Falling Worlds; Zelink, Modern Magic AU (The Legend Of Zelda)

Of Magic and Science (1)

(First part published, May 6th 2016)

Ever since Zelda was young she had dreamed of a life above the clouds. Her father Kaebora had always told her about the glorious land known as Hyrule that was said to exist hidden in the sky above her head.

He told her that it could only be seen by those who walked upon the lofty heights; that it was invisible to those who wandered the surface. She grew up on the bed time stories that he lavished with beautiful word paintings, and horrible acting.

Her mother had died when she was little; she was so young that she couldn't even remember her. But her father had always been there for her.

She went to his work every day after school; he worked in a research facility where they studied such things that were theorized to exist, but were, as of yet, not proven officially by scientific evidence. Kaebora believed though, and strived to prove such "impossibilities" every day. Through her father's belief, she too believed that places like Hyrule were a reality, and not just myths.

_-_-_

"See that Zel?" her father said in a happy voice, holding his small daughter in his arms as he pointed to the glass tank.

"No," she replied with a frown, "what's in there, daddy?"

"There are three chameleons camouflaged in the tank. Daddy researches animals that blend in with environments in the hope to uncover more evidence for how invisibility was developed."

"Cam... camo... how does it work?"

"One day we'll both understand."

"I hope so," she replied, confused.

---

Zelda had many fond memories of times spent with her father's research notes spread out across the dining room table, and both of them eating the lunch that they had made on a normal Saturday afternoon. Kae was always excited about one theory or another, and she couldn't help but share in his excitement every week.

He was a wonderful father and was very good at helping her with homework. Except for her English assignments; a professor he could never be. Even though his notes were tidy he could never quite order his thoughts in the progressive manner that was needed for a well-ordered book.

That was what Zelda was good at, and so she helped to organize his notes in a recognizable pattern when they looked at them on the weekends.

With so much exposure to the sciences of her father's field, she knew a lot about the theories of invisibility, phasing, and other magics. While not yet recognized as a proper science, she knew just how close they were to finding some good, solid evidence for the magic that was invisibility.

Although magic and science were widely believed to be at opposite ends of a spectrum, Kae thought differently, and through him, so did Zelda. Magic and science would always be two sides of the same coin in her mind, regardless of what modern scientists believed or disbelieved. She wanted to be the judge of things for herself and didn't readily believe anybody but her father when it came to magical theories.

The day before her seventeenth birthday, Zelda walked from her school to the lab where her father worked, something that she did quite often; almost every day. As she did, she pulled out her phone and dialed her father to tell him where she was, but he didn't answer.

He usually always answered unless they were in the middle of an experiment, and that was when his phone wasn't in his lab coat like it usually was.

As she entered through the front door, the receptionist smiled at her and told her that she could go back to see her dad when they got the okay that the experiment was completed.

Zelda sat in her usual waiting chair and brought out a notebook where she jotted down various things she had learned or thought of that day while at school.

After almost a half an hour of patiently sitting, (experiments there could go on for hours at a time) she heard a high pitched squeal from the back wall, and she jumped to her feet, backing away from it and towards the reception desk. She knew better than to go anywhere near the strange happenings in the lab, and she quickly tried to climb over the desk to access the safer zone behind it.

Then a small part of the wall exploded and shards of metal flew from the hole and embedded themselves in the walls beside the desk, and a few of the pieces even struck the desk below her.

There were a few shards on the floor in front of the desk that looked as though they had come in contact with something extremely hard and then bounced off, like the concrete underneath the carpet or in the walls.

As Zelda dropped behind the desk she heard a familiar voice from the other side of the hole. "So sorry," came the accented voice of her father's coworker. "Was anyone hurt?"

"We're fine," Zelda called back. "The desk and walls are a little banged up though."

Her father's goggled face appeared in front of the hole. "Zellie? Oh goddess, had you been sitting in your normal chair..."

She had just opened her mouth to tell him she had been sitting in her normal chair when he continued excitedly.

"We were handling an incredible, yet volatile substance, which we seemed to have... underestimated, quite a bit..." he smiled, despite the damage. "Would you like to come and see?"

"Yeah," Zelda replied with a smile and went through the door to join her father and his colleagues in the laboratory.

-_-_-

Zelda tossed her pencil in the air and then caught it on the back of her hand, then tossed that up again to catch it on her palm.

"Zelda, would you please pay attention," the teacher asked, his voice long-suffering.

She looked over at the whiteboard and yawned. She was in science class, and she didn't need to pay attention to that. She examined the lesson and smiled.

2 ymv^2 = qEL^2, Deflection of a Particle in an Electric Field,...

"I know this already."

The teacher sighed. "So you've said many times. Would you prefer to teach this class?"

"Not really," she said nonchalantly as she balanced the pencil on two of her fingers.

The teacher scowled and turned back to the board. "You think you're smarter than me, but at least I don't believe in the utter nonsense you and that Kaebora do," he snapped maliciously.

Zelda's eyes flicked from her pencil to the man who had just insulted her father. Her eyes flashed with anger as she struggled to control herself. "You only wish you could understand phasing theory, but it's too complicated for your tiny education to comprehend," she growled softly. Her pencil rolled off her hand but she caught it, her fingers tightening around it in her newfound frustration.

"I'm not in any way jealous of your father's ravings. He's a fool," her teacher laughed, "Now if we could get back to real scienc-"

"If he's raving, why does he make more money than you?" Zelda snapped. She was struggling with a part of her that wanted to deck her teacher right in front of the class because unfortunately she wasn't allowed to do that. She slammed her book closed and grabbed her backpack.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"To one of the only places I actually like," she replied as she left the classroom.

---

"Again?" one of the receptionists asked in amusement. "You're lucky advanced science is your last class of the day."

"Yeah, I guess so," she said as she sat down in the chair that had replaced her usual one, (it had been a little impaled after the disastrous experiment.) She pulled out her homework and started on it, though she found it hard to concentrate.

"Can I go back there?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Let me call."

"Kay," she replied as she looked back down at the textbook.

After a minute of waiting the woman nodded to her and she went back into the laboratory.

It was sparkling white everywhere, and several glass tanks littered the surfaces, as well as sciencey equipment that lined the walls, and were sitting on desks. She crouched in front of the chameleon tank and smiled at them. "Hi Jeffrey," she greeted the largest male in the tank, (who was actually still smaller than the female.)

"Zelda! What are you doing back here so early?" her father exclaimed as he lifted his eyes from some of his notes.

"Chell called, she said it was okay for me to come in," she replied.

"Oh, I wasn't told. What are you doing out of school early?"

Zelda bit her lip and shrugged. "Teacher again."

He sighed. "I've told you, there aren't many that respect this branch of science. You can't change their mind by constantly arguing with them during class."

"I only left because I didn't want to get in trouble for punching him in the throat," Zelda muttered.

"That's my girl. Maybe one day you'll get the opportunity to show him we're right, and then there will be no reason to deck him."

"Aw, but I'd actually like to deck him. He certainly deserves it."

"Just because he deserves a punch, doesn't mean you should stoop so low as to get physical," he said sternly.

"Right, I'm sorry. He just... he bugs me so much. He's such a pompous as-"

"Watch it."

"-sociate of the devil."

Her father laughed and then ruffled her hair with his ungloved hand. "Let's go get some lunch."

"Are you done here?"

"I can be, and it's time for a break anyways. Come on, let's go before they catch me."

Zelda rolled her eyes and took her father's hand. "Alright, let's go then."