Malice
By: dontwaitupxx
Chapter Nineteen
It was the calm before the storm. From either front, neither Ganon nor Link and Zelda made any advances towards one another. It was pleasant, almost, should one choose to ignore the castle looming red over them. It was clear now that Ganon's power was growing, deep within the confines of the castle, as all of Hyrule was now bathed in the glowing red light of the Blood Moon every night. Monsters were constantly revitalizing, growing stronger and stronger with each passing Blood Moon. It wouldn't be much longer now before the monsters began terrorizing the countryside, no longer afraid to make the first move, becoming more brash and aggressive. Reports of the Yiga Clan were becoming more and more frequent, as they subjected the citizens of Hyrule to their wrath.
Within the last one hundred years, during the Age of Burning Fields, all of Hyrule had migrated away from Hyrule Castle. They kept to the safety of the other major providences, and generally kept a firm radius away from central Hyrule. If the threat of Calamity Ganon wasn't enough, now all of Hyrule had a front row view to Hyrule Castle from almost every area in Hyrule, and the people were migrating farther, leaving faster than ever before. They travelled onwards, now finding the treacherous slopes and climates of the Hebra Mountains almost hospitable, or travelling through the thick and humid climates of the Faron region to make it to Lurelin Village. Many, even once they made it to the shoreline, knew it to not be enough, and secured passage onto the high seas, to travel south, or east, or west, or anywhere the wind would take them that wasn't Hyrule. The threat was looming, and many decided that they would rather not stick around to see it.
The clock was ticking, and sooner rather than later, the storm would begin.
And Link and Zelda wasted no time in preparing.
The two would be found in the woods overlooking Kakariko Village, near the Great Fairy Fountain. Link was surprised to find that he was able to access his powers naturally, without a teacher. Though he had only been able to teach himself the basics, it had come almost naturally to him. He found that his powers allowed him to use telekinesis, in order to move objects around. He found that it only worked with solid objects – it did not work to move around water or air – and he was slowly figuring out how to move objects farther away from where he was.
"This is absolutely fascinating," Zelda said, watching as Link's arm glowed in varying shades of green, "Imagine, if everyone had the powers of the Zonai like you do. It would change the way people live forever."
"There once was a time when an entire tribe held these powers," Link said, practicing his powers on a small rock. The rock levitated in the air a few meters away from him. When he began practicing, the rock would shake in the air, as though he had not a firm grip on his powers, but now, after much practice, the rock was stationary in the air, the skill having been mastered.
"I want to see how small of an object you can move," Zelda mused, looking around her for a small enough object. She bent down to the grass and plucked a small blade from the ground, holding it between her index and thumb, "Link, try to use your powers on this."
Instantly, the blade of grass levitated from her fingertips, Link's arm outstretched in front of him, the fingers splayed, "Incredible," Zelda whispered, plucking the blade of grass from the air and jogging a few meters away from him, "Okay, try from over here."
It was slow going, at first, as Link concentrated on the small blade of grass in her fingertips. More than once, as he focused, did various objects around her get pulled up in a halfhearted levitation before thrown back down in frustration. A pebble here, an apple, a twig there, as he focused more and more on getting the blade of grass in her fingers.
The first sign of movement was a small twitch. Link latched onto this, and focused, a small bead of sweat running down his temple, and before long, the blade of grass was levitating in the air from Zelda's hand again, albeit shaking slightly.
"Amazing," Zelda said, as she dropped the blade of grass unceremoniously and went to scribble something in her journal, "Let's see how heavy of an object you can do," she glanced around, before her eyes found a large bounder a few meters away, "Link, try to see if you can lift this."
Link held out his hand, his arm glowing bright green, and instantly, Zelda was uprooted from her spot on the ground, and she was suddenly flipped upside down, Link's telekinesis being focused on her right ankle. Her arms and free leg flailed about, as she screeched, the blood rushing to her head. Link was laughing carelessly, as he beckoned her closer with his arm, before having her drop gently into his arms. He set her down gently, before placing a small kiss on her forehead.
"You did that on purpose," Zelda admonished, shaking her head, her cheeks still red.
"Maybe," Link confessed, "I wanted to see if I could move people, and I knew you wouldn't have said yes if I had asked so…"
"Well, you're right in that assumption," Zelda said, primly, before her face broke out into a huge grin and she ran over to her journal, mumbling something about ' the decency of it all'.
The next great discovery on Link's powers came while practicing the telekinesis.
"Link, I want to see if you are able to move around the water in the pond," Zelda said. The pond had a thin, filmy sheet of ice over it, in the cold Necluda climate. It was more of a slushy texture, truthfully, kind of in that slimy, in-between state between solid and liquid.
Link outstretched his arm, focusing his energy on the water in the pond, trying to raise a portion of it into the air. He imagined moving it like a small disc, or even an orb, completely separate and detached from the pond.
However, instead of it moving, the water froze completely in the pond, creating a small disk of ice floating across the top of the pond amidst the slush.
The way Zelda moved next was near instantaneous. One moment, she was standing across from Link, watching as he concentrated with his hand stretched in front of him. The next, she was on her belly in front of the pond, her hand outstretched in front of her. Her eyes were wide, her smile dazzling, as she poked and prodded at the small disk, the water rippling and billowing throughout the pond.
"It is actual ice," Zelda said, excitedly, "Cold to the touch, unlike the Sheikah technology on the slate, which was an artificial ice. You actually have the ability to freeze water!"
Seeing Zelda like this made Link smile. Out here, just the two of them, with her experiments, was where she truly thrived. She was Zelda the Scholar, not simply Zelda the Princess of Hyrule; of a land far since devastated and dismantled. She was a person here, not just a title. No longer did she wear golden crowns and long, flowing dresses. She traded those in for a suitable pair of pants, and frankly, a sensible hat and pair of mittens, in this weather. Though her nose was red and her hair was short, she was Zelda and she was stunning.
They worked together to be able to create a stronger, thicker ice that could create a bridge across the pond. Naturally, the way she tested this was to try and stand on it and see if it could hold her weight.
"Careful," Link said, suppressing a laugh as she inched one toe onto the sheet of ice, testing the strength of the ice.
"Of course," Zelda waved off, placing a little more weight onto the ice. The ice stood strong, and she took that as her cue to place both feet onto it, her arms held beside her to help balance.
And naturally, the ice shattered in this moment, and her feet splashed into the shallow pond, with Link falling backwards, laughing maniacally.
By that afternoon, however, Link had managed to freeze enough water to create a thick walkway for her to walk on across the pond. She tested it further, by jumping up and down on the ice, testing its strength, only to scurry off with a squeal as she heard and felt it crack beneath her.
The amount of socks that were hanging on a clothesline to dry was astonishing, really.
The third, and final, ability Link and Zelda discovered was his power to freeze objects in a stasis, quite similar to the capabilities of the Sheikah Slate and even more similar to the stasis Ganon had been held in the ancient Zonai city. Link started small, freezing an apple in midair that Zelda had thrown his way, and then made his way up to a stone, then a branch, and then finally, Zelda herself.
Truth be told, it had been an accident, freezing her in a time stasis, but he held onto the information that he could, in fact, freeze beings in a stasis.
Though, it wasn't nearly long enough of a stasis if he wanted to use it on Ganon.
It had only been a couple of seconds, and though the effect was there, it was not nearly as long as he needed.
Truly, he felt like he was missing something. Though he was getting a handle on these Zonai powers, something about them didn't feel complete. The Zonai in his vision had a much better grip on the powers than he did now, and though they had more practice and more experience than he did, he did, in fact, hold the power of the entire Zonai tribe in his right arm. From time to time, he felt their whispers, tingling on the wind, swirling up his arm towards his ear, but before he could understand their words, understand their ancient language, the voices were gone, evaporated into the air.
It seemed that he wasn't the only one thinking these thoughts.
As Link and Zelda entered Impa's home, they gasped.
The Elder's home was in a state of disarray. It was like a tornado had come through, wrecking havoc on the old woman's home.
That tornado had a name. Her name was Purah.
Purah was flying around at a mile a minute, whizzing around to various books and tomes and texts open. Around them, papers flew throughout the air, some of them ripped out from priceless, ancient texts, before being stomped on as Purah flew back, constantly cross-referencing and calculating.
And her sister, bless her heart, was just seated on her cushion, watching impassively as Purah continued to overstay her welcome.
"Symin, hold these two next to each other," Purah demanded, as she stood up onto a stool and produced a magnifying glass out of thin air, leaning in to compare the two texts, "Yup! Just as I thought!"
"What's going on here?" Zelda asked, tentatively, looking around to all of the chaos. Symin wouldn't dare meet her gaze, hiding behind the two small sheets of text he was holding. Impa, however, barked out a single laugh, the tops of her lips curling upwards only fractionally.
"We have been trying to figure that out for the last hour," Impa said, dryly, "My sister here has been chattering to herself and hasn't been making any sense. She's been devastating my books."
"I've been doing it in the name of science!" Purah exclaimed, her fist punched into the air above her, before she dived back into her work, her glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose, "I am on the cusp of something, I swear of it!"
"Well whatever it is, you have been 'on the cusp' of it for the last hour now," Impa said, "Tell us what you're thinking."
Purah whirled on Link, then, pushing her glasses back up her nose, "Linky, you've been getting better and better at controlling these powers, correct?"
"I suppose so, yes…" Link said, his eyes darting around as Purah flew across the room.
"But you're feeling like there's something missing, right? You feel like you can't quite master the powers given to you!"
"How did you know that?" Link asked, wringing out his hands, "You didn't somehow develop the technology to read minds, did you?"
"Oh, wouldn't that be something," Purah said, her eyes lighting up as the idea formulated, "But no, you're getting off topic!"
"Us? Getting off topic?" Impa said, her brow twitching, "Never."
"I know why you can't master the powers! I know what you're missing!" Purah rattled on, ignoring her sister.
"Well, what is it?" Zelda asked.
"It's because…" Purah paused dramatically, peering at them over her perched glasses, "It's because the powers aren't being focused."
"What do you mean, focused?" Impa asked.
"Think of the sun and a magnifying glass," Purah said, producing the magnifying glass again, "Without the magnifying glass, the sun is scattered all around, but when you use the magnifying glass to pinpoint the sun on a specific spot, it's much more concentrated! That's what Link needs to do! Have you noticed anything interesting with the powers?"
"I have noticed that I hear the voices of the Zonai from time to time," Link said, grabbing his right arm unconsciously, "It's like they're giving me instructions, telling me what to do, but before I can understand them, the voice is gone, and I'm left with this power that, while I've learned quickly, I can't get past the basics."
"Have you noticed any moments where the voices are clear, and where you are able to hear them?" Purah pressed.
Link pressed his lips together, his eyes locked on a point on the wall, "When I touched the Purah Slate, right before, I could hear their voices. And then when I touched it, it was like coming out from being submerged underwater. I could hear everything so clearly in the vision."
"Any idea why that was?" Purah asked, a small smile beginning to form on her face.
It was Zelda that answered, "The luminous stones."
"That's it, Zel."
"Now how will that help Link focus his powers?" Impa asked.
"It's the pillars! The pillars were used as a beacon! They were used as a way to concentrate their powers!"
"Purah, you're not making any sense," Zelda said, taking a step towards the small Sheikah, "What do you mean, the pillars? Do you mean the ancient Sheikah towers?"
"No, not the Sheikah towers!" Purah said, "Though these pillars were like a predecessor to those towers! The ancient Sheikah based their technology on the powers of the extinct ancient Zonai! That's why the powers Link has from the Zonai line up similarly with runes from the Sheikah Slate. Am I right, Link? Tell me I'm right!"
She was right. Link would have been lying if he had said he hadn't realized there were some similarities between them. The telekinesis was similar to magnesis in moving objects. Freezing water was similar to cryonis. Stasis was similar to… well, stasis.
The bombs must have been the ancient Sheikah's idea.
"Slow down, sister," Impa said, patiently, "Explain from the beginning, and for the love of Hylia, slow down."
"Okay, sheesh," Purah said, a small smile on her face, "Here's what I've found out. In my research, I have found that all of the magic the ancient Zonai dealt with had a power source. You cannot create magic out of thin air. That power source has different beacons throughout all of Hyrule, but the hub of the magic, the place where the magic is most condensed and at its most powerful is in the capital of the Zonai, in the ruins to the south of here, in the Faron region.
"Link, here, is able to access that power because he gained the knowledge from the powers he absorbed. However, the powers are learned secondhand; Link, here, has never accessed the power source of the ancient Zonai. Link needs to access one of the beacons, but just one of the hotspots here in Hyrule won't be enough power to defeat Ganon. He needs to access the power at the hub of the magic. If he wants any hope of defeating Ganon, he needs as much power and control over this power as he can.
"Once that power is accessed at the hub, all of the pillars throughout Hyrule work as a sort of 'network' to the hub, and he is able to access that power source from anywhere within Hyrule. Of course, being close to a pillar or Zonai region makes that magic more potent. Seeing as Hyrule Castle is built upon the ancient Zonai city, he should have no issues accessing the power once he reaches the hub."
"So you're saying that Link needs to travel to the Faron region to access the power source of the Zonai so he can be more in tune with it?" Impa asked, leaning forward on her cushion.
"Exactly, you're getting it now!" Purah said, excitedly.
"But Purah," Zelda said, her eyes darting towards Link, "We don't have time to make the trip down south to the Faron region. That's a two-day trip, and we need to defeat Ganon now. Who knows what he will do in the next two days."
"We don't exactly have much of a choice, Zel," Link said, speaking up, "We are ill prepared to face Ganon now. If we faced him now, we wouldn't have a plan, we wouldn't have the powers, and we would be dooming all of Hyrule. If there's a chance that this will work, and that I could hone in on a stronger power, then it's a risk we are going to have to take."
"And you're not as far away as you might think," Impa said, "If you travel down south towards the Dueling Peaks, through them towards Lake Hylia and then back south, bypassing the Bridge of Hylia entirely, you can cut a few hours off of your journey. You'll arrive to the ruins on the side closest to the Spring of Courage. The way will be swarming with Yiga and monsters. The monsters will probably be stronger than normal, but it's nothing the two of you haven't handled before."
"We can do it," Link affirmed, his hand catching Zelda's briefly, giving it a quick squeeze.
Zelda sighed, her shoulders shrugging forward, "I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?"
"You'll know what you need to do," Impa said to Link, cryptically, with a knowing look in her eye. Link, in response, simply nodded, casting his gaze downwards. Zelda, naturally, noticed this, but didn't say anything regarding the matter.
"And Princess," Purah cut in, circling around Symin, pointing to her hip, "You should make sure you take the Purah Slate with you. If not because of its capabilities, but because of the fact it is made up of the stones. It could very well create a tracking device for you two as you reach the ruins."
Zelda nodded, touching the slate at her side wordlessly, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.
They left the elder's home not too long after that, the two of them going their separate ways to quickly pack their things for their journey. She remembered seeing the Zonai ruins briefly, in her excursions to the three springs one hundred years prior. Back then, no one really knew anything regarding the ancient Zonai. Truth be told, no one really knew anything about the Zonai now. There was a lot of information they just didn't know, and would possibly never know about the Zonai. How did they live? Did they have any other major settlements outside of the ruins in Faron and the labyrinths? Were the labyrinths more like forts, with high walls meant to keep someone, or something, out?
And there had been shrines in the ancient springs, hidden behind a false panel. She had to wonder the chronological order of what came first. Her best guess was the springs came first, followed by the Zonai, and then finally the ancient Sheikah. But all of them were built together so seamlessly, each culture's history wrapped together, intertwined like three strings woven together. This seemed to be a common theme, as it was also seen with the Forgotten Temple, the shrine housed there, and then the Zonai city buried deep within the ground. Were there other structures like this within Hyrule? Of Ancient Hylian, or Sheikah, or Zonai, built within another culture's structure? Were there any ties to this across Hyrule? Perhaps on Lanayru Road, the legendary Spider's Nest Mountain? The Ancient Columns? Was there more to them than meets the eye? Perhaps it was wrong of her to think of them as three separate strings, three separate histories, but rather one unified history of Hyrule.
She needed to write all of this down.
As she gathered all of her belongings, which admittedly, wasn't a lot, she scribbled these thoughts into her journal, keeping track of the timeline of her thoughts. Perhaps, when all of this was over, she could consult the Sheikah scientists and Link, cross referencing with ancient Hylian tomes, to create a text that outlined the history of Hyrule's people, intertwined. It would be the first text that combined the history of ancient Hyrule with the ancient Sheikah, and of course, the first text on what they knew about the ancient Zonai. Perhaps they could travel to these areas and investigate them, perhaps finding similar discoveries like they had found at the Forgotten Temple.
She looked up from her small room at the inn, and made eye contact with Link, who was leaning against the doorframe of her room, his eyes quirked as he took her in, buried deep within her journal, scribbling furiously.
"What are you writing?"
"Just thoughts I have on the overlapping histories of the Zonai, Sheikah, and of ancient Hyrule."
"You look like home when you do that."
They smiled softly at each other for a moment, a moment suspended from the world that was crashing down around them.
"I wanted to run something by you before we headed out," Link continued, striding over to where she was seated down on the bed, kneeling in front of her.
"What is it?" Zelda asked, taking her journal and shutting it closed with a dull clap.
"I was talking with Impa," Link began, tucking a stray piece of hair behind his ear, "and she suggested, and was adamant at that, that we request the aid of the other four providences in our final assault against Ganon."
"Absolutely not," Zelda said immediately, in which Link's smile only grew.
"That's exactly what I told her myself," Link said, lifting himself up to sit next to her on the bed.
"It's reckless and careless," Zelda continued, as she thought about the suggestion, "Especially when we think of what had happened to the Champions one hundred years ago when we had them aid us in our initial attack against Ganon. They all lost their lives because Ganon had tricked us. Ganon, now, is going to be much more powerful. If the two of us won't stand a chance against him without the power of the Zonai, then what makes Impa think that an army with swords and spears will do any good?"
"I think she just doesn't want for us to go into this alone," Link admitted, "She's too old to help us herself, and I think it is her way of wanting to help us."
Zelda nodded, "But then Impa should know better than anyone else that the battle against Ganon has always been fought by the Hero and the Princess. She lives and breathes the legends. It's the way that it was always meant to be. While I would love the additional aid, if it means the almost certain loss of countless people, it is not worth it. Our best chance to defeat Ganon and save the people of Hyrule is for them to evacuate as far away as they can manage, like they have been doing, and for the final battle to be the two of us against him – like it has always been."
At this, Link looked down, almost uncomfortable, but before she could question it further, that look was wiped off completely, replaced with a small smile and a mischievous look in his eyes.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Link asked, taking her hand and lifting her onto her feet, "Lead the way, Princess."