Chapter 2
The damned game again. Shepherd just couldn't escape it, no matter how hard he tried. If it wasn't Rodney's brother in law and niece, then it was Bill Lee trying to get him to play it.
"I just can't watch anyone play that game, let alone play it myself. It's just too weird." He told Bill in response. The day was bright and sunny in the South Pacific Ocean, and they were out fishing off of Atlantis's east pier. The water was calm, and what waves there were lapped gently against the sides of the pier. Overhead, the city's cloaking shield shimmered against the sky. No one outside the shield could see the kilometers wide, floating ancient city. All they would see is empty ocean.
To be honest, Shepherd would have preferred sparring with Teyla or Ronan, but they were on leave visiting the Hawaiian islands for the first time with Carson Beckett and Ronan's girlfriend. So, fishing with Dr. Lee it was.
Bill had just cast his line into the water. "Well, it's a great game, that's all I'm saying. You know it won game of the year two years running." He said defensively, "you should really give it a chance. Besides, it's not like you're the actual character; well, I mean okay, yeah I guess it's supposed to be you, but the character's got a different name, and it's not like he's playable anyway."
"Nah, it was enough to watch Jeanie's family run Link around on the screen, and to hear her husband tell me how much the guy on the screen looked like me." He and Rodney, Atlantis's chief scientist, had taken leave to visit Rodney's sister and her family in Vancouver the past weekend. It was a great time mostly, until her little girl pulled out that game to play it. Shepherd's face scrunched up with unease at the memory.
The game in question was The Legend of Zelda: Pathways of the Ancestors. It would be innocent enough except that it chronicled in detail his and his team's very classified six year, time and parallel reality travel mission to Hyrule two years past. No one knew how the developers at Nintendo could have created the game or known about the mission in question. The company was just cooperative enough to change the names of certain characters, representing himself and his team, to not bring the also very classified U.S. Department of Homeworld Security down on the unwitting heads of the Japanese developers. Whenever he left Atlantis, he ran into some reminder of it. It didn't help that, two years later, it was still one of the most popular console games. He groaned when Bill tried to bring up the online multiplayer expansion to it.
After that, Dr. Lee thankfully became more consumed with his rod and reel and their conversation turned to something less stressful involving what kinds of sharks were in these waters that they could possibly catch. John only half paid attention to it as his thought were drawn back to the young man he had watched grow from an anything but ordinary kid to a capable and reliable friend and fellow warrior. There were times he wished that, if anything, the game gave some hint as to how the Link he knew was doing wherever and whenever he was. But the game's story lines that he knew about told him nothing. It ended with he and his team returning home with Impa's warning not to return for at least six years so as not to disrupt Hyrule's time line. He didn't look into the expansion's story.
It had only been two years for Shepherd (though he was eight years older now than when the whole thing started), and life on Atlantis had gone on. Other missions to other worlds in this galaxy took him away from Earth on a regular basis. They had heard little from the Pegasus galaxy in the years since Atlantis had left in order to defend Earth. The I.O.A. contented themselves to leave the people left behind in Pegasus to their own devices now that Atlantis had "returned" to Earth. It was a situation which irked him no end, but which he was powerless to do anything about.
"Link should be nineteen now," he thought about his friend again. "That is, if he hasn't gotten himself killed yet." Then he reminded himself, no, that wasn't right. He's only twelve right now. He's only twelve and Rodney, Davidson, Johnson and I are still there in Hyrule looking for a way home. "Man, time travel's a bitch." He said under his breath.
"Did you say something?" Dr. Lee said.
"No." Shepherd lied. It was tough enough to try and explain it to himself, much less to anyone else. His head began to hurt just trying to think about it. "You know Bill, I think I'm going to wrap this up. I just don't think I'm in the mood for deep sea fishing today." He told Dr. Lee as he began to stand up and pack in his fishing pole and gear.
"Oh, okay." Dr. Lee said in reply. He then asked, "You feeling okay, Colonel?"
"No, I'm getting a headache. Must be the sun or something. I'll go see Doc Keller and get some Advil. I'll catch you later, okay?" Shepherd said.
"Yeah, sure."Bill said. Then he piped up, "Hey you mean Doc McKay now, right?" He said with a knowing smile.
"Yeah, yeah that's right. Sorry, old habits. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that." Shepherd said. Rodney had proposed to Jennifer not long after their return from Hyrule. They'd been married for over a year now. He remembered Rodney telling him "Six years is long enough for me to think about it." So, that happened. Not exactly like in the future Rodney's story. Jennifer never got sick, but still. Yet another creepy thing that happened in his line of work, he thought.
He packed up his gear and started the long walk back to his apartment in the city to stow his fishing gear. And then go see the good, blond haired doctor in question. The city's population had grown since they had returned to Earth. Many of Stargate Command's personnel had been transferred over, and new personnel had been added regularly now that the city was at full power with its three shiny Zero Point Modules powering it. All kinds of experiments and new research were being done all over the place. There were even a few families which were cleared to live and work there. As a result, there were off duty people everywhere, taking walks, fishing, and just relaxing. There were even a few bicycles running along the platform walkways. I need to get one of those, Shepherd thought to himself.
After reaching his apartment and relieving himself of his fishing rod and tackle, he decided to take the transporter to medical center instead of walking. As he entered the transporter and the doors closed, he told the elevator like vehicle to take him to the medical center. As it began to move, he heard the call go through his bluetooth ear piece, "Colonel Shepherd to the gate room! Unscheduled incoming wormhole!"
"Cancel last," Shepherd spoke out loud. "Take me to the gate room." He said.
"Unauthorized gate activity! Incoming wormhole!" The call shouted through Atlantis' command center as the symbols on the gate lit up and the wormhole vortex shot forward from the gate, and then retreat back inwards. "Raise the shield." Woolsey gave the order to raise the energy shield which prevented any traveler from rematerializing inside the gate room. It however also had the downside of ending the traveler that tried it.
The blue energy shield materialized across the diameter of the stargate and held there.
"Do we have any idea where it's from?" Woolsey asked the technician on shift.
"No sir, there's no scheduled travelers or check-ins until at least nineteen hundred hours." The technician responded.
Woolsey checked his watch, it was only two thirty in the afternoon. "Okay, so who is it then?" He asked to no one in particular. Through the windows of the control room, he looked down on the expansive, cathedral like room which held the active stargate, the great metal ring which allowed for wormhole travel across vast distances of space, and even time as they had found. Heavily armed marines in body armor took their stations around the room ready to obliterate anything which got past the energy shield.
The gate stayed open for several more tense minutes. And then the blue energy shield sputtered and winked out.
"Wait, what just happened?" Woolsey demanded.
"I don't know sir, something just interfered with the shield. I can't raise it again." The technician responded.
Woolsey touched his earpiece and said into it, "Dr. McKay to the control room immediately." Just as he turned back to view the scene playing out down in the gate room, he saw the form of Colonel Shepherd arrive, his sidearm drawn and pointed at the open wormhole in front of him.
Never taking his eyes off the gate, Colonel Shepherd touched his earpiece and said, "Woolsey, what the hell happened to the shield?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out, Colonel." Woolsey responded quickly.
Then a familiar figure dressed in a green tunic and chain mail stepped through the watery blue shimmering event horizon of the wormhole. He held no weapon in his hand, and looked a few years older than when he last saw him, but in a split second Shepherd recognized him and called out, "Hold your fire! Friendly! Hold your fire!"
Just as Shepherd was getting his own men to stand down, Dr. McKay stepped into the control room and asked lightly, "Hey, what's up? Did you need me for something?"
Woolsey then pointed through the window down towards the scene in front of them, and McKay's eyes followed his finger until, "No way." McKay said. "That's impossible. He'd still be a twelve year old kid from what Impa told us. That can't be right."
Down in the gate room, Shepherd holstered his weapon slowly and called out, "Link?"
"Colonel Shepherd!" The green clad man in front of him responded in familiar, and happy recognition.
"Stand down, he's one of ours." Shepherd said out loud. "Sort of." he added, extending his hand to him. "How are you here?" Shepherd asked as they clasped hands. "How are you a grown man? You're supposed to be twelve years old right now."
Dr. McKay and Woolsey joined them on the floor of the gate room. "Yes, how are you all grown up now?" McKay asked skeptically.
Link looked confused, and then comprehended. "Impa sent me here, and back in time thirteen years to meet you in this time and place."
"Back in time?" McKay asked. "So you're from a future Hyrule?"
Link nodded.
"She can do that?" Woolsey asked with incredulity.
"How do you speak my language?" Link asked the strange, bald man.
"It's the stargate. It acts like a universal translator," McKay answered, "The last time Zelda came through it uploaded Hylian into the gate network like it does everyone's spoken language and transmits it to nanites it implants in everyone who ever steps through the stargate. We're speaking English, but you're hearing Hylian."
Link looked at Shepherd, confused. "Going through the stargate makes you understand our language." Shepherd translated. "Just not Rodney's language." McKay gave him a dirty look.
Mr. Woolsey then cleared his throat for the three to take notice of him again.
"I'm sorry, Link, this is Richard Woolsey, he's in charge of Atlantis." Shepherd said, realizing Link had never met the man before now. "Mr. Woolsey this is Link..." Shepherd began but then Link continued in a more authoritative voice, "Son of Farore, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Hyrule. And no, Mr. Woolsey it has never been tried, but we had no choice," Link explained, nodding in Woolsey's direction.
"How did she get the power to send you here?" McKay asked.
"She used the Triforce of Power to give our portal the extra energy it needed to bring me here." Link answered.
"But you know we can't send you back to your own time, even if we can send you back to Hyrule through the linking book." Woolsey said. "You must have been desperate to attempt this."
"Impa gave me a set of symbols she said Rodney McKay would know how to use to send me back. She said that this place should now have all the energy it needed to send me back. And yes, we are very desperate."
"What's happened?" Shepherd asked with concern. Hyrule had been his home for six years, whether he wanted it to be at the time or not. Whether or not he felt easy with the game, there would always be a place in his heart for that world.
Link drew the blue hilt of the shattered Master Sword and reverently displayed it to them. "This happened. We need to reforge the blade of the Master Sword, or the Hyrule I know will be destroyed."
"Whoa." Shepherd said. "Wait a minute, what do you mean it will be destroyed?"
Link then explained what had happened.
"So we can take as much time as we need on our side of it, but once you set foot through the gate in Hyrule, the clock to doomsday starts ticking again. Does that about sum it up?" Woolsey asked.
"Yes. Although I would like to be able to return while I am still young enough to live the rest of my life there with my wife and children." Link responded. "And if I don't return with the Master Sword whole, then Hyrule, my family, the princess, our whole world will be lost."
"What makes you think we can reforge the blade?" McKay asked.
"The Master Sword was forged many thousands of years ago by the gods who first entered and shaped Hyrule. As you once told me, they most likely came from this world, and this place. It was our only chance." Link told him.
McKay's face took on a blank expression as his mind began whirring. "They were ancients."
"Yes." Link said.
"Can I see the hilt?" McKay asked. Link carefully handed it to him.
McKay looked it over with an extremely critical eye, especially where the shattered blade had been joined to it. "Yes, aha."
"You can do it?" Link asked.
McKay answered crisply but positively, "I don't know yet. But there's still some fragments of the metal embedded in the hilt. If we can analyze them we can figure out what it was made of and go from there, and," he continued, "in the meantime Bill and I can search the database for any reference to the sword or anything like it, and see what we come up with. He'll love that."
"What about Dr. Zelenka?" Woolsey asked.
"No, no, no. Radek's still working on getting the zed p.m. production plant up and running." After eight years of living there, they had only just recently discovered Atlantis' factory for zero point module production deep in the city's underbelly. "The I.O.A.'s insistent on getting it running on schedule, and between Bill and Radek, I hate to admit it, but I'd rather have Zelenka running the show down there."
"Agreed." Woolsey said.
"Okay then. Now that that's settled," Shepherd said, "Link, for the time being, welcome to Atlantis." As he led him further into the city, he asked, "So you have a wife and kids now?"
"My twin boys are five years old." Link answered.
"Wow, do we have a lot of catching up to do." Shepherd responded. "Are you hungry? Let's go get something in the mess hall while Rodney figures out the sword."
Impa had set the wooden mechanical clock on a stool in front of the portal and waited. Normally such a device would be useless in the temple, but she had made certain adjustments to it so that she would know how much time was left. Even the timelessness of this temple seemed to be affected by the blight.
She had hoped Link would have come back through mere minutes after he left. But the minutes continued on into an hour, and then two, and Impa began to fear something had gone very wrong. But there was nothing she could do.
She collected the Triforce of Power from the control pedestal and returned it to it's protective satchel. They had been extremely fortunate in its recovery, she knew, after the death of Demise and his host. Somehow it survived the blast and was freed from its unholy union with the Demon King, and it seemed to wait for Link to recover it from the battlefield, like it wanted him to find it and return it home to Hyrule and this temple. She was reluctant to return it to its own protective enclosure within the temple yet. She thought she might need its power once more, and so the satchel remained clasped protectively between her hands.
Zelda would be waiting anxiously for word from her, she knew. But there was nothing to be done but wait, and so she did, patiently in front of the portal, attempting to meditate and commune with the goddesses whom she served.
There was a crash nearby and her eyes flew open. Another one, down the hall. She looked at the clock as it still stood on the stool. It had been several hours. No, it was the morning of the coronation! How did that happen? She wondered. Had she fallen asleep? "I am getting old." She said to herself. "I'm even talking to myself, now."
Yet another crash. Someone was smashing urns and vases. Someone else was in the temple! "That's not possible." She caught herself. "No one may enter without my knowing about it." Nevertheless, something or someone was in her home, trashing it.
She stood up and followed the noise, still carefully holding the sacred relic in its case. A figure down the hall in a black cloak was breaking things.
The dark figure spoke out loud in an ugly, rough, black speech which she couldn't decipher to no one in particular.
Impa didn't recognize the gray skinned, mishappen creature in front of her. He certainly didn't look like he was from their world. She reached her hand into the satchel quietly to draw on the divine power once more in the defense of her sacred home.
Then he turned around to face her and she saw his horrid, tortured face and knew this was one of those creatures Link had described to her. "An orc." She said with disgust. "Din!" she called out and pointed towards the ugly thing. A great fireball leapt from her fingertips and flew towards it.
The orc however brought his cloak up and shouted something back, and the fireball broke against his cloak without burning him. "Oh no." Impa said. "You will not have this!" She shouted at it. "Farore!" She called upon the name of the goddess, and dropped a green jewel at her feet. Instantly she would be gone in a flash of green light.
Except she was still there. Farore's wind had failed. The orc held out his clawed hand like he was holding something. "Hylian." He said in her own tongue. "You have powerful magic here. My master brought it to our world before your people murdered him and then hunted my people down like animals."
"What is it you want, demon? You are not welcome here." Impa said, trying to keep him talking to gain time to think.
"I can see that, Hylian." The orc replied. "I want my people to have what rightfully belongs to them. What your people stole from us."
"We took nothing from you that you didn't already steal." Impa replied coolly.
"Middle Earth was ours. The age of the orc was finally to happen, and we would be victorious. You stole this from us." The orc told her, beginning to walk slowly towards her. "My master told me many things of your world. He told me of the power, and the wonders which could be found here. You used that power to destroy my people. I will use it to save them."
"You will burn in whatever hell you came from!" Impa tried the spell again, this time she touched the Triforce of Power and called on its creator to incinerate the foul thing in front of her. A wave of intense, consuming fire flew out from her in every direction melting and scorching even the timeless stone around her.
The demon however was unaffected by it. "Fire I understand little witch." He said as he grabbed her arm and tore the satchel from her grasp. "What is this little toy?" He asked, reaching into the bag.
"Din protect your own!" Impa shouted.
As the orc reached his hand into the bag to touch the sacred golden triangle, power, heat, and light shot forth from it. He then touched it. "I feel it. The power, I can feel it..." He said almost purring.
"It isn't meant for you or your kind!" Impa shouted.
"I will be the judge of that, little witch." The orc responded as he closed his hand around the gold triangle. The Triforce continued to glow brighter and brighter in its satchel, throwing off more and more energy.
"No. You won't." Impa said.
"Ahhh!" The orc screamed as his hand caught fire. "No! I will control it! It will be mine!" The orc then began an incantation and fought back with his magic, ignoring, even reveling in the pain it caused him.
"No, don't!" Impa shouted as the Triforce increased in intensity.
"Arrrrgh!" The Orc cried out, and his hand burst into flame as he dropped to his knees in pain.
The Triforce continued on its path to overload, until finally she heard a sickening crack, and the light faded. The golden triangle went dark.
"What?" Impa opened the bag and drew out the sacred relic. It was black as obsidian or coal. A single, huge crack ran down the center of it from tip to base. "What have you done? You filthy animal creature, what have you done?!" She shouted at the orc, still in pain on its knees.
"Foul witch!" The orc screamed in pain at her. He jumped to his feet and shoved her to the ground. "Your worthless toy was just a trinket." he said as he held the charred remains of the Triforce in his burnt hand. "My brothers and I will finish what my master started. Your princess will know the orcs' wrath before the day has ended. I promise you." He tossed the Triforce to the ground and standing over her and drew a sword he had concealed under his cloak. "But you will not live to see it."
He then plunged the sword into the old woman's body and drove it into the stone floor, pinning her there. The life faded from her eyes as he walked away towards the temple's entrance. He did not look back.
Behind him, had he chosen to look back, he would have seen her empty red robes on the floor, as a stream of living, flowing energy rose from it. "How wrong could you be?" The ascended being that had been Impa said. For a brief moment, she entertained the thought of throwing lightning at the orc that was quickly leaving her temple. But no, she sensed the Others communicating with her, he must be left for he too still has a role to play. And in the many planes of existence that were now open to her, she could see and know that the Hero would put an end to the creature in time, so she did not bother. Instead her attention was focused on the dark triangle. Could she repair it now? She wondered.
She gathered it up to her and explored it. She could sense the inner workings of the device now, and knew every pathway in it. It was cleverly designed to channel the energy of the belief in the virtue it represented and magnify the power of that belief. No ascended being, no deity of Hyrule, and no creature of magic could use it, only flesh and blood mortals born of this world. But it's internal workings were badly damaged and fused together. It was a true miracle that it hadn't exploded when the orc tried using his own powers against it. In time, she might be able to repair it. But unlike so much of her life, time was a luxury she no longer had, not even as an undying being of pure energy.
"What have you done to us, demon?" She asked again. She didn't know where to turn now. She knew, she felt, that Link would return, but the Triforce itself was ruined. Without the first piece, Din's piece, it couldn't be assembled to focus the Power, Wisdom, and Courage needed to heal the Sacred Realm. Would Link understand what she had been trying to say before he left? Would he figure the balance out in time?
The Lady Malon walked with a dignity that no one would have guessed of a woman who had been raised milking cows. As she strode purposefully towards the halls, the castle servants greeted her with polite friendliness to which she returned a warm, and sincere greeting in kind. Many of the older staff she had known from years before when she would make deliveries of milk, or help in driving horses for delivery to the castle from her father, Talon. She was on a first name basis with these older members of the staff who had watched her grow up, and yet they still seemed to stop what they were doing and wait respectfully for her to pass them now.
She had been summoned in the early hours of the morning to the very same council chambers that her husband had been summoned the day before. It was an ominous feeling to her knowing how that meeting had turned out, and her stomach was slowly turning into knots. "Has something happened to my Link?" She asked herself upon receiving the summons at daybreak.
After going through the motions of her duties all that day, she hadn't slept at all that night, tossing and turning in her bed. All night she was tormented with the sight of Link in the Hero's clothes, and the thought that she might not see him again. It was the hardest thing about being his wife. As the wife of the Supreme Commander of Hyrule's military, it meant sharing him with the military and watching as he went out on campaigns with legions of other soldiers to watch his back in the small skirmishes and battles that occasionally arose on Hyrule's borders. That wasn't as difficult to accept because of the other men, loyal men, who were looking out for him. But as the wife of the Hero... That was a different proposition altogether. She knew it meant that she had to share him in some way with Zelda. She didn't fully understand their relationship, but she knew their connection went deep. She could live with that. It was part of the agreement she made when she married him. What terrified her about being the Hero's wife was that it meant she had to share him with, and give him up to the fate of Hyrule itself. It was a fate against whole armies of darkness which he had to face alone, with no one to watch out for him. She had been praying to the goddess all night, every goddess she knew of and whatever gods she didn't know, to protect him and bring him back to her.
It was the morning of Princess Zelda's coronation as queen of Hyrule. The whole castle and all of Castle Town was alive even at that early hour in preparation for the ceremony and the festival which would be held in honor of their newly crowned queen. Banners and streamers displaying the Hylian livery and colors were proudly displayed everywhere inside and outside the castle. The Castle Guard, her husband's men, all saluted her crisply in their freshly cleaned and polished uniforms as she passed by them in her passage from their chambers to the royal council room.
She summoned up whatever courage she had left, straightened her back, and opened the wooden door to enter the spacious council room with the long marble table. At the head of that table as she entered sat the Princess in a simple uniform not unlike Link's guard uniform, wearing her tiara. Her long blond hair had been pulled up into a bun, and the look on her face was all business. Serious business. As Malon scanned the room, there were Zelda's royal advisers all sitting in carved wooden chairs around the table. The ministers of agriculture, foreign affairs, domestic affairs, and all the rest except for one, her husband, were all present. So that's why I'm here, she thought as she entered. To represent my husband and the military. It wouldn't have been the first time she had been called on to fill in while Link was away on official business.
"Lady Malon, we are glad you could join us this morning." Zelda said warmly and sincerely, if somewhat formally. "Please, won't you take the Supreme Commander's seat next to mine." Zelda motioned to the empty, high-backed chair positioned next to her right hand. The prime minister of Hyrule sat opposite to Zelda's left.
"Of course your highness." Malon said, being careful to not allow her voice to betray her relief that representing Link was all it was about. This she could do. She knew almost as much about Hyrule's military capability and readiness as her husband did. It was his usual topic of conversation, and she always paid attention to it.
She deliberately approached the open seat and sat down next to her monarch, being careful to not disrupt the solemnity of the gathering with her movements. She placed her open hands on the table and gave her whole attention to the Princess, just as she assumed her husband would. "How may I serve Hyrule and yourself, your highness?" She asked in the traditional, formal manner.
"Lady Malon, I have been discussing the coronation and its implications with my royal council now all morning." Zelda said, gesturing to the men who sat around the table. Malon chanced a look at their faces and saw that they were all staring with serious faces, not at the Princess, but at her. Why, what did I do? Or what did Link do? Malon asked herself.
"As you and all of Hyrule knows, I am to be crowned Hyrule's queen. But as such, I have never married, and have no heirs. Traditionally, the Hero and the Princess have always formed an alliance both political and marital." Zelda said with gravity. "And as such the Hylian royal line has continued throughout the eons of time."
Malon's heart began to race. Oh no. She thought. She had never expected Zelda, her Zelda whom she had taken to be her best friend and like a sister, to play this card. But she remained silent. She loved her husband, but if Zelda demanded him to continue the royal bloodlines, what could she do?
"However, things change." Zelda continued. "And I could not be more pleased with the Hero's choice for wife, and the brave strong sons she has born him."
So, she wasn't going to take him from her, what then? Malon wondered. Was she going to declare Talon and John her legal heirs?
"I called you here, Lady Malon to reveal to you and in front of the royal council because it concerns the future of our kingdom, what my father revealed to me in private before he passed away." Zelda declared.
Malon sat in silence, her attention riveted to Zelda and her next words.
"Before you and I were born, my father was a good and caring husband. But he was also a mortal man with faults of his own." Zelda began. "There was a time when he fell in love once, unbeknownst to my mother, with a flame haired stable girl. This love became passionate and intimate, and she conceived. In order to hide the pregnancy, and their affair, my father introduced her to a farmer's son and they were quickly married. The farmer's son never knew the girl that was born nine months later wasn't his. And after his wife died in childbirth, my father never revealed it to him."
"Your highness, what are you saying?" Malon asked her heart racing again, not sure if she was understanding what she was hearing correctly.
"You, Lady Malon, presumed daughter of Talon, are also the rightful daughter of Gaepora, King of Red Lions, King of Hyrule, and my father." Zelda told her. "And as such, I am declaring you, my sister, and your sons, Talon and John, in front of my entire royal council, to be my legal and lawful heirs should anything befall me and I am no longer able to rule this land. I have already set this into writing with my seal, and these men are all signatories and witnesses to this effect."
Malon didn't notice that her hands had been pressed so hard on the table that they were turning white. She didn't notice the faces of all the men staring at her, waiting to see her reaction, wondering if she had somehow duped the princess into signing this into law. All she could see was the face of her Princess, no her half-sister, looking intently at her waiting for her response.
"You knew about this since his majesty died?" Malon finally managed to struggle out. "And you didn't tell me?"
"I am sorry, Malon." Zelda said with sincerity. "I had to wait to confirm it with those few servants in the palace who knew. Several of them have since moved on and out into the countryside. It took some time to track them down. I had to be certain before I told you."
"The wise thing." Malon said. "Always the wise thing."
"Yes." Zelda said sadly. "It is my nature."
"So it is." Malon said in reply.
"Gentlemen," Zelda addressed her council, "as you can see for yourselves, the Lady Malon had no prior knowledge of this. I hope that satisfies you as to her innocence in the matter. Now, if you will please excuse us. I wish to talk to my sister, your Princess now, in private."
"We are satisfied, your highness." The prime minister replied, then nodding to Malon gravely, "our apologies to you, your highness." The heads of the other men nodded in agreement one by one, and politely excused themselves, leaving the two women alone in the room at the table.
"I couldn't tell you before now, Malon." Zelda told her, almost pleading. "I had to wait. If I had told you before this, and then brought it to the council, they would have believed the stupid notion that you somehow convinced me of it and were trying to steal the crown from me. They are good men, our father's men, and they were only trying to protect me. I had to protect you from them."
Malon's head was spinning. Her father was not her father. Zelda wasn't just like a sister to her, she was her sister. Her father... Her father. Tears formed on the edges of her eyes. She understood Zelda's reasoning, and the wisdom behind it. There was always wisdom behind everything her sister did. Her sister. The thought came so naturally to her. They had been as close as sisters for the last six years. There was always a strategy behind her what her sister did. She was always four steps ahead of everyone. She entered a room to play a game, and her opponent instinctively knew he had lost before she even sat down to play.
"We have to play the game by its own rules." Malon said, still stunned. "Even the games that mix politics and family, no matter who they hurt."
"Yes, unfortunately we do." Zelda agreed. "Please don't be angry with me." She said, tears forming in her eyes. "I don't want to gain a sister only to lose a best friend."
Malon's tears started to fall. "You won't." She said, and then got up to throw her arms around her sister, who returned the embrace freely as she stood up to meet her. They both stood there, weeping onto each other's shoulders.
When they parted, Zelda asked her, "Would you stand next to me at my coronation, as my sister? I would very much like it if you were at my right hand. I will publicly place my tiara on your head before the Sage of Light places the crown on mine."
"My father, Talon, will be there, as will all of Hyrule. What do I tell him?" Malon asked. The truth would hurt her father without end.
"We will both reveal the truth to him, when the time is right." Zelda said cryptically.