Chapter 4

Princess Zelda knew the truth just by looking at their eyes.

Every day, as twilight approached, she would sit here on her throne, her palms resting on the soft cushioned arms of her seat. Petitioners from far and wide would present to her their woes, asking for her judgement, pleading for her mercy.

She'd listen, her face as cool and smooth as the marble pillars in the Throne Room, taking in the words of the silver-tongued and the stammering alike.

It was the eyes, though, that told her what she needed to know. The desperation, the deception - it was all laid bare there. The eyes could never hide.

As last of the day's petitioners left, Princess Zelda stood, pulling her plum-coloured bodice to flatten out the wrinkles. She looked up at the upper balcony of the chamber.

"Begone." Her voice echoed. In response, the ten crossbow-armed soldiers revealed themselves, saluted and then headed out of the Throne Room.

Zelda liked to give the impression to her subjects that when they visited it was just her and them. She wasn't a fool, though.

Known to be a wise princess in her childhood, then a wise princess in the hearts of her people, and now - even as the sole ruler of Hyrule - a wise princess she stayed. She hated the word 'Queen.' It reminded her of her mother.

Pushing the thought aside, Zelda made her way down the steps of her throne with a grace practiced over many years. She could hear the faint drumming of rain outside.

And it had been such a nice day earlier.

The princess began to hum a tune to herself. She couldn't quite place what it was - probably a stray memory of some childhood lullaby. A door in the throne room opened onto a cool, torch-lit passageway that led directly to her bedchamber. With a curt nod to the pair of guards stationed outside, she entered, closed the door behind her and stepped in. The long white satin skirt of her dress was split at the thigh, and her slim legs peeked out with her every motion.

"Whore."

Prince Ralis of the Zora sat hunched in a nearby chair, his hands interlocked, raw hunger in his eyes.

"Husband," Zelda replied with a thin, icy smiled.

Ralis glared. "What kind of husband never gets to bed his wife?"

"The kind of husband that I need."

The princess made her way to her dresser. She opened one drawer, her nose twitching at the scent of perfume within, closed it, then opened another.

"You needed my people's navy," the Zora replied, a bitter knot in his voice. "Our underwater troops. For some...some phantom enemy."

"For a precaution," Zelda replied. She held up a bangle - it glinted under the natural light - examined it, then returned it to the drawer. "I don't see what the issue is."

"The issue?" Ralis spluttered." The issue? The issue is that you only told me of this on our wedding night."

"How remiss of me," Zelda mumbled.

"This was nothing more than a political alliance!"

"I don't see why you're so surprised. This is the way of the court. It has been for centuries."

Ralis's voice softened. "And what of love?" He pulled himself out of his chair and made his way toward her. "One week we've been married," he purred. "A husband has rights. I demand them."

Zelda, her hand still rummaging in the drawer, felt her fingers curl around cold metal. She waited until he was just behind her, sensed him reaching out to cradle her waist, then spun around, the tip of her thin dagger stopping short at Ralis's grey-skinned cheek. Blood trickled from the tiny puncture.

"You are in no position to make demands of the Princess of Hyrule," she whispered, her stare drilling into his widened eyes. "Oh, and call me 'whore' again and I shall have your tongue. A symbol you may be, Ralis, but you don't have to be a whole symbol."

Ralis stared back at her. When he spoke, his voice had the edge of mockery. "We don't main, we don't mutilate, we don't torture."

Zelda felt her cheeks flush at hearing her motto thrown back at her. Slowly she lowered her weapon, her eyes not leaving her husband's face.

"I remember when you were just a shy little boy," she said. "When did you grow so bold?"

"When I found someone who loved me," Ralis replied, his voice strained. "A Zora girl. If not for this sham of a marriage..." Pain creased his face. "She would've waited until the end of time for me."

"Really," said Zelda. "Was she an idiot?"

Ralis snarled. "You will come to me," he spat. "You will. You have to. You're the last of the Harkinians. You need an heir."

A loud knock rattled the chamber door. Princess Zelda felt a low breath escape slowly from her lips in relief. She didn't like the direction the conversation was heading.

"Come in."

A short, bald man with a straggly, grey beard made his way in. His cheeks were flushed scarlet with excitement. "Highness," he said, nodding at the princess. He turned to Ralis. "Majesty."

"What's this?" Prince Ralis said, low enough that only the princess could hear. "Your secret dwarf fetish, dear...?"

"Sahasrahla," Zelda said, her tone carefully neutral as she ignored her husband. Tossing the dagger aside, she led her old advisor through to another room, the hem of her long dress swishing around her ankles, then gestured at a table within. "Sit."

"Thank you, Highness," the old man wheezed. He scraped back a chair and hauled himself in. "Thank you."

Zelda, moving far more daintily, took her place as well. Ralis slinked off to lounge against a wall behind the princess.

Zelda placed her hands on the table. Her bracelets chimed in time with the motion. "You have news, Sahasrahla?"

"Great news, Highness." His fat chin wobbled. "Great news."

Zelda cocked her head to the side. Never let yourself be affected by the enthusiasm of your underlings. "Speak."

"Something happened last night," Sahasrahla explained, his eyes gleaming. "Something immense. We all felt it, wizards and warlocks alike." He breathed in deep. "We believe he had a vision. The one we're looking for. He received a vision."

Zelda raised her chin. "You're certain of this?"

The old man nodded.

A faint smile danced on Zelda's lips. "So he knows?"

"He's…" Sahasrahla wiped his sweaty palms on his tunic. "Probably confused. Or curious. Or both."

"And we've identified him?"

"Um." Sahasrahla's eyes darted about in his nervousness. "Not yet."

Zelda rolled her eyes. The old man felt compelled to speak: "It won't be long now, princess. I promise."

Zelda waved the words away. "Your promises mean nothing to me." She drummed the fingers of her other hand on the richly varnished table. "The Enemy. He would have felt this…event, too?"

"Yes, Highness."

"So." Princess Zelda narrowed her eyes. "A race against time it is."

"What," Prince Ralis barked from his corner," are you both babbling about?"

Zelda was about to reply, but Sahasrahla held up a palm. "Permit me, Your Highness" he said, turning toward the Zora prince. The old man licked his lips as he composed his thoughts. "It is like this, Majesty," he said. "Hyrule is currently in the grip of a somewhat, ah, delicate situation."

Ralis raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware of this. What situation?"

"Your Majesty, have you ever come across the...ah...notion that the universe Hyrule dwells in is not the only one? That there are other worlds out there, completely different to our own...?"

"In fairy-tales, yes."

"Well," Sahasrahla replied. "Sages over the years have speculated about the nature of these worlds. Maybe in one, Hyrule only exists as a myth, a...a...game to amuse children, perhaps. Maybe in another, life exists perpetually without the need for air, or sustenance, or to even to reproduce."

A wicked smile spread across Princess Zelda's lips. "Whatever would you do there, dear husband?" she said. "I like to imagine a world where there is a Hyrule - except in this one, you're not married to the most powerful and wealthy woman in the land, no. In this one you're nothing more than a peasant girl, cleaning out the muck by day, and by night? Well, maybe you would be known as Hyrule's star harlot." She turned to glare daggers at him. "Fitting, I think."

Ralis growled. "I am not going to stand here and take -"

"But you are," Zelda said, the icy tone of her voice inviting no more discussion of the matter. "Sahasrahla, please continue."

The old man nodded. "These worlds; it is said that there's a thin barrier keeping them all wisely separated. But what if we were to tell you that this barrier is weakening, collapsing, that all the different worlds are flowing into each other, overwriting the other, layer upon layer, until - eventually - the whole thing will collapse."

Ralis's face betrayed his piqued interest, though his voice still held a sliver of doubt. "This is...happening? Now?"

Zelda picked up the thread. "We know it is because of the changes we - or, to be precise, Sahasrahla here - notices here in Hyrule. He's the only one immune, the only that sees what comes through the rift."

The old man nodded in quiet satisfaction.

"Is this why you need the Zora...?" Ralis said. "Why you need our soldiers...? To defend yourselves against this...happening?" A vein in his neck pulsed. "My mother will not -"

"Queen Rutela is well aware of the situation," Zelda snapped. "She knows the danger we all face. As do the Gorons, the Calatians and the Ordonites. If it wasn't for the petty hatreds between our two races, an alliance would have been much easier. As it is, the only thing our two people seem to respect is the institution of marriage so I had no choice but to sacrifice myself."

Ralis almost choked. "Sacrifice yourself...?!"

"Stop being so self-centred, husband," she replied.

Silence swept the room. When Zelda spoke next, her voice was thick with a quiet tenderness. "What I do, I do to save all of us. Hylian and Zora alike. I will save the people of my land."

Sahasrahla coughed. "Let me give you both an example." His face held the look of an overexcited child who knew a secret but couldn't keep it in. "Something else happened last night."

Zelda arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Captain Rusl and his new team," Sahasrahla continued. "You are aware, Highness, that they caught the Man in the Golden Mask."

Zelda nodded. "A fine job. Remind me to give him a personal commendation."

"Oh?" Ralis sneered. "How personal…?"

Zelda, her face neutral, kept her gaze on her old advisor. "Excuse my husband. His mind wallows in a level of filth so deep that even pigs would shake their heads in embarrassment."

"Well." Sahasrahla cleared his throat, eager to move on. "Rusl's initial report stated that the bandit killed one of his team and about, oh, five adolescents."

Zelda's eyes flashed with anger. "The bandit scum. He shall hang for this."

"Yes, yes." Sahasrahla coughed again. "But the report changed...within seconds of me reading it."

"Changed?" The princess blinked. "The captain altered an official report…?"

"Nothing so simple, Your Highness."

Zelda knew where this going. Her face grew taut. "What changed, exactly?"

"There were no children. Not anymore, anyway. They never existed. They were…erased."

"Erased." Zelda rolled the word around her tongue.

"Erased?" Ralis said. "How could that be...?"

"This is what we are facing, husband." Zelda replied. "Multiple worlds bleeding into each other, replacing, erasing. The changes so far have been...relatively...small."

"You mentioned a barrier..."

Zelda nodded, pleased that he'd paid attention. "A mystical one. It's difficult to explain - there are only a few select ways to access it." She composed her thoughts, then went on. "There's a breach in it - and it's from that breach that our problems begin."

"A breach," Ralis repeated.

"My father found it many moons ago. In a mystical wall, any gap is represented by a physical sign."

"A Breach of Black Glass," Sahasrahla added.

"Black glass?" Ralis snorted. "Break it, then."

"No," Zelda replied. "Close it. In my father's time the breach was tiny. He knew of an ancient...prophecy, I suppose, though I loathe such things...of a warrior who could close it. I don't know how exactly, but he - this warrior - would be the one. The only one."

"Ugh," said Ralis. "Chosen ones."

Zelda ignored the interruption. "My father started taking children - babies, really, and always male - from families who - well, let us just say displeased him in some way. He trained those boys, let them subsist on Red Potion so that their skills would be enhanced."

Sahasrahla held up a palm to cut in."The potion would also make them sensitive to...uh...visions from...whatever lies beyond the sensory world. The prophecy mentioned that the warrior would be guided like this."

"Not all the recruits had the stamina for it, though," Zelda said softly. "The Red Potion...it made some of them...unbalanced."

Ralis snorted again. "So your family tried to grow its own...what...? Champion...? Hero...?"

"Nothing so crass," Sahasrahla replied. "The one we seek is just a tool. Nothing more."

"A means to an end," Zelda continued. "That reminds me. Captain Rusl...?"

Sahasrahla shook his head. "An exceptional officer, no doubt," he said. "But we think not."

"Pity," said Zelda. "I suspected he wasn't. I didn't see it in his eyes."

She turned her head slightly to regard Prince Ralis. "Father's plan involved too small a sample. I had to find alternatives. When I took the throne, I started the Game. I thought that we could find our warrior that way. If someone showed such extraordinary skill in battle, there'd be a good chance that he was the one." Bitterness seeped into her words. "We have not been so lucky so far."

Again, Sahasrahla cleared his throat for attention. "In the meantime, myself and my fellow wizards kept an ear out. A magical ear, so to speak. If our instrument did appear from some other source, we'd be able to detect a hint of it."

Silence settled between the three of them. Then, slowly, Ralis began to clap.

"Bravo, my sweet, bravo," he said. "I have to say I'm impressed," he said. "Well, almost. A marriage to build an army. A grow-your-own soldier to plug this...breach. Wizards to keep vigil. Of course you neglected to include a way to identify your hero - sorry, your instrument - and once your breach is closed, your united army is useless."

"The army is a precaution," Zelda cut in, irritated at the mocking tilt to his voice."I said so already. I don't know what could come through that breach and I need to be prepared. And even if nothing comes through, a united Hyrule army is something my father never achieved."

"Fair enough," Ralis conceded.

"As for the Breach of Black Glass," said Zelda. "I don't want it closed straight away."

"Oh?"

"No" The princess felt her composure return. "I want to know if I can put something through the breach first." She turned fully toward Prince Ralis. "It's like this, dear husband, I will not allow future generations of my people to live under this threat. Like you said, I am the last of the Harkinians so the well-being of Hyrule - its present and its future - rests on my shoulders."

A shadow fell over Princess Zelda's face. Her eyes shone with conviction.

"You see," she said, "at the end of all this, when everything is said and done, when I finally do decide to close the breach, I intend to make sure that the only world left standing...is my world."