Chapter 60 - Explaining Astra
Summary: In the Calamity Timeline, Astra takes on more responsibility from Queen Zelda. Purah returns Astra's Tab and takes a deep dive into timelines to explain how they work and what happened. Astra ponders what North Hyrule must be like now.
One week had passed since Astra and Fallon's picnic at the Sacred Grounds, and the mid-morning sun illuminated the walls of Hyrule Castle with a golden warmth. The air was filled with the songs of birds chirping in the garden and trees.
Astra sat at her desk in her new office, situated atop one of the tallest spires of the castle. The room was across from Queen Zelda's office, offering a convenient location for the two to collaborate if necessary. Astra found it a joy to work in. Myra, Queen Zelda's loyal Royal Secretary, was stationed nearby, always ready to assist with any tasks that arose. Even Zelda's curious cat, Mia, occasionally wandered into her office eager to investigate her new neighbor. Astra couldn't help but smile at the playful feline's antics as she roamed around as if she owned the place.
A gentle breeze wafted through the open window, carrying with it the fragrant scents of blooming flowers, adding to the tranquil atmosphere. Astra looked up from her reading as a sparrow landed on the windowsill and let out a single chirp before fluttering away. This brief interruption allowed her to take a moment to admire the breathtaking view. From this vantage point, she could see almost the entire kingdom of Hyrule. The rolling hills, shimmering rivers, and majestic mountains all seemed like a painting come to life before her eyes.
Lost in her thoughts, Astra was suddenly brought back to reality by a soft knock on her open door. She looked up to see Myra standing there with a gentle smile.
"Your Highness, Colonel Lorton, head of security, is here for his usual meeting with Her Majesty. Would you like me to show him in?"
"Yes, please. Thank you, Myra."
Astra hoped this meeting would go smoothly; it was Lorton's first meeting with her instead of Queen Zelda.
A moment later, Lorton entered the room, radiating confidence and displaying respect. Astra stood up from behind her desk to welcome him.
"Good morning, Colonel. Please take a seat," she greeted warmly. "Would you like some tea?"
"Thank you, Your Highness, I would," Lorton replied graciously. "I always find Queen Zelda's tea quite invigorating."
Astra poured him a cup and refilled her own before they both took a sip and got down to business.
"I understand that I will now be reporting to you regarding security matters, Your Highness," Lorton said respectfully.
"That is correct, and I hope that is agreeable to you," Astra responded calmly.
"Very much so," Lorton earnestly expressed. "If I may speak candidly, I believe this change will be beneficial for all concerned. Her Majesty is an admirable ruler loved by all, always putting the well-being of her subjects first. However, I can't help but feel that she sometimes carries too much responsibility alone on her shoulders. I hope that reporting to you will somewhat ease her burden."
"I wholeheartedly agree," said Astra as she nodded in agreement. "I have gone through the security reports from yesterday and have no further questions," she stated. "However, I am curious if any progress has been made in determining how those three criminals were able to find out about my journey to Crenel Peak."
"We have indeed investigated, Your Highness, but we cannot say for certain," Lorton replied with a sigh. "However, we did discover a flaw in our security measures that may have played a role. Your horse was always charged out from the Royal Stable under your name whenever you rode, a procedure that dates back to before we knew that you were a Princess. However, after your royal lineage was revealed, this process was never changed. Moving forward, any horse you use will be charged out under the name of the Royal Guard, making it less obvious when you plan to ride."
"Excellent idea," Astra praised with a nod. "Now, it would be helpful for me to familiarize myself with the security team if you could provide a brief review of the officers under your command and their backgrounds, as well as an overview of our castle's security measures."
"I am well-prepared to do so," Lorton replied. "When it comes to security, attention to detail is crucial."
The meeting lasted late into the morning until Myra appeared at the door again.
"Excuse me, Your Highness," she said. "I just wanted to remind you that you have a lunch meeting with Her Majesty and Dr. Purah in fifteen minutes. Her Majesty has already left."
"Thank you, Myra," Astra stood up, and Lorton followed suit. "I found our discussion quite stimulating, Colonel. Time flew by quickly."
"I am glad to hear that, Your Highness," Lorton replied. "Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist with."
With a respectful bow, Lorton left, and Astra gathered the reports from the previous day. She was about to put them away when Myra spoke up.
"May I take care of that for you, Highness?" Myra offered. "I am familiar with the castle's filing system."
"Yes, of course, please do forgive me," Astra smiled apologetically. "I am used to handling everything myself. Now, I must hurry to make it to the family dining room on time."
As Astra made her way to lunch, she remembered the significance of today's meeting. Dr. Purah had requested a meeting with Astra and Zelda to return Astra's Tab and share her findings about Astra's mysterious origins.
"Why don't we meet over lunch?" Zelda had suggested. "Feel free to stay as long as needed, Dr. Purah."
Meanwhile, earlier that morning, Purah had been taking a last look at Astra's Tab before carefully re-attaching the screen. It was the only part she had removed, not wanting to risk causing irreparable damage. She recognized some of the Tab's components, as they resembled similar parts from a Sheikah Slate. There was what could only be an Ancient Core that emitted a soft glow and powered the Tab. And there was intricate circuitry everywhere to distribute that energy throughout the device. However, everything was much more compact and on a much smaller scale compared to a Sheikah Slate.
"This is beyond my capabilities," Purah muttered to herself. "Even with years of research, I couldn't hope to replicate this technology. The components are too small and well-designed. This must be the fruits of more advanced Sheikah technology, but where did it come from?"
With a sigh, she finished reattaching the screen and was happy to see it worked as before.
"Now, where are my notes? I promised Zelda a fuller explanation of Astra and timelines," Purah muttered to herself as she searched for her notes.
She finally found them under a book on her worktable, and by then, it was time to leave if she wanted to make it to Hyrule Castle by lunchtime. She locked up her lab before walking down the path to Hateno Village, where a horse awaited her by the inn. The ride to Hyrule Castle was uneventful, and she arrived just in time for lunch.
"Ah, you made it, Dr. Purah," said Zelda. "I was afraid Astra and I would have to start without you."
"Thanks for waiting," said Purah. "I got a late start."
"Now, let me return this extraordinary device to you, Highness," Purah continued as she handed Astra back her Tab. "And thank you for letting me examine it. I believe I have uncovered all I can about it. Its technology is far beyond our capability now, truly remarkable. I didn't want to tamper too much more with it for fear of breaking it."
Supposedly, you can't," said Astra. "At least where I came from, it self-repairs. But I don't know if that self-repair process will work here without … well, let's say, in this timeline. And the pictures and memories it contains are too precious to me to risk losing them."
"I understand and was very careful with it," said Purah. "I only hope that one day, you may share your knowledge of its origins with us."
Astra nodded, a thoughtful expression crossing her features. "I would like to," she replied. "But I was warned that doing so may not be wise. Let me consider it further, perhaps after some thorough investigation."
"That's fine," said Purah.
"Now, shall we have lunch?" suggested Zelda, gesturing towards the spread of food on the table before them. "Then we can delve into the matter you wished to discuss. Astra and I are intrigued by the main reason for your visit."
The aroma of freshly cooked meats and savory herbs filled the air as they ate, savoring every bite.
"I hope that we will be able to restore the Royal Ancient Tech Lab soon so that you can work from here, Dr. Purah," said Zelda earnestly. "Hateno Village is a long ride, but my priority has been rebuilding the villages and settlements destroyed in the Calamity first."
Purah nodded in understanding. "That is certainly more important, but whenever the lab is ready, I will gladly return here," she replied. "It would make our meetings much easier and perhaps more frequent. And I would have access to the extensive castle library."
After they finished their meal, Purah stood up and prepared to explain timelines and Astra's existence, eager to share her thoughts.
"I must admit, I've had difficulty wrapping my head around exactly what happened for Astra to come into being, despite reading Link's journal extract more than once. Forgive me, Astra, for talking about you like you're not here. But I don't know how else to ask questions," said Zelda.
"I am not offended in the least," Astra laughed. "And I am interested in Dr. Purah's explanation."
"I agree how Astra came to be is confusing," said Purah. "And one of Link's speculations was not entirely accurate, though most were. But I hope by the end of the day, we will all understand it much better."
Purah then began addressing them as though she was lecturing a class, her words flowing smoothly and confidently.
"To begin, let's consider the concept of alternate timelines," she said, using her hands to emphasize her words. "Picture each person's life as a thread embroidered in a huge tapestry representing the entire kingdom through time. The thread starts at one point and weaves through the fabric, crossing other threads along the way. This represents their unique journey through life from birth to death and their interactions with others during that time. Now, imagine an alternate timeline or timeline split as stitching a blank tapestry onto an existing one at a specific point in time. Most of the threads from the original tapestry continue as normal within it, but they also start weaving into the new tapestry. So, those threads exist separately in both tapestries but share a common past until the two tapestries meet. It's like two parallel worlds that merge at one point."
Purah's passion for her subject was evident as she spoke, drawing the others in with her animated gestures.
"I believe I comprehend," said Zelda, and Astra nodded in agreement.
"Now, when the Temple of Time is used by someone to travel to the past, it creates an alternate tapestry at the point in time they traveled back to. But their thread becomes unique. Their thread rises out of the original tapestry at the moment they initiated the time travel and loops back to the point in the past they arrived at - which is the point where the new tapestry is joined to the original. They no longer exist in both tapestries or timelines but go from old to new. Any questions so far?"
Seeing none, Purah continued.
"So, for example, when Link traveled back in time on the second day of the eleventh month in the year 121 of our timeline, the Calamity Timeline, he created a new timeline stitched onto ours on the first day of the seventh month in the year 17, just a week before Zelda's birthday. Everyone else continued to exist in both timelines except for him. Is that clear?"
"I believe so," replied Zelda. "However, achieving such an occurrence is beyond my comprehension and will probably always remain so."
"Perhaps we will never fully understand exactly how it works," sighed Purah. "After all, it's called the Temple of Time for a reason. It's not the Laboratory of Time or the Palace of Time, for it is dedicated to worshiping the Goddess of Time, Hylia. There's something mystical about it."
Purah paused to take a sip of her tea and consult her notes before continuing.
"So now we have the Calamity Timeline we currently inhabit without Link. And a new timeline, later called the Victory Timeline, with different versions of ourselves as of the year 17. And, of course, with the same Link that left our timeline and traveled there," said Purah.
"Now along comes this sorceress or demi-goddess named Timela, who has some power over time and evil intentions," said Purah. "In the year 45 of the Victory Timeline, on the day Link went to the Gerudo Desert to rescue his son Link and Princess Zelda, Timela created a third artificial timeline by sending a Link back to the instant after he activated the Temple of Time. However, while Timela had some power over time, she did not have the same power as the Goddess. She could not remove Link from the Victory Timeline. However, she could create a copy of Link in her artificial timeline. Let us call this the Timela Timeline. Thus, Link actually remained in both the Timela and Victory timelines because this was not a Temple of Time-induced event but rather an artificial one. Link was under a spell in the Victory Timeline, while another version of him arrived in the past."
Purah paused to take a sip of her tea before continuing.
"Of course, the Link in the Timela timeline still had all his memories of his life in the Calamity Timeline and then his life with Mipha in the Victory Timeline up to the year 45. But to everyone present then, he appeared to be the Link who had just attempted to travel back in time in the year 121 Calamity Timeline but had apparently gone nowhere. In other words, the time travel had seemed to fail."
Purah paused for a moment.
"Wow! The other version of me must have been beside myself to be thought wrong! Imagine that! People thinking I made such a terrible mistake! It's unthinkable!"
Purah paused to take another sip of her tea.
"Perhaps," laughed Zelda, "But that is not the most important aspect of the story, is it, Dr. Purah?"
"Oh, no, no, of course not," Purah continued after putting her cup down. "So, it was assumed Link suffered some terrible mental injury from a malfunction of the Temple of Time that made him delusional about a life with Mipha. After all, he had dreamed of a life with her and hoped to find one by going back in time. So it must have been thought his mind somehow invented one."
"Makes sense," said Zelda.
"So, this Link lived out his life there for seven or eight years, eventually marrying the Zelda of that timeline, and they had a daughter they nicknamed Astra. All this happened in the past in the Timela Timeline while the real Link remained in a spell in the Victory Timeline, the rate at which time passed likely being different. Now, you may ask why Goddess Hylia didn't put a stop to all this. We can't know for sure, of course. But my theory is that perhaps she knew that you, Zelda, would not have children from the one you would marry in this, the Calamity Timeline, which would end Hylia's bloodline here. So, she allowed Timela's events to take place up to a point. But Hylia eventually stepped in and replaced the Timela version of Link with the real one from the Victory Timeline while the Timela one slept. That's where Link's journal begins, waking up beside Zelda as her husband and completely confused. When he insisted he was married to Mipha, Zelda and the others naturally assumed he had suffered a relapse as this was the same story he initially told them years earlier and was medically treated for. Link covered much of that in his journal."
"Okay, I'm following," said Zelda.
Purah paused to take another sip of tea before continuing.
"When Timela was defeated, Link passed through a portal back to the Victory Timeline, and Hylia undid the fabricated timeline that Timela had created. But Astra was returned to the moment of her conception in the Victory Timeline instead, allowing her to be born normally and grow up as a child, but with genetic ties to both Link and Zelda. Hylia's ultimate plan was for Astra to save Hyrule in the Calamity timeline."
"I remember having a typical childhood, growing up with Zelda as my mother and Link's cousin, Rudin, as my father," said Astra. "It wasn't until later in life that I learned who my real father was."
"So that's my best explanation for what happened," said Purah. "The Link from the Victory Timeline had no memory of the years he spent with Zelda in Timela's timeline because it never happened to him in his reality. He only learned what he could from reading that other Link's diary."
"That makes more sense now," said Astra. "My father suspected that Timela had somehow erased his memories of his marriage to Zelda. He could never understand why she would leave him with only partial memories instead of completely erasing everything, like his memories of Mipha. But I have a question. Why did Hylia send me to be born in the Victory Timeline before bringing me back here to the Calamity Timeline? Why not simply leave me here from the first?"
"We can't say for certain," said Purah. "But perhaps living and training in the Victory Timeline played a crucial role in shaping your character, developing you into the person you needed to be to save this reality. It also allowed you to know and grow close to your real father and gain an older sister."
"That does make sense," said Astra. "And I am grateful for those experiences."
"And that brings us to today, the year 144. It's astonishing that you'll be turning nineteen soon, Princess Astra. Time truly flies by."
"While we are talking theory," said Zelda. "If Timela could only create an artificial timeline, what was her goal?"
"Again, I cannot be sure," said Purah. "But I suspect she wanted to curry favor with her lord, Ganon, by creating another timeline in which he could return and try once again to conquer Hyrule. Ultimately, Ganon failed in both the Victory and Calamity Timelines, and Timela wanted to give him another chance."
"I suppose that is a possible explanation," said Zelda.
"But I have another question, Dr. Purah," said Astra. "What would happen to a hypothetical place outside of Hyrule proper that claims to be unaffected by time travel initiated by Hyrule? If one journeys there from Hyrule, which timeline will one encounter?"
"Let me ponder that as I savor another sip of this stimulating tea," said Purah.
After swallowing the tea, Purah continued.
"I believe they will also have a timeline split, and when they say 'unaffected,' they mean their new timeline will be stitched to their original at the point of Hyrule's time travel, not in their past as in Hyrule's case. For example, when Link left our timeline in the year 121, it created a new timeline attached to ours in the year 17 - in our past. But it created a new timeline in that hypothetical land in our year 121. Their time continued from the year 121 in both of their timelines."
"So, if someone journeyed to their land in the year 27 of the Victory Timeline, it would be the year 131 in their land but in a separate timeline that started in the year 121," said Astra. "I'm converting their calendar to ours for simplicity."
"Yes, I believe that's correct," said Purah.
"And, to continue the thought, if someone in our Calamity Timeline were to journey there now, it would be the year 144 in their original timeline, not the timeline created by Link's time travel, correct?" Astra continued.
"Yes, that is my interpretation," said Purah. "But these questions are way too specific to be purely hypothetical, Highness. I'm beginning to suspect this may have something to do with where your device came from. Can you not share with us where this hypothetical land is?"
"Now that I have it back, I need first to review a digital copy of a book my Zora half-sister Mila wrote," said Astra. "It's in an encrypted folder where I keep certain items. You will have to trust my judgment on this."
"We will," said Zelda. "But before my head spins any further with thoughts of multiple intersecting timelines, how about some Royal Fruitcake for dessert? Let's enjoy our company while we are all here together."
"There's nothing like Royal Fruitcake!" laughed Astra.
As Zelda handed out slices of cake to everyone, Astra's mind drifted to the convenience of Tabs. If only Fallon had one, they could easily communicate through messages or calls. Growing up in a world where Tabs were a standard technology in Hyrule, she couldn't imagine how people managed without them. She made a mental note to someday travel to the far north of Hyrule, perhaps the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, and attempt to connect to North Hyrule's network from there, curious about what information it held.
Later that day, after her work was finished, Astra took a moment to jot down some of the significant dates in her life and Hyrule's history by timeline. It might help her to keep things straight in her mind.
Significant events by timeline (Year-Month-Day)
Event Calamity Timeline Victory Timeline
Link born 00–06–16 00–06–16
Zelda born 00–07–08 00–07–08
Ganon's attack 17–07–08 17–07–08
Link awakens 117–07–08 N/A
Calamity defeated 117–10–08 17–07–08
Link time travel 121–11–02 17–07–01
Link/Mipha to North Hyrule N/A 27–05–05
Princess Zelda born N/A 28–02–05
Astra born N/A 41–10–01
Zelda's husband killed 142–09–24 49–06–04
Astra time travel 142–10–02 58–10–02
Today 144–08–15 60–08–15
"Well, Fi, what do you think of my timetable?" Astra asked when she had finished.
"If it serves your purpose, Mistress, then I suppose it is acceptable," said Fi with a tone of disapproval.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Your time stamp is only accurate to the day," said Fi. "You are neglecting hours, minutes, and seconds. And you are omitting many other incidents of importance."
"I don't need such high precision, and I only wanted a few key events," laughed Astra. "Perhaps I should have asked you to prepare the table. But then, who knows when you will finish? I can't imagine how long listing every detail to the second would take."
"To ensure complete accuracy, Mistress, it would take…"
"Never mind Fi. It was what we call a rhetorical question," laughed Astra. "I don't expect an answer, and I need to hurry and meet Fallon for dinner in Castle Town."
"Enjoy your meal, Mistress," replied Fi graciously. "I sense you are progressing excellently on the other part of your mission."
"Somehow, referring to my love life as 'the other part' of my mission doesn't sound very appealing," joked Astra. "But I will make the most of it."