-Kanyou, Capital of Qin-

"Your highness." A servant bowed. Zelda paused to turn and see the servant bowing. Behind her was a welcome sight. "May I present, Ganondorf Dragmire, king of the Majora clan, and his ward, Malon Dragmire."

"Ganon." Zelda smiled. "Normally I don't want company, but you are an exception."

Zelda had been walking in the Fae Grove, attending to the garden. Although she was not a caretaker by any means, the Fae Grove had naturally grown to envelop the entirety of the palace garden and add to its beauty many times over. The beauty and air of the Fae Grove gave her some measure of peace and warmth in a cold, tumultuous world. The servant bowed again and departed.

A number of Fae flew around Ganon, excited to see him, and he swatted them away in annoyance. Malon, though, was openly fascinated with them, and Ganon said nothing as her curiosity drew her away from him to follow after them. The Fae love children. If anything, he hoped they would get along well, play, and help ease the young girl's wounds.

"Thank you, Princess. Is this to be an occasion of formality for us, then?"

"I would rather not. My days are filled with formality as it is."

"Good. My days never seem to have any. I find such things tiresome." Ganon smirked.

"Consider yourself blessed."

"Perhaps, or a coward as Nabooru calls me. I have been known to flee court matters when I can."

"You are hardly one I would call a coward. I would call it either foolishness or wisdom, as contradictory as it may be."

"Not so. I have found that many things are judged as foolish or wise based solely on its success."

"Hmm. An interesting saying." Zelda mused.

Zelda pulled her long dress to the side and turned to walk without it obstructing her. "Care to join me?" Ganon shrugged, and walked by her.

They were both in their most formal attire. Zelda wore a large white dress fit for a princess, and her annoyance was noticeable with each step. She found the whole thing to be utterly ridicules. She was comfortable with rags and her normal attire, even as a Princess, was unbelievably humble by royal standards while being showy by her own standards. This dress was showy by royal standards, befitting the occasion today, so one need not imagine how annoyed it made her.

Her beauty had also grown in the last year. Puberty had made her taller and more womanly, though there was still years of development in store as she was but a young teenager. She was at the stage where her childlike appearance was starting to give way to the mature beauty passed down from her mother.

Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on who you ask.

Ganon's atire was one he was comfortable with. He wore a combination of black hardened leather and black armor plating from his boots to his torso to his gauntlets. He wore a black-bear fur over his shoulders. The only part of him that was not armored was his head as he disliked helmets. He simply had too much hair for helmets to work. And with his clothing being black on top of his black skin, his red eyes and long red mane of hair stood out brightly. He wore rubies around his wrists, rubies around his neck, and rubies roped on his forehead just at the hairline.

"You seem bored with the garden." Zelda noted. She stopped by a bush with flowers. She looked at them curiously.

"I don't find plants particularly... interesting." Ganon looked at the same bush, but his expression was one of disdain. "My interaction with plants doesn't extend far beyond eating or burning them."

"But... didn't you tell me once you wanted to explore the world? See all that it had to offer? I am sure there are many here you have never seen or smelled before."

"I did. I do. And you are right, I have not seen these before."

"Then what is the difference?"

"Perhaps it is my reputation or upbringing at stake. Men aren't supposed to see them the same way as woman."

"That's a pity. As far as the Fae tell me, plants are quite practical."

"Oh?" Ganon asked, not quite believing it.

"I am not lying!" Zelda chastised. She swatted at his shoulder. Ganon chuckled.

"I am not implying otherwise, but I don't see it." Ganon took hold of a flower and plucked it to inspect. He looked at its petals, its stims, and crushed into in the palm of his hand. "I know the people, both of Qin and Majora, use flowers as an expression of affection, but I do not share that view."

"Neither do I. What's the point in being given a dead flower? Once you pluck it, it is dead. And people who smell it? They are smelling a corpse." Ganon chuckled at the dark analagy. He was in full agreement. "But that is not the use I speak of, Ganon. Look at this one." Zelda stooped down and touched some small white plants. "The petals are useful in wounds to siphon poisoning, but the roots are poisonous. It also has a meaning of the balance between life and death."

"Useful for a doctor or herbalist or assassin I suppose." Ganon said deeply. He blinked in surprise as her words hit him. "There is a meaning behind them?"

"Yes. I don't claim to know the language of flowers, by any means. I heard of it when I wanted the flowers placed around the castle to be a certain one, and I was argued against because the flower has a particular meaning."

"What meaning would that be?"

"Cow manure."

"Bullshit." Ganon blurted out.

Zelda smirked, "Precisely."

"You're playing me for a fool."

"The meaning of the flower was 'cow manure'. Apparently because it was mixed in with the 'bullshit' to fertilize crops. I was told it is improper to have it, and that if there are to be vases with flowers in my palace, it should have a dignified meaning."

"... You are serious."

"Quite."

"..." Ganon stared at her a long moment, utterly dumbfounded. Then he said, "Where can I find some?"

Zelda laughed. Even Ganon laughed.

Zelda asked, "Just what do you have in mind for such flowers?"

"Oh, I have a list of people in mind."

"You just want to insult or screw with their minds. They would never expect such an insult from an 'uncivilized, uncultured, uneducated mountain barbarian' such as yourself. You seek to take advantage of that to pretend to be dumb."

"And I fail to see the problem." Ganon smirked mischievously. He looked to the garden. He did not see the beauty of the garden in the way girls or nobility might, but he realized there was at least something there he could use. At the very least he could have fun with it. "What else is there?"

Unfortunately for the world, Zelda was equally evil. She showed him a few more plants with unusual uses he could use. One smelled nice until it was placed in water, at which point it stank heavily. Another was known to create slimy pollen that stuck to everything. At one point the conversation took a natural shift again. They saw Malon inspecting flowers of her own while Fae talked to her.

Zelda said, "I must say it is a surprise to see you with a ward, least of all a Dragmire. I was not aware there were any left until recently. I feel there is a story here worth telling."

Dragmire was silent at first. He didn't want to tell the story, not because he disliked the princess of Qin, but because he didn't like the story. The story left a bad taste in his mouth for many reasons.

"She is a sign of my failure." Ganon said. Zelda's eyes widened in surprise. "You see... when you gave me the city of Joket, I found there to be a Dragmire family living there. A woman and child, taken in and married to a Qin man."

"That is... a beautiful setting. To think such a family exists... Did the relationship seem to work?"

"I believe so."

"Then that bodes well for our people."

"I agree, but as I was saying, I met the family. The mother had been born a pureblood Dragmire, and was enslaved following the Dragmire rebellion. She was taken in as a pleasure slave by men of Ketsu... from there she would not say much except that she was sold for cheap in the end to a simple man who, later, gave her to his son as wife. The two made it work and raised Malon."

"Is the husband the girl's father by birth? I hope not to pry, but I cannot help it."

"It... is a good question. I assumed so. But Malon may be a product of the woman's occupation rather than the marriage... Hm. Either way, she was accepted as the man's daughter, and to wonder otherwise is needless."

"Agreed. I apologize for overstepping myself. Please, continue."

"A series of incidents occurred. The people were being stirred up against me. Qin were disappearing. It took time to sort out, but an underground war was occuring. The governor of Joket, left behind by Chancellor Ketsu, was a Ki family head. Meanwhile Kei Ki entered the city to conquer the Ki family established there. The two fought in the slums with their men, and in the public eye there was trouble they could not see. The people assumed it to be the invaders."

"The invaders being you."

Ganon nodded. "I went to demand answers from the governor, when I learned he was a Ki family head, and that the mother once worked for him, and may have continued to some extent. How deeply, I don't know. When I found him, he had used a Majora mask of Exile on her, used another Exile mask to merge with a great monster bird, and fled." Seeing Zelda's confusion, he explained, "The Majora Exile mask is a practice going back to before the fall of Hyrule. The mask is placed on a creature or man, and the victim is... disappeared into the mask. The mask becomes their prison."

Zelda paled slightly, but otherwise did not respond physically. "How horrifying."

"Some monsters and legends are too powerful to be defeated by normal men, and so the Exile masks are used to temporarily defeat them. We don't know for sure anymore, but the Majora believe we were once the great prison wardens of Hyrule. We kept a secret prison of masks too dangerous to be known. This practice continued on into my rule."

"So then the mother is... dead?"

"No." Ganon replied. "The victim of a mask is not truly dead... but nor can I say they are alive. Breaking a mask or wearing one already containing an Exile releases the prisoner. She will be released one day, but it may be many years from now. Tens or hundreds or thousands of years. One cannot say. So I adopted Malon... Seeing as how the mother was taken and the father was killed."

Ganon fell into silence. Zelda was silent as well for a time before saying gently, "I am sorry for what the mother went through. I know her pain."

Ganon paused, "You do?"

Zelda took a deep breath and struggled to say her thought without breaking her voice. "My... m-mother... had to turn to whoring to survive our time in Zhao as a political hostage. I never experienced it, but I did see its affects first hand."

"I see..."

"Do you believe there to be more Dragmire out there?" Zelda wondered, quickly changing the subject. Thinking about her mother sent cold shivers down her spine. Cold shivers that seeped into her blood and made her numb. All the warmth and peace of the garden, or the camaraderie of Ganon's company, disappeared with a single thought of Bi Ki.

"I hope so. I do know at least there are two more. My ward, and this general your letter spoke of. I hope to learn more here."

Zelda said. "The strategists are going over with General Ouki Mitagi what to do about the invasion. With the speed of the invasion, they have a short deadline before we must demand an answer of response. But I will tell you what I know. Harken Dragmire is a survivor of the Dragmire Rebellion. He killed four of our six great generals of his generation, and was killed by Ouki."

"Supposedly."

Zelda nodded. "Supposedly. Harken seems to have been in Zhao licking his wounds and has returned to finish the job with Zhao's blessing."

Ganon considered it silently. He knew nothing of Harken, so he didn't know what to make of it. He could tell from the story that Harken was a driven man. But whether that drive was from seeking justice for the death of the Dragmire clan, or personal revenge for the same, he could not judge. If Harken was involving innocent people, then it would lean towards the latter.

But he also felt something important was at play here. The name Harken was incredibly familiar, but he could not place it. He felt uncharacteristically motivated.

"Princess, if I may ask you a favor." Ganon asked. "Allow me to join in the defensive campaign, personally."

Zelda eyed him cautiously, "This is an unusual request. Your presence is mostly a formality and politeness and sharing of information. Qin can handle him well. I merely wanted you here because, as an ally, and as he is a Dragmire, I felt you were owed to at least be aware."

"And the gesture is appreciated, do not doubt it. But I... I have to talk with him."

"With the enemy general." Zelda said flatly.

"He would be the only one to have the answers I need."

"You know I cannot allow that."

"Do not mistake my intentions as a betrayal. I am committed to our alliance and will act accordingly."

"I realize I am a youth compared to you, but even I can see the ridiculousness of this request." Zelda insisted. Hoping he would see how irrational his request was. "You think you can join an army to fight a man who is your family, and in the process not only expect us to ignore how clouded your judgement may be but think the man you go to fight against will conveniently tell you everything you want to hear? Ganon, I know you seek answers to questions I don't know, but it seems like the ways you are choosing to find answers will only cause you more problems than fixing them."

Angered by her words, Ganon exclaimed, "It is foolishness! I know that! But I must know!"

"You refuse to be content and have faith in what you don't see!"

"I refuse to be willfully ignorant! Wouldn't you want answers to your birth, if you felt your blood was cursed?!"

Ganon felt a chill go down his spine as Zelda narrowed her eyes thin. The speed at which she went from caring, at least a tiny bit, to cold and ruthless startled him.

"No, I wouldn't." Zelda hissed angrily, now remembering full well of her own past. "Because my blood is cursed, and I want more than anything to live in ignorance of it. To forget would be a blessing."

Ganon was shocked silent by her words and tone.

Zelda glared at him, "But then... you are just an ally. So do whatever the realms you want. We can watch over Malon in your absence if you choose to go."

Her words hit him like a punch in the gut.

Zelda walked past him to depart the gardens. The air in the garden felt icy around her. Ganon, meanwhile, felt his blood heat up. He knew he was a fool to desire so much, but it was the very blood in his veins that demanded it so. He had a past he wanted answers for, and this was the first one that could offer them. He would demand answers from Harken if it meant dragging him into a Qin prison to do it.

Malon walked up to him, looking up curiously. She had noticed the sudden tension between them, and Zelda's cold nature startled her greatly. Ganon sighed and stopped down. He said, "Little one, I will be away for a while. The one leading the enemy is a Dragmire... and I have to see him with my own eyes. The Qin royal family will watch over you while I am gone, you will be their guest."

Her eyes showed she didn't want him to go. "I am sorry, little one... I have to see him with my own eyes... and there are questions I have to ask him. Questions that have plagued me a long time. I must do it. It is a matter of the soul."

Malon started to tear up, but nodded. Ganon sighed while patting her head. The punch to the gut turned into a twisting corkscrew of guilt. "Thank you for understanding. I will return, this I promise you."