Raising the Stakes; Zelink Coffee Shop AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

Chapter Forty Five

It took me a few minutes of silence to calculate my words, and then I began.

"My father married my mother for her name. I think she knew it... but she married him anyway. She didn't have much of a choice when it came down to it, although I do think a part of her did actually love him. It's not like the old days, it wasn't an arranged marriage or anything... but her parents encouraged it. He was from a powerful family - not as powerful as my mother's, but influential all the same. He was on the path to becoming governor, and a lot of people believed he would make it someday."

"They had me two years into their marriage. My father named me Zelda in honor of the family name. And he was a good father, for the most part. He encouraged what I was good at - singing, music, even art. He came to my recitals, he listened to me sing at home. He put my terrible drawings in frames and hung them in his office."

"Then... he dove down the path of fulfilling his dream. He wanted to become governor. And he decided that he would do whatever it took. He had the pressure of the country watching him. The pressure of my grandparent's critiques and helpful 'favors.' The campaign changed him. His image and reputation became more important than anything. And I was a part of that. My doing well reflected onto him."

"There was no more terrible art hanging in his office. He still attended my recitals... but he told me my mistakes when they were over. I couldn't sing in the main hall anymore, because practice wasn't perfect."

"Everything my mother and I did would reflect on him. The longer it went on, the more frustrated he became. Eventually, he made... bad choices. We were rich, and he decided to take advantage of what that could gain him. He made deals with devils... Following in his own father's footsteps."

"I suppose it was really only a matter of time before his frustration would spill over onto us... and it did."

"At first, it was only the verbal abuse. The complaining that we weren't good enough, the need for us to try to help him instead of sabotaging his career... Then it was a hand that held... just a little too hard. Then it was discipline for 'acting out.'"

"I think..." I had to stop and swallow. I closed my eyes and took a few seconds to breathe. "I think that in a way I became his stress relief. And he'd justified to himself that I deserved it."

"I learned to avoid my parents if at all possible. If he couldn't see me... then he couldn't hurt me. He couldn't yell at me. It was when I was hiding alone that I first started going down the writing path. I didn't write, but I did make worlds in my mind. I made a place where my father didn't exist... and it all just went from there..."

"I was on an art website when I first met Urbosa. She was an artist that I looked up to... I didn't draw anymore - I hadn't since my father truly began his campaign, but I still loved art. And through that art, we became... well, eventual friends. Somehow she saw through the anonymity of the internet that I needed someone to talk to. And eventually I did talk to her. We learned that we both lived in central Hyrule. She was nineteen, I was fifteen..."

"I tried to sneak out to see her. My father caught me and... and I had some... some assistance in falling down the stairs. I woke up in the family car with my second broken arm. I had to get surgery. It's one of my biggest scars."

"I told Urbosa what happened when I was allowed to have a computer again. She said that she would get me out. I didn't believe her."

"But then she did. A car rolled up to the governor's door and they took me away from him. They took me to live with Ursa, who was a registered foster parent."

"Not only had she kept her word... But I got to live with her. My only friend in the world. And I was awful."

"You weren't awful!"

I narrowed my eyes. "I was awful. I locked myself in the room for over a week. Crying and moping and refusing to see anyone. Urbosa lured me out of there... And it was the best six months of my life."

"Then I was brought back to my parents. Somehow he'd managed to smooth everything over. I don't know how he did it... But he explained everything and restored his image. Not that it had really been tarnished in the first place - there was hardly any media coverage on the fact that the governor's daughter had been taken away from him on grounds of child abuse."

"After six months of freedom... I was braver than I used to be. Urbosa had quite the influence on me. I fought, I bargained. I didn't roll over immediately as I once had. He wanted to groom me to be his political tool. I wanted to be a writer. He had to allow me to write as a hobby because I was a brick wall that nothing could shift. It was partially with my mother's help, I think, that he allowed me to walk to the coffee shop to write every day. If it meant that it kept me happy and compliant when I was home, he'd allow it."

"Then... well, I broke the cycle of compliance. I'd been mustering every bit of courage I could, and when I let it out... He finally decided Urbosa was a bad influence, and that he would teach me a lesson by throwing me out into Third to show me how fruitless my dream was. That I wouldn't survive. That I needed his help."

I exhaled slowly and finally looked up at Link for the first time since I'd begun. "His plan failed."

He had so much on his face that it made my chest hurt.

"It backfired so hard, and he hasn't even noticed the smoke yet. But he will soon." I wrapped my arms around myself. "And I don't know what will happen when he does."

Link stood up and put his arms around me, pressing my own tighter to my body. He didn't say anything. I didn't either.

Then another pair of arms wrapped around both of us. Urbosa's crushing grip was as reassuring as it was tight. "We may not know what will happen, but you have more friends, more experience, and more determination this time."

Link's hands pressed against my sides. "We won't let them take you back."