Midna sat on the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands as she sobbed quietly. Why had she been so stupid? She clenched her fists, gritting her teeth as she tried vainly to hold back the tears that rolled down her cheeks, staining her midnight blue dress. Why had she destroyed the Mirror?
She looked up slowly, the sad realization coming to her. 'Because,' she thought, 'If I hadn't done it, someone else would try to do what Zant did.' Her face contorted in a grimace. "The good of the many outweighs the good of the one," she spat sarcastically, mockingly. She pounded a fist into her bed, the plush comforter sinking down in response. "But I don't give a damn about the many! There is only one…" A single word slipped from the Princess of Twilight's lips, filled with as much caring and compassion as she could muster. It was like a caress. "Link." Midna blinked away a few tears, then her mouth curved in the ghost of a smile as she remembered their adventure together. She covered her mouth to stifle a laugh as she thought of the time she had first seen him, trapped in his wolf form in the Twilit Realm. 'I guess I was a little hard on him,' she thought with a smirk. But, throughout their quest, their bond had deepened to a strong friendship, and, eventually for Midna, love. She had wanted to tell him; was longing to…but she was bound by her duty. She had to destroy the Mirror to save her people, and, with the Mirror gone, there was no way for her to return to the Realm of the Light. She sighed softly. 'Besides…' she thought. 'Even if there was a way for me to go there, or for him to come here, we'd be trapped in our cursed forms.' She paused for a moment, a wistful look crossing her face. 'Even so…I wonder—I wonder if he still thinks about…' Midna's head shot up, her lips twisted in raging anger as she realized what she was doing. She formed a sphere of Twilit fire in her hand and hurled it at the wall, leaving a smoking hole into the next room. "He doesn't need me," she sneered. "He's got Zelda."
A sudden knock at the door jolted Midna from her thoughts. She quickly brushed a few stray tears from her face, then straightened her hair to lie in its proper place on her head. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then called, "Come in."
The towering, ornate doors to her bedroom creaked open, and a young Twili page stepped into the room, looking quite nervous. Midna smirked as she saw the page, both in appreciation for his renewed appearance, and for his nerves. Two things happened in the Twilit realm with the defeat of Zant. The first was that the Twili lost their ghostly pallor and began returning to their normal forms, and the second was that the Twili regarded Midna with a different air since her return. They had always granted her the respect due a princess, but now, a certain—apprehension tinged some Twili's actions. Midna chuckled softly to herself. She didn't mind the new feelings toward her, but she did want her people to know that she wouldn't bite…if anything, the quest with Link had only improved her rather infamous temper. "Yes?" she said finally to the page, who had been looking around in what seemed like amazement at the size of the royal quarters.
The Twili jumped a little, then bowed deeply. "Your Highness, I bring you a letter from His Royal Majesty, the Twilight King." He presented the letter, then scampered as fast as respect would allow out of Midna's room. Midna grinned broadly as he made his exit. "Ah, well," she chuckled, "I guess he's not brave enough to be a knight, if he can't even look me in the eye." Her smile turned into a thoughtful frown as she held the letter up that the page had given her. "Hmm. What could Father want?" She smirked. "If he's planning to hold a banquet in my honor, he should have done that when I got back, not a week later." She paused. "But, if it's just idle chat, then why send me a letter at all, much less one with his formal seal on it?" She sat back down on her bed, examining the letter to see if she could glean any clues from it before opening it. She slipped a fingernail under one corner of the envelope, cleanly slicing it open from end to end. Inverting the envelope, she caught the letter in her hands, then unfolded it. Her eyes narrowed critically as she read the first few lines, but by the time she was finished, they were as round as saucers. 'This…this can't be!' she gasped. Slamming the letter down on her nightstand, Midna sprinted out of her room and down the halls of the castle.
Though Midna couldn't know this, in a parallel dimension, in a small village in Ordon, a young, green-clad ex-hero was just as miserable as she. Link sat at his desk, staring dully at a shard of the Mirror that he had collected after it had shattered. It had been the largest fragment left. He didn't really know why he had grabbed it at the time…but now he did…and a part of him wished he didn't. He was in love with Midna. Normally a man of few words, Link had been all but mute when he returned home. He shrugged off the celebration his friends had planned, instead retreating to the solitude of his home, only coming out to fulfill his obligations. He rested his cheek on his fist and sighed. 'She had to do it,' the more logical part of his brain told him. 'Otherwise, some other nut would come along and try to get control of the realms. We had to do it to save Hyrule.'
'But it isn't fair!' the other half of him cried. 'Why do I have to bust my butt to save the world, and then in the end get left out to dry?' His mind wandered back to his quest to end Zant's reign of tyranny. At first, he had to admit, Midna had got on his nerves, and, he had even gone so far at some points to figure out how to ditch the rather impetuous imp. But, eventually, Link had grown to tolerate, maybe even like, her mischievous tendencies, to the point that now, he had a hard time thinking what it was going to be like without her with him every day.
After a moment's thought, Link stood. He had to leave the house sometime. He couldn't sit here and wallow in his pity forever-that would only make things worse. He had to do something to get his mind off of Midna, at least for now. He walked over to his door, not really having a plan in mind, just heading out. However, as soon as he put his hand on the door, a knock came from the other side. Link jumped in surprise, then, after a moment, opened the door.
"Mornin', Link!" grinned Mayor Bo. "Just thought I'd check up on ya…ya know, people are worried about you, my boy."
Link nodded, a slow, sad smile coming to his face. "I'm not avoiding anyone, really," he murmured. "Just…There are a lot of things I need to think through right now."
Bo chuckled softly, placing a hand on Link's shoulder. "I know. If you want anyone to talk to, I can serve as a listenin' ear…"
Link almost laughed then. 'What would I tell him?' he thought. 'That I fell in love with a beautiful princess from the Twilight Realm? What would he say? What could he say?' Link remembered how he reacted when he discovered the Twilit Realm wasn't simply a dark place from stories to scare children. It had fallen from fact into legend, then into myth for the people of Hyrule. Link merely nodded and smiled, saying "Thank you" to Bo.
Mayor Bo turned to leave, then abruptly turned back, smacking a hand against his forehead. "Oh! I completely forgot! Link, I have a letter for you. It's from the castle."
Link raised an eyebrow as he took the letter. 'What could Zelda want with me now?' he wondered. It was a little late to have a heroic ceremony for him, if that was the contents of the letter. He tore the letter open, then upended the contents into the palm of his hand. He read through the letter, blinked, and frowned, then read it again. His eyebrows jumped as he confirmed that he wasn't seeing things, the letter was real. 'But that's-that's impossible!' he thought. 'That could mean…' Link's head shot up as he locked gazes with Mayor Bo, who jumped a little in surprise.
"Everything okay, Link?" he asked.
"No time to talk now, Mayor," Link gasped as he set the letter down on his desk, slipped out of the house past Bo and down the path. "I have to get to Hyrule Castle right away!" Dashing out of his house, Link leaped onto Epona and urged her into a fast gallop, bound for the Castle.
Bo stood there for a moment, scratching his head with some confusion at Link's hasty departure. 'What was in that letter that would send Link off like that?' he thought. He knew he shouldn't read it, but he was concerned for Link. As he had had no father, Bo had become something of a father figure to him, and seeing Link in a depressed state for several days, only to make such an abrupt turnaround had him worried. Puffing a breath through his lips, Bo wandered over to Link's desk, looking at the letter for a moment before picking it up. He unfolded the letter, quickly scanning it. His brows furrowed slightly, and he reread the letter. "What's this about a Mirror of Twilight?" he murmured. The letter read: Link, I need you to come to the castle right away. A scouting party returned from a field expedition with a most remarkable story-well, I can't explain it to you here; you'll have to come and hear it for yourself. If they are to be believed, however, then another Mirror of Twilight has been discovered!