Successors

Loyalty in Shifting Sands

 *Ninety Years Before*

~~~

"Captain Esosu!" A bellowing voice echoed throughout the Gerudo Palace.

Esosu, a Gerudo captain who was close to the recently deceased Lady Urbosa and Lady Zelda, cringed. Her new chieftain was nothing like Urbosa, and she showed no signs of healing like Lady Zelda. It was almost as if the new ruler was using the tragedy to advance some sort of motive, and with Urbosa lacking any heir but a disgraced, deceased Hylian vai, there was no one to overthrow her.

Akeku wasn't half the chief Urbosa was, she wasn't even half the queen Zelda would have been. Surely the summoning couldn't mean anything good.

Yet Esosu was still bound by duty, at least for the time being. She would respond to her chieftain and see if she couldn't just put up with whatever was to come. She entered the throne room swiftly, bowing to see what the woman atop the throne desired. "Chieftain Akeku, what troubles you?"

"Captain Esosu. As you know, I have only been chief for a matter of mere months. Yet, those few months have allowed me to see that great changes must be made in our tribe to protect us, make us stronger. We must turn our tribe into the words muttered over my aunt's body: Gerudo Forever Strong."

"Chieftain Akeku, I'm afraid I must disagree with you. The Gerudo women have poured their hearts and soul into their strength. The years leading up to the Great Calamity, under Lady Urbosa's hand, were some of our strongest times."

"My aunt is now well deceased. I ask that you remove such living titles."

"I'm sorry, but she will always be a lady. I cannot remove her title, lest she be removed from our history."

"She is too much an example for such a fate." Akeku's voice grew foreboding as her eyes narrowed on her late aunt's top palace guard.

"I agree with your words, but confused by a hidden meaning."

Akeku's sigh was full of disgust. "To think you were my aunt's favorite guard. Don't you see, Esosu? My aunt's choices to follow Hyrule and its Goddess Hylia led to her destruction. Had she ignored Hyrule and followed the Heroines, she would still be alive and on this throne. However, she chose to follow Hyrule's so called Goddess Descendants: a dead queen and her prostitute daughter. If we do not turn back, we will be destroyed with them all."

"Have you forgotten what we owe? Our ancestors and their rules brought the demon into this world."

"We owe nothing to the Fallen Kingdom. Only by turning away from their Goddess to our own, from removing ourselves from their affairs, can we prevent their fate from becoming our own."

Esosu clamped her jaws as she thought over an action she'd considered over weeks. She decided this was the final straw. "If you're so certain that this will save the tribe from the horrors of the Lingering Calamity, then you no longer need me." She then stood and darted out the palace's main entrance.

"Captain Esosu, halt!" Akeku hopped up slightly, before ordering other guards to chase the renegade. However, Esosu was gone before the guards had gotten out of the palace.

With only the clothing and weapons already on her person, Esosu fled the city she'd spent two decades defending and raced towards the Gerudo Desert Entrance, leaving her province for what might be the last time.

...

"Ma'am! You look exhausted. Why not come stay here for the night?" A Hylian woman, likely tall for her tribe and younger than Esosu, gestured towards the nearby stable.