The Great Plateau, Still the Second Morning After Heroes' Day
Upon asking to see the Colonel of the Great Plateau guards, Link and Zelda were brought in to see the First Lieutenant. The guard who guided them to her office apologized profusely, citing that Colonel Atlar overlooked the night shift and was therefore now off duty.
The guard knocked on the door to the office and called out in a ringing voice. "The Princess and the Hero to see First Lieutenant Deemil!"
Link heard the sound of wood scraping on wood, like a chair being hurriedly backed away from a desk, and then a muffled thump. Then: "Show them in!"
The guard opened the door, gave a quick bow, and trotted off.
Link and Zelda walked into the First Lieutenant's Office. Deemil was on one knee, her head bowed and hand on her heart. Link's eyes widened slightly: when on duty, guards were supposed to bow to Royalty instead of kneeling or genuflexing, in order to remain able to quickly react to any threat. The First Lieutenant's display was not only unnecessary but downright against protocols.
"Please, rise," Zelda said gently. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, First Lieutenant."
Link schooled his face into neutrality: if the Princess was going to ignore Deemil's lapse in favor of being kind, he could certainly do the same.
Deemil rose, bowed and then stood straight, her eyes focused entirely on Princess Zelda.
"Your Highness," she said. "It is an honor. Colonel Atlar of course informed me that you were visiting, but I did not dare dream that your highness would have time to meet with one so lowly as myself."
Link's head tilted slightly before he caught himself. The Lieutenant's voice was level to the point of being flat, as though she were reciting a script. Paired with the genuflexion, the self deprecation used to contrast with the show of respect, and the fact Deemil hadn't so much as acknowledged HIS presence, the overall impression Link was getting was that the First Lieutenant was not to be trusted.
The Princess gave no sign of having noticed. "It's true that my Father, Mother, Brothers and myself often follow unforgiving schedule and can't always greet everyone as we would like to. It is a pleasure to meet you, First Lieutenant. Have you met the Hero?" she asked, looking at Link.
Link's eyes widened slightly: maybe the Princess was more aware than she was letting on. He gave the Lieutenant a quick nod.
Deemil barely glanced in his direction and immediately turned her attention back to the Princess. "I have not, your Highness," she said.
Link focused once more on keeping his face neutral – he was pretty sure Deemil meant that she STILL hadn't met the Hero, neatly denying who he was while allowing herself room to pretend she wasn't.
The Princess took a half second before smiling again. "It's a shame we cannot stay for a more proper visit. In fact, I must confess that I am here with a request."
"It would be my honor to assist you in any way I can, your Highness."
Link briefly debated whether to try and pipe in at all. He was rather curious as to how the First Lieutenant's tone and manners would shift if he forced her to actually address him. He ultimately opted against it: their business here would probably be quicker concluded if he let the Princess take care of it and allowed himself to be ignored.
"We are headed for Midah in Faron," the Princess said. "It is a few hours' ride from the South End of the Bridge of Hylia, so we will need horses."
"I will arrange for our best horse to be made available to you, your Highness," Deemil said. "It is usually the Colonel's mount, but I can say with the utmost certainty that he would want you to have it."
Link reached for his pouch to get his ocarina: he had no desire to waste time begging for a horse for himself: unless the First Lieutenant offered him one with her next sentence, he was going to grab one from home.
"Thank you," the Princess said. "Do you have a recommendation for a second one that the Hero could use?"
First Lieutenant Deemil swallowed. "I… I can't say that I do. Truth be told…" she trailed off.
"Your Highness?" Link interjected. He almost added "If I may" but resisted the urge: the Princess had very clearly asked him not to constantly ask for permission to speak and to trust her to request peace when she desired it. "I apologize for interrupting, First Lieutenant."
The Princess turned her eyes to him, eyebrows raised, and didn't see Deemil's eyes narrowing slightly at Link.
"I would prefer not to needlessly deprive the Great Plateau's guards of their two best horses," Link said, keeping his debit relatively slow to allow the Princess to interrupt at her leisure. "Her Highness your mother the Queen has gifted my home with a few horses specifically for my use, and I can bring them along when I use my ocarina. With Your Highness' leave, I will go procure one."
"That would be for the best," Deemil said. "I was embarrassed to say, but we don't have that many mounts we can spare."
Link again forced his face to show nothing. Not only did he seriously doubt that was true, but the First Lieutenant should have allowed the Princess to offer her opinion first, both because of propriety due to her station and because Her Highness was literally the one who had been asked.
The Princess frowned slightly. "I'm sorry to hear that. Rest assured that I will inform my mother: our guards should not be in a situation where the loss of a couple of horses is an issue."
This time, Link had to keep from snorting: the Princess' response was flawless: if the guards here really were short on mounts, she would address the issue. If they weren't, she was exposing Deemil's lie to the Queen herself. The First Lieutenant flushed but stammered thanks and bowed.
Link was almost tempted to stay and see the First Lieutenant stammer out of the Princess' offer, but the urge to get moving was much stronger.
"May I go, Princess?" he asked.
The Princess nodded. "Yes, Hero. Thank Hylia for your resourcefulness."
"Thank you, your Highness," he said. He took out his Ocarina and played the Serenade of Water. He was certainly not about to play the song that would actually bring him home in front of the First Lieutenant.
Castle Town, the same morning
Remiss was doing his best to look inconspicuous, but he was relatively sure it wasn't working.
Shade and himself were in a civilian shop where the Sheikah was buying the gear she'd need to be on the road for a while, including winter outerwear since they didn't know how long it would take them to find a store in the perpetually frozen Tabantha. Shade had refused to go to wherever Sheikah usually got their supplies, insisting she wasn't allowed to bring non Sheikahs there and that she wasn't allowed to leave him on his own for any length of time either. Therefore, she was buying civilian stuff and hoping the Queen would not object to refunding her later.
The two employees present, as well as every other patron who happened to spot them, were staring at Shade and Remiss, mostly because they were still both in uniform, neither of them having had a change of clothes with them the day before. Guards and Sheikahs did not usually SHOP while on duty, and certainly not together.
Remiss figured people either realized he was under Shade's guard, clued in by the fact she was making him follow her all around the store, or worse, that they were a couple skirting their duties for some leisurely shopping together. Both scenarios were embarrassing, even more so that one of them was correct.
"Are you nearly done?" he asked his guardian.
Shade, who was examining a pair of mittens, nodded. "Nearly, yes. Did you find any civilian clothing for yourself?"
Remiss rolled his eyes and lifted his own purchases to show her. It was kind of a pointless gesture: she had her back to him. "Ages ago," he said. "I know you have more to get than I do here, but the contest only lasts so long."
Shade chuckled. "Indeed, a mere week. Not to worry, Colonel, the time I still require is best measured in minutes, not days."
She was at least true to her word: after selecting two pairs of mittens and adding them to all the other things she'd set aside, she proceeded to go talk to the shopkeeper. Remiss followed, his own scant purchases in hand.
They were out of the shop and walking towards the garrison in short order. Remiss was off duty, but as a Colonel, he wouldn't be questioned for borrowing some equipment and winter gear: the staff would just report it and let the higher ups deal with Remiss as they saw fit. The only thing he'd needed in the civilian shop was civilian clothing: the garrisson would have everything else he wanted.
The Castle Town's Garrison came into view and drew a smile to Remiss' lips: he'd trained here, long ago, and it felt a bit like returning to his roots to be back here. He walked to the gate through which the inner yard could be reached and stopped in front of the guard on duty.
The guard, a young boy Remiss had never met, sketched a quick salute at the sight of his uniform and stepped aside, letting both he and Shade through.
It was immediately clear that it was break time for the trainees and the guards: the yard was full of people either having a snack or chatting and playing games with each other.
Remiss froze when he heard the Master Sword mentioned. Shade twitched, revealing she'd heard too. They both turned their steps in the direction of the group they'd overheard.
"…rumor is it's dying?" a male trainee was saying. He sighed. "Man, can you imagine? Here's the Hero, trained all this time, found all these old artefacts just in case THAT wasn't enough, and now THIS?"
"Yeah," a female Sergeant said with a scoff. "And that's not the worst of it. Look."
She passed a folded sheet to the trainee. Even from several steps away, Remiss recognized it as one of the Hyrule Watch newsletters: the Harp logo and the blue borders made it quite distinctive.
The trainee read and his face twisted in undisguised fury. "WHAT IN THE DARK WORLD?"
"Yeah," the Sergeant said with a slight shake of her head. Her upper lip was curling a bit.
"Is that the one wondering if Link himself is making the sword sick?" another guard asked. "They're shameless, these guys."
"Why in Hylia's name would the sword be sick BECAUSE of its Master?" another guard asked. She was a few steps away, sitting with a few more guards around a card game, but had turned towards the conversation. The rest of her group was nodding vigorously.
Remiss was starting to wish someone would offer another point of view: this consensus that Link was the Hero because he WAS, and that therefore signs that he might not be couldn't possibly be signs that he might not be, was getting disheartening.
"Remiss? Hey! Remiss!"
Remiss turned at the voice, eyebrows raised. He thought he recognized it, but it had been such a long time that he wasn't sure. He smiled when he saw the face that went with it: Jemp, one of his fellow trainees, now a Captain if he judged by the stripes on her uniform.
She was jogging towards him and stopped a couple of paces in front of him, grinning. "It IS you! Oh wow! Well, come on then! Let me see the stripes!"
Remiss chuckled and turned a bit to the side, showing off his right arm: the Colonel stripes were a hand's width below his shoulder.
"Oooh yeah!" Jemp exclaimed. "And red for Akkala, of course... Congrats, buddy!"
Remiss chuckled. "It's been three years, Jemp," he said. "But thanks anyway. What about you? I thought you didn't want a promotion and you landed Captain anyway?"
"They forced it on me," Jemp said with a shrug. "So what are you doing here anyway?"
"Picking up some supplies for the road," Remiss said. He decided to use the opportunity to find out more about what people thought of the sword's condition and as a result, of Link. He mostly just wanted some reassurance that at least some of the guards were willing to adapt to new facts. "So what's with that rumor I'm hearing?" he asked. "The Master Sword is what, missing?"
"No, not missing," Jemp said. "Dying, supposedly. Imagine!" she chuckled.
"It's that blasted newsletter!" Someone shouted, having apparently overheard. "Going on about the Master Sword supposedly being sick because it's in the wrong hands. Bastards," he added in a disgusted voice.
Cheers greeted the statement.
"Guy keeps taking out the worst monsters before we can even get to them," someone else piped in. "Sir Pyr says he was the best in the land at eleven years old, but nooo... not good enough, not with round ears, don'tcha know... I'd like to see those idiots face a Hinox..."
"I wonder whether anything is in fact wrong with the sword?" Shade asked. "Has anyone so much as seen it?"
There was a pause as everyone stared at her and at her uniform. Remiss heard a few gulps and even saw someone shudder.
"It doesn't say, 'mam," someone finally replied in a mutter, apparently referring to the newsletter.
"If the sword IS sick," Remiss said, "anyone reckon it COULD be because Link is just a good fighter but not the actual Hero? I mean, I can sort of see where the newsletter would be coming from here."
There were several scoffs. Jemp barked a laugh.
"Oh no, Secret Seeker Remiss is loose again!" she said in a chuckle.
"All due respect, Sir, nope. Nobody reckons that," someone else said.
"All due respect, SIR, nobody SANE even wonders," someone added.
Jemp rounded on the new speaker. "That was definitely not all due respect to Colonel Remiss," she said warningly.
"Sorry, Sir. And Sir." the last speaker said.
"We'll discuss it later," Jemp said, scowling. "But seriously," she added in a low voice, turning back to Remiss and glancing at Shade, "is that kind of talk why you got yourself a shadow?"
Remiss sighed. "I need supplies. Can I just get them?"
"Well, yeah," Jemp said. "But do you need help? Are you in trouble?"
"I'm fine," Remiss said. "Thanks."
He waved and stalked off towards the Stores, ignoring the rest of the troops who were now whispering to one another while casting glances at him.
He was much quicker than Shade at selecting and taking what he needed, mostly thanks to the fact that full kits, labeled by size, were shelved and ready to go. He picked up some winter gear, a couple of swords, a shield, and some gear for the fall weather they'd be in until they reached Tabantha. He also took two bags of travel food, then called it good and stalked out by the outer door, not willing to go back through the training yard. Shade followed without a word.
They walked in silence all the way back to their room. The intent was to change and pack there, and then rent horses and get on the move.
Remiss threw his gear on the bed and rounded on Shade.
"What in the Dark World was THAT?" he asked. "Every last person in that yard was like under a spell! Link could have strolled in and killed someone, and they would just have assumed there was a good reason for it!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Colonel, that's not at all what they would think," Shade said. "They would have assumed the person who had strolled in and killed someone wasn't, despite all appearances, really Link. How could they conclude anything else? Everyone knows that Link doesn't fight people."
Remiss growled. "You know what I mean! If you're going to play dumb, could you at least refrain from using ten words when one would do?"
"I do know what you mean, yes," Shade said, dumping her own purchases on the other bed and starting the work of folding them tightly. "You thought that at least some of the guards would at least be wondering whether the sword's condition was indeed a sign that Link isn't who everyone thinks he is. Some people do think precisely that, clearly: we've met some such individuals last night and the rumor reported on by the newsletter had to come from somewhere. Not to mention that there are people who NEVER believed Link was the Hero in the first place, regardless of Farore's Medallion."
"Exactly!" Remiss said, throwing his arms wide. "Guards in my days were allowed to think. Has that changed? Are they all just trained to worship Link and not ask questions?"
Shade turned to face him and pointedly rolled her eyes. "I can't imagine there would be any need to include anything of the sort in their training," she said. "They're in Castle Town, Colonel, and being in Castle Tow, they rub elbows with palace staff daily, they train with Royal Knights several times a month, and they serve AT the palace, or escorting their Highnesses and Majesties, regularly. All this means that they are constantly hearing about Link's exploits. Every time he saves someone, everytime he slays a monster, every time he finds some long lost artefact or buried ruins, they're aware of it. There is no need to reinforce to them in any way that he's the Hero because they hear proof of it very regularly."
Remiss scoffed and started folding and sorting his own things. "NONE of that is proof," he said. He sighed. "I assume all this goes for YOU as well? Hearing about Link's exploits daily and taking every instance as further proof that he's the Hero?"
"Absolutely," Shade said. "I will hold my end of our deal to the best of my capabilities just the same, have no worry. In my view, finding more potential heroes merely means finding people who could prove helpful. I have no reason to be opposed to it."
"I'm not worried about your word," Remiss said. "You've given me no reason to doubt it, and in our position, we both benefit most from cooperation. It's just... it's maddening when people refuse to take in new information. What if I find the Hero and he refuses to believe who he is because he also can't fathom Link that ISN'T it?"
Shade shrugged but she stopped folding and acquired a slight frown as she touched her chin, clearly thinking through something.
"If you were to find a Hero," she said after a moment, "and face that person refusing to believe they are indeed the reincarnation of Hylia's Chosen because they cannot be convinced that Link is not, the best course of action would probably be to convince your newfound hero to assist Link in saving Hyrule and guide them to where they need to be to do that. Whether that's where Link is or not would depend on whether Link is where he should be."
Remiss blinked at her: it seems he'd been right not to doubt her – she was putting an admirable effort in planning for something she was completely certain couldn't possibly happen. "That's probably a good plan, yes," he said. "Thanks."
He set to getting his pack ready, chasing the Castle Town guards' irritating closed-mindedness out of his mind.