This Is Where I "Died" (Oron/Marianne)

Battle of Eldin.

She was not there when it happened, could not be there when her kingdom needed her. Disappearing right when her reconstruction efforts after Starlight Tragedy were finally beginning to bear fruit, the youngest princess was suddenly lost without a trace. It would not be after The Battle of Eldin that she returned, her body in wreck and her mind clearly shocked. It was said that, should the Zora Princess did not find her when she did, the princess of Hyrule would have died.

The princess herself never elaborated on the circumstance of her disappearance, and after a while it was quietly forgotten. The princess took the reins of a Kingdom wrecked by a succession of great battles and destroyed in morale, with not even the rightful King in sight, and she pushed herself to the limit to get her people back to speed. Countless energized reforms, new acts, standardized tariffs, and many building projects were approved by the princess in so short a time, surprising everyone except those who knew that the secretly half-princess always had it from the start. The princess had always deliberately tried to be seen as average all this time to divert attention away from her.

Case in point: when the Battle of Eldin happened in the spring, morale and logistics of the army was so low that a nobody (later knighted by The Princess) had to step up and rallied the troops. By the time the Mirror Expeditions happened in autumn, there were already several organized squads and the knights in Forest Temple held their line like never before. Even now, the preparation to storm the Arbiter's Ground was clearly far more well-organized, in no small part to the princess' presence.

But still, what she had lost, she could never have returned.

She lost several relatives during the Battle of Eldin. Some she knew personally as a family, others some distant acquaintances. But reading about their names when she read the official battle report was heart-breaking all the same. She had even lost a royal cousin, Oron El Hyrule, someone she remembered she used to admire from afar for his skill in music.

May his soul rest in peace.



The princess with many secrets was now standing on the very site of Battle of Eldin, her red cloak and hood completely concealing her identity. What she was doing there without her guards she would not tell, but she was pacing to and fro around the area, as if looking for something. Then and now she clasped her hands in front of her and fell in a silent prayer, a crimson figure paying her respects to the victims that were drenched in blood.

That was when she heard a beautiful lute playing.

A sad, ephemeral tune. A fitting music for the somber reality of what the battlefield stood for. Marianne found herself drifted towards the source: another hooded figure, standing alone. They were two people within the emptiness of the land.

She stood behind the person, silent and unmoving, until the person finished their song. She did not want to say anything originally, but the emptiness left by the haunting begged for something to fill its void. Even if just useless small talk. Or the sound of footsteps. Anything to prevent the battlefield itself to withdraw back to the past.

"A fitting music for what this place stands for," she said, her admiration clear in her voice, "You play beautifully."

Her voice was clearly a young Hylian woman. But as to her actual appearance, no one could tell.

Yes I copied Praxis' words XD

"I am," the woman replied curtly, "Though unlike your beautiful tune, a prayer is the only thing I can offer."

She looked to the side, to the Kakariko Village in the distance, and then to the hills and small woods around, as if trying to ascertain where they were.

"This is the place where the 44th Battalion fought to a man," she said in a somber tone, "Fifteen squares on the west of Victor's Hill and perpendicular to the east wall of Kakariko. All the soldiers and their officers perished holding the line."

Wordlessly, the woman clasped her hands in front of her chest and lowered her hooded head, standing still in a silent prayer. There was a certain earnestness in her gesture, an innocence on which she honored the fallen. Sadness was evident in her body language.

For a while, only the wind and their cloaks fluttering made sound between them.

Her hands returned to her side, the young woman sighed wistfully.

"Eulogy... respects... prayers.... They cannot change whatever has happened here. Yet, we continue offering them nonetheless, knowing full well only we ourselves can hear our voice....

Thinking about it, it is somewhat of a pointless thing to do, don't you think so?"

She isn't interested in identity.

To his observation that she seemed to be knowledgeable about the battle and how the battle was a loss, the woman nodded with a simple "It was.", even if her hood made it hard to ascertain whether she was truly nodding or not. Then, she clasped her hand and began her prayer.

To the man's response to her musings, she did not give any indication whether she agreed or not, only that she was clearly listening. As mysterious as the woman was, one clear thing was she was a good listener. And observant, too. She watched what the man did with interest, as flowers began to spread on the battleground.

"Quaint," she commented. And though her face was hidden one could easily tell that she was smiling, and not in a disapproving way. "One could say sentimental even, and in an exquisite way....

Does it give you a measure of comfort, now that you have done so?"

I like their interaction so far~

The young woman nodded at the man's answer. "I understand."

She then lowered her head, as if deeply in thought.

"When we are in pain... we tend to do something; anything at all to get our mind off the pain. Anything that might give us comfort from it....

Perhaps... perhaps... that is why you played your eulogy and I offered my prayer: because simply being here is painful for us, and it compelled us to do something. Even if it is an inherently pointless thing to do."

The words.... The words were not meant for anyone. They were as pointless as what they were saying. Yet, they were still being said nonetheless. Even if the calming breeze now blowing was the only one who heard them.

Comfort...

For a while, the young woman fell silent. Her crimson figure as immobile as the barren ground beneath them.

When she spoke again, her tone was pensive.

"Did you... lose someone important in this battle?"

If the young woman found his answer unique or evasive, she did not show it. She nodded once again, looking very earnest as she did so.

"I am sorry," she replied in a sincere tone, "You have my condolences."

There was another pause before the woman continued.

"Then... what will you do so that the memories of the ones you lost are not left in vain?" she asked, repeating the man's statement about the importance of action before.

In a way, she asks some deeper things

"How about you now?"

"About me?" the young woman repeated, clearly a little surprised that she would be asked at all. She hung her head, staring wordlessly at the ground. For an uncomfortable amount of time the woman fell silent....

"I don't know," she finally whispered, bitterness so obvious it was almost palpable in her tone, "I don't know if whatever I do will ever be enough...."

She scoffed.

"...Maybe praying is the only thing I am good at.... Useless, aren't I?"

It was more than bitterness. It was hatred, hatred not to anything but to herself. Someone who seemed to loathe themselves so much for what had transpired that she felt she could never repay her sins.

Disturbed. Broken.

...

The woman listened. There may be no clear indication of the actual face she made or her true feelings behind the veil of shadows, but she listened. Intently. The hooded woman stood in silence as the man spoke about "not letting it consume you" and that "she should help others and improve herself." Word for word.

When it ended, the woman did not reply, seemingly sinking back to that silence which dominated her mind. It was impossible to know why the stranger felt that way about the Battle of Eldin. Only that she did.

And it was tragic to watch.

"...Will it be of any use?" she finally spoke again, words so soft and unsure it was barely a whisper, "Even if I help anyone that I can.... Even if I improve myself to the fullest.... What will it do to those buried here?"

She bit her lips. And even whispering like this, the man would clearly notice that her voice was trembling slightly.

"The dead will stay dead, anyway.... And the sins of their fate will always remain."

She was... a child. Yes. A child. Beneath that intimidating crimson cloak and her almost unnatural ability to stand still... the young woman was very much a child. A child lost in the darkness of her own bedroom. A child, who woke up alone and found no one to comfort her. A child who was desperate for her mother's hand or her comfort blanket, but was unsure whether she deserved it.

A child for whom, the very act of her falling asleep in the first place was itself a sin.

...