Favorable side

by Gladys Garcia

  face as he tried to decipher what she had just said. But nonetheless, Verona explained. "You have been through so much," she said with what sounded like actual pity in

  her tone as she held him in a gentle, sympathetic gaze. "Waves upon waves of bereavement have struck you, to the point that it seems your suffering never seems to

  end. We all like to pretend that we are as strong as iron in the face of adversity, but we all have our breaking points. I don't know what has specifically happened to push

  you to this breaking point now… but I do understand what if feels like to reach it. I felt the same way after my banishment… like I had lost everything I had ever loved… to

  the point that love in and of itself became… obsolete…"

  That point in and of itself resonated very much with Link, to the point that he wondered if Verona was reading his mind. But the sincerity in her tone and the underlying

  pain etched into her expression told him that she truly did know, she did understand. She had been there before.

  "I… I don't know what to do," the hero finally choked in a somewhat broken whisper, another whimper escaping him. "I… I just… I feel…"

  "How do you feel?" Verona urged after he had trailed off, knowing that the best way to confront this was to approach it head on.

  "Hopeless…" Link said, finding that it was somehow infinitely easier for him to admit his emotional fragility to the Queen of Shadows than it had been to Ilia. "And… lost…

  and confused… and… just… absolutely miserable… And the worst part is that it feels like it will never end…"

  "But it will," Verona said with a hint of encouragement in her tone. "The pain that you are now feeling will all someday pass and you will come out of it stronger and more

  confident than you have ever been before… It just takes a little time and patience…"

  Link sighed despondently upon hearing this, knowing that based on what the Queen of Shadows was telling him, he would have to continue carrying this burden of grief

  inside of him into the foreseeable future. Verona took notice of his continued melancholy, even if his tears had finally come to an end, and a sudden idea came to her. The

  wheels in her mind turned from their former genuine sympathy as they began to turn in calculation once more. She could use this to her advantage; she could make use

  of this present moment and benefit from it greatly. And the best part was, she saw no chance that the hero would decline the offer that she was about to make with him.

  "I can tell that you are still upset…" she mused, making sure her tone remained as benevolent as before. "But perhaps I could be of some assistance in expediting your

  recovery…"

  "What do you mean?" Link asked with measurable uncertainty.

  "Link, after all you've gone through, it's only fair that you deserve every luxury and honor available to you…" Verona said, her crafty way with words working well for her.

  "I have been thinking about this for a while now, but it seems as though now is as good of a time as any to present this idea to you. While both the Twilight Realm and

  Hyrule are under our shared authority, I find that presiding over both kingdoms simultaneously might become… tedious… Which is why I have decided to bequeath the land

  of Hyrule solely into your hands."

  "W-what?!" Link exclaimed in surprise as he sat up a bit, his attention fully captured as he tried to make sense of what the Queen of Shadows had just said.

  "You heard me," Verona said with a small, amused laugh. "It only makes sense, since this land is your native home, that you claim it as your own in place of Zelda. And it's

  only fair considering how much stronger you are than her. And so I figured that while I continue to rule over the Twilight Realm, you rise to the position of prince, no, king

  of Hyrule!"

  "King?" the hero asked, his former despair replaced with bewilderment at the very thought. What Verona was offering him was, while in many ways tantalizing, but at the

  same time, it was also quite startling. After all, he was in no way of noble blood and he certainly knew nothing of running an entire kingdom on his own. And besides, the

  vast majority of the people of Hyrule saw him as a wanted criminal. The only way he could possibly hope convince them to follow his lead was through force and

  oppression. Then again, after the torture they had put him through, perhaps that was exactly what they deserved. If they wanted to follow a tyrant like Zelda, then he

  could be just as much of a tyrant too, perhaps even moreso.

  The Queen of Shadows grinned confidently as she watched her manipulation begin to work, noticing the confidence in his expression begin to grow as he started to accept

  the new position she had suddenly thrust upon him. However, the deal was not sealed just yet. "However, Link, before I give Hyrule to you, I would like to ask one… favor

  of you first…" she said leadingly.

  "What is it?" the hero asked, completely ready to do it.

  "All I ask is that you do one simple thing for me…" Verona said with a rather sinister smile, knowing that once more, all of the pieces of her plan were fitting together

  perfectly. "Kill Zelda…"

  Link was silent for a moment upon hearing this, his eyes subtly shifting to the Hylian queen's image in the painting once more. Of course, he wanted her to suffer, for her

  to know all of the pain she had put him through and then some, for her to lose everything she once held dear, just as he had. But the thought of actually killing Zelda with

  his own hands had never really crossed his mind before. And for some reason, it was a thought that didn't sit well with him. As he tried picturing murdering the Hylian

  Queen in his mind, he found that he couldn't. He could see himself hurting her, both physically and emotionally, but actually, willingly putting an end to her life? Sure, he had

  killed before, but those had always been nameless faces of soldiers or people he didn't know or care about. But Zelda… he had known her, he had been somewhat

  intimate with her, he had, at one point, genuinely cared about her. And regardless of whether or not she ever reciprocated that devotion, the thought of killing her as

  Verona had asked of him filled him with immense conflict. Which was why he surprised himself when he turned to the Queen of Shadows once more and slowly nodded in

  agreement with this plan. "I'll do it," he said, though there was no finality or assurance in his tone. In fact, the words had come out rather hallow and empty, but Verona

  had thankfully taken no notice as she grinned in satisfaction.

  "Very good," she said as she rose to stand before reaching out a hand to help Link do the same. The Queen of Shadows took silent victory in knowing that she was only a

  step away from ripping the bond between the Blood of the Goddess and the Spirit of the Hero apart forever. And then, once that bond was no more, it would only be a

  matter of time before that spirit became hers in its entirety as well. "Now, come, Link. We have much planning to do. After all, the sooner Zelda is disposed of, the sooner

  you can rise to your proper place as king."

  "Yeah…" Link said halfheartedly as he began to follow Verona out of the room. "King…" he muttered with uncertainty, especially as he stopped for a brief moment in the

  doorway to turn towards the painting one last time. He stared at the depiction of both of them this time, both of them standing strong and together in the pursuit of

  peace and justice. Certainly, at the time of the painting's creation, this had only been a premonition of what the future would be like. And of course, it was a premonition

  that had failed to come true. The hero and the queen could not have been on two different ends of the spectrum when it came to their beliefs and goals. But a small part

  of the hero couldn't help but wonder if this painted prophecy would have come to
pass if things had been different. If Zelda had been genuine, if he had been more

  perceptive… Maybe things could have been different. And maybe if things had been different… then he wouldn't have to face the task of slaughtering the woman he had

  once, and quite possibly still, loved.

  From the time she was little, Zelda had always been taught to revere the legendary golden goddesses of old, the mysterious, yet distant celestial beings who had created

  the world and set all live upon it in motion. Even if most Hylians viewed the goddesses from a deistic view, in that they had indeed made everything but had left their

  creations to their own devices, the queen had never really seen things like that. She had faith that the goddesses were still watching over what they had put such time and

  care into crafting, and that, in extenuating circumstances, they still intervened when the people had but no choice but to cry out for them in desperation.

  The first time Zelda had ever really made such an appeal to the goddesses was at the onset of the Twilight Invasion. As Zant's forces overwhelmed her guards and she

  had been locked away as a captive inside her own castle, it was as though she had been robbed of all of her hope and peace. The future of her kingdom seemed incredibly

  bleak in the midst of the pall of shadows that had all too quickly fallen upon it, and as she had tearfully observed her frightened people vanish into spirits from above, Zelda

  found that there was really only one thing she could do. Pray to the goddesses themselves for their light to shine upon Hyrule once more.

  Soon enough, the goddesses had actually answered her prayers in the form of a hero, just as they were known to do in the past when Hyrule was on the brink of

  collapse. Destined as he was, he succeeded in liberating the kingdom from its great peril, defeating the oppressive evil that threatened it, and restoring the light of peace

  and tranquility to the land once more. And as Zelda had watched all of this unfold firsthand, she could not deny that the goddesses had ensured this grand and wonderful

  victory in their master plan for Hyrule from the very start.

  And yet, as Zelda languidly sat in the dark, dank depths of her own dungeon now, a part of her wondered where exactly the goddesses' handiwork had completely

  derailed and gone wrong. All at once, it seemed as though the events that they had set in place from the dawn of time itself had unraveled into an utter catastrophe,

  perhaps the worst one to ever face Hyrule in its entire history. The very same hero that they had hand-picked, whose destiny they had formulated, had now turned

  against the kingdom he had once fought for, and had instead chosen his own path, one that had led him into the hands of evil and darkness. It was a cruel, terrible twist of

  fate, one that the queen couldn't possibly imagine the goddesses approved of. And as she sat alone in the silence of the cell she now called home, she couldn't help but

  cry out a mental prayer to them once more, begging for their mercy and guidance in this, Hyrule's darkest hour. In her darkest hour.

  It had been a few days since Verona had moved her operation back to Hyrule, though for what reason, Zelda still didn't know. In fact, she hadn't been very conscious

  during the transition from the Twilight Realm at all. One moment, she had been locked away in her cell in the Palace of Twilight, and then, as if she had simply fallen asleep,

  she had woken up to find that she had been abruptly and inexplicably moved to a place that was vaguely familiar. It was only as she made out the faint, muddled carving

  of a Hylian crest on the far wall that it struck her that she was in the dungeons of her very own castle. The very thought filled the Hylian queen with shame and fury,

  especially as she realized that this meant that Verona had likely taken shop in the castle and was now gallivanting within it was though it was her own. And though Zelda

  had tried her best to escape her unguarded cell multiple times, it was all to no avail. The door had been tightly fortified and all means that she could have used to break

  out had been stripped from her. Even her powers did little to help her in this situation, something that frustrated her all the more. She was certain that if she had Link's

  powers, then she would have already burned her way through the metal bars or froze the lock off of its hinges. Though she could create radiant, heavenly light at will and

  surround herself in a small field of time displacement, there was little she could do to actually free herself from her imprisonment.

  It was as Zelda thought about Link though, she realized that it had been quite some time since she had last seen him. A small burst of cold fear ran through her as she

  wondered if Verona had already succeeded in stealing away every last piece of his spirit. However, she was quick to put those worries behind her. After all, the Queen of

  Shadows would certainly revel in such a triumphant victory, especially to her enemy. In fact, Zelda figured that she would be the first to know when Link at last met his

  bitter end, and although she wanted to deny him any such sympathy, she couldn't hide the fact that she was immensely worried that his oncoming demise would indeed

  come to pass, most likely sooner than later.

  She was done shedding tears for him though. She had already lost him and his love and had come to terms with that a long time ago. To this end, she had resolved not to

  even try to make any more foolish appeals to him the next time she saw him, knowing that they would fall on deaf ears anyway. After all, if he was too blind to see the

  truth, that was his fault, not hers.

  Zelda sighed softly to herself as she leaned her back against the stone wall of the cell, igniting a small orb of golden light above her palm out of boredom. She took a small

  bit of solace in its beaming glow, appreciating the fact that it was really the only thing in her world now that wasn't the same shade of gray. Oh, how she had come to

  loathe that depressing, lifeless color, which seemed to surround her everywhere she turned now. The walls were gray, the ceiling was grey, the bars of her cell were grey,

  even the revolting slop that barely passed for edible food that she was so scarcely served was grey. They were all in different shades, and yet they were all still unbearably

  miserable nonetheless.

  It had been so very long since she had seen the sun, since she had felt natural light upon her skin or had breathed in fresh, crisp air. Her soul yearned for freedom almost

  as much as it did for peace. She took in a pensive breath as she closed her eyes, the light slowly dissipating from her hand as she let her mind wander to a world far

  beyond the suffocating space of her cell. To the wide, outstretched beautiful fields of Hyrule, covered in an even blanket of still-falling snow, glistening like an endless array

  of miniscule diamonds. To the feeling of riding through this dazzlingly beautiful scene, feeling so far away yet so close at the same time. To the freedom and bliss that filled

  her own laughter as it echoed through the empty field, an untold, cherished warmth sparking deep within her chest despite the chilly briskness of the winter air. To the

  strong, yet gentle arms that had enveloped her in a soothing, almost loving embrace, arms that still took her and held her close, if only in her dreams. Arms that she

  longed for, but would never embrace her again. Arms that now only carried hands that destroyed, hands that injured, hands that murdered.

  Hands that would very well strangle her with ease if they had the chance.

  Zelda's soft smile faded entirely as she opened her eyes, a shudder running through her as she wrapped her arms around herself to chase the sudden chill away. It was

  foolish, she knew, to even think about Link in such a way anymore, to even recall those few brief, blissful days they had together, days that seemed like an eternity away

/>   now. That was all in the past, exchanged for a broken, distorted present and an even more abhorrent, dreadful future. There were only memories left of those happy

  times now, and even those seemed bitter and meaningless to Zelda now, just like everything else.

  The Hylian queen nearly bolted upright in surprise when she heard the door to the row of cells begin to unlock. However, she was quick to steel herself, despite the sudden

  disruption to the constant silence she had grown accustomed to. After all, she had an inkling suspicion as to who her incoming visitor might be, a suspicion that was very

  quickly confirmed as the hero approached her cell.

  Link had already been on edge from the moment Verona had imparted his next task to him, but as he glanced over at the Hylian queen and happened to notice something

  about the cell she was in, his anxiety grew even more. He stopped in his tracks as he stared into the cramped square space, his hands balling up into tight fists as he

  noticed the short remnants of an old broken chain plated to the ground in the center of the floor. His pace quickened the slightest bit as he gingerly gripped his left wrist,

  his mind briefly going back to waking up in that very same cell, alone, confused, chained down, and trapped in a frightening, foreign new form. Though Zelda had initially

  turned away from Link as he entered, she soon glanced back towards him in confusion, noticing that he had backed away from the cell the slightest bit as he continued to

  stare at the chain on the ground apprehensively.

  "…Link?" the Hylian queen asked with a slightly worried frown, finally managing to snap him out of his apparent trance.

  "Huh?" Link asked a bit distantly, blinking as he found his focus once more and looked away from the chain.

  "W-what's wrong?" Zelda asked, curiosity overriding her better judgement, even though she didn't expect much of an answer from him.

  "I was-" Link began to answer, before he remembered who he was talking to. Despite the disparaging experience he had once had in this very cell months ago, he had no