Love in Zora's Domain

Chapter 32 - Inexperience

Summary: Zelda invites Mipha and Link to dinner to meet her boyfriend, Royce.

The light of the late-morning sun that peeked past a cloud and onto Queen Zelda's office desk was a welcome distraction from work. It made her look up from her reading and stare out the window, taking a moment to admire the beautiful land of Hyrule.

Zelda's office stood atop one of the castle spires, and only the center bell tower was taller. But the bell tower did not greatly diminish the view; you could see quite far in every direction. And as though she were looking through a kaleidoscope, each location in the distance held memories of youthful travel and past adventures. Now fate had made all of this vast land her responsibility.

Learning how to rule Hyrule had been no easy task, and she had come to admire how well her father, King Rhoam, must have managed it. She wished she had come into the role better prepared - had more time for instruction to help her transition into leadership. But losing her mother at six and her father the day she turned seventeen meant their crucial mentorship had gone missing during the most formative years of her life. She had never dreamed of becoming Hyrule's ruler at such a young age. Thank Hylia that she at least had Impa, Link, and Mipha to lean on for help back then.

In the early days of her reign, she was probably as nervous as those she dealt with. Guilt still washed over her because of what happened. And that prompted her to search for signs that she was being judged for failing to prevent that terrible calamity. She also felt uncertain of herself, second-guessing whether she was making the best decisions. While her trepidation may have gone unnoticed by others, she certainly felt the strain of her inexperience. Of course, one reason that people may not have noticed was that she was hardly alone in that respect. Almost everyone she dealt with was inexperienced since most of her father's staff and Hyrule's army had died in the incident.

But now she had a brighter outlook on life.

For one thing, she had grown more comfortable in her role as ruler. Not that there weren't still things to learn, but she had experienced ministers, officers, and castle staff to look after things now, and running a kingdom didn't need to consume all her efforts. And she had also come to terms with her guilt. She no longer needed to busy herself with work to keep her distracted from reliving the past or to avoid sleeping and the terrible nightmares that used to afflict her. She could make time for a much-needed personal life now, too.

But today was a day of mixed emotions for her. On the one hand, she had to focus on her work, but tonight was an event that she had been anticipating for some time now. She had invited her closest friends, Link and Mipha, to join her in the castle for dinner with Royce—the person she had fallen in love with. It would be the first time her two worlds were meeting, and it made her stomach flutter in anticipation and worry.

She held Mipha's and Link's opinions in high regard, as they always looked out for her best interests. She knew all too well how distrustful you must be when entering any relationship, especially for her. There were always people who wanted to take advantage of the position marrying her brought along with it.

But she didn't think Royce was at all like that, and he seemed completely sincere to her. If anything, far from being pushy, Royce was so deferential and proper to her at first that she wasn't sure how truly interested in her he was. They had grown closer slowly and naturally over time, gradually becoming comfortable in each other's company and later their romance. And in truth, Royce was an amazing person to be with. He set her heart ablaze and told her she did the same to his.

But they say love is blind, and she had to admit her romantic experience had been pretty lacking until now. So having Mipha and Link meet Royce couldn't hurt. It was usually customary to introduce a potential partner to one's parents before taking a step further, but since this wasn't possible for her, Mipha and Link would do just fine. She wondered what their thoughts about him would be.