FOURTEEN
LINK SPEAKS

Impa, of the Sheikah tribe

I place my cup down on its saucer, and dutifully, the young ones all look upon me.

"Your Highnesses," I address both young Royals, "To have shared a meal with you all today around my own table brings to me joy and happiness that I have not known for many years."

The Princess' eyes well up as I continue, and she demurely catches a tear upon her wrist. Prince Sidon watches me although his eyes dart over to her on occasion. "However," I continue, "I have much to discuss with you all in turn. If it suits you, I should like a brief audience with Master Link."

Link, who was slowly and politely chewing up until that moment, swallows his mouthful so hard that he takes himself by surprise. He looks at me for a second, then nods respectfully.

"Of course, Lady Impa," says Sidon, standing with the briefest of bows. He is too tall for my modest house, and has to stoop slightly, which of course he does without complaint. "If the Princess should like to accompany me-"

"We will take a brief tour of the village," Zelda interrupts, also standing. "Paya, would you come? There are a few things I would like to ask the villagers. I could do with a guide, if you're free to help."

Paya quickly nods and bows her approval, and save for a last glance back at Link, she exits with them. I hear them pass down the stairway until their feet and voices are too far away to discern.

"Now then," I say with a wry smile, turning to Link, "Champion."

He squirms a little. Clearly, he will never be used to that title. He makes to stand, but I lower him again with an outstretched hand. I reach for the teapot but he is there before I get halfway, and he pours me another tea. I raise the cup to my mouth and gratefully sip.

"I am sure you have been asked this many times," I begin over the rim of my cup, "but do you remember much of before you awoke in the Shrine?"

He opens his mouth to say "yes", but his eyes cannot match his lips in their certainty. His brow furrows as he struggles for internal clarity.

"Please, just tell me what you remember."

It turns out that the memories he does have could fill roughly one page of this diary. He seems to know a few facts, but these seem to be from things people have told him, rather than things he remembers experiencing.

The most interesting thing he tells me is that on his journeys he met with the spirits of the Champions, each trapped within their vessels, and each passing on a gift to him before completing their journey to the afterlife.

"Gifts?" I wonder. Could it be that they all hid something inside their crafts, aware that they may meet their ends in the battle?

Link patiently explains that these were not material items, but more like… special abilities. He explains that these gifts were things that seemed to manifest within the Champions during their lives. As he speaks, I remember Prince Sidon's sister Mipha, and her supernatural ability to heal. I was not acutely aware of any of the other Champions' talents, so I listen without interrupting as Link continues his story.

The thunderous power of fury, from the Gerudo, Urbosa. I remember the striking young woman with the sharp tongue now, of whom Zelda became very fond. I remember feeling a sharp pang of envy towards her, and not just because of her beauty.

The mighty power of protection, from Daruk of the Gorons. The eldest by quite some margin, he took to Link as if he were his little brother, and shielded him from the criticisms of the others until they warmed up to him. He seemed the most level-headed of the Champions, and without wishing to seem disrespectful of the younger ones, I was most dismayed to hear he had fallen to the Blight of Ganon.

The ability to create fierce gales, from Revali, the Rito Champion. Now, here was the most surprising. Revali was most difficult to warm to, and his attitude flared my temper. He was rude, thought himself certainly more skilled and worthy than the other Champions, and showed almost reluctance to aid Link and the Princess. I had felt that his spirit would be restless and resentful, so proud was he of his youth and vigour while he was alive. In fact, Link keeps this part of the tale brief. Perhaps he has not found peace with Revali yet either.

And finally, the healing power of Mipha. She, who I see so much of in her younger brother, was the Champion Link first freed, and I wonder if that was purely coincidental. Nothing in the life of Link, it seems, ever is. Link has plenty more to say about his visit to the Zora, how pleased he was to see Sidon again, how he has enjoyed the Prince's company.

I wonder if he remembers his discussions with my sister about her - rather pointless and somewhat vain, I thought – de-ageing process. If he did, surely, he would remember more of his relationship with the Zora Princess.

I ask politely if the King and the people are well. I have never met them, but Link will not remember that. His speech gives away that yes; perhaps he does remember a little more of Princess Mipha, and maybe even recalls their feelings for one another.

There was a young man I believe I loved, months before I was drafted to the palace, whom I had grown up alongside: a young Sheikah like me, we had run the fields around the village together and seen our trials out side by side. As we had aged, our play sessions had turned more into lengthy discussions, pushing our curfews later and later. We had kissed on the hill overlooking the old fountain, and then some time after, I had gone on to the palace.

We bade farewell to each other, hoping we would see each other again, until I heard casually from a visiting colleague many years later that he had been killed by a Yiga strike in the field in Gerudo. I had been forced to excuse myself, for it was as if I had been hit in the stomach with a blunt object.

As I struggled to contain myself then, I could not say in truth that I still loved him, but at the same time, a part of me knew I had done. I had little hope of a future with this man, and just a short while after hearing of his death I would be married to another, but the loss still aches to this day.

I suddenly realised that Link had not spoken for a long time. He was cradling his cup in one hand.

"Have you and the Princess spoken much?" I almost added 'about her plans' but I suspected there had been silence on both sides. He confessed they had not, lapsing into the stoic stare which I knew frustrated the Princess, and often frustrated me.

"Link," I said to him patiently, "you have no further burdens to bear, other than your duty to the Princess, which you know is an honour-"

"I know it is an honour," he says softly to the table. I am taken by surprise. "I know it is a great honour."

"Every morning I am awake before her, and I watch her…" He shakes his head. "No, I pray and give thanks, and I am grateful that she and I are together again." He turns his head to stare at the painting revealing the spot where they were last united, before being pulled apart for a century.

"Every time she talks of her duty, I am unsure of what she means, and what that means for…" His eyes wander over to me. "…for us."

I reach across the table, reaching out across the broken years and the silence to take his hand. He grips it in his own and I feel both the softness of youth and the callused fingertips of a working man's hand. I grasp it closer to me and clasp it in both of mine, bringing him off the cushion and onto his knees before me.

"Zelda will always need you," I explain, feeling a rush of guilt and exhilaration that accompanies words you should probably not be speaking. "She is unaware herself how much she needs you, Link."

Tears run down both of his cheeks. He knows as well as I do that he will never truly get the fragments of his old life back together, and he has no idea what this new life will mean for him, whether the Princess returns the feelings I am sure he has for her. I feel a quiet, tiny splinter of sadness inside for my Paya.

"You must encourage her," I urge him. "She wishes to have the chance to rule her people, something she was never properly prepared to do." Despite my attempts to coach her in how to rule, the King clouded her judgment and made her sole pursuit the awakening of her powers in her latter years. Try as I might, I could not undo the damage he unwittingly did.

"You know as well as I do that she is able, but she cannot make it without your support. Hyrule is scattered, its citizens far-flung, and you are unprepared for an attack from the Yiga Clan." He shifts on his knees. "I know that you are more than a match for them, but they are leaderless, rudderless and dangerous, like a ship on fire."

Link asks me what more we can do.

I think of my distant beloved, slain by Yiga: my second in command Dorian and the loss he believes I know nothing about, and my terrorised people.

"We will wipe them out," I say in a dark, measured tone.

Link won't be staying silent much longer, my dear reader! And Impa gets one more chapter at least. I am so thankful to my readers and reviewers - you've all been so lovely. This looks set to be a long-runner as I am now close to Chapter 60 - I hope you'll stick with me for hopefully more fun and excitement. - Neet