Charm

They arrived in the city surrounding the castle the next morning. While flower boxes hung from near every window of the tall rows of little homes, no blossoms sprung from within, a direct contrast to the new green of the forest. The flat stone roads were swept clean by the villagers, but the white washed homes bore the marks of peeling paint. Gray faced old ladies sat on splintered chairs on warped thresholds, silent but screaming of dead secrets. The city built on wonderment seemed to be crumbling.

Almost to read her heavy mind he muttered, "Castle town is certainly not what it once was."

"Yes," She responded, her eyes still flickering back and forth.

"We need a plan. I can't very well bring you into the castle with out a guise, a story." She nodded back to him, and he continued. "We will visit a friend of mine, and formulate an idea there." They continued on until they came to a particularly narrow road. Link stopped the horse and dismounted, and helped Zelda off. He knocked on the rounded wooden door, and she could make out many muffled curse words before a short rumpled man emerged to the entry way. He looked immensely cross, but the expression dissolved from his face almost immediately and was replaced by a childish glee. He seized Link by the hand and embraced him with several slaps on the back.

"Link, you scalawag! Wher've you been! I haven't seen you in weeks."

"Ah Mido, I've been around." Link grinned.

"Well, come in." He turned to Zelda. "And who's this lovely girl?"

"Mido, this is the lady Zelda. She's been traveling with me."

"Come in, then." The all piled into a dimly lit, shabby sitting room.

Link spoke, "Mido used to work in the castle, as did his mother. Before they were-"

"Canned." Mido finished with a laugh.

"Canned." Link repeated. "Anyways, there's an important reason we've come here today-"

Before Link could finish his statement, an older woman entered the room. Her eyes where glossed with faded memories and her hair was drawn into a frayed bun.

"Mum, can you give us some time alone?" Mido remarked.

"Of course." She said, but as she turned to leave she stopped. "Who is the girl?"

"Zelda, Mum." He turned to her with a whispered sorry.

"Such a face, a face I think I've seen before. The name...the name. The, the little child." Zelda shifted under the woman's transfixed stare.

Mido looked as if he had suddenly realized something, for in fact he had. "Link, you couldn't possibly- Mum go on, I'll be in, I'll only be a minute." He looked on with wide eyes to Link, and then Zelda, and then Link again. "You think she's..."

"Yes." Link responded.

"Good goddess!" He shouted, and then clamored up from his seat and shook her hand with great vigor.

He turned to Link. "Should we call the group in?"

"Group?" She asked.

"There's a few of us." Link nodded. "We've been searching for a way to turn the power for some time now." He turned to Mido. "And no- I'd rather that we keep it to ourselves for a while."

Link went on to explain the happenings of Zelda's discovery to Mido in the vaguest of terms, and together the three went on to weave a plan. It was quickly decided that she must be presented as a person of noble birth, to evade suspicion. They then began to mull over the story they were to present.

"Tell Narcissa that she's your fiancée." Mido explained.

"Fiancée?" Zelda choked in surprise, but Link only laughed.

"It's bound to work!" Mido went on. "She won't question you...too much."

"Aye, perhaps." Link was deep in thought. "But how will we present her as a noble?"

"Oi! I know. Me Mum's worked for a while making clothes for the Queen, and when they fired her she kept the things she was working on and finished them so she might sell 'em in the market. She would 'ave too, if she wasn't afraid the Queen's guards would notice a peasant tramping around in her dresses." He chuckled. "She can make you up, and my sister should be in shortly."

Zelda was led into the old woman's chamber, who seemed to have gained some composure since they had first met.

"Forgive me, my lady, but you look so much like a girl I used to watch over, when I worked in the castle." She removed a beautifully embellished light blue dress from an old wardrobe. "Here you are."

Zelda began to pull of her tattered garb, and a silver necklaced slipped from it's tucked position and dangled from her neck freely, tattered metal, trash to accompany her namesake.

"That pendant," The woman asked, "Where did you get that?"

"Oh, I've had it as long as I can remember. I figured it was valueless, only metal." She began to move the charm between her fingers, small triangles. "Otherwise, I would not have been left with it."

"No," She whispered. "It's impossible. That girl, she died." She pulled a small box from the wardrobe, and displayed a matching charm. With new resolve she joined it to Zelda's, and completed triforce reveled itself. "It belonged first to your Mother, then when she died your Father." The woman began to cry. "I stole it, I shouldn't have, but I couldn't let her have it!" She shoved it into Zelda's hands. "The charm of the triforce is yours."

"Take it, my Queen." The proof had fallen from the Gods.

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm afraid I was busy and uninspired, but I've found new inspiration so I plan on a few new installments soon as well as a frock of oneshots.