Chapter Text
Heavy stomps shook the ground. Smoke-filled snorts billowed out of wide, feline nostrils. Sparks danced from a shaken mane. Grass and earth burned beneath leaden hooves.
The Slate remained just as useless this morning as it had been the night before. She couldn't even snap a picture of the fiery lynel that paced up and down the road between them and Hebra. Birds took off whenever the lynel roared, its voice making the very air, and Zelda's hands, tremble.
Little discussion passed between them since the fight Zelda had accidentally overheard. She didn't think Link had said a word to Impa, or vice versa, since their shouting match outside of the stable. Link stood close by her, his bow at the ready to strike anything that came near them. Likewise, Impa had a hand on her kodachi. She crept forward, keeping low to the ground as she rounded the corner of the crumbling ruin they'd taken shelter behind.
As soon as she spotted an opening, Impa darted forward. Quick as the shadows and just as silent, she sprinted between tall stones and behind thick trees, their bark singed and blackened. She soon disappeared from sight, rounding the hill where the road curved.
Leather creaked, Link's grip adjusting on the bow. He still moved stiffly, and Zelda doubted whether he was well enough to take on something like a lynel. But, glancing down at the pitiful Slate in her hands, she considered herself not much better off. She had nothing to offer. At least Link still had his weapons.
"Aren't you going to help?" Zelda asked, daring to peek over the top. Smoke rose in puffs toward the sky, but it appeared Impa hadn't been spotted yet.
Link only shook his head.
Every moment that Impa was away from them, all Zelda could think of was her friend taking a flaming arrow or sharp horn through the chest. "She can't possibly take on that beast alone!"
Again, he said nothing. Only the slight twitch of his crinkled nose, the downturn of his lips and the crease of his brows, gave her the fleeting indication that he heard her. Heard her, and didn't act.
Another roar shook the air, this one far more furious than all the others. Zelda's heart leapt into her throat; she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming in fright. Link's head snapped toward the source, tracking the lynel as it barreled down the road.
Three swords slashed at once, slicing along the lynel's legs and drawing malice-dark blood from its steaming muscles. The real Impa moved among two copies, ducking and weaving around the lynel's body, narrowly avoiding the swipe of its deadly sword. Blue flashed in the eyes of one of the Impas, her hands flying as she laid another seal on the lynel. Barely a moment later, she slammed her hilt hard into the lynel's front left knee, the seal rushing back to her just as the lynel's stance shuddered. Three became five.
Swords flashed, reflecting the gathering flames of the frustrated lynel, tracking five opponents at once. Sparks flew from its mane, flying through the air as it snapped its head one way and the other, trying to catch Impa with its blade-like horn. For a moment, it appeared that Impa would win the fight without assistance. The lynel staggered.
A fierce roar shook the canyon. The lynel's axe flipped around. Powerful arms thrust the weapon straight down.
Heat and light surged toward them, burning Zelda's eyebrows and nearly blinding her. She ducked back down behind the ruins again just as something slammed hard into the rock. A bowstring sprang. The lynel roared again, as if in pain. Link's bow clattered to the ground beside her.
Zelda blinked away the spots in her vision just in time to see Link drag Impa, still fighting and struggling, behind the ruins with them.
"I had it!" Impa hissed, clawing at Link's arms as he pulled her into safety. "Let me go!"
"Would you shut up?!" Link snapped back, using his superior strength to his advantage by holding her in place.
Despite Impa's struggling, the burns and scorches on Impa's armor betrayed just how close she'd gotten to being charred. Zelda reached out and set a hand on Impa's arm — her leather was almost too hot to touch. "Peace, Impa. Let us wait until it moves on."
Sharp glare or not, Impa acquiesced to her princess's orders. Zelda held her breath, listening carefully to the stomps and snorts of the furious lynel. Each thundering beat of her heart sent a silent prayer that they remain undetected. Lynels, while more intelligent than most monsters, grew bored quickly. They preferred prey that they could chase.
Heavy steps faded into the distance, another target catching the lynel's fickle attention. And Zelda, now free from her tense silence, could control her temper no longer. "What has gotten into the two of you?!", she hissed. "You're squabbling like children!"
Link's face resumed the unaffected neutrality that she'd grown to loathe, while Impa's burned scarlet, nearly as red as her flashing eyes. "We're not squabbling!" Impa spat, "Someone just forgot his duty." She jerked herself free of Link's grasp.
Her gut twisted in fury and heartbreak. "That someone is the Prince of Hyrule," Zelda reminded her. The periphery started to blur, heat and pressure building behind her eyes. She blinked rapidly to banish the weakness. "Link did not let me get hurt. It was an accident."
"An accident that shouldn't have happened!" Impa shot back. "If he was paying attention-!"
"Link has saved my life more times than anyone!" Her throat ached, her voice cracking in her desperation not to cry in front of them. She took a shuddering breath. "We are a team, Impa. We cannot hope to beat this monster, let alone the Calamity, if we cannot work together. We watch each other's backs. We all have different strengths, and we are more powerful together than apart. Therefore," she took hold of Impa's hand, then Link's, forcing a connection whether they liked it or not, "we are going to defeat this lynel together. So rather than rushing foolishly into danger," she looked between Impa and Link, stern with both of them, "or letting anyone face danger alone, let us come up with a strategy."
Seeming to accept her words, though still frustrated with each other, her friends nodded in agreement. Zelda released their hands with a sigh. "Very good. So, any ideas?"
"That's a great plan," Link said, the heat of the midday sun starting to make them all sweat, "if your goal is to get killed."
"Link," Zelda warned, already setting her hand on Impa's shoulder to keep the Sheikah from killing Link herself. "That's not helpful."
Impa scoffed, glaring at Link, her knees tucked up close to her chest. "It's still better than your bait-and-switch idea."
"It worked great on that lynel on Ploymus Mountain!" Link shot back.
"Only because Zelda summoned that ice for it to run smack into!" Impa reminded him. "We can't rely on Zelda."
"Excuse me?" Zelda said, a twinge of anger burning in her own chest now. "I'm not useless!"
At least Impa winced at her choice of words. "That's not what I meant," she clarified. "But we can't rely on your runes. And I guess…I didn't realize how much we had been before."
Anger flickered out, doused by surprise. "You…relied on me?"
"Well, sure," Impa shrugged, "you're the one who comes up with all the strategies for taking these things out. You think faster than us. You were the one who summoned the molduga to eat those Yiga guys."
"And you kicked ass in the fight in the market," Link added, "You literally made a spinning, flying blade out of their own sickles. That's terrifying."
"Not as terrifying as the shrapnel bomb from that other Yiga fight," Impa said, grinning a little as she recalled it. "Or the way you looked at a branch sliding on the snow and just immediately knew how to get to Link in five seconds flat. That's insane." She paused, a frustrated sigh escaping her. "Maybe I was being a little too harsh on you, Link. I guess I just…I got scared. Our job is to protect you, Princess, and you're usually really good at protecting yourself. But, and please don't take this the wrong way, you're not a warrior."
A flurry of emotions swirled through Zelda's head, stuck between her friends' praise and Impa's final statement, the only one that matched Zelda's analysis of their dynamics. She tried to speak, stunned into silence. "I- Well, you see, I-" She stared at the grass between them, hardly believing their words. "…I had no idea."
Brrrrrr? Terrako nudged her side, watching her curiously. Despite her repeated statements that Terrako was a priceless, ancient relic of immeasurable power and hidden information, most certainly not a child, Zelda pulled the little Guardian onto her lap all the same. Its whirring deepened into a contented purr. She frowned, tapping her fingers across Terrako's shell.
"We don't have runes, that is true," Zelda began. "But, we still have the little one. And it's protected me before. As long as that is its primary objective for this upcoming battle, you two are free to fight without worrying about me."
The Guardian wiggled happily in her lap, whistling to itself in short, quiet bursts.
Thinking the problem over, Zelda leaned back on her hands, closing her eyes as she thought through a potential battle strategy. Baiting it into slamming into a wall of ice was off the table. Yanking its weapons was likewise unavailable. Disorienting it with bombs on either side wouldn't do either. Paralyzing it with Stasis wasn't an option…
She scrunched her nose, her thoughts traveling back to the day before, the fight that started their current troubles. The wizzrobe. She and Impa discussed teaching the captains to use elemental magic to combat vicious monsters, just like this one. While ice magic would have been preferable for this beast, electric was still useful. Maybe they could…
An idea sprang into her mind as she opened her eyes again. "I've got it."
From her vantage point at the top of the hill, Zelda could see the entire battlefield at once. The lynel's endless, stomping patrols beat down and scorched the road and surrounding fields. Beside her, Terrako whirred in anticipation. To her right, Link crouched behind a thin shrub, already tracking the lynel as it rounded the corner. To her left, Impa readied herself to sprint, her eyes glowing blue, her first seal already set over the lynel far below.
"On my signal," Zelda whispered, raising the lightning rod toward their target. She'd never actually used one of these before, and seriously doubted whether she could hit her mark on the first try. In her mind's eye, she pictured the same shimmering blue grid of the Slate, her potential ice column existing in the realm of her imagination before it sprang forth from the water. She aimed the rod as she would her Slate, if a little awkwardly. When Link aimed his shots, he took a breath and held it, only releasing when he was sure to aim true, focusing everything he had on hitting the target in the dead-center. Likewise, she breathed through her nose, held it, and waited for the lynel to come into position.
Lightning streaked toward the beast. Thunder cracked, shaking the air. The lynel seized, sparks skittering over its hide and a strangled roar caught in its throat. Recoiling magic shot through Zelda's arms, making her whole body tremble.
Impa slid down the hill, sprinting as fast she could toward their adversary. Her first hit sliced into the thick hide of its left flank. Darkness splashed onto the ground as the lynel spun, disoriented, swinging its horns in a wide arc. Zelda's heart shot into her throat, watching one of the lynel's blade-like horns sever Impa's illusion at the waist. Her illusions shimmered as she laid another seal on the beast. Static prickled over its body, its movements jerky and unsteady as it tried to shake off Zelda's attack.
Impa slashed at the lynel from every direction, sliding under and weaving around its massive, stomping hooves and barely dodging the swing of its horns and axe. Cut with a hundred blades, none so deep as to fatally wound it on their own, the lynel stopped its frustrated attempts at melee. It stood tall, inhaled smoke and hot air, its chest swelling as it prepared to-
Thwing!
Link's arrow struck the lynel between the eyes, making it release its held breath and stagger backward, furiously clawing at the arrow lodged in its skull. Now recognizing another adversary, the lynel roared in fury and drew its bow. Zelda grabbed Link's shield, her heart pounding in her chest, recalling the horror stories of soldiers who tried to hide from lynel arrows, only to get struck from above. As the lynel raised its bow skyward, Link shot off two more arrows, enraging it further.
But, with its focus now on Link, it didn't have time to guard from Impa leaping onto its back. Metal flashed with her final seal, sinking into the flesh between the lynel's shoulders. It bucked and howled, trying to shake her off as all of her illusions rushed around it, cutting off its means of escape. With a final shout of triumph, Impa yanked her sword out of the gaping wound she'd created, malice soaking into her armor and splashing over her skin. Its death now certain, Impa flipped off the back of the monster and landed several yards away.
Flames puttered out as the lynel fell to its knees, shuddered, and melted into violet miasma. Only scraps of the beast remained as the malice fizzled into nothing. Hooves, horns, guts, and sparks of burning, coal-like magic.
Relief flooded Zelda's chest as she slid down the hill, Link and Terrako close behind. "That was amazing, Impa!" Almost as soon as her feet hit solid ground, Zelda rushed to hug her friend — who quickly side-stepped the attempt.
"Still covered in lynel blood," Impa reminded her. Even so, her reddened cheeks brightened with a smile. She sheathed her weapon, recalling her illusions back to herself. "But I'm more impressed with Link here. You've got incredible aim! You're sure you aren't part lynel yourself?"
Link grabbed his hairband and tugged it free. "Did the mane give it away?" He joked, his sweat-damp hair fluffed out with a shake of his head.
As relieved as Zelda was to see the beast slain, a greater adversary had finally fallen with it. Her friends laughed again, praised each other again, and, in a startling turn, started to praise her.
"Your plan worked perfectly!" Impa exclaimed, spreading her arms to gesture at the carnage around them. "I never would have thought of that!"
"O-oh," Zelda blushed, clutching the lightning rod to her chest, "Well, it was just a matter of observing its behavior before. It needed to inhale before expelling fire, and I thought that disrupting that attack might prevent it. Anyone could have-"
"Zel," Link said, setting a hand on her shoulder, disrupting her train of thought before she talked herself out of any credit, "You're brilliant, and that is why we won this battle. Accept that you're just as valuable as we are, even if you won't agree with us that you're worth more."
Her blush deepened at his words, her lips glued shut. She nodded mutely, her thoughts flying to fantastical places. In Gerudo's Intrigue, the heroine saved her lover from certain death by luring wolves off a cliff. In Eldin's Fire, she struck the winning blow against a talus that had the hero pinned against the wall of a cave. Even in Lurelin's Passion, Mari slew the lizalfos that captured her lover, fleeing with him back to the village on the raft she made. In all of these books, the heroes praised their lovers' brilliance and ingenuity, showering them in compliments and kisses. After every battle scene, Zelda ear-marked the page, as impractical as such things were in a cave, or the snow, or on a hastily-constructed raft.
Zelda didn't think this would be a ear-marked moment, but part of her hoped that, when Link's electric blue eyes scanned over her face, he really did linger a moment on the curve of her lips.
Alas, it was a fantasy. He drew his hand away, letting it fall back to his side, and reality slipped back into place once more.
Since Impa was the only one of them covered in monster-violet blood, though it started to steam away by this point, she dug through the remnants of the lynel, grabbing anything that looked useful. She tucked away what could be fashioned into a weapon, collected the parts for elixir-making, and paused beside the scarlet gems. Squatting down by them, she studied the gems a moment, and cautiously reached out to touch one.
"What are those?" Zelda asked, carefully stepping around the worst patches of lynel blood to get to her. Sparkling rubies laid in a pool of lynel viscera, partially obscured by the haze of degrading malice. When Impa picked one up, the gore slid off of it, as if repelled. After handing it to Zelda, who tried not to throw up at the thought of what it had just been covered in, Impa gathered up the rest. Carefully, Zelda turned the gem over in her hands, examining the glittering facets of the stone. It wasn't a ruby, at least not a natural one. It hummed with magic beneath her fingertips, warm in a way that heartbeats were, pulsing, rather than the steady heat of an earth-dug ruby. It felt almost like-
A new idea entered her mind. She held the ruby tightly in her fist while she untangled the lightning rod from her belt. She didn't have a proper sheath for it, and tucking it into her belt was the best she could do given the circumstances. When she'd freed the weapon, she stared at the glowing, yellow-gold gem that pulsed with light. It wasn't exactly the same, but…She tucked the not-ruby into her pocket, then started to claw the not-topaz out of the rod's socket.
"Princess?" Impa asked, staring at her dumbfounded. "What are you doing?"
"No idea," Zelda replied, sticking her tongue out in concentration as she wiggled and pried the gem from its home in the white wand. At last, her fingers could grip the stone all the way around. With a mighty yank, the stone popped free. In one hand, she held a conduit, a gentle thrumming of dormant magic. In the other, she held a gem, static clinging to her and sending skittering shocks through the bones in her hand, a heartbeat of storm. Now that she'd either broken the rod entirely or was about to discover something incredible, she switched the stones in her hand, and jammed the not-ruby into the socket. To her surprise and delight, the wand's tip flashed red, sealing the stone in place.
She backed away from her friends, pointed the rod down the road, and swung it with all her might. Flames burst from the tip, fireballs bounced forward, and Zelda felt a rush of heat and exhilaration.
"Oh no," Impa said, nudging Link and grinning as Zelda turned toward them again. "Now we've got a mage and an arsonist on our hands."
It wasn't the gentle sunlight of Hylia, or the striking moonlight of the Master Sword. It wasn't the choking brimstone of malice, or the controlled esoteric of the Sheikah. What pulsed through her hands and into her blood was the wild, untamed magic of the earth. Elemental energy surged through her bones. Compared to the magic she'd barely tasted in her consecration ceremony, which lingered on her skin for a day and never soaked in any deeper, this was a plunge unlike any she'd experienced. Her heart burned, but with a fire that emboldened her rather than consumed her. A bright grin broke out on her face, noting that, for once, her friends looked at her with the same respect that they experienced with one another — and, if she flattered herself, a twinge of fear. It might not have been innate in her, but it was magic, and she could already feel her soul start to sing.
Finally, she understood what Agrena meant. A connection was severed. Now, she could see the circuits clearly in her mind. Where original Guardian pieces were unavailable, shattered or warped beyond repair, replacements had to be made. They weren't as good, but they were good enough for now. The circuits in her body hummed, resonating with the magic of the wand. Not quite matching; hers were still a little off, but now she understood what it could feel like. The Slate was still useful, but its magic was contained within a stone shell. It hummed, but it didn't reach inside of her like pure elemental magic did.
"Well," Zelda said, trying to regain her royal composure despite the thrill of her discovery, "shall we proceed to the tower?"