Fan Fiction ❯ The Mirror Tells All ❯ Thirteenth ( Chapter 13 )

You Wish Productions presents...

The Mirror Tells All

A Legend of Zelda fan fiction

By: Blue Taboo

Proud member of Darkscribes.org

Yes, I know it's been...over a month...but you can blame school and a lack of the want to write for that. Anyway, back to what you really clicked this internet link for...

The castle wasn't nearly as lively as it was during the day once the sun had set and dinner was over, but it still certainly wasn't dead. Link led Epona quietly through the nearly deserted courtyard, inhabited only by a few servants hurrying about their late night business and the rustling herd animals that huddled instictively together to fall asleep. Warm light still exuded from the stables, as was to be expected, though Link was under the impression it was for late comers to keep from tripping over the various implements of a stable when putting up their horses for the night.

However, that wasn't entirely the case. He came upon the deligent stable boy he'd befriended, Chasel, dozing in an empty stall, just next to the front entrance. Like all stable boys do, he quickly awakened at the sound of horses hooves.

"Oh! Master Link! I-I'm sorry I fell asleep! Sir Damen told me you should be coming home tonight and I wanted to wait up for you...but I guess it got late and--" the boy stammered as he bolted up out of the hay.

"No need for apologies," Link told him. "You didn't even have to wait up for me."

"...I wanted to, though," Chasel insisted, already moving to take Epona's head to guide her to her stall. "Besides...I wanted to talk to you too, if that's all right, Master Link."

Link nodded, but kept his guiding hand on Epona as Chasel touched the other side of the mare's strong neck. They both led her into her stall, after a look was exchanged between the two. Link grabbed her brushes along the way, and they both began to untack her when Chasel spoke again.

"I...wanted to thank you, I mean, for the other day. The others have been a lot nicer to me, since then, even though they still don't do they're work..."

Link laughed this time as he slid the saddle from his tired horse's back and set it aside. "That's good to hear. I trust that we have both had a good set of days then..."

"What do you mean, Master Link?"

"Ah...nothing, really. Just that some people who used to be unkind to me have changed their minds as well," he explained.

Chasel smiled, and they finished their work in blissful silence as the night grew on.

Link couldn't find it in himself to be tired, though, once he left the yawning boy to get his rest in the servant's quarters. However, the castle was indeed much abed by then, and he figured that he should at least try to sleep as well. As he ascended the last of many flights of stairs, though, he heard the echoing of voices filter through the stone corridors. Making sure to keep as quiet as possible, in order not to alert the speakers to his presence, he reached the top and peeked just slightly around the corner.

The torch light of the junction of the four halls which held the bedrooms of Hyrule's Who's Who was playing off of the armor of the Emperor Terinae as he stood, conversing with one of his uglier generals, this one a portly man with large ears and beady eyes whose name Link could not remember. They were completely unaware of his presence, though, and Link's only instinct was to listen in on their words, to possibly gain some information for Zelda by them.

"--so then you're saying I should bring my men back into the Castle Town?" the Emperor's booming voice resonated off of the stone.

"It wouldn't hurt you to. They do you no good in Kakariko, all pent up like that, far away from you and your leadership. Surely, the Hylians in town are not afraid of the scanty collection of soldiers you put on the corners of the busy streets, but they were very afraid when the men swarmed their very homes. It's all--"

Terinae cut his general off. "Enough of that already! I have told you of my decision on this matter before! The troops stay in Kakariko unless I, and I alone, see need for them here! Do you understand?"

Link decided that that was as good a time as any to duck back fully behind the corner and just listen in on the rest.

"...Yes sir. I understand. It won't happen again, sir."

"Good. What other news do you have for me? The hour grows late, and I have work to do yet this night."

"Quinsen reports to me that he has still found very little on the boy, sir. He would do so himself, but after the last time he'd found no new information--"

Terinae obviously did not have enough patience to let this particular general finish what he had to say...ever. "So he's a coward even more so now. I see. Well, I shall deal with him tomorrow. What a fool that man is, though. Surely there must be something on this Squire that the Princess will not shut up about. It doesn't take more than a man with a decent head on his shoulders to find records of history. He might very well be...Well, I shant say it here. I shall only remind you to keep doing the same. Begone, my servant."

"As you wish, sir."

Link tensed up and then suddenly tried to put on his most oblivious of airs, knowing that one of them would probably see him. However, he only heard one set of footsteps walk away, down a hall that extended away from the stairwell.

When the hero looked around the corner again, he only saw the Emperor Terinae's back traveling down the Royal's hall, with no trace left of the ugly general.

Needless to say, it only added to the strangness of the whole incident. "He might very well be..." what? They had to have been talking about him. Terinae didn't sound too enthused either. Nevertheless, it was too late for Link to act on what he had heard. He would make a note to tell Zelda, though, as soon as he could, but for now, he would puzzle it out himself in the solitude of his room. He waited quietly until Terinae had shut his heavy oak door in the other hall, and then proceeded to walk to his own door in the north wing.

The Hero of Time, however, was in for a bit of a surprise when he entered his chamber...

Upon his bed sat Princess Zelda and her lady Calandra, speaking in low voices with their heads down. Their eyes shot up at Link, though, as soon as he entered the room.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to come back!" Zelda exclaimed, almost jokingly. Link found it hard to judge her mood right then.

"They insisted that I stay for one last feast," he explained, dropping his saddle bags just inside the doorway.

"I take it you had a good visit then?" she asked.

He nodded in reply, something he seemed to do too often around her.

"I'm glad to hear that. You're probably wondering why Calandra and myself decided to let ourselves into your room this late at night, though, aren't you?" There it was again, her plotting, mischevious little girl smile.

"Yes," Link replied with a grin, unable to resist the temptation. "I am wondering why."

"Well, the good news is that our little plan is working out great. The entire castle asks of you, even when you are away. But, there is a little bit of a problem. I'm almost sure that Terinae couldn't dislike you more. All these three days I've been forced to stay late to oblige him at dinner, all he did was ask me why I thought so highly of you and interrogate me as to any information I might have about you. I believe he's already percieving you as some kind of threat."

"You'll actually never believe what I just heard," Link told her as she paused.

"What?"

"I chanced upon the Emperor himself and one of his cronies talking about me. Some lacky of his is supposed to be looking up all the information on me that he can. I didn't get a reason why, but it's my suspicion that they don't give that kind of treatment to every new man that shows up at court..."

Zelda's expression went serious then, but she nodded confidently to Calandra and said to her, "Make sure you pay a few visits to the various libraries as well tomorrow."

It had been pretty obvious to Link before that Calandra did more than your average lady in waiting would be called upon to do, but now he had full out admission of the quiet girl's position as a spy from the Princess herself.

Zelda continued before her spy could even respond, though no response was necessary. "It's because of this, Link, that I'm going to show you a secret passage, one of many in this old castle, for you to use should you need to tell me something if we could not otherwise meet, or should I need to seek you out as well. I had Calandra give this room especially to you for this reason." With that, the Princess rose and commanded the rest of the dimly lit room to do so with her.

She walked over to the barest coner of the room, right near one of the high windows on the western wall. "This stone," she announced, pointing to the large flagstone on the floor in front of her, "Opens to a passage in the floor below us, between the walls of a few work rooms. At night, these rooms are completely empty, and by day, they are filled with noise so that none may hear anyone creeping between them. The stone is almost indistinguishable beause it is indeed sealed into the floor right now, just like all the rest. However, this one is enchanted. Impa herself helped me to renew the enchantment. Her ancestors, who were equal warriors of the Royal Family with the Knights, would use this passge to hold council with the King late at night when enemy spies within the castle would be sleeping and unaware. The spell needed to open it is really quite simple, and it is the same on the other side."

"And I would be able to use it?" Link wondered aloud.

"Of course!" Zelda beamed, her eyes dancing at the idea of magic, her area of prowess. "All it requires is a command, nothing much on the opener's part."

Link nodded and stood, waiting for her to show him.

Zelda grinned what would be called a very un-ladylike grin and turned from him to the stone in the floor. "Kaedus Shundel!" she commanded, in what Link could only guess was Ancient Hylian, or some such magical tongue.

Sure enough, the stone responded, the mortar at its edges glowing blue as soon as the words fell upon it. The blue light engulfed the large stone from the outside in and soon it dissapeared completely, fading out in a very discreet way. A little hole was revealed, just big enough for a grown man to drop down into.

Whatever humor tempted Link to say, "Ladies first," he held back on second thought.

Zelda, however, didn't need prompting or commands. After all, she was royalty, and her way was the law, or should have been at least. She slipped through almost immeadiately, with Calandra in tow as usual. It reminded Link, as he brought himself to a crooked grin, of a certain girl who dressed up like a Sheikah boy that had a way with being everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

He was only glad to follow.

The passage below was dark, pitch black, in fact, as one might suppose the gap between walls would be. Then a little white light appeared, not unlike a certain guardian fairy of long ago, but this one was a magical charm that Zelda held over head.

"Mind you, Link," she commented as she lit the way for the three of them, "That you'll have to bring a small torch, or that if there is ever time, I should teach you some light magic."

"I'm no mage, Zelda," he reminded her, hoping the floor wasn't as rough as it would probably be so that he would catch his foot on a stone and fall head first into the women.

"That's where you're wrong," she corrected him. "You don't necessarily have the abilities of myself or any of the Sages, but you can indeed learn magic. I'm sure it would just be difficult for you to teach yourself something that was not given to you by a fairy, or another mage. The Three have gifted us in different ways, but I'm confident that you can use a wide variety of magics."

"I've only learned three simple spells before..."

"Ah come now! You know more than that! What is it that lights your arrows with flame, or light, or makes them freeze? I'm sure there are many spells you have that you just do not know of, Link."

"I suppose you're right," he conceded, thinking on the things that Zelda had yet to learn about him, such as his abilities (through the masks, of course) to transform into a different creature all together.

"This is it," Zelda announced, stopping the other two with her. "The dead end lands us in my bedchamber. You know, they were going to originally make this passage so that it led to the King's room itself, but the architects decided that no one would make much of a passage going into the rooms of the Princes and Princesses. Politics, I suppose, demand shrewdness on the part of every player...Why don't you give this one a try, Link?"

He didn't even have to ask the words again. After having to puzzle out dungeons upon dungeons, Link had gained for himself an uncommonly sharp memory. "Kaedus Shundel."

The stone knew not the difference between him and the Princess, and opened on command. Once again, Zelda became Sheik as she jumped way too high and too well for such a sheltered young woman and lifted herself swiftly up onto the stones before her spy or her hero could even offer her help. Calandra followed, though, with almost mirror-like motion, and Link vaulted up as if it wasn't the least bit shocking to him that two noble women could move with such strength and grace.

Of course, he was no so unamazaed for long. Link had entered foreign territory once again, but this territory did not belong to some ancient foe...

No...it was too pink for that.

Pink and gold, in fact. A vast, expansive bedroom, royal beyond any commoner's dreams. It was hard for Link to believe that the high curtained bed, the gold-inlayed cherry furnishings, and the rich tapestries did not belong in the best room of the castle. It was hard for him to find Zelda's chamber second best.

"I shall meet with you here if ever there's a need. Terinae has no ears within my walls, and of that Calandra keeps certain," the Princess assured Link as he took it in.

"On that note, Milady, it is time that I should depart for my round," the spy and handmaiden chimed in, bowing as she did so.

"Yes it is. Be safe, dear friend," Zelda told the quiet girl, dismissing her.

Calandra offered only another bow before he quick exit.

"I've always wondered where they put you in this great maze," Link told the Princess once they were left alone.

"I'd rather live up in the loft of Impa's house again, if I had a choice," she told him, looking with mild annoyance at the riches that surrounded them. "But it seems a fitting place to store a trophy, doesn't it?"

"A trophy?"

"A Princess is such, Link. I had hoped that Hyrule would be ready to shed its old ways when it came time for my father to leave this world and for me to take the throne, but it is true what they say, as much as it isn't right. 'A Princess is a trophy to be given to the best competitor in the race for the King's love.' No woman has ever held the throne of Hyrule, as many Princesses as there have been, and as many have been sole heirs, it has been their husbands who ascended to true power."

"That doesn't make sense to me," Link declared. "It is neither fair nor right. Besides, there's no man in Hyrule, or probably in all the world that has such wisdom as you. I always thought that all leaders were supposed to be wise..."

"Supposed to be and are, Link, can be very different things, but we can remedy that."

He nodded, wishing he had a better response, but he was beginning to feel the effects of all the travelling he'd done on his wearied body.

"We should sleep, Link," Zelda told him. "It is late, and you have been riding all night. Go back through the passage, and take one of my candles with you. The same words that open the passage close it. I shall send for you in the morning."

"Can I ask one thing, though, Zelda?"

"Yes?"

"What does 'Kaedus Shundel' mean anyway?"

She sighed and repeated dryly, "Glory of Kings."

"When you are Queen, you should change the words," he noted simply.

Link then jumped on her cheated mood. He took her hand and bowed with it like he'd started to make a custom of, this time, adding another move to the ritual he'd seen other noblemen do. He very lightly kissed the back of her hand before he released it, then said, "Goodnight, Queen Zelda," before he dissapeared with a taper into the passage back to his own room, no longer so lonely now that it was linked with hers...

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/_\ /_\ Blue Taboo /_\ /_\