Queen Zelda took up her position between the empty pedestal for the Spiritual Stones and the sealed Door of Time next to Impa. The outer lobby of the Temple of Time was filled with every Hylian that could make the journey. Her subjects spilled out onto the surrounding concourse, the loudest being placed by the door to repeat what they heard to the others.

That journey was leagues safer than it was two days ago. An unusually viscious warlord would salt the earth. Gannondorf Dragmire had corrupted the land so badly it spit up the dead in order of evil of the spirit. Or even more unholy, the corpses so devoid of life that meeting their gaze drew some of the life from the victim freezing them in place. The population had been praying for the goddesses to return the land back to a merely dangerous state of bladed plants and barely animate skeletons of monsters long extinct. None had even dared dream of a time when it was actually pleasant to make a half day's walk from Kakariko Village to where Castle Town once was.

The ruins of the town dampened the spirits the journey had rose. Refugees and the original Hylian immigrants of Kakariko lamented the destruction of the capitol. Some wept openly, knowing they couldn't even find the wreckage of their home. Others took in a deep breath and marched directly to the Temple of Time. No one dared visit the site of the demon thief's collapsed citadel.

The newly crowned queen looked out onto a crowd of the beaten, the downtrodden, the out of hope.

"Coronations are alleged to be joyous occasions.", the few minutes queen started. "Munitions exploding in air. Homes filled beyond capacity. Songs of 'The Queen is dead, long live the Queen.

"Well, I for one, am not going to stand here and celebrate my father's murder. I am not going to pomp myself up with the accolades that my ancestors' deeds have attached to the crown.

"I am not going to drain a citizenry and defend it with title, birthright or position. I am not going to ask you to celebrate a nation crunched into a single village. I am not going to ask you to bring forth reminders of war. I am not going to attempt to overshadow my heritage's previous parades.

"I am going to trade demands with you. These demands are non-negotiable dictates of the crown. All my subjects, individually and collectively, are hereby bound through honor and law to uphold each and every one of them.

"I demand that you rebuild the Kingdom of Hyrule beyond its previous glory. I/"

And she was cut off by applause. Her satin white gloves, originally designed for waving to crowds for hours on end did nothing to help her quiet the crowd. After several moments she was able to continue.

"I exchange this demand for one of your own-demand that I am the queen you need me to be to complete such an endeavor!"

The crowd roared with a force that nearly pushed her father's recovered crown off her head.

"We are a people. We come together to make the Kingdom. We are Hyrule. As such, we will rebuild. We will be greater than ever. It is our efforts that I foresee creating an unrivaled nation. Let us remind the goddesses why they made us!"

"I have yet to use the royal 'we' allowed the office. And that's because I wanted to explain my use of it to the nation first. 'We' means that I am this nation. When a child goes hungry-I go hungry. When a man gives a days sweat and lives in a tent, I live in a tent. How can you feed my citizenry and I go hungry? How can you strike my citizenry and I not bleed?"

The new queen drew a deep breath, as if preparing to rip off a bandage stuck to the wound. "We accept the crown because we accept the responsibility it means to the most important part of the Kingdom-the people that are its subjects.

"Thank you, my fellow Hylians. And goddesses bless the Kingdom of Hyrule."

The crowd's applause echoed in the stone chamber. The whistles and cat calls of people outside carried inside.

Zelda crowded Impa into a corner. "We'll need certain subjects to remain to meet with us. Please make sure the chief of the carpenters, the running man, the owner of Lon Lon Ranch and the elder scientist are here when we return. um...that's we in the singular."

Impa beamed with pride at her new queen. "Of course, Your Highness. It is my utmost pleasure to serve."

Zelda wanted to say she felt like the same seventeen year old girl she was a week ago. But a week ago she was hiding from the Dark King. Her kingdom was in ruins. It would have been a crisis of national security if she actually interacted with any of her citizens. And while she didn't feel magically transformed by the crown on her head, the anxiousness of rebuilding that had replaced the dread of making a single mistake in the war against Dragmire was too big a change to ignore. So instead she smoothed out her gown and the silks that overlaid it, pulled her gloves back over the crests of her toned biceps and straightened her crown. "How do I look?"

Impa smiled. "Regal. Majestic. Go get 'em."

And with a slight nod, Zelda turned back to the crowd.