The green sea of Link's mind had flamed up for a few terrifying moments. Everything around him burning and flaring. From the grass at the edges of it, to the sand that whispered under his feet, and even to the soft dark memories that floated deep on the sea. Chunks of his memories were gone. Feelings, conversations, tastes. There wasn't much left of some memories, and Link wondered if there had been any reason as to why his memory of Zelda's laughter had survived, when the feeling of Saria's hands on his hair had not.
"There isn't," said a voice, echoing from the pale blue sky above Link's sea.
"Will I recover them?" asked Link, wadding deeper into the waters, until they reached his shoulders.
"No. But some you can build anew. The wounds that my presence in your body has caused cannot be healed," said Farore. "I know it's not much. But, thank you. An unwilling vessel would have made everything harder."
'An unwilling vessel,' thought Link, mulling over her choice of words. Perhaps this was as far as a Goddess' mercy reached.
"It is not," said Farore.
"My mind has become a very public place lately," said Link, delighting in the sarcasm filling his voice.
"It has," said Farore, with an amused giggle that Link didn't find cute at all. "But it has always been so for me."
"Don't. Stop."
"I have been able to see the inner workings of your mind."
"I did not want to know that. Geez, do Gods not have privacy?"
"No."
"Ah, that's good to know," said Link.
It was, honestly, not good to know.
"I know how unhappy you are, so before I return to the heavens with Nayru, as thanks to your unending courage, I would like to grant you a wish. If it is within the law for me to give it to you, I will."
"My unending courage? That's funny. All these years, I thought you had gotten the wrong hero," said Link. "You should have gotten someone who felt no fear."
"Someone who feels no fear cannot feel courage. It is only when fear strikes at your heart that you can be courageous. And you, who stood firm while the fear surrounded you, are the greatest, most courageous Hero who has ever lived."
Link closed his eyes. He had never felt like a Hero. He had never felt courageous. And yet, Farore told him that he was the greatest Hero of all.
He sank into the green sea. How did greatness feel? Like this? If he survived this. If everything miraculously was saved and the entirety of time and space didn't crash into each other, he was probably going back home to have dinner by himself. Maybe with Dark, if he survived too. But of course he was going to survive, right? As long as Link was alive, Dark must be alive. That was a comforting thought. And Oni too. He was definitely going to survive too, what with being a God and not technically alive in the first place so no possible death there either.
And Sheik.
That was his wish.
"I want for Sheik to stay," said Link, from the depths of the green sea.
Farore did not answer.