Chapter Text
The last time Link had opened his eyes after what felt like a really long nap, he’d found himself locked in a temple. The fluid around his body had drained as he opened his eyes, Zelda’s voice calling for him. He hadn’t known that was Zelda’s voice at the time, but her siren call had always been his guiding light.
His awakening this time was eerily quiet. Beyond the lack of Zelda, there was nothing but the wind about. The first time, as soon as Link had pushed the doors aside, he’d exited into the wild, the open fields full of wild animals, monsters, insects. Birds had chirped overhead as wild boars ran through the grass. The bokoblins had built camps and roasted meat. Bees buried themselves in the wildflowers. The world had been alive.
This place was not. If Link strained, he could hear a few insects, but they weren’t near him. The grass was thin, present but sparse, over dried dirt paths. The buildings around him had long been abandoned.
There was no one here.
That was fine. Link had done this alone before. Until he’d gotten off the Great Plateau, the only person he’d had to speak to had been the ghost of the king. At least this time, he had his memories.
And… no right arm. Great.
Link had trained enough to use his sword with his left hand, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be difficult to switch. He wouldn’t be able to use his bow either, and certainly no shield.
One thing at a time. Link continued on the path, peeking in each house he came to. They were filled with very little, what might have once been beds now rotting wood, crumbling pots, and a thick layer of dust over it all.
No one had been here in a long time. Link wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here.
As he made his way up the hill, he finally saw one figure. He took off running, one hand on his sword just in case. When the figure turned, Link stopped.
The face was… familiar, in ways Link couldn’t quite place his finger on. He had golden brown hair, angular blue eyes, with thick brows and a round nose. His ears were pointed, though not nearly as long as any Hylian Link had ever met. He wore a knight’s uniform, though nothing like the ones Link had known during his time as a knight. Chain mail covered most of his body, a dark green tunic on top, with the emblem of Hyrule on his chest. Like all ghosts, there was a faint haze about him.
“You’re awake,” the man said. “Good. I have a lot to teach you.”
“Who are you?” Link asked softly.
The man almost smiled. “You can call me Madas.”
“This is fine. This is alright. I can… figure this out.” On her knees, Zelda scrambled to make use of the Sheikah Slate. It wasn’t connecting to any of the towers, but on its own battery, she should have been able to access a few features. The bombs were available. Good for protection. Magnesis. Useful, in the right circumstance. The pictures, yes, she had that—and her heart twinged to see Link’s face, his soft smile. They wouldn’t compare to the real thing, but seeing him there was a comfort.
For all of Zelda’s failures, she had eventually managed to defeat the Calamity. Link had been there to carry her home. Their home, the little house in Hateno. She wished she were back there instead, curled up in the straw bed on the loft above the living room. It was so unlike her life in Hyrule Castle. In Hateno, Zelda was no longer Princess Zelda, the goddess incarnate meant to save the world. She was simply another traveler settling down in the wake of the Calamity.
She’d told herself she had to go back to Hyrule Castle to investigate. Though the Kingdom of Hyrule had fallen and all formal government for Hylians seemed limited to the small towns that remained, she had grown up as Princess Zelda, destined to be the queen. It was her duty to the people. If she’d failed the ones she’d been meant to govern, the ones who had survived deserved nothing less than her full efforts to maintain their way of life. Link had agreed to accompany her, as he rarely denied her anything.
And now Link might be dead. Again. She’d seen that dark power shatter the Master Sword, rot his arm, and yet he’d still reached for her as the passages beneath the castle had tumbled around them. Then she was gone, somewhere she didn’t know. And Link hadn’t come with her.
It wasn’t fair. She’d already waited a hundred years for his return to her. Princess Zelda had been a fool. She’d pushed her knight away for so long, and even once she’d realized the truth, she’d never been brave enough to confess all of her thoughts to him. Link had died protecting her. She’d roused her power only in defense of him. Even then, she’d been too late. But she’d waited. She’d done all she could to arrange what he’d need when he woke in the Shrine of Resurrection before she’d secluded herself in the castle with the Calamity. And there, she’d waited, until he’d finally come to her rescue. They’d had a few short years together, recovering their strength, meeting with the leaders of the various societies across Hyrule. She’d reunited with Impa, Robbie, and Purah. He’d helped her to start the school in Hateno. Things had been good.
It was all lost once more.
Zelda couldn’t weep about it now. She reminded herself of what Link had done. He’d awoken with no memories, no driving force other than her voice calling for him, and he’d done whatever he could to learn all he needed to defeat the Calamity. He was a hero. And for better or worse, she was the princess with the ancient power. If there was a way home, Zelda must find it.
She pushed herself to her feet, looking through the long grass and overhanging tree branches. “Alright. There must be some sort of civilization somewhere,” she mused.
That was when she felt the tip of a sword against her back.
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Who are you?” the voice demanded. Something about it was familiar, though Zelda couldn’t say she recognized it. He was speaking Hyrulean, but the intonation was off. His speech was sharp and quick, minimizing the use of his voice through breathy vocalization.
“My name is Zelda,” she said. The sword pressed a little further into her back, though not quite so hard as to slice her cloak yet. She hoped it wouldn’t. She rather liked that cloak.
“Is that really your name?” he asked. “Where are you from?”
That was a complicated question. Zelda couldn’t gauge whether to speak the truth in this situation. Most people had forgotten the name of the princess, but this reaction suggested that the stranger had made a connection between the name and something. Presumably, he was aware of the royal family then. Was he aware that Princess Zelda had returned? Without her knight or any evidence, Zelda could only assume that proving her identity would be rather difficult. “At the moment, I live in Hateno,” she decided to answer. If the stranger had any concerns, he might raise them.
“Hateno? I don’t know it,” he answered, though he must have decided she didn’t pose much of a threat, as he’d pulled the sword from her back.
With slow and deliberate movements, so as not to spook the bear, Zelda turned. “It’s just south of Mount Lanaryu,” she said. “My…” She faltered on how to describe her relationship to Link. “My partner was raised there. I followed him.”
The stranger stared at her for a long moment. Something in his countenance made her think of Link, or perhaps it was simply because she’d been thinking of him so much. The man was older, possibly in his thirties, with darker hair, faint lines beginning around his eyes. His somber expression was befitting of the Link she’d known in earlier days, not the light-hearted jokester she knew now.
“Lanayru is a desert,” he said.
A desert? The only desert Zelda knew was to the southwest, the Gerudo Desert. But she didn’t feel that arguing with this man would serve any purpose. Instead, she looked him over.
His armor wasn’t quite the same as the knights she remembered. Though he wore parts of a suit of armor, he’d selectively chosen the pieces to guard his most vulnerable areas. Over the bulk of his body, he wore chainmail, with a forest green tunic emblazoned with the symbol of Hyrule.
So she was still in Hyrule. That was good to know. Even if there should have been no knights of Hyrule left. This uniform certainly wasn’t one Zelda had seen in her time. Nonetheless, she had to have
“You’re a knight?” Zelda asked. “Perhaps I could speak to your commander.”
The knight’s lips curled, ever so slightly, before he resumed his stoic expression. “I am the knight commander. But… I believe I ought to bring you to Queen Zelda.”
Queen Zelda. For a brief moment, her heart soared. Her mother. If only Zelda could consult with her, then surely she would be able to make it out of this mess.
But she’d never seen a uniform like this. Surely, the queen mentioned wasn’t her mother. If there was a queen, though, then Zelda must have been in a Hyrule that had not fallen.
Or… Zelda turned the small stone she’d picked up from the mummy they’d found in the tunnels beneath the castle. Or… she was in a Hyrule that had not fallen yet.
The ghost of Madas must have been a great warrior in his time. Link had learned from some of the best knights in the Hyrulean army when he’d been but a boy. As he’d grown, he’d taken to studying any techniques he might glean from other warriors, the Rito, the Gerudo, the Sheikah, the Zora. But combat in the thin air of the island in the sky lent itself to a different style.
“Your lungs are used to the thick air of the surface,” Madas said when Link found himself leaning against the wall. The thick tree trunks that dangled from the ceiling of this small building were full of nicks and cuts from years of training. With the Master Sword damaged as it was, he’d had to borrow a small wooden sword for the time being, though there was no one who would have minded. The entire facility had been neglected for a long time. Link had found himself sleeping inside the school building next door, though he’d found he preferred to avoid the bathroom on the third floor. For being such an empty place, it certainly had eerie noises. “You can’t expel so much energy at once. If you lose your breath, your energy can merely wait out for your stamina.”
Link knew this. As all knights of Hyrule had done, he’d spent some time training in the mountains. He told Madas as much, but the old knight had only shaken his head.
“This isn’t the same. We’re much higher up than you’ve ever been,” he said. “And you’ve already been severely injured. You have no right arm, and your balance is off. We can’t rush your recovery.”
“I need to find Zelda,” Link insisted. He didn’t know where she’d gone, but it was evident she wasn’t here. His exploration over the past few days had made that well clear. Link had hoped that she’d gone somewhere he could reach after her disappearance in that flash of light, but it seemed he was starting fresh on his search for his princess.
Madas’s eyes softened. “You will. In due course. But before you can do anything, you must regain your strength.”
That much, Link was unable to protest. Thus, he’d allowed the old knight to provide his lessons.
“What is this place?” Link asked once a few more days had passed, and he no longer felt the urge to throw himself over the horizontal log and pass out.
“As I’ve told you, this is a space to train knights,” Madas replied.
“Not this building. The island. We’re in the sky, you said,” Link prodded. He needed to know. He needed to understand. “I remember legends about a civilization in the sky. Long ago.”
He didn’t remember much other than that. If only Zelda were there. Link was sure she’d remember much more. She’d probably have enough to perform one of her little lectures on it, and Link could only imagine, the fondness blooming in his chest, how excited she’d be to share more of Hyrule’s ancient history with the children of Hateno, if she only had the opportunity to do so.
She would. Link would ensure it. Zelda had waited for so long for a chance to live her life as she pleased, to do the things she enjoyed. Link had kept her waiting for too long. He wouldn’t do it again.
“I can’t say whether the legends you’ve heard truly represent this place,” Madas said. He stepped away from the wall, walking through the logs without much care. “But this was once a thriving civilization. This was the main town, but many lived on other islands.”
“How did you get between them?” Link asked. If he only knew, he imagined he might be able to search for Zelda there.
“We flew,” Madas said. Link eyed his figure. The knight’s armor he wore did not suggest any place to hide wings, which Link could only assume meant he had another method of flight. He waited for Madas to explain.
He didn’t.
“If you want to make your way between these islands and the surface, you must find your own path,” Madas said. “And I can’t guarantee you’ll find a way to return once you do. Are you sure you’ve learned everything you need to know?”
Link hesitated. With the Great Plateau, he’d had the Sheikah Slate and the ability to teleport to places he’d once been. He had no such opportunity here.
“Allow me a few more days of instruction,” Madas pleaded.
Whenever Link did find Zelda, she’d want him to bring her here. He couldn’t leave until he’d found a way to return.
“Very well,” he agreed. A few more days. He could wait that long.
Queen Zelda wasn’t much like Zelda’s mother. For starters, her skin was darker, and though her hair was blonde, it was more of an ivory color, pulled back from her face with a gold circlet resting against her forehead. Her gown was long and white, with a dark pink overlay, golden jewelry lined about her shoulders and neck. A queen she was indeed, though Zelda couldn’t remember anyone in her line like this.
There were far too many throughout history to recall easily. Zelda brushed that aside.
“And where did you say you found this girl?” the queen asked the knight commander, who had dropped to the floor in a low bow.
“She was in the Faron Woods. Just outside of the Sealing Grounds,” he answered.
The queen hummed. She stepped closer to the princess. A warmth spread throughout Zelda’s chest, her hand burning. The set of triangles she’d seen each time she used the sacred power was glowing.
“Oh,” the queen sighed. She glanced at her knight commander briefly. “I see. This is hardly what I’ve expected. Please, rise. Tell me your name.”
“It’s…” Zelda glanced at the knight. She’d told him her name already. She could hardly change her name now. “It’s Zelda.”
“Zelda?” the queen repeated.
“It’s a family name,” Zelda explained.
“I see.” The queen smiled. There was something about her smile that shot through the pit of Zelda’s stomach. It was ostensibly warm. It wasn’t half-hidden, but wide, though close-lipped. Somehow, it still seemed reserved, more of a performance than a genuine expression of pleasure. “This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered something like this. Though I am surprised that you didn’t appear in the Temple of Time.”
“Then you believe I’ve traveled through time as well,” Zelda said. It was a relief to have someone else support her hypothesis, though she had very little in terms of evidence.
“I do. And… if your name is Zelda, would I be right to presume you are a member of the royal family of Hyrule?” the queen asked.
Zelda nodded. If she could only judge the era in which she had landed, she might be able to glean some information about the state of Hyrule. It was only a shame Hyrule had gone through so many rises and falls. There was no way to identify this time through visuals alone. She didn’t dare say too much, lest she reveal the fate of the people of this time.
“It’s rather touching to hear that my name will be used in the future,” the queen said.
Zelda furrowed her brow. Her name? But… weren’t all the women of the royal family named Zelda? After…
Oh. Zelda’s lips parted.
“Link, please show Princess Zelda to a guest room,” the queen said. The knight commander rose to his feet.
Link. The name had been popularized by the legends of old, the heroes throughout time, who may or may not have carried that name in actuality. But the first, the hero of Hylia, his name had always been purported to be Link.
A queen who had not been given her name by the queen mother and a knight commander by the name of Link.
Was it possible? Was Zelda truly in the first era of Hyrule?
“Please follow me, princess,” the knight commander said. He made a low bow, full of deference that felt a bit sacrilegious when Zelda realized this was the first of the heroes who had laid his life on the line to protect Hyrule in the name of the goddess. The goddess incarnate herself sat on the throne, her jaw firm and impassive.
“Thank you, sir,” Zelda replied. She opened her mouth, considering what she might say to this man, but he’d already started out the door before she had a chance to say more.
Very well. If Zelda were at the other end of the timestream, that only meant she had all the more knowledge of future events. Surely she could find a way home. Or some way back to Link.
No. Link would find her. She trusted in that. Link always found her.