Zelda sat down slowly in the chair next to the bed, taking her father's immobile hand into hers.
"The infection has grown," Greba said. "We've tried every potion we have, but none seem to have any effect. Even your magic has no effect, since your last visit, your last attempt…nothing has changed. I…I fear the worst."
Zelda looked to Greba quickly.
"No," Zelda said with quick shakes of her head.
"Zel," Link said, placing two calm hands on her shoulders.
"No!" she repeated, shaking away his grip. Zelda took her other hand to enclose her fathers and closed her eyes.
She glowed with a golden yellow light, the illumination spreading unto her father.
Yet, the red etchings on his skin did not change in the slightest, Zelda opening her eyes with a shaky exhale.
"No," she said, with a sadness burning in her chest, tears forming and falling.
"Zelda," her father croaked as his eyes opened. "It's okay."
She shook her head, her nose sniffling in order to prevent blubbering when she spoke, but it was inevitable.
"But it's not okay," she blubbered. "You…you're…"
"The Temple of Time," he interjected, much more calm. "You must seal the back room. Do you understand? That is the only way. Their curiosity is too strong otherwise."
Zelda nodded quickly.
"Father, I…" she said. "I don't know if I can do this without you. I wanted…"
Her eyes clamped, releasing another tear that her father was quick to wipe away.
"My sweet girl," he said. "You don't need me anymore. I'm so proud of what you have already become. You…will protect Hyrule. You…can do anything."
"But I want you," Zelda implored. "I want you with me, always. I don't want to lose you."
"Your mother and I will always be with you," he said. "Do me a favor and never forget that."
Zelda dove her forehead into his chest as she bawled, Gaepora wrapping his arms around his daughter, holding and clutching her. Her breaths were hiccups as she cried. Link sat down on the nearest empty bed as he tried to process the mortality of his former headmaster, his father-in-law.
"How long does he have?" Link asked Greba with a turn of his head.
"It's hard to tell," she said, her arms close to her body and her hands clutching her elbows. "It could be as long as a month…or he could be gone by the end of the week. I wish I could say anything more assuring."
Link let out a sharp exhale as he processed her words, gripping the corners of the bed he sat.
"I'm so sorry," he heard Zelda say, her voice muffled. "I'm so sorry I can't save you."
"My lovely daughter," Gaepora said with a smile. "I have lived a full life that has been brightened by your mother and by you. There is no greater gift you could give me than that. You shone so bright even before your days as a goddess that any darkness I faced was of little matter. Even in death, I will smile at your brightness."
Zelda rose her head to meet her father's eyes, her eyes encircled in tears.
"Don't say that," she said as she shook her head. "Don't…don't…"
Gaepora's eyes blinked to share a look with Greba before they returned to Zelda. He tucked a strange of blonde hair behind her ear.
"Don't go?" He finished for her with a raised brow, his expression soon softening. "I wish I didn't have to, but sometimes…sometimes you just have accept what you can't change."
Zelda took a shaky deep breath as she took the challenge upon herself.
"But for now," Gaepora said. "I just want to talk to my daughter."
Zelda smiled and nodded, trying to subdue her tears. She retreated back, grabbing the book from her satchel and holding it close to her chest.
"I finished the book, Father," Zelda said. "I…I understand it now. It's about hope, about relearning hope. That no matter what, there is always a moment beyond. I know now why you gave it to me."
Gaepora smiled, in his tired eyes an adoration.
"Yes," he said. "That is true. However…I also gave it to you because…"
"Because your mother wrote it," Gaepora said, to Zelda's surprise, her eyes blinking wide. "Before she got sick, before you were even born. It was a hobby of hers."
Link's lips parted. No wonder the words sounded like Zelda to him.
"I…" Zelda stammered. "You…you never mentioned that."
"It was too painful," Gaepora said, his voice was strained but he didn't care. "Considering how she died. Now, I…I wanted to make up for her absence, like I always have. I figured she could teach you that lesson when you needed it the most, that you deserved to learn at least something from her, even if it's something she forgot herself."
Zelda teared up as she clutched the edges of the book, nodding.
Link bowed his head where he sat as he recalled the memory. It was back before him and Zelda were engaged, but after the debacle with Demise and after Link and Zelda started officially dating. They were sitting on one of the small islands in the sky, studying the stars until their conversation veered to deeper and darker things. In the next fall of silence, Link asked about Zelda's mother, knowing she died because she was sick, but not knowing in what way. He asked if it was the same sickness that took his own mother.
Zelda responded by saying that she herself was so young when it happened that it didn't affect her, her only being a baby. In the spirit of honesty, she told Link the truth nonetheless, that her mother's death was unlike his mother's. That her mother's sickness was not one of a strictly physical nature and that she took her own life as a result.
Zelda's father, although terribly disheartened by the act, never let his sadness seep onto his daughter as he raised her with as much love and affection and care as he could muster. Every time he saw Zelda smile, after all, he felt his world brighten more and more. He raised a happy, joyful girl and her smile upon him was the greatest blessing a father could hope for.
"Keep the book," Gaepora said. "I've told you a million times how much she loved you, how much I love you. Keep the book and I'll know you'll always find hope again, no matter what. There is always a moment beyond."
"I know," Zelda said with quick nods. "I know. You taught me that and I've relearned it with every loss."
"And thus," Gaepora said. "You will with mine."
