Chapter Text
This time when Zelda emerged from her room, she looked very different. She was carrying herself like some sort of princess, not like a regular person as she’d shown herself to Link before. Clearly, she knew she was important. “Good afternoon, father,” she said. Her voice was different too; higher, lighter, perhaps more feminine. It must be for her father. It was only after she’d greeted Rhoam that she turned to look at him, and she scrunched up her face a little as she looked. Inside his head, she told him she was pretending to be disappointed.
“Good afternoon, Zelda. This here is the young man we’ve been working so hard to get our hands on. Link, this is my daughter Zelda, as I’m sure you’ve guessed. She’s a wonderful young woman, I’m sure you will enjoy her company.” He gave Link a smile that suggested that he shouldn’t grow to enjoy Zelda’s company too much. “I’ll test him first, sweetpea, but I’ve appointed him as your bodyguard, at least for now, so you only have to be escorted by him if you want to go anywhere.”
‘Sweetpea?’ He asked, hoping that he wasn’t grinning too much on the outside.
“Shut up,” Zelda thought, but there was definitely a playful inflection to her tone. “Are you sure this is him, father? He seems to be a little small and he’s definitely not old enough to be a military commander.”
“This is definitely him. He fits the description of the ‘hero’ from a hundred years ago, and he was the one sealed in the shrine. He doesn’t have any memories, either. According to my men, he’s certainly never heard of bulletproof glass.” Bulletproof glass? Well. That explained the giant glass roof. Apparently it wasn’t quite as fragile as it looked.
Link resented being spoken about as if he wasn’t there fully, but he didn’t want to step out of line. If he did anything to anger this man, he knew he’d be in trouble. He’d be providing Link with a home and probably food to eat and likely all his clothes and everything he needed to survive. A witty comment or two could wait until he was alone with Zelda.
“Well, if you say so. Is he still considered suspicious, Father, or may I have some time to get to know my new bodyguard? If you will insist that I need protecting, I would like to know that I will at least get along with this...boy.” In his mind, he could hear Zelda frantically apologising for everything she was saying. He didn’t really mind, as honestly he was probably still a boy. He was definitely less physically impressive than any of the other men working with Rhoam.
“You can take him to your suite and find him somewhere to sleep,” Rhoam said. “I imagine he would like to test his own physical capacities at some point, so it will be a while before he is fully examined. Until then, you are free to get to know him, but don’t forget to get him some clothes and food.”
“Thank you, father.” Zelda smiled sweetly at Rhoam, then beckoned to Link. He followed after her. As soon as she was out of her father’s sight, the change was instantaneous; her posture relaxed, she audibly let out a sigh. “I hate the pressure he puts on me to act like that…”
“I don’t blame you for doing it,” Link said. “He’s very intimidating and if you rely on him it must be so scary, especially with all those people who could very easily beat me up.”
Zelda laughed a little. “That’s one way of putting it. The last time I properly defied him, he took me out of school. That was about ten years ago now and I dread to think which of my freedoms he could revoke next.”
“He sounds lovely.” Link frowned. “Ten years ago…you couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. What did you do that was so bad?” Children weren’t exactly master criminals, unless that was another thing he’d forgotten.
Zelda bit her lip. She was clearly thinking about it, and it wasn’t a pleasant memory. She opened the door to her rooms and then shut it again before she continued. “There was a Sheikah girl in my class and I wanted to invite her to my birthday party. My father said she couldn’t come, and I said I didn’t understand why she shouldn’t, and then I told him he was wrong when he said she might steal something.”
Link didn’t fully understand all the parts of that sentence, but some instinctive memory told him that the way Zelda’ father had acted was very wrong. He curled his lip in disgust, shaking his head. “That sounds unfair. Is that all you did? Stood up for your friend?”
Zelda nodded. “I don’t remember all of the argument, but I think he said something about how my school and my teachers were a bad influence on me and he wanted to keep me safe, so he took me out of school.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Link took a moment to actually look around Zelda’s room then, and it was really something special. Painted a rich shade of green, the walls were lined with bookshelves and windows bearing plants on their sills. Clearly Zelda had quite the eye for botany. “He doesn’t sound like a very good father. What about your mother?”
Zelda sighed, wandering over to one of the windows. The room really was beautiful, and it mirrored the one next door, so it didn’t look like a bedroom even though there was what appeared to be a surface for sleeping in the corner of the room. “My mother died when I was just a baby, barely a month old; I can never work out if my father blames me for it.”
“Sorry.” Link was having to say that a lot, it seemed. “I mean…it can’t really be your fault, can it? You were a baby. It’s not like you murdered her.” He was just going to go with his judgements despite the lack of memory to back them up, and say that babies didn’t make very good killers.
Zelda turned round and smiled at him, but he could tell she was still upset. She probably couldn’t even hide it if she tried. “When you were born, deaths of mothers in childbirth was incredibly common, but when I was born, medicine had moved on. My mother died of something rare that she contracted in hospital while giving birth, but the only reason she didn’t give birth at home was because of me and a complication in my birth. You don’t have to say anything, it was a long time ago and I never exactly lost her.”
“Okay…” Link looked sheepishly down at his feet, somewhat unsure of exactly what he was supposed to say next. Dead parents weren’t exactly a topic that were easy to move on from, and now he felt a little awkward. “You have a nice room.”
Zelda laughed. “I suppose I do. This is my office, it’s where I do most of my studying, and my personal library is here too, so feel free to read anything as long as you put it back where you got it.” She then gestured to a ladder that he hadn’t even noticed before. “Up there is my proper suite, there’s my bedroom, bathroom, and a living area sort of thing.”
“You have a personal library?” Link supposed that this room could easily count as one of those. The number of books on these shelves was immeasurable. Rich people really could have anything they wanted, it seemed.
Zelda nodded. “There’s one downstairs, too, which is larger, and my father has his own for all his political documents. He says he doesn’t believe in paying the government for underfunded libraries that are used by people who don’t understand what they’re reading.” Link didn’t understand most of what she meant by that sentence, but he wasn’t going to say so when she made it sound simple like that.
“Where am I going to sleep?” Link peered up the ladder leading to Zelda’s other rooms, wondering if there was something else up there that he just hadn’t seen the first time. Nothing stood out immediately, though from what Zelda had said he couldn’t see the whole thing.
“I don’t know,” Zelda admitted. “I don’t have any friends to have them come round to stay, so I never thought about it before. I could get you a blanket and you could go on the sofa? You need pyjamas, though, because I’m not letting you go naked.”
“Perjamas?” He asked, struggling to copy the word. It had come so quickly and he had no idea what it meant if the alternative was being naked on a near stranger’s sofa.
“Pyjamas,” Zelda corrected. “You know…sleeping clothes. More comfortable than regular clothes, usually. And much better than falling asleep naked on my sofa. That would raise a lot of unwanted questions if anyone else saw.”
“No one sleeps naked,” Link said, hoping that this was true. He didn’t see why people would sleep naked when nights were always so much colder than days. The present seemed to be a very strange place.
“Well, that’s good.” Zelda sighed. “We’ll have to find you an entirely new set of clothes, I suppose. You need to fit in here, and your current attire is hardly very well suited for that. Perhaps I can take you out shopping someday, or perhaps someone else can. I’ve never really been one for shopping.”
Link didn’t really know what to say about that, so he just shrugged. He didn’t exactly know what she meant by shopping, but if the aim was getting clothes for himself then he doubted it would involve the same process as it did before he went to sleep. Or whatever he did. “Why was I asleep?” He asked after a few moments of standing in silence. “And why don’t I have any memories because of it?”
“I don’t think now is a good time to answer that question…” Zelda cleared her throat, clearly looking around for a way to change the subject, and finding nothing. “Let me just say that the limited amount I know is not something that will be suited to your no doubt rather fragile mental state. You need to eat and rest, and perhaps then I can tell you.”
Link frowned and looked away. Everyone knew more than him and he wanted to know more. Not understanding anything was completely exhausting and he was tired of being deceived. Maybe everyone, especially Zelda, thought it was for the best, but he didn’t. He just wanted to know what on earth was going on. But food sounded pretty good too, now he thought about it. He wondered how long it had been since he’d last eaten. A hundred years, he supposed.
“Food would be nice,” he said, probably sounding a little resigned. “What is there to eat?”He could barely remember food, and no doubt it had all changed. Perhaps people ate paper nowadays. How was he to know?
“I’ll go downstairs and get us both something,” Zelda said, glancing up at a circular object Link had been unable to fathom out so far. “It’s not really dinner sort of time yet, but I’m sure you’re starving. You like rice, right?”
“I have absolutely no idea what I like and dislike. I think I like rice.” THe word rang a vague bell in his mind. “Just rice? Or...rice and other things? I don't understand how food is supposed to work now…”
Zelda just laughed. “Don’t overthink it,” she said. “You can go upstairs and make yourself comfortable on the sofa if you want to while I go to get the food. I think you’ll find it easier to learn what food is now from experience.”
“Right.” Link nodded, then headed towards the ladder and made his way up. He could hear Zelda’s footsteps retreating below him, which meant that she was definitely just leaving him alone in this room. He looked around. Not much was recognisable- most confusing was the odd black rectangular thing on a desk in the corner. It wasn’t a mirror, obviously, but he couldn’t imagine what function it was supposed to serve.
Dismissing all the confusing things, he went to sit down, sinking backwards into the seat, possibly with an undignified groan. Until then, he hadn’t really realised just how much his whole body hurt and how tired he was. He looked over to a small bookshelf in the corner, then reluctantly stood up again to go and fetch a book. As expected, he recognised nothing. All of the covers on the books here were more colourful, less grown up and dull than the ones that had been downstairs. But when he tried to read what was there, they just looked like meaningless squiggles. He put the book down again, but he continued to look over the books. He didn’t understand anything on any of them, and he still didn’t understand when he tried opening them. Wonderful. He was going to have to learn to read again. Link gave a heavy sigh, then went to go and sit back down on Zelda’s sofa. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too long with the food. If there was one thing Link was more so than tired, it was hungry.
“Hey, Link?” The voice sounding in his head came as a surprise- Link almost jumped up off the sofa, but he remembered just in time that it was only Zelda. “What do you want to drink?”
‘Water?’ He didn’t know what else he would drink, because he hadn’t seen any animals as he came in. Other than a dog, he hadn’t seen any animals at all since he had woken up. ‘I can have some water if that’s safe.’ He hadn’t seen any running water either.
“Safe? Oh… We have sources of water inside our houses now, Link. They’re very safe, I assure you. I’ll be up in a couple of minutes with your food. I trust that you haven’t fallen asleep yet? I don’t know if our communication would work in dreams… Perhaps we should run tests on that.”
‘I don’t think I’m asleep,’ Link said, smiling a little to himself. Zelda was a bit scatterbrained and sometimes what she thought made basically no sense. ‘How do you have water sources inside? Are there lots of rivers here?’
“No. I’ll have to explain indoor plumbing to you some time. Basically, all I have to do is turn a little handle and I can have as much clean water as I want.” Link frowned at that- he couldn’t picture what Zelda was describing at all. This world was strange. “It’s the same world,” she said, “it’s just more advanced than the one your mind is used to. Are you sure you don’t remember how to read? From the type of amnesia you seem to have, you should still have your procedural memories. Maybe you were never able to read.”
‘Maybe…’ Link honestly couldn’t remember. He felt like he should be able to read, though- there was a nagging feeling somewhere deep inside of him that told him he was just missing something.
“It’s not a problem,” Zelda told him. “I’ve always been interested in education and I’d be happy to teach you. Reading is definitely important, and writing, especially if you’re meant to go everywhere with me like father said.”
‘Thank you.’ Link settled back against the sofa, and soon enough he heard the sounds of Zelda entering the room below and walking up the ladder. Just the knowledge that she had food seemed to be making him hungrier- he couldn’t wait to see what she had brought.
Zelda glanced around the room, her eyes falling on him almost immediately. She knelt down on the floor and picked up a tray he hadn’t even seen before and then brought it over to the table before she sat down next to him. “Rice, chicken and a sauce the chef made,” she said with a smile. “Tomato, probably.”
“Thank you.” Link took the tray, setting it back down on his lap. The food looked delicious, and smelled it too. He picked up the knife and fork on the tray and started eating without hesitation, going so far as to bend low over his plate in order to shovel food faster into his mouth.
“Slow down!” Zelda said with a laugh. “Really, Link, if my father saw you eating like that he would have me throw you out of the window.” Link couldn’t tell if she was being serious, but he straightened up a little anyway.
“Haven’t eaten for ages,” he mumbled around a half-chewed mouthful of food. Zelda clearly had to stifle a laugh then, shaking her head in despair at his bad table manners. Link just carried on eating, convinced now that this was the best thing he had ever tasted.
“I can see that,” she said. “Just don’t forget that you’re sleeping on this sofa. Give me a minute, I’m going to see if I can find you some blankets for later.”
Link nodded, not wanting to accidentally spew food all over Zelda. The chicken and rice had a familiar taste, but the tomato sauce was completely new. He’d eaten tomatoes before, he thought, but this was so different to any taste he recognised. And it was delicious. He finished the whole plate within five minutes, and only Zelda’s presence was stopping him from bending down to lick up the last vestiges of sauce from his plate. “That was amazing,” he said with a grin. “Is there more?”
Zelda laughed. “I guess you must be starving after being asleep for a hundred years,” she said. “There isn’t any more of that, but if you want to come with me I’m sure we can find some more food and maybe a few sets of clothes for you.
“Please.” Link didn’t hesitate to stand up, eagerly heading towards the ladder. He waited for Zelda to leave first, though- he didn’t know his way around her home yet, and anyway, it was probably rude to run off without her. Even if he really wanted food.
“We’ll go and get some food first,” she said, “and then we can probably go and find some clothes somewhere. I think we have storerooms somewhere in the house, I just don’t know where they are yet. And we can try and find something roughly in your size, but a lot of the people my father employs are a lot larger than you.”
“Okay.” Link opened the door for Zelda and she walked out, motioning for him to follow. He was led downstairs and through a couple of rooms into a large kitchen, empty for now. Empty of people, but no doubt very full of food.
“What do you want?” Zelda asked, looking around the kitchen. “There’s fruit, and yoghurt.”
“What’s yoghurt?” Link felt like a little bit of a fool for having to ask, but he really had no idea what that was. Fruit was a word he recognised, but yoghurt. It didn’t even have any root words he recognised.
“Oh, it’s...um… It’s hard to describe,” Zelda settled on after a moment’s thought. “It’s like milk but a lot thicker and less sweet. It’s good, though, especially when you eat it with fruit. Do you want to try some?”
“I, um, okay,” he said. He still wasn’t really sure what it was, but it sounded okay. If Zelda liked it, maybe it was good. He just didn’t know at the moment.
“Which of these fruits do you recognise?” Zelda asked, handing him a bowl after she removed something yellow.
“Apples, um…” Link looked over the bowl, then shook his head. “Just apples. What’s that yellow thing you put on the counter?” He nodded over towards it. It didn’t look familiar, but the very fact that Zelda had taken it away made him curious.
“It’s a banana,” she said. “There’s some medical stuff with it that means it messes with some people’s blood or something and you haven’t been checked out for that so I don’t want to risk it.”
“There are fruits which poison certain people?” This time was strange. Fruits that only hurt certain people was very strange.
“Yes. For now, let’s stick to something familiar. You recognised apples, so I’ll cut one up for you. If you open the fridge- that’s the white thing in the corner- the yoghurt is the stuff in the blue tub. Go and get it?”
Link went to where she’d directed, but when he opened the fridge it was cold. “Why is it cold?” He asked. “There isn’t any frost magic here.” He didn’t know why he remembered that, but saying it felt strange in his head.
“Oh, it’s not magic. It’s electricity… I’ll have to explain that to you at some point. Not today, though. I’ll give you some time to adjust before I start acclimatising you to modern science.” Zelda held out her hand, and Link hurried to fetch the yoghurt and pass it to her. He couldn’t help but stare at the other things in the fridge, too- various meat products on the bottom shelf, and an array of unfamiliar, more colourful packages on the upper shelves.
“I’m not even going to try and pronounce acc- no,” he said, trying to smile about it, but he felt like something was wrong. He really was not used to this and he just felt like he was missing something really important.
“That’s probably for the best.” Zelda turned away to focus on something for a couple of minutes, and then turned back to present him with a bowl of yoghurt with slices of apple balanced on top. “Spoons are in the drawer.”
Link turned to look at the whole row of drawers in front of him. “Which one?” He asked. This was absolutely hopeless. Things were complicated and everything was tiring. And he apparently still needed clothes before he got to sleep.
“The one right in front of you, Link.” Zelda smiled, pointing, and Link followed her finger and opened the drawer. It was in fact filled with spoons, forks, and knives, all carved with a precision he’d never seen before out of an oddly shiny metal. He selected a smaller spoon, taking the bowl from Zelda and looking around for a table to eat at.
“I’m exhausted,” he complained, almost sitting down slightly too hard on the chair. It was a lot softer than he was expecting. “I only walked here, but I’m so tired.”
Zelda smiled, taking a seat opposite him with a glass of what was probably milk but he honestly wasn’t sure what to think about anything anymore, so he wouldn’t swear on it. “You can sleep after we find you some clothes to wear, I promise.”
“Thank you.” Link prodded at his yoghurt and apples, then scooped up a spoonful and raised it to his lips. The taste was nothing like what he had expected, but it wasn’t bad. Really, it was rather good. He looked up and found Zelda was watching him over the rim of her glass. “Is something wrong?” He asked.
Zelda shook her head, but then she answered the question anyway. He didn’t understand her. “You just don’t look very...well? I know you’re tired, but you look really ill and nervous.”
“I was asleep for years and I don’t remember anything from before that,” Link said wearily. “Maybe I am ill. I honestly have no idea.” He sighed. “Maybe they put be in there because I was dying, and I’m still dying.” Zelda looked very alarmed at that, maybe even upset, and Link couldn’t fathom why that was surprising.
“I hope you’re okay,” she said. “Maybe we should get you medically examined tomorrow or something? I hope you’re not ill, that would be dreadful and frankly unfair.”
“I hope I’m not ill, too.” Link spooned more yoghurt and apples into his mouth, chewing slowly. He was exhausted, and still suffering from that feeling of inherent wrongness, but he didn’t actually think he was ill. Not in a way that would make him die. He didn’t feel much like he was dying, but he didn’t know what dying actually felt like so maybe he was dying.
When he was done, Zelda seemed to be in a hurry to get moving. “I think you need to get to sleep as soon as possible,” she explained. “I think you must just be really tired and it looks like you’re about to pass out.”
“I support that idea…” Sleep sounded wonderful at the moment. Link stood up slowly, leaning on the back of his chair for a moment before getting up and starting to move away. Zelda stayed next to him, looking awfully concerned. “I’m fine, I can walk,” he said. He was tempted to say he’d already died once, but that would be cruel.
“I feel like I should remind you that I can hear what you’re thinking,” Zelda said in his head. “And I can tell when you feel like you’re about to faint.”
“I don’t think I’m about to faint.” Nevertheless, Link didn’t object when Zelda rested a hand on his back to guide him up the stairs and back into her rooms.
“Sleep on the sofa. You get yourself settled, I’ll bring you a couple of blankets. Go on, lie down. You need it.”
“I thought you wanted to get clothes first?” He asked. He wasn’t really going to protest if she insisted, but he didn’t want to go against anything Rhoam wanted if he was the only one keeping him here.
“Go and lie down. You’re swaying on your feet, you need to rest.” Zelda practically pushed him down onto the sofa, but Link went willingly. Goddesses, it was so soft… He just wanted to lie down for another hundred years. He felt no shame in falling asleep before Zelda even managed to get back with the blankets.