Sorry this took so long to finally get out. I had a crazy week. First guys smoking weed in my bathroom, then a deleted paper, next two trips to the hospital. Yeah, it's been rough. But I hope you guys enjoy this.Please R&R!

I was startled when Zelda came hurtling at me from around the corner. She was breathing heavily from walking at a fast pace.

"Impa!" she says grabbing me by the elbow.

"Calm down, child. What do you want? Shouldn't you be at the party?"

I pry her fingers from my arm. What is the girl's problem? She's acting like a mad woman.

"I want to know about my mother. Now."

Well, I certainly hadn't seen this coming. This wasn't a conversation I'd ever anticipated living to see, let alone being the one to have it with her.

"Come," I say walking away from her.

I could hardly stand the way Impa walked along in front of me not saying a word. How can the sheikah act so calm in every possible situation?!

I follow her down hallways, through stairwells, and around corners only half paying attention to my surroundings. I get lost through all the twists and turns and decide to follow her mechanically. Where must we be going?

At last she stopped outside two large wooden doors. The walls are empty of the tapestries and other embellishments easily found around the main corridors of the castle. I judge from where we stand that we are in the basement of the castle, a place I've rarely visited. As a child it was strictly off limits due to the 'violent nature' of the prison cells in the dungeon that I could possibly stumble upon. It was a place that held a lot of mystery for me and I was often caught by Impa doing my best to sneak down the set of stairs leading to the underbelly of the building. When I grew older my fascination with the place dwindled until I had no desire to set foot down there at all. I would have plenty of time during my reign as Queen to see the mangled spirits of broken prisoners, something I don't look forward to.

Impa retracted a long skeleton key from the inside of her waistband. Twirling it between her fingers it catches a single ray of torch light and I can see that it's tarnished. She inserts it into the lock and a faint clink resounds through the hall. She pushes open the heavy double doors which give a resisting groan from years in disuse. Immediately a musty stench reaches my nose. I wonder how long it's been since anyone had been in this room.

I step inside the dusty room with cobwebs in each of its corners. There are rows of desks throughout the open space and atop of each as stacks upon stacks of books. We must be beneath the library…

Walking over to the nearest table Impa grabs a book and holds it up for me to see.

"All of these books were banned from our library. They were banned from all of Hyrule, actually. Right after you were born."

I didn't know what to say. Where was she going with this?

"What do banned books have to do with my mother?" I scold.

"Because they're about your mother" she replies with more patience in her voice than usual. "Take a seat."

I pull a chair from underneath the desk Impa stands by. Wiping off as many layers of dust and grime that I can, I take a seat.

"Zelia was the best woman I've ever known. We grew up together."

I knew this story, the nursemaid had told it a hundred times to me as a child.

"You worked for her house."

"No."

Maybe this wasn't the exact same story after all.

"We grew up together in a tiny village on the outskirts of Hyrule field."

And this is where everything changes…

"We did everything together, including the task of looking for a husband. We were young women then and longed to see the world outside of our settlement. So we packed our bags and headed toward the castle. There we would work for the King while searching out a mate. I'm sure you understand, many young girls choose the same path today."

Yes, I understood. I'd lost many a wonderful maid to marriage.

"The two of us were probably the most giddy, excited, and ignorant new employees the castle had ever seen."

I try hard to picture Impa as a 'giddy, excited, and ignorant' youth, but it seems nearly impossible to me.

"Little did we know that our futures had begun the moment we set foot upon the cold marble floor. It was a future neither of us had anticipated. Your parents met that very first day. I witnessed the encounter. Zelia and I were dusting the vases in one of the second floor corridors when the Prince came striding down the hall with that self assured, arrogant walk he used to sport. Of course your mother was the first to spot him. She straightened herself and gave the most pathetic curtsey I'd ever seen in my life. Your parents locked eyes for a moment and everything fell into place from there. Zelia was a girl who knew what she wanted, and whatever it was that she wanted, she got. Soon enough she was meeting him in the garden and sneaking to his chambers in the dead of night."

I couldn't help but notice the similarity between Link and I's secret encounters compared to those of my parents…

"After just a few months she came to me. I'd never seen her looking so pale and worried. She was with child she said. The child of the Prince. Your father had taken her to the King and asked permission for the two of them to wed. He would have none of it. It was the law that he uphold the family name and bloodline. He must, for the sake of his roots, marry into nobility. Your grandfather was furious that his son would disgrace his ancestors the way he did. But don't misunderstand, he wasn't a brutal man, but his pride was his biggest vice. He ordered the two lovers be separated. Zelia was given a room down here in the dungeons, near where we are now, until she gave birth. Mere hours after your delivery she was escorted from the castle and exiled from Hyrule. The King insisted that no one ever know the truth, that his bloodline had been tampered so he hid any documentation that could disclose the information. Hence all these books…"

She gestured to the tomes covering the many table tops in the room.

My mother, simply a common maid? I can't believe it. I'm only now finding out?

"Months later the King died and your father took his place, but by then the woman he loved was gone from him forever. He never recovered from it. He refused to marry anyone else…"

"But you were her best friend, where did she go?"

"I couldn't tell you. We were allowed no contact after the King found out about her relationship with your father. His intent was for her to never be found. He told me one day that I was lucky not to have received the same fate for not reporting her. Since I was trained in the ways of the sheikah I was given a place as your nursemaid. As kind as he may have thought that was, not a day goes by when I don't wish as some point I could be with Zelia, wherever she is. I have no way of knowing if she's even still alive…"

Impa's eyes droop and her mouth sags. I'm surprised at this rare display of emotion, however faint it may be. I see it so little that sometimes I can't help but think of Impa as little more than a programmed machine.

"So, you never even tried to find her? Not even after my grandfather died?"

"This may be a good time to remind you that I had a child to raise that I couldn't possibly leave alone for five seconds without her nearly tearing the castle down" she said sharply. "And your father was much too busy keeping the kingdom running to go gallivanting off to all corners of the world in search of a woman."

There was just one thing that didn't fit in my mind…

"If my father was so in love with her, a common woman, then why am I being forced to marry into nobility?"

"Ahh, I thought we'd reach that question eventually. Your father is a kind man, but, I believe you know as well as I that he can also be self serving. The night your mother was forced to leave he confided in me. His father had spent many months filling his head with ridiculous thoughts. He believed that were you to marry a common man the blood of his grandchild would be so diluted that they would no longer be worthy of crown and throne. Take it as you will, but I believe it's really the fact that he couldn't bear to see you in love with an average person after he was denied his own happiness with Zelia."

Thoughts kept running through my mind at a million miles per second, but all they kept coming down to was that there was a chance. There was a chance for Link and I and if there was any way possible to bring that chance into reality, I was willing to do it. It seemed there would only be one way to get my father's approval.

"I'm going to find her" I stated to no one in particular.

"What?"

"I'm going to find her."

With that I left the dingy dungeons, Impa calling after me as I went.

It was over. The truth had been told. It was something that had been weighing on my heart for such a long time now that the feeling of it lifted was almost unbearable.

It's the look that was in Zelda's eyes only moments ago that eats away at me now. I could see the hope rising in them as I spoke, though I'm sure she tried hard not to show it. The determination behind them was so much like her mother's. I know from experience that there would be no stopping her.

I called after her as she fled from the room but my voice landed on deaf ears.

In a way she's exactly as Zelia was at her age. Zelda is a girl who knows what she wants, and whatever it is that she wants, she gets.