Chapter 23
In his office in the parliament building in Castleton's city center, Prime Minister Agahnison read the message delivered to him from the new "Supreme Commander" with rage building from the beginning to the end when he took the paper it was written on and tore it up in front of the messenger.
"HOW DARE HE!" He exploded at the office clerk, his narrow face and tips of his ears red from anger. "Just who does this backwoods nobody General think he is? Does he know who I am?!"
The poor secretary didn't respond. Instead his eyes kept flitting to the open door to the office longingly, his feet wanting to shuffle in that direction were forced by him to remain in their place as he waited for the Prime Minister's further instructions. Unfortunately, to get those instruction he had to endure the next few minutes of his presence.
"I want Guard Command Headquarters General Staff in my office as soon as possible! We need to rein this delusional renegade General in as quickly as possible. Now is not the time to have a loose cannon out there causing trouble!" He shouted, looking at the secretary. "Well, go!"
The secretary nearly ran from the office, thankful for the excuse for a quick release from being the target of the man's wrath.
Agahnison turned to look out his office window at the view of the city center below. He had lived in this city all of his life. He knew its pulse, the beat of its heart, and he knew it was the beating heart of Hylian civilization. That beating heart had been slow to change and to grow over the five and a half decades of his own life, but it had, and with it so had the rest of Hyrule, and for the better except in one glaring area.
Almost every monarch from the Great Queen Malon right down to the former crown princess Zelda championed democratic reforms. He knew that from the research he did for his thesis for his university degree in political science. There seemed to be an ever advancing arc towards full democratization as Hyrule transformed itself from its medieval past.
But the two hundred and fifty year process of transformation into a modern civilization begun by the ancient Queen Malon wasn't finished yet, not at least for Western Hyrule. Eastern Hyrule had long ago thrown off the superstitious notion that Hyrule had to be ruled by a monarch, and had maintained a successful republican democracy for almost a hundred and fifty years with no ill effects to their people.
But the mistaken notion of rule by divine right stubbornly held on among both the people and the military, if not in the monarchy itself. Someone had to do something to finally do away with it, and there would never been a better chance to completely sever the kingdom from its backwards past then there was right now. He wasn't trying to usurp the monarchy like this upstart General was implying in his message, he told himself, he was only trying to finish the process Hyrule's great men and women of the past had started.
The Prime Minister's secretary reappeared in his office doorway. From the expression on the man's face, Agahnison could tell the news wouldn't be to his liking.
"What now?" He asked him.
"They're gone, your excellency." The secretary delivered the unhappy news.
"Who is gone?" Agahnison asked in confusion.
"The General Staff at command headquarters. I was just informed that they all departed from Castleton an hour ago." The secretary reported.
"Gone?" The Prime Minister asked in disbelief. "Where did they go?" He asked, his voice hardening.
"The Guardsmen left guarding the building wouldn't tell me, and they wouldn't permit me to enter either." The office clerk replied.
"Why?" Agahnison asked, trying in futility to keep his temper under control.
"They said it was classified information, and the Prime Minister's office didn't have the right clearance to receive it." The secretary told him, and then braced himself for the Prime Minister's response.
The Guardsmen dressed in traditional gray dress uniforms stationed across the street at the doors to Guard Headquarters knew instantly when their reply had been delivered. They both broke protocol for a brief second as small smiles flashed over their expressions.
An hour and a half later, deep in the heart of the Faron Woods, a convoy of senior guardsmen and support staff in armored personnel carriers made their way as rapidly as possible down otherwise hidden, gravel service roads which carried signs warning the stray traveler or hiker to turn back or risk being shot on site. They were followed by cargo trucks carrying enough supplies and equipment to replicate all the functions of Guard Command Headquarters command and support center in a remote location. Anyone observing the march of vehicles out of Castleton and down the trans-kingdom highway one might have thought the Guard preparing for a small invasion. By the time they reached the security fence just before one thirty in the afternoon and were permitted past, cramming the relatively small acreage that the Sacred Grove entry post sat on, that observer might have felt himself justified in thinking that way as guardsmen jumped out of the carriers and immediately began unloading, moving and setting up equipment to establish a new central base of operations for the kingdom's military guardians.
Malona, still wearing the pink and silver dress bestowed on her by the Triforce, watched all of it as a bystander, not certain as to what to do or how to help, though she would have gladly hefted and carried any of the equipment if only someone would have given her something to do. Instead she had to tolerate the barely hidden stares of the men and women who were working to establish her brothers' control center. It didn't help that she still carried the Master Sword in its bright blue scabbard strapped to her back.
The three of them had arrived at the top of the gorge about a half of an hour prior to the convoy. Every guardsman they passed stared in disbelief and amazement as they were waved through. No one requested or checked their credentials. Several traced triangles around their shoulders and head in a gesture of... what? Reverence? Fear? She didn't know, and the stares of wonder ate at her. What went through the minds of the guardsmen when they looked at her?
She had wanted to change out of the "costume" as soon as they reached the top, but there had been little time, and no spare uniforms that would fit her frame. At least, those were the reasons given to her by the guard captain who had been in command until her brothers arrived. It didn't help her mood that every time he spoke to her the man ended his sentence in deference with a very sincere, "my lady," and once he began doing it, every guardsman who spoke to her followed suit except for her brothers.
She really wanted to get out of the dress and tiara. Her only consolation appeared to be that her brothers hadn't had a chance to change out of their medieval chain mail and tunics either. But that didn't seem to impede anyone from obeying their orders. And, frustratingly, no one addressed either of them as humiliatingly as "my lady."
"I think your scowl could slay a king dodongo, dear sister." Gaepora said, coming up to stand next to her. "You needn't use the sword at all."
"Be careful dear brother," Malona responded sweetly, "or this princess will sheathe this beautiful, very sharp, very sacred sword up your..."
"Yes, I get the point." Gaepora replied before she could finish. Changing the subject quickly, he said, "I was just told our families were relocated to Ordonville safely. R.F.P.S. has a detail on them at mom and dad's house. The rest of R.F.P. were sent out to Lake Hylia to check on the designated heir."
"They won't find him." She said bluntly, a gut feeling pulling at her. "At least not alive."
Gaepora's expression turned more serious again, "Why do you think that?"
Remembering her Silent Realm test, she gestured to herself and said sarcastically, "Do you really think the Triforce dressed me like this because it thought I was trying to bring back the fashion?" She then added, "And I just have a bad feeling about it I can't explain. I don't know if fate is going to give any of us a choice in this, at least not the choices we want."
"When does fate ever give us the choices we want, Malona?" Gaepora replied, his expression dark and pensive. "We all, you, me, and Daphnes; we all spent most of our lives just trying to live our own lives apart from mom and dad's 'legend.' And then fate showed up and now we're all dressed and ready to fill their shoes whether we wanted to be or not." He then paused, and stopped himself realizing that his voice was beginning to rise. He then brought the subject back to the presumed heir, "We'll know soon enough on the status of Duke Gustaf. He's younger than mom was according to Daphnes, but lives as a retired widower close to the water. Apparently he spends most of his days fishing."
"Is there anything I can do besides stand around?" She asked her brother. "I feel so useless just standing here. You know me, Gaepora. When I'm at home, I'm up before dawn feeding cuccos, letting the goats out of the barn, and mucking out horse stalls, and you know I've never met an old steam truck I can't fix. There's got to be something I can do besides getting in everyone's way."
"You're not R.H.M.G. Your security clearance right now is verbal until we can get one printed. By all rights, you shouldn't even be here. And right now, the Triforce decided you needed to be the living, breathing image of mom as a religious icon. To be honest, Malona, it would be more disruptive to operations right now if you did pitch in." Gaepora explained in all seriousness. "The best thing you can do for right now is to stay back and let the men do what they're trained to do."
"Right. The princess has to stay out of the way and not get dirty." She muttered in disgust, crossing her arms over her chest in a very unprincesslike way.
Gaepora smirked and shook his head. His sister had been a tomboy since she could walk. Nothing had changed in the forty years since. He couldn't remember ever seeing her in a dress before the last twelve hours much less the tiara she now wore. It was startling to him how much she resembled the old video footage of their mother.
"What are you staring at?" She demanded.
He moved his eyes away. "Nothing." He lied. Then he admitted, "It's just that, wearing that, you look so much like mom did when she was younger, or even the drawing of her on the one rupee bill. It's hard to get over."
She took a deep breath and sighed. "I know. I looked at myself in a mirror down in the Sage's apartments, and it didn't look like me at all."
"No, that's the thing. It's still you, but it's mom too. It's like she came back in a way." He tried and fumbled to explain.
She nodded, but said, "Well, for right now it's just a pretty costume, nothing more."
Then Gaepora's eye looked away and his hand went to the wireless earpiece in his ear as he tapped it and said, "General Faroson, go ahead."
The gentled smirk left his face, and his expression became more serious. "Damn." He swore. "Understood. Keep me apprised. Faroson out." He said into the microphone. The haunted look returned to his eyes as he looked at his sister again.
"We just got word back from the Guardsmen sent to detail the Duke at his residence." He told her.
"He's dead." It was a statement, not a question from her.
Gaepora nodded. "R.F.P.S. found his body five minutes ago and reported. Someone stabbed him through the heart and left his body on the side of the lake near his house."
"So, who is next in line for the throne, then?" She asked with resignation.
He looked her in the eyes and said, "In terms of blood relations?"
"You know what I'm asking, Gaepora." She demanded.
"And you already know the answer, Malona. It's literally stamped into your DNA." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he continued. "Put simply, Mom's abdication was without legal precedent or basis. Technically, she was always the rightful heir, she just refused to take the job. His majesty always considered himself a caretaker in her place for that reason. I don't know what Prince John thought about it, and it doesn't matter any more. Daphnes is the oldest, so legally it would pass to him by order of birth. However, he's been named as Supreme Commander and that presents a conflict of interest which disqualifies him if not legally than politically. The next person after that would be me. But, the truth is that I don't want it. I have my own reasons." When she began to protest, he cut her off, "Let's just say the test showed me it would be very bad for both myself and the kingdom if I was given that much power and leave it at that. You are the one who drew the Master Sword. The Triforce of Wisdom chose you. You are the one marked as the next 'Zelda,' Malona. Of the three of us, it has to be you... my lady."
"It is with heavy and disturbed heart, that I have more ill news to share." The Prime Minister said into the microphone. His expression showed the appropriate amount of genuine grief to match his tone of voice as he addressed the clustered reporters in the news conference room inside the parliament building.
"One hour ago, the Royal Hyrule Military Guard prematurely attempted to contact the presumed next in line to the throne, Duke Gustaf Johnson, nephew to his majesty's predecessor, King Daphnes Johnson in order to fulfill their duty in maintaining a smooth succession of the monarchy. I regret to inform our nation that the Duke was found dead at his home, also apparently murdered. Because the Duke had no children of his own, being a bachelor all of his life, the other senior ministers of parliament and myself have come to the determination that there are no further legitimate heirs to the royal throne. For that reason, and while the search for his majesty's whereabouts is ongoing, I have signed into law granting Parliament, and myself as the leader of parliament, emergency powers over the R.H.M.G., and the oversight of all sacred temples, Sages, clergy, and sacred spaces effective immediately."
Agahnison stopped speaking and stepped back to field the myriad of questions from eager reporters he was certain would follow. This was his battlefield, and he knew his tactics well. Let the upstart General try and seize power. Agahnison would take it to parliament and tell the people what they needed and wanted to hear. That their government was still in control with or without a monarch.
But as he looked at the reporters faces there was stunned, dead silence in the room as all eyes looked at him in shock. He had never seen them like this. Looks of accusation and 'betrayal' filled their expressions.
Finally, one man, an older man who had covered parliament for many years stood up and said, "Your excellency, you can't do that."
Agahnison thought he had heard wrong. "Excuse me? Did you have a question?" He asked politely.
"That's in violation of the United Kingdom's Great Charter." The man said again as the Prime Minister began to steel himself for a fight of words, but he let the man continue to speak as long as all the cameras were rolling. He would be ready for his response. "It says very clearly that the oversight of the military and all religious institutions and clergy will always belong to the reigning monarch or a duly authorized representative of the royal family. Parliament has no authority to give itself the power to change that."
"The throne is empty at the moment. Would you rather let the military run amok unchecked?" Agahnison countered. "These are extraordinary circumstances..." He began to continue.
Then another reporter, a woman stood up and said, "What about the Princess Zelda? She was the rightful heir to begin with. Where is she?"
Agahnison's calm exterior began to come under strain as he responded, "The princess abdicated her position as rightful heir almost fifty years ago. Parliament has determined that in so doing she forfeited her claim for herself and all of her descendents."
"Where is she?" The woman asked again. "And where are her children?" She asked. "Aren't the current heads of the general staff of the R.H.M.G. her sons?"
A murmer of agreement began to pass among the crowd of reporters, and more of those reporters assembled began to call for the Prime Minister to reveal the whereabouts of the former princess, and some began to murmur about one of her sons being named rightful heir.
Damn. They're right about the two troublesome generals. He thought to himself. Why hadn't he remembered that? It was a mistake. One that would cost him in the short term, but the foundation of his argument would still be strong. "This debate is pointless." He finally said, raising his voice over the growing chorus. "As I said, the princess abdicated. Her claims and those of any descendant of hers are, for that reason, by determination of parliament, forfeit."
"Except parliament has no right to determine that. According to the charter, the eligibility of an heir is determined by the 'Supreme Commander of the Hyrule Armed Forces' and the eight Sages." The first reporter said again. "Prime Minister, you have no idea the kinds of things you're trying to meddle with."
Great, a religious nut. The Prime Minister thought to himself, smirking in contempt. As Agahnison scanned the faces of the other reporters again, looking for a common sentiment, he was sorely disappointed.
"This law is effective immediately." He repeated. "I expect all R.H.M.G. commanding officers to contact my office today in acknowledgment of the transfer of authority. No more questions." He said, and then hurriedly left the room.