A/N: For everyone who's read this fic so far, thank you! And I wanna give a BIG thank-you to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed the last two prologues. I'm not writing this for the sake of getting popular or anything, so the response has been a pleasant surprise uwu
As usual, this is completely unbeta'd and written in my phone's notes app. Spot any errors? DM me! See the end for more notes.
x
A Hero's Chance
Chapter 1: Strange Circumstances
Chapter summary: Louise summons... something.
x
The explosion that rocks the grounds of Tristain Magic Academy is massive. It sends plumes of black smoke belching into the sky, flings clouds of grit and dust into the air. Through the haze of smoke and ash, small fires light the lawn ablaze; only a few seconds prior that lawn had been immaculately groomed—perfect, even, enough to win a prize on the Academy's behalf. If explosions around here were any sort of rarity, certainly at least one groundskeeper would be very upset with the new burns marring the award-winning field.
Alas, explosions aren't a rarity at this renowned school of magic. At least, they aren't a rarity when it comes to this specific class of second years.
"Hah! Of course this happened again."
"What was that incantation even supposed to be?"
"'My beautiful, wise, powerful familiar'? Give me a break, Louise!"
"Professor Colbert, can you finally kick her out now?"
Louise Françoise de La Vallière stands at a precipice. Behind her is a long, painful history of being subpar; though she is dedicated, driven, ever studious, and at the top of her classes academically, her frankly abysmal affinity for magic has left her one of the worst students the acclaimed academy has ever seen. A disappointment and shame to her family's good and noble name. This, the Springtime Familiar Summoning, is a rite of passage for all young mages-to-be. It's her big chance—and her final chance—to prove she can become somebody more than the unlucky third daughter destined to be wed to a man twice her age.
Louise de La Vallière also stands at another sort of precipice: a precipice which may or may not have been the result of yet another failed attempt at casting some kind—any kind!—of magic. As the acrid smoke from her explosion finally starts to dissipate into the cool morning air, she can make out, not even a foot in front of her, the start a brand new drop off. She blew a crater into the field with the force of her magical misfire.
Pardon her language, but Louise is truly and royally fucked.
Her jaw almost drops, but she catches herself; that's no way for a distinguished member of the nobility to act in the wake of a surprise. She coughs the grit from her mouth as delicately as she can, given the situation, and turns toward the professor standing a ways behind her. The man has his arm over his nose and mouth to guard from the smoke. Louise is mortified. "Professor Colbert," she says, "please allow me to attempt the spell once more!"
The professor looks conflicted and lowers his arm slightly to speak. "Miss La Vallière, I am sorry, but this kind of result is just too dangerous—" some of the smoke cuts him off as he accidentally breathes it in, and he leans back into his arm to cough. From beyond him in the crowd of students, Louise's bookish classmate Tabitha—who managed to summon a dragon of all things—chants a breezy spell that sends a peel of wind to blow the smoke away and out of the ceremonial clearing in which they all stood. Louise can't help the envy that bubbles up in her belly at the sight of that level of control. How is another second year able to do that without touching anybody with her spell, while Louise struggles to cast anything at all? Spell-sculpting is such a difficult art to master and yet—
Professor Colbert's voice cuts through Louise's spiraling thoughts: "Ah yes, thank you Miss Tabitha. Now, Miss La Vallière..."
The class, who have all been talking throughout Louise's failure and subsequent conversation with the professor, falls silent as they approach the crater. This draws the professor's attention, but for all Louise's childhood education on the art of subtlety, she doesn't notice. "Professor Colbert, I beg you, I must-"
"Miss La Vallière. Please turn around." Professor Colbert has a peculiar expression on his face as he peers over her shoulder towards the crater. Louise is not one to disobey direct orders from her seniors, so she does as she's told.
There at the bottom of the crater, previously obscured by the smoke, lies a figure. It seems vaguely humanoid, with two arms and two legs and a head turned away. But its hands and feet are webbed and its sapphire blue scales catch the light almost as well as the beautiful silver jewelry and matching filigree armor it wears. Louise isn't all too familiar with oceanic creatures—which is what this being must be, surely, with its iridescent scales—so the thing on its back puzzles her. It's some sort of colorful shield (or maybe it's a shell?) encrusted in gold and gemstones. Something so ornamental couldn't possibly provide much protection, could it? Louise thinks. Or maybe it's magical? Magical things are usually enhanced by their decorations...
And what a thought that is. Louise, summon a magical creature as her familiar? It is all she's ever wanted: the perfect proof she isn't hopeless! At this point Louise would have been happy with even the most mundane familiar in the world, as long as she had a familiar at all. And now she does. She's actually summoned something!
Not even the dark mud clinging to its body can take away the splendor of its appearance. What a thing she has summoned, whatever it is. Except...
"I've never seen anything like that before. Have you, Tabitha?"
"Why isn't it moving...?"
"That's blood!"
The shrill screech that cuts through her classmates' comments comes from Montmorency de Montmorency, who by now stands very close to the edge of the crater along with the rest of the class. Still, despite the dread coiling snakelike around her internal organs at the idea that her familiar is covered in blood, Louise summons up all her noble indignance and whirls to face the nosy girl.
"I'm sure you would know a thing or two about bloodstains, Montmorency the Flood—"
"It's 'la Fère', you horrible—"
"She's right." Usually Louise cares little for the flowery nonsense that often comes from Guiche de Gramont's mouth, but the tone of his voice stops her. Montmorency stops too, but Louise decides that it's probably just because she's Guiche's girlfriend and not because she noticed his tone. "Louise, that is blood."
"How could you possibly know that?" Louise snaps back.
Guiche scowls. "You know my father is a general—"
"And my mother is a knight commander! It means nothing! You haven't—"
"I've studied his books, Louise!" The insufferable blond looks like he's going to toss his hands up in the air. "I would know. Your familiar is bleeding—"
"—And you're standing here arguing about it while your familiar needs help." Louise would know that mocking voice anywhere: her rival Kirche von Zerbst. Louise glares hard at the buxom redhead over her other classmates' heads, but the young woman continues, "That's just typical, La Vallière. You probably killed it with that explosion."
That snake tangled in her insides constricts. She couldn't have killed it... could she? Her blood rushes away from her face and, just as fast as before, she whips her head back around to look at the scaly thing lying in the pit.
Now that Louise is looking for the signs, she can clearly see that the familiar is battered. What she had originally thought of as mud is far too reddish to be so. But it's not dead. That much is clear. Nobody in the class had noticed it moving because they were all so focused on the argument. As she watches it pushes its body up on those webbed hands, arms shaking, so it can sit upright. It now sits only two yards away, though it still faces the forest beyond the grounds. The glint of glass in the morning sunlight catches her eye and for just a second she glances down to see a little empty bottle at the creature's side—a bottle with a long narrow neck and delicate butterfly wings attached to the bulbous base. That wasn't there before. The creature huffs a breath and shakes its head, its silver-decked head fins flapping as it does so. Now Louise can see something else that escaped her notice before: it had been lying on top of an empty scabbard—royal indigo in color and gilded to boot. A few inches longer than a broadsword. Now that scabbard is clutched in those strange hands as the creature looks down at it.
Obviously the creature is fine. That makes Louise angry—how dare it make her, a daughter of the most noble house of La Vallière, worry about it when it isn't even her familiar yet? She has had enough of being ignored.
"You!" She shouts. The creature startles. It sets down the scabbard and reaches a hand down to hover a few inches from a small pouch on its belt. Suddenly that empty hand holds a spear—a quarter-moon blade with a vicious barb at one point attached to a long silver pole decorated with blue lattice work—and the sheath on the ground dissolves into the Ether. The creature had barely twitched a finger and the spear had just... materialized in its hand. It's like no magic she has ever seen before. The creature rises and turns, quick and precise, but Louise barely sees a flash of a peachy color near its face before it bends double. It staggers, pressing its free hand over a particularly nasty gash in its side. The pointed butt of the spear slides easily into the earth beneath it as her future familiar jams it down to lean against the wicked-looking weapon like a crutch. Louise can hear the breath hissing through its gritted teeth.
She almost winces when she sees the wound start leaking against the dark skin of the creature's hand, but she holds it in. She needs to be strict. Like her mother. "You, familiar!" She calls again, anger and imperiousness in her voice. She can hear her classmates start muttering, but she ignores them in favor of reprimanding the being that will soon be her familiar.
It seems to gather itself at the sound of her voice. Good, maybe this will be easy. It slowly straightens and turns toward the crowd, and she finally gets a look at its face—
"You summoned a person?"
"That's not possible! People can't be familiars."
"It's not a person. The Zero probably paid a commoner to pretend to be her familiar because she knew she'd never be able to summon anything!"
"But that thing it did with its spear..."
"Maybe it's a shapeshifter and that's not its real face?"
"Please. No way someone like Louise could summon something like that."
Her classmates' sudden chatter is loud and obnoxious as usual, and the familiar's eyes—the man's eyes flick to each teen as they speak. He's got a calculating look in his gaze and just a hint of a frown on his otherwise blank face. Louise can't read him.
Professor Colbert speaks to Louise, but his eyes are focused on the weapon the stranger is leaning on. "It appears you were able to summon a familiar, Miss La Vallière," he says. She can tell the chipper note he's trying to put into his voice is fake and strained. "Hopefully you will be able to complete the binding contract with more ease."
"This has to be a joke!" She exclaims, turning to her teacher. Out of the corner of her eye she can see the strange man's blue eyes snap to her, when he had previously been observing the other students. She doesn't care. "I can't have a human familiar! I must perform the spell again!"
But Colbert only shakes his head. "You can perform the summoning only once, Miss La Vallière. You must not do it again unless your current familiar has died." The teacher's gaze goes back to the man at the bottom of the crater. He addresses him next. "Sir, I must ask you to put that spear away. I will not tolerate threats against my students."
The man—barely a man, Louise realizes upon further inspection, he can't be more than two years older than her—furrows his blond brows in clear confusion. Louise heard nothing confusing in Professor Colbert's polite demand. She's about to put the demand into less cordial terms when the blond opens his mouth to reply.
Then he shuts it. Inhales like he's about to say something, then aborts the attempt halfway through. It's infuriating, watching the older teen flounder. Is he dumb? Louise is ready to shout when he finally gives up on words and starts gesturing with his hands.
When Louise was a child, her mother the Duchess de La Vallière told her stories of her time as a knight. Karin de Maillart, renowned as the Heavy Wind, met the heirs of many other noble houses throughout her campaigns as commander of the manticore knights before she married the Duke de La Vallière and inherited his name. One such scion was one Philibert de Savoy, a colonel of great magical power and accomplisment who was born deaf—an incurable malady, even for the best water mages in the land. Apparently, he traveled south in his childhood to learn to speak with his hands from a master in Romalia.
This, what her future familiar is doing... doesn't really look like that. The Duke de Savoy's handsigns correspond with syllables that are used to make up different words, from what she understands of her mother's explanation. The gestures this man's gloved hands form are too few in number to mean much of anything. And he's responded to voices, so at the very least he can't be deaf. So either her familiar is using a new form of handsigns she hasn't heard of before, or her familiar is a blithering idiot gesticulating at nothing when he should be on his knees begging forgiveness for scaring her and for pulling a weapon on nobility.
Professor Colbert seems to believe the signs mean something, at least. The older man puts a hand to his chin in thought. "How unusual..." he muses. The familiar's face is blank. Uncomprehending. That seems to spark something in Colbert, because he suddenly straightens. "Sir. Pardon me, but... can you understand us?" The teacher puts particular care into his inflection, making sure it sounds like a question and even raising his eyebrows near the end.
Though the familiar still looks lost, he seems to understand what Professor Colbert is trying to ask and shakes his head 'no'.
Professor Colbert brightens. "Well, that's an easy fix, then!" His staff glows as he starts chanting a translation spell. The familiar is wary and looks about ready to pull that gaudy shield from his back, but soon enough the spell is cast. The familiar wrinkles his nose a bit.
Colbert only smiles. "Can you understand us now, sir?"
Blond eyebrows shoot up and the familiar nods.
"And..." Colbert seems to think about his words for a moment. "...Can you speak?"
The familiar's face doesn't change. He considers for a second, then... just nods again. He didn't even try.
Louise wants to scream. She only stares. Those blue eyes meet her gaze and stare right back, and Louise can feel herself getting angrier and angrier by the second. His expression, on the other hand, gives away nothing.
She can't take it anymore. "Aren't you going to say something?" The question bursts out without her permission, but she won't take it back, even with the look her teacher shoots her in response.
The familiar regards her. Then he shrugs. If that's a smile Louise sees him trying to smother she'll—
"It's time for you to complete the ritual, Miss La Vallière," Colbert encourages her, gesturing to the stranger again with his staff. Maybe he can feel her malicious intent. "And sir," he continues, "You couldn't understand so I won't hold it against you, but I asked you earlier to please put that spear away. I don't want you threatening my students."
At the word "students", the blue-clad warrior's gaze flits back at the crowd of students still standing at the ledge where the crater begins. Louise thinks she sees understanding in his eyes before he's carefully blank again. Instead of—what, vanishing the weapon? Dematerializing it? Is there even a word for whatever power this strange person used to make that spear appear in the first place?—he hooks the spear into a holster on his back that hadn't been there before and waits with his hands on his hips.
It looks to Louise like that's the best they're going to get. Colbert seems to think the same thing, because he ushers her on ahead. "Go on, Miss La Vallière. You know what to do." When Louise opens her mouth to protest, Colbert frowns. "And no buts. You are going to complete your Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual." 'Or you are going to be kicked out of this academy' goes unsaid, but is nonetheless heard.
Louise squeezes her little hands into tight fists at her side. Squaring her shoulders, she hops daintily down to the bottom of the crater and practically marches up to the blond man. He's short, she realizes as she gets closer. Very short. Maybe only a couple inches taller than herself. Though that's still taller, he's also older, and that fact makes this whole experience gratifying enough that she unconsciously loosens the tension in her fists. She can do this. This can work. She finally steps up to him and only has to tilt her chin a little bit to look him in the eyes. "You should be thanking me for this," she mutters to him. Instead of acknowledging it when he tilts his head as if to say, 'thanking you for what,' she continues, "It's not every day a member of the nobility bestows this gift onto a commoner." His eyebrows rise. She misinterprets the look as surprise and her whole face flushes red. She grumbles, "Oh don't you say anyth— just, here—" and she reaches up, lays her hands on his cheeks, and pulls him down to seal the contract.
x
Link's mind has been buzzing since the moment he awoke someplace he doesn't recognize, but when the girl who reminds him of Zelda kisses him, Link shoves those anxieties aside to put his hands firmly on her shoulders and push her a step back. His brow furrows and he fights back the blood rising in his cheeks as he looks down at her. What was the point of that?
A stinging sensation on his hand catches his attention, and it only takes a second for that tingle to grow into an inferno. It's not the worst pain he's felt, but he can feel the magic burning something into his skin and sending painful sparks up his arm. He quickly pulls off his glove and gauntlet to reveal a pattern branded onto the back of his hand:
ᚷᚢᚾᛞᛟᛚᚠ
He stares at it, incredulous. It's not any text he recognizes—though he might not be the best judge of familiar and unfamiliar, considering his whole memory situation—and as he watches it fades from an incandescent glow to the bright ugly red of a fresh burn, and finally settles into the fleshy pink of an old scar. Only its slightly raised texture separates his new brand from the rest of the little white scars on his hand.
Link is still staring when the teacher clears his throat. "Well," the teacher—Colbert—says, "while you struggled with 'Summon Servant', Miss La Vallière, it appears your contract was perfect on your first try!"
Contract? The Hylian finally looks away from his hand to lay his gaze on the teacher, eyebrows raised in question.
"Thank you, Professor," the girl (he called her La Vallière?) replies. She then scrunches her nose at Link. "What's with that expression? You've never heard of a familiar summoning before?"
Before Link can shake his head 'no,' Colbert claps his hands to grab the class' attention. It seems the rest of the students had lost interest in Link and La Vallière a while ago because Link can see many people start to attention at the sound. "Well now, I believe that everyone has summoned a familiar. You should feel accomplished; today each and every one of you has taken a great step towards becoming respectable mages."
While Colbert speaks, La Vallière herds Link out of the crater and over to stand with the rest of the class. He does so reluctantly; the animals and creatures standing amongst the students seem docile enough, but he swears he can see a keese hovering in the crowd and he'd rather not get dive-bombed while standing in a group of children, thank you very much.
Colbert's gaze scans the crowd, looking at each student before finally settling on La Vallière and Link. Then he continues with a smile. "For now, you are all dismissed. You will have the rest of the day off to get to know your new familiars."
This, it seems, is the class' cue to leave. Link's eyebrows steadily rise on his forehead as he watches student after student pull out a polished stick of wood from their robes and levitate off towards a tower not too far away. He turns an expectant look on La Vallière (and systematically shoves a flush and puzzled frown away when he remembers the sudden kiss from ten minutes ago), half ready for her to fly off as well, when Colbert's voice catches him. "Miss La Vallière, if I might have a moment?"
His apparent summoner turns, and with nothing better to do, so does Link. "Yes, Professor Colbert?" She sounds nervous. "I know these are strange circumstances, but I really did summon him—"
Colbert merely nods. "Calm down, Miss La Vallière. If this man wasn't summoned by your ritual, the contract would never have stuck." At this point, Colbert looks at Link. "The contract is actually what I wanted to ask about. Sir..." the professor frowns. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we ever asked your name."
There's silence for a moment. Colbert and La Vallière share a glance as Link raises his hands... and crosses them over his chest. This answer is simple enough. "Link." His voice is hoarse and painfully soft from disuse, but it still manages to startle the two in front of him.
"So you can talk!" La Vallière exclaims. Link shifts his weight and shrugs. He did say that earlier, didn't he?
"Link. May I see the runes on your hand for a moment?" Colbert is all business. Link appreciates that. He sticks out his ungloved hand, palm down to show off the brand. As Colbert takes in the runes with a clinical eye, he doesn't seem taken aback at all by the rest of the scars on his hand—another fact Link appreciates. The Professor fishes a little notebook from the depths of his robe and jots down the symbols, muttering to himself a bit, before straightening up. "I must say, I have never seen runes like these before in all my years teaching! This is certainly a mystery I'll be looking into." With a nod at both Link and his summoner, Colbert tucks the notebook away and pulls out his own wand. "Well, enjoy the rest of the day, you two. I expect you have much to talk about." And with that, the professor incants a spell and levitates away like the rest of the class before him.
Link, now nearly alone with only La Valliere there, finally gives himself a moment to think. He had known the moment he woke up that he and Zelda were successful in defeating Ganon; the "how" and "why" he was brought here have been answered by the events still unfolding even now; what he's unclear about is how he's supposed to get back. Not to mention the vague nudging he had felt in his gut when he held the Master Sword's empty scabbard...
He shifts his weight, lost in thought, but this time pain twinges up his nerves from that axe wound in his side and he involuntarily flinches a hand towards it. The old fairy tonic he drank when he woke up got him back to his feet, but apparently it wasn't quite enough to close this injury. He hisses a breath and resolves to replenish his food supply as soon as possible. There's got to be some use for the 347 apples in his bag...
La Vallière clears her throat, and Link comes out of his head in time to hear her say, "Well, we ought to get moving then," before setting off towards the tower—on foot.
Link is no fool. He knows how quests work. The only reason he doesn't immediately set off on his own to explore the castle grounds around him is because he knows the only way he'll find out more about this 'contract' is by going with the girl who summoned him. Still, this knowledge doesn't stop him from looking around while he walks.
He's been summoned into a courtyard; to one side an oddly low castle wall with a walkway at ground-level underneath it connects two towers far taller than the guard towers on the Great Plateau and wider than those on Hyrule Castle. He has to crane his neck to see around the Keep at the center of the compound, but he counts five huge towers in total, all connected by those strange low walls. (The walls have no battlements, and he can't imagine the place is very easy to defend without them. What's the point of a wall if not for defence?) The courtyard is sectioned off from the rest of the grounds by arched stone walkways. From what he can remember of Hyrule Castle before the Calamity, a courtyard like this ought to be filled with stone paths circling around gardens, or at the very least should be paved and sectioned off for various different uses, but no; it's just a simple field of grass with a few shrubs, trees, and benches around the perimeter. He thinks back to the summoning, and how the other students left the field. Maybe this is what's practical for a magic school?
When they reach the tower the girl leads him up a flight of stairs, and Link supposes this must be where she lives if the nameplates on the doors they pass are any indication. On the way up he chows down a couple apples to take the edge off from the injury still healing on his side. He's working on his third apple when she finally stops at a door and unlocks it. When she turns around to let him in, her eyes narrow on the half-eaten apple in his hand. "Where did you get that?"
Link almost rolls his eyes at her suspicious tone, but he refrains and just shoves the apple, core and all, into his mouth to take another bite. It only takes a moment to will an apple out of the bag and into the free hand hovering next to his pouch. The girl's red eyes widen at the display of Korok magic—which Link is a little surprised about; if this is a school that teaches magic like he thinks it is, shouldn't the teachers have taught the students about the Koroks? It's true that most normal Hylians can't see them, but as far as he knows, the existence of Korok magic isn't a secret—and Link shakes off his confusion at her reaction to hold out the apple in offering.
She looks like she has half a mind to take it, but all she says is an annoyed, "Don't eat when you're not at a table. It's improper. Now come in."
She enters first, and Link, seeing no real reason to do otherwise, follows suit. The door closes with a soft click behind them.
xA/N. So, anyone here following Game of Thrones? The cinematography in the last episode KILLED me fam
A few notes:
• In DnD, "spell-sculpting" is a skill that makes it so AOE spells won't damage your allies.
• I've seen plenty of explanations for "Montmorency the Flood", but I always interpreted it as a period/menstruation joke.•ZnT characters are all named after historical figures from the 30 Years War, so look up Emmanuel Philibert, Prince of Carignano if you wanna find out more about the rad deaf general who inspired "Philibert de Savoy"
• "can you understand this language?" *nods* "...can you speak?" *nods* is a reference to Tyrsinni's OoT/Majora's Mask time travel fic "Sands of Time", which can be found on AO3.
•Because of combating info in BoTW, we're gonna say that only people with a connection to magic can see Koroks.
•Link's pov is pretty short because the next stopping point I could imagine would probably have added another 5k. But dw next time he's a POV character it should be longer
•i'll be taking some creative license with the world building and events in ZnT. This whole chapter is just the beginning of that. Don't worry, though, we'll still hit on the canon events that seem like fun to write and, of course, the staple events that I think can't get cut out.
x
This is coming out a couple days late cos shit at my job popped off. As for next chapter: I have parts of it finished, but Colossalcon is coming up at the end of the month and I have a set of Zora armor to build between now and then for a Zelda shoot a friend set up, so next update won't be until around June 9th or later. Ciao!