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When they fled Castle Town, they were fleeing a massacre.
Calamity Ganon had possessed the guardians and Divine Beasts, turning them against the kingdom they were supposed to protect. Within minutes, the largest urban center in Hyrule was turned into a flaming battlefield.
The princess, yet unable to awaken her sealing powers, had nothing left to do but flee.
And so, her knight’s hand interlocked with hers, they fled.
Link can see the carnage unfolding around them as he runs. People are screaming and buildings are collapsing all around him. And for once, he can’t do anything about it. No one possibly could.
Ganon has bested them.
His mind screams at him to help these people- help the soldiers engaged in battle with mechanical beasts and the children crying for their mothers. But as much as it hurts to ignore their pleas, he can’t help them.
But there’s one person he can help. And the only way he can help her right now is by running.
And so – Link reaching for Zelda’s arms, hundreds of mechanical arms reaching for them at all times – they run. Sometimes she stumbles because of the mud, but he helps her back up every time. They’ll keep running, they have to.
But then they stop.
Zelda falls again. He wants to help her up, but it becomes evident that he won’t be able to pull her up with raw strength this time. Instead of mud, it’s her sorrows that have dragged her down to the ground.
“How… How did it come to this?”
He sheathes his sword. They might be on the run, but he couldn’t care less. Zelda is in distress and he can’t in good conscience force her along in this state.
She struggles to breathe as the reality of their situation finally catches up to her. Link can hear the pain in her voice as she realizes the implications of the events that have just unfolded, no longer able to cling onto the stubborn, defying hope that had kept her going until now.
“Everything – everything I’ve done up until now… It was all for nothing… So I really am just a failure!” It breaks his heart to listen to her. “…I tried and I failed them all… I’ve left them… all to die.”
With a sob, she plants her head into his lap. It takes Link all his strength not to cry along as he holds the broken princess in his arms.
“You haven’t failed anybody yet. We just have to hold on a little longer and-”
“And then what? I’m never going to awaken this stupid power! Just look at me… I’m hindering you right now. Please… go… Leave me behind and save the others while you still can…”
Hopelessness.
By all accounts, she's right. Her powers haven’t shown themselves for seventeen years, why would they now?
Defiance.
But he knows better. This isn’t over yet.
He knows Zelda- knows that if anyone can do this, it’s her. No matter how bad the situation, she has always kept going in the past.
Love.
They can make it through this. Together.
He’ll make sure of it. That is his duty- and not in the least because some monarch said so.
He hopes his logic isn’t completely clouded by his feelings when he decides, “We’ve come this far. I’m not going to abandon you now.” A kiss is planted on her forehead and a hand grips hers once more.
Reluctantly, they keep running. They have to.
It’s Link’s love for her that keeps him running all the way to Fort Hateno – his will to protect the one thing he hasn’t lost yet. It keeps him in fighting condition, even when the holy blade he wields is chipped and broken.
He can hardly stand- let alone take down an army of guardians. But he does it anyways. Because every fleeting second he gains is another second given to her – another second for her to awaken her power.
And in the end, she does.
When her knight at last falls, it’s the princess’s love for him that brings her holy power out into the world.
It’s not empowered by devotion to a goddess like her father might have had her believe, but by devotion to the one person that might just be even more important to her – Link. The one person who had always given her something back.
It’s Link’s love that, even when he has given her his final breath, assures him he’s done the right thing.
A flash of golden light is the last thing he sees before he’s swept away into the darkness.
100 years later, that same light rouses him from his long slumber.
Someone speaks.
“Open your eyes…”
He doesn’t recognize her voice. But his heart does. It remembers. And it aches when the warm, golden light turns cold and blue.
“Open your eyes… Wake up, Link.”
Link. Is that my name? It must be, who else could this person be talking to but me?
He looks around, but nobody else is there.
Link has so many questions and no answers. He climbs out of the pool and makes his way to the end of the chamber, her voice guiding him every step of the way. He proceeds through the hallway until he reaches the final door.
“Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way.”
He obeys the voice’s command.
“Authenticating,” the screen reads. “Sheikah Slate confirmed.” The door opens, illuminating the chamber. He strains his eyes in response.
“Link… You are the light – our light – that must shine upon Hyrule once again. Now, go…”
He heads up the stairs in front of him and climbs up the ledge that blocks his path. When he finally emerges from the building and runs up to the edge of the cliff, a beautiful sight unfolds before his eyes: all of Hyrule, bathed in golden light. If he’d remembered anything about the princess, he might’ve thought the sun borrowed some of hers.
Link has no clue how he ended up here, or where he even is. But when he takes in his first breath of the wild, love assures him he’s in the right place.