Chapter Text
“I remember you. You’re that boy who saved everybody but himself.”
“I can’t forgive you. Not after you abandoned us. Abandoned me!”
“Sage? I’m no sage, I’m barely even human.”
“Oh? You don’t remember me, Hero? You will.”
“My last act in this life is to pledge my soul to you. So that we may be bound forever in my vow, the First Sage’s Vow.”
~~~~
Juno wakes with a gasp and she sits up in her cot. The phantom bites of some nightmare creature faded from her body, the grip of the real world pulling her back down to her senses. She heaved and let the cold sweat try to calm the smoldering heat rising from her chest.
She had woken up into a moment of complete and utter stillness. It felt wrong of her to be up at this time of night, when the fire had gone out and even the crickets stopped their music. When her traveling partner slept soundly beside her. When the pale moon shone down so gently onto his face.
As her instinctual fear started to subside, those words rang repeatedly in her head. Words she spoke with her mouth but she had no memory of ever saying. Or did she?
She clasped the pendant around her neck and swallowed dryly.
“Juno?” Her travelling partner stirred, voice deep and tired. She watched him reach out for her and pat around blindly while his other hand gripped the blade of evil’s bane on his back. Juno’s brows knitted together sympathetically before she rested a hand on his searching one.
“I’m okay. Go back to bed, Link.” She reassured, but it only made him sit up to look at her through sleep crusted eyes.
“No, you were tossing and turning before I turned in for the night,” he explained as his hand withdrew from the mastersword. “I think you were talking to yourself, too.”
Juno’s face flattened. How embarrassing. And they were too close to each other now for her to lie and get away with it.
“Fine. It was a nightmare,” Juno relented. “I- I think at least,” she added. While she explained the strange dialogue in her dream, Link went and lit the lantern that hung above their heads inside their humble tent. “I think I was talking to you, but I was saying things I didn’t understand,” she slumped.
“Mmm,” Link hummed as he rubbed away the sleepiness from his eyes. “Do you think it has to do with your medallion?”
“Yes… something along those lines,” she trailed, in a world of her own. Her thumb rubbed the smooth surface of the medallion turned pendant. It was just more convenient to hide it this way, so she won’t become an easy target for adversaries. Better to keep them all guessing as to where she truly went.
Yes, where she truly went, deep into the dead parts in the museum of her memories.
‘Hey, look at me.’ The hero’s grip said, which made Juno realize she had never let go of him. She shifted her gaze from the dead fire at their feet to his eyes that sucked her in every time and refused to let her go. They said everything she had to hear, even if she didn’t like it.
‘Don’t try to hide behind your indifference this time.’ And all the things she had to tell herself in order to face the monster that is the numbness ensnaring her.
Juno sighed knowingly, but not without stealing herself away from his watchful eyes upon her vulnerable state.
“We all know what the legends say. That we’re married in soul. That when I,” Juno paused. “That when I died in the first life I had with you… Hylia bound us in a sacred union so that we would never be apart, defying even death.” When she turned to look at him again, she found Link staring intently. His attention urged her to continue, so she did.
“We’ve had countless lives together. You might not remember, but I… some part of me does remember. This cursed thing,” she ripped the pendant from her neck and threw it at the dead fire with tears that pricked the corners of her eyes. “It remembers it all.” She sobbed. “But I don’t even know who I am in this life,” she buried her face into her hands. “Everything I ever thought I was is gone.”
Juno started to remember vague fragments of her dream. She was a dragon that was struck through the heart by the blade of evil’s bane. She descended upon a bright red boat in the middle of the sea to greet a farce of an old face. She watched her home be consumed by flame, riding away on horseback. She was growing cold in the arms of her only love.
Even things she longed to forget in this life, like returning to the apocalyptic ruins of her home, came crashing down on her. Every memory became another wave of tears.
Link decided this was enough.
He kicked off his sheets and knelt beside Juno, closer than he was laying down. He cupped her cheeks gently and raised them from her hands. From what he’s observed, he was never expressive before he lost his memory. And even though he’s been granted this opportunity to reinvent himself and be the carefree spirit he knew he was in his heart, in moments like these words fail him.
So like he does, Link shows it through actions in order to lead his words.
He leaned in and planted a kiss in the corner of her left eye. “You’re kind.” And then another in the next eye. “You’re strong.” It made Juno spring another round of tears, just for this tooth rotting sweet sentiment. She leaned into his touch. And back and forth until he placed the final kiss on her lips to seal the deal. “You saved me from having to do any of this alone. And for that I am forever indebted to your companionship.” Link raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. “Need I say more?”
Juno couldn’t fight the smile that crept up on her face anymore. “No,” she giggled, her stress seeming so absurd now after Link’s demonstration. “Whoever I am, I know I love you.”
“That’s my girl.”