Chapter Text
Prologue
04/11/742
Ordon
6:31a.m.
A knock on the door.
“Master Link?”
Who in Hyrule was—
Recruitment.
Shit.
“One sec!” the young boy called back, quickly shuffling into a shirt and shorts.
Link spun around the corner of his bedroom door, his untamed blond hair flopping against his face.
Around thirty-five seconds after the first knock, Link swung the front door open, greeting the knight at the door.
“The Royal Court ‘ave uh-pproved of your provisional applica-shun, and would be happy for you to join this year’s trials. Entry year...” the bearded man, speaking with a peculiar accent, checked his information sheet. “...Seven hundruhd forty-three?”
“Indeed, sir!” Link’s voice practically leaked enthusiasm.
“Ready to leave, Master Link?” the knight stepped aside to reveal a second horse next to his own, “I assume you know ‘ow to roide?"
“Yes, sir,” Link exited, locking the door behind him, and hopping up onto the horse with a surprising ease.
The two rode, quickly approaching the castle, due to arrive at around half-eightish according to the knight.
“So, just you, huh?” the Knight's voice cut through the whipping wind,
“Indeed, sir,” Link responded, nodding despite riding behind. It was more for him than for the man ahead of him.
Hyrule Castle
2:42p.m.
The day had passed rather quickly, an information talk delivered by some castle senior preceding a hearty brunch Link had scoffed down, his companions to his right whispering between them about if he was malnourished. No, Link had answered. He shouldn't have heard the comments, they'd been heavily hushed and the table was loud. Nonetheless, that was just what Link did.
At some point in the day Link had been reprimanded rather harshly by a Senior Knight, the imposing man yelling at Link for taking a wrong turn. It wasn't his fault he'd heard an interesting melody of some instrument in that direction.
The physical examination had gone exceptionally well. While the other trainees performed variably on the five and ten-meter climbing wall, Link had sprinted off to the fifty-meter vertical for Senior Knights. Sir Arthur, the leader of the Junior Knight Programme, was about to tell him off. Then Link climbed.
He had moved like a spider, scaling the wall almost effortlessly, completing the climb in what Arthur had estimated at just over nineteen seconds, shattering the record that had stood for fourteen years.
Delegating the Junior Knight applicants to another sire, Sir Arthur formally officiated and recorded Link's second climb.
“Seventeen point seven seconds,” the sire blinked. The previous record had been twenty-two seconds, and this random child had shown up and obliterated it like it had been a beginner's time.
For the next hour Link was put through a series of more tests, including push-ups, of which he did three hundred seventy-two.
This brought him to eighteen-to-three.
“Master Link,” Sir Arthur sat across from him, the Queen of Hyrule sat beside him, “You have broken two records today, one being push-ups for a first-year knight, and that's as an applicant. The second, which I'm honestly baffled by, was the climbing. As such, the Queen would like to make you an offer,”
“Arthur, I believe there are a few more knights to be seen to,” the Queen said in an aside to the sire, and off he went.
“Hello, Link,” Queen Sephira came off far less pretentious than Link had imagined. She didn't speak as though she thought she was Hylia herself, as Link had always imagined queens did. If anything, she sounded...
“I must say, I am very impressed,” Sephira began, “Your performance was nothing short of exceptional for your age, and, well, we usually wouldn't make such an offer but if you're willing, we could start you off today,”
“Your Majesty,” Link’s eyes momentarily met hers, “I’m only thirteen, and—”
“I’m the Queen, Link,” she reminded him, “If I say you can start now, you can start now. Only, are you ready?”
Link sat with his hands in his lap, his gaze trained on the table.
He drew breath, then he spoke.
“I'm sorry, I really am,” Link started, and Sephira's face dropped a little, “I’m just... afraid,”
“I read on your file you saw a psychist at nine?”
“Yes, Your Highness,”
“You're different, aren't you?” the words cut in a way the Queen hadn't intended, “I can see it in your eyes, your hands, and, well, your file,”
With a soft chuckle the Queen rose to her feet, crossing the room in six quick steps.
The Queen was beloved across the Kingdom. It wasn't because of some trade agreement, or some public holiday, instead it was for the exact thing she was about to display for Link.
Care.
She offered her hands, and he took them shakily.
“You need not be afraid, Link,” her voice was genuine, “I've already arranged a quiet room for you—you can go anytime, and also, if it gets too much I've already identified a couple of other applicants for this year I reckon you'd get along with.”
A smile spread across Link's face. He nodded excitedly.
“Then it's settled. Arlan?” a man weaved in from the corridor, tall and slightly slippery, “Early initiation, please. First-year Junior Knight.”
Arlan stumbled into a clumsy bow.
“Yes, of course Your Highness, it's an honour Your Highness,”
Arlan turned to Link. “This way, sir!”
“Oh, and Link?”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“Look out for Tobin,”
“Yes, Your Highness, and thank you.” Link smiled, a genuine, whole-face expression of joy.