Reincarnated

Chapter 8: Excerpt from Zelda's Diary

Author's Note: I know no one will notice, but I haven't updated in a while. Finals are a bitch. Anyway, back to it.

The sun fell below the horizon, and the only light left in the town was that of travelers finding their beds and public houses on the main streets. I decided it was a significant darkness to hide my journey.

Behind the green dress and all of my other old clothes was a rope I'd fashioned of fabrics even older. I took it and tied it around the base of my immovable desk, drawers filled and surface stacked high with the papers and books. I'd exploited the little guilt Father has over my imprisonment to collect writings on all the sciences of the world. The taxonomy of animals especially interests me. The volumes weigh it down, so much that even a Goron hanging from the rope tied to my desk couldn't budge it.

Link's interest in my preparations was apparent to me, but I ignored his eyes as they tracked me gathering my things; an overcoat, a lantern, and the Old Woman's dress I'd intended to return. I stepped onto the narrow spot of my desk that was kept clear of any stack of clutter. As I took the frame of the window in my hand, I saw the wall where Link had taken residence cleared. He was standing by my desk with his arms held ready to catch me if I fell. He looked concerned at my facade of recklessness, so carelessly leaning from my window.

"It's hardly 5 meters, I think I'll be fine." My mocking didn't seem to soothe his turmoil.

"I must come with you," he said.

"Really, I make this journey frequently. I'll be fine." I responded with more sincerity.

"I'm not to take my eyes off of you. I must come, "he reiterated. I didn't believe he only wanted to fulfill his guard duty. Regardless, I nodded and said:

"Come then."

...

It was strange to have a companion on my journey. These were steps I'd always taken alone, a lantern only lighting my path, but now they were steps he took too and a path I illuminated to him. We passed through the side gates of the castle and across the artificial hills built atop the guard's tunnels, all so familiar to me and completely foreign to Link.

We crept down a quiet, residential street of Castle Town, passing other sleepily lit side streets and pitch-black alleys. With each twist and turn I'd look back, and obediently, Link would be close by my side. When I came upon the bend towards the Old Woman's house, I turned then to his absence. He stood a few meters back, looking down one of the alleys with his hand on the decrepit brick of the unkempt building.

"Link?" I called to him. He turned from the nothing down the alley. I could see the memory it pulled into his eyes flutter away at my calling.

...

We descended from the cool dark into the warm light of my Old Woman's home. "Come in," she beckoned me down the stairs into her flat. The room was hazy and smelled like the roasted tree nuts that everyone makes when the forest leaves fall. There was a pot bubbling over a large flame where the haze trailed from. It was a brew different from mine.

"And who might this be?" she said as I stepped out of the door frame.

"This is my guard, Link. Father ordered him to keep me confined to my room."

The Old Woman laughed as she welcomed him in."I see she's made quick work of you." Link's face ran red, and so did mine.

"I've made no work of anyone," I said through my embarrassed smile.

"You say your father sent him. He knows your father?" She sought the bounds of our speech.

"Yes, he knows," I replied, unbinding her.

"Good." She turned to Link. "You should be honored. Not many are allowed knowledge of my Princess." Pride was clear on his face.

My Old Woman turned back to me. "Sit, sit my dear. I must hear, how was your night?" We both took a seat at her small table. It, much like my desk, was littered with papers, but these were in a language foreign to me. Link took his place near the door.

"You must tell me everything." I obliged her. She was swept with the excitement of the crowd, and bitter-sweet with Impa expelling me from the ball. She was rather upset with me for not asking Urbosa more about the Sheikah. "I want to know how she's doing." She laughed throughout all of it in her usual way. When I spoke of Link, I could see she had many questions left unasked while still in his presence. When I spoke of Father, her laughter stopped.

"When did you last speak?" She asked me in a more serious voice. The room felt so much emptier without her consistent laughter.

"It's been a few weeks. I thought he'd actually talk to me after last night. He wouldn't listen of course, but at least he'd talk to me. Alas, just the note." She nodded. "I know I could do it. I know that royal power lies somewhere within me. I pray for it every night. Of all the books Father procures for me, he refuses those philosophies of spirituality that could aid me."

"I don't think those books would have much to say about you."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think there's ever been someone like you. Those spirits won't flow through you the same way they have the monks of the past."

"Either way, their writings are the best chance I have, and he won't allow me to see them."

"Your spiritual journey won't be like theirs in the slightest, you must seek out the path on your own."

"How?"

"The springs. Those ancient water wells will bring you closer to the spirits of the Goddess." She had suggested this before, but just as she did then, I protested.

"Perhaps, but I still have no means of getting there. It's dangerous to go alone through the wild."

"It is dangerous, but you don't have to go alone. Your guard there seems like he'd accompany you." She smiled at me, then at him.

"I can't ask that of him."

"He insisted on accompanying you here."

"Yes, but this is..."

"Then he can accompany you to the springs." She interrupted me.

I turned to Link. I knew he had been listening in just as he watched me prepare to leave. His face didn't show the reluctance to brave the wild that I thought it would. Still, as I looked at him, I said "I can't ask that of you."

"Maybe she can't ask that of you," the Old Woman addressed him. "But I will."

I turned back to her. My eyes continued my plea, but I knew she was right. I needed to go to those springs, and I needed Link to accompany me. Or maybe I simply wanted that to be true.

"If it is what she asks of me, I will go." I turned back to him as he spoke. He didn't appear afraid of the proposal, as if he believed he could single-handedly take on the wilds of Hyrule. There must've been something unknown in him to earn the confidence in his eye, or perhaps he was simply ignorant of the beasts that awoke with the promise of Ganon's rise.

Either way, I had to seek Hylia's grace. After a short moment of selfish consideration, I condemned him. "I wish to seek the springs with you as my guard." I felt the smirk he held down press against the edge of his mouth. "We will leave tomorrow morning. I will leave Father a note."

Link nodded. The Old Woman patted me on the shoulder. She expressed her anticipation, that she'd pray for me, but the words went straight through me. Even now, a word could not penetrate my mind. We are going. I'm to leave my room for the last time. I will do everything I can to awaken my spirit, it must work. We are going tonight.