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Chapter Text

Selwyn Hallowell, senior member and blademaster of the Royal Guard, stood at parade rest against the wall of the Temple of Time, along with five other members of the Royal Guard – three on each side of the building – and two more at the doors, the rest arrayed in the courtyard outside making sure they weren’t disturbed. King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule knelt at the base of the stairs leading up to the Goddess Statue, with the High Priestess of the temple, and elderly Hylian by the name of Mylle, standing a respectable distance away from the King, her white hair hanging down to her mid-back in intricate braids.

Golden sunlight streamed in through the large windows, one of the beams landing squarely on Princess Zelda where she, and her governess Mrs. Godfrey, stood behind the king, the afternoon sunlight turning the soon-to-be-ten-years-old Princess’ golden hair and white dress radiant, as though the divinity contained within her skin was leaking out.

There was no one else in the Temple, allowing King Rhoam to set aside his titles and just be a man as he prayed to the Mother Goddess, rather than as Regent-King of Hyrule.

Out of respect for his King Selwin didn’t listen to his prayer, despite the King’s voice echoing though the temple, instead allowing his eyes to roam and his thoughts to wander.

Today marked the fifth anniversary of Queen Zelda’s death at the hands of the Yiga, and almost a full year since the impending return of the Calamity was confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, though that information was still restricted to only the King’s inner council… and the Sheikah, who had investigated and brought them proof. No need to cause a panic among the commoners or nobility just yet… though neither were blind. Between the escalating activity of Death Mountain, then increasingly frequent and severe monster incursions, the awakening of ancient and forgotten things in the hidden and secret corners of Hyrule… it was becoming more and more obvious to everyone that the end of an age was approaching. The time of secrecy was almost over, but King Rhoam wanted to have something he could use to reassure the queendom before he confirmed the rumors rapidly spreading through bars, taverns, and noble estates.

As the King finished and stood, intending to step away so that the Princess could approach, a pulse of magic rippled through the temple, causing everyone to freeze even as their gazes snapped to the Goddess Statue. The statue was definitely glowing, the goddess’ smile seemed to widen into a smirk-

With a ripping sound akin to tearing cloth a rift of pure light tore open at the statue’s feet, just in front of the altar, which was a replica of the Master Sword (it was not the actual Master Sword, they’d checked) imbedded into a trapezoid of granite emblazoned with the golden Triforce.

Selwyn drew his longsword alongside the rest of the Guard, the six of them rushing forwards to interpose themselves between the royal family and the rift as the two by the door sprinted to cover their rear, even as a silhouette emerged, form completely obscured by the blinding light to the point where even general shape could not be determined.

Then, just as suddenly it appeared, the rift vanished, leaving everyone blinking sun spots out of their eyes.

The first thing Selwyn noticed, aside from green, was that the intruder was very definitely not hylian. He was tall, easily over six foot and possibly pushing seven, his body covered in short green-gray fur, a short snout, long, pointed, almost feline ears, similar to a hylian’s but furry and clearly moveable as his were quickly twitching to and fro. Vibrantly red hair fell to his mid-back, while shockingly blue eyes analyzed them with celerity, a twitch drawing attention to his fingers, which were tipped with small, likely sharp claws, and from beneath his sarong came a tail tipped with a thick tuft of red fur that was flicking back and forth, alongside digitigrade legs complete with large, clawed paws.

Atop his forehead, holding his hair in place, was a golden circlet studded with diamonds while his torso was protected by segmented bands of a green metal inlayed with dark brass over a blue tunic, armored tassels made of the same metal covering a tan sarong embroidered with golden triforces along the bottom edge and trimmed in red fabric. His arms were protected by gauntlets from wrist to elbow, pauldrons shielding his shoulders and upper arm, both covered in geometric embellishments, dark brass on green, just like his chest piece, with fingerless gloves made of some dark material stretching back over his forearms. Greaves, of the same make and design as his gauntlets, guarded his shins from knee to ankle, with leather sandals protecting the arc and pads of his feet. Hanging from his belt on his right hip was a rectangular object of dark blue and gold, on his other side hung eight small cylinders filled with luminescent teal liquid connected to a segmented strip of brass and veridian, while poking over his right shoulder was the iconic hilt of the Master Sword, though Selwyn couldn’t tell if it was the actual Sacred Blade as there were quite a few copies of the relic in circulation. Finally, a large quiver filled with arrows was strapped to his waist and a rucksack to his back.

“Identify yourself,” King Rhoam barked, “Do you serve the Goddess or Calamity?”

The cat-man raised his hands and began to sign in Hylian Standard Sign.

Do you understand sign?

“Everyone here understands sign, now answer the question,” the King of Hyrule answered severely.

I am Link, L-I-N-K, of the Wilds, also known as Link of the Great Plateau. The cat-man, Link, signed, using a combination of the signs “wilds” and “hero” as his personal sign, then slightly cocked his head in curiosity. Do Calamity’s cultists really identify themselves on demand?

Oh, Selwyn dearly wished they did, it would make his job so much easier.

“…Not usually, no,” the King admitted.

Then why ask? He asked.

King Rhoam was spared the embarrassment of responding when the Princess abruptly spoke.

“Father…”

“Not now Zelda.”

“Father, he’s the Hero! I can feel it!”

There was a pause as everyone turned to look at Link, and he responded by carefully reaching back and, with two fingers, drawing his sword several inches, revealing a blade glowing with sacred power. Then, in case that wasn’t enough proof, he unbuckled and pulled off his right gauntlet, showing the back of his hand, and the triforce glowing through the fur, to everyone.

There wasn’t quite a sigh of relief, but I, and the rest of the Guard, lowered our weapons, though we didn’t sheath them. Just in case.

“…I was under the impression that the Hero was usually of age with the Princess,” the King said carefully, “Has something happened?”

Not as far as I know, the Hero replied, The Hero of this era should be fine. I’m his successor, from just over a hundred years in in the future.

“A hundred years…” King Rhoam said slowly, “…between so few years having passed and your… appearance and presence here… I take it we lose?”

Selwyn stiffened, a pit of lead pooling in his gut, and he heard the shifting and clink of metal as other guards did the same. He hadn’t thought of the implications of Link’s arrival yet, but the King was right. Even ignoring how the last time the Calamity was put down for ten thousand years, the previous cycles would see hundreds of years pass between its appearances in different forms, not a mere century. Combined with how all previous Heros were Hylian and the Link in front of them distinctly wasn’t… were there no Hylians left for the Hero to incarnate from?

Zelda successfully sealed the Calamity, Link signed, ears and tail drooping, but the queendom never recovered, and despite killing Calamity twice I wasn’t able to keep what was left from falling apart. He wilted. I’m sorry. I failed.

The silence that fell over the temple was almost ringing in how absolute it was.

Twice. Link had faced Calamity twice, which meant it attacked three times in, at most, a mere hundred-fifty years.

No wonder everything fell apart for him.

“I see,” King Rhoam said, subdued, “…The Goddess wouldn’t send you here if She didn’t think we had a chance, so before we return to the castle to begin planning I have one more question. I do not recognize your species, what are you?”

Half Zonai, half Hylian, Link replied, I don’t know anything else about my parentage however, other than I’m not of Rauru and Sonia’s line like the Royal Family is. I was raised by a wolf and a ghost among the wilds and ruins of the Great Plateau, hence my epithet.

“I’m part Zonai?” Zelda piped up curiously.

Link chuffed, clearly amused. Very, very distantly, he signed, Hyrule’s first king, Rauru, was Zonai, the first queen, Sonia, was the great-granddaughter of the first Zelda, who was Hylia Reborn.

“Cool!” she cheered, then paused and added, “Does that mean I’m going to grow up to be big and fuzzy like you?”

“Princess!” Mrs. Godfrey hissed, but Link just softly laughed, revealing his teeth had more in common with a cat or wolf than a Hylian.

Unfortunately not, he signed, letting out a brief rumbling purr, but you’ll be magnificent none-the-less.

“Aww,” Zelda said sadly, disappointed.

“We need to leave soon if we are to make it to Gatepost Town before nightfall,” King Rhoam said, “Everyone fall in, you too Hero. I want to get back to the Castle as soon as possible so we can start planning. Hyrule will not fall this time,” he vowed.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link followed the Royal Procession out of the Temple, having only restrained himself at the last moment from falling in at Zelda’s side as, recognized Hero or not, he doubted having an unknown so close to the Princess would be appreciated by the Royal Guard (he certainly wouldn’t in their place), but it still burned.

For eight years, ever since they had dealt with the Calamity, his place had been at Zelda’s side, and to not retake it felt wrong. But this Zelda was not his Zelda, who had died in the fires of Kakariko, holding the line against impossible odds as the last survivors of Hyrule fled though the path she had ordered him to cut though the monster horde.

He also still wasn’t accustomed to looking down at everyone, despite six months having passed since his transformation, though considering his only company during that time was Purah and Mineru he supposed that was more understandable, even if seeing the top of Rhoam’s head was still odd.

The extra height was probably Mineru’s doing though, Hylia seemed to have a thing for short heroes.

Not that Link was going to complain, aside from his (not so hidden) glee at not being the shortest non-child in the room anymore, the extra reach his height afforded him was invaluable in combat, as, as he had quickly learned back when he was recovering from the Shrine of Resurrection, he who scores the first hit usually wins the fight. Which was why, unlike his predecessors, he preferred the bow and the spear over the sword, the extra range had been vital to surviving those early days, and by the time he had recovered the Master Sword and his strength his fighting style had been set.

The way the scars of his first death (that the Shrine hadn’t been able to fix, due to being low on power, material, and ten thousand years without maintenance, despite the best efforts of the Sheikah scientists to restore it before Calamity hit) painfully restricted the mobility of his arms and torso also limited his ability to wield a blade.

That, and the other scars he’d collected over time, hadn’t stopped him from killing Calamity and then Gannondorf, but after picking up a whole new batch of injuries after finally dealing with that fucking golden lynel and scattering its horde (even if it had been too late to save anyone by then) no one, from him to Purah to Hylia Herself, had been confident in his ability to go through this shit again, given how badly damaged his body had been.

Hence why he had agreed to permanently transforming himself into the Hero’s Aspect in order to get rid of the damage.

He hadn’t regretted it. He even had his right arm back, and it was truly his arm now, not Rauru’s.

No longer would he have to keep track of where he left it when he took it off because his stump was hurting.

As Link passed through the doors of the Temple of Time he paused at the precipice, taking in the sight. He’d known that the Temple had once been the heart of a complex – the ruins of the three chapels dedicated to the Golden Goddesses proved that – but seeing it whole, intact, and populated…

The stonework of the courtyard gleamed. Carefully trimmed trees and bushes lined paths that had been ruined by Guardian blasts and feet. Wooden buildings – whose ruins had been swallowed by the wilds to the point no trace remained by Link's time – ringed the chapels, simple in design yet clearly well built and cared for, undoubtedly accommodations for the priests and pilgrims to the temples. He could hear the chatter of numerous people, droned into incomprehensibility through their multitude and his lack of focus, smell the burning of wood, the cooking of food, and… other, less pleasant smells of civilization.

“Sir Link?”

“Mrrp?” He trilled as he turned to look at the Royal Guard who had addressed him. For some reason he looked and smelled familiar, but whatever lost memory it was tickling didn’t reveal itself to him.

“Is everything alright?” the Guard asked.

Just processing, Link signed, this was all ruins in my time, lost and overgrown. He tilted his head. Also, sir?

“By law, once the Hero is recognized by the monarch he is automatically granted a honorary knight title,” he explained, “It’s to allow you to commandeer and direct soldiers in the field as needed, though if you use it His Majesty is going to want a report on what happened and why.”

Link nodded to show he understood.

“Anyway,” the Guard continued, “given that Mis Majesty came to pray for guidance, not a Hero, we don’t have a horse for you, so we’re currently debating who gets to double up as you’re a bit too large to ride along.”

Tell them that’s not necessary, Link replied, I came prepared. Just need some space to summon it.

“I… see? What are you going to summon?”

Zonai Cycler.

“I don’t know what that is.”

I’ll show you. Where are the stables?

“This way.”

As Link followed the Guard through the temple complex he could tell the exact moment when people spotted him, as conversations abruptly ceased only to restart after he passed, almost universally filled with questions such as “who is that” “what is that” and “where did he come from”.

It was to be expected, Zonai were completely unknown in this time period, but that didn’t stop the tension from building in his shoulders nor his ears slowly sliding down. The one good thing about his previously short stature was that it made it easy to hide, either behind objects or people, but with him now a foot and a half taller than most Hylians that wasn’t an option anymore.

Thankfully the stables weren’t far, and while they were just as crowded with stablehands and guards getting the Royal party’s horses ready to depart, they were focused on their jobs, not on him.

Finding an open space next to the cobbled road leading away from the temple he pulled out the Pad and, with speed borne of long experience, summoned the Zonai Cycler in a flash of Sheikah blue.

The Zonai Cycler was effectively the Master Cycle Zero – which had been destroyed by falling debris when Gannondorf tried to turn Hyrule Castle into his own flying island – rebuilt with Zonai technology, and was right at the upper limit of what Sheikah Slates could store due to the extra armor added to make it “Link-proof". Purah’s modifications to the Pad did not increase that particular limit, had the Cycler been any bigger it would have needed to have its tires removed to get it to fit. It wasn’t an exact replica of course, ignoring the aesthetic differences from the different technology base and armored frame, the Master Cycle's combustion chamber had been swapped out for a Zonaite energy cell, similar to the one on Link's belt but scaled up.

Purah and Robbie had been so proud to gift it to him on the anniversary of Gannondorf’s defeat, having spent most of a year designing and building it with Mineru’s help.

Reaching over Link flicked the Master On switch, and the Cycler let out a faint whirr, as well as a few clicks and pops, as it went through a brief self-check, a green light appearing next to the instrument cluster a second later.

“That's so cool!” a girl cried out, and Link looked up to see Zelda rushing over, a mildly exasperated older woman following in her wake.

“What is it? Are those tires? Do you ride it like a horse? How does it move?”

Link couldn’t help but purr fondly as he listened to Zelda happily babble away as she puzzled out his Cycler, even managing to correctly identify several components, such as the energy cell.

“I’m sorry about this,” the woman murmured to him.

I don’t mind, Link replied, still purring, as he felt his ear instinctively swivel towards heavy footsteps that were approaching.

“That is not Sheikah tech,” Rhoam said, looking over the Cycler as the woman attempted to corral Zelda away from her object of interest, to her displeasure.

It’s Zonai tech, Link told him, most Sheikah tech was derived from it.

Though, as the Sheikah Slates proved, the Sheikah hadn’t been content to “merely” reverse-engineer the various Zonai devices they’d found, making a multitude of impressive advancements on their own merits, though their lack of access to Zonaite meant that the Zonai were still superior in several areas.

“I see. Do you know where to find more?”

Yes. Getting it will not be easy though.

“If it was easy the caches would have already been found and looted,” Rhoam grumbled, “but as much as I want to question you further it’d be pointless to do so before we return to the castle. We’d just have to go through everything again.”

“Father!” Zelda came bounding over, once pristine white dress now with grass stains on the knees, “Father, could I please ride with Hero Link? Please?”

I could throw together a sidecar easily enough, Link offered.

“I would prefer to not trust my daughter’s safety to something cobbled together in the field,” the King demurred, “Not today, Zelda.”

“Aww,” Zelda whined, disappointed.

Sorry, little one, Link signed as she let herself be led away by her minder, Maybe next time.

“We need to get moving,” Rhoam said after glancing at the sun’s position, turning back to his horse, a large dappled stallion, and bellowing, “Mount up! We ride in ten!”

Link quickly slid astride the Cycler, long habit seeing him automatically unspool a retractable powercable from his energy cell and plugging it into the Cycler, allowing the two devices to share power. Lightly opening the throttle he maneuvered to place himself alongside the middle of the forming column outside the cordon of Royal Guard, waving them off when they tried to open up a space for him in their formation. If the convoy came under attack – an admittedly unlikely scenario, but Link hadn’t survived this long without a healthy dash of paranoia – then he wanted the freedom to maneuver.

A short while later and the convoy was traveling down the road at a brisk trot, Link effortlessly keeping pace. This wasn’t the first time he had escorted a convoy – far from it – but it took effort to maintain his position rather than roam out in front as he usually did. He wanted to make a good impression on Rhoam, after all.

About half an hour in the light wind shifted, bringing a familiar, and highly unwelcome, scent to his nose.

Bokoblins.

Only a few, but like hell was he letting them get anywhere near Zelda.

Standing on the Cycler’s footrests he sniffed the air, eyes and ears scanning, ignoring the murmurs his actions caused among the convoy.

There. A patch of long grass that wasn’t moving correctly with the wind, and with his ears trained towards it he could hear familiar faint grunting.

Link instantly opened throttle, the Cycler’s motors spinning up to a dull scream as they went to full power, the Zonai device surging under him. Ignoring the yelps of surprise from the convoy he veered away from the road towards the threat, hopping up so that his paws were crouched under him on the Cycler’s seat as he drew the Master Sword with his right hand, divine blade shining brilliantly in the sunlight, glowing teal Zonai script running down the length of the blade.

Then, when he reached the optimal distance, he leapt, secure in the knowledge that without a rider the Cycler would automatically bring itself to a stop. As he reached the apex of his flight, the world slowed at the command of the Hero of the Goddess of Time, giving him plenty of opportunity to observe his prey.

Three red bokoblins stared up at him, eyes wide, two with crude clubs, one with a spear.

Nothing that could be a threat, or even an inconvenience, to him.

Time resumed.

Link let out a roaring snarl. The bokoblins screamed in unholy terror as he landed amongst them.

Three seconds, a flurry of slashes, and a few flying limbs later, it was all over.

Flicking his sword to clear it of excess blood – the rest sizzling away to leave the Sacred Blade pristine – he ignored the six Royal Guards thundering towards him with weapons drawn as well as the controlled chaos from the rest of the Guard to catch Zelda’s eye.

Would the Princess be interested in learning how to harvest fresh elixir ingredients? He asked.

Chapter Text

Despite looking a little nauseous, the Princess was interested in Link’s offer.

Her father, however, was not.

In fact, he wanted his daughter secure behind the walls of Gatepost Town, preferably three hours ago but he’d settle for immediately.

Apparently, the garrison at Gatepost Town was supposed to keep monsters from entering the Great Plateau. Link’s suggestion that they might have climbed a goat trail along the southern edge of the Plateau by the Taobab Grasslands – which was a bit far for the garrison to monitor – was not appreciated.

The Royal Guard meanwhile were concerned that there might be more bokoblins – or worse – hiding nearby, and were only slightly mollified when Link told them that he couldn’t smell any other than the ones he’d already killed, but they too wanted to get to Gatepost Town as soon as possible.

Still, Link asked and got permission to take up his usual position of zooming around ahead of the convoy checking out anything that caught his interest, the Cycler’s speed allowing him to easily keep pace with the convoy despite them moving at a fast trot, Gatepost Town still being too far away to risk the horses with a gallop. They had made him promise to return to the convoy and alert them if he found any more problems, but since he wasn’t expecting any lynels, hinoxes, or taluses to show up in the Hyrulian heartlands in this era it was an easy promise to make.

The flora, fungi, and fauna he encountered during his ranging were the same as in his time, but he collected what he could easily gather without falling behind anyway. Sheikah Slates kept anything in their storage in functional stasis until it was withdrawn, so there wasn’t any reason not to forage whenever he could. He could always sell what he gathered for rupees anyway.

Or use them to teach Zelda how to cook.

She’d been a bad cook.

Link liked to joke that he used her cooking to poison monsters.

Zelda’d complained that her cooking wasn’t that bad. Link had gone out, captured a bokoblin, fed it Zelda’s latest “experiment in cooking”, and the thing had promptly keeled over. (Admittedly, the poison he’d laced the dubious food with had helped)

Everybody, especially Purah, had never let her live that down.

Goddess, he missed them.

Coming to a stop at the side of the road while he waited for the convoy to catch up, he looked North, finally acknowledging the sight that he’d been ignoring since emerging from the Temple of Time.

Hyrule Castle loomed on the horizon, lit by the setting sun, grand, whole, and intact, standing tall over Hyrule field, which was almost completely covered in farmland dotted with small towns and villages. A far cry from the rolling grasslands filled with ruins haunted by guardians and monsters in his time.

The Zelda of this time was so small, so young, that it was easy for him separate her and his Zelda into two different people in his mind, but Purah, Robbie, Mineru…

He felt his ears droop as he continued looking towards the Castle. He’d see them again soon, the former two much sooner than the latter, but they wouldn’t know him.

The thought hurt.

Link raised his hand to wipe away the tear that escaped, looked back to see the convoy had caught up, and zoomed off towards the apple tree he’d spotted.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Selwyn watched from his position at the King’s left side as their unconventional outrider darted to and fro to anything that caught his interest ahead of them, occasionally pausing to look back at them, rather than any regular sweeping pattern like scouts were supposed to do.

“Reminds you of a hunting dog ranging ahead of its master, doesn’t it,” Asher, his best friend, who was riding behind him next to the Princess and her Governess, said what was going through Selwyn’s mind.

“Aye,” King Rhoam said, “though given that nose of his it might be a more apt analogy than expected.”

It hadn’t been missed that the Hero had smelled the bokoblins long before anyone had caught sight of them. In fact, none of the Royal Guard had known they were there until Link had pounced on them, causing them to squeal. Selwyn vividly remembered how his heart had leapt into his throat when the Hero had abruptly torn away from the convoy, Master Sword in hand and fangs bared in a silent snarl, the jolt of adrenaline coming from how the Hero had clearly detected something that he deemed a threat and Selwyn had no idea what or where it was.

That it was just three red bokoblins, even if there shouldn’t have been any on the Great Plateau, was a relief. Seeing Link calmly and politely ask the Princess if she wanted a potions lesson a second after violently butchering them was whiplash inducing.

Still, the moment they got back to the Castle the entire Guard was going to be going through awareness training, because that was unacceptable.

“Calling him a dog is rude!” Zelda piped, “He’s the Hero!”

“Aye,” the King agreed as they started down the ramp leading out of the Plateau and to Gatepost town, world turning dark as they dipped below the horizon, “that he is.”

As they got close enough that the guards manning the Plateau Gate began to be easily distinguishable from the gate itself, Selwyn noticed that Link had come to a halt next to the road, and he was…

He was fidgeting. Like Selwyn’s youngest when he was nervous about something.

Exactly like Selwyn's youngest actually. Compulsive interleaving of fingers and everything. Though the position of his half-lowered ears and movement of his tail made it clear to any that knew feline body language that he was nervous.

“Is there a problem, Hero?” the King asked as they came alongside.

In my time, any who stood against the Calamity was an ally, no matter what they looked like, Link responded after a moment's hesitation, but given this era's peacefulness, I’m worried that I will be labeled as a monster.

King Rhoam let out a gusty sigh.

“I wish I could say your fears are unfounded,” he admitted, “but there are some… profoundly unintelligent people who would do that.”

And that’s not counting the bigots, Selwyn thought, which included a depressingly large number of nobles. Except they would do it intentionally.

“Fall in beside me,” the King decided, gestured to his right side and the Guard immediately shuffled their formation to make room, “that should prevent any misunderstandings.”

Link’s ears rose in relief as he nodded and quickly fell into place at the King’s side, the Guard closing back in around him, which, given how short his Cycler was compared to their horses, practically caused him to disappear from outside observation.

“Hail His Majesty, King Rhoam of Hyrule!” the gate guards hollered in greeting as they reached them, announcing the King’s presence to the town.

As they rode in Selwyn saw the usual suspects gathering, citizens in curiosity, the wealthy and powerful in opportunity, though the Guards kept them from crowding too close.

“Captain Malcom!” King Rhoam barked.

“Here, Sire,” the head of the Gatetown and Great Plateau garrison was let through the cordon and saluted.

“I need to speak with you, now, in your office,” the King told him severely.

The man paled but saluted.

As he dismounted his horse King Rhoam caught Selwyn’s eye and discretely signed, Stay with Hero.

Selwyn nodded and dismounted with the rest of the Guard, handing his horse off to a stableboy for brushdown and feeding.

From there the Guard split in thirds, one part heading with the King to the town’s barracks complex where the poor captain was about to have a bad night (and was probably going to spread it around to the men under his command), another third went with the Princess and her governess to secure rooms for tonight (and put the tired nine-year-old to bed), while the last third went to secure the Guard’s own lodging and restock on supplies, leaving Selwyn standing with Link, who had already made his Cycler vanish into that strange box of his, along with Asher.

Selwyn gave his friend a confused look.

The King was only signing to me, he told him.

I think he was signing at both of us, Asher replied, besides, Rule of Two is still in effect.

Selwyn nodded at that.

Rule of Two? Link asked curiously.

The Rule of Two was one of the changes that was implemented after the Queen’s assassination, Selwyn explained, due to the Yiga having managed to kill and replace several of the Royal Guard. As such, while on duty no Guard was to go anywhere alone.

Link tilted his head in confusion.

How’d they manage that? He asked, The Yiga aren’t known for their competence.

That stung, and Selwyn barely refrained from glaring at the Hero.

Explain, Asher demanded coolly.

They’ve been trying to kill me ever since I left the Great Plateau, Link replied, They’d disguise themselves as travelers and then attack me when I came to see if they needed assistance. The first few times they were a threat only due to my relative weakness and lack of knowledge regarding who I was fighting. Afterwards, they were annoying, but not actually dangerous. He paused for a second. It’s possible that their best got wiped out during Calamity’s initial attack, forcing the clan to rebuild from half-trained recruits, he offered, that would explain why they’re not as much of a threat in my time.

Selwyn frowned. It’s possible, he allowed, though the amount of devastation that would be required for that to be true was… horrifying to consider. How did more normal people deal with them? Even the Royal Guard, with all our training and resources, struggle to identify Yiga.

Mainly by instantly ganging up on them the moment they detected one. As for how they spotted one, Yiga have a rather obvious tell: they will do anything for a Mighty Banana.

That made Selwyn proverbially sit up and take notice. Could the boogiemen of Hyrule really have such an exploitable weakness?

Anything? Asher asked eagerly.

Anything, Link confirmed, I once fused a bushel to the horn of a sleeping hinox, then let that slip to a suspected Yiga clansman. Came back a day latter to find over two dozen of them trying to figure out how to get the bananas without waking it. They seemed to be having a disagreement on how to do it, A decidedly gleefully evil look crossed the Zonai’s face, so I shot the hinox in the foot.

Despite himself Selwyn couldn’t help but smirk in schadenfreude, and he heard Asher strangle a snicker.

Their screams were glorious, the cat-man purred smugly.

Well, we have a decisive dearth of hinoxes in this time, Selwyn signed, but do you think we could get them to walk themselves into a jail cell?

Quite possibly, Link replied, then reluctantly added, though if they did lose all their competent leadership in the Calamity and all I dealt with was the dregs, it might not be that easy.

Selwyn and Asher both nodded at that, neither seriously expecting it to be as simple as putting some bananas on a pressure plate rigged up to a trap door.

It was at this point that Link noticed the crowd of people still staring at him curiously from a safe distance away and began to tense up.

Have you been to Gatepost town before? Selwyn asked to distract him.

Link shook his head.

This was all ruins in my time.

The more Selwyn heard about the time Link came from, the less he liked it.

What all was left? Asher asked.

Link looked around.

Not much, he signed, some of the buildings made of stone had their footprints remain, but the only building to have more than a wall or two or its foundation was… that one. He pointed at the large, four-story tall building at the center of the town, the peaked roof and small spire over the entrance making it the tallest building in the settlement. What is it?

A chapel, Selwyn explained, it was built to service travelers traveling between Necluda, Gerudo Desert, and Hyrule proper, as well as pilgrims making the trip to the Temple of Time. The rest of the town grew up around it.

Link immediately began moving towards the chapel and the crowd, seeing a large, heavily armed and armored cat-man striding towards them with purpose, obligingly parted ways, Selwyn and Asher trailing in his wake.

It made sense, Selwyn mused, that the Hero of Hylia would be religious.

Except Link didn’t enter the chapel. He didn’t even go to the front door.

He went straight up the side.

Selwyn sighed, ignoring the offended murmuring of watchers.

“Link.”

“Mrrow?”

“Please get down from there.”

“Naow.”

Watching the Zonai’s tail disappear over the edge of the roof Selwyn sighed again, while Asher huffed a laugh.

“Reminds me of dealing with your youngest, doesn’t it?” he said.

Selwyn’s youngest, and only, son – who was also called Link, though being named after the Hero of Legends was, while not common, not rare either – also loved to climb things and buildings he wasn’t supposed to, and was… difficult to coax down when he didn’t want to.

“Unfortunately,” Selwyn muttered, “Link!”

The Hero’s head reappeared.

“What are you even doing up there?”

Scouting, he signed, and disappeared again.

For a third time, Selwyn sighed.

“Who is he?” Someone from the crowd finally asked.

“The Hero of Hylia, ladies and gentlemen,” Asher drawled, “The King will make the formal proclamation when we return to the Castle, but Hyrule has found its Hero, and he’s a giant cat.”

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link did eventually come down from the chapel, after having marked up his map with his best approximation of the new roads and settlements he could see from his vantage point and snacking on a few skewers to sate his hunger. By then the sun had dipped below the horizon and the crowd that he had not quite fled from – he could tell that was going to be a reoccurring thing and already despised it – had dispersed.

Using the paraglider to drop back down to ground level he allowed the pair of disgruntled guards the King had clearly assigned to him to lead him to the large inn the Royal Party had taken over for the night.

He didn’t know how the inn compared to others in this time, but compared to his own it was downright luxurious. The lobby was lit by a glass chandelier – clearly of Goron make – Gerudo rugs lined the floor, rich wood frescos lined the walls, and posh, overstuffed furniture scattered around the room, with Rhoam seated in an armchair by the lit fireplace, working on some paperwork on a lap desk. The reception desk was unmanned, and there were Royal Guards standing at the corners of the room. Rhoam looked up as Link walked in.

“What were you thinking, climbing the chapel like that?” he asked, annoyed.

Hylia said she was fine with it, Link replied.

Whatever Rhoam was expecting, that was not it.

“Hylia said she was fine with it?” he repeated in disbelief.

Link nodded.

“When was this?”

Back during when we met to first discuss transporting to this timeline.

“You’ve met her?” the King asked eagerly, leaning forward slightly.

Yes. How do you think I came to this timeline?

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” he admitted, “I assumed… you came to the temple to pray and the goddess opened the portal in front of you.”

Link shook his head.

This was planned, he replied, between when Hylia approached us and me arriving here… he thought for a moment, it was a bit over five years.

Admittedly, he hadn’t been conscious for most of that while his body was being remade.

“I see,” Rhoam said, relaxing back in his seat, “I look forward to hearing what this plan is. You should get some sleep, we’ll be heading out at dawn. I want to get to the Castle before nightfall.”

You should too, Link signed.

Rhoam sighed.

“Soon,” he promised.

As Link was about to exit the lobby, following a guard tasked to take him to his room, Rhoam called out again.

“Link.” He looked back at the King. “I know Hylia gave you permission, but most won’t believe you, and it’s to me that they’ll complain. So don’t climb any more churches without, at least, the permission of their priests.”

Link considered that for a moment and shrugged.

Fair enough.

Like the rest of the inn, Link’s room, located on the second floor, was luxuriously appointed, soft silk sheets, Rito feather pillows and mattress, several overstuffed chairs, a vanity with a polished silver mirror, and several other tokens of wealth that he didn’t care to examine. Shutting and locking the door behind him Link crossed the room and threw open the window shutters, letting in moonlight and the night air and ambience. He’d long ago learned that he didn’t sleep well in fully enclosed rooms, but keeping the windows open – no matter the weather outside – was usually sufficient to let him sleep through the night.

After a moment watching the town’s limited night life, he sighed and began to strip out of his armor and weapons. Once down to just his sarong he sat in front of the vanity and, squinting against the glare of his Pad – his night vision had gotten a lot better since he became half-Zonai, but it also made even the minimum light setting of the Pad too bright – deposited his grooming kit onto the vanity.

He’d found out, both from Mineru and his own experience, that fur required a fair bit of upkeep. As a Hylian, he could, and had, go weeks without bathing. It wouldn’t be pleasant, granted, and he would reek, but he could do it and only be moderately grumpy at the end.

If he tried to do that in his new Zonai body he’d go insane before the month was out.

It wasn’t just the sensation of oily hair all over his body, dirty fur tended to mat, and when it got matted, hair follicles got pulled. Unlike Hylian hair, or his own now-crimson locks, the guard hairs of his fur had deep roots that only allowed a limited degree of travel before things got painful, fast. And the places most likely to clump were around his joints, resulting in an obvious, and painful, problem.

Unfortunately, simply bathing more often wasn’t the solution. His skin now produced natural oils that if washed away would cause his skin to dry out, which resulted in itchiness, flaking, dandruff, and, if he didn’t let his skin re-moisturize over prolonged period of time, bald spots. Likewise not bathing had its own, obvious, problems.

Purah had believed that the Rito likely had some oils for sale that would solve dry skin issues without having to deal with his skin over-oiling itself in response, given that they naturally produced their own oils to keep their feathers waterproof and healthy, but by the time Link awakened from his medically induced slumber as a half-Zonai, there hadn’t been any Rito left in Hyrule.

In the end, Link had settled for bathing once a week and giving himself a thorough brushing at least once a day, though if he got dirty enough to need a bath immediately – having mud, blood, and/or monster guts dry in your fur was something you only let happen once – then he’d just deal.

Today wasn’t as bad as it could be, he was in his summer coat and that wasn’t long enough to tangle, and he hadn’t managed to get any liquids encrusting his fur – the little blood splatter from the bokoblins all landing on easily cleanable armor – but he’d still managed to pick up a considerable amount of dust that needed to be brushed out.

Picking up Purah’s old, well-worn brush – the only brush the three of them had owned at that point, and formally given to him as part of Purah’s last care package before he went through the portal – he began to run it through his fur, purring slightly at the sensation as usual.

Opening his eyes his gaze fell on his reflection and he paused, eyes tracing over where brutal scars once were. The face staring back at him in the mirror wasn’t as foreign as it once was, but he didn’t instinctively identify it as himself. Not yet.

Link took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and got back to brushing.

Chapter Text

As promised, the Royal Party got underway with the dawn, Link back on his Cycler as they travelled deeper into Hyrule Field.

Due to the much higher traffic Link had been instructed to remain by the King's side instead of roaming ahead to avoid any misunderstandings by travelers. He had agreed, worried about misunderstandings as well.

Hyrule Field had been the source of a lot of trauma back during his fight with Gannondorf’s puppet, mainly due guardians seemingly waiting over every rise and in every ruin, which combined with his half-remembered death during the Fall to produce some rather severe battlesickness, though by the time he had wandered beneath Hyrule Castle to accidently release Gannondorf – though he doubted Rauru could have held on much longer anyway and then the Demon King would have had two Sacred Stones – he’d mostly recovered thanks to Zelda and their friends.

Still, even during the brief period of peace between the Calamity and the Upheaval, Hyrule Field was never been considered even remotely safe, the ruins still infested with monsters no matter how often Link cleared them out, and so to keep a paranoid itch from building up between his shoulder blades he pulled out his Zonai Hero’s Shield – which Mineru had made for him when it became clear that his Hylian Shield was now too small for him, having done her best to make his new shield as “Link-proof” as his old one – and slung its inactive form over his back next to the Master Sword before settling astride the Cycler, getting a few curious glances from the Guard as he hadn’t been wearing it yesterday but otherwise not much interest.

The thing that stuck out to him the most as they traveled through fields of ripening grain and past paddocks and pastures filled with plump, happy livestock was how many people there were. He’d known that there were a lot more people in this time, obviously, but even during the height of trade and travel, just before the Upheaval, one could go days without seeing another being. Now? They were passing entire groups of people – ten, twenty, even thirty or more – who respectfully pulled off to the side of the road to let the Royal Party past once an hour, at least.

Link could also tell the exact moment they spotted him, as they’d do a double take and their eyes would go wide.

They passed through a pair of large villages before breaking for a quick lunch at the Hyrule Field garrison, which was the primary training, logistics, and organizational facility for the Hyrulian Army, also taking the opportunity to relieve themselves and replace the horses. Rather than enter the main facility, they were housed in a small complex off to the side for visiting nobility and dignitaries, keeping them separated from the soldiery. Link would have to visit later to assess their training and equipment so he knew what the Army can realistically handle on their own.

They moved on.

Mabe Village was passed through by mid-afternoon, and as afternoon turned to evening the walls of Castle Town loomed large.

Despite the crowded streets and the shouting of the Royal Guard as they forged a path for the Royal Family back to the Castle, Link looked around with wide eyes, as nothing of Castle Town had remained in his time, aside from the heavy stone walls that had numerous breaches in them.

“The Town got wrecked, didn’t it?” Rhoam asked, seeing his behavior.

You could stand at the base of the eastern gatehouse and see clear to the western one, Link replied without thinking, using an elbow to steer the Cycler so he could sign.

“…I see,” the King said after a long moment and a not-quite-grimace.

It took Link a moment to realize what he had said.

Sorry, he signed.

“Not your fault,” Rhoam said, and Link had to avoid cringing.

He was not the hero of this era, he reminded himself.

He wasn’t. Even if those who knew him-of-the-past and him-of-the-now insisted otherwise till their dying day.

He had neither continuity of mind nor, now, continuity of body with the Link that had fallen outside Fort Hateno.

(Purah had even admitted that he’d been dead for several hours by the time they entombed him in the Shrine)

There was a reason he did not use his former family name, and it was not because he didn’t know it.

“Why was the town not resettled?” Rhoam asked.

Zelda sealed the Calamity into the ruins of the castle, Link explained, but its Malice still leaked out. Until I dealt with it, entering Hyrule Field was considered suicide with extra steps. Even afterwards, while people were willing to mount expeditions to the ruins, no one seriously considered resettling them. Then the Upheaval happened. Things went downhill after that.

Rhoam nodded at that, looking troubled.

In the end, he didn’t say anything else for the rest of the ride, caught up in his own thoughts.

It was only when they reached the castle proper that the King spoke up again, and that was just to give orders to the staff, instructing them that Link – who he introduced as the Hero of Hylia – was to be given a room in the quest wing until dedicated quarters could be arraigned, as well that there was to be a meeting of the High Council first thing after breakfast tomorrow morning – communicating to Link with a glance that he was expected to attend – all other appointments and meetings tomorrow were to be canceled or rescheduled, and was still giving orders when a member of the palace staff led Link away.

The guest room he was led to was luxurious to the point of indecency, to say he had never seen so much wealth in one place would be a lie – when Zelda had realized just how many rupees, gems, and precious metals he had squirreled away in his Slate (and later Pad) she and Purah had sat him down and thoroughly explained about how he needed to be careful what and how much he spent at once and/or in one place lest he accidentally destroy what little remained of Hyrule’s economy – but he’d certainly never seen such a frivolous display either.

Who needed a gold-plated bathtub for Hylia’s sake? Or toilet for that matter?

Not wanting to bother the Castle’s staff – and already uncomfortable with the extravagance being shoved in his face – he declined the offer of food from the staff member who had guided him and settled in for the night, nibbling on a meat pie selected from the admittedly absurd amount of food he had stashed in the Pad as he did his nightly grooming, taking care not to get any crumbs on the likely ridiculously expensive carpet. He’d thought about bathing, but the bathroom was only stocked with soaps for Hylian skin and hair, and he decided that he didn’t want to deal with dry, and then oily, skin tomorrow.

The meeting tomorrow would mark the beginning of the culmination of over five years of work, and between nerves and anticipation sleep did not come easily for the Hero of Hylia.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

A polite knocking on the door woke Link and, after letting out a loud meow so that whoever was on the other side of the door knew they’d been heard, indulged in a distinctly feline Big Stretch before clambering out of the delightfully soft bed to answer the door.

The palace staffer blinked up at him, holding his composure remarkably well for someone suddenly confronted by seven feet of cat-man with frightful bed-head and wearing only a rumpled sarong.

“His compliments from His Majesty,” the man said after hesitating a second too long, “His Majesty also requests that you join him and the Princess for their morning meal.”

Link rumbled and nodded in acknowledgement before gesturing to wait a moment and closing the door.

Tempting as it was to just throw on a tunic and call it good, Link figured that he should get out the formal clothes Mineru – as the only one with any fashion sense, even if it was outdated by thirteen thousand years – had made for him.

The tunic, mantel, and sarong, while being of a more modern cut and fit, had the same pattern as the ones Rauru had once worn: very dark blue fabric edged in gold, with golden triangles on the mantel that shrank in size the higher they went and triforces along the lower hem of the sarong. Complementing this was brass bangles of traditional Zonai geometric design that covered his forearms and anklets with emeralds set into them.

He forewent the gold gorget though.

Slinging the Master Sword over his shoulder as his proverbial badge of office, his Pad and Energy Cell on his hips as always, he opened the door and presented himself to the staffer still waiting outside.

Acceptable? He asked.

The man looked him over and signed back, Hair.

Link’s hand rose towards his head as he grumbled in annoyance at having forgotten his bed-head before reversing course and grabbing the Pad, a few quick taps summoning his brush.

Not having time to put it in braids he settled for quickly brushing his wavy locks into semi-straightness before the staffer conceded that he was now “respectable” and began to lead him through the castle.

The room Link was led to was a smaller one next to the Royal Family’s rooms, overlooking the docks and moat on the north side of the castle. Entering the room he paused in uncertainty, as rather than just Rhoam and Zelda as he expected, there were seven other people around the oval table, as well as several butlers and Royal Guards against the walls.

“Hero Link,” Rhoam greeted, “Good morning. Have a seat.”

He gestured to the open chair to his left, which was also the only empty seat at the table. Link hesitantly did so.

I thought the meeting wasn’t until after breakfast? He asked.

“It is,” Rhoam replied, “This is to introduce you to the High Council and get the inevitable questions out of the way before we begin.”

Oh. Great.

Socializing.

The skill he is least proficient in.

“In order,” Rhoam continued, “you know my daughter of course.” Zelda waved at him from her father’s right side.

“Sir Cadwell, Captain of the Royal Guard.” An older Hylian with heavily salted hair and humorless face nodded at him, gold triforces with all three triangles filled in embroidered on the shoulders of his Royal Guard uniform denoting his rank.

“Link Warin, Grand Captain of the Army.” The middle-aged sandy-haired and brown eyed man scrutinized Link detached curiosity.

“Lady Avin, Minister of Agriculture.” A matronly woman with steel gray hair and look of perpetual displeasure etched into her face reluctantly graced him with a nod.

“Lord Richard, Minister of the Treasury.” Seated on the opposite side of the table from Rhoam was a man with a voluminous mane and beard of sandy brown hair that was regarding Link coldly.

“Lady Shusan, Minister of Trade.” Shusan had the gold hair and fine features of someone related to the Royal Family and was seemingly dissecting him with her eyes in a way that made him uncomfortable.

“And Lady Auriol, Minister of Infrastructure.” The small, dark-haired, Gerudo-skinned woman on Link’s left gave him a shy smile over her spectacles.

For the most part, that was everyone Purah had told him to expect, with the exception that the Minister of the Treasury was a Lord Richard instead of a Lord Bearson, though considering she hadn’t been brought in until three years before the Calamity perhaps Richard had been replaced between now and then.

Good morning, Link signed, then after a moment added, Nobility weren’t a thing in my time period, he warned, so my knowledge of courtly manners is non-existent.

Yes, Mineru was technically a princess by being Rauru’s older sister, but she’d never put much effort into learning them and after so many millennia what little she remembered was more suspect than not on top of being hilariously out of date.

“Your Zelda never taught you court etiquette?” Auriol asked curiously.

She never much cared for it, Link replied, then added, actually, no, that’s not true. She was delighted to, in her words, “never have to deal with that haughty, foppery, nonsense ever again.”

“I like her,” Zelda promptly declared, grinning.

Rhoam sighed.

“Please don’t encourage my daughter,” he asked Link.

Link blinked innocently at him and gave a mildly confused trill.

It was blatantly obvious to everyone that he was absolutely going to encourage her.

“So, Hero,” Shusan said, prompting an inquisitive meow from him, “were the soaps the castle provided not to your liking?”

Hylian soaps are hard on my fur and skin, he replied, leaves me dry and itchy for half the day. Then my body produces extra oil in reflex that leaves me feeling oily for the other half. I didn’t want to deal with that today.

“I see.” A calculating gleam entered her eye. “I’m sure I find someone who sells fur friendly soaps for you. For a fee, of course.”

There was a collective of not-quite sighs from the table.

“Lady Shusan…” Rhoam began, but Link was already signing.

Fur oils too? Link asked hopefully, re-oiling my fur keeps my skin from drying out.

“Fur oil too,” she agreed, “I should have some within a week. Now, about that fee-“

She was cut off by having to catch the gold rupee Link abruptly tossed her. She blinked at it.

“Well, you really want that now, don’t you?” she murmured.

Have you ever had a full body itch before? Link replied, and know that scratching it will just make things worse?

There was a collective wince from the table.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something,” Shusan promised sympathetically.

Thank you, Link signed gratefully, I thought I was going to have to go to Rito Ayrie and start my search there.

“That wasn’t necessary, Hero,” Rhoam said, “the Castle is fully capable of seeing to your needs. You need not spend your own rupees to do so.”

Link gave him an annoyed look.

I pay my own way, he signed shortly.

“Well,” Richard said cheerfully, “at least he’s not going to be a drain on the treasury.”

Before anyone could respond to that the doors swung open and several servers entered, pushing carts laden with food.

“My apologies for the delay, your Majesty, your Highness, my Lords,” the head server said as the food began to be passed out.

Link got an omelet stuffed with cheese and sausage, and only refrained from eagerly digging in in order to carefully watch how the others used the provided utensils, doing his best to mimic them.

The head server discretely knelt next to Link, eliciting a questioning trill from him.

“There was a fair bit of concern in the kitchens,” the server murmured, “no one knew what a Zonai was before your arrival, so the chefs are worried about what you can eat, and whether there’s anything they need to avoid.”

That was kind of them.

I can eat anything a Hylian can, he told him, though my Heroic constitution means that I can eat even rock roasts and be reasonably fine, so don’t use me as an example for other Zonai.

The man thanked him and withdrew, and Link turned back to his food to see Rhoam side-eyeing him.

“Rock. Roasts?” the King asked, making it clear he was questioning Link’s sanity.

Goron City celebration for me freeing them from their corrupted Divine Beast, Link explained between bites of his delicious omelet, It would have been rude to refuse.

“That must have hurt coming out,” Zelda said quietly.

A bit, he admitted.

Rhoam sighed.

“Link, you are allowed to decline food that you cannot safely eat,” he said.

…But I can eat them? He replied, confused.

There was a long moment where everyone looked at him.

Avin huffed.

“When I first heard your epithet I thought it was just about where you came from,” she said, “but you truly are a wildling aren’t you.”

Link… had no idea if he was being insulted or not, though Rhoam gave Avin a warning look.

I am what I am, he signed instead, I make no apologies for it.

He had traveled from the boiling caldera of Death Mountain to the frozen tundra of Hebra, from the depths of the Great Hyrule Forest to the sand dunes of the Gerudo Desert, from the darkest pit in the Depths to the peak of the highest sky island. There was nowhere in all of Hyrule, above or below, that his boots had not tread nor his eyes surveyed, no plant nor animal that he could not find. He had swum with the Zora, flown with the Rito, delved with the Gorons, sailed the desert with the Gerudo, and danced with the Koroks.

He was the Hero of the Wilds. He had earned that title and was proud of it.

…Though that reminded him that he would need to survey the land of this time, to see what all had changed.

He wouldn’t be able to resist the siren’s song of the open road and wilderness forever, but there was still things he needed to do before going on the hunt. First, finish breakfast.

Next, lay out the plan he, Purah, and Mineru had come up with to save this timeline.

Chapter Text

Once breakfast was done Zelda was bundled off to her lessons by her governess, Mrs. Godfrey – who Link was only now being formally introduced to – while the rest headed off to a large conference room that had already been set up to allow someone, or a group, to present to a large audience.

Perfect.

As everyone else found their seats Link strode to the front of the room, Pad in hand, and proceeded to pull out three enormous, heavily marked up maps that he stuck to the wall with Ultrahand, one each for Hyrule’s surface, sky islands, and the depths, though all three were from his time as that was what they’d had to work with.

Turning back to face the room he leaned back against the wall, looking over his notes as he waited for the meeting to begin, letting the idle chatter of the room wash over him without paying attention.

A rapping of knuckles on wood caused the room to quiet and him to look up.

He swallowed. That was a lot of people.

Sir Cadwell and Captain Warin sat with a cluster of other soldiers, likely senior commanders from their clothes, on his left, the ministers and their senior staff occupied his right, what looked like a small horde of nobles, dressed in all their finery, occupied the back rows, a pair of scribes sat at both corners, ready to record everything he said, and front and center, flanked by the ambassadors from the four other races of Hyrule, sat Rhoam, looking suitably regal with the King’s Crown on his head.

“… are here to hear the testimony of the Hero of Hylia, the half-Zonai Link of the Wilds,” Rhoam was saying formally for the record, “Who hails from a timeline where the fight against the coming Calamity goes… poorly, brought to our time period by the personal intervention of Hylia Herself. Like many prior heroes, Link of the Wilds is non-verbal and communicates through sign. Hero Link, you have the floor.”

Swallowing his nerves, though he couldn’t stop the tip of his tail from frantically twitching back and forth, Link stepped forward.

Thank you, King Rhoam. With your permission, I will begin by explaining what the Calamity is, followed by what went wrong in my timeline, then our plan for this timeline, and finishing by opening the floor for questions and comments.

“Proceed,” Rhoam said, also gesturing for him to continue.

Link nodded.

Unfortunately, this will require a bit of a history lesson, he began, the source of the Calamity dates back to the founding of Hyrule, and I mean that literally. How many of you are familiar with the Imprisoning War?

Only one person in the back, who Link couldn’t see clearly, raised their hand.

Very well. I will try to summarize it.

“Is this relevant?” Rhoam asked.

Very. Link replied seriously, Not only was the Imprisoning War the start of the cycle of the Demon, the Princess, and the Hero that is once more playing out now, but the First Demon King, named Gannondorf like his many successors, is the source of the Calamity our ancestors dealt with ten thousand years ago and brought Hyrule low in my time.

Link paused for a second to gather his thoughts. Interestingly, according to Hylia the Imprisoning War in this timeline had played out “normally”, meaning without a time traveling Zelda being dropped into its midst. That event had caused the Goddess to do some emergency temporal surgery to keep the timeline stable, resulting in Zelda taking the place of the Hero of that age. Plus side, it meant that Link didn’t have to deal with the whole Light Dragon time loop.

Sometime after the founding of Hyrule by the Zonai King Rauru and Queen Sonia, he began, who was the great-granddaughter of Hylia Reborn, the Demon made his move. After his first attacks using disposable pawns failed, he decided to try subterfuge, and petitioned the Royal Family to join the Hylian court.

Link… omitted to mention that Gannondorf had been the King of the Gerudo at the time. It would just cause needless friction.

Rauru and Sonia knew that Gannondorf had been behind the attacks on Hyrule, but lacked hard evidence. As such they decided to grant his request, believing that would allow them to keep a close enough eye on Gannondorf that either he would be unable to get up to further shenanigans due to the scrutiny or that they would get the evidence they needed to execute him, confident that between the might of the Zonai and the power of the Goddess’ Bloodline, they would be able to handle any schemes he might concoct.

Link’s ears drooped.

They were wrong. Between their own arrogance and Gannondorf’s non-inconsiderable cunning and magical might, the Demon succeeded in assassinating Sonia and stole her wedding gift, a Zonai Sacred Stone, an artifact that exponentially increases the user’s innate power.

Crowning himself the Demon King, Gannondorf used his stolen prize to summon the monsters that plague the world to this day and wielded them in a war that brought Hyrule to its knees.

Realizing that the war would not end in his favor, Rauru came up with a desperate plan. He baited Gannondorf into a cavern deep below the surface where the King, alongside the best warriors of all the races and the Hero of the era, all wielding Sacred Stones of their own save the Hero, who bore the Master Sword, waited in ambush, seeking to kill the Demon King and end the war.

They failed.

Not for lack of trying on their part, but by this point Gannondorf was not… mortal, more a spirit of Malice Incarnate that wore his former body like a puppet. Any wound not dealt by the Master Sword instantly healed, but without the power of the Goddess providing support not even the Blade That Seals The Darkness could deal a fatal blow to the Demon King and make it stick. Faced with a foe that seemingly could not be killed, Rauru sacrificed himself to seal the Demon King away.

Three thousand years later, Link continued, the seal had weakened enough that he attempted to escape.

A ripple of unease rolled through the crowd as they began to connect the dots.

The result was Calamity Gannon, Link confirmed.

Worried murmuring broke out, but was quickly silenced when Rhoam rapped his knuckles against his table.

It is unclear if our ancestors were preparing for the Calamity or for the Demon King himself, but regardless, it was a threat foreseen and Hyrule devoted every resource that could be spared to researching and creating the great wonders of the time, that which we now call Ancient Sheikah Technology.

The Calamity itself was just a puppet made of Malice that had leaked from the seal, under the direction, if not control, of the Demon King, intended to destroy the seal from the outside and thus free him. We all know how that ended, but in the aftermath the ancient Sheikah investigated, found the original seal, and reinforced it with their own technology, strengthening it far beyond its original power and allowing it to last millennia more.

Now, ten thousand years later, the seal is failing once again, but this time we have neither the knowledge nor the ability to keep it from breaking, Link finished.

Taking a moment to rest his hands after signing for so long, Link allowed that to sink in and see if there were any questions.

“Hero,” Rhoam said, “where exactly is this seal?”

To keep the seal from being tampered with, a great fortress was built on top of it, Link signed, but over time, between memories fading and its central location, the fortress took on more and more duties. Eventually, even the Royal Family forgot its purpose, and they moved their seat of governance there.

Rhoam paled.

“No,” he breathed.

Yes, Link replied grimly, we stand above the seal of the first and greatest Demon King. I will show you, and only you, the hidden passages later.

“We’re going to need to evacuate the castle and Castle Town before the seal breaks then,” Captain Warin grumbled, before looking at Link, “I assume it comes straight up out of the seal?”

Yes, Link signed, and it can spawn monsters from its own Malice.

Warin grimaced.

“If we can’t use Castle Town’s walls to contain this we’re going to lose northern Hyrule Field,” he said to Rhoam, “there’s no defensible positions between the two rivers and north of Mabe Village.”

Link turned around to look at the map of Hyrule’s surface that he had stuck to the wall. The captain was right.

Mount Gustaf can likely be fortified, Link told him.

“Aye,” Warin acknowledged, “That’ll likely be the western edge of the front. But there’s not a whole lot else we can fortify. It’s all flat plain and farmland.”

“We will discuss military strategy later,” Rhoam interrupted, “Hero Link, I believe you were about to detail what went wrong in your time?”

Link nodded.

First, I must preface that my knowledge of this time, especially during the final days, is severely incomplete. The few survivors were understandably reluctant to discuss what had happened, and when such knowledge became relevant, the only one still alive was Sheikah Head Scientist Purah, who was not kept informed of military, economic, nor political matters save where they directly intersected her work, not to mention that after a hundred years her own memory was suspect in many areas.

“Understood,” Rhoam nodded, “continue.”

The knowledge I just conveyed about the Demon King was not discovered until after the seal had broken in my time, so they were working off of incomplete information and knew it. They knew Calamity was coming, but not when, where, or how, nor what its capabilities were. As such, they drew their knowledge from the legends of the last time Calamity was fought, of the great Sheikah weapons that decisively brought the Demon low. With the Army being stretched to the breaking point by ever increasingly frequent and severe monster incursions, the decision was made to track down and awaken the Sheikah guardians. They succeeded.

The lock-on beeps and flash of a laser echoed in Link’s head.

By all information they had at the time, it was the correct decision to make, Link admitted, the guardians were, are, powerful, capable of slaughtering the demon hordes tirelessly, and the great titans, the Divine Beasts, one for each of the non-Hylian races, were able to deal significant wounds to the Calamity. All four Divine Beasts were found and awakened, along with hundreds of guardians.

It was the best decision they could have made with the knowledge they had, Link repeated, …But it’s also what killed the queendom.

Link paused for a moment, swallowing nervously. He had everyone’s undivided attention now.

Gannondorf’s ability to perceive and act on the world outside his seal is extremely limited, but it is not non-existent, and he has not been idle. Some time in the last few decades he discovered that, through some hitherto unknown flaw or ten thousand years of neglect and decay, the guardians and Divine Beasts were no longer immune to his power, and so he decided that rather than wait however long it took for the seal to fully decay, he would try to escape once again, leading to where we are today.

Purah was the Head of the project to uncover and restore Ancient Sheikah technology. She spent years working with every aspect of it, from the great towers to the shrines to the guardians to even the Divine Beasts, and continued to do so in the century after the Fall. All information regarding Shiekah Tech passed through her, so when she said that there was no warning, no hint that the greatest weapons against the Calamity had been compromised by it, and that even with the benefit of hindsight and a hundred years of additional research that nothing could or can be done to prevent it, it can be accepted as fact. That being said, she discovered that Gannondorf was only able to corrupt a single piece of Sheikah tech.

A tap on the Pad summoned an example of the offending item to his hand. An unadorned black box, about twice the size of his clenched fist, with severed cables as thick as his thumb coming out one side… and a stab wound from the Master Sword going clean through the center of it. Using Ultrahand he hovered it in front of him so that everyone had a clear view and he could still sign.

The Guardian Intelligence Unit, Link signed grimly, the piece of technology that allows Sheikah guardians and the Divine Beasts to act autonomously, and the means by which the Calamity brought Hyrule down. Without it they are nothing more than inert lumps of metal. Thankfully, it is only present in the guardians and Divine Beasts, meaning that all other Sheikah Tech remains immune to Calamity’s corruption and can be safely wielded against it, including the weapons systems taken from the guardians and Beasts themselves.

Link drifted the GIU over to Rhoam, who took it from the air, scrutinizing the now permanently inert lump of metal and crystal with a narrow-eyed glare before handing it off to be passed around.

Other preparations proceeded apiece. Champions from each race were chosen to command the Divine Beasts and assist the Hero on the field of battle.

Link looked at the Rito ambassador. For the Rito, Master Archer Revali was chosen.

The glacial-colored avian nodded contemplatively.

He turned to the Gerudo woman. Of the Gerudo, Chieftain Urbosa stepped forward.

“As she should,” the somewhat scantily and gold-clad woman commented.

Then the Goron. Chief Daruk volunteered.

“Of course he did,” the aging Goron sighed.

Last, he faced the Zora. And Princess Mipha led the Zora.

The middle-aged red-scaled woman raised an eyebrow, her expression making it clear she had opinions about that but refraining from voicing them.

The Hero was also found during this time after he drew the Master Sword – Link was not going to say how old he had been when that happened, the Hero of this time deserved to have a childhood with his family – and was assigned as the Princess’ personal knight to ensure they could cooperate when the Calamity came, but… there was a complication. Somehow, and I’ve never been able to figure out the logic that led to this, everyone became convinced that prayer was the key to awakening Zelda’s powers.

“I take it it is not?” Rhoam asked intently.

Link shook his head.

Zelda has enough of Hylia in her that her praying to the goddess is akin to sending a letter to yourself and expecting someone else to answer, he explained, her power is inherent to her, she merely needs to learn how to access it. The problem – and this part truly baffles me – was that even after prayer failed, they doubled down, deciding that the failure was because Zelda hadn’t prayed hard enough or wasn’t faithful enough, putting her under and enormous amount of needless stress. As a result, when Calamity finally struck, Zelda was unable to wield her bloodline’s power.

Link sighed.

And now we get to the Fall, he signed.

It began at sundown on Zelda’s seventeenth birthday, he began, Zelda and the Hero had traveled to the Spring of Wisdom atop Mount Lanayru in another doomed attempt to awaken her powers by prayer, and had rejoined the other Champions at the base of the mountain when Calamity emerged from the seal, surging up and through Hyrule Castle and flooding the Town and skies with Malice.

Faced with the possibility of losing Central Hyrule, the Champions decided that there was simply no time for fancy tactics and decided on a frontal assault, believing that the guardians would at least by them enough time to get to their Divine Beasts, which must have been located nearby in either Lanayru Wetlands or Hyrule Field if they believed they could all reach them in time to coordinate a frontal assault with the Hero. Where exactly Zelda was during this is unknown, she may have come along in the hope that confronting the forces of the Calamity directly would awaken her power, or she may have been sent away from the front lines.

As you can probably guess, the attack was a disaster. Not a single guardian escaped Calamity’s corruption. Not even the Divine Beasts. While the Champions were able to board their Beasts, the monsters and defenses the Calamity had placed within them, combined with exhaustion and injuries taken in the fight just to get there, proved too much, and all four fell.

Realizing the battle was lost, the Hero retreated to the south, reuniting with Zelda somewhere south of Rebonae Bridge on the west bank of the Hylia River, where they proceeded to flee into Necluda, hounded by Calamity’s forces the entire way. By the dawn of the third day, the pair decided to make their stand outside Fort Hateno, on Blatchery Plain.

Exhausted, hungry, already suffering numerous existing injuries from the failed assault on the Castle, and still having to defend Zelda, the Hero faced several dozen guardians, and despite managing to kill many… eventually luck ran out.

He took a hit – Link pointed to where his death scar once was, on his left side, just above the floating rib – here, and it burned clean through his body.

He fell.

It was seeing the Hero fall that allowed Zelda to finally figure out how to use her bloodline’s power, and she unleashed a blast of blinding, holy light that fried the remaining guardians.

Link… decided not to mention anything about the Shrine of Resurrection, nor the desperate, and ultimately futile, rush to get his body there before he died.

With the Hero dead, he instead continued, Zelda decided to return the Master Sword to the Lost Woods, where it would await the next Hero, and then confront the Calamity herself, alone if necessary. With Hyrule Field lost and overrun, she traveled north through the Lanayru Wetlands, gathering survivors willing to go on a final one-way mission with her, including several surviving members of the Royal Guard.

After returning the Sword, they attacked the Castle from the north, likely infiltrating via the docks, and succeeded in confronting and sealing the Calamity inside the castle, at the cost of their own lives.

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly given how the seal was made under extremely sub-optimal conditions, while Calamity was bound, its power was not. The corrupted guardians remained corrupted, the Divine Beasts continued to rampage, and countless monsters continued to spawn.

At the twilight of the sixth day after Calamity emerged, the walls of Akkala Citadel, the last bastion and final stand of the Hyrulian Army, were breached.

By the dawn of the Seventh… the Queendom of Hyrule was no more.

The room was dead silent.

Chapter Text

After a long moment Rhoam took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“From comments you have made both here and prior to this meeting, you succeeded in slaying both the Calamity and the Demon King. How did you do it, how did you best a foe that brought Hyrule to ruin twice? And what threat was it that proved too much?”

Link nodded.

The goddess Hylia is capable of great subtly, of grand plans that take centuries to come to fruition, but there are times when She is decidedly less so. A child of the Firstborn and the Favored appearing on the Great Plateau millennia after the Zonai were last seen… is decidedly not the former.

Link was, of course, talking about his arrival in this timeline, though he knew that they would interpret it differently. This was intentional in order to further separate himself from the Hero of this era. Mineru and Purah hadn’t been in favor of this part of the plan, but neither fought him particularly hard on it. They knew that his relationship with who he had been before the Shrine of Resurrection took everything was… complicated, and he had been strongly in favor of taking the opportunity to make a clean break. Hence the deceptions and lies of omission, though Link was careful to not actually lie.

Given how dangerous Hyrule now was, Hylia was disinclined to leave things to chance, and so I was quickly found by the Twilight Wolf, the companion of the Hero of Twilight, and led to a cottage inhabited by the ghost of a Hylian named Rhoam, who had died in the Fall.

Link knew that Twilight was actually the Shade of said Hero, but convincing people that he was not “just” a wolf blessed by Hylia with unnatural intelligence and abilities had been nigh impossible even with Twilight right there, and they’d eventually stopped trying. The only one who’d known on sight was Zelda, and that was because she could sense the echo of the Spirit of the Hero in the wolf. Trying to do that now, when all the legends from that time said the Wolf and the Hero were two different people and Twilight was – hopefully – resting peacefully in the afterlife? That was not a fight worth having.

“What was his last name?” The currently living version of the shade asked.

He never told me, Link replied, and by the time I learned that family names were a thing, he was no longer around to ask.

Regardless, they were the ones who raised me until the hundred and fourth anniversary of the Fall – for all that everyone said he’d slept for a century, it was actually a bit more than that, a hundred and three years plus a few months – when I set out from the Great Plateau.

Link proceeded to tell his first quest against the Calamity, with a few strategic edits regarding things like his species, or how he’d been the same person that had fell a century ago. For instance, he claimed that he’d gotten the Sheikah Slate that Purah would eventually turn into the Purah Pad “from the Hero’s grave”, which the Shrine of Resurrection counted as in his book.

He didn’t detail all the side quests he’d undertaken – he was pretty sure they would disapprove of him taking the time to build Tarry Town, not to mention the Korok hunt, for example – but he detailed the important bits. The Blood Moons, activating the Sheikah Towers, the shrines, exploring the lands and ruins, including the Lost Woods. How he’d initially been rejected by the Master Sword as it deemed him “not ready” according to the Great Deku Tree. How Central Hyrule was overrun by monsters and guardians, making travel through it a death sentence for any who weren’t the Hero, and even he had to exercise great caution. Visiting the settlements – all eight of them, not counting Tarry Town – detailing how the survivors were fairing, and, in particular detail, what the Divine Beasts had been doing in the century since the Fall. How Impa, once close friend of Zelda and now Elder of the Sheikah, had assisted him. How the Yiga disguised themselves to hunt him down, and how he’d hunted them down in turn to retrieve the Thunder Helm.

He talked about his assaults on the Divine Beasts with the assistance of the champions of his era, Sidon, Teba, Yunobo, Riju, and the Blights he’d faced. About how the souls of the fallen Champions had all chosen to linger, no longer able to contest Calamity’s control over their Beasts but still doing their best to guide them away from inhabited areas, likely the only reason the Goron, Gerudo, Rito, and Zora had survived as well as they did. How he’d returned to the Korok Forest after freeing Death Mountain from Vah Rudania – the second Divine Beast he’d liberated – and been deemed ready by the Master Sword. Of his careful scouting of both the ruins of Castle Town and Hyrule Castle, of their devastation and infestation of monsters.

Finally, a year and a half after he set out from the Great Plateau, he detailed his assault on the Castle, carving his way through monster and guardian alike, to face the Calamity in the Sanctum.

The fight itself he mostly glossed over, instead focusing on how, with Calamity slain and banished, Zelda returned to corporeality, having not aged a day.

…Our first stop was Kakariko – correction, our first destination was Kakariko, Link signed, our first stop was the banks of the Hylia, just past Applean Forest, where Zelda took the opportunity to bathe, change into some clothes she barrowed from me, and burn her filthy no-longer-white dress. After reaching Kakariko and reassuring Impa that we were alright save for a few mostly healed injuries, there was an understandable celebration in response to use confirming that the Calamity was no more. A few days later we moved on to Zora’s Domain, beginning a circuit of the surviving settlements to let them know that the Calamity was over.

Link sighed sadly.

The future looked so bright, and we were so, so hopeful that we could rebuild…

Rhoam raised his hand and Link broke off.

“I take it you are about to explain the lead up to the Demon King’s seal breaking?” he asked, and Link nodded, “In that case we will break for lunch and reconvene in one hour.”

Link paused, realized that he was actually rather hungry, belatedly remembering Mineru’s warning that his new body needed more food than his Hylian one, both due to his increased size and to fuel the abilities that were now innate rather than being loaned to him by Rauru’s arm, and that the omelet this morning hadn’t quite been enough. Still, it was fine, he’d just snack on some of the small forest of skewers he had in his Pad later on.

“Link.”

He looked up with a meow to see Rhoam gesturing for him to join him as the rest of the room emptied out, the people chattering with each other, and he quickly strode to the King’s side.

“We will be having lunch with the ambassadors,” Rhoam told him.

Link nodded, noting that the ambassadors had already left.

What are their names? He asked.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Evota, Gerudo ambassador to the Hylian Queendom, lounged in the plush chair, casually looking around the room the servant had led her to for her promised lunch with the King and the Hero. She would have preferred it if it was just her and them, of course, but she understood why she had to share it with the other ambassadors. It was just an introductory meeting after all, more… personal meetings would come later.

She, like the rest of the ambassadors, had been in the small dining room attached to the Royal Quarters that the Hylian Royals used for their more informal meals before, and nothing had changed since her last visit. A throne sat at the head of the table for the King, while a particularly tall chair – though not quite as tall as the throne – sat on his right, along the long side of the rectangular table, for the Hero. Next to the Hero’s seat was Seluune, the Zora ambassador, who was looking down her red-scaled nose at Evota’s informality, prompting a mocking smile from the Gerudo woman. Schist, who represented the Gorons, sat on the opposite side of the table from the King, a necessity given his large bulk, staring at nothing while he visibly mulled something over in his head. On her side of the table Inak sat next to the King’s seat, currently preening his glacial-colored plumage and pointedly ignoring everyone, refusing to even glance at Evota as she intentionally slouched further.

Then the door opened and she sat up straight as one of the Royal Guard entered, followed by King Rhoam and Link of the Wilds, another Guard bringing up the rear and closing the door behind them.

“Your Majesty,” the ambassadors chorused respectfully, all rising.

“Be seated,” he replied as he took his seat, and everyone followed, though Hero Link was moving before the King gave permission. Had no one explained court protocol to him?

Evota rolled that thought around in her mind as the doors opened once again and the servers entered, pushing carts laden with food. Probably not, she decided, but being the Hero excuses many sins, especially when from a time when only the Zora still had Royalty, and Prince Sidon would clearly have as much distain for protocol as the Chieftainess’ god-daughter does.

For the record, she believed him. Not only was Hylia the goddess of time, but many of the past cycles had featured temporal shenanigans, and he’d brought proof. The maps he’d stuck to the wall were detailed far beyond what even the best cartographers of this era were able to create, she’d handled that “Guardian Intelligence Unit” herself. She could tell from the wear marks and discolorations that it was old, and that there had been some kind of power akin to lightning running through it – the Gerudo had enough lightning mages that she knew what that damage looked like – before being violently disassembled. Not to mention his ability to make things appear from that strange box of his on his hip. Actually…

“So, Hero,” Evota said as the food was laid out, getting a questioning meow from him, which was just adorable if somewhat jarring to hear from something that big, “what is that thing on your hip anyway?”

It started life as a Sheikah Slate, he began before briefly being distracted by the large steak placed in front of him, the same one the Hero of this time used I believe, but then Purah got her hands on it. Once she was done modifying it she renamed it, in a typical display of her humbleness, to the Purah Pad.

“What all does it do?” Seluune asked, “and are there more of them?”

There were supposedly quite a few more found in various excavations, he replied, but most were stored in the Castle when Calamity hit and were destroyed. By my time, only Purah, Robbie, and Impa had one. As for what they can do…

Evota listened intently, along with everyone else, as the Hero explained the common functions of Sheikah Slates, such as their seemingly bottomless storage, ability to message other Slates, the map function – though he said that the Sheikah Towers would need to be activated for that to work, as well as to message others over long distance – the ability to take pictures, to then print those images – or the maps – onto paper, assuming there was paper or paper equivalent in the Slate’s storage, and finally the various security options, such as biometric verification, which prevented anyone other than the, or an, authorized user from accessing the Slate.

…It’s also possible to add runes other than the ones it comes standard with, Hero Link continued, for instance I have a communication rune that allows me to talk to those who don’t know sign language.

“How does that work?” Rhoam asked curiously.

Link set his utensils aside for a moment to pull out his Pad and tap away at it for a moment.

“I am non-verbal, so I use the Pad to speak for me,” the Pad said in the familiar voice of a young woman.

“Was that Zelda?” the King asked.

Link nodded, letting out an adorable little purr, and tapped at the Pad again.

“Prince Sidon was more than happy to lend his friend Link his voice!” A decidedly healthy male Zora cheerfully boomed.

Evota snuck a glance at Seluune to see her eyebrow ridges shoot towards the top of her head before she got her expression under control and had to restrain a smirk.

Then Link tapped the slate again, and what emerged was a female voice making a series of meows, mews, trills, and rumbles. It was clearly a language, and given the noises the Hero had made Evota was willing to bet a gold rupee she knew exactly what language it was despite never hearing it before.

“Zonai?” she guessed, and Link nodded.

That was Mineru, he signed, Zonai constructs will only accept orders in their creator’s native tongue, and while they do recognize Zonai Sign Language not all of them are capable of processing visual input.

The Hero stared down at the Pad for a long moment before seeming to almost deflate with a not-quite-sigh, ears drooping sadly.

He didn’t need to say anything, it was obvious he missed them.

No kitty deserved to look that miserable, no matter how big, so Evota tapped her wineglass with one of the rings on her fingers, the ring getting everyone’s attention.

“To absent friends,” she toasted with her watered wine.

“To absent friends,” the rest joined in, some more reluctantly – *cough* Seluune, Inak *cough* – than others.

Still, Evota was pleased to see Link’s ears rising back up to their normal position as he sipped from his own wine and returned to his steak, everyone else also focusing on their food.

As the meal was finishing up Evota felt it was safe to bring up a new topic.

“So, Link,” she said casually, in a way that made everyone who knew her look at her suspiciously, “I’m a pretty well-traveled and experienced woman, who’s fought-“

“And fucked,” Inak interjected snidely.

“-and fucked,” Evota agreed shamelessly, “every species known to the Gerudo, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of the Zonai before. What can you tell me about them?”

Link hummed.

Even by Rauru’s time, the history of the Zonai was more speculation than fact, he signed, but I was able to get some information from Hylia.

“You spoke with the Goddess?” Schist rumbled, surprised.

Link nodded.

Hylia is too old and powerful to manifest directly anymore, not without there being severe detriments to the long-term stability of reality. But… Link shrugged, doomed timeline. There wasn’t a long term to be worried about. Still, we didn’t reality to start unraveling then and there, so we weren’t able to talk nearly as long as we wanted, and most of that was spent discussing bringing me to here and now, but She did explain a few things.

According to surviving legend, the Zonai were considered the “children of gods”, which was considered hyperbole and a bit of aggrandizement, but, like many things, had a bit of truth to it. The Zonai were the first sophont race created by Farore, predating even Hylia herself, and were… displeased when the Golden Goddesses entrusted the safety of the Triforce, and thus reality, to Hylia, believing that should have been their duty. Relations between Hylia and the Zonai never really thawed from that, until the Demon God Demise invaded, seeking the Triforce. He failed, obviously, and was eventually killed, but the surface was reduced to an uninhabitable Malice-wracked ruin for a time, forcing the survivors to flee to the heavens – which is where the various legends of sky islands came from – or deep, deep under ground for the more subterranean species such as the Gorons.

“Malice,” Inak said, “As in…”

Link nodded.

The same Malice that the Calamity can create. The Demon of the Cycle was spawned by Demise’s death curse. It’s why only the Princess and the Hero can put him down and make it stick.

Anyway, the Zonai formed the frontline of that war, and they took catastrophic casualties that they never recovered from. By the time Rauru became their leader there was barely a single city’s worth left, but between their natural abilities and access to, as well as being able to make more of, the constructs and artifacts of their ancestors meant that they were still a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Link frowned.

Unfortunately, this is where things get… murky. After setting up safeguards to protect Ruaru’s seal and contingencies for when it finally broke the Zonai just… disappear from historical record. We know that a small group turned up three thousand years later in time for the Calamity to emerge because the Hero of that age was half-Zonai like me, but the Calamity wiped that group out with a Malice plague, and as far as I know none have been seen since, so whether there are any left…

Link shrugged.

I don’t know.

There was a long moment of silence at that.

“So where did you come from then?” Schist asked.

Link shrugged again.

I don’t know. Given how long it’s been since any Zonai been sighted I suspect temporal shenanigans on Hylia’s part.

The old Goron nodded at that, and the rest of the meal was finished quietly.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link returned to his position at the front of the conference room and waited for everyone to be seated and Rhoam to officially re-start the meeting.

“…are here to hear the second half of the testimony of Link of the Wilds. Hero Link, you may begin,” Rhoam formally announced.

Link nodded.

After the Calamity fell, we had seven years of peace, he began, and told the tale of his second adventure.

It began about six years after his defeat of the Calamity, when people noticed that the pools of Malice, once all but vanished in the wake of Calamity’s demise, beginning to return. After several months of investigation, it was determined that the source was somewhere under Hyrule Castle. Given that the Calamity had emerged from under the Castle all those years ago, there was concern that this might be something that might have been something it left behind.

So Link had gone and retrieved the Master Sword, then, after another few months searching for a way down, he and Zelda had ventured beneath the Castle. No one else went with them, because no one else had a way to defend themselves from Malice.

They went down, found the Zonai-built foundations of the Castle, found the damaged murals depicting the Imprisoning War… and the Seal of the Demon King, just in time for it to break. For the first time in thirteen thousand years, the Demon King faced the Hero and the Princess, and the Hero and Princess lost.

We had no idea what we were dealing with, Link signed, but even if we had, I don’t see that fight ending another way. The seal room was a boiling caldron filled with Malice, far too much for us to deal with.

Link didn’t blame Rauru. The Zonai had been trapped with Ganondorf, the murderer of his wife and ruiner of his kingdom, for thirteen thousand years. Seeing the Princess and Hero arrive, in the fullness of their power and with the Master Sword in hand, they must have seemed goddess-sent to the flagging king.

So no, Link didn’t blame Rauru for relaxing and allowing the seal to break when he noticed them.

Even if it did almost get them killed.

Link explained how Zelda had managed to use Rauru’s Sacred Stone to escape to Hyrule Field – though he didn’t say when she arrived, with the time loop not in play in this timeline it would only muddle things – while Rauru got Link out, and Link freely admitted that he had no idea how the long dead Zonai king managed to transport him all the way to the Great Sky Island, being mostly unconscious due to the pain from massive Malice infection he’d received.

Though he downplayed his injuries. His arm was whole and living and his once again, not the arm of a long dead Zonai king transmuted, though powerful magic and desperation, into a pseudo-living, mostly-spiritual, prosthetic that granted him the Zonai’s innate abilities.

He also downplayed how damaged the Master Sword had been, as well as what Zelda had to do to restore it, merely saying that he’d entrusted it to Zelda to fix it while he went out and confronted Ganondorf’s forces.

The Demon King had not been idle while Link had been recovering on the Great Sky Island, which prompted Link to briefly backtrack to explain that the Sky Islands had performed an emergency descent in response to the seal breaking – causing several to break up and rain debris onto the ground below – and the Cloud Barrier guarding them had been dispersed.

“Wait,” Auriol interjected, “you mean that the Permanent Clouds that have been in the sky since time immemorial and no one have been able to figure out are actually giant floating islands?”

Link nodded.

He then detailed Ganondorf’s assault on Hyrule, on the severely out of season blizzard that was starving out the Rito, of the sludge raining down throughout Laraynu that was turning the waters toxic, of the hordes of undead rising from the sands of the Gerudo Desert, Death Mountain began erupting Malice as much as lava, and of course there were the great chasms that were opened up all across Hyrule, linking the surface to the Depths, which were littered with abandoned Zonai structures and technology.

“What were they even doing down there?” Schist wondered.

Zonai technology is critically dependent on a mineral known as Zonaite, Link explained, the surface deposits were all mined out long ago, so they had to hunt for deep veins.

He also explained how, when he made his way back to Lookout Landing, he’d learned that, with Zelda indisposed, the Demon King had taken to sending out phantoms in her image to cause chaos and confusion, even as bands of monsters roamed the land, making travel untenable and destroying isolated farmsteads and hamlets, though the major settlements were able to withstand the assault for now, despite the reappearance of the Blood Moons meaning the casualties the monsters suffered at the hands of the monster hunting teams or Link himself were not permanent like the casualties they inflicted were.

He signed of how he traveled to Hebra, as that was the region he first learned was in distress, and he and Tulin braved the storm that foundered all other Rito to reach the Stormwind Ark, and purge the monster Ganondorf had grown within it. He made no mention of the Sacred Stone, that was for the Elder of the Rito’s – and Revali’s if he had anything to say about it – ears only. The Gerudo were his next stop, as they were pushed to the brink by the gibdos, forced back to their last refuge, which had been breached by the time he arrived, and he signed of how he and Riju fought their way though the hordes of the dead to the Mausoleum of Heroines, and dealt with the so-called “Queen” of the Gibdo within. Once more, knowledge of the Sacred Stone kept there was to be restricted to Urbosa’s ears only.

The situation with the Zora had turned critical by that point, so Link went there next, and he spoke of how he and Sidon managed to make their way to the Wellspring Island and purge it of the muctorok squatting there. He knew that neither Mipha nor Sidon would be wielding that Stone in this time, given their ages, but he would still inform Dorephan of it. With the situation with the Zora sorted he went north to Eldin, and discovered that Ganondorf had used a Zelda puppet to trick the Gorons into eating Malice infected rock, resulting in most of the Gorons becoming slothful, quick to anger, and cripplingly addicted. Thankfully, between him and Yunobu they were able to make their way into the Depths under Death Mountain to Gorondia, the lost city of the Gorons, and deal with the source of the infection, which caused the infected rock to disintegrate the moment the source was slain. Daruk would be the only one to know of that Sacred Stone.

He signed of how the phantom of Zelda had been sighted in the ruins of Hyrule Castle, which had been risen into the air on a pillar of Malice-corrupted rock in a parody of the sky islands. By this point they knew it wasn’t Zelda, but they still needed to find out what was going on, so he, Sidon, Riju, Yunobu, and Tulin stormed the castle, confronting the phantom of Ganondorf in the Sanctum, and he told them how the Demon King spoke through it, taunting and mocking them before instructing the phantom to “deal with them”. Despite being five on one and the phantom only having a fraction of Ganondorf’s power, it was still a worryingly close fight.

Realizing that they didn’t know nearly enough about their foe, and with the Master Sword not yet returned, the decision was made that, while his friends held the line, Link would investigate the Zonai ruins uncovered on the sky islands and in the Depths for more information, and that was when Tauro, head of the Zonai Survey Team, brought forth a lead on a Sage of Spirit that had fought alongside Rauru. Thus Link scoured the sky islands and the depths, which had been overrun by the Yiga he’d been displeased to note, recovering artifacts of the Sage, and he very pointedly did not say what those artifacts were nor where they were located.

He was not going to risk Mineru. Not now.

“And what was the Demon King up to while you were doing this?” Rhoam asked.

Other than sending more, and more powerful, monsters against the settlements, we had no idea, Link signed, at the time, given how little we knew, we assumed that he was recovering his strength after being sealed for thousands of years. Which, admittedly, he was, but even if we had gotten suspicious and figured out what he was up to… I struggle to think of anything we could have done. We were stretched thin just defending what we had.

“Was he going after the Triforce like so many of his successors?” Cadwell asked.

Link paused, considered it, and answered

Not yet at least. I have no doubt that going after the Triforce was something that he would have done eventually, and he might well have been taking the time to search for it, but he had more immediate objectives that he wanted to complete first.

Link resumed his tale. He signed of how he united the artifacts and discovered that the Sage of Spirit had not moved on like everyone was expecting.

He spoke of Princess Mineru, Sage of Spirit, elder sister to King Rauru, founder of Hyrule.

How she finally filled in the missing gaps in their knowledge of the Demon King, and provided Zelda the key information she needed to repair the Master Sword.

Things moved quickly after that. Even as Link retrieved the Master Sword Purah and Impa finished correlating scouting reports and realized that Ganondorf was, judging by Malice spread, still beneath Hyrule Castle, and everyone gathered to launch the final assault.

It was a hard fight, Link signed, much, much harder than the Calamity. At one point the fu-er, Demon King turned himself into a dragon and almost ate me. But, we did it. We killed the Demon King and made it stick.

“How did you do it?” Someone from the back called out, “How did you kill him when King Rauru failed?”

Zonai Sacred Stones are extremely hard to damage, Link explained, but if you manage it, they release their power explosively. Ganondorf had his mounted on his forehead.

“That’d do it,” Warin muttered.

Link nodded.

We had two years of peace fallowing that, he signed, we celebrated, purged the monsters and culled the Yiga, and generally focused on rebuilding. He sighed. We really should have investigated what Ganondorf had been up to, but the Demon King was dead, surely all his plans died with him, he signed with bitter sarcasm.

Link shook his head.

The first we knew something was wrong was when a dozen Gleeoks, supported by hordes of aerocuda, many with riders, swept in from the west in a coordinated assault that laid waste to Hebra and razed Rito Ayrie to the ground. Only a handful of Rito escaped.

I was on the wrong side of Hyrule at the time, investigating the South Necluda Sky Archipelago. By the time I heard about what had happened it was far too late.

“What of the Stormwind Ark?” Inak demanded, “or the Rito’s Divine Beast? How were those overcome?”

The Stormwind Ark was grounded for repairs, Link explained, and Vah Medoh was being dismantled to repair the former. After a century under the control of the Calamity, no one ever fully trusted the Divine Beasts and they were quickly decommissioned after it fell, which was why they were not available when the Demon King rose and no one seriously considered reactivating them in response to that, as we believed that he could take over them like the Calamity did. By the time of this crisis all had been dismantled to the point where we would not be able to reactivate them even if we wanted to.

“…I see,” Inak accepted.

Link resumed his tale.

Upon receiving word of what had happened Link and Zelda had immediately rallied what forces were available and sortied to Hebra, hoping to find and rescue survivors. They found a few, but they also found a massive army of monsters had crossed into Hyrule through Tabantha Pass from Labrynna.

Turns out, Ganondorf had not, in fact, been idle while I’d been running around dealing with the disasters he’d inflicted on us, Link signed grimly, instead, with Hyrule mostly destroyed and under his control save for the few pockets where we held out, he decided to launch invasions of the neighboring kingdoms of Labyrnna, Hytopia, and Holodrum, simultaneously.

It also turned out that those kingdoms had been preparing for the Calamity to break out for the past century, and had had just enough warning to re-man those defenses before the Demon King’s army arrived. They’d also put up enough of a fight that Ganondrof was forced to commit his reserves, so that when he started suffering reverses inside Hyrule he didn’t have much to spare. Something that directly led to his defeat.

The Demon King’s death had stopped the endless flow of reinforcements to the hordes, but by that point it was too late for the kingdoms, their armies had already been broken and most of their cities – including their capitals – sacked. Still, the chaos and confusion the monsters were thrown into with his death allowed the survivors to escape, until a new leader emerged.

A great golden-maned lynel, who quickly consolidated the monsters under his banner alongside the horde’s conquests and then, to make things even worse, set to turn them into a proper army, with forged weapons, armor, discipline, and tactics.

Said army, after crossing the Tabantha Great Bridge, turned south, linking up with the Yiga – Master Kohga was a fucking cockroach – who sabotaged the defenses leading into the Gerudo Canyon, allowing the army to pass through into the desert uncontested and unnoticed, for the Yiga ensured no survivors escaped.

By the time Link, Zelda, and the forces under them caught up to the monster army at the mouth of the canyon, just north of the Digdogg Suspension Bridge, the desert has been set aflame, Kara Kara Bazaar and Gerudo Town both razed, and the army was now marching back into Hyrule to continue its path of destruction.

The forces of Hyrule were not prepared for an army comprised entirely of thousands of blue, black, and white rank monsters, much less monsters garbed in effective plate armor, wielding high-quality weapons, and disciplined tactics, such as pike phalanxes backed by crossbows, flanking attacks by fast monsters – frequently packs of wolfos led by several lynels – and close air support form aerocuda and gleeoks.

The only reason it wasn’t a slaughter was because Link and Zelda were there, allowing them to perform a fighting retreat back across the Manhala Bridge, which they then blew to cut off pursuit. Unfortunately, casualties were still heavy, and the force was no longer combat capable.

While Zelda led the force back to Lookout Landing to recover and rally everyone she could, Link took to the skies using salvaged and self-made Zonai craft and began to whittle away at the monster’s air support.

As before, the monsters were disciplined, while Link was able to ambush and wipe out scout patrols, any attempt to get close to the main army saw him facing off against a flight of gleeoks, never numbering fewer than three.

But while he was able to whittle down their numbers, including most of the gleeoks, with his hit-and-fade attacks, he wasn’t able to keep the army from splitting and wiping out Lurelin and Hateno simultaneously, though he was able to warn the settlements beforehand so that they could at least partially evacuate. Thanks to the Sheikah, Kakariko managed to escape notice and was able to take in refugees.

With the last major Hylian settlements in flames, the monster army regrouped in West Neculda and set forth to put Zora’s Domain under siege.

By this point Zelda had rallied everyone who could fight to Lookout Landing, survivors of the Gerudo and Rito, Gorons under Yunnobu, Zora from the rivers and lakes, all the surviving Hylian and Sheikah teams and forces, Zonai constructs under the command of Mineru, even a few mostly intact Sheikah Guardians that they’d been desperate enough to reactivate, and marched to relieve Sidon, who commanded the defenses of Zora’s Domain, Link rejoining them enroute.

It was a force they believed had a good chance of defeating the monster army.

The Golden Lynel evidently agreed with that assessment – or at the very least didn’t like his odds – because instead of facing them on the field of battle he blew the northern reservoir dam, the floodwaters washing away much of Zora’s Domain… as well as the Hylian army, the flood even reaching Lookout Landing and damaging it enough that it had to be abandoned.

The few despondent survivors of both the army and Lookout retreated to Kakariko, where they would receive the message that, as all the gorons capable of fighting had joined the Hylian army and drowned in the flood, the survivors were retreating to Gorondia and collapsing all the tunnels behind them, abandoning the surface.

And so Kakariko became the Last Settlement of Hyrule.

Refusing to just give up, Link and Zelda continued to sally forth to harass the monster army, whittling away at their numbers and silver-ranked commanders, even making a few failed attempts on the golden bastard himself.

Unfortunately, it would only be a few months before the Yiga gave away the location of Kakariko.

The Fires of Kakariko it was called by the few survivors. The Last Stand of Hyrule.

The monster army attacked them from both the western and eastern passes, as well as sending skirmishers down Lanayru Road from the north.

Recognizing that their position was untenable, Zelda ordered Link to cut them a way out.

The Golden Lynel had been waiting for that.

The moment Link committed to carving a path through the monsters holding the eastern pass, the Golden bastard himself led the charge that breached the western defenses.

I knew something was wrong well before I turned back after punching through, Link signed, heedless of the tears seeping from his eyes, I could see the flames and hear the screams. I hurried back as fast as I could, but by then it was too late. Zelda and the rest of the rear guard had faced off against two silver hinoxes, three silver lynels, and the golden lynel himself. Zelda had managed to kill both of the hinoxes, one of the lynels, and severely injured the others, but she…

He wasn’t able to stop himself from letting out a small keen at the memory of seeing Zelda’s broken body thrust skyward, impaled in the golden lynel’s blade.

…I finished the job, he signed shortly, She was avenged. I then led the survivors to the sea, where the ocean Zora agreed to take them to safety. I didn’t go with them, and Mineru and Purah chose to stay behind with me. That was when Hylia first came to us. With Zelda’s death, Her bloodline had been exterminated root and branch, which meant that when the Demon next arose, there wouldn’t be a Princess to meet it. With Hyrule also overrun, She deemed the timeline Lost, but She could send me to a timeline that could still be saved. We set up our base on the Great Plateau, and began to plan.

Five years later, I stepped through a portal in the Temple of Time, and arrived here.

There was a long moment of silence as Link wiped at his face and wrung out his hands, sore from the amount of signing he had done.

“…Thank you for telling us your tale, Hero of the Wilds,” Rhoam said quietly, face a solemn mask, “We will meet tomorrow regarding the plan you have come up with, but you have done enough for tonight.”

Link nodded, and quickly slipped out a side door, making his way back to his room.

He wanted to be alone right now.

Chapter Text

Selwyn frowned as he marched through the halls of the Castle, early morning sunlight streaming in through the windows and arrow loops. As he’d been part of the King’s guard out to the Temple of Time, he’d had yesterday off to spend with his family. They’d naturally been very curious about the Hero he’d brought back, though his Link had been in a decidedly odd mood, the nine-year-old flipping between curious, excited, and worried seemingly at random.

Unfortunately, he’d no sooner gotten his uniform on this morning when he’d gotten pulled into a near-all hands hunt for the Hero, who’d disappeared. The – still rather quiet – alarm had been raised when one of the palace servants had gone to wake him and inquire what he would like for breakfast only to find his room empty and bed not slept in, though his pack – likely filled with things that either wouldn’t or couldn’t be stored in his Pad or he wanted easy access to – was still there, so he probably intended to return to the castle at least.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem… except no one could find him.

Things hadn’t escalated into a panic yet, there was still some time before the meeting the Hero was to attend with the King, High Council, and ambassadors, but to the staff of the Royal Family – whose lives were planned out days, weeks, even months in advance with exacting detail so that there were no surprises – the disappearance of such an important personage was extremely distressing.

So the Royal Guard got semi-conscripted to try and find the half-Zonai.

“I have to say, this is an inversion on our usual,” Asher commented, “Usually we’re the ones asking the staff to help locate a Link, not them us.”

Selwyn hummed in agreement.

As most of his family worked in the Castle – himself in the Royal Guard, his wife, Elieen, in the Royal Stables, his eldest, Eloise, in the alchemy laboratory, and his middle daughter, Grace, in the library – his youngest two, Mary and Link, had mostly free access to the place, but while Mary was good at staying in the public areas where she was supposed to, Link had a bad tendency to go “exploring”, resulting in Selwyn frequently having to enlist the help of the Castle staff in tracking him down.

Entering the Library Selwyn looked around… and spotted Grace signing at someone on top of the bookcase next to the entrance.

“Hey Asher-“

“No bet,” Asher interrupted, having seen the same thing, “You’d think that after dealing with our Link they’d remember to look up more often.”

Sure enough, secluded away atop the two-story-tall bookcase, shadowed by the walkway above, was the missing Hero, lounging on his side, propped up on an elbow, as he signed back at Grace, the light from the Pad on his lap illuminating the stonework above him, though Selwyn couldn’t see enough of his hands to understand what the Hero was saying. Link was wearing a plain tan sarong and a light tunic that seemed almost perfunctory given the amount of fur it showed.

He’d also braided his hair today, a simple Hylian weave that began with his bangs and swept along the sides of his head before splitting in two just above his ears, one end trailing down in front to lay on his collar while the other half went over his shoulder to join with the rest of his hair that cascaded freely.

Link looked up as they approached and Selwyn took the opportunity to sign She’s deaf at him.

He nodded and signed behind you at Grace, who turned around.

Hi Dad, she signed, smiling, and he smiled back at her.

Hi Grace, he replied, using her sign-name of G-giggle, I’ve always said you can be a terror at times, but how’d you manage to tree one of Hylia’s Heroes?

There was an indignant meow from up above, but a quick glance showed that Link seemed more amused than anything.

Grace giggled.

He was like that when I got here, She replied, were you looking for him?

Selwyn nodded and looked up at Link.

You caused a minor panic attack among the castle staff when they went to your room this morning, found your bed hadn’t been slept in, and then couldn’t find you, he signed mildly.

I’m… sorry? Link replied, confused, though I did sleep in the bed last night.

When did you learn how to make a bed to the standards of the Castle staff? Asher asked.

I didn’t. I just rewound it to before I used it.

Rewound? Selwyn asked.

Time magic, Link explained.

“You used time magic to make your bed,” Asher stated with a mix of amusement and incredulity.

Was I not supposed to? Link asked in confusion, I was just trying to help.

Given that you made the staff panic because they thought you disappeared from the castle last night, probably not, Selwyn replied.

Link’s ears drooped.

Sorry.

Not your fault, Selwyn told him, but we should probably get you back to the conference room, it’s almost time.

Link checked his Pad, nodded, and shimmied along the top of the bookcase to the wall edge where, in a motion that seemed unnaturally fast and smooth, he swung himself onto the wall and quickly climbed down.

So it occurred to me yesterday, Selwyn signed as the Hero strode over to him, that we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Selwyn – he spelled out his name, then showed his sign-name of S-win – this is Asher – his sign-name was ash-friend – and you’ve met my daughter, Grace.

Link paused, tail tip flicking madly.

As in Selwyn Hallowell, the blademaster?

You’ve heard of me? Selwyn asked.

Link hesitantly nodded.

I… have something of yours.

A few taps on the Pad and he had a ruined blade in his hand that he offered to Selwyn hilt first.

Selwyn recognized it.

When he’d been appointed Blademaster of the Royal Guard, and thus recognized as the best swordsman in all of Hyrule – though he suspected that that title belonged to Link now – his friends and family had all chipped in to commission him a new sword from the Royal Blacksmith, a longsword that could be wielded one or two handed, with silver loftwings engraved into the crossguard and a golden triforce on the pommel, words of prayer etched in silver along the fuller.

This… was the same blade, but bent, corroded, and broken, the edge chipped and cracked, the once-shinning steel and silver rusted and tarnished, a ten-degree kink beginning about a third of the way up the sword, and the last foot straight up missing, sheered off by some unknown force.

But worse of all were the sad remains of a pair of bracelets tied to the pommel. One was once made of jade and little brass owls, the jade beads now cracked and chipped, the owls mangled and corroded, the other lapis with silver shields, in equally bad condition, though it was clear that someone – likely the Hero in front of him – had cleaned and tried to repair some of the damage to them.

Carefully taking the blade in hands that were surprisingly steady, Selwyn held up the pommel so that he could examine the bracelets charms, Asher and Grace moving to stand next to him to look themselves. With gentle fingers he lifted the least damaged of the brass owls so he could read the words engraved on it.

Grace Hallowell, it read, and on the back, I am deaf, I use sign.

Grace reached for one of the tarnished silver shields, the whole and undamaged version of her jade and brass bracelet on her wrist jingling slightly.

I cannot speak, I use sign, the little shield said, and on the back,

Link Hallowell.

Grace let out a gasp and twirled away, hand over her mouth. Selwyn just closed his eyes for a long moment.

“Where did you find this?” he whispered, opening his eyes to look at the sadly sympathetic form of the Hero of the Wilds.

In the Sanctum, he replied, and when that failed to elicit a reaction he stated more than asked, you weren’t at the meeting yesterday, were you.

Selwyn shook his head.

“We had the day off, and I haven’t had a chance to read the minutes yet.”

The Calamity was imprisoned in the Sanctum, Link explained shortly, you dueled it to buy Zelda the time she needed to seal it. She said you were the last of the Royal Guard to fall.

Selwyn took a deep breath and compartmentalized the implications of why two of his children’s bracelets would be tied to the pommel. He would deal with that later. Preferably at home when he can see and feel that Link and Grace are okay.

“Where was the Hero during this?” he asked tightly, “Dead?”

Yes, Link signed simply.

“…I see. Is there a-“ Link produced an equally ruined sheath. “-thank you.”

Selwyn sheathed the blade with care, as he could feel the sheath threatening to fall apart in his hands. He thought about tying it to his belt, but it felt like it would break up if he did that, so instead he cradled it in his arms.

“…We should go,” he finally said.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link followed his the Hero’s father – if he was severing his link to the Hero of this age then he had no right to claim his family either – through the castle back to the room he had told his tale in. He hadn’t expected to encounter his the Hero’s family so soon. He’d known his the father had been the Blademaster of the Royal Guard thanks to Zelda, but she hadn’t known anything about the rest of his family. Initially she didn’t ask because of the animosity she’d had towards him, then her desperation to awaken her powers prior to the Calamity meant she never thought to. After, of course, everyone was dead, and his memory gone, so there was no one left who knew.

So it was a shock to discover young woman he’d been pleasantly chatting with, who’d been the only one to look up and notice him where he’d secluded himself atop the bookcase, had been the Hero’s sister (he had a sister). He hated to be the one to bring the mood down by giving Selwyn back his blade with the bracelets tied to the pommel, Grace’s having already been tied to it when he’d retrieved the blade after the fight with the Calamity – and he refused to think on whether Selwyn had taken it from a monster that was using it as a trophy or if he’d found her corpse – while he’d added his own after his transformation as his wrist was too large for it to fit now, but removing bandages and all that. Better to get it out of the way now.

Entering the room he saw that Cadwell and Warin were already present, both examining the maps Link had left stuck to the wall, both turning to see who entered the room.

“Hero,” they greeted, Link nodding back at them in recognition, then Cadwell frowned, “Selwyn, what on earth happened to your sword?”

“Apparently, I dueled the Calamity,” Selwyn replied flatly.

Link huffed, drawing attention to himself.

Zelda needed time to seal it, he signed, he bought her it. He also pissed it off enough that the first thing it did upon escaping its seal was destroy his corpse, allowing me to get a free hit in.

“I see,” Cadwell said, eyebrows briefly raising in surprise, before noticing the bracelets tied to the pommel, “Are those your-"

“Yes,” Selwyn said shortly.

“I see,” Cadwell repeated somberly.

Link mewed to draw attention back to him.

How many are we expecting? He signed.

“Just us, the ambassadors, and the High Council,” Cadwell replied, “plus a scribe. Also, do you have more of these maps? I’ve never seen any so detailed before.”

Link nodded.

They’re not accurate though, he cautioned, they’re from a hundred years and two cataclysmic disasters in the future. We won’t have accurate maps of this time until we can get the Shiekah Towers online, he signed.

“I noticed. Still better than anything we’ve got,” Cadwell said.

A few taps on the Pad produced another six-foot-by-six-foot map of the surface, then Link paused, looking over the room. The desks weren’t deep enough to support the full-size maps, but given how few people were going to be here today if he stacked them two deep…

A quick application of Ultrahand levitated a table in front of the one where Rhoam sat yesterday, and the resulting combined tablespace was just big enough for the map. The moment they saw what he was doing everyone else pitched in, moving the tables around while Link produced more maps. When they were finished, just in time for everyone else to enter as a group – it was likely that they’d had breakfast together given what Link heard of the chatter in the hall while the door was open – the room had been divided into three large tables, one for the King and Captains in the center, one for the High Council on the left, and one for the ambassadors on the right, each with their own copies of the maps Link had stuck to the wall, the excess tables and chairs having been pushed to the back walls of the room, save for a small table for the scribe who was going to be recording the meeting.

 As everyone settled down, with only a moment of hesitation at the changed layout before Cadwell quickly directed them to their seats, Link noticed that Zelda was with them.

“Um, Princess…” Cadwell began delicately.

“She stays,” Rhoam said in a tone that brooked no argument.

There was a pause as everyone processed that before one of the guards who had entered the room with them quickly fetched a chair for her and her omnipresent shadow to sit at the King’s table.

Link met the eyes of Mrs. Godfrey who discreetly signed, He’s been hovering since last night.

The Hero held back a wince.

For all that Rhoam was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to ensure the safety of Hyrule, he was still a father who loved his daughter, and Zelda… she’d had a harsh life.

Well, this plan was made without the input of the Princess of Wisdom, so maybe she’ll spot something we missed, Link signed, breaking the awkward tension in the air as he moved to the front of the room to begin his presentation.

The first thing we agreed upon when we started planning, he began, is that Shiekah Technology is far to useful to be left in the ground, even if there wasn’t a risk of Ganondorf digging up Guardians to use against us. Thus, the caches of Shiekah Tech need to be unearthed, both to use and study their infrastructure and decommission the Guardians and Divine Beasts. Of those, the Sheikah Towers, he pointed to the symbol of the one in Hyrule Field, should be the first priority, as they will not only provide accurate and continuously updated maps of all of Hyrule, but will also allow anyone with a Shiekah Slate to send messages to each other no matter the distance so long as they are in range of one of the Towers. Even better, we only need to unearth the top of one, as once one is activated all will force their way out of the ground and rise up, though I’ll need to visit each of them to link them to the network. This will also awaken various shrines across Hyrule that the Hero can use to strengthen himself.

Purah had everything we knew about the various excavations as well as Shiekah Technology in general – including how to dismantle Guardians and repurpose their components to produce useful equipment – on her Slate, which I have but is biometrically locked to her.

“She, and this Robbie and Impa you mentioned, have been summoned,” Rhoam said, “depending on when the message reaches Kakariko they should arrive either tomorrow or the day after.”

Link nodded.

I also have Robbie’s Slate, but he died in Kakariko, so I have no idea what’s in it. I do know that Purah left a message for herself though.

However, three years after I killed the Calamity the generators powering the Sheikah network – which we believed to be buried in the vicinity of Kakariko but never found – crapped out, forcing us to rebuild the Towers as Skyview Towers, which were finished just in time for Ganondorf to break free. This could mean that there’s still a century of life left in the Towers, but considering we are going to be using them much more heavily than in my time it could also mean that they fail in five to ten years, and that’s assuming the Calamity breaking free from its seal doesn’t cause the system to collapse on its own.

There was a reason everything was inactive when he emerged from the Shrine of Resurrection. Something had caused the whole system to trip offline and return to its inactive state, but when and what caused it was one of the things Purah lost when she de-aged herself.

There is some good new there though, Link continued, when the Shiekah were reverse-engineering Zonai tech to make their own technology one of the things they copied outright was the Zonai’s power distribution systems and standards, meaning that the Tower network can be powered by Zonai generators.

“But how do we get Zonai tech?” Shusan asked.

That’s a bit more complicated unfortunately, Link replied, there aren’t any caches left on the surface – they were taken long ago by the Shiekah for reverse-engineering, as well as by the usual suspects with less noble intentions – leaving the only places it can be found as the Depths and the Sky Islands.

Reaching either has obvious problems.

The Depths primarily contain Zonaite mining and refining facilities, which had been thoroughly looted by the Yiga by the time I’d found them, as well a Zonai construct factory and the ancient Goron city Gorondia. In this time, there are only two paths into the Depths that I know of. One is a Zonai freight elevator in Tobio’s Hollow, He pointed to it on the map attached to the wall, but that’s locked down until I can retrieve the key from Dragonhead Island.

“That’s going to be difficult to reach,” Auriol said, frowning at her map, “The best way I can think of getting there would be to make a branch road starting from just north of Sarjon Bridge and heading east-northeast until we reach the cliffside, then hiring some goron miners to dig a tunnel to Keelay Plain.”

“Goron miners are expensive,” Richard immediately protested, “we can hire twice as many peasants for a third of the cost.”

“And it would take thrice as long,” Auriol retorted, “not to mention that the end result would be greatly inferior, and that’s before you take into account problems such as collapses or coming out in the wrong spot.” She looked up at Rhoam. “Looking at the Depths map, Tobio’s Hollow is equidistant from the Zonai Construct factory, the Zonai Spirit Temple, and the Floria Canyon Mine. It’s also not that far from the Rozudo, Meda, and Taran Mines which, if I’m reading the Hero’s notes correctly, still have a significant amount of Zonaite ore present. Post Calamity this is going to be a major road, cutting corners now will only hurt us in the long run.”

“My brethren are expensive, yes,” Schist rumbled, “but we are the best at what we do.”

“Still…” Richard tried to protest only to be cut off when Rhoam raised his hand.

“We will be hiring goron miners,” he said with finality.

“…Yes, Your Majesty,” Richard subsided reluctantly.

If you dig a tunnel through the cavern wall to the northwest of the Construct Factory you can build a road directly to the Great Central Mine, Link signed, After the Central Mine played out the facility was converted to be the primary refinery for processing Zonaite, as well as possessing limited manufacturing ability for mining and transport equipment. If we can get it operational again, even just partially, it will be a massive boon.

The group collectively nodded at that.

“You said Tobio’s Hollow is sealed?” Cadwell checked.

Link nodded.

The key is on Dragonhead Island, he replied, but to get to it we’ll need to lower the Sky Islands first.

“What about the other entrance to the Depths?” Inak asked.

Link grimaced.

That one is going to be a problem, he signed, It’s here, at the end of Karusa Valley, you have to go through the Shrine to the Seven Heroines to reach it.

“So what’s the problem?” Evota asked.

The problem, in my time at least, is that the Yiga built their main base on top of it, and are using the Shrine to disguise their movements.

There was the hissing of several strangled swears, people remembering Zelda’s presence at the last moment.

“That, as you said, is going to be a problem,” Warin growled, “Any significant force has to go up Karusa Valley to reach them, but if I’m reading the terrain geography correct they likely have an exit between Vartosa Snowfield and Laparoh Mesa, and another around Zirco Mesa.” He looked over at Inak. “We’re going to need assistance from the Rito to keep them locked down.”

“I’m sure we can come to an agreement,” the Rito ambassador replied, “Provided we’re well compensated. We’ll definitely want some Zonaite.”

The caverns of the Depths are big enough for the Spirit Dragons to fly around in, Link interjected, Rito assistance in scouting them would be very useful.

Inak got a distinctly magpie-like gleam in his eyes at that.

“I look forward to those negotiations,” he told Rhoam, who nodded.

Purging the Yiga isn’t an insurmountable problem, Link signed, I’ve sacked the place a few times myself. The problem is keeping them from coming back. The only good news is that they currently have no idea what they’re squatting on.

“This hole into the Depths is how they looted the Zonai ruins down there, isn’t it?” Rhoam asked, and Link nodded, “Securing that will be a top priority then. Captain Warin, Ambassadors Inak and Evota, we’ll meet tomorrow to discus the joint operation needed.”

The three nodded.

“Now,” the King continued, turning back to Link, “you’ve mentioned that several things you need are on the Sky Islands. How do we get them to come down?”

In my time, the Sky Islands lowered in response to the seal breaking, Link signed, but that was a failsafe, and the stress of the emergency descent they performed caused a lot of damage. Luckily, Mineru knew of three ground stations that could order the Islands to descend, one in Eldin, one in Lanayru, and one in Faron. Unfortunately, she never visited them nor knew their exact locations, and they were not intended to last for thirteen thousand years.

We believe that the one in Eldin was built in the vicinity of what is now known as Gorko Lake, but that area has experienced some violent volcanic activity in the recent past? He directed the question at Schist.

The old Goron slowly nodded.

“It has been an on-and-off secondary vent for Death Mountain for the past few thousand years,” he agreed, “you think it has destroyed the station?”

I think it is extremely likely, Link replied, even if it escaped being baked by the lava, the shifting ground likely crushed it.

“Still worth investigating then, even if all that can be recovered is scrap metal,” Schist decided.

Link nodded.

The Lanayru station was supposedly built adjacent to the Ancient Zora Waterworks, of which the only entrances I know of are buried at the bottom of the East Reservoir Lake. Unfortunately, despite having relatively easy access to the reservoir basin after the dam was blown in my time, I wasn’t able to find it.

“That’s going to make things… difficult,” Seluune said, before looking at Schist, “We might need to try tunneling in from the side.”

“That’s going to take a lot of careful planning,” Schist replied thoughtfully, “Hero, what’s the waterworks like?”

Partially collapsed, partially flooded, and some parts are still functional and active, he told them.

“Lot of careful planning then,” Schist rumbled, “Careful digging too. I’d rather not accidentally open a hole in the bottom of the reservoir. This will not be done quickly.”

“What about the last one?” Zelda asked.

That one is, I quote, “built into the cliffs south of the southernmost bend of the Dragon River”. Unfortunately…

“Dracozu River doesn’t have any cliffs to the south of it,” Avin finished.

Link nodded.

It’s fairly obvious that the Dracozu and Floria rivers have shifted their banks in the past thirteen thousand years. Looking at the map, the latter probably didn’t exist at the time, with Dracozu coming directly from Lake Floria and bordering the cliffs to the south of Guchini Plains.

“You think Herin Lake is an oxbow lake?” Avin asked.

It certainly looks like one, Link agreed, the other likely alternative is the southern cliff face of Pagos Woods. Other clues might be found in the Zonai ruins there, though I’m not hopeful. Luckily, I know where a map is. At the northern end of Tanagar Canyon is an ancient, forgotten temple, and in a hidden room in that temple is Rauru’s war room from the Age of Imprisonment, which contains a massive, highly accurate map of Hyrule of that time. Unfortunately after the Calamity and Upheaval the one in my time was… not useable.

Mainly because it’d been converted to show him where the Geoglyphs were, as well as what Zelda’d remembered of modern Hyrule’s geography at the time to make sure he didn’t get confused.

“Excavating that will have to wait,” Richard said firmly.

“Lord Richard-” Rhoam started.

“Your Majesty,” Richard cut him off snappishly, “we already have a new major road being built – which will involve renovations of the Faron roads up to the new junction – several archeological expeditions already planned, a military operation, and once those Shiekah arrive you’re going to be shoveling as many rupees at them as they want, plus starting more archeological expeditions to recover Ancient Shiekah Tech. The Royal coffers are deep, but they are not bottomless.”

The way Rhoam glared at Richard, but notably didn’t refute him, was telling.

I’ll finance it, Link stated.

“Hero Link,” Rhoam began, but Link waved him off

It’s fine, he signed, we emptied every treasury we knew of before I came here, and if that’s not enough I have a lot of gems, metals, and jewelry I can sell.

“And how exactly do you intend to find the labor to do this?” Richard demanded.

The Forgotten Temple is one of, if not the, first temples to Hylia, Link told the Minister of the Treasury, Plus it’s also the resting place of Queen Sonia, the great-granddaughter of Hylia Reborn. I’m sure the Church of Hylia will be able to muster the faithful to help, and given how close it is to the Maritta Exchange it’ll probably see a lot of travel from tourists and pilgrims once a road is built.

“Fine,” Rhoam said in a tone that made it clear that it was not fine, but he was moving on, “Once we get the Sky Islands to come down, what then?”

We need to retrieve Mineru, Link signed, The Sky Islands are filled with Zonai Constructs and defenses with standing orders to defend them against any intruder, as are the ruins in the Depths to a lesser extent. Mineru has the command codes needed to give them new orders – the codes from my time are almost certainly not the same as the ones needed in this one – which we will need both to safely inhabit Zonai facilities and to integrate the Constructs with the army in place of the Shiekah Guardians.

“Do I need to worry about these constructs going insane like the guardians?” Warin asked harshly.

No, Link shook his head, the only construct Ganondorf ever managed to corrupt had been modified to be the vessel for a spirit, which compromised its protections.

“Speaking of,” Schist interjected, “how certain are you that these monsters that terrorized us after the seal broke were conjured by the Demon King then and not, say, during one of his earlier escape attempts?”

Link stopped. Thought about it.

And then grimaced when he realized he couldn’t refute it out of hand.

It would certainly fit with some of the off-wing comments Teba and Tulin had made about the damage to the Stormwind Ark’s cargo bay where Colgera had been hiding.

Seeing Link start to worriedly fidget at being unable to answer the question, Evota kindly offered

“Is there anything you have that could definitively tell whether they’re alive right now?”

Link froze, ears perking up as he clearly thought of something, and began to frantically search through his Pad.

After several seconds he stopped and looked up.

Schist, he signed, getting the goron’s undivided attention, you remember what I said yesterday about what Ganondorf did to your people when he broke free?

“Tricked them into eating Malice-corrupted rock, yes?” Schist said.

Link nodded.

They called it Marbled Rock, presumably because the veins of Malice look like marbling in meat, and made rock roasts out of it. I’d collected a few samples in the hope that Purah would be able to figure out a cure, but that turned out to not be necessary as it all disintegrated with the death of the Mogma. However, the Pad has kept those samples in stasis, so they haven’t disintegrated yet. If Mogma doesn’t yet exist, the Malice binding it should evaporate like the rest once I bring it out.

Everyone nodded, and a marbled rock roast materialized in front of Link, the Hero using Ultrahand to levitate it rather than touching it directly.

Zelda flinched back, going pale, but everyone else just regarded it curiously.

For several long seconds, nothing happened.

“Are you sure you sure you brought out the right rock roast?” Schist asked, “I was expecting something contaminated by Malice to look more… sinister.” He rubbed his chin contemplatively. “Though the veins of rose quartz do make it look quite appetizing.”

Link glanced at him, then, in a single smooth motion, drew the Master Sword and stabbed the roast.

The “rose quartz” that Schist had been admiring immediately began to bubble, boil, and shriek in pain and literal unholy rage, causing every guard in the room to immediately go for their weapons as the Malice evaporated in wisps of pink and black, leaving behind naught but dark ash.

The silence that followed was deafening.

“How could none of you see it?” Zelda’s voice broke the quiet, sounding small and fragile, “It was… it was glowing with Malice, it was trying to hide, but I could feel it radiating just… just pure evil. How could anyone mistake it for anything but what it is?”

Between one blink and the next, in a timeless moment none but Zelda saw, Link kneeled in front of the Princess, causing her father, governess, and guards to startle, gently wrapping her shaking hands around a softly glowing iridescent crystal that faintly radiated holy power. The nine-year-old girl stared at the fragment of her dragon-self’s horn – not that Link planned to tell her that – before clutching it to her chest and breathing deeply, seeming to draw strength from it. Given her nature, perhaps she was.

Your Wisdom allows you to see things as they truly are, Link signed sadly, few others can say the same. While it can allow you to see great and awe-inspiring sights hidden from the rest of the world, when dealing with the Demon…

“…I see it for what it truly is,” she whispered in solemn understanding.

Link stood and returned to the front of the room while Mrs. Godfrey leaned over to wrap an arm around Zelda in comfort, asking in a whisper if she wanted to leave, only for the princess to resolutely shake her head.

The monsters Ganondorf unleashed being alive in this time is a problem, Link signed, wanting to get the meeting back on track, but given nether the Calamity nor Ganondorf have escaped the seal they should be much weaker than when I fought them. I don’t know if lowering the Sky Islands will wake them, but once Mineru is retrieved I’ll move as fast as I can to deal with them.

Link paused, mentally going over his itinerary.

“What else can be found on the Sky Islands?” Rhoam prompted.

Other than the Forge Island, which is a single, massive manufacturing complex that could easily supply all of the Hylian Army’s needs if we can get it operational again, there’s a variety of unique alchemical and food ingredients, but the most critical are the sundelions, which can treat Malice exposure, burns, and infections when eaten, though they need to be mixed with other foods because if you try to eat them straight or raw they’ll just come right back up, Link signed, I’m also fairly sure that sundelions can have their anti-Malice properties distilled into an elixir, but I don’t have enough theoretical training to figure out how.

“Something for our alchemists to figure out then,” Rhoam said.

I’ll visit them after lunch, Link promised, I’ve got a lot stored away in my Pad. Other than that, the islands’ main value is in being a refuge-slash-fortress for vital personnel and industries as the Demon’s forces cannot easily reach them, if at all. The Great Sky Island, once its rebuilt, will be an excellent location for Hyrule’s new capital once the time comes to evacuate the Castle.

“Speaking of,” Warin said, “how firm is the date of Calamity’s attack? Will it attack on the princess’ seventeenth birthday no matter what?”

Not firm at all, Link told him, we know that the Calamity was ready to attack by then at the latest, but it’s likely that it was ready before then and merely waiting for an opportunity. However, it is not something we can rely upon, the Demon King will have noticed that there are now two active Heroes in this time and will be altering his plans accordingly.

Or rather, the Curse of Demise had noticed, that malignant last act of the Demon God so ancient and powerful that it had achieved sentience if not sapience, and given it had won in the timeline Link had come from it wouldn’t give up this timeline without a fight, and would commit more resources to the upcoming conflict, just as Hylia had by sending him. But whether that involved whispering in Ganondorf’s ear, subtly enhancing his power, or something more overt, not even Hylia knew.

It was why they’d spent five years preparing, gathering everything that could be useful, knowledge, resources, and artifacts alike, before Hylia terminated the timeline.

At least the Curse couldn’t commit a truly overwhelming amount of force, not without taking losses in other timelines it was still contesting, and if it started interfering too blatantly it opened the door for Hylia to retaliate. Both sides had to play by Nayru’s rules after all, Hylia because she was restrained by them, the Curse – and demons in general – in order to affect reality.

Warin nodded, looking not at all happy by Link’s answer.

“I still recommend that we aim to have all of our preparations done by Princess Zelda’s seventeenth,” he told Rhoam.

“Agreed,” Rhoam replied, then turned back to Link, “What of the Zonai equipment on the islands? You have spoken much about their effectiveness, yet you haven’t mentioned them.”

Link grimaced.

Unfortunately, I don’t have good news there, he signed, when the Zonai prepared the islands to stand the test of time, rather than mothballing everything and burying it in caches like the Sheikah did, they arranged things so that the steward constructs of the islands would be able to maintain, repair, and/or replace anything that broke, including the various war constructs, allowing them to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, up to and including attacks on the islands by scavengers or forces loyal to the Demon himself. But as I’ve said before, they did not foresee the seal lasting for thirteen thousand years, and so the islands’ material stockpiles were depleted millennia ago, forcing the stewards to engage in careful cannibalization to keep things remotely functional.

My equipment is proof of how powerful properly forged Zonai equipment can be, but the contents of the Sky Islands… I wouldn’t trust them for use in anything other than training, for soldiers or prospective engineers. Substandard components using substandard materials made by dilapidated and decaying foundries that are themselves inferior replacements to the great forges constructed at the Zonai’s height. This is why retrieving Mineru is so critical, with enough time, and the backing of the Queendom, she can bootstrap everything back to proper functionality.

“I see,” Rhoam said contemplatively, “How do you see us implementing these Zonai Constructs and weapons?”

I don’t know enough about how the Army works to answer that, Link replied honestly, same with what can be done with the weapons pulled and made from the Sheikah Guardians and Divine Beasts. I know Purah made a lot of designs for the latter two, including how to convert the guardians’ laser cannon into a man-operated artillery piece to replace existing cannons, but as to how to integrate them into the military… he shrugged, sorry.

“We’ll figure it out,” Warin promised confidently, “we have a bit over seven years, plenty of time to do it properly.”

Rhoam nodded.

“How do you intend to deal with the Demon King?” he asked Link, “You said that the seal room is too filed with Malice to fight him there?”

Link nodded.

Admittedly, that was over a hundred years after the Calamity was released, he signed, currently, the plan is to allow the Calamity to manifest, deal with that, then engage Ganondorf. Hopefully the Calamity will take most of the Malice in the seal room with it, and between me, the local Hero, Zelda, and that we actually know what we’re getting into this time, we’ll be able to deal with him. If that doesn’t work… we’ll have play it by ear. Too many unknowns.

“Understood,” the King said, “One last subject then, unless you have anything else. My daughter, and the local Hero. How do we awaken their powers, and how do we find the latter?”

Zelda perked up at that, and Link faced her directly.

The power of the goddess is already within you, he told her, you were born with it. To wield it, you need the Passion to change the world, the Belief it can be done, and the Will to see it though.

She stared at him as she processed that.

“Power, Wisdom, Courage,” she stated, and Link nodded, “It can’t be that easy.”

Not the first time, no, he agreed, but once you know how to do it, calling it up will be as easy as breathing, just like me and my time magic.

She nodded, thinking hard.

“And the Hero?” Rhoam prompted.

Link fixed him with a steely gaze that would have cowed a lesser man.

He is nine, he said shortly, let him have his childhood.

“Hero Link,” Rhoam began, only to be cut off when Link let out a small warning growl.

He is nine, Rhoam, He repeated, I will fight you on this. Leave. Him. Be.

“What if something happens to him, such as the Yiga, because he didn’t have protection?” Cadwell asked, making an obvious effort to keep his tone reasonable.

I know who he is, I will check up on him, Link signed shortly.

“How do you intend to do that without drawing attention to him?” Cadwell pressed, “You are not exactly… discrete. Or anonymous.”

Link glowered at the Captain, but didn’t have a response to that. Which made him even grumpier.

“If we know who he is, we can provide discreet protection,” the leader of the Royal Guard continued calmly, “even introduce him to Zelda so that they grow up knowing each other.” He turned to Rhoam, who was maintaining a stonily impassive face. “I’m sure we could spin it as the Princess wanting a friend her age outside of the usual circles.”

Zelda immediately gave Link big, green, hopeful eyes.

Link resisted for a moment before sighing. He never could deny Zelda anything, and she was even cuter as a nine-year-old.

He is eight months younger than the Princess and at one point his father became a Royal Guard. That is all I’ll say.

A lot of eyes immediately flicked towards Selwyn, who had gone very pale and was pointedly not looking at the bracelets tied to the pommel of his future-self’s ruined sword.

Apparently Link hadn’t been vague enough. Oops.

“Thank you, Hero Link,” Rhoam said, “Is there anything else we need to cover?”

Link thought for a long moment.

Shiekah, Depths, Sky Islands, Mineru, Zonai, Zelda’s powers…

I think that’s everything, he signed.

Rhoam nodded.

“Meeting adjourned,” he declared, and everyone started to rise.

“Hero Link,” Evota called out as he started to leave, “could you make another copy of these maps so all the ambassadors have a set?”

Link just used Ultrahand to detach the maps he’d stuck to the wall and tossed them to her before darting out the side door.

Now, where were the kitchens? He needed to calm himself down and cooking always helped.

Chapter Text

Link found his way to the kitchens by following his nose. For most, that would be at least partly metaphorical, but Link’s new nose was keen enough that he could actually track by scent… in theory at least, he hadn’t had it long enough to be that skilled, but he was still able to follow the scent of cooking food through the halls to the Royal Kitchens, which were located between the general dining hall for the castle staff and the Royal Quarters. He had never actually been to the Castle’s kitchens in his time as that section of the castle had collapsed.

Approaching the door to the kitchen from a servant passage, Link could feel the heat of numerous open flames boiling though the cracks in the door, which also did little to muffle the cacophony of a major kitchen in full operation, prompting Link to put on a sapphire circlet for the heat and a and a pair of spiral opals that Cotera had been kind enough to enchant to dimmish sensory overload on his sensitive ears.

Opening the door, Link paused entrance, watching the various cooks rushing around and food being prepared, and had to consciously force his hands to his side lest he start kneading the air in excitement. The kitchen was built into a large chamber, filled with numerous examples of every kind of cooking station, from ovens to caldrons to fire pits with automatically turning spits for roasting whole animals – which were currently not being used – to stoves to grills and more… all to keep the thousands of people that lived and worked in the Castle – as well as the Royal Family – fed.

At least he had learned enough social mores to know that, since this wasn’t his kitchen, he couldn’t just jump in and start cooking, he needed the permission of the head chef first.

It didn’t take long for Link to be noticed, a young girl in a chef’s uniform freezing in shock when she spotted Link before darting away through the crowd. A few seconds later Link saw a tall chef’s hat making its way through the sea of heads towards him.

Then the hat stepped out from behind a burly man going to wash his bloodstained cleaver and Link had to look down… and down… and down.

The portly matron peering up at him had to have shrunk with age like Impa as she wasn’t much taller than the future Shiekah Elder and was wearing a chef’s hat that was almost half-again taller than her (which wasn’t saying much).

“Welcome to my kitchens, Hero,” she half-shouted over the din, “I’m Mathilda, the Lady and Master of this domain. Is there something you need?”

I was hoping to use your kitchens to cook, he signed.

She raised her eyebrow and switched to sign.

Our cooking isn’t good enough for you? She demanded.

No, no! Link frantically signed, it’s just…  he fidgeted for a bit before admitting, I stress cook.

Mathilda's other eyebrow joined its sibling.

Heroes have not exactly been known for their culinary prowess, she signed.

While some of the towns had communal kitchens, most of my time was spent in the wilderness. I had to feed myself somehow, he replied, and, well, we only let Zelda near the cooking pot when we wanted something or someone poisoned.

Hero or not, I don’t allow just anyone to use my kitchen, she told him.

I can provide my own ingredients, he signed back, I’d do it on my own but the room I’ve been assigned doesn’t have a kitchen, and, Link could feel himself start to babble under her steely and impassive gaze, and there was an unplanned demonstration of how the Master Sword purges Malice and it distressed Zelda so I wanted to make her her favorite comfort food but then I figured that I should at least try to be healthy so instead of a fruitcake I was going to make her a Sunny Stuffed Pumpkin and, and, he could feel his tail curl around his right shin as he wilted and shrank into himself as Mathilda continued to not react, I can give you rare ingredients! Some are only found in the Sky Islands and it’ll be months before those are accessible and who knows how long before the first harvest of Sun Pumpkins is ready-

He abruptly cut himself off when Mathilda raised her hand.

“Show me,” she commanded.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Mathilda stood on the bench of the table that they usually used to prepare whole deer for roasting – and thus was currently being unused – watching as the Hero sat down across from her, purring hopefully. In truth, the only reason she was even considering this was because it was clear that if she said “no” he’d go somewhere else and do it anyway. At least this way she could make sure he didn’t accidentally poison the family she’d been in charge of feeding since the last queen was in nappies, and could quietly remake whatever he was planning if it wasn’t up to the standards of her kitchen. She didn’t want to offend the Hero, but he’d admitted to growing up in the wilds. How could he compete with her cooks, some of the best talent in the queendom and for whom working in the Royal Kitchens was the pinnacle of their culinary career?

“Now,” she said, “show me what you are planning on using.”

The Zonai nodded and items began to materialize on the table in flashes of blue light for her to examine.

There were a variety of common mundane vegetables, all of which were shockingly fresh, several still leaking sap from where they’d been picked, several pumpkins of a type she didn’t recognize, a large fish she’d never seen before, and a small purple vial engraved and capped with brass that was as tall as her hand was long.

She started with the ingredients she didn’t know, beginning with the pumpkins.

“What is this?” She asked, frowning as she rolled the strange green-and-gold colored almost mushroom-shaped gourd between her fingers, “It feels similar to the Fortified Pumpkins we purchase from Kakariko, but its magic is different.”

Sun Pumpkin, Hero Link explained, a farmer in Hateno managed to create them during the Upheval. Their magic is light-aligned, which makes food made from them perfect for people who have to spend a lot of time in Malice contaminated environments as it counters incidental Malice exposure. Zelda likes them because they harmonize with her native light magic.

“I see,” Mathilda said, putting the pumpkin down, “did you remember to get enough seeds for a crop?”

Link winced,

Yes, but I forgot to give them to… what’s-her-face, the Minister of Agriculture.

“Lady Avin,” Mathilda supplied.

Lady Avin, thank you, the Hero signed, I’ll stop by her office before I head to the Alchemy Lab.

Mathilda nodded and pointed at the fish, which was still glistening with water as though it had been plucked fresh from a lake.

Ancient Arowana, Link signed, picking up the fish and passing it to her, it’s native to the Sky Islands.

She frowned as she inspected the fish as its skeleton felt rather… broken.

“How did you kill this fish?” she asked.

The bomb flower launched it a bit further than I was expecting and I wasn’t able to catch it before it hit the boulder and fell off the edge of the island. His ears perked up. I was able to catch it before it hit the surface though.

Mathilda put down the fish and gave him a supremely unimpressed look.

Why do people keep giving me that look whenever I explain how I fish? The Zonai complained.

“Don’t fish in a way that warrants it then,” she told him unsympathetically.

Link let out an annoyed rumble.

Bomb fishing is effective, he grumbled, you don’t have to worry about missing like with spear or bow fishing, it kills the fish instantly, you can get multiple fish at once…

Mathilda tuned out the Hero’s whining to pick up and examine the purple vial.

“Is this a flavoring agent?” she guessed, seeing the outline of a dropper though the tinted glass.

He nodded.

Monster Extract is weird. It amplifies existing flavors rather than adding its own. Cakes get sweeter, venison gets gamier, spices get spicier, et cetera. Don’t sample it straight unless you really want to know what your own saliva tastes like.

“Monster Extract?”

It was invented by a… decidedly odd hylian called Kilton. I was able to acquire the recipe before coming here. He hesitated. You can probably guess what goes into making it.

“Is it safe?”

Yes, Link replied firmly, I had concerns when I first heard the name as well and had Purah extensively analyze it. According to her, it’s only dangerous if you chug several bottles at once, resulting in elixir toxicity due to its highly magical nature. Generally speaking, a few drops is usually more than enough unless you’re serving a large group.

Mathilda slowly nodded and turned to inspect the mundane ingredients, but other than a few with some bruising or other minor damage she’d normally pay top rupee for such fresh produce.

“Very well,” she said once she was satisfied, and gestured to an unoccupied section of the kitchen, “show me your cooking.”

Link immediately swept everything back into his Pad and bounced towards the station she’d assigned to him, purring loudly. As Mathilda followed in his wake she caught the eye of one of her assistants.

Newbie test, she signed and pointed at the Hero, who didn’t notice as his back was turned.

The man nodded and slipped away to spread the word.

If the Hero wanted to be a member of her kitchen, he’d have to pass the same test all others had to.

Grabbing one of the numerous stools she had scattered around Mathilda hopped up next to Link, carefully watching as he prepared his station.

She frowned as she saw that, while he had laid out several carving spoons for clearing out the pumpkin, he only had a single knife, a strange thing with a hilt of green metal and a dagger-like blade seemingly made of white light.

“Just the one knife?” she asked as he effortlessly sliced the top off a small Sun Pumpkin.

He nodded, letting out an affirmative mewl.

“How often do you clean it?”

In response he showed her the knife as he removed the pumpkin's top, the gourd's juices slowly sliding down what was clearly a blade made of pure magical force, its edges outlined in white light. The he pressed a button on the handle and the entire blade winked out, the juices dropping to the countertop. Pressing the button again caused the blade to reappear, and he offered it to her hilt first.

Accepting the knife she carefully examined it as Link turned back and began to scrape the pumpkin’s innards into an old wooden bowl he’d conjured from that slate of his. After turning it off and on a few times she ran the side of her thumb down the flat of the blade, noting that it was almost frictionless beneath the pad of her finger, then tested the edge on a nail. It cut through with almost no resistance.

“This is a remarkable blade,” she said, deactivating it and placing it with the other utensils, “where did you find it?”

It was a gift from Mineru, he signed as he placed the now-gutted Sun Pumpkin into an exceptionally battered pot – Mathilda suspected that it had been used to beat a monster to death and then roughly hammered back into shape – then added some water to the pot from a ladle – that had clearly been frequently used as weapon as silently testified by the kinks in the handle – and opened the oven.

Link froze upon making eye contact with the fire chuchu at the bottom of the oven, hand unconsciously drifting up towards where the Master Sword would normally sit on his back, tail lashing back and forth, as the burning gelatinous blob blinked innocently at him from behind its cage of iron bars.

He slowly shut the oven door.

Why is there a fire chuchu in the oven? He asked.

“It provides a much more even and consistent heat than wood or coal,” Mathilda replied, “Have you really never used one?”

He shook his head.

Most used conventional fuels, he replied, though the Sheikah and Zonai used magic to conjure heat directly for their stoves and ovens. He tilted his head. Are chus used anywhere else?

Mathilda nodded.

“Ice chuchus are used in large freezers, and while I’m not aware of any uses for electric chuchus, standard blues are vital for both sewage treatment and water purification.”

So that’s why the ruins were always crawling with chus, Link signed, looking as though he was having an epiphany.

“Yes, Hero,” Mathilda sighed, “that’s why there were so many chus. Did no one tell you this?”

He shook his head and leaned over to inspect the oven’s controls, easily figuring them out without Mathilda’s help.

Quickly adjusting the settings to his liking, one hand hovering over the cracked oven door to judge the temperature, he slid the pot, now capped with an equally battered lid, in, then set a timer on his Pad. Next he resummoned the fish and vegetables that she had approved earlier, which made her raise an eyebrow. Did he think he could gut, de-bone, and cook the fish in time for the pumpkin to come out and ready to be stuffed?

Apparently he did, and had reason for his confidence, as Mathilda watched him expertly gut the Arowana in under a minute, the offal dematerializing into his Pad for later use or disposal, slice off the head and tail with two flicks of his impossibly sharp knife, skin the fish in not much longer than it took to gut it thanks the same blade, and then set about deboning it, which went far faster than Mathilda had ever seen thanks to, once again, his knife and some kind of telekinesis.

Eleven minutes in and the fish was in the pan, ready to fry. A record that even she in her prime would have been very hard pressed to match, especially as no corners were cut.

Pan’s heating up slower than I expected, Link signed, lightly frowning.

“The stoves use waste heat from the ovens,” Mathilda explained, “While efficient, it does mean that the stovetops don’t get as hot as coal or wood fired ones do. Will this affect your timings?”

The Zonai hummed thoughtfully.

Yes, but I can compensate easily enough, he replied.

As the fish fried he brought out a metal spatula that, between the sharpened edge and kinks in the handle where it had been bent back into shape, had clearly been used for things other than cooking, dicing the fish in the pan using the sharp edge. Once the meat was minced, he turned his attention to the vegetables that were resting on a cutting board, and while he technically used the same knife that he had been using on the fish, Mathilda had already seen how anything that managed to cling to the magical blade fell to the counter when he deactivated it.

She was getting quite jealous of the instantly self-sterilizing knife. Having her own would make cooking so much easier for her and her chefs.

The meat was only mostly cooked when the Pad started beeping, prompting the Hero to once more use his magic to levitate the now steaming pot out of the oven, putting the now tender pumpkin on a cooling rack while he stored the pot in the Pad to clear up space.

Finishing up dicing the greens, Link scrapped them into a large, shallow bowl that had probably started life as a serving platter before gaining an enormous dent that was suspiciously shaped like a bokoblin’s face, then, once the fish had reached the point that it was naturally flaking apart – a sign that it was now fully cooked – he added that to the bowl and began to stir.

“Is there any of your cookware that you haven’t used as a weapon?” Mathilda asked.

Link paused. Thought about it.

A few, he finally replied, then shrugged, Monsters generally don’t wait for you to grab your preferred weapon, so I usually make do with what I have in my hands at the time.

With the stuffing now thoroughly mixed he retrieved the pumpkin and began to fill it, though it quickly became apparent that he’d made far more mix than would fit.

“What are you planning to do with the excess?” she asked.

Store it for latter, he looked at her, unless you want it? I can always make more.

She considered that.

“Let’s see how this batch turns out first,” she decided.

He nodded, turning back to the pumpkin, and as such didn’t see the signal Mathilda made behind his back.

Time to see how well he plays with others.

“Hey, Newbie,” one of her chefs called across the room.

Link looked up with a loud “Mrrrrrp?”

“Can you get me some Safflina?”

Warm, cool, or electric? The Hero replied, pulling up his Pad.

“Cool.”

Dried?

“Yes.”

A half-filled spice bottled was launched through the air of her kitchen, the chef catching it easily.

“Thanks.”

As the pumpkin neared capacity, Link pulled out the vial of Monster Extract and carefully added two drops before frantically stirring it in.

“Why add the Extract now and not with the rest of the mix?” Mathilda asked when he finished.

Draws out the pumpkin’s flavor, he explained, putting a bit of the base mix and the finished mix from the pumpkin on a small platter in front of her in clear invitation to taste test.

Naturally, she did so.

The base mix was well made, the greens and meat blended together excellently, and she could taste the Arowana’s unique flavor. Not to her personal palette, admittedly, but the quality was perfectly acceptable for her kitchen.

Then she tried the finished mix and her eyebrows shot up. The flavors didn’t explode in her mouth, but they were noticeably stronger and more vibrant, seasoned with the taste of pumpkin and what she could only describe as Light.

Again, not to her palette, but definitely worthy of the Royal Kitchens.

“The quality is acceptable,” she declared primly.

Link purred, replacing the pumpkin’s top and sliding the whole thing into the oven for final cooking, setting the oven’s timer instead of the Pad’s.

Once the timer goes off, it’s ready to be served, he told Mathilda, who nodded.

Piling all his cooking implements into the re-summoned pot Link took them over to the kitchen’s washing station.

“Hey, newbie,” another of her chefs called out as he dropped the pot in the sink, “Could you get me some monster sausage?”

Ah, yes, the classic blupee hunt-

I’ve got black bokoblin, red moblin, and silver lynel. Which do you want? The hero replied instantly, Pad in hand.

“Wait, really?” the chef asked.

Link nodded, letting out an affirmative mewl.

“This I’ve got to see,” a third chef said, toweling off her hands as she strode over to the prep table, “Come on, Hero, show us that you’re not making this up.”

Link obliged, a trio of boxes – one small, one medium, and one large enough that it could be classified as a crate – appeared on the table, stuffed with ice and sausage links ready to be cooked, everyone who wasn’t actively tending to food gathering to take a look, Mathilda included, while those who couldn’t leave their stations were clearly rubbernecking and listening in.

“I’m guessing that this was invented in response to a food crisis,” someone said, “but how’d you solve the toxicity issue from residual Malice in the meat?”

By blending in some sundelions, he answered, but that only works with ground meats, so I have sausage, patties, raw stock, etc., but no whole slices, like steak equivalents.

 “How’d they turn out?”

People seem to love it or hate it, with very little middle ground. He turned to Mathilda. Zelda, for one, absolutely despises it. Even with the sundelions neutralizing any harmful effects, she can still taste the residual Malice.

Mathilda nodded.

“Noted.”

“You got any samples?” the chef who’d earlier requested for safflina asked.

Link nodded and several platters – burgers, meatloaf, and a few other meat-based dishes – appeared.

“Do you mind…” the chef gestured at the food.

Link waved him off.

You can have it all, he signed, I’m not fond of it myself.

“We’ll take the bokoblin and moblin sausage,” Mathilda said, “but there’s no way we’ll be able to use the lynel sausage as well before it goes bad. Could you replace it with a smaller amount of ground meat, please?”

He nodded, and the crate was replaced by a pair of small boxes, one labeled “blue lizalfos” and the other “aerocuta”.

“Thank you.”

The Hero nodded again and wandered back to the sink to wash his dishes.

Mathilda snapped her fingers to get her chefs’ attention.

“Mary, Richard, Ravio, take the food to the Dinning Hall, let’s see how popular it is,” she ordered, “Harold, Samantha, take the meat to the freezer.”

The timer on the oven the Hero had been using went off, and she spun around to see him heading towards it.

“No, no,” she barked at him, striding towards the oven herself as fast as her short, old legs would go, “You’ve done your part, let me do mine. You finish washing your dishes and get those seeds to Lady Avin.”

Link hesitated, but nodded and returned to the sink.

“Alex, Libby?” she called as she removed the stuffed pumpkin from the oven.

“Rest of the Royal order is ready to go,” Alex replied, rolling the serving cart up behind her, “I’ve got the platter and utensils on the cart.”

Mathilda plopped the pumpkin on the platter, covered it with a lid, and the three set off for the Royal Quarters.

The King and Princess were having a private lunch today in their private rooms and both looked up from the table they were seated side-by-side at as a member of the Royal Guard opened the door for the cooks.

Seeing King Rhoam moving a bunch of papers out of the way she initially despaired at another failed attempt by the King to connect with his daughter, before noticing that the papers had been between the two and their chairs were close enough for both to easily read them.

The Head Chef briefly smiled to herself. Perhaps there was hope yet.

While the King had one of his usuals – steak and baked potatoes – both of them looked in surprise at the small pumpkin placed in front of Princess Zelda.

“What is that?” King Rhoam asked curiously as the little princess grabbed her utensils and investigated her food, clearly puzzling out the best way to eat it.

“Sun pumpkin stuffed with ancient arowana and vegetables,” Mathilda reported, “The Hero made it for the Princess as an apology for what happened earlier. Apparently it was one of his Zelda’s favorite foods.”

“So the Hero found the kitchens then?” His Majesty asked rhetorically as he began to cut into his steak, “How’d he do?”

“Acceptably,” She sniffed imperiously as Princess Zelda sliced open the pumpkin, peering intriguedly at the steaming stuffing that spilled out, “I wouldn’t be opposed to him returning.”

Which was actually a ringing endorsement from her, and they both knew it.

“Though he did give us some… interesting meats to play with.”

King Rhoam gestured for her to elaborate, and she did so, explaining about the monster meat he’d freely provided them. As she finished the Princess let out a noise that could only be described as a delighted squeak, and they both looked over to see her eagerly digging in to her pumpkin.

Mathilda made a mental note to barter the ingredients from the Hero, because it was clear that Princess Zelda would want more.

Chapter Text

Link rounded the corner to the corridor that led to the Minister of Agriculture’s office, storing the now empty skewer in the Pad for later disposal – by way of being used for kindling – only to come to a surprised halt when something hissed at him.

Looking down he saw two of the Castle's mousers – both toms by their scent – staring at him, fur puffed up in alarm. One, a dappled tabby, was very obviously displeased by Link’s presence, slowly crab-walking away, tail tucked between his legs, and warbling out a steady stream of “NononoNononoNONOno”. The other was almost entirely different shades of orange, save for his white chin, fur darkest along the spine and progressively lightening towards the belly, stripes of darker orange trailing down his lighter colored flanks and banding along his legs and tail, and was looking at Link with more alarmed curiosity than terror.

Mrrrp-ing in greeting Link knelt and extended a hand for the cats to sniff, though the sudden movement was too much for Tabby, who bolted, yowling in terror, leaving behind a pair of turds the cat had panic-shat. Orange, while keeping a wary ear pointed in the direction Tabby fled, cautiously crept towards the Hero’s outstretched hand, neck stretched to its maximum extent and little pink nose twitching as he carefully sniffed Link’s claws, then his fingers, then his knuckles, and finally his palm.

Eventually Orange withdrew, considering Link for a long moment… before darting forward to nuzzle his fingers, evidently deciding that he was sufficiently friend-shaped to be befriended.

Link purred as he petted and scritched the cat – who was so happy that his tail was starting to arch over its back and vibrating – as he twined about his legs, stopping every few seconds to nuzzle him.

Sadly, Link couldn’t spend all day pampering the cat, so with great reluctance he straightened up and continued down the corridor, glancing at the placards next to the doors – all of which were closed for some reason – lining the outer wall denoting whose office occupied that particular room as he passed.

Orange, of course, was greatly displeased by this, meowing in annoyance and darting after Link to bat at his ankles in an attempt to make him lavish more attention on the feline, and when that didn’t work the cat pounced on the tuft at the end of Link’s tail.

Link stopped and looked back in exasperation. Orange blinked up at him from where he was wrapped around Link’s tail, and when Link flicked it in an attempt to remove him, dragging the cat across the floor on his back, he took it as an invitation to play fight, lightly biting and bunny kicking his tail, claws sheathed.

The Hero of Hylia sighed, stopped time, and picked up the cat, freeing his tail in the process, before letting time resume, Orange now in his arms. The cat froze in surprise, before deciding that being held was… perfectly acceptable, settling down so that his forelegs dangled from Link’s arms and allowing himself to be petted as Link continued down the corridor.

Lady Avin’s office was at the end of the corridor, next to the spiraling staircase that led up into one of the castle’s spires (which was where they kept records and paperwork, as no one would willingly travel up and down ten to twenty flights of stairs as part of their daily routine). Opening the door Link had just enough time to see the Minister of Agriculture seated behind a large desk covered in paperwork when Orange launched himself out of the Hero’s arms with a happy meow, bounced off the floor, skidded across the desk, and slammed his forehead into her chin in greeting.

“Damnit Crash,” Avin sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her voice a mix of frustration-exasperation-fondness.

The cat – Crash apparently – just purred, planting his forepaws on her chest so that he could better nuzzle her jaw, mouth, and nose.

Sorry, Link signed apologetically, wincing slightly, If I’d known he’d do that I’d have left him outside.

“It’s fine,” Avin sighed, picking up and dropping the cat onto the floor, only for him to do an immediate u-turn and jump into her lap with a meow for more attention, “What do you need, Hero?”

Link tapped at the Pad for a second and summoned a pair of bags – one not much larger than a rupee purse and stuffed to the brim, the other a burlap sack only mostly filled – materializing the smaller bag on Avin’s desk and the larger next to it.

“Sundelion seeds, yes?” she asked as she opened the pouch and picked up one of the tiny, gold-colored seeds, scrutinizing it.

Yes, Link nodded, the other bag contains sun pumpkins.

“Sun pumpkins…” she mused, leaning over – as much as she could with a needy cat in her lap – to snag a sunshine-yellow pumpkin seed from the sack, “Like fortified pumpkins but light aligned?”

Correct. Foods made from them are excellent at treating incidental Malice exposure.

“We’ll need to have a sizable crop ready by the time the Calamity comes then,” she muttered, carefully examining the seed, before looking up at him, “do their growing requirements differ from normal pumpkins?”

They need a lot of sun, Link told her, even more than normal pumpkins, to the point we couldn’t get them to grow around Lurelin because Faron experiences too many overcast and rainy days.

“That basically limits them to Necluda then, Akkala is too dry,” She grumbled, moving the seed out of reach for Crash as he tried to sniff it, lest he decide it was food or a treat, “What about sky islands?”

We never tried, Link signed, the existing farms provided enough. We were in the process of setting up a greenhouse on the Great Sky Island to see if we could grow sundelions when everything went to shit.

“But you were able to grow sundelions?” she checked.

…Somewhat, Link prevaricated, we were still in the phase of finding out what they grew best in. Speaking of… a battered and travel-stained notebook materialized on the desk, that’s Zelda’s notes on the project. I’m afraid I can’t help further as I wasn’t involved.

“I see,” Avin said, picking up and thumbing through the notebook, Crash jumping onto the desk to sniff at the pouch of sundelion seeds only for the minister to pick him up and drop him onto the floor one-handed, not even looking up.

“…Was there something else you needed?” Avin asked pointedly after a long moment.

Link shook his head and excused himself, hearing the cat jump back up onto the desk as he left.

“You are a pest!”

The cat purred.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

The castle’s alchemy labs were located within the northern cliff face beneath the castle proper, and were completely destroyed in Link’s time on account of the place having exploded during the Calamity with enough force to cause a cave-in. They’d never figured out if the explosion had been intentional or if the surge of Malice had caused the more volatile reagents to destabilize.

Link was looking forward to one day getting his hands on those reagents, as the knowledge of how to make them had, like so many other things, been lost with the Calamity. Apparently Hylian alchemists had figured out how to distill out the magically active part of potion ingredients, which they would then cut with other reagents or alchemical bases to create various potions of different types and grades. The advantage was that the resulting elixirs were of much higher purity, meaning that one can take more – or stronger – potions before elixir toxicity becomes a problem, as well as being able to formulate the exact strength and effects of the elixir. The downside was that the creation of the needed reagents required advanced, complex, and delicate alchemical equipment operated by a skilled alchemist. Zelda had been greatly disappointed that nothing – neither records, knowledge, nor equipment – had been salvageable in the aftermath of the Calamity.

In contrast, Link’s repertoire of elixirs, while inferior to the castle-made potions, could be made anywhere one can find a heat source and (relatively) clean water with a basic alchemist’s traveling kit and minimal training.

Opening the door to the alchemy lab Link slipped inside, doing his best to be as unintrusive as possible. Well, as unintrusive as a nearly seven-foot-tall cat-man could be. At least he wasn’t wearing his armor.

As it turned out, his caution was unneeded, as the counter at the far side of the empty lobby was unmanned. Focusing his ears on the open door behind the counter he could hear someone shouting something about chillshrooms?

Link tilted his head in curiosity as he realized that the alchemists had figured out how to safely use chillshrooms in elixirs. The one time he’d tried he’d wound up sending himself into thermal shock when his internals cooled way too quickly. Admittedly the mild heat stroke he’d been suffering at the time probably hadn’t helped. At least he’d been in Kara Kara Bazaar at the time.

As there was no one there to greet him – or stop him – Link decided to go exploring, rounding the counter and looking through the open door into the uppermost floor of the alchemy lab, where the alchemists did their bookwork and kept records, recipes, and other knowledge, along with finished potions, the lab proper being one floor down, and ingredient storage one floor below that, where it had (relatively) easy access to the castle’s docks.

Looking around the highly active and crowded room Link’s eyes fell on at young blonde woman with a rather petite build who was sitting at a desk doing some paperwork, and he instantly knew that she would help him and that he could trust her unconditionally. Frowning slightly he tried to tease out the memories associated with the feeling, to no avail. Mentally shrugging, and glancing around to see that he didn’t recognize anyone else – though some had started to notice him – he made his way over to her.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Freshly graduated journeywoman alchemist Eloise Hallowell sighed slightly as she heard her little brother do the tongue cluck he did when he was trying to get someone’s attention.

“Link, you know you’re not supposed to be-“ She broke off when looked up and saw a tan sarong, mechanically tilting her head up and up and up to see the Hero of Hylia, who was indeed a giant greenish-furred cat-man as her father had described, looking down at her.

Wrong Link? The Hero offered, chuffing in what was hopefully amusement.

Flushing in embarrassment she nodded.

“My littlest brother,” she explained, “He’s non-verbal, and when he wants to get someone’s attention he makes the same noise you did.”

Link the Hero blinked and peered at her, nose briefly twitching.

You’re a Hallowell, aren’t you.

“I’m Eloise Hallowell, yes, how’d you know?”

For a spit second, that Eloise only noticed because she was looking right at him, the Hero almost seemed to stutter, hands and posture shifting to slightly different positions without seeming to move through the intervening space.

I ran into your sister earlier today and I’m going to be working closely with your father, he said.

There was obviously a lot more to it than that, but Eloise, like the rest of her family, was well aware of the concept of need-to-know information from working so close to the Royal Family, and if the Hero of Hylia had decided that she didn’t need to know, she wasn’t about to gainsay him. Probably something he found out in the timeline he came from.

“Fair enough,” she said, “though, um, is there something you need?”

The Zonai nodded.

R-King Rhoam wants sundelions analyzed so that their anti-Malice properties can be distilled into an elixir. It also occurred to me on the way here that we should probably transcribe my own elixirs, given that they can be made in the field.

Eloise nodded.

“Well, I can get started on the former and can definitely do the latter,” she said, looking around, “There should be a chair somewhere…”

Hero Link stretched out a paw and hooked a stool, dragging it over with a clatter, and sat down, already tapping away at the tablet that hung at his side, a small pile of flowers Eloise had never seen before – those had to be sundelions – and a heavily battered and stained notebook materializing on the desk.

Picking up one of the freshly picked flowers she examined it curiously, noting that the thin, rigid stems and large, blade-like leaves were different shades of gold, with the comparatively enormous black-and-gold upturned bell-like flowers perched on the end of each stem, each with several long stamen poking out beyond the petals.

“Do you have some in other sages of growth?” she asked, “as well as roots?”

I think so, why? He asked, confused, Sundelions are at their most potent when flowering, and the roots don’t contribute at all.

“Because they might have other useful properties,” she said patiently, “And even if it’s not as potent, being able to harvest… leaves, for example, all year would allow for a steady supply.”

He slowly nodded at that.

You’d need a lot of leaves to distill into a reagent though, and they don’t keep well.

Eloise sighed.

“Contrary to popular belief, we do not make all potions out of reagents,” she recited, “The process to make reagents is difficult, time consuming, and expensive, and the potions used to clean the equipment after each batch are so caustic that they’ll dissolve your skin and the fumes will melt your lungs. As such they are made specifically for potions that require extreme purity and when only needed, with most potions and elixirs being made by traditional methods.”

…So I guess that means that I won’t get to play with them? He asked.

“No,” she said apologetically.

Awwww… he whined with playful sadness.

Eloise had to stifle a smile at the hero’s antics.

“You said sundelions don’t keep well?” she asked, getting back on track.

The Zonai shook his head.

They wilt easily, and drying them causes them to lose their light affinity.

“What kind of drying did you use?”

…Standard herb drying? He signed uncertainly.

“So you didn’t try drying them with concentrated sunlight?”

Eloise watched as the giant cat’s head tilted to the side.

…There’s a thought.

While the Hero considered that Eloise checked the drawers of the desk, finding a bunch of blank paper and full inkwells but not the forms that would be needed for registering new plants.

“I need to grab some paperwork for the sundelions,” Eloise said, shutting the last drawer.

What all do you need from me? He asked.

“Ideally, samples at every stage of development, along with a few that are planted in pots or can be planted without dying.”

He nodded, pulling out the tablet and tapping away at it, and Eloise took the opportunity to slip away to grab the needed forms, striding quickly towards the backrooms where the archives were kept. It took her a fair few minutes to find the needed form, as the one she thought she needed was only for known species, not new/unknown.

Still, she found the needed papers without much difficulty, but on her way back she noticed that the people sneaking glances at the Hero were looking rather nervous. Slipping around a pair of pages who had frozen in the middle of the walkway with their arms filled by a pair of elixir transport boxes, she quickly saw why.

Hero Link was still sitting at the desk – which had gained a few sundelions in small pots and whose flowers were just beginning to bud – but he’d half-turned in his seat to face the hylian who was pompously addressing him, and from the way his ears were pointing towards the sides of his head and the tip of his tail lashing back and forth she could tell that he was Not Happy, even if his face remained otherwise impassive. Something Eloise could sympathize with, considering the person talking at him was Colley Raimbaud, a middle-aged, rather plain hylian of average height and dirty-blonde hair, whose only truly notable accomplishment was that his father was the Duke of Necluda, as his skills as an alchemist were decidedly mediocre.

“…family’s patronage has a lot to offer you,” Raimbaud half-boasted, half-rambled, “we have access to a great many artifacts, can offer steep discounts on products from Necluda, and deep, deep coffers, should you need funds…”

Eloise could tell the exact moment the feline hero noticed her return thanks to his ears popping up, something that Raimbaud, unfortunately, also noticed, causing him to turn to see what had caught the hero’s attention.

“Ah, thank you apprentice. I can take it from here,” he told her pompously.

“I’m a journeywoman,” she told him flatly.

“Yes, yes,” he dismissed, “Regardless, I will take it from here.”

He held out his hand for the paperwork. Eloise didn’t give it to him.

“I am fully qualified to handle Hero Link’s requests,” she said stiffly.

He glared at her.

“I insis-“

He broke off with a squeak as a massive, clawed hand covered in short green-gray fur slammed down on his shoulder, eyes bulging and knees buckling from the impact, not falling only due to the way the fingers dug painfully into his shoulder. A few seconds later the hand released him, and he staggered away, clutching his shoulder, the retort on his lips dying a quiet death as he turned to look at who had dared touch him.

The Hero of Hylia loomed over him with a narrow-eyed stare, ears pointing back and tail lashing from side to side, his presence effortlessly dominating the now dead silent room.

Eloise swallowed, mouth dry, suddenly keenly aware of just how big the Hero was, seven feet of fur and solid muscle, shoulders were twice the width of her own and arms as thick as her legs, her hindbrain screaming at her to not make Any. Sudden. Moves.

Leave, the Hero signed, unblinking gaze making it clear he was addressing Raimbaud, Now.

Pale-faced, Raimbaud swallowed several times before finding his voice.

“You-but-she… she’s just a novice!” the noble scion stammered, “I’ve been a journeyman for decades! Decades! And I’m an heir to the dukedom of Necluda! She’s just an up-jumped peasant-“

Between one blink and the next Raimbaud vanished and the Zonai hero was contentedly sitting back down at the desk, as though nothing had happened.

After a long moment, Eloise hesitantly made her way back to her vacated chair as life slowly returned to the room.

Handing the paperwork to the hero she sat as he began to look through it, a fountain pen already in hand.

“What did you do to him?” she finally asked.

Trash goes in the trash chute, right? He replied, glancing up from the form.

Eloise had to fight down an inappropriate giggle.

“You do realize he can make things… difficult, right?”

If he causes problems I can send him right back down the trash chute again.

Eloise found herself grinning in spite of the inappropriateness the subject.

“His father might take issue with that.”

I can send him down the trash chute too.

She snorted.

“Link, you can’t send the Duke of Necluda down a trash chute,” she chided.

He blinked at her in confusion.

Why not?

Eloise… decided she wasn’t going to touch that and merely shook her head, smiling.

“Do you mind…?” she asked, gesturing at the battered notebook still laying on the desk.

He waved at her to proceed, already starting to fill out the paperwork, so she helped herself to the notebook.

The first thing she noticed was that many pages were notched or dog-eared, and flipping to them revealed finished recipes. Quickly flipping through several she frowned slightly.

“I see that you’re using monster parts as the empowering agent,” she said as he finished the paperwork, and got an affirmative grunt from Hero Link, “but I’m not seeing anywhere how using rupees instead would affect the elixir.”

Hero Link looked up in surprise.

I didn’t know rupees could be used in elixirs, he signed, the one time I tried had… explosive results.

“You used too many rupees then,” she replied, then paused, “How much do you know about rupees?”

I was raised in the wilderness by a wolf and a ghost, and the latter knew almost nothing about alchemy.

“…Understood.” Eloise supposed she should have expected something like that, why would a hero have a normal upbringing? “Rupees are crystalized magic, which is also why magical output is measured in units of rupees.”

And the color indicates how many rupees of magic are in each crystal, the Zonai deducted, green: one, blue: five, and so on.

“Correct,” Eloise nodded, “And as you discovered, if you use too much magic for your alchemy or enchantment, you get an explosive failure, while not using enough results in equally obviously result in failures if of a different type.”

But I’ve never had an elixir explode on me before or since, even when using dragon parts.

“Dragon…” Eloise broke off, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out as she compartmentalized wasting something as rare and valuable as dragon parts on a mere elixir, much to Hero Link’s amusement, “that’s because they release their magic gradually over time rather than all at once like rupees do.”

So I have to regularly add small amounts of rupees throughout the brewing?

“That is the traditional method, but I know that there’s alchemical equipment that will gradually release the magic of a high-value rupee into the elixir over time, resulting in a much more consistent flow.”

But that requires a high-value rupee, he pointed out, and those are rather rare.

Eloise nodded.

“Which was the driver for figuring out how to synthesize rupees.” At the Hero’s intrigued expression she continued without being prompted. “As the only difference between the different rupee colors is the amount of magic they contain, forcing more magic into the crystal will cause them to go up a tier. The trick was figuring out how to do this without causing the crystal to rupture.”

And the trick is? He asked.

“Keeping a steady, gradual flow into the rupee. Too little and either the magic will leak out before the crystal reaches the next stable tier or a lot of magic will be wasted. Too much and the crystal matrix destabilizes.” She paused as he pulled out a green rupee and held it between his fingers, squinting at it, magic starting to leak into the air. “While it is possible to do it freehand using an array-“ She broke off in surprise as she noticed the rupee already starting to bleed blue, the color trickling in from where his fingers touched the crystal.

As the blue reached the halfway point she held her breath, wondering if the Hero would manage it on his first try, but the crystal then shattered with a pop of magic, the fragments disintegrating into vapor before the traveled more than a few inches.

Hero Link considered the failure for a moment before signing

This will be very useful as a training method for both control and power. I’ll have to show it to Zelda when she reaches that point. I assume the higher rupees are more difficult?

“Yes,” Eloise confirmed, “It’s also not particularly efficient, as it takes about six rupees to make a blue, and the exchange rate only gets worse from there.”

I see, he nodded, returning to alchemy, is there a way to tell how many rupees are needed?

“There’s actually a formula for that,” Eloise said as she grabbed a spare piece of paper, quickly scribbling it out and sliding the finished equation across the desk.

Hero Link frowned at the paper.

I don’t recognize half these symbols, he signed.

Eloise belatedly remembered that the Zonai had just mentioned that he didn’t have a formal education in alchemy. Or in anything else for that matter.

“Right,” she said, settling in to teach, “let’s start with how much you do know.”

It turned out that the Hero, while knowing little theory or mathematical notation, had an excellent practical understanding of alchemy that Eloise was unashamed to admit exceeded her own, especially regarding the use of rare or monster ingredients, and absorbed new knowledge terrifyingly quickly.

A few hours later and they were over a quarter of the way through the alchemical apprenticeship’s curriculum (admittedly most of an apprenticeship was teaching how to extract, prepare, and brew, which Hero Link already knew) when Master Jennet Selova – Eloise’s former master – approached them with a member of the Royal Guard that Eloise didn’t recognize trailing behind.

“Hero Link,” the guard said, causing him to look up with a mrrrp, “we’ll be introducing you to the public shortly, so we need to start preparation and rehearsal now.”

Understood, he nodded, standing up, Will you be available to continue this tomorrow? He asked Eloise.

“Unfortunately, my former apprentice has other duties that she needs to get done,” Jennet said dryly, causing Eloise to flush slightly at the reminder of the paperwork she had been doing before the Hero had arrived, “But perhaps we can schedule something for next week?”

Not sure I’ll be available next week, but hopefully, he said, then waved off Eloise when she tried to return his notebook, the alchemy lab can keep that one, I’ve already made a clean copy.

Reattaching his slate to his hip he strolled after the Guard, and no sooner had he left the lab when his vacated seat was taken by Jennet, who flicked a strand of whitening blonde hair that had escaped her bun over an ear.

“I see you made a new friend,” the leathery-faced not-quite-elderly woman said, eyeing the sundelions still on the table with an interested gleam, “and gotten us some new toys to play with.”

“Definitely not what I was expecting when I woke up this morning,” Eloise agreed, “Speaking of the sundelions we need to start processing them before they start wilting.”

Jennet nodded, already reaching for the paperwork.

Chapter Text

Link was led to a room off of the Castle’s entrance hall where the King, a collection of palace staff, and a squad of Royal Guards were waiting. The King himself was sitting in a plush armchair next to several arrowslit alcoves, flicking through a sheaf of papers, but Link’s attention was drawn towards Selwyn, who was looking rather rattled.

“…Look,” Cadwell was quietly saying to him, “Take the rest of the day off, go home, and check. If we’re right, we can plan. If we’re wrong, we’ll know.”

“Yes, sir,” Selwyn replied, subdued, and left the room, nodding to Link as he passed.

Link gave Cadwell a questioning mew.

“Not something you need to be concerned about,” the Captain of the Royal Guard told him, before handing him his own sheaf of papers, “Here. This is what we’re releasing to the public.”

Taking the papers Link quickly skimmed through them. It was a mostly faithful recounting of his journeys, though someone had gone through and done their best to anonymize locations and people of importance, with the latter being exclusively referred to by their titles with the exception of Zelda, likely because there was no point in trying to anonymize her. There was also a quick description and history of the Zonai provided, clearly paraphrased from what he had told the King and Ambassadors during their lunch together.

“Any questions or concerns?” Cadwell asked as Link finished.

The Zonai shook his head.

“Okay. Here’s how this is going to go:”

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Selwyn shut the front door of his home behind him, cutting off the sound of the street outside.

“Link? Mary? Elieen?” he called.

Today was a Saturday, so that meant his youngest and his wife should be home, as Elieen had long ago set up her days off so that she could be home when their children were not attending the small school in the castle that catered to the children of the castle staff.

“Upstairs,” he faintly heard his wife call.

Taking off his boots and hat Selwyn headed up the stairs to find everyone clustered in Link’s room, sitting on his bed with the window open so that they could hopefully hear the announcements the King was going to make as their moat-front home was only a few houses down from the square. Like the rest of the family, all three had hair the color of dark honey, had inherited the fine Hylian features of Elieen’s family, and were rather… vertically challenged.

Spotting his only son sitting on the bed Selwyn quickly scooped him up and hugged him tightly to his chest, causing Link to latch onto his shirt with both hands in surprise, his bracelet jingling slightly, before taking Link’s spot on the bed, sitting between Elieen and Mary, resting his chin on top of Link’s head.

“Dad?” Mary asked, concerned, as Elieen gave him a worried look.

“…The Hero retrieved my sword in his time,” Selwyn finally said, “it had Link and Grace’s bracelets tied to the pommel.”

“…Oh,” Elieen sighed, quickly catching the implications.

Mary frowned slightly, not quite getting it, but from how Link tensed in Selwyn’s lap the nine-year-old did.

“Where did he find it?” Elieen asked.

“In the Sanctum, where we apparently sacrificed our lives to seal the Calamity. From what the Hero said we knew it was a one-way trip going in.”

“…You would not have gone if any of us were still alive,” Elieen stated.

Selwyn shook his head.

“Wait, we all died?” Mary asked incredulously, “but… we live in Hyrule Castle! The heart of Hyrule! How could the Calamity reach us?”

“The Calamity is sealed underneath the castle,” Selwyn said quietly, “we found that out the hard way in his timeline. He didn’t outright state it but… it was clear that the castle fell within minutes of the seal breaking.”

“Are you supposed to be telling us this?” Elieen cautiously asked.

“While the details of Link of the Wilds’ past are being kept classified, the general summary is being released to the public. Captains Cadwell and Warin are in agreement that there’s no way we’ll be able to hold the Castle or Castle Town, so both will have to be evacuated before the seal breaks. The hope is that by revealing that now it will no longer be controversial when the time to evacuate comes.”

“What about our time’s hero?” Mary demanded, “What happened to him?”

Selwyn swallowed and looked down at the crown of Link’s head, noting how tense his son had become.

“Selwyn?” Elieen asked, concerned by his silence.

With slow, deliberate movements, Selwyn gently untangled Link’s right hand from his shirt and held it up to the afternoon sunlight coming in from the window, Elieen leaning over to see what he was doing. There, on the back of his hand, faint but just barely visible, was the outline of the Triforce.

A sense of doom settled over the Blademaster of the Royal Guard as he traced the Mark of the Hero of Courage, looking down to see his son solemnly meeting his gaze with a terrible knowing.

The nine-year-old boy slipped from his father’s lap, taking several steps away so that his family could easily see his signs.

Am I being called? He asked.

“Called?” Elieen asked, her tone revealing that she knew that she wouldn’t like the answer yet asking anyway.

The Hero of Time was eleven, Link singed.

“Wait,” Mary said, “Wait, you’re saying that Link, our Link, is the Hero of Hylia?”

No one answered her.

“This…” she let out a nervous little laugh, “this is a joke, right?” No one laughed. “Right?”

“He has the Triforce,” Selwyn said woodenly.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Link signed.

Silence reigned for a long moment.

“How long have you known?” Selwyn resignedly asked.

Since I was six, the child replied.

Which was when Link had started pestering him for training.

“Oh, Link,” Elieen said, slipping off the bed to hug him.

“This is a good thing, right?” Mary asked nervously, “That there’s two heroes now?”

“For the Queendom? Yes,” Selwyn answered.

For their family? Not so much. Heroes live hard lives, and many do not have happy endings.

He sighed.

“I’m going to have to tell the King that our suspicions were correct.”

Link wiggled and Elieen obligingly loosened her hug so that he could sign.

Why? He demanded.

“Link…” Selwyn began.

I failed! Link continued, tearing up and ignoring Selwyn, I died! And someone else had to clean up my mess-

“Link!” Selwyn snapped.

The child subsided.

The Blademaster sighed.

“It took a three-day-long running battle against corrupted automatons powerful enough to give a lynel pause to bring you down the first time,” he continued in a quieter tone, “and you were defending Princess Zelda the whole time. That only happened because we were unaware that the Calamity could corrupt the automatons, turning our ace into our doom. It was not. Your. Fault.”

Link sniffled, and Elieen hugged him tighter.

Sheikah Guardians, he signed, surprising Selwyn that he knew of them.

“Yes,” Selwyn confirmed, “the Sheikah Guardians. The Calamity has figured out how to corrupt them. According to… Wild,” he made the other Hero’s sign-name of Wild-Hero to show who he meant, “we had no warning before the Calamity emerged and corrupted all of them near instantly. With the Calamity also taking out Hyrule Castle in its opening strike… It’s no wonder we lost.”

“…You said you had ‘suspicions',” Mary said, “how did you know?”

“Wild let slip that the Hero of this age was the son of a Royal Guard, and with how much I’ve spoken of Link everyone, including me, immediately thought of him. There’s not many children that can hold their own against an adult, even if we’re not fighting seriously.”

I knew that was going to expose me eventually, Link signed, But I have to at least try to be ready. How long do I have anyway?

“Seven years.”

They paused as they distantly heard the Royal Herald begin his proclamations, Elieen and Link quickly rejoining Mary and Selwyn on the bed, Link on his mother’s lap so they could more comfortably listen.

“Mary,” Selwyn said quietly, causing his daughter to look at him, “I’m going to be telling your sisters this as well, but you cannot mention to anyone that Link is the Hero.”

“What? Why?”

“Because the Yiga, and other Calamity cultists, will try to kill him.”

“But he’s the Hero. Surely they’re not that big of a threat to him.”

You don’t hear about the Heroes that died or otherwise failed in their journeys, Link signed grimly, Wild-Hero’s mere presence is proof that I’m not destined to win. Or even survive.

“Hush you three,” Elieen said, “I want to hear what the King has to say.”

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

The Royal Stage had been assembled in the main square of Castle Town, north of the Grand Fountain, with some time to spare. Made of simple oak with fabric skirts, woven of purple silk with the Royal Crest, embroidered in gold thread, repeating at regular intervals, hiding the substructure, it was a full story tall so that everyone in the square could easily see all who stood upon it, with the back, and stairs, pointing towards Hyrule Castle.

In accordance with standard procedure the fountain’s waterworks had been turned off to keep it from drowning out any announcements or proclamations. In addition, a dozen members of the Royal Guard, with weapons unsheathed but held at rest, formed an inner barrier between the populace and the stage while the Town Guard garrisoned the buildings bordering the square to prevent their use by assassins, as well as manning the outer barrier line.

Jeane Crystina, Senior-most reporter for the Hyrule Times, the Queendom’s premier national newspaper, sat on her wood and canvas folding chair – with its integrated writing desk – front-and-center in front of the stage, flanked by reporters for local and lessor newspapers – as well as a few scandalmongers she was displeased to recognize, ones that sold their “opinions” to various tabloids of dubious repute – and several sketch artists who were likely hoping to sell their works to the various publications when it came time to print.

Business had been interesting for the past few days, ever since the Royals cut their trip to the Temple of Time short and returned to the capital with an enormous cat-man warrior that rode a strange contraption rather than a horse, though given his reported size there probably were few horses that could bear his weight. Speculation was running rampant, with the Times not being immune to it either, especially after the King spent the past few days in a series of emergency meetings, several of which included the mysterious cat-man.

At least she was senior enough that she didn’t have to worry about editors and higher leaning on her to provide a story. That was one aspect of her early career that she did not miss.

The bell towers began to toll out the end of the working day, and the final preparations were put in place as the square began to fill with spectators.

Half an hour after the bells rang, the Royal Herald stepped up to the lectern, looking over his speech one last time as the crowd obligingly quieted.

“Hear ye, hear ye! On this day…” the Herald proclaimed, and Jeane quickly tuned out the usual bureaucratic nonsense that always accompanied Royal announcements, “…Regent-King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule will address the citizenry of Hyrule Castle Town.”

Jeane straightened in her seat. Royal proclamations and announcements were usually made by the Herald, so for the King himself to address the public was very unusual.

Though considering the long line of “unusual” events that had preceded this it probably should have been more expected.

As the Herald left and the King mounted the stage Jeane quickly checked that her pen was full of ink and she had plenty of space in the notebook she used.

“Citizens of Hyrule,” he began, his voice effortlessly carrying to the entire crowd, “and aye, those from our sister countries as well. I do not believe I will surprise anyone when I say that our world has been getting darker. Monster incursions are becoming more frequent, the time between Death Mountain’s eruptions has shrunk from years to months, and ancient beings, wonder and horror alike, are awakening in the forgotten corners of our Queendom.”

The crowd let out a rumble of agreement, Jeane nodding along with them. Her previous piece had even been an article on how the Hylian Army had been dispatched to deal with eighteen monster incursions this year, and while the incursions were easily handled that was still six more than all of last year, and the year wasn’t even half over yet.

“I am not unaware of the rumors,” the King continued, “that these are ill portents, that these are signs that the Great Curse of Hyrule, the Cycle of the Demon, Princess, and Hero, has begun once more after thousands of years.”

There was another, more wary, rumble of agreement.

“I am here today to tell you that the rumors are… true.”

As the crowd reacted with surprise and dismay, King Rhoam made a “come here" gesture and The Mysterious Cat-Man, clad in his green-and-brass armor and – extremely unusually – with a sword hilt poking up over a shoulder entered the stage, striding to stand at the King’s side, ears pointed backwards and red-tuffed-tail lashing from side to side, the crowd quickly quieting down in confusion.

“As for how I know,” the Kind said, “May I introduce the Hero of Hylia, the half-Zonai Link of the Wilds.”

At his introduction the furry Hero drew his sword – revealing it beyond any doubt to be the Master Sword, the sword radiating holy light with glowing teal runes down the length of the blade – and lightly planting the tip between his paws, hands resting on the pommel.

“While Hero Link’s tale and a brief history of the Zonai will be provided to all reputable newspapers-” Jeane smirked as she heard the tabloid scandalmongers quietly complain and mutter dark things under their breath, “-I will answer some of the more obvious questions now.

“Yes, Hero Link appeared before me in the Temple of Time, sent by Hylia herself.

“Yes, he is from a timeline where we lost the fight against the Calamity. A fight that we lost due to lacking crucial information, a flaw that has since been corrected.

“Yes, he has faced and bested the Calamity multiple times.

“No, the Calamity’s return is, thankfully, not eminent. We have roughly seven years before it escapes from its prison.

“No, he will not be returning to the timeline he came from.

“Yes, he did leave friends behind. Please do not ask about them.

“Yes, like most other Heroes he only speaks in sign.

“Now, questions?”

A small forest of hands shot up, including Jeane’s.

Chapter Text

Rhoam looked up from his morning paperwork – which he was hoping to get out of the way quickly so that he could spend lunch with his daughter – as Cadwell and Hallowell entered his study, the latter looking rather haggard and clearly having not slept well.

“I take it our suspicions were correct?” Rhoam asked, not waiting for them to speak.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Hallowell said, subdued, “Link, my son… he has the Triforce on his hand. He has also known what that meant for… several years now.”

“Well, that’ll make things easier for us to arrange a plausible way for him and Zelda to meet,” the king mused, “as well as getting him the equipment and training he needs without raising suspicions. I suppose it also explains why I’ve never met him despite his penchant for wandering off. That said I do believe it is time for me to meet him.”

“I brought him with me today,” the blademaster said, “he’s outside.”

“Bring him in then.”

Hallowell strode back over to the door and opened it… then stood in the doorway for an embarrassingly long time.

“He gave you the slip again, didn’t he?” Rhoam stated with some amusement.

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

“If he isn’t willing to meet me yet, I won’t force the issue. Better to have it happen naturally,” he said, “I won’t wait forever, but he is only nine.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Hallowell started to turn only to pause and look back into the corridor as footsteps neared at a quick pace. It wasn’t at a run, so it was unlikely that this was an emergency, but whoever it was was moving too quickly for it to be a routine message either.

“Sir Hallowell,” came the slightly out of breath voice of a young man, just into adulthood. Likely one of the castle’s pages. “There is a… situation with Hero Link.”

“What happened?”

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Young Link aimlessly wandered the halls of the castle, not paying much attention to where he was going. He knew his father intended to introduce him to King Rhoam, but meeting the king would mean being recognized as the… a… Hero, with all the responsibilities and expectations that entailed, and he wanted to be a child for a bit longer.

So he ran.

Some Hero of Courage he was.

Opening the door to the battlements above the courtyard where the Royal Guard trained in the shadow of the Princess’ Tower, Link paused as he heard the sound of a crowd cheering on a fight, along with the clash of weapons. Intrigued, Link slipped through the door and stood on his toes to peak over the lip of the crenelations, only to discover that he was still not quite tall enough to see what was going on. Scowling, he hopped up and swung himself astride the crenel, giving him an excellent view of what was happening down below.

The walls were lined with what had to be every off-duty Royal Guard and a lot of the Castle Guard, avidly watching and cheering as Wild, in his full armor with Zonai glaive and shield, both sized to his large form with the lines detailing their edges in green rather than normal white, sparred with four men simultaneously, each holding a different weapon.

As Link watched one, wielding a halberd, overextended, allowing Wild to catch the base of the halberd’s head with his glaive’s spectral blade and tear it from the man’s grasp, launching it across the courtyard and sending the man staggering forwards, opening him up to being spanked by the flat of Wild’s blade – causing the audience to explode with laughter and jeers as the man cried out in indignation at how he was taken out of the fight – even as Wild blocked a claymore with his shield and slipped out of the way of a spear thrust.

“Let’s see you do any better, Will!” the halberdier shouted as he retrieved his weapon.

“Can’t do much worse than you,” Will retorted, the castle guardsman drawing a sword and shield from the racks of blunted training weapons lining the walls.

As Link had only seen the end of the halberdier’s fight he couldn’t say if Will did better or worse than him, but the moment he engaged Wild took him out by feinting high then scything his legs out from under him.

Most others didn’t last much longer. Even outnumbered four, then five, to one, Wild was able to dispatch his opponents with one to three strikes, resulting in a constantly rotating lineup against him. But rather than be discouraged the collection of guardsmen took their inability to touch Wild as a challenge, trying numerous strategies and ad-hoc combinations in their drive to tag the Hero of the Wilds. Though some were taking it more seriously than others.

“Alright, my turn,” a guard below Link said, offering his hat to the man beside him, before grabbing a claymore and charging at Wild's back, only to go rocketing back the way he came with a noise like a duck that had been unexpectedly sat on when Wild spun and kicked him in the chest.

As Link quietly laughed a blonde girl in a white and gold dress joined him on the crenel, back to the merlon opposite him.

Link froze, his soul recognizing the Princess of Wisdom, and there was no doubt in his mind that she had recognized him as well. Something that she confirmed with her words.

“Hello, Link,” Princess Zelda said, clearly somewhat nervous but determinedly powering through.

H-hi, Link signed.

They both watched the other Hero continue thrashing the best fighters in the queendom for a bit.

“You’ll be that good eventually,” the Princess said.

Link held back a scoff.

“You don’t believe me?” she asked.

Why are you bothering with me, Princess? He asked, You have your Hero, he gestured towards Wild, who had just shield bashed a guard into two others, sending all three to the ground in a tangle of limbs, I failed and died.

“In his timeline I didn’t unlock my bloodline’s abilities until after you fell,” she said, “does that make me a failure too?”

Link looked away, uncomfortable and without a counter coming to mind, and in the process noticed that both the Princess’ governess and King Rhoam were on the battlements with them, the former alternating between watching him and her charge and the chaos down below, while the King seemed occupied observing the fighting with his hands clasped behind his back, though Link had no doubt that he had been noticed, especially since he had no idea how long the King had been there.

“That we failed in his timeline does not mean that we are fated to fail in this one too,” Princess Zelda continued, “Already we are in a much better position just by knowing what went wrong.”

Maybe, he allowed, looking down to see the guards gathered in a huddle while Wild took the opportunity to drink some water, but he succeeded where I failed, so what use do you have of me?

“He did succeed in killing the Calamity twice,” she acknowledged, “but he is here. His Zelda is dead, his Hyrule destroyed to the point where Goddess Hylia herself proclaimed his timeline lost. If you asked him, how do you think he views himself, and what do you think he sees in you? A failure, or an opportunity for a better future?”

Link lightly frowned at nothing as he thought. He hadn’t considered that.

Zelda abruptly winced and rubbed her forehead, causing Mrs. Godfrey to almost teleport to them.

“Are you okay, Princess?” She asked softly.

“I think I just figured out how to pull on the Aspect of Wisdom, but it’s left me with a mean headache,” she half-whined.

“Let’s head to the Alchemy Lab then, I’m sure they’ll have something for that.”

“Not yet,” she shook her head, “I want to see how this ends. …Also,” she added after a pause, “I don’t think they’ll be able help with this. It’s spiritual, not physical.”

Link looked back down at the courtyard to see Wild being menaced by eight halberdiers in a pike formation, to the Hero’s mild amusement.

“How you gonna deal with this, Hero?” one of them challenged.

Wild held up an unlit bomb flower.

“Well that’s just not fair.”

One of the ground floor doors abruptly banged open, admitting Captain Cadwell and Link’s father, causing all the guards to belatedly snap to attention with a few shouts of acknowledgement.

The Captain of the Royal Guard surveyed the scene for a long moment before demanding “What is going on here?”

“Sir,” one of the Royal Guards saluted, “Hero Link learned that the Hero is to be assigned a team of Royal Guards and expressed his doubt that any of us could keep up with him. We decided to try and prove him wrong.” The man hesitated for a long moment before admitting, “Things may have escalated.”

The unimpressed look the Captain sent him spoke far louder than words.

“And did you prove him wrong?” he asked.

“…No, Sir.”

“The blademaster might be able to do it,” someone said.

“Aye, didn’t he supposedly duel the Calamity at some point?”

“Come on, Sir, someone’s got to prove we’re not all pushovers.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s you, Hallowell.”

As Selwyn hesitated Wild signed something that Link didn’t catch due to angle and distance.

“Very well,” he conceded, to cheers, “Let me get my practice blade.”

The center of the courtyard was quickly cleared, with Selwyn retrieving a blunted, undecorated copy of his sword while Wild swapped out his weapons for a Zonai longsword the same length as the Master Sword, fiddling with the hilt for a second before activating it, the magical blade appearing in lines of green.

“The green lines means it’s blunted for training purposes, right?” Selwyn checked, to Wild’s nod.

The pair squared off against each other, both holding their blades in a middle guard position.

When the clash came, it came without warning, a lunge from Wild that Dad deflected upwards. Three seconds and a dozen strikes later the pair separated, beginning to slowly circle each other, and a quiet murmur arose from the spectators at the realization that Selwyn had not fallen like everyone else Wild had faced.

The next clash was initiated by Selwyn, and lasted four seconds before they disengaged. The one after that lasted six seconds and ended with Selwyn’s sword at Wild’s throat and the tip of the Zonai’s blade at the blademaster's armpit, pointed such that a thrust would have speared at least his lung and probably damaged his heart.

Link had to resist joining in the applause at the realization that his father had just drawed with the Hero.

As they both lowered their blades and stepped back, Selwyn frowned at Wild.

“You’re holding back,” he accused.

When I fight someone as skilled as you I normally start fucking around with time, Wild replied, but this is a contest of skill, not preternatural power.

“I see.” Selwyn returned to his preferred ready position. “Again?”

Wild nodded and took up a hanging guard this time.

Their next clash lasted quite a bit longer that their previous bout, without any breaks in the middle this time, and ended when Wild let out a yowl and recoiled, pivoting and taking several steps away as he rubbed his feline nose, which Selwyn had just smacked with the tip of his blade. The cheers quickly died as Wild shot Selwyn an annoyed look – clearly displeased at him having hit the Zonai in such a sensitive spot – and faced the blademaster again, expression smoothing into one of absolute focus. Everyone held their breath at the realization that the Hero of the Wilds was about to cut loose.

The watched each other for a long breathless moment, the air heavy with anticipation. Wild broke it, blitzing forwards with a series of devastating blows, each strike powerful enough to bisect a bokoblin, hack a leg off a lynel, crack the stone of a talus, and fast enough that the eye could not properly track it. It was an assault that would have spelled the doom of any mortal and all but the greatest of monsters.

Yet the Blademaster of Hyrule endured it. That he failed to “die” from the opening strikes was an impressive achievement. That he continued to not “die” from the follow-up blows, every bit as powerful as the first, was even more so, even if he was forced to give ground, the Hero pursuing him across the courtyard, his attacks relentless, refusing to give Link’s father a moment to breathe.

Link watched with wide eyes as his father desperately dodged or deflected Wild’s strikes, his sole attempt at parrying having almost resulted in his sword getting smashed out of his hands. Blow after blow rained down, Wild clearly trying to drive Selwyn into a corner so that he could pin him and the Hylian steadfastly denying him the opportunity.

Thirty seconds Selwyn lasted. Then forty-five. Just after the fifty second mark Selwyn’s blade flashed out in a surprise riposte, forcing Wild to leap backwards to avoid being tagged. Selwyn didn’t hesitate to exploit the opportunity, launching his own attack before Wild could recover his momentum and putting the Hero on the defensive.

It didn’t last, of course. Selwyn, for all his unparalleled skill, was still mortal and Heroes… weren’t. Wild quickly put Selwyn back on the defense and eventually, inevitably, Selwyn’s guard slipped.

The magical blade cracked against Selwyn’s forearm, then, before anyone could register the hit, a second lightning-fast blow smashed the blademaster’s sword from his weakened grip with the following thrust leaving the glowing green edge of Wild’s blade resting against the side of Selwyn’s neck.

The two stood there for a long moment, both panting heavily, before Wild slowly lowered his blade and Selwyn cradled his injured arm.

“A good match,” Selwyn said as the applause and cheers began, to which Wild nodded, “but I think you broke my arm.”

The Zonai winced and quickly drew a vial from his Slate, offering it to Selwyn.

Hearty Elixir, he explained as Selwyn took the vial with his good hand, tastes like shit but it’ll fix your arm in an hour or two.

Selwyn nodded in thanks and went to pop the cork out with his teeth, only for Captain Cadwell to grab his arm.

“Not until the healers have had a look at you,” the Captain said sharply, “last thing we need is for your bones to heal crooked.” He looked at Wild. “Thank you, Hero.”

“Okay, Princess,” Mrs. Godfrey said, causing Link to startle slightly, having completely forgotten her existence, “It’s over. Time to go.”

“Fine…” the Princess sighed, only to abruptly perk up, “But Link’s coming with us!”

Link blinked at her in confusion.

I am?

“Yes,” she said sweetly, slipping her arm through his so that he couldn’t run away, “you are.”

A deep chuckle caused Link to look up to see King Rhoam watching him with amusement.

“You might as well give in now, lad,” the King said, “my daughter has a tendency to get her way.”

Before Link could come up with a response to that there was a thump as Wild landed on the battlements. The Zonai quickly surveyed them all before giving King Rhoam a glare, tail lashing back and forth in agitation.

I thought I told you to leave him alone, Wild said.

“All I planned to do was introduce him to Zelda and tell him that the castle’s resources are available for his training,” the King said calmly, “Did you think I was going to stick a sword in his hand and send him at the nearest monster?”

If you thought that the benefits outweigh the risks, yes!

“Alright, children, let’s go!” Mrs. Godfrey said quickly, urgently ushering him and Zelda towards the door to the Princess’ Tower.

Link allowed himself to be pulled along, for while part of him wanted to know King Rhoam’s response to Wild’s accusation – and one of Link’s fears, that he’d be thrown at monster after monster until there were none left or he broke – the rest of him wanted to get as far away from the confrontation King and Hero as possible.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Rhoam was grateful that the Zonai Hero allowed Zelda and the little Hero to leave so that they wouldn’t have to witness what he already knew was going to be a particularly bad argument. At least they were the only ones on the battlements now, so Rhoam could afford to drop his kingly persona for a bit.

I know you, Rhoam, the Hero said, You absolutely would stick a sword in Link’s hand and send him against monsters if you thought it was the best option, age be-damned.

“And how exactly could you know me?” Rhoam challenged, “A hundred years is a long time, and I am not a young man. Even if I survived the Fall, I would have died of old age long before you were born.”

Your soul lingered, Link replied, we met. I listened to you rant about how you sacrificed everything for Hyrule – including things that even you admitted you should not have sacrificed – and how it was all for naught. While to say Zelda hated you is a gross overstatement, she never once spoke highly or fondly of you.

It took all of Rhoam's self-control not to flinch at the lance of pain through his heart at the rift that had developed between him and his daughter in the future the Zonai came from.

“I am not that desperate,” he quietly refuted.

Yet, came the instant retort.

Rhoam took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Do you not trust me?” he asked, “Or trust yourself? Do you believe that we will become that desperate in spite of what you have given us?”

I don’t know, Link admitted, Ganondorf has brought Hyrule low before, we only won in my time because he dismissed us as a threat, and even then Hyrule was destroyed by the monsters he unleashed. I have given us a chance, but victory is not guaranteed. As for you, he scowled at Rhoam again, I can trust that you will do everything in your power to see Hyrule survive the coming Calamity, and that all your other priorities are subordinate to that.

“I am the King of Hyrule,” Rhoam replied somberly, acutely feeling the weight of the crown on his brow, “I swore oaths when I accepted the crown in the wake of my Queen’s death. One of them was to defend Hyrule to my last breath.”

And that is why we cannot damn you for the decisions you made, the Hero told him, no matter the cost they had to us. You upheld the spirit and letter of your oaths. But you need someone able and willing to tell you “no” before you sacrifice our health, happiness, and sanity again.

Our.

Several pieces of information abruptly slid into place for Rhoam.

I know you…

…Raised by a wolf and a ghost…

…his name was Rhoam.

Rhoam snapped out of his thoughts as Link brushed past him, headed to the door leading into the keep.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

To get some food, Link replied, walking backwards to sign at him, then get those fur-friendly soaps from Shusan and head to the Temple of Time. The sooner we can start excavating the Forgotten Temple the sooner we’ll know where the ground stations are. After that, explore Hyrule Field, see just how different it is from my time. I’ll be back in a week or two, it’ll take you that long to excavate the Hyrule Field tower anyway.

“Link, wait…”

Link hesitated, hand on the door handle.

Several things Rhoam wanted to say flashed through his mind.

I’m sorry.

Please don’t leave.

Help keep me from making the mistakes my counterpart made.

“The Sheikah will be arriving this afternoon-” was what came out of his mouth instead, and he had to abruptly catch a pair of priceless Sheikah Slates Link tossed to him.

Once he was sure he wasn’t about to drop the irreplaceable relics he looked up in time to see the red-furred tail tip of his future self’s adopted son disappear into the keep, the door slamming shut behind him with ominous finality.

He really was a shit father, wasn’t he…

Chapter Text

The Hero of the Wilds was still fuming as he packed the few items he had left out in his room back into his Pad. He had wanted his younger self to have a childhood without the doom of being the Hero hanging over him, and Rhoam had taken that away from him. Though despite his words to the King Link didn’t truly think Rhoam would pit the younger Link against monsters for at least a few years, the child Hero was simply too valuable to risk. He might still decide to blood him in a controlled environment – likely against a captured low-tier bokoblin – but in such a case Link had no doubt that his father Selwyn would be standing by, along with a bunch of other Royal Guards, to make sure nothing untoward happened.

Despite his, and especially Zelda’s, issues with Rhoam, Link did trust the King to see to the younger Link’s protection and education… and there wasn’t much Link could teach him until he was older and physically able to at least somewhat keep up. Though he supposed he could take the younger Link to some of the more puzzle oriented shrines once the Sheikah Network was woken up.

Link really needed a nickname for the kid.

He thought about visiting him and introducing himself before he left but… Cadwell was right. It’s not like there were any other Zonai running around and Link, in his capacity as the Hero, had no reason to meet or take an interest in the son of Hyrule’s Blademaster. He’d have to wait for Rhoam or Selwyn to arrange a meeting, lest the Yiga take an interest.

Hylia had admitted to him that Heroes could and had died before they could face the Demon, some before their quest even began.

Rather obviously, most of those timelines weren’t around anymore.

A knocking on the frame of the open door drew his attention to the young page standing in the doorway.

“Message from Lady Shusan for you, Sir Hero,” the teenager said, looking at him with wide eyes and holding a piece of paper in an outstretched hand.

Link strode over and took the message from the boy, ignoring his awe-struck expression (He’d long gotten used to children, and some adults, looking at him like that, even with the far lower population of his Hyrule), and quickly read it.

It looked like he wouldn’t need to visit Shusan after all. The message contained an address to an “Erret’s Pet Supplies” and the note that she’d taken the liberty of reserving several bottles of fur soap for him.

Looking up Link noticed that the page was still staring at him. Was he supposed to send a response?

Give my thanks to Shusan, he signed.

The teen flushed and nodded, voice cracking as he squeaked out “Right away, Sir Hero!” – which only increased his embarrassment – and quickly fled.

Link watched him go with mild amusement before turning and hitting his bed with Rewind, returning it to how it had been before he used it last night, closing the door behind him as he departed for the Dining Hall for some food.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

The Dining Hall was a large, shallowly curving cavern buried within the large hill Hyrule Castle was built on, several times longer than it was wide and capable of holding several hundred people at once. The walls were made of brick and stone with massive, arching wooden beams spanning the width of the room holding up the ceiling, light provided by several chandeliers with mage lights in place of candles, each light powered by a red rupee (though some were starting to fade to blue as their magic was drained). Two rows of wooden tables with bench seats occupied the middle of the room with multiple clusters of people having an early lunch – mostly guards that he had been thrashing and, like him, decided they were hungry afterwards – with the long wall on the inside of the room’s curve having a dais along its base where kitchen servers had food laid out on tables, ready to serve.

Thankfully Link remembered to put in his spiral opal earrings before he reached the Dining Hall because, even though it wasn’t near the height of the lunch rush yet, the large cavern seemed to amplify any sound within it, and while Link wouldn’t describe it as a cacophony it was still far too loud for his comfort.

Looking around Link felt his ears start to fold back as he realized there was almost no chance that he would be unbothered while he ate and he was not in the mood to socialize. Coming to the Dining Hall might have been a mistake, he should have found somewhere secluded and eaten something from his Pad, though he was loathe to draw on his stockpile of stored meals needlessly.

He’d almost starved after leaving the Great Plateau the first time, back at the start of his first journey, not having expected the monsters of Hyrule Field to have devoured anything remotely edible, reaching the point where he could see every one of his remaining ribs and the bones of his hips, to Twilight’s increasing alarm. By the time he’d staggered in to Kakariko they’d been seriously considering constructing some sort of sled for the Divine Wolf to pull him on (who, as a being that was more Spirit than Flesh, didn’t need food like a living Hero did) so that he could conserve energy. It’d taken weeks for Impa to get him back into fighting shape, and he’d never taken food for granted again, something that had served him in good stead when he got lost in the Gerudo Desert and Hebra Mountains.

The various kebabs in the Pad didn’t count. Those were snacks.

“Sir Hero?”

Link looked up to see one of the serving staff had approached him while he was distracted.

“The Head Chef would like a word,” the man said upon seeing that he had Link’s attention.

Link hesitated, looking over at the food being served.

“I can get you some food as well,” the server quickly offered, to which Link nodded and gestured for him to proceed, the Zonai following the Hylian to a small room off of the Hall that had a table and chairs for six people.

Link guessed that the room was for lunch meetings by those with insufficient rank to reserve one of the larger, more opulent rooms. He also was fairly certain this was the same room he’d once spent several hours hiding in while waiting for a lizalfos guard to move back when he was scouting the castle the first time over a decade ago.

That thought made him pause and start counting in his head as he took a seat, barely noticing the server leaving to get Mathilda and some food for him.

His first journey lasted a year-and-a-half – factor in his time on the Plateau post resurrection and call it an even two years – then they’d had seven years of peace, the Upheaval had lasted about a year, two more years of peace, the war with the golden lynel had lasted eight months, and then they'd spent a bit over five years preparing for Link to go back in time.

All told, Link was approaching his eighteenth birthday. If you factor in the sixteen years his body had lived before he left the Shrine – which Link didn’t but Zelda had – then he was almost thirty-four.

Link felt old at that realization.

The door opening distracted Link from his thoughts and he looked up to see Mathilda entering the room.

“Good morning, Hero,” she said, and Link trilled in greeting back at her as she took a seat opposite him.

But before he could ask what she wanted the server returned, placing a meat-stuffed omelette with sausages in front if him and a salad for Mathilda.

Yet instead of leaving like Link expected the man hovered by the door, unsurely waiting for something. He gave the man a questioning look, but it was Mathilda who spoke.

“I’m glad I caught you before you left, Sir Hero,” she said as she picked up the utensils that came with her salad, pointedly eyeing the armor he was wearing, before pausing, “you are about to leave, right?”

I am, Link admitted, blowing on the still steaming omelette to cool it, There are things I need to do that cannot be done here.

Admittedly that wasn’t quite true, Link was sure that if he asked some of those he needed to talk with – such as the High Priestess of the Temple of Time – would come to the castle… but after the last few days, and especially the argument with Rhoam, Link needed some time alone, just himself, the wilderness, and the lure of the horizon. Still, there were things he needed to do in person, such as briefing the leaders of the other races, assessing the Hylian Army, forge a path from the Marietta Exchange down the cliffside to the Forgotten Temple, and more.

“Then it’s definitely a good thing I caught you,” she said, “You see, the Princess has already requested another Stuffed Sun Pumpkin and currently you are the only source of some of the ingredients.”

Ah, Link should have expected that.

I suppose I have some things I could part with, he signed leadingly, plopping the Pad onto the table and effortlessly navigating to the correct menu with one hand.

They spent the next hour or so bartering as they ate their meals, Link ending up selling several dozen sun pumpkins, multiple clusters of skyshrooms, a couple arowana, almost half his stock of Monster Extract, and an assortment of other ingredients that the kitchens struggled to get fresh, mainly those that grew in distant regions, such as volt fruit. Mathilda was also fascinated by the glowing cave fish Link showed her, but only took three of them as she would need to experiment to figure out what meals they would work best in. (Link had never exactly cared, food was food)

“There is one more thing,” Mathilda said after the foodstuffs were carted away to the kitchens by her staff, Link giving a questioning trill as he chased the last remnants of his omelette onto his fork, “Several nobles have approached me about buying some of the monster meat you gave us.”

You can sell it if you want, Link told her, I’ll even give you the rest of my stock for free. I don’t like it.

“Do you not like it in the same way the Princess doesn’t?” she asked shrewdly.

Link paused and eyed her. Zelda tried some, didn’t she?

“Against multiple peoples’ recommendations,” the Head Chef confirmed, “I wasn’t there, but according to those who were she was able to keep it down, though it was a close-run thing.”

He huffed and shook his head in amusement.

Zelda can be stubborn like that, he signed fondly, but to answer your question, I don’t like it the same way Zelda doesn’t.

“I see,” she said, “so you don’t mind if they come to me rather than you for monster meats?”

Considering I’m going to be bouncing all over Hyrule it’ll be easier for everyone if they come to you, Link confirmed, Do you need me to top up your stock before I leave?

“It would be appreciated. There’ll likely be an initial glut of orders as people see if they like it, and while most don’t, those who do greatly enjoy it. As you predicted.”

Link nodded and stood, stretching lightly, then, before she could stop him, grabbed their dirty dishes and strode out of the room, ignoring Mathilda’s sputtering protests as he headed to the kitchen to wash them. He’d drop off a crate of monster meat on the way.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link lightly dropped to the ground and quickly stowed his glider, having glided from the castle’s outer wall across the moat to the small hill to the north-west of Castle Town’s cathedral, having taken one look at the crowded central square and deciding that he was not going out the front door. That was far too many people.

As he strode around the base of the hill to avoid being seen – something that he could admit to himself was futile in the long run as, being the only half-Zonai around, it wasn’t like he could disguise himself – he took in the cathedral that, in his time, had been reduced to a pile of rubble. It wasn’t as large as the Temple of Time but it was still the biggest building in the town and its clock tower, which doubled as the bell tower, was by far the tallest structure in the settlement. True, the Castle itself was both bigger and taller, but it also housed all the facilities needed to govern Hyrule and was built atop a hill, so that wasn’t a fair comparison.

Looking at the top of the tower Link felt the urge to climb it but, remembering Rhoam’s words back in Gatepost Town about how people would complain to him, he resisted the urge. He wasn’t that mad at the King. Diverting his eyes to avoid temptation he surveyed the rest of the building. It was simple in design, a rectangular box with a peaked roof, the grey stone of its walls unembellished, with numerous stained glass windows – all depicting Hylia of course – letting plenty of light in to the interior. He was sure the interior was much more lavishly decorated but he had no intention check. Everything was still mostly going according to plan – not that things had much chance to go off the rails yet – so he felt no need to commune with Hylia right now.

Idly, he wondered if, given the presence of his younger self the Hero native to this time, he’d finally get an answer as to whether his ability to chat with gods was something native to Heroes or if it was do to him having passed beyond the Doors of Death and returned. Not that Hylia had ever been particularly talkative before she manifested but her statues definitely had become more talkative afterwards.

Rounding the corner of the temple to the small plaza he spotted a small group of women by the cathedral entrance who all immediately broke off their gossip session to stare at him with wide eyes.

Link flicked his ears and lashed his tail at the attention, he could already tell that exploring Castle Town was going to be annoying and stressful. Fishing out the note he checked the address on it before striding confidently towards one of the streets leading away from the cathedral. He had surveyed all of Hyrule to the point where no secret place had gone undiscovered as the Koroks could… had been able to testify, he shouldn’t have any problem tracking down a single shop.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

Link was lost.

Again.

Admittedly, being lost wasn’t that much of a concern for him, he’d found many interesting and awe-inspiring places while lost. No, the problem was that anywhere he went everyone would stop and stare at him which was making him feel hunted, to the point where it was getting to be a constant effort to keep himself from tensing like he was about to go into battle and his hands away from his weapons. It didn’t help that some were not content to merely ogle him like a farm animal heading to the butcher but tried to force their way towards him, and while he’d normally be happy to hear them out and help, in his current mindset the first thing that went through his head when he noticed them was always ‘Yiga’.

He needed to get his fur soap and leave, before he over-reacted to something innocent and did something he’d regret.

Link slipped into a narrow and dingy alley and allowed time to resume its normal pace with a sigh, having used his temporal abilities to give his recent batch of watchers the slip. By now he was fairly certain he had gone in completely the wrong direction, given that the section of town he was currently in – which was far closer to the walls than the Castle – was quite run down, a sharp contrast to the clean and well-maintained buildings in sight of the Castle.

As he approached the end of the alley he was about to meow to alert the disheveled – and rather smelly it had to be said, though most people were unpleasantly fragrant to Link’s nose these days – man who was people watching at the mouth of the alley to his presence so that he could slip past him when the Hylian abruptly reached out and dragged a woman in a faded yellow dress and brown hair into the alley, slamming her into the wall with one hand covering her mouth and the other holding a lightly rusted dagger to her neck.

Link, barely two yards away, stared in surprise, then quietly exhaled through his nose in exasperation.

He knew Hylia was laughing at him right now.

“Listen here, girly,” the man unpleasantly hissed, his nose barely a few inches away from his captive’s, “If you make any noise I’ll-“

He was cut off when one of Link’s hands clamped down on the top of his skull and the Hero hurled him against the opposite alley wall, not caring enough to modulate his strength. The man slammed into the wall and collapsed bonelessly to the ground, leaving some hair and blood on the bricks, and Link dispassionately observed him in case he got back up. Which turned out unneeded as he could hear the man’s heart rate slowing to the level that indicated unconsciousness.

Sometimes he was still caught off guard by how keen his hearing had become.

“T-thank you, sir Hero,” the woman said, clearly shaken, her voice drawing Link’s attention.

You’re welcome, he signed.

She hesitated.

“…I’m sorry, sir Hero, but I don’t know sign,” she admitted with some embarrassment and shame.

Link, however, merely nodded and pulled out the Pad. Honestly, he was surprised that this was the first time he’d needed the Speech rune, he’d been told by Purah that a majority of people in Pre-Fall Hyrule didn’t know it. Post-Fall it had become a lot more common, proportionally, on account of people needing a way to communicate that wouldn’t alert any nearby monsters.

“You’re welcome,” his Zelda said for him, then he glanced at the man and quickly typed out another sentence, “What, should, we, do, with, him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t, we, supposed, to, alert, the, guards?”

The woman got a somewhat brittle look.

“The guards don’t patrol the South-Eastern Ward,” she said, “Not unless someone’s pissed off a noble and they want to make an example. Sometimes they don’t even bother with the noble excuse.”

Link scowled.

“That’s, not, right,” his Pad said, Zelda’s even tone a sharp contrast to the anger the Hero felt yet was unable to truly express.

“It’s been like this for generations now, sir Hero,” the woman sighed, “Justice is one of the many things we poor do not get. It’s not something you can change.”

Link glared at the ground, unable to refute her words. With the looming Calamity it was unlikely that he would have enough free time to dedicate himself to a project that wasn’t related to it, and certainly wouldn’t have any in the coming months or years. He wished he could promise that he would do something afterwards, but that was not something he could do given he had no idea if he would survive the coming fighting. He hadn’t the first time.

But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t do something about the situation in front of him now.

Summoning a small piece of paper he quickly scribbled a message on it, hauled the man into a sitting position against the alley wall, pulled out a bokoblin dagger and impaled the message and the man’s shirt to the wall, wedging the blade into the mortar between two bricks.

“What does that say?” she asked as he stood up, darkly pleased.

“That, if, I, catch, him, again, I’ll, kill, him.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed, forcing Link to explain himself.

“After, the, Fall, between, our, low, population, and, the, constant, pressure, from, the, monsters, any, level, of, banditry, was, considered, an, existential, threat, and, treated, accordingly. First, offense, restitution. Second, exile. Third, hunted, and, killed. If, you, were, prolific, or, heinous, second, chances, would, not, be, offered. Hunting, bandits, was, usually, my, job, as, hero.”

“Was that… something you did often?” she asked.

Link gave a so-so gesture and elaborated.

“Most, bandits, were, Yiga, in, disguise, but, there, were, a, few.”

“Yiga?” she frowned, “I’ve heard of them, they were responsible for the Queen’s death, but who are they?”

“Demon, cultists,” Link bared his fangs in a silent snarl, “they, believed, that, aiding, the, Calamity, would, see, them, rewarded. It, gave, them, death, like, every, one, else.”

“I see…” she said, paling, before taking a deep breath and visibly changing mental tracks, “so what brings you to the Ward, sir Hero?”

He tapped the icon for one of the pre-recorded “I’m lost” lines.

“Link has gotten himself lost again,” Zelda said, “If you could guide him to where he’s trying to go it would be much appreciated.” Link trilled hopefully. “I’d also ask if you could get him to not look like a creature that just crawled out of the woods but I’m not in the habit of giving people impossible tasks.”

The woman burst into giggles as Link gave the Pad a betrayed look. He’d forgotten she’d added that line!

Her giggles increased in intensity when she looked up to see Link pouting at her.

“I, am, very, ferocious,” he insisted via his Pad, causing further giggling, “I, am! I, am!”

As her giggles started to die down she made the mistake of looking at him and he gave her the saddest, most pitiable meow he could, complete with soulful eyes and drooping ears.

She lost it, breaking out into full-body laughs, and Link lost the fight to maintain the façade and started loudly purring along with her.

Eventually she calmed down enough to ask

“Where are you trying to go?”

He handed her the note containing the address, causing her to frown slightly as she read it.

“I’ve never heard of ‘Erret’s Pet Supplies’,” she said, “but from the street name I think it’s in the Northwestern ward, likely by the moat. You’re on the complete opposite side of town.”

Link groaned in dismay, causing her to smile at him, and he accepted the note back then tapped a rune on his Pad.

“Thank you, and have a good day,” Sidon’s recording said cheerfully.

“Good day to you too, sir Hero,” she replied, still smiling as he left the alley.

It was over an hour before Link realized he never got her name.

~~~Victory Wasn’t Enough~~~

It took Link another three thankfully uneventful hours to finally find the shop, and while Erret, a rito with hawk-like plumage, was surprised to see him, he didn’t let that surprise interfere with his professionalism, allowing Link to be in and out of the shop in ten minutes, a variety of fur-friendly soaps stored away in his Pad and a few hundred rupees poorer.

Upon exiting the shop, however, he was confronted voluptuous, blonde-haired, blue-eyed hylian woman that Link immediately pegged as a reporter. The notepad and pen ion her hip was a rather large clue.

“Hero Link,” she said courteously, “I am Jeane Crystina, a reporter for the Hyrule Times. Do you have a moment?”

Link considered her a long moment.

Walk and talk, he signed, beginning to leisurely stroll down the street towards the closet point of the city wall, the small crowd that had formed to stare at him – to his annoyance – obligingly parting before him. He intended to leave Castle Town by the same way he entered, via paraglider, I need to be on the road before sundown.

“Understood,” Jeane said, fast walking to keep up with the Zonai’s much longer stride, notepad and pen already in hand, “So my first question is where are you going?”

I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.

“Aww,” she whined playfully, “not even a hint?”

Link snorted and gave her an amused look.

Unfortunately, hyrulians, and our sister species, aren’t the only ones who read the newspapers. The Yiga, and other demon cultists, do too. Anything you publish, they will read.

Jeane opened her mouth, closed it, and scowled at the street’s cobbles.

“Damnit,” she muttered, dropping the playfulness for a more serious and professional demeanor, “You’re right.”

Link nodded, having learned that lesson the hard way, back in his time. Over a dozen people had died. Neither Traysi nor Penn, once they’d found out about their own role in the tragedy, had ever fully forgiven themselves.

The reporter exhaled as she thought for a moment before asking

“So is there anything you can tell me?”

Link hummed as he considered his answer.

There’s a few major projects that will be announced shortly, he told her, most will be archeological expeditions though there will also be some substantial road work. There’s also a few people I need to meet, such as the High Priestess of Hylia’s cult and the heads of our sister nations. Then an idea occurred to him and he added, Though in a bout a week I’ll be investigating an old temple on the northern end of Tanagar Canyon.

Jeane paused in her notetaking to give him a hesitant look.

“Didn’t you just say something about the Yiga reading anything I write?”

Link gave her a smile filled with fangs.

It was not a friendly or reassuring sight.

“Noted,” she said slightly faintly as she quickly scribbled out another line, “…I should probably find a safer line of questioning.”

He trilled to get her to look up.

I’m always happy to discuss various creatures and places I’ve found in my travels, he offered.

“That could work.” She tapped her pen against her notepad in thought. “…Have you ever seen a Spirit Dragon?” she asked.

Link purred and gave her a much friendlier smile.

I’ve done more than just see a Spirit Dragon… he began.