Earlier this week Shigeru Miyamoto held a roundtable with press at the E3 and showed off a piece of Zelda artwork which was for the Zelda currently in development and planning at Nintendo. The artwork, as Miyamoto said, shows Link without his sword in hand, there is also a blue figure standing in front of him.

Since this artwork has been revealed there are theories around that the figure in front of link is actually some form of the Master Sword as her markings and form look similar to the actual sword. This would explain why the sword isn’t in his hands.