Tears of a Broken Kingdom

Chapter Ten ~ A Caged Bird will break their wings

"You aren't permitted to go get him yourself, your Highness."

Zelda felt herself begin to protest but she stopped herself. Her loss of freedom was to protect her but it was stifling.

Ever since her "episode" a few days ago she'd been watched like a hawk. A squad of four guards had been assigned to accompany her to most places.

She couldn't leave the immediate area of her home, confined to the castle and the grounds. Zelda had wondered if it was to prevent her causing a disturbance in public since she, as the guards said, was "mentally unstable". She felt like a bird stuck in a cage, left to drive herself mad.

It was supposed to be good for her. She remembered what her father had told her when he assigned her guards.

>*<

"I don't need a guard... I assure you... I'm fine Father."

"You're not, Zelda. You still haven't moved on from your grief and you're hallucinating," the king had said with an exasperated voice. He didn't know what to do with her.

"I-i..." she hadn't known what more to say. Her father was right, but it had been painful to see her problems stated in such a blunt manner.

She hadn't expected for him to be so straightforward in this, although she had known he wouldn't spare her the truth. She had become a liability for the well being of Hyrule and something had to be done.

Zelda had looked down, shameful, his words biting into the back of her mind.

The King's face had softened a little, "Zelda... I know it's been hard for you. Link was a great knight for this country,"

"He was," she had mumbled, wondering if that was all he had been to the King. A knight.

>*<

"Fine. But please send out someone to find him," Zelda said in a strained voice, stuck between nervousness and frustration.

The guard assured her they'd send someone out and then made his leave, although her appointed guards stayed, still as statues.

She watched him go, irritation creeping into her. Her hands clenched into fists and she held them at her side, jerky and tense.

It was a lovely autumn afternoon, the fiery colors of the leaves seen outside the window and the scarlet sunlight highlighted the courtyard below. But Zelda didn't notice the view, although her face was turned to the window, her mind was somewhere else.

Her hands remained clenched, the pressure in her fingers and palms one of the only tangible things that kept her grounded to the reality of her life.

Ashton's disappearances had only gotten worse after the funeral and her hallucination. Zelda didn't know what to do to make them stop, she had thought closure on Link's death would have helped him... but she had thought his funeral would've helped her too, and she had been wrong.

To her... she felt that things had only gotten worse, but she didn't dare tell that to her son, she didn't want to upset him. He was only a child, he still had yet to learn how to work through his grief.

Zelda on the other hand knew she should have gotten the worst of the grief over-way already. It had been months since his death and she hadn't moved on. Link would have wanted her to.