a small mission, it couldn't be that hard?" and with that she chuckled like the most twisted of monsters in their darkest nightmares. "I couldn't be that hard?"
"P-Princess, uh,"
"How in bloody hell am I meant to send her anywhere? Do you know what she did when I said she could have anything she needed for this rescue mission? She stole from the armoury! She raided my desk! After breaking open a pit of dead things on Kakariko. And now she nearly crushes me, under a stone structure. Is this meant to be payback for doing that to Ganondorf, Din? Are you messing with me? Well excuse me for defeating a madman that was tearing apart the very fabric of life. Also? This is meant to be a rescue mission! How is it, that as the person on her side, I have to deal with so much fallout? Can you imagine her trying to handle a diplomatic situation? She," Zelda snarled, and the rubble snarled with her, quaking in their positions, scaring the wits out of the two apprentices again, "She literally has the social literacy of a mild-mannered moblin, and if I had the authority, she would be FIRED!"
The rubble exploded around them, and they were standing or lying under the beautiful sky, the other two spell-crafters standing at the edge of the destruction, shocked from their brief grief.
Zelda pointed at the sky and stomped her foot. "Do you hear me Farore!? I would fire your agent this very second! She would be out of a job, out of my city, for being the socially stunted dangerous ridiculous person that she is! You hear me? FIRED!"
And the four around her looked at each other, helplessly and desperately confused.
So?
What did you think? 8D