A/N: On the road at last! About damn time haha.

Wow... we're in the final 3 chapters of Part I. I'll admit, this sorta snuck up on me. These final three chapters will definitely be featuring some turning points that I know you, my dear readers, have been eagerly awaiting for our favourite (yet misguided) hero.

A fair warning: I have bumped up the rating to M. (Yeah okay to the readers of 'The Magic Awakens', I swear I'm not trying to make a habit of this.) Alas, the characters won't stop swearing, the general won't stop putting heads on pikes, and Link and Midna won't stop being horny for each other way down the track. There may be mild smut in this story's future, but no promises!


The Light Invasion

PART I - DESERT THE ARMY

Link of Ordon: is your duty to your kingdom, or the parasite in your shadow?


Chapter 11 - A Hero Worth Hating


After spending a week cramped in that castle of commands, it was invigorating to finally have the breeze on Link's cheeks, Epona rocking under his legs, and the lively chatter between the intimate party of five as they cantered across the yellowing fields. Fields that would look so much lusher under a rising sun.

No point dwelling on that. Soon the Hyrulean army would win back the sun. He would win it back. What better way of assuring himself of it than by retelling tales of victory? Namely, the time he heroically banished the twilight from his home, thus restoring the moon and stars and flames for all of Hyrule. Auru rode on Link's left with his good ear to listen, and the Larkson brothers, despite having heard the tale before, hung onto every word. Ashei stayed the lead, making a point to stretch and yawn every now and then.

"And they all fell dead," Link finished.

Jay gawped. "And with a single spin attack..."

"Yep," Link could only half-hide the wide grin on his face, but he could play it off as a cool half-smirk, right? Right.

"All on your own, too," Reed added.

"Well, it's not like there was anyone around to help me." Aside from Midna, who served her 'help' with a chipped glass of sour milk.

Midna… Link was in a very tricky situation with her. He had allowed cheap tricks and manipulation to push him onto the scout team, and now that he was here, it was obvious that she'd push more and more. He needed to maintain a delicate balance from now on: pacifying her demands while following his righteous path. One of servitude to his kingdom.

But Midna could shatter that in seconds. Just by appearing around his fellow soldiers, she could have Link branded as a traitor. Then there was the sting of her spells or the convulsing of her curses to worry about. The closer they got to the twilight realm, the more volatile and defensive she could get, and the more urgently Link would have to deal with her.

The deku nut pouch jostling on his hip was a grim burden, but in the journey ahead, it would be a morbid comfort.

"Was that your first real fight, Peahat?" Ashei asked, still staring ahead. The question was as sharp as the wood that had scratched his cheek. He'd have to formulate his answer carefully if he wanted to keep the faith of the rest of the party.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"So you've never been on a mission like this before?"

"No, but-"

"And you are aware that we'll be facing bulblins, moldorms, redeads-"

"That's enough, Ashei," Auru snipped, riding to her side. "You saw him at the briefing. He knows what threats await us."

Ashei hissed something at him under her breath, and they muttered and bickered with an audacity that would only be allowed between good friends, but what connection would a high-ranking palace official have with a lowly soldier?

Reed leaned towards Link. "Seems like someone's a bit jealous," he whispered. Link smiled awkwardly. It didn't feel good to be envied by this swordswoman. It felt like she was withholding the camaraderie he craved. He and Ashei had plenty in common. Just like her, he was sheltered from the adventurous life he wanted. He trained in the ways of the sword every day and rarely, if ever, got to use them in an actual fight.

But Ashei didn't know any of that. She saw some farm boy waltz in with a special tunic and marking on his hand and ascend to his first scout mission faster than she ever could. They were evenly matched (arguably, she even edged him out) and yet he was overpraised while she was under-acknowledged.

"She's all talk," Jay said. "Claims to have taken down a frost talus at age fifteen." Reed snorted. If Link admitted that he believed it, he'd become the twins' new favourite punchline.

From the field, they followed another narrow canyon. Reed rode the front while Jay took the rear, crossbows ready for any attack that might try to catch them in the funnel. It was strange, not knowing what to anticipate at the end. An enemy ambush, or a wondrous landscape? Fear and excitement melted into each other like warm goat cheese and bread.

At long last the path opened into a sight Link had read and reread pages on but could scarcely fathom as real. An expansive lake of navy blue surrounded by cliffs with a great, stone bridge spanning miles above. A strip of moonlight glazed the shifting surface. If only the sun was here now. Imagine how it would sparkle upon the wide, crystal waters. Link was a fool to think that all of Hyrule would die of thirst so soon.

Epona, who had been so well-behaved until now, whinnied with joy and cantered ahead, muscling past the steeds of Auru, Ashei, and Reed. Link pulled on the reigns but Epona pulled harder until she was belly-deep in the water. She dipped her head in, pulled it up, and shook her mane. Link threw his forearms over his eyes. Drops pelted his hat, hair, tunic, and trousers. Just when he thought his water-tight boots had shielded him from it all…

And from the bank came a chorus of laughter. The twins howled and pointed, red in the face. Ashei was on the banks, clutching her sides and kicking her legs. Auru's face was twisted in restraint, yet he sputtered through his nose.

And thinking she was so sneaky under the cover of the racket, Midna snickered with them.

Link was just some poor soul perched on the saddle, arms crossed and water leaking into his boots, forced to wait it out as Epona made a big show of slurping. Sometimes she'd lift her head to look at him with sparkling eyes. That annoying "I've tried something new and I like it so now I expect more of it" look.

After chugging half the lake, Epona trotted back to shore a very happy horse. The other four steeds drank in perfect formation as if it was like any other trough.

Though the soldiers had mostly gotten the laughter out of their system, the twins still grinned from ear to ear and Auru was trying oh-so-hard to keep his smile kindly and professional, but the tight edges gave away the shoddy attempt. "You said your horse was exceptional?"

Link grimaced as he wrung his hat in his hands. "Yeah, she's fast and strong and all."

"And you two work together like biscuits and tea?"

"When we're on the clock. As soon as she knows it's break time, she plays by her own rules."

Auru snorted. "I see. Perhaps you should find somewhere to dry yourself off. The desert heat isn't around to do it for you." He squinted along the shore until he pointed to a cave with a halo of stone serpents. "Over there. I'm sure Lanayru won't mind you borrowing their cave while they're away."

Link was very lucky that the water only grazed the bottom of the saddlebags. He wouldn't have soggy, mildewy luggage for the road ahead. After grabbing some dry underwear (as a full change of clothes didn't make for light packing), Link handed Epona's reigns to Auru, hissed at her to behave, and followed the shore to the cave.

There was a strange house bobbing on the lake's surface, more roof than room, as well as a long plank joining it to shore. On the cliff near the bridge, there was another shack. No flames lit their windows. They were dead. Abandoned. During Link's short time in Hyrule Castle, had he met the ones who lived there? The men who, like Link, were collected from their homes by no choice of their own?

Maybe Midna had a point. He could try to bring back the light spirits himself and spare these soldiers. Let him be the hero and let everyone else return to their families, jobs, homes, and passions.

"Link of Ordon, I admire your eagerness, but you are one man. You cannot march into enemy territory all alone. It would take one sentry to rid Hyrule of its much-needed hero."

Fabian was right without a shadow of a doubt that Midna could leech upon. Link was exactly where he needed to be. He just needed to get better at being there. The green tunic might be a good look for him, but unruly steeds were not.

Neither was a morally dubious member of the enemy faction hiding in his shadow.

There was only blackness as he crept along dried grass, but her cackles echoed off the cavern walls, so loud that they might spill into the ears of the scouts up the beach.

"I can't tell if your horse is smart or stupid!" Midna heckled. "Sols, is she always like that?"

"Sometimes…" Link mumbled.

"And you're riding that menace into war!" Cackles echoed again. Her eye was nowhere to be seen, likely crinkled in mirth. "Not to mention that you came in here without a bloody torch!" Oh. Whoops. "That settles it. Your horse is smarter than you."

"Can't you, I dunno, make some light?"

"Well, I could if you ask nicely."

Link forced down a groan. "Please?"

With a snap of her fingers, torches ignited around the cave two-by-two atop serpentine heads. Strangely, they didn't glow orange or gold like any normal flame. They were as white as the stars, and their reflections filled the basin of water. The surface was so still that it looked like a pool of the cosmos.

The thick roots that dangled into the water had the same markings as the rocks in Ordona and Faron's springs, but they lacked their usual lustre. One that said "Even though you cannot see me, I am here."

"Could you please turn away for a bit?" Link asked. He wanted to change his underwear in peace and privacy.

Her outline was barely visible as a distant torch shone through her. "You know I could dry you off, right?"

No. She wasn't gonna touch him with her people's magic. Not after how it had subjugated him back in Ordon. "I can do it myself." His voice cracked like he was fourteen.

"Nuh uh. I'm not letting Wolfie catch a cold in that freezing desert because he only wants to change his undies." Midna lashed a hand to one of the roots' shadows in the water, closed her fist, and pulled. It was as if she picked it free like a berry from the bush, and then something blood-curdling happened.

The shadow slithered towards him. It slithered towards him just like many of them did back in Ordon where they had latched his limbs and gagged his lips and dragged him away to the enemy. Link stumbled back, tripped over a rock, and landed on his rear. The darkness was almost at his ankles. What could he do? What could he do?

Before he commanded it, a hand was in his pouch, a nut was raised, and everything froze.

Her mouth hung open. Her single eye twitched. Her hand commanding the shadow shook. And her breath rattled as if she had narrowly escaped a falling log.

As for him? His mouth hung open. His unblinking eyes stung in the cold air. The hand commanding the deku nut shook. And he was heaving like the day he was almost crushed by a log.

She wasn't trying to harm him with that shadow –he had finally put that together– but the mistake had been made. Link had almost struck first again, and any retaliation against him would be justified self-defence. The line between self-defence and needless cruelty was a very thin one indeed.

Even though Link was wrong to snatch the nut, was he right to hesitate? Give her time to process her next move?

When she gritted her fangs, he should've shattered it. When she clenched her fists, he should've shattered it. When she screamed in rage, he should've shattered it. But when she cast the shadow back into the pond, he was right to hesitate. "Fine! Suffer in your soggy tunic. See if I care!" She spun to the water and slashed it with her magic. Ripples collided like soldiers on the battlefield.

Midna's back was to him, shoulders hunched and fists still clenched. Maybe he owed her an apology. Maybe he could make peace with her. He could only survive her wrath if they were at peace. Cautiously, Link rose to his feet, and when he stepped forward, he accidentally kicked a pebble into the water.

"Do you still have that thing in your hand?" she asked ruefully.

Link's knuckles were so tight around the nut that it could shatter. He didn't fess up, but it didn't matter.

"You have ten seconds to get out of here before I bash your head against the nearest stone."

One. Two. Those were the seconds he lingered. Was she serious? That was the first time she made a threat. A real, genuine threat that he didn't have to piece together on his own. Would she follow through? He was shocked to doubt it, but he wouldn't risk waiting around to find out.

If Midna had hidden in his shadow again as he hustled into the moonlight, he didn't know. His comrades waved from their steeds up the shore. When Link reached them, Auru didn't ask why Link was still soaked. Just why he looked so shaken.

Link chose his words carefully. "I saw the abandoned spring," he said. "Like a crypt with no corpse."

Auru hummed solemnly. "Then we ride on."

So on Link rode, no longer comforted by the jostling nuts on his belt.


For a place so dry, the night-covered desert looked so much like water. It was as if the surface of the lake had been frozen in time, with all its little peaks and dips and waves magnified into dunes. All that was missing was the shine and transparency. It was all solid-coloured, grey grains.

On her sixth stumble, Epona snorted at the sand again. Its tendency to shift and sink was something she thought very rude. At least Link didn't have to contend with it directly, even though righting himself on the saddle over and over was quite tedious. Unfortunately, that was his only excitement out here.

The wonders of the desert had lasted less time than goat's milk in the midday sun. It was just sand for miles. Just once, the daylight should set it on fire, and let the heat drip from Link's brow. Don't let him suffer through it too long, though.

In short, he was bored, and bored meant being trapped with his own thoughts of Midna.

He still despised her. He despised her brash and bratty behaviour, her disrespect for his privacy, her petty snarks, tall tales, and ultimatums. He despised her fangs and claws and yellow eyes and sinister helmet. He despised how she could maim him with just the whim of her wickedness and the snap of her fingers. He despised how he knew so little about her when she got to know everything about him, and he despised how she refused to leave.

She had despised him too, but for all the wrong reasons. She despised him for saying farewell to his best friend, for joyriding across Hyrule Field, for having tea with the prince, for not believing her baseless claims, and for serving his kingdom.

But now.

Now.

She had a damn good reason to hate him.

Link had never been hated like that before.

It didn't matter. Midna made her choice to stay behind. That was abundantly clear. When Link excused himself from the others to 'relieve himself' behind a dune, she didn't answer when he whispered for her. His shadow was empty. Deserted. His and his alone.

And he missed her. He missed the parasite in his shadow.

But hearts were fickle and hearts were stupid. This was just like when he and Ilia had their first and only kiss and immediately regretted it. They had been cajoled by nearly everyone in the village musing about their 'young love.' When Link played the horse grass at Ilia's request, he was 'serenading' her. When Ilia invited him over for dinner, it was because 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.' Their late-night ventures into the spring were 'secret rendezvous.' Everything they did as friends, the villagers would claim as 'something more,' and eventually, Link and Ilia believed it too, despite the nagging in their hearts that said it wasn't what so.

This twinge of heartache for Midna was just like that. It was just the lingering echoes of her "You need me" nonsense. He didn't need her. The people he needed were already by his side.

Almost. There was that one knight who rode behind Auru's lead, and if Link was going to succeed with a new team in a new land, then he needed to win her over.

Link spurred Epona forward until he rode by Ashei's side. Her gaze stayed the horizon, as if he wasn't there, but a sneer tugging at her features.

He cleared his throat. "Ever been in a desert bef-"

"Did you spot some monsters just now?" Ashei cut in.

"No-"

"Are you currently dealing with a medical emergency?"

"No-"

"Is anyone else dealing with a medical emergency?"

"No-"

"Is there any crucial thing you need to tell me right this second?"

"No…"

"Then do me a favour, Peahat, and get lost, yeah?"

Her curt tone had more chill than a shadowbeast's roar. If Link was still a wolf, his tale would be between his legs, but instead he hung his head and let Epona fall behind.

It still didn't make sense. Why was Ashei so mad at him? Was she that sour about the dual? If this was how she acted after a draw, how spiteful would she be if she actually lost? Any time he performed better than her on this mission would only widen the gap. Perhaps it was a mistake to ask for Ashei to come along. She wasn't a team player.

Without the sun crossing the sky, there was no telling how long they wandered through the wasteland. At long last, they reached a small, raised plateau that Auru and Ashei said would provide easy defence against enemies. Curiously, there was a stone block entrance descending into darkness.

"Don't be tempted," Auru warned. "Too many have been lured in by the promise of a great fairy's healing miracle, like the nectar of a fly trap."

Link hauled the saddle bags off his shoulder. "What's down there?"

"Hyrule's personal slice of hell, they say. Endless hordes of monsters. It's rumoured that, when you're as quiet as a dead hand, you can hear them."

At that, everyone hushed. Link strained his ears for something underneath the faint whistle of the wind or the pant of their horses. There was something as quiet as a drop of water. Something that could be the gurgle of a bokoblin or two.

"I think I heard something," Link whispered to the party.

Ashei scoffed. "I don't." The Larksons shook their heads in disappointment.

Auru smiled to Link. "I'd say you're hearing things, but I don't have your young, Hylian ears, so what would I know?"

A fire was started, rations served, and sleeping bags rolled out. Link chose to sit by Auru as they munched on stale bread, salted meat, and dried apple slices. Midna's absence was still bothering Link, and Ashei's snarks were another thorn in the wound. The Larksons' teasing, no matter the intent, wouldn't help his mood.

The most comforting thing about Auru was that he was very much like Rusl. Link had been briefed on who he was and what his duties were. Royal advisor and mentor to Queen Zelda: a mighty role indeed.

Link swallowed his last bite of jerky. "Can I please ask something?"

"Of course, hero."

"The queen, how is she?"

Auru sighed and combed a hand through his tuft of grey. "Her condition is uncertain."

"Uncertain?"

"She's bed-bound, with signs of neither recovery nor decline." He made a purposeful glance towards the Larkson twins (who were competing to see who could munch down a stick of jerky the fastest) then back at Link. "Rather unfortunate timing for a war, don't you think?"

Yeah, it was. Might be another scheme hatched by Zant and his lackeys. "She'll get well soon though, right?" Link asked. He remembered the plague too well. The scratchy throat. The rolling gut. The thoughts lost at sea. Not to mention the suffocating isolation in the name of protecting others. He wouldn't wish that plague on his worst enemy. Not the experience of having it, nor the experience of losing someone to it.

"She will, with the right treatment," Auru said grimly.

Link cloaked his thoughts with something optimistic. "She's lucky to have such a caring husband."

Auru grunted. The kind of response for when you didn't want to agree or disagree with someone. "I do worry, though." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "The queen is wise, and we need her judgement in all of this. Does she agree with the will of her husband?"

"He's not carrying out her orders?"

"No, she's been deemed too ill to give them," Auru said. "The prince might not like that I told you, but I think it's important you know whose orders you're following here."

It was a little concerning, yes, that this mission and war had less to do with Queen Zelda than Link had thought, but it wasn't like Fabian could do nothing in the face of perpetual night and an invasion of shadows. The monarchy needed someone to act. Perhaps Queen Zelda wouldn't be pleased with the actions Fabian took to protect her kingdom, but he was the one nursing her to health so that he could return her reigns. There were no tyrants in Hyrule.

"Thanks for telling me," Link said. He understood his convictions all the better now, and they weren't misplaced. Well, Midna had scattered them a little and he was neatening them up, but at least he was somewhat free from the nagging voice that said he might be wrong. Link wasn't wrong. Fabian wasn't wrong.

But Auru didn't seem wrong, either.

This was all too confusing for Link's travel-weary mind. If Auru really knew so much, then maybe he could help Link understand something else. Something that should be leagues easier to fix. "You and Ashei know each other?"

Auru nodded. "We attend chess night at the same bar."

"And what's she like when she loses?"

"Losing chess is a common occurrence for her. She'll usually sulk in the corner with a mead and spy on the person who beat her. Learn from their winning techniques. In the next game she plays, she's that much harder to beat."

"She gets over it quickly?"

"Oh yes. She fails fast and fails well. That's how she improves so quickly." Auru smirked. "Those are some odd questions. Any particular reason for them?"

Link needed to get better at subtlety, but for now, it was safe to be upfront. "Ashei's been real harsh ever since we duelled to a draw. I don't know why. Might be something to do with the general favouring me over her."

Auru hummed. "She was at chess night that evening. Complained about some 'bloody farm boy in green' stealing her thunder." Oh, yeah. Ashei did mention that when Link was too tired to bake it into his consciousness. "You know who she complained about even more, though?" Auru asked. Link shook his head. "The general. 'That bitch kicked me down again, and this time she used some rookie hero to do it.' He had about as much pushback against her bullshit as a silent princess."

Link hadn't thought much about Ashei and her mother before. He hadn't the time to, or maybe it was because General Alexus was so outside the realm of what a mother should be that it was nigh impossible for him to see it that way. The mothers of Ordon were all their own unique characters, sure –some stern, some lenient, some reserved, and some flamboyant– but they all cared about their children so very much. The ones who were still here and the ones who were tragically lost.

But Alexus? She didn't want anything to do with her own daughter. Gods, she was even angry whenever Ashei succeeded at anything. Not proud like any normal mother would be. Should be.

At least it explained Ashei's constant frustration, anger, and determination to be the best. If Link was ridiculed by his own mother, he might've been twisted into someone very similar.

"I shouldn't have let myself be a pawn," Link said, "but how do I turn it around with her?"

Auru chuckled. "You should ask her sometime. She might give you a verbal lashing, but at least she's straightforward. The onus is on you to listen."

Link wasn't bad at listening. He was very good at listening. He knew the footfall of everyone in Ordon. Every squark and every caw. He had heard the Twili approach before even the trained soldiers of the draft did. Link had listened to Ashei, and all he gleaned from it was 'You and my ma piss me off.' Now everything about Link pissed her off, and Auru wanted him to play punching back to figure out why.

Then again, if he made it his goal to win Ashei's favour, he wouldn't be worrying so much about Midna's. That was the best win he could have for the time-being.

After dinner, Link volunteered to take first watch. Why? Well, it certainly wasn't because he hoped that a certain imp would make an appearance. Not at all. He was just itching for some alone time.

Oh gods, he finally had some alone time, and it was somewhere other than Ordon. It was under the stars unobscured by the canopy with his legs hanging off the sandy mesa ledge. The way the breeze nudged the sand was so different to how it rustled the branches back home.

But everything was still sand. A wasteland of sand. It took years for the novelty of Ordon and Faron to become as stale as a loaf of bread, and the desert would only become more so as he spent hours gazing upon it. Trapped with his own thoughts of Midna.

Should he call for her again? Just to make sure she really was gone? "Midna," Link whispered. Nothing. Wait. Someone was stirring. Oh, it was Ashei. A cicada had landed on her nose.

One more time. "Midna?" Again, there was nothing, nothing, nothing in the middle of nowhere.

It was all so… quiet. Epona snorted in her sleep at the bottom of the mesa. What a thrill. Maybe she'd flick her tail next. Wouldn't that be exciting?

Wait. Epona. Saddle bags. Sketchbook. Finally, he was all alone in some new land. So many grand sights, like the fields, the castle, the lake, and admittedly, the desert, were itching to be immortalised in charcoal and parchment.

Link cautiously crawled to the gear they had piled in the middle of the sleeping circle once the embers had been doused by sand. Even in the darkness, Link's saddlebags weren't that hard to find. They were the only ones made from leather scraps. Yet another detail that screamed sheltered farm boy, but never mind that. He had some landscapes to sketch.

With his legs dangling over the mesa and the first blank pages of the sketchbook spread over his lap, Link made his first daring stroke, then another, and another, forming the great turrets of Hyrule Castle.

It was a disaster. The number of turrets was off, but he couldn't remember how many there actually were, nor their heights in relation to each other. Then the doors were too massive, which Link didn't think was possible, but there they were, taking up a third of the castle's total height.

Next page. He attempted to draw the fields, but how in Nayru's name was Link supposed to draw a road following the curve of the gentle hills into the distance? Next page. Lake Hylia. Water was impossible. How Papa had made Ordon Spring sparkle using only his charcoal was sorcery. What Link wouldn't give for a lesson. Perhaps the mysterious Arbiter's Grounds, where the dead were rumoured to roam, might bless him with the means for a séance.

Last chance while it was still fresh in his mind. Lanayru spring, but not at an angle where he could see the water clearly. One lower to the mossy ground. Forget drawing the moss, though. Instead, he could draw lines as wriggly and wonky as he liked, because that was the nature of the roots that dangled from the ceiling and past the lagoon's raised edges. Vines and more vines crowded the edges of the page, far more numerous than reality.

And yet the middle of the page was devoid of those vines. Instead, there was a scraggly silhouette. Her silhouette. And a blank face. No. Link wasn't gonna finish it. When she floated there, she was terrified of him. He didn't need to be reminded of that. He didn't. Just put the thought out of his mind. Midna had abandoned him, which meant that Link was off the hook. He no longer had to grapple with how he almost harmed her.

He slammed the sketchbook shut. He placed it beside him, along with the charcoal, and begrudgingly sentenced himself to hours of boredom staring at the wide, empty expanse.


Mr Important Hero was alone. All alone as everyone else sniffed and snored in their cosy little sacks. This was a golden opportunity for Midna to knock some sense into that stupid wolf, or perhaps leverage those rather suspicious details that old man let slip, or at least it would be if not for two things Link had: the deku nuts on his belt and the audacity to use them.

He had finally realised that when it came down to a fight, he had the upper hand. He had the nut to expel her into his world's searing light and he had the sword to finish her off. Of course, she had been aware of that little fact ever since General Sexist's fun little tour of the 'How to hunt Twili for sport' workshops.

Midna thought she had one thing, one thing, that prevented Link from slaughtering her with those barbaric techniques, and it was quite simple, really: she hadn't done anything to deserve it.

Sure, Midna may have sassed him and snarked him and given him a few kicks in the ribs way back when (which was, admittedly, a mistake), but a few harsh words weren't worth a violent retaliation. In her experience, they hardly functioned any better than piling on a bunch of sugary pleases and thank-yous. Words. Didn't. Matter.

Actions did, and what actions did Midna take for this hero? Oh right. Rescuing him from his own basement. Saving his village from the horrors that roamed the twilight. Arming him with weaponry. Giving him the kick in the butt he needed to get on this scout mission, which he had clearly been enjoying until the spring incident.

But the moment she tried to do another good thing for him –drying him off with the shadows– he raised his nut against her. Link looked at her, white in the face, like she was going to kill him. She had done nothing, nothing, to make him think that, and yet he thought it anyway. Why? Because according to his militant echo chamber, she was a cruel and blood-thirsty shadowbeast.

From now on, if Link perceived the slightest hint of hostility from Midna, she was dead. For as long as Midna remained in his shadow, she was clinging to the edge of a steep cliff, and a single slip up could shatter her spine on the sharp rocks below.

So why was she still here? Because she was stupid and misguided and didn't know when to quit. Because all she could do was cling to her plan as it withered like the gardens of the upper ring. Because even though her relationship with Link was a hair away from death, there was some idiotic, stubborn part of her screaming to see this through to the end.

This journey was sure to end with her burning body staked on his blade.

But if she stayed, if she waited, if she was present for any possible opportunity to tip the scales of fate, then maybe, just maybe, their true journey would begin with the miracle of his treason.


A/N: So... yeah okay I know things between Link and Midna are worse than ever, but now Link is wising up to the fact that he's no saint, and he's struggling to justify himself, and he misses his snarky little shadow. Can you believe Midlink kinda sorta broke up eons before they became a couple? Jk jk lol :p

Okay, so now I must ask, with things being as... messy... as they are now with Link and Midna, what do you think it'll take for things to finally shift within the next two chapters? I'm eager to read your guesses!