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Zelda woke up to a silent house.
She could tell by the faint sunlight passing through the curtains that it was early in the morning.
Even now, when she was still recovering from a hundred years long battle, she was an early riser.
It had been three months since her knight came to Hyrule Castle to save the kingdom from the Calamity.
All she has been doing since then is rest, yet the weariness hadn’t left her bones.
She welcomed dearly having a physical body back after a century of nothingness. Before this, she had never given it much thought, how much time one spends satisfying body needs.
Hunger needs satiation, thirst needs quenching. Cold needs warmth and warmth needs cold. Some actions were purely self indulgent like enjoying the wind on her face or the sweet scent of the flowers in the garden of Link’s lovely home. The feel of Link’s hand on her arm or back when he supported her (or for no reason at all lately) was perhaps for her touch starved body, her biggest guilty pleasure. One that she never wanted to stop indulge in.
Tiredness should be the easiest need to solve, yet her back breaking exhaustion never seemed to leave her no matter how much she rested.
These past two weeks, Link, worthy of his title of “Silent Knight”, rose before herself and the sun, busy to some mystery task. She never heard him waking or leaving.
He always came back to around eleven, on time to start cooking lunch. She always protested that she could cook herself, but he responded with his familiar smirk that “His beloved cooking pot is already in a commited relationship”, to which she pouts but enjoy his incredible food anyway. Back in the days, his field mushroom rice rivaled that of the castle chefs. An all times favourite of hers.
After, she would start to do the dishes only for her tiredness to come back with a vengeance and Link has to guide her from the sink to her bed in a drowsy state. She also enjoyed it when he tucked her in and sometimes, awkwardly patted her head as she drifted off.
While his secret project left her stewing in curiosity, he hasn’t let anything show for her to speculate on. He seemed particularly smug yesterday though, she had to assume he was close to finishing whatever this was.
Truely, this never leaving exhaustion must be the way her body told her she wasn’t fully back yet, and she found it infuriating when she had the spare energy to think about it.
She went on with her quiet morning. Link had prepared crepes for breakfast. She went to the pond in the garden, under the tree. The morning sun and the light breeze were perfect. She found herself missing ferociously her books and her study. She felt guilty for having such thoughts when so much and so many were lost. But, for a lousy princess, she was a good scholar, and she had loved her studies.
After breakfast, she busied herself with laundry. It was a new occupation for her, and exhausting, as everything was these days. She forgot to stay in the shade and the burning feeling on her skin told her she had a sunburn.
Not fitting for a princess, she thought, but certainly no one cared in this era. She was still amazed that everyone in Hateno village seemed to not acknowledge that she and Link were the Princess and Hero from the past.
Her thought drifted to how to care for sunburns, trying to remember if she was ever prescribed a cream of some sort in the past.
Link came back at eleven on the clock, looking supremely satisfied. He was humming as he was cooking her favourites – mushroom rice balls and fruitcake.
Was his mysterious project ready?
His smug and giddy face as he made lunch had her expectations growing even higher. She felt a wave of energy surge through her body.
Link may be non verbal, but he definitely wasn't silent. (His laugh was a beautiful thing she got to hear too rarely and took her breath away every time). He certainly knew how to communicate.
Even this new Link, who fought by himself in the wild for so long and had lost most of his memories, his eyes, face and body language had only became more expressive. It was a pleasure to her to see him so relaxed in his own home. Just like when it was just the two of them away from the castle.
They were apparently in a hurry so they ate right by the cooking pot.
She felt ridiculously curious about the whole thing, and kept pestering Link with questions:
“Is it mineral?”
“Is it animal?”
“Is it old?”
“Is it pretty?”
“Is it coloured?”
As she was playing the twenty question game, Link only shook his head at every question. The gleam in his eyes shone brighter at her excitement. She wasn’t any closer to figuring it out, but the giddy atmosphere got to her. She felt incredibly energized, for once.
After cleaning up their lunch quickly, Link had her put on outdoor shoes and a light and comfortable Hylian tunic. Letting her wait on the spot under the tree, he went back inside, only to come back with the Sheikah Slate.
She didn’t understand at first, until he showed her an incredibly detailed map feature she had never seen back when she was using it.
She gasped excitedly at the sight.
“Oh Link! So this is what you wanted to show me! It’s a map of the land! Did you complete it yourself?”
Link shook his head and pointed to the Sheikah Tower in the distance.
“This is incredible! So this mapping feature is the purpose of those towers? And look how detailed the map is…”
She kept going as she looked closer at the map. Link showed her how to read and use it.
She saw a curious sign that didn’t appear anywhere else on the map. It was a blue circle, different in design from the towers or temples. Link showed her the Travel Medallion he apparently collected in an antique labyrinth!
She wanted to know all about his adventures. She saw bits and glimpses while fighting the Calamity, but seeing the map she didn’t know a tenth of it.
After explaining to her the travel medallion feature, he asked for her permission to hold her close. Link was good at explaining himself and she could understand him just fine, but she had to admit she couldn’t understand this travel feature.
Trusting him always, she pressed the symbol on the screen… only to find herself encased in blue light and vanishing.
She blinked and she was there again, only not in their yard.
When she looked at the map, they were exactly on the marker. The transport feature was literal teleportation. Astounding!
“Link! I can’t believe I didn’t know about this! We were teleported! It felt really different from being incorporeal, yet we did disappear!”
She was talking so fast Link could barely keep up. She was so excited she barely paid attention to her surroundings.
They were on the Great Plateau, in a forest near the Temple of Time and Shrine of Resurrection. Link stopped her ranting gently by putting his hand on her shoulders and turning her around.
They were on the doorstep of an old cabin. It was obviously old but also well cared for, recently repaired and expanded. Right behind the original building she could see a round, short one-story tower.
She looked at Link, surprised by the house. He gestured her to open the door and get inside.
She turned the handle to discover a warm and cosy interior. A wide table, a lot of cabinets, a tiny kitchen, and a comfortable-looking armchair by the window. A desk with a cute lamp. The place was quite bare aside from a beautiful single silent princess in a vase at the window.
Back at the end of the room stood a door, presumably to access the tower that she saw.
She got inside and said nothing, quietly taking in the place. A lot of care obviously went into furnishing it, and the interior smelled of fresh cleaning, wood and polish.
Link followed her silently, letting her discover at her own pace.
She was touched at discovering the place, obviously meant for her, as well as worried, although she made sure to keep it from showing on her face. Was Link trying to push her out of his home? Had she taken advantage of his kindness, his hospitality, even his bed, for too long?
As if he felt her turmoil, he lightly took her elbow and guided her to the door.
Promising herself to look happy at his thoughtful gift, she opened the door.
To discover a magnificent bookshelf that covered the entire surface of the tower’s wall. A ladder on wheels fixed to a rail that encased the whole room was there to reach the highest shelves.
More than half the shelves were filled with dusty books arranged in no particular order.
The room smelled just like her beloved library at Hyrule Castle.
Some books had aged poorly but were still salvageable. A workbench covered by a glass dome had been set up to protect certain books that looked particularly fragile. Some others seemed to be in excellent condition.
One shelf was filled with loose sheets of paper, like notes waiting to be sorted. Three others were filled with familiar notebooks.
All the shelves at ground level were dedicated to scientific and study materials, like the ones she’d seen in the Sheikah laboratory but had never been allowed to possess.
She put her hand over her mouth, stunned and amazed. Link had gone back into that accursed castle and retrieved as many books as he could. He had obviously gone into her study and retrieved her diaries.
Her eyes filled with tears as she thought of all those mornings spent getting up before dawn to prepare this wonderful surprise for her.
She turned back to Link, trying to express how incredible this place was, and couldn't find the words. But her Knight simply opened his arms and she crashed into his embrace, overcome by emotion.
As she was sobbing in hapiness, he took her outside the house. A cooking pot was lit next to the wall under a shoddy roof for rainy days and cold nights.
It took her a long time to recover, during which Link explained her how he went back and forth to the Castle with the Slate to recover everything he could, and asked his friend Bolson to make the tower. He used ressources he collected during his travels, and gathered more to meet Bolson needs for the tower. It was especially made to keep books, neither too hot or cold and perfectly ventilated.
When she asked why a tower, he answered he thought it was cool and the perfect image for a scholar personal study.
After a slace of fruitcake and a glasse of juice to inaugurate the place, he also told her how this house was where her father ghost waited for him to wake from his hundred years long sleep, and that he took care of recovering the diaries he found in the King's hidden study.
Despite the complicated feelings she had for her father, it felt good to think she kept his place, and even better to know it had been repurposed for her to pursue her true passion.
As the night came, she sit closer to her knight and the fire, holding his arm against her, and feeling inconditionnaly loved. She felt a burning on the skin of her arm, but didn't let go of him. As the emotions got to her and she felt the ever present exhaustion creep on her, she thought that her first research topic should be suncream. She felt asleep peacefully with her head on his shoulders, and dreamt of the wonderful days to come.