Sanguine Purification

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Legend of Zelda.

A/N: Sanguine Purification, as in bloody or scarlet purification. I took most of this directly from the origins manga included in the Hyrule Historia, where it shows the beginning of the bond between Hylia and Link, and how it had come about. Her thoughts in this piece of how every blow he had suffered in that first war had been like a knife through her heart is a direct quote from that manga.

~~LoZ~~

Hylia's soul hovered in the in-between as she waited for her next rebirth, observing her people and her land with thoughtful eyes. It had been uncountable eons since she had given up her divinity and become mortal so that she could use the Triforce to defend them from the demon king, since of course the gods themselves could not use that power. And she did not regret what she had done, for herself. It had been and always would be a terrible sacrifice that she was making, of course. But the worst sacrifices had been given of her chosen, her champion - her love.

Link had given his all from the beginning, when he had knelt to her and sworn himself to her service with such fierce resolve. The very nature of his soul from the moment she had seen it had given her the idea for how to contain the demon Demise – for it was unbreakable, and it had to be so to wield the power of gods in the way she needed him to. A sad, fond smile lit her face for a single moment - he had been so wild then, an almost feral light in his matchless blue eyes as he'd battled insurmountable odds with unfaltering courage and determination, and a love for their land and people that had equaled her own.

That's why she'd chosen him, after all. It hadn't been fair of her and she knew that, because he'd had no idea of exactly what he was getting himself into when he'd made the decision to put himself in her hands, but she hadn't expected in the beginning how she would come to feel about the matter even before making her own sacrifices for her plan.

She hated it, had hated it from Link's first death. When she had found his body, rent and broken with everything he'd given to fight off Demise and his armies, something inside her had broken, as well. She had wept, for the very first time since she had awoken as a divine being in the aftermath of the Greater Goddesses creation of the world... because she had fallen in love with her chosen hero. She hadn't been able to help it, despite the fact that Goddesses weren't supposed to even be able to feel love in that manner. And so, for every time he lived and died in her service, more of her own soul broke and wept and cried out with misery and anguish.

Despite their passage across seas of time so vast that even she felt weary thinking of it, she had not forgotten a single bit of how it had felt when her beautiful Link had given his first life in battle for the original sealing of Demise. Every blow he had suffered, every precious drop of his lifeblood that he'd spilled, and his own pain and agony had been like knives through her heart – and they still were.

She still felt every single blow he'd ever endured.

And though it was agonizing she bore it, because he did, so how could she do any less? No matter how many times he was torn from his rest and called to serve and spill his blood again, he rose to the occasion and conquered in her name and the name of Hyrule. His soul had only become more refined over time, as well, its original unbreakable nature only becoming more pure and strong as it grew and learned.

But that was the thing. His soul was growing and becoming even stronger for every time that he shed his blood in service to her and Hyrule... and so was the land itself. It was a slow, slow process, which she assumed was why it had taken so long for her to notice the tiny differences. After all, it would take a long, long time for one mortal body to shed enough blood to water the breadth and depths of their land.

It was finally reaching that point, though, she perceived as she wandered and watched. All the incarnations of her beloved champion had bled so much for the land, that it was... changing. It was beginning to take on the unbreakable, incorruptible status of Link's own soul. And it was in that realization that she understood that Demise had fashioned his own defeat more thoroughly than she could have ever hoped for, from the very beginning. Because while it seemed he was only growing more powerful through every one of his own incarnations, that power was all an illusion.

Link had already defeated him. In fact, after this last time they had both been reborn together in the cycle to face Ganon, divine beasts and guardians and all, it would only need one or two more incarnations, and the land would be strong enough to be the last piece they needed to break the horrid, seemingly neverending cycle the original demon king's curse had put on them. Be born, face him, and eventually die again, win or lose, over and over through time. It had left her in despair for so long, thinking of her poor love and how he was suffering for his devotion to her and their cause.

And so she laughed as her soul waited for the call once more, watching as the land of Hyrule slowly became as strong as Link's soul through the sheer amount of blood he had shed on its behalf. Everywhere she could see, that defiance to the demon king's will was gathering in the soil and the rocks, the sands and the forests, the mountains and the plains, pushing back at the malice that his very existence seeped into them. Link's blood was literally purifying the living lands of Hyrule, drop by precious scarlet drop. She had chosen so much better than even she could have known when she'd accepted his allegiance and devotion to her and their beloved home. She beamed, gladness rushing from her and hope giving her enough surcease to her own pain at his, to heal just a little all the open wounds on her soul that matched every one of his.

Joy, once rarely felt by her, now illuminated her inside and out.

For when the demon king fell for the last time, destroyed rather than just sealed, she and her beloved would be freed to be together forever, and not just for whatever stolen moments or lifetimes that they had so far been given. They would never have to endure another separation again. She knew that would make him happy as well, because she knew – he'd never hidden it in any of his lifetimes – that he loved her. He worshiped her, in a far more deep, binding, and abiding way than any of her people did or ever had, his love for her what had given him the strength in the end to always rise to her call. Even death could not change that, and so nothing could.

It was equally returned, for she, the White Goddess Hylia, worshiped her mortal Champion with the same matchless depths of devotion he held for her.

Once the demon king's true, final end had come at her beloved's hand, they could be joined in eternal, perfect, unbroken unity, and her love, her Link would never have to suffer anything ever again. He would be bathed in her radiance and surrounded in her once more divine light eternally, as she protected him and sheltered him as she had always wanted to be able to do.

Oh, yes, Demise, she laughed vengefully as she watched the very bones of Hyrule strengthen through Link's blood given so freely and unconditionally, you have defeated yourself with every blow you thought you had delivered to my love, for with every time you bled him and mocked him and marked him, you were only diminishing your own strength...

… for it is certain that you could never have diminished his. His courage, his love, will always outweigh your power.