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Zelda ran as she had not ran since she was a little girl. She’d run chased by fear, chased by grief, in recent years, and that was there, but now freedom led her, freedom and joy and the glimmer of victory. The burden she had carried since her mother’s death had lifted. Her powers had finally stirred. The champions had fallen, but their deaths need not be in vain, she would not fail them. And Link…
They will save him, Master.
“They will, they will save your Master, and he will wield you again,” Zelda said to the sword on her back. It pressed warm against her back with every stride. Legends had told of the spirit that lived in the Master Sword, but Zelda has never imagined it would speak to her. Its chosen heroes hearing its voice was a rarity, much less anyone else.
Zelda did not slow until she came to the edge of the Lost Woods. If she turned now, she would doubtless see the castle, overtaken by malice, all the surrounding towns destroyed by the very Guardians meant to protect them.
She did not turn. She would make her way there soon enough, to Seal the Calamity within.
I can lead you, the sword said, and the faintest shadow of a spirit appeared in the fog ahead. Zelda followed her into the woods, through the mist as thick as butter, round the trees carved into screaming faces. The spirit did not seem phased. She seemed more sold the deeper they got, Zelda could now make out the blue curve of her head, the flutter of her cape.
The spirit stopped at the mouth of a great log. This way, Master.
Before Zelda could open her mouth to point out her mistake, the spirit disappeared back into the sword.
Through the hollow log, she could see light breaking through the fog. Zelda stepped through to find a large sunlit clearing, and at its center--
“Great Deku Tree.” She curtsied.
“You need bow to no one, Princess. The children of the forest have told me of your courage. You have done well to make it here.”
“Then you know I have brought the sword, so that you may watch over it while Link heals.”
The Great Deku Tree let out a low hum. “You plan to leave it behind?”
“I must return to the castle.” Zelda placed the Master Sword gingerly against its pedestal. “My sealing powers have finally awoken, I can--”
“Forgive me, Princess, but it is not your mother’s sealing power that has awakened.”
“It was. It destroyed the Guardians on Blatchery Plain. Whatever you have heard, it isn’t true. I can do this. The sword spoke to me--”
“The sword is known to speak only to the chosen hero.”
Zelda clenched her fists. The same whispers followed her even now-- false princess, liar princess, weak princess. “It spoke to me.”
“I am afraid you misunderstand me.” His voice was kind. “It seems a great many people have been wrong about a great many things of late, myself among them. I should never have allowed Link to pull the sword from that pedestal. He is not the chosen hero.
You are.”
Zelda’s breath caught. The sword pulsed with the faint song of its spirit. “I… this... this is no time for pranks, people have died and--”
“And a few moments more will do them no harm. It may do them some good, if they rest knowing others will not fall to the same mistake.” His branches creaked. “Link is a very strong and noble knight, but the sword is not known to choose those born to such circumstances.”
“It is also not known to choose the princess it is meant to protect.”
“You are a scholar, are you not? Surely you’ve come upon the knowledge that it was made not for the royal family, but for the good of the land. And as such, a scholar seems much more in line with the children and farmers it has chosen in the past than does a miraculous knight born into the royal guard.”
“Then…” Zelda paused, heart and thoughts racing. It was all in line with texts she’d read but… Everything up to now, had it been for nothing? Every prayer, every night spent in freezing water before a Goddess Statue, every harm she’d done herself? Every life lost in the absence of her power? Had it all been some cosmic joke at their expense? “Then why… why was everyone so sure?”
“When pushed to terror, we take any solution offered, be it by the Gods’ decree or by a swindler’s shadowplay.” The Great Deku tree sighed. “Who would turn away a boy with incredible skill with the hour of our greatest need drawing nigh? Not I, and not your father. But we were wrong. He has his part to play, but he is not the hero.”
The two of you are not so different, the sword whispered. He has dedicated his life to his presumed role, but was not able to fill it. You are mirrors to one another.
“Tradition says that the royal family carries the blood of the Goddess,” Zelda said slowly. “But so to do all Hylians. Is it possible the sealing power…?”
“Resides in another? Yes, that may be a factor in our misstep.”
Zelda knelt before the sword. “Is it true, then?” she asked it. “Do you chose me?”
Yes, Master.
“I’ve never wielded any weapon before, much less a sword. Father--” she choked on a sob, but now was not the time for grief-- “Father would not even allow me to carry a dagger when others suggested it.”
“The legends tell of courage, not skill, Princess. If you find it in your heart to accept the sword, it will not fail you.”
She reached out with trembling hands. The hilt was warm, welcoming like the embrace of a friend. As she grasped it, she felt something stir inside her. She rose it above her head. It caught the light, and suddenly, the world felt like it made sense. She swung, once, twice, cutting through the air and feeling the balance of it in her hand. It was as easy as breathing. She was made for it.
The Great Deku looked at her with pride and sadness in his eyes. “You know what you must do, Princess.”
“Yes.” She looked to the sword, her sword. “The battle will be long, but there is peace on the other side. I must go.”
“May the Goddess be with you.”
She turned, ready to face her fate, but paused. “Great Deku Tree, may I ask one more favor of you?”
“Of course, princess.”
“Might you have a set of clothes more suited for fighting?”
He laughed a big bark of a laugh. “I have no such thing, but I know when you can find one.”