Born a Weapon

A Twilight Princess Fan story

Chapter 37

A Promise Kept

Link approached a man sitting in an alleyway who was shaking in terror. He gasped in fright when Link approached, but he held his hands up in a calming gesture and kneeled down to his height.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"No. No no nononononononono. I'm not. They're going to get me. I can't let them get me!"

"Who's going to get you?"

"The masks!" the man snapped, grabbing Link by the collar and shaking him. "They've been hiding for years!" he said, his voice now a whisper. "Hundreds! Maybe thousands! But I know! I know about them! I know what they've done!"

"Calm down!" Link responded, "Let me go." He said calmly, and the man suddenly realized what he was doing. He released Link, who staggered back, shocked and confused by the man's behavior and words.

After that day, the man was never seen again.

When Link awoke from his dream, he wasn't sure how long he had slept since the window was closed to avoid killing the Twili sleeping in her own bed. Over the past few days, he had slept very late while he healed from his wounds, but even during those days, he had been conscious enough to begin planning the trip to the next Fused Shadow. The planning also seemed to be the only thing that could appease a surprisingly aggressive Midna, as she would not stop pestering him to get better so they could continue their journey. Link was unsure why she had started acting like she hated him again, but he hoped it was temporary.

Link got out of his bed, faintly hearing commotion from outside. Now that Kakarikio was hosting an army, someone always seemed to be doing something, no matter the time. Link slipped out the door before locking it so no one could walk in and see Midna. If there was an emergency, Midna could unlock the door from inside. As he made his way to the window in the hallway, he saw that the sun hadn't fully risen yet, and stars were still visible in the sky. He made his way through the inn, coming across Renado just as he shut the door to the room he had been tending to Ralis in.

"How's Ralis?" Link asked.

"He has passed through the worst of it." The healer replied, "As long as he rests, he should recover in due time." Link was glad to hear welcome news, as Ralis' condition had been deteriorating for a few days. "Link, do you know the fate of his mother? Her welfare consumes him. He has been mumbling deliriously about her almost constantly." Link let out a sad sigh.

"She did not survive," Link broke the news quietly, "She was publicly executed in front of her people by the man responsible for the crisis Hyrule is in." Link's eyes slowly drifted towards the door. "I don't know how to tell him."

"Do not burden yourself further," Renado placed his hand on Link's shoulder. "I will handle informing him. It is a duty I have experience performing." Link nodded to Renado before walking to the stairs and heading for the inn's door. Soldiers could be seen in the halls and main section of the inn. A woman was explaining a map to her comrades, who Link slid past while they ate some food. Other soldiers were gathered around the tables, and two men entered the inn with their rations. A few soldiers had given nods or greetings to Link as he passed. The first time he had left his room, he was met with the loudest cheering he had ever heard and was swarmed with thanks. It was overwhelming and was now a source of teasing for Midna. She found it hilarious that Link could face down an army of bulbins but not gratitude. After much maneuvering, Link managed to make his way out of the inn to see even more soldiers moving through the streets of Kakariko, with several tents across the village housing the many soldiers. The gate the soldiers had struggled to close against the bulbin horde days before had been upgraded. It now looked like one of the gatehouses that would be found at castle town, built with materials the Gorons had provided. Several Gorons also wandered the village, and Link suspected some of them were also soldiers. Link hoped the children from Ordon didn't feel too cramped here. He hadn't considered that.

Link wandered through the village, wanting to help with something but having no idea what anyone was doing, so he just wandered around awkwardly.

"Link," a voice called from behind him, and Link turned around to see Captain Bryon walking up to him. "I'm glad to see you walking around. You were in rough shape after that fight. I haven't gotten to say this yet, but thank you. Things would have been much worse without your help."

"I didn't help that much. The distraction failed."

"You say that, but those masked guys are though. I tried to fight one when they sabotaged Castle Town's water. I got my ass kicked. I chased them into the castle with some of my best men and got trapped in the sewers. It was a blood bath. The dark corridors were perfect for them to hide in. "When they finally left us alone, weird black monsters started attacking us." The captain sighed. "Sorry. You've had some rough days, and I shouldn't be dumping my problems on you. I probably shouldn't even be telling you all this, but I needed to get it off my chest, and you've proven I can trust you."

"Don't worry about it," Link said, leaning on a building. He had realized Bryon was talking about the day he first met Midna. "I don't mind."

"Thanks."

"So, how did you get out?"

"Well, someone drained the water, I'm not sure who, and we managed to get out through a secret tunnel that leads to Telma's bar. It's one of the reasons me and the rest of the resistance made it our meeting place."

"The resistance?"

"A small group of civilians trying to help out with the invasion. We decided it was a good place to set up in case we needed to use the tunnel."

"You could probably use it to sneak Zelda out," Link mumbled absentmindedly.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Brian said before a few seconds of comfortable silence fell upon them. "Wait a second, how did you know Zelda was trapped in the castle?" Oh, shit. A few seconds of Link trying to phase into the wall later, he decided to give Bryon some of the truth.

"I… might have been your mystery man." The captain slapped his face loudly.

"I don't know why anything surprises me anymore! Wait, you can turn invisible?!"

"What? No! I was… sort of in another dimension while also still being in the sewers."

"What the fuck?"

"Look, it's complicated, ok?"

"Ok, I'll stop pestering you," Bryon held up his hands in surrender, "next, you're going to tell me you're the chosen hero of legend." Silence. "Are you fucking kidding me-"

"I'm going now," the chosen hero of legend quickly said as he walked off. "Bye." Bryon had learned a lot from that conversation, but Link wasn't trying to hide it from him. Just like Bryon trusted him with sensitive information, Link knew he could trust Bryon with what he learned.

Link decided he needed a break from all the commotion, and the only place he could think of that might be calm was the inn's roof. There was a staircase to it, but he would need to go back inside to get to it. Deciding he would get there without going through the crowded inn, Link climbed the wall. The last time he climbed, his wounds made the process excruciating, yet in a few days, they hardly bothered Link as he scaled the inn's wall. Before long, Link had reached the top and began pulling himself up. He stopped just as his shoulders passed the roof when he saw someone sitting on the roof.

"Ilia?" With a startled squeak, the girl turned around incredibly fast, dropping a book Link hadn't realized she was holding.

"Link! What are you doing?!"

"Uh… I was just coming up here to get away from the commotion?" Link said like he wasn't casually hanging off the building's roof.

"Get up here before you fall!" Link finished pulling himself up and climbing over the banister to appease the panicking girl. "Why would you do that?! You fell off a building just days ago, and when you finally start recovering, you climb an even bigger one! Do you know what would happen if you fell?! You'd-" Link simply waited for Ilia to run out of air, but she seemed to be showing no signs of stopping. Link almost thought she could make it to the bottom of Lake Hylia with lungs like that.

"Nice lungs," Link said when she had finally stopped.

"Just don't do that again!"

"Okay, sorry," Link said, holding up his hands. I wasn't expecting you to be up here."

"You're not the only one who needed a break from the commotion," Ilia said as Link picked up the book she dropped. "I came here to get a break and look at the stars." She took the book from Link and showed him the cover, which read Hylian Astronomy. "I've been trying to catch up on as much as I can since I can't…" the girl trailed off, not finishing her sentence.

"Don't worry. Everything will come back eventually," Link promised despite not knowing how to help. He idly wondered why Ilia's amnesia made her forget some basic things like stars while Link seemed to remember all the basics of life.

"It's interesting," Ilia said before holding the book out, "do you want to read some?"

"Sure," Link shrugged, taking the book and sitting down. She could see Ilia felt too awkward to resume sitting on the roof, so Link correctly assumed this would reassure her. He listened to Ilia talk about some constellations she read about and idly flipped through the book, not paying attention to it until something caught his eye.

There was a strange diagram with the world drawn in the center, with the sun and moon around it. Confused, Link reread the pages as he became increasingly confused, turning pages incredibly fast. The book was wrong. It stated that the world was the center of the universe, with the moon and sun orbiting around it on a different celestial plane. The stars were debated as either residing in the outermost celestial plane or holes in it with something on the other side shining light through. Additionally, it depicted the world as flat, though it did explain that recent experiments have pointed to the world being round instead. The book listed several accomplished astrologists as sources, all seeming to have been studying their field for years, but Link was positive the book was wrong.

"Link?" Link finally snapped his head up to see Ilia looking at him with a confused expression. "Are you ok?" Link had millions of questions. He could not understand why accomplished scientists would state what he read as fact or how he was positive they were wrong.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Link lied, handing the book back, "sorry. There was some interesting stuff in there." Ilia seemed not to believe him, but Link's attention was swiftly changed when he noticed a ghostly figure behind her. "I need to go," Link quickly said as he stood and approached the figure, "It was nice to see you again."

"Link!" he turned back to see Ilia struggling with what she wanted to say before seeming to give up. "Take the stairs." Link gave a light nod and headed down the stairs, struggling to navigate the crowded inn again. After exiting, he quickly spotted the figure again. He idly wondered why no one else seemed to react. Could no one else see her? It was possible. Link wasn't an expert on ghosts. The hero stepped out of the inn's doorway and started following the ghost of the zora queen through Kakariko. Keeping up was slightly challenging with the speed the queen floated, but she always seemed to stop and wait whenever Link fell too far behind. Eventually, the crowd disappeared as he followed her up a path he had never walked before. Link emerged to a surprising sight.

Tombstones littered the ground, smashed into pieces, and scattered across the floor. The few still standing had scratches, and many names were now undecipherable. The eerie silence chilled Link. This desecration was a result of Zant's invasion, the unmistakable marks of shadow beasts claws on many tombstones. How many people rested here, he wondered, their graves violated by what may have once been their friends and family? Were they still at peace? Or did they scream out from the afterlife, demanding vengeance or justice for what had been done to their home? The dead rested here, but lives had also ended in this place of rest, and Link swore to the souls of the long and recently departed and all those trapped in the body of a monster that he would give them justice and peace.

He raised his head from the tombstones to the spirit he could see as she phased through a wall in the back of the graveyard, and a stone with the zora symbol engraved on it faded into nothing, revealing a large passageway. Link walked through, thinking the tunnel was unnecessarily big, but if this was a zora tomb, it needed to accommodate zora, who could be very tall. When Link emerged from the tunnel, he saw an extravagant pool of water. He stood on one of the only two places that wasn't filled with water in the room as beautiful waterfalls filled the pool he stood before. Across from him on solid land rested a tombstone that resembled a fin, the stone and wall behind it decorated with elegant carvings and some kind of turquoise luminous stone.

The ghost of Queen Rutela patiently hovered near the tombstone, clearly waiting for Link to approach. Link slowly lowered himself into the water and swam to her, hoping entering the water wasn't disrespectful. Rutela didn't seem to mind and began to speak as Link pulled himself onto the land.

"I am deeply grateful to you for aiding my son in his time of need," she spoke, her voice sounding ethereal, "you were right to bring him here. Kakariko is a sacred place for the Zora people. It is where we take our eternal rest. My husband in life, King Zora, also rests his spirit here," The deceased queen gestured to the tombstone beside her as she spoke. "It is no coincidence my son found his salvation in this place." The queen turned her gaze to the tomb, "that which I have promised you is within this grave." The tombstone suddenly began moving, and Link worried it was about to uncover a body, but instead, he saw what seemed to be a suit of armor. It resembled Link's green tunic but was black and blue with the occasional leather piece and what seemed to be chainmail in the shape of zora scales over the chest and sticking out from underneath the shirt. The face had a thin black mask that seemed to cover the wearer's mouth and nose, and the boots had a slight fin shape that would help with swimming but wouldn't hinder walking. "During his lifetime, my husband created garments specifically for the chosen hero. Garments that house the abilities of the zora. With this suit, you can respire underwater as my people do." Link looked up from the suit, unsure what to say.

"Thank you," the hero said, "this will help. I'll use it to save Hyrule and stop the man responsible for everything." The ghostly queen gave a small smile.

"Now, at last, I can join the king in slumber." The queen's face suddenly became somber. "And yet… my son… He still knows nothing of my death." The sad reminder left Link silent. "If you see him again, please pass on this message… Tell him he must not grieve his mother's passing. Tell him she wanted him to be brave and live on as the king of our people. And… tell him his mother loves him without end…" With the final message delivered, the queen faded away from this world.