Musterion (A Zelda AU)

Confrontation - Chapter 21

"How was your swimming?" Zelda calls out, her voice muffled as she leans towards the fireplace. The warm air contrasted the wind outside that had picked up as Ali and I had walked home. 

The house had a more cozy feeling to it now, the warm light filling the inside. The windows had been covered, and the entire place was clean.

"Fine, surprisingly," Ali smiles, closing the door behind her. Her hair, still not pulled up, had begun to stick out at all angles, crazy and untamed. I gently brush a few strands out of her eyes before turning to Zelda, watching her put more wood into the fireplace. The fire roars with life, announcing its presence with the red and yellow lighting.

"Hey," I walk over, setting a hand on Zelda's shoulder. She tenses, not looking back as she picks up another piece of wood. "I found this locket in the pond, and I think we should-"

Zelda curses, a loud crashing sound invading my ears as the wood hits the floor, splitting into different pieces. I pull her away from the fire, immediately looking her over for injury.

"I'm fine-" She mumbles, pulling at a piece of wood stuck in her finger. "Just a splinter, sorry. What about your locket?"

"I..." I trail off, unable to get any words out. They're stuck in my throat, like when you try to swallow too much at once. It's choking. "I... think we should look at the inside of it."

Look at the inside? I glance down at the locket in my hand, opening my fist. The golden locket, now dull and rusty, didn't look how I remembered it. The rust had spread, and my broken nail began to throb, angry it had returned. The golden paint was chipped, revealing the silver metal underneath. The paper inside had been blank, and I didn't want to look inside again to see if it was no longer blank. I wanted someone to see what I did. How it changed. The way it would never stay the same for too long, and how every time it changed so did the people around me.

"We can't look inside that thing if you're gonna sit there and stare at it," Zelda scoffs, pulling the chain. The locket flies out of my hand, swinging towards Zelda. The silver gleams in the light, mocking me for my foolishness and lack of reactivity. What did the locket really look like? It kept changing, its true form evading me. If I stretched my hand out to see and touch what it really was, I worry I'd only brush the surface before pushing it further away, keeping it forever out of my reach.

"We tried opening it earlier," Ali pops into the conversation, walking over with a hop in between her steps. She leans down, grabbing the pieces of wood as she continues. "It was too rusty."

"I'll send it off to the castle with Purah. Her and Robbie might be able to get it open." Zelda picks at the rust, raising an eyebrow. "Though they might destroy the thing before it could even open."

"Don't-" My body lurches forward, reaching for the locket on its own. My hand swipes at the air as Zelda holds the locket up, causing me to lose my balance for a moment. Fear gripped at my throat, constricting my airway as I remembered how opening it last time led to me and Ali fighting. It didn't have any correlation, but it was what my brain went to. "Don't let them break it-"

"Why not?" Ali pulls me back up, looking at the locket. "It's old. We can't do anything with it anyways."

Azazel's voice echoed in my head as I remembered the paper I'd woken up with after dreaming of them.

Don't regret your choice too much.

Was this what they meant? Making me feel like I was going insane, losing my grip on reality? Was all of this Azazel simply messing with me? Messing with my head, trying to make me lose my cool so I'd come crawling to the Yiga, begging for the chance to lead them?