Reincarnated

Chapter 3: Letter from King Rhoam to the Captain of the Royal Guard

Captain,

I am soon to be hosting an important figure in the castle, and they will require a guard present at their side at all times. I'd like to request a recruit of your choosing to be stationed as this guard.

He must be a quiet and obedient guard who won't reveal any important information he may become aware of in the duration of his station.

He needn't be of impressive skill or stature, I highly doubt any severe danger should befall him, and I'd hate to deprive you of a valuable soldier.

He must be prepared to be attentive during strange hours of the night.

I trust any decision you will make on the matter. Have him report to my study early tomorrow morning.

King Rhoam Bosphoramus

Excerpt from Zelda's Journal

The ball has come and gone. I could not bring myself to write anything down last night. I was made so happy, but when I did eventually find myself back in my room, alone, I could not conceive of any joy. I felt so defeated. It was too grave a mood to write anything, lest such happy moments should be twisted into something sinister. I come to this now more level-headed than I was.

I snuck out of my room in the usual fusion and made my way down to the city a bit before the castle was to be open. I followed the familiar path I knew to the old woman's house, down alleys and backroads that were seldom traveled. There was a breeze that caught my hair to accompany my quick step, and a warmth on my skin, gifted from the sun. In that quiet moment, accompanied only by the sound of my shoes against the street, it dawned on me that  this was the first time I had felt the sun outside of the castle in so long. 

I took a moment to stop and feel the warmth, and altogether the sensation of being outside washed over me like a warm bath on a winter's night. The sound of people walking was no longer a distant churn I imagined from my window but something I could see. Some were walking, some shopping, some running, others doing all manner of thing, just a few meters away from where I stood in an alleyway joined to a lively street. The sound wasn't a blend of person sounding voices, but individual footsteps and words and rustling and hooves hitting the ground and the wheels they drug behind. It felt like I could sit and listen to it forever, and so I did.

There were maybe hundreds of faces that peaked around the corner, first a boot or a shoe or a sandal out in front of them, then a loose trouser or a skirt being pushed out, then a nose and eyes and brows, then, for a brief moment, they were still, it felt like, frozen in their stride. Just as quickly though, they'd take another step and be gone forever. 

I stared as person after person raced by until I was reminded of my position as a watcher by a man who had decided to take my seldom used alley. "Excuse me, ma'am." he said as he ducked by me. I stepped out of the way and apologized before it dawned on me what he had said. "Ma'am."

The eternal debt I felt toward my dear old woman felt so overwhelming as I looked down at the dress she had given me. "This is a dress," I thought to myself, "that a lady would wear. And these braids I've shown the mirror so many times are that of a lady. That deserving respect, that deserving 'Ma'am.'"

I decided it was time to experiment. It must be known weather or not it was a fluke, and as minutes ticked by, I needed to walk to the castle. I felt afraid for a moment, on a new street, not one taken a hundred times. Anxiety coated my face, heating the skin with its malevolent heat, a heat the corrupted the divine grace of the sun's warmth into such an altogether awful feeling. 

"That gown is gorgeous," a woman walking by wiped the anxiety from my face. "Are you going to the ball?"

"Yes. Thank you. Yours is also very nice." I excitedly replied in sharp, shaky sentences.

"Thank you dear, my husband got it for me. He's waiting for me up ahead, I better get on." 

"Of course." She was gone, but the fever of such a sudden conversation rushed through my body. It felt bursting with energy, and I had no choice but to spring forward in a more than generously paced walk. I might not yet know where I am, but following the general direction of the crowd seemed a well enough start. 

After walking with them for some time, choosing one person at a time to remain behind, then switching to another when the time felt right, the castle gate came into view. It was strange to re-enter the grounds this way, with so many others, yet here I was, the "princess," anonymously

I made my way as far forward as I could before the bodies in front became too dense to navigate through. There was a tall man standing in front of me, so, being situated next to the railing, I stepped up on it to get a better view. It was just barely enough to see over his head.

There was a stage situated in front of the metal doors guarding the castle. Soldiers lined the bottom, and as they sun drifted down in the sky, their silver armor seemed to glow gold. It had been polished to a near mirror finish, showing off the prestige of the royal army. 

That prestige was altogether forgotten though, when 2 royal guardsmen stepped out on to the stage. They were both tall, imposing figures dressed in their navy uniforms with a gold trim around the edges of the fabric. The Captain of the Royal Guard stepped up after them, his uniform seeming to glow brighter than the others, and his impressive figure and strong bones certainly felt stronger than the others. 

The crowd noise became faint as they ogled up at the perfect images of regality that the kingdom had built around its royal guard. The Captain raised his hands and the faint noise of the crowd altogether vanished. 

"Citizens of Hyrule," He lowered his hands as he began. "Thank you all for attending. Before we open the gates, the King would like to make a speech."

The doors behind him opened and there Father stood, gazing out on the crowd. In a moment, the excitement of being amongst this crowd turned to terror. I couldn't make out his eyes from where I was, but he was looking at the crowd. By some twist of fate were his eyes resting where I stood, had he seen me? 

In an instant, the strength left my body. My knees buckled and fingers slipped from the railing I stood on. The people were packed so dense, that instead of falling to the ground where I'd be safe from Fathers sight, I fell onto the man standing next to me.

"Woah!"  He exclaimed when I first fell into him. "Are you okay? "He turned, putting his hands on my shoulders, attempting to push me back up onto the railing. People around him started to look at me instead of the King. I felt the gaze of so many as the man held me up. 

"Miss, are you alright?" He asked again as more people looked at me. They must know I thought. See the way they're looking at me, they must know who I am, they've seen me before up on that stage, they must know. I stared back at them, eyes wide in a panic. I looked into the eyes, questioning what this commotion was about. 

Then I remembered, the two most terrifying eyes that must be fixed to me. I whipped my head back to the stage. Father had started his speech, but I hadn't heard a word of it. He gazed around the crowd and I knew, he just must have seen me, he must have and it was all over.

"Please let me down." I yelled at the man. He let go of my shoulders and strength filled my body enough to carry it back to the ground, then I collapsed over the railing, low, away from any one else's gaze but the man next to me. 

"I'm sorry." I said to him, trying to catch my breath.

"That's all right." He said. I felt his eyes peer down at me, studying my face. I turned to meet his gaze. "You look familiar." Again, I felt any recovered strength snatched away from my body, and I dropped my head again to the ground.

"Strange." was all I could think to say. I didn't look at him for the rest of the time he stood there, and after an awkward minute, he turned his face from mine, still with configured as if he was thinking, remembering.

...