Author's Note: I have decided to continue. I have decided to look at my work not as a white voice that disrespects other voices but as a voice of hope that has the power to instill something special into my readers. I am no Tolkien, no Lewis, no Rowling, and certainly no Collins. This story will inspire no change. This story will not speak in the place of others. This story will not extend beyond itself. I do not have that power.

But if I make you smile for just a second, if I make you cry maybe just a little, even if I hurt you, build you up and tear you down, then I have served my purpose. If I make you think, if I make you emote, if I challenge your sense of morality, if I reinstall your faith in love, then you have no idea how much that means to me. The day I found out my words had potency and power, that day two years ago when I became the smallest fraction of my literary heroes, that was the first day I knew I had a purpose. And if in these dark times I don't at least try to use that power to bring light and to bring hope, then I have disappointed myself. This fictional story is nothing, an amateur attempt at writing, but if it affects you it is everything to me.

I am not ignoring what is happening by posting. I strive to keep myself aware, and you should too, but this story will speak as originally intended. Although the state of the world needs aid and clarity and education and for the right people to speak and be heard, all of that will not affect this fic. I have a story to tell and if you stick with me until the happy ending of this fic and the happy ending of this world, I offer you everything I can. It's a long road to both and I hope with all my heart that the latter comes before the former.

-fatefulfaerie

Link staggered forward at the loss, scuffling to his knees once he reached the empty pedestal. He bowed his head as Zelda stood speechless and motionless.

She didn't know what to do. This was her divine power to protect and it was gone in minutes. By the Sheikah, no less, the race she wanted so much to trust.

Now she found herself wishing they had died heroes, that they hadn't survived to act so vengefully.

Link brought a hand to the column of the pedestal, Zelda taking a couple echoing footsteps forward.

"We have no idea where they are," Link started. "They have the advantage of working in the shadows, and having our light does nothing to illuminate them."

"A whole year of searching, mapping out Hyrule," Zelda added. "Trying to find them and…we were right here for them to steal from. With that Triforce, they could do unthinkable things. They shouldn't even have been able to touch it…how…how could they have taken it so—"

Zelda stopped at the sight of Link's hand, glowing in response to the residual essence of the Triforce.

"Link!" she exclaimed as she rushed forward, her husband barely given the time to react before her hands grasped his. She was looking at the back of his hand analytically, deep in a new-fangled shock she was only beginning to process.

"There…there's only one, Link," she said as Link took a deep breath. "Only one triangle. How…how could they have—"

She had looked to him at her last question, dropping his hand completely at the sight of his expression.

"You…you knew about this…" she said as she shook her head slowly, backing away.

"Zelda," he said with a step forward. "I can explai—"

"You did!" She exclaimed, in her expression hues and shades of betrayal.

"No," Link said with a fleeting glance from the empty pedestal, then back to her. "No, Zelda, it's not what you think."

"How could you?!"

"Please, let me explain," he said slower.

Zelda's eyebrows furrowed, feeling something festering within her that she wanted to deny.

"I didn't know about the Triforce, okay?" he asked slowly and rhetorically, with two hands held out in defense. "I'm just as shocked as you, about that and the Sheikah."

"The triangles on my hand," he continued. "They disappeared…I don't know why and I don't know how."

"When," Zelda prompted, her voice sharp and low.

"After the battle with Demise," Link admitted, Zelda closing her eyes with an exhale. "That was when power went away, and wisdom…I noticed after our wedding night."

Zelda opened her eyes with a glare. She didn't need to say a word.

"I was scared, okay?" Link admitted. "I didn't know what it meant…and I knew I should have told you, but I…well I was so happy to see you safe…and then more and more time passed…and then the second one went away and…I got more scared…I…I'm so sorry."

"You lied to me," she started, her voice cold. "For over a year."

Link sighed.

"Yes."

"And when I kept from you that I was with child, you scolded me for keeping a secret and endangering myself."

Link bit his lip at the reminder before he hung his head in submission.

"Yes."

Zelda hugged her arms close to her chest in the silence that followed, neither of them knowing that Pipit and Groose were indeed eavesdropping.

"There are books on the Triforce," she said quietly, with a hidden anger ready to emerge. "That we put to the side when looking for evidence of the Sheikah. Karane and I will go through them again while you get the Triforce back."

She turned on her heel quickly, as if she were a Princess, giving orders to a knight before walking away.

Link watched her go with regret in his eyes.

He shouldn't have kept it from her. What was he thinking?

When he slowly walked from the temple the door reappeared behind him, Link watching her silhouette until it flew off on her purple Loftwing. Her flight lacked speed and was kept level. She was going home.

He suddenly noticed Pipit and Groose to the left of him, with the most obvious nonchalance he had ever seen.

Link didn't have the energy for them, for anyone really, turning his head and walking past them.

Link slung his bag over his shoulder as he watched her, completely engrossed in the book on her desk. No twitch, no movement that signified that she knew he was about to leave.

No, it wasn't that she didn't know, it was that she didn't care.

Link started to extend his hand to touch her shoulder before it retreated back, his eyes saddening and his head bowing.

He soon changed his mind, not a word passing his lips as he huffed to the exit, walking through the door and closing it behind him.

Zelda looked to the door as soon as she heard it latch close, considering for only a second what she wanted before she stood up.

With purpose and determination she strode towards the door, grasping the knob with the full intention of turning it.

But she never did.