Hyrule Castle, the second night after Heroes' Day
Zelda woke up on her rug in the middle of the night. She had been trying to meditate and summon a vision while awake, but exhaustion had won out in spite of her anxiety.
She'd gotten what she'd wanted, anyway, and with far more clarity than she usually managed: she had dreamed of meeting Link at the reproduction of the old Castle Town's Fountain, the one found on the Great Plateau near the reconstructed Temple of Time. The shadows had been long and pointing west, so Link would be there early in the morning.
She let herself out of her sleeping gown and put on a walking dress and boots. She arranged one of her decorative scarves around her neck and put her wallet and a few essentials in the pockets at her waist. She then wrote a couple of lines to her father to let him know where she was headed, grabbed the Ocarina of Time from its home in a hidden drawer under her bed, and left her room to find a servant to charge with bringing her letter to the King.
She ended up giving the letter to a guard at the end of the hallway; most of the staff were asleep.
That taken care off, she put the Ocarina to her lips and played the Prelude of Light: the Temple of Time on the Great Plateau was merely a reconstruction of the original built by the Sage of Light, but Zelda's ancestor had arranged for the song to lead to it just the same since the original no longer existed.
The Great Plateau, immediately after
Zelda arrived in near total darkness. She groaned and dragged her hand down her face.
"Brilliant…" she muttered. "Meant to be the avatar of wisdom but not wise enough to bring a torch when traveling to a completely dark empty building in the middle of the night…"
She briefly considered conjuring a light arrow, but they wore her out and besides, their light was very focused: she was more likely to be blinded by it than she was to be able to use it as an improvised torch.
She called out instead, just loudly enough to hopefully be heard by someone right outside the temple. "Is anybody around? This is Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. I just travelled inside the Temple of Time using my Ocarina. I... I have no light." She felt the heat rush to her cheeks: this was beyond embarrassing. "Assistance would be appreciated."
The sound of steps answered her, and a door opened on a guard carrying a torch. She started towards him despite the lance pointed her way: anyone could claim to be her, caution was not an insult here.
She stopped a step ahead of the point of the lance and proffered her right hand forward, palm down, to show her seal ring. The guard leaned forward to examine it, then looked at her face and stepped back, straightening the lance to an upright position and falling to one knee, hand on his heart.
"Thank you for the light," Zelda said. "I'm meeting the Hero here in the morning. Could you show me where I may go to spend the rest of the night?"
"Of course your Highness! Please, if you would follow me." The guard got back to his feet and led the way towards the Old Castle Town recreation. "Some of the houses are quarters for us," he explained. "One is maintained for visiting dignitaries, I think you will find it suitable, but I must check with the Colonel first to confirm it is ready to be used."
Zelda hummed an assent and followed. She was led to one of the bigger buildings. Its façade identified it as a general store, but when they entered it, the inside was revealed to be a common room for the troops stationed here. Long tables and benches occupied most of a large room, with handfuls of guards either eating a meal or playing cards, or simply chatting. Her escort made straight for a table to the right and back of the room.
The approaching steps got the attention of the men and women sitting there: the ones facing them dropped their cards and pushed away from the table with some effort to fall on one knee, while the ones with their backs to them had to first turn around to see what was going on before following suit.
"Colonel, Sir," her escort said. "The Royal Highness desires to spend the rest of the night here to meet the Hero in the morning. May I show them to the dignitaries' lodgings?"
Zelda held back a wince at the phrasing: you learned to detect it quite well when you kept running into people who did their absolute best not to call you a woman but didn't dare call you a man either. She couldn't actually know for sure that's what this guard was doing, so scolding him in any way was out of the question, but the technical uncertainty did not change how the phrasing made her feel.
One of the men, indeed sporting the stripes of a Colonel, had visibly paled and stood with a scowl directed at the guard. "Have you lost most of your vocabulary, guard?" he roared. "Go back your post, I will show HER Royal Highness Princess Zelda to HER lodgings!"
The guard saluted and immediately turned on his feet to walk back out of the common hall.
Zelda pushed down the uncharitable elation at the guard getting into trouble and cleared her throat. "I apologize for the inconvenience, Colonel…?"
"Atlar, your Highness. Such an honor as your visit is no inconvenience, Princess."
"Thank you, Colonel Atlar," Zelda said, smiling.
The Colonel bowed. "If the Princess would follow me?"
They walked out of the hall and a few houses down the street, stopping in front of a slightly smaller building with light coming from within. At the Colonel's know, the door opened on a maid who immediately dropped to a knee upon seeing Zelda.
"Please, stand," Zelda said gently. "What is your name?"
The maid stood but kept her head in a bow. "I am Hopma, your Highness. How may I be of service?"
"I need somewhere to rest until dawn, and for someone to wake me up when the sun rises. Do you have a room available?"
"Yes!" Hopma said eagerly. "It would be an honour, Princess!" She stepped aside and, still maintaining a partial bow, extended her arm towards the inside of the inn in a welcoming gesture. "Please come this way."
Zelda curtsied. "Thank you, Hopma."
She stepped in and was slightly surprised to see the Colonel following. She thought he might simply want to visually assess that the room was adequate, or perhaps apologize again for his guard, or offer an escort for the morning – in which case she'd decline - and she didn't comment. Hopma closed the door to the outside and stepped around them, beckoning them to follow.
Zelda was looking around her room, pleasantly surprised: it was done in a historical style, and truly felt like it belonged in the old Castle Town reproduced on the plateau. She'd have to remember this Inn and come back if she ever had the chance: she'd have no time to enjoy it this time around, she needed to go straight to sleep and hurry off at dawn.
Colonel Atlar cleared his throat from the doorway, calling her attention back on him. Zelda turned back to him, eyebrows raised in question.
"Princess..." he said. "Might I ask a question?"
"Of course."
"Since you are meeting with the Hero in the morning, I can't help but wonder. Have you... seen him again? Since the day he claimed Farore's pendant, I mean?"
Zelda chuckled. "It's more that the pendant claimed him," she corrected good naturedly. "But to answer your question, no. I haven't. I'm quite looking forward to seeing him again."
"Ah." The Colonel seemed to hesitate. "Please forgive me if I overstep, but I must risk it, my conscience won't allow anything less. Are you aware of the boy's reputation?"
Zelda snorted. "I am," she said. Atlar sounded like he was trying to warn her, but even if it turned out that he really was, the best policy was probably to make it clear such a warning was ridiculous. "Shameful, isn't it? Strictly because he's Sea Folk, people are ready to believe the worst."
The Colonel's eyes wandered to the side. "I don't know about that, your Highness. I've heard things. They say there's no leaves without trees, and there is certainly an awful lot of leaves around this Link."
Zelda's heart sank and her jaw tightened. She'd wanted to believe the unknown Colonel to be above such prejudice based on how he had defended and treated her. To find otherwise was very disappointing, especially right on the heels of Remiss' sudden turn.
She beat down the urge to give the Colonel a tongue lashing to defend the Hero's honor and forced herself to project calm instead. "Leaves are well known to blow around mindlessly and to settle in the oddest places," she said. "The Hero's reputation for being prone to anger and excessive violence comes solely from people's preconceived ideas about the Sea Folk. There is no basis for it at all in his own behaviour. I am privy to the few actual complaints we've received about him and all of them proved to be frivolous. The most recent one was from a man who accused the Hero of murdering a Hinox."
Zelda had to take a deep breath, her blood boiling at the mere memory. Her lip wanted to curl up in a snarl. She focused on keeping her face neutral and continued.
"Hinoxes, as I trust you know, are NOT living. They therefore CANNOT be murdered. They are constructs of dark magic, as evidenced by their turning to dust when destroyed! We investigated anyway, and found the Hinox was in the process of flattening the man's village at the time. There were two victims already! This man repaid the Hero for saving his village by accusing him of murder!"
She took another deep breath. "Every complaint we get is equally ridiculous."
The Colonel bowed. "Thank you, Princess, for this important information. I trust that you will not require us to stay away when you meet the Hero? We have our usual patrol routes and posts, and it would be easier, logistically, not to change them overnight."
Zelda held back a groan and again forced her face to remain neutral. "We will have no need for privacy. You and your men can keep to your normal routines and assignments, and other visitors to the Plateau do not need to be kept away either, from myself or the Hero. Any eye you feel you should keep on me for my safety will be accepted gratefully, but I don't wish to interfere with anyone else's visits."
The Colonel bowed again and excused himself.
Zelda allowed herself to scowl at the door when it closed behind the Colonel. She was not in the habit of jumping to conclusions, but she couldn't help her certainty this time. Keep to their usual assignments indeed! It would be rather interesting to see how many additional soldiers watching the Hero like hawks the Colonel would feel comfortable pretending were at their normal posts. She resolved she'd confront him only if it became an issue. It was bad enough she couldn't keep her anger in check, the very least she could do was not to allow it to dictate her actions the way it was dictating her thoughts.
The Great Plateau, the following morning
Zelda was at the recreated Castle Town's fountain near dawn. The shadows were still longer than in her vision, but not by much. She settled and unwrapped the bundle Hopma had given her when Zelda had asked for something to eat outside.
The maid had gone above and beyond: Zelda found still warm biscuits, cheese, a handful of grapes, and a bottle of milk. She started in happily.
She had just finished when she heard loud voices approaching. She strained her ears, wondering what the commotion could be about: it didn't sound like a welcome, strained and forced or not, to the Hero.
"..LLY YES, BUT NOT RIGHT NOW!" She didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded quite forceful, like it was trying to assert authority. If she'd been pressed to guess, she would have thought the speaker to be a guard trying to direct someone else.
Another voice responded. She couldn't quite make out what this one was saying because the new speaker was not yelling.
"LIKE WE SAID, that's just USUALLY!" a third voice said. This third speaker possessed and was using the talent to be loud without quite screaming.
They were getting closer. This time she could hear the non yelling voice well enough to understand every word.
"Sir, I do apologize for being so insistent, but I was assured last night that the only reason I was asked to leave was that no one was allowed on the plateau at night. Although this restriction is not one I ever encountered or heard about before, I immediately left, as requested. May I ask, what condition am I not meeting now that the sun is fully up?"
Zelda frowned at the contrast: the other voices were loud and authoritative, but this one sounded like it was held on a leash about to break from the tension. The clipped words combined with a relatively slow pace and low tone, the hitch in the voice itself and the slight hiss and muffle betraying the speaker was talking through a clenched jaw… it all made it sound like the speaker was trying very hard to contain his temper. She knew the symptoms, she heard them in her own tones on a daily basis. It remained to be seen whether she was being fooled or whether the 'calm' voice really was just controlling itself very well.
The group came into view and Zelda stood in surprise. Four guards were trying to drive the Hero himself back.
The Hero, even though his body language was completely non threatening, still managed to make an imposing figure, and one more handsome than the pictographs revealed – not that it mattered. He was about twice as tall as when Zelda had last seen him, and although it shouldn't have been since she knew him to be 19 and had seen the portraits taken of him just the previous day, seeing him all grown up was definitely a shock. Heroes in the tales and the legends were always boys, but this one was now definitely a man, albeit still a young one. It felt a bit like watching a powered up version of one of the past heroes. It didn't help at all that Link was also a little bit wide of shoulders, also in contrast to how heroes were usually depicted. And as much as Zelda loathed to admit it to herself, his skin tone and his hair did stand out and added to the overall feeling of Link just not looking like heroes were expected to.
"STEP BACK!" One of the guards ordered, stepping in front of the Princess and facing the Hero. To Zelda's horror, the guard accentuated the order by drawing his sword.
The Hero stepped back, rolled his eyes, but then looked at her and his eyebrows shot up.
"Your Highness!" he exclaimed. He tilted his head as a compromise to a bow and turned back to the guards.
"If you'd simply explained you were guarding Her Royal Highness, I…"
He was interrupted by a blow to the back of his knees and hands pushing him down, forcing him into a kneel. He glared at the guards but Zelda didn't give him a chance to protest: clearly, the guards would not heed him.
"Unhand him at once!" she ordered. "The Hero does NOT kneel or bow to me."
She'd aimed for calm but authoritative, hiding her own anger. She'd give her father a full account, but she had neither the time nor inclination to discipline racist guards herself. She'd TOLD them she was here to meet the Hero in the morning, and he was in full garb! How there was any possible confusion was beyond her. And beyond that, she'd INSISTED nobody needed to be kept away. There was absolutely no excuse for the guards' behavior.
The guards stepped back from Link, but more swords were drawn, all pointed at him.
Link stepped back further from the Princess, hands up in a peaceful gesture.
Zelda was quickly losing her patience. "Guards, you are overreacting in a completely unacceptable manner. Leave us immediately. I absolutely do not require your protection when the Hero himself is present and I obviously do not need to be protected FROM him. Leave us," she repeated. "That is an order."
She stopped and waited, still and as neutral faced as she could be, trying to emulate her father when he gave orders and to project a calm certainty that of course she'd be listened to and that whatever issue there might have been would therefore soon be resolved.
The guards didn't look happy about it but sheathed their weapons again. They bowed to Zelda, turned on their heels and hurried away, presumably to report to their Colonel. She sighed and turned back to Link. As had been drilled into him, he was standing straight: the Hero kneels and bows to the King and Queen, and to Zelda's older brothers, but never to the Princess of Destiny because they were equal partners in the eyes of the Goddesses.
"Thank you, Princess," he said. "If I may ask…" he paused.
Zelda gestured him to continue.
"Thank you, your Highness. His Majesty the King told me that he expected you to seek me out and join me. I do not wish to pry and I do not presume to have a right to question you, but it would be very useful for me to know whether this is in fact the reason for your presence here?"
"It is," Zelda said. "Hero, you may always ask me anything you like. If I do not wish to answer, or if I feel the question to be inappropriate, I will let you know and bear you no ill will."
Link nodded, but he couldn't imagine being rude to the Princess, with or without her permission.
The Princess looked in the direction the guards had left.
"Did I understand right?" she asked. "Did the guards chase you away last night?"
Link nodded with a sigh. "Yes, Princess."
"Why?" Zelda asked, bewildered.
"They said the plateau was closed to visitors past sundown, your Highness. They were less forthcoming on their reason for trying to keep me away from this area this morning, but I do understand now: they were not certain of my identity and so did not want to allow me near your Royal Highness."
"A decision I fail to understand," Zelda said. "At no point did I instruct that I wanted privacy, quite the opposite, and they knew I was expecting you. Their behavior was deplorable."
She cleared her throat. "Now. Although I was guided here by a vision of you, I am ignorant as to the reason for your presence here."
"With your permission, Princess Zelda, I am here to seek Divine Help." Link pushed back the thought that if not for her presence, he'd have been done with that hours ago. It WAS probably true that the guards wouldn't have been patrolling and keeping people off the plateau last night without a royal visitor present, but that was hardly her fault. That is, it technically was, but not really. She was just here to help. The blasted Great Plateau guards were the problem, and it wasn't like it was the first time they were an issue – they were one of the localized exceptions to Link's general rule of thumb that royal guards were trustworthy allies.
"Your pilgrimage to the Three Springs did not yield any result, I take it?" the Princess asked.
Link sighed and shook his head. "It did not, your Highness. The Great Deku Tree spoke of sacred flames, but I found no fire nor anything that might be used to house or generate flames. I tried to purify the blade in the waters instead, but there was no effect. I..."
He stopped just in time: it was bad enough he was having to explain all this instead of being able to just do what he wanted, he didn't need to admit that he'd been praying to Din and Nayru at the Springs – as a Hylian AND the sister of the famously religious Prince Hylrick, the Princess was almost guaranteed to be horrified at the idea.
Zelda thought the Hero might have been about to say something else and had changed his mind, but she chose to let it go – she was trying to build a relationship, forceful prying would not be productive.
Therefore, she just nodded. "I'm very glad I found you. We'll find a solution to this together."
"I truly appreciate your help, Princess. However…"
"However nothing. Even in the very immediate, two people praying to the Goddess Hylia will be better than one, so let's start with that."
Link had snapped his mouth closed so fast when she interrupted him that she felt a little bit mean for it, but she wasn't going to be cast aside. The Hero would just have to get used to her being there and being helpful.
"Thank you, Princess" he said. He started a bow then seemed to remember himself again and aborted it. They both started towards the Temple of Time.
Colonel Atlar sighed as his men left for their posts again. They'd done exactly the right thing by not assuming the Sea Folk man really was who he pretended to be and by being generally cautious. Sea Folks didn't always get along with Hylians, there was some bad blood there, and his men hadn't wanted to take the chance on the Princess suddenly finding herself on the wrong side of a Sea Folk's temper.
But then, the Princess in question had ordered them away. Atlar had to go check on her: if anything had happened, he would most certainly be held responsible by the King.
He got up and quickly started walking towards the fountain where the Princess had last been seen. Hopefully nothing too serious had happened yet, and he could find himself congratulated for a save rather than punished for a failure.
The Colonel spotted The Princess and the Sea Folk man just as the pair was entering the Temple of Time. The Colonel's heart skipped a beat and he started running. The Princess appeared completely unharmed for now, but a Sea Folk male had just dragged her inside a closed space, and what if he didn't realize about her, and got mad, and did even worse than what he was probably planning?
He ran as fast as he could and burst into the temple only a minute after the pair disappeared into it, his sword in hand. He was ready to be the real hero against the pretend one.
Link bowed deeply when he entered the temple, following the perfect form for such things – Zelda reflected even Hylrick would have been pleased. She bowed as well.
The Hero then walked to stand in front of the statue of Hylia and kneeled, crossing his arms on his chest, head bowed and eyes closed.
"Dearest Hylia, I thank you for all your blessings on Hyrule and its people."
Zelda kneeled as well, head bowed and eyes closed as well, her hands joined in front of herself. She silently repeated the formula before focusing her thoughts on their current needs. She had been trained to be silent when praying, less she be misinterpreted by anyone nearby. Link, she knew, had been taught to talk out loud, any privacy when dealing with the divine denied to the Hero in an effort to reassure people that the one known to be favored by Her Grace Hylia wasn't praying for anything worrisome.
"I thank you as well for all the blessings on myself," Link continued, "and..."
He was interrupted by loud steps on the marble floor behind them, and a shout. Link and Zelda turned at once, eyes wide opened, to find Colonel Atlar with a crossbow aimed straight at Link.
"Step away from her Royal Highness, boy!" the Colonel demanded. "NOW!"