Chapter 7
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Legend of Zelda- the people in Nintendo do, the lucky people.
A figure stood at the entrance to the graveyard of Karkariko Village, it's dark cloak swirling in the breeze as the moon shone down, casting an eerie glow. It glanced around before entering; it's footsteps making barely any sound in the grass.
It made its way to the Royal Tomb's entrance, where the Triforce symbol was. The person remembered that Zelda had just knelt there hours before, praying for her dead child.
It knelt down in the same spot and ran a gauntleted hand across the stone carving on the ground. The back of his hand glowed slightly in the night, making the person jerk its hand back inside the cloak.
Then, out of impulse, the person pushed back its hood to reveal a man in his early twenties with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. He had a three-inch scar across one cheek and silver hoop earrings on his pointed ears, which glinted in the moonlight. A green hat perched on top of his head- the same hat that he has worn since he was a boy.
He reached inside his cloak and brought out a small yellow flower, and placed it on the Triforce engraving.
"I'm sorry about your child Zelda," he said as he stood up again and put his hood back up. "Truly I am."
Just as he was about to walk out of the Graveyard, he touched the Triforce that glowed from under the gauntlet, allowing himself to become capable to receiving mind messages from Zelda.
"I'm ready to talk now Zelda," he said, glancing up at the moon. "I'm not afraid anymore."
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Meanwhile, Zelda was staring at the same moon as she sat on the window seat in her room. She gave up sleep hours before, and decided to occupy her mind to sewing winter clothes for herself.
Zelda didn't feel very upset at the moment- on the contrary, she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Jonah had decided to march the armies to Termania at first light the next day, and he had put Zelda in charge of Hyrule while he was away.
"Don't be sympathetic towards those commoners who will ask you for more food," Jonah said as he laid down his rules for Zelda, as if she were a little child. "They have enough already in their stores in their villages."
Remembering that comment, Zelda paused in her sewing. She hated her husband with a passion and she had high hopes that someone would be smart enough to at least kill him and make it look like an accident.
Shaking out the deep maroon velvet cloak that she was working on, Zelda took one last look at the moon before closing the window- for some apparent reason, she felt a little weird when looking at it that night.
Suddenly, Zelda got an image in her mind of a man her age walking through Karkariko Village, his dark cloak swaying around his tall frame.
"What was that?" she said to herself, leaning against the wall, her unfinished cloak sliding out of her grip and onto the floor. "Who was that?"
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Zelda woke from her troubled sleep by a knocking at her door.
Answering it, Zelda saw that it was her husband, wanting to bid her goodbye.
"I have hoped to stay during this war," Jonah said, fiddling with the gold chain that adorned his travelling cloak. "But matters came out of hand and I had to go. So don't worry about me- I will be fine."
Then he cupped Zelda's face and kissed her roughly, much to Zelda's disgust.
After Jonah had left and she had closed the door, Zelda quickly rinsed her mouth out and brushed her teeth twice.
"Thank the Goddesses that he didn't want anything more of me," Zelda said to herself as she dressed and brushed her hair- a simple pale blue gown and her non-formal crown, which she rarely wore- for today she will start her proper duties as Queen of Hyrule.
Eating her breakfast the way she wanted and conversing with the servants casually was like a breath of fresh air to Zelda.
Later, Zelda sat in the Royal Council and shared her views with the men and they listened to every word- one of them even saying that Jonah wouldn't shut up about gaining more land for Sytania from Termania.
"We need to look into the food situation for the common people," Zelda said, after finishing a discussion about the tax. "I've been talking to a few farmers and they've told me that food produce has been low and that Jonah hasn't done anything about it."
The advisors all muttered between themselves for a moment before one of them spoke, "This is the first we've heard of a food shortage. Will it affect the nobles?"
Zelda glared at the man. "No," she said, her voice hard. "It's only affecting the rest of the people- the people who work the land to feed us all."
More mutters. Sick of waiting for an answer, Zelda spoke, "I propose that we provide more food to the people where there are shortages. We hear their stories and we check to see what food is left in their storages."
"They'll eat us out of house and home!" one of them burst out. It was the same man who spoke out before. No one followed his complaint. The man, in his forties, looked at the other men in disbelief. "Do you believe this?!"
"If you believe that this system would not work," Zelda said calmly. "Might you want to suggest a different approach?"
The man glared at her. "Let them starve- it's their fault if they don't know how to ration their own food!"
By then, Zelda and the others had had enough. "I want you out of the Council," Zelda said, glaring at the man. "We are all human- wether noble-born or common. And we all need food to eat, so I am trying to help those who are less fortunate." She pointed to the door. "Leave," she commanded.
The man picked up his cloak and slammed the door behind himself, making the table shake slightly.
The other men around the table looked at her in awe.
"What?" Zelda asked at the awed faces. "I did what I had to do."
"That man that you just threw out was Jonah's personal advisor," one of the men spoke up. "He constantly told Jonah that common-born folk aren't worth anything. His name was Sacherell."
Zelda nodded to the man. "And what of yours?" she asked.
The men introduced themselves, explaining that they were cautious at first in telling Zelda their names, for they thought that Zelda was as bad as Jonah.
"We all believe that Jonah is making a mistake about Termania," Sir Collin said. "Termania has forever been at war with Sytania, not Hyrule."
Zelda took this information into account. "It's too late now- Jonah has already left for Termania this morning and by tomorrow afternoon, the war would begin." She sighed. "What are we to do about this?"
The men looked at each other uneasily. "Since all of us really never wanted Jonah on the throne, we wanted to be rid of him as soon as possible," Kenrith of Melaina said quietly. "So we-" he paused, looking around the room. He got out of his chair and opened the door, looked around and closed it again, stuffing a handkerchief into the keyhole. Meanwhile, two others were closing the windows, shutters and curtains, making the room go into darkness. Zelda impatiently lit a branch of candles and sat back down onto her seat and waited for the men to sit down and tell her what they had started.
When they had all sat down again, Kenrith started again. "We hired an assassin to kill the King," he whispered to Zelda.
Zelda's eyes widened. It was almost exactly what she had wished the night before. "Good work," she whispered, loud enough for all of them to hear, but soft enough so that the men had to lean forward to hear it properly. "You will be rewarded in time."
The men all looked relieved at her acceptance to their news.
"Shall we call this an end to the meeting?" Zelda suggested as she and the men opened up the room again. "We need to enjoy this lovely day while it lasts."
The men laughed and bid their goodbyes to her and left.
(A.N. THANK YOU ALL WHO HAS REVIEWED!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL HEAPS!!! I'm sorry that I have left you with a cliffie- sometimes I hate doing that to people. The story is going to get better, and there's some extra darkness added in the next few chapters that I'm working on. Can't say any more, you'll just have to wait!)