Chapter Text
When he looks for the beginning of the story, he always comes back to one specific moment. Beginnings as diverse as the Heroes themselves pepper the timeline, but this one… this one has a special glow about it.
This is the beginning.
Link held plastic bags in his hands, weighed down by paltry groceries and at least one tube of toothpaste. The fluorescent lights above him added harshly to the afternoon sun coming in through the windowed front of the store. He had coffee on his mind as he aimed for the automatic doors.
Somehow, he managed to not trip over the small child who stood in front of him. Had he been there a few moments before? Link looked down, one bright blue eye meeting two wide, dark ones that inexplicably filled with tears.
“They hurt,” the child said, then stuffed a knuckle of his thumb in his mouth. He blinked, and the tears spilled, but he didn’t hiccup or sob.
Link bent down to rest on one knee. He glanced around for a moment—no anxious parents within sight—before meeting the child’s eyes again. “What hurt?”
The child pulled his thumb from his mouth just long enough to say, “those,” and gesture behind Link.
Somewhat startled, Link glanced behind him. A shelf full of cheap pillows and flower pots stood behind him. Nothing else. He let out a breath.
“You can See them?” Link asked gently.
The child nodded, more tears falling like rivers down his cheeks. Link smelled the ocean.
“Don’t worry. They’re my wings. They don’t hurt. What else do you See?”
“What’s there,” the child responded around his thumb.
“Of course.” Link turned his own eye to the things most people couldn’t see. The child’s head glowed in a way Link wouldn’t have picked out if he hadn’t looked. He closed his eye for a moment, then opened it and set a hand on the child’s shoulder, leaving the bags on the ground.
The people around them stilled, moving as if through molasses. The constant staccato beep of machines behind Link drew out into a legato hum. Birds out the door in front of him paused their flights.
The child didn’t seem to notice, just watched Link with those dark eyes that Saw, but wouldn’t really understand what Link said. Not now, perhaps not ever.
“Little one, you are marked by the goddess. I’m sorry. I wish I could spare you this pain and these tasks. I cannot.” He sighed. “Be wary, and I pray you can ignore some of what you See. It’s all real, but you must learn to know what you can touch and what you can’t.”
“Huh?” the child’s tears ceased.
Link gave him a small smile, and the world resumed, nobody but him the wiser. “How did you get here?”
The child sucked in a breath and turned around, pulling his shoulder out of Link’s hand. “Gramma!” he yelled in the way only children can.
Link stood up, and the height gave him a better vantage point to see an older woman rushing toward the cry, a baby carrier with a smaller child in her hand. She narrowly avoided crashing into a plastic cart.
“Link! Oh, you can’t run off like that,” she said, taking the child’s free hand in hers. “Please stay near gramma.”
“Link?” Link asked.
“Yes, yes, my apologies, sir, he likes to run around.” The woman looked up at him. “Sorry if he gave you trouble.”
“No trouble. But, if I may…” Link held a hand up to guide her to the side, where they wouldn’t be in the way of others exiting the store, “He is special, ma’am, in more ways than one. There are people, and entities, who would harm him for it.”
The woman’s mouth opened. “What do you mean?”
Link sighed in reluctance. “What he Sees is very real. He must keep it quiet. Teach him to fight, he’s going to need it.”
“What—but— fight? —who are you?”
“Someone who cannot help as much as he wishes to. He and I will meet again, I think. He has… adventures… ahead of him.”
“Gramma!” Wind yelled at the little house behind him. “The ferry’s almost here!”
“Coming!” came the answer. The screen door popped open, and a little old woman limped out with a cane in her hand, a very straight cane, made from polished and smooth and reliable wood. Wind’s heart did a dance at the sight of that cane rather than her old, dented, terrifying aluminum one.
She walked down the short, wildflower-lined path to the dirt road in front of their house, leaning on the cane. A blonde girl about Grandma’s height followed, barefoot with reddened eyes. She darted past to hug Wind with both arms.
“I’ll miss you,” she muttered in his ear.
He dropped his duffel bag to hug her back. He picked her up and swung her around once, to her delight. “I’ll miss you more, Aryll.”
“No, you won’t!” She pulled back with a mock-affronted expression and pounded on his chest. “Take it back!”
“Never!” He blocked her fists and laughed.
“Stop fighting, you two,” Grandma interrupted. She bustled right in to give Wind a grandma-smelling hug, too. She pulled away and looked him over. “You have everything you need? Socks? Your headphones? Snacks? Potions?”
“Yes, Gramma, everything.” Wind let her go. He tilted his shoulders to show her the shield on his back and patted the sword at his hip. “I’ll be okay.”
She tapped a finger on his chest. “You’d better be, young man.”
Wind laughed and pushed her hand away. “What is it with you two and chest-related violence? Don’t worry. I’ll call at least every week, and I’ll send you presents so you know I’m fine. Okay?”
Aryll got his attention again. “I really, really want… a boyfriend.”
That hadn’t been the first time Wind had heard that. He laughed. “Aryll, you’re twelve. And I’m pretty sure I can’t mail an entire person.”
“Are you sure?” she asked seriously.
“Oh! The ferry’s almost here!” Grandma interrupted, looking out to sea. They all turned. Yes, indeed, a dark spot grew into the shape of a boat.
“I told you,” Wind said. He picked up his duffel bag again and slung it over his shoulder. “Stay safe, you two.” He backed up a few steps onto the dirt road.
“Only if you do!” Aryll called. She waved to him, sniffing once.
Wind sped up, crunching familiar dirt and stones under his boots. He waved back. “I will!”
The little house he’d spent his childhood in disappeared behind the grassy hill as Wind ran down the dirt road. He took a shortcut, jumping a few switchbacks rather than running down them. The ferry pushed closer, and the sun rose higher.
Salty sea air blew through Wind’s hair like an old friend saying hello. He laughed and pulled out his wand of winds to play right back as he ran for town. The long grasses surrounding the village whipped back and forth in the friendly tussle. The wind blew one way, and Wind countered. It blew up, he pulled it down. It pulled at his cheeks, he blew a raspberry. He swore he could hear laughter under the cries of the gulls.
But he never saw anything in the wind. Maybe that was why he liked it so much.
Wind put the wand back in his jacket sleeve long before getting to the village. They knew him, and while magic items like the wand weren’t unheard of, the village rarely saw them. He didn’t want anyone to make trouble for Grandma and Aryll. The wind brushed his face one last time, then abandoned him to the people of the sleepy village.
Outset Island had one little town with one family-run restaurant-store hybrid, and two trucks belonging to both of the farmers. The ferry didn’t usually stop there. Wind had to put in a request a month ago on the website, hoping the whole time that his internet connection wouldn’t give out.
Wind made sure to look around at the houses and the store, consciously appreciating the whitewashed walls and bright flags. He didn’t know when he’d be back, if at all. Wasn’t that a depressing thought.
But he listened to the seagulls and the waves on the cliffs, pulled his fingers through the disappearing morning mist, and tried to fix the moment in his memory. This island had already burned itself into his brain, he couldn’t forget the color of the sand if he tried, but something about this morning made him feel especially bittersweet.
A woman prepping her fishing boat waved as he passed her on the docks. “Morning, Wind! Big day! Good luck!”
“Morning! Don’t cause trouble while I’m away, Mrs. Janni!” Wind waved back with a smile, ignoring the sullen ghost that sat in the bow of her boat. Mr. Janni had no idea Wind could See him, and Wind wanted to keep it that way. Even friendly ghosts could get aggressively persistent.
Wind made it to the boarding dock a few minutes early, the morning mist still not quite evaporated. The ferry floated up to the island, cutting its engines so as not to create too much wake. As he waited, Wind dug into his pocket and pulled out a creased bit of paper. He already knew the words on it by heart. They bolstered him as the ferry approached—he could do this. It wasn’t a very big ferry, so it could come right up to the dock.
A uniformed worker stood on the edge of the ferry, and stepped off when it got to the dock. He pulled a rope tight to anchor the ferry close. “Link Waker, fourteen?”
“Yes, sir.” Wind handed him his boarding pass and the declaration of weaponry.
The worker looked over the documents. “That’s an awful lot of strange weapons for a kid as young as you,” he pointed out.
Wind wanted to laugh, tell the worker exactly who he was and what he’d done, but he just stretched his face in a smile for the sake of getting along, instead. “Yeah, it is.”
“Visiting family on the mainland?” the worker read from the papers.
Sort of. “Yes, sir.”
“Well, then. Welcome aboard the Pearl, Mr. Waker.” He handed the papers back.
“Thanks.” Wind took them and stepped onto the boat, giving it a second to feel the easy way the waves rocked the deck. He ducked inside the shaded part of the ferry.
Rows of benches lined both sides of the room, leaving an aisle down the middle. Windows let the morning light in, shining on the gray laminate floor and the blue vinyl cushions. Narrow stairs led up to the pilot’s box. It smelled like coffee.
An old man Wind half-recognized from a nearby island sat up on the front bench on the left, surrounded by several ghosts who glanced at Wind as he entered. A young couple with two children sat on the other side. Wind didn’t see any ghosts around them, but the younger child sitting on her father’s lap had a strange collection of butterflies fluttering around her skin like a bunch of those temporary tattoos given life.
Wind didn’t Look closer. He didn’t need to know.
He took a few steps in, his shield bouncing against his full backpack. The ferry’s engine turned on just a little, rumbling through the floor and into Wind’s legs. He chose a spot across from the family, close to the window. The mother glanced at him and his visible sword, pursing her lips and turning her older child toward the window as they pulled out of the bay.
For his part, Wind couldn’t stop fiddling with the strap on his duffel bag, rolling it up and unrolling it, then twisting it this way and that.
He had no idea what he was doing.
But then again, he had no idea what he was doing when he set out to rescue Aryll from a giant demon bird, either. That turned out okay, all things considered. He’d rescued her, he’d learned what it felt like to pull his sword through living flesh and dead, and they’d both attended scheduled phone calls with a therapist, them and Tetra and a couple of the others.
Wind had walked away from that a Hero, at the request of a long-dead king. Capital-H Hero, the kind with legal sanction and controversy and an entire ceremony. Outset, small as it was, supported him, but not everyone would. He knew that. They thought that the presence of Heroes, outside the law enforcement and military, encouraged the smarter monsters to attack people. Maybe those arguments had a bit of truth to them, but Wind thought they were more wrong than right. Besides, the people who liked Heroes outnumbered the people who didn’t. They’d curated entire websites around cataloging Heroes’ achievements. It got kind of overwhelming.
Technically, anyone could get a permit to carry a sword around, but really, only Heroes and Hero-wannabes bothered. Even then, many kept their weapons hidden.
Wind didn’t have room in his duffel bag for a sword, and the hot weather wouldn’t let him wear his long coat to hide it. He didn’t mind so much.
The ferry ride didn’t take more than two hours. Sometimes it did. But the sea had decided to be kind today, and let the ferry chug along a glassy surface rather than a rough one. They never strayed far from shore, skirting one island and then another, all the way up the chain back to the mainland.
It took another ten rocky minutes for the ferry to dock, waiting for sailboats and fishing vessels to leave the area. Wind stood, keeping a close grip on his backpack strap and on his duffel bag. The family hurried off the ferry, skipping up the dock with an urgency that meant either they had to get somewhere quickly or wanted to get away from something.
The old man and his ghosts toddled slowly, so Wind left before him. He nodded to the workers getting the ferry all tied up and strode off across the docks. Seagulls fought in the air, workers and sightseers wandered around with varying amounts of purpose in their gaits. Rows of stalls and small shops opened for the day, painted bright colors and advertising their wares with garish signs. The morning sunshine lit the tableau almost like a storybook.
Wind walked past the stalls with faux purpose. He only sort of knew what he was looking for. People streamed around him, glancing at his sword and his age and making no comments. He barely noticed, Watching bodies for signs of goddess blessings.
He didn’t have to watch long. Two people broke from the river of people in front of him, two people with unmistakable, golden goddess blessings limning their silhouettes. One held the other’s arm as if afraid of getting lost, and both were… distinctly otherworldly.
“Hello?” Wind surged forward, pushing aside a few bodies to get to them.
The blessed one being held on to glanced behind him. To Wind, actively Seeing, the young man looked drowned, terrifyingly so. The one holding his arm turned to look as his companion did—that young man had illusory wings to Wind’s Sight, big and simple but a lovely shade of lilac that reminded Wind of flowers back at home.
The two of them looked back at him, looked at the sword, and ran.
“No! Hold on! Wait!” Wind called, going after them. He dodged people, yelling out apologies as he almost tripped them. He slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, which freed up one hand to hold onto his sword so it didn’t bounce too much.
The two young men had more practice moving in crowds than Wind did, apparently. He kept them in his sight for maybe two haphazard blocks before they entirely disappeared into the crowd. Wind stopped running, dismayed and breathing hard. He turned in a circle, ignoring the people giving him judgmental looks, and sighed. He kicked the ground.
Okay, pouting over. He’d see those two again, probably—the prophecy said gather, not just find. Time for a new plan, wandering around a city as big as Castletown looking for eight individuals wasn’t very efficient.
Wind pulled out of the crowds and past the dockside shops to inspect the skyline of the city proper. Tall buildings of every shape poked holes in the sky, though none stood as imposing as Hyrule Castle right in the middle of it all. The country no longer functioned as a monarchy, but the councils and politicians still used the castle as a place to meet and coordinate, as well as hold fancy events.
As nice as the castle looked, Wind moved on. If he remembered right…
Yes! There. The Imperial Building. Even from here, Wind could see the glass lookout that extended a few yards from the very top of the skyscraper. That looked perfect.
He found a bus stop not too far away, going the direction he wanted, so he sat down at the bench and waited for one. Times like this made him wish he had a cell phone to look things up, but there hadn’t ever been a point, on the island with limited internet, or sailing around where no service even existed. Maybe he’d get himself one for here. The Hero badge came with a bit of a stipend, after all. Not to mention all the treasure.
Even so close to the sea, the city just felt weird. More people, more buildings, fewer plants. The sound of gulls and the ocean drowned under cars and industrial lawn mowers. Glass reflected the sunlight instead of water.
Most of all, Wind found it hard to keep Looking at people. They passed him at a dizzying pace. Some of them glowed just a little, others had their secrets advertised on their skin or above their heads. The hardest people to look at had two faces or bodies layered on top of each other. Not to mention all the ghosts.
Wind didn’t always know what he was Looking at. Perhaps some of the signs pointed to non-humans, but Wind had learned that most things he Saw were mundane, not magical, when it came to people.
He rubbed at his eyes and wished he could turn it off. He could let it fade into the background, sometimes, but he had to focus right now.
The bus arrived without Wind seeing another goddess-blessed person. None of them on the packed bus, either. Wind sat at the very front, since nobody else sat there, and pressed his forehead to the window to Watch the scenery pass.
Only once, he thought he Saw the shine of a goddess blessing, but the bus zoomed right on down the road, and Wind slumped down again. What, did he think he was going to stop the bus to go find them? At least he knew a few of them were in the city. That was a good first step.
Wind snagged one of the printed transit maps in front of his seat and puzzled it out for the next few minutes. He managed to get off at the right stop and transfer bus lines. Still no goddess blessings. Fine, then.
The second bus took him right to the Imperial Building, where he presented his ID and a few rupees for access. He elected to take the stairs up to the glass overlook instead of a packed elevator. He ran up the first few flights, enjoying the isolation, then had to slow down and catch his breath for the next few. He had so much stuff on him. Too much weight. He should’ve thought of that before running. Whoops.
He bailed on the stairs and somehow managed to snag an empty elevator for the rest of the journey.
Finally, he opened the door to the overlook, where a little, cold current of wind immediately greeted him. He grinned.
“Hi,” he whispered, the words stolen before anyone could hear him. “See anyone I’m looking for recently?”
A larger breeze tapped a lock of hair against his brow, and he turned in that direction.
The overlook was a huge balcony made out of reinforced glass and steel beams, suspended dozens of stories over the city. It wrapped around the whole building and generally hosted a few tourist groups, from Wind’s limited experience. Even as a kid, he’d enjoyed pressing his hands to the clear glass floor and watching people below. From this far away, their secrets and their strangeness barely registered to his eyes.
Wind held out a hand to feel the breezes poking at him. He started left, drifting toward the railing on instinct. He had no fear of falling. Well… maybe a little one, but he called that ‘healthy fear of hitting the ground and going splat.’ The winds liked this balcony, playfully catching at people’s hats and clothing. Wind followed its gentle prodding—he didn’t think it understood words, so it probably wasn’t actually leading him to someone with a goddess blessing, but it always showed him interesting things anyway.
The sun shone right down onto the glass as Wind turned the second corner, ending up on the opposite side of the door. Fewer people wandered this way, which made the one sitting on the railing looking out at the city all the more obvious. Wind paused a moment to Look even closer.
The young man sitting with his feet dangling over the dozens of empty stories had not just a bright golden goddess’s blessing, but tiny clouds, drifting around his white hoodie’s shoulders. The fingers curled loosely around the metal railing bore gray claws over the normal fingernails. Half-visible in the midday sun, a pair of short, ribbed blue horns flickered around his head. Like Wind, he wore a sword on his belt and a colorful shield on his back.
If Wind had to guess, he’d say that he was looking at a dragon, not a Hylian.
A man with shades and some weapons of his own on his belt, along with a tag naming him a security officer, approached the young man with a gentle cough. “Excuse me, sir, I’m going to need to check your ID, I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Oh! Of course.” The young man dug into his pocket. His voice was surprisingly soft.
Wind walked up, pulling out his own wallet. “You can check mine, too, while you’re doing that.”
Both the security officer and the blessed hero on the railing turned to look at him, surprised. The officer stammered something out and glanced over both of their IDs, noting the Hero designation on both of them. He looked at them, at their weapons and the careless way the other Hero swung his legs over empty hair, and nodded.
“Ah, are you two expecting… trouble?” he asked, putting a not-so-subtle hand on the hilt of his gun.
The other Hero glanced at Wind, who shook his head. “Nah, just looking for him.”
“Well, then. Let me know if that changes.” The officer nodded and left them alone.
“Looking for me?” the other Hero asked, his eyebrows in his hairline.
Wind climbed on top of the railing with him, putting his legs over, too. A breeze pushed his shoulder back, warning him not to fall. He nodded to both the hero and the wind, wondering how to start.
He took a breath and grinned, chasing away the butterflies in his stomach. He held a hand out. “Hero of Winds. I go by Wind, shocker.”
The other Hero smiled back and shook his hand. His felt like a normal, sword-callused hand, as Wind had expected. He could See the claws, not feel them. “Hero of the Sky. You can call me Sky. I’ve heard of you, you’re in the Archipelago, right?”
Wind nodded and took his hand back. “And you’re from Skyloft, of course. Makes sense why you’d visit the Imperial Building overlook.” Younger than he should be, but then again, most Heroes had massive exposure to magic. It made sense they’d change. Of course, if this Hero, Sky, was a dragon, that would be an explanation, too.
“You’re very comfortable with it, too. Does the drop not scare you?”
“Nah,” Wind shrugged. “I’ve been up in my fair share of crows’ nests. They feel higher than this.”
Sky laughed, showing teeth, pointed ones if Wind squinted right. “So you said you were looking for me? How did you know I was here?”
“The… the winds tell me things, sometimes,” Wind got out, his usual explanation for things he Saw that he forgot to keep quiet. “This is gonna sound crazy, but hear me out—I have this prophecy.” Wind pulled the paper from his pocket and handed it over, suddenly self-conscious about the handwriting and the coffee stain in the corner.
To his credit, Sky didn’t comment on that, just looked down and read the prophecy to himself. His brow creased as he read it a second time.
“Where did this come from?” he asked after a third reading.
Wind bit his cheek. Himself. It came from himself. “A seer I know, a real one. He doesn’t like people knowing who he is, as you can probably understand.”
Sky nodded slowly and gave the paper back, looking troubled. “I get that. But if it’s real… Have you found any more of these goddess-blessed Heroes?”
“I saw two by the docks, but they ran away from me.”
“Ran away? That’s strange. How did you know it was them?”
“The wind,” Wind said. He held a hand out over the edge, smiling a little again when a breeze wrapped itself around his arm like a cold cat.
“I’m almost jealous.” Sky reached out, too, but the wind didn’t gravitate toward him. “What a wonderful blessing. I’m a little frightened of what Hylia needs nine of her blessed Heroes for, but it’ll be nice to meet others.”
Wind pulled back and rubbed at his chilled arm. “Yeah. I think so, too.”
Sky glanced at his duffel bag. “Did you just get to Castletown? Do you have a place to stay?”
“Uh… not yet, but I have time to figure that out. A couple hours, at least. I was just thinking of finding a hotel.”
“No way am I letting a brother of mine not know where he’s staying. I’m not sure the safe hotels would let you book something alone, even with that Hero on your card.” Sky straightened up. “See that building down there on the corner?” He pointed. “Next to the park?”
Wind squinted through the sun. “Yeah.”
“That’s where I’m staying. Meet me there this evening, there’s an extra bed you can use. And if you find another of us sometime today, bring them, and we can start coordinating.”
Though he’d only known Sky for maybe five minutes, Wind found himself relaxing at the prospect of not only knowing where he’d be sleeping, but having someone friendly waiting for him. He smiled. “Sure. Thanks.”
“Hey, we gotta stick together, right?” Sky nudged him gently with his elbow. “Anyway, I’m meeting someone for lunch, I’d better get going. Do you have a phone number you can give me?”
Wind shook his head. “I don’t have a phone, no point when there’s no service out on the sea. But I have an email address.”
“We might change that,” Sky laughed. “Here, give me your email address.” He produced a pen and shoved his hoodie sleeve up to reveal several old ink stains from other reminders scattered across his arm, among the pink scars and faint freckles.
When he’d written Wind’s email down, Sky pulled his sleeve back down and wrestled his hoodie off, leaving him in a nice green sweater. He got to his feet, standing directly on the railing.
“See you at Pippin’s Inn tonight,” Sky said. “Don’t be later than eight, okay? That’s about when it gets dark.” He shook his hoodie out with a snap, and Wind Watched in fascination as it shifted immediately into a wider sheet of cloth with handles on the sides and the same symbol on the back.
“See you,” Wind agreed, eyes wide.
Sky grinned. “Be safe!” He stepped off the overlook railing.
Though Wind really didn’t fear falling, his palms got sweaty as he leaned over to watch Sky tumble through the air. He could tell right away that Sky controlled his fall. He snapped his parachute thing into position a few seconds later, and began to drift more horizontally toward his destination.
Wind looked around behind him, but the few people on this side of the overlook didn’t seem to have even noticed Sky’s fall. He turned back to the skyline, and had to consciously Look to find Sky again.
Handy trick, going unnoticed like that.
Well, Wind couldn’t stay up on the balcony forever. He had actual work to do. He took a breath and climbed off the railing, his sturdy boots landing on the glass instead of empty air. The wind almost seemed to want to push him back out, contrary to before.
“Sorry, gotta keep Looking,” he told the air before leaning his elbows on the railing and deciding on a plan of action. He reached into a pocket of his backpack and pulled out a telescope, extending it to its full length as he’d done thousands of times before.
He decided to skim each block from up here, Looking hard. Starting at the top, he tuned his Sight into the faraway things the telescope showed him—down the huge castle’s towers, across the windows. He Saw some interesting things inside, but the blessing over the whole castle obscured whatever else might have been inside.
From the castle, Wind turned his attention to a block at a time, going far to near, left to right. He barely glanced at each street, finding them complex and pretty boring, anyway. As his Looking expanded further, he began to circle the Imperial Building. A few nearby skyscrapers blocked out entire neighborhoods, but Wind took out his transit map from that morning to mark the spots for later.
Once again, he saw a flash of the glow of a blessing in the middle of the docks, but he couldn’t make out exactly who. At least it seemed that the drowned boy and the fairy hadn’t gone far. He starred the area on his map.
It took Wind hours to do a thorough job. He didn’t exactly enjoy the process, but he tried to keep upbeat about it, humming to himself and snacking on sunflower seeds in his pocket.
Despite the seeds, once he’d declared himself finished and given himself a headache, Wind felt like he could probably eat an entire cow by himself, followed by several slices of cake. The sun had begun to glare in his eyes, and though the wind tried to help, it just made him shiver.
“All right, next plan.” Wind folded the transit map as best he could and tucked it in his coat pocket. Taking his blue captain’s coat from his duffel bag had both lightened his load and concealed him from the wind, though he didn’t think it necessarily made him look less conspicuous.
Wind trudged back to the doors and waited patiently with a group of uniformed high schoolers and a matching teacher for an elevator to come pick them up. He listened to the students with half an ear, hearing snippets about this teacher, that homework, this couple. He didn’t look at the little group who’d started whispering about that weird kid in a coat—who did he think he was, anyway? Didn’t you need special permits to carry around weapons, and why wasn’t he at school, himself?
A few uneventful minutes later, Wind stood inside the world’s greasiest and cheapest fast-food restaurant. Maybe he could afford something better, but stopping here had been a tradition for whenever he and his family had visited the city, so he had to. Besides, a fat burger and a whole truckload of hot fries sounded excellent right now. He was starving.
He stood, staring at his receipt as if the number up top would change if he looked away too long.
“Hi!” someone said next to him.
Wind glanced up at the teeenafr girl and the phone she held up to him. Her skin, to him, Looked covered in little outlines of eyes. Always watching.
He made a confused face. “What are you doing?”
“Recording, just in case,” she answered. She smiled. “My name’s Amelia. You’re a Hero, right? Which one? Can I interview you?”
“Uh… can I get my food first?” Wind asked as he heard his number called.
Her head bobbed eagerly. “You can join me at that table.” She jerked her thumb over and went that way.
Wind picked up his tray of food, napkins and a few containers of ketchup, and sat across from Amelia. “So what is this for?”
She turned her phone camera on him again. “What do you mean?”
“Why an interview?” Wind asked, starting on his burger. “School project or something?”
“Oh! No, there’s a bunch of us online who like to collect information about the Heroes, just so everyone can know what you’ve done.”
“In like… a good way?”
Amelia nodded with a smile. “Definitely a good way. So who are you? I don’t recognize you.”
Wind shoved a fry into his mouth and reached in his backpack for his badge. He thought it was a little bit garish, and usually used his ID instead, but he wasn’t about to show a camera his ID like that. He held up the badge. “Hero of Winds.”
“Oh my gosh, no way!” Amelia burst, her eyes huge. She watched her phone for a second and typed something while Wind put the badge away and kept eating. “You’re the actual Hero of Winds. You’re like, a mystery! A couple people have pretended to be you, but they never had the badge to prove it.”
Her eyes narrowed and she continued. “Is it real? You look like him from the ceremony footage, but is that real?”
“My badge?” Wind blinked at the thought that people had pretended to be him. “Uh, yeah. It is. I really am the Hero of Winds.”
“So what did you do? What happened to make you a Hero?” Amelia asked ruthlessly.
Wind took a second to think, and also to chew more burger. “I mean, like a lot of other Heroes, I found pieces of Triforce and defeated the Ganon of the sea.”
“Any specifics?”
“Uh… I killed the Helmaroc King. The bird one.”
“Why are you so young?”
Wind scowled. “It’s not like I chose when the giant bird came to kidnap my sister. I’m perfectly capable, obviously, I’m a Hero.”
“Why haven’t we ever seen you before, besides the official ceremony?”
“I live in the Archipelago? There’s like, no service and not much internet. And I’m on the sea most of the time. Hey, where are you going to post this, anyway?” he asked, dumping ketchup on his fries.
“Oh, it’s live.”
“It’s… live? Really? How many people are watching?” He expected maybe a few dozen, at most.
“Um… six thousand, five hundred and three and counting.”
Wind’s mouth stopped chewing for a second. “Thousands of people are watching me eat fast food.” He was starting to get a weird feeling about this.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“…I won’t lie, that’s a little weird.”
“So why are you in Castletown? With all your weapons? Cool shield, by the way.” She barreled on.
Wind frowned, but covered it up with another bite of his burger. “I always have my weapons. And thanks.”
“What about Castletown?” she pressed when he didn’t elaborate.
“Just visiting.”
“Oh, come on, it must be more than that.”
“It’s really not,” Wind insisted.
He jumped when someone sat next to him and slung an arm over his shoulder. His hand went right to his sword.
“Thanks,” said the new person, smiling at Amelia. Her camera turned to him. “But we’re done here for now, okay?”
Her eyes widened. “Y-yeah, sorry. Um.” She didn’t turn the camera off, though.
Wind looked over the man sitting right up next to him, managing to keep surprise off his face. The other man glowed with a goddess blessing, a familiar one. Like Sky, this one also had mirage horns, though these flickered with shadow, and flames danced under his skin. He wore a blue scarf around his neck, darned and repaired dozens of times, at odds with his clean-cut hair and pressed slacks. And, of course, the intimidating royal sword strapped to his leg.
Wind relaxed. He did know this person.
“You finished with your food?” Warriors asked, looking down at Wind.
“Oh, yeah,” Wind said, jumping back into action. He shoved a few more fries in his mouth and picked up the soda. “All done. Thanks, ‘melia, bye.”
“Bye?”
Warriors slid off the seat, letting Wind escape. The camera followed the two of them all the way to the garbage can and out the door. Wind found it just a little creepy.
Once outside, Warriors slung an arm around Wind’s neck and pulled him close as they walked out into the parking lot. “Hey, kid! What are you doing here, talking to the rabid amateur paparazzi? You’re all kitted out for adventure.”
“Another prophecy,” Wind said, wiggling out of his hold with a grin. He handed Warriors the paper he’d shown Sky.
A year or so ago, Wind had hopped on his little sailboat and followed his Sight to the private docks of the military, right in the middle of a battle. His relationship with the winds and his adventure-born training helped turn the tide of the conflict. He’d ended up aiding the general overseeing that battle in a quest to kill a sorceress. That general went on to destroy his region’s Ganon, earn an official knighthood, and be named the Hero of Warriors.
Wind had hopped over to one of the bigger islands with his school laptop specifically to watch the ceremony. It had been much fancier than his, which made sense. Warriors had way more influence with the military and the politicians.
He also happened to be a half-demon who escaped from the caverns of the underworld as a teenager, and the only person besides Wind’s family to know of his Sight.
“Prophecy, huh?” Warriors let Wind escape and took the paper. He frowned at the words as he read them. “This isn’t a joke, is it?”
Wind spun around to scowl. “I wouldn’t joke about that.”
“All right, all right. Just needed to make sure. This is… a lot. Come on, we have someone we need to talk to.” He handed the prophecy back and led the way to an inconspicuous gray car.
“As long as I’m out by, like, eight,” Wind said, taking shotgun and dropping his duffel bag, shield, and backpack on the floor.
“What’s at eight?”
“I met another blessed Hero, and he immediately offered to have me stay at the same hotel he is. Pippin’s Inn, he said not to be later than sunset.”
Warriors pulled the car out into the road. “That seems a little suspicious. Hey, seatbelt, punk.”
Wind rolled his eyes and tugged the seatbelt over. “Nah, he’s good. I could See it. I trust him.”
“Which Hero was it?” Warriors asked, glancing over at a red light.
“Hero of the Sky.”
Nodding, Warriors tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. The nonexistent flames under his skin cast shadows at odds with the sun slanting in through the windshield. “I heard he was in town, but not what for. Let’s see, there’s nine total? Me, you, the Sky kid, maybe this other guy. That’s three, maybe four. Any others you’ve Seen around?”
“Just two by the docks that ran when I called out. Hey, what other guy? And what about Mask?” Wind named the other odd Hero who’d joined him and Warriors for the quest to kill the sorceress.
Warriors shrugged and turned down a road. “I don’t know where that kid ran off to, I don’t even know his name to look him up. Was he also goddess-blessed?” At Wind’s nod, Warriors continued. “I haven’t heard from him since you both left. But this other guy is probably going to be a big help finding the others.”
“Who is he?” Wind pressed.
“He’s the guy who got me into the military when I first got up here. I haven’t seen him in years, honestly, I think he might be a blessed Hero, too, but I’m unsure.”
“Okay… and you trust him, right?”
“Yes. Completely.”
Wind raised his eyebrows to himself and settled to watch the buildings pass, moving from tourist museums and city buildings to apartments to suburbs. He cracked the window to feel the air move, and caught the scent of the sea beyond. Though Warriors had said he hadn’t seen this guy in years, he didn’t hesitate in navigating the twisting, tree-lined roads. He turned off a neighborhood to an unpaved dirt road that reminded Wind a bit of all the rarely used paths over the many islands he’d grown familiar with.
The car slowed, crawling through what looked like an entire forest of bright, leafy trees. Wind rolled his window down all the way and stuck his hand out, wary of scraping branches. He saw flashes of a creek running through the trees nearby.
Eventually, Warriors pulled up to a large house, whitewashed with a wraparound porch. Some wire fencing wound around a chicken coop, and a large field stretched out behind the house with a stable on the other end.
They parked next to an old blue truck on a gravel driveway and hopped out. Wind left everything sitting in the car but his sword and his wand, seeing as Warriors didn’t bother to even bring that much. The air here smelled like plants, and some manure that made Wind wrinkle his nose. The breezes blew slowly, more sedate than those out by the sea, rustling leaves and tumbling acorns.
“You don’t need to look so tense, kid,” Warriors laughed as they trudged up to the front door. “They’re nice people. Really.”
“First, don’t call me kid.” Wind whacked his side, feeling something hard like Kevlar under the very nice shirt. “Second, you said guy before, not people, so now I’m more nervous. Third, I don’t go anywhere without the Phantom Sword if I can help it, and you know that. Fourth, you’re armed, and since when did you start wearing bulletproof vests? I thought you said they got in the way of make-outs.”
Warriors’s head snapped to him, and he frowned. “I most certainly did not say that to you, kid.”
“You said it to Artemis where I could hear you.”
Rubbing his forehead, Warriors just climbed the few creaky steps up to the porch. “That was definitely just a joke, forget you heard it.” He sighed and opened the squeaky screen door to knock hard, the sound echoing in a way that meant the door was thick, hard wood.
Warriors turned to Wind again. “He goes by Time, an old code name that I guess he adopted, and his wife is named Malon. They’re good people, truly, and I don’t say that lightly.”
Wind nodded. He knew. Even when they’d worked together, years after Warriors had come to live in Castletown, he’d had a bit of a hard time believing that anyone could actually be righteous and good. He’d seen a lot of hypocrisy and evil. Wind managed to help change his mind by the end of his involvement. He suspected that good and evil still had quite the distinction in Warriors’s mind.
The ranch house door swung open on quiet hinges, and Wind couldn’t help but Stare.
“Oh! Hello, Warriors, it’s lovely to see you again. Come inside, please. And who’s this?” The redheaded woman pulled the door open wide enough to let the two of them in, wiping one hand on the colorful quilted apron she wore.
Wind followed Warriors into the cozy entryway, still Watching. None of the furniture matched, but it had all been made with care. No ghosts lingered in here. He smelled dust and bread and maybe cookies, which seemed strangely… homey and down-to-earth, considering the literal angel in front of him.
He knew, thanks to Warriors, that most groups of demons had some kind of hierarchy they worked off of, some in charge of others for organization and coordination. Perhaps the legions of the goddesses were the same. Wind didn’t know if he could accurately call the woman an angel, but the divine glow of something more than a simple blessing matched the dove-gray wings shimmering intangibly behind her. Wind couldn’t not Look at them.
“This is Link Waker, but he goes by Wind,” Warriors said. And wow, he used Wind’s real name. If that didn’t say ‘trust,’ what would? “He helped me with the whole Cia thing, he’s a Hero, too. Wind, this is Miss Malon.”
Wind shook her extended hand, blinking to try and get his brain working again. “Nice to meet you, Miss Malon.” Her touch felt just the smallest bit magical, helping him to ground himself.
“And you as well, Wind. Come into the kitchen, I have some food ready. And while I am always glad for a visit, I suspect there’s a reason for today’s, isn’t there, Warriors?” She started into the house, glancing back at them.
“Yes, ma’am,” Warriors said, pushing Wind to follow her farther in. “I was hoping to speak with Time.”
“Speak with me about what?” asked a new voice.
They turned into the kitchen to see a man, who must be Time, putting a tray of what looked and smelled like chocolate chip cookies on top of the range. He turned around, revealing an old scar that twisted across his right eye and down to his jaw.
Wind’s hand shot up to cover his mouth in horror.
He’d seen a lot of gross stuff on his adventures and kept a strong stomach: a huge bird disemboweled, its rancid guts spilling across the sand; old, bloated corpses preserved in seawater with their mouths open in eternal screams; the fresh, ragged stump of a man’s leg, the whole thing taken off by a nasty sea serpent’s bite. But Time’s wings, not even really there, almost activated Wind’s gag reflex.
A third of his golden-white feathers had gone missing, a third had been shredded. Bits of skin had been torn away, leaving a view to muscles underneath. Bone poked out of one side. Though nothing bled, the whole mutilated mess looked frozen in time, never healing.
Wind really hoped that nothing there had been done on purpose.
The man’s bright blue eye met his, and a spark of recognition flashed through it, followed by a grim smile.
“I thought our second meeting was approaching,” he said. “I’ll repeat what I said to you years ago—they don’t hurt.”
As soon as Wind noticed his hand trembling, he took a breath to steady it and swallowed to stop the tears that wanted to form. He pulled his palm away from his mouth to speak. His voice came out quieter and rougher than he meant it to.
“Are you—are you sure?” It looked more than painful.
“Very sure,” Time assured him, inclining his head. He pushed a plate across the counter. “Cookie?”
Somewhat startled, Wind looked away from those poor wings to the colorful plate covered in cookies just a little burnt. He took one.
“Thanks.”
“Okay, I’m missing something, here,” Warriors said, looking around with his arms crossed.
Wind took a bite of the cookie instead of answering right away. The crunch was a little much for a chocolate chip cookie, but the sweetness dissolved in his mouth in the same comforting way Grandma’s always did.
Off to the side, Malon looked a little distressed, twisting the edge of her quilted apron in her hands. “There are… many secrets in this room, I think. I don’t want to force them out, but…”
“I’m not a secret, here.” Wind sighed and stared at the flecks of brown in the tan countertop. “I See things, whether I want to or not. Things that are there, but aren’t. Ghosts, auras, magic.” He took another bite of the cookie. It tasted good. Like home and warmth.
Malon made a little noise of comprehension.
“He knows about me,” Warriors said.
“And he can’t help but know about us.” Time sighed. “Wind, I apologize for the distress.”
Wind shook his head and muttered, “It isn’t your fault. Nothing I See is anybody’s fault. I just wish I could turn it off and ask questions like a regular person.”He still didn’t look up.
“Sometimes, it can be a heavy burden,” Time told him. “We cannot help being what we are. Divine, hellish, or whatever, we can’t change what we are designed to do.” Wind heard Warriors let out a breath behind him. “We can only change who we choose to become. All of us here, we could have stayed where we were, passive, slaves to others’ desires in many ways.
“But we chose to break out and to be someone else, active in shaping our destinies. That is, I believe, part of what being a Hero is about.”
In the contemplative silence that fell, Wind ate the rest of the cookie and picked up a second. Nobody protested, to his quiet delight.
He heard Time shift his weight, and almost smiled at the awkwardness displayed after a pep talk like that. It was kind of funny. Wind looked up, ignored the hurt wings and the shine of the overtly divine, and squinted instead.
Time had a goddess’s blessing surrounding him, too. Four found. Five to go.
“I have a prophecy,” Wind said. He pulled the paper from his pocket and slid it over on the counter. “Or, well, I Saw it. You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
With a somewhat apprehensive look, Time drew the prophecy over and read it. His face didn’t change, but Wind Saw how his wings fell an inch or two.
“You See prophecies?” Time asked.
“Not a lot, but they’re real and usually important.”
“I can confirm that at least one of them has panned out,” Warriors nodded. He stole a cookie, too.
Malon crossed over to put her hand on Time’s arm and read over his shoulder. Her own expression cycled through worry, sadness, and anxiety before settling on hesitant joy. She kissed his cheek. “Take some cookies to the living room, you have some things to talk about. I’ll start with the guest rooms.”
Time caught her hand for a moment before she moved away and gave her a smile that she returned. He picked up one of the plates of cookies.
“Come on, let’s sit down,” he said, nodding at the living room. He handed the prophecy back to Wind and led them out of the kitchen.
Once again, Wind just had to remark on how home -like the house felt. Paintings and photos of many subjects and at many skill levels covered the walls, from what looked like a child’s drawing of the castle to a dramatically lit photo of heather in the sunlight, all framed and hung with care. None of the furniture matched. The TV, an ancient fat model, set next to a stack of old movies Wind half-recognized. Knickknacks and keepsakes liked the mantle and the shelves next to the books. A single old ocarina and a shield were given a place of honor near the hearth.
Despite all the stuff, it all seemed clean, and didn’t smell weird. Wind felt comfortable sitting down on the couch and stealing another cookie. Warriors sat next to him.
“So,” Time said, taking an armchair and twisting around to face them, “did you come straight here? What progress have you made?”
Warriors gestured to let Wind tell him about Sky and the two at the docks. Wind talked about what a goddess blessing Looked like, what he’d told Sky about hearing it from the winds instead, and the work he’d done, Looking from the Imperial Building.
He was able to ignore Time’s wings after getting used to them. Something about this house and the quiet way Time listened made Wind want to be honest. He didn’t always like asking for help, but he knew he couldn’t do this on his own. The prophecy had been very clear about that.
“…so that’s officially four we have contact with, six or eight I know of, which is getting close but isn’t quite there,” Wind finished. He let Warriors take the second-to-last cookie but snagged the last one for himself.
Time nodded, his gaze far as he rubbed his lips in thought. “I know of two you haven’t mentioned, though I can’t contact them first. Mask is not an option, sorry to say—”
“Is he okay?” Wind interrupted.
“Yes. It was an irreproducible temporal shift that allowed him to join you, but he’s fine.”
“…what?”
Warriors translated. “Time travel, won’t happen again.”
“Oh. Aw,” Wind said. He’d liked that kid. He crunched on the cookie and glanced around the room, Noticing a strange aura around the old blue ocarina. He didn’t comment, though he could feel the weight of Time’s gaze on him.
“These other two?” Warriors prompted.
Time nodded. “The Hero of Twilight and the Hero of the Wilds, both goddess-blessed, though in different ways. I don’t know where they live, but they show up here around once a month with fresh food and fresh game. They stick around for a weekend at a time.”
“Do you think they’ll come again soon?” Wind asked.
“With the gravity of this prophecy bringing us together? Yes, I do.”
“Then that’s six,” Warriors said, brushing cookie crumbs from his pants. “The two at the docks make eight. We’re only missing one, now.”
Wind twisted to look behind him at the clock standing near the hallway. “That’s gonna have to wait, I need to meet Sky at that place soon.”
“Right.” Warriors stood. “Thank you, Time, can we meet again here tomorrow? Hopefully with one or two others.”
Malon interrupted, leaning against the door frame with a smile. “You can do more than meet here, hun, you can all stay here. This big old house is made for guests.”
“As she says,” Time agreed. He pushed himself to his feet. “There’s room for eight more.”
“And a lot of cookies,” Malon added.
Wind grinned. “They were really good, Miss Malon, thank you very much. Um, I’ll grab my stuff?”