Chapter 26

The Parliament Building of the United Kingdom of Hyrule was the oldest "modern" building in Castleton. It had been commissioned well over a century before by the Royal Family to house the people's legislature, representatives, and superior judicial body as an expression of support in the continuing democratic reforms proposed by the successive monarchs after the reign of the Great Queen Malon.

It was her son, King John who first began the shift of legislative powers away from the throne and proposed the Great Charter between the people of Hyrule and their monarchy in response to the unrest caused by the then short lived rebellion of Eastern Hyrule. The people, he reasoned, needed to know that their monarchy existed to serve and protect them, not to dominate them. At the same point in time, it was also understood by all that the monarchy had been established by the goddesses and had historically served a vital function as a kind of intermediary between the people and the divine in the protection and maintenance of their world.

With this in mind, the Great Charter of Hyrule was born. The parliament, made up of elected ministers representing their districts within the provinces, would write the laws which governed the people's daily lives, and would enforce those laws through the exercise of Hyrule's judicial system. Hyrule's monarchy would retain full, indisputable oversight and control over the military forces which would also act as law enforcement during peace time (traditionally exercised by the "Supreme Commander"), as well as full oversight over all sacred spaces, temples, religious icons, and interactions with the Sages and their acolytes (traditionally exercised by the crown prince or princess). The monarchy also retained, as head of state, the right of veto over legislation which it deemed "harmful to the well being of the realm", though it had been rarely used in the two hundred year history of the legislative body. Finally, the monarchy retained the position of final, supreme judge over criminal and civil disputes brought to the monarch by appeals. The dispensation of final justice was the governmental duty most often exercised by the reigning king or queen. All other powers and responsibilities: the royal treasury, taxation, education, health services, diplomacy and others were all handled by the Ministers of Parliament as representatives of the people with the support and blessing of the Monarchy.

Hyrule's first Parliament had met in an ancient amphitheater overlooking a cliff southwest of Old Castletown for several years, royal architects eventually enclosing it and adding rooms and offices to the ever expanding building as the functions of Parliament grew. Eventually the Parliament outgrew the ancient site and any more additions that could be squeezed into the confined space, and the Monarchy proposed the new "modern" building to be erected at the heart of a new city center for the expanding city of Castleton.

It was built somewhat to resemble both a temple or cathedral and a fortress at the same time, as the side which faced the city center sported white marble columns, and the central meeting chamber of the marble and stone building was covered over with a great stained glass dome held up by a steel frame overlaid with gold, yet the building was also laid out so as to have towers with parapets at its four corners. The whole effect of the building was intended to project reverence for the divine, benevolence of the monarchy, and power in the hands of the people.

As Malona, Daphnes, and Mickey crossed the barrier of inward directed light, the whole building was dazzlingly beautiful to look upon. It was so bright from the spells that were cast, having come in from the dark night, the three had to shield their eyes for several minutes before they could see again.

"Wow." Was all Mickey could say at the sight. "It didn't look like this earlier in the day, that's for sure. It's magnificent in the light."

Daphnes looked up at the building, mesmerized by the sight as his eyes adjusted and he was able to take it in. For just an instant, he allowed all that this building had stood for to enter his mind, and he hesitated. For much of his life, he had believed in what this building stood for, and the sight of it in the glory of the light only reinforced that shining image in his mind. Before the last couple of days, he had believed the Prime Minister to be a good man having met him a couple of times in the course of his duties in Castleton.

And then the moment was gone, and Daphnes' expression hardened. There was work to be done. No matter how much Hyrule and its people might have wanted to progress away from its past, there seemed no getting away from the inherent nature of its existence; the inherent struggle it constantly faced between the light and the darkness of the thoughts and beliefs of those who inhabited it. No matter how technologically or socially advanced they might be, Hyrule would always struggle against the darkness, and it would always need the Princess and the Hero to defend against it and do what needed to be done. That was the price for his ancestors introducing intelligent life to this world. He understood that now. His own Silent Realm test had made that clear.

Daphnes took one glance back at his brother who stood behind the barrier adding his own considerable power, enhanced by the Triforce of Power, to the field wizards' magic and nodded. Gaepora smiled grimly and nodded back. They didn't need to use words to communicate. The brothers knew that they both had each other's backs, and they both had their own roles to play.

He then looked down at his own left hand, the back of which was covered by a leather and steel guantlet, but he could see the outline of golden triangles there, shining through the gauntlet from being so close to the other two pieces of the Triforce, nonetheless. The Triforce of Courage had chosen him. He had never considered himself a courageous man. He couldn't, because he knew deep in his own heart it wasn't the truth. He had grown up afraid, terrified, of what his destiny might be because of who his father was. He had lived with that fear each time he had been called into combat. He had fought against it time and again when he was called on to serve. But it had never gone away. And yet the Triforce of Courage, his father's Triforce really, had chosen him. It had demanded that he take his father's place or watch his world and all he loved be consumed by the darkness and fall into chaos. Once more he had been called to serve. Once more it had terrified him. And once more, he fought against his fear, and answered the call. Was that what his father had done? He didn't know the answer to that question. He didn't know if he ever would. But it didn't matter. He had a job to do. And he was going to do it or die trying. He owed his dad, his mom, and his world that much.

Sword in his left hand, shield in the other he moved forward, ahead of his sister and their unusual companion. Both his regulation sword and shield had been enchanted, infused with light magic by his brother to be more effective against the dark creatures, former ministers of parliament, he expected to find. According to the mouse, there was little hope of saving any of them. Some of them had been friends and colleagues that had gone into politics. When they were done, Hyrule would be without a functioning parliament for the first time in centuries. Martial law would have to be enacted and new elections held after a period of mourning. Great goddesses, what a way for a new monarch to take power and defend the people!

His expression hardened even more. He would be doing them no favors by allowing sentiment to cloud his judgment. Instead, anger welled up inside of him. It was an anger at the darkness, an anger at the man who had brought the darkness this time, and an anger at the circumstances. He used that anger to harden his resolve even more. His objective was clear, as the mouse had advised. This was an extermination. There would be, and therefore there could be, no survivors.

He glanced behind him to his sister, his queen. Malona had replaced the sword back into its scabbard and a gleeming bow had appeared in her hand with a quiver of golden arrows at her side. He didn't know where they had come from. They certainly weren't standard issue. But, in her hands they looked just right. She had always been better with a bow than a sword (not that she couldn't bring him to a stalemate in a duel), and seeing her with a radiant golden arrow nocked just looked, and felt, right.

He nodded at her too. She nodded slowly in response. Looking back at the mouse, the same gesture was repeated as the short figure carried his skeleton key weapon in his right hand like an experienced duelist. Something told Daphnes, as unassuming and non threatening as Mickey Mouse presented himself, he didn't want to get into a duel with him either.

It might have made no sense to the casual observer, but the rest of the guardsmen around the perimeter of the barrier were ordered to hold their positions and not come with them. That was on the strong recommendation of the mouse. The fewer people that entered the building, the fewer potential losses they would have to the "heartless" they would find inside who would already be chomping at the bit from the presence of the two "keyblades"; mouse's weapon and the Master Sword. And every soul lost to a heartless was a new heartless they would have to dispatch.

He looked back towards the building, up the steps to the main front doors. They were made of thick, bulletproof glass with shining brass trim and handles. The radiant light from the barrier shone through the doors and he could see part of the entry hall beyond.

He stepped forward and strode cautiously up the marble steps to the entry doors. The light from the barrier could only reach so far. The darkness of the shadows beyond it looked palpable, tangible, and constantly shifting, even though the source of light was constant. Shining yellow pairs of eyes could be seen moving among the shifting shadows.

Behind him, Malona and Mickey came up and observed the same thing. "You can't do anything for them now except end their suffering." The mouse said. "There's nothing left of the good people the heartless once were. Nothing we can save, at least."

"I know. Let's just get this over with." Daphnes responded, wondering what he was going to say to his wife. Her father had been the Minister of Parliament for her home district. He didn't know if he had been in the building earlier in the day, but if parliament had been in session, there was every chance he was. The man was nothing if not reliable. His sense of duty had, in all likelihood, gotten him killed that day. He forced the thought out of his mind again. He had a job to do. Sentiment wouldn't help anyone now, not even his father-in-law.

He moved forward and swung open the door, the light behind him casting a long shadow across the checkered black and white marble floor. He crossed the threshold of the doorway and stepped inside. Immediately, the moving darkness, sensing the presence of the two keyblades, took advantage of the shadows he and the two with him created and charged them using their shadows like bridges across the light.

Streaks of light felled the first several before they could reach the tip of his sword as they whizzed past Daphnes' head, as he could hear the telltale sound of arrows being nocked, drawn, and released in rapid succession by the newly crowned queen. His sister was nothing if not deadly accurate with each shot.

They couldn't just leave any alive either, and so Mickey and Daphnes engaged those that escaped being targeted by Malona, blade and key swinging, stabbing, and slicing with a precise ferocity, and without mercy. Heartless fell and disappeared into black smoke. That was the only mercy they could afford to show them.

"They're not particularly powerful heartless, are they?" Mickey commented after he dispatched several of his own. "This is more like slaughter than it is a fight."

"They were just secretaries, receptionists, mail boys, and tourists who happened to visit on the wrong day." Daphnes told him emotionlessly, running another one through. All of the anger and pain the realization of it brought he channeled into the strength he needed to do what needed to be done. The heartless vaporized and he flipped his sword to impale another that had tried to come up behind him. "That's who would have been here in the lobby."

"Yeah, right." Mickey agreed sadly.

They moved forward, deeper into the building, destroying more "infected" shadows as they went.

The three went systematically through the halls and offices beginning first to those on their left hand on the first floor and working their way around the building, leaving no room untouched except for the central chamber of parliament which they saved for the last. More heartless fell as they did, and Daphnes continued to shove the thought of how many of them he had known out of his mind.

It was long tiring work. Before they had entered, they had brought with them special variants of the magical crystals known as Din's Fire, and would ignite them in each room. Instead of setting the room ablaze and burning down the building, however, the room would be filled with a pure, radiant light that continued to burn for twelve hours, and which dark energy creatures couldn't stand to be anywhere near. The field wizards back at the Sacred Grove command post who had devised the new magic on the fly had dubbed it "Hylia's Light". The three had brought enough of the crystals to bathe the entire interior of the parliament building with something akin to intense, white sunlight. This was the only way they could be certain that no heartless would escape the sword or the light arrows.

Outside, Gaepora watched with some relief as, one by one, the darkened windows of the parliament building lit up with Hylia's Light. He had been holding his position with the R.H.M.G. field wizards for hours, lending the strength of the Triforce of Power to theirs. It was a taxing, demanding strain on a magic user to maintain something like this for so long. Many of those guard wizards had been forced to back off and rest while new guardsmen took their place in maintaining the protective barrier of light. He however, had not. The Triforce had sustained him as well as the barrier.

Ironically, "Holy Light" was one of the simpler spells, or manipulations of their world through magic. All they were doing was creating pure light. In its most basic usage, it took no more energy than flipping a light switch. But the guardsmen, and all of Hyrule, didn't just need a light switch. The intensity and purity of the light required a concentration and application of power which, when put to other uses, might level mountains, or even move planetary bodies out of alignment. It took a great deal to emulate pure, intense, sunlight on a scale of this size and then keep it focused in a certain direction so that they didn't light up the entire city in the middle of the night.

Each window which lit up with Hylia's Light was less power they needed to maintain the barrier. After several hours, when window after window lit up, he gave the order to begin drawing in the shield of light towards the building, reducing its size by half, as well as the amount of power it was taking. Eventually, they were able to collapse it past the towers and minerets on the building's four corners, and more of the field wizards were able to rest, though some of them had drained themselves so far they were being looked after by Guard medics and healers.

Gaepora stood his ground, never wavering, even though he was beginning to feel the strain of it too. Right now, those inside needed the Power he could bring to it, and he refused to let them down.

Hylia's Light blazed through the halls and rooms of the interior of the Parliament building, and all around the three figures who now stood in front of the main double doors of the central chamber. There had been hundreds of heartless in the building. Daphnes' face had grown stone cold. Malona's however, could not hide the pain she felt for each former innocent who became a target for her arrows of light, and her cheeks were streaked with tears. Mickey's face bore the weary, but grim determination to see the job through to the end. The mouse alone was feeling the physical toll of the night's work. Neither the Supreme Commander nor the Queen seemed to have any less energy for the task than when they started.

None of them spoke as Daphnes approached the central chamber's solid Deku wood doors inlaid with neutralized time crystals. He attempted to turn the antique door handle, but it wouldn't turn. He then attempted to push the door open, but it resisted.

"Locked tight." He pronounced. "Anyone want to bet the other entry doors are too?"

"Allow me." Mickey told him.

The mouse then pointed his keyblade at the door and a beam of light shot from the tip and into the lock. They heard a click, and the double doors swung slightly inwards, allowing the bright radiant light around them to flow into the inky darkness beyond. As the light entered through the crack, the darkness drew back quickly as though in pain.

"Handy." Daphnes quipped.

"Yep, can be." Mickey responded.

Daphnes pushed the double doors further open with the tip of his sword, his shield, also enchanted with light magics, raised on his right arm as he went into the chamber first. Holy light flooded the doorway and the darkness retreated quickly further into the room as Daphnes entered through the open doorway, flanked to the rear by Malona, light arrow nocked in a golden bow, and Mickey, keyblade at the ready.

Above the central chamber was the great, stained glass dome depicting the Triforce and the goddesses looking down with approval on the ministers of the people. Light from the outside barrier streamed through the glass and bathed the whole chamber in a solemn rainbow of diffused light which the yellow eyed shadows, crouching low among the half-circle amphitheater seating for the ministers, seemed to be trying to avoid, but it didn't seem to be causing the same pain as the light flooding the doorways.

In the center of the chamber's platform stood a single, middle aged man in a gray, stylish, modern, tailored suit. His eyes glowed yellow, and there was an expression of pure hatred in them as he looked upon the newcomers.

"So, the Princess's brats are all dressed up like mommy and daddy!" The man called out to them, contempt filling his voice. "They've come to play, have they?" He then looked to Mickey, and said, "And I see they've brought their pet mouse. How fun."

None of the three responded as they moved forward. Immediately, more heartless attacked them from the sides. Arrows flew, swords sliced. Soon, the number of shades which filled the chamber diminished as they attacked without thought or strategy and fell on Daphnes' enchanted sword, or Mickey's keyblade. The thought of who it might have been persisted in his mind, and he continued to shove it aside.

"Congratulations." The man said, "you've managed to annihilate the entire parliament, and it hasn't even been twenty four hours since your coronation, your majesty. Most impressive. What a stunning victory for the monarchy."

His taunts cut like knives, but none of them allowed the jabs to keep them from their appointed task as they fought their way forward towards the podium.

He kept talking, "It's ironic that you took the name 'Zelda', your majesty." He said. "Since that was the very person I was trying to get out of my way."

At that, Malona's head turned and she responded, "What do you mean?" As she let another arrow fly, hitting a heartless between its yellow eyes, her cheeks wet from the tears shed for the person it had once been.

"Oh. That's right, you don't understand. It was purely by coincidence then. How awkward." The Prime Minister said, his voice dripping with malice. "You see, it was I who infected your mother."

"You?!" She shouted, letting another arrow fly at a former minister of parliament. "How could you?! Why?! We never even saw...!" The questions kept piling up in her mind as she became distracted.

"You swore an oath to the royal family, Agahnison!" Daphnes yelled at him, bashing another heartless in the face with his shield before decapitating it into black smoke. "How could you betray us?! All of us?!"

"Keep your head in the game, soldier!" Mickey shouted at Daphnes as the mouse took out a dark shadow which had almost slipped through the General's defenses. "That's not Agahnison anymore, remember?!"

Agahnison's face grew grim as he replied, "Quite right. Very good, little mouse. Agahnison doesn't live here anymore, now does he?!" He shouted back to them. "No, the good Prime Minister would never have done such a dark thing, now would he have? But oh, was he ambitious. It didn't take much convincing once I set things into motion. Of course, you forced my hand in the last twenty four hours, did you know that? I'm a patient man. I was going to wait. I was going to just let your mother die peacefully from cancer a week or two from now, and then slowly remove all of Hylia's remaining heirs, making it look like death from natural causes or illness. A final, quiet end to an unnaturally long existence. No one would have suspected."

The shadows in the central chamber finally grew completely still, and nothing seemed to move within the great amphitheater. All the heartless had been destroyed. All except one.

"I don't understand." Malona said. "Why would you hate my mother so much? She was a good woman who spent her entire life with everyone else's best interests at heart!"

"Hate her? Hate Zelda?" The man seemed genuinely hurt. "Why would I hate my own daughter?" He asked. "No! I loved my daughter more than you can possibly know. No, I hate the goddess who possessed my daughter and took my little girl from me; that light bitch Hylia! The damned goddess that continuously reincarnated herself, shining her damned, painful light, and stamping her image across all of her direct female descendants, yourself included my dear." A dark aura began to spread around the Prime Minister's body. "I was going to take my daughter's shadow somewhere peaceful where the light could never make demands on her, could never hurt her again!" His voice became angrier, the rage and pain nearly palpable in it. "And you ruined it! Now, Hylia has her forever!"

Dark balls of energy formed in his hands and he began to raise them menacingly. "You know, in life I never used magic. I was taught to use it as a boy. Everyone is who attends a good Hylian school. But it was never my interest. I never fully understood what I was actually capable of until I spent time in the shadow realm. Did you know that a person's magic stays with him after he dies?"

He let one of the balls of dark energy fly. It sped towards the queen faster than she could react, and then she saw the gold and silver blur of a large key pass inches in front of her as it swung at the ball of energy like a bat and the dark projectile was redirected back at the figure on the podium. At the last minute, a circle of darkness formed in front of the man, and the energy ball hit it and ricocheted off into the seats where it exploded, destroying several rows of cushioned seating in a section.

"As it turns out, the magic within me is quite powerful." The shadow possessing the Prime Minister told them.

"Snap out of it, guys!" Mickey yelled at his companions. "It doesn't matter who he is or was! The darkness has taken him! We've got a job to do, remember?!"

In response Malona nocked another arrow, and let it fly as she, Daphnes and Mickey drew close to the antique Deku wood podium where the possessed man was standing. The arrow struck it's target in Agahnison's chest, and then held fast. But the man just looked down at it, pulled it out, and laughed. And then his laughter grew ominously.

"Really?!" He asked. "Did it occur to you that as long as I hold this body, your light magic can't harm me? I can just walk through all of that uncomfortably pure light you spread around this building."

"That can be rectified." Daphnes said as he charged the man with his sword.

The General then found himself being blown backwards with a wave of darkness as he crashed painfully sideways into a row of seats, falling to the floor. His sword and shield tumbled out of his hands, and he moved his body slowly as he tried to get up.

"I'm sure it could, General." The possessed man said. "If you could get close enough to me to do it."

Malona's bow disappeared from her hands, and she drew the Master Sword from her back. She dove for the shield her brother had been carrying and knelt in front of the injured man with the shield raised in front of both of them. Mickey joined her, keyblade raised. But neither of them knew what to do from there. Malona knew very little magic, and none of Mickey's light magic would damage the shade while it was still surrounded by Agahnison's flesh.

"You see, as courageous and cunning as the three of you might be," Agahnison's voice told them, "you just don't have the power to defeat me. I on the other hand," the dark aura spread from the man's body and began to cover and dominate the entire chamber, "have all the powers of darkness at my command. If I can't have my daughter's soul to let her rest in peace, I'll satisfy myself with tormenting your souls for eternity!"

The darkness which began to spread around the chamber became thick and tangible, blotting out all the light from the open door and the stained glass dome. The air became thick with it, and it became difficult for the three of them to breath.

"Slowly, but certainly, your airways will be cut off. Then, your brains will have only a few minutes of oxygen at best." Agahnison's voice taunted them. Then your hearts will stop beating and your own shades will leave those restricting masses of flesh. You'd be surprised at how liberating death can be. Then our real fun can begin."

A powerful burst of pure, white light blasted through the chamber slamming into the solidifying darkness and dissolving it into nothingness. The air around the three began to clear, and they were able to breath again.

"You want to see power, demon?" A man's voice shouted from the open doorway. "I'll show you what real power looks like!" He held up his left hand where a single triangle of light burned white and hot.

"What?! No!" The possessed man shouted. He threw out his arms and gathered the darkness around himself again preparing to blast the newcomer.

But Gaepora extended his own arms, and more light poured from his hands, bathing the entire room in its brilliant radiance, banishing the darkness the Prime Minister's hands were trying to form.

"Malona, now!" Gaepora yelled, and his sister didn't hesitate.

Malona leapt from where she had been, somersaulted in the air and brought the tip of the blade of evil's bain down into the man's chest, knocking him to the ground. He screamed in outrage. She drew the blade back out and with a great twirl she brought the blade around in a lethal strike and took off the man's head.

What looked like inky black smoke began to pour forth from the headless corpse's neck and it attempted to solidify into a large Hylian shape, but the bright, tangible light around it wouldn't allow it. Malona struck with the Master Sword at the inky darkness again and again, thrusting and slicing until it finally dissipated completely. The final remnants of the darkness were consumed by the light, and then all the shadows fled the chamber, and only the light remained.

Gaepora slowly lowered his arms, and allowed the natural sunlight of the new dawn, which was breaking through the stained glass above, to fill the chamber with its multicolored light. Malona, looking at the headless body of the decapitated man, and the empty, silent chamber around her, said in a whisper, "It's over." And then she lowered her sword and shield, and the tears began again in earnest.