Chapter Text
It seems Ravio’s journeys always start with one thing: Looking for Link.
Ravio remembers the first time he went looking well, though not fondly. Not that it was Link's fault. He had been easy to find, and not unpleasant. Though at the time, he hadn’t really had the opportunity to be. The hero had been unconscious on a sanctuary dais when he and Ravio first met, concussed, bleeding, and left to die.
The situation had been a bit hopeless and very stressful and Ravio remembers panicking. Less than a few days running around Hyrule and Yuga already had a body count?! They were most certainly doomed.
Upon checking on Yuga's latest victim, Ravio could relax knowing he was at least alive. Then, as he pressed his fingers to the man’s throat to check a pulse, he got a zing of something he had never felt before. Though he recognized the feeling somehow. It was like beams of this world’s blinding sun, golden and just shy of searing, drenching the man in ancient, sacred magic. There could be no doubt. This was this world’s divinely appointed hero.
Yet Yuga had made quick work of him. The hopelessness compounded.
Worse still, this was not just the Hero Ravio had found. Judging from the similarity of their faces, this was also Ravio's Hyrulian counterpart. The Hero of Hyrule, prophesied and legendary, was also this world's Ravio. It felt just a touch too ironic.
He wasted no time in pulling Link onto his back and toting the limp man back to his house. It was a mirror of Ravio’s own and thus was easy to find. It sat in the same place as his own, though it felt completely different surrounded by lush orchards with a warm, lived-in interior. Completely different, just like the hero himself.
He used the hero’s potion stock to heal the nasty bump on his head. Then he waited, anxiously wringing his hands and doing everything but hovering over his unconscious mirror.
This was his last ditch effort and things were already unraveling before his eyes. Yuga had nearly killed the very hero Ravio was about to beg to stop him. Ravio tugged at the ends of his hair under his hood and shuffled from foot to foot as Link slept, obvious to Ravio drowning in his regrets.
He should have fought harder for Hilda to listen, should have taken initiative, and left as soon as he saw the fissure between worlds to warn Hyrule of what was coming. Instead, he was triaging a hero caught unawares while Yuga likely made significant headway with his plans. What a terrible mess.
While Ravio was biting back a frustrated, desperate, hopeless yell, Link awoke. Ravio was out of his thoughts and before the hero in the moment it took the man to blink. He was still concussed, but no longer bleeding, and surprisingly okay with a stranger in his home. He had been frantic, focused on chasing after the threat to his home. He had no attention left to spare for Ravio and his proposal.
All his planning and rehearsals were wasted because Link’s brain had smashed a little too hard against his skull. Ravio had practiced a whole convincing sob story: “Times have been so hard. I have no money and nowhere to go! Please, oh please, Hero sir!” he planned to say, dropping to his knees, hands clasped in supplication. He didn't even need to act it out since it was all true.
He had barely gotten through his line about not being able to pay rent yet when Link interrupted him with “What? Yeah, sure, whatever!” as he headed out the door. Ravio barely had time to slip his bracelet into Link’s hands before the door slammed shut.
Thus began a month filled with renting and selling his items from Lorule to Link, sending Sheerow off to collect the unconscious hero and his items when he pushed himself too hard and smiling behind his hood as he said “Maybe you should be more careful next time,” until Link got frustrated enough to shove the rupees into his hands to buy the item outright.
He learned a lot about his mirror in that time. One could even say they were close.
He experienced his grumpy, prickly attitude when he was forced to barter for items and the exasperated roll of his eyes when Ravio assured him that the price was discounted. He caught the mischievous glint in his eyes as he cheated at cards. He heard his laughter when he couldn’t maintain their banter any longer without cracking up.
Ravio also saw how much he cared, the concerned furrow of his brows, and the slump of his shoulders under heavy worry. He kept getting back up to fight, again and again, no matter how frightening his enemy or injured he got. Ravio had come to really admire his kind heart and iron-wrought courage to match and he had come to worry for him in equal measure.
Ravio could see the way everything weighed so heavily on him. This was his fourth adventure and he sported scars and old hurts from the previous ones. Someone like him ought to be retired, caring for the orchard he loves so much and chasing the guards out of his yard with an angry yell. Instead, he is out there fighting Ravio's battle, the one he had been too weak, too frightened to finish himself.
He felt so ashamed. He couldn't even drum up the courage to show Link his face. He would be so disappointed.
As sick with shame those thoughts made him, they were what carried him through that last confrontation. He couldn't stand by and watch as Hilda doomed one world for theirs, doomed the home of the Hero who fought so hard and cared so much. He knew that wasn't right. He couldn’t let her do something so cruel, so evil, no matter what it was for.
She had already ignored him once before, but this time there was something burning in his chest, driving him toward danger and not away, not quite like fear, but just as weighty. He stood between her and the princess and hero of Hyrule. He threw back his hood and faced her down a second time knowing everything that was at risk. He looked her in her tired, desperate eyes and begged, “Please don’t do this.” He told her with words he couldn't summon before the depths of callousness and cruelty she had sunk to. Even if she saved their kingdom, what would it make them? Nothing good could come of this.
He put all of that burning something in his chest behind those words and prayed. Somehow, it worked.
The battle was won. The journey was finished. Against all odds, Ravio had gone against his nature and managed to play a part in the salvation of two kingdoms. He had helped along the Hero of Legend and managed to pull his queen from the brink of true evil. He even managed to turn a little profit. All things considered, it was a successful adventure.
Then the Triforce had been restored in a glorious flash of light, and the clouds over Lorule had parted for the first time in Ravio's lifetime. The people rejoiced. Their world was saved, truly saved. Ravio couldn't begin to fathom it.
Then, after the fanfare and celebrations, reality had come calling.
Lorule was a mess and had been a mess for generations since they had destroyed their Triforce. The sun didn't shine, the land was hard and difficult to cultivate, the wilds were filled with powerful monsters, and the royals ruled a discontented people with an iron fist. Their relationship was not the sunny one that Hyrulians had with their royalty, loyalty, and service given happily and dutifully. Lorule’s was grudging. They only followed because they feared what would happen if they didn’t.
Hilda was trying to improve it, and that was probably the root of this whole debacle. She had been desperate. She would have trusted anyone who had offered a solution. Unfortunately, Ravio had none, so it made sense she turned to the first person who did. He couldn’t blame her, but the people of Lorule certainly could.
It put Ravio in a precarious position. He was, known to all the people of Lorule, the queen’s most loyal servant, the man she turned to for advice, and he had been glaringly absent in her neediest hour. Though Ravio was privy to the whole narrative -how the queen ignored and shunned him, and how he traveled to another world to search for more competent help- the people of Lorule were not. All they saw was the queen’s servant fleeing and an evil stranger taking his place. In their eyes, he had abandoned the queen and her people.
Though times were better now, the people of Lorule were not fools. They remembered the hardships of the past as a fresh wound and though their anger was soothed, for the time being, it only took a small shake to crack the proverbial scab that had settled over it. The people would be furious to learn the queen put her trust in a stranger and endangered not just their kingdom, but another as well. The castle could not simply explain the mistake the queen made and ask for forgiveness. It would be met with a rebellion.
Therefore Ravio’s reputation became a casualty. He became known as the queen’s cowardly counselor who fled at the first sign of trouble. The queen had no choice, but to turn to a stranger for help in restoring Lorule. She was praised for her mercy in welcoming him back, and the kingdom was more than happy to direct their ire at Ravio. They couldn’t revolt and overthrow him, after all. They could just shun him, shoo him out of their towns like a pestilence and leave rude letters in his mailbox.
Ravio told himself he didn’t mind. He was Hilda’s servant and he was meant to serve and protect her. He understood the need for a scapegoat and he was a well-known coward anyway. Like this, he could at least put that to some use. He could be like Link in that regard, selflessly wielding his cowardliness as the Hero wielded his courage.
He just wishes he had some skills other than buy, sell and barter because the merchant business isn’t going so well anymore; no one wanted to associate with a coward and traitor, after all. He wishes he had another choice than to refuse the refuge kindly offered by the queen in her castle.
Ravio forces himself to focus on the bright side.
No merchant business means he can travel. He takes his time exploring Lorule since he never got the chance before. Perhaps he would look for a place that hasn’t heard of rabbit-hearted Ravio. He finds no such place exists, but the search had been… an experience. A lonely, harrowing experience, where he was summarily shooed from every town he entered, and sorely missed more than just Sheerow as a companion, but an experience all the same.
With that plan a bust, he focuses on his home. With all the extra time, he tries his hand at gardening. Link had been very skilled at coaxing food from Hyrule’s fertile fields and Ravio seems to be adept at it as well. Before long he has a picturesque patch of pumpkins and rich leafy greens. He finds himself looking forward to harvesting time before his neighbors ransack his tiny garden to carve ‘traitor’ into the dirt.
That is fine. He has always been more of a scholar anyway. His hands easily blister and his feet start smarting after more than an hour of standing. The fields are hot and lonely, and the sun is bad for his skin. He shall leave the farming to Link and the learning to himself. It will keep him in his house, out of sight, and Ravio can even expand his knowledge! Though in a week he has read his personal library to exhaustion and not a single merchant in town or out of it will do business with him, so he can't acquire more books. Of course, the town library is out of the question too.
He practices hiding. He is already very good at that and he gets even better, holed up in his house with the lanterns off and the windows shuttered. If he pretends he is not home, pretends he doesn't exist long enough, maybe everyone else will believe it.
He is running out of food, his money is no good, his garden is an eyesore, there is a mountain of hateful letters piling up under the mail slot in his front door and he is lonelier than he has ever been, but it’s fine. He is great. He has never had so much free time to get things done. His horizons are wide-open, a blank canvas for him to explore.
Eventually, he hopes.
In the meantime, he thinks about Link's lively living room, his orchard, the lovely people of Kakariko, and the hero himself. Ravio wonders how he is doing, how the harvest was this year, and if he finally got to go exploring like he had wanted. He holds that thought close to his heart, a little bubble of warmth in his cold and hollow home. He contents himself picturing Link sun-kissed and content under rows and rows of blossoming apple trees. Was he still expecting Ravio's share of the rent, or had he forgotten? Had he kept the house tidy? He would write the hero a letter if only the postman could deliver it.
He startles out of a doze, curled against the wall with his hood pulled over his face and Sheerow nestled into his chin. The sudden change from sunny fields to purple-tinted darkness startles him all the way awake. For a moment, he isn't sure what woke him until his ears perk to the sound of shuffling around his house. He peeks out of his hood into the gloom of his dirty living room in time to catch a shadow as it crosses over his closed curtains. Then a knock lands on his door. He freezes, breath held, stone-still as whoever it is waits for him to open the door. He presses his forehead to his knees, begging them to go away. He is fine. No need to check on him! He can’t take this anymore.
“Ravio…?” The voice that floats through the door is muffled, yet familiar. It is a lot like Hilda’s voice, though quite a bit smoother, higher in pitch, but no less regal.
Not one to be fooled, Ravio remains still. Even people with the nicest voices were capable of cruel things when angry or desperate enough. He knows that well from Hilda, and more recently his experiences with her subjects.
Though much to his displeasure, the knock sounds again. “Ravio, quiet as you may be, I can sense you in there,” the voice says.
Ravio’s heart jumps, and he lets out a breath that sounds precariously close to a sob. “No, you can’t,” he calls back, sounding warbling and pathetic even to his own ears, “For I have set off on a journey to lands far beyond Lorule’s borders from which I will never return!” He sighs wistfully at the thought. He could buy a boat and sail over the seas to places unknown where no one has ever heard of him. Too bad he was terrified of sailing and got horribly seasick.
The silence lingers on the other side of the door and for a moment, Ravio thinks he has banished his visitor. Then, “About that…” the voice speaks again, discomfort leaking into the last few words, “I bear no ill-will. I’ve come with a proposal.”
Ravio does not like the sound of that. “I’m far too young to be married, and to someone I’ve known for a scant few moments. Nay, I can’t even consider it,” he bemoans, “You will have to take your proposals elsewhere.”
Silence again. “Ravio, please,” the voice says, “If you do not open this door, I will be forcing it open. I would hate to cost you a door, and it is terribly rude to make a princess open the door for herself besides.”
Ravio sits up, Narrowing his eyes at the door, he considers that little tidbit of information. Of the thousands of people that have made Ravio’s acquaintance, only two could be called a princess, and one of them had since ascended to become queen.
“P-princess Zelda?!” he yelps, unable to help his abject surprise. He shoots to his feet and scrambles to the door, nearly tripping over his robes. The enormous pile of untouched hate mail flies up around him as he stomps through it, quickly pulling the wooden door open
The goddess-touched princess of Hyrule meets his shocked gaze with one of her own. Then, as unopened mail flutters to the ground around them, her lips tug up into a smile. “Hello, Ravio,” she says, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
Ravio admits that he should probably feel more shame about letting a royal into his house-turned-hovel. There is no time for that, however. Ravio leads the princess inside, carefully kicking abandoned wares and dust bunnies out of her way. She elegantly follows, daintily stepping over the unopened mail strewn about his floor and dodging any stray tools or clothing lying around. He is quickly tidying ahead of her, clearing laundry off one of his dining table chairs and gathering dirty dishes from the table into his arms.
“Please, take a seat, Princess,” Ravio says, his voice horribly congested with tears. His house is still a mess, but at least his hood hides the disaster that is his face. “Ah… I’m so sorry for the mess. I-I’ll be back momentarily.” He bustles into the kitchen, dropping the ceramic bowls and cups into the sink basin. The basin is empty, as all of his dirty dishes remained where he set them and hadn’t moved. He jumps at the clatter and it jerks him out of his disbelieving haze.
He glances back to the princess at his table. She has settled herself down where he told her, her long skirts tucked around her legs. She is looking over at him with furrowed brows. He can't read her expression.
“Ravio.” He must lose time because the voice in his ear is sudden and shocking. Ravio jumps, he might even yelp. Regardless, a pair of small hands grasp his own. The fingers are laden with bands of gold and silver, a few delicate jewels sparkling amongst the dragon’s hoard. They would be like Link’s, if not for their size; Ravio can feel the magic pouring off of them, pouring off of the person before him. Blue eyes, clear and pure like crystal peer up into his face, scrunched slightly with concern. “Relax, Ravio,” she says, “I do not care for formalities.”
Ravio looks up at her. “Still…” he begins to say but finds himself unable to finish.
The gentle hands clasp his tighter, slowing their steady trembling. “It looks like you’ve been having a rough time,” she says thoughtfully. She looks down at their clasped hands and rubs a thumb over Ravio’s knuckles. “I should have thought to check. With the way Link has been acting… I should have checked in on you too,” she says, voice heavy with regret.
A thrill of worry shoots down to Ravio’s feet at that. “Link…?” he asks, “Is Link alright?”
The princess smiles wryly. “It’s a long story,” she says, “In short, I… I left him on his own as he asked… I thought he would be okay. He had been before. But he wasn’t. This time… well, he’s disappeared. And I’m afraid…” She pauses, closing her eyes and breathing in sharply through her nose. “I’m afraid I won’t ever find him again.”
Her eyes climb back up to his, her gaze sharp. “Which is why I have come here with a proposition,” she says, “You are Link’s mirror-image, his other half. If anyone would be able to find him, even if he doesn’t want to be found, it would be you.”
Ravio can feel sweat beading at his temple as his heart rate kicks back up. His chest twists, worried for Link and overwhelmed by this nigh impossible task the Princess of Hyrule has just asked of him.
The first time Ravio found Link, it had been mostly a fluke. He knew he had a Hyrulian counterpart, but he had no idea he would be noble, loyal, endlessly brave Link and not some other cowardly merchant. He had only found him because he had been following Yuga’s trail of magic. It was all luck.
There is no way he could promise Princess Zelda he would find Link. He couldn’t take advantage of her like that, not after what she had done for him and his kingdom. But he can hear the alluring siren song of a new life floating in the flower freshness of Zelda’s perfume. If he said yes, she would allow him to stay in Hyrule, possibly indefinitely if no sign of Link turned up. At least she would let him stay and look for Link long enough for Lorule to presume him dead or something, surely.
Ravio sighs. “I think you are mistaken, Princess,” he says solemnly, “I have no such abilities. Finding Link the first time was a happy coincidence.”
Zelda sighs. “Oh, you are nothing like Link at all,” she laments. Ravio directs his gaze to his feet. “You are regrettably honest. And for a merchant, laughably terrible at seizing an opportunity.”
Ravio blinks at the words, jerking his head up. Zelda’s expression doesn’t change. He wonders if he imagined it. “Excuse me?” he says because surely he has misheard her.
“I set it all up for you,” she explains slowly, “I even gave you a justification in your own right that sounds believable! Come now, Ravio. Link told me you were intelligent.”
Ravio wrinkles his nose. “I… I’m sorry? You… wanted me to lie to you? Am I getting that right?”
“I wanted you to play along,” the princess says, “If you would please keep up!” She lets go of his hands and reaches under the shadow of his hood, slapping his cheeks lightly. “We’ll never convince anyone to let me take you back to Hyrule at this point.”
She tilts her head at him, somehow finding his eyes under his hood. “Unless you would prefer to stay…?” she says, though it is clear from her tone that she doubts it.
“I-I would be honored,” Ravio sputters, “Ecstatic, even.”
She smiles and turns briskly away from Ravio, her skirts fanning out as she turns. Lovely and graceful, she presses her gloved fingers to her chin. “We’ll just have to hope that you’re a better actor than a liar, then,” she says.
“Are those not one and the same?” Ravio mutters as the princess marches through his house. He follows after her, nearly slipping on a hateful letter. She effortlessly locates his travel bag and shoves it into his chest.
“Oh, this is a more perilous endeavor than I first thought,” she says, giving him an almost piteous look, “This excuse is the only way I could get Hilda to let me come find you, you know. She won’t let you leave if she thinks you don’t also believe it.”
“The princess is scheming!” Ravio blurts, “Moreover, she is scheming to kidnap me from under my queen’s nose?!” Though he wants to sound disgusted, he can’t quite bend his words into the right shape.
“Precisely,” she says, “Now pack. Take anything you can’t live without.”
Ravio scrambles to do just that. It would not do to keep a lady waiting. As he scoops clothing of dubious hygiene and bits and bobs from his wares into his enchanted travel bag, he can’t help the anxiety that nags at him. “But why?” he asks, no suspicion and all worry in his tone, “Wait… Is Link… is Link really missing?”
“Yes,” Zelda’s voice seems to echo through the dark house, “For the second time in six months.”
Ravio carefully slides what remains of his item stash from when Link cleared him out into his bag. “But he came back the first time?” he points out. If nothing else, Link is very good at coming back. He never failed to do so during his adventure, bleeding, limping, or barely conscious, he always made his way back.
“We had to find him the first time,” Zelda says. Her voice is quiet and small. She tips her chin towards her chest. “He had been stranded at sea for two weeks by the time we were able to. He recovered… but… since then, he’s been different.”
As Ravio slides the straps of his bag over his shoulders and turns to face her. He finds that Zelda’s fear had been all too real as he sees the same look on her face again. She is pale and looks almost gray drenched in shadows as she is. Under her eyes are splotches of purple, and her own hands fidget and shake as she speaks. Dread drops like a rock into Ravio’s gut.
“You don’t think-“ he begins to say. Surely, he would have felt at least that much. He always knew when to send Sheerow after the hero to dig him out of trouble and confiscate his forfeited items.
Zelda shakes her head once, so strongly it sends her hair flying around her face. “There are reports of him heading towards the castle on the last day he was seen. There was also a horde of monsters crowding near the castle gate that same day. But we found no body after they had been dispatched. If the two are connected, Link left that battle alive. But he has not reported to the castle or returned to his house.”
“Perhaps he wants to lay low?” Ravio suggests. His stomach is churning. A horde of monsters was at the castle gate, even after everything. What kind of darkness was brewing now?
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t then come to the castle as he was clearly planning,” the princess frets, gripping her delicate hands into her skirts tight enough to wrinkle them, “He just disappeared into thin air!”
Ravio chews his lip. If Link were heading towards the castle of his own accord, things must be serious. Suddenly, heading back to Hyrule doesn’t sound so appealing anymore. He wonders how much better he would fare against monsters as opposed to the angry citizens of his homeland. He takes a deep breath in through his nose, tightening his grip on his backpack strap.
“Don’t go getting cold feet on me!” the princess snaps, sniffing out his fear like a hound. It seems both Hilda and Zelda are good at that. Oh, look, a shared trait! Just like his and Link’s penchant for cheating at card games.
“I’m sorry, your highness, but it’s in my nature,” Ravio says with a wan smile, “Luckily for you, compared to the quick death of being eaten by a monster, this slow siege is much more unbearable. You needn’t worry, I will accompany you to Hyrule.” Not to mention the worry for the hero’s fate that now grips him.
She sighs, a little pout forming on her features. It reminds Ravio of Link, somewhat, and he feels something a little mischievous spark in him after so long. “Although, I thought that we both knew I couldn’t find Link,” he points out, “So my cold feet ought to be no concern of yours.”
She blinks at him, her expression does not crack in the least. “Sheerow can,” she says, “Link told me that’s how you confiscated items before. Sheerow can find him. I didn’t want to request just the bird and leave you behind, so I embellished. I doubt I would be able to understand him like you do.”
“Ah,” Ravio sighs, his expression falling once again, “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Link eventually bought all his items outright. Without my little tracker on him somewhere, Sheerow can comb Hyrule high and low and won’t be able to find him.”
“He still has your bracelet,” Zelda says quickly, “He never took it off. He was wearing it when we found him at sea. I doubt he would have taken it off now.”
Ravio feels a rush of elation, and hope, mixed with a little bit of personal happiness. Link continued to wear his bracelet. Even though he said it was gaudy and smelled funny, he still wore it. Though there was cause to get so worked up over it, it was a useful tool after all.
He is so distracted by his thoughts that he misses what Zelda says next. He looks up to find her eyeing him expectantly. He flushes, extremely thankful it is hidden under his hood. “Well… With that… if there are still traces of my magic left, then maybe… Maybe…” he mutters. Assuming Link hadn’t thought the same thing and taken it off in advance.
Zelda grins, hope and satisfaction all wrapped into her pearly white teeth and sparkling eyes. Ravio wouldn’t be able to back out now, even if he wanted to.
Before stepping past the threshold of Ravio’s front door, the princess dons a hood of her own. It is a deep purple, likely belonging to Hilda, with the Triforce embroidered in gold thread on the back. There are guards from Lorule castle waiting at the end of the path through Ravio’s garden. He is incredibly glad they hadn’t followed Zelda to the house or else this plan would have been doomed. As she approaches, they nod solemnly at her and together they walk in the direction of Lorule castle.
Along the road, people gawk in small crowds and whisper. “Oh, now Hyrule has a bone to pick with the traitor?” one asks. “Perhaps they will give him the punishment he deserves,” another announces loudly while miming pulling a rope taut.
Ravio drops his head between his hunched shoulders. He projects the look of someone marching towards their death rather than their salvation. Perhaps this way no one will come asking after him. If he appears here years later, they won’t dare to think he could be the same disloyal, cowardly Ravio.
The guards don’t leave them until they are safely shut in the throne room. Hilda sits in her rightful seat, frowning fiercely as she taps her fingers on the polished armrests of her magnificent throne. “You are certain this is the only way?” she asks as Zelda pulls down her hood. She does not bother with a greeting. “I do not see why you could not just send the bird.“
Sheerow snuggles closer to Ravio’s neck, clear communication of his fear of being taken. “I am sorry, my Queen,” Ravio says with heavy reluctance, “The hero Link no longer has any traces of my magic on his person, and thus Sheerow would never be able to find him, even if he searched for one hundred years.”
“Ravio has confirmed that he can locate Link if he were to set foot into the same realm as him,” the Princess adds.
The Queen’s face twists with anxiety. She stands from the throne, taking long strides to approach them. “Perhaps that is so. But, if whatever this is was able to take Link, then it will make easy work of Ravio.” She says, taking a stance between the princess and himself.
Ouch, Ravio thinks. Though she is hardly wrong.
“He will have the full protection of Hyrule Castle’s guard,” the princess assures confidently, “It has not affected any other citizens in Hyrule. It seems as if Link was its only target. Besides, if it intended to take Ravio, it likely would have already done so.” She says. She looks pointedly at Ravio over the Queen’s shoulder. “Considering he has been left unprotected up until now.”
Hilda flushes, stomping one booted foot at the accusation. “Do not accuse me of negligence, especially not when your hero is missing and mine is still whole,” she says, “He asked for independence and I granted it to him.” She glances back at him with a hint of hurt.
Ravio dips his head, with less agreement, and more acknowledgment. The people wouldn’t trust her judgment with him still traipsing around the castle. It was the only logical step in securing her rule. The corrupting adviser had to be exiled. The people didn't need to know whether or not it was self-imposed.
“Then please,” Zelda says, bowing her head low. The longest of her golden curls nearly brushing the polished obsidian floor. “Grant him that independence now.”
The words seem to echo throughout the cavernous throne room before they settle heavily between the two monarchs. They mean more than Zelda perhaps knows herself. Hilda has turned to Ravio since they were children, chose him specifically to be her advisor, and clung to him even as she actively ignored his cautions. Zelda begs for more than just her permission now.
Hilda turns to him, her dark curls flying around her. She fixes him with her intense, red gaze. Her eyes are scrunched like she intends to cry, even if her brows are crumpled in a scowl. “Do you wish to go with her?” she asks,
Ravio hides in the shadows of his hood. “Without her hero, Hyrule will sure fall into-“
“I do not speak of duty, here,” she says, her voice wavering, stuck somewhere between rage and sorrow, “Do you want to go with her?”
Ravio looks at the floor between his boots. He is shaking. Of course, he does. How could someone looking at his situation think anything different? He has been scapegoated and abandoned, counted as an acceptable loss. “You're leaving?!" she had cried the night it became clear his presence hurt her reputation. “You are going to abandon me again?”
“I… Yes,” Ravio says, bowing his head in shame.
He has done everything he can for her. He has been used and discarded twice, and yet she still comes digging for him in the trash, demanding him back to her side. She doesn’t care about his condition or his usefulness. He is her charming, soiled, loyal, cowardly, wise, daft Ravio, her life-long servant. Here he stands again with nothing more to give her. With a crack deep in the core of his soul, he realizes he never had in the first place. He could not be her hero.
He looks up in enough time to catch a flash of betrayal in her eyes before she turns her face away, towards the throne. “Then go,” she says, her voice flat.
Ravio fights past the yawning, hollow hole torn into his chest at his revelation. He couldn't be her advisor, couldn't be her hero, couldn't even properly be her friend with all his meek platitudes. Is leaving all he could do for her? “My Queen, I-“ He struggles to form words, even to draw breath.
“Just go!” she shouts this time, her voice shrill and sharp, at the very edge of tears. Ravio flinches despite himself, taking a step away. It takes everything he has not to flee the room.
The queen clenches her fists at her sides. “Go. I no longer have a use for you here,” she says, her voice much more level.
It’s true, but it doesn’t lessen the sting. It is a repeat of what she said before: "You’re useless to me," she had told him as she took Yuga’s hand. Only this time, there truly is nothing Ravio can do, nothing more he can give. Useless, frightened little Ravio. His only skill was running away.
Swallowing, he turns towards Zelda. Her gaze is trained on him, pity and compassion in her eyes. He gives one last glance towards Hilda, taking a seat again on her throne. She does not meet his eye.
He nods to Zelda.
Slowly, Zelda takes his hand and uses her light magic to flip the world upside down.
Ravio would have stumbled and nearly fallen if not for the princess’s grip on him. She steadies him with a firm grip, rubbing his back as he reels. He is still shaking, his back shuddering with the breath he can’t quite get under control. His face burns with shame at the same time his stomach twists with guilt and the princess of a foreign kingdom is witness to it all.
She is silent for a blessed few minutes as they stand in Hyrule Castle’s sunlit throne room. No one else is there, so at least Ravio can take solace in that.
Then, regrettably, she says, “Do you want to speak… about that?” She is painfully gentle, her stroking hand turned bracing against his back.
Ravio shakes his head, searching for his voice in the ravine that has become his stomach. “No…” he finally manages, “It’s fine.”
He looks up to find Zelda frowning, not the cute pout from before, but an expression filled with real concern. “Out of all the traits you could share, it had to be the stubbornness,” she mutters unhappily, “Well if you ever decide that the words are too heavy to bear, I will be here with an open ear to listen.”
Ravio blinks at that, more than a little dazed. Zelda lets him have his moment, stepping away to brush the wrinkles out of her skirts. “Though, perhaps you would rather Link be the one to listen,” she says thoughtfully, “I’m sure… I’m sure perhaps you could find some common ground.” She looks away from him, troubled.
Ravio reaches up and slaps his own cheeks this time. “Certainly Link would never have the patience to sit through my moaning, and if he were to relate, it certainly wouldn’t be because of you.”
This he can say with certainty. Zelda has been nothing, if not supportive and kind, reaching out, but not tugging on Link. She clearly wants him to be more present in his life, but she does her best not to cling.
“In any case, Link cannot listen to anyone if he is still missing. I am sorry to rush you, but… Does your bird feel any trace of that bracelet?”
Ravio shakes himself back to the subject at hand. quickly reaching into the folds of his scarf. Sheerow obediently hops into his palm and he pulls him from the shadows. “Okay, friend, anything?” he asks.
There is a long pause where Sheerow sits in his hand. He is still, but his feathers shudder and his red gaze is distant. Then, all at once, he poofs out like a cotton ball. He lets out a sad noise that Ravio immediately understands as, “Nothing, boss.”
When Ravio turns towards Zelda again, he sees that she managed to glean the same thing. “Could… could he have broken the bracelet?” she asks, equal parts fearful and hopeful.
“Even if he did, Sheerow would be able to track down the pieces,” Ravio says, “There is no trace of the bracelet… possibly not in all of Hyrule. Sheerow has a wide range.”
“So that means….” She trails off. Her hands travel back down to her skirts, grasping the fabric tightly.
“Wherever Link is… he isn’t in Hyrule,” Ravio fills in for her.
What kind of mess has their hero gotten himself into this time?