Rise of the Goddess

Chapter Twelve - Zariah

Zariah woke up the next morning being told that Corvus had left early that morning. She wasn't upset, she understood she probably went away to Rito Village, but already she missed her. She forgot how much she missed her and all of her sass, she used to fascinate her.

Regardless of the news of Corvus' departure, she got up and got ready for the day, changing into her usual outfit. She stepped out and was almost immediately Hoff was there.

"About time you've gotten up," he snapped.

"What are you doing here, our meeting isn't for several days," she snapped back.

"Because you're the Queen now, you have a lot more to do than lounge around the castle all day," he said, "Follow me,"

Zariah bit back her tongue and followed him, not bothering to ask where he was taking her. They walked for a few minutes and then he stopped at a door, unlocked it, and walked in.

Zariah froze, knowing exactly what room this was. After a moment, she stepped in.

Her mother's study was a nice room, bookshelves lined the walls, she had a dark wooden desk, floral engravings carved along the edges, a large blue and gold rug covered the wooden floors, a large window behind the desk overlooking the Northern side of Hyrule. She paused again at the door. This was her mother's, growing up she'd never been allowed to come in. Just standing here felt wrong.

Hoff had gone and now stood by the window. He turned around a saw her hesitantly standing by the door, "For the love of Hylia, don't tell me you're intimidated,"

"I'm not," she said, taking a few more steps inside, "It's just, this was only ever my mother's place. There was a time I was banned from even entering,"

"Shouldn't you overjoyed then?"

She flashed her eyes angrily at Hoff, "I'm not ready for it to be mine,"

Hoff watched for a second, then turned to face her completely, "Well, too bad," he said, "Now, you can either sit down or stay standing, but either way I needed a private audience with you,"

Zariah bit her lip and slowly made her way over and sat in her mother's plush chair, "What do you want?"

"Well, first off, this relationship between you and your knight, what is it? Who is he? Can he be trusted,"

"I would trust Raeden with my life," she said without hesitation.

"And...? How well do you know him? I need more details,"

"Why?" She grew defensive

Hoff paused, obviously struggling with her idiocy, "Our late Queen, your mother, was killed, with a high likelihood that the thing that led to her death was brought upon her purposely. She was most likely murdered. We have to figure out who you can trust and who you can't. Now, what else do you know about your boy toy,"

"Stop calling him that,"

Hoff turned to her mockingly, "As you wish, your majesty,"

Despite her anger, she started talking, "Raeden was raised in castle town, his father was a knight, he aspired to grow up to be like him. A few years ago he saved my father's life and became a Royal Guard. When I left for the Spring of Wisdom, my mother assigned him as my appointed knight and ever since then he's saved my life more times than I can count,"

Hoff nodded, seemingly satisfied, "And your relationship with him? Are you officially together or is it a secret?"

Zariah scoffed, "We're not dating or anything,"