Chapter 5: The Guardian

\-==/\==-/

"You asked to speak with me, Link?"

Link nodded, standing as tall as he could before Captain Janin's desk. "While at Zora's Domain, their warriors observed my lessons," he began. "Many of them are quite skilled. I believe their teaching will be sufficient for the Zora children and Princess Mipha in the future."

The Captain squinted at him. "King Dorephan specifically requested that you teach his daughter and the children you've been working with."

Link held back a wince. "Sir, the… the Zora Princess has developed… er, a romantic attraction to me. It will distract her from any lesson I might try to give her."

Janin frowned, his eyes narrowing. "Did anything happen?" he asked bluntly, a dangerous edge entering his voice.

"No, Sir!" Link said forcefully. "Nothing but the kiss mentioned in my report." If that split-second thing counts as a kiss.

"Ah, yes. That." The Captain grimaced. "Unfortunately, word has gotten out about that. I've heard a few unsavory rumors."

"What?" Link's jaw dropped. "I haven't told a soul - I only wrote about it in my report, and that's all that happened!"

Janin waved his hand dismissively. "Other members of the Royal Guard can read those. They're doing this out of jealousy, Link. Nothing more than jealousy. However, your ability to act without interference from emotions, to act with maturity, is being called into question. You would be best not to let your relationship with the Zora Princess get too out of hand."

Link scowled. "There is no relationship," he insisted. "That's the point - I'm asking that you don't send me there again! I don't want any part of… um, of that kind of affection from her."

"Poor girl," Janin said with a raised eyebrow. "I understand what you're saying, Link, but King Dorephan had expected that your lessons would become more frequent, now that you have been knighted and are no longer bound by the duties of a squire. I will write to him and ask for a compromise, but you should expect to return to Zora's Domain at least once more. You must understand that agreements like this are what keep the various peoples of this kingdom satisfied with living under the unified rule of King Rhoam."

Link inhaled deeply. I can handle one more stay there, can't I? "Alright," he sighed. "But, if I may… please request that I stay at the inn, and not in one of the guest rooms."

The Captain furrowed his brow, looking at him with suspicion. "...I can do that," he agreed slowly. Shaking his head, he returned his attention to papers stacked neatly on his desk. "If that is all, Link, you are dismissed."

Link dipped his head in respect, trying to swallow the bitter taste in his mouth. It's better than nothing, he told himself as he turned and left the room. It's better than nothing.

\-==/\==-/

"Oi, runt!"

A swift kick to his ribcage jolted Link awake with a pained grunt. He opened his eyes to see one of the other Royal Guards, Sir Ardin, standing over his bunk, still dressed in nightclothes. "Princess Zelda is overseeing some of the first tests of those Sheikah weapons in the courtyard. You're on duty today with Garmish, Groose, and myself. Our orders: let her do what she wants with them, step in if anything happens, the usual."

Link nodded. It wasn't the first time he had been assigned to the group escorting or guarding the Princess; he knew what to do. Clutching at his sore chest, he rolled out of bed and pulled out the drawer beneath his bunk, which contained all of his personal belongings - clothes, for the most part, and the Master Sword, along with a few other weapons and assorted travelling supplies.

As Sir Ardin awakened the other knights no less gently, he pulled his nightshirt over his head and dressed himself in his Royal Guard uniform - a routine so familiar to him that he could have done it in his sleep. Holding back a groggy yawn, he shoved his feet into his boots and pulled his gloves up to his elbows before attaching the Master Sword's sheath to the elegant crimson baldric.

He was, he noticed with some relief, not the first one ready for once. Groose was waiting by the stairway leading out of the barracks, looking uncomfortable with the Royal Guard cap hiding his dramatic red hair. Link approached slowly, trying to avoid catching the older knight's attention.

It didn't work.

"How's your girlfriend, runt?" Groose smirked, all traces of discomfort fading from his face. "Zora Princess, huh… pretty prestigious of you."

Link shifted his weight from one foot to another. "She's not my girlfriend," he said emotionlessly, levelly meeting Groose's glare.

"Really?" the broad-shouldered knight raised an eyebrow. "Why'd you kiss her, then?"

"She kissed me," he muttered, offering a mental prayer to the goddesses for patience. "I didn't want anything to do with it."

Groose whistled. "Of course you'd say that," he chuckled. "But, y'know, it doesn't really matter. I think you're making the whole thing up."

Link narrowed his eyes, unable to conceal his surprise. "You… do?"

"Sure. I mean, you've already proven to us all that you're so much better in every way," Groose rolled his eyes. "Except one - and that's when it comes to the ladies. Me, I've got a date lined up almost every night. Half the guys here are married. And you?" Groose sneered. "No woman would ever take a second look at you. And, let's face it - who would ever want a scrawny twig like you, anyway?"

Link shrugged. Let him think what he wants. Better that he thinks I made it up than he believes it happened - right?

"There's just one thing," Groose frowned, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Being the goody-goody you are, you wouldn't lie on a report."

"You read the report?" Link asked, his eyes widening with incredulity.

The broad knight grinned maliciously. "Right on. Knights of the Royal Guard have access to all mission reports. Which means I can read yours to get the truth out of it. And that means that a kiss did happen. But I think you're lying that she kissed you."

Link frowned. "Oh?"

Groose's grin widened. "Yeah. Like I said, no woman - especially not a princess - could be attracted to you like that. You're… not much to look at, y'know, and personality wise…" He grimaced. "Even worse. So my theory's that you kissed her and said she did it to cover up your desperation!"

"Desperation?" Link echoed in disbelief, hurt and anger stirring in his soul. "Like you said, she's a princess. I would never - not to anyone - let alone her!"

Groose merely chuckled. "Say what you want, runt," he smirked. "We all know the truth. Don't we?" He lifted his gaze to something above Link's head.

Link turned around; Sir Garmish was approaching with a mischievous grin, Sir Ardrin at his side.

"Right on, Groose," Garmish laughed.

Ardirn rolled his eyes. "Enough gossiping - we've got work to do," he snarled. "C'mon, runt. Try to look mighty for once; you're ruining our image."

\-==/\==-/

They met the Princess, dressed in a formal blue tunic and dark trousers, just as she walked into the large courtyard filled with ancient Sheikah devices. These in particular looked like upside-down vases on segmented legs ending in vicious claws. The upper, domed part of their bodies rotated slowly, and within each there was a single pulsing blue eye.

"Princess!" One of the Sheikah scientists working on the machines raced towards their group, grinning widely. He had wild silver hair, and a pair of spectacles magnified his auburn eyes. "I had hoped you would be here today. We think we're close to restoring complete functionality!"

"That's fantastic!" the Princess exclaimed, hurrying forwards as the man led her towards one of the machines. Link watched her carefully, unsettled by the mechanical eyes spinning all around.

"Here," the Sheikah man said, approaching a device that seemed less dusty and weathered than the others. "We've managed to get a few of them walking around. But we haven't figured out the weapons systems yet."

Link felt a sudden chill. Weapons… so that's what these are. And, looking at them, it made perfect sense. But what do they do, exactly? Those claws can't be their only tools, can they?

The Princess walked slowly around the thing, her hands on her hips and her head tilted to the side. Her green eyes gleamed with excitement, and a small smile played at her lips. "I think the key must be in the eye," she mused, staring intently as the machine's cylinder-shaped head rotated back and forth. "That light… it's awfully similar to the light-blades you've been researching, isn't it, Robbie?"

The Sheikah man nodded, stroking his chin. "Yes, that had occurred to me as well. However, the light on those blades and on my own prototypes is more… solid, if that makes sense. It holds its shape. This…"

"Is more fluid," the Princess finished. "Like a liquid." She walked halfway around the machine again. "How did you get it to move?"

"Oh - well, here, I'll show you," Robbie said, pulling her to a machine that hadn't yet been activated. This one's legs had been removed, and it was turned on its side. "The key was through this… this core here…"

What followed was a string of technical terms intermingled with more familiar terms, resulting in a mess of language that Link could not comprehend. Frowning, he tried to follow along as best he could; these things were… frightening to him in a way he did not understand. Knowing how it works is knowing how to protect myself and others from it.

The most he could interpret from the gibberish was that the Sheikah scientists had done something to that core area, something involving an ancient flame and a guidance stone, and it had activated the entire thing, causing its eye to light up and various other areas on its body to start glowing. They were called 'guardians,' designed to aid the ancient hero and princess in defeating the Calamity.

Link couldn't imagine fighting alongside something like that. It's a machine! How could it determine friend from foe?

The sun climbed higher above the courtyard, and Groose muttered something about being hungry. Link ignored him, keeping his gaze trained on the Princess. Even within the outer walls of the castle, any manner of threat could arise. He had even heard word of Yiga Clan members taking the appearance of the friends and family of nobles in order to gain access into their manors. So far no one had been killed, but a great deal of money had been stolen.

It's said that the Yiga wish to aid the Calamity's return. That they worship it. And that they want anyone threatening its return to be killed.

The Princess, with the sealing powers locked in her soul, would be a prime target. Captain Janin had impressed the threat to her life upon each member of the Royal Guard and urged them to take every precaution when on duty protecting her. At the moment, Link, Garmish, Groose, and Ardin formed a large, loose square around her and the active guardian she and Robbie examined. They kept a respectful distance, far enough away to give her privacy, yet close enough to intervene if anything happened.

The day continued to crawl by. The Princess alternated between scribbling excitedly in her notebook and prodding or observing the guardian, locked in animated discussion with Robbie and several other Sheikah scientists all the while. Noon came and went, and servants brought up a meal, various sandwiches and pots of soup lined up on a small table. She didn't seem to notice and merely continued with her studying.

And then…

"I think I have it!" the Princess exclaimed in delight, sinking into a crouch beside the cleaner-looking guardian. "It doesn't use the eye to observe its surroundings - the eye itself is the weapon! The reason the light within appears to be some sort of liquid instead of a solid like your blades is because in this form, always in motion, it is self-sustaining, like the ancient flame! I believe that it shoots some sort of beam from the eye, and the loss in energy is quickly regenerated from within. This would fit perfectly with what the ancient records described!"

"Brilliant!" Robbie cheered, leaning over to examine her notes. "Blessed Nayru, I think that's it - I think you're right!"

"But… we still don't have a way to test it," the Princess said, her excitement diminishing at the realization. "We have no idea how it detects a target - a threat."

Robbie frowned, turning his gaze back to the guardian. "That… that might be Purah's field. It must have some sort of rune embedded in its system, a rune that tells it how to identify enemies." He shook his head, wiping a hand over his face. "From what I know of the Sheikah runes, this one must be absurdly complicated! There are… too many factors that could go into such a thing. If it was simply identifying weapons, it would have attacked these knights around here in an instant -"

"Wait a moment," the Princess interrupted. "I think you're onto something with that. An enemy would be trying to attack it, and of course no one here has done anything of the sort. That might be why nothing has happened yet…"

"Well, we've certainly poked and prodded at it - at all of them - quite a bit," Robbie pointed out. "Wouldn't that count as an attack?"

The Princess shook her head. "Not necessarily. If it can identify weapons as well as whether or not it is being attacked, it would know that the instruments we use on it aren't weapons. We'll have to send word to Purah; she's at the Royal Ancient Laboratory at the moment working on the Sheikah Slate's map functions, but with her background in the study of runes, I'm certain she would be able to figure out exactly if guardians are directed by a rune or not, and perhaps she could actually download that rune onto the Sheikah Slate for further study…"

Robbie nodded slowly, narrowing his eyes at the guardian. "There are some things about this that we can test right now," he murmured thoughtfully. Turning, he snapped his fingers at Groose. "Bring us a weapon of some sort, alright? We need it as quickly as possible."

Groose huffed, but handed over his spear. "Don't scratch it," he warned, and Robbie rolled his eyes.

"Here, Princess," he said, holding the weapon out. "Let's see how this goes."

Link frowned. On the off chance that they're right, they could trigger an attack.

Better be ready, then.

Carefully he slid the Master Sword free from its sheath. The Princess took the spear and held it up in front of the guardian, waving it slowly from side to side. The guardian's eye seemed to focus on her, following her movements carefully. A wide grin split her features. "Make note of that, Robbie," she said breathlessly. "This whole time, it hasn't seemed to take any real notice of anyone or anything. My theory is that it's because I, a person, am facing it with a moving, possibly threatening, weapon."

Link's eyes widened. You're threatening an ancient machine designed for combat, and this isn't ringing any alarm bells?

"I've got that," Robbie promised, writing fervently in his own little book. "Try it with something else. One of the tools we've been using. I don't think we've thought to test anything like this before."

The Princess nodded, still grinning, and carefully set the spear down. The guardian seemed to lose its focus, its head rotating from side to side, seemingly aimlessly.

An icy trickle went down Link's spine. Not aimlessly - it's looking from me, to Groose, to Garmish, to Ardin, and back again.

I think the Princess must be right.

The Princess held up a strange sort of brush, waving it from side to side in front of the guardian, but it did not appear to notice, merely continuing to shift its focus from one Royal Guard to the next. "We'll have to test other objects, too," the Princess said with an excited little laugh. "But thus far, it seems that it really does take notice only of weapons readied for battle!"

The guardian's gaze remained for a moment on Link, and he gulped, glancing down at the Master Sword in his hand. He sheathed it once again, hoping to lose its interest. That pulsating blue gaze made his heart freeze up within him - with dread or fear, he couldn't tell.

Robbie bent to pick up the spear once again, waving it in front of the guardian's eye and gaining its attention. "Amazing," he murmured, glancing at the weapon before looking past the machine to Groose. "Well, you can have this back now, Sir. Thank you for your service." He started to walk forward, only to trip on an uneven tussock of grass. His body flew forward, and the sharp end of the spear smacked up against the guardian's side.

A high pitched beeping filled the air, and a red light travelled from the guardian's eye, centered on Robbie's chest. The Sheikah scientist yelped in shock, leaping to the side just as a beam of blue light shot from the eye, igniting the grass beneath his feet. The Princess screamed, but the guardian wasn't finished. As if going mad, it let loose a torrent of bright blue beams that shot into tables, into segments of the castle wall, into pavilions.

Link dashed for the Princess, his heart racing in a panic as fires sprang up all around from the guardian's attacks. On a whim, he snatched the lid of one of the pots of soup on the table servants set up for lunch, forcing his hand through the handles as if it were a shield.

The guardian's head swivelled as it fired again, the blast landing inches from Groose's feet as he attempted to run. With a howl, the burly knight lost his balance and fell before crawling desperately for the nearest inanimate guardian, cowering behind it.

The next beam whizzed past Robbie's head as he fled, slamming into a staircase and crumbling the ancient stone. The scientist tripped again, scrambling backwards and away from the machine with a faint whimper.

Ardin darted up to the guardian with a roar, his sword bared. Growling, he slashed at it, only to find his blade rebounding off of its solid surface. The guardian's head swivelled to face him and his face went suddenly pale from fear; dropping his blade he turned and ran a circle around it before diving behind the inanimate guardian with Groose.

Garmish stood in place, his own spear gripped in shaking hands as he looked anxiously from side to side as if wondering what to do. The guardian's gaze found him and a flash of light issued from its eye. Screaming, Garmish leapt to the side out of the way - not in time to miss the blast, which collided with his left arm and sent him crumpling to the ground, howling in agony.

The Princess ran up to the guardian as it was distracted, dropping to her knees and reaching for the core beneath it as if attempting to deactivate it. The guardian skittered backwards away from her, and its pulsing blue eye focused on her. She gasped, lunging to her feet too fast and losing her balance, toppling backwards with a winded grunt. Link threw himself in front of her as the machine fired, catching the full brunt of the bright blue beam on the pot lid on his forearm. He gasped at the sudden ache, unable to keep himself from taking a step backward from the force of it. The wooden lid was in flames and parts of it had splintered; his arm was throbbing, sprained if not broken.

But the guardian did not lose interest; he could hear the high-pitched beeps signalling a second attack. Link swallowed thickly, placing himself more squarely in front of the Princess as she struggled to regain her breath, her eyes wide with terror.

He watched the guardian carefully, waiting for the next blow. He had noticed Ardin's attempt - swords couldn't pierce the machine's protective outer layer. But the core, and the eye, could be weak spots -

The guardian fired, and Link watched the beam race towards him as if in slow motion. On instinct, he pushed his arm and makeshift shield forward, catching the beam and knocking it back directly into the guardian's eye.

Its head seemed to wobble, and the pulsing of its eye grew more frantic. Pale blue sparks danced all across its surface and its legs gave out beneath it an instant before it exploded outward, screws and gears and chunks of ancient Sheikah material flying everywhere. Link threw himself over the Princess, shrapnel striking his back, head, and legs but missing her entirely.

Silence fell. Link cracked his eyes open and looked over his shoulder, relieved to find that where the guardian once was there was now a mere pile of charred, smoking scraps.

He looked down, only to find the Princess of Hyrule directly beneath him, in an unfairly compromising position, his hands on either side of her shoulder. Her eyes were wide, staring at nothing in particular, and he could see her pulse throbbing in her neck, so fast was her heartbeat. His face instantly flushed with embarrassment and he carefully got to his feet, holding out his uninjured hand. "Are you alright, Your Highness?" he asked, a bit nervously - Great golden Goddesses - this is the first time I've ever spoken to her!

"Y-yes, thank you," she answered shakily, sliding her dainty hand into his and allowing him to pull her to her feet.

"Thank goodness you are alright, Princess," Ardin said, unable to hide a tremor in his own voice as he sauntered up to them, nudging Link out of the way. "However, seeing as my sword was useless against that thing - pardon my boldness - I suggest you and your scientists find some way to combat them, on the off chance that something like this happens again."

"Of c-course," she whispered, her gaze still vacant. "You… you destroyed it…"

Link tilted his head in concern. She might be in shock - we need to get her help. He cleared his throat. "Sir Ardin, I think the Princess might be in a state of shock -"

"Quiet, runt," Ardin snapped. "My Lady, this must surely have been quite the stressful experience for you. Allow me to escort you back inside, and we'll get you all checked out by a healer."

The Princess nodded slowly, her brow furrowed as she followed Sir Ardin away from the scorching ruins of the guardian, out of the courtyard.

Groose had emerged from behind the inactive guardian he sheltered behind, making his way over to Garmish. "You'll be alright - s'not that bad," he grumbled, pulling the injured knight to his feet. "Brave of you, standing still like that. Stupid, but brave."

Garmish merely whimpered, clutching his smoking arm.

Link simply stood still, staring at his hand. For a brief moment, he had held the Princess' hand. I saved the Princess, he realized, his heart hammering. I saved the Princess of Hyrule.

"Hey, kid!"

Link gave a start, drawn from his thoughts by the Sheikah scientist Robbie making his way towards him.

"That was a privilege to witness," Robbie told him, offering a terse smile. "Never seen anything like it. I… actually didn't think guardians could be destroyed."

Link gave a slight shrug, not sure what to say.

The Sheikah man glanced down at his battered arm. "Er… you might want to get that looked at," he advised. "The wielder of the Master Sword needs both his hands, eh?"

Link nodded, turning his gaze on the charred remnants of his glove, at the blistered red flesh he could see through the burnt holes in the material. He couldn't hold back a wince at the sight; it looked every ounce as painful as it was.


Updated 6/16