Chapter Fourteen:
Kaya hadn't been in the Human World for more then three hours, maybe four if she stretched time correctly, yet it seemed like an eternity to her. Even now, as she looked around her with a mixture of boredom and wonder, time seemed to slow down around her now that she wasn't running away from what had once haunted her. Maybe it was her fear that something would go horribly wrong and she'd have to go back to her own World or this was just a delusion of her mind and she was believing she was elsewhere but still in Hyrule and safe from her husband. That somehow the Royal Guards would come marching in to drag her back to the castle where they believed she belonged instead of where she should be, which was anywhere but the castle. It was not a half hour over the king's promised time he'd allow her to have a head start and here she was, sitting calmly as possible as though nothing was wrong when she should have been running out the door and away as far as she could without looking back. That wasn't possible now, not unless she found an excuse to get out of there without looking like she was running away once again. And she couldn't explain to anyone why she was running away without being chased down and thrown into whatever cell they'd put her in until she rotted.
On the inside, however, Kaya was much worse off then she visibly appeared and tried her best to keep her emotions from showing outwardly. Shaken from her experience through the void between Worlds, she wanted to break down and cry for the things she had to leave behind and wouldn't be able to return for. It took all of her known willpower not to do that in front of complete strangers; when she was alone she would do that but not now. She also feared for Zelda's safely but not as much if Impa was there to take care of her and to make sure she was safe where she was, as safe as she could be. Kaya's regret was that she had to 'disappear' like that in front of her daughter but it couldn't be helped - one more moment in that forsaken land and she would have had to leave by another means, even if she were to be on the run for the rest of her life. With the pendent at least she had the option of safely returning back to Hyrule in a discrete location where guards wouldn't actively be searching for her and where she could hide as a commoner for a while. Even with that in mind and at her fingertips, Kaya wasn't about to use it - no, she had to stay where she was, even if it meant death. She couldn't take the chance that she could be found not and dragged back to the castle or worse.
Now she faced one of the challenges of her new life: things in this World would be hard, perhaps more then she expected them to and, with great difficulty, would learn how to live among the people of this World. Kaya sat in a wooden chair in front of a large desk that sat in a medium-sized room, arms crossed over her chest and eyes staring straight forwards. Her few belongings sat next to her on the floor, the only things she had left from her life in Hyrule and her home; had she thought ahead about leaving she would've packed a few sets of clothes and maybe other things to help the transition. She was already uncomfortable in a room such as this, where there were few things lining the walls and even fewer objects to brighten it up from the dimly-lit building she was in. It made her think of her husband's study in the castle - even thinking about it made her shudder and wince on the inside - but at least it didn't give off the aura that something bad was about to happen. Here she felt safe, safer then she would have been if she had stayed behind, and she took comfort in that.
Everything in this World was vastly different from Hyrule and a lot louder as well; just from the small area she had been in reminded her of the Market before a festival. The sounds of the World around her scared her but not enough to tell her to turn around and run in the other direction; no matter where she went, it seemed, she would hear the noise of dozens of things going at the same time. The man that had gotten her down from the tree had only laughed at her curiosity when he had lead Kaya from the park, pointing a few things out to her as he took her to a long, paved road that went down one way and slightly curved and ended at another. He made sure to give enough information for her to retain for later, telling her a few things as he would an adult and not a child that did not know anything. Kaya had lightly stepped onto it as he took her across the street, to a contraption he called a 'car'.
Kaya had stared at it for several minutes even when he opened the door to what seemed like the back of it, the inside looking bigger than it did on the outside. The notion that she was supposed to get into this thing horrified her and she voiced her option as such; the reply of which clearly gave her the impression that the only other option she had would have been to brave the streets alone and without any help from anyone that clearly would think her a raving mad woman or worse. Kaya got in despite her fears, the man placing a rather strange belt around half of her upper body and her entire waist, pinning her down into the seat. She had protested this rather loudly, feeling it was something she did not need and growled to him to take it off of her or suffer whatever fate she could think of. He had told her that if she did not wear it, a charge would be brought against her for it; according to him, it was a 'federal law' that was enforced or something like that, she had not been listening properly. Kaya had been quiet for only a second afterward before, again, voicing her opinion on something that she thought was stupid but instead of replying with words, he merely shrugged and slammed the door in her face.
During the long travel to wherever he was taking her, the queen gaped at the World just beyond the glass and metal of the car; everything she had seen at her tree was nearly the same wherever the man was taking her. People walked along the sides of the road in front of rather large, metal and glass buildings, talking into small devices pressed into their ears or seemingly to themselves. Some were even walking dogs on multi-colored ropes or pushing carts with babies inside of them or had bags with names of something stitched on the side of them. Each person wore clothing in many shades, shapes, and styles; women wore pants and dresses, men wore baggy pants that went well below their bottoms. Kaya sniffed at that sight, taking her gaze away from the sides of the road with a slight frown. In her World women only wore pants if they worked as laborers or were supposed to per their customs and men did not have their pants falling down to their knees and actually covered their backside. That was more then rude.
The metal buildings she saw rose up above towards the heavens, so much so that she had to turn her neck upwards to even seen when these buildings stopped and the sky started. The man had somehow taken notice of her curiosity from where he was sitting at the front of the car, telling her that the glass and metal buildings were called 'buildings' and were normally used for businesses and offices. Kaya didn't pretend to know what he was talking about, even when she pointed to several smaller, more mortar and brick buildings that the car went past and he attempted to explain that those were indoor shops and banks - although she assumed that they were similar in fashion to the small shops that was in the Market. After five minutes of asking small questions, Kaya went quiet to just stare out of the window to take in some of the sights in, even if most of it started to look the same after a while. If this was the way one places was like, what was the rest of this World like? Was it the same or different?
When the car had stopped at one point she had assumed they were there already and had started to attempt to take off the belt in order for her to get out of the car. The stranger had looked into the mirror attached to the front window at her, warning not to get out since they were no where near where they were supposed to be yet. Kaya had voiced her concerns about what he was doing or at least trying to do, keeping most of her words under her breath as possible. Whether or not he heard them or not she couldn't tell, even when he pointed to something outside of the car's front window and outside of the car. When she leaned forwards and peered out she saw something that dangled from a rather thick wire strung between two metal poles on each side of the road; there were two of them by the looks of it, one facing them and the other facing the other side of the road. The one facing them had a red light at the top of it, perhaps indicating that cars and the people inside of it had to stop. She had no time to ask what the device was because the red light went out and the green light on the bottom turned green, the car moving forwards once again. She figured that was the reason why they had stopped and couldn't get out just yet.
Once the car had stopped at where it was supposed to be at, the man had gotten out and opened the door for her; he didn't give her much of a chance to bolt to the unknown and hardly looked pleased at bringing her to the final destination like he had. Kaya hadn't been pleased then either, looking the building they were at with a sour expression and nervousness shaking her insides. The man had told her that she needed to stay as close to him as possible so she wouldn't wander off to get into trouble she didn't intend on getting into. Whatever that had meant she didn't know and didn't bother to actually find out herself as he lead her inside without much of a word to her or to anyone else; the kindest thing he had really done for her today so far was hold the door for her. Once inside Kaya froze up even when she was pushed forwards by the man and told to hurry up; all eyes seemed to be on her when she entered and followed the man back towards the office she was now in. There were possibly a few mutterings about her as she went past but she, and the man ignored them; there was no reason for her to be concerned with the Humans that she quite possibly would never see again.
Now she sat there with her body positioned in a way that she could easily get up if she wanted to walk out the door and never see the inside of this place again while also keeping her body in place so that it appeared she was dignified without showing her true emotions. The man had come and gone several times since they had arrived, often muttering something to himself while jotting down some information on a pad of paper on his desk he had placed there on his third trip in. By the time he had finally come in for the last time Kaya prayed to whatever Goddess was listening that this meant she would be free of him soon and she could get on with whatever life she had left for the next ten years. Oh how wrong she was.
"I'm going to be asking you a few questions basically for legality sake," the man said as he finally sat down behind the desk, picking up the writing tool he had put down on the pad of paper the last time he had scribbled something down on it. "First off I need your name. Your full name."
"Queen Kaya Mae Romano," she responded simply. If he was going to play such a game like this then so could she. "I would like the pleasure of yours as well. After all I don't want to refer to you as 'It' now can I?"
"Kurt Lang, captain of this station." He scowled at the paper after he finished writing Kaya's name down. "Let's keep the questions directed at your for now. Where were you born?"
"Supposedly Kakariko village but I'm not sure, I think I might have been born on a farm." Kaya's memory of her very early life was in bits and pieces, mostly from what the Sheikah who raised her had told her. "I was raised by Sheikahs there until the age of thirteen."
"How old are you now?" Kurt raised his eyes slightly to her, pushing his lips together in a thin line.
"Twenty-eight and my birth date is September fourteenth." She leaned forwards slightly with a small, rather forced smile. "I'm also about five foot-two and weigh one hundred twenty-five or so, give or take a bit."
The man looked up at her fully in what seemed like the first time since they had met, appearing slightly peeved that she had given him the information rather quickly. Whether or not he needed all that information, Kurt jotted it down on the paper anyways, truth or not and made a few other notes on his paper for his own sake. If he wanted to get rid of her as she wanted to leave then he would believe and write down any information she told him so that they could part ways, yet that was furthest from the truth.. To Kaya's current knowledge there was no reason to believe that any information she gave to him could get back to Hyrule without a magical way of transporting back to her World, not unless she was also being deceived by the very people in this building. What she told him - told anybody- couldn't be traced back home; for that she was partially thankful. Regardless of what she told them, there were a few things that she would keep to herself just in case she needed that private information for later use.
"Well that puts most of the official questions out of the way," Kurt responded in an almost pleased manner, which just confirmed her suspicions that he wanted to get rid of her that much faster. "Who were your parents?"
Kaya paused for a moment just staring at him, wondering why he needed that information. Why was her parents important to him? She hadn't known them at all outside the stories the old Sheikahs had told her, which were few and far between just like there were a few Sheikah willing to talk to her about her heritage. What little she knew of them existed in faint memories of those stories about poor farmers being killed by Gerudo raiders and her being left at Kakariko's doorstep to be raised by whoever would bother to take in a small babe in out of the cold. At least that is what she had been told, what was the truth and what was not didn't matter, all she knew was that outside of Zelda her biological family was no longer and she had been well taken care of by her adoptive family, a family that was more related to her then actual blood family.
"I don't know, I believe they were killed when I was a small child," Kaya said, keeping an eye on the writing table on the desk instead of the man in front of her. "The Sheikah who raised me only told me that my parents were poor farmers and couldn't raise a child, or so they claim. I can't be sure as they've claimed more then just Hylian commoner in me."
"Who killed them?" It really didn't matter who did the nasty deed in Kurt's eyes; the law he served under couldn't do anything in regards to Hylian law as it wasn't the same World nor same laws. He was merely curious as to what was in this woman's past and if there was any connection to what he thought he knew was the truth, or at least the truth he had been told. Oh he'd pretend to write down what she said but it wouldn't go on official record, she didn't need that to be on any file about her.
"I don't know, I told you I was an orphan." Kaya felt irritated at having to repeat herself but she did it to humor him anyways. She took note that he was writing something down but it was slow strokes and not the fast writing he had been using when she had given him other information. "The Gerudos, or so I was told. Why I don't know, maybe because of their thieving nature or because they had nothing else better to do to raid a farm for laughs, or maybe because they were bored. What they wanted with poor farmers I don't know, maybe food or water. They were probably better off trying to steal from Lon Lon Ranch instead, that's the most known ranch around."
"The who?" Kurt looked confused - or at least tried to - with a slightly raised eyebrow. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes several times before staring at him intently, trying to see if the aura that she had seen earlier was more clear then it had been before. There was nothing that she could see, nothing that suggested that he was going to have a long life, would die as soon as he stood up from dinner, or become rich and happy with a long life, things that she had seen the most in the last few years. The man was unreadable, something she didn't like and was beginning to wonder if her so-called gift was something that could only be used in her own World and what she had seen earlier had been that gift fading away.
"They are a race of people - thieves - who have made their home in the Desert just outside of Hyrule, they are mostly female with one male as their leader. They are lead by Ganondorf." She spat the name out while trying to maintain a steady expression without faltering like she had for a second earlier. Just her tone alone would suggest she didn't like him nor should anyone else, the evil she had felt from him during that one meeting needed no aura to be shown to tell her that he was up to no good.
"I see." Kurt put his writing instrument down and leaned back in his chair. "I'm done with my official questions for now so if you have any for me, now is the time to ask them."
She blinked, surprised that the line of questioning towards her was over already and she was allowed to be asking the questions now. Kaya had assumed that there would have been dozens more that would have attempted to go into every little detail about her life, where she was from, and why and how she had come there. Now the questioning was turned over to her to ask of him and she didn't know where to being; there was so many to ask and so little time for her to actually ask them. But didn't he want to get rid of her, like his tone implied? Or was this just a stall for time for something worse, something else? It was best to see what kind of game he was playing at to see if she should bolt for the door and not look back or try to feel more comfortable then she was. If she did leave she would make sure that he did not catch up to her this time.
"I don't know where to begin," she started, tapping a finger on her knee. "Are all Humans as rude as you were before?"
"Worse probably." Kurt grinned like he had told a joke that she didn't understand. "I'm not really a rude person, my line of work demands me to be a bit harsh with people especially if they take some time to do what I ask them to do. If I came across as such, my apologies."
"Taken note of," Kaya said with a shrug, then thought of something that had been plaguing her since the car ride over and now was the best time to ask him of it. "Why did you say that you didn't believe me then say you did? Was it to get me here to answer your own questions?"
"Surprised, really," Kurt answered truthfully, tapping his own fingers on his desk. "See, your Majesty, people in this World don't go around calling themselves Hylians, Sheikah, or any other race in Hyrule unless they're playing some sort of game. Or they're really crazy in the head or taking their own fantasies too far." He raised both hands in defense when the queen scowled at him and opened her mouth to respond. "Not saying you are crazy, I can tell by your ears alone that you're telling the truth and far from Human or playing some sort of live-action game. It's just that some people take it a few steps further then what even others do at conventions."
"Take what a few steps further?" Kaya had a deep feeling that this conversation somehow connected to the one they had several hours earlier and dreaded the connection which gave her the impression that these two Worlds were connected by something. "Is it...?"
"If it's what you're thinking then there's more then a possibility that it's true." He clasped his hands onto his lap, the slightly wide-eyed and angered look on Kaya's face confirming that he was right. "I'm glad that you remembered our short conversation from earlier. You could say that the races you mentioned were the creation of a man in Japan, a country to the east of this one."
"Excuse me?" Kaya breathed, feeling her face flush with anger. What exactly was this man implying at? "My World doesn't exist at all?"
"Exactly my point, it doesn't," he said, leaning forwards towards the desk. "At least it doesn't exist in this World. There is this long-running game series that was created called Legend of Zelda, starting a good number of years ago in Japan. The games have been rather popular around the World and there have been new games created as recently as a few years ago. It's all in there: Hyrule, the races you mentioned, just about everything that you may not even known of. I don't know if it's a detailed history of your home or if it's all true, most people don't give it a second thought other then it's a work of fiction and something to pass the time.
"Where you come in, I don't know. From what I know there just isn't enough information from the source to discredit you, for all intent and purposes the games weren't designed to include every last detail or backstory. What is told elsewhere, I haven't bothered to look up myself. I could be wrong though, I don't know enough to prove one way or the other." Kurt put his hands onto the desk, now fully aware that he had the queen's attention. "I believe the creator of the series had some prior knowledge about Hyrule and based the games off of that. How or why he chose to use your daughter, I don't know or if there was someone else called Zelda at some point in your history or if it was just created on a whim. What I do know is that there is a connection between your World and this World that one single person, or maybe even a group of people, put together."
Kaya felt her body shake with something that she couldn't describe, it wasn't fear but it wasn't anger either; it was like a mixture of both with a dash of uncertainty mixed in with it all. Kurt had confirmed her fear, that being in a World she didn't know of knew of hers and quite possibly knew more then that and the borders beyond it as well. It was now well past the two hours her husband had given her to flee and she was sitting there like she had no care in the world, a sitting duck and she was trapped inside of a cage. He had been stalling for time so that someone from Hyrule would come to claim here; if there was why weren't they barging into the room and dragging her away in chains? Was this a clever ruse or a bunch of lies or something else? Or was she just overreacting and nothing was wrong, that she had actually left her World behind?
"What exactly are you trying to tell me?" She managed to ask when she found the voice to speak. "That someone from Hyrule can come into this World other then the way I came in?"
"Not that I'm currently aware of," Kurt said with a more serious tone then he had used only moments earlier. Then something happened that made her look at him more closely: she now saw a faint gray hue around the man, fading in and out of her known vision, now with a light green tint to the gray. Now that she could see it, now that she knew her gift had not abandoned her, Kaya could understand what it meant, that this man was at least truthful in his words and what he was saying. How truthful she couldn't be sure until she knew him better. "I don't know what to say to you that will make you believe me. In all seriousness I do believe that the man who created the games only saw a glimpse of Hyrule before he made the games and had enough of a glimpse that he used what he remembered and went from there. How he did it I don't know nor pretend to know. Maybe he never went to Hyrule in the first place, maybe some how he made the games up on whim not knowing that what he created was, in fact, real - stranger things have happened. In your World is there things that you can not explain?"
The things that she couldn't explain were often attributed to the will of the Three Goddesses or by some other sort of magic, or so she had told herself many times. Even then she couldn't explain away certain things in her World that seemed impossible to credit to one source, she was unlike her husband that did not believe in such things. If someone had told her years ago that there were other Worlds in which living, breathing things lived in Kaya would have thought that it was a crazy idea and would have never given it another thought, even though there might have been stories told about these places. But here she was, sitting in front of a man in a World she didn't know, with a Sheikah artifact that could take her between Worlds and beyond while talking almost casually about a man she didn't know that knew of her World and had created something for everyone else to know. It was absurd to think about it and she wanted more information, more details about this and how Kurt was taking this like he dealt with it every day without sending her off to a place where the crazy persons go.
"I can not explain everything in my World," she admitted. "But I just don't feel comfortable knowing what you've told me. Did you do it to unsettle me?"
"In no way did I mean for you to be uncomfortable," Kurt responded with a slight nod. "You wanted to know, and I told you. You have nothing to fear, whatever you were afraid of in Hyrule can't reach you here."
"How do I know I can trust you?" Kaya only asked the question to put the last of her fears aside, what little else there was. "How do I know that someone from your World won't go into Hyrule?"
She knew that she could trust Impa's word that there were only four pendents that had been created in Hyrule and she had one of them with her; the other two that she remembered the Sheikah telling her about were still in Hyrule, one of them still close to her husband's hand. If there was any less knowledge about how she knew the Zora king wouldn't give up something that had been handed to him for safe keeping - and she had seen people no more brighter then a fool not give up something without a fight or the right person to give it to - then she would have been even more worried then she was now. If Impa didn't know where the fourth pendent then it would be as hard as anything to find it, Sheikah or not, and she hoped that it was lost to the same void she had traveled in. Those two Kaya did not worry about as she had no reason to fear that anyone shy of a Sheikah knew what they were for.
But what made her ask Kurt if she could trust him, if she knew that someone wouldn't go from this World into hers, was the simple fact that she had told him that she had gotten there through the pendent and had shown him it and that opened up more then one way to get back into Hyrule. Other then a few defensive maneuvers and little else in the way of fighting, Kaya was no fighter; anyone could overcome her without even trying. There were no guards here to protect her, no Impa to give instructions to through a well-placed glance or expression, no nothing to save her from a force much stronger then herself. Anyone could overcome her to force her to use the pendent to go back to Hyrule so that she could be locked in the dungeon for what remained of her life - in the king's eyes Kaya was now a deserter of the crown, a runaway queen that no longer had a home. If anyone could see the potential to get some rupees or gold out of this it would be not only the person sitting across from her but anyone under his employ.
Not only that but what if there was another pendent in this World? Impa had told her that she had sent someone that she trusted into another World and what made Kaya think that this person wasn't in the same World as she was? It wouldn't be just coincidence that two people from the same World found each other in another one; would that be destiny calling? Or the beginning to a prophecy that only Sheikah could hope to bring together? Kaya had to brace herself in case one of the two possibilities came together and she surely wouldn't be disappointed in either outcome; to her it was just another challenge she had to face sooner rather then later. And what made her think that the other pedant was here - or at least had come through here at some point in time - was Kurt's willingness to believe her claims that she had traveled like she had - or was that just a ruse as well?
"Trust has to be earned, so shall it be. That answers your first question." Kurt smiled rather deviously, a sign that it didn't bode well for Kaya. "As for your second, excluding yourself and Calista, there's no one else that could work those pendents properly. Oh there are others that know Hyrule does exist but I seriously doubt that they can get there outside what the two of you have."
"Wha...what?" She stuttered, staring at him with an open mouth. The notion of the one Impa had mentioned had only been something she thought of at the last second and it was the last of the two things she thought of that could possibly happen in her wildest dreams. Was it the same person Impa told her of? Was she really right that the other person was here as well? "Who's Calista?"
"I'll let you meet her, I'm sure that you have some talking to do," he answered, leaning forwards as he pressed a button on a strange-looking object Kaya hadn't paid much attention to until then. What sounded like static came from somewhere inside of it and a voice mumbled what seemed like a very tired 'Hello' from within. "Could you send Calista in please?"
"Sure," the tired voice responded then the device clicked off a second later when Kurt took his finger off of the button. Kaya tilted her head slightly to the side, confused as to what this contraption was and who this 'Calista' was; it was hard enough to understand the current situation as it was without having to resort in meeting someone else she didn't know.
Kurt seemed to noticed this right away, a small, more genuine smile replacing the devious one he had. "You say you are Hylian, correct? And you also said something about Sheikah, right?"
"Yes, I did mentioned both." It didn't help her any if he repeated to her what she had already stated several times already. "I fail to see how this pertains to me as I already know what I am and what I've spoken of."
"Just making sure," he responded as the door to the office opened mere seconds after he said those words. Kaya gave him a lasting glare before turning her rather confused and angered gaze towards the opening door. If the trip to the Human World had gone by slowly this door opening seemed to take just as long; perhaps it was her own heart beating fast and her fears that was making it seem like it took the door being opened longer then it should.
Once it had fully opened, the queen had to put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from showing a rather large smile and to suppress an overly relieved laugh. Standing in the doorway and wearing almost the exact same uniform as Kurt stood a woman that resembled a Sheikah so perfectly that Kaya had to look her up and down several times to make sure that Impa hadn't come into the Human World with her. She had the same silver hair hair that Impa had yet it was longer and tied into a bun at the back of her head; the same piercing crimson eyes that she knew all Sheikah had glossed over the queen twice without much of a look of recognition. She was just as tone as Impa was but was somewhat slimmer and had an alertness that she had not noticed in anyone else she had met in Hyrule, including Sheikah.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" She asked when she had looked at Kaya the second time then turned her head towards Kurt. Kaya stood up when she felt that her legs wouldn't give out on her and she placed her hand back to her side; it was pure relief that she found someone that at least resembled a Sheikah in body.
"Kaya this is Calista, perhaps the most valuable officer I have had in a long time and you understand why." He had that smile plastered on his lips again and this time it didn't make Kaya feel like he was trying to hide something. If anything it expressed what she was trying to keep hidden until she knew if Calista wasn't one of those 'crazies' Kurt had briefly mentioned earlier. "As you can see she is part of the Sheikah race and isn't, ah...well, you know what I've said quite well without me repeating it."
"I don't suppose you have to really explain how you know of the Sheikah," Calista said without even giving Kaya a third look. "Those games don't do Hyrule justice in reality, however they surprisingly go along a part of the Destiny as my land."
"I wouldn't know, Calista, as I've never really heard of these games until only a couple of hours ago." She smiled lightly, hoping that what she was about to say next wouldn't get the same reaction as Kurt's but she didn't bet on it. "In fact I didn't think anyone knew of Hyrule outside of our World."
While Calista didn't give her full attention to the queen earlier, what was said did get her attention better then expected. There was a bit of uncertainty in those crimson eyes of hers but it was masked as pure amazement that someone would mention Hyrule in the same sentence as 'our World'. How the rest of this would play out Kaya didn't know but she had to maintain a bit of the controls herself so that she wouldn't spit out all of her information in one sentence without first seeing if this was true or not.
"Don't imply anything, ma'am," Calista spat without difficulty, slightly narrowing her eyes at the woman standing in front of her. Like Kaya had earlier the Sheikah had gotten defensive when speaking about Hyrule and that was a point towards her actually being from there. "You can not be Hylian at all."
"I guess not all Sheikah are alike, hmm?" There was a bit of amusement in her voice when she spoke that. "I don't blame you for having doubts, as I don't know how long ago Impa has sent you into this World through a certain necklace she may have given you. It has to be some time since you left."
If that didn't get Calista's full attention then nothing else would have. Her head snapped fully towards the Hylian, eyes more wide then they had been narrowed, and any Sheikah sereneness gone before she knew that she had completely lost it. Impa had not once mentioned this to Kaya in the years that the two of them had known each other until today and Kaya suspected from the surprise on Calista's face that she knew who Impa was at least. Kaya had all but forced Impa to tell her where the other three pendents were and it was only mentioned to quell a fearing queen's mind; this small reaction was more proof that there were Sheikah in the other Worlds and that Kaya could trust this one if Impa did.
"I don't know how you got that information or where you got it from, but no one knows personally unless I've told them or it was forced out of someone that knew." Calista gave a rather cold and menacing look towards Kurt, who shook his head to tell her that he had told Kaya nothing of the sort. Not that it mattered to a Sheikah but it only made Kaya force her own self to tell Calista who she was.
"Do not assume that the Queen of Hyrule forces anything out of someone unless she is told of it." Kaya pulled back her hair enough to reveal her pointed ears and the earrings in her ears made of ivory and gold in the shape of the Royal Family's seal before she let down her hair. That was enough to show anyone that she was of Hylian descent and no one outside the Royal Family could afford pure ivory and gold and be able to use the Royal seal. If Calista had not looked over her with mere glances she would also have seen that while Kaya's riding clothing were plain, it still also had the Royal Family's crest embroidered in gold thread not only on the bottom of her dress but also on her belt as well. "I do not need to tell you how I know of things nor do I need someone to tell me that things that they think I don't know anything about!"
Calista now saw what she had missed in the looks she had given Kaya earlier, face paling to the shade Kaya's had been not even thirty minutes earlier, dropping down to one knee with a horrified look on her face. She held her head down so that she would not look at the queen at any way other then her feet, her fingertips touching the ground. That was more then what Kurt would have given her and it totally confirmed that Calista was who she and Kurt said she was. It also confirmed as to how Kurt eventually believed what Kaya had originally told him when they had first met. Although this respect towards her made her feel uncomfortable inside the castle, here it did not disturb her one bit - at least she could allow it one last time before she formally threw away her title for good.
"I am deeply sorry your Highness, I did not know," Calista whispered in a low voice, her face rising up once Kaya muttered it was okay to raise her head and to stop kneeling. "If I may know, what is a Royal Family member doing outside of the palace walls? It is not safe for you to be here, not this soon."
"I no longer desired to live inside our Realm, as Time and Destiny seem to think otherwise as well. Might I ask why you are outside of Hyrule?" Kaya mused that over, wondering if it had something to do with any of Impa's prophecy's or something more devious then that. She ignored the 'not this soon' from Calista, in hopes that maybe in her haste she hadn't made a rash decision in leaving as soon as Impa had told her of the pendents.
"The great Impa told me many years ago of a prophecy that will happen in several years time," she started slowly, her eyes darting between Kurt and Kaya. "She told me that it would be necessary to have a Sheikah in this realm to protect the one that will be the focus of a great battle that will come between the two Worlds of Humans and Hylian. I have been here for several years now waiting for the first signs of the battle but it has not arrived yet, not until you made yourself known."
"Who will start this battle?" Kaya inquired, dreading the answer that may come. She had a feeling, deep within her mind, of who it was and what it would bring, yet she hoped that the Sheikah before her would say anything but the one that she dreaded.
"A man hailing from the far desert that is on the other side of Hyrule, one who lives among the shifting sands. He is wearing black armor and is riding a black steed, behind him is a dark cloud that follows him." Calista now looked worried even more so as her eyes focused on the former Hylian queen. "With this dark cloud comes confusion, despair, and destruction in its wake."
"Ganondorf. I knew that man was horrid from the moment that he stepped into the throne room," the queen growled, more to herself then the other two, sitting back down in the chair while taking in deep breaths to try to keep herself calm. When she looked towards Kurt, who most likely knew of this before hand and wasn't the least bit confused, or was masking it well, she did not smile at him to play like he had heard nothing. "No longer is this realm safe. I had a feeling something was wrong even when Impa explained to me and as I walked into it."
"I can't explain how it works, Kaya, but unless Calista sees the signs as it goes there's no need to worry about it," he said in a rather calm voice. "You probably feel like you haven't left anything behind when you came to this World but whatever the distance between both Worlds is, we will be warned if something does happen."
"Your Majesty? Captain?" Calista asked before Kaya could say anything in retort to Kurt. When both looked in her direction she now was in a standing position, brushing off her pants before looking directly at the queen.
"Yes, what?" She asked rather irritably. Now that she knew her old life had followed her, now knew it for certain, she was not so sure she wanted to hear anything else nor stay inside the World. How hard would it be to jump to another World so soon?
"He is right, there's nothing to worry about now nor is there anything you can do, even to leave would mean fate would follow you. There is a ray of hope that shines through the darkness. A child of fifteen, who is of both the Hylian World and of the Human World and of which will be of a person that is half Human, half Hylian, and has some of the blood of the Sheikah running through her veins, will come and take in the man from the desert through a Sword of Legend. Before she conquers the coming evil she must overcome her obstacles that fall into her path. She must understand the problems that she faces." Calista lowered her gaze to the floor. "That is all that I can tell you, the great Impa has sworn me to secrecy the exact prophecy before it starts. You coming to this World, any World, will not change it, so no matter where you go it will happen."
"How in all of the hells do you know this?" Kaya stared at the Sheikah for a moment before realizing the stupidity in her own question. If she was talking about a Sheikah prophecy then she would know it better then anyone else.
"Everything goes as Time, and Destiny dictates, your Majesty. I can not tell you more then that." Calista must have realized the error of the question as well, a playing smile on her lips as she turned to Kurt. "Now that things have settled slightly, might I ask where her Majesty will be staying for the time being?"
It was a sheer jump from the conversation she had been involved in between both the Human and the Sheikah, Kaya had to pause and blink to shift gears within this turn in conversation. At the beginning she had assumed she would find her own way in the World once any and all questions were completed but now it seemed like things had changed since then. Kurt looked at Calista more closely then sighed, putting his face into his hands and shook his head; there appeared to be a conflict as to where Kaya would be staying now and probably for the next ten years. Neither of the three seemed to pose any ideas as to what may happen next or who was going where, the spinning of Time the only echo inside the room.