A/N: I have a song rec for this chapter (and part of next). Zaya on YouTube composed a theme for Faron Woods covered in twilight and I think it fits the Sphaera Forest really well. I was actually listening to it as I was drafting and editing this chapter to really get into the vibe.


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 17 - All That Withers


Link clapped up the wooden bridge like a treasure hunter chased by a boulder. "Hurry!" Midna screeched. In his next spring, the bridge swayed beneath him. He stumbled forward and seized the rope. Then the bridge began to flip right. He leaned counter to it. The shade had taught him how. The bridge flipped back the right way, then tilted a smidge too far left, then a smidge too far right, this way and that, until it was a gentle sway.

"Shadows! Now!" Midna shrieked. Link rolled his eyes and kept on at a brisk-but-stable pace. When the first shadow of a thick branch fell over the bridge, she sighed in ragged relief. Midna rose from Link's shadow, examining her arms. Her cyan tattoos glowed faintly, as well as not-so-see-through patches of peeling grey skin. Midna prodded one and hissed in pain.

"Now do you see why we needed to be quick?" Midna spread her arms and clenched her fists and teeth, calling upon the shadows to cloak her fully. "I thought seeing that dead baby was enough," she gritted, "but no, you're careless! Forced me to wait in a sliver of your shadow with deadly light beaming from all directions!"

Link dragged his feet up the bridge, clicked across the wooden platform on the other side, and sat down to catch his breath. "Sorry. That wolf showed up again to pounce me."

Midna scoffed. "Of course it did. I suppose Mr Wolf is responsible for every vase you broke as a child, or every cookie that went missing from the jar."

Did she honestly think that he passed out for the fun of it? "Hey, at least I made sure that I didn't fall into infinity, and I'll have you know that I learned some very useful techniques from that wolf."

"Like how to not trip over every twig like an idiot?"

"Yes, actually," Link said. The hours or days in the mysterious realm had ticked by like minutes in the mortal one, so obviously from Midna's perspective, it was a bold claim, but that didn't make it any less true. "He taught me how to fight on terrain like this."

Midna rolled her eye and zoomed into his shadow. "I'll believe it when I see it." Link would too.

"First, take the time to immerse yourself in your surroundings," the shade said.

Link leaned back on the dusty platform. Mouldy, plum-like fruits and ashy leaves carpeted it, and more gently rained from the layers upon layers of canopy above. The branches were so numerous that the specks of light were almost as small as the stars of the light realm.

Branches here were as thick as the trunk of Link's house or as thin as his wrist. They spread into twigs laden with dry autumn leaves, or shrivelled fruit, like summer withering into autumn.

Then there was the ambient noise. The song of Faron that he knew by heart: the distant chirps and caws of birds, the beating of wings, the chitter of squirrels, the buzz of cicadas, and the rustling breeze that was a sweet sound on the dry leaves.

But there was no breeze. No beetles or squirrels scuttling along the bark. No keese or birds flapping their wings. The song was just… playing without an orchestra. It was uncanny, and oddly thrilling. A new twist on the familiar.

The noise emanated from one place in particular: the source of the golden light, hidden deep in the forest's centre beyond branch after branch after branch. Knowing this, the melody became heavy with melancholy. That poor spirit must be homesick.

Link got to his feet and picked off a few leaves caught on his trousers. "Pretty nice place for an adventure, huh?"

His shadow hmphed. "Your idea of 'fun' is almost as twisted as these branches. I suppose you also see the 'beauty' of a skull smashed in by a spiked club!"

Hey, now that was needlessly gruesome. "Why would you say that?"

Midna sprung from his shadow and jabbed a finger between his eyes. "Why would you call this place 'pretty nice'? I've never seen an uglier forest, aside from yours."

What? Yes, Midna had a bad attitude most of the time, but this one was as rotten as the surrounding fruit. "Are you still mad at me for fainting on the bridge?"

"No, I'm mad at you for a different reason."

And the old, insufferable Midna from the Hyrule Castle bathroom was back. Link had once again committed the horrendous act of having a different opinion to her, or breaking one of her unspoken rules.

"Just as one can trip over these branches, one can trip over relationships too," said the shade. "Sometimes the wisest move is to shelve a disagreement for later. A hero on a quest cannot afford to lose momentum."

He wasn't gonna waste another second arguing with her. It was time to prove that he had learned a thing or two from that crotchety old spirit.

The strategy to get to the centre seemed simple enough: just follow the branches towards the golden light. In practice, it refused to be that easy. Every branch he followed towards the middle twisted away, or they'd bend up or down and have the gall to be too thick to climb! If there was a narrower branch that could get Link further in, it was always just out of reach, or seemed very breakable, so he had to turn away from the centre again and see if he lucked out on the next path.

"Know how the Twili get around here?" Link grumbled on the fifteenth dead end.

She grunted in his shadow. "Mostly levitation. The locals are the most adept in all the realm."

Well good for them, but that was no help to Link. "What if they can't levitate?"

"Then they can't harvest fruit for Twilux, and focus on other duties if they are able."

Link stopped his stroll. "So, this place is like one big farm?"

"Yes, farm boy. Feel at home yet?"

If this was a farm, then that had to mean that the people here had created some more efficient means of harvesting. For example, back in Ordon, they would carry the pumpkins in an assembly line to the cart, rather than waste time running back-and-forth.

"So how do they harvest? Just float up and pick them?"

"No. That'll waste too much energy, and you don't want to run out of that over an infinite drop. They use something called a… fanged grapple? It pulls the branches down so the fruit can be picked."

Bingo. "Where can I find one?" Link asked.

"Probably back in Malogra if you feel like getting pelted by rotten fruit again."

Urgh. So be it. Link turned on his heel and started back towards the bridge. Midna flew into his path. "Hey, I know that face. What stupid idea just popped into your head?"

Link glowered. "I'm heading back for the grapple."

"What?" Midna frantically waved her hands. "Nuh uh. You're not taking me back along that bridge until the twilight is back."

"Alright, then stay here."

"No! Number one, I don't trust you not to fall to your death. Number two, do not leave me alone in the domain of those sick monkeys."

Oh. Right. He couldn't leave Midna. Oh gods, he almost left Midna. So thoughtlessly too. "Right. Sorry," he said. "Maybe we can find a grapple around here instead." Surely, in the panic of the light invasion, one was left snagged on one of the branches.

"Pfft!" Midna crossed her arms. "There's no way they'd leave one just–"

Something dangled just ahead. "What about that?" Link pointed to where a thick branch rose to greet a cluster of small ones, from which pale gold leaves hung limply. A stark contrast against the grey colour scheme. In the nine-foot gap between them, a silver rope –almost whip-like– dangled two thirds that length.

Midna went very quiet, and then she mumbled, "Yeah. That's a fanged grapple alright."

Great! Link sat down on his current branch and pushed off. He landed in a crouch on the one that led to his prize. Just as he stood. Midna flew into his path. "Hey! Let's not grab that one. We'll find another."

He strolled around her. "I'll be careful," he said.

"No!" Midna whispered harshly. "Wolfie, get back here." So he could suffer through more of her nonsense? No way.

He drew closer to the dangling grapple. Its end was lodged among the tangle of branches and leaves, so he couldn't see the hooked –or 'fanged'– end.

Huh, those sure were some strange leaves. Paler than any Link had come across yet. Oddly leathery too. And they were all coiled up in the same vague, kite-like shape. Peculiar, sure, but everything about this world was peculiar. Back in Ordon, he wouldn't have been able to fathom the enormous, tumbleweed-like forest he wandered through at this very moment.

"Come back..." Midna softly called from behind. Maybe he should return to her, but then he'd be back at an impasse: forbidden from leaving the forest and unable to progress deeper into it. This was the only way forward.

A twiggy branch snapped underfoot. And something stirred in the cluster above.

The dangling leaves slowly unfurled. Taloned wings. Bared fangs. Blazing eyes. These weren't leaves. They were keese. But Link had dealt with these pests before. They foretold their attack more than a silk gown foretold riches. It was time to put the shade's teachings to the test.

Link cracked his sword from his sheath and held it steady with two hands.

"On unsure footing, it is more important than ever to stay centred and balanced. You cannot rely on the ground to be present to catch your stumble."

Link was sturdy, he was balanced, he was ready. The keese screeched as they unlatched from the branches. The lost tension caused the grapple –still several feet away– to tremble.

The keese did not flap towards him to be swatted like flies. No. They swirled around each other, so tight and fast that they should've knocked each other from the air, but somehow, they didn't. Instead, they puzzled together. Some stretched their wings. Others folded them or wove them with others. Some splayed their bodies. Others curled them into tight little balls. They all amassed into the same, horrific creature. Four beating wings. A maw that split into four, unleashing a bellowing roar composed of a thousand tiny screeches the way a river was made of drops.

"YOU JUST PROVOKED THE VIRE, YOU IDIOT!" Midna screamed.

As much as Link deserves it, now was not the time for name-calling. "I'll keep it distracted. Just get the grapple."

"You can't just fight it!"

Sure he could. Link was the chosen hero, and he had some new moves and techniques to show off. Bring it on, vire.

"To maintain balance, you must rely on your stabs and vertical slashes."

The vire lumbered in. Link remained rooted in place. Waiting for the first strike. Jaws spread and lunged. Link thrust into the centre, breaking apart a dozen locked-together claws. The keese shrieked as they fell, fruitlessly flapping their clipped wings. Heh. This wasn't so hard. What did Midna have to worry about?

The vire flapped away and more keese puzzled into its head. Ah, clever, but there wasn't an infinite supply of keese. If Link kept up the strategy, they'd eventually thin out. Maybe flee in terror once they knew what they were up against.

"Fall back!" Midna demanded. Another senseless order. Just trust him.

The vire swooped for Link's shoulders. He crouched and held his sword skyward. It split the 'belly'. Blood dribbled over Link. Sliced keese thumped against the branch and pattered through the canopy below.

Again, the vire reformed itself, but at the cost of its wingspan. The shade's techniques were working. Time for round three.

The vire swooped around, ready to ram Link's stomach. A clean cleave down the middle was all it would take to defeat it. Link stood head on, as if facing a run-away goat. He had this. With the right technique, the creature was no challenge.

Something latched around Link's ankle and pulled it out from under him. He fell forward. Knocked his chin on the bark. The vire swooped above him. Link looked back at what had felled him. A silver, red-eyed snake with long fangs cuffed his boot.

"There!" Midna shouted from behind. Her magic tossed the end of the 'snake' –a leather-wrapped rod– to Link. The tip bonked him in the temple, and he seized it before it slid from the branch. "I got your stupid grapple. Now get out of here!"

The vire, stained with the blood of its brethren, looped around. There was no time to get up and face it. Link shoved the sword in his sheathe, pried the snake head from his leg, and ran along the branch. He watched his feet, avoided each nub, until the beating of wings was lost in the uncanny song of the forest.

He was safe, he was safe, but he was only placed in danger because of the imp who had face-planted him in the bark! His chin still throbbed from that. "I was handling it just fine back there," Link snapped at his shadow. "You always go on and on about how I can't do this or that because it'll sting your shadow cloak or whatever, but that!" He flung a hand at the ankle she had latched. "You're lucky I didn't split my face on my sword."

Midna sprung from his shadow with the ferocity of a deku baba. "Oh, well excuuuuuse me, Mr Important Hero! Maybe I wouldn't have needed to trip you up if you had just listened to me in the first place."

"Listen to you whine about how I need to be an impossibly good tree-climber? Listen to you forbid every goddamn solution? This," he shook the grapple, "is our only way forward. The only way to save our realms."

"But at what cost! Did you stop to think of that?" she snarled.

"Well now that I've stopped, I'm starting to think that you value the lives of some monsters more than me!"

"ARGH!" It was eerie how no birds scattered from Midna's cry. The kind of cry that Link made, very rarely, when he was much younger, when it seemed like no matter what he said, the adults just weren't listening.

She shot to the canopy, huffing and fuming, before he could respond. Whatever. She could sulk if she wanted. Link had what he needed, and he was tired.

He unfastened his sword and shield, hugged them to his chest, and lay down. Finally, a quiet moment to truly appreciate the lattice of branches as tall as Lake Hylia was wide. Midna wasn't spotted among them, but there were many nooks and shadows for her to hide. He'd be here once she was ready to be mature about this whole quest.

From the centre of the forest, golden lights swung and scurried. Monkey noises echoed through the woods. What had them so excited?

Oh no.

Midna.


She had let him dig under her skin again. That stupid, ignorant, meat-headed wolf. See big monster. Think 'kill kill kill'. Just the massive dollop of icing on top of the disgusting cake known as "Pretty nice place for an adventure, huh?"

This forest was not pretty or nice. Not anymore. She had only witnessed it through pictures and paintings and even a few projection spells, but if the gardens of Luce Prima's upper ring were any indication, there was nothing natural about this place. Nothing at all. It was a sight as tragic as Malogra's alter crowded with urns. Branches weren't supposed to shed their leaves, flowers, and fruit all at once. There were no shiny beetles and serpents and birds to liven up the forest either, and this otherworldly ambience didn't even sound like the ghost of their presence. It was a husk of a song that gloating about all that had been displaced by the invasion.

The only thing, in this whole forest, that had given Midna a flicker of hope were the keese that were still alive and well, but then that sols-damned light invader had to trample in and play exterminator.

If only he had stopped. Given her a chance to explain. Those keese were so few, so endangered, and the only hope for this dying forest.

A screech rippled through the woods. Light bloomed from something running along the branches above her. Monkeys.

She peered back at where she had left Link. He was gone. Her only safety net –albiet full of holes– was gone. Left her to defend herself against unfair odds.

Midna dove into the shadows. The monkeys couldn't see her in the shadows. It didn't matter if they saw every other Twili in their shadows back in Malogra. She was different. She was quiet and alone. Those monkeys weren't coming in because they saw her. They just happened to hear her argument with Link. Yeah, that was it. That was all it was. Just wait wait wait until all those monkeys go away.

One by one, they jumped onto the branch. Her branch! And scurried towards her. Midna fled, zigging and zagging. The shadows were numerous, the shadows were safe, but behind her, branches creaked and rustled under the force of their swings. The monkeys were numerous, the monkeys were strife, but they hadn't caught her yet. Not yet. Keep at it. Keep fleeing. Keep-

A monkey landed before her. She barely curved around it before a searing hand plunged into the shadow, seized her waist, and pulled her into the fire of the air.

It was like a gauntlet of red-hot iron clamped tight around her middle. She was scorching. She was suffocating. She could heave but not breathe. The burning light ate away at the rest of her shadow cloak. Midna channelled all sense of sanity she had left into keeping it over her arms, legs, ears, and the back of her head. Not her tattoos. Not her tattoos. Not the last vestiges of power she still had in this cursed form.

Fangs bit the monkey's wrist and pulled. The hand spread in pain. Midna fell to the branch below and plunged into the shadows. Though she had no body to feel the pain, something deep inside her essence stung, but at least the shadows soothed her like cool water.

A monkey thumped on either side of her. They scrambled in. No. Not again. The shadow of a branch was snared by the fangs and someone swung from it. Link's brown boots landed on each side of Midna's shadow. Hovering by the left, the tip of his sword. On the right, the fanged grapple.

The monkey on the left slid in on its stomach. Link stabbed the forehead and flicked it off the branch. Link spun a half circle to greet the right monkey, but it leapt high overhead, out of reach of the blade, but not the grapple. Link snared the ankle in midair and yanked the monkey from its arch. It crashed through the canopies below.

More monkeys fell from above or sprung from below. Link took on each one with a sense of grace, skill, and ease that was lacking yestercircum. Shifting his stance sparingly. Keeping his arms well-within the width of the willow. Deep stabs burst the monkeys into wisps. Only the half he flung below made it back up, until it all led to this: six monkeys hanging on the edge of their branches, their glows flickering, and Link, as short on breath as he was in height, still standing with the strength of a giant.

From her paper-thin vantage point beneath him, Midna couldn't see his face, but sols, if it was anything like how he had stared down the beasts who had threatened his friend, then maybe, just maybe, he really was the divine beast fated to save her realm. Those vile creatures had found their match, and his name was Link, and his shade was her refuge (but she wouldn't tell him that).

One by one, the monkeys stopped baring their teeth. They clambered through the branches above him, and scrutinised their huntsman one more time. Link cracked the whip once more for good measure, and they scampered off, towards the glowing centre, with curled tails and whimpers.

He flicked towards his shadow, and forehead beaded with sweat, but he panted as if he had done nothing more than a brisk jog uphill. "You there?" he asked.

In the chaos of it all, Midna had almost forgotten that she was a living, existing being, and not some presence that existed solely to observe and feel. "Mm-hm."

He cracked a smirk. Something warm stirred inside her. (Something she absolutely refused to examine further.) "Guess we're even," he said.

What? Even? Oh sols, they were even. His life debt to her had just been repaid, and that meant that he could go back to casting her aside; treating her like some parasite in his shadow, and she'd be the fool who'd tag along as he trampled through her realm in the name of some flanderised destiny.

But at her silence, his face fell, and he knelt down. "You okay?"

'Pain' still pulsed through the shadow. She'd need to immerse herself for a little longer. Wait for her cloak to mend itself. "I need to stay here for a bit," she croaked.

Link sighed. "That bad, huh?"

Midna said nothing. It was a mistake to show vulnerability. It made her far too easy to exploit.

He sheathed his sword and coiled the grapple. "Let's get some rest. It's been a long 'day'." A day that lasted for a dozen circums in a realm where days weren't meant to exist.

"I'll allow it," Midna said. Link scoffed, but in good humour.

Grapple, sword, and shield were lain upon the bark, clear of Link's shadow. Though courteous to not expect her to carry his things while she was swimming in ache, she still stuck out a hand to snap them into her void. What a thicket they'd be in if he became as clumsy as he was yestercircum and knocked them into infinity. The only item he didn't surrender was his sketchbook. As usual. It would be safer in her void than on his hip, but it seemed rather sentimental; something you'd only ever entrust to an exceptionally close friend.

Would Sonnet ever have the chance to return Midna's precious spear? A shame there was no sign of them in Luce Prima, but they were probably dying of boredom in the shadows of their upper ring estate. That was their best possible fate, at least.

Link cracked open the book in his lap. Charcoal scratched along the paper, pausing every few seconds as he looked up to marvel the 'beauty' of the utter dystopia they were trapped in. Oh, that's right. He still hadn't apologised for attacking the endangered keese! If he made one more insufferable comment…

The clueless idiot hummed contentedly. "I've always loved autumn." Oh, for the love of sols! "We'd see who could make the biggest pile of leaves, and then who could make the loudest crunch." He had the audacity to smile as he reached out and plucked a leaf from the air. "If my friends and I were here, we'd run around see who could catch the most leaves, I guess."

"Shut it," Midna snarled.

His face dropped like an overripe plum. "I was just-"

"Shut. It," she hissed again. No more romanticising the decay of her realm. Not one more word, or else she'd leave him for the impossible showdown with Faron on her own.

He obeyed her for a moment. Only a moment. "Why do you keep snapping at me?" It was so calm, the way he said it, and it drove a needle of guilt into her bitter heart. He wouldn't understand why; he was a light dweller. So, she said nothing, and he kept on. "You accused me of having morbid tastes just because I think the forest is pretty, you refused to nab the grapple, and stopped me from defending myself from the monsters. just now, I mentioned autumn, and you told me to shut it. I don't get it, Midna. Feels like I'm walking through a bomb flower bed with you. What's setting you off?"

"This!" She spring from his shadow, despite the sting of her waist, with her arms flung wide at the wasteland woods. "We don't get seasons like you do. The leaves fall and the flowers bloom and the fruit grows all orbis round. When all the leaves are dried up and falling, it means that the forest is dying. No more flowers. No more fruit. That is going to have ripple effects throughout the realm, okay? People are going to starve, or be forced to stay in the shadows even when we restore the light because there's nothing to feed them.

"The only hope for this forest's survival were the keese. They eat the fruit, and the seeds in their droppings nourish new trees. By some miracle, a handful of keese survived the light, but only a small few. I know that in your world, they're blood-thirsty monsters, but in mine, they're gentle."

"But then why did they attack me?" Link asked innocently. "And turn into that monster?"

"It's a defence for when you get too close to their nest, or perhaps they've been muddled up by this horrible light. Regardless, I told you to stay away, and then you just went in and killed them! And what was your excuse? Oh right. 'Self-defence,'" she mocked with air quotes.

Link's jaw was slack, and so was the charcoal in his grip. "I didn't know…" he mumbled.

Midna crossed her arms and scoffed. "Well, you would have known if you had taken a moment to listen to me. You don't know a thing about how this world works, but I do."

He sighed. "I think there's some truth in that." Only some? "Yeah, I should stop and listen to you more. That moment back in Luce Prima should've proven that, but I need something from you, too."

She huffed. "What?"

"Tone down the snark. Trusting you blindly won't be easy. If I say something out of line, don't come at me with insults or demands to shut up. Just explain the reason as well as you did just now."

Back in the light realm, she had tried to do that so many times, only to get cut off by him, or dismissed, or ignored, but then again, she had often gotten tripped up by her desire to seize control of the conversation, just like Zant had always wrestled it away from her.

Perhaps if Link was genuinely going to make an effort to listen to her, then Midna shouldn't be so concerned with cutting off his words. After all, she was better than Zant, or at least she was trying, and she should purge herself of this nasty quality of his.

Although, she couldn't quite break her grip on her pride and apologise. Not yet. Imp-y steps.

"Sure," Midna grumbled. "Whatever saves the forest."


A/N: To my fellow Australians: let us all take a moment to be grateful that magpies cannot puzzle together into one much larger and more frightening magpie.

Vire is a very old school Zelda enemy harkening back to the first game and the Oracle games. No, I have not played a single game vire is in. Do you have any old school enemies that you would have loved to see in 'Twilight Princess'? Personally, I think lynels would've been interesting, especially if they could only be defeated on horseback somehow.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT! I recently commissioned ro_blaze on Tumblr to draw an artwork of Link and Midna's arrival in the twilight realm and it looks so cool! I specifically asked for a black and white colour scheme with an emphasis on negative space to really showcase the vibe of Chapter 14's opening, and then I added some text to make it look like a book cover, which you can now see displayed as this fic's cover. Unfortunately FFN has killed the quality, but you can also check out the blank, high quality version via a link on the Archive of Our Own version of Chapter 17, in this very paragraph.

Also last week I went on Canva intent to make a lil graphic for a pinned post on my Tumblr blog to hopefully hook more readers into reading my fic and somehow I ended up with a "fic trailer" that looks kinda like that Bad Apple music video instead. It's the pinned post on my Tumblr blog scarlet-curls if you're interested. (Also if employers ask to see samples of what I can do in Canva then all my examples are gonna be related to this fic oh my god...)