A/N: Okay so I know I was all proud of myself for deciding to add chapter titles but they're actually so hard to come up with, whyyyyyy
Chapter 2: The First of Many
The next day, 9am
First Class: College Writing 101
Link identified one of the Yiga spies almost immediately. It was a little disappointing how easy it was to discover that one of her classmates, who went by Sal Vander, was 100%, no-doubt-about-it, a Yiga member. She walked into the first class—College Writing 101—to find one of the male students chowing down on a banana. First clue. Link sat herself next to him, holding out her hand in greeting and giving him a friendly smile.
"Hey, I'm Link! Mind if I sit here?"
She received a scowl. "Yeah, I do mind."
"It's not like I'm gonna steal your banana or anything," Link joked, still smiling.
To her surprise, he shoved the rest of the banana hurriedly into his mouth, somehow able to keep up his scowl around his bulging cheeks. "Don't trust Links," he huffed, barely intelligible. "Bunch of hero-wannabes."
Second clue. For some reason that Link had never understood, all Yiga held an undying hatred towards anyone named Link. Just a mention of the name was enough for them to want to attack. They were often antagonistic towards anyone named Zelda, as well.
She kept smiling and holding out her hand. "I know, right? It's a super overused name. My parents weren't super creative; I always wanted some sorta cool name, like Revali, or, oh! Kohga! Now that's a cool name."
That seemed to relieve some of Sal's tension; he scowled less, at least. "Kohga is a cool name." Finally, he shook Link's hand roughly. Her eyes darted down to his wrist. Peeking from under the watch on his wrist was a small tattoo of an eye with a teardrop. A casual observer would take it for a Sheikah symbol; however, this one was sideways, and the ink was red. Third and final clue. The Yiga all had the same tattoo, usually on their wrist, for the purpose of identifying fellow members. Because it was sideways and not upside down, an outsider would not suspect it represented the Yiga instead of the Sheikah, but the red color gave it away. All real Sheikah agents, if they had tattoos, had them in blue or black ink, never red.
Satisfied that she had identified him for certain as one of her Yiga targets, Link dropped her hand and settled herself comfortably into her seat. This Yiga was obviously no threat. He was sloppy in hiding his identity and other than his in-bred antagonism towards Link, he lacked an attitude of suspicion of others, clear signs that he was a novice at undercover work. After class, she would report it to Impa.
11:00am
Second Class: Introduction to Mythology
"Good morning, everyone!" The woman that strode into Link's Intro to Mythology course was panting, her white hair messily tied back. She flung her bag onto the front table and smiled at the class sheepishly. "Sorry I'm late. Somehow, even though I try to make sure I'm on time for class, and especially for the first class, something always comes up." She sighed. "Well, I am your instructor for Mythology. Please call me Paya—I don't really like being formal, so you don't have to call me Professor or anything."
Link stared at the woman disinterestedly. She'd already known whom her instructor would be, so she wasn't at all surprised to see that it was her sister. They weren't sisters by blood, of course—Paya was Impa's daughter, eight years older than Link—and they weren't very close. While Impa was known as one of the fiercest of the Sheikah, Paya had always been rather timid. Due to their different temperaments, Paya had not been trained as a Sheikah agent, that position instead being passed on to the adopted Link. When Link was ten, Paya left for Hyrule Academy to study ancient Hylian history. They had rarely seen each other since then.
As Paya read through the attendance sheet, Link turned her gaze to a different spot, two rows in front of her, and a little to the left. There sat a golden-haired girl, her textbook and notebook set out neatly in front of her, pencil already poised to take notes. Zelda Nohansen. She sat with a seat open on either side of her; Link found it strange that no one had wanted to sit next to the Princess.
"Vaati Enlil."
"Present," the violet-haired man replied from the row behind Link. He'd refused to sit next to his roommate, shooting the blonde vicious daggers that said, "sit here and I'll put bats in your bed," the moment she'd walked into the classroom.
"Link Forrester," Paya called out.
"Here." The instructor looked up at Link's voice, blinked, then nodded and moved on. Link wondered how Impa's genes could have been so totally lost on Paya. Even if Link's hair had been cut short and she wore boy's clothes, you would think the white-haired woman would recognize her adopted sister. But Link let it go. After all, it would only be more troublesome if she were found out.
"Zelda Nohansen."
"Present," Zelda said in a clear voice. Link's eyes drifted to the girl again. What a sweet voice. She probably was good at singing, Link thought absently.
In truth, her focus was not on Zelda, nor Paya, who had begun talking about herself in introduction. Instead, she was listening to the female student who had somehow managed to sit next to Vaati without getting threatened (actually, Vaati only treated Link that way, lucky her). If she had eyes on the back of her head, they'd be fixed right on the brown-haired girl.
Link was 81% sure the girl in question was a Yiga. She bore the tell-tale tattoo on her wrist, not even covered up. Her manner was not disagreeable, however; in fact, she had gone around and introduced herself to everyone before class had begun. Not an eyelash did she bat when she met Link and heard the blonde's name. She just replied cheerfully, "I'm Tiv, nice to meet you!"
It was not so much that Link doubted if this 'Tiv' was Yiga or not; rather, she was perplexed as to why she left her tattoo so exposed. Something told her it wasn't carelessness, like in Sal Vander's case. So, if it wasn't carelessness, it had to be intentional.
Another thing that was curious was that, instead of seating herself next to Zelda, as Link predicted, Tiv had chosen Vaati. Perhaps she was disguising who her real target was. This was a much more skilled agent, sending so many different messages to anyone trying to observe her.
"Link?" Paya's voice cut into the Hylian's train of thought. When Link looked at her blankly, she said, "We're sharing our majors as well as one interesting thing about ourselves."
"Ah. Well, liberal arts, and…" One interesting thing? Link could think of a million interesting things. 'I'm actually a girl,' 'I'm a Sheikah spy,' 'I have a weapons collection at home.' Smiling, she decided to go for something safe. "I met a Korok once."
Vaati muttered, loud enough for Link to hear, "Yeah, right; they're extinct, half-wit."
Paya, however, had become excited at Link's statement, clasping her hands together, eyes shining. "Really?! I thought they had disappeared because of deforestation."
"Yeah…" Link's smile faded. "There's lots of forest around Kakariko City; that's where I saw it, but that was when I was pretty young. I haven't seen any since then."
Their instructor nodded seriously. "Well, Koroks are notoriously good at hiding. We'll make sure to go over them later in the course!"
Then she moved on to the student next to Link, going in order of seats. Link paid a little more attention this time, especially when it came to Tiv's turn.
"My major is undecided," she chirped. "As for something interesting, I've participated in the Gerudo Archers' Guild and won second place."
A chorus of 'oooh's answered her statement. The Gerudo Archers' Guild was an annual archery competition that only the best of the best archers in all of Hyrule could hope to participate in. Over the course of three days, the participants were put through nearly impossible drills while the nation watched on TV. In the end, only one person would come away with a medal that designated them as a member of the prestigious Guild. Link had always dreamed of someday entering; her skills with a bow were certainly good enough.
This 'Tiv' might have her beat, though. She'd keep that in mind.
"Now for… Vaati, right?" Paya said, double-checking her attendance sheet before looking up and smiling at the violet-haired man.
He sighed quietly, like he'd rather not share anything, but calmly answered, "I am studying ancient history, particularly ancient technology and magic. And… my dream is to find a way to bring back magic to Hyrule." Someone in the classroom snickered. He continued, his voice quiet and solemn, "I don't think something so important simply vanished."
"That's certainly an admirable dream! There are lots of different theories about magic—whether it ever existed, if traces of it still linger today, and so on. It's a big part of the ancient myths, so we'll discuss that here sometime." Paya's smile was wide; she seemed happy to have so many students interested in these topics connected with myth.
They soon moved on to reading the syllabus and exploring their first myth, that of the creation of Hyrule by the three Goddesses. In myth, there were often several variations to the stories: names appeared in different forms, like Farore/Faron/Farosh or Nayru/Lanayru/Naydra; the order of events might be switched—was the Triforce created before or after the birth of Hyrule? For the most part, though, the story was familiar to all. Despite religion having mostly faded from modern-day Hyrule, the stories continued, told to children before bed, seen in museums, and expressed in art.
"So, myth, you see," Paya said as the students began packing up in anticipation, "never fades away. It's an integral part of our identity, both as a country and as individuals. You'll see it pop up everywhere. Well, see you next time!" She waved as a few students stood and exited the classroom.
Link stood and stretched her arms up above her head, yawning. Her next class wasn't until four. Rubbing her head, she knelt and grabbed her backpack, hoisting it onto one shoulder. Carefully, she turned her blue eyes to the blonde girl in front of her. Zelda was putting her books into her bag in a very organized fashion. Link considered talking to her, but with Tiv still in the classroom, she feared giving herself away.
The spy made her decision and trotted out of the classroom. For now, she would keep her distance from Zelda, as well as Tiv, and observe them both.
She was surprised, then, when she was sitting in the cafeteria, about to dig into some Seafood Curry, to look up to see the Princess herself standing by the table, a tray in her hands and blue eyes downcast. Link blinked up at her questioningly. "Would it be alright if I sit here?" Zelda asked in her melodic voice.
"Uh, of course. Zelda, right?" Link said, curious about the out-of-the-blue request.
Zelda nodded. "And you are Link, correct?" She received a nod in reply. For a few moments, she kept her gaze directed towards her salad, as though deliberating what to do next. Just as Link was thinking to say something to get rid of the strained silence, Zelda's head shot up, and she fixed her blue eyes on Link's face. Her eyes were hard, her soft features serious. Link immediately grew still. She could see in the other girl's face that there was something deadly important going on.
"I have a question for you."
