Author's Note:

It's spelled HEBRA?! No, it's not. That's some Berenstain Bears level nonsense! "Heb-ra." Ugh! I hate it. The same day this was pointed out to me, my mom was diagnosed with Covid, and GUESS WHICH ONE I'M OBSESSING OVER. Sometimes, I just angrily look up from my computer, shout the word "HEBRA!" and then mutter to myself for a while.

So, a sincere thank you to the person who pointed this out, because this is honestly the most helpful coping mechanism I've found so far. Not mad at you. Mad at the multiple games that have manipulated me into transposing a B and an R.

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They sneak up on the Yiga Hideout from the Highlands, heading steadily downhill. It turns out that Link not only has sand boots, but also snow boots, and he's entirely unapologetic that they're in his possession. They argue about Zelda coming. And she eventually does. They're only there to do reconnaissance, and he knows that Dorian hid in this area for days without the Yiga noticing. It's a bit too cold for them. But then again, yesterday he would have said the Divine Beasts were safe, and now they clearly aren't.

They slow as they near the back entrance to the hideout. It's a wide, round space encircled by high walls of the mountains. There's a tunnel-like entrance to their base, a bottomless hole in the ground, and three dozen Yiga.

Zelda and Link crouch low to the ground, then approach the edge of the cliff on their bellies, peeking down at the Yiga without being seen. Foot soldiers and Blademasters sit cross-legged on the ground in a loose semicircle. They're back a bit from the edge of the pit, spread so they're between Zelda and the hideout.

"What are they doing?"

One of the Blademasters stands before the group at the edge of the hole. A huge, spiked ball like Zelda has seen in the shrines sits before him. He takes his time just standing there, then draws his hands together-the way the Blademaster did the night before, the way Impa did so long ago. He holds the pose, and, even from far away, she can see the tension in his back, feel it in the air. The spiked ball lifts off the ground as if controlled by the magnesis rune. It forms a wide, slow circle in the air before coming to rest again. The assembled crowd cheers. The Blademaster falls out of his pose to rest his hands on his knees. When he's caught his breath, he straightens.

"My name is Kanna!"

The crowd cheers again. Someone stands up and writes Kanna's name on a wide stretch of fabric held in place by a light wooden frame. There are already two names on there with room for many more. Beside the names are three distinct columns. Kanna takes a seat. Another Blademaster stands up and takes his place.

"Link," Zelda whispers. "I think they're having a tournament. They're announcing their intention to participate." She's aghast at how similar the process is to the one she developed with the Rito. The Yiga should create their own method! How dare they copy hers! They even stole her sign idea!

"They've been watching us," Link says.

Well, yes, that's upsetting too.

"Why are they setting up a tournament?" he asks.

"To pick a Champion for Vah Naboris?"

"But why when they can't even control Naboris?"

"Hubris," she says.

They watch in silence for a while more. Finally, Link asks silently for the slate. He sets up the magnesis rune, second guesses himself, then shakes his head and goes for it. As the next Blademaster focuses, his hands drawn together to concentrate his power, Link takes hold of the spiked ball. He strains to hold the ball down as the Yiga tries to lift it. The Blademaster visibly struggles, his whole body shaking as he fights the force of the magnet. Link bites his lip, his fingers tight around the slate. The Yiga's groan echoes through the canyon, and when he finally takes a break to catch his breath, the ball thunks deeper into the ground. This makes it even harder for him to lift it when he tries once more. The Yiga in the crowd shift and mutter among themselves. This Blademaster's poor performance is both surprising and embarrassing.

Link smirks.

The Blademaster doesn't want to sit down. He doesn't want to give up and return to the crowd in defeat. But after the third try, he has to. The master of ceremony approaches and escorts him away.

Link does the same for the next prospective Champion, who throws a punch at the master of ceremonies when his turn is at its end. By now the crowd is fully atwitter. One failure is something to talk about, but two is an event.

A few of them get up and check it. Shoving it to see if it rocks. Kicking at it without result.

Link hands the slate to Zelda and scoots back from the edge enough that he's not visible when he sits up and changes clothes.

She hisses, "What are you doing?"

"Riju said that the Yiga stole an orb from her, and as I get it from the Yiga so they don't have it, I can do whatever I want with it. Then the trial is to throw an orb in in a hole. So I'm going to sneak into the hideout while they're all distracted and throw the orb in the pit."

"You're going to throw an ancient heirloom artifact into a pit."

"That's the challenge."

"You're going to...wait, you're leaving?"

"I'll be right back. You keep them occupied." He looks at her seriously for a brief moment. "If they see you, warp away before they get up here. Do it fast. They can teleport."

"But how-"

She trails off as she gets a look at his Sheikah gear, and he looks down at himself when he sees her staring at him.

"I bought a new set when we were in Kakariko."

"And dyed it red."

"This is crimson. And look." He puffs out his chest to show off the upside-down eye across his front. He jerks his chin towards the pit. "You're up."

She scrambles to activate the magnesis rune and hold down the spiked ball as the next Blademaster takes his place. She has no idea why they're bothering. Disrupting their tournament seems more petty than effective. "That's not what their uniforms look like."

"They won't notice." He keeps his hair up in its Gerudo tie, but wraps his lower face. "Most likely they won't even notice I'm here."

He can't kiss her with his mask on, and she's struggling to not let the ball move as this potential Blademaster starts shaking it back and forth to try to get it unstuck. Instead, Link squeezes her calf, then sets off around the edge of the cliff until he's behind the group, at which point he drops to the canyon floor and vanishes into the hideout.

The Blademaster is insistent in shaking the spiked ball loose. It's hard for Zelda to keep up with the constant changes in direction. It's as if he knows he's fighting against something even if he has no idea it's her.

She shifts suddenly to the left, the direction she's pulling it, and the ball flies loose. With the strength of a cannon ball, it blasts a hundred feet across the arena and embeds in the canyon wall.

The Yiga stare. The ball tumbles out of the crater in which it's embedded and thinks to the ground.

The crowd gives a lackluster, confused cheer. He did move the ball, after all. But the master of ceremonies shakes his head and mines so even from a distance, Zelda knows what he's saying. The ball has to move in a circle.

The Blademaster tries again, and this time Zelda lets him without interference, assuming that he will guide the ball back to center before making the attempt, at which point she'll hold the ball down again. Instead, it seems the Blademaster assumes there will be a hearty resistance to his lifting the ball. He tugs on it with far more telekinesis than necessary, and it comes careening back at him.

He's thrown across the space, and is dragged off by a pair of footsoldiers. Thankfully, they lay him down off to the side rather than bring him into the hideout. They immediately leave him and go back to watching the tournament.

The next Blademaster steps up. He looks almost hesitant until someone jeers. Then he throws his head back and marches up to the ball. Zelda fights with him for a moment, then just...deactivates the rune.

The ball launches straight up into the air, where it hovers for a long moment, almost as thought the Blademaster has caught it. But he hasn't. He tries to as it hurtles back down at him, but he doesn't have the focus and has to dive to the side to avoid being part of the new crater in the ground.

The crowd is now in a minor uproar, and it's at that moment that Link slips out of the hideout with a huge orb held up over his head, and Zelda breathes a sigh of relief. Link reassesses the situation, realizing he can't walk through the Yiga and drop the orb in the pit. And then a shrine will probably rise out of the ground twenty feet away. He looks around, then stashes the orb behind a nearby frog statue. He can come back for it when the Yiga head back inside after writing off this tournament as a bad idea. And maybe there is a reason they've been disrupting the challenge.

He hurries off to scale the canyon wall and return to her. But then he pauses. She can see the gears move in his mind, and she shakes her head vigorously in hopes he'll see her and not do whatever it is he's planning on doing.

He turns around and walks straight into the middle of the Yiga.

They fall silent. They look at him in confusion, but don't draw their weapons. She can feel his attention on her even if she can't see his eyes. She can tell he's trying to tell her something, but she has no idea what and whatever it is she does not want to do it. He takes the recently vacated spot of the last perspective Champion, then he draws his hands together in an exaggerated mimicry of the Blademasters.

"Oh no," she hisses, fumbling to get the slate ready. "Oh no no no no no."

The Yiga are growing agitated. Apparently the trial is Blademasters only, and Link clearly doesn't have the build. One of the footsoldiers stands to stop him.

The spiked ball rises easily from the crater into the air.

There's a silence as the ball moves in a circle, Link drawing wide arcs in the air to mark its passing. When it's completed two full circles, it settles once more into the crater.

The silence continues when he's done, broken only when he shouts, "My name is Harson!"

The master of ceremonies hesitates, shrugs, then writes the name on the board. With every eye on him, Link walks back into the hideout and is gone for half an hour, during which Zelda stops one last Blademaster from even slightly moving the spiked ball. She refuses to look at Link when he reappears, having climbed up and around the hideout.

The master of ceremonies announces the date of the first trial, and the dampened festivities disperse. Everyone is confused: dejected that there are only three contestants, but also brimming with excitement about the mysterious stranger and how poorly all the Blademasters did.

"I told you the disguise would work," Link whispers.

She spins on him and hisses, "What possessed you?!"

He shrugs. "Everyone else gets to be in a tournament."

She doesn't speak to him until the arena below has cleared and they slip down to collect the orb, throw it in the pit (throw it in the pit!) and enter the last shrine that rises from the ground.

#

The final shrine is ridiculous. She's not sure if she's upset about the lack of electricity or if her irritation with Link is dampening the experience. The task is to use an apparatus to rotate a cube full of colored balls, and count how many of each color there are. It would be easy except that multiple times she counts three balls and then Link starts counting out loud from one and she loses track. Multiple times they disagree if they've counted one of the balls or not. She threatens to complete the shrine through trial and error, testing every last combination, if he doesn't give her some space.

When they solve the puzzle and the gate opens, she groans at the sight of an additional puzzle to reach a chest. It's not worth it. But Link says this one will be easier and uses the magnesis rune to rip off the bottom of the box, sending all the balls crashing to the floor. It is easier this way. The prize in the chest is still not worth it.

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Riju presents the potential Champions on the steps of the palace in the main plaza.

Barta is adventurous and daring, always running off to investigate and coming back with wild tales about fighting her way out of the Yiga stronghold, exploding a large portion of moblin scaffolding in Gerudo Canyon, and making her way all the way to the great skeleton or the peak of Mt. Granajh. She's not the best at following orders, but maybe she's do better in a position where she can do her own thing.

Deltan is a soldier recently returned from her quest for a husband in Greater Hyrule. Her quest was unsuccessful, and she was rejected by a record twenty-one voe. Actually, no one knows if it's a record, because it's not the thing people usually keep count of, but no one has ever heard a higher number, so she must be "the best." Link seems genuinely surprised to learn that she has other skills besides moping. But she does. She's also the best molduga hunter around. Apparently, that fact scared off several Hylian men.

Lashley has been a gate guard for the past ten years. She's the best at throwing out voe, which she does with excessive style. She used to watch Vah Naboris stomp around in her clouds of sand and thunder. Now with the Divine Beast powered down on Spectacle Rock, Lashley has come to realize that she...misses it. She feels like she understands it somewhat, and wishes that could be reunited.

Tali is the sandseal rally undefeated champion. She trains the seals and breeds the seals and races the seals. In so doing, she is the most athletic woman Zelda has ever seen. She's nearly impervious to the heat. And she has a studious dedication to her craft that will serve her well in learning to control Vah Naboris.

A great crowd has gathered to watch and cheer for the competitors, and Zelda is glad they have a spot tucked away to the side so they don't have to be squeezed in with everyone. One by one, the contestants step up a few stairs and face Riju as she announced them to deafening cheers. She presents them each with a pair of arm guards of fine leather and gold and a red sash with the symbol of the Gerudo people. She knots the ends together and drapes each sash with ceremony over each contestant's head and left arm so it cuts across the body from shoulder to hip. The people cheer again and the contestant returns to her place a few steps below, where they face the crowd.

Barta is up first. Then, as soon as Deltan steps up, Barta shifts the sash around, pulling it wider and slipping it down so it sits around her waist. She redoes the knot to make it tighter, the fabric stretched wide over one hip, the knot tight on her waist on the other side, the ends draping loose down her thigh. As soon as Lashley steps up, Deltan slips the sash down her shoulder, adjusts the knot, and wraps it around her chest a few times. The loose ends trail down behind her from the knot at her back. As soon as it's Tali's turn to step up, Lashley takes the sash all the way off, unknots it into a long rectangle, pulls the fastening from her hair to shake it loose, and then wraps her hair tight to her scalp before piling it on top and covering it in an sculptural, elaborate knot. Tali retakes her position and stands straight and tall, almost bored. She does not alter the sash's position at all.

Riju raises her arms and lifts her voice. "My people! I give you your perspective Champions!"

The crowd pulls poppers that shoot confetti and streamers into the air. It's like a snow of red paper and sparkling gold, and it reminds her first of the paper that explodes from the Yiga when they teleport. Then the light hits it just right and it reminds her of malice. She can smell the sulfur. She can hear it's breathing in the crowd's cheers.

She closes her eyes and tries to breathe. Link slips his hand into hers and she squeezes his fingers so tight that their bones grind together. She seizes his hand and focuses on its presence-solid, and real, and here with her in the now.