Of Royal Blood - The Legend Of Zelda

[X] Get Brokka some food and water; she looks ready to collapse.
[X] Ask Mipha to heal her if possible.
[X] Ask "What are the spirit tracks and who rebuilt them?"
[X] Ask "What is so important about them? What do they do?"

You all quickly carry Brokka into the dining room, Mipha holding a glowing hand over her to repair all the damage exhaustion had wrecked on Brokka's body. You, on the other hand, run over to the Kitchen to grab the soup and drinks, with water as a top priority. When you return and set out food for everyone you notice they had stripped Brokka's armour off and set her at the table. Brokka practically lunges for the water you set down in front of her to down it in seconds before slurping down the soup.

Koko and Cottla looked scared, sitting close to each other and staring at Brokka demolishing her bowl of soup while not touching theirs. Koko was the one who managed to speak up first, practically whispering, "Is... Is Miss Brokka gonna be okay?"

"HA, take more than a couple days without food or water to get me down!" Brokka shouts, causing all of you to jump as she practically slams her bowl of soup down, "I don't know if it was just the hunger or that magic you did miss Zora but that was the most filling meal I ever had!"

"Oh no, you can thank Link for the food. My magic simply healed your body," Mipha tells Brokka, giving a small bow, "My name is Mipha by the way."

"Brokka it's... wait, Mipha? Huh, you have the same name as the Zora Princess-" Brokka stops, bringing a hand to her mouth, "Oh, apologies, I understand that must be a difficult subject."

"Oh no, not at all!" Mipha says, shaking her head, "Actually I-"

"Sister! Are you here- Ah good!" A jolly voice interrupts Mipha, followed by Prince Sidon's massive head poking through the entrance way, "I must apologize for missing eating dinner with you again, I do say Lady Impa accepts no slacking even from royalty! What a dedicated womanOh, am I interrupting something?"

Everyone was staring at Sidon with either shock or mild bemusement. Then they all turn towards the two children, specifically Cottla who promptly jumps up and yells "YOU'RE THE BIG FISH GIVING PIGGYBACK RIDES!"

"Brother, have you been disappearing to go play with the children?" Mipha asks, crossing her arms.

"My apologies sister, they seemed quite bored and I could not stand by and watch," Sidon explains, seemingly quite resolute, "Though I must say, I did not realize that this was the dining room. Forgive my rudeness everyone, but I'm afraid I will not be able to fit here!"

"Don't worry, we don't think you're being rude your majesty. Here, have a bowl of soup. Link prepared it with the help of Koko," Zelda says, pouring a bowl for Sidon.

"I thank you both, and accept it most graciously. I will be in the courtyard if you need me, have a good evening everyone," And with that Sidon vanishes.

Brokka then slowly turns to Mipha, jaw hanging opening, "You're.... Princess Mipha."

Mipha nods with a polite smile.

Zelda's expression, however, turned serious, "A lot has happened Brokka, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait. We need to know more about the spirit tracks. Why now, of all..."

"Hold on, before we begin what are Spirit tracks? Something left by a Poe?" You ask.

Zelda adjusts her glasses which she had forgotten to take off, a strange glint in her eyes, "Imagine a minecart track, yet the tracks cover the entirety of Hyrule. The carts that ride them are the size of boats and entirely self-propelled. These "trains" use Sheikah hover technology to achieve great speeds along these rails, carrying dozens of people and many tons of cargo across Hyrule at speeds greater than any horse can manage. The most advanced of them are armed with Guardian defense systems; missiles, lasers, energy-projectors, railguns, force-fields you name it. Of course, these Spirit Trains are only able to use so much power, so they're unlikely to be armed with all those weapons."

"And the Empire has got them up and running with the help of that cursed Yiga tribe," Brokka spat, before she sighs, "Well, sorta. It seems our Yiga cousins aren't the greatest of engineers. What trains I did see are shoddy things, built on top of floating platforms. Which ones are armed have small cannon turrets, like the kind you see on ships. It will still ruin your day, but they aren't surviving a well-aimed bomb arrow."

You then all look over to Cottla and Koko, who were listening intently. Paya is on it though, taking the girls bowls and leading them out of the room. Now without the two girls listening in you all return to the discussion, the grim reality of what this meant settling in. Still, one question lingered on.

"How were they able to set it up so quickly? Such technology is beyond the empire to reproduce, even if they found the originals," You ask.

Zelda, of course, has the answer, "Our Sheikah ancestors were masters of item storage, turning things into light and summoning it on demand. No doubt they simply reactivated the master-control, causing the raillines to simply rematerialize. Hmmm... that would mean that the rail lines are thousands of years out of date. They could miss entire cities, and are probably limited to being within Hyrule's borders."

Brokka shakes her head, "Not for long, I saw it while hunting for gems. Guardian Constructors, straight out of Doctor Purah's stories. They were eating enough ore and rupees to arm an army though."

"This is bad," Mipha remarks, her expression grave, "Think of all the men and material they could be moving around with these spirit tracks, any dissent would have the entire army bearing down on them within days."

"And they've already been clearing paths through the wilderness..." You mutter, recalling the slave trail you found.

"Is it that bad though?" Zelda ponders aloud, stroking her chin, "Brokka, did you scout out who's using the spirit tracks?"

Brokka raises an eyebrow, scratching the side of her head while she tried to remember, "Uh yeah but was in a rush to get back. They were loading and unloading people and carts. Civilians, farmers, merchants... Didn't actually see anything more than glorified guards other than the military trains near the Guardian Constructors."

Zelda steeples her hands in front of her, glasses glinting with a dangerous light as she let out a chuckle, "Heh, don't you all see? We can journey all throughout Hyrule in days now, find all the other maidens before the Empire even realizes what's going on. The old stations will likely be near Sheikah ruins as well if we need to gather artifacts, and even the Yiga can't inspect every train if the Empire wants to actually utilize the Spirit Tracks in an economical fashion."

"I suppose we could keep pretending to be a traveling band of musicians who treasure hunt on the side. It's not like that's even an uncommon thing nowadays, considering how often local songs point to rare treasure," You look over to Mipha, "You know how to play anything?"

Mipha blinks, "Uhm, the harp? It has been ages though since I've last seen one that hasn't been in Zelda's hands. I can sing though, at least according to the other Zora. I'm not sure how I would sound to Hylians."

"Whoa what? Why are you looking for maidens?!" Brokka exclaims, giving you a very threatening look.

Zelda quickly explains what had happened in the last few days, and by the end of it Brokka was bowing her head to you, "Forgive me, I'd have never suspected you were the hero of legend. Or that you were on a quest to find a new group of seven sages."

"Not to sound arrogant or anything but who did you assume I was?" You ask her, crossing your arms in front of yourself.

"Oh, just some nobleman's son who figured out who Lady Zelda was and swore to become her loyal knight or something and was wrapping her up in some insane chivalric quest while saving maidens and righting wrongs. Which actually I guess is technically accurate..."

When she puts it like that...

"Ahem, well I suppose I should find Lady Impa and inform her as well," Brokka says hastily, climbing to her feet, "Thank you for the meal and healing me, I'm glad I could be of some small help in your quest."

You all thank her for the information, walking her out of the manor before returning to the dining room. Your soups were now cold, and you all ended up eating in silence as you pondered how these spirit tracks changed your journey. You couldn't do anything about the Empire's growing power, but with it came blind spots you could exploit as long as you kept your heads down. Not very heroic, but you still recognized all the good you could do and then vanish before getting caught as Zelda had said.

The silence was broken however as Cottla and Koko raced back into the room, practically bouncing up and down as they shouted "Tell us about the Spirit tracks teacher! Tell us tell us tell us!"

"I-I am sorry Lady Zelda! I c-couldn't watch them!" Paya stammers out as she enters the room as well, bowing low in apology to Zelda.

Zelda laughs, "It's alright Paya! Alright well, what do you want to know?"

The questions came quickly, mostly minor things from children who didn't fully understand the topic but wanted to learn. When they paused to take a breath you chuckled and said "Wow Zelda, your classes must be really hectic if everyone wants to learn as badly as these two do!"

"Eeeeh? Teacher's classes?" Koko asks, looking very confused.

You blink, "Uhm, your classes at the schoolhouse?"

Koko looks over to her sister, before realization dawns on both their faces, "Ooooooooooooooooooooh! Teacher's story time!"

"Story time?" You and Mipha both look over to Zelda, who had turned away from both of you and was trying to drink her tea with shaking hands. Paya looked rather worried, glancing between Zelda and you.

"Yeah! Teacher reads to us! Sometimes the books are really boring, but other times it's really fun! She does voices and acts!" Koko merrily explains as Zelda's shaking was increasing to rather uncomfortable looking levels.

"But... she teaches you..."

"Yeah! We write from the books sometimes! Then we all go out and play!" Cottla adds, completely unaware of what damage her words were doing, "Teacher doesn't bring her dolls anymore after the grownups came by, but she still plays other games!"

"Dolls..." You say out loud, looking over to Zelda who had finally set her tea down and stood up.

"HAHA LOOK AT THE TIME!" Was the high-pitched announcement from Zelda, "Your father's probably expecting you home! I'll walk you back!"

"Aaaw, teacher..."

As Zelda quickly shoo's the girls out of the room while a nervous Paya follows her out, along with a really confused Mipha who muttered something about checking on her brother you were left alone, trying to wrap your head around this revelation on what kind of teacher Zelda was. Still, this also presented an opportunity. If you thought you were ready you could meet with Impa and take on that Stalnox, disappearing and returning before the girls have a chance to worry about you. Or you could turn in for the night, though Impa didn't seem the type to like waiting. Or was there something else you wanted to do tonight?

What do you do?
[] Take on the Stalnox.
[] Turn in for the night.
[] Write-in.