Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, nor is Hyrule, nor is Nintendo. Blah, blah, blah. I wish. I am not the artist who made the beautiful cover art, it was found on Zerochan and borrowed.

THE PROLOGUE
by Cappucinno

This story is set in an alternate universe, but draws heavily from the games Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time. You may recognize characters, settings, and themes but the story itself is original and exists separately from any pre-existing game or familiar plot.

Day 12 of the Harvest Month, Year of Nayru
From Hyrule Castle, to be delivered to Kakariko

Dearest Zelda,

Things are not going well for Hyrule, I fear.

The entire land has been covered in shadows and darkness for weeks on end now; the people are beginning to fear that the goddesses have abandoned us. I try to believe otherwise, but it is becoming more and more difficult. The rainy season has come and our crops have all spoiled. Famine is slowly spreading across our once great land.

There are whispers in the palace of a foul plague, the likes of which have been contained to the smaller villages among the Hylian Fields. I worry for what this means.

The Zora have vanished and the waters of the lakes and rivers have frozen over once more. The woods are thriving and I swear that every day they extend their borders just a little bit further, engulfing more of our world in darkness.

The Gorons too seem to have disappeared and the endless snowstorms plaguing the mountains has made it impossible for us to try and establish the meaning behind their sudden absence.

Relations with the Gerudo have been hostile as of late; there is reason to believe that we may have to declare war upon their tribes soon. Because of this the people are growing more and more restless with each passing day, but we are, for obvious reasons, extremely hesitant to make a decision as drastic as war so preemptively.

The Order is more active than ever, Hyrule's very own group of vagabonds, and we are no more suited to deal with them now as we were four years ago. They are led by the mysterious man known only as the 'Hero' to the likes of us—a sacrilegious title, to be sure, likely meant to belittle us and the stories of old.

The fact that we have not yet identified a single one of the members of The Order makes it infinitely clear that we have no hope at this time of putting an end to their excessive and pillaging and plundering.

Even so, support for them is growing steadily as the conditions of Hyrule worsen; even the local militias do not bother to fend them off anymore. They are growing bolder as the days go by—but surely you have heard all this already, cousin? You do seem to know everything that goes on in Hyrule, after all.

On a different note, just yesterday the Temple of Time was infiltrated and the Master Sword was stolen from its pedestal. I wouldn't be surprised if word of this has already reached you by the time you read this letter.

Perhaps the goddesses have truly abandoned us after all, for our people are quickly turning upon us. I fear a rebellion may be coming sooner than we are equipped to deal with.

Take care of yourself, Zelda. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. You are the next in line to succeed the throne after I am gone and you have made yourself an easy target by associating with us—the so-called enemies of the people—in these bleak days, and you are too far away for us to be able to readily extend proper protection for you.

We always did tell you not to move to the border, did we not? But did you listen? Of course not. Your love of the people always did overwrite your common sense, you silly girl.

Please be careful.

Perhaps it would do you best if you were to come and stay with us at the castle; you would at least be safer that way, if only for a small amount of time. Write me back, Zelda. I forbid you to let this letter be buried and forgotten under your mountains of paperwork, and that is an official decree, I swear, I'm writing in into the books with my other hand at this very moment: If I don't hear from you soon I shall come and drag you here myself.

That is a promise, Zelda.

Yours truly,
Midna Black

A faint sigh escaped Zelda's lips as she leaned her forehead against the tips of her fingers, massaging her temples. Her tired azure eyes swept over the worn and faded letter once more, one hand holding the upper portion of the parchment up to the dim rays of morning light that illuminated the dank gray clouds in the sky. The dark-stain of the wooden window frame had been faded slightly from exposure to copious amounts of sunlight in years long past, and as were the rugs and tapestries that decorated the Duchess Zelda Nohansen's estate.

It was a modest structure, so far as manors went, two stories tall and made entirely from wood and stone. The design was both elegant and modest, with a gray stone foundation and colonial architecture that far outshone the shabby and run-down structures that comprised the townspeople's homes, much to their chagrin and ceaseless complaint. The estate was situated on top of a hill overlooking the entirety of the town, with the forest at its back and a river within its boundaries—the ideal place in which to look over the small but unnaturally troublesome village of Kakariko.

Needless to say, the inhabitant of the estate was little different from the structure itself. Zelda Nohansen was a regal young woman with dark blonde hair and vivid blue eyes, and a wisdom that seemed to extend far past her mere twenty years. She was, perhaps, too refined and too aristocratic for the town that she presided over, a fact that she well knew had caused majority of the townspeople to form an initial disliking of her.

The manner of her work had mentally aged the young woman who had been so vibrant and fiery in her youth, making her into a mere ghost of her former self, all manners and diplomacy, refined in every possible manner, and lacking the spark that she had once been so well loved for.

Of course, she was aware that enforcing taxes and other such legislation had planted an unhealthy seed of hatred for her within the hearts of the townspeople. To be perfectly honest, Zelda wasn't sure whether they merely disliked her or what she stood for.

She had a few select friends within the town, though on most days she was confined to her desk and unable to properly mingle. There was a kind woman named Telma who lived a little ways into town who would occasionally stop by to bring her food, a kind young girl named Aryll who insisted on calling her 'princess', and the darling Malon who happened to be an heiress and therefore in much of the same position as Zelda so far as public opinion went.

"The Master Sword, of all things." Zelda sighed, finally removing her eyes from her cousin's elegant scrawl and shifting her gaze to the window to observe the dark clouds that lingered over head.

Indeed, she had known most of the information her cousin had recently relayed to her, but to have it acknowledged by the Princess of Hyrule herself only served to make it more tangible than it had been before. The annual harvest had been sufficiently ruined, with all of the food having rotted on the vines or having been spoiled by the moisture. No doubt the full effects of the famine would soon reach Kakariko as well.

"I fear that you may not be wrong about that rebellion, dearest Midna." She sighed, shifting her gaze away from the window where crowds of people were gathering in the sodden streets below.

The blonde-haired young woman reached forward for her quill and dipped the chiseled tip into her inkwell, looking at her unfinished response once more. It had already been two days since she had received the letter and no doubt that Midna would make good one her promise if she did not receive a prompt response. With that in mind she set her quill to the page once more and began to write:

Things are faring little better here at the borders than at the Castle, it would seem, for there is a riot forming in the streets as I write this to you now. For the time being we still have food leftover from the summer harvest, but I shall likely have to implement rations soon. You have already done the same, I trust?

You know full well that I cannot leave my post. This town was in shambles before my arrival here two years ago and should I leave once more I fear it will fall prey once more to the thieves and bandits running amok through the Hylian Fields. I shall try to come and see you all at the castle when things are a bit more stable in Kakariko.

And Midna, please exert some self-control and refrain from stationing a military regiment around Kakariko to protect me. I'll have you know that it took me months to repair my reputation with the townspeople. You would be amazed at the sheer force of their imagina—

"Lady Zelda!" A voice called from outside the door of her study and the blonde looked sharply up the sudden intrusion.

With a slightly frustrated noise she scooted her oak and leather chair back from her paper-cluttered desk.

"Lady Zelda!" The voice called once more, followed by a series of frantic knocks.

A worried frown knit at her brows as she rose from her chair, gathering the heavy green material of her gown and her flimsy white shift with her as she did so, bunching up the fabric to her knees to swiftly make her way to the door.

"Malon?" She queried, swiftly undoing the locks on the door of her study and waiting for the response. "Malon, what is it?"

As the last lock was undone Zelda wrenched the door open, the small burst of wind from the action blowing through her hastily put-up hair and causing a few stray waves of golden-brown to fall around her face. She stopped as her eyes took in the figure in the doorway, a cloaked young man with chilling red-eyes.

"You—" Zelda began, taking a step backwards as she registered that Malon was no where in sight. "Who are you? What do you want?"

This triggered a laugh from the mysterious figure and his red-eyes crinkled slightly in amusement.

"What right do you presume to have that allows you to demand such things from me? And that tone. Tsk, tsk." He said in a casually calculating manner, and the implication of his words made Zelda's heart sink to her stomach.

He was, no doubt, one of the many who despised those with any authority in Hyrule, particularly those connected to the monarchy. But to have snuck so stealthily into her estate he could only have been an assassin or someone well trained in the arts of war, she quickly deduced as she took another step back.

As if reading her mind, the man shook his head.

"No, no, I am not here for such unpleasant matters."

Zelda tensed as she heard the floorboards creak under some unknown weight behind her and her eyes immediately sought out those red-ones once more, searching for some sign of apprehension. She found none, only a vague sense of amusement, and Zelda allowed herself to relax slightly, dismissing the creak as a product of her paranoid imagination. She dropped the material of her skirt and composed herself once more, meeting the stranger's red-eyed gaze defiantly, though her heart was beating loudly in her ears and her instinctive panic was rapidly overtaking her rational judgment.

"I apologize for being presumptuous, but what then is your purpose for having intruded upon—"

Zelda's words were cut off as the stranger laughed again, a sound that was fast beginning to grate on the Duchess's nerves.

"What…?"

"Well, I'm not, fair Lady, but I never said that they weren't."

That was all the warning that Zelda got before her mind registered a blinding pain and she felt herself falling forward into space. She could make out the silhouette of a tall man flanked by a female figure blocking out the light of the window. Angry shouts filled the usually quiet estate from the streets below and Zelda dimly registered that, yes, something was burning.

"Terribly sorry." Zelda managed to make of the whisper near her ear as she was caught before she hit the ground. "I'd really rather not have to do this."

Her world faded into black.

A/N: This is just the prologue, so it is considerably shorter than the chapters to follow will be, and is purely to set the stage for the many chapters to come. I'm afraid if I write too much here I'll start to give things away, so I'll keep things short and concise. I have no idea how long this story will ultimately end up being, though I can tell you right now that it will likely be longer than fifteen chapters. Yes, I'm still writing both First and Foremost and The Days in February, but this was just a story that was begging me to be written.

Please let me know what you think in the form of a review or constructive criticism, either way, your response will be held dear in my heart. And it will inspire me to write more. Shameless? Me? Surely you jest.

Until next time,

Cappucinno