Title: After Me Comes The Flood
Author: Eralk Fang
Fandom: The Legend of ZeldaRating: PG.
Summary: Set between The Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. A queen and her doomed kingdom.
Notes: Inspired by Regina Spektor's gorgeous song, "Apres Moi". The queen in here is not any Zelda (her name isn't even Zelda) we've seen, but the last queen before the royal bloodline goes to the pirates.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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"She's been in there for a very long time; is she alright?"
"She's fine."
Silence again fell on six of the seven sages. The seventh was separated from them by a few feet and a wall of stone. She was in the inner chamber of the Temple of Time. If they were quiet, they could hear the faintest suggestions of her prayers.
They kept waiting. The light thrown on the altar from the windows was fading slowly, and just as the last traces of light faded, the door opened to reveal their queen. The heavy velvet of her train dragged on the stone floor as she walked down a few steps to join them. Her face was white, and her eyes downcast.
The first to speak was the Goron. "Madame, are you alright?"
Her pale eyes darted up to meet the Goron's dark ones, but her gaze quickly slid off the Goron's eyes.
"I've doomed us all." she whispered.
The Gerudo pressed her lips together. "Madame, I doubt you have. Do the goddesses have an answer to this evil?"
The queen made a slight nod, her eyes turned towards the Triforce emblazoned on the floor of the temple. "They will flood Hyrule."
A few of the sages gasped; more of them didn't make any sounds, their eyes widening. The queen continued, finally meeting their gazes. "They will send rain down on Hyrule for many days, and many nights, and when they are done, the evil will be gone. But so will Hyrule."
She closed her dry eyes. "I suggest you return home and alert your constituencies, and then head for Death Mountain, or any high ground."
She moved forward, stately as always.
"Madame-"
The queen turned to the Kokiri Sage. "Yes?"
"Did the goddesses say when?"
The queen turned away. "We have three days."
"Madame, where will we meet you on Death Mountain?"
The queen pressed her lips together before speaking. "You will not meet me. The goddesses dictate that I am to stay here. And I will not disobey them."
She left, her head turned down, a hand lifting her voluminous skirt enough for her to climb down the well worn steps of the temple. It took no time at all for her to leave.
An uneasy silence fell.
"Three days." the Gerudo said. "I think we should do what she said."
-
Three days later, the mass exodus to Death Mountain was drawing to an end. The road to Kakariko was more defined than it ever had been.
"But Mama..." the little princess cried, reaching down from her father's horse for her mother's hand.
"Shh. The goddesses have spoken, my little one." The queen kissed the princess' little hand, and embraced her daughter one last time. "I will see you, many years from now. I love you."
The queen turned to kiss her husband good-bye, a soft and cold kiss. The clouds were gathering in the sky, faster then natural. "Good-bye." she muttered.
And then, because there were no more words in her throat, she fled back to the castle.
-
The queen shouted prayers, stalking down the hallways. No rain had fallen yet, but the sky had grown darker. Waiting for the first rainfall was driving her mad.
"HAIL DIN!" she yelled down a dark corridor. Lightning flashed outside a stained glass window, a Sheikah in combat blazing for an instant. When would it start?
"HAIL FARORE!" she yelled up a staircase as she climbed. Her dress rustled, her ceremonial jewelry jingled, her boots clicked. The castle was stifling for her; it was empty of the little princess' laughter, the library was empty, and it was cold. She hadn't dared start a fire.
"HAIL NAYRU!" she yelled as she slammed open the door of the tallest tower. With an agility she hadn't had in years, she quickly made her way to the flattest and highest part of the roof.
The sky was pitch black and heavy with clouds, and lightning illuminated everything once in a while. She beheld her kingdom, doomed to drown. The deserts, the villages, the forests, the waterfalls, the mountains. And she would drown with it.
She suddenly felt short for air, and gasped. A rain drop fell on her dry lips. She looked up, amazed, terrified, resigned.
"Oh, have mercy." She muttered.
Three golden voices. We have.
She didn't have time to react; the rain began falling faster. She raised her arms, the sudden wind catching her cloak and train, her eyes wide open. And she shouted her prayers.
-
Her body was not found in the next year. Scholars said it must have caught on a roof, or a thousand other things. The more pious believed the goddesses had delivered her; where, they disagreed.
The little princess had a nightmare her first night on Death Mountain. Her mother, dead, suspended in water, slowly floating to the surface. Her hair like tendrils, her dress and cloak waving slightly in the currents, and her ceremonial jewelry almost floating off her. This nightmare was forgotten in time.
Many years later, after the little princess had become a big princess and turned to piracy to keep some kind of title, a body was found off a fortress the Gerudos had claimed. The Sage had grown old and died, and her replacement was far more ruthless. She ordered the body be stripped of whatever could be taken and reused, and then it burned and the ashes scattered to the winds.
These ashes made their way throughout the Great Sea, even to the most feared pirate ship in all the waters.
"Oh, have mercy," a man pleaded.
The woman who had once been the little princess grinned. "We have."