The white haired woman towered over the wax dummy that was going to be buried in her stead and reflected on the legacy of the person it was supposed to represent. From watching her father's kingdom fall, to helping the Hero of Time wage an open rebellion against the Evil Lord Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, to finally establishing and ruling a new kingdom, Queen Zelda finally deserved her eternal rest after all she had done for Hyrule.
The first monarch of Hyrule since Ganondorf's demise did all she could to rebuild her society upon the values of power, wisdom, and courage. She wanted to rebuild Castle Town with such grandeur that her peasants could feel as wealthy as her lords. She wanted to restore her people's right to rule the realm. She wanted to create a kingdom ruled by a meritocracy, not squabbling dynasties, that could last for a thousand years.
"You fool," she muttered quietly, scolding herself for her shortsighted decisions and her childish dreams.
Only the Goddesses knew what would have happened had she made different choices during her reign. Maybe contentions between the throne and Her overpowerful subjects could have been contained had she remarried. Maybe contentions between the Hylians and the other races could have lessened with better and more frequent festivals.
Where did she go wrong? It was hard to say.
Alas, as Zelda silently watched over her substitution and pondered her foolishness, she realized that none of her wishful thinking mattered. Even though she was publicly declared dead, Zelda had one final mission.
The divine signs for resignation were alarming. Impa the Sage of Shadow, who raised Zelda since she was a princess, had interpreted the omens with as little bias as she could, but each time she threw the dice and searched for signs, the answer from the Goddesses was the same. So under secrecy, the woman who raised Zelda from childhood planned out a date to declare Zelda's death.
Zelda's true goal was to reach the sacred Temple of Time in the old town ruins and retrieve the Master Sword. The first whisper of a blasphemous scheme to steal the Master Sword was nothing of concern at first, laughable even. The power of the Triforce guarded the entryway, and only the two Queens of Hyrule could pass the doors. Then more rumors were spread of different houses competing to see who could reach the sword first. Then details about how to get past the divinely protected doors emerged, concerning the Queen so much that she had to do something drastic…
A frail voice squeaked from behind her, "Are you ready yet?" Zelda gave herself ten more heartbeats to stare in contempt before departing. Impa, who was once tall and majestic but now reduced to hunching over and walking with a cane, placed her hardened hands on Zelda's shoulder, "Don't be hard on yourself. Even Nayru couldn't have ruled as well as you did."
Zelda did not believe that statement at all. She tried to force a smile on her face to accept the compliment, but all she could muster was an earnest response, "That means much to me, coming from you, my guardian." It was neither appropriate nor easy to imagine how someone else would have handled the rebuilding of Hyrule differently, but it was a kind gesture nevertheless. The least she could do for Impa was to make their last memory together a pleasant one. The old guardian was ancient, but she would outlive the Queen. Impa's counsel to the next queen would be the only symbol of hope left in Zelda's head.
Wearing hooded robes to disguise themselves through the cold night, they strolled through the lowest levels of the castle dungeons, even beneath where the prisoners were held. There were nothing but tunnels and narrow walkways, but they opened up and revealed the cavernous halls that made up the foundations of Hyrule Castle. As she traveled through the old, abandoned castle ruins that once belonged to Ganondorf, she triggered old memories of her historic battle alongside the Hero of Time.
Eventually, the paved walkways turned into rubble, where walking became a struggle for Zelda's and Impa's frailer frames. The deeper they traversed through the ruins, the tighter the spaces, and the rougher the road. They had gone through great pains just to sneak out of the castle unseen. Afterall, Zelda was declared dead the day before yesterday, and it would be troublesome for someone to claim that she was still alive.
After squeezing through the tightest tunnel, they finally emerged from the depths of the castle-side cliff to a secluded pathway that led down to the old town ruins. Greeting them on the other side was only a warmblood horse bred from the royal line carrying everything she needed to undertake her final mission to the Goddesses. But before she mounted and took off, she hugged Impa for the last time, whose motherly warmth instantly brought tears to Zelda's eyes.
"Goodbye," Zelda quietly sobbed, "and thank you. For everything." It was hard to leave the embrace, for Zelda wanted to stay like this until the end of time.
It was Impa who pulled away, to remind the Queen that she had her one final duty to the Godesses, and then she placed her hand on Zelda's face, "No, thank you, my child, for all the fond memories. I know it wasn't easy for you to transition into womanhood but, I couldn't have been prouder of all your accomplishments, and I know your father would have felt the same way."
"Thank you," Zelda choked back a tear, "May I say a prayer before I leave?"
"Of course, my liege," Impa bowed her head and took Zelda's hands into hers.
With the tense state of the kingdom, Zelda sighed, "Divine Mothers of Hyrule, please watch over this kingdom and her people. Guide our new leader unto peace and prosperity. Let the hatred amongst my people wash away. And bless my mother here with good health so she may advise the next several Queens with her experienced wisdom."
"May it be so…" Impa replied with a breath of pessimism escaping her mouth.
They held hands in silence for a few minutes before Zelda finally broke the silence, "... Farewell." Extending their parting a little longer, she finally mounted and rode off down the windy path carved into the cliffside toward Old Castle Town, where the old temple of time was located.
It had been decades since Zelda last stepped foot inside the abandoned settlement. The old fanfare and joviality that existed when she was but a child was gone when Ganondorf had taken over, and it had never since returned. People still believed that redeads still plagued the area, even after the Queen ordered the area to be torched. It may have been a necessary step to cleanse her childhood home with fire, but it ultimately did nothing to quell people's fears. Instead, the old castle town became home for those so impoverished that even Castle City's alleyways could not offer them any safe harbor.
Even under the shadow of the castle and the cover of darkness, Zelda could feel seedy eyes glaring at her throughout Old Castle Town. Completely absent of worries, she dismounted her horse once she could hear noise coming from the Temple of Time and unpacked the blunted arming sword from her horse.
"You're gonna wake the whole bloody place if you put that much powder in!" a young man's protests could be heard.
"Don't even matter," argued another male voice, "the bloody point is to get in and out! I'm not trying to dally here any longer than I gotta."
"Cool it gents!" protested a third male, younger than the other two. "You're arguing is causing enough ruckus to wake the whole town and making us stay longer than we need to! Let's just go with Ofiro's suggestion and put the whole powder in."
"Oy, shut up guys," warned a fourth person, "someone's coming."
Unphased by their awareness of her presence, she walked forward calmly with no ill intentions toward the four young men. In the late hours of the evening, it was hard for anyone to see any clear details of anybody else, but for Zelda, who was trained to lurk and act in the darkness, she could almost feel their presences clearly as if she were seeing them in the daylight.
"Whadya want?" one of them shouted at her and then unsheathed his blade. "This don't concern ya!"
The other three followed suit and drew their blades, unleashing a ring of metal against metal. "Back off, we're warning ya!" yelled another.
Zelda was not about to risk revealing herself by speaking should one of them recognize her voice, so she responded by drawing her sword.
The four vagrants understood what was meant by the ringing sound of her sword and charged with a howl. Four against one at night would have been a disadvantage for any of her finest knights, but for Queen Zelda, who overthrew the King of Thieves with the training of the Sheikahs, otherwise known as the Shadow Folk, this was child's play.
The first attacker, bigger than his companions, threw a wide but sloppy overhand swing across as the other three ran to flank her. However, since he couldn't see properly, he had swung way too late. Taking advantage of his overcommitted momentum, Zelda lunged forth, met his blade with her own, placed her free hand onto the inside of his elbow, then guided his continuing momentum to throw him over her hip. To control her opponent, she stepped on his wrist and planted her body weight to limit his movement.
Without wasting another heartbeat, she swung her sword upward at the man to her left before he had time to react, hitting him in the wrist and knocking his weapon out of his hand simultaneously. Sliding the blade away without cutting him, she continued the momentum of her sword to her right side and caught the incoming attack. Parrying and shifting her weight to his outside, Zelda used her free hand to grab onto the man's elbow and hold him in place, giving her enough time to deal with the last attacker, who was attempting a thrust at her mid belly.
Sidestepping out of the way like a falling feather, she swung her sword in a circle and caught him on the side of his exposed head, knocking him out without further argument. Then without a heartbeat to waste, she stepped off the first attacker's wrist, delivered a kick to his head, then struck the man she was holding with the pommel in the side of his face.
Zelda then rushed the man she had just struck and then placed her blade onto the man's neck. The man could feel the blunted edge, but when she whispered with the spirit of death, "Leave this sacred ground!" he fell to his knees and scampered away.
"Come on, let's get outta here!" he yelped as he carried his unconscious friend away. The other two followed suit and were out of sight before long, screaming something about finding a different way to score easy money without risking their lives.
The Temple of Time would be safe again, for now. Returning her sword back to its scabbard, Zelda approached the Temple of Time, now covered in vines, and ascended its steps, kicking aside the unfinished bomb. Ever since Princess Zelda stood before the Hero after waking from his seven year slumber, she had not stepped foot inside the decaying building. Age mattered little to the temple dedicated to the sacred nature of time, for no matter much would pass, the Goddesses' blessings would always protect the temple's enclosure.
When she gently placed her right hand on the temple doors, the Mark of Goddesses shined brightly for a brief minute before the doors finally released the magical lock. Stepping through, she found the empty space surprisingly illuminated and untouched, just as it was when the Hero stepped out of the chamber. The red carpet leading the way to the pedestal holding the Master Sword had not lost any of its vibrancy, nor had the brightness of the white walls faded either. The natural light inside gave Zelda a sense of calm and happiness, for though the reign of Ganondorf was terrifying, the fight against his tyranny alongside the Hero of Time brought great, exhilarating joy, representing the beginning and the end of her time with the Hero.
The mark on her right hand glowed more fiercely as the Goddesses beckoned her to come forth and fulfill her divine mission. Even if someone unblessed with Mark of the Goddesses had managed to break into the Temple, the Master Sword would not budge for anybody. It had its own thought process and was very picky about its owner. When she gently wrapped her fingers around the hilt, she could feel the sword's energy sapping her own life force, judging her for all of her deeds. She felt herself grow weak as she attempted to pull the sword from its home, but the sword finally realized who was pulling it and released itself from its hold.
Zelda wrapped the sword quickly in a velvet cloth and hurried out of the temple before anyone realized that the sacred door that was sealed for nearly five decades was finally open. She placed the Master Sword on the back of the horse before riding out of Castle Town as swiftly as Impa did carrying her all those years ago.
It took her nearly a tendo to finally reach the edge of the Lost Woods, where she departed from her horse at a village on the town outskirts. Shielding her identity with her robes and carrying nothing but the covered Master Sword in hand, she only traded with the locals for some rations to last her in the woods for a few days.
Although anyone who wandered into the Lost Woods would inevitably become that, lost, Zelda's divine mark on her hand led the way. The Goddess of Wisdom had blessed her with an intuition that would guide the Master Sword to its new home. Zelda had no problem wandering through the thicket, for all the creatures of the forest seemed to know not to bother her. She could simply walk forward, guided by the heat of the mark growing as she neared her destination.
Suddenly, the forest went dead silent; not a bird's call, nor even the slightest breeze blowing through the branches, pierced the silent atmosphere. Zelda could only hear the rustling of the grass underneath her feet as she entered a strange clearing in the woods, with another pedestal, one she never knew about in her life, sitting at the center. There were many great mysteries surrounding this pedestal, but the sword knew that it was at home.
She could feel the Master Sword pull her toward the perfectly cut, triangular stone. As she approached the mysterious pedestal, she finally felt her body's fatigue catch up with her and fell to her knees. Her life force was diminishing rapidly, and so too did her breathing. The Master Sword suddenly felt heavy in her hands as she carried it to its new home. When Zelda reached the pedestal, she lifted the sword up in preparation.
"Please, Goddesses," she prayed, "let there be someone worthy enough to carry this sword, once again…"
Then she plunged the blade into its eternal resting spot. The sword felt stiff and heavy, as if it were part of the earth. Here, there would be no one who would dare disturb its slumber.
Zelda knelt down by the sword, the eternal memory of the man she once loved. Her memories filled her mind with every sensation she remembered feeling for him. Those were her last pleasant thoughts before she closed her eyes eternally.
May there be someone worthy enough to carry this sword once again…