Zelda was no longer calm.
She ignored the increasing fatigue in her legs and the hunger in her belly that suddenly seemed so evident. With each footfall, she thought only for that which she had left behind, trusting naively that the King of Darkness would choose the path of most resistance and leave behind a girl of the forest.
Zelda's steps were light, but no longer graceful.
She passed familiar rooms and familiar faces hanging on familiar walls—the same path retraced a second time. Zelda followed the silence, seeking out the empty cold of the air Ganon's bestial form drove him through.
All the while Zelda clutched the blade of evil's bane.
Quick intakes of breath.
She searched her mind for a place to think.
[Saria]
Moving about familiar halls. Familiar rooms, familiar faces.
[Saria]
Time crept. Each moment tore at her thoughts.
[Saria]
Palm slickened by sweat pressed against the leather wrapping of the Master Sword's hilt.
[Saria]
Zelda paused at a junction in the hallway. Something glimmered out of the corner of her eye—a stain upon the stone of the wall. She ran her finger across, bringing back to her face a light coating of red interspersed with flecks of dirt and stone.
She brought the finger to her mouth and suckled on the liquid.
Blood—Saria's.
Without question. It tasted of the forest.
Zelda placed her hand on the stain. Small. Pebble sized. Gradually running down surface while bein simultaneously absorbed by the stone.
Fresh.
Head injury.
Zelda stood and tasted the air. The emptiness continued. Blood did not follow. The bleeding couldn't be strong. Hair could soak up blood and help to clot.
[Saria]
Zelda moved, no longer paying attention to her surroundings; no longer paying attention to anything. Air flowed around her. A single thought ran through her mind—a single name. She whispered it to herself over and over and over and over and over and over.
[Saria]
No screams.
Saria wasn't screaming.
[Saria]
It pushed Zelda. Legs worked as they never had. There was no pain or fatigue or exhaustion. All she knew was insanity, something terrible and grave and impossible. Every emotion inside her was contained within the core of a girl.
[Saria]
Familiar faces.
[Saria]
Empty hallways.
[Saria]
Scratching of claws against stone.
[Saria]
Zelda rounded a corner and found herself beneath the same silver chandelier, facing the same creature of darkness. Its metamorphosis complete, Ganondorf has become nothing more than a beast. Massive tusks protruded from its diminutive head. A mane of red stretched across the dark flesh of its back. Disproportionately large frontal legs carried the beast.
In one, it held Saria.
[Saria]
Zelda saw hazel eyes struggle to stay open. Long, green hair matted with blood.
[Saria]
Ganon's animalistic face contorted into rage. He let slip Saria from his hand. The girl fell to the floor in a heap.
Saria did not move.
[Saria]
The bestial Ganon walked a half circle around Zelda. She saw Ganondorf in its eyes—cool and calculating. She saw all that was she—all that she had become. Hollow eyes of white blinked and spoke to her without words.
Zelda widened her stance and readied her broken blade.
The bestial Ganon paused.
The sword shook in Zelda's hands.
[Saria]
Ganon lunged, propelling itself forward with powerful frontal legs. The shadow passed over Saria—
[Saria]
—cutting through the air with a hiss as the mark of Power manifested on the back of its left fore-palm. Three golden, equilateral triangles. The light of the three began to envelope everything. Zelda could see only a shadow of Ganon charging leaping through the air.
She brought the sword up to halt the inevitable.
[Saria]
She waited.
And waited.
No impact.
[Saria]
…and Zelda her a voice whisper in her ear, one that was finally able to calm her weary thoughts. It was a voice of unparalleled grace, neither male nor female. It reached down to Zelda and comforted her, wrapping her thoughts in a bundle of harmony.
And through the majesty, Zelda heard a single word spoken over and over.
A single word:
"Courage."
Only when it seemed so many times repeated did its meaning finally ingrain in Zelda's thoughts. Only then did she truly understand.
The golden light faded.
In her hands, Zelda held not a broken blade, but a weapon. She held something whole—a blade of evil's bane. The Master Sword's blade cut a swath through the darkness. In naught but a single moment, she comprehended. She found herself moments before where fate had deemed fit to leave her: In the path of an angry god, twisted by his machinations.
But she held the Master Sword.
Zelda moved in a manner alien to her. She sidestepped the Ganon as though it were a practiced routine, slipping out of the way as he landed, claws scraping across the stone of the floor.
The sword of evil's bane glowed rightly in the darkness.
Ganon bellowed evil and malice, turning his empty eyes to her once again. Massive forepaws lashed out. Each came within inches of Zelda's flesh.
The air hissed.
Zelda moved with agility alien even to her. Casual steps put her out of Ganon's reach whenever the end seemed imminent. It was a dance of fates—and Zelda did not falter. Her thoughts remained steady and her movements swift.
At last, she lashed out.
The Master Sword met darkened, bestial flesh, leaving a glowing white gash across Ganon's left forearm that he did not shrug off as easily as he had the shot. Together, they danced a dance of death.
[Saria]
Zelda's thoughts moved to the unconscious Saria, who'd not moved from where she'd fallen.
She thought of the blood on Saria's head.
Her dance of death turned to rage.
[Saria]
Anger turned to focus.
Ganon came at her again, propelling himself across the ground on all fours.
Zelda's movement was simple. She pointed the Master Sword straight and true—and held steady it as the beast's head threw itself onto the blade. Immeasurable strength welled up from within. Though met with one physically stronger in every conceivable way, Zelda held the line.
She was pushed back. Hardened leather boots scraped backwards against the stone floor.
But Zelda held her ground.
She braced herself against Ganon with impossible strength. The muscle of her arm tautened and pushed with power that defied logic. Not once did she falter—and neither did the Master. And when Ganon's strength faded and all energy behind his movements died, Zelda remained untouched.
Zelda drew the blade from Ganon's head as he collapsed. With it came no blood, but a golden light, shining from the clean cut straight back through Ganon's head. The King of Darkness slumped over. His life slipped away without words of revenge.
Zelda savored the bitter taste of conquest for only a moment.
[Saria]
She was at Saria's side before her mind could command her to do so. She abandoned the Master Sword.
The girl's hair was caked with blood, darkening the shade of her once bright green hair.
Zelda eased Saria onto her back. The girl's eyes were open, but unfocused.
"Mistress?" Saria said, her words slurred.
Zelda checked the girl's eyes. Pupils equal in size.
"Mistress?" Saria said again.
Zelda placed a hand around the Saria's head, carefully running her index finger across the injured area. "Rate the pain. Scale of one to ten."
"Mistress, I…" Saria's words drifted off, as did her consciousness. Her eyelids flickered shut, struggling more each second to stay open. "Mistress—"
"Saria. One to ten."
The girl inhaled. "…six… six…"
Her eyes began to close again.
"Saria!"
The girl's eyes flew open. "Six! Six—mistress?"
"Saria, you have a concussion. I need you to stay awake. Do not fall asleep." Zelda slipped her other arm beneath Saria's legs and lifted. The girl felt small and weightless in her hands. A mass of green hair fell against the black of Zelda's shirt. The sensation of foreign blood seeping through the material of her clothing sent tingles up her arms.
They moved along the silence of Hylium Castle. Zelda felt for the first time how empty it was. Life replaced by the perpetual silence. Each step she took echoed throughout the endless stone corridors.
She left the Master Sword behind without a second thought.
She left Ganon behind.
She left the Hero behind.
The mark of Courage glowed brightly upon Zelda's left hand.