A/N: This chapter is brought to you by my ex-boss who liked to be really nasty and abusive to me one week and then shower me with praise and give me scented candles the next. #fabianisagirlboss


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 15 - In the Shadows


Though not a soul wandered the streets of Twilux's lower ring, Midna had told Link an ominous fact: there was a whole city of people here. Clustered under market tables, huddled in alleyways, and nestled inside homes that may or may not belong to them.

The light blazed from all directions, so only the spaces shaded on all sides provided refuge for the Twili. There were no sunshades here, either, so the shadows were precious fewer.

Thousands of unseen people watched Link as he wandered past. Thousands of unseen people envied Link for being able to stride in this harsh light. Thousands of people could lash out at him in some misplaced sense of revenge, because depending on what Zant had told them, he wasn't a hero. He was a soldier. An invader.

That was why he stayed clear of every shadow but his own. If it brushed one of those hiding places, a Twili or two could slip in without Link's notice. Who knew if Midna could stop them? Of all the lectures she had given him that 'morning', it wasn't that one.

Worse still, this city was so barren. Devoid not only of life, but culture. No house had a door; just a gaping square. Each building was a block of drab grey stone. No wooden planks or brick lay to offer even a morsel of texture.

Was this place always so drear? All structure and no lustre? Or had the light invasion stripped that away, too, like the 'immaculate beauty' of the Gardens of Luma?

His stomach growled again. Last 'night', after Link had supper, Midna had bluntly informed him that he was out of food. That's right. He was stranded in a strange and hostile world and he was out of food! Sure, he could maybe push through it for a day or two, but what if he didn't find food in that time? What if he starved before he saved the light spirits, and then all of Hyrule starved with him?

"Then let me have some of your share!" Link said to the imp.

Midna crossed her arms. "I don't have food. Don't need it."

That was ridiculous. "All living things need food."

"Oh, well thanks for reminding me that I'm not exactly living right now," she sneered. "I can't eat, can't feel things, can't just be a person when I'm a shadow!" She gestured at her dark, translucent form.

Honestly, not needing food sounded like a pretty sweet deal to Link and his whinging stomach. The Twili had lucked out there.

But perhaps that was how Link's luck could change too. If the Twili were trapped in the shadows, then they must have tons of uneaten (and hopefully unspoiled) food. It would be a shame to waste it.

But was it worth the risk of grazing an occupied shadow? Would it spring at him? Snare him just like the agents of Zant?

Another rumble. Link clutched his stomach. A chance like this might not arrive again.

He strayed close to a house and stopped shy of its threshold. His shadow and the shade were less than an inch apart. Ahead was a blank wall with an empty frame hung upon it. To the right was a wall with another doorway leading to an unseen room, and to the left, there was a stool and the sliver of a table. A dining table? The rest was hidden behind the door frame. In shadow.

Link raised a foot and allowed his shadow to touch the shade.

Nothing. No uncanny sensation of a sinister force slithering into his shadow. No weight in his shade. That didn't mean something wasn't happening, though. Link couldn't feel when Midna was in his shadow, so why not some nefarious civilian?

He set his step upon the smooth, glossy floor, and his shadow hissed. "Don't."

It was Midna. Only Midna. She could scold him for this later. It was her fault for not warning him about his dwindling food supply earlier. He needed to do this. He was servant not just to her, but his own body.

The 'dining table' was nothing more than a square frame on four legs. Did the Twili set food upon the empty space only to watch it crash against the floor? Whatever the purpose, Link couldn't figure it out. What he did know was that dining tables existed where there was food to dine on. His stomach's salvation was near.

There were shelves of books lining the walls, and on the corner perpendicular to them was another doorway (with an actual door on it akin to the liftable ones in the Arbiter's Grounds). Beside that, a bench was set into the wall nearby, as well as 'glassdoor' cupboards that were more like wooden frames with handles. He could just reach inside and take the pots and jars within. How peculiar.

"Stop," his shadow whispered again.

He reached for the first pot, and when he closed his hand around it, there was another whisper. "Don't take from us. Please." It was louder, but dreadfully feeble. That seemed odd for Midna.

Link was being seen by the unseen. He could withdraw. He should withdraw, but gods, he couldn't afford to starve. "I'm sorry. I'll only take a little bit."

The pot was a little stuck but when he pulled it free, something shot from the shadows. It knocked the pot from his hand. It shattered into black specks upon the floor, and the shade of the house darkened. Thickened. Just like that march to Farona Bridge minutes before his capture.

Not again. His hand was already in his pouch. He raised the nut.

"Just leave!" Midna hissed.

Link jolted, the nut flew from his hand, and... it spun across the floor, still whole. Unshattered. Slowly being consumed by darkness.

He had almost... Just leave.

He sprinted from the rising shadow into the flood of light. Huffing. Not for any physical exertion, but for the heinous act he almost committed for the second time.

"Your current power disgraces the tunic you wear, but I don't just mean your swordplay. I mean your mind."

Link needed out. Out. He couldn't trust himself. Never again. He snatched the seed pouch of his belt and shoved it against his shadow. "Take it." Nothing. He nudged the pouch. "Take it! Throw it over the edge! I don't care."

First, there was still nothing, then a tiny hand emerged from the shadow, no further than the wrist, and snapped the pouch into the void.

Link folded his arms over his gut and squeezed. Anything to keep the hunger at bay. Anything to keep the impending thoughts of starvation at bay. Anything to avoid further proving that the hero's shade was right to judge him so callously.

"I'm sorry." Did he say it to Midna or the home he had invaded? Both had been wronged by the threat of his deku nut, and now that he had seen how the light scorched the Twili, he couldn't delude himself into thinking that it would be a harmless stun-and-run. "It won't happen again. I'm sorry."

Midna remained hidden. Odd. She was passing up the perfect chance to scold him, and frankly, he deserved it.

But something did respond. A raspy little cough for attention. From the home he had invaded. Waiting in the doorway was a cloth laden with a strange, shrivelled assortment. A bottle of water, sticks of charcoal, and wrinkly, blood red disks.

Link slowly approached the strange offering. He relaxed his fingers, unsquared his shoulders, and slowly knelt down. The 'charcoal' appeared to be jerky as tough and stringy as rope, and the disks was some kind of dried fruit. It wasn't much, but rationed properly, it gave him two days to scrounge together his next meal. He cleared his throat. "Are these for me?"

"Y-yes." If the air wasn't so still, it could've been a trick of the wind. Maybe it still was, somehow. He reached for the corner of the cloth, gingerly, until he pinched the corner. No shadows lashed out at him for that, so he gave it the tiniest tug. Still nothing. He slowly dragged it to his toes and tied the corners together, then after one final glance at the shade in the doorway, he placed the bundle on his own shadow. It shattered into particles.

"Thank-you," Link said to the doorway. "May I… uh… know your name?" No answer. At least, not until the shadows slithered from the right of the door, filling and tracing the faintest patterns, or characters, upon the stone wall. Dashes and curls that made no sense to Link, but another would know.

"What does it say?" Link asked Midna.

When Midna answered, it was even quieter than this mysterious and charitable Twili. So quiet that the drop of a pin might drown her out.

"Nova's Vet Clinic." A soft snort disrupted her. "Might come in handy later, Wolfie."

Wait. After everything back in Ordon, Link was gonna turn into a wolf all over again?


"Good morning, my queen. I brought you a gift." Fabian set the usual tray of soup and tea on Zelda's bedside and flipped open a satchel by his waist. "I apologise for snapping at you yesterday. I understand how being isolated from the sky may be quite draining." He drew out a skinny, leather volume and set it on Zelda's lap. "Go on. Have a peruse, why don't you?"

Zelda pried the cover with great care and caution, as if a torturous trap had somehow been compacted between the pages. Fabian laughed. "Scared of a little paper cut?"

She merely hummed and turned the page to... oh, they were beautiful. Pressed flowers. Every variety from her garden arranged into beautiful bouquets. Daisies and lilies and roses and more. How delightful. She had missed her garden, and this gift, right here, did something to sooth that ache.

But it was odd of Fabian to bother, wasn't it? Who would give such a thoughtful gift to the one they were poisoning?

There was still one possibility on the table: that Zelda was paranoid (as was a symptom of the white plague) and searching for a conspiracy that did not exist. Shoving puzzle pieces together that did not fit at all.

Zelda forced a convincing smile and held the book close to her chest. "Thank-you, my darling. I shall take great delight in these pages whenever I yearn for my garden." There was a nagging part of her –a selfish part of her– that said she deserved more than dried flowers, but if this was all she could have for now, then it needed to be enough. It was enough. Poison or no poison, Fabian had redeemed himself from yesterday's snips about her frustrations.

Fabian smiled and straightened. "Well, the morning council meeting awaits. I trust that you won't need my help to eat? You've been doing impressively well these past few days."

Indeed she had. Though each sip was torture, Zelda had provided consistently empty bowls after every meal.

She nodded to Fabian. "Thank-you. Yes, I will be fine on my own."

He took her hand, "I see you glow with more strength each day," and kissed it. "Rest well, my dearest wife." When his touch left her, she panged for it, and when the door closed, she yearned for his company –or any company– again. But no, she was to be left alone with her bitter soup and and tangled heartstrings.

It had been five days since she had seen Auru, and five days of wondering if he had done anything about her supposed poisoning at all. Any day now, the guards could storm into the room and whisk her away from her prison, or a doctor would barge in, demanding to examine her. At the very least, she should be slipped a note, but Fabian was the only vessel in and out of this room. How could he be hoodwinked into passing on a message about the poison he was likely administering to her?

Zelda thoughtfully swirled the soup, dreading that first sip, when chink!

There was something in there. Something made of glass. Zelda fished it out, tipped it onto the handkerchief, and cleaned it of the rancid soup.

By the goddesses, it was in her hand. Her salvation. A treasure so rare and so coveted that many a bloody heist had been attempted to seize it from the securest of vaults. It was a teardrop vial of a shimmery, purple liquid. Great fairy tears.

These would heal her to perfect health in seconds, but Fabian would continue to poison her and she would be back to bedridden in no time if she wasn't careful. Besides that, the whole castle thought she was contagious! There had to be a smarter way around this, right? It was worth searching for clues.

There was nothing in the tea, even when Zelda had gulped down every drop. Nothing between the pages of the book either, nor on the tray where the bowl had sat.

How disappointing. She'd have to down the tears and ride their advantage with naught but a sloppy plan. Oh well. She carefully set the bowl back down, when something stuck to its underside brushed her glove. A corner of parchment.

Her breath hitched. Carefully, she unstuck it from the bottom. It was a folded square, no larger than a wax seal.

Unfolded, it was a palm-sized scrap with a message in perfect cursive.

I have infused the soup with healing herbs. Add one drop from the vial at each meal to enhance the potency. Once you have recovered enough, I trust that you will seek Auru again.

Well wishes,

-R

She hoped that this 'R' fellow was as capable at brewing poison antidotes as Auru thought them to be, because what sweet assurance it would be for her marriage if it didn't work at all.


The blades of charcoal grain were so brittle that they broke more than they bent. Wolfie's trail of destruction, a straight cut through the fields, was the ripest indication.

"So you mean to tell me that turning into a wolf wasn't a one-time thing?" Link asked.

"Nope," Midna quipped from his side. "Each time you restore the twilight, you'll become a blue-eyed-beast again, but hey, you'll be more popular that way."

Once he had ridden another flickering platform down to the fields, Midna was finally able to answer his pestering questions away from thousands of Twili eyes. She refused to be perceived in her imp form by her subjects, so that was why she stayed silent unless absolutely necessary, but Link didn't need to know that. So far, he had little reason to think she was shaped differently to any other Twili. But the little she did say? It was too much from her. The shadows of Luce Prima must surely be whispering amongst themselves about the mysterious Twili who had allied herself with a light invader.

Link nibbled his lip in an oddly sheepish manner. He was about to say something stupid, wasn't he? "I… uh… I'm sorry."

Midna as good as smacked into a wall. "You're sorry? For what?"

He puffed his cheeks and exhaled. "For thinking your people stole the spirits. It's obvious they didn't."

A smirk tugged at her. "How obvious?"

"Pretty obvious? I dunno. Feels like I should've figured it out before I got here, given how my captors recoiled to Ordona's light."

"Only pretty obvious?" Midna asked. "How about… blindingly obvious?" He averted his eyes. "Or stupidly obvious?" And trudged on. "Or so overwhelmingly, embarrassingly, mind-bogglingly obvious?"

Link clenched his fists, but she heard that puff of air through his nose. Perhaps this stupid little light dweller had a decent sense of humour after all. She floated after him, swooning as she wailed. "'Oh Midna, however wilt thou forgive me for the heinous crime of sheer dumbassery!"

He dragged to a halt and threw back his head with a groan, bucked by a few chuckles. "I deserved that, but no more, okay?"

"Pfft." Midna crossed her arms. "It was fun while it lasted. Anyway, let's get going. We have a kargarok to catch."

Link waded through the wheat again. "Still can't believe you ride them in your world." They were a few hundred metres away from a lonesome block on the edge of the field (and island).

They entered a shadow cast by one of the residential islands above. Link craned his head all the way back, still entranced by the most mundane marvel of her world. "Are those holes?" he asked, pointing to the rocky underside, dotted with darkness.

Midna almost sighed in sorrow. She didn't feel like discussing yet another thing that the light invasion had taken away. "It's something better seen than explained," she said. "Tell you what? Restore the twilight to Silva Province, and maybe I'll show you."

Link snorted. "Fine. I'll add that to the list of things you still owe me an explanation about." He counted on his fingers. "Indoor plumbing, thermodynamics, and exams. Two of those sound made up, by the way, to make you look smarter."

Hm… He was being oddly casual with her. Had something shifted between them? No, it had not. They were still mistress and servant, but she was a mistress who might possibly enjoy his smart-mouthed jabs. He wasn't like this in Hyrule Castle, or on the mission with the soldiers. Perhaps it was worth humouring, if only as a test.

"Alright, farm boy," she said. "It's time you learn the urbanised journey of piss and shit."

They reached the stable just as Midna wrapped up her explanation, and Link's eyes were glazed with morbid wonder. "I dunno if that's better or worse than throwing it into the valley."

Midna furrowed her brow. "You mean you don't use it as fertilizer?"

Link choked on a laugh. "No way! That's what goat shit is for."

"Well, as much as I love having deep discussions about bodily waste with you," Midna halted before Link and threw her arms outward, "we're here. Welcome to the kargarok stable."

"You sure it's safe?" Link asked. "Can't we warp like those shadowbeasts?"

"You've seen the horrid state of our floating platform infrastructure."

"Up close and personally," Link deadpanned.

"The light invasion destabilised all our portals too. If we try to use them, you might come out the other end in pieces, or fall into the white abyss. Hey, maybe both!"

"Well, if getting to Silva is a choice between falling into the abyss whole or in pieces, then I might as well make a new life for myself in this wheat field." He spread his arms and fell into the grass with a dried crunch. So dramatic.

"C'mon, we can still fly there. It'll be like riding a horse! Just let me get one. I'll be right back."

She zoomed around to the side of the stable, where the door was missing. It was nothing more than a square cut out. The light invasion had blown out every hard light door and window. A few low caws came from within, as well as the shifting shadows of beaks. If those belonged to the kargaroks, then not all had fled in their frenzy. Thank sols.

Inside, they roosted on their metal bars, and they were completely different from the birds Midna knew. Gone was the black hide, the horn-like head, and the blue markings on their face. These resembled the rather aggressive birds that pestered Link on Hyrule Field. Yellow beaks and dangling, red wattles. Smooth, grey skin with a pinkish tinge stretched over the wings. The tails were sharp with an extra prong on the bottom. The only thing that hadn't changed was their size, large enough to carry a full-grown Twili and child. Here's hoping the invasion didn't transform their attitude, too.

Hanging on the wall opposite the door were half a dozen sets of reins and saddles. She caught a rein in her magic and carefully floated it towards the nearest kargarok. Gently, it circled the neck, but the second it brushed, green eyes snapped open. It shook the reins to the floor, reared back, and squawked.

Within seconds, the stable was a flurry of beating wings. The kargaroks bumped into each other, fighting to exit. Midna snatched up the reins and tried to snare one before they could escape, but they thrashed away each attempt, until they all burst from the stable and flapped towards the sky. Midna zipped after them, but ten metres up, and her shadow cloak tingled, and the magic on the rein began to wane. Cursing, she dipped back to the fields, shading herself in the wheat. As if to mock her, the kargaroks didn't scatter or flee to the city. They merely circled overhead.

There was a strange whistle. A gentle melody that settled the circles of the birds above, then coaxed a brave few down. Midna rose above the grass, and there Link was, on his feet, blowing into that tacky necklace Cowlick had given to him.

One bird landed a safe distance from the light invader, but another landed right before him. Link kept playing as he reached out to scratch under the kargarok's beak, and it leaned into his hand with a soft trill. Well done, Wolfie.

Midna carefully guided the reins around the kargarok's neck, and not a hint of resistance met her. She fastened it and offered the reins to Link. "Hold on. I'll grab a saddle."

He nodded without breaking his melody. She retrieved the saddle in under a minute and fastened it over and under the wings. Link stopped playing after that, and the bird got a little rowdy, but a stick of jerky from Midna quelled it again.

"So, how do I ride one of these?" Link asked.

"First, you have to make it bow." She floated to the bird's front and pointed down. "Dorsum!" The bird lowered itself, aligning its spine with the ground. "Then you get on like you would a horse, minus those weird pedal things."

Link swung his leg over the saddle and settled upon it. "Then?"

"Squeeze the sides really tight."

He tensed his thighs. "And?"

Midna grinned wickedly. "Trial by fire." She dove into his shadow on the spine, shouting a command. "Levare!" The kargarok squawked and sprung from the field, and the heavy beat of wings was drowned out by those sweet Hylian screams.


A/N: I recently got to be a part of a recent Zelda Dungeon article called 'Protagonist Link: Past Connections, Current Associations, and Future Attachments'. Basically a bunch of fan creators on Tumblr filled out a questionnaire sharing our thoughts about Link as a protagonist, and they were all collated into this brilliant article. There's a whole lot of diverse and interesting opinions being platformed there, so I highly recommend giving it a read!

And for the Midlink fans, you might've seen me mention a Discord server a few times. The mod has kindly given me permission to share the link with all of you! If you've been feeling like the Midlink fandom has been rather slow and sluggish as of late (mood), then our tiny-yet-active community is the place to gush about this pairing we all adore!

Unfortunately there's no way for me to post the Link (lol) without FFN eating it, but feel free to reach out via PM and I'm pretty sure my workaround will work.

Now for the questions to prompt some comments! Who is R? Who is Nova? What kind of people are they? Your comments always warm my heart and keep me chip-chip-chipping away at this juggernaut of a fic so please take a moment to share any thoughts you have, and a huge, huge thank-you to those of you who already have. You're amazing!