Chapter Text
Chapter Eight: Next Steps
Spirit blew out an irritated breath when he and Link appeared in the middle of the partially enclosed observation tower in Lookout Landing. He couldn't blame the horse—even for him, there was always a moment of disorientation when teleporting away from somewhere outside and into the middle of a building.
The room was a wide circle, with a very high ceiling and an arched doorway large enough to accommodate a cart. The floor was made with the remnants of a former Sheikah shrine's teleportation base—stone with metallic inlays forming a circular maze of curved lines. The fact that Purah had been able to salvage that and incorporate it into her teleportation rune had been the source of endless pride for her, Link knew.
All around the circular base were half a dozen appendages built from salvaged Guardians. Dozens of tentacle-like arms had been repurposed, creating a platform that could be lifted up to the top of the tower, making for an ideal observation post. It was a feat of engineering that Link, frankly, didn't fully trust. He could still remember when Purah had first tested the lift mechanic—with him as the test subject—and two of the arms snapped, causing the platform to lurch dangerously and nearly send him falling to the ground thirty feet below.
Purah assured him that it wouldn't happen again, but Link had refused to ride the lift since unless he had his paraglider at the ready. Just in case.
He and Spirit emerged from the tower, making their way down the short wooden ramp to the ground. Around them, the small outpost known as Lookout Landing buzzed with activity. The outpost had begun as a base of operations for rebuilding operations in Hyrule Field, following the defeat of Calamity Ganon.
It was here that Link and Zelda had defeated the beast, and it was here that Hyrule had gathered to celebrate that victory. And it had been here that the combined leadership of both the Hylians and Sheikah had wanted to begin working to rebuild the kingdom. While other small settlements had popped up on the outskirts of Hyrule Field, many still avoided the central fields, where monsters and Guardians had once roamed freely.
The outpost was built like a wide square, with thick logs, sharpened along their tops, forming the outermost wall. A catwalk circled the wall's interior to allow archers to look out at the surrounding field. There were two gates—the southernmost large enough to accommodate a cart, while the northern exit was smaller. While various buildings lined the walls or were built into the catwalk, the interior of Lookout Landing was dominated by the large, albeit broken, fountain in its center.
That fountain was an ancient piece of Hyrule's history—a ceremonial site once known as the Sacred Ground. Once, it had been surrounded by a large, manmade pond—a place where Hylia's faithful could offer prayers to their goddess or where men and women could be knighted. However, during the battle against Calamity Ganon, the pond had been drained and the fountain destroyed, though its foundation—and what lay beneath—remained.
Unbeknownst to all save the royal family and a select few Hylian soldiers, the Sacred Ground was also a secret hideaway. Under the pond was a large chamber, connected to a hidden passage that led straight back to the bowels of Hyrule Castle. It was a large chamber, spacious enough to house the royal family and a contingent of guards, with room for provisions, close enough to the castle to mount a counteroffensive and far enough to slip away from a siege.
The passage and chamber's existence were a jealously guarded secret that even Link, as captain of Zelda's guard, had never been privy to. Even Zelda's knowledge of the passage had been merely academic; she'd heard of its existence but did not know how to access it or where its entrance was. It was only due to the draining of the pond and damage to the fountain that the chamber had been found.
When they'd first ventured underground, what they had found shocked Link and Zelda. One hundred years prior, at the onset of the Great Calamity, King Rhoam had used this very passage to lead a beleaguered contingent of guards and advisors out of Castle Town, as evidenced by various personal effects and notes left behind to chronicle their flight.
It had been a final puzzle piece in the sequence of events that took place before Link and Zelda reached Castle Town—how the king had escaped the castle and led a contingent of soldiers to the Great Plateau. There, Rhoam had perished, his spirit remaining, alone, to await Link's resurrection.
The hidden chamber had become essential as Lookout Landing was built, serving as a barracks and living space while the walls and a few critical buildings were constructed. It continued to be used by the guards who maintain the outpost's defenses, despite the presence of other above-ground structures.
Many of the outpost's inhabitants took notice of Link, some waving to him in greeting, while others nudged companions and motioned towards him. His eyes, however, were drawn to one particular person—an elderly man slightly shorter than Link in traditional Sheikah garb, bald on top with a shock of messy, white hair on the back and sides. He had a pair of telescoping goggles perched on his forehead.
Robbie was one of the oldest people still alive in Hyrule—particularly if one did not count the extremely long-lived Zora. One of the most prominent Sheikah researchers in the pre-Calamity era, Robbie had specialized in the Guardians and other ancient Sheikah weapons. He and Purah had led the teams in charge of exhuming and reactivating the ancient Guardians and Divine Beasts in preparation for the Calamity's rise.
He, along with Purah and Impa, had planned for Link's eventual awakening in the Shrine of Resurrection and sacrificed much to ensure his success when that day came.
The old Sheikah was speaking to a young Sheikah woman—Josha, Purah's new assistant. Link didn't know much about the teenage girl, other than the fact that Purah and Zelda were both excited about how smart the girl was.
"Ah! Link!" Robbie said, bustling past Josha and hurrying towards him, lips parted in a wide, toothy grin. Before he got too close, however, he stopped, looking Link up and down, eyes lingering on his left arm for a time.
Finally, he said in an all-too-serious tone, "Now, take off your clothes."
Link snorted. "No."
Robbie grinned once more and crossed the last few steps until he was close enough to throw his arms around Link in an embrace. "It's good to see you again. Purah told me all about what happened to you and Zelda."
"Thanks, Robbie," Link muttered. The last thing he wanted to do was recount the events of the last several weeks again.
Thankfully, the old Sheikah either understood that or felt satisfied with Purah's version of events, because he didn't push Link to retell things. Instead, he pulled back, hands on both of Link's arms, met his eyes, and asked, "How are you?"
The question caused Link to hesitate. How was he? That was a question he'd been trying to avoid even thinking about. He didn't know that he had time to worry about how he was doing at this point.
"I'm… all right," he finally said after consideration. "Still recovering. Still figuring everything out."
Robbie nodded sagely. "Of course you are. Aren't we all?" He grinned once again and then glanced to the side, towards Josha. "Oh! Right. Link, you know Josha, do you not?"
"I do." Link gave Josha a nod and a polite smile. "We've met a few times."
"Ah, yes! Of course. Well, she and I have been trying to figure out our own problem set."
"Miasma sickness," Josha said, interjecting. She stepped forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Robbie. "We're trying to find a way to combat it."
"You mean the stuff that seeps up out of the ground some nights?" Link asked, looking between them.
"More like every night nowadays," Josha said. "And even sometimes during the day."
Robbie nodded. "Indeed. It's becoming harder and harder to avoid the stuff, especially for those of us trying to look into the oddities that have cropped up all over Hyrule."
"Like the hole in Hateno Village?" Link asked.
Robbie cocked his head, eyebrows raising. "Oh? Is there one there, too?"
Link grimaced, one of his concerns confirmed by those words. "So there's more than one?"
"Oh, yes," Josha said. Her eyes widened with some excitement. "There are at least a half-dozen that have been accounted for." She looked at Robbie. "We knew about the one in Hateno. Get with the program, Goggles."
Robbie snorted and waved his hand dismissively.
"A half dozen? Have they all appeared underneath Sheikah shrines?" Link asked.
Robbie turned his attention back on Link. "Oh! You noticed that too, did you? Yes, it would seem that several of them have opened under or very near old shrines and towers."
"We think they're drawn to veins of Ancient Energy," Josha said.
Robbie frowned, looking back at her. "And I think it's still too early to make that hypothesis. Correlation does not imply causation."
"Oh, come on, Goggles!"
Robbie gave Link a look that seemed to say, Do you see what I must deal with? Link smiled, reflecting on how often the brightest minds could also be some of the quirkiest. Zelda was certainly not immune to that, either.
"Cause aside, these holes in the ground are certainly strange. While sinkholes are certainly not unheard of, for so many to appear, and for as deep as they go, it seems extremely unlikely that they are natural in occurrence."
"No," Link said, smile fading. "The one in Hateno Village was coated in Malice. Are the others like that?"
Josha nodded quickly, her twin buns bobbing with her movement. "Yep. That's what Goggles and I have been trying to figure out. It's snapping hard to send expeditions down into them if half of them end up sick and the other half end up nearly comatose."
"Exactly," Robbie said. "One of the first things we need to understand is why some people are more affected by the sickness than others."
"Why do some people get sunburnt more easily than others? Why are some people more prone to having allergies in the spring than others?" Josha's voice grew irritable as she spoke, eyes alight with a fierce passion. "There could be any number of reasons for it, and who knows if we'll ever understand it fully."
"Josha—"
"But if we got a proper expedition put together, full of people who we know to be resistant to the worst effects of the miasma, Hylia only knows what we might find down there!"
Robbie sighed, giving Link another exasperated look before looking back at Josha. "I agree with you, Josha, but I've seen what can happen when scientific thought rushes off ahead of caution."
"Yeah, it can result in a lot of pot lids being blown up," Link said, giving Robbie a wry smile.
Robbie responded with a withering look, deep furrows appearing between his eyebrows. "Must you always bring that up?"
"Oh, what's this?" Josha asked, looking between the two of them.
Link grinned at Robbie, patting the other man on his shoulder. "You should ask Robbie about the time he gave King Rhoam and Zelda a demonstration on Guardian weapons sometime."
"The time you blew up a priceless, scientific artifact from antiquity, you mean?" Robbie said, poking Link in the side.
Link shrugged. "I've blown up a lot of priceless, scientific artifacts from antiquity in my time."
"Indeed, you have."
Link was happy that he could joke about such things more easily now. It wasn't long ago that he still occasionally woke up, coated in cold sweat, trying to shake off nightmares of pulsing, blue eyes watching him in the dark.
"Are you two done reminiscing about being old?" Josha asked, looking between them.
Robbie barked a laugh that turned into a dry cough. "One day," he said, when he'd cleared his throat and pounded his chest a few times. "When you're as old as I am, you'll understand the comfort of being able to talk to someone who has lived through some of the same experiences as you."
"Sure, sure… but Mister Swordsman, I think the Doctor has been waiting for you to get back. She said that, if you showed up, to send you to see her click snap."
"You can just call me Link, Josha," he said, smiling.
Josha shrugged noncommittally. "Okay, but you should really go see her. She'll be angry if you don't go right away."
Link snorted. "Being made to wait does Purah some good, if you ask me."
"Oh, you know how she gets," Robbie said, grinning. "You'll never hear the end of her complaints if you don't just go see her."
Josha looked mildly offended, but Link nodded. "Wouldn't want to make her complain, would we?" He winked before turning from them. As he did, he felt his smile slide from his face. Pressure. He felt the pressure again. The need to perform, to show confidence, to be that beacon of hope.
He missed Zelda. She was the only person with whom he felt truly, fully comfortable shedding all masks around. She knew him, inside and out, and he would feel far more ready to face this new threat with her by his side.
Why would she appear to him like she did in the night? Why give him her power? Why tell him to find her? Where was she?
Link made his way towards Purah's residence and research lab—one of the few multi-story structures in Lookout Landing. The main entrance was situated in line with some of the catwalks that lined this portion of the wall, with a wide porch area before it that allowed people to have an unobstructed view of the land around Lookout Landing, as well as a good view of the settlement, itself.
Beneath the porch was an open-air room, and within it, Link could see that a secondary laboratory had been set up, which looked to be full of various artifacts of interest to the Sheikah scientists. He recognized at least some of them as Zonai in design, familiar with the things he and Zelda had seen underground and what he'd encountered in the sky. He even thought he saw one of the caretaker constructs, huddled down as the one Link had met had been, though this one appeared inert and lifeless.
Link turned aside from the lab and, leaving Spirit behind, climbed the stairs up to the landing that Purah's house stood on. The house was built at odds with the other structures in the town, which were a mix of old-style Hateno and the newer style of buildings made by Hudson and his crew. Purah's house, on the other hand, had a tall, steeped, and rounded roof made with tightly woven thatch.
The house had at least three levels, not including the secondary lab on the ground level. The uppermost level opened onto a smaller porch that seemed to contain some old Sheikah technology reminiscent of the control pads that once adorned the Sheikah Towers. Additionally, like a tall hat, wooden scaffolding was incorporated into the roof of Purah's house, supporting her enormous telescope, which she had transported from her lab in Hateno Village.
All in all, despite its more traditional Sheikah appearance, the building was still very much so Purah in its design—a feeling that didn't go away when he opened the front door to reveal the spacious lab, with its scattered papers and pieces of technology littered about. It was an absolute mess, even worse than it had been the day prior, and it took him a moment to find Purah amidst the chaos.
She was there, on the other side of the room, on her hands and knees and digging through a pile of what appeared to be old Zonai scrap underneath one of the room's various desks and tables. "Where the hell is it?" she said, apparently not noticing his entrance.
Link raised an eyebrow, watching her for a moment. Then he swung the door shut, slamming it loudly. Purah cried out in surprise, jumping up and banging her head on the underside of the desk, hitting hard enough to send a pile of stacked papers and other knick-knacks tumbling down to the ground around her.
"Dammit, Josha, what-!" She pulled out from the desk, holding the top of her head, and shot to her feet. When she spun around, her owl-like goggles had slipped down in front of her eyes, slightly askew. Her lips, visible beneath the goggles, were drawn back in a snarl.
When she registered Link's presence, she lifted her goggles, placing them back on the top of her head, and glared at Link. "Do you always have to be so loud? Are you trying to give me a concussion?"
"Sorry, Purah," Link said, feeling a bit guilty. He had wanted to startle her, but maybe doing so when she was under the desk wasn't the best choice.
Purah rubbed the back of her head, continuing to glare at Link for another few seconds before sighing and shaking her head, straightening out her long, open-fronted coat. "Whatever. It's about snapping time you got back here. I figured you'd be back hours ago!"
"It's not even noon!"
"And? You were supposed to bring me some bread!"
Link rolled his eyes and reached down into the bag he'd brought with him, removing a wrapped bundle, which still radiated the oven's heat from within.
"Ah! Give it." Purah snatched the loaf of bread from his hands, walking over to the table in the center of the room. She shoved some papers aside to clear a space and then unwrapped the loaf. After inhaling deeply, she tore a piece free by hand and took a large bite. "I'm so hungry," she said, or at least, that's what Link thought she said. It was hard to make out her words with her mouth full.
"You could have eaten before now…"
Purah swallowed, smacking her lips. "No time to eat." She glanced back down at the loaf of bread and then froze, eyes on the table. "Aha! There it is." She snatched something that seemed to glow faintly green off the table. It looked to be some sort of cylinder, roughly the size of her closed fist.
"What's that?" Link asked, brows furrowing.
"No idea," Purah said. "Well, I have an idea, but I need to do a test to be sure. Do you still have that Zonai sword you got in the sky?" He removed the sword hilt with the blade he'd fused to its end from his belt, but when he did so, Purah shook her head quickly. "Not that one! The one you didn't stick a knife to the end of."
Link's frown deepened, but he produced the inert hilt a moment later. "It doesn't work. Rauru said that it was powered by the construct."
"Uh-huh." Purah took the hilt from him, inspecting it and then looking at the glowing cylinder in her hand. "Hmm… I had thought…" She turned the blade over again, and her fingers must have bumped the lever to activate it, because suddenly, a shining energy blade extended out from one end, stopping barely an inch from her own face.
Purah cried out in surprise for a second time that day, dropping the sword, which deactivated as soon as it left her hand. It clattered to the ground and rolled under the table. "Click snap, that was too close!"
"Wait, what did you do?" Link asked, quickly crouching and reaching under the table to snatch the hilt. When he stood back up, he tried to activate the sword as she had done, but like when he tried before, nothing happened. He looked up at Purah, confused.
Purah, however, was grinning and waggling the glowing cylinder at him. "I knew it! I think this must be some kind of Zonai power cell! It's different than the kinds we made to power our tech, but the same concept."
"That thing can power the sword?" Link looked from the sword to the cylinder in her hand. "But why isn't it working now? And why did it work in the first place? You didn't attach it."
Purah snapped her fingers. "Now you're asking the right questions! Sheikah tech was always powered by direct connection to ancient energy from the ground or by power cells filled with the energy, but even then, the power cells were always physically connected."
She tapped her lips, turning the power cell over in her hand, examining the green light emanating from within. "This doesn't look like ancient energy. Different color. But…" She looked at Link. "Here, catch!" And then she tossed the power cell in an underhanded throw to Link.
"Hey!" Link said as he reached out somewhat clumsily with his free right hand. He fumbled with the cylinder but managed to get his fingers around it. As soon as he did so, the sword hilt in his left hand sprang to life, its thin, blue blade extending about a foot and a half from the edge of the hilt.
The energy blade was tapered nearest the hilt and then widened in a gentle curve before narrowing to a point at its end. Its edges glowed brilliant blue, while the interior of the blade could be seen through, save for a few glowing runic shapes within. It hummed softly with life, similar to that of the Sheikah energy blades, though more quietly and at a different pitch.
"Well!" Purah said, grinning. "I guess there's one hypothesis proven right."
Link smiled, waving the sword through the air, the shining blade leaving behind a brief afterimage in his vision. He met Purah's eyes. "You're a genius, Purah. How did you know it would work?"
The Sheikah woman shrugged. "I didn't. It was mostly just a hunch that occurred to me after you mentioned not being able to power those swords."
"And where did you find this?" Link deactivated the sword and inspected the Zonai power cell in his other hand.
"It was just among the junk that's been falling out of the sky ever since those islands appeared. Did you see the stuff we have below?"
"Yeah. I recognized some of it from the ruins underground and in the sky."
"Exactly." Purah's eyes shone with excitement now, as they always did when discussing advanced technology. She and Zelda were a lot alike in that way. "This is our chance to forge a new path, like Zelda and I have been working on. If I can figure out how the Zonai made their tech work, then maybe I can apply what I know from ancient Sheikah tech and make some real advancements, instead of scraping the barrel like we've been doing for the last couple of years."
"Don't sell yourself short," Link said, reactivating the sword again, inspecting the shining runes in the center of the blade. "You managed to put together the Purah Pad and made the teleportation rune work again."
Purah waved her hand dismissively. "That was a fluke. Teleporting is weirdly different than the other runes and not as tied to other Sheikah tech as the others are."
"If you say so." Link put the Zonai sword away, pleased to have the new weapon. While it was shorter than the typical sword, and Link would always prefer proper steel in hand, energy weapons like it could be incredibly effective against certain types of armor. He liked having as many tools as possible when facing the unknown. He also pocketed the energy cell, figuring that if Purah expected it back, she would have already said something.
As Purah set about taking another bite of the bread, Link decided to broach another subject entirely. "I saw Zelda last night."
Purah coughed, nearly choking on her bread, and gave him a sharp look. She said something unintelligible and then swallowed the bread in her mouth before speaking again. "What?"
"She came to me last night. This morning, I guess. She was in our house."
"And…? What did she do? Where is she?" Purah waved her hand, urging him to continue.
"I…" Link sighed. "I don't know. She didn't say anything. She just appeared, looking at me, and then went outside and flew off."
"Flew off?"
He nodded. "I chased her outside, but then she just… floated up and disappeared. I saw her do similar things before, with her powers."
"And she didn't say anything to you? Nothing at all?"
"No."
"What, is she mad at you? Is she giving you the silent treatment? Were you in bed with another woman or something?"
"What? No! Purah."
Purah shrugged. "Just making sure. I don't think she would respond quietly in that event, anyway." She frowned, considering. "That's strange, though."
"I just don't get it. She told me to find her, Purah. She told me. And then she just appears in our house?" Link reached up, running his hand through his hair, which hung loosely around his face. He'd forgotten to tie his hair back this morning before leaving.
"Huh?" Purah's head snapped back up to look at him. "Oh. Right! That is weird. You'd think she'd at least give you the courtesy of telling you that you need to take a bath or something if she can't stand being around you right now."
Link snorted. "Thanks."
"And you're sure it wasn't a dream?"
"Yes. I was awake—I never fell back asleep afterwards."
"And she wasn't…" Purah trailed off, meeting his eyes, her expression betraying some of her worry.
"I—" Link hesitated but shook his head. "I don't think so. I've met plenty of spirits, and she didn't show any of the same signs that they did. She looked physically present."
"Then that's good! Now you've got your proof, right? She's running around Hyrule, probably working on some secret plan to defeat this Ganondorf guy."
"We don't know that."
Purah sighed. "No. We don't. But what else could she be doing?"
Link didn't respond, averting his eyes. Purah was probably right, but that only raised more questions. Such as why wouldn't she tell him?
"Look, Linky, I know there's still a lot of stuff that we don't know. But maybe that's why we should just focus on what we do know and what we can do right now."
It took him a moment, but he nodded in agreement. "I agree. Something's up with her. It was her, but… I don't know. I need to find her. I still can't shake that she needs my help."
"What?" Purah said, taken aback. "No! I mean the Rito. We need to figure out what's up with that storm!"
Link blinked, looking at her. "I can't fix the weather."
She tilted her head, fixing him with an annoyed scowl. "Really? Do you really think the giant blizzard in the middle of summer—a blizzard that has taken the form of an enormous column of snow and clouds hovering over Hebra and Hebra alone—is just some freak weather phenomenon?"
Link didn't respond, mouth shut, frown creasing his forehead.
"For all we know, somehow Ganondorf dug old Vah Medoh out of wherever the Rito crashed it and managed to get it working again. I don't know what else could be causing that storm, unless he can just do that."
Pressure. Expectation. How could something so nebulous be so heavy?
"I know." Link shook his head, glancing down at the large map of Hyrule on her table. "But Zelda—she told me to find her. I know I heard her voice up there."
"Linky—" Purah paused and then sighed. Something changed in her at that moment, and when she met his eyes, he saw exhaustion. Physically, she was young—as young in body as Link himself. But in that moment, her eyes looked old. She looked old and as tired as he felt.
"Link," she said, her voice lacking the sarcastic bite it often held. "I'm worried about her, too. Zelda's—she's my best friend. And I still have people trying to find out where she's gone off to, but…"
"I know."
Purah looked down, where her hands fidgeted with the little flute-like instrument she often carried. Link still had never heard her play it before.
"I can't do this," she finally said. "I'm not… a leader. I'm not like Impa or Zelda. I'm good at research. Inventions." She took a breath before continuing. "But Zelda's not here. Paya has her hands full in Kakariko, and Hylia only knows where Impa is. I haven't heard from her in weeks."
He wasn't used to seeing this side of Purah. There was a rawness to her voice, and he knew that she felt much of that same weight that he felt, too. And, surprisingly, it helped somehow.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "You're doing what you need to do."
She released a sound that was half-snort and half-sigh. "A lot of people are panicking. Most people around here were there during the battle with Calamity Ganon—they remember how close we were, and how much damage that monster did in a short amount of time."
Link closed his eyes, remembering that day all too well. An army from all over Hyrule, battling a horde of monsters, both organic and machine. And, above it all, the beast Ganon, whose power caused the ground to tremble and Death Mountain to erupt.
He had defeated that monster, but he had done so with both Zelda's help and the Master Sword.
Purah looked up at him and, when Link opened his eyes again, she scoffed and brushed his hand off her shoulder. When she spoke, it was with her normal, clipped tone. "So we need to try to do something to calm them down while we figure out the other stuff, okay? And that means you need to get over to Rito Village and see if you can figure out what's causing the disturbance over there."
Link looked at her, silent, for several seconds. Finally, however, he nodded. "Okay. You're right—I'll head there first. But Purah? If you hear anything about Zelda—anything at all—I need you to tell me."
"Right. Of course." She waved her flute and then stuck it back into a pocket of her coat before tearing off another piece of bread from the table. "You'll have to travel there on foot. The travel medallion we stuck there stopped working when the storm hit. Not sure if something's interfering with it, or it's just buried under too much snow."
Link pursed his lips but nodded. "Right. Well, if I'm going to be traveling to Hebra, I guess I should go back home and grab warmer gear." He reached over and tore off a piece of bread for himself. "Gods, I hate winter in Hebra."
Purah grabbed the loaf of bread, pulling it further away from Link. "Well, then I guess you'd better get there and bring the summer back, shouldn't you?"
He smiled. "I guess so."
Purah felt bad for lying to Link.
She hadn't intended on doing so. If he'd just arrived a couple of hours earlier, it wouldn't have even been an option! But he'd taken his time getting there, and the messenger from Kakariko Village had arrived just after dawn, carrying with him a letter from Paya.
Much of the letter detailed how Paya was handling the situation in the village. It sounded like the damage wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, as most of the ruins had fallen on the surrounding hills and mountains, rather than the village proper.
She also talked about the strange ring-shaped ruins that occupied the sky over Kakariko, which their Zonai research team had only just started trying to research when, well…
Zelda had appeared.
Aunt Purah, Zelda is alive! She visited Kakariko Village and spoke to me briefly before leaving. Link wasn't with her, which worries me, but I'm certain she would have said something about him if anything had happened to him, right?
To be honest, she did seem odd and not entirely like herself. She was cold, and her eyes seemed hollow. When she spoke, it seemed without any emotion whatsoever, and she refused to answer any of my questions. Instead, all she told me was that we needed to avoid entering the ring ruins. I asked her why, but she just reiterated that we couldn't go in them and that she would explain later.
And then she left! Just like that. She didn't say anything about the village or even speak to any of the other villagers. I am certain that she is under a great deal of stress, considering all that has happened, but she really did seem unlike herself. Has she spoken to you? And have you heard anything about Link? I'm worried about him.
"So why would Zelda speak to Paya and not Link?" she wondered aloud while chewing another piece of bread. "And why shouldn't they check out those ruins?"
She knew Link would be angry at her for not mentioning the letter to him, but she figured he would also be upset if he found out that Zelda had spoken to someone else, but not him. It had been a calculated risk, omitting this, but she really did need him to try to focus on what was going on in Rito Village.
It was a task that would be good for him. Give him something to work on while she figured out some of the other strange things going on around Hyrule, such as the rumor she heard of a pirate attack on Lurelin Village to the south, and the sandstorm that had kicked up in the desert.
Could Ganondorf have managed to reactivate the Divine Beasts somehow? It should have been impossible—all four Divine Beasts had been hidden away and permanently decommissioned. But if he'd somehow reactivated even a couple of them… Well, it could be disastrous.
Despite the danger, she found herself hoping that these strange disturbances in the different regions of Hyrule were tied to the Divine Beasts. They knew how to deal with those, and there was no one in Hyrule more qualified than Link to do so. She didn't want to consider the alternative—that Ganondorf was just powerful enough in some ancient form of magic to do all of this on his own.
She scanned the letter again, grimacing, and then shoved another bite of bread into her mouth before standing to her feet again. It was time to get back to work.