Aria groaned into her pillow. Her body ached in all sorts of different places, almost as if someone had dropped a bag of bricks on her. If memory served her right, Nabooru had given her something rather fruity to drink last night after the incident with King Ganondorf. She wasn't quite sure what had happened after that. She recalled kissing someone, and then having to go the bathroom...a lot. Someone helped her to her room, she was sure of that, but everything else was a blur.

Her room was just beginning to feel warmer, which meant she could make it to breakfast and lessons on time even if she were as slow as a like-like. Getting dressed was a task in itself, nothing wanted to behave for her and she was extra slow moving because Aveil had put weights on her boots to encourage strengthening her legs. Every loud step while walking to breakfast was like having a miniature thunderstorm in her ear.

At breakfast, an explosion of noise went off in her head. Aria snagged a fruit and cup of tea from the table before walking halfway to the lesson room where there were less people around. She sat in the shadows, her head pressed against a stone she'd frozen. Aveil found her like that.

"And now you know not to take random drinks from Nabooru."

"Shutup."

"What?" Aveil's voice got a hint louder.

"Shut. Up." Aria groaned.

"Hehe. So I guess you don't want my hangover miracle?"

Aria grumbled into the stone.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Grumble.

"You're grumpy when you're hungover." Aveil laughed, putting a cup of something hot in Aria's hands. "Drink that before it cools, wait five minutes, then go to your lessons. You'll feel better, I swear."

Grumble.

"You're welcome."

Aria downed the cup, grimacing as it burned it's disgusting way down her throat. The heat helped her ignore the bitter taste and the gritty feel of the whatever plant pulp was in it. She sat there in the shade, re-icing the stone as she saw fit, until her headache slowly faded away. Her body still hurt, but without the head pain it was manageable.

The training room was pitch black. Heavy clothes had been laid over the windows, blocking out any and all sunlight, and the torches were extinguished. The door slammed behind her and she was left in the darkness.

"Hello? Koume? Kotake?"

She didn't need to close her eyes to see the sparks this time. There was one huge spark surrounding the entire room. She didn't generally acknowledge it as a spark, because it was really the absence of spark.

Aria ignited a spark of flame, but it was only a second before it was squashed by the shadows.

"Ah ah ahh.. that's cheating."

"G- Ganondorf? What are you-? Where's Koume and Kotake?"

"I'm teaching today. Come on, little firefly. Manipulate them. Find your way to light."

"You can't manipulate shadow. There's no spark."

"Spark? Is that what you see? Sparks? " His chuckle reverberated in the room, sending chills down her spine. He could be behind her right now and she wouldn't know.

"Oh, little firefly. They're not sparks. They're power. Feel the power, take the power, use the power. Do it."

Aria huffed. She reached out her hand in front of her. Her vision was spark-less, but it was clear there was something there, she just couldn't touch it.

"I don't … feel anything."

"Try harder."

"How do you expect me to try harder, when I can't see or feel anything?"

"By trying harder!"

"Ugh. You're impossible!"

"We're not leaving this room until you figure it out."

"Where is Koume and Kotake? Why aren't they teaching me? Why are you of all people teaching me?"

"My mothers deserve a break. They have more important things to do than deal with you."

"So do you. Since you're supposed to be the king, after all."

"I do as I please."

"And teaching pleases you?"

The question hung in the air, room filling with silence as the king refused to answer her question. Aria spent what felt like an hour walking around the room trying to find the king. Maybe if she found him she could take out her frustrations by strangling him.

"What am I even looking for?" She muttered, trying to find the sparks again. It was still pitch black, except that the room seemed to be covered in almost.. a mist of some sort. It wasn't exactly like a spark, in that it shone, but it took up space and it wasn't visible through normal means. It clung to the ground, walls, ceilings, and even the windows as a heavy layer of fog.

Aria couldn't grasp it in her hand. It would sift through her fingers like the sand of the desert, reluctant to stay in one place. She did this several times before trying a different route.

She envisioned her own spark as the same substance, solid enough to grasp something, but airy enough that the mist should congeal around it. It took a few more attempts before she was able to grasp onto the the clouded shadow and pull it off the wall. It came off like a strip of loose paint. Aria moved to one corner of the room and began removing the shadow, shoving it into a tight ball in her hand. Like wading through a swamp, the progress was time consuming and by the time she reached a few feet from where she started she was sweating bullets, breathing was difficult, and all she could think about was crawling in bed.

At the center of the room stood a grinning king. He picked the ball up from her hand, tossed it in the air and the rest of the unnatural shadows flew into it.

"Took you long enough, I was beginning to wonder if it would take all week for you to figure it out." He squashed the ball in his hand, then waved his hand and the cloth covering the windows fell to the ground, letting in the natural light of the sunset.

"Yes, it took you all day to figure out one element. Not even the whole element. You just touched the surface of it." He responded to the astounded look on her exhausted face.

"So… does teaching please y-you?" Her legs gave out beneath her, and large muscled arms caught her just before she hit the ground.

Aria thought she heard a "Perhaps" before she blacked out from exhaustion.

It was morning once more when she woke up, a plate of breakfast was at her bedside table that hadn't been there before.

"Wow, he did a number on you." Faruin walked into the room holding two cups of something that steamed.

"Huh?"

"King Ganondorf came out of the training room carrying you. He carried you all the way back here. Koume and Kotake practically threw a fit when they saw you passed out. I thought they were going to freeze or set fire to their own son. "

"I wish they did." Aria grumbled, shoving her pillow over her head. Faruin whapped her on her arm.

"You shouldn't say such things about the king!"

"What makes him so great, Faruin? His bloodlines, his magic, the fact that he's the only man in the fortress? I just don't see it."

"I…" Faruin faltered for a moment. "He's just so… and then.."

"What? Hold up. Are you in love with him?"

"What?! No! Oh Goddess no! I mean.. He's handsome and strong and noble and and...dreamy-"

"You are. You are in love with him. Have you even talked to him?"

"Well, no. That doesn't matter though! I'll win the annual warrior's tourney and he'll notice me and.. "

"I thought you said you were an architect."

"What, like I can't be both? I am a gerudo, and we have a proud history of being a diverse group of well rounded warriors."

"I'm not saying you can't, I just… don't you think it will be someone who spends all day training?"

"Nabooru usually wins it, but this year second and third command are going to be used as part of the trial. So Nabooru and Aveil are out of the running, and it's all up in the air of who will win it."

"Oh okay, so say you win, he just notices you as the winner?"

"He's the final trial. Anyone who beats Nabooru gets to go up against him. Obviously no one is going to win against him, but the one he finds to be the most powerful does."

"What's the prize."

"Being noticed by him as the most worthy opponent in the compound is a prize enough."

"So...nothing then?"

"Ugh. Yeah, there's a few trinkets and they make your own set of armour based on what will amplify your skills, but the King's approval is the real prize."

"Well, you're not going to win if you're sitting in here with me all day. Let's go out and train!"

"Yeah, you're right! I should go out and- wait.. Let's? Both of us?"

"Well yeah. Aveil was training me to be speedy and learn how to fight anyways. Your king knows magic, who says he won't use it in the tournament?"

"He… I.. I don't think I've ever seen him use it before?"

"There's a first for everything, besides maybe he's used it subtly, you'll need to know what to look for."

"But I can't see the magic like you and he can."

"You don't need to. I'll teach you how to feel it." Aria quickly switched into new clothes, tugging on her weighed down boots. They were getting easier to walk in, which meant Aveil would probably want to add on more weights.

"Hold up. You still have magic classes this morning."

"Koume and Kotake will understand."

"Didn't the king take over your training?"

"It was a one-day type of thing. Besides, this is just as- if not more- important! So let's go!" Aria tugged Faruin out of the room, past the dining hall, and to the training rings. Most everyone was still at breakfast, which mean the rings were basically empty.

"Alright, grab your stuff and show me what you've got."

"On you!?"

"No… on the dummy, you dummy!" Aria began setting up the ring for their training session, moving in two training dummies as Faruin donned her equipment.

"Alright. Show me your moves!"

Faruin wasn't too bad of a fighter, not that Aria was anyone to judge, but she did lack the balance and finesse that Nabooru and Aveil showed. After a few minutes of trying to explain to Faruin what she was doing wrong and not making much sense, Aria was dying to try something different.

"This is hopeless. I need someone like Aveil teaching me."

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"You don't just ask the third in command to train you."

"Why not?"

"She...she's busy, she has to train the top warriors of the tribe and help plan wars with Nabooru and the king."

"She's trained with me."

"Well yeah, but you… I don't know, you're just..."

"In need of a lot of training. Just like you. So we'll ask her a bit later to help with your training. Worst she can do is say no." Aria shrugged, pushing the dummies out of the ring. "Alright, time to try something different. I'm going to be really obvious with this, so if it feels overpowering or dizzying, you tell me."

"Alright?" Faruin shifted on her feet, a nervous look on her face.

Aria followed the king's example and began pressing the aura of her power onto Faruin. The gerudo woman gasped, goosebumps crawling up her arms.

"What.. that.. it's heavy out here."

"That's my energy. Does it feel like something familiar?"

"No. Yes... sort of... it's hard to remember a feeling like it. Why is it so heavy?"

"It's pressing on you. I'm not laying into you too heavily, but I'm not just poking around you either. I'm going to ease up a bit, tell me when you stop feeling it..."

It took a few tries before they got it right, where the magic was just barely surrounding Faruin but she could still feel it. From there, Aria explained and showed how magic can feel different, whether it causes the hair on your arm to raise, or a shiver through your spine to happen, or at times how it could feel like just the gentle brush of the wind in your hair. Then she set fire to the ground.

"I want you to race the fire around the ring. I know I'm not as fast as you, but I don't need to be with magic. Don't let it catch you and don't expect it to just chase you in circles. Go!" The fire turned a bright green and then darted straight towards Faruin. She yelped and darted off across the ring, the colorful fire hot on her heels. She didn't think her direction through apparently, because the fire surrounded her in a circle.

"I told you, you can't just go in a circle. You need to think on your feet." Aria sighed, grabbing a staff from a pile by the ring. "We'll start slower. Everytime the I hit the ground with the staff, the fire is going to change it's tactic, so either you think ahead or you expect the unexpected." Faruin nodded in understanding.

"Ready, Go!"

Faruin ran to the left, the fire behind her.

Thud.

A wall of fire appeared before her, up to her eye level. Faruin didn't think, she just did. She grabbed onto the rail of the ring and flipped over the green fire before darting towards the center of the ring.

Thud.

The fire seemed to rise from cracks in the ground, like lightning in the sky, unpredictable and jagged. It had Faruin jumping over every crack, maneuvering to the outer corners of the ring again. Just when Aria seemed to be setting up a pattern the wood of the ring began reaching for Faruin's arm when she got too close to the edge of the ring. Faruin shrieked and leapt away, almost touching the corner of the green fire.

"I thought we were just working with fire!"

"I told you to think on your feet. There's more than one element! Watch out!" Aria yelled. The sand beneath Faruin grabbed onto her legs and the gerudo fell to the ground. Aria whisked the sand hands away, running over to help Faruin up.

"Are you okay?"

"Pft." Faruin spat out sand from her mouth. "Yeah, you sure got me there. Give me a moment to catch my breath"

As Faruin stood up they noticed the slow heavy handed clapping.

"I see you've been practicing. Although, not as good as what I had planned for training today. Aveil. Take …. " Ganondorf stared down Faruin. Aveil was next to him an instant.

"Faruin, my liege."

"Ahh.. Aveil, take Faruin to another ring to train. I have some business with my student." They waited for the two gerudo to leave, before he began removing armor. First came off the chest plate, then the gauntlets, cape, boots, everything except his pants. A shiver ran down Aria's spine as she unabashedly watched him undress before her.

"You disappointed me and also surprised me today. Do you know why?"

"I'm not your student. I'm Koume and Kotake's. No where did they ever mention being switched over to yours, or that you even somehow found time to teach."

"Hmm.. At least you had the decency to wait until they were out of earshot." The big man sighed. It was more than just frustration or irritation, it was like one of those heavy sighs one is prone to when they've had heavy decisions weighing on their shoulders and are getting less and less sleep.

"I have sent my mothers on a mission. In their stead, I am your mentor. I am making time for you, do not mistake this kindness. I expected you to be bed-bound all day, in truth. They have gone easy on you, I will do no such thing."

Aria stared down at the ground, her thoughts a thousand words per second as she soaked in his words. Anxiety gnawed at her being, rising up questions like 'had she been abusing their kindness' and 'Faruin would give anything for this opportunity, who was she to waste it?'

"...What is the training for today, Mentor?"

"Hand to hand combat." He took her concede in stride as he walked up to her. He was so...huge. Aria barely came up to his elbow. When he decided out of nowhere to grab her hands, she flinched and tugged them away from him. He said nothing in response, but took one of her hands in his own, slower this time, and began carefully wrapping it up.

"Watch closely. If your hands aren't wrapped properly for hand to hand combat you're more prone to breaking it. A broken hand is a useless hand." When he was done wrapping her hands he bent down. He forced her left leg up and instinctively she grabbed onto his shoulders. Smug radiated off of him as he removed the weights on her boot, set it down and lifted her other leg to do the same.

"Try to hit me." He moved away from her. Unsure, she followed him, curling her hand into a fist, tucking her thumb in. Aria swung for him and he grabbed her wrist.

"Not like that." He uncurled her fist, then uncurled it,it so that her thumb was outside of her palm and fingers. "If you keep your thumb in your fist, you're going to break it. Try again."

The next time when she lunged for him, he caught her in the side. For such an intimidatingly large man, he was rather gentle with how he hit her. It hurt, but it was more insulting than painful. Even more insulting was his smile every time she failed to land a strike on him. A few times she was certain she'd almost hit him, but his leg would come up behind her knee and she'd find herself on the ground.

After the fifteenth time of finding herself on the ground, the frustrated Aria kicked off her shoes and ran towards him. The King grinned as she balled up her fist properly and took a jab at him, lighter on her feet. He wasn't expecting her fist to wrap in fire from all her frustration. He grabbed her arm, pulling the fiery fist away from his body, but her other hand came up and smacked him. Using his own tactic against him, the back of her heel clipped just behind his knee and they went down. Aria closed her eyes tightly, as they thudded to the ground.

Ganondorf landed on top of her with a groan. The fire of her fist was out, but they were a tangle of oddly placed legs and sore sides. The king propped himself up on his arms a bit so his full weight wasn't crushing Aria. He was no worse for wear, his tightly bound hair now loose and flowing over his back and shoulders, a few scrapes on his feet and arms, and his cheek smarted.

Aria's eyes opened, and the first thing she noticed was the prickle of hair on her face, then the eyes of liquid honey staring down at her. Her eyes meet his for a moment, before she glanced away, to his full lower lip. Mouth dry, she swallowed, tongue darting out to wet her own suddenly too dry lips. Her vision slowly moved up from his mouth, over the slight curve of his crinkled nose back to his eyes, so fixated on her own. Aria's breath caught in her throat as for a moment he seemed to get closer and-

Someone coughed loudly. King Ganondorf pushed off of the ground, sparing her one last lingering glance before moving away towards whoever had coughed. Aria's deep sigh was one of relief. She picked herself off the ground, wiping the gritty sand from her hands before joining the conversation with Nabooru.

"-out another group for an ambush. We lost a few girls last time, and I think they're just trying to get a good idea of our tactics."

The king huffed, his hands clenching the wood of the ring's fence.

"Or they could be trying to whittle down your numbers before sending in a massive attack."

"And you're suddenly an experience tactician." The king grit his teeth.

"No, but I've-"

"Then don't involve yourself in matters that don't concern you!"

"Oh for the love of... Do you have experience with this kingdom beyond the few troops they've sent? No? I didn't think so? I was born and raised in that kingdom, I've lived through their wars, and they're always warring with someone. Just because I'm not raised warrior doesn't mean I don't know shit about wars." With every word she stepped closer to the gerudo king, until they were nearly face to face, him bent over to stare her in the eyes. The wood under his hand crushed in his grip.

"You dare address me like a common man?!"

"I address you the same way you address me. Respect is earned."

"I AM A KING. You should bow down before me!" Nabooru stepped away from the rail, more than a little worried about what her king would do to Aria.

"I bow before no pig!" Perhaps, not the wisest of words but people say stupid things when they're angry.

He was livid, but he made no move to strike her. His hands were seeping with blood from the wood embedded in it. Nabooru grabbed Aria and shoved her out of the ring in the direction of the stables, far away from the king.

"That was not wise." Nabooru whispered.

In the distance, the air shook with the sound of Ganondorf yelling and the thud of his hand slamming into the ground.

"I would recommend staying away from him for a few weeks.. or months. Let's just.. uhh I'll be training you from now on. Aveil or myself. Magic can wait a while. Today… I'll send Faruin up to you with dinner. Just...hide in the stables for a while, if you hear him coming...hide in a stall. I'll try to deter him." Nabooru left her in the stables.

Aria leaned her head against a stall door, trying to calm her pounding heart. She could hear distorted yelling outside. Silently she crept to Titan's stall. She entered the stall and let the tension and frustration drain out of her, burying her face in the stallion's mane and crying. It wasn't very pretty or even warrior-ly, but it helped.

When her sobbing died down, she checked Titan's leg over, glad to see it was progressing better than it probably should have been. Whatever the horse master was doing, it was working. She groomed him over before walking down the aisle and checking on the dark horse. Sure, she'd been told it was Ganondorf's horse, but she couldn't begrudge the horse for being owned by such an...unfortunate person.

The large stallion greeted her enthusiastically, if not a bit rudely, shoving his nose against her chest. She pushed his head away and reached for a brush. Knowing he was the king's horse, the stallion had probably gotten away with all sorts of bad behavior and established himself as dominant over all the others with the exception of Ganondorf. She had no intention of letting the black war horse walk over her.

"That's right, you don't push yourself on me. I come to you with relief for that itch." She spoke softly, brushing the itch away and then moving into the stall to groom the rest of him. It must've been a few days since the stallion had been groomed or perhaps even let out to go on a run. Aria groomed him until he shone and re-braided the mane, in a macrame braid instead of loose plaits.

Once that was done, she glanced outside the stable for any sign of Ganondorf. He didn't seem to be around at all. The training ring where they'd practiced had a broken fence and the once firm ground now had a crater in it. The wood was an easy fix, the energy malleable in her hands. The crater was a harder fix. Making sand into stone wasn't impossible, but the energy it took for her to fix it caused such an intense energy drain and dizzy spell that she found herself on the ground, leaning against the fence.

It took her a good while to get to her bedroom, her energy was just drained. She had used too much magic, too much energy training, and it forced her to take breathers against the wall. No one was really around to help her either. Later, she found out it was because Nabooru and King Ganondorf had been sparring to ease off his anger.