Chapter 26: A Layman's Wisdom

Things were not supposed to work this way! It wasn't something he could explain, but he didn't care to try. This was beyond any of his plans, so he'd simply force them to happen. Why did he need either of them? Neither had the pieces of the Triforce they should, so they were completely worthless! The so-called hero was worse than unworthy if he couldn't handle the Master Sword when it was needed. It was time to crush them both. His blood boiled, his flames sought to consume everything in sight, his rage steered his fists; they would all be destroyed.

A song broke through the blinding hate in his mind. The gentle notes wanted to caress him; they put into mind someone who was content with lowering his guard and falling asleep at his side. Wait, that was the song he'd been humming last night. It was a song of healing, directing magic to soothe wounds that could not be seen.

No, he was in battle. He had to remain aggressive. He would win. His enemy didn't stand a chance. He would not be stopped.

The humming pierced deeper into his mind. Another being stirred, not ready to fade away into obscurity. He saw those green eyes, determined but withholding his true feelings as he kept his shield close and his sword pressing on. Wait, he was supposed to win as the hero. Don't crush him! He's fighting for what he feels is important. But why must he fight me?

The beast growled in his mind. This was life or death; this was where only those of true power could thrive. This was the conflict he'd pursued across worlds, the challenge that he had to make happen. He was not going to stop.

When he got close again, Link's humming had changed. It was a song of awakening, a soulful declaration of caring. His father would play that song, and then his mother would encourage daydreams of what could happen to child heroes who trekked across an island of dreams. Joy in the recollection, grief in knowing it was lost; joy in sharing those dreams with an unexpected person, grief in knowing this conflict was inevitable and it was indeed life or death for both of them.

No, he'd wanted someone to defeat him with love, but not anymore. He didn't want to cause him such grief. Stop this!

No, I can't stop. I can never give up; that's a sign of weakness. But why am I feeling weaker? He searched for the rage, but the beast was gone. He was forced to use his spellblades to keep up. But he shouldn't be keeping up in this battle, especially when his opponent had no special blessing to actually fight him. He should be winning.

Their blades clashed. He had two to Link's one, so he could pull one back and cut through. While Ganon tried to make his body obey, Link stopped humming and whispered, "I love you Gale, I will save you."

His heart beat differently with a strong desire to see that be true. He grunted and broke out of the hold. What a fool; there was no Gale to save.

Link blocked his next strike with little effort. "I don't want to hurt you." Then he moved to thrust through to his shoulder. Ganon blocked that with one blade. "I don't want to do this." Ganon lashed out with the other blade; Link caught it with his shield, as expected. "Please, stop this."

Stop this.

Feeling off balance, his arms weakened and Link shoved him down. It wasn't with the same vitriol that he'd thrown Zelda with earlier, but it was enough to shatter the imprisonment sphere. Instead, the vitriol was in his mind against himself as he realized one of them was holding back and keeping them from winning as they should. He'd gotten enough control back to do that?

Link gave a warning by putting his sword tip in front of his face. He could kill without hostility if he was pressed to, but mercy was his preference. "Do you surrender to me?"

The question was insulting upon this humiliation. But that rage was held back. How much control did he have? "Yes, I surrender," Gale said, even though Demise tried to choke the words out and get his own words spoken.

Another voice chimed into his thoughts, like it had been there all along and only chose to speak now. "Since you admit his power is greater than yours in surrendering, it's clear I'm not meant to stay." Then the Triforce of Power emerged from his body and went to reside with Link instead.

Unexpectedly, it was a relief to Gale to have it gone. He'd cursed his powerlessness before, but the appearance of that Triforce had only made things worse. The parting was peaceful.

But it was not peaceful when Demise tore himself out as well. The demon made sure it was painful. For a moment, Gale thought his heart was going to stop out of being ripped in half. It didn't. It kept beating, his lungs kept working; he was still alive. He did feel a lot weaker and the torn robes felt too large from losing the muscle mass he'd picked up on being overtaken. But his current condition didn't matter as much as his being alive.

For now, at least. There was a moment when Link's green eyes turned gold before reverting back. "How disappointing," he said in tones that were all too familiar from within. "A villain should not surrender; you don't have a pride worthy of your lineage."

This couldn't be right. Someone like Link couldn't be overtaken that easily. "What did you do to him?"

He smirked. "What did I do? You were the one who thought to corrupt the hero. Well guess what? You succeeded."

"But I didn't..." he started to protest.

"Shut up," Demise hissed, throwing the sword in his hand so hard that it jammed itself into the wall of the chapel. "You should be dead already. You all will be dead soon and no one will be around to tell your story. You know why? Because I'm not giving anyone the chance to live and tell it now." While he spoke, his hand reached for the sword on his back. "I am finished with this world, so I'll take whatever paltry powers remain to move on to greater..." Link got the sword out, then screamed in pain and collapsed onto his knees.

"Link?" Gale moved without thinking, going over to his side. The gold mark on Link's hand was still glowing. However, the other two triangles were now filled in.

"What was that about?" Zelda asked, confused and shocked.

Some of the other sages dared to come over to check on Link as well. "He was hiding Courage and Wisdom," Gale said. "It seems like he lured Demise to leave me by claiming Power as well. Except, Link shouldn't be easy for the demon king to control. Between the whole Triforce and the Master Sword, he's got Demise trapped in his body."

One of the sages he recognized, Link's master Gregio, shook his head on hearing this. "I knew he had a plan, but I didn't know he meant to go this far. Can he take it?"

"I'm not sure," Gale said, looking back at Link. He wasn't shaking or sweating excessively, but he wasn't responding to them either. "He's got it for now, but a human's mind isn't meant to take such a powerful conflict between divine and demon. He can't stay sane for long, and then one or the other will overcome him."

"We should be able to draw Demise out and seal him as we intended," one of the women there said. "That was always going to be a temporary solution, but it's a better one than leaving him inside a person."

"Extracting a foreign spirit from another can be difficult, but I can help with that," Gale said. Whatever would get Link free now. Gale didn't mind sacrificing himself so much since he had always been marked for sacrifice, but he wasn't going to let Link do the same.

"How can we trust you on that?" Zelda asked, having come closer with one of the others. But she clearly didn't want to be close to him.

That didn't bother Gale. "I'm not going to do anything to hurt Link, you can trust me on that. He's the reason I'm still here."

"Zelda, this is clearly Gale now, not Ganon," the Zora there said. "He looks more like the earlier portraits."

Another sage nodded. "Right, and he's no longer a soul of multiple beings; his life force feels more natural." Zelda showed a moment of frustration about that, but she didn't seem able to argue the point.

Right then, Link mumbled something like he wasn't fully awake. "Link?" Gale asked, crouching down by him.

He managed to lift his head and smile. "Oh, Gale. Nice to finally meet you." Gale smiled back, but wasn't sure what to say now.

"How are you holding up?" Gregio asked him.

Link thought for a moment. "I can't move anything but my head. It's all so loud and heavy."

"We were just discussing about how to get Demise out of you to seal in a safer manner," the Zora said. "It's ridiculous to think you could bind all that power safely within yourself."

"I know what I'm doing," Link said. "Though, this was supposed to be the back-up plan. I should be able to take care of this with just Gale."

"What do you mean to do?" another sage asked.

"Summon Demise into his own body, weaken him with the bindings of these seven dragons, then defeat him that way."

"I'm not sure how that would work, but it seems reasonable," she said, rubbing his chin.

"Can you hold up for that?" Gale asked, concerned that it was really too much for Link to be doing. "I know how the summoning works, and binding with other souls would be the easiest of the tasks. But summoning Demise properly takes hours and some of the requirements..." like offering a sacrifice, of which there was none better than Zelda here even if she was married now, "They're too cruel for any sane person to consider."

"I don't mean summon him properly," Link said. "Doing that would make him one of the most powerful beings on the planet. We need him flawed enough so he can be destroyed for good."

"Oh, well," an improper summons would be a severe insult to the being being summoned, but that was easy to dismiss. And a lot of the summoning rite for Demise was simply stoking his ego and swearing full allegiance. In his current state, though, Demise would not be able to resist a basic summoning. "In that case, it could be cut down to a few minutes and anything needed should be within a place like this." There was just one issue with paring down to an improper summoning.

Link knew it too. "Good. Zelda, we're going to have to ask you to leave."

"What, why?" she asked, glaring at them both.

"Your presence is going to complicate this summoning and empower Demise," Gale said, taking on a courtly tone of cordiality for when he didn't care for the person he was speaking to. "Since I can handle the ritual myself in being his spiritual descendant, I'd rather all of you leave Link and I to this. You can seal up the chapel if you like for an extra measure of safety; that should weaken all of his monsters out there as well."

"You're needed more in restoring the land to how it should be," Link added. "For that, you need to survive today."

"But we could..." Zelda started to protest.

She was stopped by the Shiekah woman getting hold of her and knocking her out swiftly. "She's not thinking too clearly," she said as a matter of fact, lifting her over her shoulder. "I'll simply have to apologize later."

Gregio came by and patted Link's shoulder. "We'll do as you ask, but I hope to see you come out of this alive. Both of you." Link nodded.

"I'll see to that," Gale said. As they walked out, Gale summoned a few things to help in this matter. While equivalents could be found in here, he wanted to be sure of the quality of some items. An improper summoning was going to be an unstable process and these would lessen that. First of all, helping Link to drink a potion. "It's a mana regeneration potion; it should reduce the burden of this on you."

"Thank you," he said, once he finished it.

"Don't thank me yet." The door outside thudded shut, sending echoes into the large space. Gale brushed some of Link's hair out of his face. "Your presence complicates matters too since he could use your blood to come out stronger. But you have to be here, so I'll do what I can to prevent that."

"I'm sure you can do this right," Link said.

Could Link really trust him this much? He seemed to, so Gale was going to have to match that trust. "Are you comfortable like that? You're going to be stuck like this until we get him out."

"I can't really feel much right now," he said. They made sure that Link was at least steadily balanced where he was before Gale went to find what else he needed.

Balancing this between making it work and keeping it as safe as possible… the sages were putting good work into the spell that sealed them in here. The way they were tying it into the structure meant that the chapel was unlikely to fall apart on them. It was up to him to make sure Demise didn't get the power to break out of the seal. The demon's proud nature meant he probably wouldn't overtake him again, but he had to have a physical mortal form.

Gale finished off his preparations by blocking off the windows and leaving just a few candles for illumination. That would make it dark enough for Demise to be willing to come out, although some lighting spells would be helpful once it came to a battle. Thankfully, Link was alert enough to glance at him approaching before returning to a quiet contemplation to endure his ordeal. He could probably hold out for a day, but any longer would be dangerous. And this should be handled as soon as possible if he meant to help in the following battle.

Even so, was it right to just do as little as possible to destroy Demise this generation? He knew pieces of Demise were in others as well. Link was right here with the Master Sword, so that was two others. However, Zelda was the other one that he knew would have part of the demon king. It would help to get that piece as well. He could draw it from her; the sages had made a good seal, but he was sure he could put a cut long enough to call that piece. If these sages were worth their calling, they'd notice and reinforce the seal.

Bring the pieces together; the one in Link had taken a form of its own as Shadow Link, that could be the base for Demise's form. The demon king demanded a sacrifice to empower him. Here, the dragons of the Septdraco could be used for that purpose. This needed to be done so that he took on the weaknesses of those sins rather than the strengths. Doing this went entirely against his magic training; summoning depended on many factors and teachers taught students to be careful.

But this was a once in a lifetime chance to escape a destiny of evil, and to help the man who gave him this chance.

I am not the one who will be controlled. I am the one to control you all.

Bind with Wrath. You have lost many times from your rage. I may feel kinship but you fall to me.

I do not submit to anyone!

Bind with Pride. You wouldn't fall so hard to wrath if your pride didn't carry you higher than you could handle. You fall to me.

I deserve my pride, you won't bind me.

Bind with Cowardice. You're afraid of losing, aren't you? Enough that you won't admit to it. You fall to me.

I don't know the meaning of fear! You will not bind me!

Bind with Greed. Well well, you ruled your own world and still seek more. You fall to me.

That is not a weakness! It is my right.

Bind with Envy. You might say that, but you have more than you deserve yet you still want what you don't have. Envy and greed do go hand in hand for a deeper weakness. You fall to me.

This weakling is a fool; he can't do this to me!

Bind with Sloth. You didn't work to stop him. You took what work he had done and waited for the rewards to fall into your hands. You fall to me.

Your world is too quick to judge and complain. These are not sins to me.

Bind with Lust. Oh really? Your world honored independence and shamed any reliance on others.

You…!

Tis better to rule over another than to serve another. That was what they said, yet I distinctly remember from when I was trying to tempt Link that you spent several hours watching over him. Wasn't that kind of sentiment considered a sin in your world? Hee hee, you can't deny that. You fall to me.

Bound by the sins in your soul, suffer the consequences of your transgressions. Come forth Demise, the fallen king!

I… will… not… be… bound!

Too late, what a crying shame.

If you were after a challenge, well you're going to get it! We have conquered you and thus we will be reborn…

As dragonflies.

Wait, what, no!

Fine, let's go with that. As a reward for their assistance, may these dragons of sin be reborn as dragonflies.

No!

No way!

Hooray!

This cannot be happening to me! You have shown no respect in this travesty of a ritual! I will not come.

Can't say I'm thrilled about our reward, but no. You will be summoned and we will have our revenge.

"I thought you were on my side."

Link felt like he was trying to drag a heavy weight and getting blinded by the sun. He knew the Triforce was usually considerate; it would keep its power from those who couldn't handle it or would abuse it. But in this case, it had to use strong divine power to keep Demise in place and Link alive. He could tell who was talking to him now. "I didn't give my loyalty to you."

"You showed me something I never thought I'd want. I could make an exception for you; we'd be powerful together."

"No, I don't want the power you'd give," he said. He'd seen what that kind of power did in his dreams: turn people to stone, summon devastating storms that blocked out the sun, corrupt the lands and seas. If it didn't outright kill people, it made life harder for them. Even those he gave power to would eventually go insane or be betrayed. "If I have shown you something you want, consider what love really is and find it for yourself."

"You're mine," he said, losing his cool. "I can make you suffer immensely if you deny me now, but I can make you the greatest human alive if you accept it."

"That is not the love I've been looking for," Link said, feeling magic shift around him. Demise reached for him, being pulled away in a powerful flow. Not affected by the pull of summoning, Link brushed his hand away. "Make up your mind. Don't cling to me when you were just raving about being trapped like this."

With an unearthly scream, Demise was flung out of Link's body. The divine light turned to inverted afterimages, then back to a comfortable darkness. Sound also came from outside of his mind now. "You will both pay for this humiliation!" Demise shouted.

He felt a soothing magic from the Master Sword in his hand. "You shouldn't be fighting in the current state of your body," a feminine voice said. He felt like he knew her and he didn't. That was a voice of the distant past, one he could trust. "Since it's necessary to defeat the demon lord while he is vulnerable too, you will be supported in this."

The sound of magical fire came from nearby; Gale was fighting but staying at his side. Link opened his eyes and found a hulking black beastman with fire for hair leaping for him. Without thinking, he brought the Master Sword up to block the twisted black blade trying to cleave him in two. The hit never connected because Gale knocked Demise back with a sudden explosion between them. None of it hit the two of them while the demon was flung to the floor.

"I built him based off your hostile shadow," Gale said to him, keeping his eyes on the snarling Demise. "How did you defeat it?"

Although he felt a momentary disconnect from his body (he should be in pain from the possession, but felt full of energy instead), Link got to his feet. "A powerful hit will disrupt the shadow's ability to maintain its form, exposing its core briefly. That has to be shattered to kill it. My sword will be better for destroying the core."

Gale nodded, bringing his right hand up with a red glow. "Good, then cover for me."

The air around them distorted; the interior of the chapel was trying to warp into something demonic. Link didn't get a second more to take in the surroundings as Demise was already back on his feet. Putting himself between the other two, Link kept his shield up and watch Demise prowl sideways in looking for an opening. The demon's sword hand shifted; he knew a lot more about swordplay than Gale did. The shoulder first, arm readying for a blow to knock aside the shield… Link countered his motions to block that. An ordinary opponent would then be vulnerable.

Even without the Triforce piece, Demise's strike was powerful. With the whole Triforce, Link found his own counter to be far more powerful than he was used to. He'd need to be cautious even if that power was what he needed now. It'd be nicer if he could have a less risky fight to get used to this condition. Since that wasn't an option, he took a step to the side to keep a defensive position near Gale.

Demise then rose his black blade straight up. That wasn't a normal stance, ordinarily foolish. Here, Link knew he couldn't stay defensive to that. The power that raised could pierce through a defender. He rushed in a feint, pretending to strike at his lower torso. As he'd hoped, Demise dropped the charge motions to counter him. Link halted his movements a moment before he would strike.

Magma burst through the floor underneath Demise's feet as Gale's spell materialized. Much of his shadow body was scorched to ashes, though he managed to keep his head, sword, and sword arm intact. A red glow close to his sword could be a magic counter. While the magma pillar remained, Link spotted the golden glint of the dark heart inside and thrust through it as he had the change. It should have burned him; it certainly blackened his sleeve. He didn't feel it.

Even with the demon's body mostly gone, Demise still pushed him back a couple feet. Even with the heart partly broken, he willed his form back together to keep fighting. Link moved back to where Gale had been. A dark red remained against the brighter magma; Link brought up his shield in time to block a darker mass of magical fire. While he knew he could get out of the way, he took the brunt of it to make sure Gale didn't get hit.

"Are you hurt?" Gale asked from behind him. He'd moved some.

"Keep up your attack spells, I'll be fine," Link called back, moving to keep between Demise and Gale. He should be in pain, but there was no time to acknowledge that.

Fully reformed now, Demise changed back into the wild beast he'd been before. Shimmering chains in many colors wrapped around his body, seemingly broken but clinging tight to his soul. Link didn't try talking to him this time as they exchanged blows. That and his humming had been an effort to empower Gale to act on his own. In this battle, the songs wouldn't be useful.

With another break to the heart, the Septdraco chains grew more prominent. The third break caused them to tighten, limiting Demise's movements. The demon took his sword in both hands and cast a silver lightning bolt through it since he could no longer fight with it effectively. On Link's right arm, his shield cracked in a worrying way. It was well-crafted, but another strong spell or two could break it completely. But there wasn't much keeping the demon's heart together now.

Gale shifted spells for the fourth strike, using a whirlwind of golden blades instead of magma. Giving a feral scream, Demise pulled his sword close in trying to will his body of shadows to keep together. The chains brightened and cleared away a clean opening for Link to cut through. The golden frame of the heart shattered fully to his blow, cutting off the energy keeping Demise alive.

For a moment, Link saw a frail trail of smoke trying to escape death once more. But the seven dragons were determined to keep Demise bound to his fate. Their chains closed in tight, sinking into the dying body to keep the soul firmly in place. Demise's soul continued screaming in fury as his body collapsed and flaked away into ashes. As the chains strangled him, the screams turned shrill and fearful before fading away entirely. Nothing was left; silence surrounded them.

Then Gale came to him. "He's really gone now," he said like he could barely believe it.

"I hope it's for good," Link said, though he wasn't sure himself. But Demise should be too broken to resurrect in their lifetime. He turned to Gale. "Are you okay?"

"I'm the one who should be asking that," he said, looking over him with guilt. "You made sure he couldn't hit me at all; I'm surprised you didn't falter once, even with all your strength. Are you okay?"

The divine powers with him were still supporting him; he could feel their energy. "I feel like I could sleep for a full week," Link said, absentmindedly reaching for his hand. But he stopped himself before he did.

"You probably should," Gale said, hesitant for a moment himself.

"Yeah." His throat tightened then. He didn't want this to be over, but he didn't want to pressure Gale into anything. "I'm sure there's a lot you've got to figure out. You could sneak out in case Zelda's awake again and makes things awkward."

"It'd probably be wise to avoid her, for you too," he said.

Link had looked down already, biting his lip. What now? He was relieved the battle was over; he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do. But the question left him at a loss of what to do or say now. People would celebrate soon, but what should he be doing now? He half-hoped that Gale would just leave so he could go out to report their success, then go home to sleep. If he could sleep at all; there was so much to sort out in his mind now that his quest was over.

Before he realized it, Gale had him in a tight embrace. It really was him this time. "I don't have the words to express what I want to say right now," he said, his voice shaky. "I'm sorry I hurt you and used you so badly. And thank you, I can't believe this is real. You've done what I thought was impossible."

Link wrapped his arms around him and buried his face in his neck. There were tears in his eyes even though his heart felt it was bursting. "I'm glad."

Gale rubbed his back, trying to comfort him this time. "I don't want to hurt you or make you cry anymore."

"No, I really am happy," he said. Nothing else mattered and that finally felt genuine, right. "I, I was prepared to let you go after this, in case you had second thoughts or wanted to be entirely out of this mess. I love you so much; I didn't think you'd want to stay with me."

"I love you too, Link. I'll do all I can to make up for what you suffered through."

Finding hard stone underneath her, Zelda wondered half-asleep if she'd been captured again. The air didn't smell right for that, being tinged with flowers, grass, and old smoke. There were others speaking nearby, a laugh at something funny. Feeling safer for that, she opened her eyes and sat up. Her body was still sore.

Loraine was soon at her side, if she hadn't been already. "Good to see you awake again. Sorry about that."

"What's going on?" she asked, looking to her. The other sages were here, along with the Sudain generals and some of the knights who had been clearing out the capitol. From that, she knew things must be safe for the moment. They were outside of the royal chapel.

"Link and Gale are still sealed up inside," Loraine said. "But the presence of evil is no longer around. You can feel that, right?"

After a moment, she had to admit that the atmosphere was strange but peaceful. Zelda nodded. "Right. Something else is different too, I'm not sure what." She looked to the door, firmly shut. "They're still sealed in there?"

"Yes, we had to fix it once but it's holding whole now," Loraine said.

"They should be done," Rosso said, glancing their way. "We felt it was better that they had some time to themselves."

That… would be the polite thing to do. Zelda restrained herself from saying anything this time. But what exactly had happened? The manifestation of evil, which was likely Demise this time, was completely gone from this place. What about Ganon, though? No wait, that question felt wrong. What about Gale?

Her shoulders sunk as she realized that Link had been right about him. Who was he really? Now that she could think of the name easily, she recalled a bit of what she'd seen in him before. Gale had impeccable manners and charm, as could be expected of someone in his former position as king of Sudai. While he had a way with words, he kept a certain distance from people. But then her father had forced him to be that way. The young puppet king would speak meekly before Albertos, but a defiant strength would sometimes show in his eyes when he didn't think he was being watched.

A knock came from the inside of the chapel. Zelda got to her feet with Loraine's help while the other sages quickly broke their seal and helped to open the doors. Link looked worse off of the pair, with burns on his hands, a visible crack in his shield, and exhaustion in his face. Still, he had a cheerful little smile as he hung onto Gale's arm for support. And Gale watched their way for him, concerned like he was guiding someone very precious to him. Ganon couldn't truly love another; Gale did, and he was truly back in the world.

"Gale, you're really back," Kimbera said, smiling in relief until she caught herself and saluted them instead.

"Yes, I wasn't myself for the past two years," Gale said, shifting his expression slightly to be more regal in speaking to them. He still held onto Link. "But I am still responsible in part for what's gone on. For that, I apologize and I'll work to make things right as much as I can."

"You had no choice once you were overtaken," Link said, trying to make him feel less guilty about it.

"You both banished the demon Demise from this world, which was more than we were capable of," one of the other female sages, Jacquelyn, said. "We felt it depart."

"I drew what parts I know of into the summoning," Gale said. "Including the curses that were inherited by Link and Zelda here. You and your descendants shouldn't be affected by it. We can't say with full certainty that Demise can't come back to make trouble, but our world should be peaceful for a while. I'm not sure what happened with the Triforce either."

"It left for the Sacred Realm already," Link said. "It should remain unbroken this time."

Gale smiled warmly at him, though his eyes betrayed some sadness at that. "What, before you even got a wish out of it?"

Link wasn't sad or regretful at all, laughing softly at it. "I gave it my wish the moment it became whole; that was why Demise had a few moments to speak through me. You're free of the curse as well, now and forever. I asked the Triforce to make it so that Demise could not come back into the world through forcing himself on another against their will. While it's possible someone someday might be foolish enough to summon him back, they have to ask him back and allow him to overtake them. Or he has to let himself be reborn as a mortal for himself; he's too proud for that."

"Then the legends should no longer be about destiny," Zelda said. This wasn't an ending she had thought possible, but she felt relieved for that. "Good, that's good."

"Could we use one of the guest rooms to let Link sleep and recover?" Gale asked her. "He's been pushing himself to his limits since you two escaped. You can lock me up if you want, I just want him somewhere safe and quiet for now." Link leaned his head over and whispered something that made Gale smile affectionately and whisper back.

There were a few angry thoughts that wanted to retort that he was in part responsible for making this place unsafe. But she checked herself before saying so. "Has the castle been fully cleared for monsters?"

"Yes, my queen," Leonidas said respectfully.

"Go ahead and take Link to one of the nearer guest rooms, and post a guard in the hall just in case," Zelda said, setting herself back into a leader's mindset. They had been right about that too. "Gale, Link, we'll talk over what's gone and later; please stay around the castle for now. I won't lock you up, Gale, just I'd rather Leonidas, Kimbera, or Velken were with you while you're here."

"That's fine," Gale said while his former generals nodded in agreement. There was a risk in that they'd simply let him go if he wanted to leave. But seeing how he was now, walking with Link to make sure he was taken care of, Zelda didn't think he'd leave until Link did.

"Then what should be doing now?" Loraine asked, looking to her.

"We should check on the presence of remaining monsters in our lands and prepare for rebuilding," Zelda said. The evil that threatened Hyrule was gone, but in repairing the damage and more, her work was just beginning.