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Zelda sighed and shut her eyes. She was still in public. With one more deep breath she moved through the halls. The halls that were filled with Ganondorf’s soldiers. Halls that forced responsibility on her shoulders. Halls that held maids and servants who would smile at her. Halls that were filled with knights ready to protect her life at any moment.
Halls that now held maids and servants who whisper behind her back. Knights that would hesitate before going in front of an attacker. People who did not love their Queen as they loved their Princess.
Zelda turned away from judging eyes and set her hand on the door to her parents chambers. Chambers that are now hers. A room with a bed that has her journals and her mom’s hair brushes and her dad’s quills. An ache in her throat pushes Zelda through the door. She could not stand to let them have more to gossip about.
Once inside she leaned against the door and fell to the ground. Looking around she felt the most alone in her life. Her short sad life. She doesn’t have her parents or Impa, who was basically her mom for the last seven years. She doesn’t have Link.
Link who came into her life so suddenly. As a young girl still holding onto the belief that they could save the world. A young girl who thought he was the coolest kid ever because he got to travel and see people and fight. As a young boy, too mature and jaded for his age. A young boy who still believed in this kid but not because he wanted to, because he needed to.
Beautiful, brave, strong, kind Link. Link that she will never see again. Link who gets to have the childhood he deserves. Link who will live because she decays. Tears become indistinguishable from each other as her entire face becomes wet. She will never be able to show Link all of her favorite parts of the castle. She will never get to see him smile. She can’t hear his voice. She won’t ever hear that ocarina played by him. She’ll never play with him again.
She will never watch his emotions flash across his eyes in a way she was just starting to understand. She will never be able to confess that she wanted him to stay. Wanted to say screw the world, that she wanted to be selfish for the first time in her life. That he was all that she wanted after almost a decade of pain.
That she believed that his touch would heal the scars and that just maybe hers could do the same. Through this all she can only hope that he knew. The Link knew how much he helped her, how much she needed him, and how much she loved him.
For she gave herself up for Hyrule and for him. Fought so that Link could have the life he deserved before she dragged him into the ages old conflict. Link’s words echo through her mind. Guilt builds up in her throat until she can barely breathe. She doesn’t know what to do. She needs to help rebuild Hyrule but she can barely rebuild herself. Zelda longs for someone to tell her that it’s going to be alright, that she will have help, that she won’t be alone.
Yet for all her begging to the goddesses, silence prevails in her chamber and she forces herself to sit at her desk. She pulls out paper and a quill and starts writing.