Chapter 2

Link had just gotten to the street when Lance caught up to her. She heard his footsteps as he ran after her. Unlike Link, who just showered and left, Lance had to help the other instructors clean up the dojo and say goodbye to the students before he left, putting him a couple minutes behind Link. She had held up though, knowing he would want to chat with her. She turned and smiled at him as he came to a stop.

"I can hardly believe that just happened." He said, looking bewildered.

"Well it did and I'm glad." Link says, looking and feeling exultant. "I should have told that pig off years ago."

"Maybe." Lance said thoughtfully. "But if you had told him before today, that officer wouldn't have seen you and you would never be able to get into the army."

"Ah, true." She said with a chuckle, admitting that Lance was right. "I guess I had to tolerate that ass just long enough to meet Naboora. But for now…"

Link looked up at the clock tower at the center of town, visible from most places in the city. She was leaving the dojo about thirty minutes earlier than expected but;

"I need to get to work." She said, again smiling. Lance's eyebrows rose at the sight, normally when Link mentions work, she's in a bad mood about it. "It'll be nice not having less than five minutes to run from the dojo to the pub."

"Ah, that's why you're grinning. But don't you hate that job." Lance asked, understanding somewhat why she smiled.

"Of course, but I just found out I don't have to tolerate it much longer."

"Right, you're joining the Royal Army!" Lance said, laughing as he slapped her on the back. He really felt happy for her; though he knew he would miss her now that she wasn't going to come to the dojo anymore. A sad look briefly crossed his face which Link didn't see. It passed before Link turned around to look at him again.

"Lance, look!" She said excitedly, pointing at a nearby window. Lance had to blink several times before he realized what he was looking at.

"Is that a Crystal Image Projector?!" He asked, incredulous. "I thought it was going to be another year before they could make those things household!"

"Me too. I guess Master Gaepora really is a genius. First he figures out how to tune a crystal to a specific spell, then he makes it possible to watch events through them. His promise of putting a Crystal Projector in every home is actually going to come true."

"I wonder why he even developed Crystal Magic; he can already cast magic naturally." Lance said. He'd always been skeptical of wizards and magic, even though he apparently had a lot of magic in his blood.

Over the past century, magic, which had always been strong in Hylians, was actively studied and an institute of magic was formed for those who had talent to learn. Instead of the days where wizards were mostly self-taught, they could learn from others and avoid mistakes because of it. In the past decade attempts had been made to better understand Hylians natural magical ability that was rarely actually utilized. It was now understood that there were two general variables, one was the magical potency of a person's blood, which determined their mana supply or the amount of magic a person could cast in a short amount of time, and their talent, a person's ability to access their mana intentionally and purposely form it into a spell. A person's mana could increase with training, but there was little a person could do if they lacked talent. Lance and Link were opposites in this regard. Lance had a lot of mana, but no talent, while Link had talent, but no mana. The advent of Crystal Magic would change things for people like Lance, letting them use their mana effectively, though Lance had no real interest.

"I heard that Gaepora started work on Crystal Magic because Princess Zelda asked." Link said. The princess was said to have a ridiculously large mana supply but almost no talent. So Zelda asked her uncle, the Royal Magician and brother of the Queen to give her the ability to do magic. While even Master Gaepora couldn't directly do anything to increase Zelda's talent, he eventually came up with an alternative.

"Heh, speaking of Princess Zelda, I heard she's announced that Hyrule's going to host the negotiations between the Gorons and the Zoras."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's going to personally mediate the meeting."

"If anyone can prevent war between those guys, she can. Everyone loves her."

"The Gorons somewhat complained though that Hyrule can't be genuinely impartial."

"What? Why?"

"If the cleaning doesn't go well, the pollution could spread to Lake Hyrule, our main water supply."

"Oh, damn. But the Gorons are already doing their best to clean up aren't they."

"That hasn't stopped the Zoras from their complaining."

"Well their homes are in danger thanks to the pollution; it's understandable that they're upset."

"I agree. The Gorons should have made better plans when they started building their factories and becoming industrious."

"Well the Gorons aren't really heavy thinkers, are they?"

"Hey, that's not nice."

"Sorry." Link laughed nervously. She didn't mean to say that, it was kind of racist. Because of their appearance and general demeanor, Gorons had to fight against the image that they were slow. One of the reasons for their rapid industrial expansion lately was to show their ability to think and create. Some of the Goron factory owners had gotten fairly rich because of their clever business plays. It was well known that the Goron who designed the Go-Carts, a steel vehicle moved by an odd fire-spewing engine, was really wealthy now, and when he visited New Hyrule to talk to the Queen a while back, he was treated like a Noble. Go-Carts had become somewhat common sights around the city lately, with large ones transporting various goods here and there, while rarely the smaller personal ones would be seen with an aristocrat out for an evening drive. Link wasn't really impressed though because none of them were faster than horses and they made an awful lot of noise.

"Are the Zoras still claiming that the Gorons did it intentionally, that they were trying to kill the Zoras?" Link asked, trying to divert from her offensive slip.

"Not officially, no. The Zora citizens still think so but the Zora King stopped making those allegations."

"How'd that happened?"

"Princess Zelda apparently talked at least some sense into the Zora King already."

"Ah. Well, with her taking care of the meeting, I predict a peaceful conclusion and a fair compromise."

The look on Lances' face said that he didn't entirely agree.

"What's wrong?"

"I've heard rumors."

"Of what?" Link asked, stopping and looking at Lance curiously.

"I've heard that the Gorons' mess might have been sabotage. Rumors are that Lord Fangor is trying to incite the war between the Gorons and Zoras. "

"What!?"

"Yeah, apparently the Gorons did make plans to safely take care of their waste. We Hyrulians have been industrial for ages, so of course they already knew about the dangers of pollution from our history. They were never going to dump their waste into the rivers, so the fact that it ended up there is suspicious. The reason the Zora King stopped making allegations of attempted murder is because Zelda apparently pointed this out to him. I've heard the real reason Zelda wants to hold the conference is so that she can talk to both races about what to do with Fangor."

"That's…wow…that's pretty intense. We've been on bad terms with New Hylia for years now, but…we might be going to war?"

"Maybe." Lance looked uncomfortable. Link had a guess why.

"Are you worried about me being in the army when the war happens?" She eyed him accusingly. She didn't want him trying to keep her away from her dream just because of a tiny war.

"What? You...Oh no, that's not what I was thinking." Lance said, seeming genuinely confused for a second, surprising Link that he hadn't been thinking about her. "I was just thinking that war with religious zealots never turns out well."

"Hm, that's true."

"The last war over religion destroyed Old Hyrule Town."

"Five hundred years and it's still an uninhabitable ruin."

Link and Lance's conversation started to die down as they came to Link's workplace, the Lon Lon Tavern. Link turned before they got to the front door, heading for the employee's entrance in the back while Lance would go in the front door and take a seat at the bar. As Link entered the door a voice rang out at her.

"Hi Link! You're ten minutes early today, what happened?"

Link turned and smiled at the cheerful coworker as she made her way to the changing room.

"Hey Malon, an officer of the army came today and said I'm going to join the army. I was finally able to tell Byrnwuld off and quit the school."

"Oh, well that's good news, your dream's coming true." Malon said with a grin. Suddenly putting on a girly-girl act she pretended to swoon as she said, "Now if only my dream of being swept away by a handsome knight would come true as well."

"When I'm a knight I'll be sure to recommend the good ones to this tavern for drinks so you can take your pick."

"Oh really?" Malon asked, surprised and dropping the act. "That'd be amazing."

Link laughed at how happy that made Malon as she quickly changed into her barmaid outfit. Malon automatically helped tie some strings on the back.

"Hey, won't that mean you're going to quit here soon?" Malon asked from behind Link gently tying a knot. There was a rare tone of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah…but you know I'll visit all the time!" Link said quickly trying to cheer up her friend. "I'll just see you more often as a customer instead of a coworker."

"It won't be the same but still, congratulations Link. You deserved this."

Link turned around and shared a brief, friendly hug with her childhood friend. As soon as they parted Malon was back to her chipper self, ready to get back to work.

"Welp, pa can't run the store forever without me. Let's get to work."

"Yeah…" Link spoke warily, "There aren't too many grabbers today, are there?"

"Ha, well, all the regulars know better than to grab you, so there's only the half-dozen new guys to worry about."

"Wonderful, I'm in a good mood today so I guess I'll only break their arms if they touch me today." Link said sarcastically. She walked after Malon into the main bar area waving at Talon as she entered.

"Pa, Pa! Link did it, she's going to enter the Royal Army!" Malon excitedly told her father.

Quickly serving the drinks in his hands he turned to Link.

"Really? Well ain't tha' dandy. I suppose yer not long fer workin' here then?"

"Sorry Talon, you've been great but this is what I've been waiting for." Link said cheerfully, grabbing her little notepad and pen to take orders and getting ready to dive into work.

"Well, I suppose this has been long in comin'. Congratulations dear, you can have a free drink after work."

"Thanks, I'll take you up on that."

Having told Malon and Talon the news, Link dived into work. Taking orders and serving drinks like she did most days of the week. She was more cheerful than normal today, knowing that since she quit Byrnwuld's academy, the next paycheck would go to her instead of him. She'd have some pocket money for once. Today was also good because none of the patrons got the wise idea to try and feel her bottom. She once thought she heard a regular warning a new guy against the idea, something that didn't bother her in the least.

There was one patron though, that gave her an odd feeling. The Lon Lon ranch respected the privacy of its patrons, so it wasn't against the rules to keep your hood up in the bar. But the man in the corner gave Link a bad vibe. It was like the vibe she got when she knew a customer was getting too drunk and about to get rough and stupid. But the man only had the one drink in his hand and didn't seem at all violent. Still, he'd been cradling that glass for well over an hour, making no signs of wanting a refill or to leave. Having had enough, Link eventually walked over to him and put on her fake smile.

"Would you like a refill sir, or a check?"

Link's hand reached for the empty glass, when suddenly the man's grabbed her wrist and roughly turned her arm to show the back of her hand.

"What the-hey!"

Link's voice carried through the bar and the whole place seemed to freeze for a moment. Most of the regular patrons were expecting to see the man's hand on her rear or something, but were surprised by the sight.

"What's wrong with you?"

Link had barely been able to ask the question when the man had let go and dropped a red rupee on the table, leaving quickly and silently as a shadow. Rubbing her wrist, Link felt confused as she grabbed the money (13 rupee tip?) and looked at the mark on the back of her hand. She'd often been made fun of for the mark when she was little, but she hadn't actually thought about it for years now. Why had the man been so rude, and why was he interested in her mark? She looked at the rupee, trying to see if it was counterfeit or something, but it wasn't. Strange though, it had Goron markings. This rupee had been mined and distributed from a bank at Death Mountain rather than from Hyrule. While not impossible to find, Goron rupees were far from common. She pocketed the rupee and marked on her pad about the price and change. She had too many patrons to deal with at the moment to spend much time on weirdos.

After several hours of work, with midnight having just passed and the last patron gently guided out the door, Malon and Link finished changing clothes and cleaning the bar. Saying goodnight to her friend and other coworkers, and getting that free drink from Talon ("Damn, I was hopin' you'd forgot.") Link left and started making her way to the residential district and her apartment. It was fairly dark, with only a few of the new Crystal Magic lamps working right. A passing guard offered to escort her home. Judging by his voice of concern, a genuine offer rather than flirting, but still Link politely refused. She could take care of herself, or so she thought.

Link had barely turned the corner when she heard a thumping sound, like a sack of potatoes hitting the ground. Turning around to see what it was, and if the guard was alright, she saw a man turning the corner, hooded and a glistening blade in his hand. With a jolt of realization, she could see that the blade glistened from the fresh blood dripping from the blade. Hearing several soft footfalls around her, Link knew she was surrounded by at least a half-dozen men, one of whom had already murdered a guard in cold blood. They wanted her, and whatever their reason was, Link knew she wouldn't like it. Without hesitation, she threw the glass of mead in her hand at the face of the man with the sword. Hearing the smash rather than seeing it because she was already turning to face her other foes, she knew that he wouldn't bother her for a minute. The other five were already charging her.

The first was a large man, brutish and stupid, judging by the way he swung his massive arms at her. A part of her mind noted that only the man with beer and glass in his face had a sword, the others had steel knuckles, a short, blunt stick, and a cloth? As she dodged under the big guy, Link knew the cloth had some kind of knock-out formula on it. So they wanted her alive? Was the sword for show? To scare her? No, assume they want to kill, play it safe, hold nothing back.

A swift uppercut to the pit of the big guy's arm and it was dislocated. The big man bellowed in pain as Link slid forward towards the man with the cloth. If that touched her face, it was over, so he absolutely had to be neutralized. In one swift motion, she distracted the man by taking off and throwing her coat at him, giving her ample opportunity to kick the man in the groin, sending him face-first into the dirt grabbing his jewels. The other three were moving forward now, looking wary after that groin shot, not quite ready to charge yet. Deciding to do the charging herself, she was about to attack when one massive arm suddenly wrapped around her and squeezed the air out of her.

"Gotcha you bitch!"

Link felt the man's useless arm flapping against her and could tell he didn't have a good grip, as strong as it was. She was impressed that he was actually as tough as he appeared, but didn't stop from whipping her head back, hitting him in the nose and breaking it. She felt a bit of blood spurt from the man onto her hair, but didn't worry about that for the moment. The man had dropped her and she fell to her knee, even as she could breath again, so she needed to get air into her lungs and stand up.

Unfortunately, there was no time for her to recover. She had been hopelessly outnumbered from the start. Before she could even raise her head after taking in her first good lung of air, the man with the short stick smacked the back of her head. Blackness filled her vision and she was down.