Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda, Nintendo, or any of these characters.

A/N: Long time, no write. Well, it has not been as long as my last update. I wrote this chapter whilst on pain medication (I've finally gotten rid of some pesky wisdom teeth after some years of headaches and jaw pain, I probably should've gotten rid of them a long time ago, it's only been three or so days post-surgery), which probably wasn't the smartest idea in the world. I want to thank all of my wonderful readers for reviewing, which finally gave me the motivation to update this after so lengthy a turn: ShadowSpooky, la generala, Winter-Grown-Lily, kreite, sippurp123, Xardion, .One, Twilight Cardmistress, hawkeye-song SlashFox14, Pure Aqua, Shyuu, ichigoxryu2, and Oracle's Song. You guys are all amazing. Speaking of fun, if you'd like to see what my crappy handwriting/scrapped story concepts are, check out my deviantart KuraiHitokiri1 (there will be a link on my profile, eventually). It's my attempt to reach out to all you awesome people out there. Anyway, please read and review, as it gives me some incentive to update the story (since then I know that people actually want me to write more so that I know that this story isn't dying). Please enjoy!

Chapter 9: Discussion

The lantern cast shadows against the castle's marble walls as the two companions crept side by side in the night's dim gloom.

Link crept stealthily through the corridor, keeping one eye focused on the halls stretching ahead and the back of the Princess's shining form.

He sighed heavily to himself. If someone caught them here in the hallways, he could only imagine what sort of punishment would be in store for him.

An unmarried man and woman found in such a state of undress? And unsupervised at that? Oh, the scandals that the servants could leak into the streets of Hyrule if they were caught!

"Step lively, Sir Link," the Princess's voice broke him from his haze of paranoia. A smile lit her violet eyes with a spark of mischievousness. "This place is a maze to those who are not accommodated to it. One wrong turn, and you might find yourself in a den of knights."

A twinge of nervousness came across the young Ordonian's face, sending the Princess into a fit of giggles as they descended a last flight of stairs.

Zelda lifted her hand against a large oaken door, peering into the darkness before looking back at Link, motioning him forward.

The two quickly stepped into the room, Link closing the door behind him as Zelda lifted her hand to the lantern, whispering in strange tongue to the flames trapped within the metal.

In response, the fire began to flicker, flying out in several balls of dim light and seating themselves upon the wicks of the previously dead candles in the room.

The kitchen stirred to life, red stoned walls warming the atmosphere of the room as heavenly smells instantaneously flooded Link's nostrils.

Warm bread and hot soup appeared upon the island in the middle of the kitchen, poured into heavy stone bowls as chairs magicked themselves into position, scurrying close to the counter.

"Magic has many uses, Sir Link," Zelda said, chuckling at the musician's astonished expression. "Many which don't involve the stereotypical blasting of people to kingdom come, nor the darker travesties which the Gerudo partake in."

Delicate hands shifted bowls and utensils across the table as the sounds of crackling fire echoed across the kitchen's stone walls. After a few moments of sheer silence, Link lifted the small stub of chalk in his hand to the board.

'I don't mean to be rude, Zelda. But… can you explain to me what has happened since I've been asleep?'

Zelda, spoon to her lips, smiled bitterly before letting the piece of metal clatter soundlessly into her bowl. She pushed the vessel forward, fisting her hands together, looking down at the cool green granite of the countertop.

"You've been asleep for many weeks, Sir Link," she began, staring straight ahead, "and during that time, nothing of great interest has happened. Hyrule has continued on its monotonous journey of prosperity, knowing little of the storm that is fast approaching."

"Since the awakening of the Triforce pieces, my dreams have been plagued with hellish visions of some grotesque future. A world in which fire has become the new moon and crimson iron whets the tongues of many a man."

Her gaze drifted toward the Ordonian, finding him staring at her attentively.

"In those dreams, there is a single man. A man sitting astride a horse, bathed in the blood of many a young child… of mothers, fathers, and every race. It floods from his hands as the innocent cry out from it."

'Do you believe that these dreams are visions of what is to come?' Link brought a hand to rub his stubbled chin, awaiting the answer as he leaned back in his chair.

"Yes," the Princess replied. Her arms came to rest across her chest as her brow creased in confusion. "Yet I do not know the manner in which these events would pass. It seems as though Hyrule is far from the visions. After all, are we not the most prosperous of all nations?"

'Many a great nation has fallen before, Zelda,' Link's hand hesitated before he continued to write, 'the great Kingdom of Hyrule did fall once before to the scourge of invasion during the Hero of Time's sleep. It was because we of Hyrule once underestimated Her grand powers.'

"Point well-taken, Sir Link. Yet my father is not the sort of man to allow tyrants to take control of Hyrule," Zelda smiled faintly. "He is a stubborn, heartless man. Yet he is a good, wise King that would never allow his subjects to fall into the unfortunate circumstance of losing their freedoms and rights."

The Princess sighed, resting her head upon the table between her arms. "If only he were as good a father as he is ruler…"

Link observed the young girl curiously before taking chalk into hand once more. Quickly etching something down, he put a soft hand onto the girl's arm, nudging her slightly.

'Though we have many important matters to discuss, I sense that there is something troubling you that I would not mind listening to, Zelda. If you would allow me to be so forward.'

The Princess's rosy lips quirked in a faint smile as she giggled slightly upon observing the young man's concerned features. Her violet eyes dulled wistfully.

"My father, King Harkinian, was a man of soft-heart and great wisdom," a sense of nostalgia began to pervade the air, the young Princess's orbs glazing over in remembrance. "He always told the grandest stories at bedtime, and a smile was never far from his lips. He and my Mother would sing me to sleep at night… would spend as much time with me as I needed."

The soft smile dulled from her lips. "But my Mother took ill when I was merely a ten year old girl. Father was devastated… and changed dramatically overnight."

"He never spent time with me, apart from dinner and the occasional meeting. His smiles were false and strained, till they all together faded into nonexistence. He is a shadow of the man he once was."

'Your Father loves you, Zelda.'

"I know, yet it seems so difficult to believe it when what he consistently asks of me is marriage… Marriage to what? Some blundering, snot-nosed duke probably three times my age?" The Princess huffed dramatically, pounding her fist on the table.

'Perhaps he wants you to be safe and secure in your future, so naturally he would want you to have the best husband possible before he passes into the next realm?' the Ordonian's chalk wavered slightly on the last sentence.

"Or perhaps he just wishes for me to fulfill my duty and bear a legion of royal babies like the good woman that I am," Zelda snorted, waving a hand wildly. "My future is deadlocked, Sir Link. I am destined to be a pretty figurehead that provides home for a child while some simpering peacock rules the people."

'Your suitors can surely not be that bad.'

The Princess laughed. "Oh, they surely are, Sir Link. Have you not met Dimitri of Emmaus, who loves bedding several women within a week and thinks himself too fine to be tied down? William of Termina, who loves his dogs more than anything else? Declan, Duke of Koholint, a man of sixty that adores women a good deal younger than himself because he fancies that he's a good catch?"

Link's face wrinkled in disgust. 'Perhaps they are that bad.'

"I'm happy that you concur with my judgment," the Princess gave a wave of her wrist, the bowls flying off in some random direction and landing with a clatter and a splash in some distant chamber within the kitchen.

"The truth is," the Princess whispered, looking up into Link's sincere blue eyes, "I envy my people. They get to decide their fates, whereas mine is set. They get to explore their lives and world, whilst I am stuck in this place, hidden from the rest of the world as a pretty, painted marionette."

A warm hand clasped Zelda's, drawing her gaze up to a weary face with determination etched in every crease. Blue eyes motioned down toward the board, letting her read the words etched there.

'You are free to decide your own fate. Even if you are a Princess, you can still travel beyond the cage of this palace…. You can still spread your wings. If there is a way, and you wish something, you shall have it.'

Warmth filled the girl's bosom. Tears flooded her eyes as she gently bumped her silent friend.

"Thank you…"

Her hand tightened on the much larger one enveloping hers as she smiled up at him.

"But I'm okay for now, Sir Link… After all, I have a friend now."

Zelda braced herself, inhaling deeply as she stood outside the large oaken door to her father's study.

She and the young musician had parted ways after remaining in the kitchen for some time later. They had decided to postpone their visit to the nursemaid's room for better hours to prevent any foreseeable scandal.

The Princess had returned to her room, heart alight with some unknown warmth as she went about preparing for the day in silent joviality. Halfway through her morning routine, her maid had knocked upon the door, stating that her father needed to see her.

She bit her lip, fastening her hands in the simple white fabric of her gown.

Her father never called to her till dinner. It was a tradition that had been in place since her mother's death. There was reading together in his study occasionally, but never anything else. He made an effort to avoid her.

She supposed that it was because she looked of her mother.

Her Highness lifted a tentative hand to the brass doorknob, pushing inward slightly as she cleared her face of all emotion.

There, once more, swathed in the crimson light of the study's fireplace, sat proud King Harkinian in all his melancholy excellence. Stern brown eyes pierced through the darkness as the Princess lifted her chin, meeting his impassive gaze.

"Father, you wished to speak to me?" her voice was light and cool, mind flickering back to the first confrontation days before.

The King pointed a heavily ringed finger to the posh chair before his large desk, motioning for his daughter to sit. As she obeyed, the hand came to rest on the mahogany and gold armrest, grasping the furniture with authority.

"I wish to speak to you," his voice boomed into her ears, sending uncomfortable chills down her back, "of the matter concerning your suitors."

"My suitors, Father?" she questioned, eyes still firmly trained upon her father's stringent figure.

"You are eighteen, Zelda," his eyes swept across her features, "hardly a girl anymore. By her eighteenth year, your mother had already married me. It's time for you to seriously consider marriage."

"There are a great deal of women that do not marry till twenty-two," Zelda stubbornly refuted, drawing up her shoulders. "I do not think that this is an opportune moment for me to even dream of marriage."

"Women who do not marry till twenty-two are not of the royal family," her father calmly countered, though his face grew increasingly frustrated. "Nobility does not hold to the standards of the common man."

"Nobility serves the common man. Therefore I should think of learning more of my people than these trifling matters."

"These matters are not trifling. They are what tradition dictates."

"Tradition is over two hundred years old, I think it's high time that the rules were changed."

"It is your duty to get married, Zelda!" The King roared, slamming his fist against the table.

The silence within the room grew with each passing minute as Harkinian drew a hand against his tired brow, sighing heavily. He looked up at his daughter, drawing his mask about himself.

"I have been lenient with you in all matters till this moment. Therefore, you may not cross me in this affair," Harkinian grasped the arms of his chair once more.

"You have one year to decide which man you will take as your husband. On your nineteenth birthday, you will announce your engagement, and promptly thereafter you shall be married in the Temple of Time."

Zelda looked upon her lap, grasping the fabric of her dress between her fingers as she hid behind a curtain of golden locks. Her shoulders trembled and she spoke quietly.

"So I am to be auctioned off to the highest bidder then, like a piece of cattle… I will not fight you, as I know your mind is made up and it is my duty to follow the laws placed upon me by the monarch. But let this hang heavily on your mind: you are a man who would sell off his daughter because of outdated tradition and your own bitter heart. "

The Princess wrenched herself from her chair, turning on her heel and rushing to the door. Just as she was about to exit, she hesitated, before turning and facing the impassive King.

"You are a terrible father."

With those words left hanging in the air, Princess Zelda turned and left her father's study, tears falling heavily from her eyes as the cruel grains of time slowly inched forth from their glassy prison.

A/N: The gauntlet's been thrown. Zelda's time limit is in place! What will happen next? Once again thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you have the time :)

Random thought: Right now, as I sit writing this in my writing room, it's very early in the morning (around two or so). I'll be getting out the handy dandy Nintendo64 for some Ocarina of Time whilst listening to some good old Jazz music (I love my Duke Ellington/John Coltrane) till everyone is alive again. Are you guys as nocturnal as I am? What games/music are on your minds right now?