Fan Fiction ❯ The Mirror Tells All ❯ Fourteenth ( Chapter 14 )

You Wish! Productions (www.you-wish.net) presents...

The Mirror Tells All

A Legend of Zelda fan fiction

By: Blue Taboo

Proud member of Darkscribes.org.

Once again...I apologize for the lack of updates. I just haven't had the time (yes, I know it's been 4 months) to sit down and write. That's what I get for being involved in theatre. Right. On we go...

The people of the castle were, for the most part, very kind and accepting of Link. He fit perfectly into the lie that Zelda had somehow miraculously crafted for him. A hero forgotten, who lived now as a traveling swordsman, easily had the skill of any young Squire. A Hylian raised in a foreign land would indeed be ignorant of the great amount of custom and history within the castle walls. However, one thing about him caught some people off guard. This young man, who was rumored to be such good friends with the Princess herself, and perhaps more, did not have a name that could be found in the books.

"Milady, Master Link," Calandra addressed the two one night, only about a week after Link had learned of her true status as Zelda's spy, "I've a bit of information you may want to hear concerning the Emperor."

---

"It was a time of war in this nation!" Terinae's lackey shouted in protest. "Surely not all things were recorded as they should have been. The people had more important things to do than record the names of infants!"

Terinae slammed his fist down on the great table on which the other man had set the heavy record book on. "That's not good enough! You are just entirely too half-witted to look in the right place!"

The chastised man gabbed the page in front of him, trying to sound brave despite the rage of the Emperor, though his own breaking voice was betraying him. "This is the best I can get! It only recalls the date and the fact that Sir Dorian Demus of the House of Red Lions and Lady Elensa Rallon's child, a boy, was born then. There is no more!"

"Certainly there must be another record book for that year. Come on now, Zalik. You cannot be that stupid!"

The man, who Calandra then chanced a peek at, was small, gaunt, and round-eared, but otherwise as nondescript as most of the Emperor's men were. Zalik, however, seemed quite frustrated, an uncommon look for those soldiers that often wouldn't dare to blink in the presence of their commander. "I'm telling you the truth, Master. There is no other book for that year. None. I have searched this retched place the whole length over four times now and I have not found it. I have even gone out to the village of Kakariko, but the only records there are those of death, not birth. I have gone to the Temple of Time and badgered the stubborn priests there, but they have no records of that time. They were burned in the fires of war! Surely, Master, my Lord Emperor, you know how things are destroyed in war..."

"Of course I do! What do you think me, Zalik, an ignorant little imp? I lead you for a reason, and it is a reason I hope you should not so soon forget! I am simply telling you, as I have told the others, that you are an idiot. If do not seek to correct this, I may find your presence here more of an annoyance than anything useful to me. You know where that leads..." The Emperor ended on what seemed like an unusual tone to Calandra. He had sounded more threatening, and less mysterious with that open-ended statement.

Of course, the other man's reply only served to support her inference. "M-my Lord, surely, you would not have me back there again, would you? You know it is...it is...it is terrible for me, my Lord, b-back there."

"Then prove yourself useful to me and find a book within this kingdom that contains the name Link Dorian. That way, neither one of us will trouble himself with such thoughts as that..." With that the Emperor's steps began to take him out of the library, and left his soldier turned researcher left to mumble over his dismay.

Calandra crept quietly back down the corridor before anyone had noticed that she had even been there in the first place.

---

The three of them stood on the forgotten stairs leading up to the equally forgotten tower that Zelda loved. Link's frustration was perhaps even greater than Zalik's.

"Why can't he and his men just say things straight! They speak in half-phrases and riddles to one another and they riddle worse than any sacred Temple! How do they understand one another, let alone themselves!" he cried, pounding on the stone of the stairwell in his discontent.

"They obviously have something to hide, but this is no news to us, is it?" Zelda reasoned, though she was equally frustrated by the incomplete nature of the Emperor's speech.

It was not the first time that Calandra had come to meet them when they were together to tell them of Terinae's strange interest in Link. She had reported incidents like this three times in the last seven days, and this third time was definitely not the last.

"I shall continue to follow the Emperor then, so that I may provide you with more information, Your Highness," the quiet girl simply stated and turned to do so.

"Calandra, wait," Zelda said, halting her servant's steps. "I don't feel it safe for you to seek out Terinae in his chambers. As much as I want to know of his plotting and prying, I do not want him to know of mine. Besides, I believe that I have been successful in my efforts to deter him from thinking that I will be his way to get Hyrule, and I do not think that the Emperor is pleased with me or anyone loyal to me right now. Please, my friend, for your safety, do not follow him at night."

"Very well then. May I take my leave to sleep then, Highness?" the other woman asked, out of the very traditional courtesy of a servant.

"Yes, yes you may. Thank you, Calandra."

The quiet girl performed a quick bow and made her exit.

As Zelda watched her leave and heard her footsteps echo off the stone walls, she made a remark that she had made a few times before. "I'm still unsure as to why he's so interested in you, Link."

Link sighed and sat, looking somewhat resigned, upon the dusty steps. "He's probably figured out I'm a fake. I must have let something slip. He's probably just looking for proof that I'm not who I say I am so that he can use me against you. I'm sorry--"

"Don't even say it. Link, I'm almost entirely sure that Terinae knows nothing of our deception. Even if he did, he would not need proof to slander you and I. He has half of my court in the palm of his hand, and they will agree with him no matter what. Half is enough to make a fool of me, certainly, and enough to guarantee Hyrule to him. If he knew, then he would not wait to find proof," she concluded. "No...there must be some other reason..."

"If only we knew it."

Zelda was not used to seeing her champion look so defeated. She remembered watching in horror as he came staggering, beaten and exhausted, from the great doors of a Temple, but Link always had a smile on his face. Even after Morpha has tossed him around, giving him more than a few broken ribs and a nasty headache, he had smiled and was glad to see that Sheik had been there, waiting for him. But this defeat that he wore on his handsome face now, this frustration...it did not suit him.

"Don't get discouraged, Link," she told him as she sat down beside him, looking at him with worried lavender eyes. "We will find a way out of this somehow. The Goddesses brought you home for a reason, and we will figure out what it is that Terinae is hiding from us before he can figure out what we are hiding from him. We will win this one, Link. I know we can..."

"It's not that..." he muttered putting his head into one gauntleted hand. "I just feel that I should have done it by now. I'm no good at this whole 'intrigue' thing. Maybe all I can do is just fight monsters. Maybe that's all a lowly peasant like me--"

"Stop that right now!" Zelda commanded, suddenly furious. "Don't let such thoughts into your head for one minute, do you hear me? Oh all the talk around this vile place has gotten to you, hasn't it? All the lies people tell themselves just to feel better about who they are. They're not true. Each and every person in this kingdom is just as good as the rest. Whether they are born in a castle or on a farm...it makes absolutely no difference. Each person has the same amount of potential when they are born and they can only be judged according to what they make or do not make of themselves."

Link couldn't help but be impressed by her words and their effectiveness on his thoughts. "You know, Zelda, you really are very wise."

She sighed. "My father was. It was what made him a good King. He taught me that and made sure I believed it, as uncommon as such an opinion is around here. I still believe what he taught me, though, and I will not forget it."

"I wish I could have known your father. I used to be afraid of him, back when we were children. The thought of ever meeting him sacred me more than any Moblin ever could," Link admitted.

"I wish you could have met him too. He would have liked you, regardless of who I told him you were. I've had to lose him twice, but all I want to do is make sure that he does not die completely. That's why I've been fighting this occupation. It's not so much that I want to be Queen, but rather that my father should still be King, and there is no one else but me to replace him. Unfortunately, as much as the people loved my father, they do not wish to pass that love completely on to me, or the crown..."

"And so Hyrule brings tyranny upon itself..." Link chimed in, now leaving them both looking downtrodden.

"...Tyranny..." Zelda said skeptically. "Tyranny...It's almost funny how similar it sounds to Terinae..."

Link puzzled it out to himself under his breath. It almost did sound like they were the same word.

Zelda's head shot up and her eyes, raging with their mischievous fire again, caught his in a silent shout of joy. "Link! Maybe there is something to be said for names! Terinae is so concerned over yours, but in all of that, we've never once thought about his! Terinae, tyranny, they are one in the same! And his generals! Do you know their names?"

"Not all of them..."

"His right hand man, though, what about him?"

"Oh, that's...Plake. I always thought it was a strange name, but what are you getting at?" Link wondered, still unsure as to why she seemed suddenly enlightened.

"Plake, plague! The other one. The man who's in charge over in Karkariko! His name is Hatren. Hatren, hatred! All of the important men in his army, at least all the names I can recall, they all sound like something! This has to be important..." Zelda once again racked her brain, but this time with all the excitement of a dog on a trail.

Link couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "So Tyranny, Plague, and Hatred descend upon the land with many other things, probably just as evil. Sounds like something right out of a prophecy..."

Zelda then quickly turned and fixed her eyes on him, looking as if he had said something of significance, rather than an attempt at slight humor. "That's it! I've heard something like that before. I swear I have!" She then rapidly stood up, leaving Link to duck to avoid the mass of skirts that followed her. "Come on! We're going to my library! I need you to help me look over the Book of Modura!"

"But why that? Isn't that just a book of prayers?" Link asked, though he still rose as she told him to and got ready to follow.

"Not exactly. I should have showed you before. Its passages speak of the Goddesses, the past, and the future, all in one. You should see what it says about you!" she exclaimed, but by that time, they were already flying down the stairs like two wild children again.

"About me? What? What do you mean, Zelda?"

Link, of course, couldn't get much else in, because he was amazed at the fact that he could hardly keep up with the Princess.

"One day, after you left," she explained as the ran through the maze of a castle, "I found myself bored and stuck in the library. I was just browsing through the Book of Modura when I read a very familiar story, or rather, a short ballad poem. The book is written in Ancient Hylian verse, but I can read that. It spoke of a Hero of Time, Seven Sages, and a King of Evil...all of it. From what I can guess, the entire history of the world is there, yet to be understood simply because it has not already happened."

"So...then you could read it and know the future?" Link questioned, confused and just slightly fatigued from all the running around he'd been doing since he'd come to the castle.

"No, no. It's very vague and almost unintelligible. We can only piece together the things that have happened in the past because we know about them and can recognize them. That's why I haven't thought of this until now..."

The pair quickly entered Zelda's chambers and went into her private library, a room Link found much less intimidating than her bedchamber. Not necessarily expansive, the rectangular room had two great shelves on either long side of the room, with a door and a small hearth taking up the smaller sides. By the hearth were two chairs and a small table, the only other furniture in the relatively small room. Zelda swiftly found the great volume, probably due to its enormous size, and set upon the table by the hearth.

"I guess it would be after the little bit about us..." she murmured, flipping through the gold-edged pages.

Link immediately started going dizzy at the sight of all the complex Ancient Hylian runes. "You can actually read that?" he asked, astonished that his ancestors had invented such a convoluted script.

"It's not as bad as it looks," she told him, then exclaimed, "Here! This is the spot!" Zelda scanned the page over quickly, while Link looked on dumbly over her shoulder, wishing he could read the ancient words as well.

She then read it aloud.

"Tyranny reigns upon the crown,

Whilst all the world remains unknowing,

That in fact there is a treachery beyond,

What mortal eyes might see.

All the world may turn upside down,

So that hell may reign upon the crown.

All this be true if Tyranny reigns.

Tyranny must not reign for long.

Call upon the oldest powers known,

Call upon the wisest and the lion,

Call not upon the powerful,

Lest ye call upon Tyranny again."

"Is there anything after that?" Link inquired, hoping that the passage made more sense to her than it did to him.

"No. It starts on a hymn to Nayru. Stupid old book..." Zelda sighed and shut the massive volume.

"Well, all I know is that the Goddesses dislike Terinae as much as I do. If only they could tell us how to get rid of him." Link walked towards the hearth, peering into the dying embers of what had once been a fire, hoping they would yield a better answer.

"We're supposed to take care of it. I guess I would be the 'wisest' and you would be the 'lion' part of it. I have no idea what that whole business about Ganondorf was though..."

"'Lest ye call Tyranny again'... but he's not Ganondorf. I know he's not," Link affirmed.

"Of course he's not. He must have some connection to him, though. It's got to be that."

"But how would an Emperor, who never set foot in Hyrule before he came along to usurp it, be connected to a man that, for all the rest of the world knows, disappeared more five years before he came?"

Zelda walked up beside him. "And that, is the question we must answer. I think then we might know."

"I'm no good at this..." Link started again, looking at his boots.

"Sure you are, Link. You puzzled half that thing out, just as much as I. Surely you have faced greater challenges of the mind than that," she assured him, laying a comforting hand on his arm.

"Mazes are not riddles. Monsters are not Emperors," he stated. "I am out of my element, and I apologize. I only wish I could be more helpful."

"Element or no, the Goddesses meant for you to come home and to help Hyrule once again, Link. It says it right in that book. You are better at this, not just riddles and Emperors, but this...place...than you think you are. You have won the favor of many an important man since you've come here, and I think that is proof enough that there is more to you than a boy with a sword."

"But it's all fake. The Goddesses themselves may call me a lion like all the Knights and nobles do, but I am not. I'm just a boy with a sword, really, who got lucky way too many times. I am no son of a Knight, or a Red Lion, or anything. It's not that I have to be, or that I want to, but it's really that I am not and I say that I am. Does that make sense?" he sighed, finally letting his gaze turn to Zelda's.

"Perfect sense. I know you don't wish to lie like this. I think it wrong too, to deceive people, but you are doing it to help them, right? That's all that matters isn't it?"

Somehow, those lavender eyes always calmed him. It must've have been her magic, or just the magic of her. "You're right. You always are."

Zelda smiled, tightening her grip on his arm.

"I can never lie to you, though," he told her gratefully.

"It's good to know that there is at least one honest man in Hyrule Castle."

Link then turned so that he was facing Zelda completely. "And I will never lie to you. So I can't leave without thanking you again. You always know how to soothe my mind."

It was only by the spark of sheer electricity that flew threw him that Link realized what happened then. The Princess, that he just come to understand how important she was to him and to how he felt, was in his arms, embracing him tightly. Though jolted, shocked, but otherwise pleasantly surprised, Link could only do the favor of putting his arms tightly around her as well. In this, he was completely soothed, and realized that he never wanted such a thing to end.

Of course, it had to. Zelda slipped out of his grasp, looking somewhat ashamed for letting herself get carried away. "I'm sorry, Link. I just...It's so rare...I mean...I've never..." she trailed off.

"It's all right. It's more than all right," he told her, one arm still around her waist as proof.

"I...Take care of yourself, Link. For the love of all three Goddesses take care of yourself. I'd really be miserable without you, even if Hyrule was at peace and my father was still alive. I had always wished you would come back," Zelda confessed, gaining a little more control over her emotions, as she was taught a Princess should have.

"You've no idea how glad I am to be back. It's late, though, and I'm sure that somewhere out there, someone is wondering why we have not yet gone to bed."

"You're right. Goodnight, Link," she said, looking at him with eyes that spoke plainly that she did not want him to go.

Link knew, despite the fact that his eyes probably said the same thing, that he had to, for now. "Goodnight, sweet Princess."

Link was damn tired of having to be in the minds of his enemies instead of those he loved. Damn tired.

/_\ /_\

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