Chapter 14 Making magic

"Dottie, what do you know about potions?" I asked lying upside down on my bed holding up my notebook about magic, a determined glint in my eyes.

I wasn't stupid, I knew very well that I wasn't a fighter. I wasn't Link, who could solo a lynel and not break a sweat. I was a noodle-armed scholar, and if I wanted to save my family I had to know all that I could.

So I'm starting with potions.

"Potions?" She paused, placing aside the laundry she had been folding. "I mean I only really know what everyone knows, they're elixirs made from monster parts, bugs, or frogs and stuff." She resumed folding the slip in her hands and placed it in the drawers. "If you really wanted to know more about potions, you would need to ask someone with more experience. Like the palace cooks, they work with special ingredients to make the potions that the guard uses."

The guard uses potions? Huh.

I mean I guess it only makes sense.

"Ok, let's go ask then!"

"What! Zelda at least let me finish folding the laundry first!" Delilah cried as I bounced off my bed and rushed out the door.


"You want to know about potions?" The head cook asked, stirring a pot of stew so fragrant you could smell it from the halls.

"Uh huh! Potions and special ingredients!" I replied, happily bouncing in place.

"Well you should probably ask my wife Grinhilda," The matron said, her attention solely on her work. "She's the one who's in charge of making the potions for the guard. But I could probably tell you a little about special ingredients later, I need to finish up dinner before I really have any free time."

"Thank you Mrs!" I said. This was so cool! I was going to learn about potions! "Also thank you so much for all the tasty meals you make us!" It was only polite to thank her for the fabulous job she was doing, now that I knew she was in charge of it.

She paused, surprised, before giving me a warm smile. "Of course princess, it's a pleasure. Now run along. I'm pretty sure my wife is taking a break between batches right now."

"Thank you again!" I chirped before turning on my heel- wait, "Um actually, would you happen to know where she is?" I blushed, fiddling with my fingers.

She chuckled before nodding her head to a door off to her right. "That room over there is where we keep our potions ingredients. My wife should be finishing up a batch."

"Thanks again, again!"

I carefully dart around the workers in the bustling kitchen and after a brief struggle open up the door to the potions room. (I'm like three feet tall and door handles are hard.)

The first thing I notice about the room is the smell. An eclectic mix of the scent of blood, raw meat, strong smelling herbs and something dark and rotten.

"Helga darling, just give me a few more minutes to finish this batch up. I'm almost finished, I swear! I just need to-" The woman in front of the cauldron was tall and spindly, with riotous hair and large round glasses. She paused, looking over her shoulder in confusion, as she had not spotted me because of my diminutive height.

"Umm...Mrs. Grinhilda?" I ask looking somewhat wearily at the mad scientist of a woman who looked like she could have been plucked straight out comic book.

"Oh hello darling! Are you lost?" She adjusted her glasses and bent down quizzically.

"Um actually, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about how potions work?" I wrung the skirt of my dress between my hands nervously, "If you wouldn't mind of course!" I hastened to add, I was supposedly bothering her on her break I didn't want to impose.

The woman. Lit. Up. Her entire face broke into a wide, slightly crazed grin. "Really! Well you've come to the right place! I'm the foremost expert on potions in the entire kingdom! Sit! sit!" Grinhilda ushered me over toward a table and pair covered with papers, herbs, and various bits and bobs. She carelessly swept them off the table and chair, and gestured for me to sit.

"So what do you want to know? I could tell you all sorts of things about potions- Oh!! Do you want to hear about the latest advancements in ingredient inclusion? I've recently released a theory on how sometimes using only certain parts of a lizard or insect might make a potion more potent! Like for the common health potion, I've found it to be slightly more powerful if you pull out the spine, brain, heart, and lungs of the hylian lizard and only add those instead of adding the lizards in whole, whereas it seems to make a more potent fire resistance potion if you skin the lizard, then juice it and add the blood and skin to the concoction!"

I blinked, slightly overwhelmed and more than a little green. "Umm...that might be a little too advanced for me? I was wondering more about how and why potions work, and why we use the ingredients we do?" I asked, voice rising a little in anxiety toward the end.

"That's wonderful! Everyone should do their best to expand their knowledge of potions whenever they can!" She paused to pull out some dead lizards in a jar and a random monster horn.

"So! Every potion has two parts! One!" She stuck her hand in the jar and handed me a dead lizard, ignoring my squeak.

It was staring at me with its dead empty eyes.

It was squishy.

"First is the passive ingredient! This is the ingredient that has the effect you want to get out of a potion! For example," She shook the jar. "This is a common hearty hylian lizard. It has an incredible ability to heal! It's even able to regrow whole limbs with enough time!

She shoved the monster horn In my hand and snatched back the dead lizard.

"Next you have the activation ingredient! It is something with a bunch of magic packed in its parts that can help bring out the innate magic of the ingredient!"

I glanced dubiously at the normal looking horn. Felt like a bone to me.

"Now if you were just to eat this lizard here-" she gestured, the lizard's head flopping back and forth limply. "It wouldn't really do anything for you, your healing wouldn't actually accelerate any beyond what a normal meal would do for you."

"But when you add an activation ingredient to the mixture-" she hummed, snatching the horn from me and pressed it against the lizard.

"Suddenly you can get a far more effective mixture than just lizard kabob!" I could feel myself turning slightly green.

"This is how you make a potion! Your passive ingredients are plants or animals that have special effects but don't have enough magic to impart them solely by eating them. Your activation ingredients are ingredients which have enough magic to bring out the magic in passive ingredients."

She brightened further and leaned in as if to tell a secret. "Did you know all of Hyrule's people are technically activation ingredients? That's how special ingredients work actually! Our own innate magic is enough to pull out the magic in those ingredients! But passive ingredients just need a little more help."

She callously threw the lizard and horn on the table. "Theoretically, you could use body parts from any of the five great races to make a potion, but that would lead to ethical issues!"

I paled. Time to go.

"That explains a lot- I wouldn't want to intrude on your break any longer, thank you so much for teaching me!" I rushed eager to get out of the possible murder den.

Grinhilda wilted, a sad almost puppyish pout coming to her face.

"But I was wondering when you would be free later to teach me some more?"

I am such a sucker.


I have a mission today! I was going to explore the castle!

My trip to the kitchens yesterday had led me to a starting realization

I had lived here for 4 nearly five years and she still didn't really know what all lay in the castle. Yesterday was the first time I had even been in the kitchen!

Also I know for a fact that the castle had secret passageways. I'm sure there are some you don't need the sheikah slate to access! Especially with the castle not being in disrepair.

And as I stuck my head down another hallway I had never been down, I again wondered what sort of drugs the architects for our castle had been on.

This place is a freaking maze.

BUT I came prepared! I was wearing my new backpack. (It was a gift for my birthday from Dottie to carry my books, it was small pink and shaped like a bird. (I loved it) it was stuffed with notebooks, snacks, and drinks! Still with a little room for any interesting finds.

I was currently using my notebook to map out a floor plan of the castle from my travels, as Dottie traveled bemusedly behind me.

"I didn't even know we had this hall way."

I beamed brightly back at her. "Neither did I!" my smile might be slightly manic. The amount of fun I was having should be illegal!

"What do you think that doorway leads to?"

Dottie asked, pointing at an innocuous door neatly hidden behind a column.

"I have no idea! There's only one way to find out though!"

I pulled open the door, which led to an old dusty looking room.

"What's this?" I muttered curiously, staring at the large status of knights and the wicked looking weapons on the walls.

"Where are we?" Dottie asked, confused eyes sweeping the room. "Zelda, don't touch any of the weapons."

"Yes Dottie," I replied already starting to explore the room.

The weapons were a shiny shade of black with careful engraving, and the giant statue of a knight was masterfully carved from some sort of dark granite.

"Hey princess, can I see the map you're making? I want to know exactly where we are." Dottie asked, looking at the clear footprints I was leaving in the dust with disapproval.

"Sure!" I replied, handing her the map before going to inspect the carved knight more closely. Whoever had made this had actually carved individual rivets and bolts on the armor.

I circled it entranced with the detailed piece left to languish in the dust before nearly tripping, what was-

There at my feet, neatly tucked behind the statue of the soldier, was a little acorn shaped jar strangely free of dust.


I stared at the little jar on my desk.

I had snuck it into my bag while Dottie had been engaged In trying to figure out where we were and who was slacking on cleaning duty before declaring it was time to head back for lunch.

I had ignored the burning hole in my backpack for the rest of the day. Attending my music lessons- which had escalated from just learning the lyre to how to sing- and my tutoring in basic reading, writing, and math from Granny, all while my backpack had sat innocently in the corner by Neville the strange plant.

But now the sun had set, and I had been 'put down for bed' and was unobserved.

Time to investigate.

The pot looked normal enough, a small jar made in the shape of a acorn.

I ran a finger along the side.

Seems like pottery to me.

In the game, Link could break pots like these outside of the korok forest to find a korok, but I was a little more reluctant to smash the pretty piece of pottery.

Tapping it with the tip of a nail I could hear the clear click of pottery and- my ear twitched a little- it seemed to be empty by the echo.

Well,

Maybe?

I carefully tipped the pot toward me and lifted the lid.

"YHA HA! You found me princess!"

I startled, barely avoiding dropping the jar.

"You have something to store stuff in!"

"…yes?"

"YAY! Keely said you didn't last time! Well anyways! Boop!" The little creature tapped me on the nose, sending a little wave of glitter into my face nearly sending me flinching to the floor.

"Now you have an inventory! Yay!" The little creature cheered, spinning in a happy little circle.

"An inventory?" I asked, unable to stop my curiosity.

"YUP! It's awesome! And to make it bigger you just have to find us!" The little creature SOMEHOW winked with its leaf mask thing before disappearing in a cloud of sparkles.

I think that's enough science for today, figuring out what an inventory was could wait until after I had had my mini existential crisis.

I went to put the pot back on my desk when I noticed something.

It wasn't empty anymore.

There was a sparkling pink gem just sitting in the bottom of the jar.

Yup no I didn't want to be awake anymore.


Ok, so the whole inventory thing was awesome.

I had a freaking pocket dimension.

Basically whenever I reached into any sort of portable personal storage space, like a pocket or purse, I could choose to access either whatever was in the object itself or I could access my 'inventory'.

I could stuff my pockets full with candy, colorful rocks, and stray charcoal sticks, and when I go to stick my hand in my pocket I could grab a candy OR I could access my inventory where I had put my note book in before! It was awesome!

The way the size of the inventory worked was intriguing too! It seemed to be more based on the number of things in the inventory, then the sizes of the objects themselves. It also seemed to be able to store multiple of some things like they were one thing but counted other things individually. I could carry a seemingly unlimited number of charcoal sticks, but each and every book I carried was counted as its own thing. It was weird but useful!

I currently had 5 inventory 'spaces' all of which I used to my advantage. No more aching shoulders from carrying too many books! No longer could my caretakers take away my books at 'bedtime'! I always had a writing utensil on me! I was in love.

Also it was fun to mess with Jiro, Dottie, and my father. (Granny was too unflappable and Mom found it just as funny to mess with people as I did, even if she didn't know how I was doing it.)

"Zelda, where in the world did you get that!"

Yeah, I was having way too much fun with this.


Hey yo!

Here's a chapter!

Also gay marriage is legal in my Hyrule because I say so

Heitor- hello again! The turntables things was an old meme reference- a dumb one to. Thanks! As for the whole 'out on the city thing' welllll Zelda isn't the only one who has ever had an urge to go out to the city incognito. It's sort of a tradition for the princess to sneak out in plane clothes, the people all politely pretend not to notice in the most obnoxious way possible.

;)

And on the whole telling about her last life- I'm pretty sure I never said anything about that???? Me and changeling myth here are losing are minds trying to find what you are referencing? Pls help? And anyways the whole revele of her past life isn't planed yet, and she has had like 12 break downs about the whole fate and inevitability thing which I plan to play with as a major theme- see title! And as for the whole 4 books thing- thanks I'll need it

Floating ash- thanks! The whole pupmkin pie scene hit me over the head with a bat out of no where and stole all my plans for the rest of that chapter :p

Spicyarbiter- no prob!

Love y'all see you (hopefully soon)!