Chapter Text
I open my eyes slowly.
The light is blinding, a harsh, searing white that stings my eyes after… well, after how long? I don't know. The air is cold, smelling of stale water and damp stone. My head throbs with a dull, rhythmic ache, and a voice echoes in the back of my mind, faint but persistent.
"Wake up, Link."
I sit up, gasping as the strange glowing fluid drains away from the bed I’ve been sleeping in. I look down at my hands—bare, pale, and trembling.
"Link…?" I whisper the name into the empty room. It feels like a nightmare I can't quite remember. A word that belongs to a stranger.
I stumble out of the chamber, grabbing a slate that glows with a soft blue light. It feels heavy on my hip, familiar in a way I can’t explain, like a phantom limb. I find old clothes in a chest, and pull them on.
I climb out of the cave and onto a cliff edge, and the world hits me like a physical weight.
The sunlight is oppressive. I shield my eyes, blinking rapidly. Below me, a vast plateau stretches out, an endless sea of green forests and jagged rocks, dotted with crumbled buildings. In the distance, ancient, dormant constructs that look like stone spiders sit frozen in time. The wind carries the scent of grass, pine, and… rot.
I stood there for a long time. Just breathing. Waiting for a memory to fill the silence. But there is only the wind.
I start descending the grassy slope, my legs unsteady. Everything feels wrong. I should know this place, shouldn't I? But there's just emptiness. A deep, cold void where my life should be. I walk past a rusted claymore stuck in the ground, half-consumed by vines. I don't touch it. I feel like a ghost haunting a graveyard.
I walk for what feels like an hour, avoiding the strange red creatures that have set up camp near the river. I am alone. Completely, terrifyingly alone.
Then, I see her.
She isn't one of the monsters. She is a person. A girl, short in stature, standing near the edge of a crumbled abbey. She has striking silver hair that whips around her face in the wind, and she’s pacing back and forth, kicking at the dirt with a heavy, muddy boot.
I stop, tensing behind a tree. My hand hovers over the slate at my hip. Is this a friend? A foe? My instincts are screaming, but they are confused, fighting through the fog in my mind.
I step on a dry twig. Snap.
She spins around instantly, her hand dropping to the hilt of a sword at her waist. Her eyes are sharp, scanning me from head to toe.
Then, her gaze drops. She stares directly at the glowing slate on my hip. Her eyes widen, and her shoulders drop, the tension replaced by a heavy, exhausted slump.
"Finally," she breathes, her voice rough. "I'm Lea."
She looks up at my face, her expression hardening. "And I was looking for you, Link."
She turns away from me, gesturing vaguely toward the horizon. "The hero who would free Hyrule from that."
I follow her gaze. Far in the distance, a massive castle stands impaled by pillars of obsidian, suffocated by a swirling, red-and-black energy. It looks like a festering wound on the landscape.
The name Ganon flashes through my mind, accompanied by a sharp spike of pain behind my eyes.
"Link..." I repeat the name again, testing the taste of it.
I look at her. She’s watching me, arms crossed tight across her chest as if holding herself together. She looks tired, worn down to the bone. Her leather armor is scuffed, and there are dark circles under her eyes.
"I don't remember," I manage to say. The words feel heavy. "I don't remember you. I don't remember... anything."
Lea lets out a sharp exhale through her nose a sound of bitter frustration. She kicks a loose stone, sending it skittering over the edge of the cliff.
"You were looking for me..?" I ask
She steps closer, invading my space.
"Listen," she says, her voice low and jagged. "I don't care about 'Link' the person. I care about the Hero. I care about the legend that said you would wake up and fix this mess."
She jabs a finger toward the slate at my hip. "That thing you're carrying? It says you're the one. So, honestly..." She tilts her head, her eyes cold. "I don't care how you feel. I care about what you're supposed to do."
Lea’s eyes narrow. The bitterness boils over into visible anger.
Skreeeeee!
A guttural shriek tears through the air.
We both spin around. A group of red, pig-like monsters—Bokoblins—scrambles over the ruined wall of the abbey. They brandish crude clubs and rusted swords, drool dripping from their snouts. Our voices must have drawn them in.
Lea doesn't hesitate. She doesn't check on me. She draws her short blade and dives in, a blur of silver hair and steel.
She fights with a grim determination. She parries a blow, the metal ringing out, and counters with a slice across a monster’s chest. She spins, ducks under another club, and finishes a second one. She is strong, but her movements are heavy, fueled by anger.
Then, three of them spot me. They squeal and charge.
I don't think. I can't. The fear that should freeze me simply... vanishes. The world goes quiet.
My body moves before my mind gives the order. I snatch a fallen tree branch from the grass with my right hand. With my left, I grab a splintered pot lid lying in the rubble.
The first Bokoblin lunges, swinging a heavy, spiked club.
Crack.
Instinct takes over. I raise the pot lid. It meets the club at the exact second of impact. A shockwave ripples through my arm, knocking the monster's weapon wide open. The world seems to turn gray, time stretching out like taffy.
I lunge. I drive the tree branch forward like a lance, striking the creature's snout once, twice, three times. It squeals and dissolves into purple-black smoke.
Two more charge me at once.
It's a blur. I backflip over a sweeping sword, the air rushing past my face. As my feet touch the grass, I draw the old bow I scavenged from the cave, a motion so fluid it feels like breathing. I nock an arrow. Thwip. A headshot drops the second one instantly.
The third one hesitates. I don’t. I close the distance, shatter the tree branch over its skull, and watch it vanish into smoke.
Silence crashes back onto the plateau.
The only sound is our heavy breathing. I stand there, staring at the splintered remains of the branch in my hand. My heart is hammering against my ribs, but my hands... my hands are perfectly steady.
Three piles of monster parts and purple smoke lie at my feet. Lea stands a few yards away, wiping dark ichor from her blade. She killed two.
I killed three. With a stick and a pot lid.
Slowly, Lea straightens up. She sheathes her sword with a sharp click and turns to me. She isn't smiling. She gives me a look that is complicated—partially vindicated, but mostly... unsettled. She looks at me like I’m something dangerous she just uncaged.
"See?" she pants, pointing a gloved hand at the dissipating smoke around me. "A normal person... they can't even kill one of those things. They run. They die."
She steps closer, her eyes scanning me, lingering on the broken stick in my hand. "You just slaughtered three of them. Without a real weapon. Without armor." She shakes her head, a bitter, humorless smirk touching her lips. "You move like war is the only language you speak."
I look from her intense gaze down to my scarred hands, then up at the menacing darkness around the distant castle. A chill settles in my bones. She sees this violence as proof of the Hero.
But to me? It just feels cold. It feels like my body remembers how to kill, even if I don't remember who I am.
I drop the broken branch. It hits the grass with a dull thud.
"I..." My voice trembles, barely a whisper. "I don't know how I did that."
Lea stares at me for a second longer, then turns away. She stomps her foot hard on the packed earth, a cloud of dust rising from the impact. Her whole body is tense, vibrating with a frustration so deep it's almost painful to watch. She takes a long, shuddering breath, then another, visibly forcing herself to calm down.
When she turns back to me, her silver hair catches the light, but her expression is no longer just angry. It's... weary. Resigned.
"Okay," she says, her voice tight and clipped. "Fine. You need memories ? ... to go on some 'self-discovery trip' and find your memories? Fine. Whatever."
She crosses her arms, looking away toward the ruins, refusing to meet my gaze. "But you're doing it on the way to that." She jerks her chin toward the corrupted castle in the distance. "I... I'll help you. If it means this gets done faster. If it means you stop staring at your hands and start... being the Hero everyone is waiting for."
Her gaze drops to her boots. When she looks up again, the anger is gone, replaced by something raw and conflicted. She looks... young. And so, so tired.
"People are still suffering, Link. Every day. Hiding in stables, starving in the ruins... waiting. Isn't that... isn't it your role to help them?"
Her voice drops to just above a whisper, and her eyes meet mine. The word hangs in the air between us like smoke.
"...Us?"
I stare at her. That last word—Us—cuts deeper than her anger ever could.
People were an abstract idea. Us is... her. Standing right in front of me. Panting from a fight she shouldn't have had to fight alone. Desperate.
I look down at the empty space in my hand where the branch was. My body moved on its own. It knew what to do. But my mind... is silent. Empty. This 'role' she talks about... I don't feel it. I feel nothing. Just a cold, echoing loss. A feeling that I've already failed, a hundred years ago.
"I... I don't know what my 'role' is," I say, my voice just as quiet. It's the most honest thing I can say. "I don't know if I can help."
I look back at her, at the fierce determination in her eyes warring with her fear. I'm empty... but she's here. She remembers. She has a purpose. I have... instinct. And her.
"But... you're right." The words feel heavy on my tongue. "They... you... are suffering. And I'm... I'm here. I don't know why. I don't know how."
I take a step toward her. I'm lost. I'm not a Hero. But I'm not... nothing. I'm a person. And so is she. Maybe that's enough to start.
"You... you'll help me?" It's a relief I didn't know I needed. Not to be alone in this silence. "Then... I'll try. I'll try to find out how to... to do this."
I gesture vaguely toward the castle, the task feeling impossibly large, crushing. "Where... where do we go first?"
Lea lets out a breath she seemed to be holding. Her shoulders drop an inch. She wipes a smudge of dirt from her cheek and turns, her gaze shifting from me to the massive, glowing structure dominating the ridge above us.
"There." She points. "The Sheikah Tower."
She starts walking, and for the first time, she glances back to make sure I'm following.
"It burst from the ground the moment you woke up," she explains, her voice regaining some of its practical edge. "They all did. All across Hyrule. The old tales say the Towers and the Shrines were built to forge the Hero. To give him power."
She stops at the base of a smaller structure glowing with orange light—a Shrine—half-buried in the hillside. She kicks a loose stone near the entrance.
"Trust me, I tried to get in. Banged on it. Pushed. Nothing. It's sealed." She gives me a sharp, challenging look, though the heat is gone from it. "I guess it's 'Hero only.' So go on. You're the one it was waiting for. See if it opens for you."
I look from her face to the strange, glowing shrine. Hero only. The words feel like a new, invisible weight. I don't feel like a hero. I feel... empty. But my feet move on their own, carrying me toward it.
As I get closer, the Sheikah Slate at my hip begins to pulse with a soft, warm light. It's humming, matching the tone of the shrine. I stop in front of a small, stone pedestal. It has a depression in it, shaped exactly like the Slate.
I look back at Lea. She's watching, arms crossed, her expression unreadable. I hesitate, then lift the Slate and press it against the stone.
There isn't a click. It's a... a thrum. A deep, resonant vibration that I feel in my bones. The blue light on the pedestal turns orange. The ground trembles, and with a groan of ancient, grinding stone, the massive door of the shrine lifts, revealing a dark, glowing blue passage leading down.
I glance at Lea. Her mouth is a thin, tight line. She just nods once. "See?"
I take a breath and walk inside. The door seals shut behind me.
The air inside is cool and sterile. It doesn't feel like a tomb. It feels like... a machine. An ancient, creaking voice echoes from the walls.
"To the one who holds the Slate... Your path has begun... This is a trial. Prove your worth."
It's not a fight. It's... a puzzle. A gap I can't jump. A glowing pedestal, just like the one outside. I place my Slate on it. Energy swirls into it. A new... symbol appears on the screen. Magnesis. The power to move metal.
My body knows how to use it before my mind does. I raise the Slate. A metal plate on the far side of the gap glows with a red-gold light. I... pull. It slides through the air, forming a bridge. I cross. I use the same power to pull open two massive, metal doors.
At the end of the long hall, a figure sits. A... a body. A mummified Sheikah, ancient and dry, its hands locked in prayer. As I approach, its head lifts, and its one, glowing eye focuses on me.
"You have proven your resourcefulness. The path of the Hero is arduous. Take this symbol of your trial. A Spirit Orb."
The monk dissolves into blue light. A glowing, fist-sized orb, swirling with cool energy, floats down into my waiting hands. It feels... concentrated. Full of potential. A doorway opens behind it, and I step into the light...
I reappear outside in a flash of blue. Lea is right where I left her, but she jolts when I appear. I'm standing there, holding the glowing Spirit Orb. My head is swimming.
Lea stares at the orb, her eyes wide. "What... what is that?"
"A... Spirit Orb," I say, my voice hoarse. I look at it, confused. "He said... it was a 'symbol of the trial'."
Lea's eyes suddenly light up, not with anger, but with sharp, sudden realization. She's connecting dots I don't even know exist.
"That's it! The legends... 'The power of the Goddess, channeled through the trials.' That's what they meant! They said if you gathered enough... I think it was four... you could pray at one of her statues. The ones in the ruined temples. She... she would bless you. Give you more strength. More stamina."
She looks at me, the bitterness replaced by a new, impatient awe. It's not an admiration. It's... confirmation.
"You actually did it. You can get the power we need."
The next... while? Hours? Days? Time feels broken.
I move like a sleepwalker, driven by the nagging ping of the Sheikah Slate. Each shrine is a new test. One with spinning, spiked balls I have to freeze in time. One with... bombs? Round and square ones that I can summon from the Slate and detonate. One where I build a bridge of ice pillars over water. My mind is blank, but my body... my body knows.
Each time, I face one of those ancient, mummified Sheikah. Each time, they praise my 'Hero's Spirit'. And each time, they give me one of those glowing orbs. I now have four. They feel warm in my pack, pulsing with a quiet, waiting power.
I finally make my way to the largest ruin on the plateau. It's... a temple. Or it was. The roof is gone, the walls are crumbling, but it still feels... important.
Just inside the main entrance, I see her. Lea.
A small campfire crackles nearby. The smell of roasted apples and seared mushrooms fills the air. It makes my stomach clench; I didn't even realize I was hungry. I see the remains of several Bokoblins scattered near the temple steps. She's been busy defending this place while she waited.
She's kneeling by the fire, tending to a skewer. She looks up as I approach, her expression guarded. She doesn't ask what I found. She doesn't congratulate me. She just wordlessly holds out a skewer of roasted mushrooms.
"Eat," she says, her voice flat. "You look half-dead. Which... I guess you were."
I take it. The warmth feels real. I eat in silence, the simple food a shock of flavor after... nothing. I watch her. She's strong, as she said. She survived here alone. Waiting for me.
I nod my thanks, my throat too tight to speak. My gaze falls on a massive, white statue at the back of the ruined temple. It's a woman, her face serene, her hands clasped. Even broken, it radiates... peace. Lea pointed it out earlier. The Goddess Statue.
I walk toward it, the four Spirit Orbs in my hands. I... I don't know what I'm doing. But it feels... right. I stand before the statue and... I don't know how to pray. I just... hold out the orbs.
The orbs float from my grasp, glowing brightly. They circle, faster and faster, before absorbing into the statue's chest. The statue's chipped, stone eyes suddenly glow with a brilliant, blue-white light.
A voice. Not in my ears, but in my head. It's vast, ancient, and filled with a warmth that hurts.
"You, who has overcome the trials... You have gathered the symbols of the Hero. I shall grant you power. Choose. A vessel for your heart, to withstand the blows of your enemy... or a vessel for your spirit, to extend the reach of your stamina."
I... I don't know. I look at my hands. I think of the fights. Of falling. Of... failure. I need to endure. I need to be stronger.
"...Heart," I whisper, not even sure if I'm heard.
The light intensifies. A warm, powerful energy flows from the statue into me. It settles in my chest, a solid, reassuring weight. I feel... stronger. More real. A Heart Container. The voice fades.
I stand there, breathing. The world seems a little clearer. I turn around. Lea is standing by the fire, her back to me. Her shoulders are rigid. She's... shaking.
She speaks, her voice a low, furious mutter, not meant for me to hear, but I do.
"Just like that... He just gets it. All that power..."
She scrubs a hand angrily across her face, her voice choked with a bitterness that stings.
"...So all the other prayers... all our prayers... they just... they weren't enough? Or was she just waiting for him?"
She kicks the dirt by the fire. She's not looking at me. She's looking at the statue with an expression of betrayal.
I just stand there. The new, divine strength in my chest feels cold. This power... I didn't earn it. I just... showed up. She fought to be here. She prayed. And the Goddess... was silent. Until now. Until me.
"...Lea?" The name is all I can manage.
Lea doesn't even look at me. She just kicks out the small campfire, scattering the ashes with her boot. The warmth from the Goddess's blessing in my chest feels cold against the ice in her voice.
"Let's go."
She shoulders her pack and starts walking, not waiting to see if I follow. I do. The silence between us is heavy, broken only by the crunch of our boots on the gravel path and the distant cry of a hawk. Her back is rigid, a straight, unyielding line of anger.
We reach the edge of the plateau, a sheer cliff overlooking the vast, beautiful, broken kingdom of Hyrule below. The wind here is strong; it pulls at my unfamiliar blue tunic. Lea stops, planting her hands on her hips as she surveys the world.
"As much as I would like," she begins, her voice tight with sarcasm, "to march you straight to that castle and get this over with..." She nods toward the distant, swirling malice. "...you're not strong enough. You're... empty. You'd be dead before you even crossed the bridge. We'd both be dead."
I flinch. Empty. She's right. This new heart just makes me... a healthier empty shell.
She raises her arm and points, sweeping across the horizon. Her finger lands on four distinct, distant points: a smoking volcano to the north, a vast, swirling desert to the southwest, a high, cold mountain range in the northwest, and a region of endless rain to the east.
"Ganon was smart," she spits, as if the name is poison. "He turned our own guardians against us. The four Divine Beasts."
The name... Divine Beasts... it hits me.
Not a memory, but an ache. A sudden, sharp, agonizing pain in my chest, right where the Goddess's power settled. I see flashes... a face... faces.
A big, cheerful Goron. A proud, sharp-eyed Rito. A tall, strong Gerudo warrior. A... a kind... Zora...
I gasp, stumbling back a step. The loss is so sudden, it almost brings me to my knees. Friends. They were... they were my friends. And they're... they're gone. Dead. Because of... me?
Lea glances at me, her bitter expression flickering with... something. She saw my reaction. She doesn't soften.
"Looks like something's in there," she mutters. "Yeah. His infection is piloting them. They've been terrorizing Hyrule for a hundred years. Our best weapons."
She drops her arm and finally turns to face me. Her eyes are cold, but they're also desperate. She's gambling everything on me, and she hates it.
"We can't beat him while he has them. So, that's the real plan. Best case, you get inside, and that... thing..." She taps the Sheikah Slate at my hip. "...can get them back on our side. Worse case, we just... break them. Break them so he can't use them anymore."
She crosses her arms. The challenge is set.
"So, choose. Pick a direction, Hero. Let's see if that famous 'Hero's gut' is any better than a villager's prayer."
I stare at her, the phantoms of my friends flickering in my mind. The pain is real. It's the first real thing I've felt. It's... it's grief.
My head is spinning. The volcano... Daruk. The desert... Urbosa. The sky... Revali. The water... Mipha.
The names... the names are just... there.
My hand, shaking, slowly rises. I point. I point east, toward the domain shrouded in endless, unnatural rain.
"Her..." My voice cracks. I clear my throat, pushing down the sudden wave of sorrow.
"...That way. The one... in the water. The... Zora."
I look at Lea. My eyes... they're probably wild. Confused. But for the first time, there's a fire in them. A terrible, aching purpose.
"I... I have to go there first. I... I think I made a promise."