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She couldn’t sleep. Sighing, Zelda rolled over in her bed and tried to make herself comfortable. It wasn’t easy with her cat currently curled up near her feet; she felt hyper-conscious of the feline’s presence and couldn’t stop worrying that she might accidentally kick her sweet little darling. Gaining the ability to actually talk with cats had made her even more sweet on the little fuzzballs. Especially hers.
Silence filled the room. And Zelda found herself glaring at the far wall, which she could just barely make out thanks to the faint glow of moonlight outside.
Oh, for heaven’s sake- Frustrated, she sat up and punched at her pillow, trying to make it lie flat. She’d USED this bed on her adventure! Not for the whole thing, certainly, but she’d always been glad when she had a safe place to curl up for the evening and could summon her familiar soft mattress and cozy warm bedding. So why couldn’t she sleep tonight?!
… it definitely didn’t have to do with the lack of a certain golden glowing fairy or sweet, soft humming as said fairy drifted nearby and waited for her to finish resting.
Her lower lip wobbled some as she remembered saying good-bye. Saving Hyrule was such a blessing, but she’d never put much thought into what would happen afterwards. She hadn’t considered that… Tri might leave.
A wave of maudlin feeling washed over her and Zelda sighed again. This wasn’t working. She’d just go for a walk earlier than usual.
Zelda sat up and swung her legs off the bed. Her feet slid smoothly into her boots and she made her way over to her wardrobe to fetch a robe. Then, wrapped in its warm embrace, she lit a small lantern and left her room behind.
There were others moving about the castle, of course. There were always a few guards and servants moving about, but also others who’d also stirred from their first sleep and were out taking a walk or handling some small business in the quiet night. Zelda had to take care to avoid them, and slid the hood closed on her lantern several times to hide the flame’s flickering light before she was spotted. She felt… disinclined to speak with anyone. And certainly didn’t need anyone fussing about her walking about unattended.
As though I didn’t carry out my entire adventure without a single servant or chaperone, she thought to herself with a small sniff. It was hard some days going back to being mere royalty. She still had so many privileges compared to others, but the degree to which others felt she needed supervision had simply picked right back up following Null’s defeat. Which was quite irksome.
Quietly annoyed, Zelda decided to go visit the castle basements again. Certainly, the cells were down there as well but she had no intention of locking herself away again. And she hadn’t heard that anyone was imprisoned down there, so it should be fine. She’d just avoid the areas where soldiers patrolled and hope no one else had decided to go browse through the years of accumulated clutter.
Things got even quieter as Zelda left the busier areas of the castle behind and descended into the depths of the old structure. She ran her fingers along worn tapestries and tapped at fading murals. It’d be good to come down here with paint someday and refresh these, bring some cheer to these parts of the castle. This was where the old memories were stored, those items that represented the history of Hyrule.
She slipped past the doorway leading to the holding cells and turned instead towards the storage rooms. Picking one at random, she let herself in and lit a nearby brazier so she’d have more light to explore with.
There was furniture, of course, old pieces taken out of rooms for repair or replacement. Rolled up rugs, chests, boxes, and an entire line of portraits leaning against a far wall. She’d often enjoyed going through those growing up, making stories based on how kind or not the people in them looked and what symbols had been included. Small little pathways had been maintained, thankfully, to help with getting around. Some of the rooms were so full of old things that a person couldn’t even properly get inside the rooms. This one, though, was navigable.
“Oh! Has someone made a hide-away?” she said aloud as she peeked at the back of the storage room. It was… a bit more cluttered back here, actually. Frowning, Zelda peeked into what had first caught her eye: a little den someone had made from some old chairs and some heavy tapestries. She wouldn’t have noticed it had the make-shift curtain not been torn.
She stepped closer and gasped when she saw that a number of items had been smashed. The damage seemed widespread and indiscriminate; a large wardrobe was leaning hard against the stack in front of it and Zelda knew at once that touching it could trigger a cascade that might actually trap her inside the room.
Skirting carefully around that, she crouched down and ran her fingers along some broken crockery… and found it covered in dust.
“This happened some time ago… But when? And how?”
She ended up crawling into the small den with her lantern and peeked around inside, looking for some kind of clue. And then… a shadow caught her eye, a series of lines…
“What in the world?” Words and lines had been carved into the back wall of the small den.
I’m not a failure.
And then, a familiar set of swirls, one long, one short, and another helping frame out the shape of the overall design.
She knew that swirl. She’d worn it on her back, actually, for the duration of her adventure.
Link.
It took time to find an excuse to leave the castle and Hyrule Castle Town behind, and Zelda had to resort to a little bit of misdirection in order to secure her independence once again. She might not have the Trirod anymore, but she was far from helpless. She’d taken inspiration from her adventure and had been training with the soldiers and had begun exploring tales of her ancient ancestors, many of whom supposedly had quite the gift for magic. Her own skills were nowhere near that level, but she was beginning to find she could do far more than she’d ever suspected.
She wasn’t helpless, essentially, no matter what some of the naysayers might believe, and she rode out confident in her ability to protect herself.
It felt good to be out traveling once more and Zelda made her leisurely way towards Suthorn Village. She only needed to overnight once along the way before she came riding into the village, which greeted her warmly and with only vague acknowledgement of her royal status. Link was in, thankfully, and not busy elsewhere in Hyrule, so she left her horse with Link’s friend, Verley, and made her way up to Link’s house.
He started when he answered her knock but ushered her in without hesitation.
“Princess- You-” He cleared his throat, looking awkward.
“I’ve been practicing,” she said, signing clumsily as she replied. “I can read signs better than make them, but Impa has been teaching me. If that’s easier.”
His cheeks flushed but he nodded gratefully, a gesture which instantly reminded Zelda of how he’d communicated back during Null’s assault on Hyrule - simply and with the resigned knowledge of how rare it was for people to know Hylian sign.
People in Suthorn were the most fluent, Impa had relayed to her, followed by members of her clan. And Zelda, herself, would benefit from learning so she could speak with all her people and it was Impa’s fault for not bringing it up earlier.
“Speaking still does not feel natural,” he admitted, moving his hands carefully and slowly so she’d have an easier time reading them.
“You were left without the means to do so for a long time. It’s understandable that it would take time to adjust, if that is even possible,” Zelda said.
Link let out a snort and gave her a rueful nod. Then he started and looked around. “No chairs-” he suddenly signed. “I usually eat with others, or sit on the steps. One moment.”
“It’s really fine-” Zelda called after him but Link had already vanished outside. Presumably to go get a chair for her. Sighing softly, Zelda moved to the door and waited so she could hold it open for home when he returned.
Which he soon did with the elder Jacint, two chairs, and a small table. Zelda ensured the door remained wide open as they carried the borrowed furniture inside, then hurried to make certain the rugs covering the floor remained flat and out of the way as they put everything down near the fireplace. Then, before he left, Jacint chuckled and gave Link an enthusiastic pat on the shoulder before turning and nodding respectfully to her on his way out.
Once they were alone, Link seemed to gulp before he gestured at the new seating arrangement. “Sit,” he signed, and Zelda quickly smiled in response.
“Thank you,” she said, moving to one of the chairs. “I wouldn’t have minded sitting on the steps, but it was very kind of you to go borrow these.”
“I don’t usually have company,” Link signed, then, “Only here… sometimes,” he added aloud.
“You do keep busy helping people out all over Hyrule,” Zelda agreed. She waited and watched as he set a kettle to boil near the fire, then hurriedly began to set out things to make tea with. He didn’t have a large tea service, but it would suffice for two people.
Zelda didn’t try to fuss at him or insist he didn’t need to make her anything special. She was imposing on him already by showing up like this, and if making tea made him feel a little better, then by all means, he should make tea.
Once he had everything in order, he turned to her and his hands flew through a series of signs, only some of which Zelda caught. Then he paused, and began again, slower this time. “What brings you here?” he asked.
“Oh, well-” Zelda tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. “Well, to start, I’ve been meaning to see how you’ve been doing since Null was defeated. It’s been a few months since then.”
“I’ve been alright. I travel, help people. It is good to see people recovering from being in the Still World.” Link kept his signs slow and careful for her, which was kind of him.
“That’s good. I ran into a few of the people who escaped the Still World like you did. I’m glad they’re recovering,” she said. “Um, everything else has been alright? There hasn’t been some new evil stirring now that Null isn’t upsetting things anymore, is there? There’s been no sign of Ganon and we have no idea how Null found him…”
“Nothing,” Link signed. “I have been listening for anyone mentioning Ganon. There has been nothing.”
“That’s good.” Zelda let out a sigh of relief and slumped back in her chair.
The kettle chose that moment to let out a sudden whistle and further conversation was delayed while Link quickly poured the boiling water into the teapot, setting the leaves to steep. He then went and dug out a mix of fruit and bread, which he brought over to the table on a few unmatched plates. Once it was all set out, he paused and stared at it, clearly trying to figure out if he’d forgotten anything.
He really must be unused to having company over, Zelda realized. Oh dear. She needed to find some way to thank him for being so hospitable.
Link finally sat back down after pouring tea for both of them. And Zelda knew she needed to finally bring up the matter that had finally prompted her to leave the castle.
“There was one other matter,” she began, feeling absurdly shy. “Erm, it’s nothing bad! Just… a mystery I encountered recently.” Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out the rubbing she’d made of the carving and passed it over to Link. His eyes went wide as he saw it.
“Where?” he signed. “I made this- Didn’t know where I was.”
“In one of the castle storage rooms,” Zelda said. “I was exploring late one night and found it carved into the wall. The symbol looked like your cloak.”
“Lueberry made that,” Link sighed. He set the rubbing down and smoothed it out before his fingers carefully began to skim over the letters. “The time I escaped the Still World and saw you wasn’t the first time I got out. There were other times. Null always found me, took me back. I tried to hide. It didn’t work.”
“Oh, is that what happened to the things stored in there? I saw the damage,” Zelda said fretfully.
Link winced. “I can pay-”
“Pay?! Don’t be absurd! Null did that damage-”
“Null was hunting me-”
“Null did plenty of damage to the kingdom and I won’t accept a single rupee from you to see to repairs,” she said in a firm voice. His hands twitched, starting to form new signs so she shook her head sharply. “We probably needed to clear a lot of that out anyways. So you will be keeping your wallet closed, good sir.”
Link raised his hands defensively, giving her a shy smile as he acquiesced. Then he lowered his hands and tapped on the rubbing. “You want to know?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “If it’s something you’re willing to share. I don’t want to pry if it’s personal.”
“I can. You remember the Still World. Everything was frozen. Quiet. Time also seemed frozen. There was no hunger, no tiredness if you didn’t fight. It was. Still.” Link paused, frowning as his hands twitched as he tried to figure out what to say next. And how he could say it so she could understand. “There were cracks, ways to escape. They led all over Hyrule, but I could never stay. Null would find me. With this…” He tapped the rubbing again. “I escaped. And I was tired. I tried to hide. Laid down, but could not rest. I felt bad, like-”
And then he stopped when she grimaced, unfamiliar with several of the signs that followed. He took a moment, closing his eyes as he thought. Then, “I felt like. A failure. All my work helping people. Making myself strong. The experiments with Lueberry. It didn’t matter. Null kept getting stronger. This…”
His voice trailed off, sounding rough and unpracticed. He took a long sip of tea, then set the cup down so he could resume signing. “I carved this to help me remember. My head knew but my heart did not. It helped, and I remembered it even after Null captured me.”
“Oh… Oh, Link. Everywhere I went after you freed me, I heard about how you’d helped people,” Zelda said in an earnest voice. She leaned forwards as she spoke, wanting him to truly know. “You really did help people. And people were worried, after you went missing. You were definitely missed. And as for being captured by Null, why- Null managed to imprison the Three, Link! And you managed to get away when they didn’t! I know it didn’t last, but you kept fighting no matter what and that-”
Zelda’s cheeks suddenly flushed pink. “Well,” she continued in a softer voice, “to me, at least, I think you’re a hero. You had an entire adventure before we ever met, and that’s- that’s so important. You had an adventure, then I did, and we- we really helped each other. And we defeated Null together.”
“You,” he pointed at her, red-faced but clearly determined. “You’re also a hero, then.”
“Me?! Oh, I just did what the princess of Hyrule should do-”
“Hero,” Link signed again, grinning suddenly. “You’re a hero.”
“You’re the hero!”
“You!”
“No, you!”
“You!” Then Link was laughing and drumming a hand on the table. All of him started twitching, actually, as merriment took him over.
Zelda glared at him, feeling all manner of puffed up and indignant… then groaned, head in her hands, as she realized what they were arguing about.
After a few moments of embarrassed groaning, Link knocked on the table, the rapid staccato catching her attention. “Both of us are heroes,” he signed. “If I have to be, so do you!”
“Oh, fine,” she said, sighing dramatically. She quickly scooped up her cup and drank, trying to hide the pleased little smile that crept over her face. When she’d finished most of her cup, she set it down and pointed at the rubbing. “Do you want this? The real one, I mean. I- That wall needs repair anyways, it really wouldn't be difficult to secure that part of it. You can have it. Or just the side, if that’s all…”
Link hesitated, then nodded. “Either,” he signed. “I would like to see it again.”
“I’ll bring it over right away! I’ll… um, just have to go get it…”
She got a considering look before Link shyly gestured at the table. “Want to stay for dinner?”
A funny little flutter suddenly filled her stomach and Zelda nodded shyly. “I- I’d like that,” she said.
“Good! Not fancy, but good food. Make you strong!” Link flexed and Zelda giggled.
“I’ve been practicing with the castle guard, actually,” she said. “I’m not the best swordfighter around, but- But I’m getting better!”
“We practice, then. After, I’ll get dinner from-” She didn’t recognize the name sign he used, but the plan had her brightening up at once. And she was quick to spring to her feet when he pulled out two practice swords from a large pot sitting near the door.
This trip was proving to be… extremely satisfying. Zelda was glad to have made the journey to Suthorn and to have had time to sit and talk to Link. And after she went home… Well, she’d be taking on her Hylian Sign lessons with even more determination.
Link had lived without a voice for far too long, and if she made it known she was learning Hylian Sign, she felt confident many more people would follow. She wanted Link to be able to speak for himself, no matter what language he used. He deserved it, not simply because he was a hero, but because it was the right thing to do.
Zelda accepted the practice sword and swept out of the house after Link opened the door and gestured at her.
She was so very glad she was here.