Zelda
The following morning, a Gerudo palace worker knocked on the door and slipped an envelope underneath. It was a message from Purah, letting me know that she wished for us to come see the uncovered Sheikah Tower Mainframe at Hyrule Castle.
I took a deep breath as I sat against my bed. Link stirred from his place across the room. I supposed it was finally time to head to the castle and see the full extent of my home's destruction at last.
Link and I bid Riju and the Gerudo farewell. Riju promised to have the Gerudo craft new banners and textiles as gifts to supplement the reconstruction of the castle and outposts. I was grateful for her help, and I knew the Gerudo were behind me now.
All the races had pledged their support of the kingdom. There was no stopping Hyrule's reconstruction efforts.
Our horses trotted through Gerudo Canyon towards Central Hyrule. As the day progressed, the humidity worsened, and I wondered if a rainstorm was actually brewing in the mountains around us. The soothing warmth radiating off the canyon's rocks made me want to nap, though I knew that was not a wise idea on horseback. Neither of us had slept for very long before we needed to wake up to leave that morning, and I was pretty sure Link had a terrible headache from the Noble Pursuits, though he hadn't said a word about it. He kept rubbing his temples every few minutes, a habit I'd never seen him do before, which made me suspicious.
We were almost through the canyon when the ground beneath us vibrated. I tilted my head. "What is that?"
Link hummed in thought from behind me. "Earthquake?"
A large boulder suddenly rolled down from a cliff in front of us. My horse whinnied, rearing up in surprise as I struggled to keep my grip the reigns. A strange laugh rang out from behind us. I snapped my head around but something clawed up at my midsection. In another moment, a dark fabric covered my eyes, and I was yanked off the saddle.
"Zelda!" Link yelled from somewhere behind me. My sight was completely blocked, so I only heard the grating of metal as he drew his sword to fight whatever was attacking us.
Hands gripped onto my arms and legs. I struggled to squirm free. The clatter of my horse's galloping hooves on the canyon floor faded in the distance as my steed bolted away. My head spun with disorientation as I was carried up and out of the canyon. I pulled with my arms and kicked, attempting to break free of the kidnapper's grip. I opened my mouth to scream but another hand covered it, muffling my attempt.
We were moving quite quickly, at a speed no mere Hylian could run with. I continued struggling for several minutes until the screeching sound of a gate signaled I was to be tossed onto a hard floor. The back of my head bounced off a sharp stone and a hot drip of blood run down my forehead when I rolled to my side. The impact knocked me out.
I had no idea how long I laid unconscious. Upon waking, I shook my head until the fabric tied around my eyes fell down, and I could look around. I was in some kind of cell. Captured by whom, I was not yet sure, as they had left the chamber for the time being. The room was dark, apart from a flickering torch mounted on the wall opposite my cell. My bag slumped against the outside of the cell. I attempted to stand but the jingle of metal made me pause. My hands were shackled together with a metal chain. Wonderful.
I spat blood from my lips. My head ached, but seemed to have stopped bleeding for now. My eyes darted around the room once more as I tugged at the chains bounding my hands. A large symbol, crudely painted in red on the door to the left, caught my eye. It was an upside-down eye: the symbol of the Yiga Clan.
I growled in annoyance. Of course, the Yiga Clan were still after me even after all these years. I wondered what they could possibly want with me now, except maybe a final revenge for defeating Ganon...
I attempted breaking the chain on the bars of my cell by pushing the metal chain against it. No luck. A few minutes later, I heard footsteps. The door opened abruptly, and sure enough, three Yiga members waltzed into the room. Their red uniforms were stark against the rocky walls behind them. A large, muscular member led them towards my cell. I frowned at them.
"Welcome to our hideout, Your Highness," the large man said.
I frowned. "This is hardly any way to hospitably welcome your Princess after her hundred year absence."
"My apologies," he said, though there was not a drip of sorrow in his deep voice. "We'll make sure you're comfortably resting soon."
"What do you want with me?" I demanded.
One of the Yiga lackeys cackled. "The Princess has no idea why we would be angry with her!" She said.
"It's not like she stood against our Lord Ganon or anything," said the other, shaking his masked face.
"We received word from our scouts that you and the little hero were in attendance to the celebration of the Desert Women," the Yiga leader said, turning to me. "We decided that now was the perfect time to perform our sacred ritual to bring Lord Ganon's power back."
"Sacred ritual?" I asked, pulling once again on my restraints. The chain clattered against itself but did not bend. My heart sunk. Where was Link? Was he captured as well?
"A blood sacrifice, to Lord Ganon," continued the large Yiga. "It is the only way to summon the amount of malice from the Underworld to fuel a new cycle of calamity... The blood of the descendent of the Goddess Hylia would summon enough malice to even revive the calamity tomorrow!"
I stopped fidgeting with my chain. My brain spun. "You mean the calamity only revives when malice compounds?"
"Sooga, let's just kill her already!" Whined the female Yiga lackey.
The leader, Sooga, laughed. "It would be most honorable if she understands the true value of her sacrifice before she dies."
"I don't understand," I said. With every question, my eyes searched the room for anything I could use to break free. "How does this malice get into our world from the Underworld?"
"There is an ancient place in Hyrule, where our world flows into the waters of the Underworld, and vice versa," Sooga began. "Our clan has tried seeking it out for ages without success."
The ancient cistern, I thought.
"It is said that an incarnation of the Great Demon King once traversed to this secret place where our world connected with the waters of the Underworld. His heart was filled with Greed, so the malice there linked itself entirely to his very being. Upon his defeat by an ancient hero, the Gods tried to hid away his body underground, and held a seal to his corpse to prevent it from reviving. But the seal could not fully stop the Demon King's will... Thus, his body still survives and bleeds malice, and it drifts up into our world... Little by little, this malice builds up and forms into the beast of the calamity repeatedly," said Sooga.
A chill pierced my spine. The story aligned so closely with the tale Riju had told me about… Ganondorf.
"It is a very slow process," commented the male lackey with a droop of his head.
"Yet, the Seer guy says we can speed it up!" Said the female with a clench of her fist.
"Malicious events, such as demonic sacrifices, supposedly draw more of this malice energy out and into our world at a rapid pace," said Sooga with a nod.
I yanked on the chains bounding my hands again. "If your Lord Ganon is so powerful, why hasn't he just broken the seal on the corpse himself?"
I could tell Sooga was growing impatient with my questions. "The divine seal holds very strong," Sooga grumbled.
"Enough chattering, let's do it!" The female Yiga drew her sickle. The metal glinted in the torch's light. She opened the door on my cell and stepped inside. "We'll go to the Mighty Altar!"
I was out of time. I desperately tried to summon my powers but felt nothing. They were exhausted now, and I couldn't even make a flash of light. The Yiga foot soldiers gripped my shoulders hard and shoved me towards the door. I fought to remain in place but they smacked me to move forward.
I suddenly remembered the Sheikah Slate at my hip. I glanced down beneath the cover of my hood.
It was still there!
In their haste to capture me, the Yiga had failed to disarm my person. I knew they weren't a very smart or organized group but this was quite the oversight... If I could just activate the magnesis rune...
Something metallic clanged in the corridor beyond the door, The Yiga soldiers grabbed my arms, holding their sickles to my neck. Sooga paced between me and the door.
Link burst through the door and I gasped. His champion tunic was stained across the chest in a fresh splatter of blood. He flicked the Master Sword at the ready. His eyes, filled with the wild energy of battle, met mine briefly before he glared at Sooga.
"One more step, and your beloved Princess is dead," Sooga commanded, drawing his katanas. The Yiga tapped their sickles close to my throat. I swallowed. Link froze in place, tensing his shoulders.
"Drop the sword," demanded the Yiga to my left.
Link hesitated. I pursed my lips and reached down to my side, tapping the slate on my hip with the exposed skin on my wrist. Its screen glowed to life with a flurry of beeps, startling the Yiga beside me. I activated the magnesis rune and the Yiga's weapons immediately flew out of their hands and floated above us. The metal shackles on my hands loosened and slipped from my fingers.
Link utilized the opportunity to leap at Sooga. I shoved the Yiga away from me with my shoulders, sending them down to the ground. I grabbed the Sheikah Slate and found the stasis rune, casting it and freezing all of the Yiga in place. I snatched my bag from the ground and jumped around Sooga's frozen body before tossing a remote bomb under it. I reached out and took Link's hand in mine. "Get me out of here!" I ordered him as we went through the door. I detonated the bomb behind us, and it shook the corridor with its impact.
We sprinted up a staircase and through a winding tunnel. We turned through a few sharp turns and narrowly avoided the Yiga Clan's odd spike traps. At one point, we passed a room filled to the brim with Mighty Bananas. I had no idea how Link knew where he was going.
We burst from the underground hideout and fled into what appeared to be an open air arena with a huge hole in its center. I grimaced as cold raindrops assaulted my face. Rain poured from the sky. We scaled up a short, slippery hill and continued our sprint east into the mountainside. We ran for several minutes, shielded only briefly by the overhang of the dramatic towering mesa features around us. We came to an abrupt halt when the topography dropped steeply and the cliff stopped our movement. I looked down at the mud surrounding my boots. "They could be tracking our footsteps!" I gasped.
"We can hide there," Link said over the drone of the rain, pointing to the blue glow of a small structure in the distance. Through the curtain of rain, he pointed towards a Shrine at the base of what I believed was Satori Mountain.
"Link, that's too far to run. They'll catch up with us long before we make it!" I said.
"Not if we fly," Link said, sheathing his sword. He unfolded the paraglider from his back and stepped in front of me. "Hold on!"
I had never tried flying on a paraglider along with someone else before but I had little time to question the logic. I grabbed the paraglider as tightly as I could, wondering how Link planned to get us both off the ground at the same time. I squealed after he knelt down briefly, and a strong gale appeared from the ground around us. It was Revali's gift to Link, an updraft that filled the paraglider's sail. The winds sent us far into the sky, and I clung to the paraglider for my life.
My weight and the beating rain dragged the paraglider down, but we were still able to sail over the majority of the green valley below and cover more distance than we could have on foot in such little time. Link guided us over the trees and we prepared to land in a small clearing. "This will be rough!" He called to me over the wind.
Rough it was, indeed. Upon landing, I immediately barreled into Link's back and the paraglider flew from our hands. We toppled over into the damp grass beside each other. I moaned as the tender spot on my head contacted the ground once again.
Link hastily helped me up, and we ran through the muddy grass into the Mogg Latan shrine at the base of Satori Mountain. The Sheikah Slate glowed in response to our entry, and the circular floor descended us into the chamber below.
I wasn't sure what I expected from the inside of the shrines, but it was beyond my imagination. I fell to my knees on the smooth floor to catch my breath and stared up at the structure around me. The shining, metallic finishes and constellation sculptures on the walls reflected the blue light of all the sconces around us. The floor narrowed as it stretched into the shrine over a deep void below. Link said he had already visited here before and completed a challenge left for him by the monks to strengthen his mind and body.
"We'll be completely safe from the Yiga Clan down here. Nobody can enter without that Sheikah Slate," said Link as he wrung out rainwater from the ends of his hair and flicked mud from his tunic. "Tomorrow, we'll find the horses, wherever they bolted. I'm hoping they found their way back to the stable since we were almost there…"
"They were uninjured?" I asked, wringing the rain out of my long locks. They were rather disorderly after all the adventures today.
He nodded, and his damp bangs clung to his forehead. "They got away. The Yiga tried to kidnap me too but I defeated the ones that jumped me. Unfortunately, Epona bolted. I climbed up the canyon's wall and chased the Yiga all the way back to their hideout."
I frowned as the weight of the situation sunk in. We had no food or extra supplies on us beyond the pouches on our person. "I'm so sorry, I never heard or saw them coming for us… I cannot thank you enough for coming to free me in time."
He shook his head. "I blame myself, Zel. My senses weren't a hundred percent... I let my guard down, and they captured you. I'm sorry too."
I sighed. "Perhaps we shouldn't travel right after staying up too late partying..."
"Maybe." He offered a small smile and crouched beside me. "Speaking of… how's your head feeling?"
I reached up and touched the back of it, flinching with gasp when my fingers touched the tender spot where the rock in the Yiga hideout had sliced into it. "Painful," I said through a strained voice.
Link reached into his pouch and pulled out a small red heart elixir vile. "Here, this will heal your internal wounds."
I frowned. "You're the one with the tunic covered in blood. You take it."
"You haven't seen your reflection. Besides, a lot of this isn't mine."
I shuttered at his implication, then glanced down at the glossy, reflective floor below me. I gasped at the sight. Sure enough, my forehead was stained with old blood from the head injury. "Alright…give it to me."
I downed the elixir relatively quickly, and Link offered me some potion-infused cream he luckily had in his pouch for my head injury as well. Elixirs never tasted very good, but I felt the healing effects begin almost immediately. I was thankful Link carried so many on hand. I needed to get into the habit of carrying them around again.
Faintly, the drum of the steady rain echoed from the ceiling of the entry tunnel behind us. Link used the time to stretch his arms out and hung up his tunic on the ledge near the entry to dry near my wet hood. I set my chin on my hands as I stared up at the decorated walls from my seat on the small metallic staircase. "The Yiga actually told me some interesting information about malice," I said after a stretch of silence.
"Oh?"
I relayed the information I learned about the malice corpse to Link and my thoughts regarding the connection to the cistern in my book. Link fell quiet as he sat down beside me on the step and listened. When I finished, he clasped his chin in thought. "What do you think this means, Zel?"
I stared at the floor. "In order to stop the curse of malice, we have to find this corpse and destroy it… and prevent any drastic accumulation of malice in the meantime. For the sake of Hyrule."
He didn't respond but continued staring in thought out into the shrine. I glanced over at his face. There was a spot of mud left on his cheek. I reached out to it and rubbed it away with my thumb before I thought about what I'd done without prompt. Link didn't seem bothered by my touch, however.
"So this is what the Great Deku Tree was talking about…" He mumbled after a minute. "Our unfinished business."
I tapped my fingers against the floor. The sound echoed across the large room. "Yet, we still have no idea where to look for such a cursed corpse."
"I traveled all across Hyrule on my journey, and I found a lot of strange ruins," Link said. "Any one of them could have led to such an evil place. It could take years to locate anything..."
I sighed. "I suppose more field research will be in order, then..."
Link glanced over at me. "Princess, you know you have a Kingdom to rebuild, remember? That's why we're even out here in the first place."
I leaned back against the landing on the steps and grunted. He was right. The calamity was sealed for the time being. I needed to prioritize the resurgence of Hyrule over my research tasks. "You're right," I said, covering my face with my hands. "The research can wait a little longer."
He patted my knee reassuringly. "One thing at a time," he said before standing up and drawing his sword to start his evening training session. I wondered if that had been his new mantra since waking up to a great mission without any prior memories.
I mindlessly watched him practice his swings as I listened to the drone of the steady rain outside. Before the calamity, Impa and I often enjoyed sneaking into the castle courtyard to watch the young knights train—especially when Link was out there topping all his comrades in practice. I loved to watch his intense focus and lightning speed even when I was still angry with him over his apparent ease of destiny.
My eyes drifted down to my hands on my lap. Those days in the castle were long gone, and now the power I'd fought to unlock for the majority of my life before the calamity had all but faded away, its task completed. I frowned. Link was still training throughout all of this, for some unspecified purpose I wasn't sure about. He must have had ideas about quests he would need to travel on in the future. Or, maybe he had faith I would bring up Hyrule to rise again... Perhaps it was best not to dwell on trivial things such as the monsters and blood moons anymore, and just focus on the Kingdom.
"I wonder what my father would think of our plans..." I said aloud, more to myself than to Link.
Link paused and sheathed the sword. He stared at the wall for a moment before turning. His eyes met mine. "His final wish?"
I snapped my head up. "What?"
He sheathed the sword and took a step closer to me. "Would you like to know... what your father thought?"
I narrowed my eyes and stood abruptly at the implication of his words, taking a step back. "Link… what are you talking about?" He looked down and seemed hesitant to continue. "Link… Tell me," I whispered.
"After I woke up, in the Shrine of Resurrection, I… I met your father… Well, it was more like your father visited me."
I sucked in my breath with this new information. I remembered that Link had met with a strange old man on the Great Plateau but I could not recall his identity. If he had been speaking with ghosts, it was no wonder nightmares plagued him almost every night. "His spirit was not at peace, then," I whispered.
He bobbed his chin lightly. "He begged me first and foremost to save you as he could not do it himself... He was incredibly concerned for you. Then, he asked me to save the Kingdom of Hyrule."
I looked down and my eyes began to dampen."We departed after a silly argument. I never had a chance to make up with him. I assumed he died still disappointed in me."
"That is not true. I could tell he loved you very much," said Link. He stepped over to me.
A few tears escaped from the rim of my eyes. I rubbed them away with my thumb but they continued to fall. "I wish… I wish he was still here to guide me," I said with a slight hiccup. Link reached out and embraced me around my shoulders. I gratefully accepted his hug and sniffled into his shoulder.
"I'll do everything I can to help you fulfill his final wishes," Link said into my ear.
I nodded as my tears leaked onto the shoulder of his tunic. We stood in a silent embrace for only a minute before I stepped away. "Thank you, Link," I said. "He really liked you, a hundred years ago… He trusted you with your duty."
Link's expression softened. "That's good to hear."
"I'm sorry I cry so much these days," I said as I wiped my hand against my eyes.
"No. It's been hard for me to process everything as well," said Link. He looked away. "I'm glad to have you with me."
My heart fluttered with his sentiment. "I am grateful to have you here as well," I said.
He turned his head back to me and smiled. "So what shall we do next, Princess?"
I pursed my lips. "I think I am ready... To return to the castle."
Link kneeled in a bow reserved only for the King of Hyrule—or Queen, I guess. The gesture made my heart thud in my chest as a smile pulled on my lips. "Link… you don't need to ever bow to me. You are the Hero of Hyrule and best friend, for The Goddess's sake, not just my Appointed Knight anymore."
He blinked a few times and I wondered if I'd said something odd. "Yes, of course, Zel," he said.
"Though I do have one more request of you," I declared.
He tilted his head. "Request?"
"Yes," I said with a nod.
"Okay… what is it?"
"Well, I am absolutely sick of all this hair," I complained, flinging my tangled mess of hair over my shoulders. "I wish to cut it."
Link reached his hand onto his sword hilt with a smirk. "That can be arranged."
Fortunately, Link was only joking about using his sword, and he had a small knife on hand that proved to be a significantly less… barbaric tool for cutting hair. I sat down and Link seated himself behind me as he got to work. I briefly wondered if he had ever cut hair before. He seemed to be confident in what he was doing though. He snipped the ends above my shoulders, slightly shorter than the length he kept his own. It took him quite a while as he was trying his best to cut as evenly as possible. When the majority of the weight finally fell away, I sighed in relief.
My head felt so light.
"Your head wound seems to have begun healing already, thanks to the elixir and lotion," Link commented as he combed through my shortened hair with his fingers to get the excess loose strands out.
I thought he was finished but he began tying my signature braid back into my hair. I felt my cheeks heat up. "I had no idea you could braid," I said.
"Hair, rope… same method," He said. "I've watched you do it so many times by now to know how you like it." The proudness in his tone flustered me.
I flicked the ends of my hair and shook my head, feeling the strands fall lightly around my face. It felt so good to finally be rid of the extra weight. I pulled out the Sheikah Slate and used the camera to look at my new cut. Link put his chin on my shoulder and stuck his tongue out playfully when I snapped a photo of us. "Thank you," I said. "It's great."
"No problem. It looks cute too," said Link as he stood up and dusted the excess hair off the nearby ledge and into the abyss below. I felt my face heat up.
"How did you learn to cut hair?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Some kind of motor instinct I have... Maybe I did it for my sister."
My heart sunk for him. His sister. I'd met her a few times at formal castle events that the royal guard's family members could attend. She was charming and much more outgoing than he had ever been, though I supposed she didn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders. His words implied he still couldn't remember her well which broke my heart for both of them. She very likely died in Castle Town during the calamity. I had no idea if Link was ready to discuss the fate of his own family.
The rest of the evening was largely uneventful as I had no intention of investigating any of the trial equipment in the shrine. Link decided to go out in the rain and forage for food around the mountain briefly, much to my many objections. He returned after only a short time, drenched from head to toe but with a tunic bunched full of apples. It wasn't much to eat but they would serve as our dinner.
The hard floor of the shrine pushed against my back and I shivered against the cold surface when I attempted to go to sleep. Link seemed to be having similar struggles as he sat against the wall near me. I flicked my head over towards him after tossing and turning a few times on the ground. His eyes met mine and he nodded as if I had asked him to do something. Without a word, he crawled over and laid down next to me. I hesitated before he looked at me expectantly, and then I rolled into his warm embrace.
He was much more comfortable than the floor.
His hand trailed into my freshly cut hair, careful to avoid my abrasion, rubbing the back of my head in such a soothing manner that it put me to sleep almost immediately. I would only realize later that he'd picked up that calming mannerism from me.