Chapter 20
The journey on the white gelding's back felt like it took forever, and yet somehow it was over in a matter of seconds as the horse brought Malona across the grassy expanse of Hyrule field and into the thriving metropolis. The starless sky overhead never changed, and the animal beneath her never tired in his gallop as he road north through the unending night.
None of the sights she saw were new to her. She doubted they ever would be, knowing they were drawn from her own mind, as Starfire raced into the city and down the broad avenues. There were no street cars or vehicles of any kind on the roads, but the streets were filled with people of every race in the kingdom that only just got out of the horse's way. For his part, the animal had no intention of slowing down for the pedestrians either.
"Slow down, Starfire!" Malona yelled at him to no effect. "You're going to trample someone!"
"It is they who must yield to us, your highness!" The horse responded without slowing. "I must return you to your rightful place!"
"Where are we going?!" She called out to him, clutching the reins as she bent low to move her body with the horse's movements as she had done since she was very little. But the horse didn't respond, and his path was still taking them directly north at a full gallop for the miles from the outskirts of the city to deep in towards the city's center.
As they got closer in towards Old Castle Town the number of people in the streets increased exponentially and Starfire was forced to slow down as he passed them. "How rude!" He snorted as he was reduced to a walk in order to cross the bridge into the old town.
"What are all these people doing out on the streets?" She asked him. "The capital's always crowded, but it looks like the whole kingdom is on the streets trying to get into the Old Town."
"They're waiting to see who will sit on the throne." The horse responded apologetically. "I'm sorry, your highness, but you've been gone a very long time. That's why I had to bring you back now before a usurper claimed your rightful place."
"They can have it." She said flippantly. "I'm not one of those girls who ever dreamed of living in the palace and wearing frilly gowns."
Starfire stopped so suddenly that Malona jerked forward in the saddle hard. "Who are you?!" He demanded. "The Princess I served and loved would never have allowed anything so selfish to escape her lips!"
"Selfish?" Malona asked in confusion as she straightened herself up. "How is my not wanting a life of luxury in a palace surrounded by servants and fawning courtiers selfish?"
"You have forgotten yourself, haven't you?" The horse asked sadly. "That was not the life I remember you having."
"What do you mean?" Malona asked.
Starfire began slowly walking forward again. "Look at the faces of the people around you, your highness. Tell me what you see." He said, nodding towards the sea of people they were passing through.
Malona studied their faces as he asked. She saw Hylians, Ordonians, Gorons, Zoras... But then she saw people also she knew rarely if ever left their own places, Kokiri, Skull Kids, Moblins, and other speaking, "sentient" peoples and races. The looks on their faces were fearful, expecting, wanting to hope, but fearful of hoping for too much.
"They look frightened." She said. "What are they frightened of?"
"The future, your highness." The horse responded. "Without the Princess of Wisdom to lead them and reassure them, the throne is open to whoever is strong enough or clever enough to take it, good or bad. Their future is uncertain and full of terrors."
They passed a group of Goron children, their faces of living stone downcast as she and Starfire passed them. One of them, a girl she thought, looked up at her, her eyes pleading hopefully.
"Why do those Goron children look so sad?" She asked.
"Don't you remember?" The horse replied.
"No. Remind me." She returned insistently, an edge creeping into her voice.
"Before you, ah... retired, you were the driving force behind the racial equality legislation that guaranteed their rights to equal education and opportunities. When you left, they lost their greatest champion. No one else in the government was as passionate for the rights of all the kingdom's children as you were." He replied solemnly. "And no one after you either."
"I didn't know that." She replied, humbled. "All the rules, and the glamor always scared me. It all seemed so superficial and false and made for someone else who enjoyed being in the spotlight and getting their way. I never wanted to be a spoiled princess."
"Spoiled?!" The horse snorted in disbelief. "How could a true princess even be spoiled? With great power comes great responsibility, your highness. You knew that once upon a time. The life of a true princess is one of supreme sacrifice, never being able to truly have a personal life to yourself. The first duty of a princess is to her people and her kingdom, never to herself or her own comfort. You told me that on many occasions during our rides. His majesty may have held the title of monarch, but no one doubted who truly governed the kingdom, and to whom the people looked to lead them."
She rode on in silence, considering his words carefully in her heart. "The people really wanted their princess to lead them, didn't they? They loved her very much when she was forced to abandon them."
"They didn't just love you. They worshiped you, your highness." Starfire gently corrected her. "You were more than their ruler, you were their goddess made flesh, and they put their whole faith in you."
"So when the princess left, they lost their faith?" She asked.
"Now you understand your importance to them." He said. "The people lost more than their beloved ruler. They lost their goddess. And when one loses faith in their god, they either struggle to have faith in anything else, or they are so desperate to believe in something they will believe in anything or anyone."
Malona felt something change within her as her mount's words penetrated into her heart. She had been selfish. Her mother may have had her own reasons, but Malona had just been selfish staying as far away from her rightful heritage and responsibilities as possible. As they passed, more of the people seemed to take notice of her. Their eyes seeing her pass as though for the first time. Each and every one looked at her expectantly, and for the first time, she saw eyes that were filling with hope as she passed them.
"Please, your highness, come back to us." One of them whispered desperately as she passed, and a little tremor of fear went through her. "My Lady..." Another whispered, calling out to her. She could hear whispers beginning to pass through the crowd. "The Princess... The Princess is returning." "Zelda... Princess Zelda comes..." "The goddess made flesh rides a white horse..."
Her heart began to race as more and more eyes turned to her expectantly, tears of hope and fear flooding them and reverent, pious whispers of her mother's mortal name running among them, and then came the whispers of her mother's immortal name, "The Lady Hylia..." "The Lady comes again."
"Oh goddesses, they think I'm her!" She nearly screamed inwardly. She wanted to shout back, "No! I'm not my mother! I'm not your princess!" But she kept her silence as she looked into their eyes.
They moved on through the crowd until they came to the central market square of Old Castle Town. She knew this place from the few times she had been here throughout her life. But something was wrong. Something was different.
In the middle of the old town center there should have been a fountain with a statue of some historical figures, though she never wanted to know who they were or what they had done. But now it had been replaced with something else which she knew was far, far from where it should have been in the real world. In the middle of the old town market there stood the raised pedestal, embedded in which was the Master Sword. All eyes that hadn't seen her approach yet, were gazing fearfully at the blue and silver sword embedded in the stone of the pedestal.
But it wasn't the sword that kept her attention focused on the center square. It was the black cloaked figure that was furiously attempting to draw it from the pedestal with gauntletts of black steel and leather, a cowl of darkness covering his head.
"Who is that?" She demanded from Starfire.
"It is as I feared." Starfire told her urgently. "A dark one has come to usurp the throne."
"Who is this dark one?" She asked as the horse came up and stopped several yards from the pedestal.
"There have been many, and yet somehow it is always the same, a man whose only love is the power to control people. If he steals the throne again, then all these people's lives are forfeit to his will." Starfire told her. "My Lady, look around you. Would you really leave these people to the whims of an evil man?"
She looked around her, and suddenly the square was filled with children of all races mingled in with their parents, terror in their eyes at the nightmare man made real.
"Damn. This is the test." She realized. "Do I walk away and be Malona from Ordon, or do I take my mother's place?" She then asked, "But it's not real, it's all in my head. What kind of a test is only in your head? What difference does it make?"
"We are what we believe we are, your highness." Starfire told her. "Your belief creates the reality. And this," he motioned to the dark robed figure with his head, "will come to pass. There is no way to stop the darkness from trying again. It can only be kept at bay by a champion of the light. So it has always been in our world, so it will always be."
"What do you mean?" She asked, her eyes on the frustrated figure.
"As long as the darkness finds a foothold within Hyrule, it will always seek to extinguish the light from her people." The horse responded.
"I can't let that happen." She said as though it were a sudden realization. "These are 'my' people."
"My Lady." Starfire agreed, bowing his head.
Swinging her leg over she dismounted from the white horse, unarmed though she was. Her eyes couldn't avoid meeting the eyes of the people who looked to her desperately for help as they then looked fearfully at the man whose black muscular hands were wrapped around the hilt of an unyielding sword.
Her booted feet hit the ground on the left side of the horse, and then the realization of what she was about to do hit her hard. Her hands began to tremble and she steadied herself by gripping the sides of the saddle.
"What are you doing, Malona?" She asked herself. "This isn't you. You're not a princess, or a hero. You're just a farmer from Ordonville who came to this damn city because her mother was sick. You never wanted any of this." Her hands gripped the sides of Starfire's saddle so hard that her knuckles were white. "You have two sons, one of them about to be married, the other almost through high school. You have a good life, a blessed life. Are you really going to give that up for... for what?"
"Please, my Lady." A child, a little girl, cried out in desperation from somewhere across the market square. "Please don't abandon us again."
Tears stung her eyes as the choice weighed heavy on her, and she wiped them with her sleeve. She then asked herself the same question she always did when faced with an important decision.
"What would Mom and Dad do?" She whispered to herself, but she already knew the answer to it.
"You're the Hero's daughter, Malona." She told herself as she came to terms with it. "You know what Mom and Dad would do. You've grown up being told the answer all your life. This is who you are."
She dried her face one more time, and then, standing up straight, she steeled herself and turned to face the pedestal where the dark one was still tugging violently at the Sword.
"I am my father's daughter." She said aloud as she walked with purpose towards the man. "Courage has sired me."
Her stride became more determined as the sound of her booted footfalls began to echo across the market place. She stood straight and tall, each stride becoming more dignified and refined.
"I am my mother's daughter." She spoke again, a resolution coming into her voice as she stared at the would be usurper. "I am Wisdom's child."
Suddenly the man froze in his jerking movements as though he had been struck. His fingers flexed one by one around the hilt of the sword, which began to glow orange under his black gloves.
"I am a descendant of the Great Queen." She announced loudly to the whole market square, surprising herself especially. "The Power is mine by right of birth." There was no question to the intent of her proclamation. The challenge had been issued and couldn't be rescinded. There was no turning back.
The effect on the hooded man was immediate as he cried out in pain and fell back from the pedestal and down on one knee, his gloved hands were smoking from where they had been burned, as he howled in rage.
"Who dares challenge me?!" He bellowed, the waves of his rage emanating across the people as they shrank back in terror. The faceless hood then looked up with glowing red eyes towards the woman striding confidently towards the pedestal.
"You!" He yelled in disgust. "Who are you to challenge me for the right to rule?"
From deep within her, a confidence, a personality emerged that she had never known before, and it was as if someone else had joined with her, and they became one as she responded, "I am Zelda, rightful Princess of Hyrule. And you will not harm my people again, dark one." The strength and steel in her voice were absolute as it carried from person to person and ear to ear.
There came an intense, tingling, almost burning sensation from the back of her left hand. When she raised it to look, there on her slender, yet strong hands that had only known the hard, good life of a farmer and rancher was marked the outline of three golden triangles in blazing light set together to form a single triangle. The triangle at the bottom right corner glowed golden as it filled in and became solid, and she could feel the wisdom and knowledge of the ages infuse her soul. "I am Zelda." She repeated to herself again, the understanding flooding her mind and heart. It wasn't just a name. It wasn't just her mother's name, or her great-great grandmother's name. It was a title and a responsibility to protect the people of Hyrule from the darkness that had always and would always threaten their very existence. "It's who I've always been; and who I was always meant to be."
"No!" The dark one raged. "No! You will not interfere with my plans again!" He got to his feet and, raising his hands, balls of dark energy formed in them. "You will taste my wrath!" He yelled, and drew his hands back to unleash the darkness.
But just as he was about to throw them, they fell from his hands as a shaft of pure light struck him in the chest, and he cried out again in rage and pain.
Malona then knocked another arrow, the shaft and head created from pure light, the bow and string golden and gleaming. They had appeared in her hands with a mere thought. They felt comfortable and right in her hands, and she hadn't missed her mark with an arrow in all of her life. She let the next arrow fly and it struck the dark one again, driving him back and away from the pedestal.
"No! You left! You abandoned your people!" He screamed in rage and pain. "You're just a milkmaid daughter of a goat herder! How can you possibly protect this people from me?!" He raged at her.
Another shaft of light struck deep into the cowl of his black robes and he howled in pain.
Malona strode with confidence up to the pedestal and, the bow and arrows disappearing with a thought, placed her left hand on the sapphire blue hilt of the Master Sword. The golden triangle flared brilliantly with light on her hand as her fingers closed around the sword.
"Recognition accepted. Mistress Zelda accepted." Fi's voice announced for all to hear.
"I am the Princess of Hyrule." She told him, her the tone of her voice ringed with steel and power. "I will always protect my people from you, no matter what the cost." The truth and the deep knowledge of that truth filled her very soul as she pulled upwards and the Master Sword slid from its housing in the ancient stone and held it skyward.
The blade filled with energy and power as she pointed it to the sky. "You will never rule this people, dark one. I will always be here to protect them."
She turned and pointed the tip of the blade at the black hooded figure. "Always." She said one last time, and then she willed the energy in the blade to release and it slammed into him, throwing him off of his feet backwards and the dark figure disintegrated into nothingness.
And then the triangle on her hand flared bright and strong with golden light and it surrounded her until all was awash in its bright, sacred aura.
Malona found herself standing once more in the great hall of the Temple of Time. She blinked several times to clear her vision and get her bearings as to where she was. She thought she was seeing double as two younger versions of her father stood trembling in front of her, haunted, serious looks in their eyes as they too blinked and began to look around them. One wore the forest green tunic and traditional long cap of the Hero over chain mail, and brown leather gauntlets. The other wore the same but in blood red shades.
The one in green looked intently at her in confusion, and asked, "Mom?"
Malona's face scrunched up in confusion, "What?" She asked in return, "It's me, Malona."
The one in red pointed at her body, and then she looked down at herself, and was stunned. She was wearing a pink and white dress with silver trim that she had only seen once in a picture from long, long ago. It was emblazoned with the royal winged triforce crest across the chest and apron. Long, white silk gloves covered her arms. She touched her head, and upon it rested a diadem. She could feel the Triforce symbol etched into its crest.
"Holy goddesses." She exclaimed. "I've become her."
"And so you have." Came the voice of an older man walking towards the three. "The Triforce has made its choice, and revealed who each of you was truly meant to be."
All three turned and looked towards the owner of the voice. He was a shorter, plump, balding man with wire-rim eyeglasses who wore the red robes of a Sage emblazoned with the sigil of the Eye of Truth.
Malona looked at her white gloved left hand, and pulled the glove off. There, on the back of her hand was the golden outline of the Triforce, the right bottom triangle a solid, glowing golden color. The two Links in front of her followed suit, pulling the gauntlets of their left hands off to reveal the bare skin beneath. They too carried the mark. The mark of the one in green glowed solid in the left hand corner. The mark of the one in red, the top.
"I've become Dad." Came the voice of her oldest brother, Daphnes from the green clad version of her father as he looked at the glowing mark that represented the Triforce of Courage.
The other man, whom she now recognized as Gaepora remained silent, the expression on his face sad, and serious. When he did finally speak, he whispered, "With great power, comes great responsibility."
"Indeed it does." The Sage agreed solemnly.
"But what does this mean? Each of us carries a piece of the Triforce?" Daphnes asked, remembering their purpose. "How do we use it to help our mother now if it's split apart?"
"The Triforce will grant the wish of a mortal when all three pieces are brought together in balance. It has marked each of you as a bearer. Therefore, each of you must be in full agreement as to what you wish." The Sage told them.
Daphnes nodded, and then held out his left hand. "I know what I came to wish for. This is for Mom."
Malona took her brother's hand in her own, "For Mom." She said.
Gaepora took his own hand and placed it palm down on top of his brother and sister's. The Triforce of Power glowed bright and powerful as he did so. "We wish for the Lady Hylia to ascend and return to her place among the gods." He said with solemnity and sincerity. His brother and sister each nodded in agreement.
Talon sat by the side of Zelda's hospital bed, keeping his vigil faithfully as she attempted once again to meditate, eyes closed, and find her way back. He had been watching over her intently since the Sage of Shadow had departed. She had seemed sadder but more determined after his former colleague had made her report. The king knew that the former princess had loved her father very much, and she was using that love, channeling it towards her purpose. If the block had not been there, he knew, the power of it would have brought her to her goal.
She opened her eyes again, blinking them several times as her mind returned to the reality of the room around her. Then she rubbed them with her hands.
"Has there been any word from Malona or my boys?" She asked him.
"Not yet, my Lady." He told her. "You know that such things as they are attempting take time and patience."
"I do." She said. "It's the mother in me. I worry."
Talon smiled as he took her hand. "I'm sure they are fine, my Lady."
She smiled, and then said sincerely, "You have always been so good and loyal to me, Talon. Thank you for staying by my side during this. I understand why my husband and children aren't here, but it would have been much harder if you hadn't stayed."
"My Lady, I have always and ever been at your service." He responded, nodding his head.
"I wish..." She began to say, and then stopped and a strange look came over her face.
"My Lady, what's wrong?" Talon became alarmed.
"I feel..." She began to try to describe it, but fell short as her whole body began to glow with light and power. The years etched into her beautiful features by natural aging melted away to reveal the young woman he had known as his aunt, his Princess, and his goddess all of his unnaturally long life.
"My Lady!" He cried for joy, tears welling in his eyes.
She smiled gracefully at him, touching his cheek gently with the palm of her glowing, light filled hand. "My faithful Sage." She said to him. "Thank you. I need to go now."
"Of course, my Lady." He replied. "I understand. What shall I tell Malona and the boys?"
"They already know." She responded. And then the hospital gown she had been wearing collapsed in on itself as her physical form vanished from it and became a ball of light and energy that rose up from the bed, and then ascended through the ceiling skywards.
"Farewell, Aunt Zelda." He whispered, eyes up towards the ceiling.
Then there was a stabbing pain through his chest, and Talon cried out as the blood began flowing freely from the would around the tip of the blade that had penetrated through his red shirt. The shock and surprise overtook him and he couldn't focus his thoughts as he realized his brain only had minutes left before it was completely lost.
There was no voice, and no sound of footsteps registered in his ears to give any clue as to whose hand had been on the hilt of the blade as he struggled to calm his mind and prepared to follow his goddess.