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Chapter Text

Hateno Village, one month before The Upheaval

Link walked over the threshold of the quaint little house that he shared with Zelda, shutting the door behind him and then closing his eyes and leaning against it for a moment to give his aching muscles a brief moment of reprieve. It was possible (okay, he was willing to admit that it was certain at this point) that he’d overdone it today. After little Sefaro had fallen into the river behind his home and nearly drowned the week before, Link had made it his mission to make sure that every child in the village knew how to swim, and it was going, well, swimmingly. Today, they’d spent the whole afternoon at one of the ponds near town that had a dock so that the children could practice jumping off, becoming completely submerged, and then propelling themselves back to the surface. This had somehow progressed to Link picking them up and tossing them in one by one, which then progressed to a contest to see how far out into the water he could launch each of them. The children’s laughter, infectious glee, and the looks on their faces as they jumped up and down and cried, “again, again” might have had something to do with it. Before Link knew it, it was nearly dinner time and his arms and shoulders felt like lead. He was used to hard training, fighting, and physical labor, but it seemed that throwing children around for hours on end was more strenuous than he’d anticipated. 

“Hey,” Zelda’s voice reached Link’s ears and he opened his eyes to turn towards the sound, smiling tiredly as his princess padded down the stairs and made her way over to him. It appeared that she’d decided to work at her desk in the loft today as opposed to in the well. “It looks like you’ve had a long day,” she said, leaning in to give him a peck on the cheek. She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder, digging her fingers in to massage the tense muscles there. “Why don’t you take it easy tonight, and let me cook dinner for us?”

Oh, that massaging hand felt heavenly. But Link quickly pushed off the door and straightened. “That’s all right,” he said, reaching up to pluck her hand off of his shoulder and hold it in his own hand instead, giving it a little squeeze. Zelda shouldn’t have to look after him just because he’d gone a little overboard playing with the village kids. That wasn’t fair to her. He was still perfectly capable of going about his usual evening routine. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Zelda frowned. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Link reassured her, widening his smile a bit to try to put her at ease.

“Well, if you say so,” Zelda said. Her face changed from a frown to a bit of a sad expression. “But I wish you’d let me take care of you more often, for a change.”

Link suddenly felt uncomfortable. Zelda had said that before, but he never quite knew how to respond. It didn’t feel right for her to want to take care of him. She shouldn’t have to feel that way. Link decided to end the conversation by leaning in for a kiss in lieu of a verbal response. Once his relationship with Zelda had transitioned to a romantic one, he’d been elated to discover the best communication tool he never even knew he needed: the kiss. Didn’t know how to answer a question? Kiss. Didn’t feel like saying anything? Kiss. Couldn’t think of the right words? Kiss. It worked every time, and not only did Link love it, but Zelda loved it too. He could tell. Sure enough, he could feel her lips curve upwards against his own to form a smile before he broke away to make his way over to the cupboard. It was time to start dinner.

Link steered his mind away from thinking about his sore and aching muscles as he cooked their meal and then sat down at the table with Zelda. She’d apparently been doing some reading today, and told him all about the new things she’d learned about the Zonai, her current hyperfixation. Link hung onto every word, looking on fondly as Zelda grew more and more animated. Once they finished dessert, she clapped her hands together. “Right then,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help with your evening chores?”

“I’m sure,” Link said as he collected both of their plates.

“Well, all right.” Zelda regarded him with an unreadable look before standing. “I have a few more chapters to read, so I’ll be upstairs when you’re finished.”

Link nodded in acknowledgement before she turned and made her way back up the stairs.

It was dark by the time Link finished with his evening routine. After he cleaned up the remnants of their dinner, did the dishes, and took stock of the pantry, he made his way outside to feed and care for the horses, which took a little longer than usual due to how sore he was. Finally, he went to the well and pulled up some water to freshen himself up before turning in for the night. After that, he made his way back into the house and once again leaned against the door with his eyes closed for a little while, rallying himself for that final push before bedtime. At least all the lights downstairs had already been put out; Zelda probably just had a single candle lit upstairs. While he was standing there, though, Link realized that on top of it being dark, it also seemed a bit too quiet in the house. Sure, Zelda was quietly reading up in the loft, but he hadn’t heard any subtle movements or even pages turning since he’d come inside…

That thought had barely crossed his mind when Link heard a sound that sent him springing into motion: a tiny, almost inaudible cry of distress. He knew what that meant. The scenario fell into place perfectly in his mind now: Zelda must have nodded off at her desk and was having a nightmare.

Link sprinted up the stairs, exhaustion and soreness completely forgotten, and was at Zelda’s side in seconds, kneeling next to her chair and gently shaking her shoulder to wake her. Her face was buried in the crook of her arm, but when she lifted her head at Link’s prompting, her eyes were panicked and brimming with tears. It took a few moments more for them to focus. “Link?” She asked, voice wavering.

“I’m here,” he replied immediately, one arm moving to encircle her as he reached out with his other hand to push a few wayward strands of hair out of her face. “It’s okay, I’m here.”

Zelda’s shoulders sagged with relief as she realized where she was and who was with her, but the pent-up emotion still needed an outlet. She leaned forward into Link’s waiting embrace as she began to cry, her head coming to rest on his shoulder and face pressed into his neck. Her arms came up to cling onto him for dear life as she sobbed. Link just knelt there and held her, giving her as long as she needed. It broke his heart to see her in pieces like this, but it also warmed it to know he could put her back together. He held her tight, one hand rubbing small, reassuring circles into her back until her cries tapered off and she went quiet, going almost completely limp in his arms. She must be so tired, with all this going on when it was already almost bedtime. Link would make sure she wouldn’t have any more nightmares tonight.

Carefully, Link shifted his grip on his princess and stood up, lifting her up off the chair and fully into his arms, only pausing for a moment as his already-aching arms twinged in protest. He carried her the short distance to the bed and sat her down on the edge, then gave her a cloth from the stack sitting next to the washbasin to blow her nose with. He took another one and wet it, using it to gently wipe the tear stains from her face. After that, Link went to the chest at the end of the bed and picked out a fresh nightgown for her. Zelda allowed him to undress her and then maneuver her into the nightgown without a word as she looked down at her lap numbly. Link then removed her hair clips and undid the little braids she’d done her hair up in today, combing his fingers through her golden locks to make sure there were no tangles. Deeming her now ready for bed, he lastly put one arm across her shoulders and slipped the other behind her knees, sliding her down and under the covers. She offered no resistance, her eyelids already drooping in exhaustion. Link quickly kicked off his boots and undressed himself before slipping into bed next to her. In response, Zelda rolled closer to nestle herself into his side, sleepily placing her head on his chest. Within minutes she was sleeping soundly and peacefully, her breath deep and even. Link smiled fondly, pressing his lips to the top of her head in a soft kiss before drifting off himself.

***

Room of Awakening, five weeks later

If Link had a rupee for every time he’d awoken in a strange place, naked and alone and being addressed by a disembodied voice, he’d have two rupees. Which wasn’t a lot, but it was weird that it happened twice.

This time around, Link was definitely much more worried than he had been the first time. When he’d awoken in the Shrine of Resurrection, his total amnesia prevented him from remembering anything that had happened beforehand. It was like starting with a blank slate. However, this time, Link could recall every detail of the events leading up to now. Well, almost every detail; he’d passed out from the excruciating pain in his arm as he was presumably being pulled to safety. And speaking of his arm…

Link looked down at the appendage, turning his hand over and flexing his fingers. No, not his hand, not his fingers - the hand, the fingers. They weren’t his, as the disembodied voice explained. But that was an existential crisis for another time. Right now, finding Zelda was Link’s priority. If the arm allowed him to be fully functional in order to do that, then he was grateful for it. And, he supposed, to the mysterious voice who claimed he had performed the procedure too. Link dreaded to think what would have happened if that concentrated gloom had been allowed to fester and spread. But it was clearly gone now; he felt no trace of the telltale rattling cough that plagued those who had first come in contact with the malice-like substance.

As he gingerly got to his feet and picked up the mangled remains of the Master Sword (that was also a problem for Future Link), Link took stock of himself. Now that he thought about it, the new arm itself seemed to actually be causing him the least amount of trouble. The rest of his body felt like one giant bruise, and his legs were shaky. In his right shoulder, where the new appendage met his own flesh, he felt very sore, like he’d pulled all the muscles there. He supposed that made sense, since they had to have had the new arm grafted to them somehow. A headache pounded behind his eyes, and as an urgent sense of thirst made itself known, Link figured that was from dehydration. Who knew how long he’d been lying here. And running beneath it all, two distinct feelings that should contradict each other, but were nevertheless coinciding: ravenous hunger paired with churning nausea. That combination certainly didn’t feel great.

Walk it off, Link told himself sternly, willing his legs to propel him forward. Walking it off always worked.

Well, it almost always worked.

Okay, if he was being honest, the best he could say was that it worked more often than not. Continuing to move forward, Link banished that train of thought before he could psych himself out. It had to work. He had to get out of here and find Zelda.

As he searched for an exit, something else came to Link’s attention: he didn’t seem to have much in the way of stamina. In an attempt to shake off the multitude of debilitating symptoms plaguing him, he jogged experimentally down a stretch of the ancient corridor, and it winded him far more quickly than it should have. It was worrying, but Link chalked it up to lying unconscious for an unknown period of time with nothing to eat or drink. Well, the latter part of that equation could be easily remedied; Link quickly came upon a large chamber with a pool of clear water off to the side. It looked safe to drink, so he did. Just to be cautious, he waited for a few minutes after taking a couple of sips. The nausea he’d been feeling since he’d awoken did not abate, but it didn’t get any worse, either. Taking what he could get, Link drank some more before continuing on.

The nagging sense of weakness continued to make itself known as Link made his way towards daylight at the end of the narrow tunnel he was now traveling down. There were portions that forced him to swim, and even crossing those small stretches of water tired him out. At this point, Link was growing a bit frustrated, but he attempted to reassure himself that he just needed to eat something. He still felt very hungry despite the nausea, a confusing combination but one he told himself would rectify itself soon. Once he got outside, he could hopefully forage a bit.

Link was met with a beautiful view as he emerged into the early morning sunlight, but he didn’t have time to savor it. Following the prompting of the strange, disembodied voice, he dove off the platform and made his way to the large, floating island below. Luckily, he was able to find an apple tree not far from the pool he landed in. That was perfect - given the nausea, something light would be the best choice to start off with to eat. As he walked unsteadily towards the huge structure in the distance that the voice had directed him towards, Link took careful bites but was disconcerted to find that his feeling of nausea still stubbornly refused to recede. After only eating about half of the apple, he was forced to stop, lest he felt he might be sick. Well, some food in his body was better than no food. He’d just have to live with it. 

The next several hours were a blur. Link was still feeling so weak and ill that he made the decision to just shove his awareness of his physical ailments as far towards the back of his mind as he could and focus on his mission. He’d done it before. Ignoring his own ailments was his typical Plan B when “walk it off” didn’t work. Numbly, he accepted the Purah Pad from the thing identifying itself as a construct. He snuck around the soldier constructs patrolling nearby, not feeling up to fighting them. Despite his best attempts to ignore what his body was telling him, hunger continued to make itself known beneath the nausea, so he tried to eat some more of the food he foraged along the way. Unfortunately, each time he was forced to stop after only a few bites because he felt too ill to continue. He shut down any internal commentary that threatened to surface concerning this ongoing issue. Keep going, he told himself. Find Zelda.

By the time he reached what he soon learned was the Temple of Time, even Plan B was starting to fail. Halfway up the long staircase, Link grunted as his legs gave out and he was forced to sit down on one of the steps, head coming to rest on his knees as he tried not to throw up. What was wrong with him? He had no visible injuries. His blighted arm had been removed and replaced. He’d tried to refuel his body with food and water. He should be fine! But he still felt like he’d been both run over by a wagon and struck with the flu at the same time. And despite it being mid morning, a time when the day should be heating up, Link was starting to feel a bit cold. With a sigh of frustration, he forced himself back to his feet and stumbled the rest of the way to the top of the stairs.

When Link finally got there, he got his answer. The source of the disembodied voice that had been guiding him, and also the source of his new arm (the new arm, he reminded himself) was Rauru, a Zonai in spirit form who knew way more about Zelda than he should have. He also seemed to know way more about Link than he should have, a fact that Link decided not to question too heavily when it was revealed that his persistent weakness and apparent illness was the result of the attack from that strange mummified being below Hyrule Castle. Removing his arm had saved his life, but the damage extended beyond just the blighted appendage. Now that was information Link could have used earlier. Perhaps the substance he’d been hit with was different somehow than the gloom that others had been infected with? This strange Rauru person’s suggestion to seek out the shrines on the island was a good one, Link surmised. The Sheikah shrines he’d visited on his quest to defeat the Calamity had certainly contained some kind of power beyond his understanding, so it made sense that Zonai shrines might have similar effects. Despite feeling like he might keel over at any moment, Link stubbornly set off towards the closest shrine he could see. He couldn’t waste any time.

Somehow, he made it to the shrine and dragged himself through the puzzle within. If he didn’t feel like death, he might have better appreciated the fact that the new arm had some interesting hidden abilities. But what Link was really after at the moment was a way to make himself well again, and he found it at the altar at the very end.

Actually seeing the tendrils of gloom leave his body was a sobering moment. No wonder he’d felt so awful. Having that poison removed from him immediately made him feel much better, so much so that as soon as he exited the shrine, he sat down and ate all of the apples, mushrooms, and nuts he’d gathered earlier to satiate the hunger he’d been unable to satisfy since he woke up. Practically giddy with relief, he took off towards the next shrine, setting a brisk pace for himself and not allowing himself any distractions. If Zelda was inside that temple, he was going to get to her as soon as he could.

By late afternoon, Link had made the rounds to all three shrines, and felt like he was on top of the world. He was still a bit sore and his full stamina hadn’t returned, but the fact that the nausea was gone and he wasn’t so shaky anymore allowed him to look past that. In addition, the Zonai devices he found along the way were intriguing and useful. He’d definitely have to tinker with them some more once he reunited with Zelda. To his dismay, though, Zelda herself was not in the temple; it was just an apparition. She must be down on the ground already, he told himself. He couldn’t allow himself to think of any other alternative. 

After a quick detour to a fourth shrine and a prayer to the Goddess, Link was feeling better than he had all day. He almost felt like he was back to his normal physical state. His optimism was momentarily dampened by the Master Sword pulling a disappearing act, which was weird, but, well, Link supposed she knew what she was doing and would find her way back to him eventually. He’d long since stopped questioning divine and other mysterious matters. Speaking of mysterious matters, that new dragon he’d seen circling in the sky all day made a final appearance as well, its white scales and golden mane gleaming in the light of the setting sun. As it parted the clouds before him, finally, he heard Zelda’s voice: “Link, you must find me.”

Well then, there was no time to lose. Without a second thought, Link leapt off the platform and dove towards the ground below.

***

A few hours later, Link was trying to keep himself from entertaining the thought that maybe he wasn’t back to his normal self after all.

He’d landed right in the middle of Hyrule Field, and so with no real leads on where to start looking for Zelda, he decided that his best plan of action would be to start heading towards the place they’d become separated: Hyrule Castle. There was a new settlement called Lookout Landing being built just outside the ruins of what used to be Castle Town where Link would likely be able to meet up with some friendly faces, and he estimated that if he moved at a reasonably quick pace, he could reach it by midnight.

The problem was that the “reasonably quick pace” he’d set for himself, normally one that wouldn’t give him any trouble at all, was leaving him feeling like he was dying. The soreness and weakness throughout his body, feelings that had been greatly diminished since he’d begun visiting the shrines on the Great Sky Island, were returning with a vengeance. Even worse, the nausea was coming back too. Link didn’t get it. Shouldn’t the shrines and his offered prayer at the Goddess statue have cured him? He was starting to feel extremely exhausted too, like he wanted to sleep for a week, which he found unacceptable. He’d gotten plenty of sleep while he lay in that room before he’d eventually come to, and the amount of activity he’d engaged in today wasn’t strenuous at all. All he’d done was walk around, for goodness’ sake! He hadn’t engaged with the soldier constructs lingering around, hadn’t spent too much time tinkering with the Zonai devices, and hadn’t even done any hunting, instead just relying on the fruit, nuts, and mushrooms he gathered. They’d provided plenty of hearty sustenance. But despite all this, Link was an hour or two behind his projected schedule, so he’d probably arrive in the early hours of the morning.

If, that is, he could keep moving, with his condition deteriorating by the minute. “Walk it off” was something that clearly hadn’t worked at all today, and “don’t think about physical ailments” wasn’t really in his best interest either, so at this point he supposed it was time to employ Plan C: “just put one foot in front of the other.”

The moon was high in the sky, and Link’s world soon narrowed to simply focusing on plodding forward. Occasionally he’d look up to see how much progress he’d made, using the recently-elevated castle (what was up with that, anyway?) in the distance as a marker. Many times, he nearly gave into exhaustion and entertained the thought of sitting down on a boulder or a fallen log for a brief rest, but always shut down that desire quickly. He needed to keep moving. He couldn’t afford to lose any more time.

Only about half an hour from Lookout Landing, though, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Link was putting so much of his concentration towards just keeping himself moving that he was paying almost no attention to his surroundings. To be fair, he shouldn’t have really needed to keep much of an eye out; nearly six years after the Calamity, monster sightings in Hyrule Field were a thing of the past. But apparently, the area was returning to its roots, because almost out of nowhere, Link was under attack by a pair of red bokoblins.

He should have seen it coming. He really should have. It only made sense that with the emergence of what Rauru called the Demon King, monsters would be back with a vengeance. But it seemed that along with his physical ailments, Link’s brain had also decided to downsize since he’d awoken earlier in that strange place. As it was, due to him not being aware of his surroundings and his body operating at diminished capacity, he managed to roll out of the way with barely half a second to spare before the first bokoblin’s club would have come down right on his head.  

Despite Link’s negligence in anticipating the attack, once the confrontation began, his instincts took over. Two red bokoblins weren’t anything to worry about, even taking into account his exhaustion and other ailments. Feeling confident, he readied his sturdy stick, waited for an opening, and struck at the bokoblin closest to him. 

Then, two things happened in very quick succession that Link hadn’t anticipated at all. First, his weapon connected with the bokoblin’s head… and did nowhere near the amount of damage that it should have. Instead of being sent flying through the air, the monster just gave a single shake of its head. Second, looking simply pissed off as opposed to utterly obliterated, the bokoblin launched a counterattack immediately, swinging its club in a tight arc that landed squarely across Link’s left side. The blow sent him sprawling, the wind knocked out of him.

As he lay on the ground, trying to force air back into his lungs, an extremely frightening realization came over Link: there was no fooling himself anymore. He was not cured. There was most definitely something still very, very wrong with him. He should have defeated that monster with that single blow, yet he hadn’t. He shouldn’t have been incapacitated by a wimpy hit from a little red bokoblin, yet he had. 

He was far weaker than he’d allowed himself to believe. Things were looking very, very bad for him.

In all honesty, Link had no idea how he made it through the rest of the fight. He didn’t make it through unscathed, that was for sure. In addition to the first blow he’d taken, he took several more before the bokoblins were disposed of. The second monster had some kind of crude sword that Link’s sick and damaged body hadn’t been able to dodge away from quickly enough, and he was now bleeding in several places, the cuts interspersed between rapidly bruising patches of skin in the shape of the first bokoblin’s club. Once everything was said and done and the monsters had disappeared into clouds of smoke, Link collapsed to his hands and knees. The nausea that had been growing within him for several hours now finally got the better of him, and he braced himself as his stomach clenched and he vomited the remnants of his latest meal out onto the grass below him. Then, realizing he was about to fully collapse mere seconds before it had the chance to happen, he leaned to one side and rolled to avoid landing in his own sick, ending up on his back and staring up at the stars.

Desperately, Link dragged air in and out of his burning lungs, fighting the urge to close his eyes with everything he had. If he closed his eyes, he told himself, there was no guarantee he’d ever open them again. He was out in the middle of Hyrule Field, weakened, wounded, and alone, and there were monsters about. It was much more likely that an enemy would find him first as opposed to an ally. Somehow, he managed to hang on, his ragged breaths gradually returning to a normal breathing pattern. However, he was freezing, he realized - he was soaked in sweat, his threadbare clothing offered little protection from the elements, and it must have been a cold night. And some way, somehow, he also felt, well… off. Link had been hurt before, many times, but something about this time was different. What little strength he had left was leaving him rapidly, almost as if it were being drawn out of him by an outside force. An unnatural force. With a jolt, Link realized he recognized the sensation: it was the same one he’d felt when the Demon King had launched the attack that had corrupted his arm. Link could hear his heartbeat in his ears as his body tried to resist, tried to keep him conscious and alve-

And then suddenly, he gasped as an odd sensation flared in the arm Rauru had given him, something almost like being zapped by an electric chuchu. Even though Link wasn’t looking directly at the arm, he could see in his periphery that it was now emanating light. The feeling of his life force being drained from him slowed and then stopped, replaced by that electrified feeling emanating from the arm and spreading through the rest of his body. As opposed to being freezing cold, Link now felt that he was burning, heat spreading under his skin rapidly. And then just as suddenly as the arm’s interceding force had started, it stopped, leaving Link gasping in the grass and still feeling overheated.

At this point, Link could barely even think straight, but he knew one thing: he needed help. As much as it pained him to admit, he could no longer manage on his own. He was past the point of self-sufficiency. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself to his feet in a herculean effort and turned his sights towards Hyrule Castle. He had to get to Lookout Landing. It wasn’t far, but in his condition it might as well have been on the other side of the continent. He had no choice, though. Plan C, “just put one foot in front of the other”, was in full effect.

The first signs of sunrise were beginning to lighten the sky as Link stumbled across the drawbridge of the south entrance of Lookout Landing. He must have been a sight for sore eyes, because it took the guards there much longer than it should have to recognize him. “Link?” the shorter one - Drozer? - breathed as he lowered his weapon. “Sweet Hylia,” he swore, looking Link up and down, “what happened to you?”

Link did not stop, and did not respond. He had no will nor energy to do so. His full focus at this point was reaching the Sheikah research lab, where he dearly hoped that he’d find Purah or Robbie or even any of their colleagues. As he stumbled up the stairs, he saw a small figure outside the door tinkering with something despite the early hour. The white pigtails identified the person as Josha, a young new addition to the team. Link could have collapsed with relief (and very nearly actually did); if Josha was here, Purah had to be here too. The girl shrieked as she laid eyes on him, babbling something about “swordsman” before turning and making a racket at the door. By the time Link made it over to her, the door opened to reveal Purah herself, looking disheveled, but with an expression of shock still evident on her face despite the goggles covering her eyes. “Where have you been?” She cried. “Linky, you’re not a ghost, are you?” 

Link opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He just stood there, swaying on the spot. Now that he’d found someone he trusted to help him, it seemed, he didn’t quite know how to proceed. His befuddled brain couldn’t supply him with the next logical step. Purah eyed him, gaze landing on the new arm. “That looks interesting,” she said. “What exactly happened?”

Still, Link couldn’t bring himself to answer, just staring back at Purah wordlessly. A chilly breeze picked up, and he felt himself start to shiver.

Making the realization that Link wasn’t well, Purah’s expression softened. She reopened the door to usher him inside. “Come on,” she said, “let me get a good look at you.” Under the light of the oil lamps inside, his injuries must have been much more evident than they had been in the dark pre-dawn, because Purah gasped. “Snap, Linky!” She exclaimed. 

Before he knew it, Link was being led to a plush red armchair on the other side of the room. He practically fell into it, his legs realizing they’d carried him to the finish line and finally giving out. “Let’s get you patched up,” Purah said as she started digging through some drawers nearby, presumably for medical supplies. “Now, as much as I want to pick your brain, I’m going to restrain myself and wait until you’re actually able to hold a conversation,” she said as she gathered the items she needed. Link was grateful for that. “But I do need to ask you: do you know where Zelda is?”

Now that was an easy question that Link could answer. “N-no,” he rasped, wincing at how weak his voice sounded. “G-got… got s-separated…” he trailed off. He was so cold now that his teeth were chattering. Why was it so cold inside? Shouldn’t it be warmer than it was outside?

The expression on Purah’s face was a sad and worried one as she turned and made her way back over to Link. “And look at you, you poor thing. You’ve run yourself ragged trying to find her, haven’t you?”

Link ducked his head. Purah’s tone didn’t make it sound like she was admonishing him, but he took it that way nonetheless. He didn’t regret it, though. As soon as he was well again, he’d set off to continue his search. 

“Okay, now hold still,” Purah held a wet cloth to a cut along Link’s left arm. “Linky, you’re shaking,” she said. “Are you in pain?”

Honestly, at this point, all Link could really feel was the chill. “C-cold,” he managed. Purah frowned. Before she could say anything, though, Link gasped as that awful sensation he’d felt twice before now, like something was sucking the life out of him, suddenly made itself known once again. He almost instinctively hunched over and wrapped his arms around his torso, trying to protect himself, but there was no use trying to protect against something that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

“Link?” Purah’s voice was laced with alarm now. And she’d dropped the pet name, so she must be really worried. “What’s wrong?” 

Link couldn’t answer. The sound of his heartbeat rose in his ears once again, and on top of the piercing cold he started to feel numb as the meager amount of strength he had left rapidly dwindled. He sunk further forward in the chair, no longer able to keep himself upright. 

“Oh no, hey,” Purah was now directly across from him, supporting the weight of his upper body with a hand on his shoulder. Her other hand came up to cup his face, preventing his head from lolling. “Link? Stay with me here! Look at me!”

Link tried, he really did. But as he tried to force his eyes to focus on Purah’s face, his vision started to go dark. He unfortunately knew what that meant. “‘M gonna pass out,” he mumbled right before he did just that, Purah’s cries of alarm fading away abruptly. Just before he lost all sense of awareness, he could’ve sworn he felt Rauru’s arm jolt with that feeling akin to electricity, just as it had on Hyrule Field, before he fell away into the inky blackness.

Chapter Text

Time didn’t have much meaning to Link with how bad of a condition he was in. He had no way of knowing how much of it had passed by the time he slowly came back to awareness after blacking out practically upon arrival at Lookout Landing. The first thing he noticed was that he hadn’t actually been moved very far; he was still in the same room on the main level of Purah’s lab. Someone must have moved a cot into the space for him. At the moment, though, he didn’t really care where he was, because every single bit of pain, discomfort, and sickness he’d been grappling with the day before abruptly slammed into him, this time multiplied seemingly by a thousand. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest as he rolled to the side and vomited onto the floor; he’d had so little warning that it had been his only option. Hardly anything came up, since his stomach was practically empty to begin with, but he still felt bad that someone would have to clean that up. As it was, he didn’t even have the strength to roll back over, leaving himself in an odd position, half on his side with his head hanging over the edge of the cot as he tried to get his breath back.

“Oh, you poor thing,” a sympathetic female voice reached Link’s ears, followed by a few soft footfalls as whomever the voice belonged to approached. Gentle hands maneuvered him back into a resting position, brushed his hair out of his face, and straightened the pillows he was lying against. “There we are. Link, dear, can you hear me?”

Link blearily focused in on the source of the voice. It was Jerrin, he realized; Robbie’s wife. He gave a tiny nod in response to her question, but he could already feel exhaustion pulling at him again, his eyelids drooping. Jerrin seemed to notice and squeezed his shoulder sympathetically. “How about I get you some water before you drift off again, hmm?” Tiredly, Link gave another little nod, finding that beneath all of the aches and pains and other awful sensations, he was incredibly thirsty. When Jerrin returned a short time later, though, he found that his coordination left something to be desired as his hand - Rauru’s hand - shook uncontrollably when he tried to raise it to take the glass of water. His own left hand wasn’t much better, he could tell. “It’s all right, here,” Jerrin said consolingly, sliding one arm behind his shoulders to stabilize him while bringing the glass to his lips. She only allowed him tiny sips at a time, likely because he’d just been sick. Jerrin was a mother, Link remembered belatedly. No wonder she knew exactly what to do. As soon as the glass was empty, Link’s eyes slid closed again. 

He didn’t quite sleep right away, though; he found himself in a strange drifting state, halfway between sleep and wakefulness. Link had never felt this miserable in his entire life. That is, that he could remember. Though he’d continued to recall bits and pieces of his life before the Calamity in the past several years, it wasn’t even close to filling in all the gaps. Jerrin’s presence made him think of his own mother. Unfortunately, though, one period of his life from which memories were still particularly elusive to him was his childhood. Had his mother cared for him when he was ill just as kindly as Jerrin was now, he wondered? She had to have; all children took ill from time to time. But the fact that he couldn’t remember those times made him incredibly mournful, almost to the point of tears, for reasons he couldn’t understand. Why was his mind meandering like this? He typically didn’t allow his thoughts to travel down these kinds of avenues. Maybe his frustratingly fragile physical state was wearing on him mentally.

When Link did manage to find sleep, it wasn’t restful. Having his family on his mind prompted nightmares of things he’d never wanted to think about. In his dream, he saw his parents and Aryll, the little sister he barely remembered but knew that he’d loved dearly, lying dead in the wake of the Calamity. He’d never known how they’d died, having made the decision to turn back to Fort Hateno with Zelda as soon as he’d laid eyes on the burning field of rubble that used to be Castle Town. No one could have made it out of there alive. His mind, though, now provided him with plenty of possibilities of exactly how his family could have met their demise, playing out each scenario in graphic detail as the nightmare wore on. Had his father been on duty with the guard when it happened? Had he perished in the service of his king in Hyrule Castle? Or had he been at home, trying and ultimately failing to protect his wife and daughter? Had the three of them died quickly and without pain? Or had they faded away slowly, in agony from their wounds? Had they thought of Link in their last moments? Did they wonder where he was?

Did they wonder why he didn’t come to save them?

That last thought was devastating, and one Link had forcibly repressed ever since he regained his scant memories of his family members. Now, in real life, they were likely dead long before he could have gotten to them even if he tried, Link knew. But the thought still nagged at him: what if he could have saved them?

Link’s dream transitioned. Guardians were everywhere, all around him, crawling their way through the rubble and eliminating any living thing in their path. His parents were calling out to him for help through the smoke. Aryll was crying, beyond terrified to be in a position that no child should ever have to be in. In this strange dreamscape, Link found himself physically turning his back on his family and leaving them to die, their screams ringing in his ears. And it broke him.

He’d failed them, just as he’d failed Zelda. He’d failed her outside Fort Hateno, forcing her to endure a hundred years of torture as she held back the Calamity alone. He’d failed her beneath Hyrule Castle, being unable to reach her before she fell into the abyss and disappeared in a flash of light. Now, the latter scene, so recent and raw in Link’s mind, replayed itself over and over again. Each time, he almost caught Zelda, but he was never able to reach her. He was too slow, too weak, too far away. And then, out of the darkness below, came a haunting, maniacal laugh…

This time, instead of waking slowly, Link jerked awake very suddenly with a strangled gasp. He still felt quite unwell, but this time on top of that was the feeling he’d come to dread: that feeling of his very life force being siphoned out of him. Just as with the previous times, the feeling was accompanied by a bitter chill that only seemed to intensify by the second. Despite his best effort not to, he let out a whimper as he squeezed his eyes shut and involuntarily began to shiver intensely.

Jerrin was at his side at an instant, tutting as she laid a hand on his brow. “What’s the matter?” That was Purah’s voice. “Is his temperature going up again?” Jerrin made an assenting noise. “Okay, scooch”, Purah replied, a sense of urgency in her voice. She quickly replaced Jerrin at Link’s side, sitting down at the edge of the bed and placing her own hand on Link’s forehead for a moment. “Hm,” she mused. Then she did something unexpected: she pulled back the blankets to expose Link’s upper body. Link did not appreciate that one bit, and not just because of his dignity (though it did seem that he’d been changed into some kind of soft tunic at some point and therefore was not shirtless). Dimly he wondered why the women were saying his temperature went up; he was absolutely freezing, and taking his blankets away made it even worse. That on top of the feeling of his meager strength leaving him was almost unbearable. But even as Link processed that observation-

“There! There it is!” Purah’s voice had a bit of an undertone of fervor. Before the words were even fully out of her mouth, it happened. Just like it had after the bokoblin attack - and like what had likely happened when Link had passed out during the last episode - Rauru’s arm flared to life with an electric-like jolt and halted the sensation of being drained of life. Link’s perception of temperature pulled an abrupt one-eighty and instead of intensely cold, he now felt swelteringly hot. At that moment he was actually glad that Purah had pulled down the blankets, but it wasn’t enough; he groaned as he feebly attempted to kick them the rest of the way off. Purah’s hand came to rest on his brow again. “Going back down,” she said, at this point talking solely to herself. “Now that’s very interesting.”

Link wasn’t sure how much more he could take at this point; between the pain, discomfort, weakness, seemingly ever-present nausea, and now his rapidly fluctuating temperature, he was flagging quickly. When he felt himself being pulled under again, he didn’t resist. Throughout the past several minutes, he hadn’t even reopened his eyes anyway. Despite the lurking fear of more nightmares, he let himself fade away.

***

The next several days were a blur. What became apparent after some time was that though Link’s condition didn’t really appear to be getting much worse, he wasn’t getting any better either. The strange life-draining attacks continued every few hours like clockwork, stopped each time by whatever strange power resided in Rauru’s arm. Though Link was almost never fully conscious, he also wasn’t getting any good sleep, with the same recurring nightmares of his family and Zelda replaying in his mind over and over again. As for his physical state, the bruises and slashes he’d sustained in the monster attack pained him with every minute shift he made. The nagging soreness that had been consistently plaguing him was ever present, and was now arguably worse after walking clear across Hyrule Field and fighting in a weakened state.

Possibly the most troubling symptom was that Link still couldn’t keep much down besides water, with even thin broth being rejected. At least his caretakers had very wisely placed a basin on the floor next to the cot after the first unfortunate incident. And just like when Link had first awoken, since he’d now had no real sustenance for some time, a gnawing hunger made itself known right alongside the nausea. Just one more undesirable symptom to add to the list. If something didn’t give soon, the situation didn’t look promising.

Purah was always nearby, watching each of Link’s “episodes” closely. She seemed convinced that if she could figure out what exactly they were, she could shift the balance and get him truly on the road to recovery. Later, Link learned that the life-draining feeling was accompanied by intense fever, which then quickly receded when Rauru’s arm combated the effect. That’s why Link felt biting cold followed by heat; it seemed backwards, but it was just a quirk of the body. When the temperature went up, it felt cold, and vice versa. Fever and chills, in essence. In the end, though, it wasn’t Purah who made the discovery that turned the tides. It was Josha. And what she ended up doing was truly unconventional.

She kicked Link out of the lab and threw him outside.

Okay, that made it sound harsher than what actually happened, she giggled as she sat beside the chaise lounge Link had been placed in and watched him take small, careful bites of the porridge she’d brought him. “I noticed that you seemed to rest a little easier in the evening when the sunlight from the upstairs window came across your bed,” she explained. “We didn’t originally think that gloom sickness might be playing a part in what was ailing you because your symptoms didn’t match, but that made me rethink my hypothesis. I convinced Doctor Purah to let me feed you a sundelion elixir I’d been working on, and what do you know? It worked! No more episodes! And now here you are, soaking up the sun and getting even better!” She gestured to the sunrise.

Link nodded politely, but to be honest, he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about being treated like a science experiment. For anyone except for Zelda, that is. That was a different situation altogether. But he did admit that he really owed a lot to the Sheikah scientists here at Lookout Landing, and to Jerrin for helping to care for him. He hated feeling like a burden. He also felt bad that it had taken them this long to get an inkling into what might be wrong with him, because he could have told them that he’d been on the receiving end of an attack involving a gloom-like substance all along. But he’d been so bad off that attempting to hold any kind of conversation over the past several days would have been next to impossible. Which only piled on more guilt, because Link was mostly responsible for getting himself into that state to begin with. He’d deluded himself into thinking he was fine for far too long, with disastrous consequences. Once the first domino fell (and it had fallen way earlier than he’d allowed himself to admit), it was all downhill from there. 

“How’re ya feeling, Linky?” Purah’s voice cut through Link’s self-deprecating train of thought as she approached the pair, her heels clicking on the wooden deck. Not even waiting for a response, she leaned a bit far into Link’s personal space and examined him. “Huh, you’re onto something, Josha. His color’s looking a lot better, and he’s keeping that porridge down. Well done.”

The girl positively preened. “Thank you, Doctor!”

“All right, now that you’ve gotten him lucid, I want to have a talk with him,” Purah declared. She turned back to Link. “You are lucid, aren’t you Linky?”

After blinking a couple of times at the blatant nature of the question (well, it was Purah, after all), Link nodded and licked his lips. “I think so,” he rasped, voice rough from disuse. 

“Good!” Purah sat down in the chair that her assistant had just vacated as Josha herself trotted off back towards the lab. “All right,” she said, tapping her recorder against her hand briskly, “how about now you tell me what exactly happened, hmm?” 

Link had never been much of a conversationalist, much less a storyteller. But his military training had taught him the framework needed for a sufficient debrief, and so he efficiently and succinctly described all that he’d experienced since he and Zelda had departed on what they thought would just be a short investigative mission.

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Purah said after a few clarifying questions, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. “So when you and Princess Zelda go below Hyrule Castle, you discover a mysterious mummy, which suddenly reanimates. Then Zelda falls into a fissure and vanishes. That must have been when the castle rose and the ruins fell. Then later you wake up on a sky island, saved by the arm that was stuck to the mummy. You get the Purah Pad from an unusual creature, and learn that your new arm belonged to someone named Rauru.” Link shifted uncomfortably a bit at that choice of words - it wasn’t his arm. It still didn’t feel right to call it that. But he decided to let it slide as Purah continued. “The Master Sword disappears. You hear the princess’s voice… and find your way here.” Purah frowned. “Wait, where in there did you get blasted by something that looked like gloom or malice?”

“Uh…” Link thought for a moment so he could pinpoint the correct event in Purah’s even more simplified retelling. “Right before Zelda fell.”

“Right, right, okay. Hmm.” Purah reached out and fingered some of the gold jewelry-like ornamentation on Rauru’s arm. Link jumped a bit with the forwardness. It didn’t appear that Purah noticed. “I knew this was a whole new arm, and not just a cosmetic upgrade on your original one. The fingerprints didn’t match.”

“What - you know what my fingerprints look like?” Link was flabbergasted. He knew scientists tended to have proclivities beyond his understanding (Zelda was testament to that, he thought fondly, and then immediately made himself sad again when he remembered she was still missing), but this was beyond odd.

“Well of course I do, I have them on record!” Purah looked genuinely confused as to why he was even questioning this.

Now Link was feeling strangely scandalized. “Why do you have my fingerprints on record?” 

Purah just blinked at him from behind her glasses. “Why wouldn’t I?” She asked. Her voice had now taken on a subtle tone that one might use when exercising patience with a small child.

Link decided to drop the topic. “Right, of course,” he muttered.

“Well, I guess that leaves us with three mysteries, then,” Purah continued, already moving on. “One, where is Zelda? Two, who exactly is Rauru? Three, who - or what - is the mummy, and what did he do to you?” She frowned. “Wait, that was four mysteries. Well, not really, more like three point five. Yeah, we’ll go with that. But anyway! I think we might be able to kill two birds with one stone with my next suggestion. Wait, one point five birds.” She frowned again. “I might have to rework our list of mysteries.”

This conversation was exhausting Link. Just because he was feeling a lot better than he had a few hours beforehand, that didn’t mean he was fully recovered (he’d already made the mistake of giving into that false hope once before), and prolonged social interaction tended to tire him out even on a normal day. Well, prolonged social interaction with anyone besides Zelda and maybe a few choice others, like Sidon or Teba or Riju.  

“You said you felt a lot better after visiting those Zonai shrines and receiving those - what were they called? Lights of blessing?” Purah asked.

His conversational reserves tapped nearly dry, Link just nodded.

Purah pointed off towards the castle, jutting up out of the landscape past the deck railing. “See that bluish-green swirl out there? Is that one of them?”

Link followed the line of sight she was pointing out, and sure enough, there it was. For the first time since this all started, he smiled. Even the thought of the cleansing feeling he’d gotten when visiting those shrines on the Great Sky Island was enough to give him hope. If there was one Zonai shrine here on the ground, there were bound to be more.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Purah said, noticing his change in facial expression. “Once you’ve stabilized a bit more, why don’t you stop by that on the way to the castle? Or, well, the part that’s still on the ground. There’s a search party up there that’s been looking tirelessly for you and Zelda. The captain in charge of the search is named Hoz. Maybe you can work with him to find the princess as quickly as you can. Sound like a plan?”

Link nodded with fervor. He’d have begun looking for Zelda again as soon as he got back on his feet anyway, and now he’d gotten what he originally decided to come to Lookout Landing for in the first place: a lead. Quickly, he finished the last few bites of porridge in the bowl he was holding, which he’d almost completely forgotten about since Purah had come to speak with him.

“Oh, but Linky,” Purah said, a serious edge developing in her voice, “don’t push yourself too hard. I’m going to keep looking into this whole business with the mummy and its chemical warfare, but seriously, it’s my professional opinion that you got this sick and hurt because you went way beyond your limits, and your limits aren’t where you’re used to them being. Am I right, or am I right?”

Link looked down, chagrined. “You’re right,” he admitted. 

“I’m always right. Now, if you manage to keep that down” - she gestured to the now-empty bowl of porridge - “as well as everything else we give you today, take it easy and soak up plenty of sun, get a good night’s sleep, and then show me you can walk a whole lap around this landing without falling on your face tomorrow, I’ll let you go.”

It felt humiliating to be given rules like that, as if he couldn’t take care of himself… but, well, he’d already soundly proven, to his own immense embarrassment, that he couldn’t. In spite of himself, though, Link found himself smirking. “Yes, Mom,” he said. He wasn’t sure where exactly that had come from. It just seemed like a natural response to give to Purah. 

“Ha!” Purah smiled brightly and gave him a playful little whack with her recorder - strategically placed, of course, to avoid aggravating any of his wounds. “There’s the Linky I know! We’ll figure all this out!”

It wasn’t until later that Link started to wonder if “the Linky I know” was really the Link that Purah had known before the Calamity. Before he’d lost his memory and become someone entirely different.

Chapter Text

To Link’s immense relief, he checked off the boxes to all of Purah’s conditions for allowing him to leave the next day. As soon as he could, he began his trek up to Hyrule Castle. Though he felt much better today than he had during those days he lay incapacitated in the Sheikah lab, he was still fairly sore from pushing himself way too far on his journey to Lookout Landing, and he suspected that his strength and stamina were still greatly reduced as well. Warily, he kept a close eye out for monsters on his walk, but there were none to be seen. Around noon, Link found himself at the entrance to the shrine that Purah had pointed out the day before, and once he completed the puzzle inside he was rewarded with the Light of Blessing he sought after. For the first time in days, he felt a complete and total relief from all of the symptoms that had plagued him. This time, though, he held himself back from giving into this false feeling of invincibility. Just because he felt better didn’t mean he was cured, he begrudgingly reminded himself. Maybe he could find a bokoblin or two to test out his current limits. But that would have to wait until after he met up with Hoz.

Seeing the state of Hyrule Castle up close was a sobering moment. It was almost unbelievable, taking in the huge gaping maw of the crater dripping with gloom and malice. Link couldn’t really fathom how a search and rescue party could make any real headway when faced with that imposing hole in the ground, and once he met up with Hoz, the man confirmed that they were essentially dead in the water. He was definitely relieved to see Link, though, and despite Link’s quick explanation that he’d heard Zelda calling out to him but she was still missing, Hoz’s face began to take on an expression that he knew all too well. It was an expression he saw often, the hopeful one that said, “Link is here, we’re saved!” When that expression came out, it typically made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like when a villager was at their wit’s end with a task and they knew Link would help them out. Or when a community was under siege from a band of monsters, and knew that Link wouldn’t rest until he’d slain every last one of them. But this time… Link didn’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling. Instead, he felt his heart sink a little. The fact that everyone saw him as the Hero of Hyrule, their savior, now placed him under insurmountable pressure. How could he even begin to live up to everyone’s expectations, reduced to the state he was in now?

Before Link’s train of thought could spiral further down that path, though, something happened that he never saw coming: Zelda herself appeared some distance away on the edge of the crater, regarding the gathered group with an unreadable look before ascending upwards and disappearing into a ball of light.

Almost instantaneously, that cocktail of unsavory sensations that Link had become accustomed to over the past several days flared right up again: weakness, achiness, nausea, and a chill. It wasn’t as bad as it had been after the bokoblin attack, but it was definitely there; the severity was more comparable to what Link had felt during those first few hours on the Great Sky Island. He tried to surreptitiously hide his condition from Hoz, hunching in on himself as little as possible and willing himself not to shiver too obviously. Luckily, though, Hoz wasn’t looking his way at all. “Link, you saw that, right?” Hoz asked.

All Link could do was nod in dumbfoundment, still staring at the spot where Zelda had been before she disappeared as he grappled with both his suddenly deteriorated physical state and his surging emotions. Zelda was there! She was right there. But something about her seemed… wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on it. In light of that realization, though, Link couldn’t help but wonder if the apparition had something to do with him backsliding into his gloom-borne illness. He’d just visited a Zonai shrine - surely its effects hadn’t worn off that quickly?

“I’ll report back to Lookout Landing”, Link said tightly, cutting across Hoz’s rambling about the princess being safe and reassigning his troops. And with that, he turned and made his way back down to the ground as quickly as possible before he embarrassed himself by collapsing or throwing up (or both) in front of half a dozen soldiers. Hoz just called after him with a bright, “okay!” And in that moment, Link was a little glad he had a reputation for being a bit eccentric and a man of few words, or else it wouldn’t have been so easy to escape as quickly as he did. And it wasn’t a moment too soon, as he felt his knees threaten to buckle as he reached the bottom of the ladder.

Sundelions, he needed sundelions. And some sunshine. That’s what Josha said helped him. As soon as Link exited the guardhouse, he skirted around to the sunlight-bathed southern side and collapsed heavily against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting on the ground with his back to the stone bricks. He leaned his head back and breathed deeply, willing himself to hold onto his breakfast. After several minutes, despite the nausea still being very much present, he felt that he was out of immediate danger of retching and pulled out the Purah Pad, summoning one of the little simmered fruit snacks he’d added some sundelions to this morning. He forced himself to take tiny bite after tiny bite, and just as he’d hoped, his symptoms began to recede. By the time he swallowed down the last bit of fruit, he thankfully felt much the way he had before Zelda had appeared. But was it really Zelda? That nagging voice in the back of his head asked.

After about half an hour of basking in the sun, just in case, Link set off back down to Lookout Landing and was none the worse for wear after the trek. It was as if he’d never had that little episode at all, which was very curious indeed. Maybe the appearance of Zelda - not Zelda? - didn’t have anything to do with it after all? Perhaps it was just a fluke? There were a lot of unknowns when it came to his condition, after all.

As soon as Link walked through the gate, Purah practically pounced on him. “Are you all right, Linky?” She asked, simultaneously trying to look him over and marching him back to the promenade outside the lab. “Did the shrine do what we thought it would do? Do you feel better?”

“Yes,” Link replied simply, “to everything.” He didn’t mention the brief spell he’d experienced up at the castle.

“Well, what a relief! How about you tell me what else you found on your little day trip, hmm?”

Once again, Link used his debrief skills to give a succinct account of what had happened. In addition to his momentary relapse, he also didn’t mention his tiny inkling that maybe it really wasn’t Zelda that he’d seen. He had no real evidence to support it, after all.

“I gotta say. Your stories are always so wild,” Purah mused once he was done. “But if you’re telling me that’s what you saw, I’ve got to believe it.” Link wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Luckily, though, with Purah being Purah, she didn’t really give him much more of an opportunity to do so anyway. “Sounds like we need to change our approach,” she continued. “Since the princess flew off, maybe we should redirect our efforts and dig into the Upheaval. It’s only been a little more than a week, but there are already rumors starting to get around saying that Zelda’s been spotted in various locations all over Hyrule. I didn’t really think much of those accounts until I heard what you saw up at the castle. I’ve already got a few regions in mind to start; places where rumors are swirling also have some pretty strange phenomena going on. And I know you, Linky - you decided you’re going to go check everything out even though I haven’t even finished talking, haven’t you?”

Link nodded in response. Despite the hiccup he’d experienced with his health earlier and the uneasy feeling he had about his Zelda sighting, today had turned out better than he could have hoped for. He was about to have a multitude of leads on his hands to scour, and hopefully get closer and closer to figuring out what was going on with his princess.

Purah smiled. “Knew it. Here, gimme your Purah Pad.” She held out her hand. Wordlessly, Link complied.

“Map, map, map… aha.” Purah frowned as her fingers danced across the screen. “Oh, right. I forgot that before we can look at your map of Hyrule, we need to add map data. And for that, we need our Skyview Towers.” She turned towards the tall, thin structure that looked to have been recently erected in the northwest corner of the landing.

After what he’d had to go through to fill in the map on the Sheikah Slate, Link could see where this was going. 

“Are you absolutely sure you’re feeling better, Linky?” Purah asked.

“Yes,” Link said cautiously, although it wasn’t a lie. He did feel pretty good at the moment. But if Purah wanted him to climb all the way up the tower the way he’d done with the Sheikah towers several years previously… he wasn’t sure if he was up to that particular task, much to his own frustration. He should be able to scamper all the way up that thing, no problem. But now that he didn’t really have any idea where his limits were beyond the fact that he would reach them much more quickly than he was accustomed to, who knew what would happen. But as Purah led him to this so-called Skyview Tower, it soon became apparent that climbing was not going to be required. After a brief (and lacking) explanation of his objective, the scientist shoved a paraglider into his hands, rushed through showing him how to use the Purah Pad to activate the travel terminal, and then all but pushed him onto the center of the platform. Guardian limbs immediately emerged from the floor, and Link froze in shock as the things attached a device to his body and plugged some kind of cord into the Pad. And then before he knew it, Link was being launched skyward.

It was a bit jarring at first, but as often happened when he was in the air, Link soon felt exhilarated. And from this height, he could see even more Zonai shrines dotting the landscape. His heart leapt - as he searched for Zelda, he would have the means to continue to heal his mysterious affliction. Filled with hope, he made his way back to the ground and was greeted by both a grinning Purah and an ecstatic-looking Josha. Now that the first piece of the map was filled in, Purah used it as a reference point for marking the locations she’d identified that were experiencing strange phenomena and reported Zelda sightings. “I might recommend checking out Rito Village first,” she suggested. “But Linky?”

Link looked up to meet Purah’s eyes, waiting for her to continue.

“Before I turn you loose, I need you to make me a promise.” 

Once again, Link waited for Purah to continue, knowing that with the speed at which her mind moved, it was best to just let her continue uninterrupted. But this time she paused longer than she normally did, fiddling a bit with her recorder. It seemed as if she was searching for the right words, something that she rarely had to do. Finally, she spoke again: “I know this might be a tall order, seeing as you’re… well, you. But I need you to promise me that you’ll pace yourself. Your condition has improved quite a bit, but I can tell you’re still not back to your full strength. If things go south and you get sick again, or of course if you get hurt, please don’t hesitate to come back here so we can help you, okay?” Purah looked very serious, and Josha nodded along emphatically.

Link squirmed under both of their gazes. He felt uncomfortable now, not to mention guilty that Purah was still worried about him. She wouldn’t have had to be put in this situation in the first place if he hadn’t made an absolute disgrace of himself. “I promise,” he said, and he meant it. He’d pace himself, not only because the state of injury and illness he’d been in was an utterly miserable experience for him, but because he was determined not to have to make himself a burden to Purah and the rest of the team here again. He wouldn’t need to abuse their hospitality any further. 

“Good,” Purah said, her expression softening and a smile returning to his face. “Now, keep me updated on what you find, okay Linky? And like I said… be kind to yourself.”

***

As Purah suggested, Link set off in the direction of Rito Village. Along the way, he found a couple of small monster encampments that gave him the opportunity not only to replenish his stock of weapons, but also to test and determine his limits. Disconcertingly, those limits were still reached much more quickly than they should have been, but when he forced himself to look past the frustration Link started to draw a curious connection between his activities and the symptoms of his illness as the days went by and as he journeyed further west. It seemed that becoming exhausted or injured, even in a minor capacity, triggered those undesirable symptoms of weakness, chill, and nausea. The exhaustion was easy to remedy, since Link could just make camp and get some rest. As for injuries, Link ensured that he never became grievously wounded, of course - he knew he needed to be careful now more than ever - but a few bruises and cuts from glancing, non-lethal blows were inevitable. And as he began to accumulate injuries, that feeling of being unwell grew and grew, as if the illness had a mind of its own and was trying to take advantage of any dent in his body's armor. Luckily, Link was able to find a few more sundelions to mix into his snacks to stave the illness off, and he even came across another Zonai shrine at which to cleanse himself by the time he got to the first stable along his chosen route.       

When Link set out from the stable the next morning, he spotted a familiar diminutive figure some distance off the road. He’d never expected to see Impa all the way out here, and helping her investigate this phenomenon she called “geoglyphs” gave him the biggest clue he’d found so far on Zelda’s true whereabouts: a fully-immersive vision that seemed to indicate that when she’d disappeared in a flash of light beneath Hyrule Castle, she’d somehow flung herself into the past… and met Rauru there. So that’s how the Zonai spirit knew so much about her.

And that was when Link’s planned journey took a very sharp turn off the intended path.

Instead of going to Rito Village, Link found himself a suitable horse and rode for the northern point of Tanagar Canyon to meet up with Impa again at an old, ruined temple. Together, they uncovered a map that displayed the approximate location of all of the geoglyphs in Hyrule. Link excitedly snapped a picture of the map with the Purah Pad and then immediately set out on a journey to visit each and every one of those geoglyphs, itching to see if they would grant him visions as well.

To his great delight, they did. The next geoglyph Link visited was reached by traveling straight down the canyon and then making his way up to the plains at Tabantha Bridge, and it showed him a delightful scene of Zelda having tea with Rauru and his wife, Sonia. The way Zelda gushed about Link to her new companions warmed the hero’s heart, and he spent nearly an hour after waking from the vision just lying on the ground and smiling up at the sky. He felt more at ease than he had in days. All of the complicated feelings he harbored towards his current situation seemed to disappear. Sure, he still missed Zelda terribly as well, but he was encouraged by what he’d seen. He knew Zelda had to have made her way back to this time somehow, otherwise she wouldn’t have called out to him and implored him to find her. Hungry for more visions, he checked the picture of the map in the temple and determined that the next closest geoglyph was somewhere in the Gerudo Highlands. Link set off happily, now avoiding monsters on principle and moving with more stealth. Damn playing around with testing his limits in battle. Right now he just wanted - needed - to find more geoglyphs. These were tangible clues, much more concrete than mere rumors of sightings in far-flung corners of Hyrule.

After several days of combing the Highlands, Link finally found the geoglyph on the southern face of the cliffs facing the desert, and wasted no time locating the peculiar little pool that he knew housed the vision he was seeking. And this vision, well… the scene that played out in this vision put a significant damper on the practically ecstatic mood he’d been in after the last one. 

Ganondorf. That Gerudo man was called Ganondorf. As Zelda herself said in the vision, the name itself was enough to cause concern. It seemed that all might not have been well in the time that Zelda had traveled to. Link was suddenly struck with the terrifying suspicion that perhaps Zelda had been directly involved in whatever series of events led to Rauru’s arm pinning down an evil Demon King mummy below Hyrule Castle for thousands of years.

An evil Demon King mummy that knew who Zelda was, and by extension, Link. And had bold red Gerudo hair.

Link was now seized by panic. He had to get to the next geoglyph. He had to know what else had transpired, and if his burgeoning suspicions might be true. Frantically, he opened the Purah Pad to pull up the image of the geoglyph map…

…And was abruptly jolted as some kind of attack hit him square in the back, sending the Pad flying out of his hands. Immediately, he rolled and twisted to face the attacker and found himself squaring up with a blue lizalfos. It must have spit at him, Link realized. Quickly, he readied the amber sword he had strapped to his back and attacked in turn. He succeeded in landing a hit, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge out of the way of the lizalfos' scimitar-like horn. The Upheaval seemed to have had some kind of effect on monsters, he'd noticed recently, giving them strange new mutations, and this blue lizalfos sported a horn that was much longer - and sharper - than Link had ever seen. He felt the tip of the horn slice straight through the front of his tunic and into his skin, creating a wound that spanned nearly across his entire chest. Link barely felt it, though, as entrenched as he was in the familiar motions of battle. He adjusted his approach to the duel by dodging back further than he normally would, and though the fight took a bit longer than it would have with a much weaker green lizalfos, he quickly dispatched the monster and watched it disappear into a cloud of smoke. 

Adrenaline now waning, Link retrieved the Purah Pad and then took stock of himself. The slash across his chest stung terribly, but it didn't seem to be bleeding much. That had to be a good sign, right? Despite the cold, he removed his ruined tunic and then splashed some water over the wound to wash it out, then hastily changed into a spare tunic he had stored in the Purah Pad. That took care of that, but now Link was rapidly becoming aware of something that was all too familiar in these post-combat situations: that unsavory mix of the symptoms of his gloom-borne illness. Groaning, Link flipped through the Purah Pad's menus to extract a sundelion-infused snack… and discovered to his horror that he was out of them. A quick check of his raw ingredients confirmed that he was out of sundelions, period. He was also out of hearty elixirs. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Link berated himself. He'd been so focused on these geoglyphs that he hadn't been keeping track of his supplies. 

As it was, Link was already standing out in the sunlight, which typically helped a little. But he was well-acquainted enough with his illness by now to sense that that wouldn't be enough. Perhaps there was a Zonai shrine nearby, then? Turning slowly, Link surveyed his surroundings, and to his relief, he saw a blue-green swirl out in the distance. It appeared to be at the Kara Kara Bazaar, which wasn't terribly far from his current location. That sand shroud that appeared to be covering the vast majority of the Gerudo Desert at the moment wouldn’t be easily navigable from the ground, but since he was already at a pretty high elevation, he estimated that he could drift there using his paraglider.

Link, however, was wrong.

The distance to the Kara Kara Bazaar was further than it had looked from up in the Gerudo Highlands, and though he did have a handful of energizing elixirs that should have helped him glide for longer, with his achiness and nausea only continuing to intensify as the minutes passed, even the thought of trying to choke down one of the potions made him gag. Lest he run out of energy, Link was forced to drop back down to the ground short of his intended destination, straight into the sand shroud. 

Well, this was just great. At this time, Link was still mostly functional in the sense that he could walk and probably defend himself if need be, but he needed to find a way to bring a halt to his symptoms before they became too debilitating. Maybe he could use the Purah Pad to travel back to Lookout Landing? He hated to have to go bother everyone there again, but it seemed like his best option. However, as he thumbed through the menus to the map, his heart sank. The sand shroud seemed to be obstructing the Pad's travel function, leaving nothing on the screen but fuzzy static. Dejectedly, Link clipped the Pad back to his belt and then ran both hands down his face in exasperation. Literally everything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong. There was nothing for it now but to trek for the Bazaar, which should be directly in front of him. All he had to do was walk in a straight line. Easy peasy.

Link was wrong once again. The desert was rugged, forcing him to take several detours and then estimate the correct direction in which to continue. But fortunately, he didn't actually realize how off-course he was until he emerged an hour later - much worse for wear and wanting nothing more than to remedy his illness and have a good, long sleep - at a location that was quite obviously not the Kara Kara Bazaar. It looked like a set of ruins, likely the North Gerudo Ruins, which while not too far from the Bazaar, were in the complete opposite direction from where Link had landed. But before he could beat himself up over yet another failure of the day, he almost literally ran into someone he knew very well.

"Oh," the figure turned to face him. "It's you!"

"Riju," Link breathed, leaning against one of the ruined columns as subtly as he could, hoping his deteriorating state wasn't obvious. 

"I didn't expect to see you here. But then, you always show up in unusual times," the Gerudo chief said with a surprised yet relieved look on her face. 

"Well, ah," Link gave a wan smile. "You know me. That's kind of my thing."

"Indeed," Riju said. "Your friend Purah wrote and said to keep an eye out for you. I'm glad you were able to come so quickly." And there it was again: the "Link is here, we're saved" expression. In addition to his physical maladies, Link now also felt the crushing weight of more expectations. Here was yet another person placing their utmost faith in him, and he doubted he could deliver in his current state.

With that in mind, Link decided not to correct Riju by saying why he was really in Gerudo. "Purah wrote you?" He asked instead, shifting to lean more of his weight against the pillar. His legs were starting to feel shaky.

"Oh, yes! Well, it was really a reply to a message I originally sent to Lookout Landing, back at the beginning of what everyone's now calling The Upheaval. In addition to this unrelenting sand shroud and the strange monsters," she gestured vaguely at their surroundings, "I've been receiving reports from all over the region of my warriors spotting Zelda, of all people. But she never comes close to anyone, or really even acknowledges their presence at all. I thought something might be wrong. Imagine how shocked I was when I learned that Zelda was actually missing!"

Well now, that was very interesting. Link knew that there were rumors of Zelda sightings all over Hyrule, and now he saw why Purah thought that Gerudo might be one of the regions he should check out. There were the geoglyphs, and now verified sightings of Zelda - he was inclined to trust Riju much more than dubious rumors. This web of clues was growing more tangled by the minute. "Can we, um," Link gingerly wrapped his arms around himself in another gesture he hoped was subtle. He was starting to feel chilly on top of everything else, which was not a good sign. "Can we maybe… head for shelter and you can fill me in more?" And I can fix myself up, he desperately hoped. 

Riju nodded. "Yes, let's! I have my sand seal, Patricia, here, why don't you join me and we can sled to-"

"Chief!" Riju was interrupted by another voice, and both she and Link turned to see a Gerudo warrior sprinting towards them. She swiftly knelt before Riju and delivered a report: "We've received word that a swarm of gibdos are attacking Kara Kara Bazaar! Buliara is already on her way there!"

Riju's eyes grew wide. "She's already… okay, understood." She turned away from the messenger and addressed Link again. "Link, we need to head to the Kara Kara Bazaar at once!"

***

Luckily, traveling to the Bazaar didn't take much time when aided by the speed of a sand seal. And unlike Link, Riju seemed to know exactly where she was going through the sand shroud. On the short trip, she quickly filled Link in on the gibdos. "They're the strange monsters I mentioned earlier," she said. "Physical attacks don't seem to work well on them. They are slow, but when they appear in large numbers, they're difficult to combat. I have a new lightning technique, though, that I'm hoping you can help me out with! I'd hoped to practice with you first, but, well, it appears we'll have to test in the field."

Link didn't reply. The bumping of the sand sled was accentuating his every ache and pain, the wind rushing past him was making him feel even colder, and on top of that his nausea was only being heightened now by motion sickness. As soon as they arrived at the Bazaar and Riju pulled Patricia to a stop, Link stumbled off the sled and looked around desperately, quickly spotting the shrine he'd originally been seeking. If he could just get to it-

"Those gibdos don't stand a chance!" Riju cried, drawing her twin scimitars and facing the opposite direction. She looked over her shoulder. "With me, Link! Don't let me down!"

Oh, right. Attack. Kara Kara Bazaar was under attack. Link's mind was growing fuzzy now too. He'd been using Plan C without even realizing it. He couldn't just leave Riju to fight alone, though. As quickly as he was able, he followed after her, legs feeling like lead as he dragged them through the sand.

"There!" Riju pointed towards some makeshift barricades. "See there? Those are the gibdos." They certainly did look grotesque, and unlike anything Link had ever seen before. "I want you to shoot one of them, and I'm going to focus my lightning on your arrow. Ready?"

Thank Hylia, the technique Riju wanted to use involved ranged combat. A melee battle would have been a nightmare in Link's current condition. Numbly, he readied his bow and shot the nearest gibdo. What followed was a bolt of lightning that made him jump, startling him enough to give him a spike of adrenaline. "Yes!" Riju cried as the gibdo crumbled into chalky white dust, "It worked!"

Riding the brief dose of adrenaline, Link continued to shoot wherever Riju pointed and watched as gibdo after gibdo fell. Then Riju shifted their attack to a mushroom-like structure that seemed to be spawning the gibdos. Once that was destroyed, it was just down to cleaning up the stragglers. The whole affair was over and done in just a few minutes, much to Link's relief. Kara Kara Bazaar was now safe, and he could go to the shrine. Doggedly, he turned in that direction, at this point uncaring that he was rudely leaving Riju with no explanation. But he felt that if he didn't get to that shrine now, he might not be able to get there at all. At least, not under his own power.

Link only made it a few steps when seemingly out of nowhere, all of the unsavory sensations he was dealing with intensified exponentially. It was all he could do to stay on his feet as his limbs shook, pain radiated through his entire body from the wound on his chest, he started to shiver in earnest, and he swallowed hard against the nausea churning in his gut. "Is that Zelda?" He heard Riju shout, and struggled to focus on the figure in the distance that the Gerudo chief was pointing out. 

It was Zelda! At least, it looked like Zelda. Link was struck once again by that feeling of wrongness, like there was something off about what he was seeing. Despite his hazy mind struggling to keep up with what was happening, he did have the wherewithal to connect the off-putting sighting of Zelda with his intensifying symptoms, just like at Hyrule Castle. Then, the ground suddenly began to shake, and that was the final straw. Despite his best efforts not to, Link fell to the ground, just barely catching himself on his hands. He could no longer hold back the nausea he'd been valiantly suppressing for over an hour now, either, and he shuddered as he threw up onto the sand below him. 

"Link!" Riju had apparently noticed his plight (how could she not, she was only a few steps away) and was at his side at an instant. Her face was wrought with worry, as was Buliara’s as she hovered just behind. "He doesn't look good, Chief," she noted, concern in her voice. 

Then, the one feeling Link had come to truly fear reared its ugly head: the feeling of being drained, like his life force was being pulled out of him. "No," he whispered as the last dregs of his strength began to leave him. Riju hastily caught him as he sagged and maneuvered him into a lying position. "N-no…" weakly, he reached towards the shrine. "I-I need… I n-need…" his teeth were chattering too forcefully for him to speak properly. 

"It's all right," Riju tried to comfort him. "Are you hurt? Where-"

"Chief, he's bleeding," Buliara had come to kneel at his other side and tore off his tunic in a single motion. The fabric came away sodden - all of the physical activity since the lizalfos attack must have aggravated the wound across his chest. But that was the least of Link's concerns at the moment. Just as that awful feeling of being drained - of dying - was about to drive him to the point of unconsciousness, Rauru's arm activated with that electrifying sensation, and he couldn't help but scream. It was all too much.

Both Riju and Buliara were speaking rapidly, but Link couldn't even figure out if they were talking to him or talking among themselves. Once the power in Rauru's arm faded away for the time being, Link put every ounce of energy he had into staying awake. Everything was a blur, but the one thought he held onto was that he would not, could not burden Riju and the Gerudo with taking care of his sorry self the way Purah and the folks at Lookout Landing had had to. Now that his temperature was presumably going back down again, he felt hot and at least his teeth were no longer chattering. "Shrine," he croaked, reaching out weakly towards the blue-green swirl. "Shrine… I need…" he trailed off as his voice broke.

Riju looked over at the structure and then back at Link. "Link, please, you can't even stand right now. You need to rest, whatever's in that shrine can wait."

"No!" Link tried to come up with a cohesive explanation, but he was at a distinct disadvantage. "I need… 's the only, the only way…"

"Chief," Buliara said slowly, "whatever his arm just did, it was the same color as that light." She nodded to the shrine. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but just the one wound he has shouldn't be enough to put him in this bad of a state. If he says he needs that thing - shrine? - I think we should listen to him." Unable to do anything else, Link simply nodded emphatically.

Riju bit her lip, worry clouding her features. "All right," she said, "but first we're going to dress that wound and make sure he can get on his feet." Link started to feel a bit helpless. Now the two Gerudo were talking about him right in front of him, making decisions for him because he was long past being able to control the situation on his own. He bit back the panic rising in him by reassuring himself that despite this, they seemed to have reached the correct conclusion. He needed to get in that shrine and cleanse himself with the Light of Blessing within.

In short order, Buliara applied some kind of ointment to Link's wound and wrapped a bandage around his chest. Riju helped him sit up and take a few sips of water. Between the healing and the hydration, Link felt that he had just enough strength in him to get to the shrine and hopefully complete the puzzle within. When Buliara pulled him to his feet, he wobbled dangerously for a moment but managed to stay upright. Keeping a hand on his back to help propel him forward and potentially catch him in case he fell again, the retainer walked with him across the short distance to the entrance of the shrine, Riju trailing behind. Both women gasped as Link raised Rauru's arm to activate the terminal, but didn't say anything.

Luckily, the puzzle that the shrine offered wasn't terribly difficult, and just required Link to get on a sled and then use the recall ability to make it take him where he needed to go. After repeating the exercise a few times, he arrived at the altar and finally got what he needed. He sighed deeply in relief as the Light of Blessing absorbed into his body and washed away all of his feelings of pain and illness.

By the time Link stumbled out of the shrine, it was dark. He hadn't realized how late it was. Despite having been cleansed, he still felt deeply and numbingly exhausted, and he sank to his knees in the fine gravel that made up the shrine entrance and allowed himself to close his eyes. He would just sleep right here. The Kara Kara Bazaar was guarded and safe.

A few seconds later, though, he felt a soft blanket being laid across his shoulders, warding off the desert's nighttime chill, and then there were hands on him, checking him over. "He seems better, just tired." Ah. Buliara. Then almost before he even knew what was happening, Link was being lifted into the air. "Would you like him with you, Chief?"

"Yes, put him on my sled," came Riju's voice. "Let's get back to Gerudo Town."

Link couldn't even bring himself to stir or open his eyes as he was carried a short distance and then laid down, settled in what was presumably a sand sled, in the area in front of the driver where cargo was often stored. The last thing he heard before he succumbed to his exhaustion was Riju snapping the reins and calling for Patricia to pull them forward.

Chapter Text

Link came to slowly and in stages, struggling to swim upwards through a thick fog. Despite his reluctance to sink back into upsetting and fragmented dreams - more of the same scenarios playing on repeat, of his family and Zelda in peril - he allowed himself to doze off again a few times, giving into his body's demands, before he finally gathered the will to claw his way to true wakefulness. Unsure of his surroundings, he didn't yet open his eyes. Experimentally, he shifted a tiny bit to take stock of himself. He was lying in a bed with a plush pillow under his head and a light blanket laid over him. As for his physical state, he felt… pretty good, he realized a bit to his own surprise. It appeared that rest coupled with the Light of Blessing he’d recently obtained had been exactly what he needed.

The next thing Link became aware of was the sound of hushed female voices nearby, but he couldn't understand what was being said. Gerudo, his brain supplied. He didn't speak the language himself, but he'd had enough exposure to be able to recognize it. Thinking back to the events that had led to now, coupled with the context clues he could gather from his surroundings, he deduced that he had to be somewhere in Gerudo Town. That's where Riju had said they were headed right before he'd nodded off in her sand sled, after all. Upon recalling that particular memory, Link winced internally. Goddess. He'd emerged from that Zonai shrine practically asleep already, and his companions had taken it upon themselves to scoop up and carry him back to Gerudo Town to be tucked into bed like a child. How embarrassing. Now he didn't quite want to open his eyes and face his hostesses, but his body was starting to make certain things known that made it impossible to just turn tail and go back to sleep. He was thirsty, hungry, and needed to relieve himself, which meant that he'd been out for a while. Reluctantly, he finally blinked his eyes open and sat up.

“Eek! He's awake!” 

Before Link even had the chance to focus on his surroundings, the conversation he'd been hearing broke off abruptly as one of the Gerudo shrieked. This was followed by the sound of nervous giggling and a gaggle of footsteps rapidly retreating from the vicinity. Bewildered, Link rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around. He was indeed in a bed, with silk curtains hung around it to provide a bit of privacy, though one was tied back to presumably give his caregivers access to him. Link got the idea that he was in some sort of communal area, given the fact that there were several other beds in a row with his own and that there was no actual door separating this room from whatever lay on the other side of the arched doorway. 

No sooner had he made these observations than another person poked their head in: a Hylian woman. “Oh, hello!” She said brightly, then fully entered the room. “Sorry about that commotion. Some of the younger women - I mean vai - have been practically beside themselves with curiosity, having you around. Don’t worry, they weren't allowed to get too close to you while you were sleeping, of course. But I suppose they still have a ways to go in their ‘Voe and You’ courses if they were spooked just by you waking up!” The woman chuckled. She then introduced herself as Jules, and said that she was in Gerudo Town as an apprentice at the spa. As she led Link to a place where he could do his business and wash up a bit, she explained that they were currently in an area that was a kind of secure underground shelter. It was too dangerous to be up on the surface at this time. 

Link was used to the attention he received when he visited Gerudo Town, since he was the only male in known history to be openly allowed inside (Riju had made the official declaration several years prior once it became obvious that literally everyone knew the truth behind the disguise he used to wear), but in this confined space and in these circumstances, the stares and whispers made him feel incredibly self-conscious. How many of these Gerudo had witnessed his… incident… at the Kara Kara Bazaar? What did they think of him since they'd seen how weak he was? What were they saying about him? They were under siege, and if Riju's relieved and hopeful attitude towards him when they met up was any indication, they expected him to perform incredible feats to turn the tide, just like he'd done with Vah Naboris. How could they still have any hope in him now?

They still had some hope, apparently (which was probably ill-advised), because when Link finished freshening up and returned to the room in which he'd been sleeping, Riju was there waiting, once again beaming at him with that ‘Link is here, we're saved’ expression. “Link!” She exclaimed, “It's so good to see you up and about! Are you feeling better?”

Still feeling self-conscious, Link looked down to avoid meeting Riju's eyes. “Yes, thank you,” he replied simply, quietly.

“I'm so glad,” the Gerudo chief said. “You must be hungry. Will you dine with me?” She gestured to a table that had been set up in the back of the room, and upon it sat a mouth-watering array of cooked dishes. And to Link's utter delight, a pair of Noble Pursuits, one for him to drink and one for Riju, sat among the platters. Emotional discomfort immediately forgotten, Link eagerly joined Riju at the table and dug in.

Over the course of the meal, Riju filled Link in on more of the details of what had been happening in Gerudo lately, including what had happened while Link was asleep: the sand shroud had picked up and the gibdo attacks were increasing. The chief then requested that Link tell her of his experiences since the Upheaval to see if they could piece together a theory as to how their current situation fit into the full picture. It was painful for Link to recount his experiences once again, having developed a great deal more anxiety towards Zelda's whereabouts and wellbeing recently, but he obliged. He hesitated to divulge everything to Riju and so avoided bringing up the geoglyph visions, but after some thought, he did decide to voice his suspicions about the strange Zelda sightings. “I don't…” Link looked down and bit his lip before continuing, worried that Riju might think he was crazy, but now determined to voice his concerns. The situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, given the fact that Gerudo Town was now under siege, for all intents and purposes. “I don't think it's actually Zelda,” he said in a rush. “I think it's a trick.”

To Link's immense relief, Riju took a sip of her Noble Pursuit and then nodded. “I've begun to suspect as much myself,” she said. “It's not like Zelda to play games like this, and the incident at the Bazaar seemed directly connected to that…” Riju gesticulated wordlessly for a few seconds with her free hand, searching for the right word. “That specter,” she finally settled on. “But that begs the question: where is the real Zelda?” She set her drink down and then leaned forward, regarding Link intensely. “Link,” she said seriously, “is there anything else you can tell me?”

Link fidgeted uncomfortably under Riju's gaze, looking down again. He'd never been a good liar, and the young Gerudo chief was incredibly perceptive. She knew he was holding back. Still, Link was loath to share what he'd learned from the geoglyphs. Not only were those visions incredibly personal, but the information they provided was so fragmented and frankly confusing that Link worried that revealing their contents would lead to undue speculation and rumor. Maybe even panic, if his newest suspicions about the events leading up to the mummy's imprisonment were correct. Finally, feeling backed into a corner, Link finally murmured, “I can't.” He ducked his head down even further. 

Riju was silent for a few moments, but then she spoke again, this time in a softer and more sympathetic voice. “Link, I know how you are feeling,” she said. Surprised, Link lifted his head to look her in the eye again. “If there are things you can't tell me, for whatever reason, I trust you. Clearly this situation is more complicated than any of us could have imagined. But I want you to know that Zelda is a very dear friend of mine, and I will do whatever I can to help you find her.” 

At that, Link found that he now had a lump in his throat. Riju was so good and kind. He knew that she looked up to Zelda a great deal, being a young leader herself. But for her to make that declaration while dealing with all of the stress she was facing with leading her people through a time of hardship? She shouldn't have to do that. It was Link's job to be Zelda's protector, and he had failed. He needed to shoulder the burden of finding her again. He felt caught between immense gratitude towards Riju and renewed shame. Unsure of how to deal with the feelings, he swallowed them down. “Thank you,” he said simply and a bit hoarsely. If Riju noticed the change in his voice, she didn't mention it. 

Once the two had finished with their meal, Riju had one of her doctors check Link over “just to be safe.” Thankfully, he was declared healthy. For now, he couldn't help but think bitterly. He was healthy until the next monster slapped him around a little. Or until Not-Zelda made another appearance. Therefore, he supposed it was time to begin the mitigation process once again. First thing on his list was to replenish his supply of sundelions. As it so happened, Riju's scouts had been bringing back lots of them lately to brighten up the atmosphere of the shelter, not knowing of their restorative properties. Upon learning that Link was in need of them, Riju emptied all the vases immediately and shoved the flowers into his arms. “It's the least we can do,” she said. Link awkwardly thanked her, but internally berated himself once again for causing even more inconveniences due to his inadequacies. First he'd taken advantage of the Gerudo's hospitality, and now he was depriving them of one of the few joys they had during this bleak time. The other thing Link needed to do was to make more hearty elixirs, which thankfully he was able to do on his own by purchasing ingredients from the makeshift market that was set up in the shelter. He shoved the rupees into the shopkeeper's hands as soon as she named her price. Any more charity towards him, and Link may have melted straight into the floor.

The next several days were eventful. Despite his intense desire to pursue more geoglyphs, Link couldn't just leave the Gerudo to deal with their plight on their own. Gibdos were soon descending upon Gerudo Town in full force, and despite seeing the state that Link had been reduced to, Riju and her highest officers saw fit for him to help direct their troops. To Link's immense relief, they were able to hold out against the assault and the siege was broken with minimal casualties. Link himself, despite his diminished stamina, was somehow able to avoid injury altogether and therefore didn't have to inconvenience the Gerudo any further by having them take care of him again. Directly after the battle came to an end, though, something very curious happened: both he and Riju heard a strange voice calling out to them. This added a new layer of mystery to the circumstances.

And so, before long, after a series of interesting events Link and Riju found themselves at the gates of a massive pyramid that rose up straight out of the desert sands. The Lightning Temple, they knew from the murals they'd inspected. They faced a tough fight against a giant creature who appeared to be behind the sand shroud: the Queen Gibdo. Unfortunately Link did not manage to make it through this encounter unscathed, but he was able to fix himself up quickly using the supplies he'd procured in Gerudo Town. Riju kept side-eyeing him with worry, which Link pretended to ignore. He was honestly starting to get a bit ticked off with people treating him like he was fragile. He was already painfully aware of how quickly his condition could deteriorate, and the fact that he was causing Riju worry just made him feel even worse. And besides, if he himself became incapacitated in this situation, Riju would have been in even more danger, and he'd never forgive himself if something had happened to her. Hastily, Link swallowed his feelings down. Now was not the time.

Once the post-battle dust cleared, something utterly unexpected happened. An object that Link now recognized as a Secret Stone revealed itself and drew both himself and Riju into what seemed to be a shared vision. His mind was completely blown by what he saw. It was almost too much information to stuff into his brain at once.

Ganondorf was the Demon King. Zelda had been directly involved in the battle against him. And most worrying, the way she'd spoken to the ancient Sage of Lightning made it sound like wasn't going to make it back to her own age. But she did make it back, she must have! Somehow, Link was absolutely certain that Zelda was around and waiting for him to find her. It wasn't just flimsy reasoning anymore or even blind hope; he couldn't explain it, but he just knew. He stood there reeling as Riju proudly claimed the Secret Stone and professed her loyalty to fight at his side, bestowing upon him a strange avatar of herself so that her power of lightning would be his to call upon when needed. As soon as the two of them arrived back in Gerudo Town courtesy of the Purah Pad's travel ability (now functioning due to the lifting of the sand shroud), Link stumbled off to his bed and all but fell into it, asleep almost before his head hit the pillow due to both physical and mental exhaustion.

***

The next day, Link rose still feeling tired. Despite how exhausted he'd been, he hadn't been able to quiet his mind, and his sleep had been uneasy. He bid a hasty farewell to Riju and the rest of the Gerudo. All was well in Gerudo Town now, and besides, with all that had happened, Link couldn't bear being there anymore. Everyone was just so… so nice to him, there was no other way to put it. Despite him being a shell of his former self, everyone still seemed to regard him as some kind of savior. Riju had done most of the work in the Lightning Temple. And Link also felt bad that Riju's part in all of this was not yet over. She'd been pulled into this whole mess as the new Sage of Lightning, and she likely wouldn't be the only one to be strung along before all was said and done. Six sages had fought alongside Rauru, the ancient sage had said. There had to be other descendants scattered across Hyrule whose ancestors had sworn allegiance. 

How many others would be put at risk? With Link being such a liability, could he even hope that they'd come out the other end of this unscathed? He had so much to worry about now. As soon as he could, he recalled Riju's avatar back into the new ring on Rauru's hand. It was too much of a reminder to have it out and in view. But still, in spite of his worries, Link's number one goal hadn't changed: he needed to find Zelda. All that he'd learned in the Lightning Temple had been invaluable, but that had been a complete surprise. The geoglyphs were still the most predictable source of information. And so, he resumed his journey to visit those.

There were two geoglyphs left in the west of Hyrule, so Link decided to knock those out next. One of them appeared to be near Rito Village and was easy to get to, since Link could just travel to a shrine he'd found on the east side of Tabantha Bridge, then make his way across and up the west rim a bit. At this geoglyph, Link found a vision of Zelda looking out over a Hyrule that looked very different than it did now. In some kind of sick irony, she was standing right where the Shrine of Resurrection would one day lie. That was the same view that Link had taken in as he emerged from it. It felt like a lifetime ago.

The next destination appeared to be at the very northern edge of Hebra, and Link wasted no time in making his way there. It took much longer to reach it, what with the rugged terrain and the cold. At least he found a few more shrines on the way to help keep his health in check. He definitely needed it; his exhaustion had been becoming more and more of a problem since leaving the Lightning Temple. Restful sleep was becoming hard to come by. Every night when he tried to sleep, his racing mind took what felt like hours to slow down. And once he did manage to fall asleep, the nightmares were always there, so he didn't stay asleep long. As a result, his illness began nagging at him more and more consistently. Because of the shrines and the fact that he was diligent enough to heal himself up quickly after scuffles with monsters, the sickness didn't manifest in intense bouts, but was instead constant and relatively mild, much like those first few hours on the Great Sky Island. Link would typically feel pretty good for maybe an hour or so after leaving a shrine, but otherwise he was always slightly achy and slightly nauseous on top of being perpetually tired. Not to mention cold, which admittedly could also just be attributed to the climate in Hebra. Link couldn't really bring himself to care. There was only so much his brain was capable of fretting over. As long as he was still mostly functional for this stage of the journey, that was all he cared about. Once he knew well and truly what was going on with Zelda, maybe he'd be able to rest and let the Lights of Blessing he'd been steadily absorbing to fully do their jobs.

This particular geoglyph in the north of Hebra depicted Ganondorf making his full transformation into the Demon King using a secret stone. If Link hadn't been so sleep-deprived and feeling generally unwell, he may have had more of a reaction, but honestly it didn't really phase him. After the vision released him, he mechanically checked the Purah Pad to see where the next geoglyph was.

As he thumbed through the menus, though, he noticed he was due for another supply restock. Come to think of it, he could also use some new clothes; the ones he was wearing were becoming threadbare. Zelda did always say he was tougher on his garments than anyone she'd ever met. Lookout Landing would probably be the best place to go, then, since he knew he could buy clothes in Mubs’ shop there. There also appeared to be some geoglyphs in Hyrule Field. Mind made up, he selected the Lookout Landing skyview tower on the map.

Upon arrival, Link made a beeline for the shop, having a single goal in mind. Plan B was in effect: just focus on the mission and ignore all else. And right now, the mission was to restock. 

“Welcome!” Mubs was upbeat as usual. “We just got some new things in stock! Take a look around and let me know if you'd like to buy anything!”

Link didn’t really want to chat. He simply pointed at the items he wanted and handed Mubs the number of rupees she asked for. He didn't quite have enough for the new clothes, but Mubs was happy to trade for the frostberries and voltfruit he'd collected recently, and he soon found himself in possession of a new tunic, trousers, and hood. Although Mubs went through the motions of the sale and barter like normal, it seemed like there was something else she wanted to say. She kept biting her lip and looking at Link strangely. It was weird, and Link wrapped up the interaction as quickly as possible. With a mumbled thanks, he turned to make his way to the shelter to change clothes and do some cooking before heading out on the road again. 

“Hey, Linky!”

Grinding his teeth, Link reluctantly stopped. He definitely wasn't in the mood to interact with Purah right now, but it looked like there was no avoiding it. The scientist was quickly making her way across the flagstones to intercept him. “Why didn't you tell me you were back? I got a letter from Chief Riju saying that you helped get to the bottom of what was going on out there in Gerudo. I thought you were going to Rito Village first, but hey, it sounds like it's a good thing you got to Gerudo when you did. I want to hear all about it!”

Link shrugged. He didn't feel like speaking right now, so he wanted to keep the conversation short. “Everything's good there now,” he said simply. “Riju can give you more details if you want them. She’d tell you better than I can.”

“What? Linky, I don't want to wait for another letter, and this is important for getting to the bottom of what's going on with the Upheaval! And to finding Princess Zelda!”

At the mention of his princess, Link's already near-nonexistent patience dropped even further. He shouldn't have come here. He didn't want to be tangled up in this conversation right now, he wanted to find Zelda. “Purah, I'm not in the mood,” he said as he turned towards her fully to make eye contact and emphasize his point.

Purah raised her eyebrows and blinked in surprise at the uncharacteristic reply, then narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer. “Linky, are you okay?” She looked him up and down, then focused more intently on his face. “You're a little thin, and you look pretty tired. Why don't we get you a nice meal, and-”

“I'm fine,” Link cut in, a bit more snappish than he intended but he couldn't bring himself to care. He knew he was tired, and he hadn't been eating much since he left Gerudo due to nausea. He'd made it all the way from the Tabantha Bridge up to northern Hebra just fine with no big flare-ups from his illness, though, so everything was okay. He’d had enough of people worrying about him. “I just came to resupply. I need to keep moving.”

“Linky…” Purah looked nervous now. “Do you remember what I told you about taking care of yourself? I think it would be a good idea if you stayed here for a little while so you can-”

“Stop coddling me!” The words were out of Link's mouth before he even realized it, and he'd raised his voice to boot. Purah reeled back, eyes wide. She was shocked and maybe a little hurt, Link realized. This was really out of character for him, and this time he did feel bad. The situation and his emotional state were spiraling. He needed to get out of here now. Without another word, he turned and dashed out of the east gate.

*** 

It was several hours before Link felt that he had distanced himself enough to stop so he could sort through his purchases and restock his supplies. It was evening, so he decided to make camp for the night. First he built a fire, and then he changed into his new clothes and tore his old threadbare garments into strips for bandages. He filled a pot with water from a nearby stream, hung it over the fire, and put the strips of cloth inside.

Next, Link got out a cooking pot. There was enough room on the fire to prepare some snacks, light meals, and elixirs alongside his bandage sanitization operation. Large meals were out of the question at the moment; he couldn't stomach that. By the time he was finished cooking, he decided the bandages had been boiling for long enough. He took that pot off the fire and fished the bandages out, then hung them over a tree branch to dry. Lastly, he laid down next to the fire and tried to get some sleep. He very deliberately did not think about what had happened at Lookout Landing, or about his own situation in general. Stick to Plan B, he told himself. Just stick to the mission.

Despite his best efforts, Link's sleep was restless, just as it had been in the fortnight since he left Gerudo. After a few hours of tossing and turning, he gave up and climbed out of his bedroll. Finding that the bandages had dried, he quickly rolled them, stored them away, then packed up his camp and set off again despite it being the middle of the night. If he couldn't sleep, it was best to just move on.

Just east of Riverside Stable, Link found a geoglyph that granted him a vision of Ganondorf - before his transformation - trying and failing to attack a contingency of Hylians with a horde of molduga. Rauru fended them off with a seriously impressive beam of divine light. Could Zelda do that? Probably, Link thought. Zelda could do anything. Which meant that she had to have made it back to this era, and be around somewhere. 

The next geoglyph Link found was on the banks of Lake Hylia. Its vision informed him that Sonia had somehow died, most likely killed. Things seemed pretty dire, and Zelda reminded Rauru that they couldn't win. The Demon King would rise again. It was then that Rauru said something that made Link's heart sink: “Link will be our last line of defense.”

Some last line of defense he was. Barely able to defend himself, getting his allies in danger, needing someone to rescue him at every turn, making people constantly worry about him. And now on top of it all, failing to keep his emotions in check and hurting his friends. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it, Link told himself frantically. He didn't have enough room in his head for these feelings.

On to the next geoglyph, this one in the southeast. The journey took a week and a half. Link was still not eating as much due to the nausea and skating by on Lights of Blessing obtained from shrines. It was fine, though. He had to tighten his belt a few times, but he was still functioning. No time to stop, he had to find Zelda. He didn't even care much about the Demon King anymore. Zelda was the light at the end of the tunnel that kept him going.

The vision at Cape Cressia confirmed that Sonia had, in fact, been killed, and the Demon King's Secret Stone had actually been hers originally. But something else about the vision was setting off alarm bells for Link: the fact that Ganondorf had created a perfect replica of Zelda, an illusion, as a decoy. It walked and talked and, well… was all but indistinguishable from the real princess. Was that who - or what - Link had seen two times now? It all made sense. The feeling of wrongness he couldn't quite pinpoint when he looked at Not-Zelda. The fact that her - no, not her, its - presence made his gloom-borne illness suddenly intensify. Whatever the illusion was made of, it came from the Demon King himself, just like the blast that had taken Link's arm. This was bad. Very bad. Link's mind was starting to feel numb. There was so much information and anxiety assaulting his brain at all times, it was hard to bear. He had to push it all aside to the best of his ability, he kept telling himself. Don't think about it.

From Cape Cressia, Link used some of the Zonai devices he'd found along with some resources scattered on the shore to craft a boat and sail up the coast to the Talus Plateau. Traveling by water was much quicker than by land, so it only took a few days. The vision Link got from this geoglyph allowed him to get a better look at the ancient sages. Beneath their masks, Link recognized a Gerudo (which he'd already met), a Zora, a Goron, and a Rito. He wondered who the descendants of the other three were. Whose fate would it be to be forced to join Link and put their life in danger?

Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it…

After studying his picture of the geoglyph map, Link decided that his best interest would be to go back inland to start hitting up the remaining ones in the northeast. He used the Purah Pad to travel to a shrine in Hyrule Field (no risking Lookout Landing this time) and then made his way to the Trilby Plain. This geoglyph made him privy to a conversation between Zelda, Rauru, and Rauru's sister, whose name was Mineru. They discussed how Zelda might get back to her time, and Mineru described something that made Link's blood run cold: draconification. Becoming an immortal dragon. Losing all sense of one's self. An irreversible process. Surely Zelda hadn't been forced to resort to that, right? Surely she'd honed her time powers and found another way. Surely, surely, surely…

From where he sat on the ground next to the vision pool, Link ran his hands down his face and then tangled his fingers in his hair, tugging on the tangled locks, trying to use the sensation to ground himself. DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. He couldn't rush to conclusions, not until he had all the puzzle pieces of information. 

There was one geoglyph left. One vision left. As Link traveled towards it, he became painfully aware of his deteriorating physical condition despite his best efforts to ignore what his body was telling him. He was always tired and had been for a long time, but he noticed that he was having to sit down and rest more and more often. He could barely stomach anything anymore, and a gnawing hunger came to accompany the nausea, just like it had at the beginning of his journey. He forced himself to choke down small snacks every once in a while just to give his body some kind of sustenance, but more often than not they came right back up again, even the sundelion-infused ones. His limbs felt shaky and he didn't trust himself in combat anymore, so he took to moving stealthily and avoiding enemies once again. Shrines were his saving grace; he had the feeling that he would simply keel over without the Lights of Blessing.

By the time he reached the Eldin foothills, Link knew he was declining quickly, but he refused to acknowledge it. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it. This was the last geoglyph. The last vision. And what a vision it was.

Link finally had his answer as to what had happened to the Master Sword: it had gone back in time to Zelda. It needed sacred power to restore itself… lots of sacred power, over a long period of time. As Link watched, an expression crossed Zelda's face, and it was one he knew well. It was the way she looked when she'd made up her mind about something and no one could sway her from it. “I know why I am here,” she said. 

The pieces all fell into place. No, Link wanted to scream. No, no, no! As he emerged from the vision, his absolute worst fears were all but confirmed. Seemingly out of nowhere, a magnificent dragon appeared in the sky, roaring in a tone that sounded almost sorrowful. It was the dragon he'd kept seeing circling the Great Sky Island, Link realized. He'd almost forgotten about it. All of the clues he'd amassed so far led him to the conclusion that this dragon was likely Zelda, but still, he refused to believe it. None of these visions showed how this tale from an age long past ended for certain. All he could do was hope against hope.

The dragon moved with incredible speed, and something fell from it and rocketed toward the ground somewhere in the distance. The Purah Pad vibrated, and Link tore it from his belt just in time to see a new point of interest appear on his map in Akkala. He felt short of breath. If the next clue was there… then he'd go there. There was no time to waste. He traveled back to the Talus Plateau to sail up the coast.

Link did not remember any of the journey to the Rist Peninsula. He was running on pure adrenaline at this point. The thin, spiral-shaped piece of land was crawling with monsters, and he completely forgot the caution he'd been using earlier. He set upon them like a raging demon, cutting them down and tearing them asunder, not even noticing if they landed any blows on him or not before they perished. How dare they get in his way? How dare they try to delay him? He had to find out what happened to his princess. Nothing else mattered.

Frantically, Link collapsed to his knees next to what he recognized as a vision pool and let the vision draw him in. What he saw was utterly devastating.

It was true. There was no more denying it. His princess had made it back to this era, as he'd felt she had all along… but everything that made her Zelda was gone. She was just a vessel now. An immortal vessel, providing divine power to feed and strengthen the Master Sword over the course of thousands of years. And she'd done it all for Link. Because she believed in him. Because she trusted him. Because he was, as Rauru had said, the last line of defense. 

As he came out of the vision, Link found himself lying on the ground in the pouring rain. The Light Dragon sailed through the sky languidly overhead, astonishingly close. So close that Link could make out the glint of the Master Sword. Shivering, he sat up and realized he was now surrounded by Silent Princess flowers. Zelda's favorite. And that was the breaking point.

It was too much. It was all too much. Every neuron in Link's brain was firing into overdrive. It hurt. Link hurt everywhere. His body hurt, his mind hurt, his heart hurt. He could barely think straight. He could barely think at all.

So he didn't. 

In desperation, Link abruptly shut down conscious thought. All that was left was silence. Comforting, blessed silence. Not even realizing what he was doing, Link got up and started to walk. He didn’t know where he was going. He just had to go. 

He had no idea how long he'd been walking when he was overcome by an intense jolt out of the blue. His right arm was on fire, it seemed. Electrified. It was glowing. Overwhelmed by the sensation, Link fell to the ground. But then as soon as it had come, the sensation went away. His arm stopped glowing. Link promptly stood back up and kept walking.

Link wandered. Sometimes he collapsed because of a sudden flare-up in his arm. Sometimes he collapsed because he couldn't keep his eyes open, and he presumably slept a bit before waking and continuing on. Sometimes he collapsed because his stomach seemed insistent on turning itself inside out. There was nothing to vomit up, so he just dry heaved. Occasionally a feeling of thirst managed to worm its way through the fog that occupied Link's mind and he'd take a few sips from his canteen. A few times, he crossed a monster's path and it would attack him. He'd kill it and just keep on going. All in all, it was a consistent routine. A predictable one. Walk. Collapse. Get up. Drink water. Kill. Repeat.

At one point, Link was walking when suddenly he came up against an obstacle. He couldn't walk any further. Two arms were clamped down on his shoulders, holding him in place. Must be a monster. Link automatically drew his weapon and slashed at the arms, which released him immediately as the monster they belonged to recoiled back a few steps. It was making noises. As he prepared to strike once again, something in Link's befuddled mind recognized the noises as words, though he couldn't bring himself to decipher them. Not a monster, then. It was a person. Killing a person would be bad. Link put away his weapon and simply attempted to walk around the person, but they stepped in front of him. Link turned and tried to walk away in another direction, but the person appeared in front of him once again, still speaking. Strangely, Link thought he might have heard his name interspersed in there a few times, but he couldn't bring himself to care. One more time, Link tried to sidestep around the person and was yet again thwarted as they blocked his path.

What was this person's problem? Frustrated, Link turned on his heel and ran. Or at least, he tried to run. His physical state had deteriorated so much that he only made it maybe a couple dozen yards before his legs gave out and he fell to the ground. The person he was trying to get away from was at his side immediately. Why wouldn't they leave him alone? Link lashed out angrily, clawing and kicking. The attack was uncoordinated, though, and he found himself quickly overpowered and immobilized, on his back in the dirt with his legs and arms pinned down. Now Link was really pissed off. Wriggling as he continued to struggle, he managed to get into a position to use the last weapon he had available to him: his teeth. He bit down as hard as he could on the person's arm, but to his surprise, he didn't break skin. He didn't break skin because what he was biting down on wasn't skin, it was… scales? It was enough of a surprise to banish the fog in Link's mind, and in his first moment of clarity in what had to have been several days, he focused on the person who was restraining him.

Maroon-colored scales. Tall stature. Golden eyes, looking down at him with unmistakable worry. A mouth full of sharp teeth, speaking rapidly, almost fearfully. With a start, Link realized that he knew this person. He furrowed his brow and licked his dry, chapped lips. His throat was sore and voice rough from disuse, but he was able to get a single word out. Or, that is, a name. “Sidon?”

Chapter Text

Link just lay there, too bemused to do much but stare up at his friend in confusion. His mind was moving at a strange pace, quick enough to take in what was going on around him but too slow to truly understand it. Sidon eased up on him a bit, loosening his grip but still not releasing him, probably out of caution. It wasn't needed, though. Now that Link's scant reserves of strength had run out, he wouldn't have been able to fight back even if he tried. Not that he really wanted to, anyway; why would he want to fight Sidon? Why had he been fighting Sidon in the first place? Why did his mouth taste vaguely like fish? Oh. Oh yeah. He'd bitten Sidon. Why had he bitten Sidon? That was pretty stupid. And rude. Why was Sidon here? Come to think of it, how had Link himself gotten here in the first place? Where even was here? All of the unknowns were making his head spin. It was distressing. 

The distress must have shown on Link's face, because Sidon hurriedly tried to catch his attention. “Link?” He asked gently, tapping the confused swordsman's face. “Can you hear me?”

Blinking slowly, Link forced himself to draw his focus to his friend. He nodded.

“You- you know who I am, right?” Sidon looked very worried, and almost as confused as Link felt.

Again, Link nodded. Why hadn't he recognized Sidon earlier? His head felt strange, like it was stuffed full of cotton.

Sidon released Link fully, no longer keeping him pinned down. He shifted to move to kneel at Link's side instead. “Okay,” he said softly, sliding a hand beneath his friend's shoulders and starting to sit him up. The motion was slow and cautious, but still, Link almost immediately lost his sense of equilibrium as his vision blurred and his head began to spin, and he groaned as he shut his eyes tight in response to the disorientation. “Sorry! Sorry,” Sidon said frantically, and swiftly reversed his motion until Link was prone again.

“Highness?” another voice reached Link's ears. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite remember who it belonged to. At the moment, his senses were still mostly overwhelmed with the feeling of dizziness. “Is that Link?!” The voice asked incredulously. Link felt a presence settle on the other side of him. “He looks unwell.”

“He looks more than just unwell, Bazz,” Oh, it was Bazz. That's why Link knew the voice. “He looks half dead!” Sidon was starting to sound quite upset. That wouldn't do. As fuzzy as his thoughts were, Link knew with certainty that causing his friends to fret over him was something he did not want to do, so he dragged his eyes back open in an attempt to appear more alert. It took a few moments for him to focus once again, but the dizziness had receded for now. “‘M fine,” he mumbled.

“You are most certainly not fine, Link,” Sidon was tense, looking almost panicked now. “What's happened to you?”

“Um.” What had happened to him? His brow furrowed. Thinking was hard. “I don't…” he trailed off.

“You’re right, he’s in pretty bad shape, Highness,” Bazz sounded concerned now too, though nowhere near as frantic as Sidon. “He needs healing as soon as possible.” 

“Yes, yes, you're right,” Sidon agreed, voice sounding like he was still trying to suppress panic. He moved to pick Link up, but then hesitated. “Link, where are you hurt?”

Where was he… wait, was he even hurt? Link wasn't sure. He tried to take stock of himself, but came up mostly empty. He felt… well, he didn't really know how to describe how he felt. He knew he didn't feel right, but couldn't describe exactly why. “Dunno,” he mumbled.

Sidon shot Bazz a concerned look. “Make haste back to the heart of the Domain and send healers to met up with us as soon as possible. Quickly, now!” Bazz disappeared from Link’s side, and then Sidon focused on his friend once again. “Okay,” he said, tone sounding like he was trying to reassure himself as much as Link. “Okay, you’re going to be just fine, don't worry.” He picked Link up and stood carefully, trying not to jostle his charge too much. Link shut his eyes again as the change in position once again disoriented him.

His awareness from there was fragmented. He let the walking rhythm of being carried lull him into a kind of trance. It was hard to keep track of time. Sidon eventually stopped and laid Link down again. More voices surrounded him now. At some point, someone began addressing him directly, shaking him gently to get his attention. Link blearily blinked his eyes open. Once again, it took a long time to focus. Another Zora stood over him, though Link didn't recognize this individual. Likely a female, judging by the voice, with wide-set eyes, forest green scales, and rather ornate jewelry. The mystery woman held up a finger in front of his face. “Link? Can you follow this for me?” She wanted him to follow her? Okay. Link started to try to push himself up, but apparently that was the wrong response. “Oh! No, no, lie back,” the new Zora said with a nervous laugh as she put out a hand to stop him. Despite her kind tone, Link was still upset for interpreting her order incorrectly. A lump grew in his throat, and his vision went blurry again. “Oh, it's okay, dear, don't cry. I'm not upset with you,” the woman said consolingly. Was he crying? He was, he realized as he felt a single tear leak out of one of his eyes. That fact alone made him even more upset. He couldn't act like this in front of someone else. Especially not someone he didn't even know. What was wrong with him? He tried to pull himself back together. Once he did manage to calm himself, he felt even more drained, if that was even possible. “I know you're tired,” the mystery Zora lady was still there. “But can you look at my finger, and follow it just with your eyes?” Obediently, Link did so, tired eyes tracking up, down, left, and right as she moved. “Good, very good,” she said sweetly, as if she were speaking to a child. “You can rest now if you need to, all right?” Sighing in relief, Link let his eyelids sink shut again.

“I'm not seeing any signs of a head injury,” the woman said. She didn't seem to be speaking to Link anymore. “That's a good thing, but he's still in a very bad way, obviously…” Link was having trouble focusing, so he allowed himself to sink back into the fog again. He'd been given permission to rest, after all. He was vaguely aware of people continuing to touch him, prod at him, move his limbs. Snippets of conversation drifted through the fog. “Fever,” he heard. “Infection… exposure… blood loss… malnourishment… dehydration…” Well that was quite the laundry list, and it didn't sound good. Was that all that was wrong with him? He didn't feel that bad. He just felt tired, and… numb. He felt numb. That was the feeling he hadn't been able to put a name to earlier. Not able to do much else, Link once again began to drift in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he was being carried. Sometimes he was lying still and prone. The one constant was the numbness.

After who knows how long, though, another distinct feeling abruptly crawled up alongside the numbness. Link made a little sound of alarm in the back of his throat and tossed his head from side to side weakly in a vain attempt to escape it, but it was no use. The life-draining feeling he unfortunately knew so well washed over him like poison. This time was by far the worst episode he’d ever experienced. There was no real way to accurately describe what the sensation felt like, but if past episodes could be likened to being poked by a needle, this was like being disemboweled. Desperately, Link silently screamed for someone, anyone, for help… and then, finally, it happened. Rauru’s arm jolted to life with a feeling like a thunderbolt, now having to work harder than ever, the intensity making all of his senses white out. When it was over and Link’s taxed and tired mind began to stir again, he realized that he must really be as bad off as the people around him had been saying. But how had he… why…. what had happened? He still couldn't figure it out. Despite the fuzziness and static filling his brain, he tried his utmost to make sense of what was going on. Maybe start with the last thing he remembered before running into Sidon and Bazz? Okay, the last thing he remembered was… was… flowers. Silent Princess flowers. Zelda's favorite.

Zelda.

Everything came rushing back: the geoglyphs. The visions. Finally knowing the truth behind what had happened to Zelda. What on earth was Link supposed to do now? And sweet Hylia, what had he done to himself? Struck with a wave of clarity, his eyes snapped open as he tried to get a better idea of what was going on around him, and realized that he was staring at the ceiling. He must be indoors, then. Since he was looking at the ceiling, he must be lying down. Concentrating on what he could feel, it seemed that he wasn't exactly lying on a solid surface, he was… floating in some kind of liquid? And he could also feel the familiar caress of healing magic.

Wait. Floating? Healing magic? Link's mind automatically went to one place: The Shrine of Resurrection. Had he been injured that badly? Did he have to sleep for decades to recover? If that was the case, he would lose all of his memories again. And Zelda wouldn't be waiting for him when he woke up this time, he thought mournfully.

With a start, Link made a horrible realization: Zelda was gone. Forever. Not dead, but she'd never again be who she once was. And when Link woke up from his restorative sleep this time, he would have no opportunity to make new memories with her, let alone recover the ones he already had. The thought of continuing on in a world where he had no memories of her at all was unbearable.

In that split second, the momentary clarity that Link had gained was gone, and all that was left was sheer panic. He could not let them seal him away again. He flailed wildly, fighting to right himself in the water. The healing magic cut off abruptly and frantic voices reached Link's ears, but he ignored their pleas for him to calm down. He couldn't calm down, they were going to make him forget! He had to get away. Luckily the edge was close by, and he hauled himself up over it and tried to pull himself to standing, but failed. His legs refused to support his full weight, and he was left slipping on all fours on the wet floor. Well, if he couldn't walk, he'd just have to crawl. He'd only made it a few feet, though, when he felt a set of large hands close around his upper arms and push him down onto his stomach to restrain him, firmly but not hard enough to actually hurt him. Link struggled to free himself, calling upon every tactic he knew when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but it didn't seem to be getting him anywhere. His adversary was too strong, or he was too weak, or both. Someone was screaming, Link registered dimly. After a moment, he realized it was him, and he couldn’t stop. Whenever he was forced to pause to take a breath, he could still hear the frantic voices surrounding him. “He's delirious,” one voice said. “He could hurt himself!” Other voices were calling his name, begging him to stop, to calm down, but he ignored all of them. If they were going to put him back in that water, they were enemies.

After some time had passed - it seemed like forever but in reality it couldn't have been long - the tiny bit of panic-induced, adrenaline-borne energy that Link had managed to scrape together ran out. The fight went out of him quite literally as his arms and legs became like wet noodles, refusing to obey him, and they went still. He was unable to hold his head up any longer as well, and the side of his face came to rest on the polished stone floor. No, he thought frantically, no, no, no, no, no…

Once Link had gone completely limp and stopped screaming, whomever was keeping him down released their hold and gingerly turned him over onto his back. They appeared to be a Zora guard, judging by the helm, though not one Link knew. Several more faces appeared over him, and he did immediately recognize one of them. It belonged to Sidon. If there was anyone he could trust to help him right now, Link thought, it was Sidon. “Please,” he begged, voice rough and breaking. “Please, don't put me in there, don't make me forget, I don't want to forget…” He had to make Sidon understand. Alarmingly, though, the energy crash he was experiencing was now coming for his mind as well, making the fog that had occupied it earlier roll in thick and heavy. He wasn't going to be able to stay conscious much longer, Link realized with dread. “No… no, don't… can't forget… please, please, please…” he was babbling now, but he couldn't give up. He looked into his friend’s face imploringly. “Sidon please, don't let… don't wanna sleep, can’t forget… not again… not again…” his tongue was becoming thick and unwieldy and his eyelids felt heavier than lead, but still he pressed on.

Something Link had just said must have gotten through, though, because Sidon's expression changed suddenly, going from simply fraught with worry to understanding kindling in his eyes. His focus shifted from Link to someone out of view. “Mei,” he said, “Go have a bed prepared at the inn. We'll have Link treated there.” Mei presumably went off to do just that, judging by the sound of retreating footsteps. “Link,” Sidon turned back to his friend, “It's all right. I won't let you forget, I promise. Please, just rest, all right?”

A bed. They were going to put him in a bed, not the Shrine of Resurrection. Sidon promised. Link heaved a sigh of relief as he let his eyes fall shut, and then he knew no more.

***

The next time Link woke, calling it true wakefulness would have been generous, but he knew for sure he was no longer unconscious. Just like before, his mind was foggy. All of his senses seemed muted, and opening his eyes seemed like too much effort. He felt something bumping up against his lips, and a trickle of water made it into his mouth. Someone was giving him something to drink, then? Link was grateful for it. Now that he really thought about it, he was very thirsty. Eagerly, he opened his mouth further and drank all that he was given. He wanted more, but the source of the water was taken away and didn't come back. Not really in a position to protest, Link had nothing else to do but let himself drift off again.

This routine repeated more times than Link could keep track of. He eventually deduced that someone must be waking him at regular intervals and prompting him to drink the water. The fog in his mind began to retreat bit by tiny bit. He lost count of how many times he'd been woken to take a drink, but eventually, he felt strong enough to open his eyes as he swallowed. A petite Zora woman came into view. “Linny? I-I mean, Link?” She asked. “It's Kodah, can you hear me?”

Oh, Kodah. Link knew Kodah. She and her husband, Kayden, ran the inn at the heart of Zora's Domain. He tried to make an assenting sound, but nothing came out. His throat felt fried, voice gone. He gave a single, tiny nod instead. Even that felt like moving a mountain.

“Good, I'm so glad!” She smiled. “Do you feel up to drinking something besides water? We need to get you well again.” She turned to set down the small cup she'd been helping him to drink from and switched it out for another. This one had steam curling out of it. A whiff of it reached Link's nose, and he recoiled a bit. Though he didn't feel overwhelmingly nauseous at the moment, the fact that nearly everything made him sick nowadays was so ingrained that he was dubious on principle. Kodah picked up on his hesitancy and resorted to bargaining. “Just one sip to start with, how about that? I won't make you drink any more than that right now, if you don't want it.”

Link still didn't particularly want to drink whatever tea was in the cup, but at the same time, he didn't want to be difficult with Kodah. She was already inconvenienced enough, assuming that she'd been the one caring for him. Reluctantly, he opened his mouth and allowed her to give him some of whatever tea this was. It seemed to be pretty watered down, thankfully, but he detected the taste of some medicinal herbs as well as a trace of what was undeniably sundelion. How had Kodah known about the sundelions? Had they been included in the mixture just by chance? Regardless, the first sip went down easy, and to his own surprise, Link found himself wanting more. Before he realized it, he'd drunk the whole cup, just leaving the dregs. “Very good!” Kodah pulled back with a big smile on her face. “We'll have more of this ready the next time you wake!” She kept speaking as she smoothed his blankets down and straightened his pillow, more about doing everything they could to help him recover, but Link had already tapped out. His eyes sank shut, and the darkness claimed him once again.

It seemed like only a split second had passed by the next time Link blinked his eyes open, but some time must have gone by because now his bed was bathed in sunlight. The Zora inn faced west, Link remembered, so that meant it was likely sunset. The sun’s rays felt comforting. His mind was clearer now too, making him feel much more present, he realized. Was the sunlight, as well as the sundelion medicine he'd been given earlier, actively healing him, he wondered? They hadn't done much for him in quite some time. Well, he had presumably been resting in this bed for a while too, Link reasoned. It was a bit hard to dream during unconsciousness as opposed to regular sleep cycles, so the nightmares blessedly weren't plaguing him for the time being.

“Hello, Link!” Link was jolted out of his thoughts by a presence at his side, who turned out to be Kayden this time. “It's good to see that you've woken on your own! Would you like something to drink?” 

It wasn't as hard to nod now, Link found when he attempted to do so. Speaking, though, still left something to be desired, he realized as he rasped out a barely audible “yes, please.”

Kayden fetched a cup of tea from somewhere and returned to Link’s side. Since he felt more present now and what small movement he'd attempted so far had been easier, Link tried to raise his hand in hopes of taking the cup and drinking the tea on his own, but to his dismay his arm (and it was his arm, Kayden was approaching on his left) pretty much just twitched uselessly on the blankets, barely even raising half an inch before coming to rest again and refusing to move any further. Link frowned. “It’s all right, don’t worry about it,” Kayden reassured him as he sat down. He slid one arm behind Link’s shoulders and then brought the cup to his lips with the other. “With the state you were in when Prince Sidon brought you to us, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you a good long while to get your strength back.”

As he drank the same tea as before, Link’s brow furrowed. What did Kayden mean by that? Sure, he’d crashed hard health-wise a couple of times since this whole journey began, but he’d always bounced back within a few days at most. That is, as well as he could bounce back given his underlying condition. But now that he was improving after the most recent crash, there was no reason to think he wouldn’t be back on his feet tomorrow or maybe even the day after, was there? 

“Ah, my friend!”

A voice that Link would recognize anywhere reached his ears, and he turned his head to see Sidon approaching from the entrance of the inn with an enthusiastic bounce in his step. Kayden gave a quick bow before backing away and busying himself with something else in the inn while Zora prince crossed to Link’s bedside and quickly lowered himself to the floor to bring himself as close to the Hylian’s level as he could. In an effort to greet him properly, Link tried to sit up a bit in bed, but though he was able to get his arms into position to push himself up on his elbows, he was dismayed to find that he lacked the strength to actually follow through in shifting positions. Not only were his arms useless, but his core seemed to be startlingly weak as well. Sidon raised his own hand in a placating gesture. “Please, don’t push yourself, Link! There’s no need for formalities.” Well, sure, there may be no need for formalities, but Link still wanted to sit up to greet Sidon. It shouldn’t be this hard. “It’s so wonderful to see you awake and alert. I hate to admit it, but I was beside myself with worry, especially after what happened at the healing pool.”

Healing pool? What healing pool? Link tried to remember. Before waking up here at the inn, he was…

Oh. Oh no.

Suddenly, Link recalled his blind panic at thinking he was being placed in the Shrine of Resurrection, which he now realized hadn’t been the Shrine of Resurrection at all. Of course it hadn’t been, it was a Zora healing pool, how could he have been such an idiot? Why had he not just taken a look around to figure out where he really was? Sweet Hylia, he had caused a scene. How many people had seen that? A lot, judging by the number of frantic voices he remembered. It was utterly embarrassing. Link turned away from Sidon in mortification, cheeks coloring. “Sorry,” he whispered, though it didn’t feel like near enough atonement.

Sidon seemed a bit surprised by his reaction. “Link, there is nothing to be sorry for, my friend. You weren’t well at all, both in body and mind, and I myself failed to foresee how deeply the situation would affect you, given your past. The fault is mine,” he said sincerely.

Now Link was even more mortified. Sidon was much too kind. It wasn’t his fault at all. It was all Link’s fault. Everything was Link’s fault. His fault for letting Zelda fall. His fault that she was forced to fling herself into the past. His fault that she’d now spent thousands of years as a living battery. His fault for pursuing her so recklessly when she’d been here all along, waiting for him up in the sky. And his fault for getting his oblivious and single-minded self where he was right now. He felt a lump grow in his throat and his eyes rapidly go misty before spilling over into frustrated tears.

“Oh, I am sorry, my friend, I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” Sidon’s voice took on a gentle and remorseful tone. “I know that there is a great deal on your mind as of late, and a great deal resting on your shoulders as well. Doctor Purah said as much in the letter she sent some time ago. Regardless, I’m so relieved that we found you when we did. I fear to think of what would have happened if-“

“Purah wrote you? About me?” Embarrassment momentarily forgotten and replaced by surprise, Link turned back towards Sidon. “How’d she know I’d come here?”

“Well, she didn’t, actually. She sent out letters to friends and allies across Hyrule, from what I understand, explaining that she feared for your safety and to keep an eye out for you.”

“She what?!” Now Link was growing angry. Purah had put his business on blast to all of Hyrule?

“She was worried about you,” Sidon said with a frown. “And with good reason, too. I barely recognized you when you stumbled out of the woods right in front of me, my friend. If we hadn't intervened when we did, the consequences would have been dire. Thank goodness that letter included the specifics on how to treat your illness.”

Sidon was being awfully dramatic, but then again, he was overprotective to a fault. “I would have been fine,” Link mumbled. He would have crossed his arms, too, if he had the strength to do so at the moment. 

“No, you would not have been fine!” Sidon’s voice was taking on an edge now that Link had never heard. “Do you not understand how serious your condition is? The healers say that had you been left to your own devices, you would have perished within a couple of days, maybe even hours, even without factoring in your illness! They don’t even know how you were managing to walk in your state! You were dying, Link!” The Zora prince’s voice broke as he made that last statement.

“Infection… exposure… blood loss… malnourishment… dehydration…” Link recalled the snippets he’d overheard from the Zora healers who’d first rendered him aid. And Sidon was so distraught, the raw emotion bleeding through enough to be clearly heard. It made sense now, Link realized, how he was too weak to even hold a cup or shift positions in bed. He hadn’t even noticed what he was doing to himself, all those weeks he spent chasing after those memories. Chasing after Zelda. He knew he wasn’t at his best, but that fact had been a constant ever since the mummy - since Ganondorf - had hit him with that squirming mass of gloom. But having chosen to so firmly push that from his mind and refusing to confront it had made the slow, steady further deterioration much less of a concern than it should have been. He was so, so, so stupid! Wow, he’d really done it now, hadn’t he? What a complete and utter failure he was. The Hero of Hyrule, not even self aware enough to realize he was actively destroying himself and making everyone in Hyrule fear for him. The fact that he had even made it this far in life was a fluke. He’d driven himself to the brink of death before; his hundred-year slumber was testament to that. What a disgrace. Him managing to defeat Calamity Ganon must have just been dumb luck. Tears flowed down Link’s face faster now, and the fact that he didn’t even have enough strength to raise his arms and wipe them away made him even more upset. Against his will, he let out a strangled sob as his emotion swelled. He wished he could just disappear.

“I…” Sidon ducked his head. “I am sorry, my friend. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please know that I’m not angry with you. I just can’t bear to lose someone so close to me again.”

This only made Link cry harder. Why did Sidon even consider him to be close in the first place? He surely wasn’t worthy of the kind of pure-hearted affection that Sidon always showered him with. The only explanation was that he’d somehow fooled the Zora prince into liking him. “‘M sorry,” he hiccuped.

Sidon reached out and gingerly placed one of his hands on Link’s shoulder. “Oh, Link, please don’t apologize any more. What’s passed has passed. Now we just need to focus on your recovery.”

He didn’t get it. “‘S not it,” Link slurred, trying to speak past the tears. “Sorry for…” he took a shaky breath. “Sorry for tricking you.” 

“For tricking me?” Sidon looked confused. “Whatever do you mean?” 

Link let out another sob before forcing himself to continue on. “Into caring.”

“You’re sorry for tricking me… into caring… about you?” 

In response, Link could only nod. He was too choked up.

“What in the- of all the-“ Sidon spluttered himself into silence, hand coming away from Link’s shoulder as he raised it slightly in tandem with the other in shock. He seemed to think hard for a heavy, drawn-out moment while Link sniffled. Then his eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see,” he said finally. “I see what’s happening here.” And without any warning, he scooped Link up into his arms, blankets and all, and stood. Link was so shocked that his crying cut off abruptly, the only thing leaving his mouth being a very undignified squeak of surprise. Sidon turned and walked a few steps before stopping at the entrance of the inn, just inside the overhang. “Link, look,” he said, his voice soft as if he were trying to calm a wounded animal. “Do you see that statue there?”

Link turned his head towards the center of the main plaza. The ground was covered in pools of what appeared to be thick mud, which was odd, but Sidon hadn’t mentioned that. He wanted him to look at the statue. Link did so and was surprised to see that the figure of Mipha was gone, replaced with something else. He narrowed his eyes, trying to make out what it was, and then suddenly he realized: the statue depicted him, dressed in full Zora armor and perched upon Sidon’s back the way he had been when they faced off against Vah Ruta. Though it had only been a few years, it felt like a distant memory. 

Sidon must have seen the realization in his face, because he began to speak again, still in that same soft voice, such a departure from his usual boisterousness. “Do you know why that statue is there, Link? Not just because the Zora owe you a debt, but because we consider you a friend. I personally consider you to be one of my closest and most cherished friends. You didn’t trick me into it. It’s genuine. And if you were in your right mind right now, you’d know that.” With that, he turned and made his way back into the inn and gently laid Link back down on his bed. “I can’t begin to imagine what you’ve been going through, my friend,” he said as he fixed the pillows and straightened the blankets carefully, “but I do see that it’s led you to a very dark place.”

Tears were once again rolling down Link’s face, this time silently. He didn’t respond, but Sidon didn’t seem to expect him to. “You’re feeling a lot right now,” the Zora prince continued, “but I want you to know that your friends - and there are a great many of them - care for you more than you can imagine. I know it must be difficult to find yourself in a position you’re not used to being in, or that you don’t know how to handle, but please, don’t for a moment think that you’re a burden. You’re our friend. My friend. You’ve always helped others so selflessly. Please allow us to help you. We want to help you. We’re happy to.” 

Link just continued to cry silently in response to the tide of emotions washing over him. He was too tired to react any other way. Evidently, Sidon could tell. “I know you’re spent,” he said gently. “I think what you need now is a long rest. We’ll talk again when you wake, all right?” He reached out to squeeze Link’s shoulder and then retreated, knowing that his friend would prefer solitude in a state like this. Now free to devote his full attention inward, Link did so. 

Link was so overwhelmed, he didn’t know what to think. He was feeling too much. His first instinct was to turn away from it and switch it all off, the way he’d done after finding the last memory Zelda had left for him. But this time, something was telling him not to run away from it all. To keep feeling. That maybe if he allowed himself to feel, however difficult it may be, it would be better on the other side. He often thought about the person he had been before the Calamity. If he was still that person. If he could live up to that person. But now, he realized, he didn’t want to be that person. That person had shut off his emotions too, with disastrous consequences. He couldn’t be that person again. It wasn’t fair to the people he cared about. Who cared about him. His friends. 

He really did have wonderful friends after all, he thought. Purah had saved his life by sending out those letters, despite how Link had treated her the last time they spoke. She’d noticed he was spiraling and did all she could think of to help. Sidon must have responded by going out to search for him; the Rist Peninsula was relatively close to Zora’s Domain, but Link knew he couldn’t have covered quite that much ground in the day or two he was wandering about in a fugue state. The sundelion tea wasn’t a coincidence either, then. The Zora knew he needed it to bring him back from the brink because of Purah. He owed her a huge thank you as well as an apology. The same for Sidon, Link thought, especially after what had just transpired. He ought to revisit Riju and the Gerudo too, for that matter; he had been so tangled up in his own mind that he hadn’t had the capability to see their care, hospitality, and faith in him for what it really was: friendship. All of that was going to have to wait, though, because at the moment, Link could do no more than sink into an exhausted slumber.

Chapter Text

Link woke to the feeling of healing magic being cast over him. Though he didn’t open his eyes yet, he had the wherewithal to remember where he was and what was happening, unlike the incident at the healing pool. The magic felt nice. It reminded him of Mipha. 

Over the past several years, Link had recovered more memories of the Zora princess, but he knew that there was much more to their story that still hadn’t come back to him. The way Mipha interacted with him in those scattered memories indicated that they’d been very close. Between scant recollections of his own and the contents of Mipha’s diary, he’d pieced together the fact that she had grown to love him in a way he knew he hadn't felt he could reciprocate, and he hadn’t figured out how to tell her. The impending Calamity had put that whole situation on the back burner, though. Link wondered what would have happened if the battle with Calamity Ganon had gone as planned, and everyone made it through unscathed to continue with their lives. He would have eventually had to have a talk with Mipha about where they stood… and she would have been heartbroken. The thought saddened Link, though he knew it would have been the right decision to make. Besides, it was unlikely that they would have been allowed to wed even if he’d wanted to do so. And then there was Zelda. As far as Link remembered, he and Zelda weren’t romantically involved before the Calamity, but he certainly knew he’d quietly pined after her.

Zelda.

For the first time since waking in that room high above Hyrule, thinking of his princess did not elicit immediate feelings of panic and urgency. There was a deep sadness and mourning, of course, but somehow, Link felt like he could finally take a figurative breath and think clearly about his situation. Maybe his meltdown the night before had something to do with it. “I always feel better after a good cry,” Zelda would often say begrudgingly with a wry smile after her own emotions spilled over. Link was well accustomed to comforting her through these episodes; spending 100 years containing the beast that was Calamity Ganon had done its damage, and sometimes a nightmare would crop up to torment her or a trigger would send her into a tailspin. The fact that he had become so adept at comforting her was admittedly a bit of a point of pride for Link, but every time, he couldn’t help but feel guilt and shame too. It wouldn’t have been like that for her if he hadn’t failed all those years ago.

Don’t think like that! To Link’s surprise, his internal monologue now sounded suspiciously like Sidon, in both voice and sentiment. You fought tooth and nail, and did everything you could. Stop beating yourself up.

Well. That was unexpected. He’d never thought to push back against what his psyche was telling him he should feel. It was… honestly a bit refreshing. Link still felt himself teetering back and forth between following the advice of this new train of thought and reverting back to the relative comfort of his typical self-deprecation, but the fact that there was now a fork in the road felt a bit empowering.

Riding that small high, Link summoned the energy to open his eyes and found himself face to face with a female Zora he’d never seen before, head bowed and hands hovering over him as healing magic flowed from her. It took her a moment to realize that Link was awake, but when she did, her reaction was unexpected. “Eek!” She shrieked, the flow of her healing magic coming to an abrupt halt as she jumped in her chair. “I’m sorry! Did I wake you? I didn’t mean to! I just wasn’t expecting to-“

“Chroma dear, calm down, it’s all right,” Kodah’s voice came from Link’s other side as she approached with a chuckle. “Why don’t you find Prince Sidon and tell him that Link is awake again? He asked to be informed.” 

“Of course, of course! I’ll go do that now!” The flustered woman shot to her feet and bolted away. 

Kodah chuckled again, and seeing Link’s bewildered expression, explained: “that’s Chroma, she’s training to become one of Lady Yona’s attendants.” Link didn’t recognize that name, and Kodah must have noticed that the bewilderment hadn’t left his face because she quickly followed up. “Oh! I’d forgotten you haven’t formally met Lady Yona yet. Prince Sidon was going to introduce her when you and Princess Zelda next visited, but…” she trailed off, and Link didn’t need to guess what she was alluding to. The Upheaval had happened and turned everything upside down. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get an introduction soon enough!” Kodah perked back up again. “Now that you’re awake, how about I brew some of your tea?”

That sounded delightful. “Yes, please,” Link replied. He noted that his voice sounded less rough than it had last night. That was a good sign, right? But such a trivial sign. He was still nowhere close to his full strength.

Hey! That’s no way to look at things! The voice in Link’s head that sounded like Sidon spoke up. You know now that this road to recovery is going to be longer than you thought, given how close to death you were. Every inch is a mile. You’re allowed to be proud of accomplishments.

That… well, that did make sense, Link reasoned. It felt a bit unnatural, but he went with it. A sense of tentative satisfaction filled him.

Oblivious to Link’s inner musings, Kodah clapped her hands together at his reply. “Wonderful!” She said. She must have noticed the improvement in his voice too, because she now deemed Link ready to fully sit up in bed, tucking a few extra pillows behind him before going off to brew the tea.

In short order, the sundelion tea was ready. Feeling bold, Link decided to attempt to reach for the cup on his own again. Whereas last time he could barely move his arm at all, now he managed to lift it a few shaky inches off the blanket. Kodah picked up on what he was trying to do and placed the cup in against his palm, closing his fingers around it carefully and then helping him guide it to his mouth while her other hand supported him at the elbow. Another small victory. See? You’re doing it! You’re improving! There was Sidon’s voice again. This shift in perspective was starting to feel less intimidating, and this time Link let the positive sentiment take hold with very little hesitation. For the first time in a long time, he started to feel a little hopeful. “Is that a little hint of a smile I see?” Kodah asked as she set the empty cup aside. 

Link blinked back at her, and quickly took stock of himself to find to his own surprise that, yes, the corners of his mouth were turned up a bit. Realizing this, he lowered his eyes as he felt just a touch of embarrassment at Kodah having pointed it out, but even so, he felt his smile grow a bit.

“Oh!” Kodah now seemed absolutely ecstatic, her hands coming up to form excited little fists in front of her. “You really are getting better!”

“What’s this about getting better?” That was Sidon’s voice, now coming through Link’s ears instead of just being in his head. Turning towards the sound, his smile grew yet again and turned into a little grin. “My friend,” Sidon always called him, and what a good friend the Zora prince truly was, Link thought. He’d had no idea just how deep and dark of a well his own mind was seeking to trap him in until Sidon threw down a rope. 

As he came into view, Sidon caught sight of Link's expression, and a matching grin (albeit with significantly sharper teeth) immediately sprung up on his own face. “Oh, Link!” He practically bounded to the side of the hero's bed. “You look so much better indeed today! Are you feeling better, as well?”

Link still felt incredibly weak and nowhere near full health, but compared to yesterday? He certainly did feel better, physically and especially mentally. “Yes,” he said, voice even stronger than it had been a few minutes ago. “Thank you,” he added on a bit more seriously, trying to convey just how grateful he truly was to Sidon. His friend.

“I am so very glad,” Sidon replied as he sat down at Link's bedside opposite Kodah. He reached out and placed his hand over Link's own in a brief gesture to show that he'd understood all of the meaning behind Link's thanks before turning to the innkeeper. “And Kodah, thank you to you and Kayden both for taking such excellent care of my dearest friend.”

“Oh, it’s been no trouble at all, Your Highness!” Kodah replied.

She was just saying that, Link automatically thought. Looking after him in this state had to be an enormous chore. But what if she actually means it? The internal Sidon-like voice countered. Look, she seems so happy. Do you really think she'd lie? Well, perhaps she really was telling the truth, Link thought tentatively. “You’ve been wonderful to me, Kodah. Thank you,” he said a bit shyly. 

“You’re most welcome Linny - I-I mean Link!” She continued on in a rush: “I’m sorry! It’s just, well, that’s what I used to call you when you were just a little fry, and old habits are hard to break!” She looked nervous now. 

Link wasn’t expecting the conversation to take this kind of turn. One, Kodah did seem to genuinely feel happy and fulfilled from caring for him. And two: “you knew me when I was a child?”

“Oh, yes!” Kodah’s face brightened once again. “The first time you came to the Domain, I was assigned to watch over you. The Hylian delegation didn’t have anyone to spare, you see. Apparently you’d come along as a stowaway and weren’t discovered until it was too late to turn back!” Kodah laughed. “You were such a spirited little one. You sure gave me a run for my money, but what a great time it was!”

Stowing away with a royal delegation? Was that something he could imagine himself doing, Link wondered? He wasn’t really sure; his childhood was a time from which he’d recovered frustratingly few memories. The little boy he’d once been felt like a completely different person - not only to who he was now, but to who he’d been after he pulled the Master Sword. Link felt the embers of the identity crisis he’d been struggling with since the day he woke up in the Shrine of Resurrection begin to heat up again. But before those embers could flare to life and start a real fire, Kodah continued on. “I so look forward to your visits, Link. These past few years, it’s like you’re back to your true self.”

Link was now completely taken off guard, not to mention confused. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“Well, you smile and laugh often, you chat with anyone who crosses your path, and you even play with the children - who adore you, might I add!” Kodah was gaining momentum now. “You became so withdrawn and sullen, maybe even a little prickly, in the time leading up to the Calamity. Helpful and devoted, still, but, well… the rest is hard to describe. It’s the difference in your demeanor, mostly. When you became the Champion, it was like the light had gone out of you and you carried a weight on your shoulders. When you walked over the great bridge for the first time after your hundred years of rest, I could tell right away that the same spirit I saw in you when you were a little boy had returned.”

For a few moments, Link just sat there in stunned silence. Last night he’d tried to resign himself to the fact that he was going to need to reinvent himself to get out of the rut he’d stuck himself in since the Upheaval, but… maybe he didn’t need to become a new person. Maybe he just needed to look deeper into his past. It made sense, he now reasoned, that the person he’d been in the last few years, devoid of the majority of memories of the experiences that shaped him, was the person he truly was at his core. The immense burdens placed on him at a young age had buried that person deep, and that person had been subsequently freed after his long slumber. It was a strange irony, he thought. Lose his memories, but gain his true self. And going into a downward spiral after awakening the Demon King was a direct parallel to the way he’d shut himself down as a teenager. “Withdrawn and sullen, maybe even a little prickly.” “Like the light had gone out of you.” That’s how you become under stress, Link’s new voice of reason revealed to him. That’s what Purah saw that made her sound the alarm. Oh, it all made sense now! This was a cycle. A cycle that, as of last night, he had already made the resolution to break. Despite the circumstances, Link felt a strange feeling come over him: like the ever-smoldering embers of his identity crisis had been stomped out. Like he was allowed to feel secure in himself.

“Link?” Sidon’s worried voice broke through his thoughts. “Are you all right, my friend? What’s the matter?”

Belatedly, Link realized that a few tears were rolling down his face. But this was nothing like the kind of crying he was doing before. “Nothing’s wrong,” he managed, a smile springing up unbidden across his face as he lifted a shaky hand to wipe at his eyes without even thinking. The action made him gasp - he couldn’t even do that much last night. Improvement! His inner voice cheered. Though that inner voice had started off sounding like Sidon, it was now starting to sound like a more natural part of Link’s mindscape. For the first time in weeks, he let out a little laugh. “I’m happy,” he said.

Kodah just smiled empathetically back at him, unaware of both the contents of Purah’s letter and the exchange he’d had with Sidon the night before. But Sidon, fully realizing the gravity of this moment (though he didn’t quite know the exact reason it had happened), reached out to place a hand on Link’s shoulder. “And I am happy for you, my friend,” he said sincerely. Link met his eyes and tried to convey his thanks once again, wordlessly this time. It was a look that said, “I’m not always the best at words but I want to drive it home to you just how thankful I really am.” Judging by Sidon’s response - a single, deliberate nod - he understood this communication of thanks just as well as he had Link’s verbal one a few minutes earlier.

For the next few moments, Link let himself sit and be happy for a bit. Just when it looked like Kodah was going to speak up again, a voice came from the doorway: “Kodah, I’m back! I got those ingredients I was after!” All three people turned to see Kayden entering with a giant crate held in his arms, so tall that it was obstructing his vision. Kodah leapt to her feet to clear a path for him.

Kayden navigated through the room and set the crate down with a thud on the floor next to his desk, where Kodah immediately set to work opening it. The innkeeper then turned to face the other two people in his inn. “Ah, Link, you’re awake! And hello, Your Highness! I'm sure you'll be happy to see who I have with me. She saw me trying to juggle all these things and insisted on helping me carry them over!” He motioned to the doorway, and there stood a female Zora with green scales and a facial structure that suggested that she was likely from a different domain, holding a large basket practically overflowing with small packages. Link realized that he had seen this person before: she was the one who had initially checked him over after Sidon found him wandering aimlessly out in the wilderness. “Here you are, Kayden,” she said as she handed him the basket. Then she turned to Sidon. “I’m sorry, dear. I know you wanted to wait for the right moment to introduce me to Link, but I couldn’t just stand by and let Kayden struggle with that load on his own!”

‘Dear?’ Link began to have an inkling into who this might be…

“Oh! Not to worry, that was very kind of you, my love,” Sidon replied to her as he stood. “I suppose now is as good a moment as any!”

‘My love?’ Okay. Now Link had a very strong suspicion, and it was proven right with the next words out of Sidon’s mouth: “Link, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Lady Yona, my fiancé.” He looked between the two of them, beaming. 

Yona then spoke up and addressed Link directly. “It’s such an honor to formally meet you, Link! I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiled and glanced at her fiancé before continuing. “I’ve known Sidon for a very long time, and I’ve never heard him speak so enthusiastically and highly of someone as he’s spoken about you.”

Link blushed and glanced down for a moment out of embarrassment at such high praise and sincerity. His first instinct was to try to talk himself down, tell himself this was all a gross exaggeration, but his new inner voice piped up. Sidon is your friend. One of your very best friends. Of course he would speak highly of you! Well, that was true… but this wasn't the time to fret over feelings. Link gently placed that self-doubt aside to examine later (as opposed to shoving it away roughly with no intention of revisiting it, as he would have done before). He then looked up again and smiled a genuine smile. He was doing an awful lot of that today and it felt wonderful. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Yona.” And he meant it, too. 

Link knew from Sidon’s letters over the past year that King Dorephan had decided it was time for him to marry, and was in the process of seeking out a suitable bride for his son. Such was the way of nobility, for whom marriage was first and foremost a political matter. Sidon would never have admitted as much outright, but Link could read between the lines of those letters and infer how nervous his friend had been about the prospect. It was a real relief to see that the woman Dorephan had chosen was someone that Sidon seemed to already have a positive relationship with. Link was happy for his friend. He only wished he could have met Yona when he hadn’t just been crying, even if it was a happy cry! Ah well.

“Oh, please, call me Yona!” The lady herself said with a wide smile.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Kayden approached the group. “But, Link, seeing as you're improving nicely and keeping your tea down, the healers are thinking that it's about time to start giving you a little bit of food. Do you feel up to trying some broth?”

Did he? Link thought for a bit. Food almost always made him sick nowadays, it was true, but the sundelion tea and sunlight had been helping him quite a bit, as evidenced by the tiny milestones he'd met today as well as having stayed awake and lucid long enough to be having this very conversation. He didn't feel nauseous at the moment, either, which was a good sign. And besides, he'd never get better if he couldn't eat. “I'll try it,” he decided.

“Good!” Kayden clapped his hands together. “I've got a recipe that I think will do nicely.” And with that, he went over to his desk and picked a few things out from the items Kodah had unpacked from the crate and basket. Then he made his way out of the inn, presumably to make use of the cooking hearth just outside.

Kodah came to rejoin the group. “Kayden's excited to be cooking again,” she said. “We haven't had any guests in a while.” And the Zora themselves didn't eat cooked food, Link knew. But about the second part of that statement… “Why haven't you had any guests?” Link asked.

“Oh, well…” Kodah looked down sadly, and both Sidon and Yona now wore matching expressions of stress, as if being reminded of something they didn't want to be reminded of. Link immediately knew he'd landed on a touchy subject. “It's a bit of a complicated situation.” Kodah then sat down next to Link's bed, settling in for an explanation. Sidon and Yona sat too.

Over the next several minutes, Link was filled in on what was happening in Zora's Domain as of late: sludge falling from the sky, their water poisoned, food becoming scarce, people becoming sickened, and King Dorephan injured and in hiding. All this from the Upheaval? Link couldn't help but feel guilty for burdening the Zora with his care, despite his attempts today to stop being so hard on himself. They had been dealing with unimaginable hardships, and now they had yet another mouth to feed and sick person to tend to. “I'm sorry you've been saddled with me now, on top of everything else,” he murmured abashedly as he ducked his head.

“Oh, Link, please don't say such things!” Sidon said immediately. “Remember what I told you last night? You're important to us. We're so very happy to help you!” Yona nodded in agreement. Kodah, taking a more practical approach, added: “Don't for a moment think that you're a burden, Link! Kayden and I have been so lonely at the inn with no guests, and even feeling a bit useless. We were delighted when we heard you were coming to stay with us! And you're certainly not putting a strain on our resources here at the domain either; the Hylian food stocks we keep for travelers have been sitting untouched for weeks! Why, when Kayden went over to the store, just look at all the things they practically begged him to take!” She gestured towards the desk, now completely covered in wrapped food parcels that had been unloaded from the crate and basket.

That certainly all made sense to Link. He was relieved now. “I see,” he said, giving a small smile to show that he now wasn't feeling as down about himself. “Thank you again for all that you've done for me.”

After a trio of acknowledgements and kind words, Sidon shifted the topic back to current events. “The strangest thing about all of this is that Princess Zelda herself seems to be somehow involved. Witness accounts unanimously claim that they saw her attack my father with a wave of sludge! It doesn't make any sense at all.”

Now that piqued Link's interest. “Has she been seen in various places around the area as well?”

“Why, yes, in fact she has,” Yona said with a note of surprise in her voice. “Have you been experiencing the same? We heard that the two of you had become separated.”

“Well, not… not really…” Link really didn't want to get too deep into this subject right now. “We were separated, yes, but the person you're seeing… it looks like her, but it's not her,” he insisted.

A look of confusion came over Kodah's face. “Whatever do you mean?” She asked.

“It's a… well…” Link looked to Sidon for help. I really don't want to open this can of worms right now, he tried to express silently. To his immense relief, Sidon once again understood exactly what he was trying to communicate. “It's an illusion of some kind?” he ventured.

“Yes, that's it. An illusion. All I can say is it's dangerous. Stay away from it,” he impressed upon all of them. 

“Well, after the attack on King Dorephan, that won't be a problem,” Yona assured him. “No one is keen on approaching her. It,” she corrected herself. 

“Good,” Link said. They were all silent for a moment. It was obvious that they wanted to ask for more details, but were holding back at the moment for his sake. Link changed the subject with a bit of fumbling. “So… um, the two of you have known each other for a long time?” He asked, looking to Sidon and Yona.

“Oh, yes!” Yona confirmed. “We often played together when we were children. I always looked forward to my visits here. When I was very small, I regarded Sidon and Mipha a bit like siblings, since I had none of my own.”

Link smiled at the mention of Mipha. “Mipha could make anyone feel at home,” he said fondly. 

“That she could,” Sidon agreed. “I was so very young when she was taken from us, but I cherish the memories I do have with her. I know she was close with you as well, Link. Why, I remember her saying once that you defeated a knight at only four years old!” 

“Oh, my!” Yona gasped. “Such a young age! Well, Hylians do age much more quickly than the Zora, I hear.”

“Four is still very young to carry out such a feat, even for a Hylian,” Kodah said. “My little Finley's Hylian friend, Sasan, met us when he was four years old, and I couldn't imagine him doing that!” She chuckled. “But take it from me, Linny was an incredibly talented and enthusiastic young boy.” She smacked her forehead. “Ah! I mean Link! I'm sorry, I did it again!”

“It's okay, Kodah,” Link said quietly, still blushing slightly from the praise. “I don't mind at all.” He would've let her call him Winklebottom Figgypudding Fitzherbert if she wanted to. Having someone in his life who'd known him as a young child was something he never thought he'd have, and he was reminded again how elated he was at the discovery. He was once again smiling, he realized. 

Sidon, who was demonstrably very good at picking up Link's nonverbal cues, then made Link even more elated and steered the conversation further in this direction. “Kodah, I would love to hear more about Link when he was young! I don't believe the two of us ever crossed paths in those days.”

“Oh, but you did!” Kodah countered, much to Sidon's (and Link's) surprise. She giggled.

“I sense a story here,” Yona said, a sly smile appearing on her face.

“You'd be right about that!” Kodah let out another giggle. She put a hand over her mouth in an apparent attempt to stifle her laughter. Link looked on curiously.

“Well, go on then! Let's hear it!” Sidon urged.

“All right!” After a few more giggles, Kodah got herself under control and began her story, turning to Link for the first part. “Linny, like I said, the first time you came here as a four-year-old, you'd stowed away with the Hylian delegation. Being the curious young girl I was, I was lingering nearby when the group arrived, and heard the royal guards arguing about what to do about you. I was at that stage in life - what you Hylians call ‘pre-teen’, I think? - when I was determined to prove myself worthy of being given some responsibility. So, I stepped forward and volunteered myself to look after you! The relief among the guards was obvious. One man, who I believe must have been your father, immediately took your hand and marched you up to me. He introduced you, impressed upon me multiple times that you could not swim yet and must not go in the water, and then quickly had to take his leave to attend to his duties. Before I knew it, I was alone with a little Hylian grinning up at me! And then, that little Hylian took off running as fast as his legs could carry him!”

At this, Sidon and Yona both laughed, and Link found himself grinning just like his younger self had in the story. He wasn't feeling any memories come back to him about this event, but wasn't terribly worried about that - being barely out of toddlerhood at the time it occurred, it was unlikely he would have recalled it even if his memories were fully intact. 

Kodah continued on: “To say I was taken off guard by that would have been an understatement! I took off running after you, and caught up just as you were entering an area that housed a pool where Zora children often played. And there stood Princess Mipha, watching over you as you splashed around, Your Highness!” She turned to Sidon, who smiled at the mental image he no doubt was now imagining. “You were very young then, newly spawned. You hadn't learned to speak yet, and weren't the steadiest on your feet either. Zora children can swim from birth, though,” Kodah explained for Link's sake. “So there you were,” she turned back to Sidon, “playing in your pool, and when you caught sight of Link, your eyes turned as big as an octorok's and you dove down to hide at the bottom. I don't think you'd ever seen a Hylian before!”

This time, Link laughed along with the group. He could imagine the scene.

“Princess Mipha's reaction was the complete opposite, though”, Kodah regaled. “She came right up to you, Linny, knelt down to your level, and introduced herself. You were absolutely preening under all the attention, and proudly told the both of us everything there was to know about you. You went on and on about your training swords - the newest was made of real metal instead of wood, you made sure we knew - and the pony your mother had promised you for your fifth birthday.” 

His mother had promised him a pony for his fifth birthday. Link instantly treasured this piece of information. Perhaps this was where his love of horses had started.

“By this time, Your Highness, you had come up from the bottom of the pool and were peeking over the edge,” Kodah addressed Sidon. “I think seeing the princess's positive reaction to the situation gave you more confidence, and with a little encouragement, you got out and toddled over to join the group. Mipha then confided that this was the first time she'd been trusted to watch over you all by herself - the two of us were about the same age, you see - and she thought it would be lovely for her baby brother to meet and play with a Hylian child. Before I knew it, a game of tag had started, and the two of you were chasing each other around the pool!”

“Aww, this is so sweet!” Yona cooed. She looked to her fiance. “Perhaps the two of you are so close now partly because you were friends as children, even if you were too young to remember!” 

“Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to call them friends at that stage,” Kodah said. “This game of tag wasn't evenly matched. Highness, you could barely walk properly at that point, let alone run. And Linny, of course, you couldn't swim.” After a little chuckle, Kodah elaborated. “Whenever the Zora was ‘it’, he couldn't dream of catching up to the Hylian. Princess Mipha and I had to pause the game to switch roles. And when the Hylian was ‘it’, the Zora got so tired of being tagged almost immediately that he just started jumping in the pool where he was quicker, not realizing he couldn't be followed!”

“I think I see where this is going,” Sidon commented with a wry smile.

“Linny, you got so angry! Every time His Highness dove in, you stopped short at the edge and started hollering that it wasn't fair, but of course, with Prince Sidon being younger developmentally, those protests were ignored by him. Princess Mipha and I were at a loss, and debating splitting the two of you up. But before we could do that, Linny, you finally got so wound up that the next time His Highness hopped in the water, you leaped in right on top of him!” 

Link was the first to burst out into laughter this time. The scene he was picturing in his head was now absolutely absurd, but he could definitely imagine himself doing what Kodah had just described. Sometimes he did get so frustrated when what he was doing wasn’t working that he did something crazy, like throw his weapon. Or himself. The others joined in laughing, equally amused by the tale.

At this point Kodah was getting so into the story, her hands began gesticulating animatedly. “Oh, you should have heard the screams the two of us girls let out! We immediately dove in after the pair of you. Your sister pulled you out, Highness, and Linny, I don't think I've ever leapt out of a pool as quickly as I did then with you in my arms. The warnings about you not being able to swim were running through my head on a loop. I set you down and started making over you frantically, and I could hear Princess Mipha doing the same with His Highness. Barely five seconds later, we each had a distraught little boy on our hands, crying and wailing so hard you'd think the world was ending.” Kodah let out a short laugh and shook her head. “It wasn't until we got both of you calmed down - which took a while, might I add - that we realized that neither of you had been harmed at all. It was really our horrified reactions that had upset you so.”

The entire group dissolved into peals of hysterical laughter. Link felt tears forming in his eyes for the second time that day, and was laughing so hard that he barely even acknowledged the fact that he raised both hands with almost no difficulty at all to wipe at them. He felt good. Not just happy, but good, a warm contentedness settling in him. He hadn't felt this way in a very long time. Not since before the first reports of trouble at Hyrule Castle had reached him a couple of months ago. As it always seemed to do now, his mind immediately tried to crowd in and bring him down. How could he be paling around with friends, and laughing, and feeling good with what had happened to Zelda? Zelda would want you to be happy. She'd want you to feel good, his voice of reason interjected. His voice of reason was right, Link decided. Zelda would want him to be happy. Before he could think any more on that, though, a huge yawn snuck up on him out of nowhere. Almost immediately, Link began to feel very, very sleepy.

“Oh, dear,” Kodah commented as her laughter faded. “It looks like I've tired you out. I think you'd better rest now, Linny.” Link agreed. His eyelids were now beginning to droop, and he simply replied with a little hum of assent. 

“Well, I'd better be going as well - I volunteered to cleanse the spring today,” Sidon said as he got to his feet and Yona followed suit. “Thank you for telling us that wonderful story, Kodah; you've brought me great joy. And Link, I'm also so very grateful to see you recovering as well as you are.” Link gave another sleepy hum in response as Kodah took away the spare pillows she'd propped him up with earlier and pulled the blankets up to his chest. He was fast asleep before Sidon and Yona had even left the room.

As time went on, Link continued to make progress. There were a few hiccups, though, much to his dismay. He managed to eat a few servings of savory broth with no issue, but after the second day on this new liquid diet, he suddenly woke after a nap with the distinct feeling that he was going to be violently ill. Fortunately, Kayden was nearby and managed to sit him up and put a bowl in his lap just in time. Link felt awful, not just physically, but also for the fact that Kayden had to deal with the nasty task of cleaning up after him. He apologized profusely after the innkeeper had helped him rinse his mouth out and lie back down again. That was when he learned, much to his surprise, that vomiting was not something that was off-putting to the Zora at all. “We eat fish and other water-dwelling critters whole, and regurgitate the non-digestible parts like bones afterwards,” Kayden explained. It was a perfectly natural part of everyday life for them, though they were aware that it was something that Hylians only experienced when they were very sick. Therefore, the Zora were even polite enough not to regurgitate the scraps of their meals in the presence of Hylians. Who knew? “Besides, even if it were something out of the ordinary, I wouldn't mind!” Kayden continued. “Kodah and I have been helping you relieve yourself the whole time you've been here, after all!” Link flushed deep crimson to the tips of his ears in profound mortification at that particular reminder, but Kayden was quick to remind him that they were happy to care for him and he shouldn't feel ashamed. “As for the broth, the healers say your recovery might not always be completely linear,” he said. “We'll just go back to tea for your next meal, and try broth again tomorrow.”

And so it went for the next couple of weeks. Link met milestones like sitting up on his own, staying awake for longer periods of time, progressing to semi-solid and then fully solid food (though he did backslide a few times like he had with the broth, but he coached himself to not give up), and finally standing and walking. In time, he was able to walk a few laps around the inn, and then take trips out to the courtyard to admire his and Sidon's statue - being careful to avoid the never-ending falling sludge, of course. Nearly three weeks after he'd arrived at Zora's Domain, Yona and the other healers deemed him healthy enough to attempt to enter the Zonai shrine that was conveniently located just off the great bridge. “Come right back out again if the trial looks to be more than you can handle,” Sidon told him nervously, but it turned out there was no need for worry. The shrine just held a trio of puzzles that Link was mostly able to solve using the abilities granted by Rauru's hand, and when he received the Light of Blessing at the end, he felt so energized he wanted to sprint a mile. He settled for taking an extended walk, though; Sidon looked as if he might have an aneurysm had he tried to go for a run. That probably would have been a bad idea, anyway. Link was well aware now that he had a tendency to overestimate his abilities.

He decided to meander up the steps towards the palace, with Sidon trailing half a step behind. After some time, he came upon the statue of the Goddess that the Zora displayed just below the throne room. As soon as he laid eyes on it, Link felt a strange kind of… tug. Like he was being pulled towards the statue. He didn't resist and moved closer, and was in short order standing before the representation of Hylia. Another urge overtook him then. “I want to pray for a while,” he murmured in explanation to Sidon, already turning his palms upward in supplication. Unbidden, he fell into what he'd later describe as some sort of trance, the likes of which he realized he remembered from praying at similar statues during his first journey across Hyrule, after he'd awoken in the Shrine of Resurrection and set out to defeat Calamity Ganon and save Zelda. An exchange took place in a manner he couldn't put into words; the closest amalgamation he could manage was that the Lights of Blessing he'd absorbed were being converted into strength and vitality. Life force.

When Link came out of his trance, it was evident by the position of the sun that several hours had passed. Sidon was still lingering nearby, now joined by nearly a dozen Zora priests and priestesses, all staring at him with expressions of awe. Feeling awkward, Link turned away to continue his walk. He expected for his legs to be tired after standing for that long, but they weren't, and Sidon quickly fell into step beside him. “You were glowing. With a bright white light,” the Zora prince whispered hastily in explanation, glancing back at the clergy. “Oh,” Link replied simply. He didn't quite know how to respond to that. He found, though, that he didn't even feel remotely surprised at this revelation. What had just happened felt natural. It felt right. And now, he realized as he walked, he felt amazing. Experimentally, he broke into a jog, and then a full-on run, completely ignoring Sidon's cries of shock as the prince was left behind. He sprinted all the way to the end of one of the nearby bridges, reveling in the feel of the wind on his face and through his hair, before he felt his energy waning and he slowed to a stop, then turned to stroll back towards his friend. 

Link estimated that in the shape he'd been before the Demon King had weakened him, he would have been able to run maybe four or five times that distance before tiring. But compared to what he'd been capable of just a few weeks ago? He still had a long way to go, but he'd come a long way too. Link grinned as he reveled in his accomplishment. But something still wasn't right about this picture; he was walking through a Zora's Domain that was in dire straits. He made a decision then. When he made it back to Sidon, he looked up at him and said decisively, “My friend, I think it's time we start to take a good look into what's going on around here.”