Kingdom of Power, of Courage, and of Wisdom

Kyou's War - Deception

Link turned on Zelda, "He was a defenseless man! He had surrendered!"

"Unlikely," Zelda pried the man's cloak open to reveal a knife was hidden. "If I hadn't executed him, you would be dead by now. Your foolish heart will be your undoing. Only hold a weapon when you are prepared to kill or be killed."

"You mean for me to be like you?! You are cold and cruel! You are called Ice Witch! And for good reason, what with how everyone is just a pawn! This man you killed, the capital you fled, Midna, the v-village," he jumped Zelda and punched her in the face, "we are all pawns to you! You killed them all!"

He struck her again. Zelda stumbled back under his assault. "I will never be like you! You should have left us all alone. Why didn't you just die!"

He threw another fist, but the blow never connected.

Zelda grabbed Link by his exposed throat, lifted him off the ground, and thrust him into a tree. The preteen struggled against her relentless grip, but the princess was not near as fragile as she appeared. He could only dangle his feet.

"You are right," Zelda spit blood from her mouth. "You are all pawns to me. I choose when you live and I choose when you die. Does that make me heartless? Does that make me cold? I hope you can bear the weight of the living and the dead with a bleeding heart because you would be fitter than I.

"We are all pawns in this game of politics and war. My role is to command, to lead, and to protect, but with every decision, someone will die somewhere, and I have to make the dreadful judgment on which decision is best and how many must be sacrificed.

"That is my burden and I failed. Every pawn that dies represents another failure on the list of my mistakes because I was too weak to stop this and too cowardly to find a way. I have no courage. I have no power. I only have the wisdom to learn from my mistakes to prevent more senseless deaths."

Zelda continued, "But you want to know who had the courage? The power? Midna! She had the opportunity to protect a nation! The extraordinary power to change everything! And she took it! Not as a miserable slave... but as a free woman knowing the risks. She could have walked away freely. I all but told her it wasn't her fight!

"But she had the courage I didn't have to take it, to become, for a pivotal moment, something more! To become exactly what this country needed! You know what! I admire her, and your desperate attempts to provoke me, your anger, is only spitting on her sacrifice.

"She chose this, Link! She wasn't forced! Her choice was her power, and accepting that decision was my honor. Do you want to honor her? Make sure what she set out to do succeeds!"

Link nearly passed out from her grip so she dropped him. He fell, exhausted physically and emotionally. His anger left him empty, and he wept, screaming into the rain.

"Let these be the last tears you have for her tonight. Remember this feeling, and lock it away. You can mourn another day," Zelda whispered softly. She too felt spent. She sighed and looked up into the rain. "The one who ultimately killed her was Kyou. Help me stop him and honor Midna's sacrifice."

-Kanyou, Capital of Qin-

Ketsu threw himself down onto the floor of the throne room and prostrated himself. He dared not speak first, for fear of the prince. They had seen eye to eye all of his young life, but recently, ever since that wicked girl stole his throne from him, something in the way of madness had taken hold of Kyou. Even the boy's doting fiancé would not see him in this state, and she was perhaps the one female the prince respected.

Prince Kyou glared down at his favored servant, "Speak."

"Your highness! We have her! We have Zelda!"