Chapter Nine: The Middle Years
Snow drifted down from the sky and onto the casket placed in front of Hyrule Castle. Crowds stood silently, all packed on top of each other as more and more people filled into Castle Town. In front of the casket stood the King, he held his daughter in one arm and looked stoic towards the crowd.
Princess Zelda of Hyrule could not contain her tears as she openly wept into her father's jacket. Her servant Paige continued to hand the princess a handkerchief to which she always refused. The princess tried to muffle her sobs as what felt like the entirety of Hyrule stared at her.
In the front of the crowd stood the leaders of the other factions of Hyrule. Each one held different expressions as they looked upon the black and gold casket decorated with blue flowers. Three stones, red, green, and blue stones were embedded into the front.
Queen Rutamina stood tallest amongst the crowd, with several Hylians who peered around her sides to stare at their dead queen. Rutamina held a stoic expression as she stared eye level with the casket. In front of her, she wrung her hands endlessly and played with the webbing between her fingers. Beside her, her daughter Rudi babbled towards her aide Camaron. Camaron continued to wipe the tears away from her eyes as she answered Rudi and held her close.
Dario frowned towards the casket. His eyebrow, made of jagged stone, peaked and crashed sharply against his face. His son Egan stood next to him and attempted to mimic the same intense frown on his own face. Egan, however, struggled as his face was still too young and round to gain the sharpness his father had developed over years. An older Goron stood behind them and only shook its head.
Tyto of the Rito looked bored, with his head rested against one of his wings. His eyes were slightly red and puffy as he stood alone in the front row. He glanced over between Dario and Rutamina and sighed. Next to Tyto there was an empty space which only held a tiny frog on a leaf.
Impa's face changed emotions every few moments as she stared up at the casket. Her face constantly shifted between despair, sadness, anger, and helplessness. An arm wrapped itself around Impa's waist and pulled her into an embrace. Kanchana, the Gerudo chieftain, stared down at Impa with a weak smile. A little boy, no more than ten years old, clung to the other side of Kanchana, his golden eyes stared widely towards everything.
Behind the first row, more notable people stood. There were the mayors of the towns throughout Hyrule field. Hammada stood somewhere in this area with Gonzo and his family. This was also the area where Mystique stood with her parents and Nivan. She did not have a good view of the casket, and only really saw the backs of those in front of her. She tried to jump up to get a better view, but all that did was tire her legs and gain a glare from her mother.
"Hey I don't get why they have the tall people in front." Mystique groaned.
"Hey, Misty." Nivan looked at her. "This is a funeral."
"Yeah, well the Queen was important to everyone so shouldn't everyone be able to see?"
"It's just a closed casket." Nivan glanced around the crowd. "And it would be pretty hard to get everyone to see it."
Mystique spun in a circle and saw the massive sea of people crammed into Castle Town. "Wow Castle Town sure filled up."
"I'm not surprised." Nivan sighed. "I hope that whatever happened to the Queen isn't related to what we saw the other night?"
"You mean the poes dancing?" Mystique asked a little too loudly. Beside her, Mystique's mother raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." Nivan noticed Mystique's mother glanced the other way. "They summoned something. What if that something killed the Queen?"
"Should I tell Impa about it?" Mystique asked.
"Uh," Nivan thought for a moment. "How would you phrase that exactly?"
"Well—" Mystique began to speak only to be shushed as the King stepped forward.
King Suehprom Patroclus of Hyrule cleared his throat, and instantly the entirety of Castle Town fell silent. He held up his hand and silently stared at the crowd for an uncomfortable amount of time. Mystique, as well as several other children, began to fidget within the silence. Finally, he spoke.
"The world is a cruel place. Our land of Hyrule has taken our beacon of light and snuffed it out, leaving us in the darkness. My wife, your Queen, Kassandra Tacita of Hyrule, was a kind and gentle soul. A smart and caring individual who knew no bounds to help out others in their time of need. Every day and every night I had with her was a blessing. A blessing that should have lasted many more years than it did."
He paused and no one spoke.
"I have never been the one to believe in fairy tales. I have always been a king of logic, as that is what Hyrule has always truly needed. I have heard stories of kings before me who wasted their years preparing for a fable that never came. My ancestors who built their entire identity around a little boy in green and a fairy. These ancestors of mine ended up going mad until their dying breath. I am here to tell you all that I will not repeat that same mistake."
He held his fist to his chest. There were tears in his eyes.
"I wish that I had paid more attention to the rabbit hole that our darling Queen fell into. She spent many days in the library, always a woman of knowledge. Her thirst for knowledge is what brought me to her. Yet, even she fell into the madness of the curse. The madness of shadow demons and kings of darkness. A moblin is just a creature as is a bokoblin. They have no higher power nor no master to bid. Have you ever seen a poe in the graveyards at night? I haven't. That's because they are scary stories to tell our children to go to bed. I even invited, per the request of Impa, the mythical Kokiri and not a single one showed up. And yet our Queen believed in all of these things, and studied ways to prevent something that never really existed. She spent her days trying to protect her people, the people of Hyrule, from a nonexistent threat, and it cost her her life. Queen Kassandra Tacita of Hyrule could have been around to see her daughter Zelda married with children of her own, but instead she chose a myth. Our Queen, my wife, and a darling jewel of Hyrule, was taken from us too early."
He choked a bit on the tears in his throat.
"But enough is enough. I want all of this nonsense to stop. I want all of these tales of the past, fabricated into whimsy and fantasy to cease. I want no more people looking into this false threat. I want whatever our Queen started behind my back to end today and never be spoken of again. We will fight threats that exist and have always existed. No more demons. No more fighting our own shadows because we think it is evil."
He sighed.
"I want your Queen to be remembered as she truly was. A gentle soul who strove to protect her people. Someone who could recite a book of poetry on the balcony to her daughter, and someone who would smile at everyone in Castle Town. She was someone who always kept her composure even on her darkest days, and in the final days of her life here, she never stopped to show her weakness. Queen Kassandra Tacita of Hyrule will be truly missed by her people as well as by her family; but in order to hold her memory high we must bury the tragedies of her mistakes."
He stopped and stared out at the crowd.
Dario's face twitched and somewhere a child cried within the crowd. Above them all, high in the sky, it began to snow. Gentle specks of white landed on the casket as it was taken off of the platform and through the crowd. Everyone bowed as they were in the presence of their queen for the last time.
Time is a mystical thing to witness. A few seconds to someone may mean nothing but to another person across town those seconds are a crucial part of their life. When Queen Kassandra Tacita of Hyrule passed, and her body was brought to the royal crypt in Kakariko village, time seemed to fluctuate.
There are those, so depressed by the loss of their queen, that the span of a few years was merely a blink of the eye. They focused on their work and kept their head down to the world changing around them as their king had ordered. These people did not, and still do not, notice the landscape as it morphed around them into something more sinister.
And then there are others who have seen every second over the last few days go by slowly. They watched in horror as the little things turned bleak and sour. These people scrambled against a fight that they felt they were losing constantly as another negative plopped into a bucket filled to the brim with negative events and coincidences. Others struggled to organize themselves amongst the chaos as it raced through the undercurrents of the bustling world.
No matter how a person reacted to the flow of time since the death of their Queen. Time still passed, and what may have only felt like a few seconds to some, was actually a few years.
Impa leaned over the balcony railing and stared down at the field of soldiers below her. They all swung clumsily each with a different rhythm drilled into their own heads. Impa twirled her hand above the railing and sighed.
Dainty footsteps tip-toed on to the stone flooring, but were betrayed by the heels attached to the feet. Two teenage girls walked up to Impa.
One girl wore her brunette hair straight to her hips. A golden tiara adorned her head filled with blue and red jewels. White gloves went up to her elbows to compliment a light blue dress with white symbols and lines embroidered on the sides. She wore a dark blue corset with two golden epaulets held together with a golden chain. In the center of her chain was a blue stone in the shape of a teardrop.
The other girl's hair was an explosion of blonde curls that jumped in any direction though possible. She wore a simple white dress with a light blue apron tied around her waist and a golden necklace hung around her neck. The necklace was of the triforce with a blue jewel in the center triangle.
Both girls looked towards Impa with big blue eyes.
"Have the new recruits come into the courtyard yet?" Princess Zelda Asteria of Hyrule asked.
"Not yet," Impa said while she eyed the courtyard. "I am a little worried about this new batch of recruits."
"Yes," Zelda nodded. "I am not pleased with father lowering the age requirement either."
"But it was what he needed to do. Violence on Hyrule field from Bokoblin and Moblin attacks is at an all time high. Our most expert troops have been sent to towns across the field to protect them from these threats, and the Rito, Gorons, and Zora are all too busy battling their own problems to assist us. I would reach out to the Gerudo." Impa paused. "But I am sure that they have their own demons to face within all of this."
"I've heard rumors of a darknut appearing near Lonlon settlement." Paige whispered. She stared down at the soldiers and made a face. "I hope that these soldiers will get strong enough to fight a darknut."
"They will have to." Princess Zelda replied dryly.
Down in the courtyard, four teenage boys entered. Each one wore armor ill-fitted to their growing bodies, and two of them held swords clearly too big for them to swing. The other two boys arrived with their own swords and stood in the back. Immediately the two boys in the front rushed into the crowd and joined the messy swings swung by other soldiers not much older than the boys themselves.
"Well, it seems that you just made the cut." Owin smiled.
"I was lucky that they lowered the age when I applied." Nivan looked out towards the crowd.
"Nonsense, you were going to turn fifteen before your first day so they would have taken you even if the age wasn't lowered." Owin chuckled. "Plus you had some of the higher marks during the combat test, especially compared to those two goons." Owin pointed towards the two boys, one blonde and one with red hair.
"Yeah that wasn't hard to do," Nivan laughed. "I've been able to beat them ever since I moved to Castle Town. They both fight too much on the offensive and don't pay attention to their surroundings."
Owin chuckled. "I vaguely remember fighting them back a few years ago, and I wasn't too impressed." He turned and stared at Nivan. "You, on the other hand, have always been a good sparring partner who has improved quite nicely over the years."
Nivan made a face. "Our first match was unfair, I didn't have my sword."
"And every good swordsman should learn how to fight with what they have well, even if it is an unknown weapon." Owin raised his sword towards Nivan. "Would you like to spar?"
Nivan raised his sword and smirked. He took a step back and held his stance. "Ready when you are."
The two boys, with heavy clunky armor, began to slowly shuffle and turned their awkward movements into a slow and steady dance within a room of off beat movements. With every swing Nivan took it was met instantly by Owin, who parried and placed Nivan off balance. The armor, however, made him too slow and gave Nivan enough time to successfully block his attacks. As the boys continued to fight, several other soldiers took their eyes off of their own matches and watched before their opponent's next strike.
Above all of the fresh-faced soldiers, Princess Zelda continued to watch with Paige and Impa.
"Hey, those two in the back aren't too bad." Paige pointed.
"I agree." Zelda placed a small smile on her face.
"Well, they better be girls." Impa looked back towards the balcony entrance before her attention went back to the courtyard. "The boy with the dark hair is Owin from Kakariko and the grandchild of Dampe the gravedigger. He was selected at a very young age to train to be a royal knight, and I see his time as a common soldier as being short. He has always been a natural swordsman according to the knights posted at Kakariko." Impa paused. "There are also rumors that the boy has Sheikah blood in him given his stealth and speed, but his eyes would say otherwise. Silver is not red."
"What about the blonde one?" Paige asked as she leaned over the balcony to get a better look. "He seems a little timid but kinda cute… like you Princess."
Princess Zelda looked sharply towards Paige, her face now red. She grumbled a bit before she turned her attention back towards the soldiers. Paige noticed none of this.
Impa clicked her tongue. "Funny thing about the blonde one. His name is Nivan and he is the adopted son of Cerise. She personally asked me to make sure that he got into training here… but he scored so highly that I thankfully did not have to persuade anyone to let him in. It would not surprise me if he followed closely behind Owin towards becoming a royal knight."
Zelda squinted. "You said he belonged to Cerise, but I am assuming that he's not of Sheikah descent."
"Correct." Impa answered. "But there's… something else up with him."
"That's very cryptic of you Impa." Zelda said.
"A little green fairy used to follow him around through Castle Town, but Cerise told me that she asked the fairy to follow her daughter instead. Which was smart of her, the boy would get harassed if he had a fairy follow him around here."
"Because of the story of the hero?" Paige asked.
"Exactly." Impa answered. "Everyone in this castle wants to impress the King so badly that any relation to that story only leads to bad things."
"Do you think…" Both Paige and Zelda started to speak.
"Don't even finish that thought." Impa walked away from the balcony. "I have a meeting to attend to, but I will come with you later to the welcoming dinner."
Both Princess Zelda and Paige nodded before they returned their attention towards the courtyard of soldiers. The two girls pointed and giggled as they made remarks and nicknames for all of the new recruits as they stumbled and fumbled about, their boots clunked and barely stayed on their feet.
From the back of the crowd Owin and Nivan bowed towards each other. They both wiped sweat off of their foreheads as they placed their swords back into their scabbards. Both boys stopped and looked up towards the balcony where the girls continued to giggle. Both girls stopped and stood still when they noticed Owin and Nivan. Paige waved, her blonde hair bounced chaotically as she started to laugh as she waved. Both boys sheepishly smiled back.
Mystique sat on a rock and held her shawl tightly around her body. Around her were fields on pine trees which dipped down into the valley and stood sporadically on higher up ledges. A series of wires were strewn between ledges with little houses, which dangled in the air hundreds of feet above the ground. A few houses were built into the cliffside of the mountains and even a few houses stood on perfectly cut ledges on the mountain itself. A river ran somewhere far below Mystique but the sound of running water could be heard from where she was as it mingled with the sounds of bird songs and wind chimes.
A small rito girl with white feathers and red eyes sat next to Mystique. She wore a little pink dress which matched her feet and beak. She wore a pair of dark goggles on top of her head. As always, Lumina floated around nearby, nothing more than a green spec against the sunset.
"How do you stay warm up here?" Mystique asked towards the sunset. She pulled the shawl around her tighter.
"I have a lot of feathers to keep me warm." The rito girl's voice came out quietly.
"Man, I wish that I had feathers right now… and that I could fly." Mystique peered down over the edge and watched several rito as they flew around the trees and hillsides.
"Our village isn't really suited for long term Hylian stay." The rito girl answered honestly. "I'm surprised that Tyto allowed it."
"Well…" Mystique trailed off. "His exact words were 'if she can tolerate it she can stay as long as she likes. I do owe you Cerise.'" Mystique air quoted around the last part. She made a funny face as she said the last word.
"You're already cold and it isn't even winter yet. We'll have to get you some warmer clothes at one of the nearby ground settlements." The Rito girl had a slight melody to how she spoke.
Mystique pulled the shawl tighter. "Hey Lumina, are you cold?"
"I'm a ball of light, what do you think?" Lumina answered from somewhere amongst the sunset.
"Do all Hylians have fairies, and are they always this sassy?" The rito girl asked. She played with a red beaded necklace around her neck.
"Nivan and I accidentally found her," Mystique started counting on her hand, "about four years ago. Most fairies live in the Kokori forest."
"Do Kokiri's even exist? I've only heard of them in fairytales." The rito girl asked.
Both girls stared towards Lumina.
"Do you think I have all the answers?" Lumina huffed.
"Well you are from the forest aren't you?" Mystique raised an eyebrow.
"They exist. Why wouldn't they?" Lumina bobbed up and down.
"Because who has ever seen a Kokiri?" Both girls answered at different speeds, their words jumbled into slight nonsense.
"If the rito, gorons, and zora exist, why can't the Kokiri? They just can't leave the forest." Lumina answered, slightly irritated.
The girls sat silently for a moment and pondered the answer. Another rito, with brown feathers and a green bandana wrapped around his neck walked by. He stopped and stared at the cliffside.
"I bet you Tyto has seen a kokiri Abony." The rito laughed.
Abony turned her head, slightly startled to look at the rito who just stood there. "Hi Cuphas." She said a little sheepishly.
Cuphas smirked. "Or maybe your little Hylian friend is actually a kokiri. She does have a fairy after all!"
"Nah, Ty said that she was one of Impa's people." Abony glanced over at Mystique who stared back quizzically.
"I'm actually a Luriken. My father makes shoes." Mystique clarified.
Cuphas chuckled. "You excited to learn to fly Luriken?"
Mystique shot up from where she sat and almost fell off of the cliffside. Abony grabbed her leg as a precaution.
"I'm going to learn to fly?!" Mystique gasped. "How?"
"In order to be a good mail person it's fastest to fly." Cuphas tugged on his bandana. "I'm sure ole Mr. Talon has something prepared for you." He began to walk up the stairs which curled around the cliff. "Also you two should follow me, I know a much better spot to watch the sunset."
Quietly, the two girls and Lumina followed Cuphas up the mountain.
Eventually, as they followed Cuphas, he diverged from the stairs and went off the beaten path between two lonely pine trees. From there, the path dipped back down and rounded around a narrow path where the other side was a steep plummet to the base of the mountain. Mystique held onto Abony tightly as they traversed the terrain. After what felt like too long of a trek between life and death, the path widened into a tiny little space nestled into the mountain side.
In front of them beautiful mountains and rolling hills expanded across the horizon basked in the golden glow of the sunset. On one of the closer hills a waterfall gushed down between the pines and into a stream big enough to be visible from so high up. At the bottom of the waterfall was a pool of water drenched in sunset colors. A small hut could just barely be seen hidden between the trees and the water.
"If you fly out west enough, past all of those mountains you would eventually hit the Gerudo desert." Cuphas said. "It's said that the desert was formed due to the Hyrule mountain range depriving the area of proper moisture." Cuphas paused. "If you were a Hylian on foot you would struggle to deliver anything to the Gerudo women. With flying we travel to them with ease."
"Ty has tried to be on good terms with the Gerudo." Abony looked out towards the mountains.
"Unlike the King of Hyrule," Cuphas added. "From what little gossip I hear from my da' he hasn't really been helping anyone with their pest problems."
Mystique's mind briefly flickered back to memories. She thought of the dragon she saw as it circled death mountain. She thought of Gyorg in Babel's ocean fish tank. She thought of the giant frozen door covered in Octorok's at Zora's domain. Her mind then shifted to Nivan. Before she had left as she trailed behind her mother's footsteps, she remembered Nivan's face. He had a smile on but there were tears as he waved goodbye. Mystique remembered she had run back and hugged him tight. She promised to write to him whenever she could. Now that she could.
Mystique looked out towards the mountains and suddenly felt homesick.
Inside the royal dining hall dozens of new recruits squirmed around a large wooden table decorated with food and colorful table runners. Large blue banners hung down from a ceiling that went higher than necessary for even the tallest Hylian. Pillars rose in two columns, which framed the table.
Owin and Nivan sat next to Roul and Link at the table. Link played with his fork, he drummed out uneven beats on an empty dinner plate in front of him. Roul played with his blonde hair. A few locks curled around his fingers.
Nivan glanced around the room and saw a variety of similar expressions. All of the boys in the room looked too small in comparison to the chairs that they sat in, and everyone wore an expression of boredom, confusion, and fear. Nivan looked around the room for a mirror, and was met with the awkward face of a teenage boy with uncut scraggly long almost white hair. Owin's dark hair waved upwards in contrast.
Suddenly, and without much explanation, dozens of servants entered the room, only to place hundreds of plates of food onto the table. They all disappeared without a single word uttered or breath taken in. Both Owin and Nivan raised an eyebrow at the table now filled to the brim with more food than anyone in the room had ever seen.
A glass rang quietly from somewhere in the room. All of the boys, some of which had attempted to grab cucco legs and chunks of bread, turned towards the source of the noise. Impa, in a simple navy blue bodysuit, leaned against one of the pillars. After a few moments of silence, she smirked and pointed one of her long fingers towards the front of the table. Slowly, all of the boys' eyes drifted towards the table head, where Princess Zelda solemnly stood. As usual, Paige stood next to her.
"Welcome, new soldiers of Hyrule." Princess Zelda calmly spoke, her voice even. "I apologize as my father is not here to greet you tonight." She paused. "But he will make sure to give his warm welcome when he is now off attending to other business." She tugged at one of her gloves as she stared at the table. She glanced up towards the sea of eyes, only to look up at the ceiling. "You are all extremely brave for joining our forces. I must tell you all that this is not an easy job, and there will be hardships as well as sacrifices. I hope that we will be able to provide you with the best materials to be as strong as possible so that you may be able to protect those that you love." Zelda drew her attention towards one side of the table. "Some of you will work hard and be excellent guards and soldiers for all of Hyrule." She shifted her attention towards Owin. "While others will even one day protect myself and the Royal family from harm." She looked past all of the boys towards Impa. "But, wherever your future takes you. Please enjoy this meal as a gift from myself to all of you." Princess Zelda sat down slowly. She stared quietly towards the sea of boys frozen in place.
Once one boy cautiously reached for a slice of bread, the rest of the table became a domino effect. Soon, every soldier had a heaping plate of food gathered in front of them and they all began to eat food that some of them didn't even know existed.
Owin with his bowl of pumpkin soup and plate of greens with cucco, glanced at Princess Zelda's plate that had only a few greens on it. He watched for a little longer than he should have, his face etched with a frown. Next to him, Nivan carefully dipped his bread into the pumpkin soup. He watched as Impa left the room.
"I wonder where she's going," Nivan whispered into his bread.
Impa let out a long sigh a few paces outside of the dining hall, her head rested into her hand. "Curse that man for being reckless with the youth of Hyrule." Her eyes darted up and down the long, dark, and empty hallways before she disappeared down one of the corridors.
If anyone were to have walked down the hallways of Hyrule Castle during this time they would be greeted by nothing. For, all of the soldiers, as Impa knew, were either in their quarters asleep, posted to guard duty, in the dining room, or off on a mission. The servants had their own hallways hidden throughout the castle like the Sheikah and normally avoided the main hallways. Most Sheikah, Impa thought, would be as far away from the Castle as they could be either on missions she sent them or working in the secret Sheikah lab nestled somewhere out in Hyrule field.
When Impa came upon Pom's old lab her face faltered shortly into sadness as she gazed upon a clean and empty room. The chairs were all pushed in and not a single piece of paper was out of place. On Pom's whiteboard, 'Mystique was her' was scrawled in the corner. A doodle of a fairy was etched next to the phrase. Impa chuckled.
"Your daughter always finds a way to make light of a situation." Impa stated into the empty room.
Behind her, Cerise quietly entered the room. She gently leaned against one of the desks. "I'm surprised Pom never erased that. It has to have been at least a year since she moved."
"And I'm unsurprised that you didn't send Mystique with Pom." Impa's smile faded. "I think that would have been the smarter move Cerise."
Cerise frowned. "It's not what she wanted." Cerise looked over at the writing on the whiteboard. "I wanted her to be happy, so I sent her to a place where she could be."
"She would have made an excellent member of my team." Impa said. "I think her delivering mail is wasted potential."
"I also wanted her to be safe." Cerise answered. "She wouldn't have been safe with you or Pom."
"And sending her to live with the Rito is just as safe?" Impa raised an eyebrow.
"Well for one the Rito aren't disobeying the King's orders." Cerise stared at Impa, her red eyes almost glowed in the moonlight. "And two I know the dangers of being a part of the Sheikah before our world started to turn upside down. I can't put her into a situation that dangerous Impa."
"And yet you let Nivan join the soldiers of Hyrule?" Impa kept her eyebrow raised.
Cerise shook her head. "I didn't want him to." She paused. "But I am not in a position to stop him. I just hope that they'll send her to post far away from this Castle."
"Zelda is already eyeing him and a boy named Owin to join the royal guards." Impa said flatly.
Cerise cursed under her breath. "Can you sway her opinion?"
"I'm afraid not. I'm sure the King would overrule my interference anyways."
Cerise frowned.
"I know that you want to protect both of them," Impa put on a slight smile. "But we can keep them both safe if we keep working against the darkness."
Cerise stared silently at Impa. Outside, the sounds of leaves rustling and the hooting of an owl echoed into the night sky. Outside the room and off in the distance the sounds of awkward laughter between boys and the clinking of silverware barely filled the walls of the castle. A wolf howled somewhere far away.