"Princess?"
Inwardly Zelda's spirits lifted, along with her eyes from her book, upon hearing his voice at the entrance of Hyrule Castle's library.
"I'm here, Shad," she called back as stoically as possible.
There was a definite urgency in his approaching footsteps. When he came into view around a bookcase he paused, short of breath. Zelda noticed his hands were shaking. His left hand was fumbling with a pouch fastened to his belt. He only released it long enough to wipe a persistent sweat from his brow, before resuming his progress on the pouch as though its contents ached him.
"I understood you would be absent for at least a week more on your expedition," Zelda remarked, with a practiced dignity required of a princess addressing a subject. "Have you found something of interest already?"
"More than 'something,' Princess...ah...I mean Zelda," he began, followed by a moment's reluctance.
He was relieved of the need for formalities by the princess moving aside on the couch and inviting him to sit beside her. Honored to oblige he accepted the seat, and then one deep breath later he continued with his revelation.
"I, I've found a relic that could hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of Hyrule's past." An anxious drag of his dampened palms along his pants was his only means of preparation before he finally unveiled the contents of his pouch.
To Zelda it was a simple scroll, with bronze knobs and weathered paper tied in a red ribbon. To Shad, apparently, it was the archeaological find of a lifetime.
"Could it really be that all the ambiguities of our kingdom's history can be solved by what is written on just a single scroll of paper?" Zelda pondered aloud.
"It's not just what the scroll says, it's the entire era it represents," Shad replied, still holding the scroll up at eye level as awestruck as though it were the Triforce he held with unsteady fingers. "Just consider the possibilities. Hyrule has many legends of special or magical artifacts, which were used to grant powers... or for some greater purpose still..."
Zelda could not restrain herself from letting a budding smile surface on her face as Shad wove a tapestry of excited and anxious speculations. Though her thoughts and concerns as Hyrule's princess were often occupied by the affairs of her kingdom in its present, or plans for its future, she admired Shad for his wonderment of its past. She enjoyed his excitement in discoveries such as this.
"Who knows what we learn about our ancestors from this artifact?" Shad mused. "We may be just another step closer to...to..."
His ruminations were cut short when Zelda leaned in an deposited a kiss on his cheek. "I am glad you're home," she confided, sincerely.
At a loss for words he simply sat there, confounded.