A/N: Shoutout to new follower uhcakip409!
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Mine was an utter disaster! But like, what's life without at least one bad Thanksgiving or Christmas?
Chapter 7: Promises by Fairylight
Report: 10-1 19:29
Member: Link
Vaati Enlil…
Link typed in just the name, then paused, considering her words carefully. She had a bad tendency to write her reports more like journal entries, and her personal opinions and emotions leaked in if she wasn't careful. The report was just for recording purposes this time; she'd already told Impa the whole story earlier. Link twiddled her thumbs over her tablet screen.
Vaati Enlil displayed the ability to magically manipulate the wind. It appears he has no control over this ability; he briefly sent a blast of wind around himself after becoming agitated. I inquired into his past concerning whether he'd ever seen magic and grew upset when I suggested he'd once hurt someone with it.
She read over the paragraph while forming her next thoughts. Her intuition suggested many things to her, but guesses based on a gut feeling didn't belong in an official report.
Some facts thus far: Vaati Enlil possesses wind magic. The Wind Sorcerer of myth, also named Vaati, possessed the same magic. The Yiga spy Tiv seems interested in the connection between these two figures, while Zelda Nohansen seems wary of Vaati using magic. It would normally be a stretch to say there's a connection between Enlil and a mythical character, but the way Tiv and Zelda have reacted makes me think it's not impossible. Or rather they think it's not impossible.
What if that connection was real, Link wondered? If it were, it would mean that things she considered mythical, no more than stories, were actually real. It would mean that Vaati had something to do with a monster that had threatened to destroy Hyrule on more than one occasion, had actually carried it out once before. It would mean that the Yiga wanted their hands on that power, and that the Sheikah would have to treat Vaati as a potential threat to the nation, and that Link would likely end up his enemy, not his friend.
She sighed heavily and rolled over on her bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. Friends, huh? It was only a fake friendship, and one-sided at that. Link had always known that even the closest of allies could be potential enemies; she knew better than to get attached. And yet, she found herself just wanting to believe in Vaati.
I will closely moderate his research from now on and discover his purpose for wanting to unlock his magic. If at all possible, I will steer him towards using magic for good, should he ever succeed. The Yiga are probably planning to use him for their own goals, but if we can turn Vaati into an ally, we can disrupt their plans. End report.
Link rubbed her eyes. It was much too early to go to bed, but there wasn't anything else she wanted or needed to do the rest of the evening. Impa was in her office upstairs, and Vaati was likely studying in the guest room. The house was quiet; only the distant noise of evening traffic hummed in the air.
Feeling restless, Link swung out of bed and pulled her shoes on. She tied a jacket around her waist and grabbed her Slate, then quietly slipped out of her room and out of the house through the back door. Jogging slightly, Link used her tablet's flashlight to illuminate her path out of the yard. The Cotera Woods were only a few blocks away from her house out at the edge of the city; she almost didn't need the flashlight to know the way there.
Upon entering the woods, some of the tension eased from her shoulders, and she let out a breath. Somehow it was always calming to be among the trees, and Link often came here when she felt anxious or restless. She took her time wandering down the path. The leaves swayed gently while she walked, almost like the forest was greeting her.
"Once, a fairy lived in these woods." Impa had shared the story of Cotera Woods with Link countless times, so much so that Link couldn't recall the story without hearing it in Impa's voice. "Her name was Cotera, and she would bless people with some of her power if they offered her an appropriate gift. Smaller fairies liked to gather around her fountain at night, little pink balls of light with wings that made the fountain glitter. They say she once helped a hero from one of the legends. But over time she was forgotten, and the fountain dried up, and she lost her power as a fairy. Some say that somewhere in the woods, you can find the remains of her fairy fountain and perhaps even a small fairy. I have never seen either of these; however, that does not mean you should not look for yourself, Link. Perhaps you will be the one to find Cotera's fountain."
There was a sound of crunching leaves on the path behind her. Link whirled around, raising her phone so the light would shine on the person following her. She blinked in surprise, even as the other person blinked as he tried to move to get the light out of his eyes.
"Vaati? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to ask you that," her roommate replied, still squinting in the light. "Why are you going off into the forest at night? And would you please stop shining that right at me!"
Link hastily lowered her hand. "Oops, sorry. I'm just going for a walk. The forest always helps me sort out my thoughts when I'm worried." She gestured at the area around them.
Vaati didn't immediately reply, instead looked at her for a long moment. Then he turned his gaze away and said gruffly, "Sorry."
"Woah! Vaati just said sorry!" Link gasped. Her roommate scowled at her for that. "But what are you randomly saying sorry for all of a sudden…?"
"Don't make me explain it," Vaati groaned, rubbing one hand on his forehead in exasperation.
The way he was acting almost embarrassed made Link chuckle. "Heh, are you worried that I'm worried about what happened earlier? I guess I'd be lying if I said I'm not thinking about it, but like I told you before, I'm not scared of you. So, you don't have to apologize. I was the one that pushed you, anyways, so I should be apologizing. Sorry for earlier!" Vaati's frown didn't ease, however, so she tried changing the subject. "I'm looking for the fairy fountain. Want to go with me?"
"…Fine." Link was surprised at how easily he agreed to her proposal, but she decided not to think about it too much and just be grateful for the moment.
They walked without any haste, Link slightly ahead of Vaati, occasionally talking a little bit about the forest and the story of the fairy fountain. For the most part, however, they were silent. Link wondered what it was that Vaati was thinking about as they strolled down the path.
"Hey," Vaati suddenly called out. He stopped walking, and Link stopped as well, turning to look at him. "Over there—do you see it?" Vaati asked, pointing at a distant spot. "A little pink light."
Link fixed her eyes on the spot. At first, she saw nothing but the dark figures of trees and the dark shadows they cast on each other and the ground. She wondered if he was just pulling her leg as some sort of payback. But then, there was a tiny glimmer of pink light. Link's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be…
Another glimmer, as though the light were floating through the trees, and Link knew. She took off running, to Vaati's surprise, racing towards that pink light, heartbeat rising with her excitement. It was a fairy—it had to be. And if there was a fairy, it meant that the fairy fountain was nearby. She heard Vaati cry out behind her, but she didn't slow down. All she could think was, don't disappear, don't disappear!
She came crashing out of the trees into a small clearing. The little pink fairy was floating in the middle, almost like it was waiting for her. Link stood there, panting with excitement, just watching it with wonder.
"Link!" Vaati ran up behind her. He was about to say something more, but Link clamped her hand over his mouth and put a finger to her lips. He stayed silent and followed her lead as she sat down on the grass to watch the fairy.
The clearing was mostly empty, just a small area of long grass surrounded by the forest. In the very center of it, however, was what looked like a pond, no bigger than a large puddle, really, visible by the glimmers of pink on its surface from the fairy's light above it. "Cotera's fountain," Link whispered. Vaati gave her a slightly dubious look, but she was sure of it. The great fairy had long left the fountain, but enough of her power still lingered to attract the little fairy to the remains of her home.
For how long they both sat there, silently watching the lone fairy and the forgotten fountain together, Link didn't know. Gradually, she felt herself growing drowsy. "Hey, Vaati," she said very softly.
"What?" His voice, too, was quiet.
"I came out here because I was worrying about you," she admitted. "I was worrying about what people might think about you, about how they treat you. You know, Zelda doesn't want you to bring back magic. She thinks it's too dangerous. Then I heard Tiv, thinking you wanted to be like Vaati from myth. And then there's you—you worry that your magic will get out of control, don't you?" Link turned her head to give Vaati a confident smile. "But then I thought of something: even if everyone expects you to fail, I'm going to believe in you and help you prove them wrong. I mean, it's stupid to think you're a bad person just because your name is Vaati. My name is Link, but that doesn't make me a hero." She laughed a little dryly. "It doesn't even make me a good person. I've met some pretty bad Links before."
"You're a better person than me, at least," Vaati muttered.
Link kept her smile on her face, though his rare praise made her feel a little sad inside. She always tried to do the right thing, but could a spy, whose life was built around deception, ever be called a good person? She'd never killed anyone in her line of work, but she had certainly harmed people, both physically and emotionally. Though the things she had just told Vaati were truly her feelings from her heart, not out of a need to persuade him to her side, it didn't negate the fact that she continued to live a lie everyday with him.
"Well, you're not a bad person. I say so." Link's eyes were growing heavy.
Vaati sighed and shook his head. "I'm the one always snapping at you, insulting you, and…" He heaved yet another sigh. "Why do you care what others think about me?"
"I told you already," she yawned in reply. "We're friends. And before you try to deny it, why else would you follow me into the forest and hang out with me like this?" She smiled slightly when Vaati gave no retort. "Gotcha…" Her eyelids drooped closed and she let her head loll onto her companion's shoulder.
"Get off…" Vaati protested, but his voice lacked its usual sharpness and he didn't try to push her away.
Link was barely awake anymore, just enough to reply with, "Nope, you're stuck with me…" Then she fell asleep, the nighttime sounds of the forest and Vaati's warmth following her into her dreams.
