Chapter 24
The short black cloaked figure followed the Prime Minister unseen through the stately, marble and wood decorated halls of the Hyrule Parliament building after leaving the press conference. Or, more correctly, he followed the Prime Minister's shadow. The man himself seemed arrogant to the four foot mouse, and overreaching, but if what Daniel Jackson had told the mouse was true, he was otherwise powerless. His demands from the military were impotent, and those who actually understood anything about Hyrule's government knew it. The people of Hyrule had long memories, and they didn't seem to abandon their traditions and loyalties lightly. Most of the people of Hyrule anyways.
As Mickey Mouse watched the man's shadow however, he became more and more concerned. If one watched it carefully enough. it seemed to move with a will of its own, and there was a malevolent feel coming from it that seemed to influence everyone he passed in some way. Mickey was becoming convinced there was a 'heartless' somehow hiding in the man's shadow.
Mickey knew the creatures he knew as heartless weren't native to this world, but were "imports" from his own realms by the late Master Xehanort. They were usually created when the darkness in a person's heart consumed them, giving the darkness a physical shape and form. But if the mouse was right, this one was a little different, the darkness having consumed the heart after the soul, the shadow, had left the body.
The Prime Minister was agitated as he marched to his office in his tailored black and gray suit. Mickey barely had time to duck in before the angry Hylian man slammed the door, nearly breaking the glass window inset. The cloaked mouse moved off to a corner of the large, modern looking office and stayed as still as possible as he continued to observe and look for an opening. He would need to be quick with his keyblade to sever the connection between the corrupted shadow and the man casting it.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" The man swore loudly as he paced around his office. "Why can't they see it's time to move on and embrace the future?" He asked seemingly to no one. "Damn religious superstitions! They'd rather have a princess who abandoned them for a backwoods farm than govern themselves!" He snorted in exasperation.
And then the man stopped and the expression on his face changed as though the empty office had answered back. Mickey hadn't heard anything, and he was perfectly capable of hearing a pin drop from two offices away with the size of his ears.
"What are you saying?" The man said to the empty air as Mickey watched. Mickey's eyes trailed from the man himself to the light shadow being cast on the wall by the afternoon sunlight coming in through the window. The shadow appeared to be moving its head as though it were speaking.
"No, no. That would never work. It must be the people who decide." Agahnison said in response, though his voice seemed uncertain. "True, sometimes the people don't always know what's best for them. Sometimes they need more than a little push."
The shadow's head continued to move as though talking. Mickey had seen enough. He would only have one chance at this. He opened his white gloved right hand and a weapon shaped like an old skeleton key appeared in his hand. Then everything went sideways.
The shadow's eyes glowed a golden yellow as it immediately turned them towards the mouse, drawn to the keyblade like a homing beacon, and the Prime Minister's head followed suit. Agahnison's eyes had a yellow tint to them that Mickey hadn't noticed before.
"Who are you?" The Prime Minister's voice became deep and gravelly as his eyes bored holes into the mouse.
The keyblade struck at the man's shadow as Mickey leapt into the air and brought it down hard, but the gold metal of the blade only struck the plush blue carpet as the shadow retreated into the Prime Minister himself.
"Choose carefully." The Prime Minister spoke again in the unnaturally deep voice, his eyes glazed over with a sickly yellow light. "You strike and you kill the living. Not something a servant of the light likes to dirty his hands with, is it?"
Holding himself in a battle stance in front of the man, his keyblade held firmly in both hands, Mickey didn't answer. The element of surprise had been taken from him, but there were other options as he pointed the key shaped weapon at the man's chest. A beam of bright golden light shot from the blade, aimed for the Prime Minister's heart, but the man dodged out of the way faster than a mortal should have been able, and the beam of light struck the wall behind harmlessly him.
"Really?" He asked, staring at Mickey with contempt. "I don't know who you are, or what kind of weapon that is, but you have a lot to learn little mouse."
The Prime Minister's hands began to pulse with a dark energy that grew and pulsed with power. "The kingdom is mine." He told the mouse as he raised one hand and a ball of dark energy formed.
Mickey thought fast. Then the whole office was filled with a blinding burst of light and the Prime Minister's unholy deep throated shout of pain. When the light had died down again, Mickey was gone.
The Prime Minister blinked his eyes several times trying to clear them and remember what had just transpired over the last several minutes. The only image which would come to his mind was a strange hooded figure jumping at him and trying to strike him with a raised key shaped weapon.
"Great goddesses." He exclaimed with a gasp. "Someone tried to kill me."
The Sage of Time stood in the ruins of the ancient temple in front of the stone altar carved with the sigils of the three goddesses. In a way, it was surreal, seeing the great entry hall in this way, crumbling and rotting from a passage of time he no longer normally experienced. Next to him stood the daughter of the goddess whom he served dressed very much like her mother had been decades, and even centuries before. Around them as witnesses stood a hundred Guardsmen and several carried video recording devices, capturing every detail of the ancient rite of succession.
Mr. Impaz held the diadem the Triforce had bestowed on Malona in his hands. In a way, he mused to himself, this ceremony was merely a formality. But it was an important one. The Sages had the responsibility of crowning the monarch of Hyrule, and of determining who was fit to wear that crown. He had spent the last several hours in silent but meaningful communication with his brother and sister Sages over their special mental link discussing this very issue. They had all been of one mind. There was only one candidate for the throne, and that was the one chosen by the goddesses through the Triforce.
He faced her, looking into the woman's deep blue eyes, holding the diadem high above them both. She looked so much like the young woman he had served as a secretary so many years ago.
He began the ancient rite, "Who are you, that you should be found worthy to wield the power to rule?" He questioned her.
"I am the daughter of Zelda, the granddaughter of a King, and the descendant of the goddess Hylia." She responded in a monotone voice.
"What proof do you give of your wisdom to govern this people?" He questioned.
She held up her left hand for all to see, and the cameras zoomed in on the triangle mark etched with golden light, the solid triangle of the triforce of Wisdom glowed bright gold for all to see. "I have been chosen by the goddesses to bear the Triforce of Wisdom."
Standing nearby, her brothers, Daphnes and Gaepora, still wearing the Hero's garb touched the backs of the left hands to cover them, as the marks etched on each of them also lit up uncomfortably.
"How do you display your courage to defend the people of the United Kingdom of Hyrule against the darkness which threatens them?" The Sage questioned for a third time.
Malona drew the Master Sword from the scabbard on her back for all to see and raised it high, the tip of the blade pointing into the sky. The blade began to pulse with energy and light. "I am the chosen of the goddesses and able to wield the Master Sword of my ancestor, the goddess Hylia in their defense." Malona then point the tip off towards the side of a nearby cliff and released the pent up energy. It slammed into the rock and stone sidewall and the whole area quaked with its power.
"What name do you take, daughter of Hylia, keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, and wielder of the Sacred Blade of Evil's Bane, to rule the United Kingdom with Power, Wisdom, and Courage?"
Malona hesitated for a second, and then proceeded, not with her own name, but with the name that welled up within her and wouldn't be denied. "I take the name Zelda, daughter of the Hero of Hyrule, Link, and the Princess Zelda, and granddaughter of King Daphnes Johnson."
A number of gasps and murmurs ran through the gathered soldiers as they witnessed the ritual. Many traced the three triangles across their faces and shoulders as they lowered their heads reverently.
"Do you, Zelda, daughter of the Hero Link and the Princess Zelda, granddaughter of Daphnes, King of Hyrule, keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, so solemnly swear in the presences of the goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore, and the people of the Kingdom of Hyrule to rule and guide our people with Power, Wisdom, and Courage for the benefit of all the people and races of the Kingdom of Hyrule, forsaking your own will, desires, and even your very life as a living sacrifice according to the laws and traditions of this blessed land?"
Zelda responded clearly and loudly so all could hear her, "I so solemnly swear."
The Sage then raised his voice to those guardsmen witnessing the ancient rite in the ruins of the Temple of Time, "Do you here witnessing this rite swear to aid and assist Zelda in her duties and responsibilities as the sovereign monarch of our blessed land? Do you swear fealty to her, and to defend her and her rule against all threats foreign and domestic, and if necessary, give your lives in her service?"
With one voice that sounded like thunder the whole gathering of Guardsmen drew their swords, dropped to one knee, holding the hilt of the sword with their hands and burying the tip in the ancient, crumbling marble floor they responded, "We do solemnly swear!"
As Malona's eyes darted to where her brothers had been standing, she almost panicked but then recovered quickly when she found both of her brothers on their knees, their own swords drawn swearing fealty and self-sacrifice to their little sister.
"Then by the authority of the three goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, and with the blessing of the goddess Hylia, I crown you Zelda, Sovereign Queen of the United Kingdom of Hyrule." Mr. Impaz lowered the diadem onto Malona's head in the act of coronation. "Rule these people then, in the name of the goddess Hylia with Power, Wisdom and Courage... your majesty."
The sage then took the newly crowned, slightly trembling queen by the hand and turned her to face the Guardsmen, who had not risen from their kneeling position. She still held the Master Sword in her left hand. "I present to you all, your sovereign queen, Zelda, the thirty second of that name."
The sage then walked slowly and reverently around his queen, and stopped a few feet in front of her, and then joined the other men in dropping to one knee before her and saying in a loud voice, "I, Thaddeo Impaz, Sage of the goddess Hylia, pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor to serve your majesty, Queen Zelda of Hyrule."
Malona looked out at the kneeling men. She then looked to her brothers who remained on their knees. Great goddesses, this is for real, she thought to herself. "Snap out of it, Malona," she told herself silently. "This is what the Triforce test told you who you were. You were born for this."
She took the sword and pointed it towards the gathered soldiers on their knees and said, "I accept your fealty and your service in the name of the goddess Hylia. Rise, Guardsmen. Rise, Sage of Time."
And the cameras continued to roll, even as their operators rose to their own feet behind them.
The coronation had been broadcasted across the R.H.M.G.'s emergency broadcast system. Everyone in Western Hyrule who had been near a working television, video monitor, networked computer, or mobile computing device had received the streaming, live broadcast.
After the broadcast had ended, and communications had returned to normal, the news networks went into overdrive re-broadcasting the video. Legal and political analysts dissected it relentlessly, only to all come to the same conclusion, that it was a perfectly legitimate, legal coronation of a previously unknown woman who was unmistakably of royal lineage, with one commentator stating bluntly that "the R.H.M.G. senior staff has just given parliament their answer."
Within the hour, the governor of the province of Ordon held a news conference officially recognizing the legal validity of the new queen, and expressly condemning the "emergency" law written by the parliament earlier in the day. An hour later, the governor of Faron Province followed suit. Before midnight, the Council of the Zora and the Goron Nation had both gone on official record as recognizing the legitimacy of the coronation of Queen Zelda the thirty second of Hyrule.
The scattered R.H.M.G. barracks had already been given secured messages from their general staff about the coronation and its legitimacy, and so the broadcast been expected. Not one Guard Captain sent in the "acknowledgement" requested by the Prime Minister and parliament.
Parliament, however, was strangely silent about the broadcast, or the public response. News outlet after news outlet tried to get through to the Prime Minister's office for comment or official position, but there was nothing. The Parliament building's doors were shut and locked, and strangely all the lights in the building, which usually had at least someone working late into the night every night, had gone dark.
Some reporters attempted to contact the Prime Minister or members of his cabinet at their own private residences in the city, but no one, not even their personal family members would pick up their telephones. No one could seem to make contact with any of the regular Ministers of Parliament either.