Chapter 8.5

Purah Writes a Letter


"Symiiiiin!" Purah whined, leaning dangerously far back on her desk stool. "How could Linky be so rude?!"

"He's grieving, Purah. I imagine with how much time the two spent together Hyrule holds many painful memories for him. He likely wished to get away from those memories as quickly as possible, and frankly, I can't blame him." Symin replaced a book on the shelf, a soft 'thump' coming from Purah's stool as she sat forward again.

"Well yeah, I want to too." Purah murmured, her tone growing somber as she leaned forward. "But he could have at least said goodbye! I mean, he said goodbye to Impy and Paya!"

"He was also in Kakariko when she passed."

"So?! He has that travel thingy in the Slate! He could have popped in for a few minutes at least!"

Symin sighed. "At least we know where he went."

"What?! No we don't!"

"Director…" Symin pinched the bridge of his nose. "He's heading across the eastern ocean."

"How do you know that?!" Purah asked, balled fists on her hips as she stood on her stool.

"It… it was in Lady Impa's letter?" Symin waved towards an unfolded letter on the massively cluttered desk. Purah opened it, reading it over before brandishing it infuriatedly at Symin. Symin motioned to flip it over, and Purah read the rest of the letter, a sheepish expression crossing her face.

…PS, he told me he plans to head east, towards our old trade partners in Fodlan. I advised against such an action; Fodlan has always been a land of political turmoil and great danger, after all, and I knew that wouldn't have changed over the centuries. He insisted that that was exactly he was looking for; a perfect distraction. I don't think he was really listening, though.

"…Oh." Purah set the letter down for a moment, before snapping her fingers. "I have an idea! Symin, can you go down to Linky's house and get the picture?"

"…The picture?"

"Yeah! He's only got one, I think by his bed?"

"…Why?"

"I'm gonna write a letter to Fodlan!"

"…And how is it going to get there?"

"Oh, Symin, ye of little faith. I'll… come up with something. Just hurry up and go get the picture!"

"Fine, fine, I'll go get it." While Symin left to gather the picture, Purah started writing a letter of her own, which she read aloud as she wrote.

"Dear… hm, no idea what the political situation even is over there. …Current Adrestian Leader. Sure, that'll work! I'm Purah, a citizen of the nation Hyrule…" She paused for a moment as a thought crossed her mind, and she reached for a second sheet of paper.

Hey Impa, can you send me another Champion's Tunic? I get the feeling Linky's gonna need another one. We all know how addicted to a good fight he is, after all, no telling how torn up his current one is. -Purah

She set the letter for her sister aside before continuing on the one with the much larger trip ahead of it.


Impa set the letter down and sighed, taking a sip of her tea. She has a point. There's no telling how torn up his current one is… "Paya!"

"Yes, grandmother?"

"Can you retrieve a replacement tunic for Link from the attic, and ask Dorian to deliver it to Hateno for me? Apparently my sister has decided to send a letter to Link's new hosts."

"Uh, okay! You keep them in the back, right?"

"That I do." …I hope Link understands how difficult it is to make these, though it has gotten much easier with the Great Fairy's aid. …On second thought… "Purah, actually, get three of them. We'd better be proactive about this."

"Three? How many do we still have?"

"I believe thirty of them, and honestly that number is quite small."

"…He doesn't destroy them that quickly, does he?"

"Knowing him, the last one we gave him is already in tatters by now. That foolish boy never could keep himself out of a fight."

"He never seemed torn up when he came to visit, though…"

"That's because he kept spare shirts and the like. Any time you saw him in a more common tunic, his other one? Poof, gone. I understand he liked to wear it because it was a gift from the Princess, but you'd think he'd take better care of them…"

"Well… it is meant to be a kind of armor, right? Wouldn't it be missing the point to just… I don't know… frame it on his wall?"

"Well, yes, but his entire fighting style is designed around dodging his opponents, waiting for an opening, and striking. I taught him that much, and from what I've heard he retained his fighting abilities even after he woke up from the Shrine, let alone afterwards when he had time to remember."

"But, he does also get into battles with large groups of enemies. I imagine dodging attacks all day can get tiring against one opponent, let alone thirty."

"…I suppose you're right. But still, it's hard on these old knees, making the trip up the hill!"

"You make me do it!"

"Hush."


Dorian looked at the sleek wooden ship the people of Lurelin had constructed for him, letter, painting, and spare tunics tucked under his arm in a waterproof box. "You're sure this can get me there quickly?" Dorian asked, still somewhat skeptical of the thin boat.

"Sure we are! It's a new design we made based on zoras!" The shipwright grinned, showing off the sleek vessel with wide sails. "It can bend and flex with the waves, skim right across turbulent waters, and the sea is calm to the east anyways! It's perfect!"

"And you've… tested it, yes?" Dorian asked.

"Well… no, but in theory it should work!"

"...If I drown I'm haunting all of you."

"Bah, you won't drown! Unless you can't swim. …You can swim, right?"

"…Link owes me a great deal for this."

"Don't we all owe him for saving our bacon from that Calamity thing?"

"You be quiet."


Dorian sat back in a crouch, observing the bustling city beneath him with wide eyes. By the Goddess, it's gigantic! It's even bigger than the old Castle Town! There must be thousands of people living here! He stood tall, Sheikah garb doing little to protect him from the cool night air, as he turned his attention towards the castle. Alright, focus. Knowing Link, he'll gain the attention of the royalty soon enough. Lad always did stand out. I suppose leaving it on the desk of the emperor would be in poor taste, though…

Securing the pack on his back, tightening the straps and bouncing on the balls of his feet to make sure it was on tight, Dorian began crossing rooftops towards the castle. Impa had warned him that Fodlan was a land of tense political situations, but honestly he couldn't see it. The walls of the castle were patrolled by very few guards, sleepy ones who yawned often and hid in nooks and crannies to nap away the night shift.

It was no trouble at all for Dorian, trained and experienced as he was, to slip past them all and begin his ascent of the main tower.

As he continued to climb, he passed window after window, and out of curiosity for this strange land he found himself in, he began to take the odd peek here and there. For the most part, each room was empty, or held contents of little consequence; boxes and barrels of supplies, more than likely.

One room, however, he paused at, surprise freezing him in place.

There, in the single bed in the room, laid Link, his chest bare and covered with new, angry scars. There were red marks across his skin as if he had been splashed by boiling water, all surrounding massive claw marks and the like. And yet, he slept soundly. In the corner, a young woman sat slumped over in a chair, her head resting on her hand as she slept. She looked uncomfortable, exhausted, and like she had been there for quite some time.

He knew the look well; he had looked much the same when his wife fell ill, after all.

Nodding to himself, happy to see his friend (mostly) alive and (mostly) well, Dorian continued climbing until he found an ornate bedroom. The walls were lined with bookshelves filled with old and tattered tomes, a few open places leaving room for display cases containing fanciful, and likely decorative, knives and daggers.

Checking to make sure the room was unoccupied, Dorian slid the window open, walking to the desk that was covered in neat and tidy stacks of papers. He gently set the package, painting canister, and letter on the desk, then slipped out as silently as he came, closing the window behind him with nary a squeak.

A few moments later, Hubert slid the door open, having just returned from apprising himself of Link's condition. He headed to his desk, intending to take a note of the doctor's report when he saw the care package Dorian had left behind.

Raising an eyebrow, he lifted the letter, reading the Hylian on the back; To whoever's in charge nowadays. Letting out an amused chuckle, he picked up the rest of the package, quickly examining his study for any signs of entry, before locking the window and hidden staircase before leaving once again.

Edelgard would get a kick out of this, he was sure.


Just a little bonus chapter while I keep working on chapter 9. I've really wanted to include little extra things like this about unexplained events in the story, and this is what I've settled on for the first of such bonus chapters! There will certainly be more, especially as the story gets more and more complex. Hope you enjoy! Chapter 9 will be coming out on schedule, it's already mostly written and ready to go but I like pacing myself to ensure quality (and to prevent burnout). Get ready for a long one bois!

Oh, also, bit of a personal update but I recently got into Cult of the Lamb! It's super fuckin' fun, and I'm not even a huge fan of roguelike dungeon crawlers (it's very similar to Binding of Issac, just you're also building a cult in-between crusades). I highly recommend it, it's got great value for a 30 game. Only problem so far are the bugs, I've been softlocked several times, either getting stuck in a room or mid-cutscene. If you're willing to deal with that, it's not a big deal, but personally I've halted my playthrough until Massive Monster gets them fixed.

Feel free to let me know what you think about shorter chapters like this! I have a few more in mind, maybe showing scenes from other character's perspectives (like the occasional perspective switches I do in chapters), as well as a sort of 'update' chapter where we'll briefly check in with other important characters and what they're up to, like TWSITD, Byleth, and Rhea. They're all still doing things, after all, even if Link isn't around to witness them.

So, something I want to talk about in this note, since I'm here anyways, are my inspirations for this story. Obviously Breath of the Wild/Age of Calamity and Three Houses/Hopes are up there as the main setting/source for stuff in the story, but there's more that I think are much more subtle. For example, as mentioned in Chapter 8 I got the idea for how Link fought from Hyrule Warriors, but the idea of constantly switching perspectives came from Game of Thrones. I haven't read much of aSoIaF, but the little I remember was the story rapidly switching between characters in different places and times. I thought that was mad confusing, but I sorta copped the idea for Twin Blades.

The anime Overlord is another huge one, giving me the idea to spend at least a little time with our antagonists, as Overlord can spend most of an episodes runtime not showing the main character, Ainz, literally at all. He's absent for a fairly large portion of most episodes, especially in later seasons, with that time instead going to both his subordinates and their enemies. It's a really clever way to endear us to them since Ainz and his underlings act as villains in the show despite being our protagonists, so you want the other characters to win despite the exhaustively impossible odds stacked against them.

Another huge one is Attack on Titan, but not in the way you'd think. Really AoT gave me the push and reassurance I needed that having gore in my story is damn near necessary, and as the war continues later down the line we will get plenty of that. It's also given me the courage to do… really bad things to my characters, most of which we haven't even met yet. Don't worry, they'll be fine.

Probably.

:)

Similarly, the Dream SMP (funnily enough) also taught me about the importance of morally gray characters. We haven't seen much of that yet, but they'll come up much more often as Link's decisions get more and more difficult.

Finally, to bring it back to anime, we have both Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. Weird combo, I know, but they both have one thing in common: insanely creative and interesting fight scenes. FMA:B's scenes are all about using your head to gain the advantage, playing strategically and almost never using brute force. JJBA works in a similar way, where both you and your opponent have a power that is completely unknown to the other, and the whole goal isn't necessarily to win; it's to discover the other's powers, what they can do, what their weaknesses are, and finally how to exploit said weaknesses to claim victory. The strongest stands in the series aren't necessarily the most flashy or powerful ones; the strongest ones are the stands that can effectively cover their weaknesses very well. For example, DIO's The World isn't strong just because of it's power; it's because it has effectively no weaknesses that can be exploited. I won't give too much away, honestly just go watch the show and find out for yourself. In short, battles in JJBA are more like puzzles than actual fights, and it's amazing to watch.

Tl;dr: Thank you JJBA, FMA:B, AoT, and Overlord for showing me how to write both good stories and good fight scenes. Go check 'em all out, they're all amazing shows.

Anyways, that's it for me. See you guys at the end of da spooki month!