Symin practically threw the door open when he came home, dragging the green-clad hero inside. "Miss Director!"

"Hmm?" Purah's ears twitched, Symin's arrival distracting her from the metal she was welding together. "Are you asking about breakfast? Apple crepes, please"

"Unfortunately, no. I have to postpone that."

Purah lifted her goggles with a concerned frown. "What? Why-?" As her eyes fell on Link, she froze, staring at him. "...Who are you?"

Symin clapped the newcomer on the shoulder. "This is Link. Supposedly, anyways."

Purah raised an eyebrow. "Symin, sweetie, you've met Linky. It hasn't even been a week since then." She squinted. "Do you need to get your eyes checked? I knew fiddling with sunshrooms was going to lead to some kind of medical emergency-"

"Miss, please—he isn't that Link."

"Oh." She paused. "A soldier's son, then?"

"...No." He took a deep breath. "Miss Director, he knows about the voice of the Master Sword."

"What?!" Her project fell to the ground with a clatter. The engineer leapt down from her chair and ran over, grabbing Link's hands, red eyes wide in shock. "Who told you about that?!"

Link looked at her, then back down at his hands. Carefully, he pried them away and pointed to his throat, then shook his head.

Purah frowned. "...You can't speak?"

Another shake "no."

She looked him up and down thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "What about army sign? Do you use that?"

Link frowned. "I use fingerspeak," he signed. "It's something I made up. I don't know how it got here."

"It's the language an old Hylian general used to relay messages to his soldiers." Purah shook her head and waved her hands. "Details, details. I'm getting distracted. Where did you learn about the voice in the sword?"

"No one. I know her."

"How?"

Link raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, how?"

Purah met his eye, serious. "I mean, the servant of Hylia hasn't talked to anyone in millenia. Her existence in and of itself is a secret known only to the Sheikah Clan. And you—" she pointed her pen at him, "—not only know it, but you're wearing the legendary hero's outfit. The old kind." She flipped her glasses down over her eyes. "I want the full story."

Link hesitated. The stuff he'd been through recently had been...stressful, to say the least. "How old are you?"

"I'm-!" She paused, then giggled. "Oh, I guess I do look very young, don't I?" She did a happy twirl, then struck a pose. "I'm 124 years old!"

Link gave her a skeptical look, and she huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "What? Can't a lady enjoy her youth?"

"Why do you look like a child?"

"That's a secret to everybody," Purah winked, then patted her cheeks as if waking up. "No, I'm getting distracted again. Back to important stuff!" She whipped out a pen, pointing it at him. "You. Tell me where you're from, how you got those clothes, and how you met the voice of the sword."

Link debated it for a moment in his head. "...I will. On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You tell me about this other Link."

"Hmm..." The engineer fell silent, mulling it over for a moment. "...Alright, deal. Symin, be a dear and make us some tea and crepes to talk over, would you?"

Symin gave a short bow. "Yes, Miss Director."

"Last I remember, I was working my way through Lanayru Desert," Link signed one handedly, the other one holding a half-eaten apple crepe. He was quickly falling in love with this strange new fruit. "I ran out of bombs midway through a puzzle, and headed back to the sky to restock. But I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in one of the locals' beds, and he told me he found me outside the village."

Purah nodded along, diligently taking notes. "Mhmmm, mhmmm...did he say where, exactly?"

"Down by the town entrance, next to the horned statue."

"Oh. That thing."

Link raised an eyebrow. "You don't like it?"

"It...bothers me." Purah poured herself another cup of tea. "They took the creepiest feeling rock they could find and put it right at the edge of the town entrance. Scares away half my suppliers." She took a dainty sip, then let out a sigh. "It wouldn't surprise me if that thing was an old gossip stone full of Malice. Do they have gossip stones where you're from?"

Link nodded. "There's one right outside my school. Zelly and I—" he used his name-sign for Zelda, the letter "Z" plus "blue bird," "—used to take turns giving it riddles."

Purah's eyebrows raised. "They talked to you?"

"Don't they always?" Link tilted his head. "They did for us."

"They...didn't. Not to non-Sheikah." She shook her head. "Never mind that. You said you were found by the horned statue? Let's go investigate," she said, setting her teacup down and standing up.

The hero frowned, holding up his hand to stop her. "We had a deal," he signed. "You have a story to tell."

Purah paused. "...I do, don't I?" She slowly sat back down. "You wanted to know about Linky."

He nodded. "Who is he? Why do you and Symin talk about him like he's..." He struggled to find words for a moment. "A legend?"

"Because he is," Symin chimed in as he sat with his own plate of crepes. "Master Link is Hyrule's Hero, and has been for as long as our known history's been around. Whenever Calamity Ganon strikes, there's always been one man who can draw the Master Sword and defeat him."

"Calamity G-a-n-o-n?" Link signed slowly, tilting his head in confusion.

"A monster of incalculable strength who lays waste to Hyrule once every millennium or so. Long enough that the people of Hyrule lose their defenses against him, at least." Symin sighed, leaning back in his chair, unable to keep a tone of bitterness from his voice. "It's...a tragedy."

Purah nodded solemnly in agreement. "It's Hyrule's curse. We're just lucky that the goddesses left us Linky and her Highness to defeat him."

"...Did he?"

"Pardon?"

"Link. Did he defeat G-a-n-o-n?" Link asked. "Is the threat gone?"

The two Sheikah exchanged a glance.

"...No," Symin finally admitted. "He failed, actually. We're a century into this nightmare."

Link stared. "But...isn't that his job? Beating the monster because no one else can?"

"It's not an easy one," Purah said. "He almost died. We're extremely lucky he didn't, or we'd have been waiting another thousand years for the goddesses to give him back to us. I don't think even I could wait that long."

The hero frowned. "What happened to him?"

"...It was a dark day." The little Sheikah began, cradling her cup in her hands. "The King of Hyrule had received a prophecy years before, telling him what the signs of Calamity were. They led him to discovering ancient technology that had been used to defeat Ganon before our known history." Her grip tightened on the cup. "Sheikah technology. Things our people buried to...to keep safe." She took a deep breath, then let it out, calming herself. "We were all set to defeat Calamity Ganon. We had superweapons called Guardians; they could shoot an apple off a tree leagues away with pinpoint precision. We had these massive-scale guardians we called Divine Beasts, designed specifically to weaken Ganon and make his defeat easier. Four champions were chosen to pilot those."

Her gaze fell to her cup, looking at her reflection. "When the time came, though...Ganon was ready. And we weren't. Not for this. The champions were trapped and killed, all of our weaponry that we'd worked so hard to augment was turned against our own people." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "Nobody who'd been even near the castle survived. Princess Zelda and her knight barely escaped, but in defending her, Link was mortally injured. We sealed him away for a hundred years to recover. And Zelda...she went to face Ganon alone. She's still there now, using all the power the goddesses gave her to keep Ganon locked the castle, away from the rest of Hyrule."

Symin rubbed her shoulder sympathetically, then looked at Link. "Master Link only woke up two weeks ago, without any memory of the events. Even so, he's still trying his best to save the world; he came here for help with ancient technology so he could free the Divine Beasts, and his mission is to help Zelda finish what they started."

Link sat in stunned silence. His namesake...did all of that? He was a hero, he thought. Or...or a martyr.

"...Well. That's my end of the deal done," Purah said, wiping her eyes and doing her best to compose herself. "Let's go see the horned statue, Link. Maybe we'll find some clues."

"...Loft."

She blinked "Pardon?"

"Call me Loft," he signed. "Link means...something different here. I'd rather be remembered for my home and my bird than for a legacy I didn't leave."

Purah gave a small smile. "Loft it is, then. It suits you." She leaned over the table and fluffed his hair. "You're too adorable to be a Link, anyhow."

The trio walked to the edge of town, Purah riding on Symin's shoulders. Regardless of her age, she still acted very child-like; it made Loft wonder. Had she always been like this?

"Here we are!" The little engineer exclaimed in a sing-song voice. "Symin, put me down, I need to run tests." The man set her down, and she scurried over to the statue, pulling her pack off her back and unfolding it into a bulky, homemade Sheikah-tech scanner. "You're sure this is where you were found, Loft?" she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

Loft nodded. "Medda said I was lying next to dried blood. It's right in front of the statue."

"Hmm..." She turned her handheld scanner towards the grass, typing onto a little keyboard. "The readings are hard to get because it's old. Give me a minute to sift through the data."

...Wᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ, ʜᴇʀᴏ.

Loft jumped, looking around for the source of the voice.

Yᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴍᴇ, ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ? The voice gave a tut of disapproval. Uɴғᴏʀᴛᴜɴᴀᴛᴇ. I ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴜsᴇᴅ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ʙᴀᴄᴋ.

"Who's there?!"

Symin paused, looking at Loft's hands, then around the area. "...No one. Are you alright?"

"I hear someone," Loft signed, unsettled.

Tᴀʟᴋɪɴɢ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇʏ'ʀᴇ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ɪɴ ғʀᴏɴᴛ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜ? Hᴏᴡ ʀᴜᴅᴇ.

Loft's eyes widened. Slowly, he turned towards the statue, his eyes falling upon the empty stone carving

Tʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴇ ᴀʀᴇ...Eɴᴊᴏʏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ɴᴀᴘ? The voice sounded weak, but infuriatingly smug. I ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀ ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴀs ᴄᴏɴғᴜsᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛɪᴍᴇʟɪɴᴇ ᴀs ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ, ʜᴇʜᴇ...

Purah gave a gasp at that moment. "I...I think this is Linky's blood," she said, double checking her readings. "It's hard to make out, I'm getting timeshift interference, but he's very distinct..." She looked up at her assistant. "That can't be right...Right?"

Loft's blood ran cold, adrenaline sending chills through every inch of him at those words. He stormed over, past Purah and Symin, and loomed over the statue with a look that could kill a Remlit. "What—" he signed slowly, hands trembling, "—did you do to me?"