When Zelda opens her eyes, she's no longer standing in the cave. Instead, the walls of stone have shimmered away, leaving in their place new ones of an odd, smooth white marble; tracked through with lines of cerulean and violet. They seem to glow in an almost ethereal way, as the light from hundreds of candles waver and flicker in the night breeze - and that thought is so strange, because had she not just been underground? With thousands of tonnes of rock and dirt packed in tight over her head, keeping her trapped below, just as Ganon had kept her trapped within his malice for all those years-
The thought is shaken off before she allows it to grow footholds in the bedrock of her mind. Instead, Zelda turns her focus outwards again. A quick glance around her confirms that she really is no longer underground; now she stands at one end of a long, grand hallway. Dozens of windows are set into the walls, open with nothing to shutter against the elements - that, then, explains the cool air that still caresses her skin. Moonlight pools in and casts an otherworldly glow to the candlelight and the colour of the stones, and the sound of her breath echoes loudly down the chamber, the only sound discernable to her sensitive ears.
Curiosity grips her by the throat, and before Zelda can put conscious effort into it she sets off down the hall, towards the enormous double doors situated at the end. They are covered in ornate carvings and decorated with gold, and when she finally comes near enough to touch them, they swing open as if by unseen command. The space beyond leads to a large outdoor courtyard at the foot of a statue so large that she must crane her head upwards to see the top, and immediately she stills as shock floods her veins.
It is a statue of the Goddess Hylia. This fact itself she finds unsurprising, as she has seen many scattered throughout Hyrule. What is a surprise is that this statue is identical to the one she knows to be hidden away within the Tanagar Canyon, deep in the ruins of the Forgotten Temple. She's only seen it once, briefly, when Link took her through the region on their way to observe Vah Medoh after the beast had begun to experience malfunctions similar to that of Vah Ruta's. But the relic is distinctive, no doubt about it - both for its size, and for the odd platform that rests where the Goddess's hands are carved, as if to be deliberately stood upon.
But then, that begs the question; if this is the statue from the Forgotten Temple, what in the Goddess's name is it doing out here - in the middle of a lush, green wood? For that is what surrounds the area as she looks up higher and higher, the tops of the trees that reach towards the night sky, surrounding the white stone like a verdant aura.
Zelda steps closer to the statue and allows her gaze to drift away when she gets too near to look up at it properly. She comes to a stop at its base, beside a crystalline pool of water, and looks upon its surface. There, reflected back at her once more, is the face of the woman she had seen in the cavern wall - but this time it truly is mirrored, every movement matched twitch for twitch as she stares. A quick glance down at the rest of her confirms it; her body proportions are no longer the same (how had she not noticed this?), and she is clothed in that same gown of ivory, rather than her typical gear.
'Alarmed' isn't quite the word for how Zelda feels, right now, but it's close enough.
Before she can process this sudden bodily change, a wave of pressure shudders through her mind. It pulses and pangs, the pain sharp and everywhere all at once - and then it releases with a snap, and even though Zelda still reels from the shock of it, the rest of her straightens out - a stiff regality pulling her shoulders back and chin high. She feels as though she should be quivering, and yet her form is steady and strong.
She attempts to raise her hand to rub at her forehead and ease the pain that still thrums under her skin. Nothing happens. Another attempt. Still nothing, and now Zelda finds she cannot even turn her head to look and see what the issue is.
Then she finally does move - but not in the manner expected. She turns and begins to head back inside the structure she had exited earlier, her strides far more purposeful and confident than Zelda herself has ever felt. The massive doors swing open again - this time accompanied by a wave of her hand that Zelda had most definitely not attempted - and as she mounts a set of stairs and heads towards an anterior chamber that she had not noticed earlier, a small sliver of clarity shines through the princess's racing thoughts.
This was not her body at all.
That was why she had not noticed the change - because she hadn't changed. Her body, wherever it still was (a shudder at that thought), was the same as it had been. Whatever control she had been given earlier was clearly meant to be temporary, with how forcefully she was shunted to the background of the mind she currently resides within. A brief moment to gather her bearings, orient herself with the changes before being forced to see..
See what?
Before she can progress any further down the list of questions that still boil inside, Zelda's attention is drawn towards the area in front of her host. She's been so caught up that she failed to notice that their surroundings have changed, but now that her footsteps have stopped she finds herself once again drawn to the scene through the eyes of this woman she now inhabits.
Before them sits a pedestal set into the ground, and while the pedestal itself is unremarkable - simple grey stone with golden edges - the object it holds is of curious familiarity. A lone shortsword, with a pale blue hilt and a blue crystal set where the blade joins. She's never seen it before - that much, she is certain of - but something about it calls to mind the Master Sword, of all things. The colour is all wrong, the blade is nowhere near as long, and yet… the stone that adorns it; the slight inward curve of the guards near the handle, the flat of the blade and the shape of the pommel. It all sings of a resonance too similar to ignore.
Footsteps from behind draw away her host body's attention from the sword as she turns to the sound, disallowing Zelda the chance to examine the blade further. She has little time to lament over the lost opportunity, however - for what she sees would surely stop her heart, were it her own to stop.
Link.
The voice that whispers it in her mind is not her own - rather, it sounds far too much like that which she had heard earlier for Zelda's comfort. But her own is layered within it, deep and echoing and knowing and that is all she needs to convince herself that it is true. His appearance is different - hair far shorter and a pale gold colour, slightly taller and broader in the shoulders, and dressed in a deep verdant green - but his eyes are the same. They shine a bright sky blue, and for a scant second Zelda feels as if they pierce straight through the stranger she inhabits to see her.
Just the same as he always has.
"You should not have entered this room."
It takes a moment for Zelda to realise that the voice that spoke came from the mouth of her host and not from within her mind - for it is identical to that one which she has heard speak already. This time it is most definitely spoken aloud, however, and not to her, but to the man who stands before her - evident in the way he drops both his gaze and his knee to the floor, head bowed in submission before her.
"Forgive me, Goddess. I do not wish to intrude."
The woman is unfazed by the form of address, but inside Zelda suddenly feels numb.
Goddess?
Is she… inside Hylia's memories? No, not just her memories… it feels deeper than that. She cannot quite quantify how, but Zelda knows that much. There is something, a fragment of knowledge like that from a dusty tome read ages ago when she was small, buried in the recesses of her mind that she cannot access - something that feels important, and related to this moment in some fashion.
But what?
Hylia's head tilts to the side, and Zelda follows her gaze to the top of Link's head, still bowed as he kneels before her. For a moment she wonders if the Goddess will keep him there - and then she speaks again.
"Rise, soldier. You have caused no offence." A beat passes, and then he obeys. His movements are both fluid and controlled, comfortable yet reigned in, and still his eyes remain averted from hers. Both goddess and man are quiet for half a breath more - and then Zelda feels Hylia's posture change. It softens, becomes less formal and rigid, and there is the slightest of smiles that pulls at her lips. He seems to sense the shift and responds in kind as his gaze finally locks with hers to reveal a sparkle of mirth that shines brightly. "I do not sense anyone else out in the hallway. One would almost think you were of the Sheikah, with how stealthy you have become."
He chuckles, the sound a soft rumble in the quiet room, and Zelda can feel how Hylia's nerves are set alight at the sound. "I am no Sheikah - merely a knight with an abundance of luck." He steps forward, more of a bold temperament than Zelda expects to see in the face of an immortal being. Rather than rebuff or reproach, Hylia reaches out to take his hands within her grasp, and her thumbs pass over his knuckles in a motion that can only be described as tender.
"That is rather fortunate, for this Goddess would like to spend as much time with her knight as is humanly possible - and the Three know we will need all the luck we can get for that."
The silence that follows is a comfortable one, Goddess and knight quiet as they maintain both eye contact and their hold on each other. Zelda cannot help but shy away from the moment. She feels, quite suddenly, as though she has intruded on something far more intimate than she has any right to witness. She wishes now more than ever to free herself from this parody of a play and set herself to rights back within her own body, away from the private thoughts and memories of those long since gone with the flow of time - but the more that Zelda wishes, it seems, the more resolutely she is stuck, forced to see outwards from Hylia's eyes, feel everything that she feels both inside and out. For not only is she aware of the way Link's hands wrap around Hylia's, his skin rough and calloused from work and use in comparison to her own divinely smooth flesh; she is aware of the way his touch sets the whole of her body to flame, like a net of electricity that pulses outwards from where their hands touch. She can feel Hylia's heart as it pounds against her chest from within, her ribcage set to rattle like a window in a storm. Zelda can feel it all, every little nuance, and it overloads her senses completely until she is no longer certain as to where she ends and the Goddess begins.
Oddly enough, when she ceases her attempts to resist the sensation, it feels… right. Like something has clicked into place, where it should always have been.
The soft tenor of his voice breaks Zelda away from her thoughts, and she wonders if Hylia can feel her startle in the same way she can feel Hylia's joy. She hopes not.
"You did have a reason for asking me to come, though, yes? Your demeanour earlier had a sense of… urgency, to it." Link's head tilts to one side, the smallest of creases present on his brow. "Has something happened?"
"There is no cause for alarm, if that is what you mean," Hylia replies, lips curved into a smile meant to reassure. "I have gifts for you. Come, this way."
Zelda's attention is focused on the way Link's expression shifts as Hylia leads him up the dais, so quick to go from concerned to curious. She finds it odd, just how expressive he seems to be - the Link she left behind so often seems to show no emotion that's she become adept at reading what little does bleed through, but with this one there's no need to expunge any effort at all. His face is like an open book. And she continues to read it as the Goddess gestures towards the sword set in stone before them, how his eyes light up as he looks between her and it until he steps forward to rest a hand on the pommel.
Hylia's smile widens, and the Goddess' joy radiates so strongly that Zelda smiles with her. "It is called the Goddess Sword. As my Chosen Knight, you need a weapon worthy of your strength, one with which you might combat the darkness that threatens to swallow the land." The Goddess pauses, waits for Link's eyes to rise and meet her gaze once more before she speaks the next words with a resolute finality.
"It is for you to wield, and you alone."
He sucks in a breath. When Hylia nods, he turns back to the pedestal, wraps his hands around the hilt, and pulls. The blade slides out of the stone with a metallic shing, and when Link holds it aloft over his head, it glows with an ethereal light.
As he lowers it, Hylia crosses the small distance between them and procures something from with the voluminous sleeves of her gown. A bundle of ivory cloth, folded neatly so that the design embroidered to the front shows clearly. "As your Goddess, it is my duty to see to it that you are always safe, wherever you go. This sailcloth, crafted by my hands and blessed with my magic, will ensure that you drift down from the heavens as if guided by the Golden Three themselves."
Link's gaze travels from the sailcloth to Hylia's once more, the light behind them now set to burn like embers. With sword still in hand, he takes the cloth from her, and not once do his eyes waver. The air between them feels charged now - like that electrical sensation Zelda had felt when his and Hylia's hands connected has now expanded to fill the entire room, magnified by thousands. Zelda barely registers as Hylia reaches into her sleeves again to withdraw yet another bundle of fabric - this one a bright crimson red. Another step closer, and Hylia is now so close to Link that Zelda can see just the faintest dusting of freckles across his nose, like he's been kissed by the sun. Hylia unfurls the cloth - a long scarf - and reaches up to drape it over and around Link's shoulders, and she smooths it down the front of his tunic till it sits just the way she wants it. Her hands rest on his chest when finished, with no urge to move away.
"This gift has no official meaning to it - no divine reason which I can use to explain away its appearance, aside from the fact that I have chosen you as mine. And as the one I have chosen, I wish to give you something. Something that marks you as mine, and only mine," her fingers flex in the fabric of the scarf then, and Zelda lets out a gasp that only she can hear when Hylia uses the material as leverage to pull her Hero in close enough that their lips touch, "just as you have marked my heart as yours."
As soon as Hylia is done speaking, Link's mouth presses fully against hers. There is a dull clatter that neither Hylia nor Zelda can be bothered to pay any mind to, and then his hands are on the Goddess' hips to pull her slight figure up against his chest. His arms band tightly around her waist and his touch is full of desire; of reverent worship; of want. Hylia responds in kind, and her hands abandon the scarf to slide up and tangle in the locks of his hair to anchor him and keep him close even as she presses closer, the deity's urge to erase any distance left between them now fully grown into an intrinsic need.
Before Zelda can process this - before she can analyse the way Link's touch has roused thoughts and sensations that no holy being should have, before she can question why his embrace feels so right, to both Goddess and human consciousness, there is a familiar pang in her head. The serene quiet that had been filled only with the sound of their breath fades rapidly, and leaves in its wake the roaring of fire and the clang of steel on steel. Much slower, the sensation of Link, of his lips and his body, dissipates until all she can feel is hot wind whipping at her skin, ash and embers that leave tiny bites of pain where they land on her body. And when her eyes open, she is no longer within the sword chamber with her hero standing before her.
Now she stands in the middle of a great pit, surrounded by walls of flame. Fatigue and agony make her legs tremble with the effort to stay upright, but stay upright she does. Zelda glances down, sees the sword grasped tight in her hands, and has only a moment to look up and scan the battlefield for Link before another pang reverberates through her skull, and once more Hylia assumes control.
At that same moment, a loud, metallic clash rings through the arena. Hylia spins, and there she spots him. In the centre of the pit is Link, his blade locked with that of the creature that stands before him - what can only be described as pure demon. Hylia steels herself at the sight, but Zelda's blood runs cold. She has never seen this creature, does not know its name, but the malefic aura that emanates from it is a perfect match to that of Ganon's malice. Were she in control, the Goddess would appear to shrink away and cower; the strength of it feels magnified infinitely, and it thickens the air with putrid hate and despair. Zelda is certain that the only reason Hylia herself does not tremble in fear is because of the divine glow that radiates from within her being, driving it back even as it attempts to encroach further in.
There is a slight shimmer in the air near the pair, and then the stalemate is broken. Link's blade slides back and his foot stumbles only slightly, but it is all the opening that the demon needs. It thrusts its sword forward; the metal hisses as it slides against the holy steel of the Goddess Blade, then the demon pulls its blade back and swings forward in a wide arc, a violent roar echoing out of its mouth.
Link screams. Hylia's heart stops. The Demon laughs.
Zelda can only watch.