Chapter 2: The Queen
The Queen's chambers were well furnished, as suited a lady of her status. But there were also many things that did not befit a noblewoman. A suit of armor – a combination of leather and chainmail – hung on a scaffold along with a helmet, both the pieces bearing the familiar Hyrule crest, just like the dress and jewelry the Queen wore now. It lacked any other outstanding features, though, obviously made to let her go to war without standing out and making herself an easy target. A sheathed sword and bow with a quiver hung on the wall beside the armor.
Also hanging on the wall were two maps, one woven and resembling the one in the library – only showing a bigger part of the world. The other one, set up within touching distance, was drawn on a huge piece of paper and only depicted Hyrule. Dozens of differently colored tacks were stuck in it, most prominently a cluster of red ones in the area below Death Mountain. Either the Queen could not be bothered to take down her battle planning even this long after the peace, or there was still trouble afoot that Impa had not yet told Zelda about. She did not ask or linger on the maps – there had been quite enough of that for the time being.
The Queen led her over to a pair of armchairs near one of the windows. A small table was set there, with two beautiful tea cups on saucers and a matching teapot, as well as two plates of sandwiches and cookies. Zelda had no appetite, but tea was an appealing idea.
It took her a moment to realize that the Queen had prepared for this and then apparently gone to search for her herself. Such a strange thing for a royal to do.
The two of them sat down and to her surprise, the Queen took the tea pot and filled the cups, offering one. Though the easy manners astonished her, Zelda took it without a comment.
"Let's just use this as an icebreaker," the Queen said as she leaned back, giving a slanted smile as she motioned at the prominent scar on her face.
Zelda understood that she was invited with open arms to ask, but it still seemed a bit too forwards to her.
"It… must have hurt," she said, diplomatically.
The Queen nodded.
"When I was captured, Ganon lifted me up like this…" The Queen raised her fist up just above her head. "… and demanded to know where I had hidden the Triforce of Wisdom. So I spat in his face." A scoff escaped her and she traced the jagged lines down the side of her face with her thumb. "He should have seen that coming."
For a second Zelda was stunned mute, just staring at the Queen – sitting tall in an embroidered silk dress, hair swept up in a graceful, braided curl upon which her crown rested, and a gold necklace around her neck. But the fine cloth and jewelry did little to hide the scars, not only the one on her face but also the multitude slashed into her wiry arms. Zelda noticed those only now, when she was not so focused on the Queen's face.
"You're incredibly brave," Zelda finally said. It sounded too tame in her ears, as if such meager words could possibly capture the awe she felt for the woman before her.
"Thank you, but that was stupid." The Queen laughed, though. "The ringing in my ear afterwards was the worst part. It made it hard to focus."
"Didn't it go away?"
"No…" The Queen smiled at her teacup, brushing her hand over her elegantly pointed ear. "Link managed to heal it."
Zelda said nothing. Though she wanted to ask, she could not intrude when Queen's was so absorbed in a precious memory. In a brief moment, though, the other woman blinked and shook herself out of it.
"Sorry," she said and nodded to Zelda. "Your turn. You disguised yourself, didn't you?"
That took Zelda off guard for a brief moment, until she remembered that Impa had mentioned that her story was known. As somebody who had spent most of her life in hiding, that was an unpleasant thought. Still, there was no threat in the way the Queen watched her, and her admiration for the other woman's bravery soothed the unease.
"Yes," Zelda said, "as a Sheikah, a man."
"May I see that?"
Though she had half expected it, Zelda found that she was not quite prepared for the frankness. But the Queen leaned forward in her chair with honest curiosity in her eyes, and it would be rude – and improper – to refuse.
"Let me try," Zelda said.
She set the cup aside and pressed her palms together, focusing her will like she had been taught so many years ago. She could feel the magic moving within her like a warm shiver, but sluggishly as if it were waking up or had no strength left. Whether it was because of the long time that had passed, or something else, she did not know. She hoped it was the former.
She had only cast the spell a handful of times in her life, since Sheik had been her hiding place. Still she wanted to recall it being easier.
Her focus shattered and she had to try again, and again – but on the third attempt she felt the shiver grow and spread throughout her. It rose up in a glow spreading from her chest across her body, to the top of her head down to her toes. As the magic moved, it changed what it needed to along the way to complete the disguise. The dress melted away into the dusty, familiar garb of a Sheikah warrior, complete with the turban gathering up and hiding her long hair.
It felt like a second skin, one she was more familiar with than her true appearance.
"Amazing!" The Queen put her cup on the table, looking Zelda up and down. "I'd never know it was you."
"Ah… thank you," Zelda said, rather uncertain how to react to that.
"Your Impa trained you, no?" the Queen said.
"Yes…" It took a moment for Zelda to catch the implication. "Did yours train you?"
The Queen chuckled.
"She wasn't always old, you know," she said. "But she was in her prime when she fought alongside my grandmother. She did try to teach me lock picking though, but I never had the patience for it." She scoffed. "I regretted that in Ganon's dungeon."
Zelda thought about the kind old woman and tried to imagine her more like the Impa she had known. It was quite difficult. As the Queen spoke of lock picking, however, Zelda nodded and reached into one of her satchels to draw out one of the hook picks she had used for that skill.
"I was supposed to avoid fighting if I could," she said. "I'm better at sneaking and breaking in, and I have smoke bombs if I needed to escape."
"We would make a dangerous team, you and I," the Queen said, smiling. "I would like to see you show off some of that. Can you teach me how to make smoke bombs later?"
It was an absurd question coming from a Queen, but Zelda had by now gotten the picture well enough that she was not surprised this time.
"If you wish," she said, and could not help but smile back. She never entertained the thought of showing off any of her weapons, but the Queen did not let her get away with that.
It was so strange.
Impa had drenched her in an icy cold torrent of revelations, but the pain in Zelda's heart slowly eased as she and the Queen continued to speak of their memories, sharing the marks on their bodies and in their minds. In essence it was the same thing as Impa's appalling truths, yet… the Queen did something with it all.
A lynel got lucky, almost took my arm off.
Caught sneaking around Gerudo fortress, they did not like that…
River Zora, nasty things… thank Hylia for their ocean cousins…
Kakariko village, the phantom shadow beast…
Yes, she… they had been working towards something. There was a reason for all the pain. Even though Zelda knew that her final agony did not have purpose, sharing her experiences with the Queen and taking in the other woman's in turn was like a soothing balm.
At the end of it, when they had run out of scars to share, they both leaned back in silence.
Zelda focused briefly, and the magic enveloped her once again – washing away Sheik, returning the lost Princess. She did not really want to, but Sheik had no reason to be there either, and it seemed more natural to pick up her tea cup as herself.
Neither one spoke for a little while.
Finally, though, Zelda remembered something she had wanted to ask about and straightened up.
"The Triforce… where is it now?" she wondered.
"Up there." The Queen pointed out the window, and Zelda leaned forward to look.
A tower rose up above the rest of the castle rooftops, windows set at even distances near the top. It looked large enough to fit a couple of rooms at least.
"That's Link's room," the Queen said. "We furnished a chamber beside it for the Triforce. There can't be any safer place in the land, don't you agree?"
Zelda nodded, absently. Then she sat back in her chair, looking at the Queen.
"Do you feel strange without it?" she wondered.
"Do you?" the Queen asked. She took Zelda's hand and brushed her thumb over the area where the golden symbol had once shone.
For a moment Zelda was too stunned by the sudden touch to respond. The Queen's fingers looked delicate, but the fingertips had callouses from all the weapons she had held. With every bit of self-control she could muster Zelda pulled herself together before the Queen glanced up, avoiding an awkward situation.
"I… I can't remember," Zelda said. "All my memories are so dulled, I can't really…" She paused and shook her head. "Maybe I felt like something carried me through back then."
She fell silent and sighed.
"Or maybe that was just because everything I knew fell apart and I had to be strong."
"Maybe," the Queen agreed.
"What about you?" Zelda wondered.
The Queen let go of her, leaving a shadow of warmth behind. Instead, she stroke the back of her own hand.
"The spell that I used to pull the Triforce out of myself and shatter it…" she said, "I didn't intend to use it on myself. It was for Ganon. But he resisted it."
She clenched her jaw and picked her tea cup back up. Staring into the cooling liquid, she frowned at the painful memory.
"We risked everything to get me close enough to cast it, and it failed."
Though her memories were hazy, Zelda's heart ached with how well she understood the pain in the other woman's eyes. Eternity could not erase that choking grip of despair when all hope crashed down – and by the feet of the very same demon.
"So the survivors and I fled, and they bought me a little time to cast the spell again. It drained all the strength I had left and I was easy prey." The Queen shuddered. "I… always fought before that, but then I was… nothing."
Her voice, always so confident and clear before, faded into a papery whisper.
It was unbearable.
"But you still spat in his face," Zelda said.
She felt like a mountain lifted from her shoulders when those words melted away the darkness from the Queen's face and she smiled again.
"Right," the Queen said, chuckling. "Maybe Wisdom would have stopped me."
"Would it have been able to?" Zelda asked.
It jumped out of her before she could consider whether or not it was proper to say such a thing – the Queen had gotten her into a strange mood. And the other woman laughed out loud.
"I doubt it!" the Queen said, all the gloom from a moment earlier gone as she cocked her neck defiantly at an imaginary enemy.
Zelda smiled too, until an evil little voice piped up in the back of her head.
This one would have gotten to the Master Sword in time.
She looked at the Queen, and knew that nothing short of Ganon himself blocking her way would have stopped her. Everything could have been different if it had been somebody with her strength there instead.
No.
Taking in a deep breath, Zelda sternly told herself that regret would change nothing. The past was done.
But it still hurt.
She desperately sought a distraction to save her.
"And now the Triforce is restored, and Ganon is gone," she said. The words were comforting in themselves, strange as they were to her ears. "What now?"
The Queen sobered and thought for a moment.
"I know how to lead an army," she finally said, touching the scar on her face. "Peace is… strange."
She looked out the window, at the blue sky. A few birds fluttered past, the beating of their wings loud over the distant sound of hammers.
"I knew peace only in the beginning," Zelda said, staring down into her cup. "I wish I… I could have done better, for everyone… for you, too."
She took a sip, just to help getting the burning lump out of her throat. It felt difficult to breathe.
"You can help us now," the Queen said. When Zelda looked up, she smiled and added, "You can certainly help me."
"I don't know with what." Despite saying so, Zelda put the tea cup aside and straightened her back, watching the Queen intently. Her despair had already dulled for the moment, and the suggestion of a purpose, some reason for still being alive, lit a tiny spark of hope.
"Like I said, I know military and battle," the Queen said. "I don't know how to act around foreign dignitaries apart from telling them to stop sniffing at our borders. I don't know how to be a diplomatic, or polite leader." She emptied her cup and set it on the table. "There wasn't really any time for that, and it's been that way for several generations."
Zelda had not expected that.
Still, that was a whole other kind of battlefield and one that could be highly treacherous, she knew as much full well.
"I was just a child but my Impa…" Zelda paused for a moment, holding back a wince. It still hurt to say that. "She… we hoped there would be peace someday, and I would need to know proper manners. She taught me some of that, too, while we were hiding. But mostly how to be a Sheikah."
"I'm certain that will help a lot," the Queen said. Her smile had grown warmer, watching some life return to Zelda's eyes.
"Perhaps but… it must be very old-fashioned by now."
"Traditional," the Queen cheerfully corrected.
It took Zelda off guard, and before she knew it she was smiling. The Queen returned it, refilling their cups.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zelda took the offered saucer. They both knew that she didn't mean for the drink.
But the Queen's brow creased at the title.
"I don't want any formality with you," she said.
The bluntness took Zelda by surprise, but only briefly. The way the Queen spoke and her easy manners had already begun to paint a very different picture of the Hyrule royalty. These were different times, and a different ruler. Different manners, that had never been carefully drilled for fine dinners and strict, unforgiving etiquette.
Unless the rest of the world had changed just as radically, the Queen was right in requesting help.
"As you wish," Zelda said.
Nodding, the Queen raised her cup from its saucer and held it out. It took a second for Zelda to catch on, but then she did the same and the porcelain touched with a crisp tinkle.
The brief hesitation before the toast did not pass the Queen by. The corner of her lips drew up in a slanted smile.
"You might even have to teach me proper table manners, as you see," she said.
"Oh no, I didn't—"
"You don't need to make excuses for me."
The Queen chuckled, but there was a hard undertone.
"It's best that you're honest, so that I don't make a fool of myself when the suitors start knocking on the door."
It was such a turn of the subject that Zelda blinked, mute. In a moment she caught herself, seeing the flash of stoic resignation on the Queen's face.
"Have you gotten hints already?" Zelda asked.
"Hints and honesty both," the Queen said. "Even while father was alive. But we were at war and none of them were prepared to offer an army as dowry and lead it themselves at my side. They just wanted a promise for the day we had peace, or to take me away from here. I couldn't guarantee any land, not with the way things were, but it was good enough to some and getting a bit of magic in the royal bloodline would be…"
She paused and looked at the map on the wall, this one showing a larger area of the world than the one in the library. Only Hyrule was drawn in with any detail, however. The neighboring countries – across the oceans to the north and southeast, and beyond the mountains to the west and southwest – all had their territories painted in different, flat colors.
"I've been thinking that I had better start considering some of them, now that the war actually is finally over. We could do with a strong alliance."
Her lack of enthusiasm was painful.
Up until that moment, the Queen had been the complete opposite of any dignitary that Zelda had ever met… the opposite of herself.
They might share bravery, but the Queen took it with her from the battlefield as she wielded it as frank honesty in every way she spoke and acted. In that instant, when Zelda saw the other woman sink back in thought, mentally preparing herself to face the oldest chains of young nobility, she realized how beautiful the Queen had been in her self-confidence.
Up until that moment.
The resignation ripped all the strength right out of the Queen, and the slump of her form made a chilling promise of what the ancient demands would do to her.
Zelda put her cup down.
"What about Link?" she said.
Tea splashed onto the floor as the Queen nearly dropped her cup and saucer. She just barely managed to keep her grip. Blinking like she had just woken up, she stared at Zelda.
"Didn't expect that," she said after a moment.
To herself, Zelda could admit that neither had she. Never in her life had she ever spoken so bluntly.
It felt incredibly refreshing. Emboldened, she continued in a way that she would not have even considered in her past.
"Do you like him?"
"Yes." The Queen didn't even hesitate. "More than any ponce that would prance up on a white horse and faint at the sight of this." She motioned at her scars. "And it's not just because he turned Ganon into barbecue ribs."
It was so disrespectful that Zelda's line of thought completely crashed and she forgot what they had been talking about.
"What?" was all she could manage.
"Maybe spit roast sounds better?" The Queen grinned wide. "Although to be fair, he was a pile of ash last I saw him, so it was more like seasoning."
For a moment Zelda was speechless. Then she felt her own mouth stretch in a smile. Unbelievably disrespectful… and delightfully so.
"I can't believe you," she said, barely able to keep from laughing.
"I have always been like this," the Queen said. She gave a slanted smile. "It helps take the edge off things."
Her smile turned warmer.
"But nobody else can make me laugh like Link can," she added.
"Really? He seemed very formal to me," Zelda said, eyebrows high. Though to be fair, they had barely spoken.
"It was like that with me too, when we first met," the Queen said. "It went away once he got to know me a little." She chuckled. "It only took a night in the forest."
Zelda choked on her tea.
"I didn't mean it like that! Not like that!" the Queen yelled, rushing up to knock on Zelda's back as she coughed.
"Beg— your— pardon?"
"Din, I meant, I meant—"
The Queen fell back into her chair, breaking down into chortles. She tried to contain her laughter, pressing both hands to her mouth but to no avail. It was contagious, and though her throat burned, this time it could not be helped – Zelda had to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
She gripped the folds of her dress, digging her nails through it into her thighs. A wave of dizziness swept over her, but instead of being nauseating it felt like a refreshing wave. She could not remember when she had last laughed.
"No, no, no…" The Queen paused and took in a deep breath to collect herself. "What I meant was, he got me out of the dungeons, and then we still had to make it back to safety. It took a few days, that's all. Nothing untoward happened."
"But you had time to get to know each other," Zelda said, still unable to stop smiling.
"Yes." The Queen chuckled. "I heard the monsters talk about him, when I was captured. I didn't know it was him, of course… but they were saying things like fighting him made them wish for death because then at least they would not have to listen to him."
"Really? Why?"
A laugh escaped the Queen and she tapped her cheek with a fingertip.
"He can tease anybody to a blind rage when he wants to," she said, grinning. "Ganon was so angry halfway through their fight that he could barely aim. That counts as a tactic, doesn't it?"
Zelda caught herself leaning forwards in her seat, absolutely intrigued. Most of her life had been spent fearing and hating Ganon— Ganondorf. In that moment she so wanted to believe they were truly the same. She had never known how amazing it could be to hear him being so disrespected and made fun of. It was bizarre, and unbelievably liberating.
"What did he say to him?" she asked.
The Queen raised her hand and counted on her fingers.
"He told me he asked Ganon if his spear was his personal skewer, called him a warthog, butcher's dream, holiday dinner, walking sausage workshop, and ah yes, spit-roast. And by then Ganon was roaring so loud I could hear it from the dungeons. Link said it was pointless to talk at that point because he couldn't even hear himself."
She sighed and leaned her cheek in her palm, smile falling.
"He's amazing," she said. "And now he barely speaks to me."
It came out of nowhere, so sudden that Zelda could not keep a confused noise from escaping her. Mute, she stared at the Queen, silently imploring her to go on. Catching her look, the Queen shook her head.
"I'm sorry," the Queen said. "We had a huge fight, before he left to find the Triforce of Courage. I didn't want him to put himself in danger."
"You were worried, of course?" Zelda said.
"Yes, but…"
The Queen hesitated. She glanced out the window, towards Link's room in the tower.
Finally she shook her head.
"I need… to tell you something about Link," the Queen said. She took in a deep breath and held Zelda's gaze. "He might be the key for Ganon's return."
As Zelda stared at her, the Queen continued in a brisk, steady voice:
"Rumor has it that Ganon can be revived, if the heart blood of the hero who slayed him is spilt over his remains."
For a moment Zelda saw only fire, a huge shadow, and a broken body, merciless crimson seeping into green cloth.
The Queen continued to speak.
"Nobody knows where the rumor started, but people believe it. There was a mass panic when he snuck off to search for the Triforce of Courage. Only Impa knows I allowed it. Well, and you."
Zelda glanced out at the peaceful blue sky, struggling to gather her thoughts.
"Do you believe it?" she finally managed to ask, her voice hoarser than she would have wanted.
"I don't know," the Queen said and shook her head. "We don't know enough about black magic to tell for sure." A hard, smug look flashed in her eye. "But I do know that whether or not it's true, the monsters would also need a fine brush, because I kicked and stomped his ashes across the floor."
"You…"
Despite all the audacity she had seen from this woman already, again Zelda found herself taken off guard.
"… you walked out of there with his remains on your shoes."
"My bare feet, actually," the Queen said. "I wasn't allowed to wear boots when I was taken prisoner, because it hurt too bad when I kicked at the poor guards' shins."
The past Impa would have adopted her on the spot.
Still…
"I'm grateful but…" Zelda looked away, trying to find the right words. It was impossible to be anything but blunt, however. "I don't know if you should have taken that risk."
"We don't know if it's true," the Queen said.
"But what if it is? And if Link died, and Ganondorf— Ganon…"
Zelda shook her head.
"I lost, and you won, you… you finally won." Her throat burned and she swallowed hard. "And then you risked losing it all again."
She heard the Queen set the tea cup down and braced herself, expecting a sharp comment that she was churlish. Yet it was the truth.
"You know…" the Queen said, "I didn't like it either. But after Impa took Link to the catacombs, and he saw you sleeping there, he wasn't himself."
Mutely, Zelda looked at the Queen. Every muscle in her body froze, fearful of what would come next, yet hypnotized by whatever unknown fact was about to reveal itself.
"He was all but climbing the walls with his bare hands," the Queen said, watching her steadily. "He had to go, I had to let him."
The world faded away before Zelda's eyes. In that moment, nothing existed except for the soft, gentle words leaving the Queen's lips.
"Link needed to see you alive and well."
He did.
Of course he did.
Somehow, Zelda had a shred of sense left to make her put the saucer on the table before she threw her hands against her face and wept. Wept like she hadn't done since her entire world fell apart.
The Queen's arms were around her then, cradling her, letting her cry without shame for everything she had lost, for all the dead friends and their hope that had been destroyed so, so long ago that it didn't matter to anybody but her — and yet, there it was, an echo, a living memory, in somebody else…
She wanted to believe that.
Zelda wasn't sure how long the sobs wracked her body, but when she finally could wipe her eyes and groggily blink at the Queen, the other woman gently smiled.
"I think," the Queen said, "that the best revenge you can have against Ganon is to live."