middaeg | a thing that doesn't change with time...

Entry tags:

loz oot: zelda

a thing that doesn't change with time...

Who: Zelda (OOT) and various
When: April dream event
Where: ~Dreamland~
What: Zelda has memories to share
Warnings: At least one political assassination, trauma and stuff

Six round symbols embellish the frame of this Zelda's mirror, rendered in wood and outlined with brass. It is altogether a rather simple looking thing that tells little of the world that exists beyond it, save for a golden crest some may find familiar that rests perched on top of it, not unlike a particularly watchful bird.

Peering inside, you'll find...

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[... a throne room, engulfed in chaos.

The nobles gathered - watercolor figures too indistinct to be remembered clearly - huddle together, gasping and crying out. A man, standing a head above all of them, effortlessly lifts the king from his throne into the air by the throat. The king's crown clatters to the ground as he struggles against his assailant's grip, but to no avail. The taller man is younger, stronger, and - as his hand begins to smoke with a foul aura - in possession of some dark magic, indeed.]

"Hyrule... belongs to me!"

[Calls of your majesty! echo among the spear-wielding soldiers surrounding and protecting the crowd, but it's too late for any of them to make a difference. There's a sickening crack as the assassin's hand flares with that dark aura, and the king goes limp before he is dropped unceremoniously upon the stone floor.]

"Father...!"

[A young girl cries out, reaching for the king's body, eyes wide with horror, but she is held back by an older woman, her strong arms already moving to scoop up her young charge. The room erupts with terrified screams as the nobles gathered chaotically bolt for the exit, but above all of that... there is deep, booming laughter that echoes through the chamber until it drowns out nearly everything else.

The man turns his eyes to the girl. Her guardian lifts a hand, ordering the remaining guards with the only voice that can be heard over the chaos--]

"Protect the princess!"

[--and when she slams her hand down, the whole world goes white.]

[... a cold, frozen spring.]

Come on, stay with me, princess--

[An androgynous youth hefts a woman with blue skin and fins from a particularly slushy part of the ice, their voice echoing through the empty and still cavern, utterly devoid of life besides the pair. The woman - the princess - groans as she's pulled from the freezing water, her movements sluggish and her general awareness of her surroundings apparently very limited. The youth struggles with her weight, their lithe figure not doing them many favors in this effort, but eventually, they manage to draw her over to a nearby small and hastily crafted campfire. They pull the tabard that covers their torso up and over their head, and use it to begin wiping away the remaining slush that clings to the princess' figure.]

I'm sorry, I know this is hardly fitting for one of your status...

[She stirs, life and warmth gradually returning to her, her eyes squinting open.]

"What... happened?"

[Her rescuer pauses, hesitant, debating. She's in no state to be concerned about anything but her own life at the moment, and yet... there is also a sense that no matter how they try to spin it, she's going to bossily demand the truth out of them anyway.]

... A curse has befallen Zora's Domain.

[And as the conversation continues... Zelda is nowhere to be found.]

[... the sky, blue and boundless and spreading in all directions.

Including down. Impossibly, two figures stand floating in the air without a care in the world for things like gravity or physics. One is instantly recognizable as Zelda in all her regalia, while the other is a boy of similar age and height, flanked by a ball of light with wings floating at his ear. Her hands clasped in front of herself, Zelda smiles at him, all warmth and fondness.]

Thank you, Link... Thanks to you, Ganondorf has finally been sealed away. Thus, peace will once again reign in this world... for a time.

[She pauses, and her expression falls as she turns away from him slightly, placing her hand over her heart.]

... All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing. I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. ... I dragged you into it, too.

[She's prepared for this, she tells herself. She's known all along this is what their ending would be. It's what she's hoped for, even; for seven years, this has been her goal. But now that the moment is here... her heart aches more than she can describe.]

Now... it is time for me to make up for my mistakes...

[Got something else you want your character to see? PM this account or hmu at

jamizoid and lets hash it out.]

[Edelgard isn't sure what to make of the mirror, but she knows that she needs to reach out and touch it. It's a strangely familiar design, and the compulsion is quite strong. So, she does just that, hand settling upon the glass.

When she blinks into the light of a new world, she remains rooted in place, watching the chaos unfold all around them. She immediately recognizes the girl being carried away, the ears and symbols enough to give away her identity. It was frightful, and she almost steps forward to start laying into the man before remembering it is indeed a phantom.

So...]

Zelda?!

[Where are you?]

[When the world fades back in after the flash of white, the scenery has changed. No longer are they in a grand throne room, but rather a dark and unassuming corridor, decorated only by torches lighting the way every few yards. Distantly, there is the clanging of metal and something that sounds like thunder resonating through the stone of the walls.

The woman runs down the hall with long and powerful strides, her charge held protectively in her arms.]

"Have you the Ocarina?"

[The girl nods mutely, eyes fixed on the empty hall disappearing behind them, expression frozen with shock. A voice then speaks up from Edelgard's side:]

I suppose whatever power that is responsible for all this has grown impatient with me.

[Zelda, at the age Edelgard is familiar with, watches the event unfold with a bitter resignation, her arms crossed over herself as though it will guard her from the pain of the memory and the fact that it is becoming public knowledge. At least it's Edelgard that's seeing this - someone she's already trusted it with eventually - and not some stranger. At least she has that much luck.]

[Edelgard is still almost ready to fight, still ready to pounce and attack and vent her frustration at seeing these horrors...when suddenly the scene changes. And just as suddenly there is a voice at her side. Her warrior's instincts have her nearly turning to attack but she stops, managing to skip a pace back and face her friend.]

How do you mean, Zelda?

[Is this it...? The great secret?]

[Of all the places Corrin might have expected to see through the mirrors, a frozen spring hadn't even been on her list. In a sense it almost reminded her of the winters in Nohr, when even the rivers would freeze at times. And yet this definitely felt colder somehow. At least it wasn't real, or else she almost might've regretted being barefoot. Almost.]

[Silent steps carried her out into the open, in time to spot the masked youth tugging the...fish woman? From the frozen water. Instinctively she took a few steps forward, as if intending to help, before her brain reminded her she couldn't actually do anything about any of this and she slid to a stop. Hrm.]

[After a breath to settle herself again, she made her way over until she was close enough to hear their conversation. A curse...well. At least that part was familiar, even if nothing else here was. And then red eyes turned to look around, searching for the owner of this memory.]

[ This was it, wasn't it? The thing, at least the beginning of it, that Zelda had carried with her as her cross. She was so little, but unmistakably her. Having her father, her home, everything torn away from her with such sudden violence. It was difficult to not... pity her, though she knew Zelda would reject such things outright.

Really, the instincts that screamed at her were to fight, to send her strength against the demon-like man in black. She already had her spear at the ready, ready to fight the phantoms of dreams and memories, regardless of how irrational that was. A mix of desire to both fight an obviously tremendous force, but also to help spare Zelda any further suffering, to strike at her enemies, to protect her, to surround her in that protection...

How long had it been since she'd felt that? Usually her battle lust was so strong that it hardly allowed room for anything else... ]

This... is how Hyrule fell.

[Zelda's eyes remain locked upon the forms of her caretaker and younger self even as Edelgard whirls around nearly ready to strike, almost as if in some melancholy trance. She's lived this day thousands of times within the theater of her memories, of course, but it has not released its grip upon her soul just yet.

The crashing sounds become louder and louder until some dark force breaks through the stone wall of the corridor hardly an arm's length away from the fleeing pair, blood and dark smoke staining the rubble behind them. The clamor of battle echoes through the new opening into the secret passage, shouts and screams and that awful laughter that rings in the ears for far too long, and the woman pushes herself to run even faster.]

Ganondorf's magic overpowered any kind of opposition the soldiers could offer. The castle fell within the day. All we could do was run.

[Her brow furrows and twists unpleasantly, and - with this being her memory, her mirror, and all - it's impossible to not sense the overwhelming guilt that radiates from her dream form.]

All I have been doing since... is run. I have not even stepped foot inside a castle since this day.

[Edelgard asked if she had allies and knights, and those questions always made her uncomfortable. Because any princess should have both in abundance, right? And to admit otherwise would mean admitting that she hasn't actually been a princess in a very long time.]

[Edelgard's gaze hardens when she looks at the entrance, at the sight of dark power being flung about like this. Blood and gore, the stench of battle...these are things she knows well, and trigger her reflexes. She moves closer to Zelda, even knowing this is a dream, placing herself in a defensive stance between the other woman and the door.]

Because you were a lone force of resistance. Is that correct?

[Edelgard doesn't care much about Zelda's circumstances or her social standing. None of that matters. Her status as a resistance fighter working against evil is far, far more important.]

"What? Who--?" [The princess questions, alarm in her voice as she tries to push herself up, but her attendant reaches over to place a hand upon her shoulder and urge her back down.]

Please, princess. I will tell you all I know, but you must rest.

[She doesn't like this condition, and it shows in the stubborn fire that burns in her eyes despite her weakened form, but, with a huff, she relents and allows herself to lay back down until she gets a bit more feeling in her limbs. The youth sighs, their shoulders slackening as they return to their task of stoking the fire.]

That being said... I feel you know very well who has cast this spell upon your home. A similar story has played out across many of the regions of Hyrule...

"Ganondorf..."

[The name is spoken with barely disguised disgust, and the youth nods, solemn and quiet. It is then that from another area of the spring a girl appears, of similar age to Corrin, with blonde hair and long, pointed ears. The fact that she looks directly at the red-eyed princess - curious and, admittedly, a little suspicious - suggests that she's not a part of this memory, at least not like how the other two are.]

Are you lost?

[Perhaps if this were a different memory, she would be a little more overt in her distrust of a stranger poking about her mind, but... this one is not so sensitive. And perhaps she doesn't mind the chance to see the Zora princess again in more perfect clarity, even if she is only a fragment of her imagination.]

[Corrin was caught up enough in the scene that she didn't notice the other woman approaching at first, and when she did she offered her a sheepish smile.]

I think so. None of these mirrors quite make sense...

[She trailed off. Her attention was, at least for a second, on the other woman's ears. Until she'd come through her mirror, she'd never seen anyone else with pointed ears like her own, and even in this world, Zelda was only the third person she had met with them. She didn't mean to stare, but it still happened for a handful of seconds, until she caught herself.]

Ah...sorry. I didn't mean to intrude.

[Even if she could fight the phantoms that haunt her Bonded's mind, Scathach would not get the chance to, as once the blinding light fades, the scene changes. The older woman carries her young charge through a dimly lit and sparsely decorated corridor - a secret passage of some sort, most likely - running as fast as her legs can carry her away from the carnage that echoes from behind them.

Fighting was never an option. The only choice they had was to flee, or die.

But something responds to that shielding urge resonating from Scathach. A hand finds hers as the scene continues, pulls it free of her spear if she allows it and laces their fingers together. Zelda, in the form she's familiar with, stands at her side, watching the fall of Hyrule play out with a deep furrow in her brow and pain in her eyes. She says nothing - Scathach's no fool, she doesn't need to give her context for what's happening - but she clutches her hand like its the only thing keeping her feet on the ground.]

Resistance is... a strong word for what I offered.

[She doesn't think as well of herself, but then, that much was likely obvious long ago. Especially now, her shortcomings are put into such sharp contrast, she feels, against Edelgard's stalwart resolve, the inherent courage she possesses in instinctively putting herself between her and all the things that haunt her.

She ran, and she hid, and Wisdom told her it was necessary, but that doesn't mean she didn't burn with the desire to do more.]

I survived, thanks to my attendant's teachings. I tried to alleviate the suffering of those in front of me in some small way when I could. But... I was not the one who could reverse the evil that man wrought upon my country in any meaningful way.

[The fleeing pair finally emerge from the secret passage and arrive at a stable. Panicked stablehands rush to prepare horses for knights and civilians alike, and the princess' attendant - Lady Impa, one of the servants names her as he pulls down tack and saddles - hefts the girl onto the back of a white stallion before hauling herself up after her. The young Zelda clutches a pale blue, oblong object to her chest, her eyes squeezed shut in both intense fear and concentration.]

That burden... would fall upon a boy that will be remembered by history as the Hero of Time.

And?

[Zelda's lack of self-confidence is evident, it has been almost since they met. But Edelgard doesn't care. She just plows onward, her voice gentle as she watches the girl and her attendant's flight from the ruined castle.]

Zelda, did you help anyone at all?

[It's a simple question, one she already knows the answer to, but she is building to something.]

[ It's a perfect day for travel, she remarks to herself wordlessly. Boundless blue stretches in all directions so one can see miles and miles ahead clearly, like a mid-morning after a particularly rustic breakfast with the excavators. She can almost smell the porridge— made richer with goat's milk, sweetened with fruits like currants and black berries. She could fall backwards and drift into her thoughts, staring up at that teal tinted expanse. If there's clouds, she can't spot them, nor birds or clouds of smoke from the fire chimneys in homes. It feels holy, almost, like kneeling to the stone in Hylia's Temple, the vestibule to her training grounds in the castle. She wonders if this is what she was supposed to feel in that consecrated space, closing her eyes and inhaling. Perhaps this was what her mother and mother's mother and her mother's mother and so forth saw and felt and experienced. Clarity in the skies and in heart, somehow— for though she feels turmoils in the corners of this memory, there is understanding and acceptance. A solemn prayer for forgiveness.

What begets the emotion painted by this memory becomes evident as quickly as the space comes into being; her own ancestor with her pointed and slim features, chiseled like stone from the font itself, and the expression carved into her is one that echoes in her own heart like a familiar song. Sirenlike, she finds herself unable to look away, and thinks to the dream where this woman had saved her life. ]

I...

[ She pulls a fist to her chest, brows knitted in concentration and thought, taking in the sight before here. There is much on her mind, but she tries to take in the sight of the Hero of Time, who has such features she knows so well. Those are the same eyes she's seen look at her with concern and with whom she learned to communicate without words. She wants to step closer, but she lingers beyond them, pulling herself tighter and tighter together as if to will herself away from this space.

In truth, she feels a little like she's watching something she should not— their own Calamity defeated, this is the end of their journey. Their reunion! Zelda remembers looking into Link's eyes after everything, remembers seeing him one hundred years of fighting off Ganon... the words her ancestor says all make her feel as if she should respect privacy here. She closes her eyes...

And opens them, again. ]

What?

[ There is much to infer from these words.

Still, she tries to process them slowly, bit by bit, like chipping away at the rock hiding an ancient secret. ]

Controlling the... Sacred Realm?

[ Ambitious, perhaps by some's measure.

But she thinks of Zelda's words in her kitchen.

For her ancestor's sake, she might agree it was ambitious, but Zelda can only imagine such a feat came out of desperation. It had not the first time that Hyrule had fallen in some capacity, yes. A tale older than time itself, spun by the Goddess again and again, and each time more catastrophic than the last. What for?

She wants to insist she stop, but Zelda knows she herself would not have.

She holds her tongue for a moment, willing the point in time to pause for a second, just long enough to let a thought slip from her. ]

You do blame yourself for my own time, don't you...?

[ An unending stair case that none of them can stop falling down. There is no end to their story— only new chapters with endings that leave them feeling even more inadequate. Indeed... her ancestor would know that, too. ]

Every instinct... is telling me to bear my fangs.

[ She lets her hand be taken, if only because her heart knew who would take it before Zelda even revealed herself. She clenched that hand, firmly, drew her close, but not clinging just yet. Zelda had her space to move, to breath, to do as she needed. But Scathach... she couldn't help what her mind was telling her. ]

As a warrior, as a hound, as a Queen, as your bonded... my blood burns to fight in your name, to drive away those who would dare wound you, or any that you care for.

But my wisdom... it knows I have no right to... And it will keep me here with you.

[Of course he enters the mirror.]

[He does this on purpose. On some level, he does know it’s wrong. That whatever is important enough to live in this mirror is Zelda’s to share by rights. But the draw to enter is so powerful. It’s as though something has taken him by the heart and pulled him cell by cell towards this, viewing her penultimate moment.]

[So he falls through, and only balks briefly at the fact that he’s standing on air. What’s in front of him is far more captivating than what’s below: Zelda, smiling. At someone her own age, even, if his estimate is right, and that’s — it does something to him, a wash of relief and fluttering joy making his stomach flip. Immediately after is a flicker of resentment: where is he, then? — not at the boy but at this world, which plucks and pulls people seemingly at random.]

[He memorizes the boy’s features. If this person who seems like he might be the closest thing Zelda ever had to a friend ever shows up in Aefenglom, Giorno will find him. He has to.]

[All of this before he even begins to register the rest of what’s happening here. Once he refocuses on her words and not her expression, his eyes widen. Ganondorf — he remembers that name, that hulking presence. And peace, she says, but only for a time. That’s the nature of peace, of course, but there’s something about the way she says it. Even in victory, she looks to future tragedy.]

[His focus snaps to the look in her eye, downcast but resigned. He lifts his head, squares his shoulders, bracing himself for . . . something. He doesn’t know what. But it’s coming. He feels it like a storm building on the horizon.]

Zelda, [he says,] please, [and his voice breaks on grief. Futile though it is. She can’t hear him. She can’t stop whatever this is. It already happened. She already did it. Whatever price she thought was right to pay for these mistakes . . . it’s long paid.]

[He doesn’t want to know. But he does owe it to her.]

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a thing that doesn't change with time...

attack on hyrule castle;

saving princess ruto;

the end;

wildcard;

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