-Ryo's estate, Kanyou-

-Ryo-

"These are the teachers Lady Impa has requested to be Princess Zelda's teachers," One of Ryo's trusted officials handed him a paper. Ryo took it and glanced over the names.

"These are good names," Ryo said as he poured over them. "They should cover all the Princess needs to know to become a decent monarch. One wonders if she will even have time for the monarchy."

"Looks like you will be among her teachers for the next year. Are you up to it?" Ryo glanced toward a short older man. The old man had been his teacher once.

"Oh-ho, this will be fun. Never met with a woman monarch before!"

"Keep your perversion to yourself, old man."

"I know, I know." He chuckled.

Another of Ryo's official spoke up and asked, "Chancellor, why did you bring Zelda here? Why go through the effort of strengthening a lineage?"

"My reasons are my own," Ryo replied smoothly. "It's all part of my plan for my lineage to hold the throne. Kyou would have been easy on the surface to control, but to overthrow? One cannot overthrow divine bloodline so easily. All of his focus would have been on me, and that would have proven annoying. What I have done is put more pieces on the board. I assure you," Ryo smiled viciously. "I already hold checkmate."

-Zelda-

Zelda stood in her father's study- no, it was her study now. Her father was gone. How did she feel about it? She had no tender memory to rely on, nor was there a bad one. She didn't know him.

All she had to go on was that he had managed to escape Zhao's custody and requested Zelda's rescue. Was she appreciative? Yes. Zelda also felt it was a long time coming. The fact it required nine years was not an easy thing to overlook.

Her thoughts drifted as she examined the study. There was a set of bookcases, several tables, and a map nailed down to a long desk. Zelda walked to the map and explored it, walking around its borders in a circle. Despite her lack of proper education, she could read a little.

"Hyrule," Zelda voiced the most prominent word on the map.

"Ho-ho! So of everything here, it is that which draws your eye, hm?"

Zelda glanced over to see an old man standing before the bookcases. The man bowed as best he could. The shaking motion revealed wrinkles, and hanging skin was enveloping his body. He could easily be a hundred years old. He walked with a stick and feebly trotted over. His beard reached his ankles, so when he walked, his knees would periodically jut out of the hair as a curtain. What was this man doing here? She did not recall hearing the door open. How did he enter?

He answered as if he could read her mind, "Pardon the entry, my lady, but I was already here preparing for you."

"Who are you?"

"I am Abhdan: senior council member, former Chancellor of State, ambassador of Qin, Chancellor Ryo's tutor, and now yours as well." Ploddingly he made his way to where she was and looked down at the map with her. "I heard you lived in Kantan most of your life. Did you ever meet the king?"

"No. At least, not in my memory. I hope I never did."

"Ah. Well, I wouldn't either if I could. Oh-ho. The bastard has no respect for his elders. No, Ma'am!" He chuckled. "Tell me, what do you see when you look at the map?"

Zelda looked at him in confusion, "It's a map. It's a drawing. I merely see pictures and words."

"Did you not see the road you took to come here?"

"Not entirely. I was hidden in a barrel."

"I see."

"But there were mountains and three gated checkpoints," Zelda explained. "As well as a gentle river and woods."

He pointed to the map and tapped it with his finger, "Then I believe this is the route you took."

Zelda watched as he traced a path down the map from Kantan to Kanyou. Why did both names 'kan' in them? That just made it confusing. None of the less, in her mind, she could see the mountains as he traced his finger between the pictures of mountains. She could see the river his finger touched. She could see the plains and towns and the towering gates of the checkpoints.

Her breath caught as a revelation came over her. True, the map was little more than cloth and drawings physically, but it represented so much more. You couldn't see the people, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

"Now what do you see when you look at the map?" The man asked.

"I see a kingdom," She answered. "A kingdom of Hyrule."

The man chuckled, "Oh-ho! Hyrule? No, no. My lady, Hyrule has not been a kingdom for a very long time."

"What? But it's written right here."

"That represents the region. From the western corner of Qin to the coast long ago was Hyrule, but no more. Now the region itself is Hyrule."

"No more? What happened?"

"Oh-ho, curious aren't we? Leave it for tomorrow. Our lessons will begin then. I will tutor you with everything you need to know, and we have much to cover! Oh-ho! This will be fun!"

Zelda found herself smiling a bit. The man's jolliness was contagious. All the same, she didn't budge, "Just this one for today. What happened? Why am I looking at seven kingdoms and not one?"

Abhdan hummed in thought, then consented. He kicked a chair to the side and collapsed on it, "Oh, my knees! When you reach a thousand, hope you don't look as bad as I!"

"But you aren't a thousand years old."

"Oh-ho! Thank the Goddesses for that! I'd look like horse shit!"

Zelda snorted. She cleared her throat, "Please, your answer to my questions?"

"Right, right," He sighed. "Five hundred years ago, Hyrule was united under one family. Hyrule was more than just a kingdom, it was an alliance. The kingdom of Hyrule was made up of the Gorons, the Zora, the Hyrulians, the Gerudo, and even the loose alliance of Kokiri. The Gorons are golem people who build their cities in the mountains and volcanos. Zora are fish people who live in deep lakes and oceans. The Kokiri represent a loose collaboration of species that inhabited the forests and mountains outside of civilized society: fairies, centaurs, elves, immortal children, werewolves, undead, walking-talking trees, dragons, and other whimsical creations of the Goddess."

Zelda looked at him, flatly, "Sounds like just a bunch of myths and legends."

"Of that, I can agree. Some of it is just a... 'fairy tale'. Oh-ho!"

Zelda sighed inside.

"Then it all shattered. The king of Hyrule bore no heir. An assassin slew the king. Fingers leveled in every direction, no one agreed on who was responsible or who would lead again, and simply the species don't think alike. Gerudo don't think like Gorons, and Zora don't think like Hyrulians. The kingdom fell to anarchy as each city became its own nation. Since then, Hyrule has been at war with itself as hundreds of nations vie for territory."

"And now we are left with seven," Zelda observed the map. "The Qin, Zhao, Gerudo, Zora, Termina, Lorule, and Gorondis."

"I would say considering how bad it started that the times have become better. There are still remnants of the old nations, like the Sheikah clan, but these remnants and clans either live isolated or are part of a greater nation. The seven nations is a form of stability, where before it was every city out for itself."

"But we are still at war," Zelda argued.

"Yes, we are."

A knock on the door drew their attention. A guard from outside cracked the door slightly and said, "Chancellor Ryo wishes to speak with you, your highness."

"Allow him to enter," Zelda said. "My apologies, elder."

"Oh-ho! No need to apologize to this old man! Go about your business," The old man bowed.

Zelda regarded Ryo, "What is it, Chancellor?"

"I have come to personally report on the work to reverse Prince Kyou's reforms."

"Ah, yes," Zelda remembered. "How is that going?"

Chancellor Ryo held a scroll he repeatedly beat into his palm. Zelda recognized it as bearing the king's seal. He put the manuscript in his pocket and produced another, "Can you read, your highness?"

"Not much. I begin my formal education in a few days."

"Then may I accept the honor of reading it to you?"

"Go ahead," Zelda pulled out a chair to sit on.

She pulled her high heels off and massaged the soles of her feet. Ryo shared a glance with Abhdan, who shrugged. It was highly unusual behavior, yet it wasn't all that expected, considering her lack of education in court manners.

Ryo cleared his throat and said, "In summary, the people cherish you and speak favorably of you. Your servants have returned the money and exchanged out a new receipt at a ratio of one-to-fifty. With the flood of new currency in the streets, their value has dropped to... nothing. To compensate the people, your coffers have emptied. Yet you still could not reimburse it all, so your land will be delivered to your court as payment to make up the cost. In the end, you have lost all of your holdings and owe your court everything."

Zelda went still. She felt the blood leave her face. Her breathing picked up, and Zelda felt the beginnings of a panic attack take hold.

"B-but-!" Zelda gasped. "My reform should only have reached those affected by Kyou's reform!"

"Did you say that?" Ryo wondered.

No, she didn't. Zelda realized. She had not presided over councils with anyone and jumped on the opportunity to stamp out what Kyou was doing. "But it was only meant for the poor! I wouldn't have the people starved!"

Ryo said, "And so you choose to starve yourself? Where does that leave your country? I'll be reasonable, in return for paying everyone back: I will own you."

"No!" Zelda abruptly stood. "I will be owned by no one! Not anymore!"

Ryo smiled casually, "Good because the truth is..." Ryo took the scroll and flung it into the fireplace. "It didn't happen."

"What?" Zelda blinked.

Ryo explained, "I guessed your real intentions and did as you just said. The only people affected by your reform are those first affected by Kyou's reform. It cost a fair rupee, but nothing you can't take. I didn't actually send your reform out to the whole land, considering Kyou's reform had only affected a small part. That would have bankrupted the palace, left us without the ability to pay the military, and the other countries would have swept over Qin like a tide. Or I would have owned everything by buying your bankrupt state, and then I would now be standing as monarch and not you."

Zelda tried to steel herself against him, the impact of what he was saying, but she could only shake. She had come within a hair's breadth of being this man's slave, giving this man a free chance of being king and losing the freedom she gained.

All that prevented it was the man's mercy.

"Why?" Zelda whispered. "Why didn't you do it then? It was my mistake."

"You are right to suspect me," Ryo smiled. She found no comfort in his smile. "I could have gone through with it. I could have spread this reform through the country, far beyond the scope you envisioned. I won't deny how fun it felt to hold that decision, the very country, in the palm of my hand."

Ryo outstretched his hand and spread his palm to gaze at it as if envisioning the country across its surface.

"But it would have been too easy!" Ryo chuckled. He clutched his hand into a fist. "And I don't want it that easily!"

Ryo gazed at the burning scroll. Something in his eyes burned more fiercely than the fire he watched, and Zelda suddenly felt fearful. Fearful of him, of what laid behind those eyes. The greed! The unmistakable ambition, but also fun.

For the first moment she saw him, truly saw him past the veil of his eyes, and what she saw terrified her. The court was his domain. The court was his playing ground, and he was having the time of his life playing the game. He had the ambition to be king, but most of all wanted to have fun taking it.

Ryo walked to the door without being dismissed. It was impolite to dismiss oneself from the monarch, and he knew that. It was a way to show his power that he came and went at his whim, "I told you this opportunity came with no recompense, and I am a man of my word."

He left.

Zelda took the chair the man sat in, and in a blind rage, hurled it into the furnace along with his Din-damned scroll.

"Your highness," Abhdan said.

Zelda ignored him and slammed the fireplace shut. The chair crunched.

"Your highness, whether you think so or not, I think you should consider this a valuable lesson."

"A lesson in what?!" Zelda snapped. "That he can walk on me? That he can threaten to take my home from me just after I get it?"

The old man didn't respond to her tone or even show he heard it, "A lesson in trust. You should be thankful he gave you the lesson early, and without consequence to your name."

"Trust. That I can't trust him?"

"That you can't trust anyone."

Zelda forced herself to calm down and regarded the man. She considered everyone she knew. Her mother, the town of Kanton, the people she had met here in Kanyou. He was right. She couldn't trust any of them. None of them had proven themselves willing to put her above themselves. Even the black marketers, as they lost their life to circumstance and battle rather than sacrifice for her necessarily. If given a choice, would they have devoted their lives or defended her without reward? Too late to answer.

The only one Zelda could recall that had ever aided her without reward was Impa, but a thought tainted even this. Impa served the country; it wasn't about Zelda as a person. Her award was perhaps a better monarch than Kyou.

I would have come even without orders. Once I knew you were alive, no horse could get me here fast enough.

Except Impa had said that. Perhaps there was someone Zelda could trust. It was a faint hope, but it gave Zelda some comfort.

(Scribens 3/16/2020, Grammarly 8/19/2020)