***ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY**
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In Sotto Voce
By The Wolfess
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Chapter 13
Hyrule Castle was a flood of activity. Queen Zelda the Fifteenth had every eye and ear running surveillance and reports. She was the central hub around which the country buzzed, like the calm eye of a great, swirling hurricane. As the queen managed the influx of information and war preparations, her bodyguard managed her. He made sure she ate and slept at regular hours, and every now and then he took her out for a couple hours to do something fun. They usually just ended up talking about the war reports and other official topics, but she was growing more and more comfortable with him. Every now and then, the Hylian man had even managed to make his ward laugh or smile. She was so somber the rest of the time that he found himself treasuring those moments like a sunny day in winter.
Part of that growing closeness could be attributed to the fact that Link hadn't mentioned Impa since that day in the library, and Zelda hadn't brought her up either. They talked in meetings about the Sheikah tribal leader or the Zora princess, but everyone knew not to use their names in the queen's presence. There were whispers and rumors behind her back. It had started in the kitchens and the stables, then moved its way up the gossip chain until even the generals had heard them, and they kept these rumors in the backs of their minds as they sat on her councils and listened to her speak.
Zelda was aware of the rumors. They spoke of a love affair and claimed that the Sheikah had broken the queen's heart. Surely that was why Zelda was so cold now and so irrational. Link didn't think that was true, but he could see that underneath her occasional laugh or smile there was a coldness to her affect, a calculation in her eyes. The sweet Zelda he had gotten to know was suspended somewhere, shoved aside so that the queen could be in control and hold her country together. She knew that each shrewd general and councilman at her table was watching her, waiting for her to break, and as far as Queen Zelda was concerned, she would not give them the satisfaction.
Even as these great men danced around their references to the forbidden women, they still prodded as far as they dared. Underneath their courteous observance of Zelda's unspoken restriction, there was one bubbling feeling infecting the discussion at every council: accusation. The claims Zelda leveled against Impa and Ruto were unfounded in the eyes of many, and the new queen was harming Hyrule's relations with its allies at a time when they couldn't afford it. It was a policy based off the emotions of a child, and they neither understood nor respected it.
Link didn't fully understand either, but he did know why she couldn't speak their names or hear them spoken by others. He did know why having them around would likely kill her spirit all together. Unlike the others, Link was privy to a more private side of the queen: he knew that there was still a young woman full of trauma and longing underneath the mask of the queen. He heard her crying at night. Time had passed since Kind Daphnes was killed and Impa and Ruto left, but not that much. It still hurt her like a fresh wound, and since it hadn't healed she was just concealing it. The last thing her country needed was for her to appear like an emotional teenager, and she was doing her best not to be one. She was doing her best to be thirty and mature when she was only eighteen and confused and heartbroken, like any eighteen-year-old had a right to be. She saw that Hyrule needed a warrior queen to defend them, and she would be that queen whether she felt like it or not. It was an admirable trait, but a trait that her council was unable to appreciate.
In addition to the councils and the few outings that Link had coerced her into, Zelda had added one new item to her daily routine. It was a slot of time that she was very particular about, and, Link suspected, growing fond of: she was training to use her battle magic. She was learning quickly, and so far she showed surprising proficiency. She could channel her light magic with her saber and bow, and her lightning and wind magic with her baton. She was even starting to combine her saber and her bow to develop some very unique techniques. She had already been able to switch between them seamlessly, but she was combing that unique skill with her magic. Her teacher, Rauru himself, was pleased with her progress.
On his part, Link was learning as well. He was learning how to sneak around so that he could hear what was being said around the castle, but he was never as sneaky as Impa had been. He was no Sheikah, he was a warrior, and every day he felt more and more pent up inside the high stone walls of the castle. His hands itched for a sword, but all he found were pens and paper. He wanted to hop on Epona's back and ride her around the field, go do some scouting of his own as Impa had originally asked him to, but instead he stood, silent as a statue, at Zelda's side. Some days he found himself wishing that the next battle would just come already so he could do something real, not stand by all day watching a beautiful, kind, intelligent woman who could take care of herself.
Not that he minded watching her all the time, he was just restless. He was also not trying to pay so much attention to Zelda's positive physical and mental attributes. Unfortunately, that was his job: to watch her, get to know her, and learn to read her. She was a gorgeous woman. He liked her more and more every day, and sometimes he thought that maybe she liked him too. Sometimes she touched his shoulder, held his hand in public, or smiled at him in a way that he thought might, maybe suggest something more. She always told him how much she believed in him. Now was definitely not the right time for such feelings, though, so he pushed it aside and followed her lead, no matter where that lead might take them.
In terms of the war effort, Zelda had sent out a call for all her allies to come to Hyrule's aid in its time of need. The Gorons had arrived right away, and they were now taking up a wing of the castle. Some of the more distant Hyrulian Nobles had also come with their household armies as well. That was all so far, though, and there was no movement from their remaining two allies: the Sheikah Tribe and the Zora Nation. Their scouts said that there were rumbles of King Zora joining the enemy in response to Hyrule's treatment of his daughter, and the Sheikah just stayed holed up in their little town nestled against the foot of the mountain and said nothing. The news further agitated the rising tensions between the queen and her council.
They knew very little about the enemy's numbers and movements. None of the scouts they sent made it back. What they DID know was gleaned from Impa's bird messages as they trickled back to the castle. From these birds, so far, they had learned that the enemy forces were trickling in from the Eldin Volcanic Fields and Faron Woods. They were gathering in the desert under a strange banner whose descriptions were vague, but the face of the enemy leadership was still Volga and Wizzro. Their informants entrenched in enemy lines were able to get birds off to report that the Dragon Knight and the Dark Wizard were working for someone, but no one knew what or who. It was a shadow that seemed to guide them in private. Nothing more specific had made it back yet.
The day that the birds stopped, Link got a bad feeling. He sent out more, but after a couple days they hadn't returned. Link tried again and a couple more days passed, but these didn't return either. Finally, the aviators started to refuse sending them. Link gave the report to Zelda at council. The eyes of the generals and councilmen turned to the queen as Link's report finished, wait to see how she would respond.
The queen steepled her fingers in front of her mouth and narrowed her eyes. "If the birds are being killed, then I can think of only one thing that could have happened," she said. "My nursemaid is the only one who knows of the birds besides the Sheikah tribal leader." She said the word 'nursemaid' with a mocking tone, and the generals chuckled. It was a petty slight but altering their perceptions of the woman they once respected would soften the blow of what she was about to say and, hopefully, work to build a small rapport with them. "If they are being killed, then Kishla has reached the main force. I think that it is safe to assume that our informants are also dead, or will be soon, and there will be no more messages forthcoming. My nursemaid was the one person who knew them all, besides the new tribal leader. We will be getting no further information about our enemy's movements."
A murmur went around the room. The birds were their only source of information, and if they were gone and their informants dead then Hyrule was blind and ripe for the picking. Zelda was looking around at their faces, gauging their reactions and weighing options in her mind. Link watched her. He could see the wheels in her mind churning. When he saw the muscles around her temples flex and her jaw set, he knew the conclusion she had come to. Silently, he sent out his support to her.
Queen Zelda held up her hand for silence. The generals and councilmen obliged. Once all eyes were trained on her, the queen spoke. "We know where they are. We have a very rough idea of their numbers. We even have some clues as to what direction they might be moving in. We have already discussed our desire to make an offensive move against them, but we were waiting for the right location. On our doorstep here in Hyrule Field is definitely NOT a desirable location for what we hope will be a decisive surprise attack on the enemy."
She paused, took a breath, let it out slowly. Link could see the tension in her shoulders from behind. He knew what that tension meant. It meant that Zelda really didn't want to say what came next. She jumped in anyway, like the queen she was raised to be.
"We also know our current position in relationship to that offensive goal. We don't have enough soldiers to be successful in such a campaign, and Link's power alone is not enough to counter the strength of both the Dragon Knight and the Dark Wizard together. The Gorons have come, but even their substantial might will only delay the inevitable. We need…" her voice broke, and Link's breath caught. Not now, he thought for her. Not here. She swallowed a little and regained herself. The words poured out of her mouth a little faster than they should. "Our enemies have Kishla, the one person in Hyrule who has served three Zeldas. The one person who knew many of our country's secrets, even better than my father, my mother, or I. This is all true, and yes, it is indeed reason to despair. But I believe that all is not lost without her. We have something just as good: we have the only person in this world that Kishla herself trained—the Sheikah tribal leader. We need her and the Zora princess back, as well as the nations that rally to them. I...I..."
The oldest general there finished for her. He did not want to make her suffer through saying it herself. "You will send them pardon," he stated.
Zelda nodded. "Yes. I will send them royal pardons and ask, formally, for their aid."
"What if a pardon is not enough?" It was one of the council members who spoke up, a particular upstart named Vanzrir. "After all," he said, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands behind his head. "You accused them of high treason. The Zora princess, whose name is Ruto, was kept in prison and brutally beaten there by her jailors. The tribal leader, Impa if I can be so bold, almost single-handedly won the last battle, and yet for a reward you banned her from your service, gave the honor to her best friend who did nothing, and then stripped her of her rank and banned her from the castle. What makes you think they will come crawling back just because you have decided that you need them now and you'll forgive them for something they never did to begin with?"
As he spoke, Zelda's hands began to shake first. The tremor worked its way up her arms, and soon her eyes were watering. By the time that he finished, the queen had turned her back so that they would not see her weakness. Despite the harshness of the statement, no one spoke up to correct him or make him stop. They all knew that his words were true, and no matter how much affection they felt for their princess, they held little respect for the queen she was becoming. Tired of beating around the bush of this elephant in the room, they all turned their eyes to the queen.
Queen Zelda turned around slowly. Her back was straight, stiff, and her jaw was set. Her hands were still. Her eyes, when they scanned the room, were dry and cool. If she was in emotional distress, no one could have proved it. "Councilman Vanzrir," she said, her voice steady and calm. "Though I do not approve of the tone in your voice, I hear your concern. Perhaps I have let emotion influence some of my decisions. Although having to wash chunks of your father's flesh out of your hair may be a legitimate reason to be emotional," a few of the councilmen flinched at that description, not prepared for her to be quite so frank, "as a ruler, I cannot afford the luxury. Hyrule needs me to be level-headed for the big decisions to come."
All of the councilmen and generals began to nod and murmur sounds of agreement, but Zelda wasn't done. Her eyes hard as steel, her shoulders tense and rigid, she continued. "I will not ask for your forgiveness, and I will not ask for theirs. I stand by my previous decisions under the circumstances and I will not apologize for them. How you feel about that makes no difference. I demand your respect, your fealty, and theirs. I am the descendant of Hylia, the Queen of Hyrule, and each of you swore a vow to serve my house no matter the exact condition of the ruling monarch, for the love of Goddess and Country. I demand that you honor your vows. Any who turn away from their vows by not supporting me will be considered traitors to the line of Hylia and treated as such. As you know, the penalty for treachery is exile or death. So, gentlemen of the council, in response to your question: the blood of the goddess flows through my veins, as it did in the veins of my mother before me, and her mother before her. I AM Hyrule. They will accept my pardon and come at Hyrule's call, or they will prove that my assertions of their treachery were true. That is their decision to worry about, not mine. I will write the pardons now and send them this afternoon. You, my good councilmen, will get to choose the manner of their delivery. May your choice convey the appropriate message."
With that, she turned and strode toward the door. The click of her heals was sharp as it echoed through the hall. Link took one last look at the stunned faces of the people on the war council before he ran after her. They appeared shocked, impressed, surprised, or approving, but none that he could see looked affronted or offended. It may have been a risky move for the queen to make, and a shocking one as well, but the council's first impression told him that the hardline approach had paid off.
As the men of the war council turned to one another and began to argue in hushed voices, Link ran and caught up with Zelda. She was just leaving the main doors, and she was moving at a rapid pace. When he caught up with her, he fell into step just behind her as the doors closed.
"Hey," he asked once they were away from prying eyes, "are you okay?"
Zelda stopped and turned to him, as if surprised that he had spoken at all. Her eyes raked over him from head to toe. "I appointed you for your skill and for the impression that I thought your appointment would have on my council. I did not appoint you for your company, Sir."
Link flinched as if she had smacked him. The queen continued walking, leaving Link standing where he was. After a moment, he shook his head a little and jogged after her. As much as he wanted to just walk away from her then, he made a vow and he still had a job to do. He fell in step a few paces behind the queen and kept his head down, saying nothing.
Zelda walked straight out to the practice grounds. Once there, she picked up her Glittering Rapier and began to go through her steps. Her movements were agitated and quick, and the bursts of light flying off her sword got bigger and more dangerous by the moment. Link stayed at a safe distance, backing up as her light attacks got bigger. Just when he thought that she was going to start bringing out her bow and practice her unique bow-sword fighting style, though, she did something that he wasn't expecting. She let out a loud, angry growl and rounded on him, sword leading.
Link's knight sword and shield were in his hands in a flash. He blocked her blow with his shield and jumped back. She shifted and came at him from a different direction, her movements so rapid and strong that it was all the knight could do to keep up. He blocked and deflected with sword and shield, he jumped and dodged and flipped, he even used some of his own light magic as a shield against her onslaught of furious attacks, but he would not retaliate against her. She was his queen and his friend.
They continued like this for a few minutes. When Link still wouldn't attack her, no matter what she tried to do to force him into it, Zelda stepped back. Her face was red and her eyes were moist, but she didn't look sad at all. She looked furious. "Fight me!" She shouted.
Link raised his shield, but he shook his head. "No. I will not raise my sword against my queen."
Zelda grit her teeth. She stood back in a ready position and seethed at him. "As your queen, I order you to fight me!"
"No. I will not do it."
Zelda launched into a flurry of attacks, more forceful and furious than before. Link dodged and deflected as best as he could, but she was pushing him back. She wasn't even using her bow—just the strength and fury in her rapid attacks was enough to push his back into the wall. When Link felt his back press against the cold stone and saw the queen coming right at him, he finally had no choice: he swung back at her. She dodged his attack, but Link kept them coming. Attack by attack, careful step by step, he forced the queen back on the defensive and backed her out into the practice ring. His own blood was hot now, rising in him like a passion that he couldn't push down.
Like a pair of dancers, they fought in circles around the private practice square. No one watched, no one evaluated, no one cheered. They were alone—the queen and her guard—locked in a battle that was one part practice and two parts real. At times it seemed as if Zelda was winning, at times Link. The moment one would gain the upper hand, the other would steal it from them. They fought until they were red faced and exhausted, and then they kept on fighting.
Finally, Link bent over, shield hanging on his arm and sword dangling in a loose grip in his left hand. Sweat dripped off the ends of his bangs. Zelda tilted her head back, allowing the cool spring wind to blow over her hot face. Sweat ran down her neck and glistened on her skin. After a moment, she looked at Link with the same cool, hard look she had given the council before. "If you cannot defeat me, how can you hope to defeat Volga and Wizzro? They are beyond you."
Link raised his head. He was angry, and it showed in his face. "That was not a fair competition," he panted. "If I had been allowed to fight someone that I would not be killed for hurting, then I wouldn't have held back. Not to mention that you pulled me out of training to take this empty position. If you had let me finish my training, maybe I would be farther along." Link straitened. He tightened his grip on his sword as he continued, his knuckles turning white on the hilt. "In fact, Zelda, if I can be blunt, I don't appreciate being thrown into this position as a retaliation against Impa for whatever you think she did. I know that's why you really chose me—because it would hurt her. At least, I know that now. I was so stupid for accepting it in the first place. Silly me, I thought that you actually appreciated my skills. Obviously, I was wrong. I'm just some stand in stiff, but I don't really fill her shoes for you do I? Did you know, Zelda, that I had other things I wanted to do with my life besides trailing after you? Did it ever occur to you to ask me if I wanted to serve you, rather than just demanding my service? This whole business was underhanded and selfish from the beginning, and you know it."
As Link spoke, small bursts of fire and electricity surged around his feet. It emanated from his hands, along with trailing bursts of light magic. The queen was so distracted by it, that she didn't even really pay attention to what he was saying. "Link, did you know you could do that?"
Link blinked. "Do what?"
Zelda pointed down at his feet, and when he saw the fire and electric magic bursting off him, he jumped backward. "Woah!" The fire and electricity jumped with him, but as his anger cooled down, so did the new elements. "Wow, that was new. You didn't get hurt, did you Zelda?"
Zelda shook her head. Her expression had grown sad. "No, I am safe. There is more inside you than you realize, Link. I have always believed that. You just have to reach inside yourself and discover it. But…I am sorry," her voice had grown softer. She sheathed her rapier and looked down at the ground instead of at the knight's face. "This has all been so overwhelming. It is like I have been lost in an old wood and I cannot tell what direction to go or who to trust. Everything is mirrors and smoke. I am starting to see that I made emotional decisions after the battle, not sound ones, but I still believe there was logic in them. What Councilman Vanzrir said, what you said…it is all true. Perhaps I am not ready to be queen Link. Perhaps I am not fit to rule."
Link sheathed his weapons as well, and then shrugged. "Maybe it's true," he said, "but I don't think you have any more choice than I did. You called me to service, so I had to serve. Hyrule has called you to rule…so you must rule."
Zelda raised her eyes to him and met his gaze. "I am sorry that I stole your dreams from you."
Link nodded and looked away from her, unable to hold her gaze. He rubbed the back of his neck a little. "I'm sorry that you had yours stolen by others," he said. "I don't think that you wanted to ascend to the throne like this." He laughed a little and looked back at her. "I guess we're both just broken people who have had our dreams stolen, just trying to do what's right."
Zelda walked over to Link. She didn't quite look him in the eye as she reached out and took his hand in her own. "I…I value your service, and your friendship," she said. "You are an admirable man. I truly do feel blessed to be under such capable watch."
The contact was awkward, but her words were genuine. Despite his anger, the knight couldn't help but smile. Link loved that awkwardness in her, and he loved how her hair sparkled in the sunlight. He loved the way she was looking at him and the warmth of her hand in his. Spurred on by a sudden rash hair, a tendril of recklessness left over from their heated battle, the Hylian man stepped closer to the queen and slipped his hand under her chin. He tilted her face up to his. Her eyes were wide, her lips trembling, but Link took that as nerves. She's probably never been kissed before, he thought. As gentle as possible, he leaned in and touched his lips to hers.
As he kissed her softly and slowly, he waited for her body to respond, or for her lips to start moving against his, but they didn't. She was stiff as a board, and her lips were unresponsive to his kiss. He broke off the kiss and leaned back to look at her face, his expression confused. Zelda looked pale and her eyes were wide. Her gaze flickered down to Link's lips, and then back up to the confusion and hurt in his eyes. "I…I am sorry…" she whispered, raising one hand to cover her mouth. Her eyes began to tear up and she shook her head. "I cannot…" Unable to finish the sentence, Zelda turned and ran back into the castle. Link stood in the middle of the queen's private practice square and watched her go.
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Author's Notes: Revised chapter uploaded May 2022. Please find original author's note attached.
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Well, one step forward and two steps back. What are you gunna do? Poor Link. Guy can't catch a break. Thanks for reading!
Until next chapter,
