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Chapter Text

“There is no place my eyes have seen that can compare to the beauty of my fallen kingdom,” the King told him one evening. “In its prime, Hyrule was a jewel beyond any other, blessed by the hands of the Golden Three themselves. I was just as blessed to once be called king of such a paradise, a land of lush fields, sparkling rivers, and towering mountains. It truly is a shame that you couldn’t have seen it, my boy.”

Link almost told him he had seen it. He’d seen those fields, those rivers, those mountains, all things he hadn’t been able to fathom before descending beneath the surface of the ocean. He just hadn’t seen the version of them the King remembered so fondly. 

“Yeah,” he replied. “I wish I could have…”

He pulled the sail taunt. The westerly wind he’d just awakened flowed into it, pushing them onward across the gentle waves. He could only just barely begin to make out the lights of Windfall, shining like a beacon on the darkening sea. A beacon that’ll bring a much-needed restock and a rare chance for Link to sleep in an actual bed for a change. 

The King was silent for a moment. Link tried to come up with a way to break that silence, to ease his boat’s melancholy for a time long gone by. But in the end, the King continued, a small smile breaking out upon his wooden face. 

“And yet even after all this time and all this change… I still find myself in awe of how much of my old Hyrule has managed to survive over the ages.”

“Oh?” Link leaned forward in his seat. “Like what?”

“Well…” the King began, craning his head upward. “This ocean shares the same golden sunsets Hyrule was once soaked with. The same silver moon, the same shining stars, the same endless sky. The only difference is that the world they all shine upon is one of sand and sea instead of valleys and trees.”

“Wow, King,” Link said, grinning. “I didn’t know you were such a poet.”

The King quickly got back at him for that comment. He usually broke through choppier waves smoothly to shield his passenger from the brunt of the sea spray they could bring. But this time, he cut through the surf harshly, all but dousing Link in chilly salt water. 

“Hey!”

“Mind yourself, my boy,” the King scolded, but there was a smile behind it. 

“I’ll try…” Link chuckled, wringing his cap dry. “Is that it though? Is the sky the only thing left up here that reminds you of what Hyrule used to be?”

“...No.” The King closed his eyes, trusting Link to steer them steady. For a boy with no prior experience, he’d become quite the sailor over their past few months of traveling together. Even if that skill had to have come from a place of necessity above all else. 

“There are many shades of my old kingdom that rest upon this new sea. I see Hyrule in the islands that were once its tallest mountaintops, in the tribes that used to call its rivers and forests home, in the spirits that still devoutly guard this domain. I see it in the legends your people whisper upon the winds, in the stories they honor, the traditions they continue to uphold. I see it in the descendants of its survivors who managed to thrive in the new lives they’ve come to lead. And most of all… I see Hyrule in Princess Zelda–in Tetra –” he corrected himself before Link could beat it to him. “And I see Hyrule in you , Link.”

Link frowned as he pulled the sail in so they could glide up to Windfall’s dock. “How?”

The King’s smile turned bittersweet, not that Link could see it. “Simply put, my boy… you’re a new player in a very old game…”

This wasn’t the first time the King had said something strangely cryptic, and Link knew it wouldn’t be the last either. Still, that was hardly enough to keep his curiosity in check. “What’s that mean?”

“...Let’s save that story for another time,” the King replied. It wasn’t the first time Link heard that either. “For now, it’s getting late.” By now, he’d pulled up to the dock. The King never needed to be roped up or anchored for the night; Link could always expect to find him loyally waiting in the exact same spot the next day. A talent few other boats could attest to–then again, few other boats were inhabited by the spirit of the king of a long-faded land. “We’re going to want to get an early start in the morning, so run along to the inn and get yourself a full night’s sleep.”

“Aw, but I’m not-” A long, loud yawn split his protest in half. “Even tired!”

“I can see that…” the King laughed. “Now, off with you to bed, my boy. You’ll never find the Triforce of Courage if you can’t even stay awake long enough to dredge up a single shard of it.”

“Ok, fine, you win…” Link heaved a heavy sigh as he hopped up onto the dock. “Night, King.”

The King of Red Lions nodded, seeing Link off as he bounded for town. Once he disappeared around a corner, the boat closed his eyes, bowing his head as he offered up a silent prayer for the boy. A prayer that would be heard… but certainly wouldn’t be answered. “Good night… hero.”

“Good morning, you lazy bum! ”

While he doesn’t hear Tetra, he does feel the bucket full of frigid water she throws straight into his face. He jolts awake, darting upright with a gasp. Out of instinct, he rapidly glances around for any nearby threats or foes. Only to find something much worse standing over him: a very annoyed pirate captain. 

“Uh… ‘morning, Tetra,” Link groggily greets, trying to gather his bearings. Fortunately, the sun is hot today, and the ship’s deck soaks in that warmth enough that it’s already starting to dry his sopping clothes. “What’s with the wake-up call?”

“I don’t know,” Tetra hands her now-empty bucket off to Senza. “What’s with you napping on deck while you were supposed to be on swabbing duty again ?”

“Sorry.” He stands, stretching his still-sleepy limbs out. “But I couldn’t help it! The sun felt so good and the deck’s actually a lot comfier than you’d think it’d be, and Niko said he’d cover for me-”

“N-no, I didn’t!” Niko squeaks from across the deck when Tetra shoots a glare his way. 

“He did , and I thought I’d just-”

“Ugh, ok, just… stop,” Tetra raises a hand. “You’re embarrassing us both at this point.”

“Sooo… you’re not mad then?” Link ventures. 

“Oh, no, I’m furious,” Tetra says with a downright dangerous smile. A smile that strikes almost more fear into Link than any monster he’s ever faced. “I just know there’s no point in yelling at you when I know nothing I say will make it through that thick head of yours, ‘hero’.” She leans in close, to the point that their faces are only inches apart. Link flinches, pulling back a bit as he tries to understand why his cheeks suddenly feel so strangely hot. He doesn’t get a chance to figure that mystery out before Tetra reaches forward, pinches the edge of his cap, and yanks it down over his eyes. 

“Hey!” he fumbles to put his hat back in place. By the time he can see again, Tetra’s turned her back on him. A hand rests on her hip as she makes her way to join the rest of her crew. “Let that, and the bucket of water, serve as a warning. Don’t fall asleep while you’re supposed to be cleaning my ship again. Unless you want me to toss you straight into the sea next time…?”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Link hurries to catch up to her. 

“Try me,” her smile widens as she offers him her signature wink. 

When Link calls her bluff again by sticking his tongue out, she returns the favor by elbowing him in the gut. They launch into a light skirmish of pushing and prodding each other from there, exchanging plenty of playful digs in the process. It’s not lost on any of the other pirates as they observe the pair’s usual antics from their posts. 

“This is the third time this week those two have gone at it like this,” Mako notes, adjusting his glasses. “And the twelfth time this month. Trust me, I’ve been keeping count.”

“Heh, I think it’s a nice change of pace from how things used to be around here,” Senza says, grinning. “It’s good for Miss Tetra to have someone her own age ‘round here to pal around with. And if there’s anyone who can match wits and strength with her, it’s that kid.”

“Hmph,” Nudge crosses his arms. “Well, if you ask me, I think that boy’s just a distraction. A phase, at best. One of these days, Miss is gonna get tired of him and dump him right back on that nowhere island we found ‘im on.”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Niko gasps, horrified. “O-or at least I hope she wouldn’t. I’d lose my first and only swabbie if she did!”

“Relax, Niko,” Gonzo glances back from the wheel. “Your ‘swabbie’, ain’t goin’ anywhere, yeah? Miss likes him too much to just ditch him at a whim.”

“Oh, and how do you know that, Gonzo?” Mako asks, suspicious. “Did Miss tell you herself? I know she confides in you the most, but I didn’t think she’d be the type to let her very first crush slip to anyone , not even you.”

“Shut up, you knucklehead!” Gonzo scowls, raising a first. “She ain’t got no crush. O-or… ‘least I don’t think she does. But if she did, I’d be the first to know about it, so don’t go around making up tall tales like that unless you wanna walk the plank, yeah?”

“But we don’t even have a plank!” Niko points out. 

“Hey!” A sudden shout from the captain herself cuts through their conversation like a sword. Despite their usual bravado, they all stiffen to attention when they turn to see Tetra scowling up at them from the main deck below. “Do you ladies care to share whatever it is you’re gossiping about up there?”

“Er, n-no, Miss!” Senza gulps, nervous. “We were just getting back to work!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Tetra sneers before turning back to Link. “Now, where were we…?”

Link flashes a daring grin as he picks up the broom he should have been using to sweep the deck with. He brandishes it with all of the skill he gathered from wielding much more deadly blades in much more dangerous battles before. Tetra understands his challenge before he can even say it, and she doesn’t hesitate to draw the cutlass from her belt. 

“Don’t go easy on me, ‘captain’,” Link teases as they circle each other. 

“I never do,” Tetra returns just shy of taking her first swing. 

Link counters it squarely, to the point that the dull side of Tetra’s sword only leaves the smallest notch in the wood of his broom. He offers a solid parry in return before trying to knock her off her feet with a low blow. She anticipates it and gracefully leaps over the stick, rolling around to try and tackle Link from behind. With an uncalculated spin, he tries another swing, cursing himself for letting her catch him off guard. He has all the more reason to panic, however, when the bottom of his broom suddenly catches onto something. It doesn’t hit Tetra; instead, it snags the inside of her scarf with enough force to loosen it off her neck. From there, the wind takes it, carrying the crimson cloth along its path toward the open sea. 

“Oh no!” In an instant, Link drops his broom, their battle all but forgotten. The other pirates watch in equal shock as the scarf flutters freely in the breeze straight toward the port side of the ship. It nearly flies clean overboard, but just before it’s lost to the sea, Link’s hand wraps around its very tip. And Tetra’s arms wrap around his waist before he can tip off the edge of the boat’s railing. 

She yanks him back hard and both of them fall to the deck together. Tetra is the first on her feet, and before Link can even regather his bearings, she wastes no time letting him have it. “What’s wrong with you?! Do you have a death wish?! Or are you just plain stupid?”

“No, I was just-”

“You’re lucky I managed to catch you when I did,” she cuts him off, crossing her arms. “Cause if I hadn’t, you’d be gyorg bait by now. You owe me, big time .”

“You mean on top of all of the other things I owe you for?” Link retorts, grinning. 

Tetra’s face flushes red as she turns her nose up at him. “I swear to the goddesses, Link, you’re such an idiot-”

“An idiot who just so happened to save this.” His smile widens as he stands, holding the scarf out to her. Tetra starts, surprised that he’d actually managed to catch it after all. Even the other pirates seem impressed as they murmur amongst themselves. Her anger softens as she stares at the boy who’s saved not just her scarf, but who’d saved her–in more ways than she can really count. And the longer she stares at him, the more she realizes… maybe she’s being a bit too harsh on him. 

This time, anyway. 

“...You know what? You keep it.” She folds his hand around it, pushing it back over to him. 

“W-what?” he blinks, dumbfounded. “But… Tetra, this is yours. I know how much it means to you. I can’t just-”

“You can, and you will , because I say so,” Tetra’s hands land on her hips. “You may be an idiot, but you did technically end up getting the upper hand over me in that spar. So… I’d say you earned a prize for your efforts. Plus, I’d rather you have that than any of our treasure.”

“I’ve never asked for any of your treasure and I’m not asking for this either,” he still tries to hand it back over to her. She’d once told him that it was one of the few and final things her mother had left behind for her before she died. With so little left to remind him of his own parents, the last thing he’d ever want to do is take away such a precious heirloom from someone else, especially Tetra. 

“Ugh, you always have to turn things into such a fuss, don’t you?” she rolls her eyes. “Fine. Then I won’t let you keep it. I’ll let you borrow it for the day instead. Sound fair? Or are you gonna complain about that too?”

Link still hesitates, but ultimately, he knows this is an argument he won’t win. Not against someone as infamously stubborn as Tetra. “Ok. I’ll hold onto it just until the end of the day.”

“And you better take good care of it too,” Tetra winks. “Or else .”

“I will,” Link nods, holding the scarf a bit closer. “I promise.”

She notices how devout and careful he is about folding the cloth up and putting it into his pouch, treating it with the same respect he would have if it had been one of the sacred shards of the Triforce. Part of her almost laughs, but another part of her finds it touching, almost, that he’d care so much about something so trivial, about something that matters so much to her all the same. She’s learned many things about Link during these past few months of traveling with him, and among them is that he’s sentimental to a fault. It’s a trait that doesn’t mesh well with her crew’s stoic exterior, but she can’t deny she finds it almost… charming, to a degree. Not that she’d ever admit that out loud. 

“Miss Tetra!” She finally pulls her sights away from him up to the crow’s nest where Zuko is stationed. “We’re nearly at that spot you wanted us to check out!”

“What spot?” Link asks.

“I already told you,” Tetra leans against the port railing, peering out into the sea. “We’re looking for that ‘ghost ship’ everyone’s been talking about.” 

A ripple of alarm spreads through some of the crew members. Niko starts shivering, while Mako flips rapidly through the pages of his latest book. Even Nudge seems a touch paler as Senza eyes the surrounding seas suspiciously. Only Gonzo keeps his cool, though that’s hardly surprising. Link’s not so sure there’s anything that could shake that towering tank of a pirate; anything, that is, other than his captain. 

“Tetra, you’re not serious, are you?” Link sends her a skeptical look. “I thought you said the ghost ship wasn’t even real.”

“I-it’s gotta be!” Niko cries, hiding behind Gonzo. “Why else would all those other ships be going missing around here lately? The ghost ship’s behind it all for sure!”

Tetra smirks. Link can already see the telltale signs of mischief brewing in her eyes, but he doesn’t have time to defuse it. “That’s right, Niko,” she begins leadingly. “Every last ship disappears, all because they were cursed by that scaaaaary ghost ship!”

“Cursed!?” Niko nearly faints out of fright. Fortunately, Senza manages to catch him just in the nick of time. “M-Miss Tetra… can I take the rest of the day off if I’m cursed?” 

“Whoa, hey, relax, Niko,” Link assures, stepping forward. “Nobody’s getting cursed. Tetra’s just trying to scare you.”

It takes a moment for the truth to set in, but when it does, Niko finally manages to steady himself back on his own two feet. He even manages a nervous chuckle, though his shivering doesn’t stop as he continues surveying the sea for any signs of the alleged ghost ship.

“Tch, way to take the fun out of everything,” Tetra punches Link lightly on the arm.

“Huh. And here I thought you’d be thanking me for calming Niko down before he threw up all over your ship, again ,” Link smirks. The thanks he anticipates doesn’t come; instead, he’s met with another punch, this one a bit harder as Tetra saunters past him. “You’re welcome!” he calls all the same, savoring the way her shoulders hitch and her hands curl into fists at her sides. 

“Hey, Miss?” Gonzo asks, stilling the ship’s wheel. “I heard tell these seas are protected, yeah? Somethin’ about a spirit called the… Ocean King? Wouldn’t someone like that protect any ships coming through here? Unless there really is a ghost ship…”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tetra scoffs. “There’s no such thing. I bet all this drama is over nothing more than a bunch of rouge pirates up to no good. That’s why I wanted to come out here and investigate. I’ll expose them as the frauds they are and remind them that there are rules to being pirates. And who knows? Maybe we’ll even manage to snag a bit of their treasure as payment for the inconvenience…”

“Oooh, so that’s what this whole thing is about,” Link smirks. “Is treasure really all you think about, Tetra?”

“When you’re a real pirate, it’s the only thing you think about,” Tetra returns with another sly wink. “Besides, I’m sure there’s no Ocean King either. It’s just some silly myth made up by the locals, right alongside the ghost ship itself.”

“What’s all this fog about then?” Mako calls back from his spot at the bow. 

“Hm? Fog?” Tetra looks out at the sea. Sure enough, a heavy layer of mist has obscured the surface of the water, blocking the summer sun and clear blue skies from sight. It brings an odd sort of chill along with it, all but silencing the sound of waves and gulls that should be echoing across the ocean. Despite that, it’s not the first time their ship has run into a mere patch of fog and it certainly won’t be the last. But the sheer suddenness of its onset alone is enough to unsettle more than a few of the ship’s passengers. 

“ Cursed fog…” Niko whispers, practically flopping down onto the main deck. “It’s a sign! We’re already too late to escape! We’re… we’re doomed !”

“Quit being so dramatic!” Tetra snaps, unsympathetic. “Zuko, can you see anything!”

“No, Miss!” the lookout shouts down. “It’s too thick!”

“I guess all this fog would explain why all those other ships went missing…” Nudge notes apprehensively. 

“Doesn’t that make us lost too?” Link points out to Tetra. 

“No,” she rolls her eyes. “This fog is probably just some weird trick or something. Don’t tell me you’re scared, ‘Mr. Hero’?”

Link normally would have taken that kind of jab and thrown it right back at her. But something about this fog, about this strange spot of sea as a whole, has him almost as uneasy as the rest of the crew. He’s just better about hiding than any of them are. “I’m not scared. I just don’t think getting us stuck in the middle of nowhere was a very good idea.”

“ My ideas are always good, that’s why I’m the captain,” Tetra argues. For a moment, the other pirates fear another fight is about to break out between the pair, even here and now. Fortunately, it doesn’t get a chance to escalate any further as Zuko calls from the crow’s nest once more. 

“Ship ahoy!” Almost everyone below freezes, their hearts sinking in mutual dread when Zuko confirms it. “Uh… Miss Tetra, I can see… yeah, a ship approaching to the front.” He takes another look through his spyglass. “Or at least… I think it’s a ship…?”

Despite this intel, there’s still no signs of anything emerging from the impenetrable fog. Link rushes ahead, leaping onto narrow bow spirit and all but ignoring Tetra’s warning so he can get a better look. He finally sees it as it cuts through the mist, a massive shadow looming slowly as it creaks and groans across the waves. Its sails are in tatters, its wood withered to the point that it’s a miracle it’s even managing to stay afloat at all. A faint glow seems to envelop the vessel, yet not a single soul appears to be on board; not captain, no crew, no passengers or prisoners. This ship carries nothing… nothing other than the fear-fueled rumors that have made it so famous. 

“I-it’s here!” Niko pulls his cap over his eyes. “It’s the g-ghost ship!”

“And you call yourself a pirate,” Tetra mocks. “It’s just a run-down old hunk of junk! Whoever owns that thing oughta be ashamed for letting their boat rot out from under them like that.”

Link climbs back down from the bow, frowning all the while. He doesn’t tear his sights away from the ship even as it pulls up close alongside theirs. Something’s off about this boat, that much is clear, something that’s bound to go far beyond a mere pack of delinquent pirates like Tetra’s so convinced of. His hand twitches for a sword he no longer carries, for the need to fend off whatever unearthly, ominous energy seems to surround every inch of the silent ship. It rings eerily similar to something–to some one , he’d faced before, and it reminds him far too much of that monster of a man for comfort. At first, he doesn’t know how that’s possible, how this ship could even remotely emanate the same kind of aura. Until he realizes exactly what that aura is: 

Raw, unrestrained evil . 

“Tetra,” his voice is tenser than he means it to be. Not that he cares; he isn’t interested in saving face in front of her now. “I think we should get out of here.”

“Oh yeah?” Tetra nods, disinterested. “Well, I still think you’re just scared like all those other cucoos over there.” She points a thumb back at her crew; almost all of them are staring at the imposing ship with wide eyes and hanging jaws. “For the last time, that ship isn’t haunted, and I’ll prove it.”

She steps up to the port railing, but before she can climb up onto it, Link grabs her by the wrist. “Tetra, wait–”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she glares back at him, pulling her arm away. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he echoes. “You can’t go on that ship! Even if it’s not cursed, you have no idea who or what could be on it. It’s not safe!”

“I think I can handle whatever’s on there just fine,” she rests her hand on her cutlass.

“I’m not saying you can’t,” he treads as carefully as he can. It’s the best practice he can possibly take when it comes to trying to change Tetra’s mind, a nigh impossible task he’s only accomplished a handful of times. “But… y’know, why risk it?”

“Why not risk it if there’s treasure on board?”

“But what if there isn’t any?”

“Then we’ll just cut our losses and be on our way,” she shrugs. “Look, Link, you can stay here, crying about ghosts or whatever with the rest of the crew. As for me, I’m going on that ship putting these silly rumors to rest for good. Now, if you’ll excuse me-”

“Tetra, please .” He catches her wrist once more. She stops, just long enough to glare back at him. And in that split second, desperation takes over. He’d almost lost her once before; he can’t bear the thought of losing her again, not to something like this, not to anything at all, really. What comes out of his mouth next is ridiculous, downright stupid, and he knows it. But if it can keep her safe, if it means he won’t have to watch her get hurt again… then he might as well say it. “Let me go instead!”

“...What?” Tetra’s anger melts into surprise, then suspicion. She looks at him as if he’s grown a second head. “Why…?”

“I just… think it’d be better if I went instead of you.” It’s not what he really means, it isn’t “it’s better if I’m the one in danger, it’s better if you’re safe even if I’m not”. Still, it shows his sincerity to Tetra, if nothing else. 

“Link… I…” she drifts off into silence, glancing back at the ghost ship. He hopes she can tell this isn’t coming from a place of ambition, that it isn’t another stake in their almost endless rivalry. He hopes she knows he means it, that he’d be willing to and has put himself through so much worse for her sake. 

He hopes she knows why he would do this, and anything else for her in the first place. 

“Are… are you sure?” she asks. She can’t help but feel guilty, even though she knows she shouldn’t, even though he’d been the one to make the offer. 

Link nods, a touch more confident now. “Yeah. ‘Sides, it’s like you said; there’s probably nothing on that ship than a bunch of lowdown pirate wannabes. Somebody’s gotta put them in their place, right?”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Tetra smirks, though it soon slides away. “But don’t forget, you’re going on that boat representing me and my crew. The least you could do is look the part.”

“Huh?” Link flinches when Tetra suddenly reaches into his pocket. She pulls her scarf out, tying it loosely around his neck in the same fashion she usually wears it. It looks strange on him, that’s his first thought. The swath of deep crimson clashes harshly against the cheery green of his tunic. But Tetra doesn’t seem to care how bizarre that scarf is resting around anyone’s neck other than her own. 

“Don’t you dare let anything happen to this, you hear me?” she leans in a bit closer to whisper in his ear. There’s something in her voice, something strange that Link rarely ever gets to hear. Something that makes him think there’s more than one layer to that command. 

“I already told you,” his fingertips skim the blood-red fabric. “I won’t.”

She finally smiles, easing up. She grabs him by the shoulders and spins him around to face the ghost ship. “Well, what are you waiting for?” her voice picks back up to her usual verve. Link figures it’s probably for the sake of saving face in front of her crew. “Go ‘n get me some treasure already!”

“Yeah…” Link lets out a halfhearted chuckle. “Treasure…” He takes a step up to the starboard side, but stops there, gripping the wood railing without even realizing it. What he’d felt earlier is back in full force, darkness and danger practically hovering over the ship like a shadow. It’s enough to make the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight, to make his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach like a rock. But still, he doesn’t waver, he doesn’t back down. After all, he’s faced the most treacherous trials and traps the sea has had to offer, he’s fought monsters and demons and even the undead; how can some old ramshackle ship be worse than any of that?

So he steadies the last of his nerves, climbing up onto the banister. The sea air, for as eerily quiet as it is right now, still hangs heavy with the scent of salt and secrets. “There’s nothing you won’t find when you go out on the sea,” his grandmother used to tell him and Aryll. “Whether it’s above the waves or below, it holds more mysteries than anyone can ever hope to find out.” Link wonders if the ship sitting before him is just another one of those mysteries, like so many others he’s managed to solve before. If it’s nothing more than a puzzle to put together, a riddle to unravel, a question to answer. 

Or…  if it’s something so much more . 

“Don’t do anything stupid in there,” Tetra says somewhere behind him. She says it sharply, sarcastically, almost. But Link knows what it really means; her own discreet way of telling him to be careful. 

“You got it,” he flashes her a smile. He hopes she doesn’t see any of the worry peeking through the cracks of it. “Be back soon.”

She nods, but doesn’t return his grin. Her arms are crossed, her brow furrowed. She opens her mouth as if she means to say something, but ultimately doesn’t. Instead, she turns her gaze away, absently looking to the mast like it’s about to topple over. Link takes that as his cue to get going. 

He takes a deep breath before making the jump. The distance between the two boats is small, to the point that their hulls are nearly grazing. Link easily bridges the gap, landing solidly on the ghost ship’s gnarled wooden deck. His breath catches in his throat as the boat creaks and the rags that serve for its sails flutter. But other than that, nothing happens. Nothing, other than the sinister aura surrounding the ship seems to multiply a hundredfold. 

The temperature’s inexplicably dropped, to the point that Link rubs his hands on his arms when he takes his first step or two forward. He looks around, expecting pirates or monsters or any number of things in between the two. Only to find an apparently empty ship, with no captain, no crew, and chances are, no treasure either. 

“Well?” He hears Tetra’s voice echo, faint, but clear, from her own boat. “See anything interesting yet?”

He turns back, more than ready to tell her no. The word’s all but left his lips when it happens. A crack of thunder rattles the heavens, as loud as a canon and every bit as deadly. There’s no swell of rain, no gust of wind, but there is lightning, a single bolt of it. And of course, that bolt strikes straight into the ghost ship’s decrepit mast. 

It splits the wooden beam clean in two, sending half of it plummeting over the ship’s port side. What little remains erupts in flames that waste no time spreading to the ancient rags serving as a poor excuse for the ship’s sails. From there, the fire snakes its way down to the main deck almost as fast as the lightning that brought it on had been. 

For a second or two, the most Link can do is stand and watch it all in wide-eyed awe. Until he hears Tetra’s panicked shout for him, until he feels the first flush of heat lightly skim his skin. 

“Link!” Tetra yells again. He draws in a breath, only to choke on thick, black smoke instead. Through that smoke, he can barely make out the shape of the pirate ship, and he doesn’t think twice about making a break for it. His gait is clumsy, frantic as he pulls Tetra’s scarf up over his mouth and nose to shield them from the smoke. Before the fire started, he’d only taken a few steps across the deck, but the distance to the starboard side feels like miles now. 

He trips more times than he’d like to admit, his vision blurred and his eyes burning from the intense heat. The fire hasn’t reached him yet, but it’s only a matter of time before it does. Still, he thinks he can make it when he sees a flash of blonde hair and a speck of navy blue somewhere within the chaos. Tetra’s already standing on the railing of her own ship, all but ready to jump over to help him. She would have too, if not for every last member of her crew begging her to stay back. She gasps when she sees him break through the smoke, a smile filling in for where sheer terror had been just before. 

“Hurry!” she shouts. Link follows that order unlike any she’s ever given him before. His heart slams against his chest, his lungs constricted to the point that they might as well not even exist at all. The ghost ship lists dangerously underneath him, throwing him off balance, but by some miracle, he stays on his feet. He’ll make it, he keeps telling himself. He’s almost there, almost there. He’s gotten out of much worse before and lived to tell the tale. This’ll just become another story to add to all the rest. 

He almost praises the goddesses aloud when his hands blindly fall into the ship’s railing. With the flames closing in just behind him, he doesn’t hesitate to climb onto the banister. Tetra reaches a hand out to him as Gonzo holds her steady. It’s a good thing too, otherwise she’d lean right off the edge of her own ship. Link reaches back for her, and for a single second, their fingers touch. For that final, fleeting moment in time, he’s got her and she’s got him. 

But that’s the thing about moments and seconds–they never last anywhere near long enough. 

Something latches itself around Link’s ankle, coiling tight as it creeps up his leg. He doesn’t even have time to look back and see what it is before it yanks him back brutally. He slips backward off the banister, crashing hard into the deck as his hand is pulled away from Tetra’s. 

“Link!” she screams for him. The very sound of it, distraught and desperate, is nearly enough to tear his soul in two. 

“Tetra!” he yells back, reaching out for her again. Whatever’s gotten his leg is already dragging him furiously fast across the deck, through the smoke, even through the flames. He doesn’t even have a chance to try and break free before he spots her one last time. Her blue eyes are wide, her hand still outstretched for him, even though he’s already much too far away to take it. Tears cut their way down her cheeks, and Link finds them brimming in his eyes too. Whether they’re from the smoke or from something else entirely, he doesn’t really know.

It takes only seconds for Link to disappear from sight, and as soon as he does, Tetra finally finds the strength to pull out of Gonzo’s grasp. “Hold on!” she shouts, cutlass already in hand. “Just–hold on, Link! I’m coming!”

She’s all but ready to make the jump, more than ready to throw herself straight into the fire, all for him. At least until several sets of hands land on her shoulders, roughly pulling her back onto the deck, away from the ghost ship, away from Link . Just like Link had been pulled away from her. 

“Let me go!” she struggles fiercely against Nudge and Senza. “I order you idiots to let me go, right now !”

“N-now, Miss,” Senza cautions. He flinches when Tetra’s foot intentionally crashes into his knee. “Ow! C’mon, Miss, you can’t just-”

“Shut up!” she barks.  Despite her fury, her face is still wet, her eyes red-rimmed as even more tears threaten to fall from them. It shakes her crew, to see her like this; the last time she’d cried in front of any of them had been when she was little. When her mother died and left her, and the rest of them, behind. “Gonzo! Tell them to-”

“Miss,” Gonzo interrupts. He spares a look at the ghost ship, now leaning hard to one side. The edge of its port deck has already reached the surface of the water; it’ll only take mere moments before the rest follows. “I’m… I’m sorry. But… we can’t let you… I-it’s not–he’s prob’ly already-”

“If you finish that sentence I’ll throw you off this ship before you can even say you’re sorry again,” she warns between gritted teeth. “I’m telling you all for the last time: let. me. Go !”

Nudge and Senza exchange a glance. Niko and Mako stand by, gnawing on their lips and wringing their hands. Zuko keeps his spyglass trained on the ghost ship, watching as it sinks even further into the sea. “P-please,” Tetra resorts to begging, stripped of any kind of pride or superiority. None of that matters, not now, not with something so much important on the line to lose. “ Please , Gonzo. H-he went on that ship for me, I can’t just let him-”

A terrible whine cuts through the air, deafening and condemning. It’s a noise Tetra and her crew have heard plenty of times before. But never has it sent the kind of sorrow and shock spreading through each of them now. 

“ NO !” Tetra pries herself free. She runs back to the railing, forgetting to breathe as she watches the last of the ghost ship vanish beneath the waves. It’s the fastest sinking she’s ever seen, and in her line of work, she’s seen plenty. All it leaves behind is a cloud of charcoal smoke that soon fades into the thinning fog, no debris–or a single potential survivor–in sight. 

“Link!” She still calls for him anyway, because what else can she do? She’s never been particularly pious, but she’s screaming prayers inside her mind to the goddesses now. She waits for a minute, then two, then far too many to realistically expect a green-capped blonde head to pop out of the rolling waves. 

It never does. 

“Miss Tetra…” 

She flinches under the light hand Gonzo has on her shoulder. The rest of her crew is silent, heads hung, hats in hands resting against their chests. But not a single one of them has it in them to meet her eyes. Not a single one of them has the strength to say what she already knows to be far too true. 

In almost no time at all, the fog has cleared, revealing the same bright blue skies that had been there before. Before it all went wrong. Before the world itself seemed to turn upside down. There’s no sign left that the ghost ship had ever been there, that it ever even existed at all. In the same way, there’s no sign that he ever existed either. Other than the red scarf missing from Tetra’s neck and the warm tears still sliding down her cheeks. 

She draws in an unsteady breath, catching those tears as she forcefully wipes them away. She straightens herself, swallows hard, and raises her head high, remembering some of her mother’s last words to her. “You have to be strong, Tetra” she’d said, scowling even on her sickbed. “You have to be strong no matter what might happen. And if you can’t be strong for yourself, then find a way to be strong for them .”

Her mother’s wisdom is right, it always is. She’s already shown enough weakness in front of her crew for one day, one lifetime even. She can’t afford to show anymore. She has to be strong. She has to move on. 

No matter how much her battered, broken heart is begging her not to. 

“Well,” she says briskly, stepping away from the railing. “There’s no point in sticking around here anymore. Let’s shove off.”

“Huh?” Senza balks. The rest of the crew is equally mystified by such a sudden shift. “But… Miss… we-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Her shoulders stiffen when she almost trips over the broom. The same broom he’d used to spar her with only a few hours ago. Those hours seem like years to Tetra now that he’s gone. “Get to your posts so we can go. I’ll be in my cabin if anyone needs me.” She glares back at the men, and it’s enough to tell them what she really means. That none of them should need her, that she shouldn’t be bothered. That she clearly needs time and space to mourn. 

So that’s exactly what they give her. The ship is quiet as the crew attends to their duties, and soon enough, they’re setting sail again. After what they just saw, they can’t get out of these cursed waters quick enough. But even as they do, the reality of it all weighs heavy on all of them even still. Because at the end of the day, they’re leaving one man short of what they came here with. There’s still been a casualty among their ranks. They still stood there and did nothing while a young boy, an innocent child, lost his life right in front of them. 

And their captain, a child herself… has just ordered them to carry on as if it never happened. 

Miss Tetra’s word is final, absolute. They all know that, but it doesn’t stop Gonzo from following her anyway. “Uh… Miss…?” He stops her just before she can reach the deck door. “You’re… gonna be ok, yeah?”

Tetra doesn’t look back at him, one hand pressed to the door, the other balled into a fist by her side. “I’ll be fine,” she says and hopes she can somehow force it to be true. 

Except when she finally slips through the door, when she’s finally out of her crew’s sight, when she’s finally locked herself away within the privacy of her room… there’s nothing in the world that can keep the tears from coming. 

“I’ll be fine…” she tells herself between those tears, even though she knows it's a lie. That every time she’ll ever say it every day after this, that’s all it’ll ever be.  It had taken only seconds for her to lose Link. Funny how it also takes only seconds for her to lose herself right along with him. 

“I-I’ll be…” She can’t bring herself to finish, not even now when she’s alone. She sinks to the floor of her cabin, guilt wrenching itself around her heart and pulling it down like an anchor. When she closes her eyes in a bitter bid to fight back tears, all she can see is his face smiling back at her, all she can hear is him screaming her name those last few seconds before the shipwreck consumed him–

All she can do is wish that it had been her instead of him. 

Chapter Text

He’s drowning. 

There’s no other word to describe it, even though he knows it’s not entirely true. He’s almost drowned a handful of times before. Times where he’d nearly lost himself beneath the surface of the waves, though he’d always managed to find the last bout of strength he needed to to swim upward and outward out of the greedy depths. But now… 

Now is nothing like any of those times. 

There is no surface to swim up to, at least none that he can see. Instead, there’s only darkness, above him, below him, all around him, even inside him. He breathes it in without wanting to, without meaning to, choking as its vile bitterness burns his throat. And if he really is drowning, then he knows it’s not any kind of water that’s dragging him downward. It’s that darkness, that malice, that’s trying its hardest to claim him. 

And the worst part is… it’s winning. 

A strained scream slips out as he struggles to swim through the shadows. He has no idea if he’s making any headway, if there’s even any way out of this at all. For all he knows, this could go on forever, a slow, steady descent to his inevitable death. A cold sort of fear grips him as that unsettling thought sinks in along with the rest of him. But he still fights against it, still fights to escape whatever this is, still fights to break free. 

After all, he’s been fighting for such a long time anyway. Why stop now?

He’s still kicking and flailing wildly when his back suddenly settles against something solid. His body stills as he gasps, lying on the stony ground beneath him for a moment or two and his chest heaves as he realizes he can actually breathe down here, though that’s hardly any consolation. Because soon enough, the darkness above him begins to give way to something else, something he’s seen before. Something that strikes terror into him every bit as much as it had the first time he’d been in the final moments of this doomed kingdom. 

He darts upright, still staring up at the deluge of water pouring down from the sea above. None of it touches him as it spills down to flood the edges of the large platform around him. His heart hammers in his chest as he slowly pulls himself to stand, only to fall forward as soon as he so much as tries to take a single step. When he looks back, he finds something akin to a tentacle coiled around most of his left leg, its grip tight and unyielding. 

It doesn’t budge as he tries to pry it off of him, even going as far as digging his nails into its slick surface. He pulls as hard as he can against it, hoping to break it free from the spot where it emerges from, the center of the platform where the telltale mark of the Triforce should be. The round shape of an eye rests there now, and maybe if he wasn’t in as much of a panic as he is now, Link might have tried to figure out why. Instead, all he can think about is getting out of this, out of all of this, out of whatever mess he’s managed to land himself in this time. 

A mess that seems dead set on becoming even more of a nightmare the more he tries to escape it. 

From somewhere beyond the raging wall of water, a voice echoes, soft and sinister like an oncoming storm. Link stiffens when he hears it, searching in vain to try and find its source as it lets out a low, eerie laugh. “Oh my… what an… unusual catch my ghost ship has managed to make…”

“Who’s there?!” Link demands between gritted teeth. He doesn’t stop trying to free himself from whatever has his leg bound, whatever is keeping him from getting far away from here. From a place that shouldn’t even exist anymore. 

The voice ignores him, laughing once more. It seems a touch louder now, as if whatever it belongs to has moved in closer. It isn’t lost on Link when the tentacle tied around his leg tightens in turn. “Your soul speaks volumes of itself, boy… So strong, so vibrant, so full of life…” A chill runs down Link’s spine on that last word, as if he’s been touched by something dark and unholy. As far as he knows, he very likely might have been. “A soul like yours will not be broken so easily… Still…” The voice slowly begins to shift from a haunting whisper into something deeper, firmer, and most frightening of all… something much more familiar to Link. “That doesn’t mean it can’t be broken at all…”

He spins around as much as he can, his breath catching in his throat as he takes in the sight of the shadow looming over him. The shadow of someone who, much like Hyrule itself, should be forever lost to the depths of the sea. Link knows that better than anyone; after all, he’d been the one to run a sword straight through the man’s skull only a few short months ago. So how then, is he able to stand before him here and now, with a wicked grin spread wide across his darkened features and his amber eyes flashing with hatred? 

“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it, boy ?” Ganondorf greets calmly, cruelly. He wields no weapons, and yet, Link still feels like the deadly tips of both of his long blades are aimed directly at his exposed throat. 

“Y-you…” Against all odds, Link finally summons the courage to speak. “How… How are you-”

“Alive?” Ganondorf finishes, cocking an eyebrow. “It appears that blade of yours wasn’t as powerful as you hoped it to be. And neither was the hand that wielded it.”

Link shakes his head, his mouth alarmingly dry. He tries to crawl away from his old foe, but the tentacle around his leg keeps his movement far too limited. And in turn, that makes him far too vulnerable. “No, that… this isn’t real,” he draws in a sharp breath, forcing himself to believe that. “T-this is just a dream–it’s gotta be! You’re not real, none of this is-”

Ganondorf steps forward while he’s still speaking, only to cut him off by grabbing him by the front of his tunic and hoisting him up to his level. It had been easy to forget just how small he is compared to this tower of a man when he’d plunged the Master Sword into his forehead. But now, he’s quickly reminded just how easily Ganondorf could–and almost did–kill him without even trying. 

“Let me assure you, this is very real,” his smile is finally gone. In its place is an icy, piercing glare that bears straight into Link’s wide, terrified eyes. “You failed to take me down for one simple reason: you are weak . The King of Hyrule searched far and wide for a hero to bring about my end. In the end, he found you. And you, boy, are no hero.”

Link bristles. He’s in no position to argue, he knows that. But in spite of himself and the wicked man holding onto him, he still does anyway. “You’re wrong,” he forces his voice to be as steady as it can. “T-the King said I’m the Hero of-”

“The Hero of Winds?” Ganondorf scoffs. “That ‘title’ is nothing more than a false honor given to a child pretending to be something far more than he actually is.”

“I didn’t ‘pretend’ to defeat you,” Link shoots back just as harshly. 

“But you didn’t defeat me,” Ganondorf smirks, finally dropping Link. He lands hard on the stony ground at the man’s feet, unable to brace himself from the brutal kick that slams into his side. “All you accomplished was buying yourself and that miserable ocean you call home a few more fleeting moments of existence. One has to wonder though…” he turns away, only briefly glancing back over his shoulder at the breathless boy behind him. “What would the people you vowed to protect think if they could see just how pathetic you truly are?”

Link’s still in the middle of picking himself up off the ground as he watches Ganondorf begin to face him again. But by the time he’s fully turned back around, someone else is suddenly standing in his place. Someone who manages to spread even more raw fear spreading through Link’s veins than Ganondorf had before her.

“...Aryll?” His heart sinks as soon as he says her name. But sure enough, there his little sister stands, her face full of equal anger and anguish as she takes in the sight of him. 

“Big brother…” she begins, her voice trembling with something Link’s never heard in it before. With bitterness, with betrayal . “Why did you leave? Don’t you care about me?”

“O-of course, I do,” Link tries to crawl closer to her, still unable to properly stand. He stops as soon as she backs away from him, almost as if she’s afraid. Afraid of him . “Aryll, everything I did, the reason why I fought so hard in the first place… it was all to save you.”

“But you didn’t save me,” Aryll looks away from him, glaring at the stony ground. Tears stream down her cheeks, and Link hates that he’s the cause of them, that something he did–or didn’t do–has made his beloved little sister cry. “Not for good. ‘Cause you left us, all on our own, like we don’t even matter to you.”

“No,” Link tries reaching out to her, only for something to latch around his wrist, roughly yanking it back. He briefly registers that it’s another tentacle, identical to the first, before he tries appealing to Aryll again. “I left to-”

“To find a new home?” Link starts when Aryll disappears in the blink of an eye. A hand comes to rest on his shoulder, but it’s nowhere near as loving and gentle as he’s used to it being. And neither is the look on his grandmother’s face when he looks back at her standing just behind him. “Why, dear? Was the home I worked so hard to make for you and your sister not enough?”

Grandma is a small woman, soft and sweet and anything but intimidating. Even when she used to scold him for getting into mischief when he was little, Link never had any reason to fear her. But now, the deep, undeniable disappointment in her eyes is enough to make his blood run cold. “Grandma, I-”

“You what ?” she asks , her frail, quiet voice laced with venom. “Abandoned your family? Left everyone who loved you to set sail upon the open sea?” She sighs, shaking her head. “Your parents did the same thing, Link. Don’t forget what happened to them…”

She skims a hand against the side of his face, something she’s done so many times before. This time however, it's not meant to comfort or encourage him. This time, it’s only to direct his gaze to the shadows forming to his right. There, a pair of silhouettes stands in silence, flickering in and out of existence. Link can’t make out their faces, and he knows exactly why. He was so young when he lost his parents to a violent storm at sea–he can’t even remember what they look like anymore. 

Any semblance of resistance or boldness drains out of him the second he sees them. He extends a shaking hand to them, his eyes burning with oncoming tears. Another tentacle slithers its way to entrap his other leg, but he barely notices it. One of the shadows–his mother, he thinks–starts to reach back out to him. But just before their hands can touch, both of his parents let out a shared, horrific scream that strikes Link down to his very core. All he can do is watch as they’re violently ripped to pieces by something unseen, by the cruel hand of fate that decided to tear his family apart. 

“Stop!” he cries, falling to the ground. He hates that he isn’t able to hold back a sob that wracks his entire body with grief he can’t otherwise bear. “I-I don’t wanna hear anymore! Whatever you are, please, just… leave me alone!”

“Giving in so quickly, my boy? And here I thought you were stronger than this. I thought you were a hero …”

When Link looks up, his grandmother is gone. He might’ve been strangely grateful for that… if there wasn’t a certain crimson boat sitting before him instead. “K-King!” he reels back, shocked. Ganondorf surviving was one thing, as impossible as it should have been. But the King of Hyrule–the King of Red Lions… Link can’t believe he’s able to look him in the eyes again. His tears fall even harder as joy weaves its way into his heartache. Even so, the feeling doesn’t last long when he hears what the King has to say. 

“So, a few cross words is all it takes to tear down one who once possessed the Triforce of Courage?” the King turns his wooden nose up at the boy. “I expected so much more from you, Link. My final wish was for your future. How disappointing it is that you won’t survive to see that future.”

Link tenses when a fourth tentacle slips onto his last free limb. This time, however, he has the wits about him to pull his arm away before it can coil too tightly around it. “No,” he steadies himself as much as he can. He wipes his tears away, biting his fear back as he glares the “King” dead in the eyes. “Dream or no dream, I will survive this. I’m going to get out of here and I’m going to make your– the King’s wish come true. We’re going to find a place to build the next Hyrule–no matter what it might take!” 

The King’s already severe expression darkens as he seamlessly shifts from his boat form into his true, regal appearance. Much like Ganondorf did, he stands tall over Link, draping the boy in shadows that he can’t seem to slip out of. Especially not when the final tentacle finally succeeds in pinning his arm painfully behind him. 

“There’s the challenge I was hoping for,” the King smirks darkly. “It seems you still have some fight left in you after all, child…”

“Enough!” Link snaps as he pulls against his binds. “Who are you, really ? Why are you doing this?!” 

The false King chuckles, his eyes flashing as their color shifts to a bright, haunting gold. “Would you really like to know? Very well then. Most of my victims don’t live long enough to make a last request. I suppose it’s only fair that I honor yours…”

The King’s already twisted smile widens to an unnatural degree as his eyes shift together into a single, glowing amber one. Link feels sick to his stomach as he watches the body of his most trusted companion morph and bend in all sorts of horrific ways until it isn’t even remotely Hylian anymore. A massive beast emerges from his broken form, though the most Link can make out about it is its lone, enormous eye, a hoop of gold ringed by orange and green that shines fiercely in the darkness. Countless thick tendrils twist out of its round body, joining the other tentacles that have Link bound as they wrap around his legs, his torso, even around his neck. He’s all but incapacitated by them, but he doesn’t cry out or show any signs of panicking. Instead, he faces this monster with an unflinching glare, determined to prove to it that he isn’t afraid. Even though he knows he has every reason to be. 

“What… are you?” Link asks, wincing as one of the tentacles forces him to stare at the monster. As if he could look away to begin with. 

“I am what your kind calls a demon…” the beast speaks in the same voice he’d heard when he first arrived. Finally knowing who it belongs to does nothing to make him feel any better about his current plight. “A devourer of the most essential energy of all: the Force of Life itself… All souls possess it, for it is the very thing that keeps you mortals alive. It is that very power that has served as my sustenance for eons. However…” the demon draws in closer, its eye all but engulfing Link in its malicious, greedy hunger. “There are some souls that carry Life Force in far greater amounts than most. Souls that are special, that have been blessed by the hands of the goddesses themselves… A soul like yours…”

Link doesn’t even see the final tentacle slithering toward him until its tip touches his chest. The second it does, a pain far worse than any wound he’s ever had sweeps through his entire body. It feels like something is being ripped out of him, slowly and agonizingly. His vision blurs and his stomach lurches as a scream forces its way out of his throat. That scream comes to a quick end when the demon clasps a spare tentacle over his mouth, forcing him to suffer in silence as it continues whispering its treacherous taunts. 

“Your soul is the most powerful source of Life Force than any I have ever consumed before,” the demon practically purrs in satisfaction over its latest ‘meal’. Not that its victim is even listening amidst the unending pain splitting through every last fiber of his being. “You truly are a marvel, child… to be so young of body and mind… and yet… to have spirit far more ancient than even I… Would you like to see them?”

The demon finally pulls back, putting its soul-stealing power on pause as it releases its hold over Link’s mouth. He dangles from the rest of his bonds, exhausted and achy as he tries to focus on what the demon is saying. “S-see what?” he manages to weakly ask. 

“...The faces your soul has worn before,” is the only reply the demon gives as it appears to vanish. Its tentacles remain though, still keeping Link tightly trapped as they force him to look the boy who’s appeared just a few feet in front of him in the eye. A boy that, he quickly realizes, looks a lot like him. 

“W-what-” he tries to ask, only for his chest to seize up in lingering pain. When he looks back up, the boy has suddenly changed, going from a child to an adult in the blink of an eye. Despite his age, he’s still clad in the heroic green garb Link grew up hearing about and he still has an all-too-familiar sword strapped to his back. It takes Link almost no time and all and far too long to realize exactly who this young man really is. Or rather, who he’d been in an age long gone by. “You’re… you’re the-”

“The Hero of Time,” he finishes, his icy blue eyes fixed on the young hero before him. “I was younger than you are now when I was forced to become a hero. The trials I went through were much worse than any you might have faced. But history remembers me for being courageous enough to overcome them all. The question is, will anyone remember a hero like you ?”

Link doesn’t have an answer for that. Nor does he have an answer for the second boy who comes to stand alongside the Hero of Time. He’s much younger, perhaps even younger than Link himself, with a strange hat that seems to curve upward and end in a beaked face. “Will they remember you for who you saved, no matter how big or small they might be?” he asks just as coldly as the older hero.

“Will they remember you for how many monsters you took down to save your people?” another teenage hero appears, staring Link down with sharp, wolf-like eyes. 

“Will they remember you for bringing back their lost light?” yet another hero asks, followed up by a fourth almost identical to him. 

“Will they remember how you built bridges between worlds?”

“Or how you worked together to restore peace and harmony?” not one, but four heroes, each clad in a different color, ask in unison. 

“Or how you became a legend without even trying?” one of them asks as even more keep appearing. 

“Will they remember you even if you don’t remember yourself?” a hero clad in blue rather than green questions calmly. 

One final hero shows up, standing alongside the Hero of Time as he joins the others in their judgemental interrogation. “Will they remember you for doing whatever it takes to save the people you love?” he fixes the younger hero in a sky-blue glare. 

“Or,” the Hero of Time finally speaks up once more. “Will they remember the ‘Hero of Winds’ for being the weakest link in the chain. Will they remember you for being nothing more than the failure you really are?” 

Link can feel tears budding on the corners of his eyes again, but this time, he refuses to let them fall. Not now, not when faced with all of the legendary heroes who have come before him. “I…” he takes in a deep breath to quell his fear, along with the dull ache still burrowed deep in his chest. “Am not a failure.”

“Are you sure about that?” An entirely new voice questions, a voice Link would know anywhere. Time seems to stand still as the heroes of the past disappear, leaving only one person to step forward in their place. And even after everything he’s seen and heard thus far, her hateful scowl and vicious words cut him the deepest of them all. 

“If you really were a hero worth his salt,” Tetra steps closer to him, her tone haughty and condescending. “Then you wouldn’t have fallen into such an obvious trap like the ghost ship. And even if you had, you would have been able to escape by now. But instead, here you are, on the verge of death, sniveling like the scared little boy you really are.” She perches a hand under his chin, smirking deviously when his cheeks flush red against his will. Even if she isn’t the real Tetra, the effect she has on him is still the same. “Who’s going to save you now, Link?”

She doesn’t give him a chance to answer. Instead, her grip on his face tightens as she presses her other hand against his chest. Whatever the demon had done to him earlier starts up again, stealing something straight out of the depths of his very soul, something he’s not so sure he’ll be able to get back. He cries out, but she quiets him by pressing a finger against his lips. “Shh…” she puts on a sickly sweet facade of a smile. “It’s ok… It’ll all be over soon.” 

As she thumbs some of his tears away, he finds himself hating the demon even more for its despicable tricks. For using the faces of his foe, his family, his friends, her face to taunt and trick and tear him to pieces. And even more than that, he hates himself for falling for being stupid enough to fall for it all so easily. “Don’t cry, Link…” she whispers as her eyes take on the exact same shade as the demon’s. “Just relax… and let go…”

As much as he doesn’t want to, he finds he doesn’t have much of a choice anymore. His body grows weaker by the second, his limbs limp and lacking any sense of feeling. His head lolls to the side, his eyes growing heavy as even breathing begins to become more and more of a challenge. Whatever the demon is taking from him is draining him from the inside out. And by now, it’s taken enough of it that he can’t even hope to salvage what might be left of it. 

“Let go…” Tetra tells him again, and he knows he’s on the verge of doing exactly that. His faint and fading thoughts beg him to resist, to fight back, to simply just stay alive . But as darkness continues creeping on the corners of his vision, he knows he isn’t capable of any of that. He’s far too weak to even try. 

Just like the demon said. 

“Let go…” that same demon echoes as its latest disguise falls away. Link hardly even notices when it resumes its true, terrible form; by now, he’s on the brink of falling into exactly what the demon wants of him. Into oblivion, and whatever might lie beyond it. 

“Let go…”

“...Link…” 

Another voice, a different voice, calls his name just as he closes his eyes one final time. The last thing he sees isn’t the demon’s wicked eye plunging him into eternal darkness. Instead, the last thing he sees is a faint, yet beautiful burst of green light . 

“Let go….

“Wake up…”

Chapter Text

“Be sure to keep my Link safe now. In every way there is.”

That’s what Link’s grandmother had told her shortly before they set out from Outset. Tetra didn’t think much of it at the time; it was just a word of caution from a concerned caregiver and little more. Only now does she realize the old woman hadn’t been worrying about her grandson losing his life to the sea. She was worried about Link losing his heart to the pirate captain he was sailing it with. 

How unfortunate it is, then, that he ended up losing both.  

She still doesn’t know how she’s supposed to tell his family that, even after weeks of woeful thought. She can scarcely believe it's already been that long since it happened. It's all still so fresh, so raw, like a wound that keeps reopening no matter how many times it’s tended to. The kind of wound that never really heals, no matter how much time and space might pass. 

Tetra paces around her cabin, thinking through her spiel for what feels like the millionth time now. Something like this requires a gentle, delicate approach, and being gentle and delicate aren’t things the pirate captain is known for. She’s never had to do something like this before, to deliver such terrible news to the kindly family of a fallen friend. Part of her wants to blame Link for even putting her in such a difficult position–if she wasn’t still reeling from losing him so suddenly, all because of her own bad judgment. 

She knew she’d have to tell his family that too. Link’s grandmother and little sister have always been warm and welcoming to her and her crew. She doubts if they’ll still be singing that same tune once they find out they’re the reason Link will never come home. Once they find out she’s the reason they’ll never see him ever again.

She sighs when a knock sounds on her cabin door. Gonzo peeks his head in, clearing his throat before delivering the news she’d been expecting all day. “Uh… Miss? We’re almost to Outset. It’s time.”

“...Right,” she nods, eyeing the satchel sitting in the corner of her room. At least she’ll be able to give his family the few possessions he’d left home with. It isn’t much, but it's something, she supposes. “Prepare to drop anchor, but have the men ready the lifeboats. I doubt we’ll be here for very long.”

“Aye,” Gonzo turns to follow his captain’s orders. Tetra isn’t that far behind him, heading up to the main deck with Link’s satchel slung over her shoulder. She almost hates to part with it, with the few things she has left to remember him by. But she’s already made peace with losing her mother’s scarf that sank to the bottom of the sea along with him; in time, she’ll make peace with this too. 

At least, she hopes she will. 

She doesn’t take her full crew along with her for this visit. In fact, she figures the fewer of them there are, the better. Gonzo accompanies her, of course, as do Senza and Mako. Niko had begged to come along–out of her entire crew, he’s clearly the most torn up over losing his first “swabbie”. Tetra quickly turned him down, however; the last thing they need is to bring along an overdramatic, sobbing wreck of a pirate to deliver such somber, solemn news. 

The sun always shines so brightly on the sparkling sands of Outset Island, and even now, that hasn’t changed. Tetra feels like it's teasing her as they approach the tiny house on the eastern side of the village. After all, the sun had been just as bright on that fateful day a few weeks ago too, when it all went so horribly wrong. 

She forces the last of her nerves away when they finally reach the house and she knocks on the door, already anticipating who will answer it. Tetra doesn’t have much respect for her elders. She’d never gotten to meet her own grandmother, though from what her mother used to tell her, she was a wicked old shrew not worth knowing. She supposes she has or had another grandmother too, on her father’s side, somewhere out there on the Great Sea. But the chances of ever meeting her are just about as slim as the chances of her discovering the name of the man her mother had slept with nine months before she was born. 

But Link’s grandmother, something about her is different than most old folks. Her eyes are kind, her smile always sincere, as if she’s incapable of being anything but. There’s a sort of sweetness in her voice that Tetra’s never heard from anyone else, even now, when she opens the door to a group of unexpected, uninvited guests.

“Oh! Tetra, dear!” Grandma doesn’t hesitate to pull the girl into a tight hug. Tetra isn’t usually the hugging type even on a good day, but given the circumstances, she doesn’t dare return this one. “It’s so good to see you, all of you. Come in, please! I just brewed a fresh pot of tea and there’s plenty to go around.”

“Um, actually,” Tetra pulls back from the old woman, glancing down. “We only came to-”

“Who’s there, Grandma?” A much younger voice calls out. A brand new wave of guilt strikes Tetra when Link’s little sister hops into a door frame. “Tetra!” she gasps, her eyes lighting up with excitement. She rushes to hug each of the pirates she spent several months sailing alongside. “Mr. Gonzo! Mr. Senza! Mr. Mako! What are you guys doing here?”

“...Hi, Aryll,” Tetra forces on a halfhearted smile. “We’re, um… we’re here to tell you both something. It’s… w-well, it’s not very good news. You see, a few weeks ago, we were-”

“Oh, wait!” Aryll suddenly interrupts. “Whatever this is, Link should hear it too!”

“Uh…” Tetra swallows hard. She might as well just come out and say it, however painful it might be for them all. “That’s actually what we came to talk to you about. Link isn’t… he’s not-”

“Big brotherrrrr!” Aryll calls, sending a ripple of confusion through Tetra and her crew. “You’ll never guess who’s heeeeere!” 

For a moment or two, there’s only silence, filled in by the sound of approaching footsteps inside the house. Grandma and Aryll step aside to make room, and suddenly… there he is. Living and breathing, without any sort of injuries or burns, without any sign that the ghost ship incident had happened at all. Tetra hears her crew gasp in shock behind her, but she remains silent, simply trying to comprehend what she’s seeing. This must be a dream, it simply has to be. She saw that ship go down in flames with him on it, she saw him lose his life before her very eyes. So how can he be standing here, smiling at her as if none of that ever happened? 

How is he alive ?

“Oh, hey, Tetra,” he greets, far too calmly and casually for comfort. “I’ve been expecting a visit from you sooner or later. What took you so long?”

“...Link,” Tetra finally manages to choke out. She can already feel tears building behind her eyes, but she fights them back. Just as she fights back the most obvious question in favor of a different one entirely. “W-what… are you doing here?” 

“I came back, remember?” Link shrugs, still smiling. There’s something off about that smile, something insincere, almost. It rubs Tetra the wrong way, just as much as everything else about this situation does. “I decided the pirates’ life wasn’t for me, so I sailed my way home.”

“Yeah!” Aryll chimes in, hugging her brother tight. “He’s been home for about a week now. We’re soooo happy to have him back!”

“A week? But… that doesn’t make any sense…” Mako muses, frowning. 

“Yeah, what about the ghost ship?” Gonzo eyes the boy suspiciously. “We saw you go down with-”

“Ghost ship?” Link interrupts. “What ghost ship?”

“The ghost ship that we all thought killed–” Tetra quickly stops herself when she catches the confused looks Aryll and Grandma are sending their way. Link doesn’t share it; instead, he stares at her intensely, almost as if he’s daring her to say anything more, to frighten his family with the haunting news she came here to bring them. News that doesn’t even seem to be true anymore. 

“Uh… n-never mind,” she shakes her head. “It’s just a silly old sailor’s tale.”

“But Miss…” Senza whispers to her. “We-”

“ Just a sailors tale,” she sharply repeats. She shoots a quick glance back at her crew, sending the unspoken message that they’ll have much to discuss later. A discussion they can’t hope to have in front of the small family standing before them. 

“Well then,” Grandma steps in to clear the following beat of awkward silence. “You’re all still more than welcome to come inside for that tea. Unless you came back to take my sweet Link here back out to sea,” she chuckles, clearly joking. Aryll laughs along with her, while Link’s smile turns a touch smug almost, his dark eyes settled on Tetra all the while. She fixes him with a wary glare, still unable to shake the feeling that something’s wrong here. She just can’t put her finger on what yet. 

“Actually,” she slips the satchel off her shoulder. “We just came to bring this back to you.” She hands it over to Link, who only briefly looks through its contents, seemingly uninterested in them. 

“Oh, thanks,” he tosses the bag inside the house with little care. “Well, now that your, uh, ‘business’ is finished, you guys can be on your way. See ya-”

“Hold it,” Tetra wedges her foot in front of the door when he rushes to close it. “Link, can I have a word with you? Alone ?”

He hesitates, his grip on the edge of the door tightening just the slightest bit. “Sure,” he says, his smile turning a touch more forced as he steps onto the porch. “I’ll be right back,” he tells Grandma and Aryll, who see Tetra and her crew off with waves and well-wishes. Tetra wishes she had it in her to return their fond farewells, but right now, her sole focus is on the boy strolling down to the shore alongside her. 

A boy who, by all accounts, should be dead. 

“Go back to the ship,” she orders her men, dropping her voice down to a whisper in the hopes that Link won’t hear. “Tell the others everything . I have a feeling there’s more going on here than we know.”

The trio nods, wasting no time rowing back to join the rest of the crew. Tetra watches as Link takes a seat in the sand, stretching out to enjoy the warm afternoon sunshine. She might have joined him, if she wasn’t busy watching his every move. “So,” he grins up at her. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Cut the act and start telling me the truth,” she growls, glad that she doesn’t have to pretend to be nice anymore. “You know what the ghost ship is, just as much as we all know we saw you go down with it when it wrecked. How did you manage to survive that? How did you find a way to get back here? And most importantly, if you made it out alive, why did you leave me and my crew to think that you died ?”

Link laughs as he sits up, patting the sand beside him to encourage her to join him. She doesn’t, still scowling down at him as she crosses her arms. “I didn’t mean to make you worry,” he says, but she doesn’t believe him. Not like she would have so easily before. “If you really want to know what happened, the wreck swept me out to an abandoned island where I built a raft and sailed back here. I didn’t want to tell Aryll and Grandma the truth about what happened because, well, c’mon. If they knew I’d almost died, they’d never let me out of their sight again.”

Tetra scoffs, narrowing her eyes at him. “There sure are a lot of holes in that story of yours.”

“Oh really?” Link smirks, cocking an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Well, for starters, I’ve seen enough shipwrecks to know that the boat would have dragged you down into the depths until you drowned,” Tetra begins matter-of-factly. “It wouldn’t have just ‘swept you out’ to some far off shore.”

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” Link’s smile finally fades. “‘Cause that’s what happened.”

“Suuuure, it did,” Tetra rolls her eyes. “And what’s all this about you being done with the whole pirate thing? I thought you loved sailing with us.”

“I used to love it,” Link stands, turning away from her. “But… I dunno, I guess I got tired of it. I was homesick. I wanted to be with my family again, so I came back. That’s all there is to it.”

“Well, what about the search for the next Hyrule?” Tetra asks, her already harsh tone turning even harsher. 

“I’m sure you’ll find it without me just fine,” Link waves her concern off. “It is your kingdom after all, ‘princess’.”

Without warning, Tetra grabs him by the shoulder, spinning him around as she takes a fistful of his tunic and pulls him in dangerously close. “You know better than to call me that,” she hisses. She’s on the verge of slapping that stupid grin clean off his face, her hand already poised to do exactly that. He doesn’t so much as even flinch when she finally decides to hit him squarely across the jaw. 

“Wow, Tetra,” he chuckles as he rubs his cheek. The sheer audacity of his reaction alone is almost enough to prompt Tetra to do it again. “That actually almost hurt.”

“Oh, I can make it hurt if you want me to,” she growls as she grabs a hold of him again. 

“You could,” Link acknowledges. “But you won’t .”

She’d strangle him if he wasn’t exactly right in calling her bluff. So instead, she lets him go, shoving him into the sand as she glares down at him with all the anger she can possibly muster. Which, admittedly, is quite a bit. “What is going on with you? You’re not acting like yourself,” she studies him, trying to see if anything looks different. But as far as she can tell, he’s exactly the same as he was when the ghost ship separated them. The same on the outside, but certainly not on the inside. 

“What makes you say that?” The innocent look on his face is a fake one, and Tetra knows it. Even further evidence that something is wrong; Link used to be nothing if not completely sincere to an almost annoying fault. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Tetra sneers. “Just about everything I’ve seen and heard since we got here.”

“Tetra,” Link stands once more. “Just admit it. I know you’re just having trouble accepting that I’ve decided to stay here.”

“I’m what ?” Tetra asks, baffled. 

“You miss me,” he laughs once again. There’s a certain sort of arrogance in it that Tetra swears she’s never heard from him before. It’s enough to nearly make her sick. “But I’m sorry to tell you that I’m where I belong. And where I belong… isn’t with you.”

Hearing him say that, so plainly and so bluntly… it hurts Tetra far more than she’d ever like to admit. They may have only known each other for a few months, but as far as she’s concerned, those months meant something special. Or at least, they had to her. Clearly, he doesn’t feel the same way, or at least he doesn’t anymore. If he ever had in the first place. 

“Alright, you know what? Fine,” she takes in a deep breath. She isn’t one to admit defeat often, and even now, she isn’t–not completely. Not that he needs to know that. “You wanna stay stuck on the same shore for the rest of your life, then be my guest. Just don’t come crawling back onto my ship again, because if you ever do, we’ll treat you how pirates are supposed to treat stowaways.”

“Point taken,” Link nods, still wearing that smooth, stupid smirk. He doesn’t even try to stop her as she storms back over to the spare lifeboat to head back to the ship. “See you around, Tetra.”

“You better hope that you don’t,” she warns, glaring back over her shoulder at him as she shoves the boat out to sea. “For your sake… and mine…”

She doesn’t look back as she begins to row, paddling fiercely to get at least some of her anger out. By the time she’s back on the deck of her ship, she’s fuming, something her entire crew notices as soon as she arrives. 

“Miss Tetra,” Gonzo begins, following after her as she storms up toward the bow. “About Link… what did he-”

“He was lying to me the entire time,” she says, her voice low and bitter. “I know it. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.”

“W-why would he lie to you, Miss?” Niko asks. He and the others who’d stayed behind had already heard most of the story, though it made just as little sense to them as it did to their perplexed young captain. 

Tetra ignores the question. Instead, she steps up onto the base of the bowsprit, taking the spyglass Zuko hands to her so she can spy on Link from afar. She isn’t surprised to find him still standing on that same spot on the shore, watching her and her crew with that stone-cold smile that looks so wrong on a face like his. “Something’s not right here,” she mutters, more to herself than the others. “The story he told me about the ghost ship, none of it added up. Luck alone wouldn’t have been enough to save anyone from a wreck like that, not even him.”

“Do you think something… unnatural might be afoot here, Miss?” Nudge asks, worried. 

“I don’t know…” Tetra returns the spyglass to Zuko. “But I’m making it our mission to find out. Let’s shove off to where we found the ghost ship and see if we can find any clues.”

“Y-you mean go back there?” Niko pipes up, terrified. “To where Link died –well, I mean, I guess he didn’t die, really, but still-”

“Can it, Niko!” Gonzo scolds, already heading to man the helm. “You heard Miss Tetra! We’re settin’ sail!”

Tetra stays at her spot on the bowsprit even as the ship begins to turn away from Outset. She continues watching Link, just as he’s no doubt watching her. Whether they wanted to or not, they’ve both just begun a dangerous game with each other, a game that Tetra is determined to win. 

“I don’t know how, but I’m gonna figure out what really happened to you, Link…” she whispers a vow onto the salty sea breeze. A vow meant for both of them, for the way things used to be. For the way she longs for them to be again. “No matter what it takes, or how long it takes, I will get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

He doesn't hear that promise, but he can still see her standing on her boat, staring at him from across the sea. Once he’s sure she’s far enough away, he steps into the shallows, secure in his confidence that everything is going exactly according to plan. “You’re smarter than I thought you’d be, princess,” he lets out another icy laugh as his eyes flash a dark shade of red. As just a hint of his true colors slip through the cracks. “It’s a shame you’re nowhere near smart enough…”

Chapter Text

In the deepest depths of a forgotten, forsaken temple resides the demon that has claimed it as its own. There, it hides the remains of its victims, the bodies and bones of those unlucky enough to fall prey to its insatiable lust for Life Force. The beast guards its domain well, devouring anyone foolish enough to intrude upon it by cutting them down through the Phantoms it has come to control. Since it conquered the temple many years ago, not a single soul who has entered its walls has made it out alive to tell the tale. So great is the beast’s power that no one can even hope to challenge it. 

At least, no mortal can. 

The beast’s latest victim is nowhere near as easy to drain as any of its past prey. Usually, it only takes a matter of days for it to wear a soul down to nothing, to steal every last trace of Life Force from within. But this boy, this so-called ‘hero’ is different. His Life Force sings with incredible power, built up across hundreds of years and countless past lives. As much as the demon covets it, it finds it cannot claim it so quickly. So it takes tts time, stealing his Life Force little by little every day, every week, and every month until the time comes when there will be none left. And when that day arrives, the demon will do as it's always done: move onto whatever pitiful soul is next. 

Little does the demon know that its latest catch has caught someone’s attention. Someone even more powerful than it is, who has stood by and watched her hero suffer long enough. 

So one day, when the boy is on the verge of losing his life altogether, she finally decides to strike. The demon senses her divine presence almost immediately, sending every monster at its command to try and oust her from its keep. She sweeps through every obstacle in her way, making it to the basement with ease. There, the demon awaits, along with the stone-turned body of the boy she’s come to save. 

“So… I see you’ve finally arrived to liberate your chosen…” the demon greets her coldly, coiling its tentacles even tighter around its prize. “I must admit, he is quite remarkable. I could tell he was one of yours from the moment I first sensed his soul. And oh, what a delectable soul it is…”

“That soul is not yours to claim,” her voice echoes through the walls. She hasn’t come in any sort of physical form, but her presence lingers, strong and steadfast, even in the face of a vicious demon. “Release him at once.”

The demon laughs, a wicked, ugly sound that stands in contrast to her soft, melodic tone. “Even if I wanted to set this child free, it would prove meaningless. I have consumed enough of his Life Force that even if he were to awaken, he’d be just a few steps away from death’s door. You have come too late to save your Son of Courage. Far too late.”

She’s silent for a moment, letting the demon believe it has won. At least until she lets her pure light unfurl to cut through the shadows the beast has created. “No… There is still great strength–great courage– in his soul yet. All he needs… is to remember that courage is there…”

Her light swirls through the chamber, wrapping around the hero’s petrified form and driving the demon’s tendrils away. She calls out to him, trapped inside a prison of cold, unfeeling stone, lost in a mire of darkness so deep for far too long. She pushes her way past it all though, finding the fragments of his fading soul and mind and calling out to them to bring them back from the brink. Despite how much the demon might try to stop her. 

“No,” it growls, flushing with all its stolen power to try and force her out. “No! You will NOT take what belongs to me! The boy, and all of the rich, vibrant Life Force his soul possesses, is MINE!” 

She ignores it, knowing she has much more important work to do than arguing with a simple demon. Her presence envelops the boy, warming his waning soul as she whispers words of kindness and love to him. As she fills his heart with all of the things it hasn’t known since he fell under the demon’s sway. 

“Link… wake up…”

“Stop it!” the demon screeches, fighting to keep its poisonous tendrils tightly tied around the boy. “He will NEVER awaken again, I’ll make sure of that!” 

“Please…” she implores, her voice like sunshine after an endless storm. “You must wake up, Link… Your life will not end here, I promise you. I will do all I can to save you, but before I can, you need to-”

“Wake… up…” he echoes weakly, his thoughts as hazy as his soul currently feels. But amidst it all, he still manages to heed her. He may not know who she is, but he knows enough to trust her; somehow, he knows that she’s the only one who can save him now. But just as she said, he needs to put in the work to save himself first. 

And so, the first crack is made in the solid stone encasing him. The first of many more. 

“ NO!” the demon screams at him, desperate to keep its hold on such precious prey. “Let go! Let go! LET GO!”

“Hold on…” she counters, her calmness a stark contrast to the demon’s rising mania. “Hold onto yourself, to your memories… to the ones that you love… Let them guide you home…” She conjures that very image of them, of the way he knows they all should be, not the way the demon portrayed them as. Aryll, Grandma, the King, even Tetra, all smiling at him, all reaching a hand out to help him. He remembers not that long ago when it was the other way around, when he was the one helping all of them. He almost feels ashamed to be reaching back for them, begging them to save him when he’s far too weak to do it for himself. Until…

“You have everything you need, Link…” she tells him right when his hand connects with Tetra’s. “You have all along…”

What was once just a few small cracks turns into something far more. Stone splinters, whole pieces breaking away from a body that hasn’t moved in months. The demon screams, foregoing words to fiercely fight with everything it has to cling onto the boy. But even it is powerless when pitted against her, against the might of one of the Golden Three themselves. 

She uses that might to silence the demon, casting a seal upon it to freeze it in place. It won’t hold forever, but it should stand just long enough for the boy to escape its clutches. And though she knows she’s already interfered far too much, she’s going to ensure that he does, that he lives to see the sun and sea somewhere beyond these cursed walls. 

Because like any good Mother, she won’t stop until her Son is   free.

He awakens slowly, to a pounding headache and a cold hard floor beneath him. His body feels stiff and strange, his limbs too long, his joints tight, his skin rough and ashy. It takes awhile for his vision to completely clear, but when it does, he’s met with a truly chilling sight. The blazing golden eye of the very demon that’s been tormenting him for what feels like forever. 

A frightened shout slips out of him as he bolts upright, ignoring the pain rattling through his bones as he crawls backward as quickly as he can. He soon realizes that his arms and legs are no longer bound, and even more surprising, the demon doesn’t try to restrain him again. In fact, it isn’t moving at all. Its massive body looms high above Link, hanging from the ceiling as if stuck in time. He doesn’t know why it isn’t attacking him and he doesn’t care to find out, especially as an all new voice echoes out through the dark, round chamber. 

“Link… Link, can you hear me…?”

“W-who’s there?” he stumbles to his feet, only to fall right back down to the ground. He searches for the voice’s source, only to find not a single other soul anywhere–aside from the demon hanging precariously over his head. 

“Fear not… I am a friend.”

“O… kay,” Link winces at the sound of his own voice. He doesn’t remember it sounding as deep and rough as it does. “Where… are you?”

“I hold no physical form in your world,” the voice says. Though he hasn’t the faintest idea who it could belong to, he finds it strangely comforting all the same. “But rest assured, my presence is with you and so it shall remain until you escape from the confines of this place.”

“Uh… thanks?” Link finally manages to stand, though he’s still unsteady. His clothes aren’t fitting him right; his shoes are too tight, his tunic is too short, even his cap isn’t sitting on his head the way it should. But as puzzling as that all may be, he knows there are much more important matters to focus on now. “What is this place anyway?”

“It was once known as the Temple of the Ocean King, until the fell demon Bellum conquered it in its foul name.”

“Bellum…” Link repeats, daring to glance up. “Is that…?”

“Yes,” the voice’s tone turns grave. “But you have no reason to fear its wrath now. I have placed a seal upon it, halting its movements. But it will not keep it at bay forever; you must flee from this temple before the seal breaks. Otherwise, Bellum will be able to reclaim you as its prisoner and I will not be able to help you again.”

Link clutches his chest, trying to shake off the dull pain still lingering through it. He tries to focus on what the voice is telling him, but everything, even standing and breathing, is proving to be a struggle now. How she expects him to escape an entire temple  in the sorry state he’s in, he has no idea. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try. “O-ok…” he sighs, fighting off his pressing exhaustion. “How do I get out of here then?”

“Right now, you are on the temple’s bottommost floor. There are several levels you must ascend to reach the exit, and I’m sorry to say that won’t be an easy task. The demon controls countless monsters throughout the temple, and has placed a curse upon it that continually drains the Life Force of all who enter. You have already lost so much of your Life Force, Link. You cannot afford to lose much more. That is why I shall do what I can to guide you to safety.”

“Ok, uh… not that I’m not grateful, but… why are you helping me?” he asks, thoroughly confused. “Why won’t you tell me who you are?”

She’s silent for a moment, as if hesitating. What she tells him next isn’t something Link is so sure he believes. “To explain myself properly would take more time than you have on your side. But please, trust me when I tell you that I am a friend.”

Now it’s Link’s turn to hesitate. After what Bellum just put him through, using the faces and words of his friends and family against him in such a cruel way, he isn’t really keen on trusting anyone. But right now, with his body on the verge of failing him altogether, he’s afraid he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’ll take all the help he can get. “Fine,” he sighs, facing the long staircase leading upward. “I’ll trust you– if you tell me your name.”

“...I cannot say my true name to you, not yet,” she says softly, almost sadly. “For now, you may call me… Faron.”

“Faron,” he echoes, grinning. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“...Yes,” Faron says and Link can almost hear the smile being her voice, gentle and kind. It’s enough to convince him that perhaps he really can trust her–even if he can’t see her–after all. “It is.”

Link manages to limp his way over to the stairs, daunted by just how many of them there are. Faron was right about one thing though; time isn’t on his side, which means he might as well get started. He scales them, slowly yet steadily, but by the time he finally reaches the top, he’s on the verge of collapsing. He has no choice but to stop and take a break to catch his breath, using the opportunity to voice one of the countless questions weighing on his mind. 

“Hey, Faron?” he begins, taking a seat on the uppermost step. “I don’t think I understand… w-what did that… thing do to me? Why do I feel so bad, so… so-”

“Weak?” Faron finishes for him. 

“...That’s not the word I wanted to use,” he rubs his arm, frowning. “But… yeah.”

“As I’ve said, the demon has drained you of much of your Life Force,” Faron explains. “It is energy itself, that which sustains all living things. Your soul teems with it, in a way no others do. This made you a prime target for Bellum, a creature that feeds upon Life Force. Your body has been weakened because the demon has spent the past year slowly draining it from you-”

“Wait, did you just say year ?” Link interrupts, alarmed. 

“Yes…?”

“As in… I’ve been trapped here for a whole year ?!” Link presses in rising panic. 

“Yes,” Faron confirms again, seemingly confused. “Bellum turned your body to stone to entrap you physically while it tortured you mentally and emotionally in an attempt to break your spirit. But because of your spirit's great strength, its efforts took time–much more time than it would take to break most. So it–Link, are you alright?" She stops herself when Link jumps up from the stairs, pushing through the door ahead of him in search of something. 

He doesn’t answer her as he finds what he’s looking for, a piece of discarded metal lying on the ground. Fortunately, it’s reflective, allowing him a glimpse of himself. And what he sees staring back at him is just about the best proof he can get that what Faron just told him is somehow true . 

He looks so much older, that’s his first thought. Of course, he isn’t; his thirteenth birthday had just passed a few weeks before they found the ghost ship. If a year really has gone by, that would make him fourteen now. Even though he’d apparently been turned to stone, his body had still grown, making him taller, leaner, just a touch more mature. It would explain why he felt so unsteady when he first woke up and why his clothes feel so uncomfortably tight. And yet, for as disconcerting as that all is, it’s not what’s really bothering him. 

“A year …” he leans against the nearest wall, overwhelmed. “It really took an entire year for me to break free from that thing…”

“I’m afraid so…” Faron says, sympathetic. 

“But I couldn’t even do that on my own,” Link pushes himself away from the wall, frustrated when he almost falls to the ground again. “ You’re the one who really saved me, weren’t you?”

“I… helped, but-”

“Then it was right…” he sinks to the ground, running a hand through his now-longer hair. “I really am weak…” He grabs the piece of metal again, noticing that Tetra’s scarf is still tied tightly around his neck. What would she think if she could see him now? If she could see how utterly pathetic he really is? 

“No ,” Faron quickly counters. “Link, you are anything but weak. The fact that you managed to survive this long against Bellum’s might is proof of that. You must believe that your soul is stronger than you might think; that your heart holds more courage than even you know.”

Link sighs, wishing he could believe that. But right now, when he’s barely able to even stand, when he’s lost an entire year of his life because of a trap he stupidly fell into… it’s hard to see himself as anything other than what the demon said he was: a failure . 

“Uh huh…” he mutters, forcing himself to trudge on ahead. “I just want to get out of this place. I think I’ve been stuck here long enough…” 

Faron doesn’t argue. In fact, she doesn’t say anything else until Link steps through the next door… only to find himself struck by a fierce, and familiar kind of pain. 

“Link!” she calls above his anguished cry as he falls to his knees. “It’s the demon’s curse upon the temple! You must find shelter from it before it can drain your remaining Life Force!”

If Link didn’t feel like the air was being sucked straight out of his lungs, he might have argued that’s easier said than done. He isn’t able to take too much stock of his surroundings in his current state, but he can tell that the corridors ahead of him stretch into a winding, complicated maze. A maze that he knows he won’t be able to navigate if he can’t even walk. 

He quickly finds he has no choice but to move forward though. The telltale sound of a brandished sword rings through a nearby hall, accompanied by heavy metallic footsteps. Before Link can even try to figure out what they could belong to, he sees it round a corner just a few feet ahead. It can’t be described as anything other than a living suit of armor, massive and sturdy as it wields one of the largest blades Link has ever seen. Upon first glance, he doesn’t know what to make of it, until it spots him lying on the ground ahead of it. And the second it does, it charges straight for him, its sword drawn and ready for a devastating attack. 

Despite the brutal pain pounding through his bones, Link still manages to hurry to his feet and break into as much of a run as he can. He nearly trips several times over, his vision tunneling as he struggles for air he somehow can’t seem to get enough of. Faron shouts some kind of warning to him, but with the blood rushing through his ears, he can’t make out what it is. Each frantic step he takes makes him feel like he’s walking straight toward death itself, and the bloodthirsty knight at his heels isn’t helping anything. It catches up to him in no time, tossing its large, heavy sword at him to send him flying to the ground. He slides far across the rough floor, finally crashing against a dead-end wall. Strangely enough, he can suddenly breathe easily again, but he finds no consolation in that fact when he sees the knight’s sword hanging just a few inches over his head. 

And yet… it never hits him. 

Instead, the knight pulls back, glancing around as if confused. From his spot on the ground, Link watches it breathlessly, knowing all too well that he has nowhere else to run, and without any sort of weapon to speak of, he has no chance of fighting it off either. Miraculously though, he soon finds that he won’t have to. Because instead of killing him like it so easily could, the knight simply turns… and walks away. 

“W-what… was that thing?” Link asks once the shock wears off and he’s finally able to speak again. 

“A Phantom,” Faron says. Once again, Link finds himself grateful for her peculiar presence; if he has to be trapped in a place as frightening and foreboding as this, at least he isn’t entirely on his own. “They once served as sentries, created to protect this temple from intruders, until Bellum took control of them. Now, they roam these halls with ill-intent, ready to cut down anyone they see.”

“So… why didn’t that one?” 

“Because, you found your way to a safe spot.” Link looks down and quickly discovers what she means; the floor beneath him carries a faint, warm glow. It emits some sort of energy, soft and healing, far different from the toxic aura lingering over the rest of this place. “There are several throughout the temple; areas untouched by Bellum’s malice. In these areas, you will find respite from the demon’s curse and from the Phantoms alike. Use them well.”

“Well, at least that’s something,” Link lets out a relieved sigh as he sits against the closest wall. “But how do I stay safe when I’m not in one of these spots?”

“There is a sacred item that was once used by travelers to enter the temple safely,” Faron explains. “It is called the Phantom Hourglass. It would be able to keep you safe from Bellum’s curse and help you slip by the Phantoms unseen.”

“Sounds like that’s just what I need,” Link perks up. “Where can I find it?”

“...Beyond the walls of the temple, unfortunately,” Faron hesitantly replies. 

“Of course,” Link groans, slouching back against the wall. “Goddesses forbid this actually be easy .”

Faron lets out a kindly laugh, “Few feats worth accomplishing ever are. But I know you are ready to face this challenge. As I’ve told you… you already have everything you need.”

His first inclination is to argue, to say that he’d have everything he needs if he had a sword in his hand and if he hadn’t spent the past year in the grasp of a soul-sucking demon. But he already knows Faron won’t have any of that, that she’ll only counter with even more vague, ultimately empty encouragement. And much as he appreciates her guidance and her company, he’d rather risk it against another Phantom than listen to any more of that. 

Link waits until he feels like he’s recovered at least a little of his waning strength to venture out from the safe spot. Of course, almost as soon as he does, the curse begins to weigh just as heavily upon him as it had before. This time, however, he forces himself to fight through it, refusing to let it drag him down, to let the demon steal any more from him than it already has. Faron keeps a close eye out for Phantoms, warning him well whenever any come too close for comfort. He finds a few more safe spots along the way, pacing himself as best he can, lest he run out of energy entirely. It’s slow, tedious work, but in time, he makes it to the next floor of the temple. 

Only then does he begin to find the remains. 

He’s seen bones stripped of their flesh before, though only really from monsters or animals. But the withered skeletons that lie on the sloppy heaps on the temple’s floor are undoubtedly human . The curse already has Link feeling sick to his stomach, but an all new wave of nausea hits him when he notices bits of rotting flesh still hanging onto some of those bones. Fresher, more recent victims, he presumes. 

“Just how many people has that thing killed…?” he wonders, barely able to speak above a whisper, lest the Phantoms hear him. 

“...Far too many to count,” Faron says gravely. “But you will not be one of them.”

Link only nods as he settles into another safe spot, wishing he had her confidence. He’s been in plenty of dire straits in the past, from savage storms at sea to monster-infested dungeons much like this one. And in each of those instances, he had a sturdy sword and more than enough strength to stand behind it. Both things he painfully lacks now. 

If it were up to Link, he’d use his time in the safe spots to get some much-needed sleep. Even if it wouldn’t restore his strength fully, at the very least, it would be a respite from the waking nightmare he’s still stuck in. Faron, however, makes sure to remind him that time is of the essence. Bellum could slip free from her seal at any moment, which means he has no time to lose. 

So he presses onward, through exhaustion, the curse, and several close calls against the Phantoms, eventually making it to the next floor and through another. There are plenty of close calls along the way; one of the Phantoms manages to graze his side while another stray monster gives him a few sizable bruises and a black eye. The curse, however, makes all of his other injuries feel like paper cuts compared to the sweeping pain that spirals through him every time he so much as steps foot outside of a safe spot. 

That’s exactly why he doesn’t know what he’d do without Faron. Her guidance gets him through the complex, maze-like corridors, leading him to each safe spot along the way while keeping him out of the Phantoms’ detection. As much as she may puzzle him, perhaps even frustrate him, he honestly doesn’t know what he’d do without her. Which only leads him to wonder about his unseen companion’s true nature even more. 

“So…” he feels a bit chatty during one of his breaks. It’s a necessary one; he tripped and fell while running from a Phantom, busting his knee wide open. As he wraps the wound up with a torn strip of fabric from his tunic, he takes his mind off the sting of it with casual conversation. “Are you like… a ghost or something?”

Faron laughs, a sweet, pretty sound that echoes through the dank dungeon like a soothing song. “Not exactly. I exist on a very different plane of existence, one quite far away from this world or any other you may know. That is what allows me to see you, even though you cannot see me.”

“Not gonna lie, that’s kind of creepy,” Link chuckles as he finishes tying his knee up. 

“Perhaps,” she agrees, amused. “But I promise, my watchfulness comes from a place of caring. You’re quite special to me, Link. You always have been–since the very beginning.”

“Okay, that’s… a little more creepy…” Link mutters to himself as his smile slowly fades. “What do you mean, ‘since the very beginning’? We just met a few hours ago…”

“You just met me,” Faron clarifies. “But I’ve known you for far longer, before you were even… well, you.”

“Am I supposed to know what that means?”

“...No. Net yet, at least.”

“Right…” Link sighs, knowing that’s all he’s bound to get out of her. “You know, Faron, you remind me of… someone I used to know. He was mysterious and cryptic all the time too, but… he was also a really good friend. I… I miss him a lot…”

Faron is silent for a long moment, but when she finally does speak, she sounds nothing less than completely sincere when she says: “The King of Hyrule was so very proud of you, Link. And so he would be if he were still with you today. Do not forget that.”

Something in Link’s chest tightens when he hears that. About a million emotions rush through him, good and bad alike, but he doesn’t dare let any of them linger long. Not that there’s a chance for that to happen anyway when the entire temple begins to quake from its very foundation. 

“W-what’s happening?” Link asks, pulling himself to his feet. 

“It’s the seal!” Faron shouts. “Bellum has broken through it much faster than I ever could have anticipated. You have to get out of the temple NOW, Link! Before it can find you!”

That’s all the warning Link needs. He darts out of the safe spot, biting back the crushing pain that the curse brings on the second he does. Fortunately, he isn’t far from the next set of stairs, the last according to Faron. He’s so close to the exit now, so close to safety and to freedom . All he needs to do now is live long enough to get there. 

Of course, that’d be a lot easier if he didn’t have three Phantoms and a ravenous demon hot on his trail. 

There’s no time to hide from any of them, not anymore. The pull of the curse claws at what little Life Force he has left to spare, but still he keeps going, knowing he can’t stop, not even for a second now. Not even when one of the Phantoms’ blades slams straight into his back. 

“Link!” Faron screams his name, but he doesn’t hear her over his own anguished cry. He’s tossed forward by the force of the blow, his back ripped open and already stained a deep, dangerous shade of red. Even as he falls to the ground, he tries to pick himself back up, but his body refuses to respond the way he wants it to. His limbs lie uselessly on the floor and his spine feels like it's been snapped clean in half. He’s not so sure it isn’t when one of the Phantoms stomps a heavy metallic foot straight down into the center of the wound, prying yet another agonized scream out of him. The third Phantom makes matters even worse when it grabs his ankle and violently twists it, further ensuring he won’t be able to get away. And, making him an even easier catch for their current master. 

Link can’t see it, but Faron can: the trio of Phantoms have him surrounded, and the one who has him pinned down also has its sword ready to finish the job. But even worse than that, Bellum’s tentacles are racing up from the basement, angrily surging to recapture the demon’s most coveted prey. They reach him far too quickly, stalling the Phantom’s hand from striking Link down so it can do it instead in an entirely different way. The eye on its tentacle flashes with gleeful hunger as its laughter sounds throughout the entire temple, cruel and victorious, confident that it has won this “game”. 

“See what happens when you interfere where you don’t belong, Farore?!” its tendril rushes for Link’s exposed back. Now that it’s had a taste of his soul, it isn’t keen on waiting for more, for the last of the most powerful Life Force it ever has, and likely ever will consume. “Even you cannot protect these pathetic mortals you care so much about forever! And now, you will witness firsthand as your beloved Son of Courage DIES, once and for all!” 

“No…” her voice trembles, first with fear, then with raw, unshakable courage . “NO!” 

Just before Bellum can touch Link and take the last remnants of his Life Force away, it happens. Her power explodes in a shower of pure, emerald light, light that joins together to take on a more solid shape. The Phantoms are blown back by the gale-force wind that surrounds her, wind that never touches the injured boy by her feet. She stands between the demon and the hero, sending a burst of healing magic just strong enough to keep him alive and mobile. As much as she wishes she could fully seal his wounds, it's the most she can do for him now. 

The curse still cuts deep like a knife as Link manages to glance behind him. He sees Bellum and the Phantoms, but there’s someone else too, though as haloed in light as she is, he can’t make out much about her. She takes on the vague shape of a woman, a warrior , with arms outstretched to keep the furious demon before her at bay. To protect him in any way she can, just like she said she would. 

“F-Faron?” he asks, awestruck by her radiance. 

She glances back at him, with eyes shining like emeralds, eyes much like his own. A single tear streaks down her cheek and yet she smiles at him while whispering in the same voice he’s heard all this time. The voice of a friend he’s not so sure he’ll ever get to see again. “Go.”

And so… he does. 

He hates that he isn’t strong enough to stand with her, hates that he isn’t strong enough to even try . But he’s no match for Bellum; a year as its prisoner has more than proved that fact. Even now, he struggles to get away from it–Faron’s magic has only dulled the pain of his wounds instead of healing them entirely. As a result, he relies on the walls to keep him upright as he limps toward the large set of doors ahead of him, haunted by the demon’s furious screams as they echo all around him. As Bellum vows violent vengeance against him and Faron alike. 

It takes a bit of doing and a lot of strain on his injured back and leg, but Link still somehow manages to pry the doors open. He expects to find his freedom on the other side of it, but instead, he finds yet another dark, stony chamber lying ahead of him. His heart sinks as his panic starts to rise, until he spots bright light pouring in from a large opening on the far side of the room. A draft cuts through the temple’s otherwise stagnant gloom, as sure a sign as any that it’s the way out he’s been so desperately searching for. And now… it’s only a few short steps away. 

A small set of stairs leads down into what he assumes is the temple’s foyer. As Link begins hurrying down them, he notices that the curse doesn’t seem to be influencing this part of the structure; the constant pain he’s been feeling throughout the rest of the temple finally begins to fade away. A small, relieved smile breaks onto his face as he realizes he might just make it out of here after all, until–

Until Faron’s magic wears off at the worst possible time. 

His twisted ankle snaps when it lands on one of the steps, sending him falling forward as agony explodes across his still-bleeding back. He lands in a daze at the bottom of the stairs, on the verge of fainting or vomiting or both. But as much as he might want to, he knows he can’t give up now, especially not when he can still hear Bellum’s bloodthirsty wails on the other side of the wall behind him. And if he can’t walk… then he’ll just have to crawl. 

Whatever it takes to escape, to keep himself from being anyone’s prisoner ever again. 

So he pulls himself across the rough ground, biting back groans and cries between tightly-gritted teeth. It’s unbearable, some of the worst pain he’s ever felt in his life. But all of that pain, all of the fear, everything he’s been through since the moment he stepped foot on that ghost ship… it’s all worth it the moment he slowly, weakly crosses the temple’s threshold. 

It’s all worth it when he feels the sun on his skin, when he takes in his first breath of fresh air in an entire year. When he realizes he’s finally out. He’s finally free . 

And… he’s finally reached his limit. 

His eyes haven’t even fully adjusted to the near-blinding light of the sun when his arms give out from under him. His head hits soft soil, a bit of blood leaking out of his mouth as the trees surrounding him grow blurry and dim. His breath rattles in his lungs as his eyes slowly slip shut, letting the rest he’s been craving all along claim him completely.

Within the confines of the temple, a demon rages over its prey slipping away, promising to reclaim him, no matter what it may take. 

Just outside of that temple, a yellow fairy finds her wings guided–as if by fate or some other force entirely–to a boy lying half-dead on the forest floor. 

And, from a realm somewhere far beyond it all, a goddess smiles, knowing that at long last, her beloved Son of Courage is finally safe. 

Chapter Text

Ciela doesn’t know what compels her to fly up to the north woods. Grandpa doesn’t like it when she strays too far from home, and with rumors of monsters lurking in the forest, who can blame him? Fortunately, she can fly high enough to evade their notice. She told Grandpa she wouldn’t be long–she just wanted to stretch her wings for a bit. But what had started as a casual flight soon turns into something else entirely when she senses something strange coming from the old temple on the far edge of the woods. 

She can’t say she’s familiar with the place–Grandpa’s warned her time and time again against going anywhere near it. She’s usually good about listening to his wise counsel; today, however, her curiosity happens to get the better of her.

And what her curiosity ends up leading her to… is just about the last thing she could have ever expected. 

She smells it far before she even reaches the temple: the thick, metallic scent that hangs on the air in a way that nearly makes the fairy lose her lunch. She pushes through the nausea first, then through the trees as she cautiously approaches the temple. At first, she doesn’t notice anything unusual… until her gaze drifts down to its open entrance. 

Until she finds a green-clad body lying still in the grass, soiled from head to toe with his own blood. 

Oh , she thinks, gobsmacked. I guess that explains that awful stench… 

Shock soon gives way to panic as Ciela races down to the ground. She hovers over the body of a boy–a concerningly young one at that. Messy golden hair drapes over his closed eyes, his face pale and plagued with lingering pain. There’s blood just above everywhere, with most of it pooling over his exposed back as he lay listlessly on his stomach, his feet just barely beyond the threshold of the temple. Ciela has no idea how long he’s been here like this, and she initially worries it’s been far too long. That is, until she flies in a bit closer and hears the rough, rattling breaths passing through his parted lips. 

“You’re still alive?!” she gasps, jolting back. “Oh, thank the goddesses! Um, ok.” She swallows hard, completely out of her element here. She’s not a healing fairy, nor is she big enough to help him in any meaningful way outside of getting someone who can. “Don’t… don’t go anywhere–I mean, not that you really could right now anyway, but–I-I’ll go get Grandpa, he can help–I hope! Be right back, I promise!” 

She knows he can’t hear her, just as much as she knows he might not have much time left. So she flies off, as fast as her wings can carry her, praying to all three goddesses above that she isn’t too late. 

Little does she know one of those goddesses is listening . And she’s already answered.

He stands before a mirror, but something is… off about it. Distorted. Wrong . The colors of his reflection are dull, dark, all but drained of any semblance of vibrance. Even stranger yet, his reflection’s gaze doesn’t meet his, even though he’s staring him straight in the eyes. Eyes that are nowhere near as green as he knows them to be. 

Instead, his reflection looks down, dead-eyed, almost, unmoving even as he reaches a hand up to skim the glass between them. He stumbles back from the mirror when his reflection finally snaps his head up to look at him. With dark, crimson eyes. 

His reflection doesn’t speak; it only smiles, coldly, confidently–a stark contrast to the shock written all over Link’s face. The colors continue fading from his reflection, until he’s left completely monochromatic, not that he seems to care. The reflection’s grin only grows more malicious as something begins to take shape in the glass behind him. It takes Link only seconds to recognize a shore he knows better than any other, the very same shore he grew up on. 

Suddenly, his reflection is no longer alone. On the beach behind him, Aryll waves, cheerfully calling out words Link can’t hear. Grandma stands alongside her, smiling warmly. And then, there’s Tetra–flanked by her crew, her arms crossed and her face set in that playful wink he’s come to know so well. He glances back to see if any of them are behind him, but all he finds is an empty void surrounding him. So he reaches forward, for what lies in the other side of the mirror, for what he longs for and where he longs to be–

But all his hand can touch is the wall of glass keeping them apart. 

His reflection’s smile turns triumphant as he starts to turn to face his friends and family. He shouts to them, trying to warn them, but they don’t seem to hear a single word. He even resorts to beating on the glass, but it doesn’t yield, no matter what he does. Panic surges through his chest as he desperately claws at the mirror, begging the group gathered on the other side of it to hear him, to see him, to even just notice him. But how can they when ‘he’s’ already standing right in front of him?

His breath hitches when his reflection looks back at him, still wearing that disgusting, treacherous smile. His red eyes blaze with violence, with bloodlust, with evil so strong it shakes Link to his very core. That reflection, that goddess-damned thing is about to go home in his place, to fool the people he loves, to keep him trapped here, utterly and inconsolably alone . 

And… all he can do is stand there and watch it happen. 

So it goes, over and over again, a nightmare he can’t seem to wake up from. Until, of course, he finally does.

Consciousness comes back to him in slow-moving waves. For far too long, everything’s blurry and hazy as a headache blooms to life in the space right between his eyes. A groan spills out of his dry mouth, but his body is warm and comfortable as he lies on something soft. Each breath sparks a dull thrum of pain across his back, but it's nowhere near as bad as it had been during his final moments inside of the temple. Speaking of which–

He doesn’t see the temple’s cold, stony walls surrounding him anymore. Instead, he thinks he’s in a house, though he can’t remain conscious enough to make much out about it. What he does see is that someone’s walking toward him. They creak quietly across a wooden floor, and all Link is able to make out about them is a white beard dangling from their face. 

“K-King…?” he croaks, delirious. He swears it must be a million degrees in here, hotter than the depths of Dragon Roost Cavern. But if the King of Hyrule is here, then everything will be fine. He’s safe, for the first time in what feels like forever. He’s safe.  

But then, the King–the stranger stops, draws in a sharp breath. He slowly shakes his head. 

“No.” There’s a certain sadness in the old man’s voice. “Not anymore.”

Link stiffens when a hand gently slides under his head, guiding it upward. It’s a slow, gentle movement, but it’s enough to send hot agony shooting through the wounds on his back. He chokes out a strangled cry, tears blurring his vision even more. He moans in protest when something hot skims his parted lips. It takes every last ounce of strength he has left in him to turn away from it. Even as out of it as he is, the last thing he wants is someone he doesn’t know forcing some mysterious substance down his throat. Even if said throat is practically begging for even the smallest drink. 

“Please, child,” the stranger pleads, pushing the spoon toward him again. “You must eat something or you’ll never-”

Link doesn’t catch the tail end of what he says. He’s too tired to struggle any longer, so he lets the old man have his way. Warm, savory broth pours into his mouth and it's so good he doesn’t even think twice about swallowing. It reminds him of his Grandma’s famous soup, rich and flavorful, and most of all comforting , like a taste of home. He closes his eyes and lets the stranger spoon as much of that soup as he wants into him, not even caring if it might be poisoned or come at an eventual price. 

By the time the old man helps his head rest back on its pillow, he can’t keep his eyes open any longer. It doesn’t take him long to realize there must have been some sort of medicinal herbs mixed into that soup because his back feels numb now, and so does the rest of his body. There had probably been something to put him to sleep in the soup too, because within minutes he’s out of it all over again. 

The mirror doesn’t appear in his dreams again. 

What shows up in its place is almost just as frightening. Feverish nightmares of what he went through as Bellum’s prisoner. Of cruelly-crafted visions of his loved ones coldly criticizing everything he’s ever done, everything he’s ever been. Of slithering tentacles coiling around every inch of his body, strangling the Life Force straight out of wherever it’s hiding inside his soul. Of the deadly Phantoms lurking the halls of the temple, ready and eager to tear him limb-from-limb. 

He wakes up screaming more times than he can count, tearing open his bandaged wounds each time he thrashes violently in his bed. The stranger always hurries to his side to shove some kind of medicine or sleeping potion into him just to get him to calm down and stop hurting himself even more. Link knows he should be grateful, but he isn’t. Because each time he’s thrown back into slumber, he’s also thrown right back into those awful nightmares, right back into the clutches of the very beast that nearly took his life. 

He doesn’t know how long it goes on like that. Every now and then, he’ll find himself in the bizarre space between nightmares, where he knows he’s awake, but nothing feels real. In that space, the stranger feeds him, changes his bandages, tends to his wounds. He must be able to tell that Link is still too out of it to even speak because each of their encounters is silent outside of the first. He’s glad for that; he doesn’t feel like talking, even if he could. As drugged up on potions as he probably is, it’s not like he’d be able to carry much of a coherent conversation anyway. 

He’s just about resigned himself to an eternity of tortuous nightmares and bleary half-consciousness until one day. He wakes up slowly, crawling his way out of another faceoff against the Phantoms and back into reality. Light streams across his vision, far too bright for comfort. It pours in from an open window not too far away, a warm sea breeze swaying the curtains on either side of it. For the first time, he’s lucid enough to take in the room properly, clean, spacious, and simply furnished, a little like his small house back on Outset. He doesn’t see the stranger looming anywhere nearby, so he assumes he must be alone. 

Until he spots the tiny ball of yellow light resting on his chest. 

Link stares at it, confused as he watches it breathe on its own accord. It takes his still-muddled mind far too long to spot the pair of wings attached to it and realize what that light actually is. He doesn’t know where a fairy, of all creatures, could have come from, or if it's actually capable of healing or not. But something about her presence rings familiar in a way he can’t quite place, comforting and warm. So he lets her stay sleeping where she is, taking care not to disturb her as he tries to get a better handle on his situation. 

He looks down at himself, noting that his tunic is gone, leaving his chest bare beneath the cozy blanket draped over him. Several layers of bandages cover his torso, for the sake of his back and likely his side too. He feels more of them wrapped tightly around his left ankle, the same one the Phantom had twisted to keep him from escaping. His stomach churns at the memory. 

There are plenty of other smaller bandages peppered across his body, meant for smaller injuries, minor cuts and bruises. All in all, he’s not as bad off as he could have been, but he’s not doing great either. He still feels so soul-crushingly weak , just like he did back in the temple. It’s a strange feeling, one that echoes through his bones with emptiness unlike anything he’s ever known. Like the absence of something important, something essential. Something that was stolen from him to satiate a demon’s ravenous appetite. 

He sighs, letting his head rest back onto the pillow as he closes his eyes. He doesn’t intend to go back to sleep, but he’s not sure what else to do–or what he even can do in his current condition. Frustration silently settles over him as he realizes he probably can’t even walk right now. There’s only one other time he’d been bedridden like this–when he was very young and had been laid out with some unknown illness that had been going around Outset. He only vaguely remembers the shadow of his mother hanging over him to press a cool cloth on his hot forehead. He wonders if the stranger has had to do the same thing over the past… however long he’s been here for. 

“Psst, are you awake?” a bright, yet quiet voice cuts through his thoughts. He cracks one eye open to find the fairy’s up now, still standing on his chest as she looks over him curiously. “Oh! You are!” her wings lift her up into the air just above him. “Finally! I was starting to wonder if you’d ever wake up!”

He opens his mouth to say something, only for his throat to close up on him, dry as a bone. The fairy watches him, confused at first, until she gasps in realization. “Here!” she flutters over to the nightstand beside the bed, where a pitcher full of water sits waiting for him. “Drink up!”

He reaches a shaking hand out to grab it, not even attempting to sit up to drink properly for the sake of his aching back. Of course, that choice comes with a cost. His hands are still trembling, too weak to bear the pitcher’s weight. It slips out of his grasp, cool water spilling all over his face and chest. Link sputters, shocked at just how uncoordinated he is, by how he can’t even pick up a simple pitcher of water anymore-

“Oh no!” the fairy shrieks, flying to the door of the room. “Grandpa! C’mere! Hurry, please!”

Link frowns, still dripping wet as he watches someone slowly shuffle in. A short old man, back slightly hunched over, a gray beard and bushy eyebrows to match it. The stranger , he realizes, happy that his mind is finally clear enough to recognize him. Even if he isn’t happy about much else right now. 

“Oh my,” the old man stops short as he takes in the boy’s plight. He shakes his head, chuckling softly; Link feels his face growing warm with embarrassment when he hears it. “A bit over-eager, were we, lad? You know,” he hobbles the rest of the way over, relying on his cane. It’s taller than he is, with some sort of large conch shell perched atop it. “If you wanted water that badly, you could have just called out for some. I would have been more than happy to pour you a glass.”

Link bristles, scowling as he looks away from the old man. Even though he can speak now, he’s not so sure he wants to after an introduction like that. The fairy, however, seems to have other ideas. 

“Soooo, now that you’re awake…” she begins, flying back into his field of view. “What’s your name? Where did you come from? Why were you lying outside of the temple? How’d you get so beaten up? Did you-”

“Ciela,” the old man interrupts as he works to dry Link off. “I think the poor lad is a little overwhelmed. Perhaps one question at a time would be easier for him.”

“Right, right,” the fairy–Ciela–clearly tries to contain her excitement. “Ok, um… why don’t we start with your name?”

He hesitates, looking between the odd pair before him before offering an answer, his voice still faint and ragged from misuse. “Link.”

“Link,” Ciela echoes, flying in closer to him. “Nice to meet you! I’m Ciela, and this is my Grandpa!”

“Oshus,” the old man corrects to Link, “You may call me Oshus, my boy.”

Link draws in a sharp breath. He nearly warns Oshus not to call him that, not to call him ‘my boy’ because only one man was allowed to do that. And that man had been lost at the bottom of the sea what feels like such a long time ago now. 

“Oh,” is all he says instead. 

“How are you feeling, lad?” Oshus asks, inspecting his bandages. “I must admit, you weren’t far from death when we brought you here. There were times when even I wasn’t entirely sure you’d pull through.”

No kidding… Link grumbles in his thoughts, sinking a bit further into his bed. He’s quickly reaching the conclusion that he doesn’t really like this old man, so much like the King, but so very different from him at the same time. Ciela, on the other hand-

“I’m so glad you’re ok,” she gently perches on top of his head, where his cap would usually be. “I was so worried about you!”

“I… don’t know if I’m really ok yet…” he says, preferring to talk to her over Oshus. 

“And you likely won’t be for some time yet,” Oshus says. When the man turns to get him a dry blanket, Link doesn’t hesitate to shoot an annoyed glare his way. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need to recover.”

“Uh, yeah,” Link tries to sit up, only for the pain in his back to keep him pinned down. “Where is here, exactly?”

“Mercay Island!” Ciela fills him in. 

“Mercay…” Link frowns. “I’ve never heard of it. How far away is it from Outset?” The blank look on Oshus’ wrinkled face isn’t lost on him, so he moves his frame of reference a bit. “Um… Windfall? Forest Haven?”

Oshus hums, bowing his head in thought for a moment. “It appears you’re far from home, lad. Very far.”

Well… that’s alright, Link tells himself. Once he’s healed, he can find or fashion a boat and set sail in search of Tetra and her crew. For all he knows, they might already be out there looking for him anyway. This shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, shouldn’t even take that long, except–

He remembers an entire year has passed. Even if Tetra had been searching for him, she probably gave up a long time ago. 

She probably thinks he’s dead. 

The very idea makes Link feel sick, even sicker when he realizes Aryll and Grandma likely think the same thing too. So much lost time, so many missed moments, and for what? To fall into a trap he’d seen coming miles away? To have his soul nearly stolen by a sadistic demon? To be injured so badly right before he could finally escape its reach?

He doesn’t know. But there is one thing he does know: he doesn’t want to waste another second away from the people he loves and longs to be with. 

He uses his arms to pry himself up, a sharp groan escaping him as pain streaks across his back and side. Ciela leaps off his head, startled, but surprisingly, Oshus says nothing. He simply hurries over to the far side of the room to do something Link couldn’t care less about right now. Not when he’s putting every ounce of his focus into getting up, getting out, getting home . 

“Link!” Ciela cries, frightened by his small, anguished moans. “What are you doing?!”

“I… I-I have to-” He cuts himself off with a fierce yelp when he feels the cut across his back rip open again, fresh blood rushing to leak through the bandages covering it. But he doesn’t care, he can’t care, because he needs to–

Something sharp pierces the side of his neck. His racing thoughts slow to a crawl as his body falls limp back onto the bed. His head rolls to the side, his eyes sharpening to a glare when he sees Oshus standing there, a now-empty syringe in his hand. 

“W-what… was that…?” he asks, his tongue heavy and his words slow and slurred. 

“Sedating potion,” the old man sighs, shaking his head. “You cannot afford to tax yourself, Link. You must take time to rest and recover.”

“N-no…” Link protests, but his eyes are already growing heavy. Whatever clarity he’d had when he woke up this time is quickly fading, and he knows all too well that he’s about to fall asleep against his will. He hates that, just as much as he hates the storm of nightmares he knows will come along with it, as much as he hates the old man forcing him back into them. “I’ve… gotta… go… gotta… need to…”

Words fail him as he finally falls unconscious again. Ciela comes to sit on his chest again, letting out a small, sympathetic sound as she takes in the agony written all over the boy’s face. Agony that’s clearly more than skin-deep. 

Oshus, on the other hand, stays silent, staring at the boy for quite some time. When he finally speaks, his voice is quiet, his tone far more serious than Ciela has ever heard from her Grandpa before. “I believe,” he begins, stroking his beard. “He may be the one I’ve been looking for.”

“Grandpa?” Ciela asks, confused. 

The old man’s gaze shifts to the tiny fairy, his head bowed low as he starts to head back into the main room of the house. “Come, Ciela,” he encourages gently, sadly. “There’s… much I need to tell you.”

“The Spirit of Courage?” Ciela’s wings go stiff with shock. “Grandpa, a-are you sure?”

“Yes,” Oshus nods. They sit together before the fireplace; the sun had set hours ago and autumn evenings on Mercay are known to be chilly. But even the blazing fire can’t keep the chills shooting through Ciela’s tiny form as she listens to everything Grandpa has to tell her. “When we were attacked by Bellum, much of your memory was lost. Your fellow spirits, Leaf and Neri, had already been captured by the demon’s servants, so I secreted you away into hiding here. I had no choice but to hide away with you–Bellum diminished my power so that I could no longer maintain my true form. I had already lost so much to the demon, child; I could not stand to lose you too…”

“Grandpa, that’s…” Ciela trails off, overwhelmed. She has plenty of questions, but one makes its way to the forefront first. “Why… are you telling me all of this now?”

“Because…” A small smile appears under the man’s mustache. “I believe we have met someone who may be able to help us. Someone who may hold the power to set this right.”

He nods to the door of the far side of the room. Ciela gasps when she sees Link standing there, leaning against the wall for support. He keeps his injured foot hovering just above the floor, unable to stand the strain of putting any weight on it. Likewise, he clutches the wound on his side, struggling to keep his back straight so the injuries there won’t worsen any more than they already have. His breathing is shallow, and it’s clear even just standing there is an incredible feat in and of itself. And yet he still fixes Oshus with another distrustful look, his green eyes bright and bitter in the dull glow of the fire. 

“Link!” Ciela flies in close, distraught. “What are you doing up?! You need to get back in bed and rest, just like Grandpa said!” 

Link ignores her. Instead, he pushes himself forward, hobbling on only one leg as he clings on nearby furniture to stay upright. While Ciela continues fretting over him, Oshus merely watches his slow, painful approach in silence. He lets Link be the one to break it. 

“Do not give me any more of that… sedating stuff,” he heaves, his voice low and angry. “I want answers instead. Who are you, really?”

“Ah,” Oshus shifts his gaze to the door Link had just come out of. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough to know you aren’t telling me the full story here,” Link narrows his eyes at him. “What do you know about Bellum?”

“I suppose I could ask you the same thing, lad,” Oshus calmly returns. “I’ve heard you scream the demon’s name in your sleep. I take it you’ve had an unpleasant encounter with the beast?”

Link doesn’t want to have this conversation, not with Oshus, not with anyone really. But the old man clearly isn’t the type to budge. There's no way he’ll tell his story until Link tells his first. 

“I went on board the ghost ship and Bellum captured me,” he begins, deciding to go with the simple, abridged version of events Faron had told him. All why trying as hard as he can to keep his emotions out of it. “It turned me to stone and stole a lot of my Life Force. But then… someone saved me.” He doesn’t know why, but telling someone like Oshus about Faron doesn’t rub him the right way. “She helped me escape the temple, but the Phantoms attacked me before I could get out. I don’t remember anything that happened after that until I woke up here.”

“...I see,” Oshus turns back to the fire to stoke it. Ciela gently encourages Link to take a seat, and he does, keeping a close, cold eye on Oshus all the while. 

“What about you?” he asks. “You said Bellum attacked you and Ciela; did it steal your Life Force too?”

“Yes, much of it,” Oshus keeps his gaze set on the fire. Link can’t quite see his eyes under his eyebrows, but he can only imagine the haunted look in them. “I’ve told Ciela the full story, so I suppose I might as well do the same for you.”

Link leans forward. As much as he may not like Oshus, he can’t deny he’s curious to know more about him. Especially after the bits and pieces he’d caught of his conversation with Ciela on the way out here. 

“To begin with, I have reason to believe that the sea you come from and the sea we’re surrounded by now are not one at the same, Link,” he says, not giving Link a chance to even ask what in the world that’s supposed to mean. “The ocean you know is the domain of the Golden Three, and while we still revere them here, this world was formed by the Ocean King.”

“I’ve… heard of him,” Link nods. Tetra’s crew had brought him up when they’d first encountered the ghost ship, and Faron had said the cursed temple had once belonged to the king. Beyond that though, he knows nothing. But he does have a very strong and sudden hunch when he takes another look at the strange old man sitting beside him. “Are… Is it you? Are you the Ocean King?”

Ciela gasps, dumbfounded as to how he could have figured it out that easily. Oshus, on the other hand, simply smiles. “Clever boy. It is indeed true; I am– was the being known as the mighty Ocean King. Until I was savagely attacked by an unfathomable evil.”

“Bellum is an ageless creature, a demon born of raw malice and hatred,” Oshus goes onto explain. “It seeks out Life Force from its victims, draining them of it until their quick and painful deaths. The more powerful the victim, the harder Bellum works to take them down. And so it was that the demon beset me, and a great clash ensued.”

“For years, I struggled against Bellum’s power.” The fire casts long shadows over the old man’s face, his voice growing softer as he continues his woeful tale. “But against an evil so great, even I could not overcome it. It sapped me of a great deal of Life Force, forcing me to retreat from its reach in the frail form you see before you now.”

“Three spirits serve the Ocean King, keeping this world and its people safe,” Ciela picks up the story, recalling what her Grandpa just told her. Her usual spritely tone is gone, replaced by something much more solemn as she takes a seat on Link’s shoulder. “The spirits of Power, Wisdom, and Courage. The first two spirits were captured by Bellum’s monsters. But I… I managed to escape with Grandpa. I lost my memory, so I didn’t even know until tonight…”

“...Ciela,” Link frowns, sympathetic for the tiny creature. As bad off as he might be, at least he still has his memories of home to cling onto; Ciela doesn’t even have that. 

“Using the Life Force it leeched from me, Bellum’s evil spread across this ocean,” Oshus says, morose. “It bred more and more monsters, and lured countless innocents to their doom using the ghost ship it conjured as a treacherous trap. It stole away my sacred temple and its guardians, the Phantoms, forcing them to do its wicked bidding.”

Link absently reaches behind him, tenderly running a hand over the bandages across his back. Faron had already told him as much, but Link still couldn’t help but wonder just how many souls had been less fortunate than he had. How many innocent people hadn’t been able to get away?

“Is there any way to stop Bellum?” Ciela asks the question just before Link can. 

“...There might be,” Oshus cracks a faint smile. He stands, shuffling over to a large chest nearby. By the fire’s light, Link can only barely make out the deep blue device he draws out of it. 

“The Phantom Hourglass…” he whispers, eyes wide. 

“Hm?” Oshus turns back to him, confused. “You… know what this is?”

“Uh… yeah,” Link rubs his arm. “F-t-the woman who saved me told me about it. She said it could keep a person safe from the curse on the temple.”

“That’s true,” Oshus returns to his seat, holding the hourglass up so Link can get a better look. “It is filled with a special kind of magic–the Sand of Hours. It is said that the sand is made up of the ocean’s Life Force, an energy so pure that even Bellum can do little to oppose it. I took the Hourglass from its resting spot when the demon took over my temple, but when I was attacked, its sands were scattered, stolen away by the fell beasts under Bellum’s command. And so it continues to steal even more, to the point that, if left unopposed, it won’t be long before this entire sea fades away.”

A grave beat of silence passes, broken only by the sound of the fire softly crackling. While Link can’t say he feels too bad about Oshus’ plight, he does worry for this world, wherever it might be, and for the friendly fairy sitting on his shoulder. Certainly, they don’t deserve to meet such a cruel fate–no one does. 

“In its current state, the Hourglass does not possess enough power to allow someone to safely traverse the temple,” Oshus tips the Hourglass over; the sands inside of it sparkle a faint shade of gold as they rush downward into the bottom bowl. Link can practically feel their power, similar to a certain sword he used to carry. He wonders if there’s any sort of connection between them. “But if one were to slay Bellum’s monsters and reclaim the Sand of Hours… then there is a strong chance that they could enter the temple and vanquish the demon from this world, once and for all.”

Link’s still in the middle of trying to take everything in when Oshus suddenly holds the Hourglass out to him, silently urging him to take it. Instead, Link stares at the sacred item, utterly baffled by what the old man is apparently asking him to do. 

“Me?” he scoffs, pushing the Hourglass away. “No, I… I can’t.”

“You can,” Oshus insists. “I sense the power of a hero within you, lad. You-”

“I’m not a hero,” Link hisses, glaring toward the fire. In its amber glow, he can practically see Bellum’s terrifying eye staring straight into his soul. He can almost hear the demon’s cruel taunts, telling him the exact same thing he just said out loud for himself. “Not anymore.”

“I believe you’re selling yourself short, Link,” Oshus continues pushing the Hourglass toward him. It takes every ounce of self-control Link has to not shove such an important artifact out of his hands and let it shatter all over the ground. “You’ve come to us, from an entirely different world altogether, for a reason.”

“Yeah, because I was captured!” Link argues, appalled by the audacity of this stubborn old man. King or no king, he ought to be ashamed for asking an injured child to fight his battles for him. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened to you and Ciela, but I just… can’t help you, ok? I… I couldn’t even save myself from Bellum,” he loathes to admit it, as much as it may be true. “How do you expect me to save an entire ocean ?” 

The Ocean King finally pulls the Hourglass back, looking away. “Because that’s something you’ve done before.”

“W-what?” Link asks, unnerved. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t be. This is a deity he’s talking to, after all. “How do you know-”

“There is still strength within you yet, Link, regardless of the Life Force Bellum may have taken from you,” Oshus interrupts. But if Link wasn’t going to take that kind of meaningless encouragement from Faron, someone he actually liked , he sure as hell isn’t about to take it from someone like Oshus. 

“No, just… stop ,” he pulls himself out of his seat, his body seizing up with pain from his injuries. He sways from the sudden movement, but grips the back of the chair to steady himself, turning away from Ciela when she flies in close to check on him. “I can’t fight that thing–I won’t ! I almost died just trying to get away from it, and you want me to go running right back to it? I’ll never make it on my own!”

“Ah, but you won’t be on your own this time,” Oshus counters. He remains calm and collected throughout the entire exchange, even if the boy before him is clearly anything but. “You’ll have the Phantom Hourglass and the spirits to-”

“I don’t care !” Link snaps. His back is throbbing, his ankle is in similar straits, and a headache is stirring from the strain of it all. He desperately wants to go and lie down. But he wants to leave even more. “All I want to do is go home. So find someone else to get rid of Bellum for you, because it can’t be me.”

“Link-” 

He isn’t interested in anything else the crazy old man might have to say. He turns to head back to the bedroom, to gather his clothing and head out into the night on his own. As to what he’ll do from there… he’ll figure it out. Somehow. He’ll swim back to Outset Island if there’s no other options, no matter how far away it might be. 

But maybe… he won’t have to.

“Perhaps,” Oshus says. “You’d change your mind if I told you that I could return you to your world?”

It’s enough to get Link to stop in the middle of the room. With nothing to hold onto, he struggles to balance only on his uninjured leg, but he does all the same. “What do you mean?” he slowly glances back at the old man. 

“Once Bellum is defeated, my full power will be restored,” Oshus stands, slowly stepping over to him. He hands his staff over to Link to let him lean on it for the support he so clearly needs. As much as he might not want to, he begrudgingly takes it. “With such power, sending you back to the ocean you call home should be an easy feat.”

Link eyes him, suspicious. He doesn’t detect any dishonesty in the old man’s tone, but the last thing he wants is to be duped and deceived into risking his life when he shouldn’t have to. “You can really do that?”

Oshus nods. “And I’d be more than happy to. But as I am now, I’m afraid there is little I can do to help you, Link. Not unless you help us first.”

Link knows the old man doesn’t mean for it to come across as manipulative, but it does all the same. Everything about this offer does. It aggravates Link enough that he nearly turns it down outright in favor of finding his own way home. But if he really is in some other world entirely, then that may be much easier said than done. In fact, it might even be impossible without the help of a god like the Ocean King. But what that Ocean King is asking of him in return… 

It’s far too much. 

Maybe if it was a year ago, if he was still at his full strength, if he had Tetra to stand by his side, he wouldn’t feel so uncertain, so scared. But the thought of having to face Bellum again, a monster who took far more from him than mere Life Force alone… it's almost unbearable. Even Ganondorf hadn’t brought him the kind of terror that beast does. He was lucky to escape Bellum the first time around–and he only really had because of Faron. 

He’s not so sure he’ll survive a second time. 

He’s not so sure he’ll survive never seeing any of his friends or family again either. 

It’s an impossible decision to make. Oshus must know that too because he gives Link plenty of time to think it over. He wavers back and forth between his only two options, neither of them sounding like very viable ones. Either he’ll stay stranded in this strange new world forever… or he’ll have to fight a battle he doesn’t believe he can truly win. He feels like he’s stuck at sea without a sail, without the light of any sort of stars to guide him to where he ought to go. Indecision eats away at him, threatening to tear him apart, until–

Ciela lands on his shoulder again. He slowly turns to look at her, his brows knitting when he hears her soft, pleading whisper. “Link, please… We need you…”

They need him. This ocean needs him, in the same way another ocean entirely needed him not so long ago. Even if this world isn’t his own, how can he say no when it's on the verge of fading away? How can he at least not make the effort to try ?

He may not be able to call himself a hero anymore… but that doesn’t mean he can’t still help like a hero would. 

“...Ok,” he says softly. And this time, when Oshus hands him the Hourglass, he takes it, hands trembling with terror he can’t even try to hide. With terror that strikes him straight down to his weakened soul. “I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

It’s amazing how a sword slinged over one’s shoulder can make them feel safer, more secure… and somehow more scared than they’d ever be without one. The weight of that sword feels heavy as Link adjusts it and the shield Oshus had given him alongside it. His recovery had taken far longer than he would have liked it to, but as of today, the old man had finally deemed him healthy enough to venture out on his own. Or at least, with Ciela flying by his side as his new companion. 

That’s about the only thing Link actually doesn’t mind about the daunting deal he’s been forced into. Ciela is lively, sweet and spirited, and Link would much rather have her joining him on this quest than someone like Oshus. He smiles as he listens to her babble on, flying just ahead to give him something of a “grand tour” of Mercay Island. 

“And over there is the general store, and right beside it is the tavern,” Ciela details as they head through a small village on the way to the docks. “I’ve never been inside it because Grandpa says I ‘have no business being around any low-life drunkards’. As if I know what a ‘drunkard’ even is.”

Link can’t help but laugh; something else he’s noticed about Ciela is that she’s innocent to a fault. He wonders if her apparent memory loss might have anything to do with that. “So what’s your home like, Link?” she asks, coming to rest upon his hat. 

“Oh, Outset?” Link smiles softy. “Well… it’s a lot like this island, I guess. Not a ton of people live there, but the ones who do are some of the best I’ve ever met. The beach is bigger there too. When we were younger, my sister and I used to-”

“Whoa! You never mentioned you had a sister!” Ciela peers down at him, curious. 

“Yeah, a younger sister,” Link nods. His tone turns a touch fonder as he notices a stray seagull flying not too far above him. “Her name is Aryll. We used to go out into the surf and compete to see who could find the most sea crabs. Believe it or not, she would beat me at it almost every time.”

“Aw…” Ciela croons. “You must really miss her, huh?”

“Mm hm…” Link’s smile finally fades as he lets out a small sigh. He straightens his posture, however, when he notices the docks looming just up the path ahead of them. “But hopefully, I’ll get to see her soon.” “If I survive that long…” he nearly adds, but doesn’t. For whatever reason, the idea of letting Ciela know that her world’s last hope isn’t someone worth putting any real faith into doesn’t sit right with him. It’s bad enough she’s bound to figure that out on her own in due time. 

“That’s the spirit!” Ciela cheers as she flies on ahead. “Now, remember, Link, Grandpa told us we’re supposed to be looking for someone called Captain Linebeck…”

“Gee, how will we ever find him?” Link smirks as he notices one of the boats Ciela just flew past. An impressive blue and red vessel that just so happens to have S.S. Linebeck proudly painted onto the side of its hull. 

“Oh! That was easy,” Ciela chuckles, embarrassed. “Well, I guess all we need to do now is convince this Linebeck guy to give us a ride to-”

“Hey! You there, boy!” Link turns to see a woman hotly approaching him from the far end of the dock. She’s clad in the tell-tale attire of a pirate, with a stern scowl on her face that almost reminds him of Tetra, in a way. The severe sharpness in her voice does too. “Have you seen a man by the name of Linebeck anywhere around here? I have some… unfinished business with him.”

“Um…” Link nods to the boat beside him, confused. 

The woman’s glare sharpens into a vengeful smirk as she strides past him and hops on board. “Finally… I found you, you miserable coward!” she storms to the cabin door and begins beating on it. “Come out and face me like a man!” 

“Ah! J-Jolene!” A panicky voice sounds from below deck. “Long time no see, eh? W-what brings you by to see your favorite captain on such a beautiful day? A day that, I might add, is, uh… a-almost as beautiful as you-”

“Shut up! You know why I’m here, Linebeck!” the woman, Jolene, shouts. “Open the door,” she whips out a cutlass from its spot on her belt, not hesitating to wedge its tip in the space between the doors to the lower deck. “Or I’ll open it for you!”

She continues trying to pry the doors open, kicking and hammering away all in a furious attempt to get to the captain inside. All Link and Ciela can do is watch from afar, baffled and increasingly concerned when they realize they need that captain. Regardless of whatever sort of bad blood he may have with this crazed pirate woman. 

“Well… this isn’t good,” Link says stiffly. 

“We gotta do something!” Ciela cries, darting around in a frenzy. “And fast!”

“Hm…” Link takes a moment to consider their limited options. Sure, he can always try to fight Jolene himself, but given that he’s just recovered from several major injuries, he’s not that confident in his ability to win against a much older, much stronger woman. Fortunately, he quickly finds he won’t have to as he peers further down the dock to find a decently-sized pirate ship tethered to a post. A sudden plan springs to mind, one that will work well with the wind blowing in the direction that it is. He doesn’t even bother explaining to Ciela as he draws his sword, taking advantage of the fact that Jolene is still too preoccupied to pay him any mind. He only hopes she’ll stay that way. 

“Come out already, you no-account, backstabbing, spineless jellyfish!” she practically screams, still pounding at the surprisingly sturdy set of doors. 

“Jellyfish?” the captain echos, aghast, from the other side of the door. “Come on, Jolene, that’s a low blow, even for you.”

“I’ll tell you what’s low,” Jolene growls viciously. “Leaving me high and dry while pocketing the treasure we found together ! What kind of bottom-feeding sea scum does that to a lady? Oh, I know. Scum like you .”

“Can’t we just talk this out?” the captain squeaks as Jolene lands another splintering hit on the door keeping them apart. “We always used to be able to talk, Jo Jo. Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when we used to stare up at the stars and spend all night chatting?”

“Those days are sitting at the bottom of the sea along with any shred of respect I used to have for you,” she all but manages to kick the door in this time. “And that’s where you’re about to be too as soon as I’m finished with you, Linebeck!”

She raises her blade high to land the final blow upon the door, only for it to stall when a sudden whistle cuts through the tension in the air. She looks back toward the dock, to the boy in green she’d passed by earlier as he waves her down. 

“Hey! Is that your boat floating away out there?” he asks, suppressing a mischievous grin. Jolene gasps when she finds that, sure enough, her prized ship is already drifting out into the open sea, cut loose from its tether as the steady wind blows its sail to the south without a single soul on board. 

“My ship!” she screams, frantically hurrying off the S.S. Linebeck . Fortunately, she cares about her beloved boat just a bit more than about getting her revenge as she outright dives into the sea to try and swim after it. “Gah! This isn’t over, Linebeck, you hear me? Not by a longshot!” she shouts in between her swift strokes. “I’ll make you pay for what you stole from me with interest ! That’s a promise!”

She continues shouting a barrage of bitter threats until she’s no longer in earshot. Link lets out a sigh of relief as Ciela takes a perch on his shoulder. “Good thinking, Link!” she chuckles brightly. “How’d you know that would work?”

“No self-respecting pirate is gonna just let their ship drift away without them on it,” he grins, crossing his arms. “Trust me; I’ve been around pirates enough to know.”

“Hey!” The pair turns back to the S.S. Linebeck to find that the cabin door has opened, albeit just the smallest crack. “Psst, kid. Is she gone?”

“Oh, yeah, she’s-”

“Oh, thank the goddesses!” a man emerges, heaving a sigh of relief. As if to match the well-kept state of his ship, he’s dressed in a fine cobalt coat, with a teal waistcoat and red tie underneath. He strokes his short mustache to smooth it, doing the same with his light brown hair as he recovers from his harrowing ordeal. “I thought I was a goner this time for sure. She doesn’t know when to quit, that Jolene. She’s as crazy as she is stunning…” He sighs, lovestruck. Even if the woman he’s lovestruck for hadn’t just tried to kill him. 

By now, Linebeck finally turns his attention back to the pair on the dock beside his boat, staring up at him with a mix of skepticism and curiosity. “Uh, do you mind moving along, kid?” he asks, frowning. “I know my boat is very impressive, but I’d rather not have poorly-dressed street urchins standing around gawking at it all day, if ya know what I mean.”

Link scoffs, but before he can even say a word to defend himself, Ciela beats him to it. “Um, excuse you ,” she races up onto the boat so she can be on eye level with Linebeck. “But that ‘poorly-dressed street urchin’ down there just saved you. You ought to be going out of your way to thank him instead of being so… so rude !”

“...Uh huh,” Linebeck cocks an unimpressed eyebrow. “And what are you supposed to be, sparkles? Some sort of loud-mouthed firefly?”

“I’m a fairy- ”

“Oh. Even worse,” he sneers, swatting her away. 

Ciela lets out an indigent growl as she returns to Link’s side. “I can’t believe this is the guy Grandpa told us to go ask for help. He’s completely useless!”

“Hey now!” Linebeck hops off his ship to confront the pair directly on the dock. “‘Useless’ is just about the last word anyone should use to describe me. I just so happen to be the best treasure hunter this ocean has ever known, a true man of the sea if there ever was one!”

“Ok, then why aren’t you at sea right now?” Link asks, crossing his arms. 

“B-because I was stocking up my ship!” Linebeck counters. “I was just getting ready to leave when Jolene showed up. And now that she’s gone, I can get back to what I do best: making a fortune .”

With this, he turns to board his ship and take his leave, at least until Link runs ahead to stop him. “Wait! We need you to give us a ride on your boat.”

“You need me to what ?” Linebeck asks, practically recoiling at the thought. 

Link sighs, annoyed as he unfurls the map of the surrounding seas Oshus had given him to guide his quest. “We need you to take us to these islands,” he points out the scattered shores circled on the map. “We’re looking for something called the Sand of Hours and we need a boat to find it. Your boat.”

“...Yeesh,” Linebeck shoves the map away as he eyes Link critically. “You know, kid, you’re surprisingly serious and to the point for… I dunno, a 6 year old?”

“I’m 13– 14 ,” Link quickly corrects, once again reminding himself of the year that has passed. The year that has been utterly wasted . 

“Same difference,” Linebeck huffs. “And what made you think I was gonna just agree to haul you and that headache-inducing friend of yours all over the ocean? Last time I checked, my ship isn’t some common ferry.”

“Oshus told us you were the best person to help us, for some reason…” Link mutters. Though based on how this encounter is going, he’s quickly starting to doubt the old man’s judgment even more than he already did. 

“Oshus?”

“You know, the Ocean King?” Ciela clarifies. 

“Ocean King?” Linebeck repeats again, this time with a laugh. “That crazy old coot? Yeah, right! If he’s the Ocean King, then I’m the richest man alive! Which… I’m not–at least not yet .”

While Ciela readily rushes to Oshus’ defense at this, Link stays silent, suddenly shaken by what he just heard. Only now does he realize he may have taken Oshus at his word far too easily, that he may have believed what may very well be nothing more than the fantastical ramblings of a delusional old man. What if Linebeck is right? What if Oshus isn’t who he says he is? What if he can’t actually get him home? 

What if he’s about to put his life on the line for nothing at all? 

Really, there’s no way to know for sure. In fact, the only proof he has that his mission is a worthwhile one at all is the Phantom Hourglass tied to his belt. Faron had mentioned it, she’d told him of its power, and while he may not trust Oshus, he trusts her. All he can do now is hope that trust will be enough to get him home after all. 

His first obstacle to getting home, however, isn’t any sort of deadly dungeon or fearsome monster. Instead, it’s the surly ship captain standing before him. And unlike Bellum, this is something Link can safely say he’s dealt with before.

“And even if that geezer was the Ocean King, which he’s not ,” Linebeck continues arguing with Ciela. The tiny fairy is clearly fuming, outraged that anyone would disrespect her beloved “Grandpa” in such a callous way. If she didn’t like Linebeck before, she certainly doesn’t like him now. “Why would I waste my valuable treasure hunting time sailing all across the ocean looking for sand , of all things?”

“Because this entire world will disappear if you don’t!” Ciela protests fiercely. 

“So?” Linebeck shrugs. “Don’t see how that’s my problem.”

“It is your problem seeing as how you’ll disappear along with it!” 

“Not as long as I have the S.S. Linebeck, I won’t,” Linebeck grins, confidently tapping the hull of his ship. “This beauty is fast enough to outsail any world-ending disaster– if one was gonna happen in the first place, which it isn’t .”

“Gah!” Ciela shrieks, furious. “What’s it gonna take for you to believe us, you stubborn old seadog?!”

“He doesn’t need to believe us,” Link suddenly cuts in, just loudly enough for the fairy to hear.

“Huh?”

“He doesn’t need to believe us,” Link repeats just shy of turning back to Linebeck. “If you don’t want to believe your entire world is in danger and you don’t want to do anything to help it, that’s fine. But we still need a boat just the same. So,” he draws in a deep breath, standing as tall as he can manage. Which, admittedly, still lands him pretty short against a long and lanky figure like Linebeck. “What do you want in exchange for getting us to where we need to go?”

“What do I want?” Linebeck scoffs. “Haven’t you heard a thing I’ve said, kid? I want treasure !”

“Ok,” Link surprisingly, immediately agrees. “Done. Any treasure we find along the way is yours, no questions asked.”

“...You’re serious?” Linebeck asks, suddenly very interested. 

Link nods, suppressing a smile. After spending so much time around Tetra and her crew, he knows a thing or two about twisting a treasure hunter’s arm. He’s glad to see that someone like Linebeck is no different. “I don’t need any treasure. All I want is to get home. And… well, I guess this is the only way to make that happen. So if you help us out, then we’ll both get what we’re after.”

“Hmph, and how do you know there even is any treasure at any of these places you want me to take you?” Linebeck asks, still not convinced. 

“Um… well…”

“Because we’re going to ancient temples no one has set foot inside for ages,” Ciela fortunately fills in. Link can’t help but wonder if the way her wings are twitching is some sort of indication that she’s lying. Even so, Linebeck doesn’t seem to notice. “There’s bound to be a bunch of valuable stuff left behind in them: gold, gemstones, rupees… just imagine it all! If you help us out, then you’ll be filthy rich, just like you want!”

“Hm…” Linebeck strokes his short beard. “I do like the sound of that…”

“So?” Link presses, hopeful. “Do we have a deal?”

Linebeck pauses for a moment to size the two up once again. Briefly, Link fears that they still failed to sway him, even with their promises of such impressive treasures. Whether or not they’ll be able to keep those promises remains to be seen, and Linebeck must have reached the same conclusion. Because instead of warmly agreeing to their terms, he extends an expectant hand out to Link, strangely pulling it away before he can shake it. “We might, but first, I’m gonna need a bit of a… deposit. How many rupees do you have on you, kid?”

“Um…” he reaches down to the tiny satchel tied to his belt. “I have this? Oshus gave me a bit of money, but it’s not much-”

“Are you serious?” Linebeck swipes the wallet, quickly counting through its sparse contents. “I should have known that kooky old man was a skinflint too; there’s barely enough in here to keep my ship fueled for a week!”

“It’s not for that!” Ciela protests. “It’s to buy Link food and potions to help him recover from-”

“Tell someone who cares, sparkles,” Linebeck shoos her away. “Ugh, I have the thought of accepting chump change like this, but I guess it’ll have to do.” He pockets the money, outright ignoring the appalled looks Link and Ciela are both sending his way. “Of course, this doesn’t even begin to cover the cost of traveling aboard a vessel as stately as the S.S. Linebeck , so… I’m gonna put you to work in order to pay off the rest.”

“What, so the treasure you’re gonna get isn’t enough for you or something?” Link asks, already annoyed with this arrangement. Having to travel with someone as curmudgeonly as Linebeck was one thing; having to work for him was something different entirely. And as far as Link’s concerned, it’s not something he’s interested in doing in the slightest. 

“I don’t have that treasure in my hand yet, kid,” Linebeck says. “So until I do, consider yourself my new cabin boy.” The captain puts on a smug grin as he lowers down the gangway for his ship. “Welcome aboard, ‘swabbie’.”

“Ugh, where have I heard that one before…?” Link mutters to himself. The irony of this entire setup wasn’t lost on him, and he’s sure it wouldn’t be lost on Tetra either if she were here to see it. He can practically hear her teasing laughter as he skims the edge of her scarf, still carefully tied around his neck. The thought of her alone is what prompts him to accept whatever might await him next, knowing it’ll all be worth it if it means he can go home. If he can be with her again.

Despite the circumstances, Link still finds himself overtaken with awe as he properly steps aboard the S.S. Linebeck. He hates to admit it, but Linebeck is right; it is a rather impressive vessel, quite unlike any boat Link has ever seen. While not particularly big, it's beautifully built and equipped with plenty of peculiar features, from a large wheel at the stern, a tall chimney emerging from the bridge, and even a cannon meant to fend off dangers at sea. But with all of those fancy fixtures, Link still realizes there’s one essential thing missing from this ship. 

“Where’s the sail?” he asks Linebeck as he climbs aboard behind him. Sure enough, there is no sail on this boat, no ropes or any sort of mainstay meant to carry it across the waves. Exactly how they’re meant to use a boat like this to travel across an entire ocean, Link has no idea.

“Sail?” Linebeck repeats, rolling his eyes. “C’mon, kid, the S.S. Linebeck is state of the art! Sails are so two years ago. Which, coincidentally enough, is when I stole–er, bought the ship you’re standing on now.”

“Uh, ok…” Link frowns, peering across the ship’s deck. “So, how does it move?” 

“It’s steam-powered, duh!” Linebeck calls back as he heads for the helm. 

“Steam?” Link repeats, but he quickly gets his answer. Something just beneath the ship’s deck roars to life, as white smoke begins billowing out of the S.S. Linebeck’s chimney. Slowly but surely, the wheel at the back of the boat starts to turn, gently propelling the boat forward. As Linebeck carefully steers it away from the dock, it picks up speed, until it emerges from Mercay Island’s tiny bay to emerge onto the open ocean. It’s only as Link feels the wind blowing through his hair and looks down at the crisp cobalt water below does he realize just how unique this ship really is. A vessel without a sail, a boat that doesn’t bend to the mercy of the breeze. 

“Whoa…” he breathes, leaning over the edge of the ship’s railing to get a better look. He laughs as he feels the ocean spray sprinkle across his face, cherishing just how good it feels to be back upon the ocean again after spending so long stuck on land. He wonders what another boat he used to know would think of this one and chuckles to himself at the idea of the proud and mighty King of Red Lions being jealous of a ship that can travel the seas entirely on its own accord. When he closes his eyes, he can almost imagine being back on that boat, he can almost hear the King’s warm laugh and wise words, He can almost imagine being back on another sea entirely, until… 

“Hey!” Linebeck snaps him back into reality. With the ship’s course set, he’s able to leave the helm to attend to the rest of the ship. Or more specifically, to his new cabin boy. “I told you, this wasn’t gonna be just some sight-seeing pleasure cruise. You wanna stay on board this ship? You’ve gotta work for it, kid.”

With this, he shoves a broom into Link’s hands, making the kind of work he expects out of him more than clear. Even so, Link isn’t satisfied, especially not with the captain’s attitude. Just because he’s supposed to work like a servant doesn’t mean he intends on being treated like one. “I have a name, you know,” he pipes up, even when Linebeck turns his back on him. “It’s Link, and I-”

“Uh huh, kid, that’s nice,” the captain cuts him off, too preoccupied with checking his compass to listen. “Now, get to work! I wanna see this deck shine by the next time we drop anchor!”

Without another word, Linebeck marches back over the helm, leaving Link to begin swabbing the deck. It isn’t long before Ciela settles onto his shoulder, heaving out a long, irritated sigh. “Oh, that Linebeck makes me so mad !” she fusses, her winks flickering in frustration. “How dare he talk to you like that! If I was bigger, I’d give him what for!”

“I’m sure you would,” Link lets out a good-natured laugh. What Ciela may lack in size, she certainly makes up for in spirit. 

“Are you really sure we should be relying on this guy?” she asks, dropping her voice down to a whisper. “I know Grandpa pointed us in his direction, but… he’s not at all what I was expecting. I don’t think we should trust him.”

“I’m not crazy about him either,” Link admits, scowling in the captain’s direction. “But… It's too late to turn back now. The only thing that matters is that he gets us to those temples. As for everything else…” He looks up from swabbing the deck, out onto the wide-open ocean ahead of them. An ocean that’s bound to be filled with danger, with mysteries, and… with possibilities alike. “We’ll figure it out as we go along.”

“You make it sound like you’ve done this before,” Ciela half-jokes. 

Link finds himself laughing along with her, though it turns a touch bittersweet as he says. “You have no idea.” He can’t help but yearn for those days now, when it was just him and the King and the sea, when everything seemed so much more simple . And yet… for as much as he may want to go back, he knows all too well he can only go forward now. 

No matter how difficult that may be. 

Chapter Text

The first leg of their journey takes them to a place called the Isle of Ember. It’s largely uninhabited, save for a fortune teller by the name of Astrid. She kindly invites the group of travelers into her home, already well aware of Link’s mission thanks to her powers of foresight. She directs him and Ciela to travel to the island’s Temple of Fire to track down the first missing spirit. Before setting out, however, Link can’t help but seek her wisdom on another matter entirely. He asks her if defeating Bellum and restoring the Ocean King’s power will truly get him home after all. Her answer?

“I’m sorry, young hero,” she hesitates, before ultimately shaking her head. “I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait and see.”

Wait and see. He spends the entire trek up to the temple silently fuming. Easy for her to say. She’s not the one who has to face off against a soul-devouring demon. 

Confronting that demon may be even more difficult than he thought if his ordeal in the Temple of Fire is anything to go off of. Still weak from what Bellum had done to him and from the injuries he’d sustained, Link struggles his way through another labyrinth of sinister traps and vicious monsters. Even with Ciela to support him from above and a sword and shield that are supposed to keep him safe, he sustains more than a few cuts and bruises. He feels rusty, out of practice with a weapon that used to come so second-nature to him. As a result, every injury feels shameful, every misstep more frustrating than the last. That frustration isn’t lost on Ciela, but every time she asks him if he’s ok, if he needs to stop and take a rest, he ignores her. Because he knows all too well that every moment he wastes is another moment spent so far away from everyone he’s ever loved. Another moment lost in a world that will never feel quite like his own. 

A fierce, flaming monster awaits within the temple’s deepest depths, the final obstacle standing between them and saving the Spirit of Power. As ill-equipped as he feels to face it, Link does so anyway, dodging its fire just well enough to keep himself from getting burned. Or at least, he does for the first half of the fight. Fatigue sets in much quicker for him now than it used to, no doubt a side effect of all of the Life Force he’s lost. As a result, his swings grow sloppier, his footing less steady, his shield heavy to the point that it isn’t long before the beast knocks it clean out of his grip. 

The second it does, the monster doesn’t hesitate to unleash all of its flaming fury upon the defenseless boy before it. 

This time, he isn’t able to roll completely out of the way. His right sleeve catches fire, quickly searing through fabric to scorch his upper arm. He screams, desperately tossing his new boomerang to free up his hand to desperately beat the flames away. By the time he manages to put the fire out, most of his arm is bathed in a raw, angry shade of red, badly burnt to the point that he can barely even move it without his nerves screaming in pain. Ciela flies around him in a panic at first, until she notices the monster responsible for that burn writhing on the ground in agony itself. 

Despite his own pain, Link looks up when the monster lets out an ear-splitting roar. His boomerang skids to a stop on the floor next to him, having apparently hit its mark–even if Link hadn’t even aimed it at anything to begin with. It had slammed into the already flagging monster, a fortunately fatal blow that Link silently thanks the goddesses for. 

Within minutes, Link has not one, but two fairies fretting over him. The Spirit of Power, Leaf, emerges in the aftermath of the monster’s defeat, along with a handful of shimmering sand meant for the Phantom Hourglass. As soon as they collect what they came here for, they make a hurried beeline out of the temple and back to the boat. How Link manages to stay conscious for that long, he has no idea. 

Linebeck waits for them aboard his ship, having made it very clear that spelunking dangerous dungeons and fending off any kind of monsters “isn’t his thing”. Despite how unpleasant his dealings with the captain have been so far, Link almost lets out a sob of relief at the sight of someone who can help him with his burnt arm in a way the two fairies accompanying him can’t. His relief is short-lived, however, as soon as he hobbles his way onto the S.S. Linebeck. 

“About time you got back,” Linebeck doesn’t even glance up from the map he’s studying. “I was getting ready to weigh anchor and set off without you. You better have found some good treasure inside that old temple for making me wait as long as-”

“Ugh, enough about treasure already!” Ciela flies into his face, furious. “Can’t you see Link is hurt? He needs help!”

“Huh?” the captain finally looks up just in time to see Link collapse to his knees, his breathing heavy and his eyes glassy. White hot agony shoots through his injured arm so intensely that it’s easily enough to make him sick. Linebeck simply watches him suffer for a second, only springing into action when Link starts dry heaving. “Whoa, whoa! Absolutely not!” he yells, running over to the ailing boy. He hoists him up, roughly shoving him over to the side of the boat. “Throw up into the ocean if you have to, not onto the deck of my ship!”

“Seriously?” Ciela scoffs, appalled. “ That’s what you’re worried about?! Your stupid ship?!”

“Well, excuse me for wanting to keep the S.S. Linebeck in top condition,” Linebeck says. “Besides, I’m just saving the kid from having to clean it up later. He oughta be thanking me for being so thoughtful.”

“Um… excuse me?” Leaf pipes up for the first time since they got to the boat. 

“You… you’re absolutely unbelievable!” Ciela snaps at Linebeck, not hearing her fellow spirit. “Have you ever once cared about anything other than yourself and your silly old boat!?”

“Hey, uh… you two-” Leaf tries again. But even the Spirit of Power can’t stand a chance against the fierce fight brewing before him. 

“Of course I have!” Linebeck argues. “I care about treasure , duh. Speaking of which, where is the treasure you two promised you’d bring back to me? I don’t see any sacks of gold or chests full of rupees, so…?”

“Can you both just stop for a second and-”

“We didn’t find any treasure, you greedy sea serpent!” Ciela readily reveals. 

“Come on, just-”

“What?” Linebeck staggers back, scandalized. “No treasure? Then what in Din’s name did I bring you two all this way for?!”

“Please, Link is-”

“We told you! We’re trying to save the entire world here!” Ciela hotly reiterates. “Which we can’t do if you keep on-”

“If someone doesn’t help Link right now !” Leaf finally flies in between the pair, even redder than he usually is. He has every reason to be upset too; for while Ciela and Linebeck were fighting, Link had fully succumbed to the pain of his injury, collapsing unconsciously onto the deck. His breathing is raspy and ragged as the raw skin of his arm shows signs of breakage and blistering, a dangerous effect of leaving it untreated for so long. And if it remains untreated, it could prove to get even worse still if any sort of infection were to set in. 

“Oh, geez,” Linebeck winces when he takes stock of the boy’s sorry state. “I knew he was banged up, but I didn’t think he was that banged up.”

“Really?” Ciela retorts. “You couldn’t see the massive burn on his arm? What, are you as blind as you are selfish?” 

“Ugh, give it a rest already, sparkles,” Linebeck shoots back as he steps over to Link. He hesitantly leans down to the boy’s level, if only to make sure he’s still alive. “I don’t know what either of you pipsqueaks expect me to do here. Last time I checked, I’m a captain, not a doctor.”

“There’s gotta be something you can do!” Leaf implores, worried. 

“Even if there was, I don’t see why I should seeing as how the kid didn’t hold up his end of our deal,” Linebeck stands, scowling. “Now, instead of all of the treasure I could have had, what am I stuck with instead? A seven-year old with a burnt up arm and two fairies that don’t know when to shut up. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

Both fairies are quiet for a long moment. When one of them finally does speak, it’s Ciela, and this time, her voice is low, but every bit as angry and intense as it had been before. “You may deserve this, you may not,” she begins, flying close to his face. “But I’ll tell you who doesn’t deserve any of the horrible things that have happened to him: Link. But even after all of the pain he’s gone through, he’s still here to help us, to save a world that he isn’t even from. You may not see it yet, but Link is our last–our only hope. And if you don’t do something to help him now…  then we’ll lose that hope. And it’ll be all. Your. Fault. Captain .”

Linebeck stiffens, falling silent. His aggravated scowl shifts into something else, something filled with surprise, perhaps even a touch of remorse. Or at least, that’s what Ciela hopes it is. When he lets out an indignant scoff, the fairy briefly fears her speech didn’t work; she has no idea what to do if that’s the case. But then… 

Linebeck slowly leans down, scoops Link’s listless body up into his arms, and carries him into the ship’s cabin without a single word.

By now, Link knows he should be used to waking up in unfamiliar places sporting any number of newfound injuries. This time, he awakens in what he guesses is the S.S. Linebeck’s storeroom with bandages covering a burn on his arm he only barely remembers sustaining. He sits up slowly, surprised to find he isn’t in much pain, or at least, nowhere as much as there’d been before. 

There’s something strangely sticky just beneath the layer of clean bandages on his arm–whatever it is, it must be what’s easing the pain away. He opens his mouth to ask Ciela about it, only to find her and Leaf fast asleep on top of a nearby crate. It must be pretty late; the ship creaks quietly as it rocks gently through the calm sea surrounding it, and through the porthole to his left, Link can see a starry sky. And yet, he soon finds he’s not the only one awake. 

“It’s honey.”

“...Huh?” Link starts, looking to the far side of the storeroom. There, Linebeck is shoveling coals into the ship’s engine to keep it going. His back is turned to the boy as he works, but he explains all the same. 

“That’s honey, under the bandages,” he says. Link finds it strange how he can’t quite read his tone. Linebeck is nothing if not one of the most transparent people he’s ever met. Or at least, that’s what he’d been led to believe when they first met. “It draws the sting out of burns. Once, when I was a kid, I got a really bad sunburn, and my pop slathered honey all over me to help dull the pain. So… ya know, I just… I figured…”

“It helps,” Link fills in when he trails off. Despite everything, he can’t hold back a small, grateful smile when the captain glances over his shoulder at him. “Thank you.”

Linebeck swallows hard, flustered as he puts his shovel aside and straightens the lapels of his jacket. “Yeah, yeah, don’t get all worked up about it,” he strides toward the door. “Honey doesn’t come cheap, so now you owe me even more treasure from our next stop. So rest up; we’re set to arrive at the Isle of Gust by daybreak, and I’m not about to let you waste even more of my time lazing around.”

Link’s smile widens slightly. As odd as it may seem, Linebeck is starting to remind him of another captain he knows. A captain that started out every bit as cold and uncaring… only for their true colors to slowly but surely shine through. “...Aye, aye, captain,” he tells Linebeck, just as he used to tell Tetra before him. 

Linebeck finally returns his grin, carrying just a hint of satisfied pride as he leaves the cabin to head back to the bridge. Link eases himself back onto his makeshift bed, wondering if it had already been there, or if Linebeck had taken time to put it together for him. Whatever the case, something has shifted here. For as rocky and rough as this voyage may have started, the tides are starting to change, Link can tell. 

For the first time in a long time, he lets himself hope that those tides are turning for the better.

Upon the Isle of Gust sits the aptly-named Temple of Wind, and within that temple, they find Neri, the third and final Spirit. This time, things go a bit better, in no small part thanks to the stash of potions that Link finds tucked inside his satchel just before they leave the S.S. Linebeck . He has his suspicions as to where they came from, but he says nothing of it. The last thing he’d want to do is damage Linebeck’s fragile pride, after all. 

With Leaf and Neri recovered, there’s still the matter of Ciela’s lost memories. The other two Spirits implore her to recover them, hoping that her dormant powers will awaken along with them. To this end, they set out the Temple of Courage on Molida Island to see if they can find anything that might jog the fairy’s missing memories and abilities. With fair weather and a steady course, they’re set to make good time. That is, until the Cyclok shows up. 

It comes out of nowhere, emerging from the depths in a whirlpool that swiftly stirs up into a full-on cyclone. Ciela is the first to spot it from the air, shouting down a warning to Linebeck at the helm and Link as he swabs the railings. Before either of them can even spot it for themselves, the ship rocks violently against the crashing waves the monster’s presence creates. Storm clouds swiftly roll in, blocking out the sun and drenching the S.S. Linebeck in sheets of rain in just a matter of seconds. 

“Augh! As if the oversized squid wasn’t enough of a headache, it’s gotta rain too?” Linebeck groans, reclaiming his footing on the already slippery deck. “Kid! Can you man the cannon? I’ll focus on steering us out of here!”

“On it!” Link rushes to the stern to do exactly that. He’s used the ship’s cannon a handful of times, just another one of his many duties as a “cabin boy”, according to Linebeck. It operates fairly similarly to the one the King of Red Lions had, though thanks to the S.S. Linebeck’s size, it manages to pack much more of a punch. Still, he’s only ever used it to take out smaller foes like gyorgs and keese, nothing anywhere near as massive and fearsome as the towering Cyclok ahead of them. He hopes they have enough bombs on board to keep a beast like that at bay. 

He quickly takes aim and fires off the first bomb, which only narrowly misses his distant target. The Cyclock quickly retaliates by stirring up several smaller cyclones, and it wastes no time sending them flying across the open sea. The S.S. Linebeck spins wildly out of control, careening back and forth between the churning waves, and yet, by some stroke of luck, it isn’t overwhelmed by them. Amidst this chaos, Link maintains his spot at the cannon, waiting until the ship spins in just the right angle before firing again. This time, he doesn’t miss. 

A scream rips through the roaring thunder and torrential rain as the Cyclok reels back, The bomb has struck it squarely in one of its eyes, and while it leaves a sizable wound, it isn’t enough to deter the bloodthirsty creature just yet. Linebeck steers the ship hard to starboard, narrowly avoiding the heavy tentacle that lashes out with the intent of tearing the entire boat apart. If it wasn’t already angry before, the sea beast’s wrath spikes when Link lands another successful hit, this time to the same tentacle that just tried to kill them. 

“Yeah!” Linebeck cheers from the helm. “Just like that, kid! Give that old windbag what for!”

Link only has enough time to grin back at the captain and nod before things take a turn for the worse. The winds aren’t the only thing the Cyclok has at its disposal; like its much smaller Octorok cousins, it has the ability to spit rocks. Or in the Cyclok’s case, full-sized boulders, like the one that plows into the S.S. Linebeck’s smokestack before anyone can even see it coming. 

“Gah! We’re hit!” Linebeck warns, gripping the wheel as if his life depends on it. Which right now, it very likely does. “Of course , it’s right in the chimney too. That means we’re stuck in this mess–good as dead.” He lets out a mournful moan, covering his eyes with his arm. “I can’t believe it’s about to end like this. All of the things I never got to do, all of the rupees I never got to make…” He wails once more, his tears indistinguishable from the rain pouring down his face. “Goddesses above, at least let it be over quickly! I deserve that much at least… right?”

“Yeesh,” Ciela mutters. All three Spirits had taken refuge under Link’s cap when the storm began to avoid being blown away by the gale-force winds. Even then, they can all hear Linebeck’s dramatic spiel as plain as day. “Just when I thought he couldn’t get any more pathetic…”

“We’re not really gonna die…” Neri pipes up much more anxiously. “A-are we, Link?”

Link pauses, finally pulling back from the cannon to take proper stock of what they’re up against. The Cyclok is still raging nearby, but it’s momentarily stopped attacking them in favor of taking aim at an unfortunate flock of passing seagulls instead. So they have a bit of time on their side, but not much else. Unless… 

“No, we’re not,” he assures the trio of frightened fairies on his head. “Not as long as he can sail out of here.”

“Sail?” Linebeck somehow hears him, and is quick to question such a lofty idea. “I already told you, kid, this ship doesn’t have a sail!”

“Maybe not,” Link eyes the now-ruined chimney, an idea springing to mind. “But maybe… we can make one.”

The boulder had essentially split the chimney in half, resulting in two awkwardly bent pieces of metal jutting in opposite directions above the ship’s cabin. It takes a bit of doing (as well as a short-lived argument between Linebeck and Ciela), but they manage to tie the ends of a spare bed sheet to the tips of the ruined chimney. Normally, a boat like the S.S. Linebeck would need a much larger, sturdier sail to carry it across the waves. But with winds as brutal as these and little else at their disposal, it’ll do. It has to. Link doesn’t want to think about what will become of them if it doesn’t.

It doesn’t take long for the wind to catch their makeshift sail. The boat lurches back into motion, slower than it had been before, but it’s still more than they had going for them moments ago. Link ignores the rush of relief that sweeps over him in favor of the danger still looming straight ahead. Danger that’s slowly starting to turn its sighs back over to them. 

“We’ve gotta move, now !” Link shouts over the still-raging storm. “Linebeck, get to the cannon! I’ll steer-”

“Whoa, now hold on there, kid,” Linebeck grabs the boy’s arm before he can run to the helm. “Who died and made you captain of my ship, huh?”

“Ugh, we don’t have time for this!” Link pulls away from him. “You don’t know how to sail, but I do!”

“Tch, w-well, even if that were true,” Linebeck scoffs. “Nobody gets behind the wheel of the S.S. Linebeck except for me –especially not some scrawny brat who thinks he knows way more than he actually does.”

Link takes in a hiss of a breath, his face flushing red with a kind of anger he can’t be bothered to try and contain. Not now, when all of their lives are on the line, when they could all stand to die because of one stubborn, foolish excuse for a captain. “You’re wrong,” he says, his bright green eyes glaring relentlessly into the captain’s darker ones. “You’re wrong about a lot of things, but you’re especially wrong about me . I can get us out of here. I’ve sailed my way out of much worse than this before. And if you don’t believe me, then I’ll prove it.”

Link can’t remember the last time he’s felt this kind of confidence. Maybe it’s because it’s one of the few things Bellum hadn’t been able to take away from him–his love of the sea and his knack for sailing across it. The King had been the one to teach him everything he knew, but by the end of their journey together, he’d told Link that he’d become nothing less than the finest sailor he’d ever seen. Link believed him wholeheartedly then–and chooses to believe him even now. 

He’s determined to hold onto that belief; after everything he’s lost, it’s just about the only thing he has left. 

He shoves his way past Linebeck, who, miraculously, doesn’t protest again. He can’t afford to; by now, the Cyclok has fully turned back to face them, already gearing up another cyclone to send their way. This time, however, Link is ready for it. He swerves the ship’s wheel to port, letting the sail do its job the best it can. Most other sailors would be panicking in such severe winds, but Link knows how to use them better than most; they hadn’t called him the “Waker of the Winds” for nothing, after all. 

He can hear Linebeck rapidly turning the cannon somewhere behind him, and he allows himself a moment to hope the captain is a good shot. That hope is soon founded when a bomb explodes against the Cyclok’s side. It retaliates immediately, slamming several of its tentacles into the sea beside the ship. The boat bobs violently, and for once, Link welcomes it. With no direct way to control the sail, he’s relying on the sea to do a lot of the heavy lifting when the ship’s rudder can’t. And as a result, the deadly waves the Cyclok is stirring up may just end up being their saving grace. 

“That’s right,” he smirks up at the monster as they sail in almost too close for comfort. “Keep it up, big guy. Give me something good to work with here…”

Amazingly enough, Linebeck is the one who sets the wave he’s looking for in motion. He lands another direct hit on the Cyclok’s head, sending it plummeting forward limply, directly toward the ship. Linebeck screams alongside the three Spirits, but Link doesn’t give himself time to fear being crushed. Instead, he abandons his spot at the helm, scrambling up onto the roof of the cabin with as much speed as he can muster. He yanks on the sail just in time, in just the right way, to the point that it brings the ship to a sudden standstill just in time for the Cyclok’s body to splash into the sea in front of them. Even so, Link isn’t finished with it yet. 

He releases his hold on the sail just in time for a massive gale to course through it. He shouts a warning back at Linebeck to hold on tight as he leaps back down onto the bridge, reclaiming the wheel. This is madness, he knows it is. But he’d be lying to himself if he said it wasn’t the most alive he’s felt since he woke up in the World of the Ocean King. 

Linebeck starts yelling again as soon as he realizes what he plans on doing, but Link ignores him. Instead, he keeps the boat’s course set straight ahead, trusting the wind and waves to give them exactly what they need. As if hearing his unspoken prayers, that’s exactly what they both do. 

The S.S. Linebeck darts up a particularly massive wave, pushed by the wind with more speed than even its engine could probably provide. The wind continues carrying the vessel as it crests the top of that wave and for one brief, breathless moment, the S.S. Linebeck is flying . 

It soars cleanly over the fallen Cyclok, cutting through the stormy air as if it had somehow conquered gravity itself. Of course, that gravity soon reclaims it with a vengeance as the ship surges back into its proper place in the water, and just in time too. As the Cyclok’s dead body begins to sink into the sea, the winds keep the S.S. Linebeck from meeting the same fate. Instead of being sucked into the ensuing whirlpool, the boat continues onward, skipping across waves that grow smaller and smaller as the storm dies out and the sea slowly turns calm. It’s only when they spot the first sign of the sun emerging from behind the clouds that the tiny crew is finally able to relax. 

 Link breaks the shocked silence first, unable to hold back the laughter bubbling up inside his chest. He collapses to the bridge, exhausted and elated, still completely drenched from the storm as he gladly welcomes the warmth of the sun on his face. The Spirits emerge from beneath his cap, exchanging hugs and cheers and praises to the goddesses who they can only assume helped them survive. Eventually, Linebeck stumbles over, his hair and coat an utter mess, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging as he tries to make sense of what just happened. The look on his face alone is more than enough to make Link laugh even harder. 

“We… We just jumped over that thing…” he said stiffly, shaken. “We’re alive …”

“Uh huh,” Link beams up at him. 

Linebeck glances back at where the Cyclok had just been; only steady blue seas remain, as if it had never emerged from the depths at all. “ How… ?”

“I told you I’d get us out of there,” Link pulls himself back up to stand. “And I meant it. Whether you like it or not, Linebeck, this ‘scrawny brat’ just saved your life.”

Linebeck quickly shakes his bewilderment off at this in favor of his usual surliness. “Tch, yeah, well, I…” Whatever smug comeback he had in mind stalls on his tongue when he notices all three of the Spirits offering him matching warning glares. He can’t say he cares too much about what any of them think, but when he looks down at Link, wearing the biggest smile he’s seen–actually, one of the only smiles he’s seen since they met back on Mercay… well… 

“Hmph, alright,” he looks away, refusing to make eye contact with any of the others. Especially Link. “Maybe I was… a little too quick to judge you. You did an… ok job, I guess. For a nine year old.”

“For the last time, I’m fourteen,” Link corrects, feigning exasperation. Even so, it doesn’t . “But thanks. You weren’t half bad yourself, captain.”

“Heh, yeah,” Linebeck twists his mustache and strikes a heroic pose. “I was pretty impressive, wasn’t I?”

“Oh, please,” Ciela groans. “Link was the one who did all the work! All you did was get a few lucky shots in!”

“Hey! I’ll have you know manning that cannon is much harder than it looks,” Linebeck argues, eternally stubborn. "Luck had nothing to do with taking that thing down; it was pure skill .”

“Oh, sure,” Link pretends to agree. “Everyone knows it takes a ton of skill to hit a monster when it’s only about five feet away from you.”

The Spirits swiftly lose themselves to their laughter before Linebeck can even try to say a single word. Link quickly joins them, and Linebeck finds himself even more baffled by that than anything else. If he can barely recall seeing the boy smile in the short time since they met, he’s almost certain he’s never heard him laugh . But here he is now, green eyes bright, rosy cheeks capping both ends of a smile that seems to spread ear-to-ear, arms wrapped around his stomach in a vain attempt to contain his deep, earnest happiness . 

It’s a kind of happiness that’s contagious, downright infectious even. Maybe that’s why, before it’s all said and done, Linebeck finds himself letting out a laugh or two of his own along with them.

Almost as soon as Ciela’s memories are restored, Oshus makes another appearance. Link is hardly surprised when the disposed Ocean King hands him another task, one that he’d only hinted at during the boy’s lengthy recovery. Link had only barely listened back then when Oshus had told him he’d need a powerful sword to properly take Bellum down. It rings almost achingly familiar–as so many other things about this journey have. Only this time, instead of awakening sages to empower a weakened blade, he’ll have to find the three Pure Metals to forge that blade from scratch. 

At this point, Link doesn’t even bother protesting. Because now, the end is in sight, like a beacon looming afar on the horizon. He forces himself to think only about that beacon, about the promise of going back to where he belongs, each time he trudges into another temple, each time takes another blow from a monster, each time he feels his flagging energy fail him. He thinks only of the Great Sea and a grand pirate ship gliding across its crystal waters, of Outset Island and a cozy little house perched on its golden shore. He thinks of the grandmother who raised him, the sister who he risked life and limb to rescue, the captain-turned-princess he saved an entire ocean alongside. He thinks of all of that each morning when he wakes and each night before he falls asleep, knowing that with each day that passes, he’s one day closer to home.

It’s enough to keep him going. Until it isn’t anymore. 

Naturally, Linebeck still hounds them for treasure the longer their journey drags on; the Isle of Gust had, once again, wielded little other than a fair handful of rupees, nowhere near enough to satisfy the captain. Whether or not he’s still completely serious in his demands for compensation, Link isn’t sure. Regardless, he does his best to keep an eye out for any valuable trinkets they might find along the way, just in case. And after weeks of dutiful searching, he finally finds something he knows even Linebeck won’t want to pass up. 

He brings it back with him alongside the Crimsonine they find in the Goron Temple. Linebeck greedily eyes the first of the Pure Metals, at least until Link pulls another precious gemstone out of his bag. He’s keenly aware that rubies aren’t the most valuable gem in the world, but they can still fetch a pretty rupee at most markets back in the Great Sea. The same must ring true in this ocean, as Linebeck happily snatches the scarlet stone, eyes shining with almost childlike excitement. He’s so beside himself with joy that he barely even acknowledges Ciela when she teases him for it. 

Linebeck doesn’t outright thank him for the gem, but he shows his gratitude in his own special way by letting Link off the hook for the rest of the day’s chores. Knowing that they’ll be arriving at the Isle of Frost by dawn, Link decides to make the most of his newfound free time by catching up on some much-needed sleep. 

Or at least, that was the plan. 

Linebeck turns in for the night several hours after Link does. The moon is already high in the sky when he drops anchor in a calm spot of sea somewhere not too far out from the Isle of Frost. The air is cold in this part of the ocean, and so is the ruby resting in Linebeck’s palm as he strides into his cabin. He grins down at the gem, polishing one of its many facets with the hem of his coat. It’s well-cut, decently sized, and in pristine condition, a rarity to simply stumble upon out in the wild; Linebeck’s not so sure he could have scored a better find himself. 

“I can’t believe it,” he chuckles to himself. “The kid actually came through after all…”

He catches himself, just before his tone and thoughts alike can turn too cloying, too fond. Instead, he deposits the ruby into a secure chest in the corner of his room, allowing it to join the pile of other assorted treasures he’s yet to cash in. He’s barely pulled his coat off his shoulders when something bangs against his cabin door. Confused, he goes to answer it, expecting Link… but finding a very frazzled Ciela in his place. 

“Sparkles?” he asks. He only vaguely registers the sound of… something coming from down the hall, in the direction of the storeroom. “What do you want? It’s rude to barge in on a guy right as he’s getting ready for bed, ya know.”

Ciela’s usual brand of sass is lost to her panic, her already high voice hitching when she speaks. “Something’s wrong with Link! I thought he was just having a nightmare, but this is… different. He started yelling in his sleep and thrashing around, and Leaf, Neri, and I tried everything we could, but he won’t wake up and we’re really scared a-and… and I don’t know, I just thought… m-maybe you could-”

A sob strangles her, causing her wings to falter. Before she can fall completely out of the air, she suddenly finds herself resting in Linebeck’s palm, her tiny body trembling with anxious breaths she can’t catch quickly enough. “Relax, sparkles.” The captain’s voice is more gentle than she’s ever heard from him before. “Let’s go see exactly what we’re dealing with here.”

So they do. Along the way, Linebeck thinks Ciela is just being overdramatic–despite being so small, she has an annoying tendency to turn things into bigger deals than they actually are. But as soon as he steps into the storeroom, as soon as he realizes the racket he’d heard earlier actually is, he knows. She hadn’t oversold this one. 

The S.S. Linebeck only has one sleeping quarter–meant for its captain. When he’d taken Link aboard, Linebeck had begrudgingly put together a sorry excuse for a bed–really just an old camping mat laid out on a few empty crates and some ratty spare blankets he had on hand–in the storeroom. Yet for his part, Link hadn’t complained–based on what little Linebeck has managed to gather of the boy’s past adventures, he figures he’s probably slept on much worse before. 

That bed is barren now; instead, Link lies on the floor, writhing around in a tangled mess of sheets. His eyes are wrenched tightly shut, a slick sheen of sweat clinging onto a face wracked with far too many emotions to count–and not a single one of them is good. His chest heaves as he lets out an incoherent mess of screams and shouts; Linebeck thinks he hears a few actual words mingled somewhere in that mess, but he’s not sure. Leaf and Neri hover over the boy, every bit as frightened as Ciela and every bit as useless when it comes to pulling Link out of whatever fit he’s having. 

Linebeck steps forward, kneeling down to the boy’s level as he grabs his shoulder and gives it a shake. “Kid,” he begins calmly, firmly. “Wake up.”

Of course that doesn’t work, because why would it ever be that easy? Linebeck tries again, jostling the restless boy by both of his shoulders this time. Link must feel hands on him, because he lashes out, clumsily struggling against whatever he thinks is restraining him. “Kid,” Linebeck pulls back to avoid being slapped straight across the face. “Kid! Come on! Snap out of it already! It’s just a night–ow!” He winces, dropping Link when the boy’s fist suddenly slams squarely into his chest. Even in the midst of a panic-ridden night terror, the kid is surprisingly strong for his size. 

“N-no…”Link moans as he slumps back down onto the floor. He moves his arm in a way that makes him look like he’s shielding himself; from what, exactly, Linebeck has no idea. “Stop… Lemme go… p-please…”

“Let you go?” Linebeck incredulously echoes as he rubs his sore sternum. “Kid, I’m not even holding onto you anymore-”

Another sharp, shrill scream from Link cuts him off. He thrashes against the wooden floor, so hard that there’s a terrifying bang when the back of his head bounces against the ground. This can’t go on for much longer, Linebeck knows that much. The poor kid could end up seriously hurting himself, or worse. 

There’s a half-empty glass of water sitting on one of the crates nearby; Link must have gotten it for himself before falling asleep. Linebeck grabs it as soon as he sees it, pulling Link up by the front of his shirt as he throws the water straight into the boy’s face with one final “WAKE UP!” 

And this time, thank the goddesses, Link does. 

He gasps as if it's his first time breathing and his eyes fly open, wide and wild. It doesn’t seem to register that he was soaking wet as he tries to reorient himself. In the span of time it takes for that to happen, several emotions wash over his face like crashing waves: confusion, alarm, anger, apprehension, fear, and finally, distress. Linebeck wants to say something, but he can only watch helplessly as the boy’s brow furrows, his large eyes swiftly filling with tears as his lower lip starts to tremble. He thought the kid looked young before, but he’s never looked as small, as fragile, as utterly broken as he does right now. 

“Kid-” Linebeck finally speaks. But before he can even get another word out, Link is on his feet, running out of the cargo hold to climb up to the bridge. A sudden spark of fear jolts Linebeck when he pictures what a distraught teenager could do if left alone in such a state for too long. 

“Stay here,” he orders the Spirits, and they don’t argue. Not even Ciela, who’s usually the first to pick a fight with him, especially if that fight has to do with Link. Instead, she wordlessly collapses onto the bed alongside Leaf and Neri, creating a tiny cluster of colorful, exhausted light. It’s been a long night for everyone, Linebeck supposes.  

It doesn’t take him very long to find Link. The S.S. Linebeck is only so big, which means there’s only so many places he can go. He’s taken to the small viewing platform on top of the cabin, the highest point of the ship. Linebeck breathes a sigh of relief when he sees him, even though he has his knees pulled to his chest and his shoulders are shaking with sobs. Unsure of what else to do, the captain climbs onto the cabin roof and slowly slides in to take a seat next to him. 

They sit there in silence for what feels like ages. Linebeck feels like he should do something –throw an arm over the kid’s shoulder, fetch him some tea or warm milk to calm him down, even just ask him if he’s alright (even if he clearly isn’t). But instead, he stays put, feeling every bit as lost and listless as Link likely does right now. At least they have that much in common, if nothing else. 

He ultimately decides to let the kid keep crying as long as he needs to, whatever it takes to get it all out of his system. There’s no shame in that, really; the most courageous of sailors aren’t immune to night terrors–even Linebeck has had his fair share of them. As such, he knows just how haunting they can really be, so he doesn’t even try to pry into whatever Link’s might have been. 

Mostly because Link starts to pry it wide open himself. 

“I.. I can’t do this…” his voice is barely a whisper, barely audible at all with his head still buried between his knees. 

“...Do what?” Linebeck asks, against his better judgment. 

“This,” Link mutters. “Any of this.”

Linebeck can’t help but roll his eyes. “You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific, kid.”

Link sits up, suddenly frustrated. “I can’t. Do. This,” he practically spits out. He stares at his kneecaps, refusing to make eye contact with the captain beside him as words start to spill out of him unbidden. “I don’t want to do this. I can’t face Bellum again, because I know what’ll happen if I do! I… I don’t…” He breaks down into a low, anguished sob that soon shifts into an equally pained whisper: “I don’t want to die …”

It’s not often Linebeck finds himself at a loss for words, but he certainly does now. He’s heard the general gist before, bits and pieces from Link and Ciela and Leaf and Neri, and the most from Oshus during their last encounter with him. He knew their quest would end once they took some beast only known as Bellum down, somehow saving the entire world in the process. Somehow, it never occurred to him that the one who would have to do that, to fight such a deadly monster and find a way to best it… is Link. 

No wonder he’s so upset. Linebeck would be too, if he were in his shoes. 

“That’s a little, uh, dramatic, don’t ya think?” he asks, forcing a chuckle into his voice. His meager attempt at humor is completely lost on Link. 

“I-I almost died the last time I was caught by that… thing.” A far-away look lingers in the boy’s eyes, as if he’s reliving all of the agony that demon had put him through before. There’s a good chance he already had done exactly that tonight if the night terror had been any indication. “It took… all of my strength away from me; I know I don’t have enough left to beat it. I don’t think I could have even before all of this! Everyone always used to tell me I was a hero.” He stops short, twisting Tetra’s scarf into a tight bundle in his fist. She’d be disgusted at how utterly pathetic he is if she could see him now, and that thought, that fact, makes him sick to his stomach. “But I’m not. I was fooling myself all along, and the worst part is I still am !”

“Kid…” Linebeck says, so softly that Link doesn’t even hear him. As lost to his own despair as he is now, he probably wouldn’t have even cared if he had. 

“I’m so stupid,” he laughs bitterly. He runs a hand through his messy hair as he stands, taking to pacing in a useless attempt at getting at least a little of the negative energy running through him out. “So goddess-damned stupid ! What, did I really just think I was gonna go fight Bellum and survive and everything would just turn out ok ?! That I’d just get to go home and act like none of this ever happened?! What is wrong with me?! Why do I always have to…” He trails off, inevitably breaking into the furious shout he can no longer contain. Linebeck practically feels the sound of it echoing through his bones as it rings through the air, out into the otherwise silent sea. 

“Why?!” he screams up at the sky, at the stars, maybe even at the goddesses themselves. “Why is this happening to me again ?! Why does it always have to be ME ?!”

His voice breaks with sorrow as he falls to his knees. He doubles over, hugging himself tightly as he continues crying, unable and unwilling to do anything else. For a while, the most Linebeck can do is watch, swallowing hard as a strange feeling starts to settle in his chest. He can’t say he’s familiar with it, a tight sort of twisting that only seems to worsen the longer he stares at the mourning boy before him. 

Goddesses above, he’s just a kid , Linebeck thinks, shaking his head. Only fourteen, as Link has made sure to remind him many times over. When he was fourteen, he’d spent most of his time slacking off, flirting with pretty girls and conning simpleminded mooks out of their rupees. He’d never had to take up a sword, never had to stumble out of a dungeon bruised and bleeding, never had to wake up screaming in the middle of the night from dreams far too gruesome to speak of. He’d never had to carry the weight of an entire world solely on his shoulders like Link does. 

 And maybe…  maybe Link doesn’t have to either. 

Linebeck stands, letting loose a long, tired sigh. This isn’t going to be easy, but then again, very few things have been since this boy stepped foot on board his ship. He’s gotten used to that by now. “Look, kid,” he leans down, finally placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You don’t wanna fight that Bellum thing? Then don’t .”

“W-what?” Link looks up, confusion settling in the space between his tears. 

“You heard me,” Linebeck shrugs. “And I heard you. You said you didn’t want to do this, so why should you?”

“B-because,” Link sits up. “I have to, I-”

“Says who? Oshus?” Linebeck scoffs. “I already told you, that geezer has more than a few screws loose. I mean, what kind of nutcase sends a teenager off to fight his battles for him? I say screw the old man! He can’t force you to do anything; no one can. The only person you have to answer to is you .”

Link stalls, stunned by what he’s just heard. It’s so unlike anything he’s ever been told before, by Oshus, by the King, by anyone . He’s spent the past few years getting so used to being tied to duty, to destiny, and to all of the danger that comes along with it. He’s forgotten what deciding his own path is actually like, much less taking it. It’s such a nice idea, it sounds so wonderful, so liberating, so free. But for as much as he might want to embrace that freedom… Link knows that he can’t. Because this isn’t about him; it’s never been about him. And it never will be. 

“I… No,” he stands, wiping his face dry. He forces his tears back, wanting nothing more than to let them flow freely. But he can’t–not now, when there’s still so much work to be done. “Whether I want to or not, I have to do this. It’s the only way I’ll ever get home.”

“The only way?” Linebeck cocks an eyebrow. He’s heard this excuse before, and while he does buy that Link is from another world altogether, he isn’t buying it as valid enough of a reason for the boy to put himself through so much torture. “You really think that crazy old coot is the only one who can get you home? You don’t think there’s something out there in this massive ocean that could do the exact same thing without needing you to slay a literal demon for it?”

“I… I don’t know,” Link admits, because the last thing he wants to do right now is admit Linebeck is right . He especially doesn’t want to admit that he hadn’t even really considered that as a possibility before. “Even if there is another way, it doesn’t matter now. I’ve already come this far; I have to see this through to the end.”

“Why?” Linebeck presses. There’s something the kid isn’t telling him here, something he refuses to say. And he’s not about to let up until he figures out what . “There’s no shame in quitting while you’re ahead, you know. Heck, I’ve done it plenty of times–just ask Jolene!”

“Ugh,” Link turns his back on the captain, annoyed. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t!” Linebeck throws his hands up. “In fact, you’re just about the stubbornest, stupidest kid I’ve ever met! I don’t understand how you can have an all-out breakdown at the thought of facing a demon, and yet you still want to go running right to it, sword blazing, anyway. I don’t understand why you keep getting up every time you’re knocked down–especially since you’ve been knocked down far too many times to count! And I really don’t understand why you think you have to be the one to save a world you’re not even from in the first place!”

“Because,” Link’s hands curl into tight fists at his sides. But even in the midst of his surging anger, he struggles to find what he wants to say, to come to terms with how he really feels.“I… I just do , ok?”

“Why?” Linebeck doesn’t quit, and Link hates him for it. The captain has never bothered giving a damn about what he does and why, so what’s suddenly got him so interested now? 

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he says curtly, deciding he’s had enough of this conversation. But before he can even take another step, Linebeck tightly grabs his arm, keeping him planted firmly in place. 

“Cut that ‘teen angst’ crap of yours out already and just be honest for a change,” he demands, his voice low and alarmingly serious. “ Why are you so dead set on doing this? Even when you know you could die ?”

“I… I’m not…” Link struggles on just about every front there is. To speak, to think, to break free from the captain’s heavy hold and questioning glare. “I don’t know,” he ultimately lies. Of course, a master liar like Linebeck can see straight through it. 

“Bullshit,” he snaps coldly, unrelentingly. “You act like you don’t have a choice here, but you know you do, you just won’t take it. Whether or not you put your life on the line fighting that demon, I don’t really care, but I’m not about to let you go off without knowing why . Why, kid– Link –do you have to do this?!”

“Because if I don’t then who will ?!”

His answer rings out over the water, at last laid as bare as the stars above it. At first, Linebeck still doesn’t quite understand, until he notices the fresh tears starting to trickle down Link’s cheeks. Until he realizes just how much this kid–this strange, foolish, broken boy before him–truly cares about everything and everyone around him. About even a world that isn’t even his own, about even people he’s never even met. 

About even a captain who’s been nothing but cruel and coldhearted to him since the moment they met. 

“You…” he begins, but Link doesn’t let him get much more than that out. Because once the dam that is that boy’s heart breaks, Linebeck realizes, it’s hard to stop the surge of emotions that follows. 

“I can’t let this world just… disappear,” he admits, his voice weak and worn. “I can’t let anyone else suffer the way Bellum made me suffer; I won’t . Someone has to do something, someone has to help. You may say that someone doesn’t have to be me and maybe you’re right. But… if I just give up… if I just sit by and do nothing, I…” He sighs, loosely hugging himself as he looks off into the open ocean. The sun is just starting to crawl up over the horizon, chasing away the shadows of night as it paints the sea in the gentle pastels of dawn. Every time he looks at that ocean, it makes his heart ache all the more for the one he used to know, so far away, yet so very similar. This sea isn’t his home, it never could be, and yet… 

“I can’t just abandon this place,” he finally allows himself the smallest hint of a smile. “I don’t know if I’ll make it through the final fight against Bellum or not. But even if I don’t…” He dries his tears once more, and his heart feels strangely hollow and full all at once as he decides to set a new course. A course that, this time, is entirely his own. “Then at least I know I’ll have gone down fighting for something worthwhile. And I guess… that’s good enough for me.”

“Hmph,” Linebeck turns his nose up. “Well, I, for one, think you’re crazy.” Link had been expecting as much of a response from the captain. But what he says next comes as a genuine surprise. “Crazy…” he repeats, finally folding into a smile himself. “But brave.”

“...Thanks,” Link’s grin widens. He feels like a weight is finally starting to lift off his chest, one that’s been resting there for far too long. And bizarre as it might be, he has Linebeck of all people to thank for that. 

But even then, nothing could have prepared him for what the captain proposes next. 

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Oh, Din, I’m gonna regret this, I know I’m gonna regret this, but… you’re not as alone as you think you are, kid,” his hand finds a place on Link’s shoulder once more. “And you won’t be alone when you go up against that thing either. ‘Cause I’m going with you.”

“What?” Link asks, shocked. For every leg of their journey thus far, Linebeck has always stayed as far away from any fight as he possibly could, usually hanging back at the boat while Link and the Spirits tackle the temples and the beasts within them. But now… as if out of nowhere, he’s offering to go marching into battle alongside him, against one of, if not the most dangerous being this ocean has ever known? Who is this man and what has he done with the real Linebeck? 

Link shakes his head to clear it as he looks back up at the captain. His expression looks every bit as earnest as his tone had. As unbelievable as it may be, he actually means it. “Linebeck…” he starts, making no effort to hide how utterly awestruck he is. “That’s-”

“I know,” Linebeck grimaces. “Crazy.”

“Actually,” Link smirks as he finds a way to turn the captain’s words back around on him. “I was gonna say… brave. And crazy. But mostly brave.”

“Heh,” Linebeck chuckles, catching Link off guard even more when he reaches out and ruffles his hair. It’s just about the friendliest gesture he’s ever gotten from the captain before, and he can’t help but relish it. It reminds him of vague, distant memories of his father doing the exact same thing what feels like a lifetime ago. “You know, kid, you may be a pain in the neck, but… you’re not half bad.”

“Neither are you,” Link retorts just as playfully. “For a salty old sea dog.”

Linebeck finishes messing his hair up by giving him a light shove for that comment. Link laughs, elbowing his hip as revenge. The captain lets him win their short “battle” before he turns to the east, to the light of a new day slowly breaking through the darkness of what had been a very difficult night for them both. They both turn to welcome it in a warm sort of silence–their tongues are tired and everything that needs to be said already has been. So, instead of lamenting the past or fearing the future, they stay grounded solidly in the present. They let this moment be exactly what it is, nothing less and nothing more.

And they watch the sunrise together. 

Chapter Text

The quest to obtain the remaining two Pure Metals goes smoothly enough, all things considered. There are still plenty of treacherous temples to traverse and even more of Bellum’s monsters to stand in the way, but with the power of the spirits on his side, Link manages to overcome each of them. Linebeck lends his support in whatever ways he can, keeping his ship stocked up on potions and supplies in the very likely event that Link ever needs them. It isn’t lost on anyone  when the captain begins nagging Link less for returning to the ship without any treasure and more for coming back with any number of new cuts and bruises.

With all three Pure Metals in hand, the group seeks out Zauz the blacksmith. They can only assume Oshus must have paid him a visit before they arrived, because he’s already well aware of their mission beforehand. Using his skill in the forge, he uses the Metals to craft a beautiful blade with the power to take Bellum down once and for all: the Phantom Sword. And much like almost everything else he’s found within this strange world, as soon as Link feels that sword’s weight resting in his hand, it rings hauntingly familiar to another sword entirely. A sword long since lost to the bottom of the sea, still buried deep in the skull of the man he’d slain with it. 

With the sword and the spirits in tow, there’s no further obstacles standing in their way. They finally make their return to Mercay Island, a solemn journey steeped in silence that hangs heavy even as they disembark and make their way toward the Temple of the Ocean King. None of them wants to think about, much less talk about what awaits them inside of that temple. 

Thanks to the curse, the air surrounding the temple has grown thick with the looming stench of death and decay. Linebeck resists the urge to gag when they approach it, instead placing his focus in mirroring the calm composure Link is wearing. It’s a front, Linebeck knows it is. But if it’s the only thing standing between the poor kid and breaking down like he did on the S.S. Linebeck several nights ago, then he might as well keep it up. 

They come to a stop just before the threshold of the temple. It’s only then when Linebeck hears Link draw in a sharp, unsteady breath. His hands are both shaking, one reaching for the sword on his back, the other for the hourglass tied to his belt. His eyes are wide as he stares into the dark entryway ahead of them, as if he’s anticipating Bellum to come rushing out to attack them at any second. He just about jumps out of his skin when Linebeck settles a hand on his shoulder. 

“You know,” the captain throws on a casual air, hoping to break at least a little of the lingering tension. “It’s not too late to turn back, if you want-”

“No,” Link quickly cuts him off. He takes in a deep breath, squaring his shoulders as he looks up at Linebeck with all of the seriousness of someone dead set on saving the world. It’s a surprisingly fitting look on him, Linebeck thinks. “I told you; I’m not giving up.”

Linebeck stifles a smile, trying to hide just how strangely proud he suddenly feels. The feeling quickly passes when Ciela pipes up to tease him again. “It’s not too late for you to turn back if you’re scared , Linebeck.”

“Tch, who said I’m scared?” Linebeck perches his hands on his hips. “Besides, you really think I’m gonna miss out all of the loot that’s bound to be buried away in that place? Not a chance, sparkles!”

“Suuuure,” Ciela smugly calls his bluff. “That’s what all this is about. The treasure. Couldn’t be because you actually care about us, could it, captain?”

Linebeck clears his throat at the knowing looks Link and all three of the spirits are sending his way. “Nope,” he lies through his teeth. “Not in the slightest. In fact, I couldn’t care any less.”

Link can only smile, easily catching the real intention behind the captain’s words. “Thank you, Linebeck,” he says warmly, earnestly. “For being here. For doing this with me. For… well, everything.”

Briefly, Linebeck returns his grin, at least until he decides to continue saving face in front of the fairies again. “Yeah, yeah,” he ruffles the boy’s hair, just like he had that night on the boat. “Don’t get all sappy on me yet, kid. Save it for after we put that Bellum guy in his place, ok?”

“Ok,” Link nods, still smiling. “I guess we might as well get started then.” He turns back to the temple, feeling much more confident than he had before. He knows he has the captain standing beside him to thank for that too; because regardless of how utterly terrified he is at the thought of facing Bellum again… at least he won’t have to face him alone. 

Almost as soon as they step foot inside of the temple, Link pulls out the Phantom Hourglass and turns it upside down. Its power surrounds the tiny group in a halo of dim, protective light, meant to keep them from feeling the effects of Bellum’s curse. With the Sands of Hours that they’d gathered from the temples, there should be more than enough to get them through the awaiting labyrinth. And hopefully, through the battle to come at the end of it. 

Bellum must be able to sense their presence. It would explain why there seems to be so many more monsters than there’d been the last time Link was here. Along with those monsters are the Phantoms themselves, lurking around nearly every turn. For as powerful as it is, the Phantom Hourglass doesn’t shield or hide them from the possessed knights. That’s where the Phantom Sword comes into play; no other weapon can conquer the otherwise invulnerable sentries, but with the Phantom Sword in hand, Link cuts through them with ease. At least, he does as long as they don’t spot him first. Linebeck makes sure that doesn’t happen, offering himself up as a distraction while Link attacks them from behind when they aren’t looking. It’s a risky maneuver, but a rewarding one that works well in taking care of any Phantom they happen to cross paths with.

They make a solid team as they carve their way through the temple’s maze-like floors, and for a while, Link starts to wonder if maybe this might be possible after all. Last time he was here, he had nothing but the fleeting remains of his largely lost strength and a mysterious voice to guide him on his way. This time, he’s come prepared, with a sword in his hand, three spirits on his side, a captain keeping him grounded, and an hourglass sparing him from a deadly curse. He’s ready for this, he thinks as they plow through the temple’s lower levels. They’re ready for this. They could survive, they could win , they could save this ocean and everyone in it. 

And then… Link can go home. Back to all of his old friends… without any of his new friends by his side. Something tightens amidst the hope rising through his chest when he thinks about that. It’s a feeling that only grows each time Ciela encourages him or Linebeck flashes him a wry, supportive smile. 

Goddesses above, how is he ever going to be able to leave them behind? 

He doesn’t have much time to consider the future when he realizes they’re making the final descent into the temple’s basement. The thought of going back down there, into the darkened depths where he’d been kept in a stoney prison for an entire year, is almost enough to make Link sick. It’s only when he feels the Phantom Sword’s weight on his back and Linebeck’s hand on his shoulder that he finds the strength he needs to press onward to the end. 

To where Bellum waits within the shadows for its most coveted prey to return. 

The basement is dark and deathly quiet, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing through the lofty chamber. Linebeck sticks close to Link, both of them scanning the room anxiously for any sign of the demon they’ve come to slay. Only to find seemingly none at all. 

“Huh,” Linebeck finally breaks the silence, easing up just a bit. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home. M-maybe it just decided to call it quits and left while it still had a chance?”

“I wish,” Link scoffs. He draws the Phantom Sword, allowing the gentle light emanating from its sacred blade to chase away some of the surrounding darkness. “Bellum!” he shouts, wincing at how his voice cracks with just the slightest hint of fear. “Come out already! We’re here to-”

“Oh, I know well why you’re here, boy…” 

Bellum’s voice is just as soft and twistedly insidious as Link remembers it being. The mere sound of it sends shivers down his spine, to the point that he doesn’t even hear Linebeck’s frightened yelp when he hears it too. 

“The Ocean King, fool that he is, has tasked you with eliminating me,” Bellum laughs from its unseen vantage point. “But in accepting his call, certainly you must know… you have sentenced yourself to death. You may not have much Life Force left lingering within your soul, child…” At last, Bellum decides to make its appearance. It emerges from the shadows high within the room, its long tentacles keeping it tethered to the chamber’s pillars as its massive amber eye stares down at the group gathered before it. “But I will savor every last spark of it as I watch the life drain out of your eyes, once and for all!”

“Oh, Din,” Linebeck whispers, paling at the sight of the massive monster above them. “ That’s the thing we’re supposed to kill?”

Link only has time to nod before two of Bellum’s tentacles swerve down toward them. He manages to ward the one aimed at him away with merely a flash of the Phantom Sword, but Linebeck isn’t so lucky. He seizes up in fear when the tip of a tentacle skims the side of his face, as if the demon is inspecting him from a distance. 

“What’s this? You brought along another morsel for me to enjoy? How thoughtful of you…” Greedy hunger practically drips from the demon’s tone as its tentacle starts to slowly coil around Linebeck’s neck. “Perhaps I’ll devour this one’s Life Force first, as an appetizer, before moving on to the main course…”

“Leave him alone!” Link moves faster than Bellum can anticipate, slicing the Phantom Sword clean through the tentacle trying to trap Linebeck. Bellum pulls back at this, surprised, but not daunted. The mocking laugh that echoes through the chamber is proof enough of that. 

“Do you really think that frail piece of metal can harm me?” The demon lurches in closer, to the point that the glow of its eye completely engulfs Link and Linebeck alike. “Do you really think those weak spirits of yours can do anything to help you? Do you really think that loathsome hourglass can protect you from my power? Do you really think, you poor, pitiful child , that you are strong enough to stand against ME?!”

At this, Bellum lashes out, countless tentacles shooting out of the shadows. Link cuts through as many of them as he can, though Bellum is able to regenerate any of its lost limbs just as quickly. All the while, Linebeck hangs back, crouching down behind the boy as he trembles in fear he doesn’t even try to hide now. 

“Uh, y-ya know, kid, this is a bit more than I bargained for when I agreed to come with you!” he calls over the din of the demon’s attack. 

“Well, it's kind of too late to head back to the ship now!” Link shouts in between his frantic swings. 

“Don’t worry!” Ciela chimes in, flying upward alongside Leaf and Neri. “We can help!”

All three spirits pulse with power, activating each of their respective strengths to give Link a much-needed edge in this fight. Neri is first, using her magic to conjure up a sturdy shield of solid energy to block Bellum’s continuing attacks. Leaf darts down next, hovering over the Phantom Sword until bright orange flames coat its blade. Ciela tops it all off with what may just be the biggest goddess-send of all: she stops time . 

Or at least, she stops it for Bellum. In an instant, the monster freezes in place, its tendrils stuck where they are in mid-air as its angry roars are sent into silence. Link marvels at it for a moment, remembering Faron doing something similar right after she helped him break free. He doesn’t have time to figure out if that’s a coincidence or not before Ciela pulls him right back into the present. 

“Now, Link!” she cries, clearly under some kind of strain from the sheer amount of power she’s pouring out. “Hurry!”

Link does as she says, running forward as fast as his legs can carry him. He makes good use of Bellum’s frozen tentacles to gain some height, climbing up one and then making risky jumps between them to get on the demon’s level. He knows he doesn’t have much time; Ciela’s power won’t keep Bellum at bay forever. So he makes the most of the time he does have by landing a heavy slash on the lower half of demon’s body as soon as it's in his range. He’s about to land another blow, this time straight across Bellum’s eye, before the beast suddenly begins to move again, at just about the worst time possible. 

He only barely hears the warning Linebeck shouts to him, but he has no chance to react to it. As soon as Ciela’s spell fades, all of Bellum’s tendrils go flying on reflex alone, including the one Link is standing on. As a result, he’s tossed high into the air, the Phantom Sword slipping out of his grip despite his best efforts to cling onto it. Bellum quickly regathers its bearings and takes advantage of what it sees. Link can do nothing to stop the tentacle that comes slamming into his side, sending him crashing hard into the nearest wall before falling just as brutally to the ground. 

“Link!” Linebeck shouts, on his feet in an instant. From his spot on the floor, Link looks up, his vision spotty as pain laces through his entire body. He only briefly notices Linebeck running his way before he becomes aware of something else entirely. Namely, the broken glass stabbing into his thigh, glass from the–

From the Phantom Hourglass . 

He darts upright with a gasp, eyes widening in horror as he takes in the sight of the Hourglass’ now-shattered remains. Golden sand spills out from its ruined glass sides, and any semblance of power drains straight out of that blackening sand as soon as it's exposed to Bellum’s corruptive curse. “Oh no…” Link desperately tries to catch the sand, to salvage one of the only things capable of protecting him here. 

But in the end, it slips straight through his fingers, along with any sort of hope he might have once had of making it out of here alive. 

“Link,” Linebeck finally reaches him. The spirits aren’t far behind, though their wings beat a bit slower as they work on recovering the power they just expelled. “Are you–” The captain stops short when he spots what’s left of the Phantom Hourglass, laying in a messy pile of broken glass and scattered sand surrounding Link. “Shit,” he swears under his breath. “That… that’s not good.”

Link looks up at him, fighting hard against the tears already starting to surface behind his eyes. He can’t fall apart here, even though one of his final few saving graces already has. He needs to stand, needs to fight, needs to–

He needs to be stronger than he is; so much stronger than he ever has been before. Stronger than he knows he’ll ever be able to be. And that’s exactly the problem–it always has been, right from the very start. 

“Look out!” Ciela suddenly shouts. Her warning ultimately comes seconds too late, however, as one of Bellum’s tentacles appears as if from nowhere, harshly throwing Linebeck out of the way. Another tendril hones in on Link, and before he can even try to slip away, it tangles itself tightly around his torso. It pulls him up off the ground, away from the shattered Hourglass as it carries him closer to the beast. On the ground far below, Link only barely spots the Phantom Sword, still lying uselessly on the ground, the only other thing that might’ve helped him here now much too far out of his reach. 

“This was the best you could do? Truly?” Bellum taunts, its golden eye gleaming in twisted delight as it stares at the helpless boy in its grasp. “The great ‘Hero of Winds’, so-called savior of the Great Sea, one of Farore’s beloved Sons of Courage? Don’t you see now that all of that is meaningless ? Any strength you may have once possessed was merely an illusion, any courage you held, a lie.”

By now, Link can’t hold his tears back any longer. He can’t even manage to put up a struggle as frozen with fear as his entire body is. His breaths come out in short gasps he can’t keep up with as the demon tightens its hold on him, crushing his lungs. His already surging panic erupts to entirely new levels when the tip of another tendril lightly lands against his chest–against his soul , poised and ready to tear whatever’s left of it out. 

“It’s just as I told you before: you’re not a hero, you never were. You’re nothing . But you already knew that,” Bellum whispers, very likely the last words Link will ever hear. “Didn’t you, Link?”

He does know that. He’s known that for a long time now. Every day since he’s awakened within this world has been filled with constant reminders of just how much of a failure he truly is. Every wound he’s sustained has reiterated his weakness, every sleepless night has echoed his shame. Every second he’s spent struggling to restore what was stolen from him has only led to even more suffering. And even now, even after fighting for so long and coming this far, he knows he’s not enough to stop any of this. He knew that it would end exactly like this from the very beginning. He knew from the second he agreed to this quest that it would ultimately end in his death. He knew his fate and had come to terms with it more times than he could count. 

So then… why is he still so scared of that fate all the same?

He’s felt this before, a deep, searing sort of agony that reaches all the way down to the core of his being. He gasps, falling slack in Bellum’s hold as the demon begins to take away the final few sparks of Life Force he still has left to spare. It won’t be long now, he manages to think between the ceaseless pain engulfing him. It may have taken Bellum a year to drain him of the bulk of his Life Force, but it’ll probably only take minutes for the beast to devour the rest of it. With those minutes all too swiftly ticking away, he forces his fear out of his mind, instead opting to focus on something far more pleasant. 

He wrenches his eyes shut, picturing the faces of all of the friends he’s made between his ocean and this one alike. He pictures Aryll, waving up at the seagulls, blissfully unaware of the brother she’ll never see again. He pictures Grandma, stirring a pot of soup for a grandson who will never come home. He pictures Tetra and her crew, setting a course for distant lands without their newest member in tow. He pictures Ciela, Leaf, and Neri, rallying together for the hero who ultimately failed them. And, he pictures Linebeck–

Linebeck, who just ran one of Bellum’s tendrils straight through with the Phantom Sword. 

“Hey!” he shouts, furious. He’s not the best with a blade, but he can wield it well enough to cut through another one of the beast’s tentacles. “Let the kid go, you overgrown squid!” 

As focused as Bellum is on its prize, it hardly pays the captain any mind outside of swatting at him with one of its lower tentacles. Linebeck narrowly dodges it, letting out a frustrated shout as he glares back up at the beast and the boy dangling limply in its grasp. “I said let him GO !” 

He hurls the Phantom Sword, largely without thinking, much less aiming. By the time he realizes just how dangerous of a move that was, the sword is already sailing through the air. By some miracle, it doesn’t hit Link; instead, it cleanly slices through the side of the tentacle wrapped around him. Bellum reels back, caught off guard by such a direct attack as its grip on the boy loosens, allowing him to freefall toward the ground far below. Linebeck rushes forward, arms open to catch him, only to fall to the ground himself when Link lands in them. 

“Kid!” Linebeck props the barely-conscious boy up, desperately shaking his shoulders. He keenly notices that he’s paler than he should be, colder too, but he’s still breathing, still alive . Though he won’t be much longer, if Bellum has anything to do about it. 

Except now, Bellum’s focus isn’t on Link anymore. It’s on him . 

“You…” the demon growls, its eye narrowing down at the captain. “How DARE you?! You will not deny me of MY prey, no one will–not even the golden three themselves! In fact…” Something slips its way through the malice filling the beast’s tone, something that scares Linebeck stiff far before the tentacle comes in to snatch him from behind. A frightened scream escapes him as Bellum drags him in close, its golden eye staring straight through him, as if it's searching for something. Whatever that something is, it finds it far too quickly for comfort. 

“Hm… yes,” the demon purrs approvingly. “Such a frail, fear-ridden soul. I’ve devoured so many similar souls in the past, and I could do the same to yours just as easily. It would take mere seconds for me to kill you, and yet…”

“Uh… y-you’re not going to because I’m just so darn charming?” Linebeck attempts, flashing a nervous smile at the horrific beast before him. 

“No,” Bellum laughs, amused. Linebeck lets out a small, relieved chuckle of his own, though any trace of levity dies when he hears what the demon has to say next. “I’d much rather use you before I end you. You may have come here to protect that boy, but I can promise you this: his life will indeed end today. And who better to end it than the cowardly captain he’s put so much trust in? Who better to kill a ‘hero’... than one of his closest friends?”

“What-” is all Linebeck is able to get out. Bellum’s grip on him tightens, practically suffocating him as even more tentacles emerge to entrap him. They keep coming until he’s all but covered by them completely, only barely able to gasp out a smothered cry for help that only the spirits really hear. His voice is ultimately silenced, his senses stripped away from him just as swiftly as any semblance of control over his own body. His consciousness is brutally shoved away into the deepest depths of his mind, locked securely in place as something much more sinister takes control in his place. Something intent on destroying the very boy he came here to try and protect. 

When Link slowly starts to awaken, the room is in a state of utter chaos. The spirits fly around frantically, trying to reignite their powers in a desperate attempt at stopping Bellum’s plans, even though each of them already knows it's far too late for them to help Linebeck now. Link, however, is still trying to piece together exactly what’s happening as he stares up at the captain caught in the creature’s clutches. He watches, frozen with fear, as a dark aura surrounds them both, his stomach lurching when he hears Linebeck let out one final, futile scream from beneath the demon’s tendrils. 

The darkness continues to grow until it overshadows everything in sight. Neri is only just able to create another barrier to guard Link from it, but Linebeck isn’t so lucky. Not only does the demon’s darkness enshroud him, it enters him, sealing Bellum’s claim on its new vessel. And it's only as the shadows start to clear that Link can finally see that’s exactly what Linebeck has been forced to become. 

As soon as he catches his first glimpse of the captain, he practically forgets how to breathe. The spirits similarly still in the air, sharp gasps spilling out of each of them at almost the exact same time. Initially, Link thinks Bellum has summoned another Phantom, one clad in much studier, sharper armor than any he’d ever seen before. But then, he sees a head sticking out of that armor–bereft of a helmet–a once tanned face turned a sickly purple pallor, once sharp green eyes now nothing more than empty voids of white.

 Slowly, Link stumbles to his feet, swallowing a sob when he notices that the demon’s tendrils are tightly tied around each of the captured captain’s limbs, like strings tethered to a puppet. Because as far as Bellum is concerned, that’s all Linebeck is now: a vessel, a puppet, a pawn meant to ensnare its ultimate prey in the cruelest way possible. Bellum had used the faces of his friends and family against him before. But this time, it’s different. This time, it’s horrifically, inescapably, unbearably real . 

“L-Linebeck…” Link chokes, reaching a trembling, helpless hand out to the captain. If Linebeck can somehow hear him, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he lumbers forward, speaking in a mangled, malicious mix of the captain’s voice and the voice of the demon controlling him. 

“Look what you’ve done now, Link…” he says coldly, accusingly. “This battle was only meant to be between the two of us, and yet, you dragged an innocent man into the middle of it anyway, all because you were too weak to face me yourself. And now, your poor friend here is the one paying the price for that weakness, for your mistakes.”

“I-I…” Link somehow speaks up as he begins to back away from the demon’s approaching puppet. The Phantom Sword is far out of his reach, not that he’d even think to use it anyway, not now, not against Linebeck . “This is… I-I didn’t think…” 

He swallows hard, forcing himself to speak coherently, despite the tears prickling at the corner of his eyes. “Linebeck,” he tries appealing to the captain, refusing to even acknowledge the demon controlling him. “I-I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry ! If I’d know this was going to happen, I would have never let you come here with me!” Despite his best efforts to keep them at bay, the tears have finally found their way to the surface, and once they start, there’s no stopping them. “I didn’t want you to get hurt!”

“Well, it’s much too late for that,” Bellum sneers, its voice taking a clear edge over Linebeck’s. “After all, how can someone who can’t even save themselves possibly hope to save anyone else? And here you thought you had a chance at saving an entire world .” The demon laughs, and the fact that there’s still so much of Linebeck’s voice in that laugh is enough to make Link trip, landing him on the ground mere feet away from the monster determined to destroy them both. “How delusional can you be, ‘hero’?”

The captain reaches a gauntlet-covered hand down, easily snatching the boy up by the throat. The spirits dart forward to try and intervene, only for one of Bellum’s tentacles to swiftly swat them away. “Your soul may have once been strong, but I fail to see what else anyone sees in you that makes you worthwhile in the slightest,” Bellum mocks, forcing a vicious smirk onto Linebeck’s face. His grip around Link’s neck tightens, to the point that the boy is quickly struggling to breathe, despite his best efforts to free himself. “This man, the Ocean King, even the Goddess of Courage herself… they all went to such great lengths to keep you alive. And for what? For nothing .”

Spots start to overtake Link’s vision as his lungs beg for all of the air Bellum isn’t letting him have. He doesn’t even notice when a long, deadly sword appears in the captain’s free hand until the demon draws its tip dangerously close to his face. “They should have let you die,” it tells him, and even if he could speak, Link knows he wouldn’t argue with it. How can he now, at the mercy of someone who’s senselessly suffering solely because of him? “You should have let yourself die when I first captured you. It would have saved everyone foolish enough to give you so many second chances the trouble of watching you fail over and over and over again.”

A strangled cry slips past his parted lips when the demon’s sword skims the skin of his cheek, just below his left eye. Odd, he somehow manages to think, he would have thought a beast like Bellum would go for a fatal blow through his chest rather than his head. It eerily echoes how he’d taken Ganondorf down what feels like a lifetime ago now; he’d almost find it ironic, funny even, if it wasn’t so unspeakably imminent. 

“There will be no more second chances, not this time,” Bellum whispers. Linebeck’s empty eyes flash with a kind of hatred that the captain could never hope to claim as his own. The kind of hatred that’s meant to kill. “This time, that last bit of light inside your soul will be extinguished. This time,” a sickening grin splits wide across Linebeck’s face as one of Bellum’s tendrils drifts in, once again landing almost gently on Link’s chest. Goddesses forbid the demon doesn’t get what it wants from him before it finally finishes what it started well over a year ago now. “You’re mine…”

Link doesn’t care about that; he’s so far out of it by this point that he’s barely even listening to a word Bellum is saying. But in his final, few fleeting seconds, he still reaches a shaking hand out to the possessed captain, rasping out one last broken apology through his raw, ruined throat. “L-Linebeck… I… I‘m sorry…”

With that, he closes his eyes, hangs his head, and waits. Waits for Bellum to siphon the last bit of Life Force out of him, waits for its puppet to shove its sword straight through his skull. He waits for death to finally catch up with him after running from it for so long. 

And yet… that’s not what happens. 

Bellum’s sword suddenly slices upward, cutting Link clean over his closed eye. He cries as he’s abruptly released from the captain’s hold, falling to the ground as blood begins pouring from the wound ripped across his face. But despite how painful it may be–and oh goddesses , is it ever–it doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as what’s happening in front of him. 

The possessed captain stumbles back, yelling in both of his mismatched voices. He grips the wrist of his sword arm, pulling hard against the tentacle trying to drag it back into place. The apparent struggle becomes even clearer when Link notices his eyes, still largely white, but nowhere near as hauntingly empty as they’d been before. 

“...Linebeck?” he questions, but his injured throat doesn’t allow it to come out as anything other than an incredulous whisper. Somehow, the captain still manages to hear him all the same. 

“ L-Link!” he shouts between gritted teeth. Whatever fight he’s putting up against the demon must be a brutal one; the strain of it is practically written all over his unnaturally pale face. “H-hurry! You… you’ve gotta–AUGH!” He can’t get much more than that out as Bellum viciously tries to overwhelm him again. A new tendril appears, locking itself around Linebeck’s neck with frightening speed. Its hold over its vessel is slipping, that much is clear. And if it can’t control the captain, then clearly, it sees no use in keeping him alive any longer than it already has. 

But Linebeck is fighting even still. And if he’s fighting… then Link will too. 

His breath hitches in panic, his mind racing for some way, any way to stop this. A spark of hope shoots through him when he spots the Phantom Sword, still lying on the ground just past the struggling captain. If he can just make it past the demon’s reach, if he can make it time, then maybe–

As if an answer to his unspoken prayers, Ciela suddenly glides into the space between him and Linebeck. She lets out a surprisingly fierce shout as she unleashes her power over time once more, this time, freezing both the captain and the demon alike. Her wings tremble as she works hard to maintain her spell, though she still manages to turn back to Link all the same. “Go! Save him!” she pleads, practically on the verge of tears. Link doesn’t think twice about listening to her–he never does anymore. “You can do it, Link! I know you can!”

Link’s not so sure he agrees with her on that, but he doesn’t have time to doubt himself now. He forces himself to his feet, running for the Phantom Sword, for the only thing that can finally finish this. Even once it's safely in his hand again, he doesn’t dare stop, not even for a second. He runs, not back toward Linebeck, but toward the demon who had made the mistake of bending him to his will and using him as a tool for its murderous malice. His face is still bleeding and the air hasn’t fully returned to his lungs yet, but Link doesn’t care . Rage and adrenaline fuel him while guilt and grief push him onward. But as he leaps up onto one of the demon’s frozen tendrils, as he makes his way every closer to the vile beast’s amber eye, only one thing runs through him. And this time, it isn’t fear. 

He makes his final perch on top of the demon’s body, raising the Phantom Blade high above his head. He screams, furious, as he plunges the weapon straight down into Bellum’s exposed eye. It quickly snaps out of Ciela’s spell, its tendrils lashing out in pained panic as it lets out a wordless, agonized roar. Despite the beast’s freedom, Link doesn’t let up. Instead, he lands another brutal blow across the demon’s eye, and another, bringing his blade down over and over and over again. Bellum’s black, ink-like blood sprays over him, but he ignores it, just as he ignores the demon’s continued screams. After how many lives this abomination has destroyed, it's only fair that it feels even a fraction of the suffering it's caused across so many centuries. 

“S-stop!” Bellum begs , of all things. Link nearly stays his hand when he hears that out of shock alone. “P-please, O Hero of Winds! Spare me and I will release your captain! I will even let you and your friends walk away from this place with your lives, I swear it! Just please, let me-”

“Let you live ?” Link asks, disgusted by the very thought. “So you can kill even more innocent people? So you can destroy this entire ocean?” He brings his sword down again, just shy of slicing through a tentacle that tries to stop him. “I knew a man once–a monster –who wanted to do all of the same things you do. And you know what I did to him?”

“...Yes,” the demon’s voice softens, as if resigned to its fate. “You killed him…”

“No,” Link practically hisses. He has blood on his hands, he knows that. But he also knows the one life he ended saved so many others. And so too, will the life he’s about to end. “I did much more than that. I made sure he would never hurt any of the people I care about ever again. And now… neither will you .”

With this, he brings the Phantom Sword down one last time, far harder and far faster than any of his previous blows. Bellum lets out a piercing cry as its tentacles slip off of the pillars, sending it crashing toward the ground. Link rushes off of its dying body, but not before cutting through the tentacles still tethering Linebeck to the monster. He doesn’t know if what he’s just done will save or doom the captain; all he can do is pray that it's the former. 

Link lands clumsily, his injuries finally catching up to him as he presses a hand to his injured eye. Still, from his spot on the ground, he watches in solemn silence as Bellum finally falls. Its screams soon echo away into silence as its body grows still. Its tendrils slowly evaporate into nothing more than lifeless black dust first before whatever’s left of it follows. The Phantom Sword draws that dust in, safely sealing Bellum’s last remains away once and for all. It’s only once he’s sure that the demon is fully, truly gone that Link allows himself to fall backward onto the floor. 

He only gets a moment’s rest before Ciela’s bright voice rings through his ears. He groans, but manages to crack his uninjured eye open to see her hovering over him. “Oh, thank the goddesses, you’re ok too!” 

“Too?” he questions, lifting his head. He can barely make out a familiar cobalt coat-clad shape lying still on the ground some distance away. The sinister armor may be gone, but that doesn’t mean the captain is entirely in the clear yet. “Linebeck-”

“He’s fine,” Ciela assures. “We checked. He’s just resting, like you should be.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Link laughs, lying back down again. He closes his eyes and focuses on simply breathing, on letting his body calm itself from the beating he’d just put it through. His eye will need patching up soon–he’s not even sure he’ll ever be able to properly see out of it again. But for just a moment, he’s content to let himself rest, to let silence reign, to let the storm that’s been hanging over him for the past year finally, finally pass. 

“See?” he hears Ciela whisper as she settles in to sit on his chest. “I told you you could do it.”

He takes pause at this, in sudden awe of himself. He’d told himself many times over that he couldn’t do this, that this was where and how he was going to die, that there was no hope for him or for this ocean. But now… 

Now Bellum is gone. Now, the World of the Ocean King is finally safe. Now… 

Now he can go home . 

“...Yeah,” he mutters tiredly, smiling as he lets that thought lull him into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in months. “I guess I did.”

When Link eventually awakens, he does so as slowly as he first slipped into slumber. He’s initially thrown off when he realizes he’s lying on an actual bed instead of a bunch of crates. Even more surprising yet is the swath of bandages wrapped securely around the left side of his face. The fact that he can catch a hint of dull light from beneath them is a miracle—proof that he hadn’t lost his left eye after all. 

He knows well who he has to thank for that. And for so much more along with it. 

It’s only as he climbs out of bed that he recognizes he’s in the captain’s quarters of the S.S. Linebeck . There’s no way to tell how long he’s been out for, but it must have been quite a while if Linebeck managed to carry him out of the temple and back to the boat. If Linebeck had even been in any sort of state to do that after what he’d just been through. 

The spark of fear that rushes through Link is short-lived as he begins climbing up to the main deck. He can already hear the captain’s voice well before he even sees him, arguing with Ciela as if nothing had happened. As if they all hadn’t narrowly escaped certain death. 

“I’m telling ya, sparkles, that oversized Octo was no match for me,” Linebeck smirks from his spot at the helm. Aside from a few bandages covering up various bumps and bruises, he looks no worse for wear, to the point that Link starts to wonder if he merely imagined Bellum possessing him. He’s not so sure he’d believe it even happened at all if Linebeck didn’t bring it up himself. “There’s no demon alive that can take control of a strong-willed powerhouse like yours truly.”

“Oh, don’t get such a big head over it,” Ciela huffs from her perch on the captain’s shoulder. Leaf and Neri relax on a nearby railing, perfectly content to enjoy the show. “So you broke free long enough for Link and I to finish Bellum off. Big deal.”

“Uh, try huge deal,” Linebeck counters. “I not only gave the kid the perfect opening to take that thing down, I saved his life to boot. I think I deserve an entire hull full of treasure for that alone, not to mention everything else I’ve done on this little adventure. So,” his teasing smile softens just the slightest bit when he finally meets Link’s wide-eyed gaze. “When are you gonna pay up, kid?”

By the time he reaches the helm, Link finds he can’t keep his surging emotions at bay any longer than he already has. Relief and gratitude alike overwhelm him as he rushes for the captain, catching him off guard with a tight, tearful hug. At first, Linebeck isn’t quite sure how to react to the boy sobbing into his stomach, until Ciela makes a point of clearing her throat, silently telling him to hug Link back. He does so, albeit a bit awkwardly, unable to hide the smile slowly creeping back onto his face. 

“Yeesh, kid, what’d I say about getting all sappy?” he jokes. “If anything, you should be throwing a fit over what I did to your face. It’s probably gonna leave a pretty nasty scar, ya know.”

“I’ll take that any day over-” Link cuts himself off sharply, not even wanting to say such a frightening thought aloud. “I’m so glad you’re ok. A-and I’m so sorry that you-”

“Hey now,” Linebeck pulls back, kneeling down to the boy’s level. “You already said you were sorry.” Link starts at this, surprised that Linebeck had been able to hear anything when Bellum had been in control. “You don’t need to say it any more; especially since what happened wasn’t your fault. I knew going into that temple was risky, but I still did it anyway.”

“For me,” Link mutters, guiltily glancing away. 

“...For you,” Linebeck agrees, gripping his shoulder. “You know, I wouldn’t put my neck on the line for just anyone, much less fight off demonic possession. But for you? Well… what can I say? You’ve grown on me, I guess.”

Between his fading tears, Link can’t help but laugh. “Yeah. You’ve grown on me too, ‘captain’.”

The warmth of the moment is suddenly shattered as the boat begins to violently rock against the suddenly unsettled sea. Link and Linebeck struggle to maintain their footing against it, forced to rely on the ship’s railing as they peer into the ocean, half-expecting a sudden monster attack. With Bellum gone, however, there are no monsters left upon the land or the sea. The deity emerging from the depths has already made sure of that. 

A white whale leaps out of the waves, larger than even the S.S. Linebeck as it crashes back into the ocean, drenching the entire ship in a heavy spray of seawater. Linebeck lets out a swear as he wrings the water out of his coat, only for shock to overtake him and Link alike when the whale slowly resurfaces right beside the S.S. Linebeck . “What in the name of Nayru is-”

“Grandpa!” Ciela suddenly shrieks, delighted. 

Leaf and Neri chime in immediately after. But exactly what they shout throws Link and Linebeck through even more of a loop than the whale floating only a few feet away from them did. “The Ocean King!”

“... What ?” Link and Linebeck gawk in almost perfect unison. 

“Yes,” the whale somehow speaks , and sure enough, its voice is Oshus’s , albeit a bit deeper and stronger as it rumbles across the open sea. “This is my true form, restored to me now that Bellum has been vanquished. For that, I thank you, Link, and you too Linebeck. If not for your shared courage, this sea would have fallen into decay and desolation. But now, its future is secured. Never again will Bellum rise to threaten this world and its people.”

“Great, yeah, awesome, whatever,” Linebeck says, crossing his arms. “But now that you’re all… powerful and uh, whale-ish again, I think there’s a certain promise you made to Link here that you still need to make good on.”

“...Linebeck,” Link starts, surprised. If anything, he’d been expecting the captain to ask the Ocean King for a reward for himself. A reward that would have been well-deserved after what he went through thanks to Bellum. But instead, here’s Linebeck, making demands for someone else for a change. If that isn’t a testament to just how much their time together has changed the captain for the better, Link doesn’t know what is. 

“Don’t get it twisted, kid,” Linebeck shoots him a knowing look. “I’m only asking ‘cause you haven’t shut up about going home since you stepped foot on my ship. If I never hear you whining about how homesick you are, it’ll be too soon.”

Of course, Link sees through his ruse just as easily as Ciela does. “Aw, Linebeck, you’re going soft on us!” she giggles, even as Linebeck insincerely swats at her. 

“Can it, sparkles!” he huffs. “I just want to have my ship all to myself again, is all!” He drops his voice down to a mutter, glancing away from the group as he rubs the back of his neck. “Even if it’ll be a little too quiet without you nuisances around…”

Link sighs, smiling sadly. “I’ll miss you too, Linebeck,” he says, knowing that’s what the captain actually means. Despite the stoic front he likes to put on, Linebeck is remarkably easy to read. 

Linebeck turns his nose up, but doesn’t protest further. There’s so much more Link wants to say to him, but between all of the emotions starting to run through him right now, he can’t quite find the words. So instead, he turns back to the Ocean King, deciding that now is as good a time as any to claim the prize he’s fought so hard for and finally won. 

A prize that might still be far further out of his reach than he thought. 

“Ok,” he begins with a small, hopeful smile. “I guess… I’m ready to finally go home.”

The Ocean King is silent for a moment, its large eye staring at the boy before him before it closes and a long, sad sigh slips out. “Yes… that is what I promised you, isn’t it? And yet…”

“And yet… what?” Link asks, suddenly worried. He has every reason to be too, when he hears what the Ocean King has to say next. 

“Though Bellum is no more, the damage he has wrought upon this world was indeed great, and in many cases, permanent,” he explains. “I may have resumed my true form, but it appears as though much of my power has still yet to return to me. I could not have anticipated this turn of events when I made the promise to send you back to your world. And now… it brings me immeasurable shame to say that promise is not one I believe I am able to fulfill.”

Just hearing that alone has Link feeling like a knife is digging into his heart. But the answer to the question Linebeck poses is what ultimately ends up running that knife straight through. “So… what are you saying, old man?”

“...I’m afraid I cannot send Link back to the world from whence he came,” the Ocean King says softly, sadly. “I am deeply, truly sorry.”

With just a few words alone, the ground beneath Link’s feet is completely pulled out from under him. He hardly hears the spirits’ chorus of shocked gasps, nor does he hear Linebeck erupting in anger at the Ocean King. All of the captain’s furious shouts and swears are lost on the boy standing stiffly beside him. He stares at nothing, his breathing shallow and his chest aching with perhaps the worst pain he’s ever felt before, pain that far surpasses any wound he’s ever sustained. He wants to cry, to scream, to fall to pieces like he has so many times before. But instead, he simply stands there in silence as his hopes shatter all around him, as his dreams begin to die, as reality slowly starts to set in. 

He can never go home. He’ll never see the waves of Great Sea again, never step foot on Outset’s familiar shores. He’ll never share another fond embrace with his sister and his grandmother, he’ll never sail again with Tetra and her crew. He’ll never know anything even remotely close to the life he used to dream of having, a life spent alongside his family and friends, a life he’d nearly lost so many times simply trying to create it. 

This must be a joke, a sick joke from whatever cruel whim of fate that had landed him here in the first place. He fought for so long, and for so hard, for only one thing and one thing alone. 

But in the end, it's the one thing he isn’t able to have. Everything he’d been through, everything he’d done… it was all for nothing . 

At some point, the Ocean King disappears beneath the sea again, letting out one final, remorseful apology as he does. Leaf and Neri fly after him, but Ciela remains, unwilling to leave now. Linebeck is still fuming as he sets a course for Mercay, largely leaving Link be as he lingers by the railing, staring out at the sea. They make landfall within the hour, and as soon as they reach the port, Link all but rushes off the boat, unable to look at the ocean–so painfully familiar and unfamiliar all at once–any longer. 

He ignores Linebeck and Ciela shouting after him as he runs through the island’s seaside village with no real destination in mind. He darts through crowds of people, tears stinging at the corners of his uninjured eye, but they don’t fall, not yet. Not until he’s made it deep into the island’s forest, until his grief finally tears its way out of him full-force. 

He screams, one hand digging into his hair while the other unleashes his sword from its sheath. He swings it wildly, angrily slicing through the surrounding underbrush as if it were the demon who brought him here or the king who failed to take him back. It’s senseless violence, he knows that’s all it is, and what’s worse is that it doesn’t even help. He’s still just as heartbroken as he eventually lets the blade slip out of his grip, exhaustion overtaking him as he slides down to the forest floor. Sobs overwhelm him as he pulls his knees to his chest, craving the comfort of family and friends that he wanted so badly to be with again. Family and friends that will now always be worlds away. 

He wonders what they must be thinking, whether or not they believe that he’s dead or missing or if they even care . He tries to imagine their lives going on without him; he imagines his grandmother passing away without her grandson by her side, his sister left to grow up without her big brother to care for her, a captain and her crew fruitlessly searching for a land they may never find. 

And… he imagines himself, stranded here while they all move on without him. Except he doesn’t have to imagine anymore; because that’s exactly what’s going to happen whether he likes it or not. 

He doesn’t know how long he sits there alone. The forest around him is quiet save for the sounds of his own soft weeping. His tears refuse to let up, even when he hears footsteps approaching through the nearby trees. He doesn’t even have to look up to know exactly who’s arrived to take a seat on the ground next to him. 

Just like that night on the boat, Linebeck stays silent for what seems like ages. Link doesn’t acknowledge him or even Ciela as she settles in to take a seat on his shoulder. There’s nothing either of them could say or do to fix this now, nothing that could make him feel even remotely better. 

Still, that doesn’t mean they aren’t about to try. 

“So,” Linebeck finally says, letting out a long, tired sigh. “That Ocean King’s one lying son of a bitch, isn’t he?”

“Linebeck!” Ciela shrieks, mortified that he’d say something so blatantly blasphemous.

“What? It’s true,” Linebeck shrugs. “He promised Link that he’d get him home, and then he backed out of the deal only after he got what he wanted from the kid. That’s pretty scummy if you ask me. I mean, I’ve left plenty of folks with the short end of the stick myself, but this? Making a kid put his life on the line to fight an actual demon only to leave him empty-handed when it's all said and done? Tch, it’s a whole new level of wrong .”

“It’s not Grandpa’s fault!” Ciela protests, but even then it comes out almost halfheartedly. “He wanted to help Link, but he just… can’t. So…”

“So I’m stuck here,” Link sits up a bit, his voice low and bitter and raw from screaming. “For the rest of my life.”

Linebeck and Ciela exchange a glance, neither of them sure on exactly how to proceed. There’s no right answer here, no good solution–no solution at all, really. How can such a hard-won victory be so easily tainted by such a seemingly small, yet crushing blow? 

“Well,” Linebeck ventures as carefully as he can. “Is that… really all that bad?”

“Yes, it is,” Link shoots back, thinking that much should be obvious. “The promise of being home again was the only thing that kept me going through all of this. It’s why I kept fighting no matter how hurt or afraid I was. Now that it’s gone, I… how can I…”

He trails off, agonized by it all. By how pointless all of the pain he’d been through really was, by how any semblance of purpose has been stripped from him in one fell swoop. By how the goddesses certainly must hate him to have taken his friends, his family, his future away from him like this. He lets out a quiet moan as he buries his face away again, forlorn to the point that he can’t even bring himself to cry any more than he already has. “What am I supposed to do now?” he wonders softly, miserably. 

Linebeck ponders the question for a moment or two. Eventually, a small smile creeps its way onto his face as he decides to start by calling the boy’s bluff. “So what, you’re gonna give up then? Just like that?”

“What else can I do?” Link returns, his voice barely audible. 

“Ugh,” Linebeck rolls his eyes. “Who knew teenagers could be so dramatic ? Look, kid,” he rests a hand on the boy’s shoulders, prompting him to look up at him. “It’s like I told you before: who’s to say the old man was ever your only way of getting home? There’s gotta be something or someone else out there that can get you back; you just haven’t found it yet. So…” He rises to stand, grinning down at Link as he extends an inviting hand out to him. “What do you say we look for it together ?”

It’s a generous offer, one that Link can’t believe just came out of the captain’s mouth. And yet, the smile on his face is a sincere one, and he doesn’t pull his hand back even when Link questions him about it. “What about having your ship all to yourself again? I thought… you wanted to get back to treasure hunting.”

“Eh, solo-treasure hunting is kinda overrated,” Linebeck admits. “I’ve kind of gotten used to having a cabin boy around to help me out. Although…” he strokes his chin thoughtfully as his smile widens just the slightest bit. “Maybe a first mate might be even better.”

“...Wait, you’re serious?” Link asks, completely caught off guard. 

Linebeck nods, and though he tries his best to play it off, the meaning behind his proposed promotion is still completely clear to see. “”Now, I’m still not gonna pay you or anything, and you don’t even have to say yes, but I just figured you’d be better off coming along with me instead of sitting in some forest crying your eyes out. But hey, if that’s what you wanna do, who am I to stop you?”

“...Linebeck, I… I don’t know what to say,” Link shakes his head, still staring at the hand the captain is offering him. 

“You should say yes!” Ciela whispers excitedly from her spot on his shoulder. 

“Well… yeah, of course it’s a yes,” he finally accepts the captain’s hand, letting him pull him up to stand. “It’s just…”

“Hey, you don’t gotta explain it to me, kid,” Linebeck’s smile softens, turning a touch more sympathetic. “I know sticking around here isn’t exactly what you hoped for, but… at least you won’t have to be here alone, right?”

“...Yeah,” Link finally manages a smile himself. There’s still so much sadness weighing it down, but something else manages to slip into his still-aching heart despite it. Something that almost feels like hope.

“That’s the spirit,” Linebeck grins as he begins to make a beeline back to the port. “Now come on, kid. There’s an entire ocean for us to explore–all over again.”

Link’s more than ready to follow him and Ciela back to the boat, back onto the sea, back to another new adventure entirely. And yet, something stops him short. Namely, a certain strip of scarlet fabric and every single thing that strip means. 

From the moment he first stepped foot on the ghost ship, Tetra’s scarf has hardly ever left his neck. He’d worn it proudly every step of his journey, through dungeon crawls and fearsome fights. Each time it’d been damaged, he’d carefully repaired it; each time it was soiled, he washed it as gingerly as he could. Because despite how distant home may have seemed, he thought he was going to make it there eventually. And once he got there, the first thing he had planned on doing was making good on his promise by returning that scarf to who it truly belonged to. Just seeing that scarf tied back around Tetra’s neck again would make it all worth it, certainly. Just being by her side once more would set everything that had gone wrong right. 

At least… that’s what he’d thought. Until the promise of home, the promise of her had been ripped right out of his hands. 

An entirely new wave of grief washes him as he thumbs the well-worn fabric. He’d already felt iffy about wearing it when she first gave it to him, but now… wearing it feels downright shameful. His fingers tremble as he hurriedly unties it, letting it rest loosely in his open palm as the gentle sea breeze flows through its hanging ends. He doesn’t deserve to hold onto it, but he can’t bear to part with it, to merely discard it as if it isn’t one of the only pieces of home he still has left to hold onto. 

The last thing that will ever connect him to her. 

He wants to keep that connection for as long as he can, however painful it might be to maintain it. Maybe that’s why, as opposed to tying the scarf around his neck again, it finds a new home wrapped around his belt instead. It’s a way to keep Tetra close, but not too close. A way to hold onto his fondest memories of home without letting them suffocate him from the inside out. 

He has a feeling they will anyway, even as he takes a deep breath and sets off after Linebeck and Ciela. After all, memories, much like the ocean’s waves, have a way of carrying even the strongest of swimmers out with the tide. 

And as far as Link is concerned, he’s already been pulled out to sea and left to drown.

Chapter Text

One Year Later

“Ok, Miss, nice and slow now…”

Tetra draws in a deep breath, accepting Gonzo’s advice along with the arms he and Senza are offering her to lean on. She winces against the pain that shoots through her thigh the second she puts any sort of pressure on it, against the unfamiliarity of the wood and metal attached just beneath her knee. But the worst of that pain somehow exists in a limb that isn’t even there anymore, a limb that’s been lost for only two weeks now. 

But to Tetra, it already feels like a lifetime. 

She’d been careless, overconfident, downright oblivious, really. When her crew crossed blades with that gang of pirates from some distant ocean to claim the same treasure they were after, she’d thought little of it. Violent brawls with rival crews were all par for the course when it came to the life of a pirate, after all. From the day she could first pick up a cutlass, Tetra led her men into plenty of them, almost always emerging as the victor in the end. 

This brawl, however, was different. Life-changingly so. 

What stung even more was that they’d had the upper hand when it happened. They’d pushed the other pirates back onto their own ship, disarming the majority of them with ease. While her men kept their foes held up at sword-point, Tetra pursued their captain, a curmudgeonly old crook who was clearly past his prime. Tetra could only imagine just how embarrassed he must have felt when a fifteen year old girl half his size managed to pin him to the deck of his own ship. 

As per tradition, she’d demanded his surrender and his crew’s retreat. It should have come easily. They should have won. At the very least, she should have seen his ax coming. 

But she didn’t. Not until it slammed straight into her lower left leg, through flesh and muscle, cutting straight down to the bone. 

Her scream echoed across the ocean, sending her entire crew into a panic. Senza managed to catch her just before she could fall to the deck while Gonzo fended the older captain off before he could finish the job. All thoughts of treasure were quickly abandoned as they watched their beloved captain begin to bleed out. They ditched their foes, leaving them to the coveted spoils as they set sail for civilization as swiftly as the winds would take them. At that moment, no amount of riches in the entire world could have mattered to any of them as much as keeping their captain alive did. 

The trek to Windfall was a painfully long one. Not that Tetra was even conscious for most of it. Try as they might to keep her stable and comfortable, her crew was ill-equipped to help her. Even Mako, as well read as he was, could only do the bare minimum of wrapping the wound to keep it from bleeding any more. Still, that did nothing to stop the onset of an infection that quickly spread, sending their already suffering captain plunging into agonized illness. She languished in a state of half-dead delirium until they finally made it to Windfall, where her crew desperately called upon the first doctor they could find. But by the time they did, it became clear that it was already too late to save their young captain. 

Or at least, it was too late to save all of her. 

Tetra had been far too out of it at the time, so Gonzo had been the one to make the final call to go through with the amputation. The crew stayed close during the operation, though a few with weaker stomachs, like Niko and Nudge, eventually had to step out. After several long, anxious hours, the doctor proclaimed that Tetra was finally in the clear; the infection was passing and she’d make a full recovery. The worst was over, or so the crew thought. Because when Tetra finally fully regained consciousness a few days later and discovered nothing more than a bandaged stub where her left leg had been… all hell broke loose. 

She flew into a furious rage, accusing her crew of mutiny for agreeing to the operation, even if it had all but saved her life. Her anger kept the tears from coming, but they still did during the rare moments when her crew actually left her alone in her cabin, when the weight of it all fully began to sink in. She’d been maimed, crippled, weakened . How could she lead her crew like this? How could she find a new land to call Hyrule? 

How could she follow in her mother’s footsteps if she couldn’t even walk anymore? 

Despite her efforts to hide it, her crew sensed her despondency all too well. And, loyal as ever, they knew what they had to do to help their captain in her hour of need. It took a few days to source the materials and contract a craftsman, but when it was finally finished, they proudly presented the peg leg to Tetra. Rimmed with solid gold and carved from fine chestnut, with a solid foot to keep it from slipping, it was every bit as elegant as it was practical. Even Tetra had to admit she was impressed. 

The feeling quickly fades now that she’s actually trying the peg out for the first time. Gonzo had tried to advise her against it until her stub was fully healed, but Tetra couldn’t bear the thought of being bed-bound for another minute. So here she is, struggling to simply stand on the deck of her own ship, struggling just to feel like herself again. If this isn’t the definition of shameful then she doesn’t know what is. 

Another pained gasp slips out, despite her best efforts to silence it. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Gonzo frowning beside her. “Miss.” She already knows what he’s about to say and she’s not about to hear it. She’s already spent the past few weeks being far too weak in front of her men already; she refuses to let that weakness go on for another second. 

“I-I’m fine,” she hisses through her teeth. She forces herself to distribute her weight evenly between both legs, working against her wobbling peg to steady herself. She holds her arms out, pulling herself away from Gonzo and Senza so she can stand on her own. The rest of her crew watches on from the sidelines, a few of them smiling with excitement when their captain finally manages to fully stand. For just a brief moment, there’s hope aboard that ship. Hope that things might just finally go back to the way they used to be, that they can all pick up right where they left off. 

Tetra feels that hope rising in her own heart too as she moves to take her first true step in two weeks. But just as quickly as that hope appeared, it’s shattered when she puts her peg back down on the deck, sending a searing shot of pain through her still-bandaged stub. A sharp, startled yelp is all she’s able to get out before she starts to fall forward, only barely missing the deck when Gonzo steps in to catch her. 

“Dammit…” Tetra curses between heavy breaths as Gonzo hoists her up and carries her over to take a seat on a nearby barrel. She avoids making eye contact with any of her men, her stomach churning at the thought of catching any more of their sympathetic glances than she already has. She doesn’t want that sympathy, doesn’t need it. What she needs is to walk again, and until she can… what good is she to any of them? 

“We told you, Miss.” She rolls her eyes when Gonzo starts to lecture her again . “You didn’t have to try it out right away. You’re still healing up, yeah? The peg leg will still be here when you’re ready for it-”

“I am ready for it,” Tetra snaps back. “I have to be. If we’re attacked again-”

“Then you’ve got to trust us to take care of it, Miss,” Nudge says. “Just like you’ve got to trust us to take care of you .”

“I’m not a child anymore,” Tetra sneers. “I don’t need to be ‘taken care of’. I’m the captain, which means it's my job to look out for all of you, not the other way around.”

“And you do,” Gonzo agrees. “But everybody falls sometimes, yeah? Even your mom did back when she was in charge. And whenever she did, she always had us to fall back onto. And so do you, Miss Tetra.”

“Hmph, yeah, well, Mom never lost a leg, did she?” Tetra casts a bitter glare toward the sea.

“No, but her grandmother–your great grandmother–did,” Mako points out. “They say she fought just as well with a peg leg as any other pirate could.”

“And if she could do it,” Gonzo rests a hand on the captain’s shoulder. She turns back to him, and to the rest of her crew, each of them sending soft, encouraging smiles her way. Leave it to her men to be probably the most sentimental pack of pirates on the entire Great Sea. “Then so can you, yeah?”

“Heh,” she allows herself a laugh, the first really she’s had since the accident. “You know it.”

 She takes the hands Gonzo and Senza offer her and slowly but surely, they help her rise again. And this time, when she stands, she doesn’t even think about the pain that still comes along with it. Instead, she thinks only about her crew, about her family , and about what they need her to be. They may be there to catch her when she falls, but it's her job to make sure they won’t have to ever again. Whatever it takes to keep herself standing tall and proud in front of her crew, in front of the rest of the world, in front of her family’s legacy… she’ll gladly do it. 

She’s more than ready to keep going, but the idea is immediately forgotten when an entirely new voice sounds from the crow’s nest above. “Aw, how touching. Who knew pirates could be so sweet ?” 

As startled as the crew is, they all recognize that voice before he even slides down the ladder to show himself. Almost all of them tense up, and a few of them even reach for the weapons strapped to their belts. They never would have reacted this way to him three years ago, but now, they have every reason to. After all, the Link they used to know is nowhere close to the Link standing before them now. 

“What–when did you-” Tetra stops herself when she realizes her legs are shaking. She immediately grounds herself by gripping the edge barrel behind her. The last thing she wants is to appear unsteady in front of him of all people. “How did you get out here? We’re in the middle of the ocean!”

“I have my ways,” Link shrugs. His nearly-constant smug smirk sparks a flame of frustration in Tetra every time she sees it. That flame is practically an inferno now that he has the gall to show up on her ship unwelcome and unannounced. “Sorry to interrupt,” he says, not meaning it in the slightest. “But I heard about what happened and I wanted to come and see how you were doing, Tetra.”

“She’s doin’ just fine,” Gonzo growls, glaring at the boy. “Now scram , yeah?”

“Whoa, easy now,” Link raises his hands, still smiling, still not taking any of them seriously. “Can’t a guy just visit some old friends without getting the cold shoulder?” 

“We ain’t friends of yours, kid, not anymore,” Senza sneers. 

“Don’t think we haven’t heard about what you’ve been up to lately,” Tetra says, fixing him with a distrustful scowl. “First, you just up and left Outset one night without even telling your sister or your grandma where you were going. And now people are saying they’ve been seeing you running around with monsters ? Correct me if I’m wrong, Link, but didn’t you used to kill those things on sight like any normal person would?”

“Tch, c’mon, Tetra,” Link rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell me you actually believe those silly old rumors. I thought you were smarter than that.”

A round of appalled gasps sounds from the crew at such a brazen insult. A few of them get ready to fight the boy on sight, but Tetra raises a hand to call them off. Even in her current condition, she’s more than capable of standing up for herself. 

“With how you’ve been acting the past few years? It’s not exactly hard to believe,” she stands a bit taller, ignoring the protesting ache in her stump. 

Link lets out an icy, haughty laugh. “Like you’re any better, ‘captain’. You’ve all spent years sailing around conning people and stealing from them and you act like I’m the bad guy here?” 

“At least we’re actually consistent about who we are,” Tetra counters, taking a step forward. That step comes with a heavy sting, but she quickly puts it out of her mind when she catches the way Link is looking at her. As if she could be knocked over by a strong gust of wind, as if he wants her to be. And right now, that’s probably all it would take, not that she’d ever admit it. “You just… became a completely different person for no real reason at all.” She continues approaching him, hands in tight fists at her sides in a meager attempt to ward off the pain. The shocked stares her crew are sending her way aren’t lost on her; this is the most she’s walked in weeks . 

“People used to call you a hero,” her peg slams down onto the deck a bit harder than she’d meant it to, but she remains standing all the same. She stares him down with all of the venom she can muster, with all of the disdain she used to have for someone who lost every ounce of her respect. “So what are you supposed to be now?”

She wants the question to cut deep, but it doesn’t. Instead, Link’s smile deepens as he eyes her like a predator would eye their prey. For just the slightest second, Tetra almost thinks she sees a flash of sinister scarlet in those otherwise forest green eyes. But just as quickly as it appears, it’s gone, if it was ever even there at all. “Would you like to find out?” he asks her in a whisper soft enough to stir up a war.

She stiffens, her face suddenly burning with embarrassment and anger alike. How dare he, how dare he . In front of her crew no less! His sheer audacity sickens her, to the point that she’s ready to shove him off her ship if she has to. “ You -” is all she’s able to get out before she falls. Her peg slips, and suddenly, she’s sent careening forward-

Straight into Link’s arms. 

He’s still smiling as he catches her, because of course he is. His grip on her arms is tighter than it should be, to the point that she can’t immediately pull herself away from him like she wants to. What he has to say to her, however, fuels her with just enough fury to do exactly that.

“Wow, Tetra,” he beams down at her, leaning in a bit too close for comfort. His voice is still a whisper, and that red gleam is still shining in his eyes, like a fire burning straight through her soul. “I guess I was right. You really are falling for me after all.”

Before another beat can even pass, she rips herself out of his hold, stumbling backward until Gonzo steps in to grab her shoulders. “Fuck off,” she hisses the second she’s stable. If looks could kill, then the glare she’s sending Link’s way would have easily been enough to end him in an instant. 

“Watch the language there, ‘princess’,” Link teases, unphased by her rising fury.

“I said fuck off ,” she repeats, wishing now, more than ever, that she had her cutlass on her. “And get off my ship. Now .”

“What are you gonna do if I don’t?” Link crosses his arms, playfully, disgustingly smug. “You don’t look like you’re in any position to be making threats right now, Tetra, no offense.”

“How about this?” Gonzo steps forward, leaving Nudge to help Tetra take a seat. “You get off our ship or we’ll make you, yeah?”

By now, the rest of the crew have either taken up their weapons or are rolling up their sleeves, surrounding Link on all sides. He isn’t intimidated by any of them, clearly, and they’re not expecting him to be. If he really wanted to, he could probably take them all easily with just the sword strapped to his back alone. Much to their relief, however, that’s not what he does. 

“Alright, fine,” he concedes much easier than anyone could have anticipated. The others continue watching him warily as he approaches the starboard railing; where exactly he plans to go from there, they have no idea. “I’ll get out of your hair. But first…” he stops at the side of the ship, looking back to Tetra with an unreadable look in his eyes. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ugh, what ?” she asks, unsure of why she’s even humoring him at this point. She shouldn’t, after what he just said to her, after every other unsavory encounter they’ve had with him before this one. 

“I’ve been thinking about old Hyrule lately, buried all the way under the sea,” Link looks out toward the open ocean surrounding them. Something odd enters his tone, something notably different than the insincere, sarcastic edge he’s come to carry lately. “Do you think there might still be a way to get down there? And if there is… do you think there’s still anything down there to find?”

It’s a surprising question, one that unnerves Tetra more than it probably should. “How am I supposed to know?” she plays it off harshly, honestly. “Why are you even asking about that?”

He doesn’t give her any real answer, because why would he? Instead, he simply shrugs, turning back to her with that eternally aggravating smirk. “Just curious,” he says simply. Tetra doesn’t believe him for a second; she’s hardly believed anything she’s heard out of him for the past three years now. “Here’s hoping you have a smooth recovery, ‘captain’,” he catches the entire crew off guard when he steps up onto the railing. “See you all later.”

“Wait!” Tetra shouts, shoving herself to her feet. A few of her men run forward, alarmed, when Link unceremoniously steps off the edge of the ship. Niko and Zuko make it to the railing first, but they don’t find any signs of the boy bobbing in the ocean below. 

“Huh?” Niko balks, bewildered. “He’s… just gone?”

“How in the world did he do that?” Zuko mutters, peering through his spyglass at the sea. “He must have used some kind of magic or… something .”

“Who cares ?” Tetra settles back into her seat. She unlatches her peg to give her sore stump a much-needed break. “At least he isn’t bothering us anymore. Who knows? Maybe this time, he’ll actually take the hint and stay away…”

“You ok, Miss?” Senza asks her, probably because of the dissatisfaction written all over her face.

“How many times do I have to say it? I’m fine !” she huffs, annoyed. She quickly simmers down after a moment, running a hand through her bangs. “I just… ugh… I don’t understand.”

“To be fair,” Mako says. “I don’t think any of us do, Miss.” 

“I still can’t believe Link would even act like that!” Niko wails, still distraught over his former swabbie. “Are we sure that was really him at all?”

“Don’t be a barnacle-brain, Niko,” Nudge shoots back. “‘Course it was him. Who else would it be?”

Niko proceeds to rattle off a long list of theories and ideas he’s cooked up, none of which sound even remotely plausible. Tetra quickly tunes him out, especially as the rest of the crew joins in and it all eventually devolves into a petty argument. Her thoughts wander as she stares at the railing Link leapt off of, half-expecting him to reappear in the same exact spot. It wouldn’t exactly be the strangest thing to happen given how sudden and sporadic his appearances have been lately.

“Hm…” she muses softly. Though most of her crew is preoccupied, her second-in-command is still by her side as he notices his captain pondering. 

“Miss?” Gonzo asks, curious.

“It’s… weird,” Tetra lets out a sigh. She’s glad the others are distracted; Gonzo is the only one among them that she trusts with what she’s about to say. “Part of me still wants to figure out what happened to Link, maybe even help him if I can. But… every other part of me is screaming that maybe… maybe it’s not worth it to even try anymore.”

“I’d say it isn’t,” Gonzo quickly concludes. “‘Specially after how he just treated you. He better not show his face around here again if he knows what’s good for him. If he doesn’t… then we’ll make sure he gets what he deserves for disrespecting you, Miss.”

“I don’t care about that,” Tetra admits. It’s probably the easiest way to say that she doesn’t need them to protect her, from Link , of all people. Something she knows not a single one of her men will actually listen to if the past few weeks have been any indication. “What really worries me are all those rumors spreading about him. If he really is out there working with monsters …”

“Then that’s not your problem, yeah?” Gonzo picks up when she trails off. “It’s his.”

“It is my problem if he uses those monsters to hurt innocent people!” Tetra protests. “For all we know, the only reason he’s been acting like this is because of what happened to him on that ghost ship, the ghost ship he only went on because of me !”

“Aw, Miss, we’re already been over this,” Gonzo frowns, sympathetic. “What happened with that ghost ship-”

“Wasn’t my fault, I know ,” Tetra sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. For all the times her crew has told her that, it never gets any easier to actually believe. “But if something bad really does happen… and if Link really is the cause of it…”

She doesn’t need to finish for Gonzo to know exactly what she means. To know that she’d bear the guilt for the actions of the monster she’s convinced she created. “You know, Miss,” he manages a small, comforting smile. “You’ve got a big heart.”

“Ugh,” Tetra makes a face. “Don’t say that. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

“‘Course,” Gonzo readily agrees. “The toughest captain to ever sail the Great Sea.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Tetra crosses her arms with a grin and a wink. The pair shares a brief, much-needed laugh before Gonzo heads off to break up the rest of the squabbling crew. Tetra stays in her seat, gingerly rubbing her leg as she looks out to the sea. Her thoughts consume her once more, and after everything that’s happened today alone, she can’t say any of them are particularly pleasant. 

Link had asked her about Hyrule, a place they scarcely ever used to speak about back when they were still sailing together, and with good reason. It stirs up all sorts of unsavory memories, about a bloody battle they both barely escaped alive, about a kindly king they were forced to leave behind, about a wicked man who only wanted to destroy everything they’d ever known and loved. Even years later, the scars they’d been left with from that forgotten kingdom still felt so fresh, or at least they did to Tetra. So why would Link come to her asking about it now? Why dig up something buried beyond salvaging at the bottom of the sea? What could he possibly be looking for? And why did it all make Tetra feel so unshakably uneasy? 

Really, that’s how most of what Link did these days made Tetra feel. Rumors about him mingling with monsters aside, he’s scarcely seen around the Great Sea anymore, hardly ever visits his old haunts like Windfall or Dragon Roost or Forest Haven. Aryll and Grandma allegedly haven’t even seen him in months. As for where he is spending most of his time… no one really seemed to know and Tetra honestly couldn’t care enough to look into it. Just as long as he stayed far away from her.

That still feels like such an odd thought to have, one that never would have crossed her mind three years ago. Back then, Link’s smiles had been warm and sincere instead of cold and cunning, his laughter bright and cheerful instead of low and jeering. Back then, they’d tease each other for fun, not out of any sort of malice. Back then, for just a few brief, fleeting months… Tetra thought Link was her friend, her first true friend outside of her crew. A friend who could have comforted her when her leg was lost, who could have supported her through her recovery in a way even her crew couldn’t. A friend who might have actually stayed by her side, all the way to the next Hyrule… and perhaps, even beyond. 

Except… that’s not what happened. Not even close. Because here she is, still yearning for something to fill the empty spaces of her heart. There he is, abandoning everything she thought he used to stand for, everything she thought he used to be.

Here they both are, still standing oceans apart. 

Chapter Text

Two Years Later

“This is a pointless waste of time,” Linebeck scowls. He spits a mouthful of tobacco juice over the side of the S.S. Linebeck , into the ocean. Across the deck, Ciela cringes; how the captain recently developed such an affinity for such a foul habit, she has no idea. But she doesn’t intend to scold him about it, not unless he manages to inspire Link to pick it up too. “Always is, every time we do this.”

“If it’s important to Link, then it isn’t a waste,” Ciela flies a bit closer. Even from a distance, she can smell the tobacco on the captain’s breath. Still, she holds her tongue. At least about that. “Who knows? Maybe Astrid will actually have some new information for him this time!”

“Yeah, and maybe I’ll search my pockets and find a million rupees!” Linebeck snarks. He puts on a show of doing exactly that, pulling out his blatantly empty pockets to further prove his point. He rolls his eyes when he hears Ciela let out an aggravated growl. “Look, I’m just saying,” he leans against the side of the boat, crosses his arms. “I don’t know why the kid insists on putting himself through this every few months. He gets his hopes sky high just for that clueless fortune teller to feed him the same bunch of nothing over and over again. 

“You don’t know that!” Ciela argues. “It could be different this time! You never know.”

“I know one thing, Sparkles,” the captain pulls out a few more tobacco leaves from the stash in his coat. “If you have any faith in that fortune teller, or anything else we’ve tried for that matter, then you’re just as delusional as Link is.”

“He’s not delusional,” Ciela circles him angrily. “He just wants to go home, more than anything else in the world. And I thought you wanted to help him do that, Linebeck.”

“I do,” Linebeck’s tone turns from sardonic to sincere. Or at least as sincere as he allows himself to come across without his pride taking a hit. “But even you’ve gotta admit, this is starting to get a little ridiculous. After three years, I would have thought he’d start to think about throwing in the towel, but nope. Here we are, back on the Isle of Ember, still on a wild cucco chase that’s probably never gonna end-”

“Shh!” Ciela darts up into the air, her wings flickering in sudden alarm. “Link’s coming back! Don’t let him hear you say something like that!”

“What, you mean something he ought to hear?” Linebeck mutters. Still, he does as Ciela says, as much as it may annoy him. The loudmouthed fairy is usually right when it comes to Link, not that he’d ever dare admit it. 

“So?” Ciela meets Link at the bottom of the gangway. The look on his face alone is enough to answer the question she poses next and then some. But she still decides to pose it anyway, even despite the warning glare Linebeck sends her way. “How’d it go? Anything new to report?”

Link sighs, only shaking his head. He turns his back on the pair, heading over to the railing near the stern. At 17, he’s finally tall enough to fully lean against it as he stares out across the mid-afternoon sea. “She said the same thing she always does; she can’t see any way home for me anytime soon,” his voice carries only a hint of disappointment. After hearing it so many times before, it isn’t as hard-hitting as it used to be. What’s the point of getting upset about it anymore? “The only other thing she mentioned was that she saw some… ‘astrological event’ that’s supposed to happen tonight when she looked at her star charts, but… she told me she didn’t think it’s anything that could help.”

“...Star charts, huh?” Linebeck muses to himself. His eyes wander over to the cabin, where he happens to have one of those types of charts stored. He hasn’t had much of a reason to use it lately, but maybe… 

He shakes his head to clear out such an asinine thought. But it still sticks with him just the same, to the point that it all but forces him down below deck to get it. 

“Aw, Link…” Ciela comes to rest on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry…”

Link draws in a sharp breath. He throws a smile on his face, weak as it may be, and forces himself to stand up straight. “Hey, it’s ok,” his voice is tighter than it should be. “I’ve already been here, what, four years now? What’s a few more on top of that?”

Ciela recognizes what he’s doing, the act he’s putting on, immediately. She’s seen it more than enough times now to know. And she isn’t having any of it. “Link…” she warns gently, firmly. 

“Besides,” Link goes on anyway. “If I left, then I’d probably never see you or Linebeck again. By now, I’ve known you two longer than I knew most of my friends back home.”

“But what about your family?” She tries not to bring them up too often; out of everything else Link has been separated from, he clearly misses them the most. Well, them and Tetra, who’s become an even sorer subject than his sister and grandma somehow. 

“Well… yeah… there’s them…” Link looks down. He can’t keep track of how many nights he’s been kept awake, wondering if his grandmother is still around, wondering who’s taking care of Aryll if she isn’t, wondering what they must have thought when he didn’t return to them like he promised he would. All he really can do is wonder now; because at this rate… the chances of him ever getting home are starting to look less likely by the day. 

“I miss them… a lot,” he admits. His voice softens, his brow furrowing as his smile vanishes altogether. For a moment, only the sea fills in the sound of his solemn silence. He breaks it with a long, exhausted sigh. His eyes reflect that exhaustion, making him look far older than he actually is. “But… I don’t know… Maybe it’s time to be honest with himself,” He removes his cap, running a hand through his now-long hair. The ocean breeze tostles his blonde locks, and it feels so much like the breeze back home that it hurts. It hurts even more when he realizes he can only barely remember that breeze now. 

“What do you mean?” Ciela asks, worried. 

Link walks over to the table near the helm, briefly scanning the all-too familiar sea chart resting on it. It holds no answers for him; it never does. “We’ve tried everything, looked everywhere, and we still don’t have anything to show for it, even after all this time… So, maybe…” he swallows hard, holding back emerging tears. “Maybe I should just give u-”

“Aha!” Linebeck suddenly barges out of the cabin. Several charts are piled up in his arms, a few of them coated in a thin layer of dust. “Turns out that fortune teller isn’t as out there as I thought,” he spreads one of his scrolls, a star chart to be exact, over the map on the table. “Something really is going down tonight, and it’s gonna be big . I’m talking about a once in a lifetime kinda deal here.”

“Are you actually gonna tell us what this thing is or just keep going on about how ‘special’ it is?” Link asks, finally managing a smirk. 

“I was getting there, kid,” Linebeck huffs. “So, there are these things called Goddess Tears, right?” He unfurls a weathered sketch of a handful of small, shining, teardrop-shaped stones. “They say they rain down from the stars every few centuries; allegedly they’re supposed to be the tears of the big Three upstairs themselves, but that’s just a bunch of hooey if ya ask me. What really matters is that if you manage to catch one of these tears and make a wish on it, then that wish might just come true.”

“Wait… really?” Link asks, his eyes wide. The realization hits him like a storm; slowly at first, and then all at once. “Then… that means…”

Ciela gasps, quickly catching on. “If you could get your hands on one of those Goddess Tears-”

“Then this years-long search of ours will finally be over,” Linebeck grins, clapping a hand on Link’s shoulder. “No more spelunking through dungeons or following loose ends clear across the ocean. All you’ll have to do, Link, is just wish for a way home.”

“Just wish for it…” Link repeats almost breathlessly. To think that it could be that simple, that easy , and most of all, that soon . That only the span of a few hours could be keeping him from home now, that what he’s spent so long searching for could at long last be in sight. It all sounds far too good to be true; maybe that’s why, instead of just letting himself take the captain’s word for it, he still finds room to doubt all the same. “Do you really think it’s true though? Do you really think this could work?”

Linebeck shrugs. “I dunno, maybe.” He sees no point in lying to the boy; he hasn’t in quite some time, so why start now? “I’m usually the first to be skeptical about this kind of magical mumbo-jumbo, but who knows? This could actually be something.”

“You’re being strangely optimistic all of the sudden…” Ciela notes, skeptical. 

“What can I say?” the captain grins as he moves to his usual spot at the helm. “I’ve got a good feeling about these Goddess Tears. Call it sailor’s intuition. Plus, if they actually can grant wishes imagine the possibilities! I can wish for mountains upon mountains of treasure! I’ll be set for life!”

“Ah,” Link exchanges a smirk with Ciela. “Should’ve known this had to do with treasure.”

“Now, let’s shove off!” Linebeck calls as the S.S. Linebeck’s engine roars to life. “We’ve gotta get to a good spot to make sure we catch some of those Tears. Get ready, kid: all our dreams are comin’ true tonight !”

Tonight… So close and so sudden that Link hardly feels ready for it. He always thought he’d have more time to prepare, more time to come to terms with the mere idea of going home before he actually did. Above all else, he thought he’d have time to say goodbye to all of the friends he’s made here. 

But with so little time left to spare, at least he’ll have a chance to thank the pair that’s stuck by his side since the beginning. From the battle with Bellum to three long years spent fruitlessly searching the endless sea, Linebeck and Ciela have been just about the only constant in his life lately. They’ve kept him going, helped him smile when little else could, inspired hope in him that would have otherwise been lost a long time ago. They supported him, guided him, all but gave him a new family in the place of the one he used to have. 

But now… now he’s just supposed to leave them, without a second thought, never to see either of them again. Just like how he left so many others behind upon a different sea entirely. The only difference is that this time, it will be entirely his choice. 

And somehow, that makes something that should feel so wonderful… feel so wrong .

They head to the southwestern seas, where Linebeck determines they’ll have the best chances of crossing paths with the Goddess Tear shower. The sun finishes setting just as they drop anchor, and the moon and stars are swiftly arriving to take its place. As their glow begins to illuminate the open ocean, Link spares a glance over the side of the S.S. Linebeck into the waters below. His reflection peers back at him, barely resembling the boy he’d been when he arrived here four long years ago. 

Back on Outset, twelve is the age when most boys take their first step toward manhood, donning the green garb of the ancient Hero of Time. Sixteen, however, is when the final step is taken, when boys are seen as fully-grown adults. Link was painfully aware when he passed that milestone well over a year ago, even more so when he went from sixteen to seventeen. 

In almost no time at all, he’d gone from child, to teen, to adult in some strange, distant world, far away from where he knew he belonged. As a result, it’s as if his life has been put on hold for the past four years, his body growing, but little else alongside it. He’s let his hair grow long past his shoulders, but he still wears the same sort of green cap his grandmother had given him, even though that cap is now a darker shade. His skin’s a touch more tan from spending so much time under the sun, but he still bears the same scar Bellum tore across his left eye. He doesn’t carry a sword anymore, hasn’t even lifted a blade since the day he defeated the demon; but his hand still yearns for one almost every minute of every day. 

While so much has changed for him, so many other things have stayed the same. And, as he gently thumbs the worn swath of red fabric still hanging from his belt, Link can’t help but wonder if the same rings true for the sea he left behind. And for a certain someone he’s hoping is still sailing upon it. 

“You ok, Link?” Ciela stirs him out of his thoughts. She lands on the railing next to him, actively ignoring Linebeck as rambles to himself about treasure from his spot near the map table. 

“Yeah,” Link offers her a small smile. “Just waiting.”

“You know, I was looking more into these Goddess Tears on the way here,” Ciela’s wings perk up with excitement as she divulges her discoveries. “Legend has it they really are the tears of the Golden Three, but no one knows why they’re crying or why their tears rain upon our world. Still, to think that something from the Goddesses themselves could be here, with us… It’s almost unbelievable!”

“Heh, not that unbelievable,” Link mutters, mostly to himself. After traversing the Great Sea for more than a few of the Goddesses’ mystical relics in the past, the mere idea of them is almost mundane now. Still, he can’t deny his hope in the potential power of these Tears; because if even they can’t get him home… then he’s not sure if anything else can. 

“Alright, this is it!” Linebeck proclaims as he heads over to the pair. “Those Tears should start falling any minute now. Get ready to get wishing!”

“Linebeck…” Ciela takes on a tone that the captain is all too familiar with. One that almost always precedes some sort of scolding or nagging. “You do realize what’ll happen if these Tears actually work, right?” 

“‘Course, I do, Sparkles,” Linebeck grins. “I’ll have all the treasure I could ever dream of!”

“ And ,” the fairy presses sharply. “Link will finally get to go home. Which means…”

“He’ll stop complaining about how much he ‘misses’ everyone there?” the captain guesses.

Link crosses his arms, offering Linebeck the driest look he can muster. Ciela bounces with annoyance. “It means you probably won’t get to see him again, you selfish lump of seaweed! Don’t you think you ought to show at least a little appreciation for your first mate before he’s gone for good?!”

“Ciela, it’s ok,” Link steps between the pair before another one of their infamous arguments can ensue. “Really, Linebeck doesn’t have to-”

“Nah, kid,” Linebeck sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s right.” Strangely, he turns his back to the pair without another word. His silence goes on for a lengthy beat or two before Link finally speaks up to it. 

“Uh… well?”

“Gah, just give me a minute, will ya, kid?” the captain spins around, flustered. “You know I’m not good at any of this… mushy, feely kinda nonsense. Why don’t you and Sparkles have a good cry over your goodbyes first? I, uh… gotta head down below deck to check on the engines anyway.”

“Ok, then…” Link frowns as he watches Linebeck leave. Before he can even ask Ciela on her take for what just happened, however, she’s already upon him. She flies in close, hugging his cheek with her tiny arms as she lets out the tears she’s been holding back practically all day. 

“Oh, Link!” she wails mournfully. “I’m gonna miss you so much!”

“Aw, I’m gonna miss you too,” Link smiles sadly, offering his hands up as a perch for her to sit on. “I owe a lot to you, Ciela. If you hadn’t found me after I escaped the temple, I wouldn’t be here today. And the way you’ve stuck with me, even when you didn’t have to, for everything after that?” He sighs as another swell of guilt sweeps through his chest. “…What am I supposed to do without you?”

“You’ll do just fine, I know it,” Ciela assures as she wipes her tears dry. “And you won’t be alone! You’ll have your sister, your grandma, your friends… not to mention, Tetra .” The fairy giggles. From the very first time Link told her about the young captain, it hadn’t been hard for her to figure out the way he felt about her. Feelings that, even after so much time away from her, clearly haven’t faded if the rush of red sparking across his cheeks is any indication. 

“Yeah, well… hopefully, they’ll…” He trails off, knowing he’s hoping for so much more than he can even say. He’s hoping that he’ll be able to find them, that they’re all still around. He’s hoping they’ll welcome him back with open arms, that he can pick up the life he was torn away from almost half a decade ago. And most of all, he hopes it’ll all be worth leaving the life he’s made here behind. 

“Link?” Ciela asks. She watches as he turns to face the sea. There’s still no signs in the sky above of any incoming Goddess Tears; when they’ll actually arrive– if they do at all–none of them know. 

“I was, uh… doing some thinking, on the way over here,” he rubs the back of his neck. “And don’t get me wrong, I really do want to go home; that’s all I’ve wanted for such a long time now. But… now that I might actually be going… I… I’m not so sure I should …”

“ What ?!” Linebeck suddenly shouts. He storms up onto the deck, his face awash in disbelief over what he just happened to overhear. “We’re this close to finally getting you home, something we’ve been trying to do for years , and all of the sudden, you’ve got cold feet about it?! Are you nuts?”

“No, Linebeck, that’s not-”

“I did not put everything on hold for this long just to get you back to where you belong just for you to decide you don’t want to go,” the captain scowls. He’s still a bit taller than Link, but not by much anymore. Still, he’s tall enough to exert his authority over his first mate when he needs to, not that he ever really does. “Un-fucking-believable. Should’ve seen this shit coming from a mile away.”

“Linebeck-” Link tries again, but the captain is far too steamed to cool down now. 

“Think about all the time I’ve wasted, all the treasure I could have been searching for instead!” he laments. “But noooo, instead I fell for the sob story of some poor little homesick brat and let him charter my ship for four years for free ! I must have ‘sucker’ written all over me to think that this was anything more than a-”

“ Linebeck !” Ciela shrieks at the top of her tiny lungs. She finally catches the captain’s attention, allowing Link to speak at last. 

“I’m still going,” he makes that clear right off the bat. The last thing he needs right now is for Linebeck to fly off the handle any more than he already has.

“Tch, yeah, you’d better be,” Linebeck mutters sourly.

“It’s just… it’s gonna be a little harder than I thought, I guess,” Link admits with a small, anxious laugh. 

“Don’t see what’s so hard about it,” the captain cocks an eyebrow. “Just catch a Goddess Tear, make your wish on it, and presto, you’re home.”

“No, I mean…” his shoulders drop as he leans against the side of the boat, staring up at the starry sky. “It’s gonna be hard to leave Ciela… and you.”

Linebeck doesn’t say anything, but in an instant, all traces of frustration have fizzled out of his face. He slowly makes his way over to join Link, crossing his arms as he takes a look up at the sky himself. “Well,” he makes a point of looking away from the boy beside him. “I can’t speak for Sparkles, but you’re probably better off without me hanging around you. Don’t want me to keep ‘corrupting you’ by being a ‘bad influence’, right?”

“Oh, shut up,” Ciela groans. He’s quoting her on purpose, mimicking the warnings she’s issued to him more times than he can count. Suddenly, none of those warnings seem to matter much anymore. Not now, when they’re about to lose the boy they were meant to protect. 

“You aren’t a bad influence,” Link says. He wishes Linebeck would actually turn around; he’s always hated it whenever the captain forces him to talk to his back instead of his face. “But you are a pretty good captain, even if you do yell a lot and you complain when I so much as try to sleep in and you force me to clean the head more than anyone should ever need to and-”

“Aright, already, I get it,” Linebeck finally looks at him, a smirk spread on his face. “You know, I gotta admit, I’ll miss having someone around to do all of the stuff I don’t feel like doing. Guess I’ll have to dredge up a new first mate somewhere once you’re gone,” his smile widens as he ruffles the boy’s hair up a bit. A rare, but fond gesture that the captain only issues when he’s at his most sincere. “Doubt I’ll find anyone as willing to put up with my bullshit as you, though.”

“You’re right,” Link laughs as he readjusts his cap. “You probably won’t.”

A comfortable sort of silence settles as the pair turns their attention out toward the sea. The Goddess Tears should start falling any minute now and they don’t want to miss a single second of such a special shower, one that so many hopes and dreams are riding on. After a while though, Link decides to speak up once more. There’s something he’s wanted to tell the captain for quite a while now, something that, he realizes, he may only have mere moments left to say. 

“Hey, Linebeck?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“You, uh, may think that what I’m about to say is kind of dumb or corny.” Now it’s Link’s turn to look away as a small, feeble smile fills his face. “But… I just want you to know how… grateful I am for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Oh geez,” the captain sighs. He rolls his eyes, but a soft grin still rests on his face despite it. “Here we go…”

“I mean it,” Link insists. “You’ve helped me so much, in so many different ways, I-I can’t even begin to think of a way to thank you for all of it.”

“Hmph, just getting you outta my hair will be thanks enough, trust me,” Linebeck’s voice lacks the usual spark it carries. His smile slowly fades as he stares down at the water below. It vanishes altogether when he hears what Link starts to tell him next. 

“You know…” he rubs his arms. It’s a warm evening, but what’s weighing on his heart still makes him feel a bit cold all the same. “I don’t remember much about my dad. He and my mom died in a shipwreck not long after my sister was born. I thought I was used to not having him around, until I met the King…” He swallows hard. Talking about the King has never been easy, but it feels even harder now that so many years have gone by since. “He was about the closest thing I had to a dad for a long time, until… I lost him too. I must not be very good at keeping fathers around,” he chokes on the word father. His eyes burn with tears that are only starting to fall as he turns to Linebeck, his voice tight, soft, and sad. “‘Cause I’m about to lose another one…”

Linebeck freezes stiff when he hears that. He stares at Link, eyes wide in silent shock. The draws in an expectant, unsteady breath, and even though he’s fully grown, he’s never looked younger and more fragile than he does right now. It makes one particular, pestering thought that’s been nagging the captain for a while now weigh even heavier on him than it ever has before. A thought that’s all too quickly starting to turn into a decision, as downright stupid as that decision may be

“Dammit,” he curses, under his breath first, but it grows louder and louder each time he repeats it. “Dammit, dammit, dammit !” He turns on his heel and stomps off toward the helm, leaving a confused and crestfallen Link in his wake. 

“L-Linebeck?” He only takes a small step after him. He rushes to dry his tears, shame rising up in him to the point that he feels nearly sick with it. Goddesses above, why did he ever think this was a good idea? Why didn’t he just keep it all to himself? Why did he ever get it in his head that the captain who all but raised him through his teens ever saw him anything more than the underling he’d always been? “I’m sorry! I just… I didn’t think–I wasn’t trying to-”

Without warning, a stark flash lights up the sky as bright as day. Even as that flash fades, the sky remains radiant, and it's easy to see why. Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny lights, small enough to look like shooting stars, rain down from the heavens and into the sea, painting them in vibrant shades of red, blue, and green. It’s an utterly dazzling spectacle, and for a moment, the most Link, Linebeck, and Ciela can do is stand and watch it in awe. Until they realize exactly what’s going on here. 

“The Goddess Tears!” Ciela gasps, narrowly dodging one of them. “They’re real!”

“They’re… beautiful…” Link reaches down to pick up one of the red Tears resting on the deck. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d simply think it was a tear-shaped ruby. But the otherworldly glow surrounding it tells him otherwise; the Tear hums with untold power, the sort of power he’s felt only once before, years ago when the Triforce of Courage rested in his hand. Now that he’s able to see the Goddess Tears up close, he has no doubts that they come from the exact same sacred source. 

From the fabled Golden Three themselves. 

With that realization quickly comes another. He’s seen the wish-granting power of the Triforce in action; if these Tears are anything like it was, then there's no question to be had anymore. They can get him home, all he has to do is-

“Make your wish, Link!” Ciela encourages. She floats away from him, knowing well that this will be one journey she can’t follow him on. As a serving spirit to the Ocean King, she’s tied to this world, she always will be. To tear her away from it would ultimately bring about the end of them both. Still, that doesn’t make the fact that she has to stay and watch him go any less painful than she knew it always would be.

“I-I-” Link starts. He gasps, however, when he steals another glance down at the Tear in his hand. Within only seconds of landing, its color has faded, its light and power dulling and dying out. The other unclaimed Tears meet the same fate, ultimately disappearing altogether in a matter of mere minutes. Turns out, the Tears are on a time limit, and with no telling when the shower will end, that means they are too. 

Linebeck realizes this almost as quickly as Link and Ciela do. He rushes back from the helm, catching as many Goddess Tears as he can along the way. At first, Link suspects the captain is doing this for himself. After all, more Tears means more wishes Linebeck can make for more treasure. But then, he suddenly shoves his entire Tear collection into Link’s hands instead. 

“Do it,” he says, his voice every bit as grave and urgent as his expression is. “Go home.”

Link draws in a heavy breath. There’s still so much he wants to say before can go, but now, it's clear he doesn’t have time for any of it. Still, that doesn’t mean he isn’t about to try. “Linebeck, wait. I-”

“No,” Linebeck cuts him off. He grabs a few more fallen Tears off the deck to replace the ones that are already dying out in Link’s hands. “No more waiting. If you’re making that wish, you’ve gotta do it now .”

Link shakes his head. His mind is screaming at him to do as the captain says, to make his wish before it's too late. But his heart… his heart is urging him to make things right. To make sure his final few seconds with his captain aren’t ones he’ll forever regret. “Please, just listen. I sorry about what I-”

“Forget it!” Linebeck snaps, aggravated. “There’s no time! Just get out of here already. That’s what you’ve wanted all along, right?”

Link flinches, as if the captain had struck him with his first instead of with words. Linebeck notices his reaction, sees the sudden grief filling his face. But he says nothing to it. Instead, he presses another Goddess Tear into Link’s hand, seeing no need to tell him again what he needs to do with it. And with the shower of Tears starting to slow down around them, he needs to do it now… or never. 

“...Ok,” he sighs softly. He grips the aquamarine Tear tightly, staring down at it in equal hope and worry. His one-way ticket home, the thing he’s been searching for for such a long time, what he’s spent years dreaming of, now mere moments, seconds away. 

And yet… 

“Goodbye, Link…” he hears Ciela whisper softly, solemnly. Her voice is thick with tears, and Link can feel some of his own building behind his eyes. 

“Bye, Ciela…” he returns just as gently. He swallows hard when he turns to the captain. Once again, Linebeck has his back turned to him. He doesn’t have to think too hard about why. “B-bye, Linebeck.”

To his surprise, the captain glances over his shoulder at him. He looks sad at first, but then, he smiles, flashing a Tear he’s managed to catch for himself. Looks like he’ll be getting two things tonight: he’ll gain all the treasure he could ever want… and lose the burden of the boy he’s been saddled with for far too long. 

Link returns his smile, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. His own tears fall freely down his face as he steals another glance at the sacred one in his hand. Its blue glow is starting to dim, but there’s still power brimming from it. Power that he’s begging, praying to the goddesses who sent these Tears to them in the first place, will actually work. 

So, he closes his eyes, holds the Tear close to his heart, and forces himself to let go of one home so he can return to another. 

“I wish…”

Chapter Text

“I wish I was home.”

He doesn’t feel it happen, or at least, he doesn’t think he does. He’s not so sure what it’s even supposed to feel like. But what he does feel is Goddess Tear disappearing from his hand. What he feels is the soft bed of sand he’s suddenly lying on. What he hears is the gentle din of waves meeting the shore. What he smells is the smooth, salty sea air. What he sees when he opens his eyes is the starry night sky hanging high above his head, without a single Goddess Tear in sight. 

It’s enough to spark a tiny burst of hope within his heart. That hope only grows when he slowly sits up to stare at the sea before him. Upon a first glance, it looks almost identical to the ocean he’s spent the past four years upon. But what lies on the shore just behind him is more than enough to set it apart. 

Link gasps, swiveling around in the sand to face it properly. He’s shocked by how it still looks almost exactly how he left it. The same humble houses all sitting right where he remembers them to be, the same watch tower rising above the same short dock, the same pair of cliffs standing tall above it all. And, just a few short feet to his left… the same cozy little cottage he grew up in, its windows aglow in with the same comforting light he’s always known. 

Sure enough, the Goddesses have heard his wish and answered it. He’s back on the Great Sea, back on Outset. 

He’s home . 

At first, he can’t help but wonder if he’s dreaming. It wouldn’t be too shocking if he was; he’s dreamt of this exact moment more times than he can possibly count by this point. He pinches himself for good measure, and when that doesn’t work, he takes another glance around. He’s not surprised that no one’s out and about for how late it seems to be, but the fact that he’s alone jars him for another reason entirely. Because only moments ago, he was standing alongside Linebeck and Ciela and now… now he’s all but ensured he’ll never see either of them again. 

He bites back the sting such a bitter thought brings him. He can’t focus on that now, not when he’s finally here. He slowly rises to stand, his gaze focused on his home. His home ; the thought alone fills him with a kind of happiness he hasn’t felt in ages. He can practically feel the fire blazing in the hearth, can practically smell the soup boiling on the pot above it, can practically see Grandma’s wrinkled grin and hear Aryll’s playful laughter. It’s all so close, only a few steps away now, to the point that Link can’t bear even that short distance anymore. 

He breaks into a jog first, then a run, tears starting to brim in his eyes as a smile spreads wide across his face. He reaches the porch in seconds, slowing his pace as he walks up the familiar steps to the door. A nostalgic sigh slips out as he traces a hand over the paint decorating the doorpost, worn and weathered with time, but still exactly how he remembers it. 

For a moment, as he stands outside of his house, simply taking it all in, it truly feels like nothing’s changed at all. Like he’s just a kid again, returning from a short voyage at sea instead of a lengthy exile in another world. Like he really can pick up exactly where he left off, just like he’s always dreamed. 

But then… he knocks on the door. And within minutes, that dream falls apart. 

Link nearly forgets to breathe while he waits for someone to answer. When he hears approaching footsteps from the other side of the door, he stands a bit straighter, smoothing his hair and straightening his cap. He’s not sure why he’s so anxious; this is his family he’s about to see, and even after five years away, he’s sure they’ll welcome him back with open arms. Someone like Tetra may not be as easy of a sell, but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it. For now, his family comes first.

After what feels like forever, the door finally swings open. And, standing right there, right there in front of him , is his little sister. And this time, she’s not just a dream, not just an illusion, not just a memory. 

This time, she’s real . 

She looks so grown up now, that’s his first thought. Aryll had only been 8 when he left home; now, she’s 13 and it shows. She’s grown her hair out, wearing it in a long braid tied down her back. She’s taller too, about the same height he’d been when he was her age. But if there’s anything about her that hasn’t changed, it's her eyes, still big and bright green as she stares up at him, her face awash in alarm. Link can’t really blame her for being shocked at the mere sight of him; he would be too, if he were in her shoes. 

“A-Aryll…” His voice is somewhere between a laugh and a sob. He falls to his knees, throwing his arms around her without a second thought. The fact that he’s able to hug her without her disappearing into thin air is proof enough that this is actually happening. As incredible and impossible as it may seem. 

Strangely, she doesn’t hug him back. If anything, she stiffens when he so much as touches her, draws in a sharp breath. And then, in a move that Link can hardly begin to make sense of, she shoves him away. 

“Link,” she speaks quietly, cautiously. She steals a worried glance at the house behind her before fixing him with an almost suspicious look. “What are you doing here?”

The question, as well as the way it's asked, catches Link off guard. He slowly stands, absently wiping his tears dry. “I-I’m back,” he sighs happily, relishing the thought, the fact . “I’m home .”

Aryll lets out a scoff, of all things. By now, her shock is quickly shifting into something else. Something that Link can’t say he’s ever really seen from his cheerful little sister before. “Yeah, I can see that,” she crosses her arms as her face settles into a scowl. “But why ?”

“Uh, don’t you mean how ?” he laughs again. This time, it’s far less joyful and far more anxious. 

“No, I mean why ,” Aryll asserts. “You know you’re not supposed to be here, not after what happened last time …”

“Last time?” Link raises an eyebrow. “But… I’ve been gone for-”

“For nowhere near long enough,” Aryll interrupts. Her words cut him deep, and it’s clear that’s what she wants when she proceeds to double down on them. “I just don’t get it. You’ve made it more than clear you don’t want to be here with us. So why do you keep coming back?”

“I’ve… what?” Link asks, taken aback. His long absence aside, he would have never done anything like that, at least not intentionally. “I don’t understand. What are you even talking about?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” she narrows her eyes at him. The fact that she hasn’t even managed the smallest of smiles since he arrived isn’t lost on Link. If anything, it only makes the already sizable pit settling in his stomach grow. “The way you just… left without saying anything? How things always get worse whenever you come back around? And then you think you can just show up tonight and pretend like nothing’s happened? When is enough ever enough for you, Link?” 

“Whenever I come back around?” Link echoes, more confused than ever before. “Aryll, you’re not making any sense.”

“Oh, I’m not making sense?” she laughs dryly, bitterly. “ You’re the one who hasn’t made any sense ever since you decided to just leave your own family behind for no real reason at all!”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Link argues. An edge of desperation slips into his voice, one that he doesn’t bother trying to hide as he all but begs his sister for some level of forgiveness. The only problem is, he’s not so sure that forgiveness is something he’s going to get. “Look, I know I’ve been gone a long time, way longer than I ever wanted to be.” He sighs in a feeble attempt at calming his clashing emotions down. It doesn’t really work. “But… I need you to know that all this time I’ve been away, the only thing I’ve wanted, the only thing I’ve been able to think about is finding a way back here to you and-”

“Aryll?” A frail, yet familiar voice calls from inside of the house. “Is someone at the door?” 

Link gasps. At the sound of her voice alone, his smile is back, his heart swelling with a renewed sense of hope. He tries peering past his sister for even just a glimpse of her. Because even if Aryll doesn’t believe him, then certainly, the woman who all but raised him will . “Gran-”

“No, Grandma!” Aryll quickly cuts him off. “No one’s here. I’m just… taking care of something outside real quick.”

Before Link can even get another word out, Aryll closes the door behind her, all but barring him from their grandmother. And he can’t even begin to fathom why . “Aryll,” he shifts his tone to match the severity of his sister’s. He’s never had to get this harsh with her, but at the same time, she’s never been this harsh with him either. “Let me inside so I can see Grandma, please-”

“No!” Aryll snaps, her hands in tight fists at her sides. “You’ve put Grandma through so much stress and grief these past few years. She’s getting to the point where she just can’t take it anymore.”

Confusion ebbs into guilt when Link hears this. He anticipated that his family would have taken his disappearance hard, especially Grandma. But he could have never guessed that she’d be suffering to the extent that Aryll is implying. He could have never thought that his absence would bring his kind and caring grandmother even closer to death’s door. “I… I had no idea,” he shakes his head. “I’m so sorry. But… maybe if I could just go in and show her I’m ok, then she-”

His attempt at stepping past his sister is swiftly blocked. Aryll holds her arms out wide, determined on keeping him from so much as entering his own house altogether. “I’m not falling for that trick, not again,” she says. Link has no idea what ‘trick’ she could be referring to; as far back as he can remember, he’s never played any trick or prank on his little sister, even when they were both very little. The thought of it going awry and upsetting her had always been too much for him to bear to even try. “Someone has to protect Grandma and since you don’t care about either of us enough anymore to even bother, that someone is me . And trust me, Link, I will do whatever I have to to keep her safe, even from– especially from you .”

Her resolve, as stern and straightforward as it is, stuns Link into silence. The sharp tone of her voice, the distrustful look on her face… it all rings far too familiar for comfort. It's as if the cruel, cunning illusion Bellum had crafted of her all those years ago has come to life and replaced the kind and gentle sister he thought he knew so well. Because just like that illusion, here Aryll stands, coldly accusing him of not caring about–not loving his family. And even after spending so much time apart from them, Link knows that couldn’t be any further from the truth. 

“Aryll…” he shakes his head. His voice softens, but even the sheer, almost heartbroken sincerity of his pleas don’t seem to phase his angry sister. It seems as though nothing will at this point. “Please, you have to believe me. Whatever you think’s been going on, I’ve had nothing to do with it, I swear. I’d never do anything to hurt you or Grandma. You know that.”

For the first time, the anger in Aryll’s face melts away into what’s buried just beneath it: deep, longstanding pain . “...I used to think I did know that…” she says softly, sadly. She turns away from him, opening the door only for herself. Tears are in her eyes when she looks back at him one final time, tears that her brother is quickly starting to share. Especially when he hears the last thing she has to say. “Until you actually did .”

And with that, she closes the door. 

Silence falls over Link like a shroud. He stands stiff, his eyes burning, his chest aching, his world splintering. Without thinking, he raises his hand to the door again, all but ready to knock until someone answers and hears him out. But just before he can… he stops himself, brings his hand back down to his side, and falls apart. 

He collapses against one of the porch beams, suddenly struggling to breathe. He doesn’t cry but he treads dangerously close to tears just the same. Even without those tears, he still feels like a frayed rope ready to snap clean in half, like an abandoned ship left alone on the sea. After everything he’s been through, everything he’s ever been up against, he thought he'd be more than familiar with pain by now. But this? This is pain of an entirely different kind. 

His own sister, his own sister stood there and shut him out. Without a even a trace of doubt, she accused him of walking out on her and Grandma, on causing them untold sorrow in his wake. And where was he while they were stuck at home, suffering without him? Off sailing an entirely different sea with the new “family” he’d found to replace them. With that in mind, he understands at least on some level why Aryll is so upset. If their roles were reversed and she’d vanished without a word or a trace for five straight years like he had… he’s not so sure he’d be so willing to quickly forgive her either. 

Except… that’s not the full picture here. Aryll had said he’d returned and recently and repeatedly at that. But how? Outside of his dreams and deepest longings, he hasn’t stepped foot on this island, in this world in half a decade before tonight. So then, why did Aryll seem so convinced that he has ?

Whatever answers she may have for those questions, it's clear she won’t give him them willingly. He doubts she’d even bother opening the door at all if he knocked again and she’d probably find a way to keep Grandma from answering too. The thought of his grandmother sends another wave of grief washing over him as he slowly stumbles down the steps. He hadn’t even gotten to speak to her, to see her, to simply just know how she’s doing after all this time. Instead, Aryll had coldly pushed him away, from Grandma, from her, from their home, from everything . 

And the worst part of it all? He has no idea why . 

His despair quickly gives way to desperation, to the need to figure out what’s happened here, why everything’s suddenly gone so wrong. He decides to branch out from his family, to try and ask around the rest of the tiny village to see if any of his neighbors can fill in the gaps for him. Outset isn’t home to many, so he knows each of its residents, or at least he thought he did. 

Because when he knocks on their doors, he’s met with a reception almost identical to Aryll’s. Old man Orca screams at him, demanding that he leave him and his brother Sturgeon alone just shy of slamming the door in his face. Sue-Belle, now married to Mesa, it seems, meekly peeks out from her house, anxiously begging him to go away, almost as if she’s afraid of him. Abe and Rose don’t even open their door to him at all as their two young sons watch him warily from a window. Clearly, whatever bitter suspicion Aryll had toward him has spread across Outset; but as far as Link is concerned, that suspicion has no clear source in the slightest. 

He feels hollow as he finds himself wandering back toward the beach. His steps are slow, leaving footprints in the sand that are quickly covered by the rising surf. As if they’re wiping away any trace that he was ever here, except… apparently, he had been, according to his sister. Even though Link knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, just how impossible that really is. 

He has to figure this out, to solve this mystery in the hopes of somehow setting it right. If for nothing else than to be invited back into his family’s home like he hoped and thought he would be. His quick trip around the village had made it painfully clear that no one is willing to help him do that. Which means, he’ll just have to do it himself, somewhere away from Outset. 

The thought of leaving home, so soon after finally returning, isn’t exactly a pleasant one. But it’s not like he has too many other choices to fall back on. The tiny island holds more secrets than ever, it seems, but it refuses to yield any of them to him. That’s fine, he thinks as he prepares one of the village’s several communal fishing canoes. He’s always been better at salvaging secrets from the sea anyway. 

The canoe is meant to be rowed, to stay close to Outset’s shores. Fortunately, Link has fashioned makeshift sails for the S.S. Linebeck plenty of times in the past. All it really takes is a large cloth, a sturdy base to hang it from, and a few ropes to tie it all together, which he manages to make easily enough with whatever he can find lying around. None of his former neighbors step out of their houses to stop him; he supposes that’s just about the only good thing to come from their bizarre aversion to him. It allows him to shove the tiny boat into the water without any sort of opposition. He rows a bit away from the shore and as soon as he’s out in the open water, he lets his sail unfurl. 

Yet even as the wind begins pushing his tiny boat out to sea, Link still keeps his sights set on Outset. No one stands on the shore to see him off this time, no one watches with waves and well wishes as he sails off on his own. The quiet, empty beach of his beloved home is a sobering sight as it starts to grow smaller and smaller behind him. His heart is as heavy as an anchor when he finally forces his gaze off of it. 

He doesn’t know when or how so many of his bridges were burnt. But they have been. And for now, all that remains to tie him to his island, his home, his family… are the ashes of what he has no choice but to leave behind all over again. 

Still…

He’ll fix this, he tells himself, refusing to believe otherwise. He’ll fix this, find a way to clear his name and earn back the love of the family he’s somehow lost. Even if he has to search the entire Great Sea, he won’t stop until he’s able to return to Outset. He won’t stop until Aryll and Grandma welcome him back with all the warmth he’s wanted for far too long to even say. And, just like he did back in the World of the Ocean King, Link won’t stop until he can finally, truly come home . 

Though no one sees him off from the shore, someone still watches him leave just the same. From atop one of Outset’s high cliffs, a lone figure stands, wreathed in both the shadows of the night and plenty of his own. A cruel grin curls across his face as he watches the lone boat cut its way across the moonlit sea. His eyes flash a bitter shade of red as he lets his usual disguise slip; there’s not much of a need for it, not anymore. 

Not now that the original is back to reap all of the seeds he’s spent years sowing. 

“Finally…” his wicked smile sharpens. He’s spent years patiently waiting for this very moment, only for that waiting to pay off when he least expected it to. Because within the blink of an eye, without any sort of warning at all, the final piece of his careful plan found his way back. Which means… 

“It won’t be long now, my lord…” he closes his eyes, bows his head in respect for his king, his creator. The man he’s spent his entire existence striving to revive. “The ‘hero’ has returned. At last… we have everything we need…”

Chapter Text

When Link had been stolen away by the ghost ship five years ago, little else had been stolen along with him. His gear had been stored below the deck of Tetra’s ship, his sword long since buried at the bottom of the sea. The only things he arrived in World of the Ocean King with were the clothes on his back, the borrowed scarf tied around his neck, and something that rarely ever left his side. Something truly special for so many reasons, from the kingdom it had come from to the power it possessed. But for Link, what mattered most was who had given it to him. 

What mattered most was that the Wind Waker was the only gift he still had from the King. 

So he’d hung onto it, even after their journey together had ended. Tetra and her crew had come to rely on its ability to shift the winds in their favor and Link was more than happy to use it to do exactly that. The relic had fallen out of use when he began sailing with Linebeck, whose steam-powered ship all but defied the winds most other boats were subordinate to. Link hadn’t been sure the Wind Waker would even work in the World of the Ocean King; he’d never bothered to give it a try. 

But now, he’s back upon the surface of the Great Sea, still a short distance away from Outset. He doesn’t dare look back over his shoulder at the still-looming shadow of his island home, a home that hadn’t welcomed him in any of the ways he once hoped it would. Aryll’s bitter words and frigid glares still sear his mind and sting his heart as he struggles to make sense of them. He tries his best not to think about it as he pulls the Wind Waker out of his pocket. 

The winds are currently blowing straight to the west. What he really needs instead is a northwesterly gale. His new plan, as half-baked as it still is, is to get to Windfall Island by sundown the following day. It’s a long trek, especially on a vessel as ill-equipped for it as the makeshift sailboat he’d taken from Outset. But it’ll be more than worth it if he can make it to someone who can get him the information he needs. Someone who can point him in the direction of a certain pirate and her crew. 

In all honesty, Link doesn’t know what to expect from Tetra after Aryll’s harsh reception. Even at her most upset, his little sister’s anger is like a distant storm, quiet and controlled. Tetra’s fury, on the other hand, is like a hurricane; fierce and loud and oftentimes violent . He’s been on the receiving end of it before, more times than he’d like to admit for far less significant slights. And after five years away, there’s plenty for Tetra to be angry with him about, even beyond the bizarre accusations Aryll had levied against him. He can only hope word of those accusations haven’t reached Tetra too.

And if they have… then he can only hope she’ll be willing to hear him out even if no one else he loves will. 

Though it's been years, he still remembers the Wind’s Requiem as if he’d learned it yesterday. He closes his eyes as he raises the Wind Waker high, conducting the short tune the same way he always used to. For a moment, he almost feels like he’s a kid again, standing upon the King of Red Lions instead of a nameless, lifeless canoe as he beckons the winds to follow his whims. It’s a connection he hasn’t thought about in a long time, a cherished, special bond with the sky and the sea that even a being like Bellum could have never stripped away from him. But as he opens his eyes and feels the breeze still blowing to the east, just as it had before, worry begins to worm its way into Link’s heart. 

What if that connection had wavered after so much time away? What if that bond had been broken by forces beyond his control? What if he could no longer wake the winds the King had once trusted him with?

He shakes his head to calm himself, sitting a bit straighter on his boat. He repositions the Wind Waker, swiftly conducting the Wind’s Requiem again. When he’s met with the same results, he makes a third attempt, and a fourth, each more desperate and frantic than the last. And each time, he fails to hear and feel what he knows he should; the sea doesn’t sing along with the strokes of his baton, the winds don’t shift their course the way he wants them to. But the tip of the Wind Waker still shines with power, which means it should still work even after so much time going unused. So that begs the question… why isn’t it?

Eventually, Link has no choice but to give up. He sighs, holding the Wind Waker to his chest as he lies back on his seat. “Great…” he grumbles to himself, glaring up at the stars. Just hours ago, he’d been under an entirely different sky entirely, on an entirely different ship with friends still standing by his side. But now, he’s finally home, just like he always wanted to be. And he’s alone just like he always feared. “What am I supposed to do now…?”

Only the briefest of moments passes before, out of nowhere, his boat rocks hard to the side. He nearly falls out of it entirely as he darts up, noticing that at long last, the winds have picked up. The only problem is they aren’t blowing northwest like he wanted them to. They’re blowing in almost every other direction instead. 

“What the…?” his whisper trails off, lost to the fierce gale surrounding him. His tiny boat tosses and turns in the sudden waves stirring up, its sail swerving haywire, unsure of which direction to go. Link holds his hat tight against his head to keep it from being blown away as he searches the sky for any signs of a storm. Strangely, it’s still clear and starry, not a cloud in sight to accompany the surging gales. Briefly, he wonders if he conducted the Wind’s Requiem one too many times to summon such chaos. 

At least until he hears two laughing voices cackling together over the intense din of the wind and waves. 

The pair appears soon after, carried atop small clouds by the brutal breezes they brought to life. Link recognizes the frog-like duo as soon as he sees them: the wind gods, Cyclos and Zephos. He met them on his first voyage across the sea; they’d both been just as instrumental in teaching him the Wind Waker’s true potential as the King had. As a result, he eases up as they come to hover over his boat, fortunately bringing the winds down with them. It’s a good thing too; Link’s not so sure how much more his tiny boat could have taken. 

“Uh, hi-” he tries greeting them. Only to quickly be cut off by the blustery duo. 

“Well, well, lookie who it is!” Zephos peers down from his cloud at Link. “Our little rogue Wind Waker finally shows his face again after all this time. Can ya believe it, brother?” 

“I can believe that ,” Cyclos fixes Link with a stern scowl. He’s hardly surprised by it; the cyclone god had always been the more surly of the two after all. “What I can’t believe is that he’d actually have the gall to try and wake the winds even when he knows he’d wake us right along with ‘em!” 

Link attempts to get a word in edgewise to explain himself, but neither of the wind gods let him have it. “Well, we can’t very well let him hold onto that thing,’ Zephos muses, frowning down at the Wind Waker still in Link’s grip. “I can’t say I’ve ever had to revoke a Wind Waker of their Wind Wakin’ privileges before, but…”

“If you’re too ‘softhearted’ to stomach it, then I’ll be more than happy to do it instead!” Cyclos turns his nose up at his brother. With a mere flick of the wrist, he conjures up a small, precise gale, one strong enough to rip the Wind Waker right out of Link’s hand. 

“Hey!” Link protests, reaching for it. But the wind carries it away from him far too quickly, and it doesn’t stop there. On Cyclos’ command, the baton is tossed far out toward the open ocean before Link can even try to stop it. He draws in a breath he nearly forgets to let out as he watches it disappear from sight; one of the only things he had left to hold onto from the King… so suddenly lost to the sea. Just like the King himself. 

Amidst his newfound distress, anger surfaces just as swiftly. He glares up at the pair; neither of them seem apologetic in the slightest for taking something so important away from him. If anything, they seem satisfied that its power is no longer in his possession. “What’s the matter with you two?!” he asks hotly. He makes no effort to hide how upset he truly is, he doesn’t care about saving face in front of either of them. Right now, the only thing he cares about is the Wind Waker, now forever torn away from him for seemingly no real reason at all. “Why would you do that? Just because I tried changing the direction of the wind? You never acted like that bothered you before!”

“Bother us ?” Zephos laughs, slapping his knee. The way there’s little actual levity behind that laughter catches Link off guard; he isn’t used to hearing something so bitter from the usually jovial wind god. “Boy, you’ve been ‘bothering’ just about everyone on this Great Sea of ours for a good while now. Waking us up from our beauty sleep is just the tip of the iceberg if ya ask me.”

“...What do you mean?” Link dares to ask. His heart is already sinking with fear as he realizes such claims are worryingly similar to what Aryll had accused him of. Of misdeeds and transgressions he doesn’t know the first thing about; how could he when he wasn’t even there to see them happen, much less commit them?

“You know full well what we’re talking about!” Cyclos snaps. His cloudy perch turns stormy, a threatening rumble of thunder sounding from it as he continues. “The disaster at Dragon’s Roost, the fiasco at Forest Haven? And don’t even get me started on all those monsters that’ve been roaming about And that's all. Because. Of. YOU!”

Link flinches when a flash of lightning bursts in the open air around the brothers, a testament to their shared disdain. As for where that disdain is coming from, it remains a mystery, one that Link is downright desperate to solve. Especially when he latches onto one particular part of what Cyclos had to say. “Monsters?” he questions, genuinely concerned by the thought. After all, he didn’t fight so hard to free this ocean from their scourge years ago just for them to suddenly, unexpectedly return in his absence. “Since when have monsters been back on the Great Sea? I thought they all disappeared when Ganondorf-”

“Now, now, boy, don’t try to pull the clouds over our eyes,” Zephos wags a finger at him. “We know these new monsters ain’t his lackeys. They’re yours .”

“...What?” Link nearly forgets to breathe. The very thought, the mere idea sends a shiver shooting straight down his spine. Aryll refusing to let him so much as speak to their grandmother for some unknown reason was one thing. But this… the idea that he would ever work alongside, much less employ the very creatures he once risked his life to destroy? It’s something even more unfathomable altogether. 

“Hmph, I dunno why we’re still floating around shooting the breeze with this punk,” Cyclos turns his nose up, crossing his arms. “We’re just giving him every opportunity to escape. Her highness ain’t gonna be happy if she finds out we let him slip through our fingers again .”

“Her highness?” Link questions quietly. It doesn’t take him long to come up with a guess as to who they’re talking about. And if his hunch is right, then maybe this chance encounter may not be as disconcerting as it started out as. If he’s right, then the wind gods could very well lead him to the very person he wants to– needs to find most.

“Yeah, yeah, I was gettin’ there,” Zephos shrugs his brother off. “Sorry to rat you out like this, kid, really, we are!” He turns his attention back down to Link. “You weren’t half bad when you were just a tyke, but now? Well, we got our orders straight from her highness and we got no choice but to follow ‘em. Nothin’ personal.”

“No, it’s ok, really,” Link assures with a small, hopeful smile. “You guys are going to take me to Tetra, right? That’s great, actually! I need to talk to-”

“Who in Nayru’s name is Tetra?” Cyclos interrupts, scratching his head.

“Um… you know,” Link bites his lip. He doesn’t like referring to the captain by her more royal title; she’d grown to resent it very quickly after old Hyrule was lost to the sea, and after what happened down there, she had every reason to. But right now, Link doesn’t have much of a choice–that name is likely to be the one these deities like these will actually recognize. “Princess Zelda?” 

The brothers exchange a blank glance. His fledgling hope is already on shaky ground to begin with, but it quickly falls to pieces entirely when he hears what Zephos has to say next. “Boy, we aren’t sendin’ you off to no ‘princess’. You’ve got a one-way ticket to the queen instead.”

“The… queen?” 

“Gah! Enough yappin’!” Cyclos cuts in before Link can even try to ask another question. The winds start to pick up again, forming a tight, intense twister around Link’s boat. A twister he has little power to escape from, especially as it begins to lift his boat straight out of the water altogether. “No more running, and no more hiding. You’re finally gettin’ the punishment you deserve .”

“Send our regards to the queen, will ya?” Zephos waves, still far more amiable than his brother. “And good luck, kid. You’re gonna need it.”

“Wait!” Link shouts, but there’s no point. The wind gods clearly have no interest in listening to a word he says; if they had, then maybe they wouldn’t have stripped him of something as essential as the Wind Waker. He quickly finds he has little other options as the cyclone begins to whisk him away; jumping off the boat now wouldn’t save him from being teleported right along with it. He’d been knocked off the King of Red Lions one too many times right after playing the Ballad of Gales to know. 

He has no other choice but to hang on tight to the boat as it rapidly twists through the open air, completely at the mercy of the spiraling winds carrying it away. In an instant, the night sky and dark sea are gone. When Link’s stomach settles and his vision clears, he finds his boat is back upon water again, resting on the surface of a small pool instead of the open ocean. Ancient trees line the enclosure around him, lit only by the moon high above and the sparkling fireflies dancing through the thicket. 

It’s a serene, calming setting, a place Link has only visited once before, years ago. But the reason why the wind gods might have sent him here, of all places, lies with the mysterious being that calls the Mother and Child Isles home. A being that makes her presence known almost as soon as he arrives. 

As she appears in a surge of soft light, Link finally understands exactly who the wind gods had meant by “her highness”. He met the Fairy Queen, albeit briefly, when she’d granted him the gift of fire and ice arrows to aid in his first quest. The King later told him that, despite her childlike form and coy demeanor, she was far older than even the Great Sea, a benevolent, timeless guardian that had been charged with protecting Hyrule as far back as its founding. 

He’d also mentioned an old legend tied to her, one that claims that her appearance often shifts to reflect the souls of those who stand in her presence. Link realizes just how true that legend really is when he takes in the sight of the Fairy Queen floating before him now. Instead of a small, spritely child, she’s seemingly grown as much as he has, taking on the form of a wispy young woman. Despite her more mature statue, her skin is still pure, unearthly ivory, her eyes still blank, piercing voids, and hanging limply from her grip is still the same doll-like effigy of a Great Fairy. Like many other things Link has noticed about the Great Sea in the short time since his return, for as much as things have changed, plenty of other things have stayed the same. In that regard, the Fairy Queen is no different. 

For a moment, silence reigns through the Mother Isle. Out of the reverence the King had drilled into him years ago, Link respectfully bows his head to the Queen, deciding to let her speak first. Considering how he ended up here in the first place, whether that’s a smart idea or not remains to be seen. After what feels like ages of simply staring at him with those vacant, unreadable eyes, the Fairy Queen finally addresses him, her voice deeper, older, and angrier than he’s ever heard from her before. 

“You…” she begins, narrowing her eyes at him. The fireflies peel back into the trees at the sound of her voice, their glow flickering almost fearfully. Link starts to share some of that fear when he looks back up at her to meet the vicious glare she’s sending his way. 

Great , he thinks glumly, not daring to speak such thoughts aloud. Not in front of someone so profoundly powerful and potentially dangerous as her. Someone else who suddenly hates me for no reason… And all in one night too; must be a new record… 

“At long last,” the Fairy Queen hovers a bit higher. Her scowl deepens, and even as empty as it is, Link can practically feel it searing straight through his soul. “You stand before me, the former Waker of the Winds. The Great Sea’s tainted, turncoat ‘hero’.”

Link draws in a deep breath, forcing himself to stand a bit straighter aboard his boat. His voice wavers ever so slightly when he speaks, as much as he wishes it wouldn’t. “Y-your highness,” he bows his head again. He figures it's best to be as respectful as possible; the deity is already upset enough with him as it is, for some reason. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m here. The wind gods-”

“The wind gods finally did as I instructed them by bringing you to me,” the Fairy Queen practically sneers. “After so long slipping away from justice, on this night, you shall finally answer for your crimes against this ocean and its people.”

“What crimes?” Link asks, desperate to know. To know why the wind gods had claimed he’s been commanding monsters. To know why his own sister so coldly turned him away. To know why something that was supposed to be so wonderful has gone so wrong . 

“There’s far too many to count,” the Fairy Queen says. “And even if there wasn’t, you know well the atrocities you have committed, the discord your misdeeds have sown, the pain you have caused so many innocent people. A cloud of fear and dread now hovers over the Great Sea, a cloud brought upon it by the very hand that had once fought so valiantly to free it.” She sighs, closing her eyes as she looks away from him. The anger melts from her tone, shifting into sorrow instead as her voice softens ever so slightly. “Your heart was once so noble, so full of light… What could have possibly led you to turn to such vile darkness…?”

Link shakes his head, beside himself with concerned confusion. Everything she’s implying unnerves him to his core. That she would think that he’s capable of, that he would want to hurt the very same people he’d worked so hard to save years ago. That she would think that he’d willingly go around undoing everything he’d done to keep the ocean safe and free from evil. None of it makes any sort of sense–nothing has, not since he first opened his eyes and found himself back upon the sea he thought he knew so well. 

“I… haven’t,” he shrugs, unsure of how else to explain himself. “Whatever you’re talking about, whatever you think I did… it wasn’t me.”

The Fairy Queen’s ire is quick to sharpen again when she hears this. “Do not take me for a fool, child,” she warns quietly, dangerously. “I know well of your transgressions. Word has traveled far and wide between the guardians of this vast ocean, from the skies above watched by Lord Valoo, to the fledgling trees fostered by the Great Deku Tree, to the depths of the sea patrolled by Lord Jabun. They all have carried the same message back to me. They have told me of their people’s suffering under an entirely new scourge of monsters. They have told me of the frost and fire that devastate their islands, the violent storms that sweep over the sea. And each of them has made it more than clear exactly who has been behind all of it: none other than the Hero of Winds himself.”

“But I didn’t do any of that!” Link argues before he can think better of it. “I haven’t even been here for the past five-”

“SILENCE,” the Fairy Queen’s voice erupts. The winds and water react to her fury, surging upon Link with enough force to knock him off his feet entirely. He lands hard on the bottom of his boat, shaken as the Queen continues pouring her fury out upon him. “Do you know how long I have guarded this domain, child? Can you possibly comprehend the burden of its protection? This mission was entrusted to me and my kind by the Great Golden Three eons before you were even a thought! And yet here you stand, claiming that I do not know all that happens within this realm and who is responsible for it!? Your sheer audacity alone is almost as appalling as your actions, and believe me, child, those speak for themselves.”

Slowly, Link pulls himself back up to stand. His hands rest in tight, almost shaking fists at his sides as he struggles to think of a way out of this. A way to convince her, to convince everyone that he’s innocent. Somehow, the five-year long task of finding a way back here seems like it had been leagues easier than that. 

“Please, your highness,” he says as calmly as he can manage. “I need you to listen to me. I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been stuck in another world for the past five years and I only just got back tonight. I couldn’t have done any of what you think I did; there has to be some kind of mistake!” 

“I am not a mere mortal like you ,” the Fairy Queen hisses. “I do not make mistakes and I am not so easily deceived. The story you’ve just told is a mere fabrication, and a weak one at that. For if you truly have been in a world apart for as long as you claim, then how have so many seen your face upon this sea in that same span of time?”

“I don’t know!” Link insists honestly. Not that his honesty even seems to matter to a deity convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’s right and that he’s in the wrong. “I swear, I’m not the one behind any of this!”

“Well, if it isn’t you,” the Fairy Queen begins, clearly doubting his every last word. “Then who is ?”

Link shakes his head, his throat dry and his heart hammering with raising dread. He’s all too aware of just how badly this could end if he fails to come up with a believable answer. And unfortunately for him, answers in general are in severely short supply tonight. “I… I don’t know,” he says again, sighing. “I really don’t. I’m just… I-”

“There certainly is quite a bit you ‘don’t know’, child,” the Fairy Queen says crossly. She’s taken to fidgeting with her doll, pulling on its limbs as she glares between it and Link. “One might call your alleged lack of knowledge ‘innocence’. I, on the other hand, would call it lying .”

“I’m not lying and I can prove it!” Link practically shouts as his fear shifts into frustration. After only a few hours back upon the Great Sea, not a single soul has bothered to listen to a word he’s had to say. So if they won’t listen, he’ll just have to make them. If they won’t believe him, he’ll do whatever he has to until they finally do . 

And if none of that works, if they still won’t listen or believe, then he won’t rest until he finds someone who will . 

The Fairy Queen stays silent for a moment, pondering what he’d just said. Her empty eyes bear into his, but this time, he doesn’t back down. He lets her search him for whatever she wants to find, for whatever she thinks she needs to see. He can only hope she’ll see his sincerity, his honesty, his longing to simply just be heard . 

But in the end, she doesn’t seem to find any of that. Instead, she closes her eyes, nodding thoughtfully as she reaches some sort of conclusion. “Very well,” she says. “I had intended to pass my judgment upon you here and now. But if you are so adamant about deluding even yourself with the claim that you are blameless, then I will allow you to do exactly that.”

“Wait… really?” Link asks, caught off guard. She still doesn’t believe him, clearly, but she’s willing to give him a chance, however small, to show her the truth. After the night he’s been having, it isn’t a chance he’s about to pass up, and yet… something is still… off about it all the same. 

“Here is my proposal, child,” the Fairy Queen hovers a bit lower, a bit closer. “You have three days’ time to find one other soul upon this sea who can stand before me and testify beyond a shadow of a doubt in their heart that you are truly as innocent as you say you are. If they can convince me of your innocence, then I will believe your claims and absolve you of all crimes committed in your name.”

Link nods, slowly, as he takes this challenge in. “That’s… y-yes, I can do that. No–I will do it, I promise.” In fact, he already has someone in mind, someone who was there the day he disappeared. Someone who has to know the truth just as much as he does after everything they’ve been through together. If no one else will vouch for him, then certainly, Tetra will . 

Or at least, he desperately hopes she will. 

“Your ‘promise’ is nowhere near enough,” the Fairy Queen stares at him unblinking, unflinching. She’s lowered herself to stand upon the surface of the water, bringing them face-to-face with each other. The fact that she’s suddenly so close makes Link genuinely begin to fear for his life. That fear is only justified all the more after what she does next. 

“If you fail to prove your innocence to me, child, know the consequences will be grave,” she warns quietly, like an oncoming storm. “I must ensure that you will follow through on this final chance I have been so fair to give you. Thus… hear my words, former Hero of Winds…”

The Fairy Queen’s eyes flash as the Great Fairy doll vanishes from her hand. Within the space between her outstretched palms, another doll entirely appears, only this time, it looks just like Link . He only has a moment to gawk at it before the Fairy Queen pulls its limbs back tight. Link chokes out a gasp as he follows the doll’s moments against his will, any semblance of control over his own body ripped from him altogether. In an instant, he’s as helpless as his doll duplicate, completely at the mercy of the Fairy Queen standing before him. And if everything he’s heard so far tonight is any indication, she clearly doesn’t have much left to spare. 

The Fairy Queen lets the doll hover out of her hold, and Link inexplicably finds his own body rising along with it. He tries to protest, to even just cry out in alarm, but whatever the doll is doing to him has taken his voice along with it. For as silent and similar as they both are, they may as well be one and the same. 

The Queen reaches out toward him, skimming the center of his chest with her fingertips. Her touch is like lightning, rippling sharply through his body as she slowly draws something out of it. As prone as he is, he’s only barely able to glance down to see what that something is. 

A bright, warm flame flickers over the Queen’s outstretched hand, accompanied by a burst of shimmering ice. He recognizes it as the blessing she’d cast upon him years ago, empowering his arrows with such elemental magic. Only now…  it’s turning it into something else altogether. The Queen hovers her free hand over it and the fire burns brighter, crackling as it hungrily curls for something to burn, something to destroy. The ice does much of the same, splintering and cracking into sinister shapes as a frigid mist engulfs the air surrounding it. As the Fairy Queen finishes her corrupting work, she explains. 

“What was once bestowed upon you as a gift, I revoke… and return in the form of a curse.”

With but a graceful wave of her hand, the Queen sends her tainted magic back to him. Thanks to the doll, he still can’t move a muscle. He can’t even make an attempt at escaping, at even just pulling himself away as that magic, that curse is thrust upon him. It enters his chest in much of the same way she’d drawn it out of him, slowly and, at least at first, painlessly. 

Until it isn’t . 

It explodes inside of him, a feverish sort of heat combined with a crippling kind of cold, both coursing through his entire body like a rapid flood. He’d scream if he were able, if his voice could break free from the binds the Fairy Queen has it under. He writhes against the power the doll holds over him, thrashing violently as the curse starts to take hold. His skin reflects its vicious, painful power, painting his very veins with the frost and fire now flowing through them. They glow dull shades of snowy blue and burning red, casting a frightening, almost inhuman pallor across his usually warm, sunkissed skin. As that glow begins to fade back under the surface, the Fairy Queen finally dismisses her doll, at long last allowing Link to fall back into his boat. Within seconds that felt like hours, the Queen’s work is finished; her deadly curse has been cast. 

Though his voice has returned to him, Link struggles to find it between the heavy breaths he’s trying to catch up with. As shocked as he is by it all, he barely even notices that he’s shaking and shivering all at once. What he does notice are his hands. Not only are they trembling, they’re the only part of his body that still bears any sort of physical sign of his new curse. The veins on the back of his hands shift back and forth between red and blue, turning either cold and clammy or swelteringly hot each time and never settling on anywhere in between. It’s disconcerting, but only dully painful, or at least it is for now. Link has a feeling it won’t stay that way for long. 

“W-what… What did you do to me?” His voice is strained and weak when he questions the Queen. Her curse flushes through his hands again, and within seconds, they go from frozen and numb to feeling as though he’d grabbed a handful of burning coals. It takes every ounce of self control he has to keep himself from crying out over just how surprisingly painful the shift between the two extremes actually is. 

“I have passed a punishment upon you that befits the weight of your crimes,” the Fairy Queen has returned to her lofty perch, her Great Fairy doll back in her hands. She still has nothing else to offer Link other than the same icy glare she’s been fixing him with since he arrived here. Not that he cares when her curse is currently cutting him so much deeper than any cross look ever could. 

“As you have wrought plagues of frost and fire upon the domains of my fellow guardians, so too have I cast the same such affliction upon you. Indeed, I have given you three days, from the emerging sunrise to the final stroke of midnight, to clear your name from the treachery leveled against you. During that time, my curse shall ravage your body, and if you fail to prove your innocence before that time runs out… then make no mistake, child: you will certainly die .”

Link stiffens, stark fear overtaking any sensations of cold or heat still sweeping over him. Out of all of the things he thought would happen tonight, being essentially sentenced to death wasn’t one of them. Then again, neither was being cursed or cast out of the first home he’d ever known. 

He knows he shouldn’t push his luck any further than he already has with her, especially not after what just happened. But with his life literally on the line now, he doesn’t really have much of a choice. His hands, as bitter cold as they currently are, curl into tight fists at his side as a wave of raw fury washes over him. He’s far too familiar with this kind of injustice; it rings alarmingly close to when another deity in a completely different world shattered the promise he’d been clinging onto to pieces. He can’t help but wonder how guardians like the Ocean King or the Fairy Queen who are meant to protect and serve people like him can be so incredibly cruel . 

“You can’t do this!” he snaps, unable to contain his fearful frustration any longer. “This isn’t right and it isn’t fair ! If you would just listen to me, if anyone would listen to me, then you’d know I didn’t do anything wrong-”

“YOU DARE CHALLENGE MY DECISION, CHILD?!” the Fairy Queen sharply cuts him off. Her usually light voice booms through her home, echoing brutally between its bark walls. “Such impudence! Such insolence! You ought to be groveling at my feet, thanking me for being kind enough to let you live another day at all, much less three! I’ve heard quite enough of your disrespectful dishonesty for one night.” She hovers high above him, spreading her arms out wide as rushing winds begin to coverage around his boat once again. “Leave this place, and do not return until you are able to clear your name. And if you cannot…” She fixes him with one final hateful glare as his boat begins to rise from the pool. He knows just how dire the consequences will be if he fails to meet her expectations. Still, she makes a point to remind him of it just the same. “Then may the Great Sea finally see relief from the devastation you have brought upon it, ‘hero’...”

In much of the same way Link was brought to the Mother Isle, he’s sent away from it. The winds he once controlled now work against him, casting him out somewhere back onto the open sea. By the time he’s able to regather his bearings, he can spot the sun starting to rise over the distant horizon, making the dawn of a brand new day. His first back upon a sea he barely recognizes anymore; and quite possibly, one of his last. 

He sinks to sit down on his boat, staring at his hands in stunned silence. The marks of the curse are still there, shining weakly in the light of the emerging sun, pulsing with the back and forth between cold and heat. The conflicting, agonizing sensations lance through his fingertips, making his movements clumsy and unsteady. Exactly how the Fairy Queen expects him to even sail in such a state, much less find anyone willing to testify for him, he has no idea. 

“Goddesses…” he mutters, running a hand through his hair. At first, his touch is ice cold against his scalp, but it quickly turns so hot he can’t stand to keep it there any longer. “What a mess…”

He closes his hands into tight fists, trying his best to block out the pain. With only two sunrises left, the Fairy Queen hadn’t given him much time to stop this. But there’s still some time, and as long as there is, there’s still hope. 

There’s still a chance he can save himself, however small that chance might be. 

Link stands, taking in a slow, calming breath. He’s faced impossible odds far too many times now, against Ganondorf, against Bellum, against everything that had kept him away from his home. And now that he’s finally back, here he is, facing impossible odds all over again. Now, he stands to lose far more than just his family or his home. Within three short days, he could lose his very life. 

And the worst part of it all is that he has no idea why . 

Everything he’s been accused of, by Aryll, by the wind gods, by the Fairy Queen… none of it is adding up. Nevermind the fact that he hasn’t even seen this ocean in years; even if he’d stayed upon the Great Sea, he would never even think of doing anything that they claim he’s responsible for. Whoever is responsible is the one who should be on the receiving end of this death curse; but instead, he’s been the one made to reap the consequences of someone else’s actions. He’s been made to suffer because of something that isn’t even his fault. 

Just like when Aryll was taken. Just like when the ghost ship stole him away. Just like always, he’s cursed again. In far more ways than he can even begin to count. 

He doesn’t have much time to waste to bemoan his potential fate. Though the condition of his hands make the task much more difficult than it should be, Link manages to unfurl his makeshift sail. Without the Wind Waker, he’s forced to follow the eastern morning breeze as it carries him across the sea. The Fairy Queen had tasked him with finding someone who will vouch for him, so that’s exactly what he’ll do. Even if his family is out of the question, he made plenty of friends during his quest across the Great Sea. Certainly at least one of them will be willing to hear him out and help him. And if none of them do, then there’s one person he prays he can still rely on. 

If no one else can see the truth, he knows Tetra will. She isn’t like everyone else; she’s far smarter, far more clever and cunning than anyone he’s ever met. She’ll believe him, she’ll trust him, she’ll save him . She has to. 

Because if she doesn’t… then who else will? 

Chapter Text

Why did that damn curse have to hit his hands first? 

That’s the question Link keeps coming back to as he struggles to sail in the early hours of the morning. He hisses through his teeth when a burst of bitter cold practically numbs his fingertips, soon followed up by a rush of burning heat. It makes navigating his tiny, wind-battered boat even harder than it would have been, especially without the Wind Waker to help him shift the winds in his favor. As a result, he’s left to go wherever the sea and its breezes want to take him. He can only hope they led him to someone willing to help him in time. 

He tries not to think about the curse. He tries not to think about how it's slowly but surely starting to rise up his arms, sending sparks of intense heat and cold splitting through his veins. He tries not to think about how little time he truly has on his side to stop this, how these next few days could be his last. 

Most of all, he tries not to think about how slim his chances really are. He tries not to think about the very real possibility that no one will believe him, that no one will vouch for him. 

He tries not to think about how he spent so long wanting and wishing to return to a world that no longer wants him around. 

By the time mid-morning rolls around, Link is struggling to stay awake. He hasn’t slept since he was back aboard the S.S. Linebeck , and, with the curse limiting him like it is, he knows he likely won’t–can’t–sleep for quite some time. He can survive that much, but what he won’t be able to survive is aimlessly drifting alone at sea for the next three days. 

Even after five years away, he still knows the lay of the Great Sea like the back of his hand. As far as he can tell, he’s somewhere in the northwestern waters. But his exact location doesn’t become clear until he finally spots a familiar landmark emerging upon the horizon: the towering spire of Dragon Roost Island.  

Link breathes a sigh of relief, forcing his trembling hands to stay as steady as possible as he turns his sail toward it. Tetra may be his first choice to go to for help, but if there’s anyone who may be almost as good, it’s the friendly birdfolk of the Rito tribe. After how many times they’d helped each other in the past, Link can only hope they’d be willing to hear him out where the Fairy Queen, the Wind Gods, and even his own sister hadn’t. 

Link’s caught off guard when the air starts to get colder the closer he gets to Dragon Roost. At first, he thinks it must be the curse, only this chill isn’t just regulated to his hands and arms. Thanks to its volcanic interior, Dragon Roost is infamously one of the Great Sea’s warmer islands. Which is why Link is so surprised when snow starts falling upon the seas surrounding it. 

What starts as a light flurry quickly picks up into an intense blizzard, to the point that Link soon finds himself lost within the whiteout. The winds pick up into a frigid gale, sending his tiny boat spinning across the chilly waves. He’s been through more than his fair share of storms at sea before, but he can’t say he’s ever had to contend with a snow storm. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to for long. Before he can even try to orient himself, his boat slams to a stop, sharply grinding straight into the island’s shore. Link is sent flying out of it, landing hard into a pile of deep snow completely covering what had once been warm sand. 

“Goddesses,” he hisses, shivering as he pulls himself out of the snow. He glances up to find the rest of the island is similarly covered with feet of snow and ice, as sure a sign as any that this storm has been going on for quite some time now. “What happened here…?” he wonders as he picks himself up off the ground. 

Link struggles to see much of anything amidst the surging squall, but he knows his way to the aerie’s entrance well enough. So, he tightens his cap, secures his boots, and braces himself against the icy wind before beginning his trek through the storm. For once, he’s strangely grateful for the curse as it sends a flush of welcome warmth through his otherwise frozen hands. Of course, the downside is that any time that warmth is ripped away from him, he’s left feeling even colder than he’s ever felt before in his life. 

The closer he gets to the aerie, the more it starts to dawn on Link just how eerily quiet the island is. In his past visits, he’d grown used to the sounds of Rito’s wings flapping overhead or the great Valoo proudly roaring from his lofty nest. Now, all he can hear is the racing wind and swirling snow, coming together to create a lifeless sort of symphony. One that’s only interrupted when he hears the sudden, stark sound of a bow string being pulled taunt behind him. 

Link stops dead in his tracks when he feels the tip of an arrow pressing lightly against his back. He doesn’t dare turn around, especially not when he glances up to find even more arrows pointed directly at his head. Behind each of those arrows is a Rito archer, all of them clad heavily for the wintery weather as they sit upon their defensive perches. Link eyes each of them as they keep their arrows trained on him, and fortunately none of them shoot when he slowly raises his hands to show he has no weapon of his own. 

He forces out a laugh, in spite of himself, in spite of his downright rotten luck, in spite of everything, really. He already knows where this is going; if anything, he should have seen this coming long before he ever even stepped foot on this shore. 

“You know, I’ve gotta admit,” he winces when he feels the arrow behind him nudge him again. If he’s not careful, he could end up dead long before the curse kills him at this rate. Still, that doesn’t stop him from making the obvious joke anyway, in the slim chance it may help smooth things over from the start. Even though he knows it won’t. “I was hoping for a warmer welcome than this.”

By the grace of the goddesses themselves, they don’t shoot him on the spot. 

Instead, the Rito archers bind Link’s wrists and drag him into the aerie. He’s shocked to find that the once warm and welcoming home of the Rito has become just as cold and inhospitable as their island’s exterior. Its stone walls do little to keep out the chill, even despite the fires lit to keep its residents warm. 

The Rito gathered around those flames all turn, eyes wide with shock when Link passes them by. He recognizes more than a few of them, but not a single one of them offers him a kindly smile or friendly greeting. Instead, they simply turn and whisper amongst themselves, occasionally shooting him distrustful glances and bitter glares. If the archers’ reception hadn’t been enough, this all but confirms it. The Rito have turned against him in the exact same way everyone else he’s met since his return have. All he can do now is hope that he can convince them of his innocence where he’s failed with all of the others so far. 

It doesn’t take Link long to realize he’s being led straight to the aerie’s royal chambers. He anticipates an audience with the chieftain; in fact, that’s what he’s hoping for. The Rito Chieftain has always been fair and cordial to him in the past; if he’s lucky–and Farore only knows he could use some luck right now–he might be able to hold an actual civil conversation with him. Of course, nothing has been remotely close to what he’d hoped for since he got back. Why should this be any different? 

Because instead of the Rito Chieftain, Link arrives at the royal chamber to find his son standing in his place instead. 

The first time he met Prince Komali, he’d been haughty, yet deeply insecure. He’d moved past that, of course, to become the responsible prince his people needed him to be. And now, it appears he’s risen to the occasion again as he quietly, intently converses with a handful of advisors. Though his back is turned to Link when he enters, he can see just how much the prince has grown, and the air of regal authority he now carries himself with is clear. One of his advisors nudges him, pointing his attention to the door. And from the minute Komali turns to face him, Link already knows this isn’t bound to end well. 

His eyes widen, first in shock, then in fury . His hands curl into fists and his feathers bristle as he presses past his advisors and his guards, storming straight over to Link. The prince stands taller than him now–much taller, to the point that Link can’t help but feel somewhat intimidated even when he knows he shouldn’t. Komali is a friend, or at least he once was. Only time will tell if he will be again by the end of all of this. 

“Link,” he begins, his voice just as cold as the air filling the room around them. 

“Komali,” Link returns. He makes sure everything about him comes across as sincere as possible, from his voice, to his face, to even his posture. The last thing he wants is anything close to what happened with the Fairy Queen last night. “Before you say anything, I need you to know that whatever you think I’ve done around here, it wasn’t me, I swear it.”

“Oh, really?” Komali raises a critical eyebrow. “So you’re telling me you weren’t the one who brought this endless snowstorm to Dragon Roost then?” 

“Of course not,” Link shakes his head, adamant. “How would I have even done that in the first place? I barely know any magic, much less something like this-”

“You might as well quit while you’re ahead,” Komali cuts him off, turning his back on him. “We saw you–we all saw you–when you called in those cursed clouds that have been covering this island for weeks now. We weren’t-” He stops himself, sighing. “ I wasn’t able to stop you then. I wasn’t able to protect my people the way I should. But it looks like Din is finally answering our prayers.” He turns back around; the severe scowl on his face hasn’t shifted in the slightest as he fixes Link with a piercing glare. “Because I’ll be able to stop you now.”

Link can hear it as plain as day–the guilt, the disappointment, the shame in Komali’s voice. After his struggles back in the World of the Ocean King, Link knows the feeling all too well. “Look,” he says, taking in a deep, steadying breath. “I know how much the Rito mean to you. They mean a lot to me too. That’s why I would never do something like this; I’d never want to hurt any of you.”

“Well, it’s much too late for that,” Komali scoffs. “This winter hasn’t just crippled our delivery operations, it’s endangering our very way of life. We can’t even fly away from Dragon Roost without getting lost in the storm! And if we can’t leave, that means we can’t get any food or supplies from other islands. Not only are my people struggling to stay warm, they’re starving, Link. And it’s all because of you !”

While his first instinct is to deny such accusations, the curse forces Link to hold his tongue. Instead, he winces against the cold sting that cuts through his veins, this time creeping even further up his arms than ever before. Whatever precious time he still has left, he’s wasting it here. “I don’t want to argue with you, Komali,” he says instead. “Just let me talk to your father and maybe I can-”

“My father isn’t here,” Komali informs him curtly. “He left along with a handful of Rito braves to try and find a way to fix the mess you caused. And while he is away, I am in charge here, which means it is my duty to pass judgement upon any and all enemies of the Rito tribe.”

“I am not your enemy,” Link asserts sternly. Komali, and every other Rito in the room along with him, however, are far from convinced by his word alone. 

“Alright then,” Komali turns to face him again. “ Prove it.”

“Huh?”

“If you really aren’t our foe, if you really want to help us, then do it ,” Komali commands through gritted teeth. “End this storm, free us from this winter. You started this, so certainly you must be able to stop it.” 

“I already told you, I can’t,” Link protests. He jerks at the binds around his wrists when another sharp flash of heat surges through them. “I didn’t start this storm, and even if I knew who did, I don’t have that kind of power. I don’t even have the Wind Waker anymore to blow the storm away. I can’t just-”

“There has to be something you can do!” Komali suddenly snaps, frustrated. He pauses for a moment when he meets the worried gazes of his people, all watching and waiting for their prince to fix this somehow. With the weight of their future resting on his shoulders, he sighs, taking a step closer to Link. For a moment, he can almost see the young prince he once knew, so desperate to do right by his people, shining through the cracks of his stoic facade. That side of him is all the more apparent when he begins to, of all things, beg . 

“ Please , Link,” he says, his voice barely above a distraught whisper. “You saved us before. You can’t just abandon us–turn against us like this now, for no reason. There was a time we believed in you– I believed in you with all I had. I want to believe in you again. So please … help us .”

“Komali…” Link slowly shakes his head. He can see the first sign of tears in the prince’s scarlet eyes, and he knows well where they’re coming from. He can feel them building just behind his own eyes too. “I really do want to help you, more than anything. I just… I don’t know how… I’m so, so sorry…”

He looks down, if only to avoid the look of disgusted disappointment on his former friend’s face. Ever since his time in Bellum’s clutches, Link has gotten far too used to falling short of others’ expectations of him. But now, to fail a tribe he once fought so hard to help, to stand helplessly by as they suffer and starve and freeze… it may be just about one of the harshest blows he’s been dealt with yet. 

“...I see,” Komali pulls himself to his full height, adjusting his cloak as he turns his back on Link once more. “Well, in that case, I’m sorry too.” When he glances back over his shoulder, his tears are gone, replaced with nothing less than utter hatred . “I’m sorry for ever being foolish enough to think of you as a friend, much less a hero.” 

Link barely has time to let such harsh and heavy words truly sink in before the command Komali gives to his guards rips the floor right out from under him. “Lock him away for now,” he says, his voice noticeably tight. “I’ll let my father decide what to do with him when he returns.”

“What?” Link starts. His alarm only grows when a pair of guards grab him by the shoulders and begin to drag him away. “Komali, wait! You can’t just–I-I don’t have time to be-”

“If you didn’t want to be treated like a traitor, then you shouldn’t have acted like one.” That’s all Komali has to offer him as he’s hauled out of the royal chambers. 

Any of Link’s further protests to the guards fall on deaf ears as they follow their prince’s orders to the letter. They take him down to the aerie’s lowest level, to a space akin to a dungeon, though it clearly hasn’t been used in quite some time. Each of its cells are empty, save for the one the guards securely lock Link up in. And that’s where they leave him, to pay the price for a crime he didn’t commit. 

To spend his final few days wasting away alone in a cell before the curse takes his life altogether. 

He’s only able to get a few vain attempts at prying his cell door open before the curse begins to overwhelm him again. He stumbles back as it finally reaches his shoulders, lancing a scorching pain through his upper back. At the same time, his hands are trembling, numb from both the magic training them and the thick frost coating the bars of his cell. If the curse doesn’t end up taking him out, the brutal conditions besetting this island certainly will. 

And this time, he won’t be the only one to suffer such a grim fate. 

With all other options running out, Link slowly slumps against the wall, burying his face in his hands. They’re hot, at least for right now, and he’s grateful for it, for anything that can remotely chase away the vicious chill. His heart aches at the thought of the Rito having to deal with this, the thought of such a kind, peaceful people being trapped on this freezing island, slowly starving to death. He’d meant what he said when he told Komali he wanted to help; but how is he supposed to help an entire tribe if he can’t even begin to help himself?

“Link?”

He doesn’t know how long he’s been sitting there when the silence is finally broken. His head darts up at the sound of his name, and he quickly finds the young Rito woman who had spoken it standing on the other side of the bars. Like Komali, she’s grown a good bit since the last time they saw each other, but Link would recognize her anywhere. It’s hard to forget the face of a friend as fiercely loyal as her, after all. 

“Medli?” he quickly stands, hurrying to meet her at the bars. She steps back when he does, and the frightened look on her face isn’t lost on him as she quickly sizes him up. 

“Goddesses above,” she whispers, shaking her head in disbelief. “It really is you. I’d heard that you were here, but I didn’t think that you would…” She trails off, briefly looking away before meeting his gaze with an anxious frown. “What are you doing back here after… what happened?”

“I got caught up in the storm,” Link quickly explains, before clarifying. “Which I didn’t create. You know that, don’t you, Medli?”

She winces, tightening her cloak around her shoulders. “Link, we… we all saw you that day. You showed up with a gang of monsters and used… some kind of magic to plunge Dragon Roost into a plague of snow and ice. How do you expect me to believe that it wasn’t you?”

“I need you to know it wasn’t me,” Link insists, gripping the bars of his cell. He keeps his hands there, despite the curse painfully splintering them with ice all its own. “I don’t know if someone’s trying to impersonate me or frame me or what, but I haven’t even been on this ocean for the past five years. I was in another world entirely, and I only just got back last night only to find that everyone here suddenly hates me, from Komali to my own sister. And that’s not even mentioning the Fairy Queen.” 

Medli watches, confused, as Link slips one of his gloves off, rolling his sleeve up a bit to reveal the curse tainting his veins in visible shades of blue and red. “What…?” she asks, her eyes wide with shock. 

“She cursed me,” he says bitterly. “And it’s getting worse every hour. If I can’t find someone to vouch for me, to convince her that I’m innocent in three days, then… I’ll…”

He doesn’t need to finish. Medli understands immediately, a soft gasp escaping her as she covers her mouth. Her sympathy may be silent, but as far as Link is concerned, it’s a goddess-send. Because finally, he’s found someone who feels sorry for him on some level, someone who doesn’t think he deserves to die for something he didn’t even do. 

Finally, he hopes, he’s found someone who can save him . 

“Medli,” he decides to make the appeal. The way Medli looks at him, like he may shatter at any moment, is, oddly enough what convinces him to go on. “I know you might still think I’m responsible for this, but please, just listen to me.”

“I am,” she replies, and Link believes her. If he knows Medli, he knows she’s nothing less than honest in everything she says or does. 

“I need your help,” he implores her, making no effort to hide just how desperate he truly is. “I need you to help me get out of here and come with me back to the Fairy Queen. You’re a sage, she’ll have to believe you, you just have to tell her-”

“That you’re innocent?” Medli finishes. She rubs her arms, shuddering against the cold. “That’s just it, Link. I’m not so sure you are…”

He’s more than ready to launch into his usual defense, however pitiful it may be. But then, he stops. He takes a moment to consider just how badly that approach has gone for him so far, with Aryll, with the Fairy Queen, with Komali. Which is exactly why he decides to try a different tactic altogether, one that comes from a place he knows isn’t fabricated in the slightest. 

“Hey, uh… you remember when we were on our way to the Earth Temple back when we were kids?” he begins to fondly recount. 

“Mm hm,” Medli nods, but she doesn’t return his smile as she runs a hand through her long ponytail. “I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to live up to my duties as a new sage… I was so afraid. ”

“You were,” Link agrees, his smile turning bittersweet. “And you had every reason to be, leaving home for the first time and going off to some strange place across the sea. Goddesses, I felt so bad, especially since I knew exactly what that was like. But the thing is, sometimes, the only way to protect everything you’ve ever loved is to-”

“To leave it all behind,” Medli finishes solemnly. “That’s… what you told me…”

“And do you really think the person who told you that is the same person who brought this storm here?” It’s a critical question, but a risky one that could stop the momentum he’s gaining with Medli in its tracks. But someone, just one person, has to see reason where no one else is willing to. And, if the wavering, downright doleful look on Medli’s face is any indication, that someone might just be her. 

“Link…” she sighs, hanging her head. “Even if you are telling the truth–and goddesses, I hope you are–I can’t just go against Komali like this. He’s not just the prince, he’s my fiancé.” Link raises an eyebrow at this news; he’s surprised, but not too surprised. He did remember Medli and Komali being quite close when they were younger, after all. “To not just let you go, but to leave the Rito, when things are this bad, I… I just…” She sighs. Even though she’s roughly his age, the stress that’s clearly weighing on her, the worry and the woe her and her people have had to face, make her look years older. It’s enough to compel Link to make an offer that might just save them both. 

“I know I’m asking a lot out of you,” he admits, guilty. “But… if you come with me to see the Fairy Queen, then I will do whatever it takes to stop this storm and help you save Dragon Roost. I promise.”

For what feels like an eternity, Medli doesn’t respond. Instead, she simply stares at him, her crimson eyes intensely focused on him, as if she’s searching him straight down to his soul. He can’t help but wonder if that’s exactly what she’s doing, if her status as a sage might allow her to see what others cannot. He hopes that she can, that she can see him for who he truly is and not what others think he’s done. Because if she can’t, if she says no… 

Then he may as well get ready to die right here in this very cell. 

In the end, however, the goddesses once again answer the silent prayers he’s been sending them. Because Medli sighs, finally managing a small, rueful smile as she shakes her head. “Well,” she meets his gaze and that smile brightens just the smallest bit. “It’s a good thing I’ve never known you to break a promise before, Link.”

He lets out the breath he’d been holding as a sigh of relief when he watches her pull the lever to open his cell door. Before he can get too far, Medli grabs him by the arm, pointing him in the opposite direction. “Not that way. We’ll be spotted. We’ll fly out through the cavern courtyard.”

Link nods, following her lead. They stay quiet and cautious as they sneak out the back, making sure to avoid any guards along the way. Once they make it out of the aerie, Medli spreads her wings wide, offering her talons up to give Link a ride back to the shore. A ride that’s anything but smooth thanks to the fearsome winter winds. 

And yet, as they pass by the mountain, still rising high even amidst the storm to the point that its peak is all but obscured by the whiteout, Link finds himself curious. He poses his question to Medli, raising his voice to be heard over the surging squall surrounding them. “Can’t Valoo stop this storm?” he asks, searching the sky for any sign of the guardian dragon. 

Medli shakes her head, her face awash in sudden sorrow. “The Great Valoo can’t handle this kind of weather,” she explains. “It’s forced him into a state of hibernation, a sleep so deep he isn’t even able to keep the Rito warm, much less give the younger ones their wings. I’ve tried flying up to the summit to see if I can wake him, but… I can never get past the ice and the wind. I’m afraid that if this winter doesn’t end soon… the Great Valoo might never wake up…”

Once again, Link feels his blood begin to bol, not towards his own circumstances, as bad as they are, but for the Rito. Because whoever is responsible for casting this cursed weather upon them has already caused so much grave damage, and it can only stand to cause even more. Dragon Roost, its people, even its very guardian deity, they’re all at stake if he can’t solve this perplexing mystery. Clearly, this goes far beyond just him, much farther. Whatever this apparent imposter has done has spread untold misery across almost every corner of the Great Sea. 

And to cause that misery in his name is a slight that Link refuses to let go unpunished. 

The snow is still piling up when they touch down upon the shore. It takes a bit of doing, but they eventually find Link’s boat, still barely clinging onto the frost-coated beach. But as they get closer to it, they’re shocked to find that someone has already claimed it in their place. 

“K-Komali,” Medli stops stiff when she sees her fiancé rise from his seat in the boat. “What are you doing out here?”

“I ought to ask you the same thing, Medli,” he fixes her with a piercing glare. “I didn’t want to believe it when one of the guards said they spotted you two flying out of the courtyard, but… sure enough, here we are.”

“Komali,” Link steps forward. “Let me explain-”

“I think I’ve heard enough ‘explaining’ out of you,” Komali hops out of the boat, shooting Link a bitter look when he passes him by. When he stops in front of Medli, his anger starts to melt away into betrayal as he skims a hand against the side of her face. “Medli… what were you thinking? How could you just let him go free, after everything he’s done?”

“I’m sorry, Komali, I really am,” Medli takes his hand, holding on tight. “But I think there’s been some kind of mistake here. Link is-”

“A no-account traitor who deserves to rot behind bars for the pain he’s brought upon our people?” Komali finishes. He glances over his shoulder at Link, offering him a scowl as sharp as a freshly-forged knife. 

“No,” Medli draws his attention back over to her. “I don’t know how to explain, I just… I have this feeling like… we don’t know the whole story here. Like the Link we saw create this storm and the Link standing in front of us now… might not be one and the same.”

This is just enough to convince Komali to fully turn to face Link again. The cross look on his face hasn’t changed; if anything, it only intensifies as he looks at him and tries to see what Medli already has. Unfortunately for them both, he can’t . 

“You may have fooled Medli,” he bridges the gap between them far faster than Link could have ever anticipated. Within seconds, he has an iron grip on his arm, one that Link would be hard-pressed to break free from even if the curse wasn’t shooting searing heat down his spine. “But you can’t fool me. You’re going to answer for what you’ve done here, one way or another-” He looks back at Medli, making his decision more than clear. He’s chosen to trust his own intuition over his future wife’s. “Whether you like it or not.”

“Komali-” Link tries, but Medli beats him to it. 

She rushes over, grabbing Komali’s other arm as she resorts to begging. Not that either she or Link thinks it’ll actually work. “Komali, please, just listen!” she pleads earnestly. “Link has to leave, and I have to go with him!”

“You what ?” Komali reels on her, shock spilling into his anger. 

“Try to understand,” she reasons urgently. “He's under a curse. He’s dying and I - ”

“Our people are dying, Medli!” Komali yanks his arm away from her. “And you would side with the one responsible for that? You would choose him over us? Over me ?!”

“No!” Medli stammers, flustered by the very implication. “That’s not–Y-you know I’d never abandon our people in their hour of need. But if you let me go with him, if you let me set this straight, then we’ll both return and find a way to save Dragon Roost. I know you don’t trust Link, Komali, but please-” She somehow manages to take hold of both of his hands, freeing Link from his heavy hold. Tears are in her eyes as the brisk wind rips her long hair from its ties, letting it fly free as she holds on tight to her fiancé, begging him to do one simple, impossible thing: 

“Trust me .”

For a moment, the sound of the storm is all there is. Link can only stand by, watching the couple, knowing his fate rests entirely in their hands. Whether they’ll help him or condemn him, he has no idea. Honestly, waiting for them to reach their final verdict is the most agonizing part of it all. But in the end, he notices when Komali’s grip on Medli’s hands tighten. He hears a soft, relenting sigh slip out. He sees his future finally begin to brighten–

But then–

“Medli,” the prince begins, brushing a few stray strands of hair out of his fiancé’s face. “I-”

A heavy roar rattles the air, breaking through the winds and snow. Medli gasps, pulling away from Komali to face the mountain, her eyes wide with disbelief. “The Great Valoo…” she whispers stunned and hopeful all at once. “He’s awake…”

“Really?” Komali smiles, the first Link’s seen from him since he arrived. He places a hand on Medli’s shoulder as they both listen to Valoo’s distant, indecipherable chorus from above. “What’s he saying?”

“I… He’s…” Medli’s brow furrows. She shakes her head, as if she’s struggling to understand. But when she turns back to face Link, she’s crestfallen. He can already tell whatever it is she’s about to say, it can’t be good. “Link, the Great Valoo knows you’re here and… he wants you gone.”

Link starts, initially alarmed as he tries to peer past the storm to see the guardian dragon perched so far above it. But then, he eases up when he looks back at his boat. If Valoo wants him to leave, then fine; he’ll be more than happy to oblige. “Ok,” he tells the couple. “We were just about to leave anyway-”

“No, you don’t understand,” Medli takes a step back. And as she does, Link can slowly start to see his plan begin to fall apart before his very eyes. “He says… you have to leave… to reap what you’ve sown, to pay the price for all of the pain you’ve brought to the Great Sea…”

“No…” Link whispers, his heart sinking to his stomach. Because here he is, once again being damned by yet another guardian of the Great Sea. Here he is, once again being cast adrift to struggle and suffer all on his own. 

Here he is, right back to square one, when he was so, so close to stopping all of this. 

“Well,” Komali’s hands curl into fists at his sides. “I suppose that settles it then. The Great Valoo’s word is law, and it is the law we Rito must abide by.”

“But Komali-”

“His word is law , Medli,” he sternly cuts her off. “Nobody should know that better than you.”

Medli doesn’t argue any further. Instead, she simply hangs her head as Komali steps past her to return to the aerie, to do what he can to try and rescue his people before it's too late. If it isn’t already. 

“You heard Valoo,” he glares back at Link one last time. Any trace of consideration is gone from his face, replaced with nothing less than unshakable, unbridled contempt . “Get off this island. And if you know what’s good for you; you’ll never return.”

Link raises a hand to stop him, but it quickly falls. He knows it's no use. If Komali wouldn’t hear him out before, he certainly won’t now that Valoo himself has passed his judgement upon him. Medli, on the other hand…

“Medli,” he waits until Komali is out of earshot. “Come with me. Please , I-”

“Link,” she grabs her unkempt hair, wringing it anxiously in her hands. “You know I can’t… Not now. Even if I could make it up to the summit, I doubt I’d be able to change the Great Valoo’s mind.”

“I don’t need you to change his mind,” Link nods up to the mountain. He tries his best not to feel the small spark of fury that runs through him at the thought of the guardian dragon. At how quickly he’d dismissed him as a menace and a rouge, just like all of the other supposedly all-seeing deities he’s crossed paths with so far. “I need you to change the Fairy Queen’s mind-”

“I wish I could, I really do,” Medli says, her hands pressed to her heart. “But the Great Valoo won’t allow it. And not to mention Komali…” She trails off, stealing a remorseful glance behind her. In the distance, Komali’s silhouette can only barely be made out through the squall, watching them both from afar. Only now does Link realize the mistake he’s made here. 

Only now does he realize he very well may have torn a relationship apart without even trying to. 

“Oh… Oh, Din, Medli, I’m… I’m so sorry,” he takes a large step back from her, his eyes wide with sudden guilt. “I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s ok,” she assures with a bittersweet smile. “I’ll… work things out with him. But… you should probably leave now. Before it can get any worse.”

Link nods, unable to do little else but accept this. And everything that comes along with it. “I, uh, guess I’ll have to find another way then,” he turns to prepare his boat for the journey through the storm. “Speaking of which… you wouldn’t happen to know if Tetra is still sailing around these parts, would you?”

“She is,” Medli confirms. This news doesn’t do too much for Link, but it helps; a little, anyway. To simply know Tetra is still out there somewhere, to know that she isn’t out of his reach. To know that maybe she can still stop this if he’s lucky enough to get to her in time. “I haven’t seen her or her crew in a while though. I couldn’t tell you where they are now.”

“That’s ok,” Link says, resolved. “I’ll find her… somehow…” He mutters that final word, knowing all too well what will happen to him if he doesn’t. The bitterly cold chill striking away at his chest is more than enough of a reminder of that. 

“I hope you do,” Medli tells him, sincere as she ever is. “And… I pray that the goddesses show you mercy, Link.” He wonders if her prayers will actually manage to reach them; after all, his haven’t been going very far lately. What happened here is proof enough of that. 

He nods his thanks to her, and though he wants to say a proper goodbye, he can’t quite stomach it. Just as he can’t quite stomach the thought of leaving behind someone who could have freed him from this deadly curse. The thought of leaving behind perhaps the only friend he truly has left. 

Medli stays on the shore, despite Komali’s eyes still on her back, to watch Link leave. Her hands are already folded, her head bowed as she offers up her first silent prayer for his safe travels. Another soon follows it, for the Golden Three to lead their wayward hero to someone who can save him where she couldn’t. And to forgive her for failing him, especially when she knows someone as brave and kind and good as him shouldn't be facing any of this in the first place. 

Link shoves his boat off the shore, narrowly managing to leap onto it before the surging waves begin to carry it away. He looks back at Medli one final time to see her waving him a silent, solemn farewell. He returns it, his chest tight and his eyes stinging, until she eventually vanishes  behind the veil of snow-

And his hope vanishes right along with her. 

Chapter Text

By the time Link finally makes it out of the snow squall surrounding Dragon Roost, night has long since fallen. And with it, so too has what could very well be one of the last three days of his life. 

It’s a haunting thought that quickly spoils the newfound warmth spreading over his skin. Whether it’s from escaping the storm or from the still-spreading curse, he has no idea. He gets his answer when that warmth suddenly turns painful the second it settles in his chest. 

In fact, it stings so badly he struggles to keep himself upright on his snow-battered canoe. It’s as if he’s been shoved straight into a bed of burning coals, only for those coals to turn to the coldest ice seconds later. It’s getting worse, he realizes, upon checking his chest to find those faintly glowing lines creeping their way up toward his neck. Everything’s getting worse , he thinks, with the memory of what happened on Dragon Roost weighing heavy in his heart. 

He had been so close. He’d found someone willing to listen to him, to vouch for him, to save him. Only for it to all be ripped right out of his fingers at the worst possible time. Link can’t help but wonder what Medli might have said to Komali after he’d left. He hopes that she had, at the very least, been able to convince him of his innocence, if no one else. 

Not that it matters much anyway. There’s only one opinion that matters when it comes to keeping Link alive now. And she’s already made it more than clear that she won’t take his word for it. 

Past the snowy fog of the storm, the moonlit ocean is clear ahead. Once again, Link finds himself at the mercy of the winds as they blow southward. It’s not ideal–he’d rather push for somewhere highly populated like Windfall. But he supposes there’s a chance he’ll be able to cross paths with Tetra’s ship just about anywhere upon the sea. If he’s lucky enough to cross paths with her at all. 

Unfortunately, most of the Great Sea’s inhabited islands are spread few and far between. As a result, it takes until almost daybreak for him to happen upon a familiar landmark. Like Dragon Roost, Forest Haven was somewhere he’d been to many times in the past, somewhere he used to be welcome. But unlike Dragon Roost, he refuses to get his hopes too high. Especially as he sails in closer to catch a better view of the haven just as the first rays of the sun slip over the horizon–

Only to find smoke steadily rising from the island ahead. 

It’s alarmingly thick and heavy, curling into the early blue skies in inky black plumes. Link’s heart sinks at the sight of it, especially when he remembers exactly what is inside of Forest Haven. Plenty of foliage and trees to fuel a fire, yes, but plenty of Koroks to fuel it too. 

The thought of those innocent, vulnerable creatures alone is what prompts Link into action. He ignores the sweeping chill gnawing at his bones as he shifts his sail, vying to get to the haven as fast as humanly possible. There’s no way of knowing how long this fire has been going on for–he can only hope he’s not too late already. 

He falls to his knees from a burst of agonizing heat when his feet touch solid ground. He’s not keen on staying down for long, but he stops to notice the grass beneath him. The dry, blackened grass beneath him. 

Only now that he’s actually on the island is Link able to see what’s already become of it. The pathway leading into the haven, once teeming with lush life now lay scorched and silent. Grass turned to ash, tree saplings singed to gnarled stumps, embers still smoldering to show this devastation is still fresh . As he pulls himself to his feet, Link doesn’t have to think too hard about who the culprit behind it must be. 

And after everything he’s seen, everything heard, everything he’s been through ever since he returned… his blood boils at that thought. 

“Alright,” he says, first to himself in a voice even he can barely hear. But then, much like the liquid fire spreading through his veins, he erupts into raw, unquenchable fury. “Alright, whoever you are! If you’re listening, then listen good. This ‘game’ you think you’re playing–going around, pretending to be me, causing all kinds of trouble–it’s over .” 

His hands snap into tight fists at his sides just as a bitter chill strikes his bones. It stands in stark contrast to the dry, acrid, downright hot air surrounding him. Even so, he continues, far too furious to stop now. “I’m dying because of you–and I’m not the only one either!” he all but screams to someone who may not even be there at all. But, in the off chance they just might be, he wants them to hear him. He wants them to know exactly what they’ve done–and who they’re dealing with. 

“The Koroks who live on this island–and the Rito on Dragon Roost too–they don’t deserve any of this! You’re hurting innocent people–for no reason at all! And the second I find out who you are and where you are, I swear to all three of the goddesses that I will put an end to it. Once and for all.” 

He lets that final, fatal threat linger in the ashen air for a while. He doesn’t really expect a response, because a response would mean he’d have a chance at finishing this here and now. And really, how could anything ever be that easy? Still, he listens, for a voice that sounds eerily similar to his own, one filled with malice and spite. 

What he gets… isn’t anywhere remotely close to that. 

“...Link?”

The anger drains from him the second he hears his name, called out by a small, bright, familiar voice. When he turns to it, there’s an anxious squeak, followed by a light rustle in a nearby shrub that’s barely clinging to life. Link can’t help but smile as he carefully approaches it. Despite it all, it seems as though he’s stumbled upon yet another old friend. 

“Makar,” he begins, kneeling down next to the bush. He bites back a startled gasp as another new wave of heat washes over him before he continues, his voice as soft and soothing as he can manage. “It’s ok. You can come out. I’m not gonna hurt you, you know that.”

It takes him a moment to spot it–the leaf that is Makar’s face poking out between plenty of others. Link offers him a warm, kindly smile, hoping that’ll be enough to coax him into the open. After a beat or so of uncertain silence, the curious Korok teeters out of his hiding spot. 

Even though years have passed, Makar hasn’t changed in the slightest during them. It makes sense; Link once heard that the children of the forest never age. Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t ample childlike wonder in the way Makar stares up at him even still, even now. 

“Wow!” he squeaks, awestruck. “It really is you!” 

“It is,” Link confirms, chuckling. It’s the first time he’s actually laughed since he landed back on this ocean. Even when pitted against the cold spiking at his chest, it feels good . 

The feeling quickly fades, however, when Makar backs away from him, suddenly nervous. “Y-you’re not here to bring any more of those mean monsters… are you?”

“Monsters?” Link frowns, standing. Only then does he remember what the wind gods said, about a mysterious horde of monsters allegedly under his command. The fact that Makar–small, sweet, innocent little Makar–seems to believe such vicious rumors makes his stomach lurch with guilt that shouldn’t even belong to him to begin with. And yet it still does. “No, Makar, I’m not-”

“Please, please !” Makar breaks into begging, hugging Link’s leg with his tiny, stubby arms. “No more monsters! They keep coming back on each new moon, no matter how many times the Great Deku Tree has driven them away! And each time they come, they set those awful fires all over again! It’s getting harder and harder to put them out, and if they keep on going-” He stops short, sniffling woefully as he and Link both spare a glance at the decaying path ahead of them. “Soon there won’t be anything left for them to burn…”

Link’s heart aches at the thought. At the picture sitting right before him, of a place once so filled with luscious, vibrant life reduced to nothing more than ash and embers so easily. Fire, just as much as ice, can be devastating when wielded by the wrong hands. The curse currently pouring through his veins is proof enough of that. 

“Makar,” he kneels to the Korok’s level once more. It dawns on him that the height he now has on his friend isn’t doing him any favors in making him look less like a threat. “I need you to listen to me. I’m so, so sorry about what’s happened here. But I wasn’t behind any of it. I didn’t bring those monsters to Forest Haven, and whoever did is someone pretending to be me.”

“Who would do that?” Makar gasps, as if scandalized by the very thought. 

Link stifles a smile. By some grace of the goddesses above, Makar seems far more willing to believe him than most have thus far. Whether it's from innocence or ignorance, Link doesn’t know, nor does he care. Still, he doesn’t let his hopes get too high like he had with Medli. There’s still plenty of ways this could go wrong, after all. 

“I don’t know,” he shakes his head as he rises to stand once more. “Do you want to help me find out?”

“Yes!” Makar squeaks, excited, as he hops around on his short, wooden legs. Farore bless him , Link thinks, practically beside himself with relief. He has half a mind to pull the Korok into a tight, grateful hug when Makar suddenly says something that turns his plans totally upside down. 

“We should ask the Great Deku Tree for help too!” he exclaims, already hopping up the path. “All of the smoke from the fires has been making him sick, but I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you again after all this time!”

“I’m sure he won’t be…” Link mutters, mostly to himself. After his unfortunate encounters with the wind gods, the Fairy Queen, and even Valoo, his track record with the Great Sea’s guardians has been less than stellar lately. He’s almost certain the Great Deku Tree will be much the same, but Makar is still making a beeline for the haven’s entrance anyway. 

“And then, once we find out who’s really behind all of those monsters, you can help us get rid of them for good!” he cheerfully proclaims. “You will help… won’t you, Link?”

He stops, long enough to glance back. Despite his misgivings, Link folds, offering him a wan, weary smile. “I’ll do whatever I can,” he promises and he means it. Because maybe, once he’s finally rid of this vile curse, he really can help the likes of the Koroks and the Rito. Maybe he really can return to Outset, to set things right with his neighbors, with his. 

Maybe, just maybe, home will finally start to feel like home again. 

Makar lets out a delighted squeal as he hobbles on ahead. For his part, Link decides to do things his way. If he insists they get an audience before the Great Deku Tree before they leave, then so be it. He’ll just have to do what he can to convince the guardian of his innocence where he’s failed several times already. Easy , he thinks grimly as he steals another glance down at the curse still creeping over his arms. At the sun, already hanging so high in the sky, signifying the time so swiftly slipping away from him.. 

At the first hints of flames he sees the second he and Makar step foot into the haven. 

The scene before them is a chaotic one. Fire fills the haven, greedily consuming anything even remotely flammable, from trees to grass to everything in between. Dodging those flames are the Koroks, screeching and crying in terror as they run about and glide on Deku leaves, desperately trying to avoid the blaze. The pure spring that once ran through the trees has long since dried up, leaving them with nothing but the distant sea beyond the haven’s walls to douse the flames with. And, in the midst of those flames, setting even more off by the second, are monsters . 

A small but substantial army of moblins and bokoblins swarms the woods, torches in hand to set anything and everything ablaze. Link hasn’t seen such creatures in years, not since he’d taken Bellum out and the scourge of monsters besetting the World of the Ocean King along with it. But to see them here, in the Great Sea, attacking such sacred ground and such defenseless creatures–

He can’t take it. He won’t stand by and watch this ocean, his ocean suffer for one second longer. 

So, Link runs ahead without thinking, ignoring Makar’s warning in favor of charging at the first moblin he sees. He has no sword, no weapons at all really, but he doesn’t need any. Not when he catches the monster off guard and shoves it hard, straight into the very fire it just set. 

He doesn’t bother to stand by and watch the creature roast alive. Instead, he pushes another monster into the exact same fate, beating it back with a charred branch when it tries to escape the flames. A few Koroks turn to watch, awestruck, as Link makes his way through the woods, doing what he can to snuff this threat out. It doesn’t take them long to realize he’s giving them a much-needed advantage. With each monster slain, less fires are being set, allowing the ocean water they bring to go a bit further in quenching the blaze. Still, that doesn’t do much to keep the other pressing problem here at bay. 

Fueled by adrenaline and anger as he is, it takes a while for Link to notice the way his lungs are burning. And, thanks to the curse, it takes him even longer to feel just how dangerously hot his skin actually is until it shifts. And when it does, the heat becomes so intense he feels like he’s literally on fire. 

And, with the flames pushing in tight all around him, he might as well be. 

Whatever fight he had left in him quickly falls apart as a strained, strangled cry slips out of his raw throat. He gasps for air, only to find there’s not much against the toxic smoke taking its place. He breathes it in unwillingly, choking hard against it as he slips to the smoldering ground beneath him. His vision is hazy, his head swimming, his chest aching, and all the while, the curse continues assaulting him, burning him alive from the inside out. 

None of the other Koroks see it, but Makar does. A moblin, large and lumbering, emerges from a veil of smoke, a heavy club slung over its shoulder. It stomps its way over to where Link sits in a half-conscious daze as the smoke and the curse ravage his body alike. It takes a moment to sniff him, almost as if it's confirming something, before it raises its club high into the air. 

“No!” Makar squeals, terrified. He calls upon a Deku leaf, propelling himself through the air, through the smoke, through the flames, in the slim hopes of reaching Link in time. And indeed, he does, bounding in just as the moblin begins to bring its club down-

And yet, it never hits either of them.

Instead, a thick, powerful vine bursts from the charred forest floor. It coils tight around the moblin’s body, strangling the life out of it in an instant. Makar clumsily falls to the ground, only able to watch as the monster vanishes in a puff of dark magic. His savior soon becomes apparent as even more vines emerge, taking out the rest of the horde in a similar manner. A wave of relief washes over the surrounding Koroks, one that’s short lived when a loud, anguished cough cuts through the air. 

“Great Deku Tree!” Makar hobbles forward, eager to see his caretaker through the smog. He can only barely make out the ancient tree’s features, rife with exhaustion as he hacks out another terrible couch. 

“Little Makar…” the Great Deku Tree’s voice, while frail, is filled with concern nonetheless. “I am glad to see you are unharmed.”

Before Makar can even say another word, a loud, heavy thud sounds just behind him. He spins around to find Link, finally having succumbed to the smoke as he lay in a soot-stained heap. The fires have mostly been put out in this part of the forest, leaving a few other curious Koroks to gather around and see what will become of the hero they once knew. 

“Oh no!” Makar cries. He makes an attempt at running to check on Link, only for another one of the Deku Tree’s vines to gently push him back before he can get too close. “Great Deku Tree, please, I-”

“Makar,” the Deku Tree admonishes in his usual calm, patient way. “I have warned you about this before. The Hero of Winds may have once been our friend, but his heart has changed; he is dangerous now. Far too dangerous for any of you anywhere near.”

“He doesn’t seem dangerous to me…” Makar mutters, glancing down. 

“Do not forget who brought this scourge of monsters, or these endless flames upon us, Makar.” The Deku Tree pauses, long enough to let another rattling cough or two out, before he continues. “His actions have brought great strife and destruction upon not just our home, but the Great Sea as a whole. And as a guardian of this ocean, I cannot allow him to-”

“But he didn’t do any of that!” 

By now, some of the smoke has cleared, allowing Makar to see the quizzical look filling the Deku Tree’s wooden face more clearly. A long beat of silence follows, only filled by the sound of the other Koroks whispering amongst themselves, until the Deku Tree simply says, “Explain.”

Makar does exactly that. “He said someone is pretending to be him. He doesn’t know who, but I wanna help him find out! And besides,” he glances back at the listless hero behind him. “He was trying to stop the monster just a minute ago. Why would he do that if he brought them here? That wouldn’t make any sense! Don’t you see, Great Deku Tree?” Makar takes a step forward, entirely earnest in his appeal. “Link doesn’t want to hurt us, not anymore; he wants to help us.”

A hushed ripple of intrigue washes over the other Koroks when they hear this. A few of them even start to agree with Makar–the evidence does seem sound,  after all. But they soon find that their stalwart, ancient guardian is much harder to convince. 

“Oh, Makar,” he chides, using a vine to draw the Korok up closer to him. “I know Link was once a good friend of yours. But you mustn’t allow yourself to be drawn in by his treachery and lies.”

“He wasn’t lying!” Makar protests once more. Even then, his uncertainty slips through the cracks when he worriedly mutters, “At least… I don’t think he was…”

The Deku Tree lets out a long, sad sigh. He lowers Makar back to the ground, a safe distance away from where Link lies still on the forest floor. “Your heart is pure, but I’m afraid you are far too trusting, little one. Look there.” He directs Makar’s attention to Link, or more specifically, to the dully glowing blue and red marks marring most of his body, shining through the ash and soot on his skin. “He has been branded–cursed–by the hand of her highness, the Fairy Queen herself.”

A round of stunned gasps echoes among the Koroks when they hear this. Makar is also surprised, but for entirely different reasons. The Fairy Queen has always been highly revered among the Kororks, as far back as when her fairy servants used to guard and guide the children of the forest ages ago. Makar had never met her personally, but he’s heard enough about her from the Great Deku Tree to know that she’s every bit as mighty and powerful as she is gracious and kind. So if Link somehow managed to incur her wrath, to the point of being on the receiving end of her curse… 

What could that possibly mean? 

Just as the first hints of doubt started setting in, another one of the Deku Tree’s vines gently pulls him back again. “I can sense you feel compassion toward him, Makar, but there is no need. The one who has brought this terrible, burning blight upon our home deserves no such kindness.”

Makar knows the Deku Tree’s wisdom is well worth listening to. And yet, as he casts another fretful glance back at Link, he still makes one last effort all the same. “But Great Deku Tree, I-”

“Speak no more of it, Makar,” he implores calmly, but firmly. “Just know that everything I do, I do to protect you and your fellow Koroks. From anything, and any one who might seek to cause you harm…”

Makar can only watch, crestfallen, as a handful of other Koroks glide in on the Deku Tree’s instructions. They scavenge lengthy vines from the remains of the latest fire, tying them tightly around Link’s limbs and torso. With those tethers secure, they use their Deku leaves to propel themselves up into the air first, before slowly dragging his limp body up after them. As out of it as he still is, he doesn’t even notice when they begin to carry him up and out of the haven altogether. 

From his spot near the Deku Tree, Makar can barely stand to watch, but he does, just the same, as his former friend is ripped away from him. It isn’t long before it becomes far too much to bear, to the point that he can’t help himself any longer. He knows the Deku Tree will scold him for it later, but that doesn’t matter. Without a word, he pulls out his own Deku leaf, taking flight after the others, if only to see what’s about to become of Link for himself. 

As the other Koroks glide out toward the sea, Makar briefly fears they plan on dropping him into the water like dead weight. Fortunately, they end up shifting their path, instead hovering back over to the base of the shore. There, the makeshift sailboat Link came here still sits, and that’s where the Koroks ultimately drop him. From there, they turn their leaves into fans, using them to cast both that boat and its unconscious passenger out into the sea. 

Slowly, Makar comes to land on the edge of the shore. He can only watch as that boat drifts ever further out into the open ocean, leaving Link alone to whatever fate might await him, no matter how grim that fate might be. 

“I still believe you,” he admits only to himself. And he means it too. How could he not believe the one who saved him from the Forbidden Woods, the hero who helped him awaken to his true purpose as a sage? How could he not believe the hero who had wanted to, promised to, help them when they needed it most, even now, even still? 

How could he not believe a friend as kind and honest and good as Link?

And yet… that belief does little for Link now. Hours later, he awakens on his tiny boat, adrift somewhere far from Forest Haven thanks to the ocean’s currents. The sun has all but sunk past the horizon, signaling the end of another day of the far too few he has left. 

Though his lungs are clear, the curse surges violently against him, powerfully painful to the point that it nearly knocks him out all over again. And yet, between clenched teeth and the tears springing to life he can only think about how he’s still no closer than he was when he started. He still hasn’t found out who his mysterious, malicious imposter is. He still hasn’t found someone to vouch for him to the Fairy Queen–for Din’s sake, he didn’t even get a chance to ask Makar. He still hasn’t even begun to even take the first step in setting any of this right. 

And, with only one day left to live, with so many standing so unfairly against him, with so little hope to hold onto… he’s starting to wonder if he ever will at all.

The blade slides smoothly into the bokoblin’s chest, ending its life in an instant. She pulls it out just as deftly as she drove it in, wasting no time in turning to the next monster in her path. She usually favors her cutlass, but her pistol is more powerful by far. The weapon is a relatively new addition to her arsenal, a new invention in general, one that had come at a pretty rupee. But in Tetra’s eyes, the firepower it provides far outweighs its cost. After only a year or so in her hands, it’s more than paid for itself. 

She pulls the trigger, firing a metal bullet straight at the moblin in front of her. With a lot of patience and practice, she’s become a pretty good shot, and none of her crew is surprised to watch their captain land yet another hit to the head, right between the eyes. 

They take the rest of the monsters out in short order. The scuffle is enough to wear through the last few bullets Tetra has on her, but that’s fine. Her cutlass is more than enough to finish the final few stragglers off. As soon as they’re all gone, the pirates barely have a second to breathe before another horde of an entirely different kind is upon them. 

Despite the devastation it faced more than half a decade ago, Greatfish Isle has bounced back over the last few years in a big way. The once humble fishing village nestled in its hills has turned into a thriving trading hub, not quite large enough to rival Windfall, but still respectable in its own right. Tetra and her crew are regular visitors, mostly for the sake of trading. Of which there was little going on today with its residents shuttered away in their homes to avoid the sudden monster onslaught. 

Not wanting to waste a trip all the way out here, Tetra had ordered her men to get to work before jumping into the fray herself. Now, with the pest cleared out, the market has already begun to reopen as residents rush to thank their saviors. Tetra leaves Gonzo to deal with most of them; the rush of the battle is only just leaving her and she might just end up snapping at someone if they say the wrong thing. Besides, as much as she’s loathed to admit it, he’s better at brokering gifts from grateful, gullible saps than she is anyway. 

Instead, she finds herself wandering over to the far side of the shore on her own. After a few years of practice, she’s more than steady on her peg by now, even upon unsteady sands such as these. She crosses her arms as she steps just shy of the shallows, frowning at the open ocean ahead. 

“Just how long is this going to go on for…?” she whispers to no one in particular. Or rather, to someone she hasn’t seen in months now. It’s a good thing for him that she hasn’t; there’s no guarantee she won’t put a bullet straight through his chest the next time she does. 

Her thoughts are soon broken when she spots something being pulled in by the waves. It’s a strange, thin little white thing, so small that it's hard to make out against the surf. Tetra takes another step into the water to catch it just before the waves pull it back. The delicate, elegant baton she pulls up from the water is enough to shock her stiff

The Wind Waker. 

Of course, she hasn’t seen it in years, but she’d recognize it anywhere. Back when he still sailed with them– back before he lost his damn mind , Tetra sullenly thinks–Link had used it plenty of times to shift the winds in their favor. He’d tried teaching Tetra how to use it a handful of times, but she’d never had a knack for the unique rhythms of the sea and sky the way he did. The thought of him, young and bright-eyed and smiling, raising that baton high into the air to skillfully conduct the ocean breeze makes something inside of her chest twist. Maybe because it’s such a far cry from what he’s turned into since; it’s such a far cry from the monster he’s become. 

She slips the Wind Waker into her pocket when she notices Gonzo approaching her out of the corner of her eye. By now, the other men have amassed an impressive bounty of spoils, in both gifts and trades alike, as they work on hauling their load back onto the ship. An easy day of easy profits, Tetra thinks, stifling a smirk. All we had to do was kill another bunch of monsters for it. 

“We’re nearly ready to shove off, Miss,” Gonzo reports. He pauses when Tetra only nods, still keeping her sights set on the sea. “You alright?”

“Alright? Yeah,” she says, scowling. “Annoyed? Even more so. That’s the third pack of monsters we’ve had to ward off this week alone. These attacks are getting worse, more frequent. And that’s on top of everything else that’s going on.”

Gonzo can’t help but grimly agree. “Just the other day, Nudge was tellin’ me he heard that the storms on Dragon Roost are gettin’ bad–real bad. Same for the fires at Forest Haven. The kid’s making a real mess of things, yeah?”

Tetra nods, turning her gaze back to the island behind them. She’s heard the same thing just about everyone else on the Great Sea has, about exactly who’s behind this rising tide of violent destruction. She didn’t want to believe it at first, but now… with so much evidence stacked against him… there isn’t much room left to doubt. As much as she still wished there was. 

“There still hasn’t been any sign of him?” she asks as she idly watches a few shopkeepers repair the damage the monsters had done to their stalls. 

“None,” Gonzo shakes his head. “But there are rumors that he’s holing himself up at the Forsaken Fortress these days.”

Tetra lets out a bitter scoff. “Wouldn’t surprise me, the way he’s been acting lately. Still, even if it is just hearsay, I guess it’d be worth our while to check it out after our next stop at Windfall. He can’t keep running from us forever.”

“‘Hoy, Miss,” Gonzo dutifully nods. “I’ll let the others know. We’re ready to weigh anchor whenever you are.”

Tetra opens her mouth to reply, but quickly stops herself. Because there, high in the hills above the village, a shadow suddenly slips by. Most wouldn’t think much of it–a simple trick of the bright sunlight, perhaps–but Tetra knows better. She can feel it in her gut. She knows he’s here , watching her, just as he’s done so many times before. 

And this time, she’s not about to let him slip away from her so easily. 

“I’m gonna do one last sweep,” she tells Gonzo as evenly as possible. “Just to make sure the last of the pests are gone. I’ll join you in just a few.”

Thankfully, Gonzo doesn’t question her like he might’ve when she was younger, scrappier, less skilled. There’s plenty of benefits of finally being seen as an adult in the eyes of her crew–this is just one of them. When the part ways, Tetra makes sure to steer clear of the village, of any prying eyes that may ruin this before it can even begin. Instead, she climbs up to the hills using a long-abandoned craggy path, her cutlass already tight in her hand. Her pistol is too, even though it's empty, but he doesn’t need to know that. 

When she reaches the hills, unsurprisingly, he’s nowhere to be seen. She’s on the verge of calling out when suddenly, his voice–smug and snide as ever–sounds out from behind her. “Aw, princess… Did you come up all this way on your own just to see me? I’m flattered.”

She whips around to face him, cutlass and pistol both raised and ready at the very sight of him. And goddesses , it takes everything in her not to waver when she sees him. He looks different–much different–than he had the last time she saw him. In almost no time at all, his hair has grown longer, somehow even turned a touch darker while his skin has managed to get even paler. His tunic is entirely different, now a dull shade of green, opened low to reveal his chest, smooth and well-toned. Tetra quickly catches herself staring–ogling, really–before she focuses on his eyes. Sharp, dark, and tainted by that inexplicable, downright haunting shade of red that she’s come to hate so very much. Just like the rest of him, in all honesty. 

“What’s-” she chokes out, quickly clearing her throat. Din above, he’s done this on purpose, coming to her looking like this . How in the world can someone so despicable still manage to look so damn good ? “What’s with that getup?” she finally manages to ask. 

“Oh, this?” he smirks, briefly looking over himself. “Figured I’d try out something new.” His coy, downright flirtatious smile widens as he ventures a step closer to her. “Why? Do you like it?”

“Ugh, no ,” Tetra sneers. Nayru only knows how she wishes she were lying. “Hold it,” she warns, aiming her pistol at his head when he edges in even further. “If I were you, I’d stay right where you are, unless you want that stupid fucking face of yours blown to bits.”

Link only laughs as he confidently perches a finger on the top of her gun. “It’s empty , princess. You really think I don’t already know that?” 

Tetra bristles, pulling her pistol away in favor of replacing it with her sword. “Fine. Don’t need it anyway. It’ll be just as easy to finish you off with this.”

“Finish me off?” Link raises an eyebrow, still smiling. “That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think, Tetra?”

“After all the shit you’ve been pulling lately? Hardly.”

“But I thought we were ‘friends’,” Link goads as he begins a slow, wide circle around her. “Or at least we used to be. Honestly, I think we’re long past that point by now. And if you ask me-” Despite keeping her eyes trained on him, Tetra freezes when he suddenly disappears without a trace. Only for his hands to land squarely on her shoulders as his whispering voice tickles her ear. “I wouldn’t mind being much more than that.”

Tetra flushes red as a scream erupts from her throat. She swiftly swings her cutlass, hoping to catch him squarely in the gut. But in the blink of an eye he vanishes once more–and reappears, standing squarely on the flat edge of her outstretched sword. 

“W-what-” Tetra gapes up at him. She doesn’t feel his weight on her weapon at all , as if he isn’t even there. Whatever magic Link’s using to pull a trick like this off is unlike anything she’s ever seen. No doubt the same sort of magic he used to bring that storm to Dragon Roost, to start those fires in Forest haven. To spread so much pain and misery across the entire ocean. 

“Careful, princess,” he teases. “Something this sharp isn’t a toy. Maybe you ought to hand it over to me instead.”

In a move so fast and so sudden she could have never seen it coming, Link flips off of her blade, yanking it clean out of her hand in the process. Tetra yelps, stumbling back as she realizes she’s been effectively disarmed, with only her empty, useless pistol left to defend herself with. Link, on the other hand, grins down at his newly-claimed cutlass, smoothly running over a finger over its shining silver edge. “Wow,” he notes, seemingly impressed. “This is a pretty fancy weapon. Still, it’s nowhere near as special as another sword we both know.”

The Master Sword … the words nearly slip out of Tetra’s mouth unbidden. Why, in Din’s name, would he be bothering to bring that up here, now? What did that long-buried blade have to do with anything? 

She shakes her head to clear it in favor of focusing on her own blade, now being pointed straight at her. She takes another small step back, and Link follows, still grinning all the while. “Go ahead, try it,” she threatens gruffly. “Lay one scratch on me and I’ll scream so loud my entire crew will come running. Then we’ll see just how ‘tough’ you really are.”

“Aw, what?” Link chuckles. “Can’t fend me off yourself? Still have to rely on your crew just like you did when you were a little girl? Guess things really haven’t changed that much at all.” To Tetra’s surprise, he throws the sword down, letting it plant into the soil only inches away from her feet. Without a second thought, she lunges to reclaim it, turning its tip back on him in an instant. Even so, Link is hardly phased. 

“Huh,” he finally frowns, disappointed. “And here I thought you’d make this more interesting for me, princess. After all this time to stew over just how much you apparently ‘hate’ me, you still don’t have it in you to stop me. It’d be a shame, really… if it wasn’t so adorable .”

Something in Tetra snaps when she hears this. Without warning, she makes her move, and this time, she’s the one to catch him off guard. But just barely. Link jumps back just as her cutlass makes contact with his arm. She lands a sizable cut, not that she gets to see much of it before he covers the wound with his hand. If she didn’t know any better, she’d almost think the glimpse of blood she caught pouring from it was black instead of red. 

“Damn,” he swears, before letting out a laugh. “Guess you got me there, princess. Nice one.” Suddenly, he pulls his hand away, revealing that the cut is inexplicably gone . Tetra scowls at the sight, at how he’s so easily able to undo any strides she might make against him, every single time. “But not nice enough. It’d let you try again, but I’m afraid I’ve gotta get going. Big things are about to happen, and I don’t want to miss a second of it.”

“Big things?” Tetra questions, suddenly worried. “Like what?”

Link’s grin grows sharper–and far more wicked–than ever before. “Let’s just say… after all this time, I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for.”

Nothing about that sits right with Tetra. She wants to catch him, to interrogate him, to stop him somehow. But like always, the opportunity slips out of her reach far before she can even try. “I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again soon, princess,” Link turns his back on her and marches off. She doesn’t hesitate to break into a run to try and stop him. “Until we meet again,” he glances back at her, blows her a kiss, and then, just like that–

He’s gone. 

Tetra’s cutlass hits only the empty air where he once stood only seconds too late. She swears, furiously digging the tip of her blade into the ground as she runs a hand through her hair. How does he do it, every single time? How is he always able to come out on top, to slip away within an inch of his life? 

How is he always able to rattle her like this, right down to her very core? 

It doesn’t matter , she sternly tells herself as she reclaims her sword. Subtly, she checks her pocket, making sure that he didn’t manage to steal the Wind Waker when she wasn’t looking. Thankfully, it’s still there; the last thing she needs to worry about now is even more power falling into his already dangerous hands. She does what she can to shake the image of that smile, cruel and cold and cunning and alluring , out of her mind. Instead, she focuses on what he said, on what he might’ve possibly meant. 

“Big things are about to happen and I don’t want to miss a second of it.”

“After all this time, I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for.”

What in Farore’s name could that mean? What’s he been looking for? Where has he found it? Why was the search for it enough to drive him into such destructive depravity? So many questions fill Tetra’s mind, to the point that they quickly start to overwhelm her. Link’s motives, like always, remain a frustrating mystery left unsolved. But she knows she doesn’t need answers, not really. Not when so many are suffering at his hands, not when she still stands even a small chance at stopping it all 

“Listen here, you sick bastard,” she mutters, almost certain she still has his ear. “Whatever it is you’re planning, I’m not going to let you get away with it. We may have saved this ocean together before-” She stops herself, shaken by just how painful the mere memory of that is even now. By how much her foolish heart somehow misses him even still. “But if I have to save it on my own now, then so be it. I will finish this, no matter what I have to do, no matter where I have to go, no matter what it takes.”

She sighs as she turns back to the shore, to her ship. To a future that starts to look more and more uncertain and unsteady by the day. “I’ll finish this,” she whispers, this time only to herself. “I’ll finish him . I have to. There’s no other way.”

Chapter Text

Link spends the next several hours adrift, in far more ways than one. 

Honestly, he’s not even sure what he should be doing in what are likely the last few hours of his life. Should he be fighting tooth and nail to do everything in his waning power to find a way to fend off this deadly curse? Return to the Fairy Queen for one final, futile appeal for his life? Go back to Outset, get on his hands and knees, and beg Aryll to at the very least let him die at home? 

From where Link’s floating, all of those options seem equally impossible. His tiny boat bobs along all alone somewhere in the Great Sea’s open northern waters. He tries to savor the afternoon sunshine–for all he knows, this may be his last chance to ever see it. But all he feels instead is cold, bitter cold to the point that he wonders if he’s freezing to death from the inside out. He only has to worry for a moment before the curse suddenly shifts. Within seconds, it's as if he’s standing on the surface of the sun. As agonizing as it all is, he doesn’t scream or cry out. Why bother, when he knows no one will hear him? When he knows no one would care, even if they did?

By now, the curse has gotten to the point that even moving is painful, so he doesn't. Instead, he simply lay on the floor of his boat, letting the wind and waves carry him whatever they wish. With only the sounds of the sea to serenade him, it’s strangely peaceful, especially after the upheaval of the last few days. He hasn’t slept since his return to the Great Sea–and his body is craving it as much as it craves even a morsel to eat. But thanks to the curse and the tight time limit that came along with it, both have been equally hard to come by. He almost drifts off now, rocked by the soothing swell of the ocean beneath him–only for the constantly conflicting tides of the curse to keep him awake at every turn. 

Eventually, he gives up on sleep altogether. If nothing else, it means he’ll at least get to watch one last sunset. Even if he’s fated to spend that sunset–along with his final few fleeting moments–entirely alone . 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers to Linebeck and Ciela, now somewhere worlds away. “I never should have left…” 

His words won’t reach them, he knows they won’t. And neither will any of his heartbroken wishes to return to them, to talk to them, to even just see them one last time. 

The tears start flowing before he can even think to stop them. How did this even happen? How did he end up here, all on his own at the end of his life? It wasn’t supposed to be like this, none of this was. He was supposed to come home, he was supposed to warmly reunite with his friends and family. He was supposed to have the rest of his life ahead of him. 

He wasn’t supposed to be cast out, to be coldly accused, to be cruelly cursed. He wasn’t supposed to die . 

He doesn’t know how much time passes after that. All he can really do is watch the sun continue to creep its way across the sky, hours slowly ticking down all the while. How long will it be until none remain for him? How long will it be before he opens his eyes for the last time, before he takes his final breath? Before he passes on from this world… and into whatever awaits him in the next? 

A soft scraping against the side of his boat catches him off guard. It takes all of the energy he still has left in him to partially sit up to watch the canoe skim the side of a sizable searock. Fortunately, his vessel isn’t damaged, outside of a large scuff on its wooden hull. He must be drifting close to land, a suspicion that’s all but confirmed when he takes a glance up to find a familiar silhouette sitting on the horizon against the dying sunlight:

The unmistakable windmill of Windfall Island. 

With nowhere else to really go, Link lets his boat continue drifting in that direction. He doesn’t plan on disembarking–the last thing he needs now is anyone else rallying against him for crimes he didn’t commit. But at least if he dies on or around Windfall, his body won’t be left to the sea. Maybe someone will recognize him when they find him, cold and unmoving, tomorrow morning. Maybe someone will even be kind enough to send his remains back to Outset after all. 

It takes far more trouble than it should for him to maneuver his boat to rest in the small alcove on the island’s southern shore. It’s a quiet, secluded place, the same place he first met the King. His heart hangs heavy with the memory as he lies back down in his boat, staring up at the weathered stone above him. Back then, it had made him feel safe, to come back here with the King as company. Now, so many years later, with no one here to speak a single word of solace to him, it only feels like a tomb. 

And in just a few hours, that’s exactly what it will be. 

The sun has just about set by the time something upsets the shallows surrounding his boat. Slowly, Link sits up, a weak groan echoing through the cave along with the labored effort. From the stern of his canoe, he can only barely make out the side of a massive ship pulling in to dock along the cliffside. At first, he can’t be bothered to care much about it–probably just another trade vessel, one of many Windfall sees on a daily basis. But then–

He hears a voice. Her voice. 

“Try not to have too much fun tonight, ok?” Tetra tells her crew from the deck of her ship. “I don’t want to have to come scrubbing any of your drunken asses off the streets again like last time.” 

“Aye, Miss!” The crew salutes as they hurry off the gangway, eager to begin another exciting night on the town. As usual, Gonzo is the only one who lingers behind. 

“You sure you don’t wanna join us, Miss?” he asks. “You’ve been working real hard lately. You could use a break, yeah?”

“Believe me, babysitting you lot on one of your ‘grog nights’ isn’t my idea of a break,” Tetra sneers, smirking. “‘Besides, someone has to stay behind and chart out our course for the next few weeks. Might as well be me.”

“If you say so,” Gonzo relents, turning to leave. “Just be careful, yeah? If he shows up-”

“Hey, I keep this strapped to my belt for a reason,” Tetra pats her pistol. “Now get out of here and go catch up with the others. I’m sure at least a few of them have already embarrassed themselves by now. Try to reign ‘em in for me, alright?”

“You got it, Miss,” Gonzo grins as he heads off. Link listens for the sound of his footsteps to fade before he shakily pulls himself out of his boat. His footsteps are unsteady, splashing loudly through the shallows as he emerges from the cove. Sure enough, Tetra’s ship sits just feet away, tall and mighty–exactly as he remembered it–as it basks in the glow of the setting sun. It’s here. They’re here. 

She’s here . 

And if she’s here… if can get to her… if he can make her see the truth… then maybe… just maybe… 

He might just live through the night after all. 

There isn’t a second to waste. Every movement is a struggle, but he forces himself to ignore the pain as he hobbles up the hill toward the cliff. The marks of the curse glow bright against his skin, pulsing with the very power destroying him more and more each second. He can only hope Tetra will recognize him despite them. He can only hope she’ll recognize him despite the malicious imposter pretending to wear his face. 

He falls to his knees at least three times on his way to the gangway. Each time, regaining his footing becomes harder and harder to do. Still, he doesn’t give up. How can he now, when he’s so close to someone who could save him? How can he, when this moment has been so long overdue? 

How can he, when he’s spent the past five years waiting, searching, hoping, dreaming of her? 

He stumbles his way onto the deck of the ship, his footfalls as noisy and clumsy as ever. He swears under his breath as he makes his way over to the nearest railing, desperate to keep himself upright. With the crew living it up in town, the ship feels abandoned. Tetra must have gone below deck, leaving Link with little to do but hope she hears him up here. He’s not so sure he’ll be able to make it all the way down to her otherwise. 

Sure enough, in the quiet calm of her quarters, Tetra toils over her sea charts by candlelight. She works on pathing the course to their next destination: the Forsaken Fortress. It’s the best lead they have of finding him, of confronting him on his own turf. Of finally putting an end to the suffering he’s spread far and wide across the Great Sea. 

Still, she can’t help but sigh as her eyes settle on the Wind Waker, lying still and silent on her desk. She remembers the bright, magical melodies he used to conduct with it, with an excited smile on his face and a warm spark in his eyes. What she’d give to hear those songs again, to see that smile, filled with kindness instead of cruelty. 

What she’d give to have the boy she thought she knew so well back from the barely recognizable shadow he’s become. 

Tetra nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears a sudden thud from above deck. Her nerves have been getting the better of her more often than she’d like to admit lately. She stills her hand, quill hovering just above a map, as somethin scuffles its way across the deck of her ship. She shakes her head, suspecting one of her crew members, back early from a night of reckless abandon, except–

They haven’t even been gone an hour yet. Nowhere near long enough for any of them to come crawling back drunk out of their senses. Which means… someone else has boarded her ship instead. Someone who doesn’t belong there. 

Her pistol is still strapped to her belt, but she brings her cutlass along for good measure as she quietly climbs up to the top deck. The autumn evening is crisp, the sky still aglow in the soft shades of twilight. And, propping himself against the starboard railing of her ship, clinging onto it for dear life is the last person she could have expected, or wanted, to see. 

Link loses his grip on the railing, slipping to his hands and knees with a sharp cry as a burst of fiery heat fills his veins. His vision swims, to the point that he doesn’t notice someone swiftly approaching him. He doesn’t even spot the sandaled foot and sturdy peg leg as they stop just shy of his field of view. But he does feel the cold metal of a blade perch under his chin, slowly guiding his head up to find–

The most beautiful sight he’s ever laid eyes on. 

He always thought she’d been pretty when they were younger, the prettiest girl he knew, really, not that he knew too many. But now… now … goddesses, she’s stunning . Her skin is at least three shades darker than it’d been five years ago, making her midnight eyes stand out even more. Her hair is still the same shade as a golden rupee, still tied up in her usual bun, though some spills down in a thin layer just long enough to skim her neck. The cobalt coat she’s taken to wearing is elegant, yet not too elegant, befitting a pirate captain just as much as the wooden peg that’s taken the place of her left leg does. There’s a story behind that peg he longs to know, but he won’t bother asking now. Instead, the only thing he can even manage to get out is a feeble, feverish, “Tetra…” 

She doesn’t move her blade from its spot near his throat. Her eyes narrow down at him, a stern frown hanging on her scarlet lips as she harshly asks him, “What in Din’s name do you think you’re doing here?”

Despite waiting for and wanting this moment for so very long, Link realizes… he suddenly has no idea what to say to her. “I… I just-”

He stops, falling into stark silence when something sharply clicks against his forehead. He isn’t familiar with the weapon Tetra has aimed at his temple, but he certainly doesn’t want to find out what it does. “How many times have I had to tell you? Stay off my ship, you lousy, no account bastard.” 

Link already knows where such a harsh reception is coming from; despite his best hopes, his new, unwanted reputation has reached even her. Still, he can’t help but cough out a rough laugh, in spite of himself. “I-it’s good to see you too.”

Tetra’s already vicious scowl only fiercens at this. She presses her blade in, until its edge is dangerously close to drawing blood from his neck. “Answer the damn question or else you can kiss your head goodbye. What are you doing here?” 

Link takes in an unsteady breath. What little time he has left, what little ground he still has to stand on, both must be used wisely here. Which is why he meets Tetra’s gaze squarely, intently, desperately , and tells her, “I need your help.” 

Tetra sneers, as if she’s disgusted by him. After everything he’s heard “he’s” apparently done in his absence, Link can’t really blame her. “Help with what? Screwing over even more innocent people? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I’m too busy trying to stop you and all your twisted bullshit once and for all.” 

This is already going every bit as bad as things had on Dragon Roost and Forest Haven. Still, Link persists. Unlike before, there is no stubborn deity he has to convince this time. Now, the only mind he needs to change is Tetra’s. 

For as infamously stubborn as he knows she was–and apparently still is–he realizes just how much of a challenge that might be. 

“Tetra, please, just listen to me,” he begins. He tries to sit up a bit straighter, only for the curse and the edge of Tetra’s cutlass to keep him right where he is. “I know you’ve heard a lot about what I’ve–what someone who looks like me has been doing around here, but none of it is-”

“Heard about it? I’ve seen it!” Tetra cuts him off. “Everyone has. It’s not like you’ve been very subtle about how you turned against everything and everyone you used to fight for.”

“But that wasn’t me!” Link argues, adamant. “None of that has been me!”

“You really expect me to believe that?” Tetra raises an eyebrow. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about our little ‘chat’ on Greatfish yesterday. You may have slipped away just fine then, but I promise I will not let you leave this ship alive this time.”

“W-wait!” Link flinches when Tetra cocks her other weapon against his head again. Tetra stills her hand, caught off guard by just how genuinely… afraid he seems to be. A rare look on a face that she hasn’t seen carry it in quite some time. As for what else is on his face, however… 

“Those lines all over your skin… What’s the deal with that?” she asks warily. Jagged, unnatural streaks trace erratic patterns over his entire body, faintly pulsing red and blue. They’re most prominent on his face, reflecting their uneven glow in his tired, panic-stricken eyes. 

“I-I was cursed,” Link explains. “By the Fairy Queen, as a way to punish me for what she thought I did. I-if I can’t find a way to break the curse by midnight tonight, then… t-then I’ll-” He’s forced to cut himself off when a strangled cry breaks through his throat. An icy chill sends daggers splintering through his skin, sending him falling back, out of the way of both of Tetra’s weapons. He’s on the brink of passing out, and he fights to stay conscious with all the strength he has left in him. The sun is gone; there’s only a few more hours left now. And he can’t waste them, not when he still has even the smallest glimmer of a chance. 

By time time he manages to pull himself back up, Tetra has trained her blade on him all over again. Fortunately, the tiny, canon-like device in her other hand isn’t pressed against his skull anymore. Just one miracle when he could use so many more. “Well,” Tetra says, surprised by what she’d just seen. “I’ve gotta hand it to that Fairy Queen. This ‘punishment’ she’s dished out on you? It’s exactly what a traitorous piece of shit like you deserves.” 

Tetra used to call him plenty of names when they were younger: lazy bum, goofball, dolt, dumbass, the list went on. But she never truly meant any of it; not like she means this, for all the venom behind it. It strikes him, right down to his very core, just how much she hates him now. Maybe he can’t ever hope to change her mind completely; maybe their friendship–or anything he could have hoped to have beyond it–is truly well past saving, just like he is. 

But that doesn’t mean he still isn’t about to try. 

“Please,” he begs her again. He doesn’t bother saving face this time. He all but flattens himself to the floor, practically bowing at her feet. How fitting, he thinks for a hero and his princess. For a crew member and his captain. “ Please , Tetra, you have to believe me. What happened to the Rito, to the Koroks, all those monsters all over the ocean, I wasn’t behind any of it!” 

“Then who is ?” Tetra asks, clearly not buying a word he says.

“I wish I could tell you,” Link sighs, disraugh. “Whoever they are, they’ve done a great job of ruining my life while I’ve been gone. The Koroks were terrified of me, the Rito tried to lock me up, Aryll wouldn’t even let me inside our house!” He chokes up without meaning to, his voice tight as he feels tears starting to tell up in his eyes. “I’ve spent years trying to find a way to get back here. I thought, once I got back, I’d finally have everything I lost.” A sob finally slips its way out of him. His heart has been splintering ever since his sister slammed that door in his face; but now, as he sits on the wrong end of his captain’s blade, he can finally feel it shattering altogether. “But I was wrong. I don’t have any friends, any family, not even my own life anymore. I have nothing .” 

He cries openly, unable to stop himself, to seal the dam that once held back all of the despair flowing through him. He must look pathetic, in front of Tetra, no less, but he doesn’t care . Because once again, fate has been so goddess-damned unfair to him. And the worst part is, this time, there isn’t a single thing he can do about any of it. Not now, when no one will listen. Not now, when everyone he loves wants him dead. 

He doesn’t even blame Tetra when he hears her let out a soft, pitiless scoff. “You’re putting one heck of an act up this time, I’ll give you that,” she says, eyeing him critically. “I’ll admit, you nearly had me going there for a minute with those waterworks. But I’ve been on the wrong end of too many of your little ‘games’ before. And I swear to the goddesses above I will never fall for any of your lies ever again.” 

Link can only shake his head, despondent as he begins to watch his final hopes fall to pieces. “I’m not lying…” he says softly, sadly. 

“I know you are,” Tetra returns, her tone as cold as the ice cutting its way through Link’s body. “That’s all you seem to do anymore. And you know what the most fucked up thing about that is?” She tears her gaze away from her, her scowl turning bitter when she says, “Outside of my crew, you used to be the only person I was ever sure I trusted. There was a time I would have jumped through fire for you and you… you just tore it all apart, like none of it even mattered. And I don’t even know why .”

It shakes him to hear all of this. Tetra is nothing if not brutally honest, in almost everything she says and does. Even if he hadn’t been the one to do it, to know she’s felt been so brutally betrayed in the years he’d been gone, so let down by someone who had promised to stand by her side… Even if it hadn’t been him, he can’t help but feel at least a little responsible that any of it had happened at all. “Tetra…” he says, wanting to get so much more out than a simple, “I’m so sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” Tetra concludes, sighing. “If you were, you wouldn’t have done any of this in the first place.” She sheathes her pistol and pulls her cutlass back, pinching the bridge of her nose. She can barely stand to look at him anymore; at least she can take solace in the fact that, after tonight, she won’t have to ever again. 

“Might as well let that curse finish you off. I hope it's making you feel even a fraction of the pain you’ve been putting us all through for the past five years.” She turns away from him; whether he keels over on the deck of her ship or somewhere else, she couldn’t care less. Not now, not after everything he’s done. Which is why the last thing she plans on leaving him with is something quiet, cross, and mournful: “Some hero you turned out to be.”

She hears him whine, crestfallen, as she starts to walk away from him. He falls even further to the ground, weeping inconsolably. He’s committed to the bit, she’ll give him that. He’d better hope for his sake that the curse does actually end up killing him, or she’ll be more than happy to get her hands dirty by doing it herself. Still, it’s shocking, how pathetic even someone as smug and cocky as he is can get when they’re forced to state death straight in the face. She would have expected better from him; then again, she’s spent years expecting better of him, only to be disappointed at every turn. 

For his part, Link feels the full weight of her words crushing him. It’s the final blow, the nail in his coffin, one last rejection–perhaps the most painful of them all. In one fell swoop, Tetra has torn his last chance to shreds, crushed his waning hopes to rubble. 

Without even a second glance, she has condemned him to die. 

And so… he lets himself lay there, unable to move, unable to do anything but cry over it all like the miserable waste of space he is. How stupid could he be, thinking he could save the Great Sea again when he couldn’t even save himself? It’s just like what happened with Bellum all those years ago; at least back then he’d had Linebeck and the spirits to support him. This time, he has no one to even stay with him in his dying hours. He has nothing to comfort him as he fades away except-

Except the very thing he always used to cling onto in the darkest, bleakest moments. The strip of crimson cloth he used to wear around his neck, now wrapped tight around his belt. His fingers tremble as they skim it, as his gaze lifts to its rightful owner still walking away from him. Might as well return it, before it's too late, he figures. 

“T-Tetra,” he barely manages to get out, overwhelmed by pain and sorrow. 

Tetra groans, annoyed. “What?” she stops, not bothering to glance back at him. 

“I… I have something for you.”

She looks back at him, on high guard. Her hand rests on her pistol as she takes a step closer to him, morbidly curious. “Oh yeah?” she asks, feigning disinterest. “What is it?”

Link forces himself to sit up. His face is still wet with tears as he struggles to untie the scarf from his belt, but he manages it all the same. He holds it up to her, his hand still shaking all the while. “I-I promised to bring this back to you,” he says simply, earnestly. “I’m sorry I took so long.” 

Tetra freezes stiff the second she sees it. Her eyes widen, distrust slowly draining out of them to let shock fill its place. Slowly, she steps closer to him, her weapon still at the ready, just in case. She keeps eye contact with him as she carefully reaches down and takes the cloth from him. The moment her hand so much as skims the rough, well-worn strip of fabric, she knows. It’s the real thing. Even after years without it, she’d recognize the last heirloom her mother had to give her like the back of her hand. 

All this time, she thought he’d lost it. Or, much like the Wind Waker, he intentionally threw it away. But instead, he’d kept it, with no real reason to, nothing to gain, nothing to remember but the past he always seemed so eager to forget. He kept it… and brought it back to her. But why now, of all times? Is it because he’s actually on the verge of death? Is it a genuine show of remorse? Or is it just another trick, an attempt to lower her guard and lure her in before he finishes her off? 

She doesn’t know. She never seems to anymore, not when it comes to him. Nothing about this encounter makes any sense; nothing he’s said, nothing he’s done, nothing about his pleas, or his tears, or the scarf sitting in her hand. Nothing about him makes sense. And right now, she hates him for that more than she’s ever hated him for anything else. 

She finally glances up from the scarf to find him staring at her. In the dimming light of dusk, the magic marring his skin eerily shimmers, but so do his eyes, still shining with tears that refuse to stop. She sets her focus on those eyes, searching them like she has so many times before. Only this time… 

This time, she doesn’t find that hint of haunting, hateful scarlet staining his irises. 

This time, she doesn’t find any kind of cunning cruelty or thinly-veiled deceit. 

This time… all she sees… is green. Green as fresh as the grass, as vibrant as the trees, as pure as an emerald. Green that she hasn’t seen, true and untainted, since that fateful final day. When he stood, brave and ready to jump onto that damn ghost ship for her sake. When he smiled at her–a kind, real smile, not the fake, sickening flirtatious smirks she’s seen from him since. When he lied to her for the very first time, the most agonizing lie of them all: “Be back soon.”

He hadn’t come back to her. Not in any way she really wanted him to. Not in any way that actually mattered. For five long, painful years, there’d been far too many things standing between the two of them to count. For five years, she’d yearned for even a trace of what had once been. For years, she’d missed him most when he’d been standing right in front of him. For years, she thought she’d lost him entirely. Until… 

Until now . 

Her breath breaks on the sob she’s powerless to hold back. She grips her scarf like a vice as she sinks to her knees, her free hand trembling as she reaches to skim the side of his face. “L-Link…?” she questions, wondering if this is nothing but a dream she’s had so many times before. 

But then his hand slowly, gently covers hers, and he smiles at her, the exact same way he had back then as he simply says, “ Tetra… ” 

Even so, her stubborn heart finds room to doubt. “Is… is it really you?” she asks, terrified that she’s wrong, that he’s lying, that this is a trap -

“It is,” his smile widens as he gives her hand the smallest squeeze. 

This, of all things, is what finally pushes Tetra over the edge. Her walls crumble in an instant, and suddenly, her arms are wrapped around Link, her face buried into her shoulder as she cries with the kind of quiet dignity only a sea captain could carry. He returns the embrace as much as he’s able, his own tears coming much louder and less gracefully. But there isn’t a trace of grief to be found in them now.

Despite the pain pounding its way through every fiber of his being, Link feels like he’s just been dredged out of the darkest depths of the ocean. Suddenly, someone has finally listened. Someone has finally believed the truth. Someone finally sees him for who he really is. 

And bless all three of the goddess above, he’s so unspeakably happy that someone is her . 

He would have been perfectly content to stay there in her arms forever, but eventually, she does pull back. Her tears have stopped, but she’s still reeling as she tries to take in every last detail of his face. She has about a million questions she wants to ask him, but in the end, only one manages to properly make it out: “H-how… W-what… What happened to you?”

Link lets out a weak laugh. “It’s a long story, trust me. B-but there’s no time for that now.” His smile fades, a grave sort of seriousness taking its place as he notices the stars taking their place in the sky above them. For as wonderful as their reunion is, they’ll have to revel in it later. If there will even be a later at all. “We need to go to the Mother and Child Isles. You have to convince the Fairy Queen that I’m innocent so she’ll lift this curse.” He grabs her arms, desperately clinging onto her like the lifeline she very much is right now. “Please, Tetra. You’re the only one I can count on now.”

“O-of course,” she says immediately. It’s strange, to suddenly be the last hope of the one who was once hers. But she’s more than happy to return the favor now, if it’ll keep him alive. If it’ll keep him from slipping out of her reach ever again. “I’ll head into town and round up the crew right away. If we hurry, we could make it there in an hour. Think you can hold on for that long?”

“I’ll try,” Link winces against the flush of scorching heat just under his skin. “For you.”

“Goddesses, you’re still such a damn sap , Link,” Tetra can’t help but laugh. He drinks in the beautiful ring of it, loving it just as much now as he did back then.”You have no idea how much I missed that.” For the first time in years, she ties her scarf back around her neck as she rises, setting her sights on the town as its lights begins to glow for the emerging night. “Stay here until I get back. And don’t worry.” She reaches a hand down to him, letting him hold onto it for just one more moment of comfort when he so clearly needs it most. “We’ll stop this curse, together. You’ll be just fine. I promise.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that, princess .” 

Tetra’s heart drops to her stomach, her voice catching in her throat. She moves in an instant, protectively placing herself in front of Link, who can only sit there, every bit as confused as she is. Her gaze darts around the rigging of her ship as her hands latch onto her cutlass and pistol, all the while wondering what’s happening, where is he, how is he–

What is he?

None of her questions are answered as he slowly steps out of the shadows cast by the sail. “Aw, what a touching reunion,” he says cloyingly. “I almost hate to interrupt it. But unfortunately, I’m working on a pretty tight deadline here and I don’t have time to keep watching you two cry all over each other.” 

There he is. The Link Tetra has gotten used to hating, blood red glint in his eyes and all. Only now does she realize his face doesn’t bear the same scar over his eye as the Link behind her does. While she doesn’t know where that scar came from, she is familiar with the older one across his chest, a permanent reminder of their fateful fight with Ganondorf. From what she can see of it, the other Link’s chest is clean, completely bare–just one sign of many she should have paid more attention to, a sign that he’s not what he seems to be. 

Somewhere behind her, Link lets out a soft, stunned gasp at the sight of his near-perfect doppelganger. “W-what…?” he trails off, shocked speechless. 

“What’s the matter, ‘hero’?” the other Link taunts, his already cocky grin sharpening. The way his voice sounds, almost exactly like his own yet so remarkably different, rattles Link far more than he’d like to admit. “Not impressed by the resemblance? I think I’m pretty spot on, all things considered. Just ask your princess there; she’s spent the past five years falling for every little thing I said.”

“Piss off,” Tetra hisses. If look could kill, then he’d have been lying dead on the deck from the moment he stepped onto it. “Whatever ‘game’ you think this is, it's over . You’d better explain who you really are right now or you’ll have a bullet through your skull faster than you can even blink.”

The other Link regards her for a moment, not taking such a deadly threat seriously in the slightest. Instead, he simply rolls his eyes, somehow bold enough to take another step forward, even as Tetra cocks her pistol for good measure. “Fine, you win,” he relents, still grinning as he raises his hands in ‘defeat’. “The charade’s up anyway, clearly. Not much need for this getup now that the ‘genuine’ article is back where he belongs.”

His hands fall to his sides, but his smile remains, even as all traces of color–dull as they already are–begin to drain from him. Pale skin becomes ashen, a dark green tunic bleeds black, blond hair deepens to match it. And his eyes, the only part of his true self he hadn’t been able to hide, seem to glow red against the very darkness he stepped out of. The darkness he seems to be made of. 

“Goddesses…” Tetra whispers in disbelief at the sight of him. At the way he still looks so much like Link… twisted and tainted in every way imaginable. 

“W-what… what are you?” Link dares to ask. He’s not so sure he wants to find out. 

“What’s it look like, stupid?” His constant grin finally falls into something far more bitter. “I’m your shadow , ‘hero’.”

“My… shadow…?” Link echoes, bewildered. His dark doppelganger certainly looks the part, his mirror reflection in all but the shades he’s been painted in. Shades that speak of something sinister, something wrong.

Something undeniably evil . 

“I don’t think you really have much time left on your side for me to explain it to you,” the shadow says almost boredly. “With that in mind, I guess I might as well hurry this along and grab what I came here for.” 

He moves fast, far too fast for even Link or Tetra to see it coming. He doesn’t run, he bolts toward the two of them with inhuman speed, only stopping for a second, long enough to whisper in Tetra’s ear, “You’d better hurry up and save him from that curse, princess. Before it's too late. ”

He barely finishes speaking before his fist slams into her stomach hard . 

Tetra screams as she collapses to the deck, her weapons falling out of her grip as her body spasms from the sudden pain. Her panicking insides force her to heave, and she nearly loses her last meal before she fights to swallow it all back. Breathing quickly becomes a struggle, her vision blurring as she struggles to pull her head up. 

Only to find a sight that makes her blood run cold. 

The shadow stands tall atop the starboard railing, framed by the pale moonlight rising over the ocean behind him. And, hanging limp like a ragdoll over his shoulder, paralyzed by pain and a curse he can’t escape from on his own–

Is Link. 

She doesn’t hear him say her name, but she sees him mouth it. Something breaks inside of her when she does, the same thing that broke when she watched that ghost ship go down with him on it. It forces her to her feet, against the protest of her injured body, and with each running step she takes across the deck, she’s screaming for him, desperate to get to him, to save him, to love him–

But then-

The shadow disappears into the night just before she can get there. And he takes his dying captive right along with him. 

And all Tetra can do is stand there and watch as Link is ripped away from her all over again. 

Chapter Text

The pirate ship cuts through the night-soaked sea as fast as the winds will carry it. Their destination isn’t terribly far, but Tetra doesn’t want to take her chances. Not after everything she’s seen and heard tonight. Not when she’s determined to save what has been stolen from her. 

Fortunately, her crew were only a few beers in when she stormed into the pub to retrieve them. Sober enough to stand, which meant they were sober enough to sail. Even so, they were just buzzed enough that the sordid tale she had to tell them on the way back to the ship went straight over most of their heads. 

The chilly sea breeze has mostly cleared their heads since then, so she explained everything again not long after they weighed anchor. Link boarding the ship, begging for her help to free him from a death curse. Her misgivings, her scarf, her astonishment at his eyes, his smile, his sincerity. The other Link, the shadow who had been deceiving them all along, who had spent years causing so much suffering and strife-

Who had taken Link, the real Link away from her mere minutes after she’d finally gotten back. 

And she made sure her crew knew–she wasn’t going to let him get away with it. 

But first things first: the curse. By the position of the moon, midnight is only a few hours away. They’ll make it to the Mother and Child Isles with plenty of time to spare. Convincing a clearly vengeful deity to change her mind, to admit she was wrong? That’s what Tetra fears will take far more time than Link has left. 

Still, she’s dealt with worse odds. At least that’s what she keeps trying to tell herself. 

Her men were only able to get a few questions out before she shut them down, harshly ordering them to stay the course. If any of them doubt her claims–and honestly, she wouldn’t blame them if they do–they don’t act like it. Instead, they man their posts in solemn silence, thankfully respecting the stress their captain is clearly under. As always, Gonzo is the only one among them bold enough to break it. 

“Miss,” he joins her on the forecastle, resting a steady hand on her shoulder. “You sure about all this?”

“Do you think we’d be out here, sailing breakneck like this when a storm’s clearly on the way if I wasn’t?” she nods up to the sky. Sure enough, dark clouds are starting to come in, concealing most of the stars from view. It won’t be long before they claim the moon, covering the sky in shadow. Tetra would almost find it ironic, if that very word– shadow– didn’t make her still-sore stomach churn with anger. 

“Guess not,” Gonzo says evenly enough. “But this whole thing about there bein’ two Links? Even you’ve gotta admit, that sounds a little-”

“I know,” Tetra sighs, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t seen them with my own eyes.”

“I don’t doubt that you did,” Gonzo surprisingly agrees. “If you say it happened, then I trust you, yeah? It’s him I don’t trust.” 

“It’s not a trick,” Tetra runs her fingers over the scarf on her neck. “I knew it wasn’t from the moment he showed me this. Besides, if it was all just some illusion for the sake of a trap, why wouldn’t that shadow have gone after me? Why would it have taken him ?”

Gonzo pauses, considering it all for a moment or two before he’s left with no choice but to relent with a shrug. “You got me. But still, there’s a whole lot of questions here that still don’t got any real answers, yeah?”

“You’re telling me,” Tetra crosses her arms. “And if we don’t make it–if we don’t help him in time, chances are we won’t get any of those answers at all.”

They fall into a long silence after this. While Tetra keeps her sights set on the darkening seas ahead, she can sense her first mate’s eyes still lingering on her. Just like they always tend to whenever he’s worried about her. “...You think I’m rushing into this, don’t you?” she asks, still avoiding his gaze. 

Gonzo shakes his head. “I just want you to be careful, yeah? He’s fucked with your feelings too many times before. I’ll be damned before I stand by and watch him hurt you again.”

“ He didn’t do any of that,” Tetra clarifies, gripping her scarf tight.

“I hope you’re right,” Gonzo says, his voice low and grave. “For your sake… and for his.” 

So do I… Tetra thinks, terrified of what might happen if she’s wrong. 

“Heave to!” Zuko suddenly shouts from the crow’s nest. “Ship ahoy!” 

“What?” Tetra reels around, aghast. “No! I don’t care if there’s a whole armada ahead of us, do not slow this ship !” 

“But Miss,” Mako frowns, peering ahead with his spyglass. “It looks like they’re struggling to stay afloat down there, whoever they are.”

“That’s not our problem,” Tetra snaps. “We don’t have time to rescue some amature sailor who shouldn’t even be out here in the first place with a storm brewing. Now stay full sails, all of you, or that storm won’t be the only thing you’ll have to worry about tonight.”

Before any of the crew can agree or protest, a panicked wail rings out through the air. Tetra moves to join Gonzo, Senza, and Mako at the port railing, curious to see just who exactly thinks they’re so important to interrupt a life or death mission like this. 

Flagging in the water below is a boat that’s quite unlike any she’s ever seen before; tiny compared to her own ship, with ornate fixtures and a tall, chimney-like pipe where a sail should be. Running frantically across its steadily sloping deck is an older man, desperately trying to bail his sinking ship by way of nothing more than a flimsy bucket. Tetra can only roll her eyes; she was right about him being an amature, it seems, and a stupid one at that. So stupid she almost can’t help but feel sorry for him. 

“Pathetic,” she sneers, both at him and at herself for letting her compassion get the better of her. Again. “Lower a rope,” she orders her men, turning away dismissively. “And make it fast .” 

Gonzo and Senza comply, ignoring the man’s distraught screams that continue even as they begin to pull him up. Tetra watches, scowling, as he’s dredged up onto the deck, sopping wet and hopelessly hysterical. 

“N-no!” he pushes Senza’s attempt to help him to his feet away, scrambling up on his own instead. He rushes over to the railing, only able to watch as what little is left of his fancy vessel sinks into the sea. “My ship… My beautiful, beautiful ship… Oh, why couldn’t it have been me instead ?!” 

“Ugh, enough already!” Tetra groans, storming over to the man. He’s a good bit taller than her, but she still grabs him by the shoulder and slaps him clean across his face all the same. “Get a hold of yourself! Your stupid boat’s gone–there’s nothing you can do about it. So quit your crying and start explaining who you are, what you were doing out here, and why I shouldn’t throw you right back into the sea we just fished you out of.”

“Sheesh,” the man rubs the red mark on his face, wincing against the pain. “I come all this way, miss out on all that treasure, and this is the kind of reception I get? What a joke…”

“Hey!” Gonzo pipes up. He grabs the much scrawnier man by the front of his coat, raising a threatening fist at him. “Our captain just asked you a question. It’d be in your best interest to answer it, yeah?” 

“Captain?” the man frowns, eyeing Tetra dubiously. “Aren’t you a little young to be a captain?” 

“Aren’t you a little old to be sailing all by yourself?” Tetra shoots back. 

“Ugh, yeah ,” the man admits, pulling himself out of Gonzo’s hold. “That’s why I used to have a first mate, before he up and left to come back to this shithole of an ocean. And like a damn fool, I followed the kid, only to have my ship bushwhacked by at least five hordes of monsters since I got here. Poor thing took such a beating, no wonder she went down…” He sighs, stealing another sad glance over the side of the railing. “Rest well, my sweet S.S. Linebeck . I’ll always remember you…”

“Alright, I’ve heard enough,” Tetra concludes, unsympathetic as she turns back to her crew. “Throw this overdramatic loudmouth into the brig–or overboard, if you want–I don’t care which. Just as long as you get him to shut up already.” 

“Wait!” he protests when Gonzo and Senza grab him again. “W-wait, please, Captain, er…”

She sighs, beyond annoyed by this point. Still, she gives him her name nonetheless, “Tetra.” 

The man freezes, suddenly stunned. “Hold on… really?” he asks, gaping. “ You’re her? That girl he always used to yap on and on about? The whole reason why he wanted to get back here so damn bad in the first place? That Tetra?” 

“Whoa, slow down,” Tetra held her hands up. “Who’s this ‘he’ you’re talking about?”

The answer the man gives all but floors her. “Link, duh!” 

A chorus of confused whispers sound from her crew behind her, but Tetra could hardly care less about them. Right now, all she can do is focus on this strange man and what he just said. “Link…” she echoes, her eyes wide. “You… you know him? How?”

“He’s my first mate,” the man explains. “Or… he was my first mate. More than a first mate really. Damn kid, he-” He cuts himself off, just before he can let his emotions get the better of him in front of so many prying eyes. In favor of letting himself drown in any of them, he takes to telling a story instead. 

And goddesses, what a story it is. 

Tetra can only listen as this man finally, shakily introduces himself. “Captain Linebeck, of the now-defunct S.S. Linebeck ,” he calls himself, wiping tears from his eyes. From there, he starts from the beginning, from the day a bizarre 13 year old boy bartered his way onto his ship with a noisy fairy by his side and a worn, determined look in his eye. Things had been rough at first, between Link and his latest captain, in a way not too dissimilar to how they’d been between him and Tetra when they first met. But just like before, things had gotten better. Tetra can tell by the duly-proud smile on Linebeck’s face, the barely-masked fondness in his voice. Link has a knack for worming his way into people’s hearts like that; she would know. 

They fought a monster together, a demon. All so Link could leave behind the world the ghost ship had trapped him in. All so he could get home . But in the end, it was a dream that seemed fated to never come true. Linebeck’s tone turns bitter when he talks about some sort of ‘Ocean King’, who failed to keep the promise Link put his very life on the line for. Unwilling to watch the boy slip into despair, Linebeck had taken it upon himself to help him find another way back. 

And so, for the next four years, they searched, and searched, and searched. Until one night, when the very tears of the goddesses themselves fell from the sky. Link made his wish to return to the Great Sea. 

And Linebeck, foolish, lonely, desperate Linebeck… had given up all of the treasure he could have ever asked for… and made a wish to follow the boy he couldn’t bear to let go of instead. 

“And… that’s how I wound up here,” Linebeck concludes his lengthy tale. Tetra thanks Nayru that the ship had still been in motion for all of it. It won’t be long now before they reach the Mother and Child Isles. “Been lookin’ high and low for Link ever since. I figured he’d be here too, with you, but…”

“He’s not,” Tetra shakes her head, sighing. Now it's her turn to tell a story, albeit a shorter, far more horrific one. “He was with me, but not for long. S-someone took him,” she doesn’t bother getting into who. That’s another long story in and of itself that she doesn’t have time to tell. 

Linebeck frowns deeply, not masking the worry that fills him when he hears this. “So… you’re going after him?” he guesses. 

“No,” Tetra says. “Not yet anyway. Right now, we’re on our way to the Fairy Queen, to force her to lift the curse she put on him.”

“A curse?” Linebeck starts, his eyes wide with alarm. “Damn. That kid just can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble no matter where he goes, can he?”

Tetra finally manages a bittersweet smile, her first, since she saw Link get dragged away from her. Despite that smile, her heart hangs heavy with the thought of him, of what he might be going through right now. Of what will happen to him if she fails. “No, looks like he can’t.” 

“Land hoy!” Zuko announces from above. Sure enough, two islands loom, framed by the start of a storm that’s yet to fully take shape. 

The Fairy Queen awaits. 

“So, uh, how are we supposed to get in there?” Niko pipes up, eyeing the thick wall of rock surrounding the Mother Isle. 

Tetra has an idea, but it isn’t a pretty one. “Ready the cannons.” 

Nudge and Senza get to work, readying cannonballs and gunpowder with all the speed they’d usually have during a sea battle. With only a single word from their captain, they fire straight at the wall, blasting a gaping hole at the base of it with only a single blast. It’s more than enough for Tetra to use to get in, get out, and get that curse taken care of. 

Easy , she tells herself as she orders her crew to stay put. This should be easy. 

It should be easy, she says, if she goes it alone. It should be easy if she leaves her cutlass behind. It should be easy if she says all the right things in all the right ways.

It should be easy… but she knows so few things ever truly are. 

Tetra has never stepped foot in this concealed cove before, never met the Fairy Queen in the flesh. She’s heard a little about her from Link, back when they were both kids, but not enough to make her feel ready for whatever she’s about to face. The Fairy Queen’s home is lush, aglow with fireflies lazily dancing all the way up to the sky staring down at the cove. It’s the kind of place one should feel safe in, but Tetra doesn’t. Not now, when she’s seen exactly what the Queen’s power has done to Link, when she knows she could face far worse if she’s not careful. 

“Um… hello?” she ventures as she steps into the cove's shallow pool. “Anyone home?”

She stands there expectantly, waiting for what feels like an eternity until a luminous voice echoes across the cove. “Zelda, Princess of Hyrule…” Tetra sighs at the name, one she hasn’t been called in years now, one she begrudges even still. It’s already a bad sign for the way this encounter is bound to go. “For what reason have you intruded upon this sacred spring?”

She pulls herself to her full height, scanning the cove for any signs of the Fairy Queen in question. She won’t let herself be caught off guard here, she refuses to let herself be taken anything less than seriously. She has to be, for Link’s sake. “You recently put a curse on someone,” she says simply, succinctly. “I came here to lift it.” 

  Without warning, the Fairy Queen appears. Tetra is surprised by her, a girl who looks no older than she does, with skin, hair, and simple clothes made of pure, shining ivory. Her face is already set in a scowl, her empty eyes narrowing down at the captain before her. “You speak of the former Hero of Winds,” she practically sneers his title out. “His time bringing ruin and despair to this sea has nearly reached its end, and with its end, so too will his life. And yet… you’ve come to convince that, even after all he has done, he does not deserve death?” 

“The one responsible for all of that does,” Tetra’s hands curl into fists at the thought of him. Of that damn shadow, of all of the suffering he’s caused in such a short amount of time. Of him taking Link away from her right after she got him back. “But that’s not Link. You cursed the wrong person.”

The Fairy Queen’s already sullen expression sharpens. She veers in closer to Tetra, her ethereal voice dangerously low as she asks, “You dare to claim that I have made a mistake?” 

Tetra stands her ground, wholeheartedly honest when she bluntly says, “Yes, you did.”

The Fairy Queen’s eye twitches. Tetra gets the sense she’s gotten under her skin (if such a being even has skin to begin with) and she finds some level of satisfaction in that. Even if she should probably be terrified by it instead. “You are as bold as you are blind, princess. You may have let your beloved hero deceive you into believing he is innocent, but I will not be so easily swayed.”

“I haven’t been deceived,” Tetra counters evenly. “But I have seen the truth. The Link that’s been running around here for the past five years, causing all this trouble? It’s not the real him; it’s some… some shadow or demon or something , I don’t know. But what I do know is that he’s been framing Link all this time. He made us all believe he’d turned into a heartless, soulless monster . Even me and even you .” 

“And what makes you so sure he’s not a monster after all?” the Fairy Queen asks, doubtful. 

“Because,” Tetra’s hand lingers on her scarf. “I saw him. The real Link. He was trapped in a completely different world for five years straight while that thing went around wearing his face here. And what happens to him, only hours after he comes back after spending so long just trying to get home? That’s right; he gets condemned to die , by you .”

She’s getting angrier with each word she says, despite her best efforts to curb her temper, but she can’t help it. Because goddesses, its all so fucking unfair , it nearly makes her sick. After all Link had done to this sea when he was only a child , after all the pain and strife he went through when he was worlds away, what does he come back to? Everyone he’s ever loved or cared about coldly casting him out on top of a curse meant to kill him. A shadow shattering any sense of goodwill he once had just short of stealing him away to Din only knows where. And a captain who feels so painfully powerless to do a damn thing about any of it. 

“All I have done is pass proper judgement upon one who must be stopped, for the sake of the future of this sea and its people,” the Fairy Queen coldly concludes. “He made the exact same excuses, you know. About another world and crimes he swears he didn’t commit. Thus far you have yet to offer up any reason why I should spare him that he hasn’t already given. Therefore, I don’t believe I will.”

The haughtiness, the sheer audacity in her tone sets something inside of Tetra off. This bitch, this stubborn fucking bitch , isn’t listening to her, just like she didn’t listen to Link. She’s already made up her mind–trying to get her to change it feels like a fool’s errand at this point. But that’s fine, that’s just fine. Because Tetra can be extremely convincing when she needs to be. 

She may not have brought her cutlass, but she’d be damned before going anywhere without her pistol on hand. She whips it out, amining it straight at the Fairy Queen’s head as she hisses, “Lift the damn curse. Or else .”

The Fairy Queen simply laughs at such a threat. “Foolish child. Your mortal weapons mean nothing to a being such as I.”

Tetra figured as much, but she keeps her pistol steady all the same. “He said all I needed to do was come here and tell you that I believe him, that I believe he’s innocent. Well, I do believe that, with all my heart. So why-” She draws in a tight breath, fighting back frustrated, fearful tears. “Why isn’t that not enough for you?”

The Queen’s eyes, empty as they are, seem to darken as the truth slips out. A truth that goes as far back before that curse had ever been uttered, before that shadow had ever stepped foot upon this sea. “You… You and your hero both… You chose to abandon us…” 

“What?” Tetra asks, genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You both are part of an ancient cycle,” the Fairy Queen stoically explains. “One that has existed long before the floodwaters covered this land. You were born into that cycle by your blood, princess, but your hero clawed his way in, forcing the gods to recognize his spirit. That cycle is what ties the two of you together, what cast your lot against the Demon King. But even after his fall, you are still fated to honor it, to fulfill the roles you are destined to play. 

The Fairy Queen draws close again, until her face is only about a foot away from Tetra’s as she makes herself perfectly clear. “Once you are part of that cycle, there is no escaping it. There is no escaping the land you are bound to protect. You cannot leave this ocean behind .”

And just like that, it all makes sense. Why she’s so angry, why she seems so vengeful against them both. It has nothing to do with alleged crimes or perceived lies. And it has everything to do with this instead, with duty, with obligation, with all of the things neither Link or Tetra truly ever wanted thrust upon them. 

With all of the ghosts of the past haunting them even still. 

Tetra starts, unsure of what to say, how to proceed. “T-that’s… no,” she shakes her head, her brow furrowing. “The King, he told us to find a new land, to find the new Hyrule!” 

“There is no such thing as a new Hyrule,” the Fairy Queen argues. “Hyrule is here-”

“Yeah, it sure is,” Tetra bitterly snaps back. “Buried so far under the ocean that no one will ever see it again.”

“Yet its remnants still remain, as do the guardians that preside over it even still,” the Fairy Queen persists, and Tetra has no idea why . What the fuck is the point of any of this anyway? It’s all just wasting time that’s dangerously ticking away. “Myself, Lord Valoo, the Great Deku Tree, Lord Jabun, we are the only ones who still carry Hyrule’s memory now that the King has passed on. And yet… you and your hero would defy that memory, defy your fates, defy the very goddesses themselves all to chase a dream the King should have never put in your heads in the first place? It's unforgivable .” 

There’s no holding back her temper after that. Tetra fires her pistol, but the bullet passes straight through the Fairy Queen, slamming into the back wall instead. “FUCK YOU!” she shouts, utterly enraged. “You would do all this, you would curse Link, you’d kill him, just because you’re pissed that we wanted to leave ?”

“Watch yourself, princess,” the Fairy Queen sharply warns. “I am not above condemning you to the same fate for your brutish behavior alone.”

“Go ahead and do it, then!” Tetra yells, her voice fiercely echoing through the cove. “Might as well, at this point, if you really hate both of us that much.” Might as well, Tetra thinks, her heart caving, her hope dying. Because if I can’t save him, I might as well join him. 

Tears threaten to fall, but she bites them back because she’d be damned before she let this shrew of a fairy see her cry. But what can she do, what can she do? It has to be almost midnight by now, time is almost up. Link’s standing on death’s door, wherever he is, and she can’t do anything to stop it. She can’t even be there by his side in his final seconds because of that damn shadow, because of this fucking fairy, because-

Because no matter how hard she tries to hold onto him, there’s always going to be something trying to tear them apart. 

Unless… 

She looks back up at the Fairy Queen, staring down at her in silence, almost as if she’s waiting for something, trying to decide. Tetra couldn’t care less about what’s going through her head, but she certainly knows what’s going through her own right now. It’s a risky idea, a last-ditch plan if there ever was one. But there’s a chance, however small, that appealing to the only thing the Fairy Queen actually seems to give a damn about could work. And if it does…

Goddesses, she can only pray and hope it does.

“Go ahead and curse me, kill me, whatever,” Tetra reiterates, her voice raw from shouting. “But if you do… if you kill Link and I both… then this ocean, all that’s left of Hyrule? It’ll die right along with us.” 

The Fairy Queen tilts her head up, wary but curious. She doesn’t ask Tetra to continue, but she does so nonetheless now that she has her attention. “Think about it. That shadow of Link has been spending years spreading storms and fires and monsters and who knows what else all over the Great Sea. He has to be doing all this for a reason. He even went and captured the real Link–there has to be a reason behind that too. He’s planning something, something big and something bad . And deep down, I think you know that’s all true, as much as you know Link is the only one who can stop it, just like he did before.”

“He is not-”

“He is ,” Tetra cuts the Queen off, glaring daggers at her. “Whether you or not, Link is this ocean’s last hope. And right now, I’m his last hope. Either you lift that curse and let me save him so we can save the Great Sea together… or the blood of every last living thing on every last island will be on your hands. So,” she slips her pistol into her belt, holding her arms out wide to challenge the Fairy Queen one final time. “What are you gonna do, your highness ?”

The Fairy Queen doesn’t answer at first, not that Tetra really expected her to. So instead, they size each other up in silence, both trying to weigh the leverage they have over the other. There’s all the chances in the world that this won’t work and Tetra knows that. She’s gambling with Link’s life every bit as much as her own. But the Fairy Queen has something far bigger than either of them to worry about. An entire ocean–a kingdom–that could all come crashing down if that shadow isn’t stopped. 

Which is why…

“Very well,” the Fairy Queen says and Tetra feels a weight lifted off her chest. “I will lift your hero’s curse.” 

Tetra watches, eyes wide, as the Fairy Queen summons, of all things, a doll. It looks just like Link, red and blue lines streaking its skin and all. She holds a hand just above it, ready to draw her cursed magic out of it, out of him , except-

“I will lift it,” the Fairy Queen repeats, meeting Tetra’s gaze squarely. And with three simple words, she sends her entire world violently spiraling out of control all over again. 

“Under one condition…”

By the time Tetra emerges from the cove, she feels like she’s been shot straight through the chest. She lingers at the edge of the hole the cannons blasted, struggling to strike the grief from her face before any of her crew can see. As soon as she spots a few of them peering over the edge of the ship at her, she straightens up, wipes the tears that have yet to fall, and returns to her crew with her head held high. 

After all, she’s won. Hasn’t she? 

“So?” Senza asks her the moment she steps foot back on deck. “How’d it go?” 

Tetra draws in a breath, shaking her shoulders a bit if only to keep them from feeling so damn heavy. “Long story short, I did it. The curse is lifted. He’s alive, for now.” She doesn’t dare tell them how, what she had to agree to in order to make that happen. What they’ll have to do once this is done.

“For now?” Linebeck questions, clearly worried. 

“That shadow still has him,” Tetra says , her brow knitted. “Probably up at his stomping grounds–the Forsaken Fortress. That’s where we’re headed next. Weigh anchor.”

 Her crew follows orders, prepping the ship to sail north. She even puts Linebeck to work helping Niko man the ropes and rigging. Once everyone is settled and they’ve set their course, Tetra finally lets out the breath she’d been holding in. She can tell from the way Gonzo keeps looking at her that he has questions–they all do. But she can’t answer them now. Not when she’s struggling to hold it all together as it is. 

She’ll tell them, eventually, she knows she has to. But she dreads it, every bit as much as she dreads telling Link. What will he say when he finds out about the price she had to pay for his life? What will he do once he knows just how far they’ll have to go? Will he hate her for it? She certainly won’t blame him if he does–she’s harboring a whole lot of hatred for herself right now too. 

Tetra shakes her head; she can’t focus on that right now. All she can do is keep moving forward, through the storm now sending frigid sheets of rain across the sea, raging with lightning and thunder alike. A storm that seems set on swallowing her, him, the entire ocean up into its dark, devastating depths. 

It’s all she can do to not think of the storm, of that twisted shadow, of the Fairy Queen or her unspeakable conditions. Instead, Tetra thinks back on what Linebeck had said. Link had spent four years tirelessly searching for a way to get back to her. No matter how many dead ends and sleepless nights he might’ve faced, he kept trying, he kept going, he kept fighting . All for her. 

And this time, so will she. All for him. 

Chapter Text

Link has stood on the brink of death before. Too many times before. But he’s never been as helplessly close to it as he is right now. 

He doesn’t see where his shadow takes him–how can he when he’s slipping in and out of consciousness so rapidly? He barely feels his own body hitting a hard floor, sees faint blurs of stone walls and metal bars. Something tightens around both of his wrists, but he doesn’t have it in him to pull against them. Instead, he simply lay where he fell, in a painful haze he can’t do anything to escape from. 

The curse is killing him. If he ever doubted that it would before, he certainly doesn’t now. He can feel it, boiling his blood and freezing his bones, all at the same time. It gets worse with every passing minute, every passing second, and he knows it’s only a matter of time now before it takes him completely. 

Before midnight arrives to bring the dawn of a new day he’ll never get to see.

Amidst the pain overwhelming his every last sense, he can’t really manage much in the way of thinking right now. Still, one thought does persist as he stares unseeing at the ground beneath him, as his chest heaves for the air it's not getting, as his body slowly starts to shut down all around him. And even despite all of that, that thought isn’t one fueled by fear or anger or grief. 

No, instead, all Link can think of in his dying moments is how lucky he was to have gotten to see Tetra one final time. 

He hadn’t just gotten to see her either; he’d gotten her to believe him. Even if it's already too late to save him, at least someone out there knows he’s innocent. At least someone can still spread the word to his friends, his family, that he isn’t the monster they’ve been led to believe he is. At least he can die with a shred of dignity left to hang onto, remembered with fondness instead of scorn. 

He lets that thought offer him the comfort he so desperately needs as he silently shuts his eyes against the tears streaking down his glowing cheeks. He can’t speak, but if he could, he’d use his final breaths to offer a prayer to the goddesses, in the hopes that they might actually hear him for a change. A prayer for his home, his family, his ocean, his captain. A prayer for all the things he’s ever loved and all of the things he’s about to lose.

And above all else, a prayer for whatever awaits him after death to be just a little kinder than the last few days of his life have been. 

Once that prayer ends, all he can do is wait. Wait for the last of his life to fade, for death to take him, for his pain to finally end. He waits and waits and waits and… 

Wait. 

Something… is happening. Something is changing . It starts slowly, peeling away from him like a receding tide. But sure enough, he can feel it. The ice is thawing and the fire is dimming. The pain is lifting, his senses are returning, his heart is beating. And the curse–

The curse… is fading . 

Cautiously, Link opens his eyes, catching sight of his hand lying not far from his head. He watches, curious, as the lines branding the Fairy Queen’s magic across his skin begin to wane. Within seconds, they’re gone entirely, and so too is the curse and its vicious, deadly sting. Still though, he doesn’t trust it. Certainly, this must be a dream, perhaps the last he’ll ever have. The curse can’t be gone, it can’t be, unless–

Unless Tetra made it in time. Unless she convinced the Fairy Queen of his innocence. Unless she saved him after all. 

“Tetra…” he whispers, awestruck. He fights back tears, relief surging through his chest where agony had been only seconds ago. But there is no pain now, there is no curse, no constant threat of death looming over his head anymore. There’s nothing to keep him trapped, except–

Except the shackles chained tightly to both of his wrists. 

He feels them binding his arms behind him, hears them rattle when he slowly sits up. Only now that his vision has cleared is he actually able to take stock of where he is. His heart sinks to his stomach as he recognizes it: very same cell he saved his sister from several years ago. 

“The Forsaken Fortress…?” Link wonders to himself. “But… why-”

“Why here?” His own voice finishes the question for him. “Why not? I figured we might as well do this some place that’s familiar for us both.”

His shadow appears just outside of the cell before Link even has a chance to look for him. He looks every bit as smugly satisfied as he had back on Tetra’s ship, with a sharp smile and scarlet eyes that seem to stare straight down to his soul. Link still has plenty of questions about exactly who–and what–his shadow even is. Questions that he can finally ask now that there’s no curse to keep him voiceless. 

“And what exactly are you trying to do?” he asks, eyeing the shadow distrustfully. He gives the chains a tug as he tries to stand, only to realize they’re far too short to actually allow it. As a result, he’s left on his knees–far too vulnerable for comfort in front of a threat he still knows so little about. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” the shadow sneers. He holds his hand out, and a black blade appears in it out of thin air. He slips that sword through the cell bars, and Link can’t pull back far enough to keep its flat edge from finding a perch under his chin. The shadow uses it to inspect his face–for what, exactly, Link has no idea; after all, their faces look essentially the same. 

“Looks like that curse is finally gone–just in time too,” the shadow notes, smirking. “I guess that princess of yours isn’t as useless as I thought.”

“Stay away from her,” Link snaps. Tetra may not need him to protect her, but he still wants to, now more than ever. She just saved his life; he’ll do whatever he has to to safeguard hers in return. 

“You really think I give a damn about her?” the shadow rolls his eyes. “If I did, then she’d be the one sitting in that cell right now instead of you.”

“And why am I in this cell anyway?” Link asks, matching his shadow’s harsh glare. “I think I deserve to know that much after you dragged me here while I was dying . So I’m only going to ask one more time: who are you and what do you want with me?” 

The shadow is silent for a moment; a neutral look rests on his face, as if he’s considering the question. At first, Link thinks his answer is no when he turns his back on him. Only for the shadow to surprisingly concede after all. “Fine,” he glances back with an icy grin. “But I don’t think you’ll like what you’re about to hear.”

“Oh, I know I won’t,” Link assures. Honestly, he wouldn’t have expected anything different at this point. “But I still want to know anyway.”

The shadow turns away from him again. Another wave of silence falls in the space between them, filled in only by the wind whistling through the fortress’ weathered walls. When the shadow finally starts to speak again, he weaves a torrid tale. 

He tells a story Link is at the center of, without even knowing it at all until now. 

“Above all else, I’m here to do my master’s bidding,” the shadow begins. “He’s the very reason why I exist, the one who drew me out of your shadow and brought me to life.”

“Your master… drew you out of-” Link stops himself, bewildered. He steals a glance down at the shadow he’s casting on the ground, faint in the low torch light from the nearby wall. But it’s still there . It isn’t up, walking and talking on its own like the mysterious being standing before him is. “I… I don’t remember that ever happening.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” the shadow acknowledges. “You were unconscious when it happened; my master made sure of that.” He turns back around, kneeling down to skim his hand against the ground. On his command, the shadows on it begin to move , reshaping themselves to help him tell his story. 

“It was six or so years ago.” Link watches, fascinated, as one of the smaller shadows becomes his own silhouette, albeit a much younger version of himself. “My master once told me he didn’t see you as much of a threat, at least, not at first. But then–you got your hands on the Master Sword.” 

Link’s silhouette draws that very blade from its pedestal, raising it high into the air. The scene suddenly switches, as a much larger, more sinister figure takes shape. “When you set out to restore its lost power, he formed a new plan to fall back on, just in case you became too much of a problem. And the first part of that plan was to create me .”

The silhouette of a monster appears, one that Link soon recognizes as Molgera, the dreaded beast he’d once battled in the Wind Temple. He winces as he watches it strike him hard, remembering the painful blow to the head he’d taken when he brutally struck a wall. He supposed he’d blacked out for a bit from it, but as for what had happened while he was out… 

It set all of this into motion, years before it had even begun. 

“My master had already been watching you for a while. And at that moment, he made his move.” That treacherous silhouette sweeps in to loom over Link’s much smaller, prone form. With just a wave of his hand and a flicker of dark magic, he beckons Link’s shadow to spring to life as its own being. His eyes burn red as he bows low before his master, his creator. Loyal from the very start, and loyal even now when the shadow speaks for his own silhouette as he says:

“I am honored to serve you, Lord Ganondorf.”

“G-Ganondorf?!” Link’s eyes go wide. He’d had his suspicions from the second his shadow had even mentioned having a master, but he’d hoped against hope that they weren’t true. But now… there’s no doubt about where this shadow had come from and what his intentions truly are. If he’d been made by Ganondorf’s hands, then certainly, he must be every bit as cruel and wicked as his master had been. 

“Surprised?” the shadow grins up at him. “You shouldn’t be. My master had a plan for everything, including you .”

“Well, it looks like he didn’t plan well enough since I defeated him anyway,” Link says, hoping to finally pull his smug shadow down a peg. But of course, he only manages to do the exact opposite. 

The shadow stands, letting the silhouettes fade as he lets out a haughty laugh. “Don’t you get it? That’s exactly why he made me in the first place.”

Link shakes his head, confused. “I don’t understand. Ganondorf… knew he was going to lose?” 

“What are you, stupid? Of course, he didn’t think he was going to lose,” the shadow counters, scowling. “But he still wanted a backup plan in place in the rare chance that he did. So he kept me waiting in the wings, ready to go if he ended up defeated. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even been necessary if that old fool of a king hadn’t stolen the Triforce out from under him.”

“Don’t talk about the king like that!” Link warns, pulling hard against his chains. His shadow simply smirks at his anger, and it only makes Link want to wipe that twisted smile off his face even more than he already does. Even if that face is so similar to his own. 

“I’ll talk about him however I want,” the shadow crosses his arms. “After all, it’s not like he’ll be coming back anytime soon. Not like my master will…”

Link stiffens when he hears this. The chains fall slack on the ground behind him as a burst of newfound fear floods through his chest. The very thought, the mere idea is so utterly terrifying, so completely unspeakable. But Link still somehow finds it in him to ask, “W-what do you mean?” 

The shadow takes a step closer to the cell. He stands over Link, his eyes practically glowing scarlet with sadistic pleasure as he puts it plainly. “The reason why my master created me, the reason why I’m here at all, is to bring Lord Ganondorf back into this world.”

Bring Ganondorf back… Those words alone send a sharp shiver down Link’s spine. Ganondorf was a nightmare he thought he’d put an end to years ago, one he thought he’d never have to relieve. But now, if his shadow has his way…

“Y-you can’t,” Link counters tightly, anxiously. “He… he’s dead. I killed him myself! All that’s left of him is buried at the bottom of the sea-”

“You really think something as simple as that is enough to stop me?” the shadow cuts him off. “Dredging something out of the ocean is easy . You did as much for the Triforce of Courage, didn’t you? Well, I was more than happy to do the same for my master.”

He turns to the center of the room, raising his hand up high. His magic calls upon a sunken-in part of the floor, which slowly rises to reveal exactly what he’s already done. To reveal a towering statue of a man Link hoped he’d never see again.

“N-no,” he can barely breathe, he can barely think . All he can do is stare at that statue, at the blade still buried deep into its skull, right where he left it. They both look exactly like how they did six years ago, when the flood waters had washed them away once and for all. 

Or at least, it should have been once and for all. 

He half expects that statue to start moving, for the Master Sword to fall from its perch and clatter lifeless to the ground as Ganondorf emerges, alive and awake and angry . Link barely managed to survive against him back then, but now? Bound as he is and still largely weak from the aftershocks of the curse? He’d be dead in seconds, no doubt. And so too would everyone else upon the surface of the Great Sea. 

Except… that isn’t what his shadow wants. At least not yet. 

“Lord Ganondorf’s instructions to me were very specific,” he explains, keeping his sights trained on his master. “He said that all I would need to do to bring him back was to find his remains… and you . Of course, you couldn’t make that easy for me.” He looks back at Link, the disdain in his face clear to see. “You just had to go and fuck off to Din only knows where for five straight years, didn’t you?”

Link swallows hard, trying to regain at least a little of his nerve. He forces himself not to spare another glance at Ganondorf, opting to fix his gaze on his equally unsettling shadow instead. “Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice about that. Besides, it looks like you kept yourself pretty busy with ruining my life while I was gone.”

Link doesn’t even flinch when his shadow’s sword stops just a few inches shy of his throat. Despite that, a sinister smile still sits on the shadow’s face as he easily, eagerly owns up to everything he’s done. “You know, it’s funny you mention that. I came up with the idea to pass myself off as you, thinking you couldn’t possibly be gone for that long. At first, it was only supposed to be a way to spy on those closest to you, to see if any of them might be useful later on. But the longer I waited, the more I started thinking: why not have a little fun in the meantime?”

“And let me guess,” Link shoots him a sour glare. “Your idea of ‘fun’ is burning my bridges with everyone I’ve ever cared about, right?”

“Pretty much,” the shadow shrugs. But then, he decides to dig the knife of what he’s done even deeper . “You should have seen the way your little sister cried and cried when I told her and your grandma I told them I didn’t want to be part of your family anymore. Or how all your Rito and Korok friends cowered in fear when I sent all those monsters to their islands. Or the disgust–the hatred in Tetra’s eyes every time she so much as looked at me and thought I was you .”

Link can’t bear to hear another word. He’s lost far too much–his reputation, his friendships, his family –all because of the shadow, the monster standing before him. Which is why he lurches hard against his chains, swerving himself away from the shadow’s sword to he furiously scream , “Fuck you!”

“Oo, looks like the noble hero has a little bit of bite after all,” the shadow simply laughs at him. But Link is far from finished yet. 

“ Fuck you ,” he repeats with a sort of hatred even he didn’t know he had in him. Under any other circumstances, it might’ve scared him; right now, he can’t be bothered to even care. “I swear to the goddesses that I will kill you, not just for what you did to me, but for what you did to all of them . None of them deserved the kind of suffering you’ve been putting them through, and for what? Just because you thought it was funny ?”

“It was , but, there’s a bit more to it than that,” the shadow admits, finally pulling his blade back. “I knew you’d come crawling back to this ocean eventually, even if you took what felt like an eternity. And I wanted to make sure that when you did, nobody would even want to save you from what I plan on doing to you.”

“Tetra will,” Link says, and he wholeheartedly believes it. “She stopped the curse and she’ll stop you too.”

“Oh, trust me,” the shadow lets out a confident sneer. “I want your precious princess to come and watch when your blood ends up bringing Lord Ganondorf back from beyond the grave.”

“My blood?” Link questions, equally concerned and confused. “What are you-”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know,” the shadow says, as though it's common knowledge. “I would have thought your beloved king would have warned you all about exactly what comes with the territory of being called a ‘hero’.”

“He… didn’t,” Link confesses, unable to ignore the uneasy feeling spreading through him. The King had often been cryptic, yes, but he was never one to let Link walk into something unprepared. If there had been some sort of unseen danger he’d have to eventually face, the King would have told him about it if he’d known about it, even back then. 

Wouldn’t he have?

Even so, Link wishes the King were somehow here, by his side to explain it all to him instead of his unsympathetic shadow. Not that his shadow gets the chance to either as a sudden blast rattles the entire fortress. More blasts follow it, the kind that can only come from a cannon. “Damn,” the shadow chuckles, genuinely surprised. “Tetra sure doesn’t waste any time. Since she made it here so quickly, we might as well give her a good show, don’t you think?”

Link can barely even breathe before the shadow disappears. In an instant, he’s in the cell, right behind him to kick him hard in the back of the head. Link slumps forward, his vision dark and blurry as a trickle of blood slips out of his mouth. The pain only worsens when the shadow unlatches his chains from the floor, holding onto them tight as he unlocks the cell and drags Link out of it across the rough ground. By the time he finally lets him fall back down, his head is still swimming, but the sensation scarcely compares to the raw terror that fills him when he notices what he’s lying right next to.

When he realizes he’s now only inches away from Ganondorf’s petrified remains. 

The shadow keeps a heavy grip on the other end of his chains, keeping him from moving even if he could. Instead, he can only lay there, frightened and hopeful all at once as he waits for Tetra to arrive. Still, he hears all too well when his shadow grins up at his master and says, “It’s only a matter of time now, my lord. All of the pieces have finally fallen into place.”

All of the pieces… and somehow, Link anxiously realizes, he might just be the most important piece of them all. 

Without warning, the chamber door slams wide open. Link hears Tetra before he can even see her, her voice raised in a furious shout as she fires her pistol the second she so much as sees the shadow. Other voices follow hers–her crewmates, no doubt–but there’s another one among them that forces Link to sit up, to ignore his aching head and turn around as much as the chains will allow. 

Because standing there, cowering at the back of the crowd of pirates with a borrowed blade in his hand is someone he thought he’d never see again. Link can only just get his name out, and even then, it comes in an awestruck whisper. For a moment, he thinks he must be dreaming, but he quickly dismisses the thought. Because this is as real as the smile–so full of relief and worry alike–on Linebeck’s face when their eyes finally manage to meet. 

Link has spent the past three days missing the captain he’d left behind; all without even knowing his captain had been crazy enough to give up everything to follow him all the way here.

He wants to get up, to run to him and to Tetra and her crew alike to thank them for this, for coming all this way, all for him. But the chains and his shadow both keep him bound to where he is. Hopefully, they won’t for much longer, if Tetra has anything to do about it. 

He can see her now, every bit as brutally beautiful as she’d been back on her ship as she slams her sword into the magical barrier the shadow has created to separate them. Gonzo, Nudge, and Senza have joined her for the occasion, and her three strongest men do what they can to shake the shock off their faces at the sight of the two Links straight in front of them. They join her and Linebeck at the barrier, beating away at it as the shadow keeps his calculated composure, waiting for a lull in the onslaught to allow him to speak. 

“It’s good to see you again so soon, Tetra,” he taunts with a leering grin. “Thank you, by the way, for taking care of that pesky little curse. We’re both so grateful,” he yanks hard on the chains, pulling a startled yelp out of Link as he’s dragged along with them. “Aren’t we, hero ?”

“Let him go!” Tetra yells, keeping her pistol trained on the shadow’s head. Even if she knows none of her shots will even be able to breach the sturdy, shimmering barrier between them. 

Her gaze briefly flickers over to Link, and her brow furrows with despair when it does. He forces himself to look away from her out of sheer shame alone. How utterly pathetic he must look right now, shackled by his very own shadow, unable to save himself from himself. Needing to be saved once was bad enough, but twice, all in one night? It just goes to show how truly weak he really is; how weak he’s been for far too long now, and how weak he’s sure he’ll always be.

“Nah, I think I’ll hold onto him, if it's all the same to you, princess,” the shadow grips the chains even tighter. “Don’t get me wrong; if it was up to me, I would have thrown him into the sea with an anchor tied around his neck the second I saw him. But unfortunately for all of us, my master needs him.” 

The shadow steps aside, still smiling as he lets Tetra see that master, or at least, what’s left of him. And the second she does, it’s as if the ground is pulled right out from under her, in the exact same way it had for Link. Ganondorf is dead . Dead and buried at the bottom of the ocean with a sword digging deep into his skull. So how are his remains standing here, drawn out of the ocean, far too easy to access, far too close for comfort? 

And more importantly, how quickly can they shove him right back into the depths where he belongs? 

“What… the fuck ?” Tetra somehow asks, her eyes never leaving Ganondorf’s frozen form. “Why… why would you ever bring him back up here? After everything he did?!”

“Because,” the steady smile swiftly fades from the shadow’s face. “This land–this ocean – belongs to Lord Ganondorf. He stood ready to claim it–and the Triforce too–until your coward of a king took them both to save the two of you . Which is why it's so ironic that you’ll both have a hand in bringing my master back.” 

As the shadow steps forward, Link hears the other end of his chains clatter to the ground. He’s free , he realizes, or at least as free as he can be with the shackles still weighing his wrists down. He doesn’t hesitate to stumble to his feet, as much of a struggle as it might be as he tries to steady himself. The shadow lets him get up, in favor of focusing his attention on Tetra instead. 

“I see you brought a few friends with you this time,” he briefly acknowledges Linebeck and the crew. “What a coincidence. So did I.”

With a wave of his hand, the barrier suddenly falls. In its place, a wave of moblins rise into existence, weapons already raised against the shadow’s foes. They do as he commands, charging at the crew with murderous intent. Gonzo, Nudge, and Senza easily block their blows, and so does Linebeck, though not without a frightened shriek. 

The monsters never touch Tetra; instead, the shadow appears just behind her, kneeing her sharply in the back. He grips her sword-bearing wrist so tightly that it nearly snaps, forcing the blade out of her hand. Her pistol is yanked away from her soon after as the shadow wraps his free arm around her waist, keeping her body painfully pinned against his. As soon as he hears her scream, Link charges forward, desperate to get to her, to help her the same way she’s helped him, and yet–

“Ah, ah, ah,” the shadow warns him. He releases her wrist to call upon a sharp, deadly dagger, which he shoves squarely against the side of Tetra’s neck. She winces when it digs into her skin just enough to draw a bit of blood. Link stops dead in his tracks the second he sees that blood, and so too, do all of the others when they realize what’s happening here. When they realize who they could lose if any of them says or does something the shadow doesn’t like. 

“Fucking bastard,” Tetra hisses back at him anyway. Despite the grave danger her life is in, she refuses to buckle or bend, to show anything even remotely resembling fear. Even if she’s all but certain the shadow can feel the way her heart is hammering hard inside of her chest. 

“Watch it, princess,” the shadow returns just as coldly. “I may have kept your hero alive out of necessity, but I have no reason to do the same for you. Still, I’d rather not slit a throat as pretty as yours; whether or not I actually will is entirely up to him now.” He grins back at Link, stuck standing in the middle of it all, frozen with terror he makes no effort to hide. 

“What do you want?” Link asks between gritted teeth. His hands tremble in fists at his sides, and the chains hanging from them rattle along with them. 

“The Master Sword,” the shadow gets straight to the point, nodding up at the blade. “Pull it from my master’s head. If you refuse–” Tetra tenses as he digs his blade even deeper into her throat. “Then she’ll pay the price. All of them will.” He nods back at the others, trapped by the horde of monsters encroaching on them from all sides. Somehow, the shadow has them all equally cornered, all kept exactly where he wants them to be, all a part of his master’s plan, except–

Link freezes as he meets Tetra’s eyes, filled with dread and determination alike. She mouths something to him, something he can barely make out, but he manages to get the message she’s sending him all the same: 

“Pull the sword and finish this .” 

He turns back to face it. Not Ganondorf’s looming statue, but the gleaming hilt of the sword still sticking out of it. The Master Sword has power , power he once wielded to take this same sort of treachery down. Certainly, if that blade could stop Ganondorf himself, wouldn’t it be enough to stop his shadowy servant too? 

Link prays that it’ll be enough, that he’ll be enough. He squares his shoulders as he glares back at his shadow and says, “Fine. But once I do, you’ll let all of them go, right?”

“...We’ll see,” the shadow returns. Link is nowhere near satisfied with that answer, not until Tetra cuts in to say: 

“Just do it, Link,” she instructs, as calm as can be. As if a blade isn’t digging into the side of her neck. “Captain’s orders.”

Well, Link has never disobeyed his captain’s orders before. He doesn’t plan on starting now. 

It shakes him, how utterly small he still is standing next to Ganondorf, even now that he’s older. The shadow makes up the difference, calling upon a short set of stairs to rise up from the floor for him. Link climbs them carefully, keeping his eyes on the Master Sword and refusing to acknowledge what–who–it's buried in. When he first drew this blade from the basement of Hyrule Castle six years ago, he felt something thrumming through its hilt, something comforting, something familiar . But when he lays his hands upon the sword now–

He feels nothing . 

He grips its hilt tightly, desperate for that feeling, for that reassurance that he’s not as alone as he feels he is right now. But the sword stays still and silent, cold to the touch in a way it never was before. He wonders if that has anything to do with its current perch, with the wickedness of the man it's spent the past several years containing. What if his presence has corrupted it, weakened it the same way it had been years ago? What if its edges have dulled, its power drained and its potential lost. 

What if drawing by this sword alone… he ends up setting Ganondorf free?

Link doesn’t let his thoughts spiral any further out of control than they already have. He can’t, not with Tetra’s life at stake like it is. So instead, he wraps his hands tightly around the sword’s hilt, and pulls upon it with every ounce of strength he has left to spare. It shocks him how difficult it is this time, when it was so easy when he was just a child. The sword is practically fighting against him, refusing to come out of Ganondorf as cleanly as it had its prior pedestal. And by the time Link finally manages to draw the sword– his sword –

He realizes it's far too heavy for him to even bear. 

The blade slips from his hands, hitting the ground with a dull clank. Link lunges for it, but his shadow beats him to it. He’s already let Tetra go–thank the goddess for that–but he bridges the gap quick enough to kick the Master Sword across the floor, far out of Link’s reach. It comes to a stop inches away from Tetra, and she snatches it off the ground before the shadow can even try to touch it. This isn’t what she’d wanted to happen, but they can still work with this, she thinks. Just as long as she can get the sword back to Link. She rushes forward to do exactly that–

Only to run straight into the entirely new barrier the shadow has put up between them. 

Behind that barrier, she’s left to watch, horrified, as the shadow slams Link hard into the ground. As the stairs disappear, something else rises from the floor beneath Link in their place. It's something akin to a stone table, with slots on the side for the shadow to latch the ends of his chains in to keep him pinned to it. Try as he might to pry himself free from it, the chains won’t allow it. As a result, he isn’t able to see what Tetra and the others can–the shadow using his own blade to carve a path in the ground, connecting the base of that table straight to Ganondorf himself. 

“What is that?” Tetra demands, holding the Master Sword close. “What are you doing to him?!” 

“Don’t worry, princess,” the shadow glances back at her, grinning. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”

“Watch… what?”

The shadow’s smile only sharpens as he looks back at Link again. “You don’t have to watch your hero become the sacrifice that will bring my master back.”

“What?!” Link and Tetra both ask in frightened unison. 

A ripple of equal alarm spreads through Tetra’s men, but Linebeck is the most vocal of them all as he rushes forward to pound on the barrier with his bare fists. “What the fuck?! No!” he shouts, furious and distraught. “Leave Link alone already, er, uh… Link? Goddesses,” he exchanges a frantic glance with Tetra. “This shit all is so twisted, how are we supposed to-”

“Enough,” the shadow swiftly silences everyone behind the barrier. “I’ve waited far too long for this already. So,” he turns back to Link, his black blade already in hand. “Let’s get started.” 

“W-wait,” Link tenses against the table–against the altar he’s been chained to as the shadow hovers his sword over his open chest. He knows begging won’t work, not against a being born from darkness itself, but he still can’t help but try to save himself one last time. He can’t help but try to save everyone his sacrifice will no doubt endanger. “Don’t do this. Please.”

The shadow stays his hand, but only long enough for another sadistic smile to slide onto his face. He leans in closer to Link, crimson eyes aglow with bloodlust as he proudly whispers. “Sorry, ‘hero’, but this is what I was born to do.” 

And so, it’s exactly what he does. 

Somewhere in the distance, Link hears Tetra scream his name. Somewhere in the distance, he hears Linebeck slamming his fists against the barrier. Somewhere in the distance, he hears his shadow laugh as–

As his sword slices straight down the center of his chest. 

That blackened blade cuts deep, tearing through skin and tissue like they’re nothing. Link can’t stop his own scream from slipping out any more than he can stop the pain that pervades his every sense or the blood pouring freely from the open wound. 

The second Tetra sees that blood, so much blood , senselessly spilled so soon after she thought she’d saved him, something inside of her snaps . She yells as she rams her sword into the barrier, kicking and beating against it with all her might in the hopes she might somehow crack it. That she might somehow get to him before he can slip away from her all over again, before she loses him forever, before-

Her sword falls from her hand as she catches sight of what the shadow is doing. Link’s screams continue, only growing worse by the second as he pulls in vain against the chains keeping him bound. But the shadow doesn’t bother with him anymore. Instead, he raises his own blade above the groove he’s carved into the floor, letting Link’s blood drip freely from its edge. It flows through the pathway surrounding the altar in a thin, steady stream, with even more dripping down from Link’s own fingertips hanging over the edge. Tetra stiffly stares at that stream, her eyes wide as she follows its path straight to Ganondorf. And the second even a drop of it touches his remains–

The entire world begins to break. 

The fortress shudders from its very foundation as darkness and light both swell around Ganondorf’s statued form. Above the din of it all, the shadow simply laughs as he watches the final part of his plan unfurl. And all the while, Link keeps on screaming , writhing in agony that’s somehow made even more unbearable by whatever his lost blood is doing. The stench of that blood hangs heavy in the air, to the point that it practically makes Tetra sick every bit as much as what’s happening to him is. It makes her even sicker to know she can’t get to him when he needs her most . 

She can’t save him, no matter how many times she might try. 

It isn’t long before the blood– Link’s blood –joins the swirl of light and darkness surrounding Ganondorf. It drifts straight out of his ruined chest, drawing even more anguished screams out of him until his voice finally breaks from them altogether. His mouth hangs open, tears streaking down his face as he forces his eyes shut, unable to watch whatever might happen next. Unable to bear the crushing guilt as he realizes exactly what his blood is somehow doing, exactly who it's bringing back. 

How cruel, he thinks, just before unconsciousness finally takes him away from it all. How cruel that he was barely pulled back from the brink of death, only to be shoved straight over it anyway. 

 How cruel that he’d been the one to stop this once–only to be the one forced to start it all over again. 

How cruel that he’s about to die, all to bring back someone he’d once fought so hard to kill. 

Tetra’s hand slips from the barrier when she watches Link finally go still, blood still pouring out of him without end. That blood does its job–exactly why it had to be his blood, she has no idea. But it still works exactly the way the shadow wants it to. It still brings life back to someone who deserves to be dead far more than the boy who was broken to bring him back. 

The light and darkness suddenly diminish, and the blood that remains splashing to the ground in its wake. Once they’re gone, the statue is no longer there. Instead, there’s the towering form of a man. When he draws his first breath back into his lungs, Tetra’s blood boils with rage. But in the end, that rage means nothing when Ganondorf opens his eyes and Link doesn’t. 

It means nothing when a hero’s life has been traded in for a monster’s . 

As Tetra falls to her knees, the shadow simply smiles , bowing low before his master. Ganondorf slowly turns his gaze from his own hand, then to the shadow–and then to Link, lying lifeless on the altar. And it’s on Link–on the bright red blood still staining his chest–where his sights remain, even as his servant warmly welcomes him back into the world of the living. 

“Lord Ganondorf… At long last, you have finally returned.”