"A… A Grimm?" Yang's expression was incredulous. "You just… you just said she was a Grimm? I'm not going that crazy. The Bunny Hood ain't on my head. You just said that… Queen Zelda was… was made into a Grimm!?"
"That's not possible, right?" Ruby's hopeful expression was quick to erode. "R-Right? Ms. Goodwitch? General? … Dad?" Everywhere her silver eyes looked, her expression of youthful optimism as beaten down.
Link looked upon them as well, and he concluded they already knew.
Raven spoke not a word as she stared at Tai, the man looking at her as well.
General Ironwood had his arms folded and clenched together, the metal under his arms straining.
Dr. Oobleck had stopped writing, staring now with a rigidness that made him look more akin to a dead man.
The Pad that Ms. Goodwitch held already cracked, a miracle it hadn't shattered.
And Ozpin only stared at him, with an empty gaze that promised neither understanding, patience, or revenge. Placid, blank, and waiting.
They were all waiting for something, but all assumed something. Because they weren't avoiding Ruby's gaze, and they weren't focused on their own. Aside from Raven and Tai, most of them were looking at Link. With looks that spoke not of compassion, but fear. The same fear Link saw whenever Ganondorf's name was uttered amongst the Gerudo before, and before his defeat.
It was the look of one who knew of evil, but dared not to speak it.
They already knew. Now he had no idea how.
"It is possible, for I saw it." Saria answered Ruby, finally. "The Queen came back by the Golden Power of Ganondorf, but held in the hand of Link. Link resurrected Queen Zelda… but something changed within her. And though everyone knew something was different, no one knew what."
"I'm pretty sure her body going from golden hued to monochromatic is a pretty noticeable change!" Yang argued back. "And blood red eyes? I got scarlet in mine when I'm pissed, but if I went black as a cocktail dress, then I'd be freaking the world out, not just my family. And this Queen of yours just… she just changed like that."
"Not just changed, no," Saria answered again. "She came back wrong. The confident Queen who ruled the realm was saved, but as a consequence, her body had something else latched onto it. Something that no magic could shake or purify, and made her fill herself with torment and fear."
"Fear?" Raven spoke now. She laughed. "You're saying that she was afraid?" Her laughter grew stronger, and muffled itself only when her palm was against her mouth. "No, you're either lying or trying to see things that aren't there."
"Yo, Raven, you think that's a little bit too far?!" Yang addressed her mother casually, flippantly. The elder woman did not respond. "She just died and you think she should walk it off like-"
"It is hard to believe," Tai agreed now, shutting up his eldest daughter. "After everything she's been capable of and done… I can't imagine how she could possibly be scared." That confirmed it.
They did know her.
"H-Hey, how do you know that?" Ruby asked. She picked up on it, too, apparently. "I mean, Queen Zelda sounds amazing a-a-and I'm sure Blake would've loved to meet her but I think, um… dying is a pretty scary thing, right? Just… handling those meanies in the castle doesn't compare." Or not.
"Before any more assumptions about her are made, perhaps you can finish your tale, Link." Ozpin's voice matched his gaze. Calm, stoic, and unafraid. Yet despite all that, demanding. "I am sure there is much more to be told.
He was not wrong.
Years passed from that battle, but the Queen never recovered. The Land stagnated with her.
The once vibrant and awe-inspiring ruler of Hyrule Castle had cut herself off from the rest of the world, barricading herself away in private chambers that even Link needed to coax her to allow him to enter. Her meals were few and far between, her time in the sun nonexistent, and her observations of the land and rebuilding just as barren.
The kingdom followed suit, with farmers wondering when they would be commissioned to deliver more crops, the army looking for approval for more recruitment and affairs, and the rest of the nobles looking to manage the lack of budget and Rupees for the rest of the Kingdom. The wealth of the land was drying up with the queen, and the city was suffering for it.
The bustling Hyrule Castletown falling into slum like states. The wealthy Hyrule field showing patches of dried dust more than evergreen hills. Lake Hylia stagnating and collecting rot. All of it slowly becoming more common, and the people begging for help to leave it.
But none of them more so than the Princess.
"Dad, is mom coming out soon?" The girl of nearly seven years age asked him, again. "You haven't received anything to show she's… still alive in there, right?" Link turned a hard eye to her. Her and the pair of fairies that hovered over her head.
Hard enough to make her flinch back in response, old traveling companions included. He regretted it immediately, putting a hand on her shoulder, offering low apologies as he pulled her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, more out of necessity than desire. Much like everything else in the kingdom, done off of what was expected in the past, but no way to know if it would alter the future.
"Sorry, that was too far. I'm sorry." Link didn't blame her. Not when it was a question asked to her by many others. "Rauru was wondering about her… he hasn't seen her either, not since… he said he couldn't find the spirit clinging to her body." Another failed test then.
Link had little faith that one would be found. He had used the tools of the gods to resurrect a Princess from the dead. To think the magic that was mismanaged in the midst of it would be easily identified was a fool's hope at best.
And a hero as he was, Link would admit he was still very foolish.
His daughter was not.
"The others are asking if I can take the throne soon, but… others are saying since mom's still alive, I can't." They wouldn't, and he wasn't allowed to take the throne, born of the forest despite his deeds. He wouldn't want it either way. "I just… I don't want to sit there, not when mom did before. It's too big, and my legs are too small." For so many greater fears, Link didn't want Zelda to sit there either.
He didn't want his daughter to take it before her 16th birthday either.
"She was amazing though, mom. She just… she showed me all these spells, and I can't even come close to doing them." She waved her hands in the air for a moment, before flopping them back against Link, he held Zelda closer, letting her short blonde hair fall against his thin shirt.
The rest of the room was quiet, still as the father and daughter collected themselves. There was much happening, too much for a child to bare, even one of royal blood. It was too much, when the problem was that the matron of the family was ill, and no magic or other craft in the kingdom could help her.
"It's been months since I last seen her… and she didn't look well." She never did. "I-I mean worse than before like… she's not just pale and placid and ghost like, she's…. skeleton even. I don't… I don't know what's happening to her." No one did.
The hands around him were tighter, and his daughter's face was pressed against his side. Through the thin shirt he wore, Link felt soiled patches develop. Tear marks dampening his skin just beneath. He breathed deeply, but kept his arms tight around his younger Zelda.
A father comforting his daughter, and comforting himself.
Before he made his decision.
"Dad?" Zelda questioned, feeling Link push her off of him. "Are you… going to see mom?" He smiled down at her. Knowing she was always brighter than he was. The sure nod was his answer. She blinked away tears, wiping them off on her dress sleeve. Her handmaidens would not be happy to see that. "Can… Can you ask her how she's doing? And… A-And if I can get her anything?" Link nodded once more. He could do that.
He patted Zelda on the head, one she took, bowing at him. He sighed at the unusual act, before rising himself.
"We'll make sure she's out of sight," Tatl spoke up, ringing around her. The first words she'd used so far. "It won't be hard… we're good at hiding." Tael rang wordlessly, laying on top of Zelda's blonde hair. He smiled to his friends, thankful for them once more. Words so simple, he left.
And for the next few minutes, he simply walked about the castle. Around its many twists and turns until he came to the double doors that none dared to approach. None but the loyal or threatened. Link was the exception, as he was the one who approached out of love.
Heavy hands on heavy door, he pushed them open. The whimper reached his ears first.
"D-Don't come in." Followed quickly by the harsh request. Link did not heed it.
Instead, he walked in, eyes forward about the room he once shared. A room with all the windows drawn, with the outfitting of the center of the room pushed aside, and the entire place surrounded in darkness. So dark that he needed the doors open to hope for a glance of light. Then as he shut them, leaving himself in darkness, he reached into his satchel.
"Leave, please," the voice spoke again, and Link heeded it all the same.
He produced a lantern, fit with oil, and pulled out a small ember from a long-unused gem. He burned the gem, letting it smolder inside the lantern, then shutting it. It flooded the room with light, and with it, the whimper of pain from someone he loved.
Link's eyes settled on Zelda, the woman who had changed so much in so few years, huddled in the corner of their chambers.
"Link… please leave," she spoke imploringly to him. Red eyes looked up to him, so opposite her once kind blue, and swirling on the same shadows that claimed her. He would like to say they didn't irk him, but he did not run from them. No more than her white hair, undone and cascading down her body in a pitiable fashion. "I cannot bear to have you see me like this. No one can."
Her arms crossed across her chest, making her look smaller and smaller, as if the walls were going to swallow her. Misery and regret pooled in Link, but he did not turn away. He was one of Courage, and he would not run from his own actions.
"You do not need to be here. You need to be with Zelda," she tried again. "You can be a father to her still, I… I can only be a memory to her, or else I'll be a nightmare." That wasn't true, and Link was well aware she knew as well. "She'll hate me, if not now then in time. Having a monster for a mother."
Link kneeled in front of her, reaching out and threading his fingers into her hand. She shirked at the contact, but he didn't pull his hand away. He waited for her, patient as ever, for her to reciprocate. She did slowly, humming as if she was regretting the action.
Until her alabaster fingers, white as death were interlocked with his hand.
"You're courageous, but you're foolish." Zelda reprimanded him. "Anyone can see I'm cursed, you don't need Wisdom for such an obvious conclusion. But you still lay hands on me." Link only smiled at her, careless of the gaze she turned at him. "Why? You know there is no way to save me from this."
She said that only because nothing else had worked.
"The blessings of the church, the ritual of the Gods, bathing in the sacred springs, all have only made others wary of those once holy spots, and rendered a blight on the kingdom. Because of me." Never for her, but Link knew better than to try and speak the truth. Even the roar of a tornado couldn't turn the mind of a stubborn mountain.
Instead, Link put his other hand atop of Zelda's, cupping her between him. She looked at it, and he felt her cling to him. Eager to deny it, but desperate to accept it. Tears poured down her face again, staining the already pitted trails on her face, running through the dark cracks and ravines that roamed her features.
"If you value your life, release me." She spoke almost as an order. "Leave me buried in here, to turn into a cursed name. That would be best for me." Perhaps for the kingdom, but not for her. "You know what it means, you know I am not wrong. Wisdom has 'blessed' me with such. I know… I know what I have become."
Her other hand unfolded from herself, holding itself up to show the long alabaster skin, the stained black veins, and the midnights nails at the end. Like a monster's claw, Link couldn't' deny, but not one he was afraid of. He couldn't be, not when he loved her.
"You have Courage Link, all know this. And you must use that to choose," her eyes, water stained as they were, didn't leave him. "You have always asked me what is best to choose, to let Wisdom guide Courage, so that Power could never rule. But now you have the Power, and you can choose whatever you like." She was not wrong. "And I tell you again Link, do not try and save me. It would be foolish to… I'm…" She couldn't finish her words, and Link wouldn't let her
A pregnant silence sat between them, Zelda holding back the word, and Link unable to let her finish. Holding her hand, staring at the woman he loved, and had saved too late.
Late enough that some dark power had hold of her now, reshaped her, and made her into something else. Something she thought was better to give up than to fight. Something that he could not let happen.
Queen Zelda was more than just the ruler of Hyrule. She was also a mother to the young princess, a girl looking for their mother. She was also his lover, the woman he had crossed time thrice over to find.
And Link was the Hero of Time. He always saved his princess, his queen, his lover.
Always.
He did so again, with a shine from his glove.
"What." Zelda let out as soon as the bright glow came from his hand, far exceeding the hues from the lantern haloing him. "No, Link! Stop!" She ordered again, but Link did not listen, not this time.
This time, for this moment, he focused on the power that sat in his grasp, the one he had gained decades ago now, for the trials and tribulations of when they first fought Ganondorf, and Time was first called upon. For the first moment the Sacred Realm was invaded, and then forever twisted. The power had had gained from there, matched by the piece held by Zelda.
Link focused on his Triforce of Courage, and he willed it to be.
Willed it before them, a golden and ethereal triangle. One that hung with sacred light, nearly blinding him, and making Zelda whimper beneath him. Beneath desperate talks for him to stop. But Link didn't hear them, the ring and hum of the sacred object far louder than any attempts to make him stop. Louder, because he was doing now what words could not.
Link bowed his head, and commanded the Triforce of Courage to fall.
Into the hand he clasped.
"GAAGH!" Zelda cried out as it entered her, a sound between shock and pain. Link held her hand tighter, watching as her eyes whipped from her enclosed palm to him, feet almost kicking at the floor to dig deeper into the corner she buried herself in. When she stopped, she stared up at him, aghast. "Link… why would you do that? Why… Why did you gift me the Triforce?"
He only smiled at her, smiled as he uttered the only words that were needed.
You need Courage to live. I only need you to be happy.
The silence hung in her room once more, the same as it had been for years. Kept away by the flicking of the lantern's flame. Link stared at Zelda, watching as her black-rimmed red eyes watered again. Her jaw trembled, unable to speak. But Link didn't need words.
He reached out again, this time pulling into his chest, embracing her.
She fell into him all the same, clinging to him as he did her.
Link combed his hand through her hair, smoothing out the tangled alabaster strands. He held her to his breast, the same way he had their daughter only minutes before. He cared for her as her fingers grabbed at his tunic, all but ripping it from his body. He held onto her all the same, careless of what was destroyed as she let the relief wash over her.
The future may be harsh, but for now, she had something to live for.
"I was wrong before. You are a fool." The words belied the general's venom. Link only needed to glance to see the ire in his eyes.
"James-"
"A fool, an idiot, an incompetent mess of a man who I am now starting to believe has more luck on his side than actual intelligence or skill! No amount of disconnect between battlefield tactics and deceit can account for how colossally low your intelligence is! Were you a soldier in my military, I'd have you dismissed for incompetence, if not traitorous insubordination!" He was moving to rise.
"Ironwood!"
"No! He's right," Raven scowled at her husband, before turning her scolding eyes on Link. Eyes that burned like Ganondorf's so filled with hate. "I can forgive some for being overtaken by illusions or be deceived by some amazing performances, trust me they are all over the place in Mistral. But this?! You literally had the devil talking to you and you just gave her everything she wanted!"
"Mom!"
"I mean, were you trying to help her do this? Did you want her to actually start another war?" Her look was one of mocking curiosity, bending over the table as she spoke. "If you had delivered to her even a sword, I'd have your head cut off, but you gave her something that's just… I-I don't even know if retarded or mentally screwed is strong enough an insult for someone as thick as you!"
"I-I-I don't know what's going on!" Ruby, suddenly yelled, standing up.
"Ruby Rose, sit-"
"I-I get that something bad happened, a-a-and that Queen Zelda wasn't okay, but what did Link give her!? What was so bad about it!?" Her eyes were looking for an answer, and the wild silver swinging left and right. "He was just… I-I don't know what it was, but does it matter that much!?"
"Rubes, you need to-"
"It is unequivocally important! Giving any source of power or strength to that abomination of life is an act of stupidity of the highest orders! I cannot imagine it being done for any reason other than malicious intent!" Link would not speak yet, but he knew that was not the case.
"Link did not-"
"Link was a fool." The confirmation of the insult stopped Ruby. Her and everyone else.
Namely because none of them expected Saria to call the boy she raised, and who had all but risen her from the grave, a fool. Her expression was one that nearly mirrored Ozpin. Empty, focused, vacant, but patient. Emerald eyes looking forward with hands folded on her lap, staring at those around her. Link, this time, did not offer her a glance.
Not when he knew she was right.
"Link foolishly gave a woman tormented a powerful tool, one so coveted by the land that kingdoms were razed and wars spoiled by the mere thought of it. So much the thought of eternal youth beckoning the curious into the Lost Woods, and Link offered it to a woman he loved, but who had fallen into an illness from which there was no escape." Her sigh was as loud as the ticking gear of the clock.
For that brief moment, if not for the winding of the gears, the scrawling of Oobleck's pen over his papers, throwing the parchments around as he wrote, the air would have been still. Link looked over the faces at the table, reading them, understanding what they thought of him.
Anger, disappointment, horror, confusion, and curiosity. But only one of them wore hope.
"He tried to save her… right?" Saria's gaze turned towards the crimson clothed girl, but her normal warmth was vacated.
"He did try to save her, but was it worth it?" The question mad the girl's eyes bulge. "Was it worth handing over a source of immense power? Was it worth risking the kingdom and his family? Was it worth giving rise to a woman that was no longer the dutiful queen… but a mad tyrant?"
"Mad… Link literally just got done talking about how great she was for Hyrule and how awesome a mother she was for raising a kid despite what a bunch of pencil necks were yelling at her!" Yang was roused with the statement. "When the heck did she become a tyrant? Overnight?"
"No," Ozpin spoke now. "It would not be so quick, would it. Such a drastic change would equate to drastic counter measures." He was not wrong.
"Agreed, most likely true. No historical accounts of tyrants rising. War. Acts of horror. Dispute. Famine. Pre-existing means for creating totalitarian rulers." Dr. Oobleck tapped his pen on the table, rapping far faster than the grinding ticks of the gears beneath them. "But conclusion is unmistakable. Results nonnegotiable. Conclusion reached, evident, documented. Event transpiried. What events now? What led to fall of the Queen?"
"Why are you so sure she fell?" Yang asked again, a sentiment that Link agreed with, for differing reasons. "Cause I'm having a hard time seeing someone that… well… okay, flat out, I don't see you lying down with someone who's twisted in the head, Link." The Hylian had to blush, and the blonde's sister gasped.
Children, though she was not wrong.
"In so many words," Glynda muttered from behind them. The blush she wore was adorable, as well as the way she hid it. It matched the General, Link noted, watching the man bury his face in his open palm. Yang herself made a point of looking at link, red as her cheeks were.
Link bore it, far better than the teenager did. She was waiting for him to speak, and he was due to.
Six months, and everything was rotten.
Link suffered such an idea as he marched through the castle, eyeing the few fellow Hylians who still dared to walk in the stone halls. They did so with their backs to the walls, in pairs, and covered for fear of being seen. Link's boots stomped down the same pathway, careless for the threats. Eyes drawn and mouth thin, only the barest of sounds left him as he continued forth, yet they still resounded like thunder.
The silence of the castle almost made him sound like a lumbering giant. The sound of dead whispers clinging to the stone walls, watching him as he passed. Blue eyes didn't so much as glance towards them, or the few left who rushed into rooms, fearful for their lives. They were important, but there was somewhere he needed to be.
He stopped only when he approached a large set of double doors, towering over him like the drawbridge to the kingdom. Hands against the mighty barrier, he pushed.
The cry of steel was like a dragon's squall, but he did not so much as grimace.
He didn't and neither did the lone figure in the room he entered.
A figure that sat on a throne far higher than any other before it, alone in the grand hall meant for declarations to the people of the kingdom, and meetings for senators and military officials. It was a place meant for hundreds to group and speak.
But now, there were only two, and the silence between them deafening. It was the second most horrible sound Link had ever heard. Most of all between him and the figure on the high throne.
The red-eyed woman, lounging in a black robe upon the stone seat, wrapping alabaster fingers against its arm. Her smile as sharp and deadly as the air around them.
"Link, you have come," Queen Zelda spoke casually to him, hand reaching out and beckoning him forth. "You worried me when you departed with Zelda some months ago. I thought you would return much sooner." She was a talented speaker, but Link was her spouse.
She was lying.
"You wear and awfully hard expression for a man laying eyes on his wife after so long. I have seen many others in the military throwing themselves into the bosoms of their spouses when they return. Yet, you are still so casual. Do you intend to hurt me, Link?" He grit his teeth at the joking tone of the woman.
Her laughter, soft and long, was just as unnerving.
"Apologies, but it feels as if its been ages since I could speak so casually to another. It would be inappropriate for me to utter words in such a way to the generals and councilmen. They are still acclimating to my… changes. It would be inappropriate to change too much too quickly." There was the issue. She started on it.
Link held out his arms, indicating the empty room. No servants, no hand maidens, no one to assist her or speak to them. No laughter, no food, no drink, no meetings, nothing. Just a long dead hall.
"I sent them away, as they are no longer necessary." Zelda waved away his concerns. "They are better off caring for the soldiers and generals returning from the battlefield than a queen who's worst foe is an irritant hair in the morning." Her fingers rose and combed through her hair. White fingers hosting black nails, scratching through the long alabaster locks with a slow draw. Her smile, never shifting, seemed more akin to a curse as Link stared at it.
It, her, and how Queen Zelda was so casually stepping around the issue. He wasn't here for changes to the castle. He was here because of changes to the land! But if she wanted to speak casually, as if they had not shared a bed for so long, then so be it.
Reaching into his pouch, Link withdrew a crop form the Kakariko farm. A potato, and nothing overly significant at that. A simple rotund potato that still bore the dirt from the soil it was freed from. Link threw it at the ground.
He and Zelda watched as it crumbled to dust.
"Oh my, how revolting," her apathetic tone droned out. It was swiftly replaced with mirthful humor. "I wasn't aware you had learned of magic so quickly Link. And here I believed I would be the one to educate our daughter on the arts." She knew what was happening, but she made jokes of it. "Are you horrified that there is no food to eat, or that the land gives nothing to grow?"
Both. Both of them. Nothing to eat meant nothing to grow, and nothing to grow meant no one would live.
"Ah, the concern for the people then. Those who cannot eat because the land is dying around them." Her porcelain features pulled back in a calm mask of thought. "Yes, that would be something to draw concerns over. Were they within the walls of our kingdom, then it would be requiring a great amount of effort. We are so fortunate that they are not allied with us then."
Link was floored, and it showed plainly across his face. The Queen smiled down upon him, acknowledging, and mocking, the expression.
"Do you argue such a point? As a queen, it is my duty to see the kingdom flourish. To take from other lands is of no concern to me, so long as the land with which I rule grows." Her hand placed itself above her breasts, emphasizing her dark cloak and wide grin. "And though life is lost now, and the food is drying with the land, I am not concerned for the future down the expanse of Time's domain."
Queen Zelda lowered her hand, staring at Link as she propped her head up, alabaster hair falling over her equally white features. Red eyes on midnight's canvas stared down at Link.
"Our military is growing, and our power with it. The people cower and are afraid because change is taking hold of the land, but only because it is so swift. Once the storm of alteration has passed, they will emerge from their homes and holds with brighter smiles." Link shook his head, denying it all. "No? You think I am wrong?" Link knew she was.
People will die.
The simple words made the Queen pause. She hummed, leaning back on her grand stone seat, looking at her husband, glaring up at her. She was nonplused to the expression, and only considered the words he spoke.
"You are correct. The way my methods act now, there will be a loss of life, to our people and to the other races." Link moved to speak, but she overrode him. "It is not acceptable by most accounts, but only in the short term. For a kingdom to last throughout Time's reign, a few thousand dead souls is hardly more than a scoff of air against a hurricane."
He was silenced once more. Watching as the woman who threw herself to armed conflict for a few suddenly dismissed the many, a blood red smile never drifting from her mouth.
"But they don't need to die, not for the kingdom to flourish." Link kept his silence, all while his Zelda leaned forward. "There exists a few clear means to which the food can be provided, the lives kept, and for the kingdom to reign. A means that was used before, and can be done so again." His fist clenched as she held out her hand.
A hand that glowed with golden power.
"Give me the Triforce of Power. Let me use its strength."
Link could not cover the glow of his own hand, nor hide the light it gave off, but he clenched it all the same, as if to hold that power inside of himself, to his deepest core.
"I have long held the Triforce of Wisdom now, beckoning me to know what must be done to reach the greatest opportunities. Gambles with guaranteed ends, and I act as I do because I know this will work." Her justification swayed nothing in Link but his stomach. "And the Triforce of Courage, your gift to me, allows me to follow the choice, no matter the feelings of ill will I receive. You know best, confidence in a choice, and the courage to follow it, always bring about magnificent gains."
He blinked slowly at her words, refusing to speak of Power. He would not hand it over to her, not after what it had done… what it was still capable of doing.
"You are ashamed to use it, I know," she spoke easily. "You brought me back from the dead with it, and thereby giving me this body, so different than the goddess's visage. One that you gave me the Triforce of Courage to endure as I led. You saved my life, you gave me the courage to continue on, as the Hero of Time is meant to do." Her eyes, red as blood, were soft as she finished. "The Hero of Time saving the kingdom, with sacrifice."
The silence of the hall felt dull compared to the emptiness in his mind. Link only stare at the woman as she spoke those words. Never before had she uttered something so callous before, and with so harsh a smile. This was not… this wasn't his Zelda.
So he shook his head, dismissing the idea.
"No again?" Zelda question. "I suppose that is understandable. You have faced many times now another who has used the Triforce of Power for the sole reasons to gather all the parts together. Perhaps you fear me for that reason, afraid that I am suddenly going to fall to the darkness." She drew her hand back slowly, curling her fingers as if to catch a line from Link. "Or… do you already think me as one? A monster of the dark?"
Link's breathing was slow and measured, staring at Zelda as she looked down at him. The distance between them vast, and the silence unbroachable.
"Do you know the meaning of my name, Link?" The question was too sudden for him to respond. He could only blink as the queen, his bride, put a hand to the underside of her chin, propping her head up as the black robe continued to billow down her, shapeless as shadows. "Come now, we have had a child together, and you saved my life and kingdom twice over before this. Surely you know the meaning of my name, since our daughter shares it as well."
Link did not. He only knew her as Princess Zelda, then Queen Zelda, then his Zelda, then their Zelda. She giggled softly at the honesty.
"That was the path of my life, was it not? And I can agree, each position was higher than the one before it." He saw no warmth in her blood red eyes, nothing in the dark void they sat over. "To me, on the other hand, have always been Link. No matter the titles offered to you, I never saw you any different. No different than the boy who ventured from the Lost Woods, carrying a Spirit Stone with you."
Her legs crossed, revealing the alabaster calf beneath it, complete with the straps of her heels rising up it. Link did not look away from her, something that made her grin sharp as her nails, lightly wrapping at her throne's armrest.
"But I knew the meaning of your name Link." Zelda spoke on. "Link, the connection between objects, similar or opposing. The Link between past and present, the connection between wisdom and power, mediated by courage. Link, one so strong it would never be the first to fail."
His hand tightened into a fist. Her words were cruel, but he did not look away. He had come here for this conversation. He would endure it, as he had all else.
"I, on the other hand, know my name's meaning." Her hand fell to rest over the top of her black dress. "Zelda, a name given to all first born princesses of the kingdom, for they are ones who are blessed and happy. Blessed and happy heiresses, to a kingdom that was carved in battles dark as knight." Link listened on, even as Zelda sat comfortably on her throne. "That is the meaning of the name Zelda, happiness from a dark battle. An uncommon and unobvious meaning, appropriate for our kingdom, wouldn't you say?"
Link would not. He would not say that was how he saw her, and he cannot believe that was the truth of her name's meaning. Even if he had no way to counter it.
"Do not be alarmed, as it hardly has a dark meaning to it. Brightness, light, happiness, wouldn't these be names that relate to me? To our daughter." His eyes were sharp on her again, and she giggled at the look. She laughed as she used her daughter's name. "You still see her as your daughter, forgetting she is also a princess. You forget that one day she will sit on this throne in place of me."
It was a swing he should have seen coming, he should have anticipated, but he did not. Link had no way to prepare for such a savage statement, spoke with such a cruel grin. And Queen Zelda lavished herself on his expression.
"Oh dear sweet Link, did you truly forget~. Our little princess, our little girl, one day being named Queen?" Her arms spread with the statement of the future, proclaiming what was to be, and all that Link opposed. "Do you think that she will be anything else? That she wishes to be anything else? What daughter of mine, what inheritor of the name Zelda, would wish for anything but the chance to rule once more?~"
Link didn't need to respond. Because the answer was immediately obvious.
Their Zelda did wish for something else. Their Zelda was the one who wished to see the forests and explore the lands before resting in a castle on a high throne. Their Zelda was an explorer of the wilds, not a dictator on a high throne. And Link… he knew so much.
She is not you. She will not be like you.
The words finally, if even barely, made Queen Zelda shirk on her seat. Her dark grin flinching into a hurt expression, eyes blinking in confusion. It was quickly corrected, but she settled herself just as quickly. Her mirthful expression subdued… and left with only a harsh glare.
"Not like me… I see…" A long slow sigh left, one that echoed through the empty hall. Link did not shiver, even if the breath was as cold as her words. "You are leaving then, and taking Zelda with you."
Link did not deny it. Queen Zelda was one with wisdom. She knew how to read the smaller details and create a grand picture. It was no use trying to lie about it.
"I can surmise where you will leave to. There are few areas the kingdom has not conquered." Link did not react at the cold reminder of her actions. "You came here not to tell me that you were leaving though. You are brave one, Link, but you are no fool. Eager, perhaps, but you would no sooner tell a man where you will strike than you will tell me to where you will travel."
He didn't respond once more. He only slowly shut his eyes, taking in a breath of his own, before eyeing his spouse. Her smile was no warmer, and neither was her gaze.
"So be it. I know better than to challenge the Hero of Time." The reason for letting him go hurt as much as the admittance she would let him. No desperate cries for her daughter, no attempts to reason. Dismissal, and nothing else. "Be wary of where you go Link, for though you leave now, you and I both know we will see each other again. You still have something that I want, and I will not lose it to Time."
Her alabaster finger pointed towards his hand, but Link did not glance at it. He did not need to be reminded of the Golden Power he held. Nor the pair of pieces she possessed.
Link would not give it up before, and he would not offer it now.
"Be well Link, wherever you may go. You must, for when we do meet again, when there is a scored field between us… it will be a bout one of us will suffer through."
He would suffer regardless, were they to fight. Zelda knew as such, and it made the grin she bore, matched with lidded eyes, as cruel as her every action so far.
"You may be gone now. I will offer you till the sun's rise before I give orders to chase. Chase, not capture, simply monitor." His glare was sharper than his sword. "Do not act ignorantly Link, not after I praised your intelligence. I will not let you take the Triforce of Power from me so easily. I will need it in the years to come, and I will not lose it by forgetting you."
Link said nothing. There was still nothing to say. He had as much to say to Zelda now as she did about their daughter.
He turned from her, without a look or attempt to offer an expression of remorse. He had given up everything he had for Zelda before. And now he was going to do it again.
Just for another princess of the same name.
"Link, before you go, I do have one more gift for you. A reward for saving me, if you will." Link stopped at the words, but he did not turn. He did not need to be distracted. "I mentioned the meaning of my name before, and yours but, I think you and I can agree that I do not suit such a name anymore, do I? Not someone who is currently leading a battle." She did not deny her deeds. "No… I believe I should wear a different name. One that promises what will come from this."
Link said nothing as she stood from her throne, towering above him from her high statue, bearing down with a gaze like Demise, and a soul to match. Skin as white as death, and cloth darker than the Reaper's robes. He said nothing, as she spoke on.
"I am no longer Queen Zelda. From here and for on out, I will be known by a new title, one that heralds the coming age of this land. One who united the kingdoms to do away with battle. The one whose name offers the peace that it means."
Her arms spread before her, and Link offered her only a glance as she spoke her title for the first time.
"You may call me Salem."
BANG! The sound of a fist hitting the table silenced Link. He was unsurprised to see Raven's furious face directed at him.
"It is your fault then. All of it!" Her scream was no more disturbing than her angry visage. "You're responsible for her! You're the reason she exists!"
"Hold a moment, you-"
"SHUT UP!" The dark-haired woman yelled, pointing towards Saria. Link raised his arm before her, eyes not leaving the snarling bandit. "The Faunus just mentioned her, he not only knows about her, her just flat out admitted to being responsible for her!"
"B-But how do you know about her?!" Ruby yelled back, but only just before she was pulled back into her seat. Her father placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, stopping her from rising. That, and to make him face her. "D-Dad?"
"Let her talk, Rubes." Soft as they words were, they felt heavy as stone. "This is somethin' we're all curious about."
"Curious? Don't talk about this like this is some kind of guessing game, Tai!" Raven glanced at the man before turning back towards Link. Her fingers nearly dug troves into the table. "All we've gotten for decades is that she was some kind of Ruler of the Grimm, and now we hear not only where she came from, but who is responsible."
Eyes fell on Link again, but he did not shirk underneath them. Horror or curiosity, he deserved to be the avatar for both.
"Queen of the Grimm… then little has changed." Saria's soft words next to Link were somber. He felt much the same, but didn't dare to show it. Anything akin to regret now would be mistaken for apathy. Before individuals who glared at him with a fury promising disaster, he couldn't afford it.
"Queen of… are you telling me that… no way…" Yang's rising voice fell as the pieces aligned in her mind.
"Salem, Queen of the Grimm, ruler of the monsters, resident of the Badlands," Dr. Oobleck spoke. Papers were crinkling in his hand. "Ruler of Grimm, organizer, designer, general, director, many synonyms, all accurate, all despicable in relation to atrocities experienced." He spoke as if it were knowledge to be passed over.
Link hung on his every word.
"I thought… dad, that's real?" Ruby's voice trembled as she spoke. "But Grimm are… they're mindless a-and dumb and unnatural and dangerous and-"
"All true Rubes, but they still got a queen." Tai was glaring at him now. Even wearing the golden tint of the Magic Armor, he was glaring at Link. The Hylian didn't shirk from the gaze. He bore it. "And apparently, we finally got a clue for how she got to be that. Just not anything I would have guessed."
"Indeed," the General continued. "I am fortuned to have not misspoken before. You did commit to a traitorous act then, Link. You should be fortunate that we live today because of your actions stopping Roman, or else you would be under the assault of the entire military." It wouldn't be the first time.
"Whoa!" "No!" Yang and Ruby spoke in tandem.
"Why do you consider that just?" Saria asked for him. "Are you saying Link was wrong to try and protect the woman he loved? It would be a more noble act to let one you care for die?" The large man didn't shake at the question.
"Knowing what she became now, absolutely." The words were laced with venom. "She spoke all those horrendous things you recounted, and you still later returned to offer her Power, as she asked." "You admitted yourself this Triforce of Power has the ability to resurrect the dead, so it should be obvious it has the power to create life! Power like that has doubtlessly been used by Salem to create the monsters that-"
I did not give her the Triforce of Power.
Link would bear the consequences of his actions, but he would not bear blame for deeds he did not commit.
"What?" Raven spoke next. "Then you have-"
"Link does not hold the Triforce of Power now," Saria spoke before the woman. Her lost patience for the bandit's words was clear. "But he did not offer it to Salem. Link did not give anything to Queen Zelda, not once it was clear what she had become. And should you not guess, he fled to the Lost Woods, with me, in order to keep his daughter safe."
"Then where is it?" the General followed. "You recounted having it before. Did you lose it? Bury it? Hide it?" Link didn't answer, not immediately. Instead, he looked down at his hand. A hand that bore no golden power.
For the first time in many years, he was without it. Saria's hand on his leg, once more, calmed him. She nodded, looking from him back to the many eyes across the table.
"When Link bore the memories of Ganondorf, using… that man's final favor, he used the Power he once held." Breath was sucked in with the words. "He once held Power, so he knew best how to use it. Use it, to become the unstoppable monster you all witnessed. How else could one such as he endure, or scoff, at the power of a Sage." Her hands tightened on Link's tunic.
"… all those attacks were… because of that?" Glynda breathed the statement. "I thought it was due to his Aura but, you're saying this Triforce of Power made him invincible?" Dr. Oobleck's pen tore through the pages. "He was so unstoppable, and you let him use something like that?"
"In so many words, yes." Saria agreed. Something snapped, but Link didn't know what. "Who else would now best how to use a tool but a man who bore it for years before? Would you gift a tool to a man who knows how to use it, or to a man who simply wishes to bear it?" It would be an obvious answer, Link knew, were the man in question not who he was.
"I would never trust a King of Evil with power," was Raven's quip of a response. How odd that Link agreed with her, but the glare she still offered him, hunched over the table, bore no familiarity. "But if I'm hearing you right, that you don't have the Triforce thing anymore… then it's buried out in that smoldering pit that was Patch?"
Link nodded, there was no reason for him to hide it.
"We should go retrieve it then." The General's words gave link a start. "Something so powerful can not be let out in a field like that. The very idea that you would is-"
"Would you risk freeing Majora to claim power?" Saria's question, this time, cut deep. "Witnessing what Roman did with Majora's Mask, the horror he spread and wrought, would you truly crack open the remnants of Ganondorf, and the mask sealed with him, just to find that power?" Unlike before, Ironwood did not answer.
"Not open it, but I certainly endorse moving it." The harsh words, spoken on an angry huff of air, came from Ozpin. "Something as valuable, as dangerous as that, sitting in a statute in a charred land… the idiocy."
"Ozpin?" The worry question came from Glynda, but the Headmaster did not respond.
He only rested his head on the head of his cane, staring down at the table. The gears of the clock ticked as they waited for him to continue.
"I have heard enough clues and been told enough half-truths to devise how much of your story is true and false." Ozpin's eyes never rose to reach his. They were settled on his staff, staring at the handle as if to burn it asunder. "Your story has been you sailing from a far off land looking for your fairy companion, then to being a royal knight, now only a step away from a monarch by marriage. And I should note now that with the combination of the sword you carry, and what Saria has all but said, I know you came here by less than convenient means."
Link took the moment to glance at Saria, the girl looking back up at him and nodding. Not guilty, not somber, but understanding. He didn't blame her either way. If Ozpin knew the truth, then it was one that was going to come out eventually.
Link only wished it was with less anger and ire.
"If I am correct with your means of travel, and understand that if I am there will be more questions and interrogations to come, then it also means you likely gave your Queen something of immense power. Something you were, somehow, freely able to hold and carry." The strain of his grip on his cane was heard as clear as his words.
"Oz? You okay there?"
"I am not Tai, I am not well." That made the father swallow, and even forced Raven to sit down. "Because if I am correct, and I dearly hope I am not, then Link did not merely give some grand weapon or tool to Queen Zelda. He gave her the very objects I have been guarding for the last few millennia."
… Millenia?
"Whoa… no, no way, that is not possible!" For some reason, that forced the armored man to stand up, both of his daughters looking at him with equal panic. "They're still locked up, right? No Maidens, no doors, no keys, no go. You had a whole speech about it, gave it to me and Qrow a dozen times over!"
"Dad? What are you talking about?" Yang was thoroughly ignored.
"They are, as no Maidens have opened any of the doors, and I cannot imagine that another Kingdom, some mystical one far far away, stole them between the centuries of my life." Was he also a Kokiri? No, neither a Shiekah, even Impa wasn't so old. Link didn't understand how Ozpin spoke of a plan so old as if it were his, and not like a prophecy.
More than that, he didn't know what he thought he gave away. Link knew, but he couldn't imagine a land that was flabbergasted by his blade would possibly be able to comprehend the power he held.
The power cursed and blessed to Link, to Zelda, and to Ganondorf.
"Then why do you think…" Tai stopped himself for a moment, staring at Link. The Hylian's silver eyes looked at the man, and he blinked in almost a cold sweat before speaking again. Link was more curious now. "Why do you think that they were treating them like cards? Why do you think those things were not just… well, not the relics?" Relics?
"In one of Impa's early lectures, she posed a question to the class." Glynda spoke up again, tapping on her broken Pad. "She asked what true Power was. Many of the students gave predictable answers of physical force or ability to overcome obstacles. All answers that Impa swiftly shot down."
"You have a point to this lesson, or are you just trying to make sure the brats in the room are prepared for their finals?" Raven was scorned by her daughter again.
"No one answered correctly, until Cardin Winchester gave a suggestion that I found rather humorous, but Impa labeled correct." Something on the translucent screen popped up, and the blonde woman adjusted her lenses before speaking.
"Power is not measured in what you can destroy, but what you can create."
Ah, Link remembered now. Impa had given him credit for the answer. Because both he and she knew what Power was. They had been a part of it and witnessed it.
"Create?" Ironwood asked, nose raised in annoyance. "I don't find the mentality wrong, but why are you bringing it up now? Is there something that I missed?"
"Indeed, for Link has already named now three tools of his. Or, as Ganondorf called them, Golden Powers." Now Ozpin raised his head, letting his furrowed eyes show.
There was no malice or hatred in them, but a focus and fury for the subject at hand. Link recalled a sight similar in Zelda's eyes, so long ago, when Ganondorf's army as first mentioned. When battle plans were being drawn and preparations made. She did not hate the man, but she was focused only on what was to come.
Ozpin bore her expression now, and Link was aware of what it meant.
"You spoke just now of offering Queen Zelda your Courage, for the ability to choose. She mentioned herself that she had enough Wisdom to know she was in a horrendous place, and the knowledge to know there was little she could do." He ground out the words, but Link still did not understand.
The adults in the room, however, did. Link only needed to glance at them, all of them, to see their expressions shifting from curious to horrified, then settling at discontent.
"We may recognize that Ganondorf destroyed much, but it was always with something he created." And Ganondorf's stolen Power was unmatched. "Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Three terms you commonly used, and even Ganondorf was kind to say."
"Triforce, right?" Yang spoke up. "I thought that was… just some other term used for something we had, like how you call grimm monsters and Dust rupees, or stuff like that."
"Fair guess, fine assumption, likely incorrect, but justly thought out. Well done Ms. Xiao Long," Oobleck quickly interjected. Link paid him no mind, and neither did Ozpin. Both were staring at one another, the former still in his seat, and the latter ready to rise, or even jump, from his. "Or perhaps not. Perhaps my mistake. Possible, unlikely, unwanted, feasible." The man poured over his papers as he spoke.
"Do not bother, doctor," Ozpin interrupted him. "We already know what the relative item is. How, this can be, I do not know." Link stared at the man's emerald gaze, through lavender tinted frames. Even with such bright colors, the shadow in his stare was debilitating. "But it is an answer I intend to hear, and one so important I will not declare this meeting finished until it is uttered."
Link stared at the man, and he to him. The room was silent around them, but the Hero of Time was not disturbed. He was patient, and more than willing to speak. This was what he agreed to, and he knew this was bound to happen.
Ganondorf's words echoed in his mind. Were they true, and they sounded so much to be, then this was bound to happen.
"Keep speaking, Link," Ozpin ordered him. "Finish your story. When you are done… then we'll have to decide on what to do."
"Oz, your speaking like you're gonna-"
"I might, Raven… I very well might," Ozpin did not look to the bandit, and neither did Link. The Headmaster only continued to grip his cane, staring holes into Link. "But I cannot say what I will and will not do. Assuming the past has led to a horrific future, so know I aim to hear about it completely before I act on it. I can only hear Link out… and then decide on what is best."
It was more than Link felt he deserved. Even still, he had his own questions.
Few in the room danced around the Triforce now, or some name they equated to it. That implied knowledge of it, or its parts. Not commonly known, or else he would have heard of it before now, through Dr. Oobleck with his many dealings with Tatl and Tael… or with his talks with Ozpin. But he had never heard even whispers.
All he could do now was finish his tale, and hope he would earn his answers as well.
Author's Note
So... I thought this would be two parts, but this part is just got so much planned there is no way. So now the second part got split into another, making it a three part story. All according to plan.
So now that I've dropped the A-Bombs laced with 'Salem's Identity', and 'Triforce connection', the last thing to do is 'Link's travel' and 'Link's daughter's fate'.
I beg you to affirm to me you've already figured out the later.