Thanks so much to MexicAmerichick6 and Luine Mercury LWG (Shhhhh ;) for reviewing! I hope you both continue to enjoy!

With that, on with the chapter!

~ Chapter 7 ~

"I really don't see what the need for this is," Zelda huffed irritably as Purah practically dragged her up the hill towards the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. "Surely, you could have at least told me what you need me for before we left? I don't appreciate you forcing me to leave Link alone without explanation!"

Purah glanced back at the princess, a sly grin on her face. "Huh, never thought you'd let hanging out with a boy take priority over research!" she laughed. "I knew Linky was special, but this is unheard of!"

Zelda blushed. "N-No, I just...I mean...he's injured!" she stammered. "He's been tortured, he's hurt, he's scared, he's - "

"Not, in fact, alone currently," Purah pointed out. "Teba's with him. He'll be fine, Zelda! Besides...not to suddenly get serious on you, but this is important. I didn't want to freak Link out with it, but I think you need to see this."

Zelda blinked, taken aback by the scientist's sudden change in tone. "Freak him out…? What do you mean? What do I need to see?"

"You'll see in a minute," Purah replied with a nod. "I think you're better off looking for yourself, rather than having me try to explain it."

With that, the two continued to the Ancient Tech Lab, as an anxious lump began to form in Zelda's throat. Her heart beat just a bit faster as fear began to claw at her. What could be so bad that even Purah deemed it necessary to hide it from Link, to avoid worrying him? Her mind raced with a slew of worst-case scenarios, each more devastating than the last.

They finally reached the lab, passing Yunobo, whose size wouldn't allow him to enter the lab, and Impa and Paya, who were on their way back to Link's house with some extra medical supplies, on the way in. Zelda thought they might have greeted her, but the clamor of her own paranoid mind distracted her too much to answer.

When they entered the lab, Purah immediately pulled the princess over to a table in the middle of the room. Symin already stood there, examining what looked to be a bloodstained bandage.

The princess blinked. "What's this…?"

Before answering, Purah grabbed a pair of odd-looking goggles off of the table and shoved them onto Zelda's face. "Check it!" She flicked a switch on the side of the goggles and several lenses suddenly flickered in front of Zelda's eyes, magnifying her vision significantly.

"W-What the-!?" she exclaimed as Purah grabbed her head and angled it so that she had a clear view of the bandage. "Purah! What are you-!?"

"Shhh!" the scientist hissed. "Look! This is one of the first bandages we had on Link once we got him here. Those scars on his chest were already healed by Mipha's Grace, of course, but he had some more minor cuts on him that were still open. When we changed those bandages later, though, I noticed some flecks of discoloration where there shouldn't have been any blood, so I decided to take a closer look. And...well, see for yourself."

Though Zelda was tempted to question Purah further, she was forced to acknowledge that the quickest way to an answer was to simply comply. She gazed through the magnified lenses, studying the bloodied bandage carefully. It didn't take long to identify the discoloration Purah had been referring to.

Quite distinctive from the rest of the dried, browning blood, a few brighter red specks were scattered across the bandage. They appeared as miniscule globules, though they were clearly of a thicker substance than blood, seeing as they hadn't been absorbed into the bandage. It was difficult to tell, but Zelda could almost swear they pulsed and throbbed on their own.

"What is this…?" the princess murmured. She almost felt as though she should recognize the substance, but with how little of it there was, identifying it from sight alone was all but impossible.

"I don't know yet," Purah admitted. "I ran some tests, but nothing was conclusive. I'd need a lot more of the substance to get a clear read on it. But...something about it doesn't sit right with me. Whatever this stuff is, there's only one way it could've gotten on the inside of Link's bandages, which is…"

"It must be present in his bloodstream," Zelda finished, removing the goggles from her face. She frowned. "Only...you said there shouldn't be any blood in these locations on the bandages. It would make more sense if this substance was mixed in with the bloodstains, wouldn't it…?"

"Then perhaps there were some wounds that we missed?" Symin spoke up. "Smaller wounds that would only leave the slightest opening, allowing this substance to escape his body, but not his actual blood?"

"It is pretty thick stuff," Purah agreed. "Maybe it was enough to clog up the little wounds entirely, and what got on the bandage was just what was already on the outside. Like a...weird, blobby scab, so to speak."

Zelda slowly nodded. "You...might be right. But still, why was it not present in the blood from his other cuts? Any normal substance in the blood wouldn't be localized only to specific places, it would circulate throughout his body in the bloodstream."

"Mhm...the key word there is 'normal,'" Purah mused, pressing her thumb to her lips in thought. "And I get the feeling that whatever we're dealing with here is anything but."

Zelda's heart twisted at the thought. Abnormalities usually meant trouble in the medical field, and the last thing Link needed after all he'd been through was even more trouble.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," came a familiar deep voice from the direction of the door. Zelda blinked and turned around to see Teba ducking under the doorframe and entering the lab. "But...I have something to report."

"Teba?" the princess blurted out in surprise. "What are you doing here? Did something happen with Link? Is he alone? Is he alright? Is he-?"

The Rito held up a white-feathered wing to silence her. "Don't worry, princess, Impa and Paya are with him. And he's...fine, relatively speaking. For now, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?" Purah questioned him, one eyebrow lifted. "Didn't look like anything was wrong when we left. And what's this about a report?"

"I'm getting to that," Teba deadpanned. "Listen. I just overheard that last bit, about there being something abnormal in his blood, and I think you're right. They were hard to see, but I found some small puncture wounds on Link that he seems to be starting to have a reaction to. I'm no expert, but it seemed to me like he may have been pricked with something poisoned."

"Poisoned!?" Zelda exclaimed.

"Definitely gonna have to look into that…" Purah mumbled, eyes narrowed in thought. "Snap, I need some more of that substance, though. Maybe drawing some blood directly from him is in order…"

Ignoring her, Zelda instead wheeled on Teba to question him further. "What kind of reaction do you mean!? How can you tell it's from poison!? How soon after we left did this start happening!?"

To Teba's credit, he made no comment regarding the princess' growing desperation. He calmly waited for her to finish her fearful questions before answering, "I noticed it just a few minutes after the two of you left. It's nothing life-threatening at the moment, as far as I can tell. For the most part, he just seems like he's sick - maybe with a fever? And those puncture wounds look like they're causing a little swelling and redness." He shook his head. "Again, though, I'm not a doctor. Could be nothing, but I figured you all should know, just in case."

"Well, you figured correctly," Purah confirmed with a nod. "For all we know, this could be connected with the weird substance we found in his blood. We'd best check it out now, before his condition gets any worse."

"Then let's go back to him," Zelda stated firmly. "Immediately. If he really is poisoned, we need to know exactly what it's doing to him as soon as possible!"

Without further delay, she marched out of the tech lab, with Purah and Teba on her heels. Yunobo, still sitting outside, likely said something to her again, but Zelda still wasn't listening. She could apologize to the young Goron later - she wasn't about to slow down when it was possible that Link's life could still be in danger.

When she finally reached Link's house once again, she hurried inside without bothering to knock, or even to check that Purah and Teba were still behind her. Zelda rushed up the stairs to find Impa and Paya tending to Link, and by the distressed looks on their faces, he didn't seem to be doing well.

Paya was the first to notice the princess' arrival, and she turned to face her with a small squeak of surprise. "P-Princess!" she stammered. "Y-You're back!"

"How is he?" Zelda asked quickly, glancing over at the bed.

Her heart dropped when she saw how ill he looked. Link was barely conscious, his face unbelievably pale, and his bangs plastered to his face with perspiration. His breaths came shallow at best, and just as Teba had said (though in her opinion, it seemed far worse than he had described), there were patches of swollen, reddened skin scattered across his arms and torso. In short, he looked awful.

"H-He's got a bad fever…" Paya answered, anxiously following Zelda's gaze. "A-And he said he f-felt nauseous when he was still awake. He seemed relatively fine before...w-we don't know what happened!"

Neither did Zelda. Even "relatively" fine seemed like an understatement - last night, when she was lying beside him, he had seemed completely fine, minus a bit of soreness from his wounds. What could have possibly caused his condition to decline so rapidly when he had been fully alert and considerably healthier just hours before?

Had Teba been correct? Was there a poison in her knight's system that had just now started to take effect?

"Link…" she called softly, stepping closer to his bedside. Impa and Paya parted a bit to give her some room, but they still lingered close by. "Can...can you hear me…?"

For several seconds, there was silence.

"Princess…" Impa interjected softly. "I'm sorry, but...we have been trying to get him to respond for a while now. He does not seem to be conscious."

Suddenly, as if to deliberately prove her wrong, Link's eyes opened.

"Z-Zelda…" he mumbled, lifting one of his bandaged hands weakly. "Zelda…"

Stunned into silence, much like the other occupants of the room, Zelda slowly reached out her hand to meet Link's. The moment they touched, the young knight exhaled in what sounded like relief. His breathing evened out, and the color returned to his face before Zelda's very eyes. She could have sworn that even some of the red patches on his skin had lightened as well. Link's eyes drifted shut in apparent contentment.

No one moved for a long time.

Then, a light cough sounded behind Zelda. The princess silently turned her head to see Purah and Teba at the top of the stairs behind her, their eyes just as wide as Impa, Paya, and her own were.

"So..." the Sheikah scientist exhaled, clapping her hands together. "In my expert opinion...I'd say that things just got very interesting."