"..."
Link stared at the unconscious and absolutely enormous woman lying before her. Her upper body draped out of the giant pool of liquid Mana. Link knew that she needed to purify the Great Faery, but by the Goddesses, she wasn't supposed to be that big! From the stories Link could remember, Great Faeries were only supposed to be a couple times bigger than normal Hylians. Not so huge that Link was about the size of one of her fingers. To try and get the gears of her mind turning again, Link looked around to distract herself. But the rest of the room was mindblowing too. She looked again at how the walls and ceiling were embedded with glowing white crystals. And looking closer Link realized that she could see some constellations in the walls. It perfectly matched the stars in the night sky. Amazing...
Slowly, Link turned back to the Great Faery. Yep, still huge. Link blew out the breath she'd been holding. Well, time to do the Hero thing. Slowly she approached the Great Faery, who was taking long, gasping breaths. She sounded like she had a disease in her lungs. Though, depending on how you looked at curses, that wasn't too far off. Link would walk up to the Great Faery's hand, laying where it had been reaching for her. Carefully, Link extended the needle of the device and plunged it into the Great Faery's fingertip. She pulled the trigger and that's when a small bit of hell broke loose. The device started freaking out for a moment, twitching and making odd sputtering noises as the container at the back opened up and started spewing out Dark Crystals. The Great Faery herself screamed out in pain, her body tensing as an immense amount of corruption was ripped out of her. Soon, it was over. There were hundreds of Dark Crystals on the floor now, and the Great Faery blinked her eyes as she woke up. Slowly she started to pick herself up. Moving quickly, Link snatched the Purifier out of her finger before her movements could smash it.
The Great Faery now floated above the pool of Mana. Sweeping her gaze around the room, she reached out with her magic, and lifted Link bodily over to where the pond and stones were, leaving her on a raised platform that brought her up to the Faery's knees. In the same motion, all the Dark Crystals were swept up and collected into her palm, where she briefly, and with no small amount of disgust, inspected them. Then she turned her gaze to Link.
Link had to resist the urge to try and hide, and instead forced herself to stand tall under the Great Faery's inspection.
"So...you're the new Link in the Chain of Heroes." The Great Faery stated, seeming somewhat bemused.
"Yes I-wait, how did you know my name?" Link asked, confused.
The Great Faery smirked, rolling her eyes. "I'm over six hundred years old in my current form, and various constituent Fairies within me are thousands of years old. We have met many of you, and your name is always Link." She then frowned as her eyes looked her body up and down. "However, I suppose your last sacrifice had a great burden on your Soul. Never have I seen someone reincarnate into a form this different from their soul-self."
"Different? Sacrifice? Um, would you mind explaining that, please?"
"The last time you fought the Beast was four hundred years ago. At that time he took the form of a Lich, and you were, after your sacrifice, given the title of Hero of Life and Death. In order defeat the undead monstrocity, the Hero worked with the Sages and sacrificed his life to kill the Lich, and then had the Sages enact a plan of his own devising to use his own Soul as sacrifice to seal away the Beast. You had both your Soul and the Beast's Soul torn into pieces and scattered across Hyrule. This was supposed to be a permanent end to the Cycle of Revenge, begun so long ago. But something changed. A man named Lord Fangor is somehow acting to bring back the Beast. In the main room of this Temple, a fragment of the Beast's soul was bound. Fangor has set up a ritual that is slowly sapping tiny fragments of the Beast's Soul. As the Hero, you're going to need to put a stop to that, destroy all the little rituals and fix the seals using your Soul."
"Wait a minute, use my Soul? Are you asking me to kill myself?" Link demanded an answer, slightly indignant at having yet another thing thrown at her like this. Luckily, the Great Faery shook her head.
"No, I would never ask anyone to do what your previous self did. Such a sacrifice is not something anyone has any right to demand of another. No, what I need you to do is use your soul to resonate with the piece of the Hero's Soul in the Binding Site above, to disrupt the magic of Fangor's ritual. There will be no risk to yourself in doing that. The only problem is...Mido..."
"Yeah, Razl and Dazl told me about Mido. But...before we talk about him, I need to ask about, uh, myself? And the other Heroes. From what you just said, the last Hero used his own Soul to seal the Beast? But, how did I reincarnate then? And you made it sound like I'm a lot different?"
With a grave nod, the Great Faery explained. "Yes, you used your Soul to bind the Beast, but apparently it wasn't a clean tear, some fragments of your Soul must have been left out of the Ritual, which must be why the seal on the Beast was also imperfect. And so, once the threat of the Beast once again threatened Hyrule, you were able to reincarnate. However, typically when a Soul incarnates, it takes a form as identical to it's previous self as possible. Completely changing genders is unheard of. However, I think that with your part of the Hero's Soul being so small and weak, it couldn't be picky."
"Hey!"
"I mean you no insult, young Hero. I do not mean that you picked an inferior form, just picking a body wasn't an option. I believe that, because of how small your soul fragment was, you were unable to take a whole body to yourself. Your only recourse, was to attach yourself to an already existing soul, one as similar to your original one as possible, and simply deal with whatever body you ended up with. You should be proud child, your soul was already very similar to the Hero's before you were even born. In all likelihood, you would have become a Hero in your own right. And from what I can see of you, you are already a decent warrior in your own right, about as good now as the last Hero was when I first met him. At that time, he was still beginning his journey, and had not yet gained his Master Sword or many of his future powers. Tell me, how long ago did you begin fighting against Fangor."
"Um, let's see, last night I was in that prison, and it was at least a day's ride from Hyrule Town, uh, two days? Maybe Three?"
"..." The Great Faery stared at Link. "Well, you work quickly. Now, I have some other questions for you, young Hero. What are these crystals? And how did you remove the curse from me?"
"Oh, um, I found this device, Don called it a Purifier. Fangor apparently had it made, and kept it stored upstairs near Mido."
The Great Faery closed her eyes for a moment, seeming to think about something. "I see, Mido was one of Fangor's first attempts at making a powerful minion, so his hold over him isn't as firm as with the other ones. He would keep a way to destroy him nearby in case his hold was broken."
"Uh, if you say so." Link frowned, annoyed at not having questioned why the Purifier was conveniently available. At least there was a reason why, apparently.
"These Crystals however, need to be dealt with. These are condensed evil magic, fragments of Fangor's power made physical. If left alone, they could eventually dissipate and cause problems for the surrounding area. I'm going to take these and dispose of them, and in turn, I will reward you for your help."
Slowly the Great Faery seemed to crush the Dark Crystals in one hand, while reaching out to Link with the other. Suddenly Link felt herself being flooded with magical energy. She floated off the platform for a moment before being set back down, feeling incredible. Never before had she felt so...alive!
"Like most Hero's, you were born without a natural supply of Mana, as your body is one of a warrior, not a mage. But like all Heroes, you also have a natural talent for manipulating mana. I have bestowed upon you a small fragment of my mana. With this you can now learn and cast spells. For now, you should be able to imbue your sword with magic to enhance its power when you strike. And from now on, as you use your device to remove the Dark Crystals from others, you can bring them to us Great Faeries, and we will bestow upon you other blessings."
"Amazing..." Link whispered, enjoying the feeling of magic within her. "Wait, don't you want me to beat Fangor? Can you not just give me a bunch of Power right now?"
Again, the Great Faery smirked. "I very much could, young Hero. And indeed, every time one of you Heroes first meets one of us Great Faeries, we can give you much more power than we do, but we don't."
"Why?"
"Because, those who do not earn their Power, are always consumed by it. If you perform great services, such as purifying Fangor's victims, we will give you gifts in turn. But only then. We do not wish to replace one villain with another, child."
Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Link just nodded. She also made a mental note to collect as many Dark Crystals as possible to get more stuff from the Great Faery.
"Now, to address Mido. Razl! Dazl!" The Great Faery called out. The two fairies from before quickly flew inside.
"Yes big Gee-Eff?" They answered simultaneously, saluting as they did. They were shining very brightly now, which Link attributed to them being happy that the Great Faery was ok.
The stern Great Faery's face softened for a moment. "I'm glad you two are well. I was worried for you two. I'm sorry I was too weak to help you."
"It's okay Gee-Eff!"
"You were so sick, we were scared you were going to die!"
"I am better now, thanks to our friend. Now, it's time to deal with Mido. You two are to help the Hero face Mido. Her device that purified us may be able to save Mido, but after all Mido has been through, he might not survive. But at least he will be at peace."
The fairies dropped down slightly, but then bobbed in a sort of nodding motion.
"Go now, Link. Defeat Mido, purify him, and give him peace. Hopefully he will have better luck in his next life."
"So Kokiri reincarnate too?"
"Of a sorts. Kokiri's life cycle is different from other species. There are only ever a dozen alive at one time, and every hundred years or so, they will vanish, only to be reborn in a new generation. Often the new Kokiri bear the names and Souls of previous Kokiri."
"So Mido has had many lives? Like me?"
"Yes, and in one life, you and him were rivals."
"Oh, but, how would that happen?"
"In one life, you were raised as a Kokiri. One of the fairies that became me was the one that helped you on that journey. She is...glad to see you again."
Link felt a warmth in her heart. Some part of her felt joy at hearing that. She smiled at the Great Faery before turning and heading down the platform and back where she came from. Razl and Dazl were quick to follow her.