Dark by S. Park
Part eighteen His Light's Song
We were at the shrine again. It felt like it had been weeks, rather than just two days since we'd left it. We both looked just as we had when we'd left, though Link was wearing his blue Zora's tunic, since the green one had been damaged beyond repair. I felt as though we ought to look changed somehow by what had happened. Link was strong enough to ride, and said he felt completely recovered, but I just couldn't shake the image of him kneeling in a pool of his own blood, the Master Sword lying beside him. He was wearing the Master Sword now, I had refused to take it again. Until this curse was broken I was going to go unarmed, and if something killed me, so be it. But we had reached the shrine without incident, and now it was time to see if the sage's word could be trusted.
We dismounted and went inside. Link wordlessly held out the book. I too said nothing, conflict churning inside me. I felt hatred flare again, but this time it wasn't directed at Link, it was directed at the sage. Link glanced over at me and put his hand on my shoulder, and I fought to relax.
"Thank you," said the sage as he took the small volume. "And now I will complete my side of our bargain. As I said, there is a person who can break the curse on Dark." He nodded at me. Then he smiled, and there was a peculiar twinkle in his eye. "That person is you, Link."
"What?" Link looked startled.
I was started too, and immediately suspicious. "What are you talking about? Link is no mage."
"Magic is only a small part of what's needed, and he has sufficient. I knew that when I saw the effect his singing had."
"I don't understand," said Link. "Yes my song temporarily lifts Dark's affliction, but the effect wears off, I explained that to you earlier."
"It can be made permanent, with the right... spell, shall we say."
"But how? You know a song I could play, or...?"
The sage chuckled. He seemed very amused by our confusion, and I gave him a glare. "Link, the thing that powers your spell is not the song itself. It doesn't matter what notes you play, what's reaching Dark and lifting the hatred from him isn't the music, it's what you're projecting through your song." He stepped up and placed his hand over Link's chest. "It's your heart, Link. Your feelings. Those are what works the magic. The music is only a channel, that lets your heart, your light shine through."
"That doesn't make any sense," I said irritably. "I can sense Link's feelings any time he's near me, not just when he's playing. If feelings did it, then I wouldn't have this problem at all."
"You sense what lies on the surface, not what is buried deep beneath."
"So you have some spell that will make these buried feelings come out, is that it?"
"No spell I can craft can bring the true heart of a person to the surface. Link has to do that himself. Though there are words he could speak. A spell always requires words. When you light an arrow..." He gave Link a significant look.
"When I light an arrow, I speak a word that means light," said Link in soft, thoughtful tones. "And for what I feel..." He looked at me. Something in his eyes made my chest tighten. I looked at him, looked once more into those still blue pools of calm. He smiled gently at me, and I felt something strange, something I'd felt before and never had a name for, well up in me suddenly. I felt it in him too. He hummed again, the brief phrase that was my song. But it didn't need to remove my hatred this time, the nameless emotion that filled me had already drowned it.
"Link?" I said softly, wonderingly. I didn't understand what was happening, but I wasn't angry, or afraid, or hurt anymore. I was surrounded by magic, and emotion, and peace, all of it held in those deep blue eyes.
"I think I know the word for what I feel," said Link, still looking at me. "Dark... I love you."
It was like dawn breaking. Like the moment when Link lit an arrow. Like when he kissed me. Like the moment when I'd given him my trust and put my life in his hands, what seemed like an eternity ago. It was, even, like the peace I had felt when I had decided to die for him, and I knew now why I had been so willing to make that resolution. I knew too the name of the nameless emotion I had felt before, that filled me now. "Oh Link," I said, finding tears suddenly springing up in my eyes, "I love you too."
He put his arms around me, and kissed me, sweetly, softly. I kissed him back, feeling as though I might explode with light, like my heart might leap out of my chest. Like nothing I'd ever felt before, because it was so much more, so much better. It was pure light, and love, and it burned the darkness and the hatred out of me until there was none left at all.
Author's note: Thanks again for reading this far. But please don't stop here, the story is not done yet! I have two more chapters which I will be posting later this evening. So stick around. :)