World Tree MUSH

  Autumn has hit Peak Province, and with it comes the first blizzards of the season. Snow piles high against the courtyard walls, and the wind from the summit has teeth. It's the time of year when Snowpeak Garrison turns in on itself and shuts out the outside world.

  Zelda's not here. She hasn't been here all day. Why isn't she here in weather this bad? It's not only going to snow but it's going to blizzard. In fact, as the first flakes start whirling down, the front door bangs open. In staggers Zelda with a bulky canvas bag. Boots and hooded robe are discarded by the door, sodden up to the knees.

  Hefting her burden, the monarch half-pulls and half-drags the bag towards the kitchen. Whatever it is, it looks significantly heavy. She's really having to put her back into it.

    "And just where have you been?"
    Rydia of Mist is not usually one to worry about the monarch of Hyrule. But when the weather gets this bad around Snowpeak, it is cause for concern when Zelda is nowhere to be seen around the garrison.
    That's probably why Rydia was waiting by the entrance, arms folded across her chest while she bundles up in the warmth of her old, but trusty, wolfos-skin cloak. So that she can be right there to heckle the princess when she returns from whatever outing she had decided to go on without breathing a word about to the Summoner.
    Nevertheless, Rydia IS also there once Zelda starts dragging her load, to grab the other end of the bag and hoist it, to reduce the weight that her friend has to haul.

  That bag is big, bulky, and heavy. Whatever's inside feels like it's a mix of shapelessness and rigidity. Branches and leaves, maybe? It rustles like that's what it could be. Zelda manages to take hold of the end and drag. With the Summoner's help, it moves even faster.

  "Herbs." Zelda's out of breath. It looks like she's been dragging this thing for a while through the courtyard; she'd immediately stabled Lynel and tended to the equine monster, and then proceeded to half-drag, half-dig a path through the snow in the courtyard toward the front door. "Healing. Seasoning. Spices."

  It's not until they're in the kitchen that Zelda finds the air to elabourate. "Wintertide is coming. I need to dry some of these and prepare them." She swats the bag open and starts pulling small branches and bundles out, tossing them into the deep basin of the sink. "They'll be offerings to the Goddesses. Well. Goddess. Wintertide is Nayru's season." The season of darkness and secrets. "These will cure in time, now."

  "I knew I'd be done soon enough. The weather is turning." She glances over her shoulder, toward the dim kitchen window. It's small and high, as befitting a place where the weight of the snow would otherwise crush it. "Goddesses, I can't wait to return to Hyrule Field. I am sick half to death of this snow and winter is not even here yet."

    Herbs. It's a bag so full of herbs that it's damned near impossible to carry. Damn.
    IT speaks volumes of Zelda's dedication to her faith that she would go out into the wilderness about Snowpeak in the horrible weather to gather herbs to last the season.
    "You're. Kidding right?" Rydia balks at first until she hears the reason WHY the princess had gone out to gather so much. "Oh."
    "It's been getting worse out there by the day, you could have at least brought me with you. Who knows what's even out there in weather like that?" The Summoner huffs indignant, likely from being left behind to her own devices (and bored for all of it). "But if it's for that..."
    Much as Rydia is complaining, she can't FAULT Zelda her faith, knowing full well the actuality and existence of the princess' goddesses to be true entities due to her own prior experiences with Hylia.
    "Next time just... Bring me with you. It'll be less of a load on a bored mind."

  You're. Kidding right?

  "No." Zelda's stare is a little blank, before she goes back to busily unpacking and sorting various boughs and sprigs. At least the contents are fragrant. The majority smell like a cross between several aromatic herbs, most prominently something cool and crisp like mint. "Once these are dry, they will burn fragrantly."

  "When ground to a powder and added to a mixture of other herbs, these will ignite when thrown into a flame, and burn blue for a moment or two." She holds it up. "If they are bruised, discard them; those will not work. The leaves must be fresh." A beat. "Thank you, Rydia."

  "I carry a bow." Zelda shakes her head. "And your knife. I will be fine... but I'll bring you next time." She holds up a sprig, squinting critically at it. Apparently it's too bruised; it gets tossed aside into an empty pot. Silent for a moment, she finally speaks again, quiet, but she doesn't look up from her work. "I have been dreaming about Hyrule Castle."

    No. Of course Zelda isn't kidding. Though once the princess goes back to emptying and sorting the sack, Rydia gets an actual whiff of the contents. The sweet, tangy, mint-like scene and other aromatic fragrances seem to take the Summoner aback slightly with surprise as she draws in their scent.
    It's... It's pleasant and soothing, in a way. And that distracts her for a moment until the princess holds up a specific herb for her to help with. "... Got it."
    And thus Rydia sets to separating the good leaves from the bad and bruised helpfully.
    "You carry a bow and a knife, but you're also as stubborn as that monster you call a horse." She points out, but then relents when the princess promises to bring her along next time. It's the next statement that draws Rydia's attention all the more.
    "... Dreams? What kind of dreams about the castle?"

  "I hold no illusions as to his nature." Zelda pauses in her sorting to spread her hands wide, long fingers splayed. The crushed herbs are beginning to turn her hands a bit... blue? "After all, he is named after a monster; the most vicious sort, in fact." She's smiling, faintly. Uncle. She'll bring Rydia with her, next time.

  "All of the places I belong in it. The stateroom. The throne room. The balcony from which I can address Castle Town. I think the Triforce of Wisdom is trying to remind me of the duty I have been neglecting. I cannot lead my people from here. It will grow more insistent over time until I do."

  Sighing, Zelda tosses aside another bruised sprig. "If I do not heed its call, it will drive me mad, eventually. This much I know. I only wonder how much time I have left. If we can liberate Hyrule Castle, we can address the rest of the Twilight in time, but we must cut off the head of the Twilight serpent." That would be Zant. "I need to act, somehow, and soon."

    "Do they still exist?" Rydia eventually asks, curiosity getting the better of her. A pause. "Did they ever exist? Lynels I mean." She murmurs. But that is a side note to the conversation is at hand as she continues to aid in the sorting of the herbs. Though she does peer over curiously when the leaves in the princess' hand begin to turn blue.
    "... Then why wait?" The Summoner asks point blank. "What are we doing here, Zelda?" She asks again.
    "You know, I've been thinking about it... We can't just sit here doing nothing. The cold will kill us here faster than Zant or Baron ever could at this rate..." She says dropping the herbs in her hands and setting her palms on the table before them.
    "I never thought I'd call you of all people a coward, but I have to ask... What are you afraid of that we're just... Sitting here in the cold, doing nothing?"

  "Lynels? Hmm. I believe they did. My father had a cloak trimmed with what he swore was the hide of a Lynel, and his war-helm bore a tassel made from a Lynel's tail..." She half-smiles. "It looked like horsehair, to me, plucked from an unsuspecting destrier's tail."

  The scent is starting to drift through the kitchen, growing stronger as they sort through more of the bag. One could bury their face in the bag to inhale that delicate scent.

  Zelda ducks her head to do just that, nostrils flaring and smiling. It is pleasant; combined with resin, it might make a nice incense.

  Then why wait? The young queen turns solemn, like a cold wind gusted through her. Although the subject does make her visibly tense, everything Rydia has to say is correct. She cannot do nothing, here. The cold will kill them, or the Triforce will drive her mad.

  What is she afraid of?

  "Mm." Her voice is quiet as she goes back to sorting herbs. Summer-blue eyes remain downcast on the herbs in her hands. "I am Queen. I could muster an army, but it would do nothing. The moment my people step into the Twilight, they are as helpless spirits, and vulnerable to the things that stalk the half-light. I do not transform only because the blood of the Goddess is proof against transformative effects."

  "So, then. That means it is to me and my allies." Zelda starts sorting herbs again as she talks. "We will have only one opportunity to do this. One chance. We must strike and subdue Zant before he can call on the magic of the Twilight Realm." Her voice hardens, subtly. "If he can be taken alive, all the better, but I will not hesitate to kill him if I am given the opportunity. The crimes he has committed are beyond forgiveness, and his unstable influence is too dangerous."

  Zelda puffs a sigh. "I must wager everything on a single act of rebellion. I cannot risk failure until I am certain of victory. You do not understand -- even the power I wield seems scarcely to scratch that impetuous child. I was ready to fight when I arrived in the throne room, with everything in me and Hylia's power besides... he laughed, Rydia." She shakes her head, tone one of disgust. "He laughed. I could not harm him. How? I will admit Hylia is as nothing beside the Golden Goddesses, the Creator-Goddesses, but Her influence still runs deep through Hyrule's histories. Even I do not know for how many thousands of years we have revered Her. She has simply always been."

  "But even She could do nothing. I could gamble that one of my allies would succeed where I have failed, but if we /did/ fail..." Zelda shakes her head.

  Apparently she catches that stray look at her hands. "Oh." She holds them up, showing. It's not the blue of numb skin, but the blue of ichor, or ink; or in this case, the sap of a plant. "They turn blue when they're crushed. It's the sap. In fact, this is the only way to sort it from several other herbs that look similarly."

    Whether or not Lynels were real is now a purely academic venture. Briefly Rydia considers that the cloak could have had the hide of a Lynel, maybe. Her own cloak coming from a creature as fantastic and monstrous as a wolfos means she wouldn't be surprised. But the 'tail' tassel sounds like it was definitely horse hair, and the Summoner makes a vaguely conflicted face as she tries to piece things together from the princess' conflicting accounts.
    Nevertheless, a very dark and serious expression falls over the greenette's face.
    "Then don't muster an army." She says quite simply. "If they won't be of any help then don't think about that, but look to us- to me, Cecil, the few allies we've made along the way." But then. ... Then something dark and dangerous dances in the Summoner's eyes as her gaze hardens significantly.
    "Taken alive?" She asks incredulous. Shocked. Stunned. A little angered. "After what he's done to you, you're contemplating taking him alive?" Asked very pointedly.
    Now Rydia's own hands are getting stained blue by the sap of the leaves she's squeezing too hard.
    "Kill him and be done with it, Zelda." the Caller hisses, the fires of Mist burning down blazing in her eyes as she tells the princess to offer Zant the same 'mercy' she would wish upon Vivian, if given the chance.

  "There's no point in it." Mustering an army, that is. Zelda shrugs, shaking her head as she lays another sprig aside. "It would only be sending them to the slaughter. No. I must rely on you, on Sir Harvey, Yumi Tachibana, our other allies. I believe that will be the only way."

  Taken alive? Zelda's expression hardens, but it looks more kin to ice than fire. She lifts her chin just a bit. Kill him and be done with it, Zelda. The young monarch regards her friend quietly, and it's hard to say what lurks behind those summer-blue eyes. They don't usually have a darkness like that in them.

  Her gaze drops.

  "Goddesses, please don't mangle them. They are delicate."

  What of threats foreign and domestic?

  "I plan on it. We will not have a chance to scout Hyrule Castle and its environs. The usurper's pet monsters would find us. It will be a single infiltration, made of however many of us must go." Her mouth sets into a grim line as she flicks aside another bruised sprig. "I no longer see another way. Hylia has been insisting on it since the beginning, but I suppose that is no surprise to me."

    Amassing an arm won't work so that's a moot point then. Rydia nods when Zelda sees the wisdom in relying on the core allies she's made and honestly... Rydia would follow Zelda into the pit of hell if the princess asked her. But as those icy blue eyes meet blazing green Rydia, too, glances down.
    "Ah..." She's ruined some of the herbs.
    Oops.
    "... Sorry." The greenette offers, glumly, as she regains her composre and rallies, cooling the fires of hate and fury that burn within her breast for the time being.
    ... For the time being...
    "Just say the word when. I'd follow you anywhere you asked of me, Zelda."

  "I collected more than I need, so don't worry about it." Zelda waves a hand dismissively. "I just didn't want you crushing any more of them." They're delicate! "Still, I can collect more, if I must. I can show you where I've been finding them."

  She considers, eyes sharp but not entirely focused. That distant look is a familiar one; it says she's thinking to the exclusion of all else. Her hands in the basin are absolutely still.

  "There are a few details I must needs see to, first. I will need to plan our route into the castle carefully... when I last spoke with Midna, she said that there was extensive damage to Hyrule Castle's structure." Her expression hardens at that. "Damn them. The repairs will take years. The castle is art as much as function. Was." Her head shakes.

  "In any case, we'll have only one chance at this, so I want to be certain the infiltration team has the shortest, least suspected route into the castle. I believe it would be prudent to have a second team standing by, ready to raise enough earnest hell to distract even Zant's pets."

  Rydia's last assertion however, earns a sober look and a slow nod. "I would do the same. You know that, Rydia, right? I would do anything you asked of me."

    Even still, Rydia looks apologetic. But the Summoner nods when Zelda says she can show her where the herbs grow. So she wipes her hands on a nearby rag to clear the planty-gunk and sap from her fingers as she purses her lips.
    "See to all the details you like." Rydia says, tone mild. "Plan the route and everything, all you need to do once done is tell me when, where, and how much force you want me to muster." She says solemnly.
    But then she furrows her brow. "We'd need more allied if there were to be a decoy such as that." She does point out. But that's a problem for future Zelda and Rydia as the Summoner offers a thin smile.
    "... I know." And it's not a trust she would ever abuse.