Chapter Text
A loud thump sounded through the room and Zelda jumped. A book dropped on her desk by the teen who stood before her.
"It can be done," Link said, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. "I can help them."
Zelda gave him an unsure look as she pulled the book toward her and flicked it open.
"Page 55," he told her.
She flicked through the book, finding and soon reading the aforementioned passage. Her eyes widened and she looked at Link in surprise.
He grinned. "We can do it. I can—I can help them."
She nodded slowly. "Right... Right. Between my sealing powers and your guidance, any future heroes and maidens can handle whatever comes for them. When do you want to do it?"
"I... As soon as you'd let me." He added in a far quieter voice, "I don't think I'll live much longer, anyways."
Zelda frowned, looking down at the book with a clear melancholy.
"Please, Zel. Do this for me?"
She sighed and nodded. "I will." She shut the book and stood. "Let's go."
Inside a clearing of thick forest, a large pedestal of stone sat. A golden sword with a hilt of green was laid down on the stone and two blond teenagers stood there, one holding the book, the other holding a knife.
"You're ready?" Zelda asked, looking over at Link.
He nodded, tightening his grip on the knife in his hand. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready. My house is locked up tight with all my stuff inside, and at worst, you'll come down with some guards and personally make sure everything is put somewhere safe, at best I'II be back to handle it myself."
She inhaled shakily. "Yes... Link— You really don't need to do this. You're still young."
"Zel. It's either this or... I don't know, but this will let us make sure that no matter what attacks Hyrule, what tries to destroy it, someone will be there to stop it. Forever, I'll be here to protect our kingdom." Link insisted. "And the other kingdoms too."
"But..." she sighed, shaking her head. "Alright. This is your choice... Kneel?"
He moved over to the sword and he knelt down, facing the blade. She stood behind him and held her hand out, her palm pointed to the back of his head.
Her hand began to glow a soft golden light.
She murmured lowly, words falling into a senseless stream that rolled over Link's mind and ears, filling it like cotton.
She slowly, gradually grew louder, repeating some sentences and others that were new. The light grew brighter and wrapped around him and the sword.
The light became thicker, swirling almost spherically around him, Zelda chanting in an ancient language far predating their ancient Hylian. The golden flecks within her eyes seemed to glow, mirrored exactly in Link's eyes despite them being squeezed shut and such luminosity being left unseen.
Link lifted the knife to his throat. Zelda's voice trembled as it rose and the golden magic thickened. The sword rose up in the air, lifted by the golden light.
Zelda's voice hit a high and Link slit his throat.
Bright light erupted. Zelda closed her eyes but did not move, nor did her voice falter. A long moment passed before the beaming light faded.
Zelda crumbled to her knees, book clattering to the ground and she covered her mouth as she choked out a sob. The sword was on the ground and gleaming in the sunlight, unblemished. A single drop of blood and a bloodied knife laid by her knee, that was all that was in front of her.
There was no body.
Warmth was the first thing he noticed. Then the light.
It took a long time to be aware of anything else but that. Warmth and light, darkness and cold.
Then he was in a light place, an area of warmth and cold, of light and darkness. There was more light than dark, only remnants and residue of the dark remaining, only the ghosts of the cold lingering. Winding tall things and bulking low things, opulent and bright.
He had no form, no conscious memory, nothing beyond existence. Golden power was within his reach and pure curiosity drove him to push it out, to mold it and see what it could do.
Flames exploded, sparkles erupted, the center of his awareness would shift its placement. Then things would form, colors, or the absence of it, small things that seemed to have minds of their own, animals was what he subconsciously called them, conjured, he identified them without purposeful thought.
Curiosity pushed him to see what else he could do with the power, the golden warmth that made up his awareness.
In time, a long time, he discovered something colorful. Suddenly he was no longer placed in the warm and light place that was distantly tainted by dark and cold, but in a green place on a platform of gray, with blue in the far above and a great yellow and white circle.
Just as colors exploded, memories slammed through him.
Link would have screamed if he could. He would have gasped and hyperventilated at the least. Yet he couldn't.
It worked. It worked, he—He was a spirit, a sword spirit.
All that curiosity that was usually tempered by wisdom and wariness had done one good thing for him.
He could see, it was obvious that the golden warmth was his magic, was his soul, and only through pushing it out and sensing and creating a magical image of the world allowed him to see. He could hear, as air pushed through the reach of his magic, the vibrations made sound that he just subconsciously translated to the sound of wind.
Next was just figuring out how to change form from sword to something more mobile.
In time, he figured it out. In time, he was in the same outfit he'd worn when the ritual took place. He could change his features and his clothes with a thought, not perfectly, he couldn't exactly create matter without active conjuration, so his clothes were limited, though color was not.
He returned to the castle. Zelda was a few years older, Impa had passed in his absence, Ravio was elated to see him, but they could see a difference between them now beyond their color schemes.
Ravio was getting older, Link stayed the same. In no time, for the first time, they were mistaken for father and son when going out, rather than brothers or twins. Link could feel his heart slowly crushing.
He grew older mentally too, keeping up with them in that regard, but physically?
He watched Ravio fade away first, then it was Hilda... then even others passed away, Din, Maple, and Ralph years before Ravio, then... then it was so many others. So, so, so many others.
Then it was Zelda.
Link stayed in Hyrule, watching over her daughters, doting on them, teaching most of them how to fight and helping them learn and harness the sealing power that Zelda spent years merging with the divine magic in their blood. He knew it too, as a result, but her daughters were naturals. Then their daughters too, there was a son and when the kingdom rioted, Link took that son and raised the boy himself, taking him to his orchard, which Link still owned, and raised him on. That boy maintained that orchard, wanted to expand to a whole farm that Link didn’t hesitate to help with, and even though he was aware of his identity as the prince, he wanted to stay a farmer.
Link worked between both, he kept close to his family at the orchard, and he was the royal family's secret advisor, guide, and protector.
He fought for princes to be given a chance and not be hunted. It took years before it was finally done and then there was a prince and a little princess not long after. For the first time, Link didn't have to take that little boy away and raise him away from his parents just so he wouldn't be thrown into the river or to the dogs.
Link did a lot, but it was all within the castle or at the ranch, it was all official work.
Then came a point when it became too much, seeing Hyrule change rapidly around him, and he had to leave. The temptation to just become a sword and rest in a temple or the woods was strong, to just wait until the next hero, but he was far too adventurous for that. He never could stay still long enough for that.
"Uncle Link," the young princess rushed up to him as he was about to leave the castle. "You'll come back, right?"
He knelt down, glancing at her father and brother. He was happy that the kingdom hadn't tried to kill this prince, even if he was a bit arrogant and sharp.
"One day, I will be," he told the young Princess Zelda. "But it will be a very, very long time. We may not see each other again, little nightlight."
She frowned. "But... I'll miss you."
"Don't worry, I'll be out there worrying about you and telling the goddesses to protect you," Link promised gently. "Go on, have fun while you can."
She hugged him before he left.