CHAPTER 11- Truth and Lies

Link

Zelda finally let herself cry once we reached her old bedroom. Purah realized she might need some time to herself and excused herself to the observatory to work more with Robbie. The roof of Zelda's room had caved in, and the wall was blown out to the elements outside. Evidence of monsters inhabiting the room were everywhere. Her old bed was beyond salvageable. Some of her clothes left in the wardrobe seemed somewhat salvageable which was encouraging, and her desk was still entirely intact somehow. She sat down at it and let herself sob into its surface. I stood beside her and let her process the emotions.

After a while, her sobs began to slow. The sun was beginning to set, and the orange light of the evening filled the space. The shadow of the tower outside cast through the hole in the wall. I glanced up to it. "Zel, how about we go up to your study? Maybe some of your research is still there."

Zelda stood from the chair and nodded. "Yes," she said through sniffles. "That would be nice."

Since the wall to the terrace outside was already blown out, I helped Zelda crawl over the ruined facade and we scaled the steps on the terrace outside that led up to her private tower. She opened the door and walked inside.

"It's just as I left it…" She mumbled as we entered the small room. She went over to her desk. It was littered in papers, books, and gadgets she'd been tinkering with as she researched the ancient technology. She stared at her notes with a frown on her face.

Had it all really been for nothing? I knew those were the thoughts on her mind.

Something small and round on the desk caught my eye. I recognized it. "You have an Ancient Shield?" I asked, pointing to the disc.

She blinked. "A shield?"

I nodded, picking up the disc. I held it out in front of me and placed my thumb on a button on the back. "Throw that box at me." I said.

"What?" Zelda narrowed her eyes at my ridiculous request.

"Just do it."

She leaned down and picked up a wooden box at the ground. After hesitating, she lifted it over her head and chucked it at me. Within a second, a brilliant blue glow filled the room as a large, round shield of energy unfurled from the small disk. The box bounced off the shield and fell to the floor. Zelda gasped in awe as I retracted the shield back into the disc. "I… I never knew what that was... My mother and I found it when we were out exploring once."

"Maybe you should carry it with you now," I said with a small smile as I handed it back to her. "What was in that box, anyways? It was completely empty."

"I… I don't quite recall," she said. She leaned over and picked it up. Inside was a piece of paper. I stepped closer to her and poked my head over her shoulder to look. It was a hand-drawn blueprint for an egg-shaped device of some kind.

"Hmmm… must have been one of your designs," I said.

Her eyes widened all of a sudden. "This was for a small Guardian I designed with my mother as a child…"

I blinked. "You know how to make Guardians?"

She nodded as she folded up the drawing and placed it in her pouch. "I guess it must have corrupted along with the other guardians during the calamity. I have no idea where it would have gone otherwise..."

I furrowed my brow as I tried to remember the small guardian's presence. It seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe, back when I first met her, I'd seen it scuttling around behind her...

"My father confiscated it from me when I was young so I could focus more on unlocking my power. He saw my tinkering as a distraction from my duty," Zelda whispered. "It was a terrible day for me when he took it away. The fortune teller had visited the very same day and delivered the news of the prophecy on us."

"The signs of a resurrection of Calamity Ganon are clear. The power to oppose it lies dormant beneath the ground," said a deep voice behind us.

I pivoted around to face our unexpected guest. A chill clawed up into my gut when I recognized the older man standing in the doorway. "You…" I whispered.

It was Astor. The strange, Gerudo-cloaked man I had met at the Rito Stable. The evening light cast half his face in shadow but the dark paint around his eyes still gave him a strange, skeletal-like appearance.

Zelda placed a hand on her chest. "Apologies, but who are you? And what are you doing up here in my private study?"

Astor chuckled as he leaned against the door frame. "You don't remember me? I delivered those very same words to your father over a hundred years ago."

"You are… the fortune teller?" Zelda breathed. "You... survived the Great Calamity?"

He smirked. "I did, though, Calamity Ganon only spared me because I'd made his job a little easier."

I furrowed my brow. Easier? How…?

Zelda gasped, covering her mouth as she fell to her knees in despair. "You… you knew? ...And you didn't warn us?"

I blinked, finally understanding what Zelda meant. This fortune teller saw the future, and he must have known the Divine Beasts and the Guardians would corrupt against the Kingdom. Yet, he still gave advice to excavate the land for the solution below the ground.

He, alone, could have been the reason we failed.

Anger filled my veins. I rushed forward, grabbing the Seer by his cloak, and pinned the man against the door frame. Dust clouded around us with the impact. I drew the Master Sword and held it to his neck as I shoved his shoulder against the wall with my free hand. Zelda gasped in shock at my action. "Why? Why would you lead us to a fortune of doom?" I demanded to know.

His pale lips curved into an amused smile. I tightened my grip as I pushed my knuckles harder against him. He spoke. "I foresaw the vision of the Great Calamity followed by your death in the Princess's arms due to her inability to access her sacred power. It was a loss no matter what."

"Liar," I accused, pressing harder on him with my knuckle. "I was mortally wounded only because of the Guardians' betrayal."

"Calamity Ganon struck you with the deadly wound himself, if I remember correctly," said the Seer. I glared at him and he sneered. "This was an event that could not be changed. I foresaw this inevitable loss and decided to take the stronger side."

"So you lied to us? You made up a prophecy?" Zelda cried. "My father trusted your advice!"

"Seers cannot speak false words on their tongues when asked to deliver prophecies. Unfortunately, that is the trade-off with receiving the divine gift," said Astor. "It is true that the power to oppose the Calamity lies underground. I did not speak falsely."

Zelda blinked at this revelation. "So… there is still something for us to find…"

I frowned. "Leaving out important information is just the same as lying."

Astor laughed. "Nobody has ever been able to find the real solution."

"Why would you support the Calamity's revival, then? You betrayed the Kingdom of Hyrule!" I snarled.

He shook his head. "With my powers, I could foresee endless revivals of the Calamity far into the future. It was tiring, not just for me but for all Seers who can see such events. I wished to end the endless cycle once and for all, and—seeing as it was always impossible for the Hero and Princess to completely defeat the Calamity each time—I knew that the Calamity was the stronger force to join."

"So you would rather Ganon win once and for all and destroy the Kingdom than wait for any chance for his final defeat in the future?" Zelda whispered.

He nodded. "The Great Calamity always wins in the end! It cannot be sealed!"

"You're wrong!" Zelda yelled. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that she'd risen to her feet. "We can seal the Demon Curse away forever. There must be a way!"

"My Lord Ganon will return once again, once we summon enough malice to trigger the next Great Calamity! It is foreseen! You must give in to his endless power!" Astor yelled.

I frowned. "As long as we have the force of love on our side, we cannot lose to any challenge, even if it takes a hundred years of work."

Astor growled. "Only I, who Calamity Ganon himself spared for this exact purpose, can lead you as Hyrule's new king. My Yiga Clan servants may have failed to execute my task, but I can still offer the Blood Sacrifice of the Hero and Princess to Calamity Ganon!"

He kicked me in the gut and I stumbled over, which gave him an opening to escape my grip. He lunged towards me.

"No!" Zelda yelled.

She held up her hands and a golden flash illuminated the room. The shock wave from the energy rumbled against the books and vials on the shelves and shoved me up against the wall. Some of the books fell from the shelves above and sprawled on the floor.

The Seer had completely disappeared.

I gasped for my breath as I processed what happened. "Zel…"

"That was…my power…" She whispered, catching her own breath as she stared at the back of her outstretched hand.

"So... it's not gone?" I asked, sheathing my sword.

"Apparently it has been rekindled," she said. The golden symbol of the Trifoce glowed on the back of her hand briefly before fading away. She lowered her hand as I stepped over to her. She looked up at me, and threw her arms over my shoulders. She shook against me.

"It's alright, he's gone now…" I said into her shoulder.

"I can't believe it… We were purposely led astray…" She said flatly before she pulled away, staring at the floor where Astor had stood. I moved to pick up the fallen books and began reshelving them. Considering the current state of the rest of the castle, it was probably frivolous to care about a few fallen books. But I knew how much Zelda's personal study meant to her.

"Did you mean that, Link?" Zelda asked after a few minutes.

"Mean, what?" I asked, turning to her as I shelved the final book.

"We will always win because 'we have the force of love on our side'…?"

"Oh, you heard that… I guess it was a little cheesy..."

"Link…" She stepped closer to me and tilted her head.

"Of course I meant it, my Princess," I hardened my expression as I considered my next words. "Just as I fell in love with Hyrule all over again after my awakening … I also rediscovered another love that I held deep within my soul."

I wondered if I'd crossed the unspoken yet progressively thinner line we'd kept between us lately. Before I had a chance to apologize for speaking my feelings too far, she grabbed my cheeks firmly and her lips collided into mine.

Sure, I'd wondered about what actually kissing her would be like before, but I never thought there was a real possibility it would actually happen one day. However, the real thing was much better than anything I could possibly ever imagine. Her lips were soft and warm as they pressed into mine. I dared to wrap my arms around her shoulders and pulled us closer together as I deepened the kiss just a little. I felt her lips smile—a strange sensation—and she giggled.

When we finally parted, I continued to hold her close to me. She leaned into my shoulder, and I felt her tension relaxing. "I had been waiting so long…Unsure if you actually felt the same..." Zelda whispered.

"Zel…"

We stood in each other's arms for a long time, until the sunset filled the tower with brilliant shades of red and orange.