Link wouldn't have been able to say how he'd ended up here, at the foot of the Great Statue of the Goddess Hylia, forehead and palm touching the smooth stone, and tears rolling out of his eyes. He didn't remember making his way to the bird statue or going back to the sky. He didn't remember summoning his Loft Wing or flying here.
"You said you needed someone with an unbreakable spirit," he whispered at the statue. "But I feel pretty broken."
The statue made no answer. Fi chimed and appeared at his side.
"Master, the odds of Her Grace being able to hear you are…"
"I don't want to know," Link interrupted. "I need to tell her something and she's frozen inside a crystal so doing it the normal way won't work."
"This course of action is not…"
"Fi. Please."
Fi fell silent.
Link sighed and lifted his head away from the stone to look up at the statue. The tears were still tracing a slow river on his cheeks. He ignored them.
"It's a lot," he told the statue. "Thinking of you as Zelda, as Hylia, as both? I've prayed to Hylia. I mean, not super often, but… everyone does sometimes. You did too. So that was probably even weirder for you."
He sighed. "But Zelda… I'm not mad. I want you to know that. You kept saying you were sorry to get me involved in this. You said you used me, and then… and then you said you were ready…" his voice broke. "You said you were ready to pay for your actions."
His fists clenched against the statue.
"And then you told me you're just going to be sleeping for a long time. And that I can wake you up when Demise is defeated. You'd just told me that you needed to maintain the seal. I know you can't do that while you're actually sleeping. Whatever you want to call what you did to yourself, it's NOT sleep. You're not resting, or even waiting. You're struggling, and straining, and fighting! And you're going to be doing that non stop for what? Centuries? It's when you said you were ready to pay that you were telling the truth, not when you were trying to reassure me by pretending it was going to be like sleeping."
He forced his hands to relax and leaned his head against the statue again.
"But you have nothing to atone for," he said. "You didn't trick me. You didn't use me. You knew I'd do anything for you, and you were right, but that's not USING me, Zelda. If I were to somehow go back to the start of all this knowing everything I know now, I'd do it all over again. I'd just do it harder and quicker and hope not to make you worry for me this time."
"You didn't force my hand. I don't know if you think that you somehow forced me love you, but if you do, stop. There's no part of me that can do anything else than love every part of you. You never needed any kind of magic or divine power to do that, you just needed to be you. You keep having to wake me up when I sleep in because you're the only reason I want to wake up. I keep day dreaming when you're not there because why would I want to pay attention to anything that doesn't include you? You're everything to me. It has nothing to do with anything you did as Hylia. It's because of who you are as Zelda."
He sagged against the statue.
"I know you had to do this either way. But I can't stand the idea that you might spend all this time thinking you DESERVE it, because of me."
He stepped away from the statue and crossed his arms over his heart, closing his eyes and bending his head in the traditional prayer position all Skyloft Children were taught.
"Dearest Hylia," he prayed, "please hear my prayer. Please hear me. Please hear me just as you close your eyes and start your long fight, let my words cross the gate of time and reach you. I'm not angry. I don't feel used. Dearest Hylia, I forgive you. Even though I don't feel like there's anything to forgive, I forgive you for everything with all my heart. You're my sun, Zelda. You're my life, you're my heart. I WILL find the Triforce, and I WILL destroy Demise, and I WILL free you."
He straightened up, opened his eyes, uncrossed his arms, and stepped away. The tears had finally dried, as though vaporized by the fire Link felt blazing anew in his soul. Fi floated in front of him. He frowned at her. He didn't need to hear what she thought of the odds of Zelda hearing him.
"You expressed doubts earlier on whether your spirit truly was unbreakable," Fi said.
Link tilted his head, confused by the statement. He supposed he had, but why was Fi bringing it up?
"My observations, up to and including the commitment you've just expressed, allow me to confirm that these doubts are not at all warranted."
Link felt his cheeks flare at the compliment. He tried to smile, didn't quite manage it and finally just mumbled a thank you before starting towards the bridge that would take him back to Skyloft. He needed information about the Triforce, and the school seemed like a good place to start.