27- She needs to extend her wings

ZELDA POV

The Queen's goal was to visit the WHOLE Market, she wanted to verify the level of damage done at the Market, and how much of it extended to the houses of civilians. Gladly most of the business where intact, and a few the civilian houses were damaged but salvageable. The Queen was buying random things out of every damaged business she found. When Zelda realized what her mother was doing, she could not help but be amazed by Queen Claire.

We don't need ANY of the shit she has been buying, but this IS a way to support the Hylians that where affected, and mom is obviously using this as an opportunity to interact with the people. I was not sure about this, but people realizing we are here to help have been grateful and respectful. What I love about this is the underlying message, we are NOT handing them money as if they were weak, we are forcing them to stand on their own feet by purchasing their products, because they are NOT weak. THAT was a smart move, we are empowering the people and regaining their trust, is a double win.

"Mom, have you seen the shooting gallery? Maybe I can try it, you know… waste some money there"

"You play the game twice, and then walk right back here got it?" the Queen says raising an eyebrow

Zelda smiles as she receives 100 rupees, then happily jogs towards the shooting gallery. After a while she come out ANGY

I need to practice… I was able to shoot only 2 of the targets though. The owner wanted to write my name on the list of top players that he hangs on the wall, I am FAR from being a top player, but I am the princess, I think he was aiming at gaining more costumes by showing off I had been there. I did not allow it, people will call it a bluff and that could play against the business, I would need to stamp my name with my royal seal, that way other costumers that see it will believe that I was here. He sadly agreed it was a bad idea to exhibit my name, but perked up when I told him I would be back to stamp my name on his list.

Zelda runs to the carriage; the driver helps her in and they start to head back to the castle. Then a shouting match starts inside the carriage, the driver almost falls from his seat when a high pitch scream was heard.

LINK POV

BEEP! … BEEP!... BEEP!,,,, BE. Link rolls on his bed to reach for his cellphone that lay on the bedside bureau and turns off the alarm, he stretches on his bed before sitting on the edge of the bed, he stands and enters his closet to find the whole-body mirror, and he removes the bandages to examine his wounds.

Well, it does look good, I still feel them if I stretch, but it's almost completely healed, I never meet my bio parents, but if I have to thank them for something, it would be for giving me this body, its strong, and VERY darn resilient. My guts threatened to spill out of me and I have almost healed from that in less than a month, that HAS to be the definition of resilience.

Link heads to his desk and grabs the charcoal suit Chacha picked for him. He dresses himself and does not bother brushing his hair, he then exits his room and heads to the dining room. As he walks by Zelda's door he hears a few yells, and things being thrown around.

Being a female doesn't sound fun… or safe.

Once he arrives at the dinner, the King smiles brightly, but his eyes are pleading, the Queen slowly turns to look at him and nods, her face portraying a blank expression, it was almost scary.

What happened? What do you expect me to do my King? Maybe I should speak, hopefully that will distract my Queen from whatever she finds offensive at the moment.

"Good evening my beloved monarchs" Link states

"Good evening, you look good… and I am not talking about your attire, do you feel better?" the Queen says at Link with a smile that does not reach her eyes.

"Far better, I just needed a little of sleep"

"And WHY is my daughter not here yet? We came back together; she should be here already" states the Queen in anger

"You told me the both of you argued, maybe she is-" the King attempts to calm her using reason

"IS WHAT? I SUMMONED HER, she SHOULD be here, I will send for her to be dragged by the hair if necessary" The Queen says fuming, her right-hand travels to lightly press on her chest.

HER HEART! FUCK, What the fuck happened? We were happy a while ago, don't look at me like that Daphnes, my hands are tied here, you want Zelda… or maybe you don't, Claire is angry with the princess right now, putting them together on the same space may not be the brightest idea.

The sound of rushed steps approaching is heard, they all stare at the door expecting the Princess. The sound of steps stops in front of the door, but it remains closed. A few seconds go by, seconds that felt like hours under the increasing anger of the Queen. The dinner's doors are finally opened revealing the Princess. She enters smiling but soon notices everyone's stare on her.

"Did something happen?"

*SPEAK!

"Nothing, we were waiting for you… is everything all right on your end? You were taking longer to arrive" Link asks Zelda, hoping he did not complicate things even more.

*The King just nodded at you…GOOD, keep talking, don't let the Queen talk until she calms down, we want to avoid a family discussion on the FIRST DAY BACK.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry for that, I was talking with Ivanna about food and spices, time flew, when I noticed I hurried to change and get here, by the way… I think WE should eat her food at least twice a week, its healthy and she make it taste so darn good"

SHE WAS WHAT! and she wants to change the menu… that is great, I am on board for this, I will eat it more than just twice a week of course, but I will support the princess if they fight her on this.

"You want us to EAT animal innards? WHY? That is the waste part of the animal" The Queen says with disgust.

"For health, I will let you know that when Link and I scaped the castle I got sick, but I was able to avoid the flu by eating innards"

"YOU FEED MY DAUTHER WASTE PRODUCT?" the Queen screams at Link

Zelda looks at Link, her eyes telling him she was sorry for getting him in the path of her mother's wrath, but also hopping he will sand with her on this.

"OF COURSE I DID, I was not going to let her starve. May I remind you we were on the run, we ate what I could hunt, and we could not waste ANYTHING"

Link closed his eyes to suppress himself from beating the wall or the table, he inhaled deeply and opened his eyes to find that everyone is looking at him expectantly. Link runs a hand through his hair and continues.

"Innards are the best food you can eat when you are sick, if you don't believe me just look at the medical paperwork of your guards, I am willing to beat on my next statement: the money you waste on the guards is to heal physical wounds, not to treat common sickness" Link says

The Queen was about to fight him on this, but the King stopped her raising a hand

"I don't need to check anything my boy, I am aware of that, I thought the physical training was responsible for their good health"

"It does help, but you are what you eat my King, besides… somebody I know with a weak heart could benefit from this shift on the menu" Link said raising his eyebrows

The King smile and looks directly at his Queen lifting an eyebrow, then back at Zelda and gives a nod of approval, she squealed in excitement and smiling turns to Link and mouths a THANK YOU, then proceeds to dig into her dress for something.

"OH DIN… well I will talk to Ivanna about this tomorrow, to know exactly what she cooks, choose what I could eat and what I DEFINETLY don't want to see on my plate, and prepare a menu"

"AND that is why I took so long to arrive today" she pulls a sheet of paper "I already did that, she thinks she is only cooking for me though, we need to let her know about this decision… and maybe increase her salary a little" Zelda says with a shy smile displaying the menu she worked on with Nana

I FUCKING HATE HER, who does she thing she is to be making me feel anything other than hate? Not going to lie though, I must admit that I AM proud of her.

"Well, with this out of the way, can we proceed with the dinner" the King claps

Maids enter with served dishes, and glasses for the royals, they excuse themselves and exit the room. Link looks down and smiles realizing it was lasagna, just like Chacha told him.

"My King, please tell me you have good news you want to share" Link begs

"Of course I do, SWORD agents are safely out of the territory, they have my eternal gratitude for helping in this situation, Naboru was another ace in the game, she gathered all the gerudos that respected the treaty with Hyrule and hunted down the rebels."

"That is VERY GOOD, we just have to focus on rebuilding then?" Link says with a sigh

"Not exactly, not yet at leat, we have to send letters with our deepest condolences to the families of the diseased. And next week I have a meeting with the nobles, we will discuss what happened and next year's ball location, I am sure. Hyrule's castle is centric, that makes it the best location, but I won't allow the ball to be held here if they deny the presence of my guards, I will stand firm on that"

The Queen and the Princess gasped in surprise; Link slowly smirks at the King. Daphnes notices and smirks back.

"I will back you up if you need me to my King, though I really hope it won't be necessary, if I open my mouth I will obliterate them, and whomever survived my attack will be left lacerated"

"But why attack them? They are victims are they not?" Zelda asks Link

"Victims? Hehe, I will explain because I think you don't know, its mandatory to put away our military forces every time we host a ball, the reason: nobles fear public humiliation, I can't conceive why, if they are doing everything under Hylian law as they claim, they won't be publicly arrested, but they know their hands are not as clean as they claim, that is why they fear the guards. They would rather have a ball with no guards, to drink and enjoy without fear, and worry about sanctions or arrest the next day"

"REALLY? The guards are put away because the nobles feel anxious? FUCK THEM, they almost cost us EVRYTHING. All this happened because we pamper those shit heads too much, that stops NOW" Zelda yells

"HAHAHA, I will let them know sweetheart, and I don't care if you insult them son, they deserve it" the King says grimly.

"The annual ball is held to inspect the govern of the nobles on their land, we check on how they spend their rupee and the constructions they held during the year. The ball is a relaxed way to do this, allows them to brag to others nobles about what they have done for their people. They refuse the guards presence because if something odd is found about them, they won't stand the humiliation of the guards arresting them in front of everyone. I support you honey, but if they STILL refuse the presence of the guards how do we proceed?" The Queen asks Daphness in a serious tone.

"We go back to the dark ages, we schedule the inspections, and they will be held in THEIR land under the eyes of the people, I will be escorted by my guards of course. Will it look like an invasion? Yes, it will. Will that petrify the people? I am sure it will, and if there is an arrest it will happen publicly increasing the people's terror. I am SURE they want to avoid that, so there is only one option for them isn't there?" the King states with a huge smirk

Link starts laughing loudly. The Queen smiles proudly at the King. Zelda stares at Daphnes in awe.

He is a fucking beast, he behaves good and compassionate but you mess with something of his, he will torture you and then destroy you… the scary part is that he will do it all laughing loudly.

"I don't think you will need me on the meeting at all, I will still show up though, I don't want to miss on the massacre. I… have a request dad, could you stay with me after dinner? There is something I need to talk about with you." Link asks respectfully

The King nods at Link with a solemn air.

This is it, Zelda actually helped this time, what she did about changing the menu will support my argument. She is smart, caring and responsible, all she needs is space to fully extend her wingsi, space her current situation can't provide for her, but I can.

The girls immediately caught on, they finished their dinner as quickly as possible and left to grant them privacy. Daphnes inhaled deeply and started the conversation.

"Before you tell me anything I need to tell you something, I am not a fool, I am now aware you have lied to me, I choose to ignore it because it benefited Hyrule at the moment, and SWORD was on board with your made-up law too, I have made peace with how you handled everything so far, but let me be clear on this: you are not allowed to lie to me again EVER"

Link stares at the King not really surprised that he figured it all out, but confused about what was requested now of him.

He has no idea what he is asking for

*WRONG, he has no idea WHO he is asking things from

I will explain what he just said to me, hopefully this won't change our relation and he gets to understand how I think more

Link looks at Daphness and grins at him, a grin that does not reach his eyes

"I consider that EVERYONE has at least one possession of real value, and that is their word, reason why I hate lies and liars. I have NEVER lied to you my King, I may have omitted information and I am sorry for resorting to that… but I need to say this: I will never promise you that I won't do it again, it overrides my previous promise to you"

The King's temper rises, silence sets as they both engage in a threatening stare, yet the King manages to control his temper and be civil, he chooses to continue the discussion with a simple question

"How?" the King asks somberly

"You asked me to protect your family, to properly do it I must be willing to do ANYTHING to ensure their safety, that includes lying… even to you my Lord, and I am willing to do it, I have done it already, but if what you want now is for me to never lie or hide anything from you, I will tell you exactly what to say to me, and yes, YOU have to say it to my face. I ask again: do you really want me to shift from my previous focus?"

The King's eyes widen when he realizes, yells at the celling and bangs his fist on the table, he then runs both his hands through his hair and adjust his surcoat.

"Ignore my last request about lying, what do you wanted to talk about?" the King says defeated

"it's about your daughter, I am sure you have noticed she shines brighter in adversity. Reading about conflict with her teacher or hearing about it from me will not satisfy her or help her in anyway, she needs to experience it, from a safe distance of course... I want Zelda to come with me when my job demand that I leave Hyrule"