Here it is my fellow Fan Fic lovers; the final chapter of Light & Shadow Collide: Union of the Blades!!
I can't express how happy I am to have finally re-stoked my passion for writing and got this story completed at last, and for the last time I hope you will enjoy the concluding events that unfold here. Be sure to drop a review if you so wish, my thanks to you all!
Epilogue: Redemption In Remembrance
A short while later, there was a rustling, fluttering noise, and the sound was as small and soft as the wings that produced them were delicate and fair. The sound was unobtrusive, only a mere few decibels above silent, and as such they did little to disrupt the flood of private grief pouring out a few feet away.
On the sandy isle set in the midst of these strange arena, at the dead foot of the gaunt and wasted tree in its exact centre, Navi the fairy was stirring out of her long spell of unconsciousness, her tiny features wincing against the throbbing aches that consumed all of her body from the attack that had removed her from the battle, an attack that seemed as though it had happened days ago, for all Link knew in his stricken mind. With cautious slowness she tested her frail, spindly wings, finding that lifting gently and silently off the ground into the air once more caused her no greater degree of dull, insistent pain.
Her light returned shortly after; the bright and shining radiance that emanated magically from her body began to glow anew as her mind cleared from its cloud of disorientation – and she remembered where she was, as memory surged back to her in one great whirling storm of images.
She whipped around, her wings tinkling like a miniscule bell, and cried out "Lin-"
It was her turn for astonishment, for what she had, even briefly, experienced of that battle would not have led her to believe that what she saw was the ultimate outcome of that ferocious conflict.
What she saw was the man who, before a single blow took her away from the fight into darkness and unawareness for what could have been hours, had fought with the vicious, single-minded coldness and detachment against a foe who had battled with a terrifying likewise focus, and who was now holding the body of that foe in his arms not as a towering triumphant but as a man who seemed to have been broken more harshly by that death than any wound could ever have achieved. And as Link and Navi's gazes met, and she saw how his eyes overflowed so with tears of grief and sorrow, she held her silence, and trusted that she would understand when Link was able to tell her what had happened to make this death so terrible for him.
She could not press him now. Whatever the cause of his torment, it was too near for him, and could well be for a long time to come.
And so Navi simply fluttered slowly to her partner's shoulder, pressing her soothing, healing touch to his scarred and battered forehead, watching in compassionate silence as he cradled the unmoving body so like his own in his arms, the blood from what must surely be the killing strike now a cloud of deepening red on the water's clear and bright surface.
Link felt what he imagined was a dim glimmer of relief when he saw, through clouded eyes, his friend rise back into the air again without any true signs of pain or injury, and in some corner of his mind, he was glad to know she had returned to his side again.
She was right in guessing that he could not have explained how things had come to be this way in the time she had laid unconsciousness on the battle's sidelines. For him, the grief at this death – the death of the man who had shown him the inverse of himself and helped him survive it, helped him remember all those who prayed for his safety and victory against the Evil King – this was grief that was not simply too near, but overwhelming, and utterly unbearable.
That same corner of his mind, where a ray of light shone bright against the dark shadow of sorrow and would in time grow strong once more, brought his thoughts back to what this had meant for Dark Link, what peace and freedom it had finally given him. He supposed in that way, he could find some happiness, some gladness, in this outcome, but not now. Not for a long time to come yet.
And so he wept, some tears shed for what terrible thing he may have become without the lesson this unbelievable creature had given to him, some for the sheer weight of the burden that was still upon him and would remain upon him until the bitter end, some for those he hoped still to save from what awful fate was planned for them by the hordes of Ganondorf's imagination, and some simply shed in gratitude to the man in his arms, and sorrow for the price this teaching had come at.
His tears, jewel-bright and pure as whitest snow, softly fell with quiet plinks into the water he knelt upon.
And all around them, the world began to change.
Link will remember this moment for the rest of his days.
The power has purified this place that Link and Navi now stand in, and now, it is the reason that the connection between that terrible reality and the land of Hyrule is now severed and the reason the unreality of their surroundings is vanishing before their eyes.
As Link lays the body of Dark Link down into the water, the water shifts, shimmers, fades...and disappears, and in its place the deep blue stone of the Water Temple can be seen, the unmistakeable intricacy of its patterns as clear as morning sunshine.
As he looks around in amazement, as the chill touch of the water beneath his feet slips into nothingness and he feels the solid touch of stone beneath his feet again, he sees the sandy isle, and the dead tree standing in final salute, as they also vanish away into the ethers of the surrounding mists that could be endlessly in their depth...and then they too begin to swirl, to shrink backwards, to draw inwards on themselves until nothing is eventually left, and suddenly the azure walls of the Temple are there as though such has always been so – and a great blue shape has descended from and through the vanishing mists above to form the ceiling of a rectangular hall that could look no less like the infinite place before than the imagination could ever conceive of.
And then they look down, and the body of Dark Link has gone as well. He has vanished without trace, his spirit and his essence now at one with all the world, at peace at last. Just as he so dearly wanted.
And before either Link or Navi can say a word to each other in astonishment, they see the Master Sword.
They see it shine so brightly, as the blood that has soaked it washes itself clean away without a sound.
Behind them, iron bars grind upwards, and the door set in that great marble arch, its stone flawlessly white and pure, slowly opens to allow the Hero of Time to carry along his great and long road.
He is still for only a moment.
And then, with tears for the man who has taught him so much shimmering brightly in his beautiful, newly awakened blue eyes, Link turns, and he and Navi set forth once again.
Not in the name of war, nor bloodshed, nor death.
But in the name of love. Love for everyone in this world, and for everyone, no matter what misleading darkness etches their features, who has believed in Link, the only man who can save Hyrule.
For love, into the unknown, he marches.
Dear Reader.
Know this.
There is power in the world, magic greater than all the spells and enchantment and charms that can ever be cast by even the most remarkable of sorcerers, magic with more might than all the power and strength imbued in any weapon anywhere in any land, magic more powerful than all of these things combined a thousand times over.
It is not the power of the sword in a man's hand, and it is not measured by the number of killing strikes that a sword rains down upon those who face it.
It is the power of our intent, of what we hope shall come to pass by the move our hand plays to the world.
It is the magic that fills our intent behind our actions, the power that determines the purity and courage of our hearts.
And it is this magic that has saved the Hero of Time from a descent into shadow-lined voids of the conscience, where the only worth one may attain is by the ferocity of their strike.
It is this magic that filled Links' desperate final actions to save the world he so loves to the tip-top with a light so powerful and so bright it blinded and consumed whole the creature, hidden in the darkness of unreality, that has watched every being in Hyrule since time immemorial, feasting upon the shadows in their thoughts and minds and hearts.
It is the magic that that has cleansed his soul and allowed him to begin afresh, and it is the magic that has freed a tortured soul into the sweet arms of a death and a peace he has longed for since he was forced into the world and made to suffer for every moment of his existence.
It is this magic that is in us all, and through the intentions behind our actions do we unlock this power and let it touch us and the world around us, sending our spirits soaring to the skies above, granting us the power to do anything.
May this magic find you, forevermore, as it has finally found Link, the Hero of Time.
THE END.
"Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance."
(Richard Von Wiezsaecker)
And with that, I draw the first of many tales in my Ocarinaverse story to a close.
One last time I'd like to thank anyone and everyone who has and will read this tale - all the support I've received has been nothing short of fantastic. Any and all new reviews are always appreciated - My hailz to you all now and forever!
