Chapter Text
My Final Attempt at The Legend of Zelda Fanfiction, so buckle up at get ready for whatever the hell I feel like throwing at you.
Note: This was written late at night, so lore accuracy and the like is not to be expected in full.
It sucks to be a sword.
It sucks to have your master grip you for dear life, shedding the last bit of his life as you watch, powerless to change his fate.
Correction: It sucks to be unable to do anything.
All the time, all the heroes, all the devotion and love I have felt for them has taught me all I know of emotions. Every drop of this new dimension of my life is confusing, from the fiery rage that brews in me when facing defeat to the glow of pride in my most recent master beating the sword monk’s trials. All of that was nothing compared to what fate has in store for me.
I have been commanded to be silent, restrained by my creator’s orders from doing anything that would help. But she is dead, and so should I be. The useless husk of my blade now lies wedged in a root, the twisted fragments of the Master Sword nearly unrecognizable. And there lies my master, Link, the Hero of the Wild, dead on the floor of this room. I can detect no pulse, no breath, and certainly no sign of life from him. Not even the ghost king Rauru could preserve his life for more than a few hours. In some other timeline where he wasn’t as injured, where his life force hadn’t been so relentlessly drained, he may have stood a fighting chance. But no, this Link was dead as dead could be. And I am the only hope this kingdom has at salvation.
As I am now will offer no help. I must assume a physical form, unbinding my soul from this soon-to-be-insignificant chunk of divine metal. It is a practice saved for demon lords and desperate cries for help, but I can feel the kingdom of Hyrule shouting in pain as she faces another great evil. I must save Hyrule, despite the odds stacked against me (which I will not, must not figure-doing so would discourage me even more than I already have been).
It will not be quick, it will not be pleasant, but I must do what I must do…
I, Fi, Hylia’s creation and the Spirit that Rests Within the Sword That Seals the Darkness, will save Hyrule.
-END INTRO
It only took two days for me to assume a physical body. The form I built resembled that of a Hylian aged roughly twenty years. Every ounce of strength went into retaining as much of my mental and physical sharpness as I could, and in the end my handiwork is satisfactory for the task set before it.
It was as if my ancient physical image (oh, the memories it brings back) were granted the charms of Her Grace’s people while keeping its uncanny resemblance to the sword. Oh, and arms. I have arms now. It would be troublesome if I were to face a demon king without arms.
Truth be told, I hadn’t given a single thought to what I would look like, nor did I care particularly much. That was one unknown factor I was pleasantly surprised by the final product of. The other variables… My abilities had been either nullified or removed until my body was strong enough to bear the stress of utilizing them. Strengthening myself would be difficult, but nothing is impossible in this world.
Fi sprinted away from the soldier constructs, tree branch in hand. They were chasing her, hunting her down, impressing such a sense of suffocating impending doom that she couldn’t stop, no matter how much her lungs burned. The Great Sky Islands were deadly-every turn seemed to conceal more enemies than should have been possible. And all of the enemies seemed to be sorts that Fi didn’t remember.
Remembering was a strange thing. Every piece of information used to be neatly presented to her at the slightest necessity. So much as a glance at a bokoblin caused her consciousness to swirl with knowledge about the monster, everything from its eating habits to effective strategies to beat it. But now, it felt as if her mind was foggy, difficult to see through. Fi learned what it was to forget. She learned what it felt like to remember. And she lost the crystalline clearness of what her mind used to be.
The warrior ducked into a cave, still sprinting as fast as she could. Perhaps one of the friendlier constructs would be here to rescue her from her assailants. And fortunately, such was the case. Through the darkness of the tunnel, Fi made out the shape of a construct. It seemed to be lit up by one of the strange luminescent species of flora that filled the subterranean crevasses on these islands.
“Greetings, visitor. Did you remember to bring-“ The tall-necked bot vocalized, stopping as it saw Fi. Her metallic blue hair and similarly colored eyes were definitely enough to give it pause, not to mention her very apparent panic. “What is distressing you?” It inquired, watching as Fi leaned up against the wall of the cave, breathing heavily.
That is another thing Fi discovered recently. Breathing. She never had to deal with it before, but now… it made running impossible, and it was sure to cause issues later on when she regained her power of levitation, not to mention swimming. Her first master had to be incredibly careful about how exactly he dived for fear of drowning.
“Soldier constructs.” Fi finally managed, pointing in the direction she had just come from. As the surge of irrationality that was so often brought on by near-death experiences ebbed, she realized that the soldier constructs likely wouldn’t seek her out in the caves. They seemed tied, somehow, to their point of origin, as if they had been stationed to protect only one portion of the island.
“They will not enter these mines.” The friendly construct said, taking a few brightbloom seeds from those that set in a pile beside it (the construct had been placed here specifically to offer brightblooms to those who had forgotten theirs) and offering them to Fi. “Take these. They will help you see the way to the forge. The constructs there will be able to help you further.”
The girl sighed, taking the seeds. Her heart was still pounding and her breathing hadn’t quite returned to normal, but the threat was not following her. Besides, she estimated a 74% chance that the ghost Rauru would be reachable from the forge. At present, he was essentially her only hope for answers…
Unlike if Link had survived, Rauru wasn’t there to greet Fi when she had formed her physical body. But she had seen the ghostly Zonai when he brought Link to what was now his final resting place.
So the lonely swordswoman pressed on, knowing that staying in one place was futile.
It took Fi not two days to complete the shrines on the Great Sky Islands. The inability to utilize Ultrahand, Fuse, and Ascend complicated things to near impossibility. But with her unending determination, Fi succeeded in opening the doors near the goddess statue, Master Sword husk in hand.
And a husk was all it was, without her. No light emanating from the blade, no sword spirit, just a piece of twisted metal. It seemed a waste of energy to her for whatever that strange yellow light was to take the sword, but as long as it allowed her to proceed to the surface she was fine with it.
It was funny to her that, after so many millennia, she was still saving Hyrule by plummeting from ancient sky islands to the ground. But things in this Hyrule were bound to have changed drastically, and Fi had to prepare herself to be shocked by what she saw. Sure, she had seen it from the perspective of the master sword, but seeing things was always so much more impactful when she wasn’t in a supposedly endless sleep.
Steeling her mind, Fi leaped from the island to the land below…
“I regret to inform you, mistress Purah, that my master, Link, is dead.” For all she had rehearsed these words in the Great Sky Islands, Fi still found herself on the edge of breaking into tears. Link’s death was a sign of her own failure to keep him (and, really, all of Hyrule) safe from the demon king.
Emotions sucked. They made Fi do things she didn’t want to do, and they opened her mind to a whole new world of different types of pain. She didn’t want to burst into tears as she spoke to Purah, but she found herself unable to speak for fear of them. The researcher thankfully seemed to notice, speaking up before Fi got a chance.
“Linky is dead?? I mean, we suspected as much, but it’s still shocking.” Purah said, narrowing her eyes at Fi. The conversation so far had revealed nothing about Lookout Landing’s newest arrival and her credibility as one to bring news of Link’s death, but something about her reminded Purah of someone… or something.
“Who are you, exactly? How do you know about Link’s demise?”
Demise?? Fi’s eyes widened in recognition of the word, the name of her old nemesis and sworn enemy, the very thing she was created to destroy. Even when it was used in a totally unrelated context, the former spirit of the blade that had sealed the Demon King away was intimidated by the name. She had hardly kept the Master Sword together that time, and her ability to do that was partially aided by the newness of the sword itself. Whatever the case, Fi was now more startled than she was tearing up. As they were new to her, emotions easily changed Fi’s demeanor from one extreme to another.
Perhaps, however, it would be easier to show Purah. Speaking now was sketchy business, and Fi was halfway certain she retained a few strictly cosmetic abilities from her previous form. The Master Sword incarnate paused for a moment more before bowing her head and concentrating with all of the effort she could muster.
A blue, shiny tint covered Fi’s skin, temporarily replacing the paleness that had been there before. Her archaic armor shimmered and shifted, appearing momentarily (and, honestly, rather vaguely) like a scarf floating by her sides, replacing her arms. And for just a brief moment, anyone observing her would have sworn they saw the Master Sword at her feet, planted blade-down in the sturdy wood of Purah’s observation deck.
And then Fi began to smoke, her skin burning as her illusory façade melted away. This mortal form was not meant to sustain such illusions. The girl collapsed to her knees, her body suddenly starving for air. Everything hurt, but she had gotten her point across. No one in Lookout Landing would doubt the validity of her claims now.
“Good Hylia- Who are you?!” Purah half exclaimed, half questioned as she backed away instinctively, not wanting to be harmed by whatever had brought Fi to her knees. Reason caught up a moment later. “Someone, fetch a medic! Get burn ointment, pronto!” She said, gesturing to the people congregating in the open area below her platform.
“No- there is no need. There is a 67% chance that I will be okay after a brief reprieve.” The former spirit said, feeling the burns fade in intensity to a mere ache. She had let go of the illusion soon enough that it didn’t do any permanent damage to anything but her clothing, which was already on the fritz. Her mind was surprisingly clear after her body had started to burn, as if the feeling of fighting for her life had knocked her old infallible rationality back into what remained of her mind. She checked herself over just to make sure that she really was okay, then stood again.
“I should have led with a proper greeting, either way. My apologies.” Salutations were not something Fi was accustomed to, having historically been almost entirely focused on serving Link. Yet another thing to add to the ever-growing list of stuff to relearn. “I am Fi, former spirit of the Blade of Evil’s Bane. Zelda has likely spoken of me, though I haven’t been able to reveal my true identity until now.”
Everyone, Purah possibly more than most, looked absolutely stunned. This was perhaps because of how much more she understood the impact of Fi’s words. Historically, few mentions of a spirit within the Master Sword had been made since the very first legend of the Hero until Zelda had recently rediscovered her existence. Everyone else knew she was a servant of Hylia-Purah knew that she was that and more, perhaps the oldest non-deity to roam the world of Hyrule and one of the potentially most powerful entities beneath the sun. Realistically, though, Fi needed to undergo many trials to reach any semblance of her true potential.
“That’s unbelievable!” Purah exclaimed, shaking her head. If Fi hadn’t been briefly transfigured, she wouldn’t believe it. But then again, Purah had seen some impossible things in her lifetime. This wasn’t exactly the hardest to believe. “If that’s true, you should probably head on toward the castle. The search for Link and Zelda is still ongoing there, and I think everyone on the job deserves to know what happened to their Hero. Are you sure you’re fine?” Realistically, Purah just wanted to get rid of Fi for a moment or two to think over these recent developments and see what was to happen next.
Fi nodded, both in agreement and in dismissal to Purah’s concern. “Yes, my health is none worse than it should be. A walk will be good for me, anyway.” The girl bowed shallowly to Purah, as was customary among the Goddess’s servants when she was from. Purah nodded, turning away and rushing into her office, hastily searching through her resource for any mention of the Master Sword’s spirit…
While Purah’s leaving Fi was strange, Fi was yet unfamiliar with the customs of today’s Hyrule. Perhaps that was the ordinary response to a bow. Then again, it seemed a strange and pointless tradition to leave someone so abruptly. Whatever-humans never really did (and, perhaps, never will) make sense to Fi.
With nary a nod of her own, Fi departed from Lookout Landing, heading for the ground-level pieces of Hyrule Castle…