Link narrowed his eyes on him, but his father did not turn to look at his son. Link moved his gaze to the king, but did not sit. “What is this?” he asked. “What’s going on?” But his father said nothing, his eyes on his feet.
The door behind him opened, and Link turned to see Zelda enter, clearly aggravated with her father. Her mouth was open to speak, but it snapped shut when her eyes fell onto Link.
“What is the meaning of this?” she said, her gaze narrowing on her father, but he ignored her, his gaze hard on Link.
The king gestured towards a man that stood to his left, and the man stepped forward, placing the Master Sword on the king's desk.
Link's eyes moved to his father once more, then to Impa and Paya standing by the door, over to Zelda, and back to the king. “Where did you get that?”
“Your father brought it to me,” the king said. “And it seems my adviser, Impa, has gotten to you first.”
Link turned his gaze to Impa once more, but her cold eyes were fixed on the king's, and she did not seem to try to hide her disdain as her lips twitched at the corners.
“Father,” Zelda started. “It is just as the legends say. The Master Sword has been hidden for all these years, but it called to us.”
“You are foolish, Zelda,” the king hissed at his daughter. “The legends are from an ancient time. A time where civilization was not as advanced as it is today. If any war is on our horizon, it will not be stopped my a rusty old sword.” He turned his eyes back to Link. “You and my daughter will have no part in these legends. You have no business fighting in any war.”
“Ganondorf and his army cannot be stopped by modern weaponry,” Impa hissed at the king. “It is in their blood to fulfill their duty to Goddess Hylia.”
“They are children,” the king snapped at his adviser. “I will not send my daughter out with a fool and a sword to fight against a villain from a damned movie.”
“I guess I'm the fool?” Link muttered.
“We're not children,” Zelda shouted to her father. She opened her mouth to speak further, but stopped as Impa's hand rested on her shoulder. She was, however, visibly fuming at her father's stubborn behavior.
“You will have no part of this sword,” the king growled fiercely. “That is an order.”
Zelda held her ground angrily a moment longer before turning her attention to Link. She pulled at his arm and spun on her heels, leading him out of the office.
“Wait,” Link said, pulling his arm out of her grip. “What are you doing?” But she was persistent, and she pulled at him once more, leading him through the long halls until they were alone in a library.
“Dear Penthouse Forum,” Link said with a grin.
“Shut up,” Zelda barked at him. “We need to talk about how we're getting the sword back.”
Link blinked at her. “Excuse me?”
“We need to break into his office and get it back.” She turned her eyes up in thought casually, as if breaking into her father's – the king's – office was just another day in her life.
“You want me to help you break into your father's office,” Link said. “Is this a joke?”
“It will be easy,” she said. “We can pretend we're friends. Study buddies.”
Link snorted. “Everyone knows that's code for fuck buddies.”
Zelda punched his arm. Link stepped backwards, wincing, and rubbed at his arm.
“You punch like a dude.” He crossed his arms. “I don't see why we need the stupid sword anyway. He's right; if there is some kind of war coming, we'd be much better off blowing them to bits with something a thousand years more modern.”
Zelda shook her head. “Impa is right. Modern technology won't work. In the end, it comes down to you and I and that sword.”
“This is crazy,” he muttered. “Why do you believe this shit?”
Zelda's expression softened. She searched his eyes for a moment. “Why don't you?”
“Uh, because it sounds like something out of a video game.”
“It's not,” she said, a hint of determination in her voice. “My mother told me the legends when I was little. Every night, she would tell me another piece of it. I knew that I, too, would need to pass on these stories to my children. And even though she did not know I would be next in line, a part of me knew, and I knew I needed to prepare.” She turned her eyes towards the window, watching the sun begin its descent. “When she died, I approached him about it. My father wanted none of it. He said I had a wild imagination. But Impa. Impa listened to me. Impa knew. It is the job of the Sheikah, after all.” She shook her head. “There was no convincing him then, and there's no convincing him now, even with the Master Sword right before him. He won't let me do what needs to be done.”
“Can you blame him?”
She sighed. “I guess not. But as Hyrule's ruler, it is his duty not to let the legends die. It is his duty to work closely with the Sheikah in preparation for Ganondorf's revival. And it is his duty to let me do what I was born to do, as Hylia's descendant, to protect all of Hyrule from the darkness.”
“Good story,” Link said. “But I don't have anything like that. My biggest concern is who I can cheat off of next week.”
Zelda rolled her eyes. “You put up a good front,” she said, “but I know you're attached to that sword.”
“I found the stupid thing two days ago.”
“And you're pissed that your dad took it behind your back.”
Link considered this a moment. He wouldn't admit it to her, but it seemed Zelda wasn't far from the truth. He did feel a sense of familiarity with the sword. To suggest he was attached to it seemed a stretch, but when he saw the sword in the king's office, he couldn't help the pang in his gut, and he wanted nothing more than to get it back. “Yeah, what's up with that? What's his problem?”
Zelda shrugged. “He realizes his son will only chop his own arm off with it.”
Link nodded. “Most likely.”
“Why did you let him see it?”
“I didn't,” Link hissed. He paused for a moment. “I didn't think he knew I had it.”
Zelda shook her head. “Well, regardless, he knows, and it doesn't seem like anyone is going to make this easy for us.”
“Alright,” Link said slowly. “Let's say I help you get it back. How do you think we're going to do that?”
“Leave it to me. Give me your phone.”Link raised a brow, hesitant. He pulled his phone out of his pocket automatically, but did not give it to her.
“Why?”
Zelda rolled her eyes and took it from him. She tapped on the screen, smiled when she realized it had no lock on it, then navigated through quickly, adding her number into his contacts. When she was finished, she handed it back to him. “Text me tonight. Eight o'clock.”
Link looked through his phone, expecting to see something changed, but all he found was her name in his contact list. “If this is your way to extort a date out of me -”
“Shut up,” Zelda hissed. She turned her nose up at him and turned away, marching down the hallway.
Link looked back towards the way they came as voices came out of the king's office. He listened as the door closed and a lone set of footsteps moved through the hallway. His father rounded the corner, meeting Link's gaze briefly. He walked briskly past his son without a word.
Link jogged down the hallway to catch up with his father.
“What the hell? Do you plan on telling me what you think you're doing, snooping around my room?”
“It's my job to snoop,” he said simply.
“Find anything good?”
“A pitiful collection of porn under your bed.”
Link ignored him. “Why did you take the sword?”
“Because it's not yours.”
“I've heard otherwise.”
His father stopped suddenly and faced him. “That thing is garbage. Forget about it.” He hesitated a moment before continuing out of the building. Link watched him for a moment, then broke into a jog to catch up to him again.
“What do you know about it?”
“Nothing.”
“You're lying.” Link stepped in front of him and he stopped walking. He held his gaze on his son for a moment.
“What do you want?” his father sneered.
“The truth.”
His father hesitated. “Fine.” He let out a short breath. “I know the legends. I know everything. And I knew that my son would be Hylia's chosen hero. I knew this well before I even met your mother. I knew that you would come into the world, destined to find the Master Sword and stop Ganondorf.”
Link practically choked on the air. “Are you fucking kidding me?” He stared blankly at his father as he desperately tried to put the pieces together. “How did you know this?”
“The same way you figured it all out, I'm sure.”
Link raised a brow. “A rusted sword hidden in some woods called to you in a dream?”
“Something like that.”
“So, someone told you that your son would save the world, and you felt it in your duty to fuck the next woman you saw, bring that poor bastard into the world so that he could clean up everyone else's shit? I bet you feel real fucking proud, huh?”
“Is that what you fucking think?” his father hissed at him. “I did everything I could to keep you away from that life. I knew you found the sword, and I brought it here to destroy it once and for all.”
“Who do you think would save the world then?”
“The sword is ancient technology,” he said. “It's obsolete. We have other means of stopping any enemy should they rise.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“You will have no part in this.”
“It doesn't seem like I have much of a choice.”
“The king has made his orders.” He turned away from his son and walked towards his car. “And you have a test to study for.”
Link watched his father walk away. He was sure that there was more he was hiding, but he wasn't going to get anymore information out of him in that moment. He looked back over his shoulder, then pulled his phone out once more and stared at Zelda's name on his screen. He didn't want to believe any of it any more than his father did, but that sense of longing for the sword returned to him. A wave of remembrance – memories he never had – seemed to wash through him, and he knew what needed to be done.
