Prologue (0)

They were walking through the ruins of Hyrule Castle, scrounging for a few personal belongings and equipment that Purah could use. It was difficult for both of them– him because of the amount of times he'd nearly died there; Zelda, because she'd spent the last century trapped in it. She had more trouble with it than him, and he couldn't blame her for it. However, this was important, and she was strong.

Not that she'd ever not been strong… Link mused to himself, perhaps healing was a more accurate word.

The Guardians by and large were deactivated, and if they were running, they had little interest in the pair. Link couldn't believe they had ever trusted the machines, though from a few talks with Zelda and the ever increasing memories of his past, he didn't think he ever liked them.

There were still monsters lurking in the castle, but nothing he couldn't handle. Zelda could've probably banished them, but he still had the master sword, so he might as well make use of it. He didn't carry it at all times like he had when Ganon was still a pain in the neck, he did take it when they were going somewhere special.

"I think it's just around this way," Zelda called to him, rushing ahead as always. He smiled. She was actually giddy with excitement over looking for these things, even though he'd warned her about the state of the castle. She'd snorted and informed him there was very little she didn't know about the goings of the castle. She had him there.

They rounded the corner to be met with a collapsed archway.

She looked up, trying to find some way over perhaps. "Oh no… this must've happened during the fight. I don't remember this being broken."

Link frowned and inspected the rubble more thoroughly. Under the stone, a gleam caught his eye and he shone the torch over to confirm. Zelda, ever the quick study, caught on and activated the magnesis rune. It was a bit difficult, but she was honestly much better at using that thing than he was. She maneuvered the metal bit up and used it to push the rest of the debris out of the way.

With the way clear and no obvious faults in structural integrity, she pulled him by the arm into the dark hall.

"Do you remember this place?" she asked. He was remembering more than just what he'd seen on the slate, but regrettably this sparked nothing.

"You only came down here a few times, it's our royal art archive."

Looking closer, he could see portraits and tapestries covering the walls.

"I used to come here to hide sometimes," she admitted, "My father would never get too mad because of this,"

They stopped in front of a large tapestry. It was familiar.

"I think he hoped I would be inspired by my ancestor…"

At the center was a dark monster, surrounded by guardians, Divine Beasts, and a Hero and Princess.

"There are replicas, of course," Zelda continued, "It's a very famous image, the sealing of Calamity!" her voice grew frailer, and Link took a step closer to her. "To think… What sort of power could she have to do such a thing… 10000 years!" the words echoed through the room.

Link grasped her hand. "She wasn't alone, you know."

"Well, we can't know for sure," Zelda argued.

He glanced purposefully towards the Hero in the picture.

"I mean, yes, she had to have had help from her hero, but this tapestry wasn't made until a hundred or so years after she'd died! So while all of those things happened, we're not sure what order or who exactly she was. We don't even know the name of the hero…"

Smiling cheekily, Link said, "I bet it's the same as me."

"Well, that's presumptuous."

"All the princesses are named Zelda."

She snorted. "That's because it's practically a law that the first born daughter has to be named Zelda." she thought a moment. "Actually that might be a real law." She fake gagged. "I'll be rectifying that. No daughter of mine will be named Zelda."

"I actually quite like the name." He sat down to have a snack. Crawling through castles was hungry work after all. "But what if something happens, and due to her not being named Zelda she wouldn't be able to use her powers."

Zelda laughed at that. "As if a name could have that much power. Besides, we'll deal with any threats that pop up, right?"

He nodded. "Right." He offered her his spicy fried bird leg.

"I still don't get where you keep that…" she turned down his offer, but sat next to him. "What do you think it was like?" she whispered to him.

"10000 years ago?" he asked.

"To have all that technology, it must've been a cake walk."

Link looked back up at the tapestry. 100000 years, huh…

"Just how old is Hyrule anyway?" he asked.

Zelda only laughed in response.