The Legend of Zelda: Light and Shadow

Chapter 3: Confidant and Counselor

Zelda let out a long, exhausted sigh as she shuffled around the seemingly endless stacks of paper piled up on the desk of her study. Of all of the royal duties that were expected of her, paperwork had to be her least favorite. And yet, since her coronation was so close, there was a great deal of it needed to be done: invitations needed to be sent out, proclamations were begging to be signed, and most of all, her coronation speech needed to be written. Of course, all of her work vied to be the most important and the most attention-worthy, but even the normally-organized princess was having a difficult time staying on top of it all. It was safe to say that she was worn out, over-worked and over-stressed. There was so much to worry about, from the smallest details of her coronation, to the bigger picture of what would come after it. Zelda knew that her peoples' opinions of her were not as encouraging as they could have been, but she hoped that she could make up from the mistakes she had made several months ago and prove to everyone, including herself, that she was the best ruler Hyrule could possibly have.

It would take nothing short of a miracle from the goddesses themselves.

Such troubling thoughts were the only things that Zelda seemed to be able to focus on, even as she continued the every-busy work laid out in front of her. What she wanted more than anything else at a moment like this was some sort of relief, a way for her to get her mind off of her pressing concerns and the immense stress that kept her up every night. After all, she was only eighteen, mush too young to be dealing with the pressures and responsibilities of running an entire kingdom on her own. She knew that overworking herself the way that she was certainly could not be good for both her physical and mental health, but as much as she wanted a break, she knew that she had no time for one. Her kingdom depended on her, and she could not start slacking off on her duties when she was only a few days away from being crowned queen.

A sudden rapping on her office doors broke the princess out of her deep thought, causing her to lift her eyes away from the set of invitations she had been penning, but only for a moment. "Enter, please," she called somewhat absently, resuming her writing as the door creaked open and one of her attendants slipped in, but not before respectfully bowing to Zelda. As was customary, the princess nodded her head to her servant as a sign for them to rise, though she was still consumed in her urgent paperwork.

"Your highness," the attendant began. "I apologize for the interruption during such a busy time."

"Oh, it is quite alright," Zelda said with a patient smile as she finally glanced up towards the attendant, though a part of her hoped that whatever he was here for would not take up too much of her fleeting, valuable time. "I have a feeling that my schedule is only going to become more laborious from here one out, and as such I must learn to balance my time properly and be ready for anything that may come my way. What is it that you wish to tell me?"

"Ah, yes," the attendant inclined his head as he continued. "I came to tell you, as per your request, that the Hero of Twilight has arrived in response to your invitation. However, if you are currently preoccupied at the moment, I can tell him to wait until you are available to meet with him at your earliest convenience, your highness."

This information immediately caught the princess's attention from the moment her servant mentioned the hero. She had only sent her message to him via a messenger hawk yesterday morning, and yet he had already responded and came to see her, something that she had not been expecting in the slightest. She had figured that he would have been too busy with other important affairs to come simply to have an audience with her, and yet he had. And the last thing Zelda wanted to do was be a rude host and make him wait for her to finish her mountains of work, since most of it would likely never get finished anyway.

"Actually, no," she said as she began to organize her paperwork into neat, more presentable piles on her desk. "I shall meet with him now, if that suits him best. You may send him here to me whenever he is ready."