if i die tomorrow - permanent hiatus

maim

     "Hyrule Castle?"

     I didn't quite know why I was so shocked, why it hit me so hard. Maybe it was because I was so close, so close, to it after all this time, and never knew it. Maybe it was because the Master Sword, the real Master Sword touched by the Goddess was within the same walls as me, as Zelda, but unattainable all the same. 

     "How do you know where it is?" I demanded.

     Sorrah shrugged. "I just know. It's not that big of a deal."

     "Oh, it is that big of a deal. How come so little people know about this, but you do? It's not like it was broadcast to the world, so--"

     She bristled. "Stop asking me so many questions I can't answer. I don't know, okay? A lot of weird things have already happened and you're asking me this?"

     I thought about it, then sighed. "I guess you're right. I mean, it's not the strangest thing I've seen in my life."

     Sorrah spread her little hands. "There you are. So? Now all you have to do is break in."

     "Perfectly simple, I'm sure."

     She gave me a look. "You're the one who wants to do this, remember?"

     "Yeah, yeah. Okay. I may or may not have an idea."

***

     The next few days flew by.

     I went down to the town near Hyrule Castle every night at 10 o'clock sharp to watch a carriage drive by, quietly calculating its average speed and time of arrival. I observed as it stopped by a station each night at around 10:15. 

     I squeezed out every bit of information about Hyrule Castle I could scrape up from my time with Zelda, pouring it all out onto a roughly sketched map. She had showed me every secret exit, every shortcut, and every place you could hide. I thought it was vaguely interesting at the time, maybe a bit childish, but now, it was crucial to Hyrule's survival.

     Sorrah and I poured over the map every time she could sneak away from the Stable, revising the plan over and over again. The sun rose and fell.

     I stole a certain thing from a certain shop. I listened to the carriage rattle down the stone path. 

     I dug myself a hole somewhere around the gate of the Castle, at night when the guards were sluggish with exhaustion. Nobody noticed a shadow slipping to and from Hyrule Castle each time darkness engulfed Hyrule. 

     Then the day finally arrived. 

     I watched as the sun touched the horizon, still clinging onto the skies. It was evening. The party was about to begin.

     I reviewed the plan one more time, repeating the steps under my breath, Sorrah looking over my shoulder. 

     In moments like these, I was finding with some horror, it was growing to be too easy to pretend Sorrah was just another innocent child. As if she wasn't fated to kill the one that shared her young hazel eyes.

    "You're way too good at being the evil genius." I exhaled, running my fingers over the map of the Castle, cramped with my shaky handwriting on the left hand.

     "There are so many holes in this plan." Sorrah fretted, pacing. "The plan to escape once you're done with the carriage is so flawed. How do you leave unnoticed? What about if you run into trouble and have nothing to say for yourself except a fake name?"