World Tree MUSH

  The princess had indicated to her friend that she could come any time. Whatever time that may be, she'll find the princess ready. That in and of itself suggests she's been fasting; that she isn't interrupted from a meal. She hasn't been going through books. She's been praying. Maybe meditating.

  She's already wearing her ceremonial dress, a white garment with billowing sleeves and elabourately embroidered gems at sleeves and ankle. Her damp hair is pulled into braids just like the Goddess Statue in the temple. The temple is, incidentally, where Yumi will find her.

  The temple is a deep room, with its back half taken by three rows of benches. Its front half is a stone basin, worked by artisans until its uneven surfaces are silk-smooth. At its deepest point the basin is roughly hip-deep. Steam curls from its surface -- the water is comfortably hot, and faintly mineral-scented. A raised pedestal at the very front of the room houses a ten foot tall statue of the Goddess Hylia.

  She is carved in typical aspect; a very long-haired Hylian woman, with flowing dress and pointed ears. Her downcast eyes and faint, Mona Lisa smile are benevolent. Sandals in the Greco-Roman style cover her feet. Wings round out the line of her shoulders, her hands clasped before her.

  Zelda is here, but she's sitting on the bench farthest at the back of the room whenever Yumi arrives, eyes closed. Just a little shut-eye, maybe.

    Dinner has been eaten. A trip has been made. Yumi does not know what exactly to expect, so she has brought a packaged meal, a bottle of water, and a change of clothes in case she has to stay the night. More importantly, she has also brought something formal.

    It's not quite a dress, because it would be hard to layer heavy winter pants over a dress. But as the young woman sheds her anti-Snowpeak equipment and steps into the temple, the blouse and pants she has on are definitely on the nicer end of the scale. White trimmed with sky-blue and gold, colors that suit her fairly well. "Hello?" she calls out as she steps in, taking a look around the room - it's her second time here, so the look is less about taking in the scenery and more finding the person she's looking for. And then she catches sight of the princess, and... "Ah." Crap. She's sleeping. Hopefully Yumi didn't wake Zelda up. Poor woman needs the rest.

  Those summer-blue eyes ease open at the sound of the door's latch. Zelda looks up just as Yumi winces. It seems she was more meditating or praying than napping. She looks like she could use the sleep, though. There are shadows under her eyes.

  "Tachibana Yumi." The Hylian smiles, though the expression falters when she takes in the clothing that she has to guess would be formal. "Oh, you need not have worn anything so elabourate. You will, um, need to step into the spring. I will wait, if you have something else you would prefer to change into."

  Zelda gestures, faintly. "Though, that is quite elabourate. Is that what passes for formal dress in your home?"

    "This?" Yumi looks down at herself, then back to Zelda. "Yeah, more or less. I'd have worn a dress if I could, but it would've been a little difficult to get up here." She looks at the spring, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Well... it's just water, right? Sacred water, even. It shouldn't ruin these clothes. I think it'd be easier if I wear them in, then change to my dry outfit afterward. They're comfier, even." The girl unshoulders her bag and sets it aside, then takes a few steps further into the temple. But even that much is enough to have her... well, not /hesitant/, per se, but more humble in body language and movement. "So... what all does this entail, anyway?" She comes to a stop beside the spring, folding her hands in front of herself.

  "Mineral water, and somewhat on the hot side," Zelda clarifies, eyeing the clothing thoughtfully. "I suppose no harm should come of it, then. It is only water. My ceremonial dress seems no worse for the wear." She indicates the white garment. Its fabric is rough homespun, but the embroidery of Hyrulean royal sigils and symbols of the goddesses has been done meticulously and richly. Zelda's handiwork, on an altered dress originally bought from Kaipo. She's been working on embroidering it ever since.

  She rises to her feet, trailing after Yumi as the girl advances into the temple. Zelda's own posture is... not so much humble as accepting; oddly serene, like one in some kind of trance.

  Oh, there's still an edge of alertness to her eyes, but lies dormant. Her attention is on her goddesses.

  "Very little, thankfully." Zelda manages a smile. "I took the liberty of preparing myself. I will have you assist me, the next time, but since you are involved I decided it was one less thing to concern yourself over. I will ask the Author of Law for answers to the questions in your life. If I can have no answers from Her, than I will ask Her Grace."

  "I bear the blood of the Goddess Hylia in my veins, but She was appointed by the Golden Goddesses themselves, and sometimes when I ask Her Grace, I come to the answers I seek... in time. The royal women are, after all, the embodiment of wisdom. Sometimes we must be guided to these answers, but it is in our nature to seek answers."

  She shrugs. "If you hear answers, I will not know. It is for each to decide, we who ask the goddesses for answers and their wisdom... we will begin when you are ready."

    It occurs to Yumi that Zelda must have put that dress together herself. She's pretty sure the princess didn't get it out of Hyrule when she left. But she'll ask about that later. For now, it's time for more pressing matters. Or perhaps not so much pressing as 'imminent'. "Well, even if I don't come away with any answers, that's alright," Yumi decides, nodding her head resolutely. "It's not like I'm going in with any, so I don't exactly lose anything." She does take a moment to fuss over herself a bit, mostly straightening her hair and clothes out of sheer habit. "I'm not really the kind of person to hesitate on the edge when it's time to jump, so... we might as well get started. What do you need me to do for now?"

  "Follow me."

  The Hylian brushes past the orange-haired girl, one hand trailing in clear invitation for Yumi to take it. Her pace never wavers as she steps into the spring, wading straight in, ignoring the water as it darkens its way up the hem of her dress. Her feet are bare. The water is hot, but not uncomfortably so, and it feels strangely soothing.

  Zelda comes to a halt in the deepest part of the basin, releasing Yumi's hand then, if she had taken it.

  She stands straight. Her head bows. The braids at the side of her face trail forward; her eyes fall closed.

  "O She who poured forth Her essence onto Din's red earth," the princess intones softly, lifting her hands high over her head as though in supplication, "and gave the spirit of law unto Hyrule. O She who looks after Her children justly, and with wisdom, whose blessed eyes see the truth. I beg of You, Author of Law; I pray to You and invoke Your name, as the daughter of Hylia, as one tasked to safeguard her people, to grant me Your truths."

  "O She who battled the Ancient Evil, who fought to secure a future for Her people; who loved them well and protected them with Her essence. O She whose blood is proof against evil; O She who guards Hyrule against threat of its shadow. O She who watches over the royal line, who lives on in the blood of her descendants."

  Silence falls over the temple.

  "I bring before You one who is not of Your lands, but who has acted in their stead nonetheless. I bring before You one whose heart is pure. I beg of You, please help her to reach the answers she seeks." Her hands fall to her sides and she looks up to the Mona Lisa smile of the Goddess Statue. "I beg of You. Help me to even the scales, for one who has given so much of herself to Hyrule..."

  Silence, once more, longer than the last stretch.

  "Speak to them, if you wish, Tachibana Yumi," Zelda breathes. "They will hear."

    Yumi follows. Quiet and obedient, reaching out to take Zelda's hand where it's offered. She slips out of her shoes on the edge of the spring, then follows in without any real hesitation. The water DOES feel quite nice. Very much so, in fact. Maybe she'll have to take up that offer to bathe in here some time... no, no that's a thought for another night. The shorter girl forces herself to focus on the here and now, standing beside Zelda and listening.

    The prayer is of great interest, both that which reaches out to Nayru and that which calls upon Hylia. As is, if she's being honest with herself, the way Zelda refers to her. Even simply hearing the words 'pure of heart', she feels a little bashful, the human instinct to feel unworthy of that sort of praise. But it's come to the part where it's her opportunity to speak. It takes a second to compose her thoughts, but she does.

    "I... well, I'm not really sure what to ask. I know I can't expect all the answers to everything, but... I'd like to know what I can do. I feel so much like I should be out there, swinging a weapon right alongside Cecil or Link or Rydia... It's strange. Even though I'm so normal, I keep wanting to face down things a lot bigger and scarier than I am. I guess... I'd like to know why. Or what I can do about it. Or... what I'm supposed to be doing in general. I'd be fine with just about anything you can give me, I think. Even a nudge in the right direction."

  The Hylian is silent as she stands in the spring, arms at her sides and hands immersed in the springwater. Her feet are bare, unlike the statue. She doesn't move, not even to shift her weight in the carved basin. It's exceptionally smooth, like glass, worked until no rough edges remained. Such effort must have been monstrously expensive. Whoever built this place must have been richer than the royal family.

  Her head is bowed forward as though to listen; hair drawn back into the same style of braiding as the statue -- gathered into a loose but precise half-braid down the back and bound by silver cuff; gathered on either side of her face into intricate braiding plaided with white silk ribbon. Her hair is long enough that a little of the end of the braid down her back trails into the water.

  Zelda lifts her head as Yumi speaks, looking up to the statue. Her eyes drift closed; she draws in a deep breath through her nose, letting it go through barely-parted lips.

  There is only one of us who has all of the answers, child, and She is not always feeling generous.

  Hylia's 'voice' is gentle and warm as a summer breeze, and just a touch amused. She is like sunlight in the spirit; that contentment felt when one spends the afternoon napping in the warm summer sun. Yet the overwhelming presence of her 'voice' also rings like a cathedral bell, bright and hot and overwhelming, like white-hot fire.

  Her voice has been faint, before, but this is a place of power for Her Grace.

  Zelda doesn't seem to react to the speech. She does open her eyes, though, and look to Yumi, obliquely.

  They are blue, and dark; dark as the endless sea, crisp as an autumn sky, knowing and somewhat sad. There is a bit more gold in her hair. A light about her; within her, and yet she is still recognisably Zelda.

  "Whatever you do... whatever you do not do... those are your choices, Tachibana Yumi. You are like him." It is Zelda's voice, and it is not. Somehow it's both women, at once. There is an undeniable warmth in the goddess' tone at that last word; like the brush of a summer breeze. "You long to leap into the fray, to let spill the radiance of your courage. Farore would like you, child."

  Zelda, or Hylia, shifts her weight and studies the girl intently. "I can offer you no answers as to why. I know many things, but the threads of your fate are shrouded from my view. I can instead offer words as to why, perhaps... but know that I am not omniscient. My answers are no more than suggestions. After all, I do not claim the kind of power of the Golden Goddesses, They who created Me, and My children, as well."

  She is silent, before bobbing forward; seemingly more a gesture of curiosity than anything else.

  "Will you still hear them?"

    Afterward, Yumi will realize she should have expected Zelda to speak on Hylia's behalf. In the moment, though, her mind is perhaps expecting to hear a voice from the heavens, or perhaps from deep within herself, or... something. So hearing Zelda's 'voice' in her head, empowered by divine grace in a way she's not really heard before, causes an outright startle. A faint one, but a startle nonetheless. "Oh-!" Around she turns, and... oh goodness, those eyes. That light of divinity. It's quite a difference. But she says nothing... she has nothing TO say, really, nor would she if she did. Not when the goddess speaks.

    But when she /asks/, Yumi most certainly answers. Clearly, and without hesitating. "Yes. Please."

  "Be not afraid." Zelda lets out a breath of amusement; her mouth quirks at Yumi's startlement. "I am the Goddess Hylia. Yet I am also your friend. Zelda. Yet know that I, Hylia, am no fount of omnipotent wisdom. That falls to the Author of Law, the one known to you as Nayru. I do not have the answers that you seek."

  She shifts, tilting her head and eyeing Yumi curiously. Such candid study is strange from someone whose features have seen Yumi many times; who would not need to study the girl as though seeing her for the first time.

  Zelda walks a slow circle around the girl, parting the fog, water rippling around her waist where she moves through it.

  "Then I will perform this favour for you, as she has asked me to, and lending my limited wisdom is the least I might do for a friend of the daughter of my line." The echo of Hylia, or Zelda, looks the perfectly normal girl over. Those autumn-crisp eyes are thoughtful, frighteningly wise, and a little sorrowful. "I cannot promise that these suggestions will satisfy you."

  The caveat of divinity. Zelda, or Hylia, shifts her weight and steps back, curtsying with her spring-soaked dress.

  "I cannot tell you why you feel these longings. That is a question only you can answer with the fullness of certainty. What I can tell you is what you may do about it." Hylia, or Zelda, walks a few paces away, turning. Water ripples beneath her. "We will petition to the Author of Law, but we do not know if She will deign to answer. The Author of Law does not always find the opportunity to speak to us, but then again, sometimes She does, with unsettling clarity. I am as nothing compared to one of the Golden Goddesses."

  Silence falls, and Zelda, or Hylia, studies the girl intently, leaning forward a little. The colour of her eyes seems alien; too dark and crisp, too intense, like a raptor in blue. The colour of her hair seems just slightly off, too; just a few golden hairs too many, although it's such a subtle effect that it might just be the bizarre lighting from all the steam.

  "All that I may advise you to do is to keep your heart open. Listen for answers in the most unlikely of places. The Author of Law will perhaps guide you, as She guides us all, but sometimes Her answers are subtle. Sometimes it takes stillness of mind to hear what She has to say." Hylia, or Zelda's, mouth quirks. "I am confident She will tell you to stay the course. Do as you have done, up until now... from what I have observed of you, you would be welcome among Farore's chosen. The Lifegiver has always had a soft spot for the bright sparks, the courageous; the heroes among their kinds. But, then again, so have I..." A sense of wistfulness; of sad affection. The sensation of someone else's emotions is strange, and maybe unsettling.

  "Your answers will come," the demigoddess murmurs. It is not known to me when, and it is not known to me how, but they will come. It is not out of the realm of possibility that I am wrong, child of another realm... but I would like to think my judgement of character has not fallen so far through the uncounted generations."

  Zelda, or Hylia, smiles faintly. "As I said, they may not be the satisfactory answers you seek. But that is what I offer. My time is nearly through. I am not meant to remain in this world for long, and I would not tax this daughter of my line overmuch. But if you have more questions, child, ask."

    It's the longest that Yumi has heard Hylia speak - and also, by a wide margin, the most peacefully. The only times she's heard the voice of the goddess before, they've all been moments of panic. This... this is altogether more peaceful. More calming. The young one finds herself relaxing, almost without realizing it. And she listens, quiet once again. She's very good at silently hearing someone out, all the moreso when it's someone with something important to say. In this particular case, it's not that she stands fast under the scrutiny; it's that it doesn't really feel necessary. Something about Hylia's scrutiny is... it's not uncomfortable, the way it might be for others.

    And there's that mention of Farore again. They (she?) really do seem to think the goddess suits Yumi. That feels a little hard to process, in a way. But she takes it quite as a complement. "No, that's plenty. To be honest, I'm already surprised you were able to speak this long..." She shakes her head, facing the goddess with an expression that's... troubled, perhaps, but not torn. Those clear brown eyes so rarely seem to legitimately waver. She's a very resolute girl. "I guess it's what I needed to hear, at least. I'll know when I know. It's hard to be true to myself when by all rights that should get me killed," she admits with a self-effacing chuckle, "But I don't think I'm making a mistake by trying. Thank you for speaking with me, at least. And... I'll try to hear the voice of the Author of Law."

  "I wish only that my counsel could be more definitive." Already Hylia's voice is fading, and the more familiar tones of Zelda's voice are beginning to replace it. There's a reediness to the young monarch's voice that suggests this wasn't without cost, either.

  Zelda wavers on her feet, but she manages to stay upright, splashing in the spring. "I can make no promises, but we will petition to the Author of Law, and we will pray that the Goddess Nayru provide Her wisdom. It is the least we can d... ugh." The voice of the goddess gradually fades back into the voice of the young monarch, reedy and thin.

  She staggers again, clutching at Yumi to stay upright, another spray of water kicked underfoot as she tries to hold her balance. A thin trickle of blood issues from the corner of her mouth; she doesn't seem to notice it. Her eyes are unfocused, but they're their proper colour; the soft blue of the summer sky, rather than the hard, clear tones of autumn sky or deep ocean. "Help me to... to the fireside. Into something dry. Please."

  There's an unspoken statement there; of wanting to say more, but needing to sit down somewhere warm and dry Right Now. "I'll be alright," she adds, rasping a little. "It just... takes a lot out of me."