Broken Promises

“Hold still,” Nabooru ordered as the squirming young Prince swatted her hands away. “You need to look semi-presentable to see the Hylian King.”
The ten-year-old Gerudo boy scowled as his guide, only nine years older than him, picked at his clothing and smoothed his hair. “Don’t see what’s so important about this King anyway,” he muttered sulkily.
“Hold your tongue,” she hissed, even though both spoke in Gerudo and none of the guards made any sign that they understood. “Even though he doesn’t rule over us, you should treat any neighboring monarch courteously if you want to rule properly. And this one keeps talking about “unifying” the provinces, so we don’t want to give him any excuse to take us over. Now wipe that frown off your face and let’s go.”
Ganondorf couldn’t muster friendliness in that dank, suffocating castle, so he put on a mask of seriousness instead. Nabooru must have found this satisfactory, for she made no more remarks about his appearance.
The Hylian King sat at the end of a long, long room, with a red carpet leading the way to the throne, as if visitors couldn’t find it themselves. With the line of guards armed with spears and the Royal Seal in gold high above, there was no way to mistake who was in charge. Huge windows provided all the light needed during the day, and intricately woven tapestries - all featuring the Seal - decorated the walls.
As they approached the dais, they bowed their heads in greeting, though as visiting rulers they didn’t need to kneel. Ganondorf doubted he could bring himself to kneel in front of a man who had never been tested, a man who could not do anything himself but required an entire castle full of servants to take care of the simplest tasks.
The King was slightly older than Nabooru, and next to him sat a woman about the same age. Ganondorf didn’t care to take in any more features. The little man and woman on their oversized chairs didn’t interest him. However, the King seemed very interested in Ganondorf. “You’ve grown a great deal since I saw you last,” he offered.
“Yes, sir.” Ganondorf didn’t mention that he was only four at that time and therefore such a comment was painfully obvious.
The King turned back to Nabooru. “Your Prince is certainly a strong-looking young lad, isn’t he? Yet you want to teach him the musical arts?”
“His late mother wished for him to learn some of the ways of the Hylians,” Nabooru replied. “And, since you have a daughter close to his age, she thought it would amuse the young Prince to learn the art of music from her.”
The king nodded. “Very well. I’ll send someone to bring you to the great tower.”

-&-

It was a giant, hideous monstrosity.
Ganondorf stared at the enormous contraption taking up half the room. Long metal pipes reached up from the organ itself into the rafters of the high ceiling, dwarfing the keyboard. The servant smiled graciously and patted the cushion in front of the control board. Ganondorf nodded once, trying to hide his irritation at being treated like a child. He frowned at the gigantic machine. It was too big, too ornate, to conspicuous. It could not be taken anywhere, and the only place it seemed to belong was the giant room specially made for it. What a waste of time and space!
As the servant left, another person entered in the hallway. She wore the same soft silks as the King and Queen, of Gerudo make but dyed in washed-out colors. Embroidery decorated the hem of the dress, one of the few fine arts Hylian women were permitted to learn. She looked weak and scrawny by Gerudo standards, but probably perfectly healthy by Hylians.
She smiled at the boy prince. “Hello, Ganondorf. I am Princess Selena. My father says you would like to learn how to play the organ.”
This statement was nowhere near the truth, but Ganondorf nodded anyway. Nabooru turned to him and said, “Well, I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll return at the end of the day.”
Ganondorf wanted nothing more than to get out of there as fast as he could, either to run out himself or entreat Nabooru to take him home. But such behavior was scandalous for any Gerudo, let alone a Prince. So he settled for sulking on the inside, keeping his mask of indifference on the outside.
Princess Selena sat down on the velvet cushion and motioned for him to join her. He did so, looking away from her. She smiled again, then reached down into a small drawer on the side and fished out some sheets of music. “You can read music, yes?”
He nodded once. The Gerudo learned tunes by memory, by ear, but this had been yet another lesson he had been forced to learn, all in the name of relations with the Hylians. Ganondorf doubted his predecessor would have been subjected to such torture.
“Good.” Selena pointed to a simple scale on the sheet music. “If you can read, then all you need to know to begin is how the keys correspond to the notes.” She pointed to the bottom note, then lightly touched one of the keys. Despite the delicate touch, the organ let out a bellow that made Ganondorf jump slightly, despite his best efforts.
Selena giggled, and he fought to keep his mask of indifference. “All right, now you try.”
Ganondorf begrudgingly touched the same key, and the instrument made a similar noise resembling a dragon’s fart. He cringed.
Selena didn’t seem to care; either it was supposed to sound like that or she didn’t expect much from a beginner. “All right, now hold your hands like this.” First she demonstrated, then grabbed his hands and twisted his fingers into the correct form. His skin crawled at her touch and he pulled his hands away from her as soon as she let go, but she motioned for him to play. “You see your left pinkie finger is on the note you just played, right? Now try playing the scale with both hands.”
He obliged, his face becoming darker and darker with each note, the sound incomparable to anything except maybe a group of drunk Moblins. Maybe.
“Very good!” Selena exclaimed, and Ganondorf turned away in disgust.
“It sounds terrible,” he snapped in thickly accented Hylian. “How can you listen to this?”
She frowned for the first time, then turned back to the keyboard. “Well, like anything, it takes practice,” she said. She positioned her hands over the keys, then played a rollicking tune that harnessed the instrument’s clumsy notes rather than getting caught in them. “It actually sounds best when you play something powerful, almost threatening, but nobody wants to teach me that sort of thing.”
Here she gave Ganondorf an impish, secretive smile, then pounded out a short, low melody that contrasted sharply with her small, delicate form, yet fit the enormous instrument perfectly. For the first time the young Gerudo prince showed a hint of interest; but he still eyed the organ suspiciously.
Slightly exasperated, Selena put her hands in her lap. “Well, there must be something you can do well, something that requires a lot of practice to make it look like it’s done right.”
Here he perked up. “I can fight.”
She giggled slightly. “Well, I can’t, so that won’t help much.”
He dropped his mask completely, showing his utter disgust. “All rulers should fight.”
“Not princesses.”
“Especially princesses,” he affirmed. “You are important, and you are vulnerable. You must learn to fight.” He walked deliberately over to one of the suits of armor by the wall, and pulled the sword from its hand. Selena watched in surprise as he hefted the sword, nearly half her weight, with little to no effort at all. It was a one-handed sword, but because of his size, Ganondorf held it like a broadsword. He held it outward, then made several steps left, right, back, and forth while sweeping the sword around in broad strokes, more like dancing than aggressive combat.
He offered her the hilt. “Now you try.”
She waved him off but he insisted. She grasped the sword hilt but could barely lift the point off the ground. He grunted in disgust, then went off hunting for another weapon. Pulling a large knife out of the empty armor’s belt, he handed it to her. “You pretend this is a sword,” he ordered. He picked up the one he had been using and held it outward in demonstration. She copied him.
Ganondorf made the same motions, slowly, watching her as she tried to copy him. She had strong, swift movements, he noted, but so unrefined that every step threatened to throw her off balance. The ridiculous outfit she wore didn’t help.
She fell flat on her bottom and started laughing. “See?” she said between giggles. “Anything looks bad when you try it the first time. Let’s make a deal. I teach you the organ, and you teach me fighting. All right?”
Ganondorf extended his hand, giving her a rare smile. “All right.”

-&
Try as he might, Ganondorf couldn’t make the simple scale sound anything like Selena’s. He grumbled to himself as the enormous machine blurted out note after soggy note. “I’m doing everything the same way, aren’t I?” he demanded. “I’ve been working on this stupid scale for a week and it still sounds terrible.”
Selena paused from the stances she had been running through, just off to the side. “Well, I still lose my balance once in a while. You have to use finer movements…like that sword flick you showed me earlier today.” She walked up to him as he flexed his cramped fingers, and demonstrated. “You need a lighter touch, see? It looks like you’re trying to pound it into submission. You’ll just make it cry out in pain. The organ’s loud enough as it is…you don’t have to force it.”
He watched her, carefully, then tried it himself. He lost it halfway through, but managed to make at least half of it sound acceptable. “Good job!” Selena exclaimed, but he scowled at her. “Why are you always so grouchy?” she demanded.
“Why are you so infernally cheery?” he shot back.
For the first time she stopped smiling. “Oh, I don’t know…” she said slowly. “It helps me feel better, sometimes…”
“Feel better about what?” Ganondorf demanded. “The plentiful food? The beautiful weather?” He swept his arm over toward the window, the sun shining cheerily as usual.” What on earth do you have to be unhappy about?”
Selena picked at the embroidery on her dress. “Well, nothing, when you put it that way…it’s just that, well, Hylian women don’t have the same rights as Gerudo women…” she picked up the knife with which she had been practicing. “They’re not allowed to fight, or travel without an escort. Especially not a Princess…”
Ganondorf snorted. “Fighting skill is important. But it is not something one should aspire to if it can be avoided. Only fools throw their lives away for the sake of another man’s honor.”
“Well, I was just thinking…” Selena slowly unraveled the thought in her mind. “If I could defend myself, maybe I could prove that I could take the throne.”
“Won’t that happen anyway? You’re the King’s only child.”
“Well, yes, but the ruler of the country must be male. It’s the same for the Gerudo, isn’t it? You’re a boy, so you are automatically King. I have no brothers, so I must marry a man from either the noble ranks, or from another country.”
Ganondorf shook his head. “When there is no male, the Gerudo govern themselves either from a Priestess or a Council of elders. They don’t need to go looking for men from other countries to tell them how to run their own affairs.”
Selena smiled sadly. “I wish it were the case here, so that I could rule my own people.”
“Are you not the Princess of Hyrule?” Ganondorf demanded. “Do the Hylians really believe that a man from another country would rule this one better than its rightful heir?”
“Yes.”
Ganondorf turned back to the keyboard. “Then your people are fools,” he muttered. “I hope that you at least have the sense to choose a husband with an ounce of intelligence, enough to listen to his wife when he does something stupid.”
“Unfortunately, no.” Selena sat down next to him and ran her fingers along the keys. “My father will choose my husband for me…and unfortunately I do not approve of his choice.”
“Then tell him!” Ganondorf snapped, as if pointing out the obvious to a very young, very obtuse child.
“I have. It makes no difference. He has made his decision.”
“Perhaps if you try to persuade him long enough, he will change his mind.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“What?!” A blast of noise issued forth from the organ as Ganondorf leaned on it in surprise. “How can it be too late? Have you even had your first blood?”
Selena turned beet red. “How…how do you know about that?”
“I live in a race of women! Now answer the question,” he ordered bossily.
“Well…yes,” Selena replied, sheepish. “That was what sparked my father’s search for a husband. And as soon as we’re married, we’re expected to…”
“Ridiculous!” Ganondorf stood up from the chair, stalked over to the suit of armor and yanked out its sword. He swung it around, more to burn off excess anger than as any kind of threat. “Is your father trying to kill you?” he demanded as he made figure-eights in the air, turning his wrist without any conscious thought. “Women should not have children for at least three years after the first blood. At least! You’re not fully grown yet. Look how small you are! And how thin! Where are you going to keep a baby in that little body, eh?”
Selena giggled in spite of his dire warnings. “And how would you, a boy, be an expert on such things?”
“Did I not just tell you?”  Ganondorf swung the sword down in irritation. “All my people are women. Most of them have had at least one child since I was born. They take all kinds of precautions, yet sometimes the child dies, or the mother dies, or both. It is a very dangerous business. As dangerous as fighting!”
He stopped as he saw her standing with her head down, her eyes filling with tears. He patted her on the shoulder. “I am not trying to scare you,” he said in an awkward attempt at comfort. “You are healthy. You are a princess. You will have lots of midwives and doctors to look after you. Probably nothing bad will happen.”
She smiled slightly and wiped away the tears. “I know. But I’m still afraid…even before you said anything. I don’t know this person Father wants me to marry, and I can’t imagine….”
“Maybe he will be nice.”
“I know, but…” He dropped the sword in surprise and held up his hands as Selena embraced him. “Ganondorf, I’m so scared…I try to hide it, but I wish…” she burst into sobs.
He stood there, awkwardly patting her back with one hand, the other still out in the air. “Okay, okay,” he said several times over as she continued to cry. “Don’t feel bad.”
She pulled back and wiped her eyes again. “I’m sorry. I just….there aren’t many people I can talk to.”
Ganondorf stood, unsure what to say next. “Listen,” he said finally. “There is no reason why the Princess of Hyrule should bow to another man. Do what you must to keep your kingdom and please your people. But I will be here if you need  me to defend your honor.” He placed one hand across his chest and bowed slightly. “I and my people will stand by you under any circumstances.”
Selena smiled gratefully. She grasped his hand. “Thank you, Ganondorf,” she said. “I will make sure that the Hylians honor you and your people, as long as I am alive.”

-&-

Ganondorf’s fingers ran effortlessly across the keys,  the walls shaking as the dark tune rumbled through the tower. But his mastery of the instrument gave him no comfort. He played it again and again, as no other reflected his mood so well.
“Stop that infernal noise!” Ganondorf lifted his head slowly to see Princess Zelda scowling down at him from the impromptu prison he had made for her. “Or at least play something different!” Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe you should play your own funerary march. The Bearer of Courage is near. Your time is up.”
He turned back to the organ and continued despite her very ignoble cursing. He did not care what this woman said, this woman who was half-monster herself, who carried the blood of a cowardly fool in her veins. He could have silenced her with a few words, but even he, the King of Evil, could not bring himself to tell her the story of how she came into existence. How her mother had been far too young to bear a child. How Selena’s husband had forced himself upon her. The civil war that broke out soon after the marriage, when it became clear that the Hylian King would not listen to Selena’s advice.
When she had died in childbirth, the King turned his attention to the Gerudo, whom Selena had attempted to defend up until her death. Ganondorf played complacent in order to protect his people. Then, when the time was right, he would set things straight.
He had failed. Terribly.
Any flaws he possessed had been magnified a thousand fold when he grasped the Triforce, able only to take the most corrupting piece. He had nearly destroyed Selena’s country in his attempt to reclaim it.
But, if he lived through this next battle, all that would change. He would finally get the other pieces, and achieve the balance this country so sorely needed. The boy had managed to fight his way through the darkest corners of Hyrule, but Ganondorf doubted that Courage alone could defeat him, magic sword or not.
He felt the last Bearer draw near. Ganondorf had not been able to fulfill his promise. But after this fated meeting, he could finally make it up to her.