-Narration-

Chancellor Impa sent out her fastest rider to pick up Lady Reida while Shi Ketsu watched over Sarah, and escorted her with her family to an undisclosed location. These two actions would take several days to accomplish and return, but while doing so, Zelda was silent. She went about her day as usual, but there was a hidden energy others could see in her as she watched attentively for an arrival. No one could say what, as Impa and Ketsu's actions were so quiet and sudden as to be unnoticed. Chancellor Ryo Fui, Queen Mother Bi Ki, the faction heads, and even her own ministers were completely ignorant of anything having transpired. Despite her declaration to Impa and Ketsu that she would begin her war, she was making no moves and was silent.

Zelda did not tell anyone what was on her mind, not even her dear Impa.

Until Reida rode in.

-Zelda-

Zelda stepped down the steps towards the courtyard and found herself smiling a tiny bit on seeing Reida. The courtlady stepped down from her carriage at the hand of a servant. On seeing the heir approach, Reida bowed low.

"It is good to see you, your highness," Reida said. "I was told this was urgent, and I hope it is a meeting in good spirit. I was not told as to the purpose of my presence."

Zelda smiled, "Don't fear, Reida. All is well between us. I forgave you long ago for your words against me... and the stones."

Reida chuckled nervously. She was cautiously afraid of the heir, not just because of what the heir had done to Reida's fiance and Reida's brief imprisonment, but for their first meeting. Reida may have thrown obscene words and dirt clods at the heir when Zelda first arrived from Zhao before running away under Impa's threatening gaze.

"I am thankful for that, and I hope the heir knows I have matured greatly since then."

"Unnecessary, but good to know all the same. You have shown yourself better than first impressions would make, so I consider it a moment of madness." Zelda chuckled. "Come now, raise your head, Reida. There is much to do and I asked for you for a purpose."

"Certainly my lady-" Reida's eyes widened. She raised her head and immediately her eyes reached the fresh wound to mar Zelda's face from her chin to her left cheek across the lips. Being a few days old, it hadn't yet scarred and was mostly sown.

Zelda knew where her thoughts went, but didn't have the patience for it right now, "Reida."

The girl jumped and bowed quickly in silent apology. "I'm sorry!"

"If it eases your mind, I am well. The doctor has seen to it and besides some itching and annoyance, it is well. If anything, it has proven a balm to my mind. Now, if you will, let us get to it."

Without waiting for a response, Zelda turned around and headed back up the steps into the palace. Reida picked up her traveling skirt and hurried after her. "Get to what?"

"I will explain shortly when we are out of listening ears." Zelda replied. She pointed to a servant. "Go and get me Impa immediately, as well as the Palace Grove Fae lower elder. Tell them both to meet me in the garden." The servant bowed and hurried away. Then to Reida, she said, "Come, let us wait for them in the garden. Have you eaten?"

"Not for today, no." Reida responded, still hurrying to keep up with the heir's strides.

Zelda ordered another servant to bring three meals to the garden. Zelda and Reida went to the garden and sat and talked. Soon after, Impa arrived. Impa sat, expecting to eat with them, but she had read the situation wrong as Zelda said the meal was not for her.

"If the three meals are not for us, then who?" Impa asked. Reida's expression also displayed confusion.

Zelda laughed, "If you also are hungry, dear Impa, then by all means, have a servant bring a fourth meal."

"Then who is the fourth meal for? Ketsu has not yet returned."

"You will see, all in good time." Zelda answered cryptically. "I know you are both confused, but there is a reason I asked for Reida to be brought here. Now we only need- ah, there he is." Zelda looked up and saw a Fae walking close in the wooden shell adorned with emblems to signify his office.

"Wisdom, you have called for me?" The Fae elder asked.

"Yes, it is time."

"Time? Time for what?" Impa questioned. "I know you have asked all of these things for a purpose, but it is beyond me what that purpose is."

Still, Zelda laughed again, confusing Impa more. Never had she seen Zelda so jovial, and especially after something so life-altering as what had transpired only a few days past.

"Impa, have faith." Zelda motioned to the Fae. "If you will." Zelda stepped out onto the water. Expecting her desires, the Fae told the water to keep her feet solid. "Come you two."

Impa stepped onto the water immediately, but Reida hesitated, never having encountered the Fae much. She touched the water with her foot, found it solid despite appearances, and slowly stepped out onto it. She kept her arms out as if she might tip over and wobbled on the ripples.

"The Fae will not let you fall, only you will if you make yourself."

"I trust in your words, princess, but my heart does not know but to trust what my eyes see."

Eventually Reida reached them and grasped onto Zelda as if she was a life line. Zelda chuckled.

Zelda looked to the Fae lower elder, "Take us down."

The Fae hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"I am. This is the purpose I asked of you years ago."

"Very well."

The Fae disappeared into the water and immediately a portion of it started to lower. Reida squealed and even Impa flinched as the water seemed to rise on all sides, though it was really them being lowered.

"Now we are beyond listening ears," Zelda sighed. "I apologize for the deception, but it was necessary."

"I forgive you, if I know it was meant for good." Reida answered.

"That is good of you." Impa nodded. "Zelda would not deceive you without it being for the good of Qin.

"I didn't just deceive her, dear Impa. I deceived you too." Zelda inserted herself.

Impa flinched and stared at the princess. "Even I?"

Zelda smiled apologetically. "One of the hardest lessons in my brother's war was that I needed to learn who to trust and to what extent. So while I trust you, Impa, there are still some machinations I have set my mind to that I have kept from you. I give you many liberties, but you also take even more. This is proven to me in your dealings with the Sheikah and with Link. This is one where I wanted to be in control until I decided of my own accord without tampering."

"One what?" Reida asked.

"Investment." Zelda answered.

Impa looked down sadly, "You are right. Despite how hurt I am, I am also proud. You are learning."

Zelda smiled briefly, hoping Impa would cheer up as she had no wish to hurt her, "I say this not to hurt, but to understand. I set the foundations of a plan years ago, and now I have decided it is time to take it up. If all goes well, what I reveal and bring to the surface will be able to not only restore the balance between Ryo and myself, but to bring about a momentum we can use to take the offensive. I have been keeping it quietly in my sleeve, despite everything, because I have not known when the best time would be to use it, but now I have decided there is no better opportunity than the one given to us."

The three continued to be lowered further into the lake towards the bottom of the Fae Grove. The Fae had formed their home deep and the pace at which the Fae lowered the water was slow. It would be a few minutes before they reached the bottom.

"What plan is that?" Impa wondered.

Zelda smiled knowingly, "You will see, but it is crucial that Reida be here. It is as much a gift to her, as something to which she must help me control."

"No fair!" Reida groaned. "You promised you'd tell."

"I have told much already to explain why I do this, but what the plan is will be self-evident. Be patient a few seconds longer."

At last, the water stopped lowering and left them. They found themselves standing on solid stone in a room. It was unfamiliar to most of them, but Zelda remembered it. It was where she and Link had fought Zant. The room was sealed after the attack, but behind them still rested a metal door, the same door she had told her uncle not to open. Several Fae flew around them.

"What is this?" Impa wondered.

Zelda shushed her and said, "Fae, please open the door."

The Fae could not touch metal directly, but formed themselves into four large stone men, grabbed hold of the door handles, and lifted. The door creaked and groaned in defiance, and proved very heavy, but after a moment it rose.

Reida's breath left her and she fell to her knees. Impa's eyes widened and she gaped.

On the other side of the door was lit candles and torches, rich furnishings and tall book cases, a table with plentiful food and a hole in the ceiling from where Fae flew in and out and allowed natural light in, a large red plush bed with silk curtains about, and on it sat a young man reading and talking with the Fae to give him company. He lifted his head as the door opened for the first time in years.

"Oh-ho-ho... Well, well. It has been some time. You have aged well, sister. The scar compliments you."

Zelda looked her brother in the eye, briefly glared, but allowed a dangerous smile anyway, "Thank you. It has been some time, brother."

Prince Kyou chuckled, "You don't visit, so this is definetely special. Why are you here?"

"Depends on you," Zelda stepped closer until she was fully in the room. "Answer me correctly and you may return to the world. Answer my incorrectly and the door is shut again."

Kyou had grown well in the last few years. With little to do in his room, he exercised often and read much. He was incredibly pale and looked like the kind of man who had forgone bathing as a social necessity. His room was an organized wreck.

While he had appeared aloof at first, as soon as Zelda threatened further captivity, his emotions cracked across his face for a moment before he struggled to compose himself. He shuddered, "Please, do not torment me with false hopes! It has been years since I have seen people."

"I offer no false hope. And as a gift of good faith, I have also brought a guest." Zelda turned and motioned to Reida, who was still staring numbly at him. Kyou's eyes widened on seeing her, and Zelda marveled. For a moment he seemed actually human as he looked at Reida. If this had been the side of him she had witnessed before, she might have been more merciful. Good thing she hadn't.

Kyou gulped, "I'm listening."

"Ryo and my mother are having an affair and have joined forces to destroy the royal family to the last and create a new nation in its place."

"I'm not hearing a question..."

Zelda smiled cryptically and kept her silence. Kyou sighed. He rose and took a few steps toward her. Impa jumped forward between them and drew her knife protectively. Kyou stopped and eyed Impa. "I see you brought your Sheikah."

"Kyou..." Zelda whispered. "Do you want to waste my time telling me who I know I brought with me, or with what your thoughts are as to the current events?"

Kyou licked his lips. He asked, "How well can you handle their forces?"

"At my current standing I'd say if it were to come to war then one-in-five of Qin's houses would stand with me. Along with our allies in the Fae and Majora."

Kyou raised an eyebrow, "Where are the ministers that followed me and Ketsu?"

"Most of them are following Ryo."

Kyou scoffed. "Of course they are. Clearly you are here offering me freedom in return for my aid. You have it if you want it."

"Be honest with me, Kyou, or this will be a very short conversation."

Kyou flinched, but still managed to look her in the eye with conviction. "If there is anything I have ever hated more than the thought of you taking my throne, it is the thought of Ryo taking it. Our father was too weak to hold his claws back, and I will not abide anything short of royalty on the throne. If you want my honesty, you have it. The fight between you and I is not over, but I was wrong in how I fought you. We are family. Family should not fight with blood and sword, but with prestige and honor. You earned your place and my respect, but I intend to take it back by proving myself better than you to everyone. No blood. Neither of us have reached the age of ascension yet, and it is a race between us to prove who is more fit when the time comes."

Kyou breathed, "Until then, it is only proper that the royal family create a combined front against all threats."

"What is to happen to either of us should one of us be crowned king?"

Kyou gulped, remembering the war and what Zelda had done to his face. "I would submit, as is proper. There are many examples of princes submitting and ruling their own regions when one is crowned, and I have no desire to be among the examples where a king kills all of his siblings, as the Zhao king did. Quite simply, I do not want to die if I lose and I doubt I will be able to take a second attempt at your head if I were to win."

Zelda's smile turned more dangerous, "It is good we see things equally, then. So long as you keep it from involving others and bloodshed, I will to. I accept your challenge, Kyou. If you can prove yourself better than me, than you are the better fit for king; but don't think for a moment I plan to let you have it. I don't trust you. But I am willing to let you have your life again. Come."

Prince Kyou hesitated. He eyed the door that had kept him there ever since his rebellion failed. He took a step forward, eyed Zelda, and finding no repercussions coming, he took a final step out of his prison. Reida threw herself on him, sobbing. Zelda simply smiled.

"Welcome to the world, Kyou."

Impa sheathed her knife and walked around the couple, watching Kyou closely. She walked up to Zelda and asked, "How? You executed him!"

"Did I? Did I really?" Zelda wondered. "Funny. I know I had Ketsu killed, but oddly enough there was never any mention of Kyou."