How to name a royal child

Zelda barely reached her room, before she burst into peals of laughter causing tears of mirth to stream down her face. Link, who followed her like a shadow, wasn’t faring any better. Zelda coughed. “Link, I don’t know how much more of this I can take!”

Link wiped the tears out of his eyes. “Then don’t!”

“You wish!”

Link cupped her face with his left hand and looked down at her rounded belly.

“We have to tell them anyway sooner or later.”

Zelda poked him in his stomach causing him to laugh again, “Don’t you dare to pretend that you forgot it’s only two more weeks until I win our little wager! I know exactly what you are up to. Remember that’s me who schedules the council meetings. If there happens to be none for the next two weeks, no one can ask me about the pregnancy.”

“I could always schedule an urgency council meeting myself as the Captain of the royal guard, darling.”

“I can’t see how the pregnancy of the Queen of Hyrule is a matter of national security, Captain Link,” Zelda deadpanned.

“If only you know!”

“Try me and I'll tell them, that Master Kilton is the father of this child!”

“You cheat on me with Kilton?!” Link cried and threw a pillow at his wife. “Should have known you are into this mask thing.”

Zelda pulled him on her bed and kissed him tenderly. “I’m not cheating you, you know that. But!” her eyes sparkled dangerously, “I won’t hesitate to do so, if you cheat on our bet, you traitor!”

Link only answered with another well-placed pillow and soon there was only a mess of feathers and pillows seen instead of the royal couple.

They hadn’t meant to keep their relationship a secret. It had just happened somehow along the way. After they sealed Calamity Ganon away, they settled down in Link’s cottage in Hateno for a well-earned period of rest. It took them a few weeks of mutual pining to discover that their feelings for each other were returned. They always kept their affections at bay in front of others, not because of an outspoken agreement but it was just how they were. Their marriage was exactly like their little hideaway in Hateno: Small, personal and well hidden from the public eyes. Only three other persons were present: Kapson, as the pastor, and Riju and Sidon as their witnesses. They didn’t choose wedding bands either. Zelda disliked jewelry in general since it symbolized her burdens from a hundred years ago. Link in contrast had a thing for jewelry, but he couldn’t wear a ring while bearing a sword and preferred headbands or earrings.

When they started to rebuild the kingdom, no one ever questioned the kind of their relationship. Even when they decided to build their rooms in the castle next to each other with a door in between, no one seemed to care. Bolson wasn’t one for many questions or gossip anyway. They settled into their respective responsibilities, Zelda leading the country and Link rebuilding the army and the royal guard. As a prince consort, he didn’t have any other tasks and to everyone else it seemed natural that the Hero would be the Captain of the royal guard anyway.

Zelda had installed a new council and over the years, they had achieved more and more of the goals they had set themselves. The council, or anyone else for that matter, had never brought up the topic of Zelda’s marriage, perhaps because she was still quite young. Everything went smooth until the two decided to try for a child. It took them over a year to get pregnant after Zelda had quit the contraceptive elixirs. It was a rough time for both of them, because neither of them knew if their hundred years of stasis had affected their fertility.

When Zelda finally discovered that she was with a child, they started their little bet. The rules were simply enough. If one of the council members coaxed Zelda into a confession that she was pregnant before her eighth month of pregnancy, Link could choose the name of their child. If she endured long enough without an official announcement, she was allowed to choose.

Luckily for Zelda, she wasn’t affected with morning sickness, so that the first few weeks went inconspicuously enough for her. It wasn’t until the third month that Link caught several younger councilmen stealing glances at her cleavage. Her bosom took the task of preparing for breast-feeding obviously very seriously and had grown significantly. In the fourth month, Zelda couldn’t wear her riding trousers anymore. It was a bit unusual for her to wear solely dresses, but the council still didn’t ask. The fifth month came together with wintertime and wintertime in Hyrule meant staying inside, eating delicious meals and lots of sweets. Nobody suspected anything, as Zelda settled for loose fitted dresses and wide cardigans in winter. During the sixth month, Link and Zelda heard the council member whisper to each other, but still nobody dared to say a thing. The peace lasted until the seventh month. Two weeks ago, they started with the first questions.

“Your Highness, you seem unwell. Do you need a healer?”

“No, I’m fine, thank you.”

They tried to be subtle, because however unconventional the Queen seemed to be, asking an unmarried woman about an unannounced pregnancy was never a good idea. When showing concern about her health didn’t work, they decided to propose forbidden activities. Perhaps she would admit that she couldn’t drink wine because of the baby or something like that?

“Why don’t you join the Captain on his rides like you used to do? It would surely lift your spirits.”

“I’m busy with paperwork for the rest of the week.”

Some of the council members even considered asking Captain Link. Although the relationship of the Queen and the Captain was strictly professional, it was clear to everyone that they shared a deep trust. If anyone knew something, it would probably be him. A few of the councilors even joked about how the father of the child got past Link as he had never really quitted the job of her appointed knight. The other council member countered that Link was loyal to his Queen without doubt and would never betray her trust, even if he knew. Apart from that, to pry something out of a loyal friend was even ruder than asking a woman about the father of her child directly.

Today, the councilors had made their boldest move so far. The poor Sebasto from Lurelin got the short end of the stick and stood with cold sweat and wringing hands before Zelda.

“Your Highness, we never brought this up before, but, do you, I mean, have you perhaps considered a wedding lately? We would be able to organize a royal wedding in two or three weeks, if you want to.”

Zelda had to cough loudly to suppress her laughter, “There will be no royal wedding at least for the next twenty years, councilman Sebasto. The council meeting is over for today. You are all dismissed.”

That answer caused the council members to gasp collectively and Zelda and Link had to run to their rooms to hide their outburst.

One week and six days later, the turning point of the bet had nearly arrived. Zelda, Link and the council members were in the middle of another meeting, but Zelda’s last comment had intimated the inexperienced council member enough to keep still in this matter.

And really, what could they do? Zelda bestowed the council with way more power than any other council in history. She wanted her kingdom to be ruled by the same people who fought so long and hard for their survival. They had a large freedom of decision in politics, economy, foreign affairs, even in the military. But so much power they had in these topics, so little they could influence the royal family. Zelda had made it absolutely clear that any member of the royal family could choose their duty freely. The council held no power over the private matters of the royal family, either. If a future prince would want to marry a stable boy, he could do so. And if the Queen decided to have a baby without being married or even being in an established relationship, there was nothing to be done.

The council discussed matters of trading taxes, when the herald announced a guest. Zelda looked at Link, but the Captain only shrugged. He had no further information either.

The herald called, “Prince Sidon of the Zoras!”

Sidon entered the throne room and rushed towards Link and Zelda, nodding at the council members. “Queen Zelda, Captain Link,” he bowed, “I know, we agreed to meet next week, but I hoped to go on a fishing trip with L...”, he stopped mid sentence and gave Zelda a quick glance over.

“Are you two kidding me? Link, you finally got your wife pregnant and you didn’t utter a word on our last trip? I swear, you are the worst best friend ever, lad! Anyway, congratulations you two lovebirds!”

Meanwhile, the whole throne room was dead silent. Everybody observed how Sidon embraced a smiling Zelda first and a broad smirking Link second. Sidon looked around and asked confused, “Did I say something wrong?”

This did the trick. Councilmen Sebasto was the first who broke into laughter and the rest of the council followed suit. Link embraced his wife from behind and laid a hand on her rounded belly. “No,” he smiled and Zelda leaned her head on his shoulder, “you didn’t say anything wrong at all.”

And this was how the tradition, that the first-born girl in the royal family always wears the name ‘Zelda’, broke.