Favorable side Read online

  more, which it promptly did, filling every inch of the room with light once more. In the same way, she sent it away, returning the chamber to its former darkened state,

  but the queen paid that no mind as she reveled in her rising hope. With a power such as this, certainly she would have a chance at not only escape, but also a chance at

  standing against Verona and liberating freedom. And it was a chance that Zelda was not about to pass up.

  And yet, before the queen could even take but a step away from the window, the door to her chamber suddenly burst open. Startled by the sudden intrusion, the queen

  spun around, fully prepared to call upon the light once more in case Verona had returned. However, she was greeted with by completely different face instead.

  "Midna?!" Zelda exclaimed in confusion, having no idea as to why the Twilight Princess might have returned. Midna didn't offer the queen a greeting as she simply glared

  crossly at her, not moving from her position in the doorway. "What are you doing here? Where is Link?"

  "You would know," the Twili imp said bitterly, filled with burning fury upon even seeing the queen who had so cruelly demanded for the hero's apprehension. "Especially

  since you sent your guards out to capture him!"

  "What?!" Zelda asked in absolute bewilderment, knowing that she would never do such a thing. "What are you talking about? I did no such thing!"

  "Oh, come on, Zelda," Midna scoffed, rolling her eyes. "What, do you think I'm stupid? I know you have Link down in your dungeons, most likely beaten and in chains since

  it took so much doing for you idiot guards to capture him in the first place!"

  "Midna, please listen," the queen said firmly, determined to make sense of this confusion. "I do not know where you received such a ludicrous idea from, but I can assure

  you that it is not true. I have not even spoken to any of my guards since Verona attacked. I had assumed that she had imprisoned them all."

  "You honestly expect me to believe that!?" the Twilight Princess snapped. "After how you treated him earlier? Please. What I don't get is why you'd want to capture him in

  the first place. He has done nothing to you and yet you just seem intent on ruining his life, don't you?"

  "No!" Zelda said defensively. "Midna, you should know that I would never willingly want to hurt Link. In fact…" The queen paused for a moment, half hesitant to even say

  anything about the deal she had made with Verona, but she knew that with her new ability, she was not so powerless against her anymore. She could afford to stand

  against the Queen of Shadows now, and besides, her presence had faded from the castle. Certainly she wouldn't be able to overhear what she was about to say. "The

  only reason why I rejected him was because Verona forced me to."

  "What do you mean?" Midna asked tentatively, unsure of whether it was worthwhile to even hear the queen out on this when she could very well be lying just to throw

  her off her tail.

  As Zelda prepared to explain, she suddenly caught sight of the Twilight Princess's burnt arm, noticing how painful it looked, and it distracted her from whatever she was

  going to say. "What happened to your arm?"

  Midna glanced down to her arm with a frown, attempting to hide it out of sight, even though doing so caused her considerate pain. "Nothing," she said succinctly. "Quit

  dodging the question. What do you mean Verona forced you to?"

  The queen was half tempted to let the matter of the burn drop, but considering how dodgy the Twilight Princess was being over it, she grew even more curious. "May I

  see it?" she asked, walking over to Midna slowly as she extended a hand out to her.

  The Twili imp glared harshly at her for a moment or two before sighing and finally relenting. She slowly held out her arm to the queen, who looked over it with a frown.

  "It's burnt…" Zelda mused to herself. "What happened? Was there a fire?"

  "Er… Not really…" Midna said, still not wanting to divulge too much information about it. "It was an accident. He… he didn't mean to…"

  "He?" the queen asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you mean Link?"

  The Twilight Princess caught herself quickly before she almost went on, deciding that Zelda didn't need to know anything else at the moment. The queen was about to

  press her for more information, know more curious about the situation than ever as she gently skimmed Midna's arm to see how intense the burn was. Though the Twili

  imp almost recoiled in pain, she stopped herself upon feeling a sudden spring of relief shoot through the constant pain of the burn, a warm comfort that grew stronger and

  stronger with each passing moment.

  "Hey, that feels kind of… good…" Midna said, bemused as she looked towards Zelda, who had no idea what was happening. "What are you doing to it?"

  "Nothing," the queen said in confusion as she looked down to her hands, only to find a sight that amazed her. Just as they had been glowing golden with light moments

  ago, Zelda found that a very light green aura surrounded them now, one that had come to surround Midna's arm as well as the burn upon it diminished, her angry red

  flesh returning to its natural black and teal colors. The Twilight Princess was just as surprised at this, her eyes widening as the queen relinquished the grasp on her arm,

  only to reveal that it had been completely healed, as though the hero had never burnt it at all.

  "How… how did you do that?!" Midna asked in complete disbelief.

  Zelda glanced down at the Triforce of Wisdom on the back of her hand, still shimmering as it had been before, only now it glowed a gentle blue instead of gold as it usually

  did. She had never been able to heal using magic before, but it was clear now that was exactly what she had done. The sudden appearance of such powers confused her,

  yet at the same time, they excited her; the ability to heal, as well as light magic, were both incredible skills, ones that had not been seen in Hyrule for generations. And

  even still, the queen wondered if there were still other powers that she apparently had that were yet to be discovered.

  Midna had also taken notice of the glowing mark on the back of Zelda's hands and her eyes widened, remembering that in a similar manner, the Triforce of Courage on

  Link's hand had changed from gold to green when he discovered his powers. "You have powers too?" the Twilight Princess asked the queen, wondering if her magic

  operated in a similar way to the hero's.

  "Well… yes," Zelda said with a small smile, holding her hand up so the Twili imp could see the Triforce of Wisdom more plainly. "I suppose they come from the Triforce of

  Wisdom. Thus far I have discovered that I can conjure light, and now it seems as though I can heal as well."

  "So… you both have powers now…" Midna mused with a frown.

  "Both?" the queen asked, but before she could inquire any further, the Twilight Princess got back on track with her previous accusations.

  "It doesn't matter!" Midna said dismissively, ashamed of herself for getting so derailed from her former anger. "What does matter is that you need to let Link go right now!

  You have no right to keep him your prisoner! He's done nothing wrong!"

  "Midna, I am well aware of that," Zelda insisted. "Which is why I do not understand why you believe that I ordered any of my guards to peruse him. I could never bring

  myself to do such a thing to an innocent person at all, much less Link. Especially… especially after what I was forced to do to him earlier…"

  The Twilight Princess narrowed her eyes at the queen, still not fully buying her story. "So you expect me to just trust you just like that then?" she asked coldly. "Yeah right.

  If there's one thing I never take at face value, its words. If you really want me to believe you, prove it. Why don't we take a little trip down to the dungeons and make

  sure that Lin
k's not in there, just like you said, hm?"

  The queen noticed the challenge lacing the Twili imp's tone and she met it with a definitive response. "Alright," she said calmly, knowing that she had nothing to hide. "Let

  us go see."

  Without any further deliberation, the two royals emerged from the tower chamber, Zelda still clad in her dark hood and robe, with Midna trailing carefully behind her,

  watching her closely to make sure she wasn't pulling any tricks. "If you do not mind me asking," the queen began as they scaled down the tower steps towards the main

  part of the castle. "What gave you the impression that I might have demanded for Link's capture in the first place? Certainly this idea could not have come out of thin air…"

  "You mean aside from everything you said to him?" the Twilight Princess retorted sourly. "Well, all of the guards that have been chasing us around since we left here said

  that you wanted Link captured alive, but for what reason, they never said. That was the only part of all this that neither of us could figure out…"

  Zelda frowned as she wondered what could have ever caused her guards to believe that the hero was at large, as certainly he had done no crime worthy of such

  treatment. "They… they did not hurt him… did they?" she asked a bit softly, worry creeping into her tone.

  "Of course they did!" Midna snapped harshly. "One of them stabbed him clean in the side! He nearly bled out by the time we made it back to Ordon! And even more than

  that, your stupid guards hurt his confidence and courage more than anything else. Well, them and his powers…"

  "Powers?" the queen perked up, pushing her guilt over what her soldiers had done aside upon hearing this. "Link has powers as well?"

  The Twilight Princess nodded, glancing away with a frown. "Yeah…" she said with a sigh, remembering how much turmoil he was going through because of them. "We only

  found out about them a little while before we came to see you, actually. He can make fire, ice, and wind, but the thing is, they're entirely controlled by his emotions, which

  he seems to have no control over ever since he got them."

  "Incredible…" Zelda mused, glancing at the Triforce of Wisdom upon her own hand. "All these years, scholars believed the Triforce of Courage to be powerless, and yet it

  holds elemental magic such as that… Yet… you say he has no control over it?"

  "Nope," Midna said with sadness in her tone. "I tried to teach him what I knew about magic, but… he's not used to it like we are. He accidently revealed them in front of

  everyone in both Castle Town and Ordon and… well, let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight. I feel so bad for him… I've never seen him act so afraid. He's terrified of these

  powers of his, scared that he might hurt someone without even trying to…"

  The queen was silent as she took this in, wishing that she had been there to comfort the hero in his time of trouble. Magic certainly wasn't an easy thing to learn, but he

  had an even greater disadvantage in having powers fueled by emotions, which are so often as inconstant as the wind itself. And certainly, her rejection of him did not

  make his already fragile emotional state any better. "Is that how your arm got hurt?" she asked Midna quietly. "He burned it?"

  The Twilight Princess bit her lip and clenched her fists, wishing that she could forget that moment, when her flesh was searing in agony and tears were welling up in both

  her and the hero's eyes. "Yeah…" she said absently, looking to her now healed arm. "And after that, he ran off into the forest. I didn't have the strength to chase after him

  then, but now I wish I had. Because when I went to look for him later, all I found was this," As the two continued walking, Midna held her hair hand out, conjuring up the

  torn cape that she had stored away using her Twilit magic. Zelda frowned as she took it, holding onto it and seeing how forlorn and battered it looked. "Link was gone,"

  the Twilight Princess finished, her words weighing heavy on the queen's heart as she heard them.

  "Gone…" Zelda repeated as she held onto the cape tighter, clearly troubled by this news as they finally made it to a flight of steps that led down to the dungeon. To guide

  their way through the dark underpass, the queen concentrated and created an orb of glowing light above her palm, illuminating everything in sight. Silence echoed through

  the filthy, rat-infested chambers as the two women emerged into them. It was well known that the queen very rarely held prisoners in her own dungeon as her father and

  rulers before him had. It wasn't a practice that Zelda was too fond of, which was why the stone cells were all vacant and empty. Midna was quick to glide around to all of

  them, checking each carefully to ensure that Link was in none of them before going back to Zelda with a look of defeat on her expression.

  "It is as I said," the queen said, her light still glowing around her hand. "He is not here. I did not order for his capture, and I never would."

  "But… but this doesn't make any sense…" the Twilight Princess said, clearly perplexed over how the hero had simply disappeared without hardly a trace. "If you didn't

  capture him… then, who-"

  Both of them froze as they turned to each other, their eyes growing wide as they reached the same exact conclusion. "Verona," they both said in unison, the distain for

  the Queen of Shadows clear in both their voices.

  "I do not know why we did not suspect her earlier," Zelda said with a concerned frown, remembering what Verona had told her of her sinister plans for Link. "She must

  have used her magic to brainwash my guards into pursing Link in my name, in order to incriminate me even more against him…"

  "Who cares how she did it?!" Midna exclaimed, panicking once again as now she had absolutely no leads on where the hero was or even how he was faring in the hands of

  her wicked cousin. "We have to find him!" she commanded, already leading the way out of the dungeon. "Who knows what she plans on doing to him?!"

  "I do," the queen said quietly, bowing her head as they walked up the stairs. The Twilight Princess perked up upon hearing this, looking to Zelda expectantly with wide eyes.

  "She wants his spirit. I do not understand much of her reasoning behind it, but she wishes to steal it from him and use its power to enhance her own magic."

  "His… spirit?" Midna asked in confusion, not really following as they entered back into the castle halls, Zelda leading the way towards the secret servant's entrance that her

  and Link had taken before. "Why his? What's so special about it that Verona would go to such great lengths to get it?"

  "I am not entirely sure…" the queen said. "All I know is that it is oft called the Spirit of the Hero, and, according to Verona, it is one of the purest, strongest forces in

  existence. And without it… I'm almost certain that Link will not be able to survive."

  The Twilight Princess's expression hardened upon hearing this, her small hands clenching into fists at the Queen of Shadows' evil plan. Already, Verona had taken her

  kingdom from her, and now she planned on taking away the one person she trusted and cared for more than anyone else. The very thought filled Midna with both rage

  and worry; if her and Zelda were unable to stop Verona's plans in time… she didn't even want to think about what would happen to Link. "We have to save him," she said

  with firm resolve and determination. "I don't care what it takes; we can't let her do that to him."

  "But, Midna, she holds so much power already," Zelda said with a frown. "Certainly we are not strong enough to defeat her on our own."

  "Then we'll just have to get stronger!" Midna proclaimed fearlessly, gliding ahead of Zelda as they hurried down the stairwell and out towards Castle Town. "Verona won't

  win this time. She's already stolen way too much; there's no way I'm going to let her steal Link's life too! She's g
oing down, even if I have to take her down myself if it

  means protecting him!"

  Slipping out of Castle Town and onto the fields had been simple enough, though Zelda took extra care to make sure she was not spotted by both her people and her

  guards alike. Once they were out, the queen had commandeered one of the horses in the outer stables, since her own royal steed was in the stables inside of the castle

  wall and taking it through town would have attracted too much attention. And so, the queen and the Twilight Princess rushed away from the city, Midna floating alongside

  Zelda, whose thick cloak thankfully shielded her from the frigid temperatures and the steady snowfall. Zelda had suggested two of them made a beeline for Ordon, as that

  was the last place that Midna had seen Link and perhaps there were some more clues pointing to where Verona might have taken him. They both had much on their

  minds as they traveled in the dark of the night, which translated into a steady conversation that filled in some of the gaps of what they knew about the situation as a

  whole thus far.

  "So, you said Verona forced you to tell Link you didn't love him?" Midna asked curiously. "How did she do that? With magic?"

  "It was not magic…" Zelda said with shame in her tone, not really wanting to discuss this, even though she knew she had to. "It was blackmail. She threatened to kill my

  people and destroy my kingdom if I did not comply to her terms. I wanted with all my heart to stand against her and refuse but… I was afraid… My people had already

  suffered enough during the Twilight Invasion. It would not have been fair to put them through any more pain and heartache. And so I sacrificed my own happiness for their

  safety."

  "And you also sacrificed Link's happiness," the Twilight Princess said accusingly. "You could have at least told him what was going on instead of shattering his heart

  completely, you know."

  "No, I could not have," the queen said defensively. "Verona said that if I breathed a word about any of this to him then she would go through with her slaughter of the