They had won.

All of Hyrule was left stunned as a life-taking explosion of light sliced the sky and left much of Hyrule field charred. At first, they were unsure of whether to celebrate or flee, many village elders and zoras were briefly submerged in terrifying thoughts that the calamity could be returning. Yet seeing a dragon of pure white emerge from the devilsome smoke somehow managed to reassure everyone: there was simply something about it that calmed their souls.

Lookout Landing had descended into a cacophony of guards readying to charge in, horses desperately trying to escape the stables, and a loud shrill scream,

"LINKY!" Purah exclaimed, her mini telescope collapsing to the ground as she pointed upwards toward a plummeting body. She rushed out of the landing, pleading to Hylia that he would regain consciousness in time and yelling for others to join her as if they'd somehow be able to catch him.

Of course, though, he did awaken in time. After having slaughtered a supposedly immortal, malice-incarnate demon dragon, he would not fall victim to falling. Purah was promptly soaked in relief (and water) before scrambling to retrieve Link from the nearby lake's waters. A small crowd had gathered by now, all eagerly waiting for Link to reveal that he was okay, that they could all smile and relax. Instead, Link simply slumped against Purah; the champion was clearly awake, but his resolve seemed non-existent. He was neither smiling nor crying in ecstasy and joy- all that was there was an empty, stunned expression of hopelessness.

Nobody could figure out why, not until Joshua's meek voice broke the silence, "Where's Princess Zelda…?"

There was no reply. Not a word had escaped Link's mouth but, when his gaze remained frozen on the white dragon despite all the voices around him, Purah finally realised exactly why that dragon had always left a small smile of familiarity on her face, why it had just so happened to make itself visible shortly after Link gained the same master sword that he was so certain that Zelda had taken.

Joining Link in his dumbfounded silence, she rushed him into a private room in the landing before rapidly switching between telling him that they'd find a way to help her and questioning how such a horror had even happened. At one point, she even tried grabbing his hands to try and force him to start speaking in Hylian sign language, but it was to no success. A few hours passed until she finally surrendered and left Link to his own devices, hoping that a night's rest would help him overcome his state of denial.

He was gone before the sun had a chance to rise.

The depths, the army, sages, Ganondorf, gloom, the dragons- her. It was all bombarding Link, a haze of everything that had led to nothing. Monsters had drastically decreased, and blood moons had ceased yet the upheaval had not been reversed and most importantly…

He had even dreamed that he had saved her, envisioned grasping her hand and pulling her towards him but it remained a trivial fantasy. Duty had taken control in place of courage now, having spent weeks constantly trudging without relenting and ensuring that she continued to loom high above him. Now, they were making their fourth trip to the Gerudo Highlands. Staring at the enormous geoglyph below his feet, Link clenched his fist in anger that Ganondorf would even dare attempt to trick the royals of long ago, his anger boiled as he knew how this man, this horrid, cruel demon, was the reason that Zelda swallowed her tear. That he was the reason she was snatched away after Link had truly begun to remember her and all of their time together a hundred years ago.

He continued to ruminate, not bothering to change into warm clothes as if finally giving in to the world. She did not wait for him; he knew well that she was unaware of his existence and committed only to travelling through the skies and nothing more. His princess was gone. His duty wavered in exhaustion as he watched her fly out of view and submitted to his loneliness, simply sitting in the freezing snow and summoning the sages.

They looked like his allies, Tulin, a fledgling with endless determination, Yunobo, a rock bursting with hope, Sidon, a friend overflowing with joy and Riju, a leader who ruled herself by a calming sense of decisiveness. These beings that stood before him, however, were hollow in comparison. Gleaming with the same sickly green of fallen spirits, they often left him feeling dread rather than comfort. After weeks without communication though, he was desperate. He pushed past thoughts of how useless this was and sat all the 'sages' down around a makeshift fire and hesitantly started signing,

'I thought that it would all be the same as when I woke up in the shrine on the plateau… That all I had to do was beat evil and then everything would be alright. And now everyone's celebrating and talking about our next steps when they look at me, they can't think of anything left for me to do. It's like they've all forgotten about Zelda, most of them can't even see her up there and think I've gone mad', the cold was starting to take its toll as his hands shivered too much to continue signing, and he let out a heavy sigh and released a deep, aching, rarely used voice, "Gods if I could I'd swallow a secret stone just to join her, I've already lost myse-" And with that, he collapsed in the snow as the fire gave out.

The 'sages' looked at each other, the sage of lightning communicating to the rest through the bond they shared through Link's hand, and spoke calmly "Don't worry, I'll come and retrieve him myself, at least now we know where he's been all this time." She turned, properly figuring out where in the Highlands they were, "And remember, he must not know we can see him, or he might stop summoning us at all."

The others nodded firmly, all fearing what would happen if Link was left alone for much longer.