The Legend of Zelda - The Tainted Blade (Season 1) | WATTYS WINNER 2018

The Darkness Within - (S1.E4)

Daylight and the low sounds of people talking woke Zel. The cuts in his palms had sealed and dried black. The tar from the diamond flecked from his chest and cheeks like scaly ash. But the sword lay quiet now. Asleep. He could no longer hear its heartbeat.

Zel took a deep breath and wrapped the sword again, feeling a faint sense of shame at how he had treated the thing the night before. Still, it was his responsibility. He knew that. Only he could protect it. No one else could ever touch it. Ever.

The voices outside grew louder. Leaving the wrapped blade on his bed, he eased to the door and unlatched it. He peered out against the bright morning light and found the entire village bustled with activity. Everyone seemed to be walking in the same direction, which meant only one thing. A town meeting.

Zel knew not everyone would be allowed in the council chambers, but everyone would want to wait outside to hear the outcome of whatever decision had been made. Zel knew the council met to discuss the growing attacks of monsters. A lynel in Lurelin? It was the stuff of nightmares and camp stories. The people would demand answers.

A ray of understanding blazed through Zel's mind. The lynel was looking for the sword. All the monsters were. Or rather, the sword called them to them somehow. If he could hear it and the lynel could hear it, then maybe every monster could hear it. So long as the sword was in Lurelin, the monsters would keep coming.

Why could he hear it? Was it because he found it? Was it because the black tar-like substance had touched him? What was he going to do with it?

He sighed. There was really only one thing he could do. For the sake of his city and for the sake of his family, he had to take it to the council.

Zel grabbed the wrapped bundle and joined the chattering people moving toward the city council chambers. As he neared the building the crowd thickened, but as the people recognized him and saw the tattered bundle he carried, they parted to let him pass.

Zel entered the hall quietly. As the doors closed behind him, the arguing men seated in a circle stopped their shouting and eyed him.

Gramor stood. "What are you doing here, son?" His panicked eyes darted from Zel to the wrappings. "What's this?"

Without a word, Zel walked to the center of the circle and placed the sword on the small table in the middle. "This is why we have so many monster attacks. It is why the hinox and the lynel came."

He pulled back the wrappings. The elders of Lurelin stood to get a better look. Some took steps forward and leaned in. Then as if they all recognized the blade at once, a collective gasp filled the room.

"A fake!" someone shouted.

Zel paced back toward the circle with his mouth clamped shut and stood beside his father.

Gramor studied him. "Explain yourself."

"I found it in the fist of the hinox," Zel told the elders. "I thought it was a fake, too, at first. But there's something wrong with it. There's a power there that a normal sword shouldn't have. Its construction is like nothing I've ever seen. The diamond at the crossguard looks real enough to me. Also, the lynel seemed to know. I think it was looking for it. I think the monsters the other night were too. Maybe monsters have been coming here for years, drawn to it. This has to be the Master Sword. What else could it be?"

"And you hid it until now?" Gramor asked, a hint of anger in his voice.

Zel lowered his eyes to the floor. "Yes."

"The Master Sword has been missing for centuries!" shouted a frail wrinkled man. Reaso, the retired thatcher. "It is lost, destroyed more than likely. How could it be here in Lurelin?"