A/N: Early update tonight because tomorrow morning I want to film some videos while the natural light is at its best.You ever take one itsy bitsy bit of lore and spin it into a whole ass mini boss? This chapter may be short, but I thought that the battle and the character development deserved to be self-contained. Also it makes recording and editing podfic a much faster process, and sometimes I need an easy update.
The Light Invasion
PART II - LIFT THE LIGHT
Region by region, dungeon by dungeon, trial by trial, Link and Midna build a fragile trust.
Chapter 26 - The King Lost to Greed
That leap into the pit, though absolutely terrifying, reaped a deeply uncomfortable revelation: Midna had not only been the only one to catch Link if he fell, but she had also been most of his impulse control. Knock out the imp, and there's no one to stop dog-brained idiots like Link from leaping to his death!
Link squeezed his eyes shut. Every second that rushed by was as much miracle as it was torture. Each moment could be when his existence ended in an explosion of pain.
Then someone caught him. An arm under his knees and another around his shoulders. Link's arms still trembled, clutching Midna to his chest. His eyes were still screwed shut. Only Twilux's worst were down here, weren't they? If he looked, what demon would he see? What monster had him in their clutches? Their gentle, cradling clutches…
Slowly, Link opened his eyes. There was light here. Light from the glowing red tattoos on their neck and under their chin not unlike the sol-infused ones of the Twili. A hood covered the upper half of their face, but silver hair cascaded over their shoulders. It reminded him of…
"Queen Ora?" The words were rusty and half-spoken by Link's dry mouth, and yet the entity smiled in recognition, and with a low, masculine chuckle, they smiled wider in resentment, their fangs on full display. A voice, like the whispers that had tempted Link to do such cruel things, resonated within his head. "This isn't the first time a Hylian insulted me in that manner."
Nails, no, claws dug into Link's thigh and bicep. He hissed in pain and wrestled from their grip. He smacked on his side against gravel. Inhaled dust. Rolled onto his back coughing. A hand latched at the bundle in Link's arms. Tried to tug it from his grip. Hovering over Link was a glimpse of the assailant's face. Ruby red eyes. Gaunt, brown skin. Almost Sheikah-like.
"Leave her, Keres!" Link shouted.
The figure stopped, though his hand was still firmly latched around Link's wrist. Those eyes and that smile bore into Link like a skullkid, and not once did he relax his expression. His voice writhed among Link's thoughts once more. "Yes… You are the first Hylian to call me by my name. But did you forget to use my title?" The hand on Link's wrist shifted over his collarbones, neck, and cheek, leaving thin, stinging trails, until they combed back Link's hair with enough pressure to draw blood. "Or do you not respect it?"
Link rolled away, scrambled to his feet, and drew his sword. Keeping Midna covered and secure against his chest was all-the-harder now, the fabric spilling from his arms.
Keres was only hints of glowing red now, sweeping closer like a poe. And Link had just challenged him. In almost pitch darkness. With only one hand to spare. Gods, this would be so much easier if Link discarded her discarded her discarded the little urchin that reeked of that usurper's aura–
"Get out of my head!" Link yelled.
"You defend someone so cruel. One who broke you and bridled you like a wild horse and called herself your mistress. You'll never be more than a servant to her, forced to do her bidding." Ruby eyes bobbed closer. Link backed away, but not fast enough. Keres closed in, and Link thrust at where his chest seemed to be, and plunged into nothing. Then inches from his bundle, veins ignited glowing red, forming Keres's clawed, outstretched hand. "I can release you of her. You shall be a free man once again. Isn't that what you always wanted? Back in Hyrule when she berated you for every little action you took? Accused your monarchy of such heinous war crimes? Threatened your life back in Lanayru Spring?"
As Keres recounted it, the memories played in Link's mind. Midna at her worst, with her fanged snarls and twisted smirks and tendrils of magic and the shadows creeping further and further over him and slipping under his lids and around his eyes as she smiled wider and laughed!
She was so heavy. So difficult to carry. To keep covered. And for what? So she could live to see another day of cutting him with her sharp words? She was useless to him. Deadweight. Caring for her was a waste of effort. With her gone, without the soldiers of Hyrule breathing down his neck, Link's destiny would be his glory to claim, his legacy to forge.
With his arm trembling, he slowly pried it away from his chest, and as the bundle tilted away from his tunic, something gripped it. Feebly. Her tiny hands curled into the fabric like a sleeping child reaching for a parent's comfort. She was small, and fragile, and weak, and needed someone to defend her.
If that someone had to be Link, even as the dark magic poisoned his every altruistic thought and demanded that he be selfish, then selfish he would think. Selfish he would be.
Midna was a pawn, a tool to get what he wanted. She was using him? He was using her. She belonged to him, and that disgraced, failed king from a bygone age had a lot of nerve to try and steal Link's property.
Link slashed at the outstretched arm, intent to lob it off, but Keres pulled back. Not fast enough. He hissed and a hand-shaped shadow covered a gash in the veins. Link flicked the blood off his blade and sauntered closer. "Why don't you just cower in the shadows?" he sneered. (Why was Keres flesh and blood in the 'light' anyway?)
Keres's eyes snapped towards Link, emblazened with rage. He raised his arms high to conjure a maroon ball of light. Easy opening. Link charged in with a stab. Keres hurled the ball at him. Link dove to the right, but his left arm, his sword arm, was hit with full force. His muscles spasmed. Convulsed. He lost his grip on his sword and landed on his right side, pain shooting through his shoulder.
His weapon was gone. Swallowed by darkness. Link groaned and rolled onto his back, onto his shield!
"When your enemies assail you with projectiles, this is how you will defeat them with ease."
Or as much ease as one can hope with a bundle of annoyance on his hip.
As Keres glided in, Link scuffled to his feet. His swordless arm still jittered, and he was forced to bolt from two more attacks before he was able to struggle his shield on. He felt more balanced now. The deadweight of Midna was almost equal weight to his shield. When the next blast came hurtling in, Link bashed it back, and it hit Keres square in the torso, briefly illuminating tattered robes of inky purple.
In that moment of Keres spasming in ribbons of maroon lightning, it was as if a heel grinding into Link's skull was lifted, and he was himself again. But just when Keres shook himself free of the pain, it crashed down on Link again.
When Keres launched the next attack and Link bashed it back, he swept to the left. The ball hurtled into the darkness. Again and again, Link rebounded each spell. Again and again, Keres glided from its path.
Link gritted his teeth. He needed to close the distance. Give Keres the smallest window to dodge, even if it meant Link would have a smaller window to counter. He hoisted Midna higher on his hip (she was getting harder to hold securely) and lumbered in at a lopsided stance. Keres leisurely floated back and chuckled at Link's lousy effort. Mocking the liability sagging in Link's hold. The reason why he was losing.
Midna was slowing him down slowing him down slowing him down like the stupid stupid stupid deadweight she was gods why did she have to be so useless!
As Keres charged up his next attack, her weight fell away, and Link was light and liberated. He charged in and Keres hurled the attack and Link bashed it back. It hit the king square. As he convulsed, Link leapt with a left hook and clipped Keres across the chin with the tip of the shield.
And as Keres crumpled to the floor, the perfect opportunity for Link to kick in his teeth, Link froze stiff. Because he was himself again. Himself, but without Midna.
So instead of finishing the job, he ran the way he came, dropped to his knees, and felt around for her like he was blind as a keese and searching for his glasses, but he felt nothing except for dust and gravel. How could Link leave Midna to die? Because she deserves to die no she doesn't yes she does no she doesn't yes she does!
Link pounded the ball of his palm against his skull. Was he punishing himself? No, he was trying to knock Keres out of his godsdamn head!
Fluttering robes brushed against Link's spine, jolting it straight. "Won't you let me see the fear in your eyes one last time?" There was a buzzing sound. Growing louder. But not nearer. The sound of a magical blast charging. Its growing magenta glow cast Link's shadow upon the gravel. "It's been so long since I've snuffed out an agent of Ora. Won't you offer a damned soul one last joy?"
Link had left Midna to die. He deserves this. He left Midna to die. He deserves this. Face the nocturne. Face the justice. Offer up your chest, and look him in the eye. A gaze so scorching that it brands you.
But rising up from behind the expanding orb was a fist, large and pulsing and spun of amber threads.
In the first second of Keres's gleeful battle cry, the fist came down, base smashing into the ball, smashing it into Keres's head, and in an instant, the cry of sick joy twisted into one of agony. The flashes of the lightning highlighted a corporal ribbon of orange hair, but it barely contoured a figure of shadow. Curvaceous. Slight. Impish.
Link could be seeing things, he was seeing things, and when Keres crumbled and the last of the lightning fizzled out, he hallucinated the glowing teal of Midna's tattoos. When Link was himself again in total quiet with only the beat of his heart and the heave of his chest to remind him that he still existed at all, that glow drew closer and reached out. A tiny hand felt around his face, tenderly brushed over his left eye, and settled on his cheek. "I'm here," Midna assured him. "I'm right here."
Faint breaths tickled his lips. The last time they were this close, she had almost torn out his eye, so the justified response would be to scramble away, like he had always done in response to lesser acts of intimidation… but not this time. His skin tingled under her touch, because this was the first time she touched him, the real him, and at this very moment, the how or why didn't matter. He didn't even know if he liked it, and he certainly didn't know why this meant something to him.
He laid his hand over hers, then glided it up her arm, along her shoulder, and to her cheek, but with as featherlight a touch as he could muster. Enough to feel her dry, flaky skin. It resembled a nasty sunburn, sure, but it was far from the sticky, swollen, cracked skin of the baby they had found in Luce Prima.
When he brushed against a seemingly innocuous part of her skin near her ear, she sucked in a breath. He squinted, and the tattoos on her ear barely illuminate the dark patch. A bruise from when he dropped her. If there was ever a time when Midna was justified to berate him, this was it.
He wet his lips and spoke as if he hadn't spoken in months. "I… I'm sorry for dropping you… For… discarding you…"
She jerked away from him as if he were a scalding cauldron, and she had every right. Was she loading up another lecture? Or was she shrinking away from him in fear, before cruel fate planted another deku nut in his hand?
When she spoke, she was soft, meek, almost too unlike the Midna he knew. Almost. "It's okay," she whispered, voice cracking. "After what I did to you, I don't think even the goddesses could blame you for it."
"Yes, they would."
Midna pulled back a little, lips parted in disbelief, or so Link just barely made out. Link crossed his legs and scratched the gravel before him. An invitation to sit that she might not be able to see (owing to his lack of tattoos) but she might at least hear. She floated to her knees, head bowed, hands folded in her lap, as if she was bracing herself for a scolding.
Link sighed and relaxed his arms. "Rupee for your thoughts?"
"I didn't expect to wake up alive, much less around you. Because of you." The lines on her fingers curled. "After I blacked out, you could've left me, could've smashed my head in or tossed me into that black hole like a rag doll, but you didn't. You did what I couldn't. You resisted this damn curse while I… I…" She swallowed and took a few shaky breaths.
"Hey," Link soothed. "It's oka–"
"You're not supposed to be okay with what happened, Link!" The words echoed around them. Midna was on her feet, fists at her sides, and her shoulders shook as if she was trying so hard not to cry.
He held her gaze as he slowly reached for his pouch; he didn't want her to think he was trying to snatch and smash the deku nut that she might think he still had. But she didn't flinch or lash out in self-defence. She merely followed the path of his hand cautiously, until he drew out the empty vial and placed it between them. Midna furrowed her brow and looked up at him.
"This," Link said, "tells me exactly where you draw the line." She tilted her head, so Link continued. "Yeah, I beat the curse through willpower, barely, but you beat it too. With your wits."
"But I… I… I couldn't stop myself."
"You did. You took the tonic, knocked yourself out, and thanks to you, I'm sitting here with both eyes still intact."
She pouted and crossed her arms. "Oh wow, I didn't irreversibly harm you. Is there going to be an awards ceremony? Are you going to present me with a medal?"
Link snorted. "To be fair, you set the bar on the floor and then pranced over it." Instead of glaring at him like he expected, her shoulders relaxed.
"I could say the same for you," she said. "Thanks for not leaving me to burn."
"No worries." Then something struck him as odd. "Hey, how come you're physical right now?"
"Do you think a shadow can exist in total darkness?" she asked.
"Huh. Guess not."
"There's no light to burn me, and sol-essence tattoos don't count. There's no twilight to transform you, either. I guess pitch darkness is the only way we can physically coexist."
"Good to know," Link said. "Do you think that might be a teeny tiny obstacle to us becoming friends?"
Midna scoffed. "We're not friends, Wolfie. Friends hang out, hurl knives at each other's heads, scream vicious insults at each other–"
"What the– What kind of friends do you have?"
"Only the one. Quality over quantity, I say." Did that make too much sense or none at all?
"Well, by the sounds of it, almost ripping out my eye or leaving you for dead sounds like your idea of a bonding activity."
Midna rolled her head back with a groan. "You want to know the worst part about what you just said?"
"Yep."
"If you weren't a light dweller, they'd find you hilarious."
Link laughed. Maybe Midna had a type. "I dunno about the knives and vicious insults," Link said, "but maybe if Nova prescribes us another ten circums of no questing, we could 'hang out'. Then you'd have to admit that we're more than co-questers."
"Urgh, fine. We'll have one circum of nonsense, one, and then I'll decide. Just be warned though, you're far more charming as a wolf, so when you become Hylian again, I might just change my mind."
He smirked. "Then I guess I'll have to be a good boy and a bad dog."
Somewhat reluctantly, she chuckled. "Sols, you find a way to ruin everything."
When Link had first entered this cave, those days of fearing what Midna might do if he challenged her a little too far were still a recent memory. Now it felt months behind.
That crotchety old stalfos was right: knowing Midna's worst impulses, knowing the limit of her evils to the extent that Link did now, did turn out to be a hallowed experience for him. Hopefully knowing Link's meant the same to her.
A/N: And bam! We have reached the halfway point of Book 1!
This chapter is only the third thus far to include some ship teasing. That's how slow this burn is. Spoilers for 'The Magic Awakens' but in Chapter 26 of my last longfic, Midlink were full-on making out by now. Fortunately, things will crank up by at least half a decibel in the coming chapters.
Fun Fact: King Keres's appearance was based on the illustration of an interloper from the Twilight Princess manga. I don't even like the manga but I do like putting obscure references in my fanfic, so there.
