Link knew his first day back at the academy since the search for Maya was called off was going to be a good one when Vaati asked him for help with translating the phrase 'to stone with you' from Ancient Hylian. He obviously wasn't scheming anything, and there was nothing suspicious about that request. It came as something of a surprise, in fact, that when they reached the railroad tracks on their way to class and had to stop to let a train pass, Vaati only mused about pushing Link in front of the next train they saw. He'd been in such a dark mood ever since their library trip that Link earnestly expected Vaati would shove him into the train without warning.
But that was silly. Vaati was a bit of a bully and liked to knock Link's feet out from under him both figuratively and literally, but he'd never tried to see Link killed.
That didn't stop Link from expecting something bad to happen all day. He paid even less attention than normal in lecture hall, constantly stealing glances at Vaati to see if he was about to do anything disastrous. The school was talking about grief and loss and who to go to if they felt the absence of a fellow classmate, but even when it was a subject that Link actually cared about, he couldn't focus when all his thoughts were locked on the idea that Vaati was planning something. Even when they were practicing magic, while Vaati was outside with the other wind students and Link was safe inside the earth hall, Link kept expecting Vaati to mess with him.
Finally, as the school day drew to a close, it occurred to Link that it took a haughty man indeed to ask their target for help with what to say while pulling some devious prank on them. Vaati was indeed haughty, but he probably wasn't that haughty. Whoever Vaati planned to humiliate, Link was most likely safe (but he was still going to sleep with one eye open).
Relatively assured that Vaati meant him no harm on that particular day, Link didn't let himself worry too much when Vaati grabbed him after class and said, "I need to discuss an important thing with the light teacher. You'll come with me."
"Why?"
"Because I've told you to."
"Why do you want me with you?" Link asked.
"Because she likes you. It's the easiest way for her to agree to the discussion."
"And why do you need to speak with her?"
"That is a secret." Vaati paused in the middle of pulling Link towards the light hall where Zelda had her office, looking back at him in mild concern. "Can you use a contraction for that, or is that not allowed in New Hylian?"
"It's allowed, but you have to say something like in the modern version of Hylian if you're not going to straight up call it Hylian."
"That's stupid. No one says the ancient version of Hylian."
"Ancient Hylian is a name. New Hylian is not."
"I say it is. New Hylian is the language people speak in New Hyrule."
"It's just Hyrule."
"If you have an Old Hyrule, then this is New Hyrule."
Link gave up the argument. Vaati looked childish, but he was oddly particular about things in a way that reminded Link of an old man clinging to the past. Vaati was also the single most stubborn person Link knew, so if he wanted to make a fool of himself using such ridiculous names, then who was Link to stop him?
Giving Vaati his empty victory in an argument won Link peace and quiet for the rest of their walk to Zelda's office.
It had never occurred to him that the princess would have a cramped office like every other teacher. It seemed too mundane for someone of her status. But sure enough, Vaati walked straight to it. Almost as if he had staked the place out. That he could throw open the door to a room belonging to the future queen as if he had every right left Link in awe.
It also made him want to shrivel up in shame at the withering look the princess gave Vaati.
"Common courtesy is to knock," she said.
"I very sorry," Vaati said, taking on a thick, unrecognizable accent. "Is not rule in my country."
"Knock it off," Link told him. "Sorry to disturb you, You Highness."
"While on school grounds, I am not the princess. I am a teacher. If you have questions for me as a student, then I can oblige so long as you show the proper respect expected from someone who has only begun their studies."
Link was pretty sure respect wasn't a word Vaati knew in any language. He wasn't surprised that Vaati not only didn't apologize, but also sat down uninvited. At least he made up for it by saying, "I've found information about the dragon who attacked."
Zelda immediately set aside the papers she had been grading, Vaati's previous transgressions forgotten as she asked him, "I don't suppose you know what happened to that poor girl too?"
Vaati shrugged, which made Link cringe. It was like he wanted Zelda not to like him.
Actually, Zelda had barely noticed he was there. Link wanted to linger. He'd been offered lessons, after all. Now that it seemed like he wasn't going anywhere fast with his plans to leave the school, he might as well arrange for them. He still didn't trust himself after having shape shifted, but shape shifting was dark magic, so surely it was safe to learn light. Link thought Vaati had horribly misjudged in thinking that he needed Link present in order to talk to Zelda, but Link wasn't going to complain so long as Vaati didn't make her hate both of them.
"I suppose it was too much to hope for. Have you spoken to the dean yet? Did you bring the tome you found your information in with you?"
Vaati looked perplexed, and turned sheepishly to Link. "A tome is a type of book?"
"Basically."
Turning back to Zelda, Vaati said, "It is not from a book. I've spoken with one of the lesser known races of Hyrule, and they gave me this information."
"Which race?" Zelda asked. "I suppose we should have asked the Rito. Most of them did stay on the islands over Old Hyrule. It's possible they know more about the lands on the other side of the Great Sea than we do."
Vaati looked deep in thought for a moment, then asked, "Have you ever heard of Picori?"
"Never."
"I see. They are a very small species." He held a hand just above Zelda's desk to indicate their heights. Link had to bend over to see how small the space between the two of them was. "They can only be seen by children, but because they are so small and children are so reckless, many avoid being seen at all. They're exceedingly common where I come from, but no one has said a word about them here, so I wasn't sure how well recognized they are. They live even longer than Zora, so-"
"Zora?" Link asked.
Vaati had no response for that, staring at Link in horror. It was Zelda who took pity on Link's ignorance. "The Zora were a race of fish-men who lived in Old Hyrule. It's said that they evolved into the Rito after the Great Flood, but-"
"The Zora turned into birds because the ocean grew?" Vaati asked.
Zelda paused in her story, but neither she nor Link could find it in him to reprimand Vaati for speaking out of turn on that one. After a brief, awkward silence, she looked back to Link and said, "But it's believed that some of the Zora migrated south and now live on another continent. Possibly even the one Risen came from. Zora lived over twice as long as Hylians and had far better memories, so their oral record is less muddied. Much of what we still know from before the Great Flood, we know because the Zora imparted the information to those surviving Hylians before they vanished. Vaati is suggesting he spoke with a species that better recalls Risen. A race who would apparently be hard for him to bring forward."
Link nodded. It made sense, sort of. Vaati had been very nearly roasted by Risen the last time the dragon appeared, and so he would be as invested as anyone else in seeing the dragon stopped. And how could you know the weaknesses of an enemy you knew nothing about? Researching the dragon and sharing your findings with anyone who might be useful in defeating it was only logical.
Granted, Link had always assumed Vaati was too full of petty spite to have room for anything like logic, but you could always be wrong about a person.
"I'm surprised that you do not know of the Picori," Vaati said, seemingly losing track of the topic. "There were many legends of the Picori helping those in Old Hyrule. There was even one among them who became a villain of legend."
"I've never heard the story," Zelda said, leaning in with interest despite it having nothing to do with the dragon. She was a princess of Hyrule, of course. Her destiny was tied to many of the forgotten legends, or so they said. If someone came to her suggesting they knew legends that might relate to her own ancestors, of course she would be interested.
"That's sad," Vaati said. "There is a legend from long before even I was born where the Picori gifted a great power to a former princess capable once of banishing all the monsters of Hyrule, but someone set them free again later. It was called the Light Force, and it was passed down from generation to generation before a sorcerer stole most of it away. Now it is a power split in two, and that power is what Risen wants."
The story sounded fanciful to Link. Hyrule knew about most of the sacred powers that it once held, and that it still retained. The legend of the Triforce was... well... legendary, for example. Even though it had been lost for two centuries, believed to still be sealed at the bottom of the Great Sea. For there to be any gifts the royal family possessed that they forgot about seemed impossible.
Yet Zelda's eyes were alight with the curiosity of someone who was watching puzzle pieces fit into place in their mind. "So as the latest in the royal lineage, I would have one fragment of this Light Force, which is why Risen attacked the city. And the descendant of the one who stole the rest of the Light Force, that would be you, Vaati, wouldn't it? I thought it was strange. Whenever you stood far away, you seemed like a wind sorcerer to me, but the nearer I drew, the more light element I could sense in you. That would be my portion of the Light Force reacting to yours, wouldn't it."
Vaati nodded, a smile spreading on his face that sent a chill down Link's spine. Things were making sense to the princess, but to Link there were holes appearing in Vaati's story. 'Before even I was born' Vaati said, as if there was something remarkable about being born before him. As if most of the forgotten legends of the Picori he spoke of came after Vaati was born.
Memories of the library, where Vaati almost seemed to be looking for himself amongst all the old legends, resurfaced in Link's mind. But that was silly. Vaati was fast approaching natural Hylian speech, but he still had the occasional misphrasing. It wasn't right of Link to apply the least generous interpretation to everything. He couldn't assume the worst of Vaati just because he was a brat.
"Do you know how your ancestor stole part of this Light Force?" Zelda asked. "Would Risen be able to do the same."
"I do know the process, although I think you wouldn't want me to perform it," Vaati said, holding out a hand that... seemed to be pointed towards Link?
Link rescinded his intentions not to be suspicious just before hearing the four ill omen words:
"To stone with you."
-o-
Princess Zelda reacted within seconds of Link's petrification, but Vaati was faster. The latest incarnation of the princess was a prodigy for her time, but he was still barely more than a child. A child cut off from most knowledge of her family's legacy. Blocking her initial magic attack while knocking her to her feet was child's play.
Too bad for her. The Light Force did add a bit of light to Vaati's own alignment-at least at times when it worked like it was supposed to-and there was a resistance that came with magic of your own alignment. Her light magic, once a formidable threat to his reign, was practically his own with the Light Force shared between them. While the royal family was blessed with many other powers that the princess didn't even realize she had, once the Light Force was all Vaati's, he would surely be able to hold his ground against those as well. They said the princess was a goddess in human form, so Vaati would become a god himself to match her.
Although he hardly needed to be a god to overpower the silly girl. Taken by surprise as she was, it was too easy to trap her, encasing her inside a crystal that was the most advanced earth magic he was capable of. The wind spell for dispelling it was a simple one, but oddly obscure. If Hyrule didn't even remember him, then Vaati doubted they remembered such a trick.
One perk of light magic was telepathy, and from within her crystal, Zelda's voice could still be heard. You played us! You're no beginner sorcerer at all.
"It's hardly my fault if you're so poor at assessing a person's skill," Vaati said. "But if you want me to be honest about my abilities, then no, princess, I don't know any spells my ancestors used for the Light Force. I do, however, vividly remember the spell I used to take what of the Light Force I did from your own ancestor. Lucky for me, because it would be a shame to wait so long to take the rest of it, only to forget how to do so. Don't blame me for this. I wasn't lying when I said Risen wants the Light Force as well, and I'd rather not go toe to toe with an unknown enemy without every resource I can."
He had to work quickly. It was only a matter of time before the princess recovered from her shock enough to realize she could reach people outside the room with her telepathy. Vaati was confident that he could stop any one of the school's sages, but he would rather not fight too many of them at once.
-x-
STA: Freaking finally. When I look back at my older fics, my main criticism of them is how fucking fast everything happens. I had no sense for how to flesh out a scene, so everything just flies by. But looking at my newer stuff, I feel like I've overcompensated. It takes too damn long for me to really get to the conflict every freaking time.
Actually, I triple dog dare y'all to try and read my first ever Zelda fic. I have to make myself get past the second paragraph. I cringe every time I read the first one, remember how I was trying to create an air of mystery by not using Ganondorf's name, then read the second paragraph where I go ahead and name him. I think I called him "The dark one" or something like an edgy pre-teen. Although if you're reading this on AO3, I never ported all my older, shittier fics to AO3, so you won't find it there.
This: I'm sorry to hear that although... I have to admit that's not a criticism I'm used to. Could you be more specific with where you think it falls short?
tyrantchimera: You just make me feel worse and worse about missed opportunities. But I guess Minish survivability would mostly come down to prep time. If the flood just happened and people started evacuating immediately, then the Minish would have to grab in a rush. It'd probably come down to who was close enough to hope aboard with other evacuees. But if there were at least a few hours warning, then the town Minish could probably make it. As for those forest guys...
