#zelda already had faced so many cruel consequences trying to protect her people in the invasion

[zelda-of-hyrule-tloz]

Echoes of Wisdom Headcanon Countdown

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Zelda maintains scars from her time as Puppet Zelda, but they only appear when she is near a source of "dark magic" or at the hours of twilight. She did not initially remember the event but began to recall it in dreams or in visions sparked by flashing lights. It is a cruel reminder of the sacrifices Zelda made to save Hyrule and Midna - but she would never change a thing. When her spirit was with Midna, it was only proven to her that the Twilight Princess was worth saving just as any of her subjects.

[anotherlifefic]

Chapter 47: Magic Lessons

Zelda took her place on the throne, and we gathered around her, with Ganondorf, Cassandra, Lana and Cia standing in front of us. Though Lana took that position mostly to keep Cia quiet.

Link was squirming uncomfortably next to me, and I could imagine why; Cia was leering at him like she was undressing him with her eyes. I moved to stand in front of him, and to my surprise, Ruto did the same. That way, everything but his face was out of sight for her.

„So, Ganondorf, former King of the Gerudo. Would you please repeat what you told me upon your arrival in the castle.“

„Of course, Your Majesty.“ His tone was patronising, and I clenched my fists. How dare he talk to Zelda like that?! He looked around. „Though first I must ask exactly how familiar the people in the room are with Hyrule‘s early history. Specifically about how the kingdom was established and what came before that.“

Empty stares. Zelda leaned back on the throne. „I fear that a lot of knowledge about this land prior to the founding of the kingdom of Hyrule has been lost to time.“

„Indeed. So let me give you a little lesson in history. Long before the kingdom of Hyrule was founded, this world was ravaged by a fierce war between two powerful deities. One of them was a goddess named Hylia, who served the three Golden Goddesses and protected the Triforce they had left behind. The other was an entity so fearsome and cruel that nobody ever spoke his name, and he was only ever called Demise, for demise is what he brought wherever he wandered. Demise sought to conquer the world and gain power of the Golden Goddesses for himself, while Hylia wished to protect the people of the world. Hylia was aided by a young warrior who, unlike the other humans, showed great courage in the face of the seemingly unbeatable Demise.“ At this point, Ganondorf paused, before commenting:„It sounds familiar, does it not, Your Majesty?“

„Indeed it does. But history has the tendency to repeat itself. What exactly are you trying to say with all of this?“, Zelda asked cooly.

Ganondorf smirked a little. „I was about to get to that point. So with the aid of the young hero, Hylia managed to defeat Demise. Defeat, but not destroy him. All she could do was seal him away, and she had to give up her own divinity to do so and being reborn as a human woman was the consequence of that. A woman with divine powers, but mortal nonetheless. Many centuries passed, and as the seal grew weaker, a new hero was chosen, and together with the incarnation of Hylia at the time, he destroyed Demise‘s physical form. But Demise could not be entirely destroyed. However, unlike Hylia, he did not reincarnate as a mortal. Instead, his evil infected a certain bloodline and manifested itself in all of its male descendants, which were… quite rare.“

„So you are the reincarnation of Demise?“, I blurted out.

His yellow eyes darted over to me. „Did you not listen, Glaces? No, I am not his reincarnation, but I am, or rather was, indeed the latest heir of his hatred. And when the Hero of Time pierced my heart with the Master Sword, Demise‘s essence was separated from me. So now I am free of its influence, but that also unfortunately means that Demise will possibly be able to manifest again.“

„And how does the Sorceress fit into all of this?“, Link asked, pushing his way past me and Ruto to stand in the front again and nodded in Cia‘s general direction. „We have been told that she was the guardian of the Triforce before she went mad.“

Ganondorf raised one eyebrow. „Can‘t you guess? The Sorceress was supposed to be Hylia‘s successor. The Goddesses did not allow her to interact with the world she was guarding, so she wouldn‘t make the same mistake as Hylia.“

„Well that backfired horribly“, Naboru commented.

Cia stomped her foot. „These wretched Goddesses! They must have reveled in my torment, my eternal solitude! And then they let the only soul capable of comprehending my torment dance to the tunes of their flutes right in front of my face, with no way of reaching him!“

„Cia! Quiet!“, Lana shushed her.

„Why should I?“, Cia snapped and strained against the crackling magical rope. „I am the guardian of the Triforce! For all intents and purposes, the Triforce, the Hero, this WORLD should belong to ME!“

„Good Goddesses, and I thought Rebecca was a spoiled brat“, I heard Ruto mumble.

„Excuse me?“, I asked dryly.

„You heard me.“

„Are you quite done?“, Ganondorf inquired.

Zelda sighed. „Yes. Please continue.“

He slightly tilted his head in acknowledgement and then continued:„As of right now, he hasn‘t recovered his physical form yet, which makes him exceedingly difficult to fight. It would be prudent to try and predict where he could manifest again, by placing guardians at every spiritually significant place in Hyrule.“

„So you mean the temples“, Naboru said.

„Indeed. However, Demise seems to have taken a certain interest in a certain Glaces. Or so I‘ve been told.“ Now Ganondorf‘s piercing gaze wandered over to me. „Why do you think that is?“

I shuffled my feet. Goddesses, how I hated feeling so vulnerable under his eyes. „...because I‘m the weakest link in the chain. Uh… no pun intended.“

He lifted his chin approvingly. „That is true. Of the people gathered here, you are the one who is most easily manipulated, and has the least actual combat experience. Even the Sage of the Forest managed to get quite strong with the help of the nature-based magic she is capable of using thanks to her status. You however are clumsy at best with your weapon and your magic is about as dangerous as a snowball.“

„Gee, thanks.“

„So“, Ganondorf continued, completely ignoring my sarcastic remark. „Her Majesty and I discussed the best course of action, and decided that it would be prudent for you to get some actual practice both with your naginata and your magic. I do not use a naginata, but I‘ve been told that you have already found an instructor who is more than capable. And I will be the one to instruct you in the art of magic.“

My jaw dropped, and I turned to Zelda. „Please tell me that this is a joke.“

„I don‘t really like it, either. But he is right; it is vital that you learn to control your powers, and to properly defend yourself.“

I bit my lip, and then glared at Ganondorf. „...Fine.“ After all, lover or not, Zelda was still my Queen, and her word was law. I could hardly just tell her „no“.

Zelda settled back into her throne. „Now that that‘s settled, we should probably get to questioning the sorceress.“

Ganondorf and Cassandra retreated to the sidelines, and Lana brought Cia a few steps closer to us.

„Cia, former guardian of the Triforce, sorceress of the Temple of Souls, you stand accused of attempted regicide, among other offenses. This could mean your doom, unless you choose to cooperate now and tell us what we want to know. Do you understand that?“

Cia glared at Zelda, until Lana nudged her. „Cia. Answer.“

„I understand“, she hissed in between gritted teeth.

We spent the next few hours questioning Cia, but she couldn‘t really tell us anything new, except that a mysterious voice had told her that she could easily bend or break the rules of fate if she so desired, and thus had slowly but surely corrupted her.

Once she had been brought back to the dungeon, the Sages bid their goodbyes as well.

Ganondorf turned to me again. „Your training will begin tomorrow morning. I will waiting on the training grounds usually used by the knights of Hyrule. At sunrise, and not a moment later.“

I cast Zelda a pleading gaze, which she returned sternly. Then I sighed. „Very well.“

Back at home I fed Gareth and put him in his playpen. My hands were shaking from the stress, so Link guided me to the sitting area in front of the fireplace and made me sit down on the couch.

„I‘ll come to the training grounds with you tomorrow“, he promised. „There‘s no way I will leave you alone with Ganondorf.“

„Thank you, dear“, I mumbled and leaned into his embrace. „I love you.“

„I love you too.“

The next morning, Link and I woke up while it was still dark outside, to get ourselves ready. We fed the horses and let them out of the stable for the day, then took a very sleepy and slightly fussy Gareth out of his grib. I stroked my little boy‘s cheek in an attempt to calm him down while we walked the winding path up to the castle.

Ganondorf was already waiting when we arrived. He raised his eyebrow when he saw Link and Gareth.

„Too cowardly to come here on your own, Glaces? Do you intend to use your husband and child as meatshields in case I have some nefarious plan?“

I grit my teeth. „I believe that using small children as meatshields is your shtick.“

Ganondorf chuckled darkly. „You‘ve got quite the sharp tongue, Glaces. Pity Demise can‘t be defeated by snide remarks, otherwise we‘d have already won. Can we start, then?“

„Fine.“

Link sat down on a crate standing near the entrance to the castle, while I approached Ganondorf.

The Gerudo began:„I suppose I do not need to go over the basics of channeling your magic again. You seem to already know how to do that. However, you have to learn to concentrate on the image you use to conjure up your spell much harder if you want it to be stronger.“

And so, for the next few hours, Ganondorf made repeat the same spell over and over again, always telling me to concentrate harder. Until I felt completely drained and Link had to get up and rush to me to keep me from falling over in exhaustion.

„Hm...“ Ganondorf rubbed his chin. „You haven‘t made quite as much progess as I would have liked you to, but I wouldn‘t say that today was entirely unproductive.“

I leaned on Link, trying to regain my balance. I had a headache and felt like I had just done two days worth of farmwork on LonLon Ranch within half a day.

But then Gareth began to cry and my motherly instincts kicked in. „He must be hungry.“ I had Link walk me over to the barrel where he had been sitting and was about to pull the collar of my shirt open to let Gareth drink when I remembered that Ganondorf was still there. „Do you mind?“

Ganondorf crossed his arms in front of his chest and rolled his eyes, but did turn around. „You do realize that I have children of my own, do you? Seeing a woman breastfeed is nothing new or interesting to me.“

I was quiet for a moment while feeding Gareth. Maybe it was the calming presence of my son, or the mention of Ganondorf being a parent as well, but I felt a lot less contempt for him at that moment. „I met some of your daughters during that other future.“

„I know. They helped in the siege on my castle.“

„Do you hold that against them?“

He shook his head. „How could I? I forced their hand. They did what they had to do, and they did so with all of the strength and determination I tried to impart on them. And that shows me that despite Demise‘s influence on our lives and my behaviour, Cassandra and I raised them well.“

I looked up. Ganondorf still had his back turned to me, but his posture showed that he still payed close attention to how I reacted. „You really did raise them well.“

„Thank you.“ He sounded sincere, almost gentle.

„Now what is that?“, called Cassandra‘s voice from the entrace to the castle. „I can‘t believe you two are actually getting along!“ Her voice was light and cheerful. „I half expected to arrive here and find the place in ruins!“

„Do you really think I have so little self-control, Cassandra?“, Ganondorf asked dryly.

„I have complete faith in your self-control“, Cassandra replied, the golden beads of her elaborate headdress jingling like tiny bells when she came bouncing down the stairs from to entrance up to Ganondorf and wrapped her arms around his mid-section. Next to him, she was comically small. „But you know, things happen, situations escalate, and with all of the hostility shown to you thus far...“

„You speak without thinking again, Cassandra“, Ganondorf told her sternly. „Princess… pardon. Queen Zelda has already shown us a tremendous amount of clemency by not immediately arresting and executing us.“

„Sorry“, Cassandra replied. „I‘m just happy that we can be here now. And I often get anxious that something could go wrong.“

Ganondorf bent down, picked her up into his arms and kissed her. „Nothing will happen. Don‘t worry.“

I smiled to myself. In a way, they reminded me of Link and me when he tried to calm my fears.

A man like that… a man who was proud of his daugthers for fighting for a good cause and clearly loved his wife couldn‘t be a truly bad person. That much I was sure of.