Author's Note: New year, new writing. I'll be reuploading chapters 0 through 5, and hopefully I'm going to upload new content more than checks calendar once a year. Oof.


~From the forward of Hyrule Historia vol. 1, by Howard Gruooson~

A Summary of the Monomyth

H. G.'s Note: The Legends of Zelda - referred to here as the "Monomyth" - is the collective term for the stories of the various heroes and princesses who have saved our land. The word "monomyth" comes from the Ancient Labrynnan words "monos" (alone) and "mythos" (speech, account). It refers to the common threads that weave through the many Legends, such as the existence of an evil force and its opposition by a Princess and a Hero.

I. Cosmogony (Chapter 1)

Legends, naturally, require worlds for them to be set in and people to act in them. We are also introduced to the force that drives much of the conflict of the Monomyth: the Triforce.

In the beginning, all was chaos, a formless void.

Then the three golden goddesses descended on the world.

Din, the goddess of power. With her warm breath, she created the earth, the red land that would someday become the countries of Hyrule, Termina, Labrynna, Holodrum, and many others.

Nayru, the goddess of wisdom. With her cool breath, she created order, the natural laws that would govern the newly formed land and prevent it from falling back to chaos.

Farore, the goddess of courage. With her humid breath, she created life, the diverse inhabitants of all the lands.

Their labors complete, the three goddesses returned to their realm, but they did leave one remnant of their power, the holy Triforce, in the hands of the lesser goddess Hylia. This artifact will grant the wish of the person who finds and places his hand upon it.

Of course, a source of that much power was coveted by many.

II. The Curse of Demise (Chapters 2 - 4)

The other half of the Monomyth's conflict stems from the curse placed on the Hero of Sky and the First Princess by the Demon King Demise with his dying breath.

First came the demons and their leader, the Demon King Demise. Hylia and the surface-dwellers fought bravely against the demons, and the battle was long and difficult. After one particularly ferocious battle, Hylia decided to place the Triforce out of Demise's reach. She gathered humans onto a plot of land, sealed the Triforce within, and sent that land into the sky, creating the Isle of the Goddess, Skyloft. To protect Skyloft, Hylia placed a thick barrier of clouds between the land and the sky. On the ground, Hylia and the remaining surface dwellers managed to defeat and seal Demise, but the seal was weak. In an attempt to free the world from the tyranny of Demise, Hylia tried to use the Triforce to destroy him utterly, but the Triforce could not be used by gods. In response, Hylia renounced her divinity, choosing to be reborn as a human.

Thousands of years passed.

As the seal on Demise weakened, the goddess Hylia was reborn as a human woman named Zelda on the island of Skyloft. Her hero, an unnamed man whose bravery had earned him the favor of the goddess, was also reborn on Skyloft as the young knight-in-training Link. When Zelda was pulled to the surface by Demise's second-in-command Ghirahim, Link followed her down, facing down the demon hordes with the help of the legendary Skyward Sword. After tempering the Skyward Sword into the Master Sword, Link gained access to the Triforce hidden in Skyloft, using it to bring Skyloft's Statue of the Goddess down onto Demise's seal, destroying him. Ghirahim, enraged, kidnapped Zelda and brought her back in time, performing a forbidden ritual and resurrecting the Demon King Demise. Link defeated Demise and Ghirahim, sealing the demon king's hatred into the Master Sword. However, with his dying breath, Demise cursed the hero and the goddess: as long as their souls continued to reincarnate, Demise's soul would as well in order to menace their incarnations.

Thousands of years passed.

III. The Era of Sealing (Chapter 5)

Despite Demise's curse, the threats that precipitate the creation of various seals in the mortal realm do not appear to have anything to do with the cycle of reincarnation. Despite our tendency to believe that Demise's incarnations are the only threat to the Triforce and other powers, we must remember that evil comes in many forms.

The Triforce became, once again, the focus of a fierce battle in the land of Hyrule. This time, humans proficient in magic attempted to seize the power for themselves. The gods created four Light Spirits, who sealed the aggressors' magic into artifacts known as Fused Shadows. The four Fused Shadows, as well as the rebellious humans, were sealed into the Twilight Realm using the Mirror of Twilight. The humans who were banished became the warped beings known as the Twili.

Thousands of years passed.

The Sage of Light, Rauru, decided that the Triforce needed more protection, and so he sealed the Triforce in the Sacred Realm, another universe parallel to Hyrule. The door to the Sacred Realm was placed in the Temple of Time, and that door required 4 different keys. The Spiritual Stone of Fire was bequeathed to the volcano-dwelling, rocklike Gorons. The Spiritual Stone of Water was guarded by the aquatic Zora. The Spiritual Stone of Forest was left in the possession of the childlike Kokiri, under the protection of the wise Deku Tree. Finally, the Master Sword was placed in the Temple of Time. Despite its well-known placement, it was arguably the most well-defended, as it was only able to be wielded by those without evil in their hearts.

Thousands of years passed.

The land of Hyrule was again shrouded in darkness by evil beings. This time, the goddesses sent a race of tiny beings called Picori, a golden light known as the Light Force, and a magical sword known as the Picori Blade. With the blade, a hero sealed away the evil beings in the Bound Chest, bringing peace to the world once again.

Thousands of years passed.

IV. The Force Era (Chapters 6-7)

Records of the so-called "Force Era" are few and far between. These two iterations of the Monomyth, then, are our primary sources of information. First, the Light Force: Unlike the Triforce, which is a gift of divine power bequeathed to mortals, the Light Force is a manifestation of the energy of the mortal races. The Light Force is safeguarded by the mortal Picori and the princesses, but it also manifested in the form of "Force Crystals" that could be collected and used by anyone. This changes the dynamic of Force Era conflicts. Instead of vying for a power that transcends mortal reality and aspires to the divine, these battles are fought over the combined power of the mortal races. We see this change reflected in the sword used by the Hero of Men and the Split Hero: the divine Blade of Evil's Bane is avoided in favor of the Picori-forged, Hero-reforged Four Sword.

The Picori Festival, held every 100 years, culminated in a sword-fighting tournament. One particular festival, a mysterious man named Vaati won the tournament and thus was the guest of honor at the post-tournament ceremony, held in front of the Picori Blade and the Bound Chest. Unknown to the people of Hyrule, Vaati was the reincarnation of Demise, and at the festival, he broke the Picori Blade, unsealed the Bound Chest and released the evils upon the land once more. He then turned Princess Zelda into stone and set off to search Hyrule for the Light Force. As children were the only people able to interact with the Picori, now known as the Minish, a young boy named Link set off on a journey to reforge the Picori Blade. He met a Minish sage named Ezlo whom Vaati had turned into a magical hat. Despite his changed form, he was still able to help Link by giving him the ability to shrink down to the size of the Minish. With that power, he reforged the broken Picori Blade into the even stronger Four Sword, which gave its wielder the power to split into four copies. At the same time, he learned that the Light Force had been passed down through the royal family of Hyrule. Vaati, who had followed Link and also learned the secret of the Light Force, took Princess Zelda's stone statue to the roof of Hyrule Castle, where Link challenged and defeated him, sealing him in the Four Sword and freeing Zelda and Ezlo. Princess Zelda used the Light Force to destroy the evil that had been previously sealed in the Bound Chest, and the door to the Minish Realm closed for good.

Thousands of years passed.

The seal on the Four Sword weakened and Vaati escaped, kidnapped the current Princess Zelda, and took her to the Palace of Winds. A fairy appeared to a young boy named Link and instructed him to draw the Four Sword, which split him into four copies of himself. After proving themselves in many battles, the four Links earned the favor of the Great Fairies and stormed the Palace of Winds, once again sealing Vaati into the Four Sword.

Thousands of years passed.

V. The Hero of Time (Chapter 8)

The most famous Hero is, arguably, the Hero with the least interesting adventure. He does not travel the land or obtain a legendary sword, instead simply alerting the Royal Family to the plans of Demise's incarnation. Given that he was in possession of the Ocarina of Time-from which his title is derived-it is possible that time travel was involved in his learning of the plans of the Demon Thief Ganondorf. That is of course impossible to prove. All we know is that he and the Princess of Destiny facilitated the arrest of Ganondorf, and that he then left Hyrule for a time.

If time travel was indeed involved, natural questions arise. What calamity struck our land that it was deemed necessary to travel back in time to prevent it? And what happened to the timeline in which this calamity occurred? Was it overwritten by our history, or does a Hyrule lying in ruin still exist, somewhere else in the flow of time? Either answer is disturbing in its own way.

As for the hero's subsequent journey, there are many wild and contradictory reports. Some say he entered the Lost Woods and never reappeared. Others posit that he traveled the world, and the otherwise reputable Happy Historian claims that he spent three days, or weeks, or months in the legendary land of Termina. As usual, we cannot know for sure.

(This section appears smudged, as if something had been written down, removed, and written over. Traces of the original words can still be seen. How every printed copy of Hyrule Historia came to display such evidence of editing is still unknown.)

Hyrule, safe from threats from without, seemed poised to fall to a threat from within. A civil war raged throughout the land until the King of Hyrule unified the country under the Harkinian family. However, Ganondorf, the evil king of the desert-dwelling Gerudo, wanted the power of the Triforce (split into three parts) for himself. Link and Zelda, then children, (were tricked into) found out about his nefarious plans and managed to get him arrested by the Six Sages. He was held in the Arbiter's Grounds prison for many years. During this time, Link (was sealed in the Temple of Time) left Hyrule on a mysterious journey.

VI. The Twilight War (Chapter 9)

We finally reach the latest Monomyth, from which we start counting our years. We know much about the Hero of Twilight, the Twilight Princess, and the Princess of Light, and so this Monomyth iteration is far more complete than others. Notable in this legend is the fact that this Hero's Companion, Midna, plays a much larger role than Companions normally do, on par with the Minish Cap during the Force Era. One could even argue that this Monomyth's conflict is driven as much by the Twilight Princess's quest to regain her throne as it is by the Curse of Demise.

After many years, the Sages finally saw fit to execute Ganondorf, but the goddesses had blessed him with the Triforce of Power, allowing him to survive and kill one Sage. In desperation, the Sages banished the Evil King to the Twilight Realm.

Decades later, ominous red skies, reminiscent of twilight, began to sweep across the land, turning all beings under them into incorporeal spirits and loosing terrifying, deformed monsters. A teenager from the rural village of Ordon named Link, empowered by the blessing of the Triforce of Courage, was transformed by the twilight into a feral wolf rather than a spirit. With the help of the Twilight Princess, Midna, Link learned to control his newfound animal abilities. The pair rescued Princess Zelda from the clutches of the Twili usurper king, Zant, and the three of them defeated Zant. They then learned that Zant had been elevated by the banished Ganondorf, who had himself gained power from the Twilight Realm. Finally, the Hero of Twilight and the Princesses of Light and Twilight defeated Ganondorf, killing him for good. Before leaving to retake her throne, Midna shattered the Mirror of Twilight, sealing off the Twilight Realm from Hyrule forever.

And thousands of years passed.

As of this writing (A.C. 1889), a new iteration of the Monomyth has yet to be conclusively identified.


Prologue: Sickness and Health, Silence and Song

(Heaven_or_Hell?)

–2416 A.C.–

–Hyrule Castle Town–

The herald cleared his throat as he unfurled the sheet of parchment bearing his pronouncement.

"Hear ye, hear ye! Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixteen years after the defeat of the Usurper King Zant and the Evil King Ganondorf at the hands of the Hero of Twilight, the Twilight Princess, and the Princess Zelda,"—having to start every proclamation like that got really old really fast but the castle scribe was a stickler for tradition—"the Royal Family of Hyrule welcomes its newest addition, the 2416 Princess Zelda!"

Cheering erupted from the listening crowd. The royal family was well-liked, having implemented many social programs over the strenuous objections of the ruling-class nobles. If their new Zelda were true to form, Hyrule would continue to prosper.

After the cheering died down, the herald continued. "And in celebration of her birth, the Royal Family is holding a Royal Ball in the Great Hall. This ball shall be held one fortnight hence, starting at the hour of twilight, as is customary. This ball is open to the commonfolk by invitation only. As the Royal Family would like to make the process of invitation distribution as fair as possible, invitations will be distributed by raffle. You will be informed tomorrow how to obtain your ticket. Long live the Princess!"

The cheering began again. The last time the Palace had been open to the public had been at the coronation of the King, 16 years ago. The denizens of Castle Town were properly excited to be able to mingle with royalty for the first time in almost two decades.

In the back of the crowd, a man extricated himself from the cheering mob and hurried home, eager to share the news with his wife. Unfortunately, even if he won tickets, she would not be able to attend—she was pregnant and the baby was due very soon. She was, however, a lover of the ancient legends, especially those that made up the Monomyth, and the addition of a new Princess Zelda was sure to make her very happy.

And eight days later, the man and his wife welcomed their own new addition to their family: a baby boy named Link. Although his birth was met with much less fanfare than that of the princess, his arrival made the new parents just as happy.

–2422 A.C.–

At first, everyone thought it was a simple outbreak of the flu. Miserable if you contracted it, yes, but you would be bedridden for maybe a week and then get up again, right as rain. More people than normal were being infected, but some seasons were worse than others. A few shops closed as their proprietors started exhibiting symptoms, but not before selling wagonloads of cucco soup and Ordon goat milk to people who were planning to stay inside and ride out the sickness.

Then, a homeless man in the South District failed to recover. He had lived in filth, exposed to the elements, reasoned the doctors. Those kinds of people died all the time during flu season.

A local cobbler died next. Then a popular fruit seller, a bartender, and a doctor. Word began to spread that this year's flu was more infectious and far more deadly than usual. The damage was done, though; the townspeople's casual response to this disease had sealed their fate. After a week or two, three-quarters of the buildings in town housed at least one body.

Six-year-old Link had no idea about any of that, though. All he knew was that a week ago, the busy city had just...stopped. His weekly lessons at the local Temple were cancelled after Mister Gabel had fallen sick - more time to play, he'd thought, but the next day all the children were told to stay in their homes.

Which led to today's situation. Link rested his forlorn gaze on the locked door to his parents' bedroom. A few days ago, his parents had locked him in his bedroom with some food, telling him to stay inside until they deemed it safe to leave. The adventurous boy had long since figured out how to escape his prison, but what awaited him outside was far from an adventure. Bodies filled the streets, and the lamentations of those who had lost loved ones filled the air. Sickened, he had returned to his home to wait.

But today, his parents' bedroom was eerily quiet. During the previous days, he had heard his parents arguing, punctuated by the odd sneeze or cough. The frequency of their arguments had decreased, but he assumed that they were coming to an agreement; his parents were usually good at settling marital disputes. Today, however, they weren't even talking.

He climbed out his room's window, using the ivy that grew on the wall to reach his parents' room, which was right next to his. As Link prepared to look into the window, he grew apprehensive for some reason that he could not quite put his finger on. Disregarding that feeling, he took a deep breath and looked in the window—

His parents were lying on the bed together, arms wrapped around each other.

Link let out a sigh of relief. See? Nothing to worry about. With one final look at his sleeping parents, he turned to climb back into his bedroom window—Wait.

He looked back through the window once more.

They weren't breathing.

Tears filled the boy's blue eyes, and he experienced a surge of weakness that threatened to drop him from the ivy to the cobblestones below. He managed to keep his wits about him long enough to re-enter his bedroom window and curl up on his bed before bursting into tears.

/_\

Two months later, when the worst of the plague had passed, the herald entered the town square. He couldn't help but notice that there were much fewer people than normal.

"Hear ye, hear—" his voice caught for a second and those in the front were surprised to see tears in the normally stoic herald's eyes. "Hear ye. Two Thousand, Four Hundred, and Twenty-Two years after the defeat of the Usurper King Zant and the Evil King Ganondorf at the hands of the Hero of Twilight, the Twilight Princess, and the Princess Zelda, I must regretfully inform you all that—that…" He took a deep breath and visibly collected himself. "—that the King and the Queen have both passed away due to the plague."

The gathered populace was silent for a moment, digesting the information, before reacting. Some burst into tears, others shaking their heads in disbelief. Several people shouted questions at the herald, but the sheer volume of queries made answering them impossible. After letting the people vent for a few minutes, the herald shouted for quiet and continued his proclamation.

"They are survived by their only daughter, Zelda. As the Princess is currently too young to rule, the High Chancellor Noboru Keijo has been appointed Lord Regent, effective until the Princess reaches the age of maturity. Please treat the Lord Regent with the same love and respect that you have given the King and Queen over the years. He will address the people a week hence from the Palace Balcony at noon. Long live the Lord Regent, and long live the Princess!"

–2422-2432 A.C.–

Zelda was too young to rule, but not too young to notice what was going on around her.

Her parents' rule had been very progressive, opening orphanages around Hyrule, protecting the rights of the Zora and Goron to self-rule, appointing officers based on merit instead of family ties, and implementing other changes that were well-received by the laypeople and strenuously opposed by the elite nobles. Her tutor, Impa, summarized the King and Queen's philosophy thusly: "A kingdom is its people, not just its nobility. If you advantage the highborn at the expense of the lowborn, you sacrifice long-term happiness for short-term stability."

In his first address to the people of Hyrule, the Lord Regent promised to uphold the practices and policies of the King and Queen, which earned him the support of a lot of people. And for the first while, his policies reflected those of the previous rulers.

Here and there, though, there were small signs that he was pursuing a hidden agenda. An act that funded orphanages throughout the nation was accompanied by a slight shift in the nation's tax laws that made it easier to hide funds from the tax collectors. The Lord Regent claimed it was a compromise necessary to gain the nobles' support, and most didn't question it. (As part of her mathematics studies, she calculated the projected revenues and found that they were actually lower than they would have been without that compromise.)

The definition of treason was expanded and the punishments made more severe, explained away as strengthening the kingdom against foreign invaders taking advantage of the Superflu to cause chaos. (Impa collected reports of foreign activity before and after the plague, and Zelda couldn't see any notable changes.)

The Zora and Goron were subjected to restrictions that forbid them from gathering in human-majority areas, again using the plague as justification. At this, there was a public outcry, but under the expanded treason definition, many dissenters were silenced. (To Impa, Zelda complained, "He's not even trying to hide how much he wants to be a dictator anymore. What did the Zora and Gorons do to him?" To which Impa replied, "It's easier to set factions against each other than it is to unite an entire nation. Many rulers choose the easy route. What will you choose?")

With his power now cemented, the Lord Regent's rule began to look less like the progressive rule of the old King and Queen and more like the rule of the tyrants of old.

On the sidelines, the growing Princess Zelda watched in equal parts shocked horror and impotent rage. She was a kind-hearted girl, and seeing the changes made by the Lord Regent in her family's name made her feel powerless. In Hyrule, the age of maturity was 16 years old, so she knew that she and the country had to endure until 2432 A.C. In the meantime, she would try to do as much as she could to mitigate the adverse effects the Lord Regent's policies were having on the layfolk.

One particular decision of the Regent's when she was about 12 served as a simultaneous reminder of her failures and a galvanizing memory. And it all started with a song...

–2428 A.C.–

After the death of his parents, young Link entered an orphanage, one of many that had been opened under the previous King's reign. The loss of his parents had hit him very hard, but the caretakers had found a way to get the boy to open up: music. A lute donated by a previous occupant of the orphanage was found, and one of the caretakers spent his evenings teaching the boy how to play. Many evenings thereafter were filled with the sounds of strumming and the other children singing along.

Of course, children being children, the songs being sung often suffered changes in their subject matter. "The Cucco Song" was a popular choice; at times it became "The Monkey Song", "The Zora Song", "The Stupid Song", and most popularly "The Titty Song". Of course, they had to sing that last one out of earshot of the caretakers, who were more than happy to hand out spankings wholesale to anyone caught singing bawdy songs.

One night, twelve-year-old Link was stringing his lute when he noticed something through the window. A man dressed in black—the uniform of the newly created Sheikah Squad—was making his way to the town square. Link shook his head in disgust. The Sheikah Squad were little more than the Lord Regent's hired goons, soldiers trained in espionage tactics such as eavesdropping, assassination, and other covert activities. They were formed ostensibly to secure the nation while they recovered from the plague, but instead they acted more as suppressors of dissent against the Lord Regent. For someone who enjoyed the old legends as much as Link did, seeing the Sheikah name degraded from elite ninjas to hired thugs saddened him.

Better not sing anything too inappropriate tonight…getting arrested wouldn't be very fun.

Half an hour later, the orphanage rang with an enthusiastic chorus of "The Titty Song".

After the song concluded (which really meant "after the kids stopped giggling") some of the younger children called for Link to come up with a new version of "The Cucco Song". Even though Link's parents had not been highly educated, they had still taught Link his letters at a young age, and the boy seemed to have a way with words. He asked the room to come up with a title, and when someone suggested "The Regent's Song", many of the other children agreed. The Lord Regent was not a popular figure among the populace, and hearing Link lyrically assault him would be very entertaining.

With the Sheikah agent all but forgotten, Link launched into a musical tirade against the Regent, focusing in particular on his hygiene, fashion sense, and ancestors. It was one of his most popular songs yet.

Still riding the high of a performance well done, Link unstrung his lute and headed to the storeroom in the orphanage's basement to put it away. Night had fallen, so Link had to bring a lantern.

The next morning, one of the first boys to rise noticed that Link's bed, which was beside his, looked like it hadn't been slept in. He brought it to the caretaker's' attention, and after a quick search, they found a lute and an extinguished lantern lay in a puddle of oil.

The boy was nowhere to be seen.

/_\

Link was brought before the Lord Regent the next morning. He had blacked out upon entering the storeroom and when he awoke, he was lying in a cell, hands tied behind him. Calling out for someone resulted in the guard who had been on watch walking over and wordlessly clocking him on the head through the bars, which discouraged further attempts at conversation.

The Regent was a tall, imposing middle-aged man. His sharp features were somewhat undermined by the slight bulge around his midsection; he had the appearance of someone who'd only recently begun to let himself go. The throne he sat on was ornate, as befitting of the ruler of Hyrule, but he slouched comfortably in it, head resting on one fist. If someone asked Link how a king would look, the Regent would probably have the exact opposite features, except for the expensive-looking finery.

Scanning the room, Link took in the high ceilings supported by pillars, the statue depicting the Triforce, and—a flash of movement?

Piercing blue eyes met piercing blue eyes for a fraction of a second.

The girl half-hidden behind the statue looked down in shame, tears threatening to drop from her eyes, although Link couldn't see them from where he stood. The Princess herself! If this had been any other situation, he would have been ecstatic to even be in the same room as her, much less look her in the eyes. Unfortunately, this wasn't any other situation.

The Regent spoke, his deep baritone conveying tones of derision. "This is the boy?"

"Yes, my lord. Last night, he was heard singing a song of a rather...insulting nature, in which he hurled various insults at your person." The agent's voice sounded surprisingly young, but as all Shiekah agents covered their faces, the only thing Link could tell was that he was male—even then, he hadn't been sure until the first word had been spoken. "Normally, such vacuous words would be ignored, but he also included a line insinuating that my lord ascended to the throne through trickery."

Link winced. "Trick" was the easiest rhyme for "sick" he could think of at the time, since he had already played out the anatomy jokes...

"This clearly falls under the definition of treasonous speech as defined under the Sedition Act of 2424, and so as per the letter of the law, the offender has been brought before my lord for summary judgment."

"Thank you, agent," the Regent said. "A song, you say? Was he the only one singing?"

"He was, and he was playing a lute as accompaniment. It appears that he came up with the words on the spot, as a covert search of the orphanage revealed no written copies of the lyrics."

"Playing a lute and composing lyrics? What a talented young musician we have here." The Regent turned his attention to Link, who stiffened under the weight of the larger man's gaze. "I would hate to rob such a bright young man of his future prospects, but the law must be obeyed." A short pause, as Link dropped his gaze to the floor, trying to quell his nerves. After what seemed like an eternity, the Regent continued, "What is the punishment for treasonous speech, agent?"

"Depending on the severity of the offense, punishments may range from hobbling to imprisonment to execution." At the word "execution", Link's eyes widened and began to shine with tears. He could die for a silly spur-of-the-moment song? "Of course, the exact punishment is left up to your discretion, my lord."

"Yes..." The man shifted in the ornate throne, resting his head upon the other fist. "Is it not said that it is better to cut off your hand then to let it lead you astray? As I see it, the boy played the song with his hands and sung it with his tongue, so to prevent further treason, the boy should lose both."

Link stood there in shock, almost missing the next sentence. "But given his tender age, allowances must be made for the rashness of youth. Therefore, he shall lose only one faculty. Boy." Link snapped his eyes up to meet the brusque call. "Which shall you keep, your tongue or your hands?"

Behind the statue, the princess's hands flew to her mouth as a tear slid down her cheek.

Link licked his lips, preparing to answer, but it took a couple of seconds before his constricted throat would obey him. "I-I need my hands, my lord."

"Tongue it is, then. It is decreed that the boy Link Yuuki will lose his tongue this day. Let it be done. Turn him over to the doctor, and once the deed is done, expel him from the city."

His body, having just been marshaled into responding to the Regent, froze up again. He...was going to lose his tongue? He'd never speak, never sing, ever again? He dimly registered that he'd also never be able to return to his orphanage, either. He'd lose his voice and his home on the same day, over a song.

The Sheikah saluted the Regent and left the room with an unresponsive Link in tow, leaving behind a man who slouched on a throne with a cruel smirk on his face and a girl whose tears made waterfalls on her cheeks.

The woman watching in the shadows committed the name Link Yuuki to memory.

/_\

After a brief stay in the dungeon, Link was escorted to the laboratory of the Lord Regent's partner and resident scientist, where he was strapped down by heavy leather bands to an operating table. The rumors he had heard painted the doctor as an old man with insane-looking white hair, an unfocused stare, and a general air of creepiness around him, so the boy was surprised when a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties walked into the room.

The man ran his hands through his black ponytail and muttered "This is the next subject? Pain in the ass. Good thing Aria's on vacation…" in a low voice that he must have thought Link wouldn't hear.

At Link's words, he gave a small start. "Um, who's Aria?"

The man recovered quickly and gave him a flat look for a couple of seconds, which Link matched. Was it his imagination, or were the man's brown eyes softening slightly…?

Ponytail turned away from the table Link was strapped to, shifting bottles and beakers - searching for something, probably. A few seconds passed in silence before the man said "She's my partner."

Another few seconds of silence.

Link, annoyed at the short answer, said "Partner in what? A circus act? Is that why you have the ponytail?"—and immediately regretted it. Mouthing off about adults had gotten him into this mess in the first place, and antagonizing the man who might well be performing his punishment was probably not a good idea.

When the man barked out a short laugh and said "Just what I needed, a smartass," with a smile in his voice, Link let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

"We're scientists under the doc. Biology, specifically, but I focus on magical integration while Aria does soul creation, transfer, and the like."

Bi-ah-lo-gee? In-te-great-shun? As if sensing his confusion, the man continued, "Well, it's nothing you need to know about, kid."

Link scowled. "My name isn't 'kid', you know. It's Link."

Keep mouthing off, great idea.

Ponytail turned to face the boy with a small syringe in his hand. "The legendary hero, huh? Good name. Let me know when you grow into it, kid."

Link was about to make a snappy comment but the introduction of the syringe reaffirmed the fact that mouthing off was the last thing he needed to do at the moment. Instead, he decided to take a different tack. "Fine. What's your name then?"

"And why do you want to know?" The man walked along the counter and out of Link's view, but the sound of running water that shortly followed meant that he was probably washing the syringe, or his hands, or both.

"Because calling you 'Biah-whatever Man' or 'Science Guy' instead of your name is kinda rude."

"Biology, kid. Study of living things. And anyway, I don't particularly like my name, so call me whatever you want." The man approached Link's left side, freshly cleaned syringe in hand. Upon noticing Link's instinctive shudder, he sighed. "Just drawing blood, kid. Gotta document all the patients that go through any procedures here. You a lefty or a righty?"

"Lefty." Upon hearing Link's terse response the man crossed over to the other side of the table and stuck the needle into his arm. Link clenched his teeth, watching with morbid fascination as the syringe filled with dark red blood. His blood. Despite the surge of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him, he didn't make a sound. The man nodded approvingly as he removed the syringe's needle and left the room, shooting a quick "I'll be back, kid," over his shoulder.

By Link's estimation, only a couple of minutes had passed by the time the man returned, evidently arguing with someone who Link couldn't see. With a final "Shut up, doc," the man swung the door closed and turned to face the boy irritably. Link, who had been eyeing the man curiously, flinched at his annoyed look and turned away as far as the confines of his restraints would let him.

The man sighed. "I'm not mad at you, kid. Doc's just a bit annoying." The man pulled up a chair and sat down, spinning it around so that he could rest his arms on the back. "So. Blood analysis will take about half an hour, then the doc will come in and apply the curse. We then hand you over to the guards and they escort you out of the city."

Hearing his fate laid out so starkly made it all the more real to Link, and despite still being turned away, he couldn't hide the sniffle that escaped him at the thought of leaving Hyrule Castle Town and losing his voice.

The man sighed again. "Don't cry, kid, it'll make me feel guilty. Look, we're going to help you, okay? Bastards like the Regent shouldn't be hurting kids for being stupid."

"I'm not—" started Link automatically, but he closed his mouth when his brain caught up and he realized that insulting the Lord Regent in public had actually been pretty foolish. He took a different tack to distract himself. "Since you're working for the Regent, I thought you were a bad person, but I guess you're a good guy after all."

"Hmph. Don't call me that, kid."

"If you're not a good guy, then I guess I'll call you Mr. Badguy!"

The man snorted. "The world's not black and white, kid. There're more types of people than just good and bad, and people ain't all good or all bad."

Link smiled playfully. "That's complicated. Anyway, you said to call you whatever I wanted, and now I want to call you 'Mr. Badguy'."

'Mr. Badguy' groaned. "I knew that would come back to bite me. Fine kid, whatever you say."

Satisfied at having scored a verbal point, Link's smile grew wider, then shrank as he remembered that he was joking with the man who was helping cut out his tongue–wait, he'd said "apply the curse", hadn't he?

"You said something about a c-curse?" he asked hesitantly.

Badguy replied with a sigh, running his hands through his hair. "In the old days, people who were to lose their tongues just had them cut out. Besides being a barbaric practice that fu–well, let's not go down that road. Basically what I'm trying to say is that just taking a knife to the tongue is a good way of making people never speak again. Unfortunately, half the time that's because the poor bastard would bleed out, get their wound infected, or die of malnutrition-related diseases because it's really, really hard to eat most kinds of food without a tongue."

Link shuddered.

"Doc comes along, and his whole deal is that he wants to, uh, how to put this...make magic a science, I guess you could say. Figure out the rules, see if you could create new spells, yadda yadda yadda. Along the way he comes up with a curse that will magically render a person unable to talk. Irreversible. Now it's not a complete muting, you can grunt, shout, scream, hell, even hum a little. But any kind of language is completely out of your reach. When the Regent created that treason law, that curse became the doc's go-to for these kinds of sentences. Easy to do, no chance of accidentally killing the offender, and has the same result so the Regent's satisfied."

An excited voice suddenly permeated the air. Link guessed that its owner was also a relatively young man. (How loud was he shouting that they could hear him through a closed door?) "I don't believe this! Come here, Fr–"

As Link registered the words "come here," Badguy's eyes widened, and he shouted back "Hold your horses doc, I'm comin'," loudly enough to drown out the rest of the sentence. With a final look at Link, the man opened the door and left the room.

The door swung shut, but it hadn't closed all the way.

Link strained his ears, hoping that he could catch a bit of the conversation that the shouter–apparently the doctor–and the Badguy were about to have. Even if he didn't learn anything, it would take his mind off thinking about his imminent punishment.

Thankfully, the doctor's excitement hadn't seemed to abate by the time Badguy was within talking distance. Link couldn't make out full sentences, but what he did hear was intriguing.

"–see this? Look – unprecedented – affinity for all – perfect test – shame we have to –"

Badguy's lower rumble was interspersed between the doctor's excited jabbering, but it was soft enough that Link couldn't understand what he was saying at all. He strained some more as the doctor continued.

"You think – little project – won't mind –" Their voices fell away to unintelligible at this point, but Link made out one last word: "plague".

No more answers were forthcoming, as the conversation ended and the Badguy reentered the operation room, followed by a hooded man who Link assumed was the doctor. His face was shrouded in shadow–what kind of lab coats have hoods?–but his voice was kind. "I trust Mr. Badguy–" Link stifled a chuckle as Badguy's expression shifted from 'neutral' to 'I-want-to-light-something-on-fire' "–has appraised you of the situation?"

At Link's wordless nod, he continued. "Good. Then, before we start, I'd like to give you something." He reached into one of his many pockets. "Consider it a gift from the three of us."

"You mean the two of you and, uh...Aria?"

"Yes," the doctor confirmed, pulling out a small piece of leather. Upon unfolding it, Link realized that he was being given a nice pair of leather fingerless gloves, but upon comparing them to his shackled hands, he realized that they would be a bit too big.

Noticing his glance, the doctor said "You'll grow into them, don't worry." He flipped the gloves over, showing Link the back of the right glove. It was adorned with an intricate red rune that almost looked like a flickering flame as it caught the light. "Keep them safe; they will be of great help to you." He tucked the gloves into one of Link's pockets.

As the doctor straightened up, Badguy took over. "We're gonna put you to sleep for this. It won't hurt. You'll wake up once you and your escort reach the orphanage to pick up your stuff, and then you'll be escorted to the gates. We'll also give you a map so you can find your way to another town or city." Badguy approached the head of the table. "Any last words?"

Link thought. Heroes in the stories faced down death with snappy one liners and poignant speeches, but he was neither a hero nor dying anytime soon...although he might as well be.

In the end, he decided to keep it short and sincere.

"Tell Aria 'thank you' for me. Thank you, doctor. And thank you, Mr. Badguy."

This was the first and last time that the man smiled at that nickname.

"See you later, kid."

A large hand entered Link's field of vision, and as Badguy muttered a word, Link fell into darkness.

/_\

With the curse applied, there was nothing left for the two men to do other than wait for the guards to bring Link to the orphanage.

Badguy turned to the doctor. "Are you sure about this? He's a kid."

The doctor didn't reply for a few moments. Finally, he responded with "What do you think about destiny?"

Completely nonplussed, Badguy could only sputter before the doctor continued. "The heroes of legend were supposedly destined to carve their names into history, as were the princesses. But what of those in the shadows? The instructors who taught the heroes swordplay, the tutors who honed the princesses' magic, the craftsmen who made their weapons, the farmers who raised their horses? Are they no less important?"

"Is that what you want to be? The helper from the shadows? Is that what all your weird-ass projects are about, why you hand them out randomly?"

"Sow your seed wide, and some of them will bear fruit."

Badguy shook his head. "If you say so, but why involve a kid? He's going to have it hard enough as it is."

"Ah, but that's why he's perfect. Losing everything means he no longer has anything to lose. Combine with the flame of youth and he might just be unstoppable...when he grows into it."

"If he grows into it. Are you sure this is going to turn out okay?"

"For whom? Him, us, the world? You've come to care for the boy rather quickly–I've never seen you bond with...well, anyone this fast."

Badguy didn't reply.

The doctor smiled. "You should know by now that whether this 'turns out okay' is of no concern to me. I want to see where this world goes - no, steer where this world goes. Whether it becomes paradise or purgatory, heaven or hell, I will be satisfied so long as my hand has pulled at the reins, even if only a little."