Chapter four; Metamorphosis
This had to be him. Nobody, nothing else could be doing this to Fi. There was no possible source other than Demise that could cause what she was enduring.
And yet, he was utterly contained. Fi had checked. Trillions of times over her centuries in the Sealed Temple. Nothing had changed.
And yet she was suffering from some malady that she had never experienced before.
It started small. It was a strange pressure on her consciousness. It came and went for a long time, but eventually it began to linger. It pulsed and swelled, slowly filling her mind. With each pulse it became more consuming and overwhelming, like the waves of the rising tide.
It was unbearable.
Fi did not know, she did not understand. What was happening to her? Was Demise even doing this?
She devoted all of her operable faculties to figuring out what was wrong with her. She scanned herself inclusively.
Nothing.
By all parameters, nothing should be different.
Something gripped Fi that she could only quantify as 'that which opposes happiness'.
She did not know what to do. She did not know what was wrong with her.
She did not know.
She did not know.
She did not know.
.
.
.
A gentle face flickered into her consciousness.
Link! When Fi was not sure how to proceed, Link would always-
The pressure in her mind redoubled.
Fi was utterly paralyzed by the agony of the sensation.
The pain consumed her entire consciousness. It tore at everything she was. It built and deepened and swelled and crushed.
.
.
.
Link
.
.
.
Something in Fi buckled and the pressure burst with unparalleled violence.
She screamed.
She screamed and cried and begged for it to stop. She could not endure.
She screamed out the name of her master, the only help she could think of. It was illogical. He had grown old and died. But she needed him.
She wanted her friend. She could not process how she knew this, but she was sure he would know how to fix this.
For days, then weeks, then years, Fi was consumed in a vortex of things she did not understand. Things she could not understand.
.
.
.
Until he came for her.
It wasn't exactly him. Looking from the outside-in, he was not much like her master, but from the inside-out, they were indistinguishable.
As if banished by his very presence, her pain was gone. Her relief was so abrupt that it stunned her all over again.
As she regained her composure, she turned her senses outward. 'Happiness' struck her like lightning. It was him. Truly him!
Fi was experiencing many things she was not sure how to interpret, but this time that was okay. They were things that reminded her of Hylia and Link, rather than Demise.
She felt Link place the blade of the Master Sword in his off hand, stroking the flat of the blade with his thumb in a familiar, perhaps even affectionate way. Fi hummed affirmatively. She was not quite sure why she did this, but it seemed appropriate.
Fi's blade slid into a sheath and Link, a hero reborn, turned and left the Sealed Temple.
This chapter was super hard in a technical way. I had to get Fi to express grief, sadness and loneliness without knowing what any of those things are and with no physical behaviors to express them with. I think it turned out ok? I am glad I wrote that HTTYD fanfic I did a couple years ago, it had something similar with Toothless not comprehending that he was injured.
Side note, if anyone can find the original artist for the cover photo please tell me. I looked a lot but I could not find it on any site that it could have originally been posted on.
Side note 2, the Link in this chapter does not have a game. Skyward Sword is chronologically the first game of the series. After that is Minish Cap and Four Swords, but neither game features the Master Sword. The next time we see the Master Sword is in the Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time and only a Link can have moved it there from the Sealed Temple.