The hinges of the door announced their guests even before the panel swung towards them. There were voices muffled by the wood, but not for long. Iron-shod feet approached and echoed from the hallway to the right, and they had nowhere to go but to their left. The boys pivoted and flew while Navi darted ahead, and scrambled past a chambermaid holding her satchel of belongings. She screeched as they disappeared around the next left corner.
"Six guards," Gerrard gulped, looking back briefly. "Sure to be more! Oh! Navi, here!" He pulled Link up a tiny side-stair behind a curtain, the light of recognition in his eyes. "This way!" Navi lit the gloom, and immediately Link was dubious as to why the sconces were not burning. His doubt was answered when the leery boy appeared ahead with a long wick of cedar, and a horn of oil under his arm.
"What in the North-" the pimply one squeaked with the baritone of manhood.
"Sorry, but we need to find the Princess! Any ideas?" Gerrard spewed the question, even though they moved at breakneck speed.
His mouth worked in silent shock, no sound with his syllables. Suddenly, "She wanted to pick flowers."
That stopped them dead in their tracks. "Say that again!" Link demanded.
"Maybe up here!" Below them at the entrance to the side-stair, a bellow sounded the alarm, and the boys were left no choice but to continue without any further assistance from the lamp-lighter.
Pounding the worn stones of the servants corridor, Gerrard hung a right, careened past more unlit corridors. He took a series of weird rights and lefts, they went up when Link felt they must go down, and then he plunged them down through tight alcoves, cutting across opulently carpeted and painted halls. He snaked them through the very walls of the Castle, bypassing commoners bedrooms and lounges, and they avoided the kitchens.
Every forty steps, or less, they collectively dove for cover when the creak of armor sounded, and several times, the less obvious, soft-soled paces of servants embroiled in the search. Link's hunter-sharp hearing was keeping him on high alert, and he distinctly heard the chatter and patter of mice in the walls beside them.
"They're all looking for us," Navi said aloud. "We really shook things up…"
Link was heady with exhilaration and dazed with exhaustion, the curiously damper-than-sweat feeling on his left side making him painfully aware of every movement he attempted. His feet felt leaden, and his chest was tight.
"What do you think he meant?" he asked in a quieter-than-a-whisper tone when Gerrard and Navi ducked into the nearest garderobe while a patrol clanked by on their errand.
Gerrard had stopped. He was slumped, arms limp. "Maybe she really wants petunias at...nine in the evening. Royalty is strange, you know."
"So does that mean the gardens? I don't think we can really keep this up, sneaking while Link is bleeding," Navi hugged her arms, her own discomfort the least of her concerns.
"If that's where she is," Link snarled, long ear flat against the door of the privy. "We don't even know! How did we ever expect to do this…"
"Well, we've come this far, and we shouldn't go down without a fight!" Navi said, fists clenched and toes pointed. She snapped her wings. "Gerrard. Where to next?" With a signal from Link, they slunk from the garderobe. The trio observed the great room they entered through a weapon-bedecked hallway or mini-museum, hanging back behind heavy red curtains.
Gerrard was frowning, stroking his chin. "I'm not sure where to go from here. All I remember from the kitchens were the ovens, and they were warm. And the pantry was always full of fruit and sweets."
Denying a wash of longing for fruit ripened on the branches of the meadow trees, Link gripped his scalp with a single paw, pointing at Gerrard. "You seemed to know when we were going through the stairs and halls."
"Well, I did, but then, this is not where the greeting hall used to be." He was sizing up the walls and floor. "They changed the layout, or broke down some walls to make a bigger reception area. Again, I don't want to open those ornate doors over there, at the chance that there's something going on, and we interrupt it." Tapestries covered the stone walls, a central crimson carpet made a clear path from the weapon showcase, and at the far end, two huge doors held the air of taunting mystery.
Bright, enameled doors held the mystery at bay, for which the wounded Kokiri was glad. "Let's just keep going. If we don't know where our path is supposed to be, then we must make it ourselves."
Heart pounding, face flushed and legs steadier than possible, Link bounded lightly across the hall to another plain door, and was shocked to feel the night's breeze on his cheeks.
Stepping beyond the portal, he turned his face to the sky. Okay, universe. Good one. I'll remember that.
The Royal Courtyards and Gardens were more intimate than the stately beds out front. Vignettes of architecture accented with the soft natural touches of plants, they ringed the apartments and more sensitive chambers of Hyrule's Castle. The hulking shapes of trellises and ancient vines hunkered in the night, sweet blooming jasmines and honeysuckles perfumed the tinkling air. Fountains unseen worked in the distance to moisten the already dewy plants. They pushed from behind some manicured junipers to find a marble elf rising into the starlight surrounded by withes of nandina willows and clusters of pure white freesia. Six smaller statues were set around her pedestal.
That's enough, Link scolded himself back to the task at hand, and heard guard's boots on the gravel path ahead. He pulled Gerrard into the surrounding shrubs, dampening the rustle of leaves with his second real use of the magic of Kokiri, as he understood it. The boys and fairy were swallowed by the vegetation, allowing the small company of guards to pass by with nary a glance toward them.
They ran lightly through small seating areas, behind more hedges. Waiting for more lanterns to leave them in the dark, the fairy kept her light low. She declined the pouch again while they crouched in the reeds of a lily-pad-clad pond before they heard more crunching gravel.
Into the topiary garden, where pruned yews raked at the velvet sky in umber horns, the pathways melted into a central patch of night-black lawn. There was nowhere to hide them but a short row of grasses, and if the guards came anywhere near, they would be spotted, waning magic or no.
"We have to keep going ahead. To the left. Over the lawn, I can see an arch. Maybe we can climb it?" Link wheezed to Gerrard, who nodded at once.
"No other choice at this point. Let's try!" He seemed paler in the darkness, but his dark hair shadowed his face from the starlight that reflected off the white stone walls.
Twenty paces from their destination, lanterns and their holders appeared from their right. "Oy! Stop, you two!"
"Don't stop!" Link roared, and Navi careened past them, through the arch. They were skidding on the dew-seeped lawn, Link was breathing fire and his side was aching just as he and Gerrard threw themselves at full tilt onto flagstones. More torches came for them, and two were waiting beneath the arch, waylaying the fairy with a net waved in the air.
"No!" Link cried as Navi was swallowed by the bug net. "Let her go!" He found the last of his strength and tackled the guard in armor holding his friend. "I promised!" He smashed a fist into the visored face, wincing with the cut to his knuckle.
"I'm out!" Navi crowed, and put herself in Link's eyesight. He immediately jumped back from the soldier. Behind him, Gerrard was struggling with three guards and no small amount of rope. If this was really it…
Heart sinking, he stumbled. He cried at the top of his lungs. The remaining guards piled on top of him, plying ropes around him as well...
Then, quite suddenly, the pressure lessened, and the Emissary was jerked to his feet.
"Finally got you!" grunted the lead soldier. "You sent us on quite a chase! Never you mind, you're lucky we got you, and not the King's guards! Anyway, come this way, Miss Fairy! Hurry!"
They all plunged through the arch, half-jogging and half-dragged along by these guards, or whatever they were. Link noted detachedly their armor seemed pieced together, and several pieces on these people looked ill-fitting. Before he could puzzle it out, he noticed red eyes among all of them. They stopped.
Link and Gerrard were placed in the center of a courtyard enclosed on all sides by high stone walls laced with delicate glass windows, and the blooms of hollyhock and snapdragons spiked the night with pastels. At the far end, an altar-like pedestal and four stairs sat before a set of glass double doors set in pale stone. Gentle oil lamps on tasteful posts lit the air with the flicker of fire, and yet, something more, to Link's vision. Each flame burned too brightly blue at the center and radiated in comforting concentric rings of near-visible light. There was no time to wonder, since a tiny figure hurried into the lamplight and placed herself staunchly before Link.
The young, incredibly composed girl with golden hair before him had her hands clasped on the front panel of her exquisite lavender dress, and a shadow clad guard standing just behind. Her pretty, questioning features were lit to perfection under the light, her little brow popped and scrunched in studious acceptance of the boy in front of her. The smile held no doubts, and she nodded.
"He's the one, Impa!"
"Of course, Zelda," said the shadow with red eyes and bone white hair in a club at her neck. "Who else would it be?" At once, Link loved her accent, all spitting vowels and hard glottal inflection. He wanted to laugh in spite of himself and his condition.
"I wanted to be sure, is all," said the imperious princess. She snapped her little fingers. "Go ahead and untie them. Report to the guard post our story, and Impa and I will take it from here." Only two guards stepped to the princess's order, the others trotting into the night.
"Oh, and somebody heal the poor thing's side," Zelda requested as though she considered the blossoming stain of red on Link's left something nearly worth the time. The guard with greaves too big for her stepped forward and placed a single hand on Link's left kidney, uttered a single word, and he sucked a sharp breath. She stepped back, nodded. Link felt the wound site-there was no tenderness, or knitting sensation of healing, and he knew without looking at it that the scar would be shiny and pink.
"Sorry, about the punch, earlier…"
The guard winked. "No harm done." She grabbed his hand, and the cut on his knuckle faded, too.
Once Link and Gerrard were unencumbered with rope, freely enjoying the serenity of the scene, and both the red-eyed helpers were beyond the arch, the girl pulled their attention to herself.
The breeze tickled Link's sweaty brow, yet no hair on the blond head of the girl in front of them moved at the budging air. Time was stretching into the infinite, and a certain vertigo was making his throat drier than dust while they waited for her to speak. All other noises faded from their world.
"Link of Kokiri, we are pleased to meet you at long last. I am Zelda, daughter of Azalea and Dakor Nohansen, Heir to Hyrule's Royal Throne, and Chosen of Nayru. I am your Sister, the Agent of Wisdom, and I hold your second revelation, O Vessel of Courage."
If Link hadn't seen the girl speak, and heard the timbre of her small voice, he would have thought the statement belonged to a weary crone aged beyond the wisdom of the material world…
"Wouldst thou heareth my words, the spell of thy soul, and eat of the bread that will nourish thy spirit as no meal hath done for thee, Brother and Cousin Mine?"
"Whoa," Gerrard blurted through his fingers. "Was that Ancient Hylian? How did I understand…"
"For those touched by the Hands, or indeed, the very finger of the Holy Three, may the riddle of the words and whispers of the land unfold themselves in the vaults of the maze that is the mind, Gerrard Davs of Daisy Davs," Zelda purred in the unintelligible and at once, accessible language of Link's dreams.
In the soft song that was her prophecy alone did she show any trace of emotions. "Clouds doth gather in the furthest east, rutting and rumbling as the cattle thou hast seen, trampling the light, chasing away that which blessed the world. And yet, from the embroiled storms will come the Child of the Forest, the Orphan of Farore, He Who Bears the White Marks of the Fiercest Ancestor, carrying the Green and Shining Spiritual Stone of the Kokiri Forest. It is he, and lo, he and his shadow must take up the Red and Burning Spiritual Stone of Fire, in the hands the Heart of the Mountain, and seek out in the darkest depths the Blue and Glowing Spiritual Stone of the Keepers of the Waters of Hyrule. Without these tokens of the World, much terror pursueth in the wake of the terrible storm clouds…."
Horror was dawning on the boy. "What am I supposed to do, exactly? I get that this is me, and great evil is looming, but what are the Spiritual Stones?"
Zelda blinked owlishly at Link. "I spelled it out. The green and shining stone? The one the Deku Tree must have given you is making an awful elemental racket. There are two more sibling stones that bear the essence of the world."
Link was holding the pebble from the Great Deku Tree on his slick palm and Zelda was observing it with her oddly ancient blue eyes. "Ah. Appropriate." She was satisfied with the dusty green egg and gold fringe. "And you never suspected it to be the heart of Kokiri?"
"Ask Navi. I can be very dense sometimes," Link revealed, replaced the stone, then asked of Zelda: "Who were the guards? Why did they tie us up, if you were just going to release us?"
She cocked her head, like a curious child, but the aquiline strength and wisdom she carried in her bones made the gesture ironic. At once, Link felt the unseen noose of a trap slipping around his neck like a rabbit snare, and Zelda was some vicious, ancient owl screeching into the night-
"My lamps shield us here," Zelda said simply. "Anyone else that saw you outside of this grotto saw what we wanted them to, and my men and women will report taking you to the Head of Security." She pointed her chin to the woman behind her. "And here she is."
"You're the Agent of Wisdom," Navi said slowly, with careful respect. "Do you speak to everyone like this?"
"Never. This is the first time this sort of cleverness has really come out like this," Her tone implied sarcasm, and a playful derision of the question and the one who conceived of it. "So, no. Impa here is one of the few who know what I am, at the moment."
"We're honored," Link said, if a little dryly.
"Have you met your Matron?"
Link gasped. Green foliage, antlers and a warm wave of recognition lit him from head to toe. "I...I did, but I didn't remember until now. There was something else she said…"
"Did she mention your company, or a task?"
Link thought hard, surprised he'd met the token of the Goddess, and yet, it was knowledge he didn't forget, either. It was deja vu of the highest order, and as the scent of loam filled his nostrils and pallet, he answered, "No. She greeted me, and told me to take comfort knowing I wouldn't be with Goriyo too much longer."
Zelda's demeanor didn't crack. "The Clothmen have been clamoring about our advent for a decade now. Well, since I was born, and the signs for another Cycle started popping out of the woodwork. There have been countless prophecies recorded for our Books and Tomes, one of which came from and was confirmed by the son of Goriyo of Farmington. 'Young One, from the city atop the hill, thy Soul bears Mark of the Goddess, and thou shall help the Orphan of Farore to seek the Three Stones. Friendship is prodded by the Antagonist. Thou art the shadow of the hero, and yet without the Guidance of a shadow, the Hero would fall to the darkness."
Her attention was attuned to the messy, curly haired youth in rags. Out of some wellspring of overflowing confusion, Gerrard sheepishly looked to either side of himself, but it was only he.
"Do we really have to take him with us?" Navi almost whined, but she was not arguing. "I mean, anyone would be less annoying than that bloated, off-center-soul-patch wearing, lazy, lousy buggering Clothman. Except, maybe, the kid who stabbed Link!"
"Take my words as you will, Concession of Nayru," Zelda said with all the interest of one already done entertaining the matter.
"Don't I get a say?" Gerrard contested.
The princess cooly leveled, "By all means, if you'd like to see what the dungeon looks like to a castle intruder, and one found with the Crown Princess, you're welcome to walk away."
Link forced a laughing breath from his lungs. "And what trap do you have planned for me?"
"I thought I told you," Zelda snipped. "You're going to get two other stones like the one you possess. One from the Gorons on Death Mountain, which is the heart of the range, their society and geological activity. The second will come from the Zoran Royalty of the Northern River."
"Is that all," Link deadpanned, pinching his brow. All he wanted was a nap, not dealing with...whatever the princess was. "When can we leave?"
This time, Impa was the one who intervened. "There is yet another revelation for you to hear, and it would hardly be proper for the visiting Emissary to jilt the King of his presence."
Link had truly forgotten his newly acquired political powers, and their prices. "And the King couldn't have told me any of this, could he? Or, not enough of it." the Kokiri deduced slowly. "You really are an Agent, or Vessel, or whatever. And so am I." He stood straighter.
"There is a third," Zelda informed him. "Not counting your friends here, but they are only your designated Helpers, like Impa. The one we're pitted against, and the dark clouds of my prophecy," Zelda paused, and steeled her shoulders, as if sentencing someone she didn't want to see convicted. "Is the Western King, Ganondorf."
"I knew he was evil when he rode through-" Gerrard began, and was quickly silent for the reproach from Impa.
"Just because he is represented by the storm, it does not make the storm evil. Right, Champion? Is your own decoration not the ideals of the unexpected thunderstorm?" Impa uncrossed her arms and stretched her palms to either side of her body like a balanced scale. "Forces of power and nature by themselves are not evil. People are quick to label darkness, illusion and force to be 'bad' or 'unholy,' but the Goddesses put equal measures of light and dark into our world." She dropped her arms, but looped a finger over a dagger on her hip. "This being said, Ganondorf's intentions are those of vengeance and war against the long ears. He crosses his fingers while he promises peace to the King, trying to grow closer to the center of power here. He is after nothing less than the Triforce."
"As the Agent of Din, it is his right to Test for it, and we are also given the same rights. Testing falls upon us, unasked, sometimes aided, and never welcomed," Zelda closed her eyes. When she opened them, for a brief second, Navi saw youth and inexperience, and fear before the elder presence veiled her again. "You always have the choice, of course. However, you saw how random choice brought you here."
"Did you have a hand in that?" Navi plied, inspecting a lamp and following the ring of glow.
Smiling, the girl shook her head. "Not directly. The hands guiding Their tools are a little more divine than mine. My dreams are heavily influenced by images of things that are most likely to happen. One can't possibly know, or see everything, but I was sure to tell a servant about wanting night-blooming flowers near an agemate whom I knew was on leery duty in the servants wing tonight, since none of my visions included you walking through the front gate to meet my father.
"These matters aside," she moved on briskly. "Your next revelation is about the manner in which the Triforce is obtained. Certain conditions must be met, whether we are aware of them entirely or not. Most of them are detailed in our books, the Mudora Tome and A Hyrule Hystoria, and one lovingly called The Walkthrough, and everything is couched in riddles so the average person doesn't get any ideas.
"It is clear that we are going to be opening the door to the Sacred Realm of the Triforce through the Door of Time in the Temple of Time. Through spells of the ancient sages, the magic that seals the Door of Time can only be broken by the Three Spiritual Stones, and the presence of the Ocarina of Time."
"An ocarina?" Link's jaw dropped.
"Do you play?" Zelda asked, almost certain to know that answer.
He gritted between his teeth, "It's the only instrument I know how to play."
Neither could help their skyward glances.
"How convenient. Now, do either of you know why anyone wants the divine relic that may not be a convoluted legend?" Zelda swiveled between Link and Gerrard.
The urchin was the one with an answer. "It's because...Whatever you wish for, comes true."
"I suppose you could put it so simply...It is a force that can change the fabric of reality, if one has the knowledge and the right phrasing. One could wish for the sky to be purple, and it would be so. One could wish for a Golden Age of Prosperity and Peace, and it would be so. How that peace comes to be enacted is another matter entirely. It could mean to some Hylians the riddance of all Gerudo. Their malice in this wish would darken the magic of Hyrule, though. All intentions have consequences and reactions. With hearts' desires based on the spilling of blood, the world itself would desire more blood, begin to demand it with monsters and oppression.
"We can avoid this by getting the Triforce, and renewing the balance of the land, it's magics and the preservation of all life against war," Zelda paused. "Before Ganondorf has a chance to act."
"Other than your dreams, do you have proof that this is his plan?" Link was wearier with fact and burden than he had ever felt, and even if this girl was speaking directly for Nayru...Well. There was an idea.
"You could ask him," Zelda said without guile. "You could sneak into his room, and read the scrolls detailing his plans. You could have prophetic dreams of the future hand delivered to you-"
"That is enough, bitter princess," Link had suddenly espoused in Ancient Hylian. He heard himself, understood it, yet had no control of it! "Get on with thy telling."
Guarded and almost chastised, she said, "Funny how familiar it rings…"
The boy from Kokiri awaited another retort in the lilting language, but it did not come. Motioning for them to follow her and Impa, Link, Gerrard and Navi waited on the bottom step of the seeming altar.
"Wilt thou brave souls commit to the noble quest of the most venerable Agent of Wisdom, to bring before this stair the Goron's Ruby and Zora's Sapphire, so that I may bequeath an Instrument of Destiny to thy hands? Wilt thou accept to be thine Warriors of the Throne, and defend Hyrule against the rising tidal wave that would be the rash and angry King of the Wastelands?"
Link hesitated, swallowing his nerves, and feeling uncomfortably constricted by some huge pressure. He already had one stone. If he had two more, and Zelda gave him the ocarina...Then what? What would he even wish for, aside from maybe traveling instantaneously? But if Ganondorf wanted to destroy all Hylians…
"Why is he going after Hyrule? Can you tell me?" Link asked.
"I'm sure you've heard of the Hylian King's Price after the war," Impa supplied. "He allowed his soldiers to turn the Gerudo into a race of women dependent on one living heir who was locked in a dungeon here below the Castle. He is claiming after twenty years of reparations and uniting the warring bands of his desert dwellers that he is looking for alliance and acceptance among the trade circuits. But…" Impa shuddered. She looked directly into Link's eyes. "To those sensitive to the magics and destinies of the land, his heart is as easy to read as a child's book. He does not lie to the King and the Courts when he says, 'I want a better future for my people.' He lies about how he hopes to achieve that goal. His soul longs to rend the stones from beneath our feet, instead of biding his time.
"As for concrete proof, I myself checked his belongings, and there were markings surrounding three locations on a map of Hyrule sketched on the back of a scroll that talks of a figure called 'The Dragon who Eats the Sun.' It's a Gerudo legend of a magician on a quest for the Sun's Power to make the desert a green place for all time. All the wish could do for him was turn the sun's light green.
"For a man such as Ganondorf, I do not believe we would ever find anything more, or physically incriminating. He is not one to rub his hands together and monologue to the darkness about his plans," Impa smirked. "Besides, you'll meet him when you meet the King tonight." The guardian ignored them as she went to one of the flower beds and cut the stems with her dagger.
"You and this boy from the Market really did cause some panic," Zelda inspected her nails. "People were sure you were some sort of Gerudo double agents, or spellcast to murder me and my father. Like that would work, anyhow," she dismissed the notion. "Oh, your Illusion spell rang the alarm for unfamiliar magic, so be prepared to explain that. It was daring, but the court magicians knew your area any time you exercise your Will."
"My Will? You mean, magic?"
"Semantics," she puffed. "Magic is the effect of the release of your Will that changes the natural state of objects, forces or beings around you. Using Kokiri spells through Hylian Will is an interesting mix, and one that doesn't go unnoticed by the wards placed and renewed by centuries of researchers, wizards and mages, seers, spellcasters and the Gifted." Zelda patted his cheek. "You'll learn more, soon enough. For now, are you ready to accept your Quest?"
Thinking outside of Navi's presence, Link concentrated. And soon, his mind turned over a rock somewhere in his memory of this evening, and he knew his answer. Link's best reason was, Because it's not two-on-one, as Zelda and Impa portray. The Triforce Quest gives equal rights to all Agents. We aren't fighting Ganondorf-and he's not fighting US-Zelda is pitting us each against one another.
All he said was, "I am."
The Princess asked Gerrard, "And will you go with him, as prescribed by legend, and guide the purpose of the Agent of Farore?"
"Aw yeah! I've been wanting to travel the world, and just never had to money, so this is great!" Gerrard bubbled. "Now we're Royally Financed!"
"Ahem." Gerrard's celebration halted. "I hate to tell you this, but after this meeting has concluded, you are never allowed to tell anyone about our pact. Impa will give you two sealed missives for the leaders of the Gorons and Zoras so there can be no doubt about your authenticity. There is also an accompanying secret melody that is only known by the most trusted messengers and spies of the Royal Family of Hyrule. These two things should be enough to impress the importance of your task on Darrunyah, the Heart of the Mountain and Big Brother to All Gorons and One Hyrulian King, and Icthyllion, King and Seer of God Jabbujabbu in the Northern Rivers of Hyrule."
"So wait, whenever we meet you again, you're going to be-" Gerrard accused.
"A normal, ten-year-old princess, albeit a bright and witty one with absolutely no memory of this night. This is the first night of your testing, Link. Mine...Will not start for some time, yet. Ganondorf may already be progressed well into his test. This is also a momentous convergence of the Agents, and the earliest one in this cycle of the Triforce."
"It sounds so sad and insane to say it that way," Navi flew towards Zelda. "Nayru is speaking through you, using you. Like, this is all just going to keep happening over and over until…"
Zelda watched her expectantly. "Until what, Navi?"
"...If I knew, I would start preparing for it."
"You already are," Grasping the door frame, the lavender garbed girl closed her eyes. "We have no more time. I must go back to my rooms, where my 'guards' are covering for my romp in the garden, since I'm sure you'd ask." She opened her eyes and snatched a handful of flowers from Impa. "My dearest guardian will inform you of your next steps, and teach you the melody.
"May the Three guide us all," Zelda said reverently, and despairingly, then exited the scene.
The glass door latched with the tiniest click of finality. Three figures, one a shadow and two confused youths with a blur of blue light were reflected in the rippled surface, yet they were facing their own destinies.
"The princess is correct," Impa affirmed. "We don't have much time for me to do what I must. Get your instrument."
Link produced Saria's ocarina, fingering it gently and holding it to his lips.
Impa whistled a simple, two-phrase waltz with a cascading sort of refrain that resolved back to the melody. Link made her slowly repeat it as he found the notes on the ocarina, then played it back without faltering.
"A little fast, but it's there," the woman approved. "This is an ancient song, but it was just recently discovered there are deep feelings of loyalty and obligation that are triggered by the melody. That's what makes it such a perfect conveyance for messengers."
"The King is just like his daughter, then," Gerrard observed sadly.
Impa glared at the thief. "Don't misunderstand the princess, boy. While there have been flashes of this presence in her before, this really was the first time it's been so...obvert. All of us will suffer the will of the Goddesses sooner or later." With a sweeping gesture, the lamps stopped emitting the negligent glow, and Impa opened the door for them. "Come. We have some explaining to do."
A towering figure clad in black, burnished leather incised with patterns of orange and turquoise and a shock of flaming hair waited patiently at a round bowl of water on his bureau. His handsome feral face in deepest mahogany was tanned and lashed by sand, sun and wind. He extended gigantic and spidery hands with palms that faded to nut brown, causing the image to cease. He inhaled deeply, captured by the candlelight playing with the myriad of topaz ornaments on his bone breast plate. He smiled. It was truly begun.
A/N: Everything is exactly, and nothing, like it seems. I always wanted a better reason to traverse Hyrule than : "Bad foreign mad bad, evil man, let's get the world's deadliest treasure and stop him!" The mechanics of destiny that were revealed here are only the surface...
Historical Note: Zelda's Lullaby is an affectionate nickname penned to the Messenger's Song after Link's time as Hero in Hyrule. What was a jaunty waltz that bonded the leaders of a broken land became the syrupy, overplayed and severely gated tempo 'lullaby' about a decade after the defeat of Ganon. It was named such because it is said the Queen had it played every night to comfort the scars of the Seven Years War. For a century, no one knew it was in retribution, or flagellation, revealed in a single diary entry from early in her reign. "It lulls me to sleep, for nothing else will."
