Princess Zelda Harkinan squeezed her husband's hand. The heir to the throne looked a royal mess; her long brown hair had been rapidly combed down to feign a look of cleanliness. Her skin had a sickly paleness to it. The deep bags over her puffy red eyes were stretched out wide open, combined with a steady jostling to desperately stay awake. All for him. All for him.

"I won't let anything happen to you."

She was completely beautiful.

"Neither will I."

Link looked up as a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder. Lord Frod Dragmire. King of The Gerudos. The Orphan Savior. His father. "Stay strong Link."

Sitting in place of judge, jury, perhaps executioner, King Phameekhan Harkinan banged his gavel. "Order, order in the court!" His throat felt dry as he looked upon the forum and the masses in attendance.

"Before we begin, I would like to review the case so that we all understand the situation. Months ago, Prince Link Harkinan-Dragmire defeated Ganon, going so far as to bring Ganon's bloody cape back as proof of his death. From Link's own admission of events, Ganon had turned into a pile of ashes after being pierced by a silver arrow."

There were small eruptions of applause in parts of the audience.

Zelda gave Link a jittery smile. "That means people still love you. It's great! I just wished it was even louder."

King Harkinan took this chance to breathe before continuing. "At the Fall Festival two weeks ago, Link was attacked by two assassins who carried empty vials. After cutting Link, they filled the vials with his blood and tried to run off. Link, The Sheik and several guards caught them, and all blood vials were destroyed. After interrogating the assassins, we learned that spilling Link's blood onto Ganon's ashes would bring the Dark Lord back to the question we are presented with today is: should Link be put to death to ensure that Ganon can never be resurrected?"

The crowd reacted in a tizzy, everyone arguing with someone next to them.

Lord Dragmire, I shall let you begin."

"Thank you, Your Highness." The crowd fell silent as Lord Dragmire stood up and stepped into the center. Sporting a brown vest over a white tunic, the gargantuan Lord Dragmire tried to look as sharp as ever. Dress to impress.

"Fifteen years ago, Hyrule had one of the worst atrocities committed against it in history. Just when we thought we had beaten them back, Ganon's army launched a massive attack on the border. We lost thousands of meters and thousands of people before we were able to beat them back. Doing whatever I could, I salvaged the survivors. Among them, a little boy, no higher than my knee, crawled out the fires. His parents gone forever. I raised that boy, just like I did with so many others, and i feared on the day it was time to enlist. I've seen so many young men go off and never come back. Just a few more drops of blood to grease the gears of war. But this boy, this man, has surpassed any and all expectations, he was chosen by the Goddesses to fulfill the ultimate prophecy. And people want to kill him? Who are we to kill what the goddesses sent to protect us. To save us."

Zelda leaned in; fingernails scratching at the marble table. Perfect. He has it word for word and he doesn't look like he's breaking a sweat.

"I don't believe everyone understands what a dangerous precedent this sends. For the past two weeks, Hyrule has been in the throes of a verbal civil war. It's a marvel no one has died yet. My people, this is what our enemies want: not only for us to be divided, but to be ready to make scapegoats out of some so the rest feel more secure. We are making appeasements to our enemies. And we all know the saying about appeasement: An appeaser is one who feeds a daria, hoping it will eat him last. Let's not forget, with Ganon's defeat, his magic is now longer around to support his armies. They collapsed; losing every battle for months after his defeat. They had to retreat; letting us reclaim vast territory. They should be the ones in turmoil, not us! People, we must stand strong against all enemies. We must valiant against all psychological warfare. We must whole steadfast against all threats. We must. We must! WE MUST! Not one concession to our enemies! Not here! Not Now! Not EVER!"

The Gerudo's booming voice pulsed through the air.

The crowd erupted in raucous applause.

"That is all, Your Majesty." Lord Dragmire returned to his seat.

"Great job, that was amazing," Zelda said.

"Thank you, Lord Dragmire." King Harkinan let the crowd noise die down before banging his gavel. "Alright, and now we turn to the other side of the debate."

Making sure his striking red hair was in order, General Groose Shtark left his chair. Wearing his general's clothing with medals pinned prominently on his chest, he approached the center. Time to shine.

"There were a few thing's you omitted. We have been fighting Ganon's forces for thirty years. Thirty years. Most of our wars have only lasted three, five, maybe seven years. This one? Thirty. Our population as a nation has stagnated for years now. People are born in hospitals as people die on battlefields. That's now how things are supposed to work. We are supposed to grow. But we have been kept stagnant. A few years ago, I think the population declined. I see so many people in that crowd today. Most of them look rather young. I see a lot of children. They don't know what it's like to live in a time without the war. I don't know what it's like to live in a time without the war.

Now, Link defeated Ganon, and the number of battles and skirmishes reported reached a record low. The lowest in thirty years. And that's great and all but, over the past few months, they've increased more and more. A few spies came back yesterday and told me personally that since Lord Ganon's remaining forces see a chance to bring him back to life, they are going to not only reinvigorate but also fight harder than ever. Ganon's monsters have fished for a new hope to carry them, and they've found it. So the question I have is... how much longer before Ganon's demons become desperate again? We already know the lengths they will go to. We are leaving ourselves to bear the horrors of their sick, twisted, imaginations.

We've been getting word that Ganondorf's army is preparing an all-out assault on Hyrule. Now, it was fine with it was just two assassins, but what about the chaos of an invasion?"

"I think Link has shown he can take care of himself."

"All it takes is one cut."

Ask any soldier who has survived the front line, and they will confirm what I'm about to say: if you find yourself surrounded by Ganon's forces, kill yourself, or make sure they do. Ganon's forces do not abide by codes of war, they turn prisoners into warnings."

Groose looked down at the ground for a second and clenched his fists. "They kept the nights quiet so you could hear the Hylians scream, and leave whatever is leftover in the morning. Sometimes they leave them still alive, still screaming in agony no mortal should have to endure. Ending their lives was an act of grace. The things that I have seen... I prayed to Hylia to watch over them with mercy, but there was none to be found. Those monsters are masters at keeping prey alive and toying with them just a little while longer.

Let's not forget Ganon's resume: Hyrule used to be a vast, beautiful, diverse place. We have lost 70% of our territory since the start of the war. The demographics of Hyrule are skewed beyond recognition. The Kokiris left when The Great Deku Tree was killed. We haven't heard from them in over a decade. The river Zoras were hunted to extinction, the sea ones fled. The Gorans retreated deep into the mountains. The Great Hylian Genocide which created the Orphan Generation. And most recently, the abduction of Princess Zelda.

People, Link is their last hope. As long as they think they have even the slightest chance of getting to him, they will do so. They sent assassins last time. What are they going to do next? The question isn't if we can stop them from getting to Link, the question is how many bodies is it going to take before we do the right thing? Link has made plenty of sacrifices, and he deserves all the praise in the world, but he needs to make one more. And if he doesn't want to make this choice, we have to make it for him. Now we can sit here, and we can talk about holding steadfast, but that attitude is going to change once a bomb goes off in the markets. It's nice to have a good resilience speech, but we need to face reality here. Holding on to Link means that people will die, horribly. Now I've done more than my fair of grave digging, and I don't want to have to do anymore because Link needs to survive. So let me do my job and protect the people, or someone pick up my shovel. Once Link is gone, morale will fall for good among Ganon's armies, and we can finally eradicate them and end this bloody, horrible, war. I'm not excited about the situation, but we have to look at reality."

The debate room and the audience around it had been put into a stunned silence.

This is not good. Lord Dragmire thought to himself as Groose triumphantly returned to his seat.. He's got them right where he wants them. Lord Dragmire got out his seat. Time for the rebuttal phase, I think I can turn this all back around...

"We don't even know if what the demons say is true. Are we really supposed to believe that spilling blood on ashes will cause his resurrection? Sounds like an old wives tale to me."

"It doesn't matter if it's true. It matters that they believe it. After Ganon's death, his remaining army had its spirit broken. They dared not tread near Hyrule. But now that this alleged resurrection process has been discovered, no doubt they'll become bolder. I doubt that assassin was the only one that knew. Who knows when Aghanim himself will come. And bring Ganon's horde with him."

"Ganon's hordes will be coming for him."

"If we kill him, what's stopping them from bringing their full-fledged weight down upon us? Two triforce wielders to their none."

"If they reach him and Ganondorf is resurrected, Hyrule will fall."

"Without him, Hyrule is surely to fall in due time. If we cannot stop them from coming, we can at least be better prepared to defend against them."

"I have heard enough." The king's gravelly voice said. "This debate is over. I shall make a decision at a later date. The court is adjourned."

"His speech was brilliant. I didn't think it would be that good or that long." Zelda said, panicking. "We tried to keep it short and concise, but I think we went too short. I thought that life and book metaphor would be great! It sounded so stupid when you said it out loud. My gods, I am such an idiot."

"Now-now, calm down Zelda. He couldn't counter the Triforce argument." Lord Dragmire tried to assure her. "His only play was the soldier/war dynamic. I still think we did very well. Besides Zelda, your father is the King! There is no way he would ever order Link's death. He's your father! Link is his son-in-law!"

"I don't know Lord Dragmire. I have a bad feeling about this."

"The debate is over. There's nothing else we can do. Go on, get some sleep. You need it, you look exhausted."

"Maybe I should go see father, see if I can talk to him some more and-"

"Go. To. Bed." Lord Dragmire pointed away. "Link, take her back to her chambers."

"But-"

"Thank you, for everything, Lord Dragmire." Link took her hand. The castle was little more than a royal labyrinth, but over the months of being here, Link generally knew the way back to the chambers. Zelda could walk the castle blindfolded and know every backroom and hallway.

"I still can't believe this is all happening." Zelda placed her foot on the bottom step, leaning over.

Link caught her, picking her up and carrying her into their bedroom. "Please Zelda, rest. You're not well." He flowed the blanket over their bodies.

"How can I sleep when you're in danger?"

"It doesn't make me feel better to see you like this." A kiss. Her forehead felt rather warm. "We've done all we can for now."

"Promise you'll be here when I wake up?" Her arms went around his neck.

"Of course."


Take these chains off

Take them off from my heart