Chapter Text
When he viewed what he believed to be the final Dragon’s Tear, the one with the Master Sword shaped geoglyph, he knew. He knew he would never see her again.
He remembers the memory in which Mineru warned Zelda about draconification.
He knows the look in her eye as she stated “It’s something only I can do,” the one that says ‘I am about to do something reckless and impulsive, and you don’t get a say.’
He’s seen the dragon by the sky islands, the one that doesn’t look like the one Farosh, Naydra, or Dinraal. The one with the golden mane with light in its horns.
He’s scared.
As the teardrop vanishes, he hears the dragon roar, he watches its tear fall. He would be lying if he said that tears didn’t fall from his eyes as well.
He’s lost her. And it’s his fault.
He makes his way out of the area of the Lost Woods, doing his best not to invite a conversation with a korok. He knows he should go search for Impa, to update her on the geoglyphs and the existence of the extra Dragon’s Tear but….
But instead he makes his way to the Woodland Stable. He requests a bed, writing the request down on a piece of paper to avoid speech, something he hasn’t done in years.
It’s already 11pm and the stablehand makes an off-handed comment about the time. He pays it no mind, instead moving inside to take his place on a bed in the common area, storing his pouch under the bed and a short sword under his pillow. No need to scare the other stable-goers by keeping it on his back while he sleeps.
Normally he wouldn’t do this. Spend the rupees to sleep, which he barely needs and truly doesn’t want, what with the nightmares that still persist from the Calamity. New ones have joined the fray, recently. One of a hand slipping just out of reach; of his right arm absent from his body.
Needless to say, nights in a bed spent asleep are few and far between for Link.
But tonight, he somehow cannot fathom the idea of traveling to the next Dragon’s Tear in the dark alone. And so he doesn’t.
Somehow he blinks and the next thing he knows he’s passing Tarrey Town approaching the Rist Peninsula.
He travels down the spiral, slashing down the boss bokobolin and associated bokobolins and other monsters along the way.
There’s a Shrine of Light there, at the point of the peninsula, and he decides to do that first, though if this Tear is what he thinks it will be, he doesn’t think that he will ever be returning to the spot.
He exits the shrine, taking a deep breath, before examining the pool of water he knows is the final Dragon’s Tear. The final memory of Zelda he will probably ever see.
It’s so much worse than he could have imagined.
The teardrop vanishes and he drops to his knees, turns to the ocean and pukes.
The whole body convulsions as she exploded with light; her eyes unfocused, then becoming ones he doesn’t know; the forced “You must” before she called out to him to save everyone , swallowing a stone to turn into a dragon that he’s shot for scales . Clutching the sword he destroyed in the fight that he lost before unknowingly and foolishly pushing the responsibility unto her .
And oh, it was ever his fault. His Princess, her last moments as a Princess before becoming a dragon, oh how sure he is that it will haunt him for the rest of his life, awake or asleep.
She is gone not just from him , but from all the people she was helping. From her kingdom, from her friends, from her horse, dammit, that he just saved . All for a stupid sword. A stupid sword with the power to save the world.
They could have been anyone in the world. But they were Link and Zelda. Their fates were intertwined with that of Ganondorf, forever sealed.
He sits in the sand of the swirled peninsula curled into himself, clutching his knees, shaking.
Shaking, but not like she was.
Afraid, but not like she was.
Determined, perhaps, but not at all like she has always been.
Time passes, and Impa finds him, just like that. Surrounded in a small field of silent princess flowers, silently sobbing. She looks at him with sorrow, knowing without knowing.
Link has never acted this way before. Not when he found out that it was his fault Zelda was trapped for a century. Not when he let her fall into a void and vanish. Not when he learned she was trapped in the past with the first King and Queen of Hyrule.
Impa knows that. So she settles down, Cado placing a pile of pillows he must have to cart around, and her kneeling without speaking her thanks.
Link eventually cries himself out, his hands clutched in his loose hair; his shoulders hunched into himself.
He is exhausted, but knows that if he slept right now he would not want to wake up. But that is not what Zelda wanted. “You must,” she said. Zelda gave everything so that he may wake up and win.
He finally acknowledges Impa, signing, “ Thank you, but not right now. I will meet you at Lookout Landing in four days’ time.”
Link hasn’t signed to Impa since before he fell during the Calamity over 100 years ago.
She smiles and pats his shoulder. “Okay child. Four days’ time.” Knowing without knowing , Link thinks to himself, grateful that he’s not being pushed.
Impa leaves, Cado gathering back up the pillows he placed on the ground and nodding once to Link before walking back to the hot air balloon that Link now realizes is tied down nearby.
Once they’ve left, Link gathers the silent princess flowers that he found once he came to after the memory. It feels wrong to pick them, but it felt even worse when he considered leaving them behind. So he doesn’t.
He makes his way towards the mainland, staggering past the bodies of the monsters he killed hours before on the peninsula. It’s midday now, and he needs to decide where to go from here.
He considers heading to Hateno - that’s where his house is, after all. But he can’t bring himself to. It may have been his house initially, but it soon became their house. The idea of walking into a building so imbued with Zelda - her research, her favorite pictures, her place at the table - seems nearly impossible.
So he doesn’t.
Instead, he makes his way to Tarrey Town, and heads to Rhondson.
“Are you ready to build your dream home?” She asks.
He merely nods. This will not be a dream home, he knows. He already had one of those in Hateno. But this could be a home. It will be a different home. It will be a place for him to sleep and pray without memories of the girl whose fate he personally sealed.
He is not sure he will ever step into that house again.
After some discussion with Rhondson, he pays the fee and places down the door to the home and a bedroom on the plot of land he owns. He pays a little extra for a goddess statue and places that down as well.
When the salesman finally leaves him alone, Link enters the house. He passes by the bedroom and instead makes his way to the statue, kneeling, this time, to pray.
“The Goddess smiles upon you,” the statue tells him.
“I really don’t think she does,” he replies, verbally. The statement is without malice, instead filled with sorrow.
“The Goddess does smile upon you, Hero,” is the only reply he gets.
This time, Link doesn’t bother with a reply. He merely exchanges his Lights of Blessings for a heart container and stops trying to communicate with the Goddess.
He doesn’t sit in the bed, but pulls himself away from the statue and begins to meditate.
Link dedicates the next day to heading to Gerudo town. He gave himself a four day vacation, in a sense, and he knows that he should be doing something, saving the world, perhaps, but at the same time….
So instead he makes his way to Gerudo town by foot. It only takes a day, but he doesn’t stop and take any breaks, so that was to be expected.
Riju had finally given him a voe-pardon - took her long enough, what with how many times he crossdressed to come in before - but he doesn't want to see anyone, doesn’t want anyone to really see him. Doesn’t want the questions.
“Where’s the princess,” They all asked, “Is she still missing? Will you find her?”
And so, he figures the best way to take a break from being the Hero of Hyrule is to become a random Hylian girl instead, in the one place that both won’t ask questions and will serve him alcohol.
He buys a new set of female Gerudo clothes in a size probably meant for children and changes in a cave before heading into town, no questions asked, and straight to the bar.
Three noble pursuits, please, he writes down in Gerudo script.
While he is technically old enough to drink now, he sees as the bartender opens her mouth to question him before looking up at him. He must look like shit, even with 90% of his face covered, because she nods and tells him the price, significantly cheaper than he expected.
He hands over the rupees and takes the drinks from her on a tray and sits in the corner. Then he takes out the Purah Pad. His hand stills before he clicks over to the memories tab. He diligently avoids looking at the most recent one, instead opting to select his favorite.
Zelda learned the trick to her time powers, and she tells King Rauru of Link. The words that come from her lips are like music to his ears. He was often praised, what with his being an accomplished knight even before pulling the sword and saving the world, but…. This felt different. This wasn’t a stranger thanking him or another knight praising his abilities, this was Zelda telling people who he knows were more like parents to her than her real parents ever were about the boy that she spends all her time with.
Rauru telling Link that he is exactly how she described is something he will hold onto forever, he knows. His father wasn’t the best either, and after the Calamity he certainly isn’t still alive, and yet somehow Rauru seemed to fill a similar role to him as he did for Zelda, albeit in a different way.
The memory finishes and Link reaches over to his right arm with his left hand, dragging his fingers along the arm that doesn’t belong to him, feeling the ridges of the Zonai material and the vows given to him by his friends.
At the time, when he awoke on the Great Sky Island what seems like so long ago, it felt like a great loss. He knows that the rest of the body attached to the new arm had deteriorated, that this gift could not be his forever. That it, too, will eventually wither away, possibly before Link does.
The loss of his own arm feels harder now, knowing that he has lost so much in a war he shouldn’t have to fight again. He was a soldier after all, a swordsman, and the loss of his sword handling arm is nothing short of a tragedy.
Yet here he is, the Hero of Hyrule, his fate sealed before he was even born. His arm lost in a battle he didn’t get a choice in fighting. His Princess lost to the world for the same cause.
The drinks vanish quickly, and his throat burns with the feeling of the liquid hot on his breath.
The day passes quickly, and he leaves Gerudo town before word can spread to Buliara and she can figure out he was there.
He stumbles back to Kara Kara Bazaar, changes back into his usual attire, and finds his way to a cooking pot. The rest of his night is spent cooking, burning through his materials before going to buy more. If there is one thing that can give him comfort under all circumstances, it is food.
He sits by the fire for the night, eating through various hand pies and skewers to fill the hole in his heart with the food he's just cooked.
As he sits there sobering up, he contemplates what to do next. The sky islands have long been his favorite place to go and relax. Ever since he woke up there, they have been a statement of peace. There’s less enemies and no one to interact with who will bother him with comments or concerns of the Princess.
He debates, now, going back. If he does, he will be able to watch the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises while sitting under a tree, looking out over all of Hyrule. But he will also have to see her, the Light Dragon.
It’s a tough call, but ultimately he cannot help but to decide against it and to, instead, head for Lookout Landing early.
He goes by foot again, and since the journey doesn’t span all of Hyrule like his last trip from Tarrey Town to Gerudo did, the trip only ends up taking a little less than half a day.
The walk gives him the opportunity to think. It would be illogical and irresponsible to tell the entire story to everyone, so telling as few people as possible was best. The entirety of Hyrule still knows Zelda is missing anyways, and there’s little reason to change their understanding of the situation.
After all, Link knows well that the difference between ‘missing’ and ‘forever changed’ is the shift from fear to mourning.
That being said, at the very least, the four sages, Impa, and Purah need to be let into the truth. Impa will have insight, Purah has been spearheading the entire investigation, and the sages should know the truth about what they’re up against. It may also be wise to tell Teba as well, but Link knows that it would be wiser to just have Tulin tell him since he’s already at Lookout Landing.
Anyone else knowing the truth would be unnecessary and potentially dangerous, and that’s ignoring the fact that Link doesn’t think that he could verbalize the words if he tried.
That is, if he can verbalize the words at all.
After defeating the Calamity, more of Link’s memories slowly returned. Traveling with Zelda, who would offer him memories and stories of places they went together, made a big difference. One of the biggest things he remembers is the overwhelming feeling and need for mutism, the oppression of responsibility causing him to lose his words. He remembered using sign language when it felt like he wasn’t allowed a voice, and he remembered becoming talented at tempering his expressions.
The less he said the more correct he became and the easier it was for others to believe in him.
After the Calamity, with Zelda’s encouragement, those memories didn’t swallow him whole. The feeling of expectations, while still present, didn’t consume him from the inside out. His voice remained. Only on occasion did his voice fade causing him to fall back into his sign language and stoic faced self.
When he woke up on the Great Sky Island, with an arm he didn’t recognize, a distinct lack of strength, and without the one he swore to protect, the words he’d grown so accustomed to using didn’t flow quite as well as they did before.
They came still, but not as easily as they had been.
Before he knew the details, he knew that he would have to face something just as strong, if not stronger, than the Calamity.
He can still talk, he can still emote, he can , it’s just difficult.
But now? It’s hard to remember how to verbalize at all.
And if talking in general is difficult… well, he’s about to essentially tell his closest friends about how he’s failed the last remaining Princess of Hyrule who lost herself as a dragon to return his sword to him… so… yeah this is going to be difficult to vocalize.
Before he knows it, he’s passing through the doors into Lookout Landing. He stops by the mini stable and gives a few pats to Epona who is stabled there. He takes out an apple from his pouch and gives it to her, touching his forehead to hers.
Goddess give me strength , he thinks as he walks towards the group he sees gathered near the main research building.
Link takes down his hood as he climbs the stairs to the meeting point at Lookout Landing, looking up at the world. His friends are there, everyone he wants gathered together.
He looks at Impa and makes eye contact, nodding once.
“Everyone,” she says, speaking for Link, “we need to have a short meeting.”
She turns to Cado who gets the memo and escorts the friends and associates of the sages away.
Josha tries to run up to join the meeting, and if she weren’t so young Impa probably would have let her in. To be fair, Link would have as well, but there are already a lot of people to talk to, so this story will have to wait a while to reach her ears.
“Josha, dear, why don’t you go gather the rest of the people in the landing in the hideout for a while, get lunch together for them. They deserve the rest of the day off.” Impa guides her away as smooth as Link could have asked her.
A few minutes later, the Lookout Landing is much quieter, and the crew of four sages, Impa, Purah, and Link make their way into the research center where someone, probably Cado, has set out seven chairs for them in a circle.
“Well don’t leave us hanging, goro. What’s going on?” Yunobo asks, with genuine concern on his face.
“Yes, Link, is everything alright?” Sidon asks, raising a hand to his shoulder, then to his chin to lift up his face. Apparently he had been staring at the ground.
Link holds a neutral expression, falling back into what feels like old ways and mannerisms. He clears his throat twice and opens his mouth before shutting it again.
Instead of trying to speak, he takes out scales from the Light Dragon that he had shot a few weeks ago with the hope of upgrading his Champions Leather.
He takes a deep breath and mouths a few words silently before trying to vocalize.
“...I…” he finally starts to say, “have been investigating the… the Dragon’s Tears found at the geoglyphs….”
He stops again and looks at Impa, who is sitting next to him.
Purah speaks up quickly, “That’s great Linky! Didja find out something new about Princess Zelda or the Demon King?”
“ Both .” Link signs back without thinking. He looks at his hands and makes a concerted effort to still them in his lap.
“Both.” Impa translates for him, “Sign is okay, Link.”
He nods, then shakes his head. “This is something I should try to say out loud.” It is a quiet phrase, but one that seems to take everyone aback, maybe for that exact reason. They have really only seen the version of Link who lets words spill from his lips freely. Except for Impa and Purah, and maybe Sidon, this is a foreign version of Link to them
“Both,” he says, “And I’ll get there. But first, the Dragon’s Tears, they… they are a means to view images from the past.
“The first one I saw was of the Princess right after,” he looks down, then back up, neutral faced once again, “Right after she vanished. She met with King Rauru and Queen Sonia who introduced themselves as… as the founders of the Kingdom of Hyrule.”
“So that’s it then! She’s in the past! And pretty far in the past, at that.” Purah exclaims.
“That’s somewhat troubling,” Riju pipes up.
“Well,” Link continues, “She isn’t really in the past. She was, but now she isn’t.
“Every single Dragon’s Tear was about the Princess or something from the Imprisoning War through her point of view.”
“So the Sage of Time from the ancestor’s vision was really her!” Tulin exclaims, the other sages nodding their agreement.
“She met with another Zonai, Mineru, King Rauru’s sister,” Link continues, faster now, more assured, “They counseled on how the Princess might go about returning home.” He looks down at the Light Dragon’s scales in his hand again, trying to steady himself, “Her only idea was draconification, in which a secret stone is swallowed and the being turns into an immortal dragon. However, it makes one lose oneself and is therefore forbidden.
“Eventually the Imprisoning War began. There were a lot of events portrayed in the Tears,” he thinks of the one he watched just the day before in the Gerudo bar, “but the main idea is that Queen Sonia lost her life to Ganondorf, who took her secret stone and became the Demon King. King Rauru sacrificed himself to seal him away.” Link looks at his arm.
“That was in the vision too!” Tulin exclaims, the childlike wonder allowing the tragedy in Link’s words to evade him. No one corrects Tulin, but rather opts to remain quiet.
“When I awoke on the Great Sky Island, the Master Sword was severely decayed from when it shattered against the Demon King’s power. My arm was replaced with King Rauru’s,” he makes a fist with his right hand, then releases it, “I placed the Master Sword into a ball of light and it was taken away from me.”
Foolish, foolish, foolish, pushed all your responsibilities unto the Princess. Dammit, the Hero of Hyrule has one job, one item of importance and you managed to fail both in the matter of-
“Link, would you like to tell us of the rest of the Dragon’s Tears?” Impa asks him, patting his shaking hands.
“ There was one Tear left,” he signs as he steadies himself and quells his expression once again.
“She received the Master Sword in the decayed state it was left in. She recalled the Great Deku Tree telling us about the ability of the sword to grow stronger when bathed in purifying light. She thought of Mineru’s words when they counseled,” it’s no longer a story, but a report, “She stated out loud that she will be forever changed, Mineru had told her there is no return from draconification. The image ended and the Light Dragon roared, a tear fell from its eye.”
He abruptly switches to sign language, “ That last Dragon’s Tear showed the Princess turning into the Light Dragon with the hope of purifying the sword that seals the darkness. ”
Impa translates. No one else moves.
His hands lie listless in his lap, his tongue feels too big for his mouth. Even censoring the Dragon’s Tears to the extreme, the situation is not pretty. The truth, he figures, rarely is.
“But we can turn her back, right?” Tulin asks, teary eyed. If he were not yet a sage, he would surely be too young to hear this story.
“ Mineru was very clear. One who swallows a secret stone undergoes draconification, loses themself, and will not be able to turn back ,” Link’s words in sign are unfeeling, but unfortunately he doesn’t know how else to present them.
Riju reached over and hugs Tulin, who immediately toughens up, trying to prove his spot on the team, as if it were not immediately secured by his ancestor, and tries to show how grown he is, which he isn’t.
Impa speaks up before the sages disperse, “This information doesn’t leave this room.”
“Oh, except Tulin you can tell Teba, just tell him to keep it quiet, and Sidon, we don’t expect you to keep secrets from your fiancée, though she can’t tell anyone either.” Purah adds, missing her usual flair.
They both nod.
“ The mission stands, ” Link signs, “ The fifth sage must be found and then the Demon King defeated.” This signifies the end of the meeting that feels, to Link, as though it has lasted a lifetime.
“We’ll make sure that the Princess’ sacrifice isn’t for vain, goro! We’ll smash the Demon King into dust!” Yunobo adds in.
The attendees stand up and start to filter out, Purah to her room, Tulin and Yunobo back home, and Impa leaves to find Cado and ultimately lingers outside. Sidon and Riju stay behind with Link.
Link rubs the Light Dragon scales again before slipping them back into his pouch. He, too, stands.
Riju comes to Link first, placing a hand on his shoulder and speaking softly, “From all I know about Urbosa, may she rest in peace, she would have been very, very proud of your Princess, for doing what is right even if it felt wrong.”
Link nods, signing “ Thank you ” in Gerudo sign language instead of his usual Hylian. Riju pats his shoulder once before nodding to Sidon and making off to Gerudo town.
Once she is gone, Sidon comes over and envelops Link into a mildly crushing hug. Link allows himself to go slightly softer in his embrace, but only for a moment. He schools his expression and hardens himself, stepping back.
Of course Sidon knew what he needed. What he needs. They are ‘very best friends’ after all. Link knows there isn’t much he could successfully keep from him if he is around to see.
“You will get through this, Link.” Sidon says softly.
Link merely nods.
He does not have a choice.
Once Sidon is gone, Link puts the chairs back into their proper locations and leaves the research room. Impa is waiting outside and when she sees him, hands him a bowl of veggie cream soup.
She gestures to Cado who opens the way back to the hideout. Link watches him climb down the ladder and hears the chatter of the people inside. He looks to Impa.
“Let’s go eat with Purah,” She says.
And so they do.
Sequestered away from the hustle and bustle of Lookout Landing once again, Purah, Impa, and Link sit together eating veggie cream soup.
At first no one speaks.
In fact, Link barely even moves. What he’s doing can hardly be described as ‘eating’ and perhaps is better described as ‘occasionally tasting.’ He’s kneeling on the ground with the bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other, foreign hand. The look Purah is giving him is definitively concerned and he can tell she’s almost preparing to shove the spoon in his mouth for him.
If Link is avoiding food, it’s bad. Zelda was one of the first to figure it out, but it didn’t stay a secret for long.
“Linky, you’re not telling us the truth.” Purah supplies.
Link sets down the partially eaten soup. “ That is the truth .” He answers in sign, knowing both sisters could understand.
“Then it’s not the whole truth!” She shoots back.
“ It was censored, but I assure you, every important detail was- ”
“But!-”
“When I saw you in Akkala,” Impa interjects them both, causing her older sister to pause and Link’s hands to still, “you looked halfway departed, child. Tell us why.”
“ I said it already. I watched her turn.”
“You said the memory showed it not that you….” Purah adds, gently this time. Link is so glad she’s not six anymore, even if she still acts like it sometimes.
“ I watched. I saw her swallow the stone after telling herself that she ‘must’, watched her grab the Master Sword through convulsions, and looked on as her eyes changed to those I’ve never seen before. I watched her explode with light, calling out to me to protect everyone! I watched her lose herself, is that what you want to hear?!” He screams the last line, loud after the quiet of the sign.
He covers his face with his shaking hands and tempers himself again, cooling down.
He’s gotta suck it up so that he can finish what she started. What, in truth, he started.
He is the damned Hero of Hyrule, so he really better start acting like it.
“ I should not have handed off the sword, or even taken her below the castle in the first place. ”
Purah looks at him, “It was her choice. All of it. To investigate, to sacrifice herself, to believe in you. You couldn’t force anything on that girl if you tried. And damn if King Rhoam, may his majesty’s soul rest in peace, didn’t try.”
Link nods, shaking hands still hiding his face. He knows that. But that doesn’t mean he can rationalize it.
There is silence in the room for a while before Impa speaks up.
“There is a reason the Hero is always alone. Sometimes he searches for his sister, for his friend, for his purpose. But his journey is a solitary one, even if he is joined along the way. When the Hero loves…” Impa stops, pondering for a moment, “When the Hero loves, it is almost certain that he will lose.”
Link thinks back on all the memories that the Master Sword had given him the first time he pulled it, or at least the first time he remembers, when he was setting up to defeat the Calamity. Sister, childhood best friend, or mentor, when the one who pulled the sword finds love, that love is destined for hardship.
Link felt like he had finally broken the cycle for himself. It’s not about Link and Zelda, two parts of the Triforce, it was about Link and Zelda, reunited after a century, brought back together regardless of what the Goddess said.
It was supposed to be over.
He supposes, now, it truly is. With Zelda in a form where she cannot reincarnate, and Ganon having given up on reincarnation after the Calamity, all that’s left is the Hero.
Link can see it now, the future, cycles and cycles in which the Hero’s soul will reincarnate and pull the Master Sword, the one that the Triforce of Wisdom gave up everything to protect, and then have no princess to save or look up to or work with and, perhaps, Goddess willing, no darkness to fight against.
Alone, without purpose, for an eternity….
God dammit this isn’t productive.
Link finally climbs out of his mental pity party to find Purah has left and taken his soup with her. Impa remains but is silently meditating.
Link meditates with her for a while, regaining energy without sleep - Goddess knows he cannot manage that right now.
Some time passes before Impa speaks to him again. “I suspect that the rest of your journey will not be easy, physically or mentally. You are now burdened with the truth, Link. However, you are now relieved of the suffering of wondering how to reach her. She is here. Go to her. I know that you know how to end this from here.”
He does. Find the fifth sage and recruit them to the cause as he has the others, retrieve the Master Sword, win the battle. There is nothing else until the battle is won. Either he will die there or he will not, and neither option sounds good, so instead he will merely win.
“And Link,” Impa interrupts his thoughts, “You are not alone.”
She is right. When he fought the Calamity he… he had Impa by his side, of course, and those who helped him reach the Divine Beasts, of course, but even still, the battles he fought were his battles.
He was alone.
He is no longer alone.