Chapter 19: Aftermath
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Zelda
Zelda huddled anxiously within the little divot of a cave in the hillside where Inpa had left her, too worried to sit still and yet too afraid to do anything else. She clung to the cold stone until her fingers were numb, staring desperately out into the woods. The barren branches should have made it easier to see, but it a thick fog had descended upon the Great Plateau, obscuring everything more than a hundred yards away.
Inpa, leaving her… it had been unthinkable, until today. Inpa was a constant presence, a comforting shadow, a reassuring friend. And it had been that way since Zelda was ten years old. In all that time, she could not think of a single instant in which the Sheikah had left her unprotected. Without her now, she felt horribly vulnerable, wary of every hint of a shadow that moved in the mist. And with the fear for herself came additional fear for her bodyguard, going to help Link against that – that abomination that had arisen from the guardian stalker's corpse. And fear for Link himself, although she found herself greatly comforted by the fact that he had that musket. Seeing it in action against the stalker and the scout, how it so thoroughly stopped them in their tracks… surely nothing could pose too much of a threat to him, with such a weapon!
A wolf's howl echoed through the woods and she jumped, her heart racing with fresh terror. She scanned the visible line of trees anxiously for the swish of a tail, glanced around the floor of the little cave and the nearby underbrush for anything that could possibly serve as a weapon and came up short. If I only had my bow! she thought wistfully, exhaling heavily. She shivered, the winter air taking its toll on her after so long outside without proper covering. Of course, archery has only ever been a casual pastime, even though I've gotten fairly good. I… I doubt I could use it effectively to defend myself. But it would be something, at least!
Her heart jumped as she caught movement beyond the trees, something large. Her stomach lurched in terror as she stared at it wide-eyed, pressing against the side of the cliff. "Inpa?" she asked fearfully, her voice barely audible.
She jumped when it emerged from the treeline, and then at once drooped in relief, her heart pounding hard. It's a horse. Probably belonged to someone… from the conference.
She blinked rapidly, tears prickling in her eyes for the umpteenth time at the thought. Goddesses, through some miracle, please have it be true that some of them survived!
Another shape emerged from the trees, large and canine in stature, and her heart froze as all thoughts of wolves returned to the forefront of her mind. But then she recognized the distinct black-and-white markings. Link's dog, she realized. Which means… is that his horse, perhaps?
The horse seemed content to plod slowly, aimlessly around the edge of her line of sight, the dog trailing after it. Zelda mustered the courage to step forth from her hiding place, shaking only slightly, and the animals noticed her at once, the dog trotting closer with its tongue lolling and tail waving amicably, while the horse merely watched her curiously. Zelda held her hand out for the dog to sniff, wishing she could remember the name – something bear-like, she recalled.
"Beira," she said quietly, and the dog looked up at her expectantly, closing her mouth. Zelda managed a small smile, petting her fluffy back. "Glad to see you made it out."
Beira glanced back at the horse, who was starting to walk towards her as well. Zelda had no idea what his name was; he had a reddish-brown coat and a flaxen mane and tail, and a very sturdy build. He looked like a farmhorse – or a warhorse. Zelda let him sniff her hand as well, and then reached for his bridle. "Definitely not Hylian or Gerudo craftsmanship," she noted quietly, lightly stroking the horse's mane. "I wish I knew your name, too. I didn't know Link had a horse, actually."
The horse snorted, and then flicked its ears towards the forest. Zelda noticed that Beira was suddenly staring in that direction as well, standing stock still with her ears erect, clearly focused on something. A moment later Zelda could hear footsteps and she held tightly to the horse's bridle, pressing close against his shoulder and watching Beira nervously, hoping that the dog would be able and willing to protect her if the need arose.
But the figure that emerged from the mist next was Inpa, and Zelda nearly laughed in relief – until she saw the limp figure Inpa was half-carrying, half-dragging along, and her heart dropped all the way down to her toes.
"Link," she whispered shakily, her eyes drawn at once to the large bloodstain in the middle of his gambeson, crimson liquid dripping freely down the cloth and leather to leave a splattered trail on the ground and smearing across Inpa's arms and clothes as she supported him. He was clearly unconscious, his face and every other inch of exposed skin horrifically pale, and he seemed to be barely breathing – if at all. Goddesses above, no!
"He's still alive somehow," Inpa panted as she neared. She stopped for a moment to stare critically at the horse and dog at Zelda's side, and then shook her head in exasperation. "I'm past questioning it. I'm past questioning all of it. The Goddesses' hand is in this, clearly, especially since they gave us a horse."
"I think it's his horse," Zelda admitted hesitantly, glancing back at the stallion.
"All the better," Inpa grunted, heaving Link onto the horse's back with more than a little difficulty, slung with his head and arms down one side and his legs down another. "Let's hope it understands how dire this situation is and doesn't give us a fight, because we have to move fast – that guardian thing's still out there, and I don't know how long it'll stay distracted." With Link situated, Inpa cupped her hands to form a makeshift mounting block for Zelda. "Get on."
Zelda nodded quickly, climbing up onto the horse's back behind Link. Inpa was quick to climb up behind her, reaching around for the reins.
"Hold on tight, and try and keep Link from slipping off," Inpa said tersely, and then with a nudge to the horse's sides they were off, cantering back through the woodlands with Link's dog bounding along behind them. Zelda gripped the horse's pale mane tightly in one hand and kept her other on Link's back, doing her best to keep him in place as the mist-drenched forest flew past. She felt him move and at once pressed down harder, heart suddenly racing, worried that he had been slipping – and then she felt the motion again and realized he was trembling.
Hold on, she thought, biting her lip tightly. We – we just have to get off of the Great Plateau! She prayed that he wouldn't bleed out before they could get him proper help.
The horse's hooves clattered against the cobbled road through the Great Plateau leading towards the stairway down. Inpa kicked the horse's sides again, urging him faster. Zelda could hear distantly over the rush of the wind the gunshots and guardian blasts – the fight was still going, although it seemed far from them. She hunched lower on the horse's back, guilt swimming painfully through her insides. My attempts for peace… it all amounted to nothing. Even though we had a treaty nearly set in stone, it was all for nothing – they went right back to fighting each other immediately!
Maybe if she had… if she had done better… maybe then the two factions would have been more amicable to peace right out the gate today? Maybe they would have paused to investigate the explosion before starting to fight?
And that was another thing – the explosion. The Temple of Time, an ancient, sacred structure, reduced to rubble in some places, broken pillars in others. Only the rear of the Temple seemed at all intact. Everyone who had been inside…
She shivered violently, the wind from their flight drying the tears on her face as soon as they fell. And now Link, who had undoubtedly saved her life and Inpa's somehow, who had gotten them safely through the battle and ultimately intended to sacrifice himself so that they could escape… now he, too, was slipping from her fingers – almost literally, she thought as she struggled to get a grip on the sturdy leather of the vest over his gambeson. So many have died today – please, you can't be one of them!
They charged down the grand staircase, a few stragglers crying out in shock and diving to the side as they passed. There were more people gathered on the road at the bottom, but as soon as they reached the base of the stairs, Inpa wheeled the horse into the shrubbery off to one side of the road. Only then did she allow the horse's speed to slacken, first to a light trot and then, as they put more distance between them and the road, to a slow walk.
"Where are we going?" Zelda asked anxiously, glancing back at the road.
"Not back to the castle," Inpa growled. "Not with an injured Zonai."
Zelda winced, nodding in agreement. Here in central Hyrule, she reflected with an unpleasant lurch in her stomach, there were likely few willing to look favorably upon any Zonai, let alone an injured one. They were still a considerable distance from any settlement, both a blessing and a curse – they would need medical supplies for Link, she was certain, which necessitated proximity to people. But at the same time, Link stood the best chance in hostile territory the further they kept from such places.
"Besides," Inpa added bitterly as she slipped down from the horse's back, holding his reins close to his chin and leading him onwards, "I doubt your father will be at all pleased when we see him next. I figure it'll be best if we lay low for a while." She kept them close to the ragged cliffs looming up on their left, forming the Great Plateau above them.
"And you have a place in mind?" Zelda asked, unable to keep the worry from her voice. "It's just scrubland here next to the Great Plateau – crops don't do very well so close to the Temple."
"For a Sheikah trained as I was, to serve a member of the Royal Family, there are safehouses throughout the kingdom," she said with a cryptic grin, continuing north around the base of the Great Plateau. She was scanning the cliff face, Zelda noticed, following her gaze. There didn't seem to be much other than shallow divots in the rock, barely more of a cave than what Zelda had been sheltering in when Beira and Link's horse first found her. She glanced quickly over her shoulder at the thought, smiling grimly upon catching sight of the big dog trotting through the brush behind them, tail wagging.
The temperature was dropping steadily, and the sky remained dark and overcast, although fortunately it was no longer foggy. Zelda shivered again, leaning over her hands to blow warmer air onto them. She wished for her caribou-hide cloak, which she'd left back in her room at the castle in favor for a more regal-looking one. A stupid decision, she chided herself. At the time she had wanted to appear more mature, more… queenly. Plenty of good it does here.
Inpa suddenly turned hard towards the cliff-face and pressed her right hand, palm flat, against it. And after a moment the hand disappeared, right into the rock face; Inpa pulled back, grinning. "Here we are," she said, reaching to help Zelda down from the horse's back. Once she was off, she carefully pulled Link down as well, again slinging his right arm over her shoulder. "Follow me. Just walk straight ahead; don't think too much about it. Close your eyes if it helps."
Zelda nodded, recognizing the portion of cliff face as some sort of variant of the spell of disguise Inpa had taught her. Inpa and Link disappeared right into the stone, leaving her alone outside. She swallowed, looking the cliff up and down; even knowing this part of it wasn't real, it looked exactly as rough and solid as any other stretch of cliff along the Great Plateau. But when she reached for it, her hand passed through, just as Inpa's had. She walked forward, unable to keep from closing her eyes at the moment her head passed through, only opening them again once she was certain she was on the other side.
It was, she realized quickly, much more than just a cave. Beyond the false wall was a wooden door that Inpa had opened, leading into what had the appearance of a tiny, ordinary cabin. There were two beds, a fireplace – the chimney was a massive narrow shaft leading the hundreds of feet up to the top of the Great Plateau, Zelda realized when she peered up it, catching sight of the tiny pinprick of light on the far end – several cupboards presumably full of supplies, and a table with three chairs set around it. Sconces set into the wall were already lit – either Inpa had magically lit them herself, or there was a spell designed to set them alight as soon as anyone entered the secret cabin.
"Check the cabinets for bandages, a needle, and thread," Inpa said grimly, carefully setting Link down on one of the beds and quickly working to remove his armor. "He's still alive – let's keep it that way."
Zelda nodded, hurrying to the cupboards and opening them. One held only food – jerky, mostly, and dried fruits. The next had extra blankets and what looked like some clothes. But the third that she opened contained a roll of bandages; she grabbed them and crossed the few feet between the cupboards and Link's bed. Inpa was just finishing pulling his gambeson off, leaving him in just a loincloth. There were bruises across most of his body, but the worst of it was definitely centered around his chest, and there was so much blood around the whole area – although, surprisingly, none of it looked particularly fresh.
Inpa took the bandages at once, tearing off a strip and pouring water from a pouch on her belt onto it before dabbing carefully at the blood. Zelda watched anxiously, repulsed by the gore and simultaneously desperate to know how bad the damage was. There was silence but for strained, shallow breaths rasping from Link's lips, awful pained sounds that made Zelda's eyes burn with tears. She'd seen him injured twice before, but the first time the wounds had been well on their way to healing, and she hadn't been particularly emotionally attached to him. The second time, it was mostly just his left shoulder that was injured, and it was heavily wrapped in bandages. Now the wounds were fresh, and he'd fought a terrible monster and risked himself in every way – to save her and Inpa. She didn't even know which of the bruises across his body were from his battle, and which were from escaping the collapsing Temple of Time. She couldn't help but feel then, that these wounds were her fault, to an extent.
"Is – will he – will he be alright?" she dared to ask, as the silence stretched on.
"I…" Inpa's voice trailed off as she squinted at the wound in Link's torso. "It's all… very strange." She shook her head slowly. "I was close enough to see when he… got this. But it's stopped bleeding – from the looks of it, it stopped bleeding before we even got here. The deepest parts of it seem to have closed already."
Zelda watched Inpa closely, seeing the confusion and relief written in her expression. "That's… that's good, right?" she said hesitantly.
"It's miraculous," Inpa said, shaking her head again in wonderment. "That wound should have – it would have killed him almost instantly. Huh – I guess that guy at the conference did imply that Zonai shamans could heal, but… Link's not a shaman…" She exhaled heavily. "Whatever. Less work for me, and more of a chance for him." She prodded experimentally at the worst-looking bruises across his chest and cringed. "That… that explains his breathing."
"What?" Zelda asked urgently, taking half a step closer.
Inpa raised an eyebrow. "You sure you want to know?" she asked skeptically. "It's not pretty."
Zelda nodded determinedly. "I want to help, somehow, and I can't do that if I don't know what's going on."
Inpa shrugged. "Alright then. He's got… about five broken ribs, although fortunately it doesn't sound like any got his lungs. There's honestly not much I can do for that. He's got some really bad bruising around this stab wound – again, nothing I can really do there, although I can stitch the wound itself closed. Broken nose – I can at least set that… and his left arm's not in great condition – aha! His elbow's dislocated; I can fix that!"
Zelda stared at Inpa with wide eyes, uncertain whether to be dismayed by the extent of Link's wounds or amused by how desperate the Sheikah seemed to do something to help him. Inpa caught Zelda's gaze and seemed to droop slightly, her expression grim.
"I saw the end of his fight," she offered quietly. "That – that creature…" She shuddered. "He didn't really stand a chance. I regret that I didn't make it to him in time to help. But I want to help now – and then it turns out that most of his wounds are just things he's going to have to suffer through on his own…"
Zelda nodded slowly, looking sadly at Link's pained expression. "I understand," she murmured, blinking tears away yet again. "Thank you, for getting him out, Inpa."
The Sheikah's stoic crimson gaze seemed to soften. "He'll be okay," she said gently. "We'll make sure of it."
Zelda pulled up one of the chairs to Link's bedside and sat down on his right, watching as Inpa cleaned the dirt, ash, and dust from various scrapes and scratches across his skin. If she needs anything, if he needs anything, I can be ready to help, she thought gravely. He wouldn't – he wouldn't die, she was certain of that now, but… he was still clearly in a great amount of pain, with a long recovery ahead.
She heard his breath catch, and a feeble moan croaked from his lips, when Inpa moved on to cleansing the grievous wound in his middle. Grimacing, she took his right hand almost instinctively, giving it a gentle squeeze, hoping to give whatever comfort she could. His hand felt surprisingly warm; with the swiftly-dropping temperatures outside and the severe blood loss he'd experienced, she expected it to be ice-cold. Worried, she reached over and lightly smoothed his hair out of his face to feel his forehead.
No fever, she noted, unsure whether to be relieved or more worried. His face, at least, certainly felt as cold as she'd expected. Why is it just his hand that's warm?
She examined it curiously, turning it lightly over to scan for injuries –
And promptly let go as if she'd been stung, her heart hammering suddenly a thousand times faster. "Inpa!" she gasped. "I – his hand –"
Inpa looked down quickly, her crimson eyes widening at once as they followed Zelda's gaze. She reached out carefully, her brow heavily furrowed, to trace the faintly glowing outline of three triangles on Link's skin.
"Well," she said at last, her voice suddenly a croak. "I… I was wrong. About your mark. It's definitely not anxiety. And it's also much, much more than just a sign of your divine blood, as a Princess of Hyrule."
"Clearly," Zelda whispered in awe. "Because – because he has the Triforce of Courage!"
"Which means the Golden Goddesses have chosen their champions," Inpa nodded gravely. "Link is the Champion of Farore, bearer of Courage." She snorted. "Of course a Zonai warrior from Faron, from the Dragon Tribe, would be chosen."
Zelda held out her own hand carefully, feeling the warmth of her own mark – no longer itching and uncomfortable, but rather soothing. The bottom-left triangle was, she realized, the slightest bit brighter than the others. "Inpa, does this mean…"
"That you are the Champion of Nayru, yes," Inpa affirmed. "Bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom."
Zelda winced, covering the mark with her other hand. I certainly don't feel very wise, she thought glumly, her thoughts turning back to the disaster of her peace conference.
And that brought to mind Maz Koshia's words of Calamity. She swallowed thickly. "So the Calamity is truly upon us," she said quietly. "Link has the Triforce of Courage – he is destined to wield the Master Sword, and I am destined to use my ancestors' magic to seal the source of the great evil causing the Calamity."
Inpa dipped her head. "We have to get to the Lost Woods. Monk Zah Tori and his Order of the Sword are our best lead – if they aren't guarding the Master Sword itself, they might know where it is. And it's close to Skeldon, which we wanted to investigate anyway for any connection between spirit magic and the Calamity." She laughed humorlessly. "I'd say we have a much better idea of what the Calamity's power looks like now, than we did when we first threw around this plan."
Zelda nodded determinedly. "As soon as Link is fit for travel, we'll make for the Lost Woods," she said. "If the Master Sword is there, perfect. If not, hopefully the Order of the Sword will know where we should look for it. And we'll investigate Skeldon while we're up north – having an actual Zonai with us might help us pick up details we wouldn't have understood otherwise."
"All in good time," Inpa chuckled, returning her attention to Link's injuries. "We can't wait until he's entirely healed. This was the closest safehouse to the Temple of Time, which is exactly what we needed in terms of keeping our friend here alive. But… whatever is causing the rise of Calamity – the explosion, and that… that thing…" She shuddered, scowling. "I don't want to stay here very long. We should move on as soon as we can – there are other safehouses we can rest at."
"Not back to the castle?" Zelda asked quizzically, raising an eyebrow, although even at the thought of returning home she felt a sour sinking sensation in her stomach.
"Not at least until we see the repercussions of everything that happened today," Inpa sighed. "Will the war spread, for instance? Fighting on the Great Plateau… will that lead to more violence elsewhere? Will Hyrule itself officially pick a side?" She started examining Link's left arm, preparing to set the bones there. "There's too much that we don't know now, that would greatly impact whether or not it would be safe for you – and for him – to return to the Castle. Not to mention everything about the situation with your father."
Zelda grimaced. "You're right," she agreed heavily, absently taking hold of Link's hand again. "It's safer that we stay more or less in hiding for now – at least until Link gets the Master Sword." She propped her head up on her hand, elbow digging into the thin cot on the bed, and her gaze slid to Link's face. "So for now… we wait."