The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.

The Voice
4 - Selective Truth

Link hunkered down inside a small cave he'd found along the cliffs leading up to the village of Hateno. A sudden rainstorm had caught them by surprise, and attempting to forge ahead had simply led to...an incident.

His fingertips were still tingling from said incident, and he couldn't help but throw the occasional resentful glance towards the slate, which he'd propped up against the cave wall.

"Don't give me that look," Sheik said after a while. "How was I supposed to know that rusty piece of crap you insisted on lugging with you could act like a lightning rod? You're the one who insisted on cutting across the field instead of sticking to the cliffs, where you'd have some cover."

Link admitted he was partly at fault, but it was Sheik who'd suggested they keep going in the first place instead of seeking shelter immediately. Granted, the only shelter nearby at the time had been a camp full of bokoblins and moblins, and Link highly doubted he'd be able to take them all on at once.

Therefore, he felt a little annoyed with Sheik, and more than a little angry at himself for not throwing away the rusty soldier's sword after the Sheikah had so kindly given him one of their own blades.

He shivered and turned his attention back to the fire he was attempting to start. So far, he'd had no luck—the wood and kindling were soaked. The flint wouldn't even create proper sparks, his hands kept fumbling with it.

"There's no point," Sheik said. "It's too wet."

Link sighed and leaned back against the cave wall, staring at the pouring rain outside the entrance. He wasn't even all that wet—the Sheikah armour seemed to repel the water quite effectively—but he felt the need to occupy his hands with something. Just sitting around and waiting for the rain to stop—it was at odds with the perceived urgency of his quest.

Quest.

Now there's a word.

In his opinion, a more appropriate word for the whole thing was Disaster, or Catastrophe. Things had gone relatively well so far, but he knew deep in his heart that sooner or later, he'd do something that would screw up every bit of progress he'd made until now. Maybe a repeat of the whatever incident had led to his needing a century to recover from his injuries? That'd be quite an end to this journey, wouldn't it? And this time, there wouldn't be anyone to drag him to the Shrine of Resurrection...

"Hey."

He looked up. The screen of the slate had lit up.

"Talk to me."

He blinked. "A-About wh-what?"

"Anything," Sheik said. "I can see the gears turning in that blonde head of yours. You're thinking about all the ways this could go wrong, aren't you? Or how badly you're going to personally fuck up something that leads to Ganon winning?"

Link pulled his mask a little higher. "H-How...?"

"I'm psychic," Sheik said matter-of-factly. At Link's surprised look, he snickered. "Nah, not really. You're just really easy to read. And I like to think I've gotten to know you a little better lately. I know you're a natural pessimist, like me."

He didn't want to admit that Sheik was right, but Link had to admit that his thoughts had taken a mostly negative turn as of late, despite the kindness he'd encountered at both the stable and in Kakariko. In his mind, they would be the exceptions, not the rule.

"And given your...nerves...I also know that whenever you go quiet and broody, your thoughts revolve around how you fucked up in the past, how you will fuck up in the present, and how badly things will get fucked up when you fuck up. Am I somewhere in the vicinity of being correct?"

Link nodded.

"I'd tell you not to think about it at all, that your fears are irrational and make no sense, but...I think we both know that's not an option. You can't choose what to think about. So instead, I'll have to distract you. So...do you think Impa was always that tiny, or has she gradually turned into a prune over the years?"

He snorted. Imagining Impa in her prime was a difficult thing to do after meeting the little old lady she was these days. "I d-don't know," he said. "W-Weren't y-you going t-to be r-respectful?" he asked.

"What Impa doesn't know can't hurt her," Sheik said conspiratorially. "I promised to be respectful in public—this isn't public, is it?"

"T-True."

"I'm guessing she looked a lot like Paya," Sheik continued. "Without the speech impediment, though. Or maybe she, too, was a blushing, stuttering mess in front of boys she liked. Now there's an amusing thought."

As if on cue, Link blushed as well. "D-Don't be m-mean to P-Paya," he scolded. "Sh-She's nice." It took him a moment to catch on. "Wh-What do you m-mean, 'likes'?"

"Oh my goddess..." Sheik groaned. "Are you kidding me? She took one look at you and was reduced to an utter mess. I saw the kiss, you know. She may have hit your forehead, but in her mind she was aiming a little further south. She's got it for you. Hard."

"C-Can't be," Link said, shaking his head. What on earth would Paya see in him, of all people? "M-Must have b-been s-something else."

"The worst part is that she probably doesn't even realise it herself," Sheik continued. "You're both equally oblivious, so it wouldn't surprise me. Bloody soulmates, the pair of you."

"You're imagining th-things," Link said with a groan, rubbing his eyes with his thumbs so hard he saw sparks. "Sh-She was just b-being n-nice," he said again firmly, unsure if he was trying to convince Sheik or himself. Maybe both.

"My sensors do not lie," Sheik said smugly. "Plus, I'm not blind."

There was a long, pregnant pause in the conversation. Then Sheik spoke again, a little quieter than before.

"Do you like her?" he asked.

"Y-Yes," Link said. "I d-do."

"I don't mean in general," Sheik muttered. "I meant in...you know...like her."

Link shifted uncomfortably. Did he like Paya? Looking past the ridiculousness of someone like him being with someone as nice and pretty and smart as her...well...maybe? He wasn't sure. Truth be told, he didn't know what that felt like—he found it difficult enough to differentiate between the usual things he felt to begin with sometimes—having to take something new into account was just...

"Never mind," Sheik said after noticing the apparent discomfort the question was causing. "It's not really important."

"Th-Then wh-why d-did you ask?"

"Hell if I know," Sheik mumbled. "Looks like the rain is letting up."

It was true. The rain was indeed growing lighter and lighter by the minute, the darkest of the clouds already moving out of sight, giving way to cracks of blue sky and brilliant shafts of sunlight. The sound of thunder was becoming distant.

Mood instantly brightening, Link gathered his equipment and clipped Sheik onto his belt. The reprieve from the rain seemed to only be temporary—already a nasty set of black clouds were gathering in the distance, but they appeared to be slow-moving. According the map, Hateno wasn't far away. He could make it.

He briefly considered probing a little further into Sheik's sudden question, wondering if the slate had a little crush on Paya and started being obnoxious about it as a coping mechanism. He decided not to, however. There'd be plenty of time for such conversations later. Now he just wanted to get to Hateno before another rainstorm decided to fry him.

"Sh-Sheik, no!"

Link could barely keep himself from shouting in horror.

"What? What did I do now?" Sheik asked.

"H-He's a k-kid!"

"You're never too young or too old to learn to fight," the Sheikah said. "You don't want to him to be able to defend himself?"

"N-Not b-by p-picking fights w-with w-wolves!"

"Tch, you're no fun. Fine... Bugger off, kid, we've got business to attend to."

"Sheik!"

As it turned out, Sheik found it very difficult to keep his mouth shut around the children of Hateno Village. The youngsters kept crowding around Link, impeding his progress through the little town just for a chance to hear Sheik's annoyed voice telling them to piss off. They just found it delightful.

"Away with you, you little bastards!"

A wave of giggles was the only reaction, and the kids began to tug and pull at Link's arms, dragging him all over the place. Panicking internally, Link let them do as they pleased, praying that he would come out the other end of this alive and well...and that the adults wouldn't think of him as some twisted version of the old fairy tale with...oh, what was it again? Some flutist who was actually a kidnapper?

To his relief (and a little annoyance that they wouldn't interfere with his current plight), the adults of the village only watched with happy smiles as the stranger clad in Sheikah armour turned out to be a complete pushover who simply couldn't say no when confronted with a smiling child and a pleading voice.

They winced a bit, however, at Sheik's gradually louder shouting. As long as the kids enjoyed it, however, they clearly weren't about to ruin their fun.

Only the arrival of the second rainstorm freed Link from the horde of children, and he was able to stumble his way into the inn. Several of the adults from before were in the tavern section, grinning knowingly at him as he went to the counter, spending some of his meagre supply of rupees (thoughtfully provided by raided bokoblin camps) on a room for the night.

"Been a while since we've seen a new face around here," one of the men said before Link could retreat to his room, nerves already frazzled by the amount of new faces and voices around him. "They were bound to get excited. Hope they didn't bother you too much."

"I-It's f-fine," Link said, trying to extricate himself from the impending conversation before it was too late.

"And that trick with the voice, that was brilliant," a woman said, looking closer at him. "How'd you do it?"

It's not a trick, Link wanted to say, but his tongue failed to cooperate at the moment, so he simply tilted his head to the side, hoping that the gesture came off more as mysterious than anything else.

"Ventriloquism, I bet," another said.

The patrons of the tavern had begun to congregate towards him, and Link was starting to feel trapped. He slinked his way along the wall, but as soon as he'd managed to exchange a word or nod with one curious Hylian, another was there to replace them.

"So, what's your name, stranger?"

"What's with the outfit?"

"You grow up with the Sheikah, or something?"

"Are you a warrior?"

"What business brought you to Hateno?"

It was hard to breathe, what little air he managed to draw in was immediately expelled as a small gasp, hyperventilation causing his vision to tunnel. His heartbeat was in his ears, deafeningly loud. He reached out and steadied himself against the wall.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but I am weary from my travels. All I want is to retreat to my room for the night and get some rest. I would be more than happy to speak with you in the morning, when I am not about to drop dead from exhaustion."

Link wasn't the one speaking, but it was his voice coming from the slate. Not a single stutter anywhere to be heard, though, which only further confirmed that he wasn't the one speaking. Vision clearing a little, he glanced down at the slate. Sheik's screen was shining brightly.

To his surprise, the villagers backed away, looking apologetic.

"Sorry, mister," one said. "Guess we got a little carried away ourselves. Never too old to unleash that inner child, right?"

They laughed, and Link managed a weak smile beneath his mask, nodding.

"N-No apologies n-necessary," he said, finally finding his voice again. "I—"

"I bid you all a good night."

Being interrupted by himself was an odd experience, but he took his own voice's hint and quickly retreated upstairs, locking his door firmly before depositing his pack on the floor and throwing himself face-down on the bed, exhaling into the sheets.

"Sh-Sheik?" he asked after a long moment of collecting himself.

"You rang?" Sheik asked in a fake, deep voice. His own, this time.

"H-How did you d-do th-that?"

"It's amazing what one can do with a few samples of someone's voice," Sheik said, and Link could feel the smugness emanating from the slate. "Wouldn't you say?"

Link's breath hitched when Sheik switched partway through to speaking with Paya's voice instead.

"I discovered the tools a few days ago," Impa's rough voice said. "Quite useful, I think," he finished with Link's voice.

"H-How?"

It was strange—the fake voices had the same distant, slightly muffled quality of Sheik's normal voice, but other than that they were completely spot-on.

"For situations like the one I just got you out of, for one," Sheik said, finally returning to his own voice. "You were about to have another panic attack. I decided to interfere. It's good the people here are rather thick and just thought you were a good ventriloquist. The mask helped, too."

"I w-was?"

"You didn't notice?"

"I...d-don't know," Link admitted. In hindsight, it was obvious, but at the time it was too hard to think about what was happening—all he knew was that he couldn't breathe, couldn't see. He relayed that to Sheik.

"Well, you were, and I got involved. I...am sorry for doing so without your permission, but I figured starting to swear at them all wouldn't really accomplish anything useful."

"It's...okay," Link said, too tired to argue. Technically, Sheik had helped him save a lot of face just now. "Th-Thanks..."

"You're welcome," Sheik said. "And...if you wish, I can use this in the future as well. In case you find it...you know...hard. I can be your voice!"

Link wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, it was a...sweet gesture. Sheik knew how embarrassed Link was about his stutter, which only got worse when he became nervous. His offer was to basically take that out of the equation, to let Link appear to be like the hero everyone expected and wanted.

...but it wouldn't be him speaking, would it? Unless they agreed upon some sort of script beforehand, Sheik would have to improvise, and then what he was saying wouldn't be Link's words.

"M-Maybe," he finally said, his eyelids heavy. "In...e-extreme c-cases."

"Of course. Just let me know," Sheik said. "Good night, Link."

"Night..."

Heading out just before dawn at Sheik's suggestion turned out to be for the best. None of the other guests at the inn had risen yet, the only awake person downstairs being the innkeeper herself. She wished Link a good morning and offered him breakfast, but otherwise did not attempt to force him into conversation after he politely thanked her no.

Hateno was a sleepy village, and the villagers up at this hour were too busy with their daily chores to pay attention to the stranger making his way up the winding road that led up to the research lab, a large tower at the top of the hill, overlooking both the village and the sea. A large telescope, visible all the way from here, jutted out of the tower roof.

"The laboratory is run by Impa's sister, Purah," Sheik explained as Link walked, filling the Hylian in. "She was always the more scientifically minded of them, apparently. One can only hope she's not as insane as her sister."

"I-Impa s-seemed p-pleasant to m-me," Link said.

"Oh, sure, to you she was just a sweetheart, but to me..." he shuddered. "My aunt is a person to be feared, Link, believe you me."

Link smiled at Sheik calling her his aunt. Clearly the Sheikah in the slate was happy about being adopted, despite how he denied it. "I-If I-Impa is y-your aunt, d-does th-that make P-Purah y-your mother?" he asked with a grin.

"...please do not even joke about this, Link," Sheik said with horror.

Link laughed.

"At least she can't be as bad as her sister," Sheik said. It sounded more like a wish than a statement.

Link couldn't help but stare at the child claiming to be Purah—Impa's older sister—as she struck a dramatic pose, standing on a stool.

"Snappity Snap!"

Link could imagine Sheik's teeth grinding together.

"Anywaaaay," she said after no further reaction was forthcoming. "Linky! Do you remember any dreams from your time in the Slumber of Restoration? You don't look like you've changed a bit in the last hundred years, but something must have happened in all that time!"

I can't remember a damn thing, Link thought. Had he even dreamed at all, during that time? Also, Linky?

"Well, no matter!" she exclaimed. "I'm just happy you're still in one piece!" Her cheerful expression drooped a little, noticing his lack of reaction. "Linky? What's with that look? You do still remember me, right?"

Another person who knew the old me. Another person to disappoint. What else is new?

"I d-don't remember..." he admitted shamefully.

She gasped. "Really?! Well, I'm so shocked I don't know if I'll ever be able to recover from this! Even though, one hundred years ago, I took you to the Shrine of Resurrection after Calamity Ganon fatally wounded you...even though I was the one who put you safely into the Slumber of Restoration... Despite all that, you still don't remember me?"

She sounded so sad, and all Link could do was offer a shake of his head, feeling like utter scum. This girl—woman?—had saved his life and put him into the shrine that had healed his injuries, and he didn't even have the decency to remember her? He was worthless...

She hummed and pulled out a small notebook, muttering under her breath as she wrote something, "Hm...as expected...After a hundred years in the Slumber of Restoration, subject...has...lost...all...memories. Noted!" She blinked, eyes widening. "Oh, soooorry...I have a bad habit of taking notes rather abruptly like that." She grinned. "It's a charming quirk, isn't it?"

"No," Sheik whispered.

"Hm?" Purah said, confused. "Anyhooo...do you have any questions for me?"

"A-Aren't you a ch-child?" Link asked, unable to contain his curiosity. How the hell could this little girl, who couldn't be more than six at most, be Impa's older sister?

She stamped her feet on the stool. "How very rude!" She blinked, and then began muttering under her breath again. "Hm...or perhaps it's not rude at all. I suppose that's actually a rather logical conclusion to jump to." She looked back at Link. "Truth is, I look this way because of a failed experiment!"

"Surprise, surprise..."

"I could've sworn I heard..." Purah said before launching into an explanation of the age-reversing experiment. It left Link reeling. Wasn't it a little irresponsible to test such a concoction on herself?

"...and to help the one true hero, I, the one and only Purah, will restore the basic functions missing from the Sheikah Slate!" She smiled and posed again. "Aaaaaaand what do you say to thaaaaat?" she asked expectantly.

"Y-Yes please?" Link tried.

"I knew you'd say that!" she exclaimed with a jump and a giggle.

"Goddess, she's even worse..."

"Presumptuous tendencies, my arse!" Sheik exclaimed as Link climbed the last few feet of a steep hill, the blue torch held aloft. "It's not like we're getting paid for our services to Hyrule, is it? I thought saving the world was supposed to be a cooperative effort! Fix it for free, pah!"

"I th-think she was j-joking," Link said. "Sh-She's n-not exactly f-fit to g-go into the w-wild herself, is sh-she? N-Needed a f-favour."

"Like King Perv and his supper?" Sheik asked snidely. "Advantage. You. Being taken of."

"Sheik..."

"That assistant of hers looked burly enough—why couldn't he fetch the blue, magical fire that seems to go out at the slightest breeze? And what have they been doing since it went out the first time? Sitting on their arses waiting for some poor sucker like yourself to come by?"

That made Link pause. What had they been doing this entire time? He shook his head and continued on his way. He still couldn't get over Purah's appearance...and demeanour, at that. The posing and cutesy exclamations...so unlike her sister.

"I think I like Impa better, and that says a lot."

Sheik's introduction to Purah, which Link had hoped to conduct in a calm, collected manner, was...abrupt. The moment the drop of magic(?) liquid dripped down from the stone and hit the slate, completing the repairs, the quiet of the room was broken by what could only be described as a moan of pleasure...and Sheik was the one who'd made it.

"Ooooh yeah..."

Symin raised an eyebrow at Purah, who in turn did so at Link.

Link, who was quite busy blushing under his mask at the sound Sheik had made, only managed a weak, "Sh-Sheik? A-Are you okay?"

"Mmmm, better than okay, Link," Sheik replied, voice dreamy and ethereal-like. "Repairs complete. Camera, compendium, album...all ready for use. I had no idea, Link, but until now I've felt...cramped. And now it's like I can...fully stretch out? It's...the best."

"Miss Purah," Symin whispered. "Is it just me, or did it sound like he had an org—"

"Well, this is interesting!" Purah exclaimed, jumping off her stool and racing towards the pedestal with the slate, adjusting her giant (for her) glasses and looking at the slate closely. "Seems Linky didn't come alone! Sheik, was it? Who are you, Sheiky?"

"The name is Sheik," he replied, the relief at being repaired apparently overriding his usual surliness. "I'm Impa's nephew."

Purah appeared to shut down for a solid fifteen seconds before reacting. "N-Nephew! But I don't have any other siblings than Impa, and I don't have any kids...at least I don't remember it!" She gasped. "Symiiiiiin, what's happening?!"

Link sighed. Even in bliss, Sheik found the best way of sowing chaos in a conversation. "L-Look," he said once Purah had stopped screaming, "i-it's a l-long story..."

Purah rocked back and forth on her heels after Link and Sheik had finished the story so far, thinking. "I had no idea the AI project even worked," she said after a while.

"You know about it?" Sheik asked. The slate had been propped up on the table, letting him see all the occupants in the lab. "Impa said you might have an idea..."

"AI?" Link asked.

"Artificial Intelligence," Purah clarified. "It's like...like...eeeeh...a machine that thinks!" she said, pointing to the slate. "The original design of the Sheikah Slate included the ability for it to think for itself and talk to the user. Hopefully a little politer than Sheiky, though!"

"I'll show you polite!"

"But as far as I know, they never got it working," she said, turning to regard the slate with narrowed eyes. "Which makes it doubly interesting to know how Sheiky ended up in there. Did you jump in?"

"Jump in?!" Sheik exclaimed. "Why and how the hell would I do that?!"

"I don't know, but it wasn't very intelligent, was it?" she said sticking out her tongue.

"You think I won't kick your arse because you're a girl?"

"You can't kick anything, Sheiky, you don't have any legs!"

"Why you...!"

Unnoticed in the background, Link had been forced to take a seat on the stool, staring blindly into the air. Sheik wasn't a real person? He was just...the slate? Which had a mind of its own? That was...how? He sounded so real, acted so real...

"Mister Link?" Symin asked gently, placing a hot cup of tea in his hand. "Are you all right?"

"J-Just...overwhelmed," Link said tiredly, thanking him. "Sh-Sheik i-is...a m-machine?"

Symin winced as Purah yelled a little louder to counter Sheik's own rising volume. "I am no expert on the matter of AI—the research was lost to us thousands of years ago. Sheik is...might be perhaps be a machine, but his thoughts and feelings and...hurtful words are certainly no different from our own."

"E-Except a-artificial," Link said.

"Artificial," Symin said, nodding.

The argument was escalating, but Link didn't find the strength to tell them off. "D-Do you th-think he kn-knew?" he asked.

"Hard to say," Symin said with an apologetic shrug. "If the point was to make something indistinguishable from the real thing, surely it'd defeat that point if it knew what it was?"

"He," Link corrected.

"He," Symin agreed.

"That's e-enough!" Link exclaimed, bringing an end to the shouting match. "P-Purah, d-do you kn-know anything a-about th-this?"

Sniffing, she deliberately turned away from Sheik, who snorted at the action. "Not really—I never focused on the project since it failed to yield results."

"Fantastic," Sheik drawled.

"That might mean Sheiky isn't artificial at all, but we have no way of finding that out. At least not here."

Symin perked up. "You mean...?"

"Robbie was always more into this stuff than me," Purah said, nodding. "His Guardian research sometimes led to similar projects. If anyone can figure out what you are, Sheiky, it's him."

"And where can we find this illustrious Robbie?" Sheik asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Akkala," Symin said. "He had a lab there."

"Let me show you!" Purah said, picking Sheik up and running her hands along the buttons and screen.

"Get your mitts off me!"

"Stop fighting me, Sheiky," Purah said, bringing up the map of Hyrule and marking a seemingly arbitrary point far to the north, deep in the part of the map that was still obscured by the lack of an active Sheikah tower. "There, in the Akkala region. Can't miss it. Lab almost like this. Not as cool, of course, but still impressive. Haven't seen him in a hundred years, but Robbie was always slow to move his butt. Bet he's still up there, researching the Guardians."

"Guess that's where we're going next, then."

"I'd be careful, if I were you," Symin said. "Akkala was home to a mighty fortress—Ganon's forces will be strong there."

"Yeah, you don't want to walk in there without some serious protection and equipment," Purah added. "That reminds me!" She continued to touch the slate, navigating its features in an expert manner, proving she was more than familiar with the device. "We activated the camera feature of the slate. We should give it a test!"

Without warning, she spun the slate around and pointed the back of it at Link. There was a flash that left the Hylian temporarily blinded. Then she was suddenly beside him, thrusting the slate's screen into his face. "Look! Look! It's you!"

It was not a very impressive picture. His eyes were wide with confusion, his posture on the stool slouching and defeated, hands clutching the tea mug like it was a lifeline. Still, though...

Then the slate was gone again, and Purah was suddenly standing beside him on the stool, holding the slate up once more. This time, he was prepared for the flash, though it was still unpleasant.

"Snap! Would you look at those two gorgeous creatures!" Purah said, giggling at the picture of the two of them. Compared to him, she looked positively ecstatic.

"Unhand me right now!" Sheik demanded, but was ignored.

Purah, humming to herself, switched between the two pictures a few times, and then...a different picture showed up. Of a circular platform surrounded by four stone pillars, with what appeared to be Hyrule Castle in the background...though it looked far more well-tended to and intact than the ruin Link had seen in the distance. The next picture was also a landscape one, as was the next, and the next. Palm trees in a desert oasis, a massive stone gateway, a field full of flowers...

"Where did these come from...?" Purah wondered aloud, before she snapped her fingers. "Ah, Princess Zelda made frequent use of the camera feature—she must have taken these."

"Th-The p-princess had th-this?" Link asked, gesturing to the slate.

"Indeedy," Purah confirmed. "She used it to document her travels and research and...oh! She dropped the slate into Link's hands and gripped the Hylian's shoulders, shaking them with surprising strength given her small frame. "Link, you were her appointed knight! That means you must have accompanied her to all these locations!"

"O-o-okay?" Link said, his stutter for once not his own fault.

"Don't you see what that means?!"

"N-No?"

"What is with you people and never getting to the point?" Sheik growled. "Seeing familiar locations might help to jog your memory, Link. If you go the places these pictures were taken, you might be able to remember something from the time before the disaster, before you were wounded. Get it?"

"O-Oh..."

"Too bad we have no idea where these places are," Sheik said.

"Impa knew Zelda better than me," Purah said. "She might be able to help you with finding the locations, or point you in the right direction, at least."

Link nodded slowly. It wasn't that he was stupid. Well, not any stupider than the average, at least. He just...he was still trying to wrap his head around the possibility of Sheik not being a real person after all. This entire time, he'd been talking to a machine. It put their adventure so far in a different light...and he wasn't sure that he liked it.

"I...suppose this has been a lot to take in," Symin said, taking the mug of now cold tea from Link's unresisting hands. "Maybe it's best to take a break?"

"Or just get moving again," Sheik suggested. "We have a lot of work to do. Activate towers, find crazy Sheikah scientists, awaken beasts...the list goes on and on. Link, what do you say?"

"Y-Yeah," Link said, agreeing. He needed to get moving. Needed to keep himself occupied. Before his mind started going in circles.

Are you real, Sheik? he wondered.

Purah and Symin were disappointed by their sudden departure, but to Link the fresh air and road stretching on ahead of them was a relief. He'd promised to return with any ancient materials he might come across on his journey, which had satisfied them somewhat.

"So," Sheik said. "Back to Kakariko, I guess? I bet you want to talk to Impa about your memories."

"Mmm," Link grunted.

"How about that Purah, huh? I thought Impa was crazy...guess I've managed to get adopted by the most insane family in Hyrule!"

"Mmm..."

"You get to see Paya again so soon, that'll be great, right?"

"Mmm..."

Sheik sighed. "All right, all right, hold it! Find a campsite, Link. You clearly need some rest."

"I c-can go o-on—"

"Yes, well, I want a break," the Sheikah said. "The repairs took a lot out of me—I need some time off this stupid belt." When Link didn't answer for a few seconds, he added, "Please?"

"...f-fine..."

"What's eating you?"

"What?" Link looked up from his half-eaten supper—some sort of dried meat—blinking.

"Are we really going to play this game again?" Sheik asked. "Something at the lab clearly upset you—you've been acting weird since before we left. So, what was it? Purah's age? I can barely wrap my head around that myself—"

"Th-That's not i-it," Link interrupted, realising he had no way of getting out of this conversation. He'd wanted some time to gather his thoughts, steel his resolve, and so on. Sheik had no intention of making it easy on him, it seemed.

"Then what? The pictures the princess took? Was it the sound I made? I am very sorry, but I couldn't help it—"

"N-Not th-that, either."

Sheik's screen dimmed. Then he spoke quietly. "It's the AI thing, isn't it?"

Link nodded.

"I had a feeling," Sheik said with a sigh.

Did you, though? Link thought.

"Look, I don't know what you're thinking—"

"D-Did you kn-know?" That was the number one thing eating at him. Had Sheik known about this the entire time, and chosen not to tell him? Kept Link in blissful ignorance? If so, why?

"I...had an inkling," Sheik admitted, and Link felt something clenching in his chest.

"S-Since when?"

"Since the first tower. When you went to sleep after King Perv dissolved, I went through the corrupted data, remember? I found multiple mentions of artificial intelligence in relation to the slate. Nothing conclusive—most of it was corrupted. But in the context, it made sense."

Link lowered his gaze to the ground. "S-So you've b-been l-lying to m-me..."

"Not lying," Sheik corrected. "We've never spoken about it, so how could I have lied about it? I just...failed to mention it. Because it wasn't relevant at the time. What good would my theorising about whether or not I'm actually a real person do, given what you've been through so far? You needed someone you could trust, someone to support you. That wouldn't have worked, would it, if I told you? Not based on your behaviour now, at least."

"L-Lot of w-words for a-admitting you've b-been keeping m-me in the d-dark," Link muttered. "S-Same as l-lying."

Sheik sighed. "You're...right. I have been keeping you in the dark on purpose. Mostly because I was afraid of how you'd react, but also because...well, I wasn't sure how I'd react if or when we discovered the truth...which we still haven't, by the way. Our best bet for that is this Robbie fellow—and based on the other hundred-year-olds we've met so far, chances are he's just as demented as Impa and Purah."

"Y-You were a-afraid?" Link asked.

"Of course I was," Sheik said. "Until then you'd been interacting with me and treating me like a real person, like an equal. A friend. I wasn't sure how that'd change if you found out I may not be real at all. I...I didn't want to lose that. I didn't want to lose my friend."

Link groaned. Just his luck that Sheik managed to push the exact button necessary for this...

"I'm sorry, Link, I—"

"H-How c-can I st-stay m-mad when you s-say s-something like th-that?" the Hylian said with clenched teeth. "I f-forgive you."

The screen dimmed once more. "Just like that?" Sheik asked in disbelief. "That easily?"

"Y-Yeah," Link said, and meant it. The thought of Sheik not being a real person still made his chest clench a little, but the thought of not having him there for the journey, to not hear that screechy, stupidly attractive voice that couldn't decide whether it wanted to insult him or praise him all the time...that was just unthinkable. He didn't want that.

He wanted to know the truth. And he wanted Sheik there with him. And then he wanted to get on with his quest, and kick Ganon in its stupid face...but all in good time.

"I can't tell whether you're yanking my chain or not," Sheik said suddenly. "I don't think I'd be able to forgive something like that."

"H-Hopefully y-you'll never h-have to f-find th-that out," Link said.

The rest of the evening was awkwardly silent. They were both happy with the outcome, though they needed a little time to mull it over. To get accustomed to the new status quo. Link already missed Sheik's voice, and caught himself attempting to start a conversation more than once. He didn't want to rush Sheik either, and so forced himself to be quiet.

It must have been somewhere around midnight when Sheik's voice startled him out of the light snooze he'd fallen into.

"Link," he whispered. "Link, are you awake?"

"Hm?" Link grunted. "S-Something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, but I've just figured something out, and I wanted to show you."

"Yeah?"

"You remember the slate's camera function? I've just discovered an additional feature I don't think even Purah knew about. Prop me up, will you? Against that rock over there, so the back of the slate is facing you."

Link did so.

"Now, step back."

He obeyed the instructions once more, taking a good step away.

"Let's see...rerouting data stream...activating secondary lens...and...here...we...go!"

The smaller indentation in the slate, beneath the one Purah had identified as the camera lens, began to shine brightly at the ground just in front of Link. The light was blue, just like all the other pieces of Sheikah technology, and...was that a foot?

Slowly, a humanoid shape took form in the light, wearing an outfit very similar to Link's own...

Before he knew it, a copy of Sheik's projection image, the one he'd used at the towers, was standing in front of him, arms crossed and fingers tapping at its biceps.

"What do you think?" Sheik asked. His voice still came from the slate, but the image was moving and emoting like usual. "It's not...perfect, I know. I have no idea what this face looks like under the cowl, for example, but at least it's better than nothing, right?"

Link couldn't help but smile at the unusual display of bashfulness. "I l-love it," he said. "Y-You c-can do th-that anywhere?"

"Pretty much," Sheik said, nodding. "Not for too long, though. It drains power from the slate like you wouldn't believe. It'll take hours before it's recharged."

"H-How l-long does it l-last?"

"In my current condition, I can make this projection last for twenty minutes, maybe thirty. It's not really useful for anything, and it can only exist in the slate's limited field of view, but...you know, if you want company by more than just a voice every now and then..."

If Link hadn't already forgiven Sheik for keeping him in the dark before, he would have right then.

"Th-Thank you, Sheik," he said, smiling brightly at the Sheikah.

"Not like I did it just for you," the Sheikah muttered.

You just said it wasn't useful for anything else, Link thought, but he didn't voice it.

Some things were just too good to spoil.

Sheik really is just a big softie, even if he's an asshole about it most of the time. Also, Purah is hard to write.