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We returned from Mount Lanayru just in time to see the Guardians reach the edges of Castle Town, the whole thing in flames. Seeing that hurt worse than any injury I’d ever received.
My family—
Screams came from a burning house near us. Princess Zelda wiped at her tears, her face determined.
“We save as many as we can,” she instructed.
It wasn’t many.
I ducked into what must have been a total of three burning houses, dodging flames and falling debris, searching for survivors and helping them out. I was quickly faint from lack of air, coughing from the smoke and trying to dust it from my clothes.
A scream suddenly rose above the chaos, piercing.
“They’re coming!”
I stepped to the princess’s side, looking for this new threat, and saw them—a huge new wave of Guardians. Zelda could only gasp quietly. In a second, my decision was made. We had to leave.
I grabbed her hand, and took off running.
“Link! What—where are we going? We have to—we have to do something—“
I just shook my head and held firm. Zelda continued to call to me, crying, pleading.
I don’t know if it was that noise among the chaos that attracted it, or if the Guardian knew who we were, or if it was pure chance, but there was suddenly a huge mechanical monster behind us, it’s red laser directed at the princess.
I could just barely hear an increasing beeping over the hell around us. I knew what was about to happen.
Time slowed.
Summoning all my strength, I yanked Zelda past me, held her with an arm under each of hers and lept.
An explosion, more heat, more flames, right behind us, and we were blasted forward. I curled around my princess, desperate to protect her—
We smashed into the ground several paces away from the blast, out of the Guardian’s sight, thank Hylia.
I managed to take the brunt of the blow, but as the wind was punched out of me, I released the princess. I heard her cry out sharply, and I felt like doing the same. Everything hurt.
But that didn’t matter.
I got up, forcing my lungs to work, and pulled the princess up as well.
“We need to run,” I rasped, disuse, smoke damage, breathlessness and pain rendering the words almost too rough to understand.
Zelda’s head snapped up, her wide eyes boring into mine, then slowly filling with tears. It was her turn to nod mutely.
And so we ran.
For minutes that stretched into hours, I guided us in as straight a line as I could away from the castle.
As we broke into an area called Mabe Prairie, an unearthly shriek raised the hair on the back of my neck. It came from all around us. The princess and I stopped, searching frantically for its source.
I yanked the Master Sword from its sheath, wondering if this was something I could finally fight.
Zelda spotted it first.
“There! It’s… Vah Medoh!”
I turned around, looking past Hyrule Castle, towards Rito Village. Sure enough, Vah Medoh flew above it. Now I heard the bird-like quality to the cry. That wasn’t all I noticed.
“It’s—it’s not blue, it’s red,” Zelda murmured. “W-what does that mean?”
Vah Medoh cried again as we stared.
Another cry, more of a growl, answered it.
I pivoted to look at Death Mountain.
There was Vah Rudania, its red lights matching the lava.
“Ruta…” Zelda whispered beside me.
From here, we could not see Zora’s Domain, but a similar cry sounded as storm clouds gathered too swiftly to be natural.
“And Naboris…” Zelda faltered, and we turned towards Gerudo.
“If Ganon could posses the Guardians…” the Princess stopped, a hand rising to her mouth in horror.
Vah Medoh shrieked again.
There was nothing I could do. I tightened my grip on Zelda’s hand and continued on.
‘Pounding’ was the best word to describe the moment. Our feet were pounding into the ground as we ran for our lives. My head and heart were pounding from physical stress, as well as from grief. My family—don’t think yet—
My injuries, bruises and burns, pounded in time with everything else.
At least the rain wasn’t pounding.
One could hear the difference in physical stamina between myself and the princess, her gasping breaths tearing the air, and mine silent. I could feel her strength waning, as she stumbled every so often. But I kept up the pace. We had to get away. We had to get as far from the castle as fast as we could. What had happened there was—
My despairing train of thought was harshly interrupted as Zelda finally fell.
Her hand, soaking from the rain, slid right out of mine.
I gasped in surprise, taking a few more stumbling paces as I tried to fight inertia. I expected Zelda to be right behind me, but when I turned, she was still where she’d fallen, kneeling on the ground, head bowed. Like she’d given up.
“How…” she whispered brokenly as I walked back to her side.
Seeing her take a breath to continue, I sheathed the Master Sword. A weapon was of no comfort here.
“How did it come to this?”
I knelt in front of her, my bruises protesting. But it felt good to get down, to breathe for a moment—don’t relax, danger is still too close—
“The Divine Beasts… The Guardians… They’ve all turned against us.”
Exactly the dangers I was thinking of. I looked at the sky, letting the rain act like tears on my face as I tried not to think of what the Guardians and Divine Beasts had done. And would continue to do.
“It was… Calamity Ganon. It turned them all against us!”
I looked back at the princess, surprised by the sudden anger in her tone. Her fists were tense, pulling the grass from the wet dirt.
While she was angry, I was still stunned. How could the Calamity be this powerful? To turn the very things meant to help us against it to work against us. Why hadn’t we known it would be this easy for it to do so?
A tiny trickle of doubt passed like cold water between bare shoulder blades. Was the Master Sword powerful enough?
Zelda’s head slowly rose as her anger fell away to make room for grief.
“And everyone—Mipha, Urbosa, Revali and Daruk…” She looked into my eyes. “They’re all trapped inside those things…”
I struggled to keep my own tears from spilling over. What she was implying… are they still trapped? My mind whispered. Or are they gone?
I wanted to reassure Zelda, remind her of what powerful warriors are friends were, every one of them, the best of the their people, each with a magical gift—
“It’s all my fault!” Zelda cried, burying her face in her ashy hands and silencing my thoughts.
“Our only hope for defeating Ganon is lost all because I couldn’t harness this cursed power!”
My breath cut as contradicting reactions screamed for my attention.
Zelda, don’t say that! You tried so hard, you did your best, it’s not your fault—
Cursed? A bloodline gift from Hylia herself? It’s not cursed—
Why didn’t Hylia do something? This isn’t Zelda’s fault, I was there—
Is it Zelda’s fault? The King’s fault? He pushed her too hard—
Only hope? What about me? The Master Sword? Why am I needed if Zelda has her power?
Why was I chosen? Why were we chosen?
It’s too much—everyone’s gone—we’re alone—too much—
I had stopped talking when the pressure of wielding the Master Sword became too great. The pressure I felt now made me wish I could lose more than speech.
“Everything—everything I’ve done up until now… It was all for nothing…” Zelda murmured.
All the disparate voices in my mind converged, slamming together to agree with that sentiment. All for nothing. A fancy sword, a fancy title—
“So I really am just a failure!”
Zelda sobbed, gaze caught on mine once again. It took everything I had not to break down with her. But she still wasn’t done ripping my heart out.
“All my friends…the entire kingdom… my father most of all… I tried, and I failed them all.”
I failed all those people just as much as she had. All I did was pull a few from burning buildings, right into the claws of more Guardians. And the Calamity had only just awoken.
“I left them…all to die,” Zelda whispered.
As she collapsed into my arms with a sob, only one thought was left in my mind, repeating over and over.
So did I.
So did I.