Chapter 15
The princess and her knight spent another restful night in the inn before heading back to Hateno, the journey taking another three days overall. It was late by the time they finally arrived back at the house, Zelda heading straight for the bath while Link started preparing the elixirs per the Goddess' instructions. He had every flat surface downstairs covered in various bowls of colored powders, chopped plants, bottles of different liquids and a few other unidentifiable things by the time she finished. A smile spread across her lips as she watched him carefully measure this and that before dumping it in the pot over the fire, looking very much like an alchemist in his lab. Not wanting to get in his way, and tired from the long trip, she left him to his work and retired to bed.
The following morning dawned dark and dreary, rain pouring down while thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. Zelda woke in a sweat, panting from the heat with her covers on the floor. She sat up and threw open the small window above her bed, relishing the cool air on her skin as she leaned outside. Once her mind was fully awake, she realized the house must be burning and quickly headed downstairs.
The house the dark and the only flames in sight were safely contained within the fireplace, though the number of logs burning were not few. A mound of blankets had been left in front of the hearth, close enough to the flames that it was a miracle they hadn't been lit already. Zelda jumped when the pile shifted, realizing it was her knight.
"Link, have you lost your mind? It absolutely sweltering in here- you're going to give yourself heatstroke huddled beneath those blankets!" Zelda quickly crossed to room to open the door and the windows before turning back to the swordsman. Her eyes widened as her mind arrived at the only logical conclusion. "Oh no, you must be having another episode. Get out of those blankets quickly and come outside- we have to get you cooled down immediately!"
She rushed forward to help unbury him from the pile, stopping short when some mumbled words reached her ears. She'd never heard him speak while in this state. "What was that? Did you...say something?"
The pile shifted again, parting slightly to reveal Link's head as he repeated his words. "I'm not having an episode." The words were slow and almost slurred, as if he was having difficulty enunciating. His hair was mussed beneath the leather cord of the ruby circlet, the red stone set in the center glowing faintly. The light of the flames colored parts his cheek and ear as he sedately turned toward her, the rest of his face lost in the shadows of the darkened house. Dull blue eyes met her gaze briefly before he seemed to melt back down into the blankets. "I'm just so cold..."
Zelda stared at him, feeling the sweat sliding down her back and making her hair stick to her face and neck. If he was still feeling cold in the sauna he'd turned the house into, then there was definitely something wrong. "It is likely you have fever. I suppose one day resting at the stable wasn't enough time to for your body to recuperate from everything else. The cold is just your mind playing tricks. Take off these blankets and I'll see if I can find the local healer to come take a look at you."
The tousled head of hair slowly swiveled back to the princess, blue eyes closing in long blink as he processed what she said. Link felt like his mind was mired in a bog, each thought having to fight through the marsh to connect with the next. He groaned when he had parsed Zelda's words, loathe to shed the cocoon he'd made. Several more seconds passed as he realized the extra layers weren't actually providing any heat, though he couldn't understand why. Wasn't bundling up supposed to make him warmer?
Zelda pulled the blankets away when he finally released them, a bit unsettled by how much coaxing it had taken. If his mental state was already degraded to that degree, she may have to take a firmer hand in order to help him. The feather-lined snowquill tunic he was wearing looked more bulky than usual and almost painfully tight, parts of two or three other tunics sticking out the bottom and neck showing why. Her brow drew down in worry at the sight, wondering how high his temperature must have risen with him bundled in front of the fire like that. "Only one layer of outerwear, Link. I have no idea how long you were cooking yourself, but your fever's likely dangerously high. Do you know where I can find the local healer?"
Link just watched her with confused eyes as she grabbed the top most layers and worked them off over his head. His arms moved sluggishly to make it easier for her to pull the garments off, the movements more of an automatic response as his mind struggled to work through why the extra layers hadn't helped.
The clothes were dropped in a pile next to the blankets as they were removed, though the cloth was almost cold in Zelda's hand. It was obvious that he hadn't been bundled in front of the fire for very long, not even long enough for his own body heat to warm the extra tunics. Thunder rumbled outside and she wondered if he'd been doing...something with the horses for a bit too long and was really just trying to warm himself. While there were too many other warning signs to be dismissed, she breathed a bit easier knowing that his fever, if he even had one, may not be as high as she'd originally thought.
All thoughts along that track were promptly derailed as Zelda noticed a faint mist coming from Link's skin, the vapor only visible due to her close proximity. He was literally steaming from the heat and she seized his arm, intending to drag him outside if she had to, only to recoil almost immediately when the skin she touched wasn't burning as she had expected. Her hands moved of their own accord, quickly checking his cheeks and forehead. "You're freezing! How can you possibly be so cold!?"
Link blinked at her again, his gaze uncomprehending. "I'm cold."
Zelda shook her head, mind whirling as she hastily wrapped the blankets around him once more. The house was hot enough to make her a bit woozy, but he felt like he'd been sitting in a blizzard. Clearly, there was something very wrong with her knight. "Hold these here," she instructed, lifting his hands to hold the blankets in place again.
Link dropped his chin to his chest, staring confusedly at the blankets. Didn't she just tell him to take them off? Why would she put them back?
"Link. Link." He just continuing staring at the blankets, so Zelda carefully lifted his face to look at her. His cool cheeks felt wonderful against her heated fingers as he sluggishly raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "I need you to focus. Where can I find the healer?"
It took several seconds for her question to register. He pulled his face away from her hands, shaking his head. "Don't need a healer. I'm not sick." Though slow, the words were firm.
Zelda would not be deterred. "Being this cold is not normal Link, especially not in this furnace."
"Is it really that hot in here?"
She huffed out a sardonic laugh. "Like a sand dune in the Gerudo desert, at midday." Her clothes were drenched in sweat and the room around her was beginning to waver, like the heat haze in the desert. Though worry for her knight overrode everything else, the heat was taking its toll.
He really looked at her, taking in her heavily flushed face and the moisture glistening on her skin. "Sorry. I didn't realize." He dropped his hands, letting the blankets fall off as he fumbled with the slate on his belt.
"It's all right, our priority is to warm you up first." Zelda grabbed the blankets as they fell, quickly pulling them back around his shoulders. "Remember when you sent me back after being frozen by Naydra? We need to have you looked at as well. If you don't want the local healer then I'll fetch Purah, but you need to be checked out by someone."
"They can't help. It's Naydra..." Link's face scrunched as he tried to think of the word. He slowly raised a hand, tapping on his forehead. The faintly glowing stone in the ruby circlet went dark and cracked, chunks of the red rock failing out of the setting. Link didn't seem to notice, eyes lighting as he remembered the word he was looking for. "Horn. The...elixir from Naydra's horn."
"The cure? You've taken it and think that is the cause?" While relieving to know the source of her knight's unusual ailment, this raised several more questions. Link had never given her the specifics of what this process entailed. "Is this supposed to happen? Do you know how long it will last?"
Link shrugged, his eyes wandering to the counter. "At least three days. I need to drink one each morning."
Zelda followed his gaze, seeing three bottles sitting on the counter. Each was a different color; a vibrant red, a bright yellow and a pale blue. The first two were practically glowing while the last would have looked like plain water were it not for the occasional soft shimmer as light reflected off something mixed in the liquid.
She stood up to examine them more closely, only to be forced to grab the back of a chair as a wave of dizziness crashed over her. The heat was unbearable and she was nearing her limits. "I'm sorry Link- I have to step out for a moment," she said once she had regained her equilibrium, unsteadily making her way to the door. There was a drastic drop in temperature as she stepped out into the morning air, staggering to the left and sitting heavily on the earthen steps leading around the side of the house.
The damp air was refreshing as she drew it into her lungs, the cold rain bringing relief to her overheated skin as it soaked into her night clothes. Zelda turned her face up to the heavens, enjoying the temporary reprieve from the oppressive heat. She knew it wouldn't be long until she was shivering, but for the moment she could think of nothing more blissful.
Link stared at the doorway, his brow creasing in concern. Zelda's stumbling gait was familiar to him, though he hadn't seen it from an observer's perspective before. It reminded him of endless dunes and a merciless sun beating down on him without the faintest speck of shade in sight. The memory of the heat itself was difficult to recall in his current state, but its debilitating effects were not. Clearly, it was far too hot in here for the princess.
He looked down at the slate in his hand, pulling up the inventory and removing a couple of blue chuchu jellies he then tossed into the fire. The jellies bounced off the logs instead of bursting, eliciting a scowl from the swordsman as they briefly caught fire before turning a bright, almost glowing, orange. He slowly reached out and grabbed the newly changed fire chuchu jellies, only realizing his hand was too close when his fingers bumped into a burning log.
The wood was rough and uneven, but he couldn't feel the searing heat that he knew was present. Experimentally, he carefully reached out and wrapped his hand around a glowing stick. The wood sizzled as the fire was extinguished, leaving a black mark in the shape of a hand behind. The skin of his fingers and palm was unmarred, without even the faintest sign of a burn. It seemed not even red coals could hope to match the power of Naydra's ice. With a sigh, he replaced the red jellies in the slate before taking out two more blue ones to try again.
The house was considerably darker once the fire had been doused, prompting Link to light the lanterns. The familiar movements felt slow and clumsy, his entire body heavy in a way he'd rarely experienced before. It took several tries to get a spark from the flint and steel, and even more to light the wick. Stiff fingers almost dropped the lantern when returning it to the hook before pulling down the next. The simple task required a fair amount of concentration and it wasn't until he felt Zelda's hand on his arm that he realized she'd come back in and had been trying to get his attention.
Her hair was plastered to her skin and her clothes were soaked through. The red flush was still present in her cheeks but the slight tremor in her shoulders showed it was from the cold this time. Her face was creased with undisguised worry as she took the unlit lantern from his hand. "Please sit down, Link- you're as pale as a ghost!"
At her urging, he stepped down from the chair he'd been using as a stool, letting her guide him to one closer to the hearth. She was speaking quickly, as she was wont to do when agitated, and he was having difficulty following the conversation. His mind seemed to be functioning as slowly as his body, her words flowing over him with as little meaning as birdsong.
The blankets were laid over him once more and he blinked at them, reminded of his previous musings on why they hadn't helped. The reason finally came to him, evoking a bittersweet feeling of triumph. While happy to have solved the mystery, the reason was a fairly obvious one and it shouldn't have taken him nearly so long to realize it. The blankets didn't create heat, they kept it in. They kept the cold in, too. And at present, he may as well have been ice.
Zelda was crouched in front of the still-smoking logs, trying to get them to light. He dropped his gaze to his hands, remembering the feel of the burning stick. Visually it was hot enough to burn; but tactilely it felt like he had grasped a thick icicle. His hand dropped, fingers running along the side of his chair. Hard ice. His other hand squeezed the blankets draped over his lap. Squishy ice. Snow?
A hand gently touched his arm. Soft ice. Words were washing over him again and he shook off the wandering thoughts, trying to focus on Zelda crouching in front of him. "What?"
Seeing she had his attention, she motioned to the wet wood in the fireplace. "I'm afraid I'm having some difficulty with the fire. I'm not asking you to light it, but it would be helpful if you could tell me what I'm doing wrong."
Link took a few seconds to process her request. "It's too hot for a fire." She wasn't shaking anymore, so why would she want to build a fire? He suddenly realized he wasn't shivering either. Something niggled at the back of his mind, something about being too cold to even shiver being a very bad sign. Where had he heard that again?
Zelda was shaking her head. Her hair moved in thick clumps, droplets of water dripping from the sodden locks. "I'll be fine Link, it's you I'm worried about. I don't mind spending the day outside if the fire makes you more comfortable, but I can't get it to light. I need your help."
"It doesn't help." Heat simply didn't exist in his world anymore and there was no reason for both of them to be miserable. He picked up one of the blankets, rubbing the material between his fingers. "I thought it would, but it's all like ice. It's...weird, feeling the texture but not temperature." He let the cover slip through his fingers, half expecting it to shatter when it hit the floor.
She bit her lip anxiously, worried but unsure how to help. "Is there anything I can do?"
Link pulled his mind back from where it had wandered, dismissing the mental image of the blanket scattered like a broken snowball across the floorboards. He tried to give Zelda's question some real thought, but his mind refused to stay on topic. His eyes were drawn to her clothes hanging heavily on her body and still dripping slowly. Without thought, his arm moved to grasp part of her wide sleeve that was hanging down and squeezed, sending a thin trickle across his fingers. Liquid ice. Water. Water as cold as ice. What there a term for that?
He shook his head, finding it increasingly difficult to focus. "You should change into something dry. You don't want to get sick."
She sighed and stood up. "Very well, I'll go get dressed. Let me know if you need anything, all right?"
Link nodded, more because something told him it was the response she was looking for rather than any real intent to do so. "I think I'm just going to...sit here and exist for a while." The never-changing cold was getting easier to ignore, but his mind couldn't stay focused long enough to do anything else.
Zelda headed toward the stairs, hesitating at the bottom. "Only three days, right?"
Link blinked slowly at her before nodding again. "Only three days."
To Be Continued
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