Thanks so much to Luine Mercury LWG, MexicAmerichick6, Ninxeldwin, Sw-0608 (Aw, thank you so much! And, well, you'll see ;), NerdAngel410 (Thank you! That really means a lot :), and MJ (A new chapter comes out every Friday!) for reviewing! You guys are very sweet, thank you! :)
That said, on with the chapter! Bit of a shorter one today, but next week's should make up for it ;)
~ Chapter 10 ~
Intense weakness was not a feeling that Link was accustomed to.
He had been injured before, of course, even gravely so. He had been to the brink of death and back again more times than he'd care to admit, and so he was quite familiar with the exhaustion that came with significant bloodloss.
This, however, was new.
Link's entire body felt like it had been drained of energy and instead filled with steel, weighing him down and preventing him from moving even an inch. His throat burned from the Malice that had clawed its way up and out of his mouth, and the rest of him pulsed with a similar pain.
There was Malice inside him, he acknowledged numbly. And it would almost certainly kill him, given the chance.
His only saving grace, as usual, was Zelda. She remained firmly by his side, both of her hands wrapped around one of his, holding onto him as though he'd vanish if she dared to let go. Her face was set in an expression of determination, though Link could see the way her mouth twitched, her teeth likely tearing anxiously at the inside of her lower lip.
It was as she had said the night before. She couldn't hide anything from him.
"So…" Zelda began carefully, a slight waver in her voice. "...now we know. We know what they did to him. We know what is in Link's blood. We know why my presence alleviates the symptoms. The only thing we don't know is...how to cure him."
Link looked up at her silently, not bothering to feign being asleep like he did before. As she sat beside him, his breathing gradually became easier and his pain began to fade, though he could still sense Zelda's own anguish. He lightly squeezed her hand, as best as his aching fingers could muster. Her only response was to look down at him and give a tight smile.
"I-I've never seen a-anything like this…" Paya murmured, raking her fingertips through her hair over and over again. "W-Where did they e-even get the Malice from…?"
"Evidently, it did not all vanish when Calamity Ganon was sealed," Impa answered grimly. "Perhaps areas like the castle have been so thoroughly poisoned with Malice that some of its evil was able to cling to this world, even with its master gone."
"Never mind where it came from," Teba spoke up gruffly. "How the hell do we get rid of it?"
"Hm...as far as I know, there are a few different ways," Purah answered. "Sometimes, large chunks of Malice will form a core, which takes the form of a big creepy eye. Hit that core with an arrow, and snap! The whole section disappears."
"Which isn't exactly a feasible solution for Master Link," Impa pointed out.
"Right, right, I know." Purah rolled her eyes. "There's still more, but these are a bit more...specialized. For one, I believe the power of the Master Sword is capable of burning away Malice, but unless we're willing to cut Linky open and start poking around inside him with it - "
"We're not doing that," Zelda stated flatly. Link silently agreed.
Purah lifted her hands in a placating gesture. "Okay, I figured as much, calm down! So then, there's one more option I can think of off the top of my head...and it's you, Zelda. If you can reactivate your powers and use them on the Malice inside him, I think you can get rid of it for good."
Zelda sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Well, when you say it like that, it sounds easy…" she murmured. "It took me, what, ten years after my training began to activate my powers for the first time? And back then, they hadn't been constantly running for a full century. I believe my power still resides inside me somewhere, but it's been heavily drained...I don't know if I can call it back to the surface this soon."
"Well, you never know if you don't try, right?" the Sheikah scientist pointed out.
"I know, but...even if I could get my powers back, I still wouldn't know how to use them in this situation," Zelda continued nervously. "I've managed to exorcise the Malice from possessed Guardians before, but they immediately fell dead after the fact. I don't...I don't want to risk hurting Link. Or worse…"
Teba cleared his throat. "In all fairness, princess," he said carefully. "I doubt you'd be putting him through much worse than what's happening to him right now."
"I suppose…" the princess mumbled, though she looked less than sure of herself.
Link frowned. He had seen that very same look many times before.
"Z-Zelda…" he spoke up quietly, wincing at the slight burn in his throat. When she turned to look at him, he squeezed her hand once again. "Zelda...y-you can do this. I-I trust you. B-But...I can also wait until you trust y-yourself…"
Her eyes widened. "Link…I...I don't know. It could take time, a-and the Malice could spread…" She looked at Purah, desperation in her eyes. "Surely, we can come up with another, more reliable way to help him?"
Purah gave a noncommittal shrug. "Not unless you suddenly warm up to the Master Sword idea, Zee."
"I-I'm voting against that idea," Link quickly put in. As much as he would prefer to get rid of the Malice within him, he was more than averse to the idea of letting someone try to perform surgery on him with a two and a half foot blade. Not to mention the fact that said blade would be heavy and unwieldy in anyone's hands but his own.
Between allowing someone to poke around in his insides with a sword they could barely hold steady and being forced to do so himself...he honestly wasn't sure which was worse.
Zelda was silent for a long time, lost in thought. Link waited patiently, watching her conflicted, seafoam green eyes.
He wasn't worried. He already knew what her choice would be.
Finally, his princess let out a long, quiet sigh. "...alright," she said softly. "Alright. I will attempt to reawaken my power. I know how I'm supposed to call upon it now...my only concern is that it won't be strong enough to come forth."
She looked down at Link, meeting his gaze.
"But...like Purah said, I'll never know if I don't try. I may need some time to figure out how I'll approach actually using this magic, but I will do everything I can to make it happen soon. I promise."
For the first time in a while, Link managed a small smile.
Even now, he could still feel that sense of wrongness festering inside him. Zelda's presence had chased it back into the shadows, but it still lurked somewhere in his body, biding its time until it gained the strength to overtake him. It made him want to scream. To cry. To give up on living.
Yet he refused to let any of it show on the surface. How could he? Zelda herself had spent one hundred years stuck in Hyrule Castle, which had been entirely infested with Malice. She still awoke in a panic some nights, screaming and sweating from the heat that didn't exist, scrubbing at her face to remove the thick, oily substance that wasn't there.
She had been through a hell that was far worse than the one he was currently trapped in, and she had never given up. Never complained. She had endured until the very end. She had made it out alive.
And damn it all, so would he.