I, and Wattpad, do not endorse self harm.
-Impa-
Impa did not know how long she sat by the bath. The water had long since cooled and Impa finally had to drag Zelda out of it to be dried when her teeth started chattering. The chancellor ignored how her own clothes were soaking wet and instead made sure the suddenly-docile Zelda was not going to hurt herself. Impa threw the bloody blankets and comforters and clothes in the fireplace, no matter how crammed it was. Servants came and made the bed anew, and when Impa was sure that Zelda was clothed and dry, laid her down to rest.
"Soon as the doctor is back, he needs to tend to you," Impa gulped. "If you will accept it." With what had happened, there was no telling. Zelda likely would not want a man to inspect her.
Zelda remained silent.
Impa sighed. She took place in a chair and set herself to be there for the rest of the night. Impa wanted to stay for many reasons. She wanted to be there for the girl on a personal level, she wanted to stay as a chancellor to ensure her princess was well, but most of all she was terrified. She had no way of knowing what Zelda was thinking or feeling in her near-comatose state beyond the reactions and looks that showed a human broken down to her most primal state; if Zelda was thinking or feeling anything at all. It wasn't uncommon for even the strongest of veterans of war to break down in shock one way or another and never leave it. Zelda was, one way or another, trapped inside herself. All Impa could do was sit and wait and watch to see what side of Zelda would come out.
"Please..." Impa found herself whispering. "Farore, I know you did not guide my feet to her without purpose. Din, you did not set a fire in her heart and obstacles in her path without a reason. Naryu, you did not warn her in dreams nor guide her unless to prepare her for what is to come. Yet now my lord, your champion ordained to Naryu, is at the point of breaking from the cruelty of this world." Impa breathed out shakily. Tears fell from her eyes. "Please! She is my hope. I cannot fathom a world without her. I have seen so much death and now I begin to see the shades of it on her. Please, I-"
Her prayers were interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Impa cursed to herself, jumped up, and with a quick glance at Zelda -who remained motionless and staring at the ceiling-, she opened the door. A servant stood on the other side and bowed herself to the floor immediately.
"What is it?" Impa whispered.
"My Lady Chancellor, I did not think you would be here! I bring word for the heir apparent!"
"Now is perhaps the worst time for anything you would ever have to say!" Impa hissed. "So get it out quickly and be gone!"
"I bring word for her from Shi Ketsu and the doctor-"
Impa interrupted, "What does this have to do with the princess?"
"The girl, Sarah, is better for the moment, but refuses to fall asleep and rest. She insists she has something to tell the heir and will not let herself heal properly without revealing it. Those with her sent me saying if the girl is not allowed to say her piece, she will die when her body fails her."
"Sarah? What is-" Impa's words were interrupted by a clattering behind her. She turned to see Zelda sitting up straight, rigid, and disheveled, eyes wide and staring ferally at them and through them.
Impa opened her mouth to gently tell Zelda to lay back down, but Zelda was already rolling off the bed and running out the door without so much as an 'excuse me', knocking Impa to the side in her haste and rushing down the hall.
"Zelda!" Impa called. She ran after the girl, but despite her words and reach, Zelda would not be deterred. The servant and guards followed after them. Impa sighed and looked to the servant, "This girl is at Shi Ketsu's place, yes?" The servant nodded. "Alright..."
They hurried out to the courtyard and Impa called for a quick carriage. Though she was fine with waiting for the carriage to be prepared, Zelda was not. Zelda rushed out across the stone barefoot and tripping. Impa had to rush to her and physically pick her up to keep from hurting herself and running the whole distance on her own.
"A carriage isn't enough!" Impa decided. A carriage would take too long and Zelda's feet were already bleeding. She was no doubt in a state where she felt no pain and was going to hurt herself. "Fae!" She pointed to one standing nearby. "Be our steed for a time!"
The Fae made an expression of bewilderment, no doubt finding this an odd request, yet seeing the crazed mindset Wisdom had fallen into, consented without complaint. The Fae formed a spiderly shell of wood quickly. Impa brought Zelda with her to the Fae and together they placed the princess on her. Impa climbed up on her own. "Take us to the inner city near the market. Go!" The Fae leaped to action. It took them up over the wall and down into the city over rooftops as quick as a horse. The capital city was vast. To reach the outer-most wall would take several hours on horseback, but thankfully it only took a half-hour to reach the market half-way into the city and bypassing normal roads.
"Shi Ketsu's abode is near. There." Impa pointed. The Fae stopped atop the house and together they lowered Zelda down to the ground. The Fae's arrival shook the house, stirring its occupants. Ketsu walked out. As soon as Zelda laid eyes on him, she was already in the door knocking him aside. Impa followed, sharing a shocked glance with Ketsu.
Inside was dirty and poor by most noble standards, Impa noted. Ketsu was too good of a man to deserve this place in his position, but with his family reputation and dishonor, no manor would allow his purchase. Impa made a mental note to assist Ketsu in gaining worthy living. Yet even all of this left her mind as quickly as it came, for what she witnessed. In the center of the dining room was a table on which laid a young woman. The young woman and the table she was on were both covered in blood. Her skin was pale and Impa saw the black aura of death surrounding her as thick as a smog. The doctor stood nearby washing his hands. A shared glance and silent conversation was all she needed to know he did as much as he could for now.
Zelda fell to her knees, in the muck and bloody mud, to hold the girl's hand.
"Sarah?" Zelda whispered.
Sarah stirred, feebly. "Z-zelda?"
"I'm here," Zelda said. For a moment, despite everything, Impa was amazed how much of a strong-act Zelda was able to pull off. There was no hesitation, pain, or loss in Zelda's voice. Only comfort and strength. "I hear my naughty entertainer refuses to rest without telling me something. What is it?"
Sarah started to whisper something. Zelda brought her ear up to the girl closely, and a moment passed. Impa didn't know what the girl was saying, but whatever it was, it didn't take long to say.
Sarah breathed out and Impa saw her aura quake. The black aura of death quaked and turned grey as the girl fell asleep instantly.
Zelda rose to her feet. She put Sarah's hands on her chest, then put a hand to the girl's eyes to shut them. It was as loving and tender as a funeral. "You did well. Sleep now. I'll take care of everything."
Zelda walked out the door past them all and stood outside. Impa shared a glance with the others and followed outside. Zelda stood outside looking up at the night sky.
"Zelda?" Impa asked, nervously.
"Doctor, make sure she lives. She just saved us all. Her survival is your highest priority." Was all Zelda would say. The doctor acknowledged the command. Zelda turned aside and walked down the street.
-Zelda-
Voices came from behind Zelda, but she didn't hear it. She didn't know where her feet lead her. She didn't know the voices. All she heard were Sarah's words as they repeated in her ears. All she saw was Sarah bleeding on the table, just as she had in her dream, and in the background she saw the alleys of Zhao. She felt the coldness of Zhao's winter cling to her bedclothes and the icy claws of Mother take hold of her spine just beneath the shoulder. She walked in the blood of kings and men, of dethroned monarchs and bloody wastelands. Smokey ruins filled her nostrils and all she tasted was ash. The dead and the living judged her calling her 'Chouhei'. The legacy of her forebear was conquest while the legacy of her predecessor was ruin, but was she any better with a vision for unification?
Zelda blinked. She found herself standing, barefoot and dirty, in an alley somewhere in Kanyou. She had no reference to determine location so she chose a random path and set herself to it. She walked for a time and came across an open street with light lit from windows.
She turned onto the street an-
Mother!
Zelda flinched back, seeing her mother in the shop.
But no, it couldn't be! Zelda was only looking into a reflection.
Yet still, Zelda glued her eyes shut. She couldn't bear to look at herself.
"No... you can do this." Zelda told herself. She breathed in, turned her face up, and opened her eyes. "It is not actually her."
She saw her mother.
"And there it is! That look! That is what I want. For you to realize who you are..."
"No." Zelda whispered.
"I am the Queen Mother..."
Zelda was little more than a harlot now, doing such abominable acts for survival just as her mother did.
"No!" Zelda hissed.
"You get your stubbornness from your father. It is unfortunate that so many just can't cooperate."
Sarah's blood covered her hands.
"No!" Zelda cried. She took the nearest stone and broke it on the window. The window was shutted and so the glass sprayed all around her, cutting her and leaving the ground dangerous for her bare feet. Zelda hissed in pain, and in looking down, saw her mother all around her. Every angle revealed a part of her mother in herself.
"Enough!" Zelda yelled. "I escaped you! I escaped all of it!"
Only she hadn't. Ryo had rescued her mother at some point and brought the woman here as well.
"It is not I playing a prank, dear Zelda, I would say it is fate playing the greatest prank on us to have brought us here."
Zelda fell to her knees, clawing and clinging to her head. It hurt. All she wanted was the voices to leave her be. She felt like she was being torn apart. She was surrounded by that woman and her laughter filled the princess' ears. "What must I do to finally be rid of you!" Zelda yelled.
"... it makes me want to piss all over the fucking heavens!"
A shard of glass laid at her knees like a knife gifted to her by the very heaven's Mother spat on.
"The most sensual part of a woman is the lips. Wouldn't you say?"
Seeing it, Zelda snapped. She took the knife and cut across Mother's precious lips.
-Ryo-
Ryo's eyes shot open where he lay, a chill ran down his spine.
Ryo shot up, reached for his bedside knife, and searched the darkness of his room. His eyes moved from side to side, but there was no one there. Yet... he couldn't shake the feeling.
-Zelda-
Clarity struck Zelda painfully. The bladed glass fell from her cut palms. Her knees and feet pained her with the glass shards piercing her skin. Tiny cuts covered her body and clothes. Pain and blood covered her face. Reaching up, Zelda touched her cheek, her nose, her lips. She hissed in pain.
The reflection was no longer Bi Ki, perfect and horrible. The reflection was Zelda, scarred with a fresh wound across her lips.
And all she heard was silence.
Zelda sat in the darkness of the street, basking in it. For a moment, a moment in her life, there was stillness. Not the numbing, cold stillness of death, but of life. Warm blood flowed through her veins. Cool night air brushed against her skin and warm blood fell down her skin where she was cut in so many places. Her skin tingled with the contrast.
"I created your parents. I created you. I destroyed your parents in the end. I can destroy you without a second thought just as well..."
Zelda breathed in and out. Her heartbeat quickly and adrenaline flowed, but as the stillness took hold, her heart returned to some sort of peace. Her mind sharpened and everything she had learned and experienced for years came to her as a puzzle joining itself together.
Zelda took her outer robe and brushed the glass aside from around her. With the immediate area clear of the larger spikes, she stood to her feet, stumbled briefly while hissing in pain, and tenderly tip-toed out of the glassy area.
Zelda stepped out onto the street and turned her eyes toward the largest spectacle. The palace stood before her illuminated by the eye of Naryu. The moons rays lay over it as a curtain, and its light illuminated the street as a rug leading to its throne. The palace filled with lights from its many occupants and the torches they kept lit, to show the world they were there as a beacon of hope and security.
"Ryo... your mother... are having an affair... and mean to kill you."
Zelda took the steps toward her palace. From where she had found herself in the city and how late it was, it took the rest of the night to walk home, but her feet did not waver. This was her home. She would be damned if anyone took it from her.
The Fae and Qin Royal Guard opened the gates for her and one ran into the palace to spread the word of Zelda's return. Zelda found a seat and sat down to pluck as much of the glass out of her feet and knees as she could. Before long her royal guard captain, Head Minister Shi Ketsu, and Chancellor Impa all came rushing to her, clearing having been in a panic for some hours.
"Enough," Zelda said. She looked up at them, her decisions made. The fierce look in her eyes made them stop. "It is time."
"Time?" Impa questioned.
Ignoring her for the moment, Zelda said to the captain of the royal guard, "Go and find me another doctor who can pull this glass out with care."
The man saluted and rushed off.
Looking to Shi Ketsu, Zelda ordered, "When Sarah is better, then take her and her household and go. I don't care where you take them, but take them away from Kanyou. None of them are to return until I say so. They will likely not wish to leave, and Sarah will only leave my side kicking and screaming, but you will take them away from here even if you have to drag them and arrest them. Got it?"
Shi Ketsu gulped. Zelda spoke with coldness and firmness that brook no argument. She knew what she wanted and what she was saying.
"I will, your highness."
"Good, return when you have taken them to somewhere of your choosing. Do not tell me where. Do not tell anyone."
"I understand." Shi Ketsu bowed.
At last, Zelda looked to Impa. Dear Impa, she looked on Zelda with such concern. Better than anyone, Impa probably understood the implications of what Zelda was saying and her tone better than anyone.
Zelda ordered her, "Chancellor, you are to send your fastest rider to retrieve the Lady Reida. Let me know the minute she has arrived, speed is precious right now." The two of them blinked in surprise. Zelda explained further, "It is time to show Ryo that he is not the only one with the cunning to have set up investments years in advance. It is time to finally take the offensive. It is time for war."