Geez, I just keep putting this story on the backburner huh? Blame it on a mix of writer's block and a newfound spark of inspiration for an old fic of mine, but hey, I'm back now and hopefully with more regular updates as we get into the meat of this story! With all that outta the way, let's get strated!
Chapter 12: Ivory
When Link had been stolen away by the ghost ship five years ago, little else had been stolen along with him. His gear had been stored below the deck of Tetra's ship, his sword long since buried at the bottom of the sea. The only things he arrived in World of the Ocean King with were the clothes on his back, the borrowed scarf tied around his neck, and something that rarely ever left his side. Something truly special for so many reasons, from the kingdom it had come from to the power it possessed. But for Link, what mattered most was who had given it to him.
What mattered most was that the Wind Waker was the only gift he still had from the King.
So he'd hung onto it, even after their journey together had ended. Tetra and her crew had come to rely on its ability to shift the winds in their favor and Link was more than happy to use it to do exactly that. The relic had fallen out of use when he began sailing with Linebeck, whose steam-powered ship all but defied the winds most other boats were subordinate to. Link hadn't been sure the Wind Waker would even work in the World of the Ocean King; he'd never bothered to give it a try.
But now, he's back upon the surface of the Great Sea, still a short distance away from Outset. He doesn't dare look back over his shoulder at the still-looming shadow of his island home, a home that hadn't welcomed him in any of the ways he once hoped it would. Aryll's bitter words and frigid glares still sear his mind and sting his heart as he struggles to make sense of them. He tries his best not to think about it as he pulls the Wind Waker out of his pocket.
The winds are currently blowing straight to the west. What he really needs instead is a northwesterly gale. His new plan, as half-baked as it still is, is to get to Windfall Island by sundown the following day. It's a long trek, especially on a vessel as ill-equipped for it as the makeshift sailboat he'd taken from Outset. But it'll be more than worth it if he can make it to someone who can get him the information he needs. Someone who can point him in the direction of a certain pirate and her crew.
In all honesty, Link doesn't know what to expect from Tetra after Aryll's harsh reception. Even at her most upset, his little sister's anger is like a distant storm, quiet and controlled. Tetra's fury, on the other hand, is like a hurricane; fierce and loud and oftentimes violent. He's been on the receiving end of it before, more times than he'd like to admit for far less significant slights. And after five years away, there's plenty for Tetra to be angry with him about, even beyond the bizarre accusations Aryll had levied against him. He can only hope word of those accusations haven't reached Tetra too.
And if they have… then he can only hope she'll be willing to hear him out even if no one else he loves will.
Though it's been years, he still remembers the Wind's Requiem as if he'd learned it yesterday. He closes his eyes as he raises the Wind Waker high, conducting the short tune the same way he always used to. For a moment, he almost feels like he's a kid again, standing upon the King of Red Lions instead of a nameless, lifeless canoe as he beckons the winds to follow his whims. It's a connection he hasn't thought about in a long time, a cherished, special bond with the sky and the sea that even a being like Bellum could have never stripped away from him. But as he opens his eyes and feels the breeze still blowing to the east, just as it had before, worry begins to worm its way into Link's heart.
What if that connection had wavered after so much time away? What if that bond had been broken by forces beyond his control? What if he could no longer wake the winds the King had once trusted him with?
He shakes his head to calm himself, sitting a bit straighter on his boat. He repositions the Wind Waker, swiftly conducting the Wind's Requiem again. When he's met with the same results, he makes a third attempt, and a fourth, each more desperate and frantic than the last. And each time, he fails to hear and feel what he knows he should; the sea doesn't sing along with the strokes of his baton, the winds don't shift their course the way he wants them to. But the tip of the Wind Waker still shines with power, which means it should still work even after so much time going unused. So that begs the question… why isn't it?
Eventually, Link has no choice but to give up. He sighs, holding the Wind Waker to his chest as he lies back on his seat. "Great…" he grumbles to himself, glaring up at the stars. Just hours ago, he'd been under an entirely different sky entirely, on an entirely different ship with friends still standing by his side. But now, he's finally home, just like he always wanted to be. And he's alone just like he always feared. "What am I supposed to do now…?"
Only the briefest of moments passes before, out of nowhere, his boat rocks hard to the side. He nearly falls out of it entirely as he darts up, noticing that at long last, the winds have picked up. The only problem is they aren't blowing northwest like he wanted them to. They're blowing in almost every other direction instead.
"What the…?" his whisper trails off, lost to the fierce gale surrounding him. His tiny boat tosses and turns in the sudden waves stirring up, its sail swerving haywire, unsure of which direction to go. Link holds his hat tight against his head to keep it from being blown away as he searches the sky for any signs of a storm. Strangely, it's still clear and starry, not a cloud in sight to accompany the surging gales. Briefly, he wonders if he conducted the Wind's Requiem one too many times to summon such chaos.
At least until he hears two laughing voices cackling together over the intense din of the wind and waves.
The pair appears soon after, carried atop small clouds by the brutal breezes they brought to life. Link recognizes the frog-like duo as soon as he sees them: the wind gods, Cyclos and Zephos. He met them on his first voyage across the sea; they'd both been just as instrumental in teaching him the Wind Waker's true potential as the King had. As a result, he eases up as they come to hover over his boat, fortunately bringing the winds down with them. It's a good thing too; Link's not so sure how much more his tiny boat could have taken.
"Uh, hi-" he tries greeting them. Only to quickly be cut off by the blustery duo.
"Well, well, lookie who it is!" Zephos peers down from his cloud at Link. "Our little rogue Wind Waker finally shows his face again after all this time. Can ya believe it, brother?"
"I can believe that," Cyclos fixes Link with a stern scowl. He's hardly surprised by it; the cyclone god had always been the more surly of the two after all. "What I can't believe is that he'd actually have the gall to try and wake the winds even when he knows he'd wake us right along with 'em!"
Link attempts to get a word in edgewise to explain himself, but neither of the wind gods let him have it. "Well, we can't very well let him hold onto that thing,' Zephos muses, frowning down at the Wind Waker still in Link's grip. "I can't say I've ever had to revoke a Wind Waker of their Wind Wakin' privileges before, but…"
"If you're too 'softhearted' to stomach it, then I'll be more than happy to do it instead!" Cyclos turns his nose up at his brother. With a mere flick of the wrist, he conjures up a small, precise gale, one strong enough to rip the Wind Waker right out of Link's hand.
"Hey!" Link protests, reaching for it. But the wind carries it away from him far too quickly, and it doesn't stop there. On Cyclos' command, the baton is tossed far out toward the open ocean before Link can even try to stop it. He draws in a breath he nearly forgets to let out as he watches it disappear from sight; one of the only things he had left to hold onto from the King… so suddenly lost to the sea. Just like the King himself.
Amidst his newfound distress, anger surfaces just as swiftly. He glares up at the pair; neither of them seem apologetic in the slightest for taking something so important away from him. If anything, they seem satisfied that its power is no longer in his possession. "What's the matter with you two?!" he asks hotly. He makes no effort to hide how upset he truly is, he doesn't care about saving face in front of either of them. Right now, the only thing he cares about is the Wind Waker, now forever torn away from him for seemingly no real reason at all. "Why would you do that? Just because I tried changing the direction of the wind? You never acted like that bothered you before!"
"Bother us?" Zephos laughs, slapping his knee. The way there's little actual levity behind that laughter catches Link off guard; he isn't used to hearing something so bitter from the usually jovial wind god. "Boy, you've been 'bothering' just about everyone on this Great Sea of ours for a good while now. Waking us up from our beauty sleep is just the tip of the iceberg if ya ask me."
"...What do you mean?" Link dares to ask. His heart is already sinking with fear as he realizes such claims are worryingly similar to what Aryll had accused him of. Of misdeeds and transgressions he doesn't know the first thing about; how could he when he wasn't even there to see them happen, much less commit them?
"You know full well what we're talking about!" Cyclos snaps. His cloudy perch turns stormy, a threatening rumble of thunder sounding from it as he continues. "The disaster at Dragon's Roost, the fiasco at Forest Haven? And don't even get me started on all those monsters that've been roaming about And that's all. Because. Of. YOU!"
Link flinches when a flash of lightning bursts in the open air around the brothers, a testament to their shared disdain. As for where that disdain is coming from, it remains a mystery, one that Link is downright desperate to solve. Especially when he latches onto one particular part of what Cyclos had to say. "Monsters?" he questions, genuinely concerned by the thought. After all, he didn't fight so hard to free this ocean from their scourge years ago just for them to suddenly, unexpectedly return in his absence. "Since when have monsters been back on the Great Sea? I thought they all disappeared when Ganondorf-"
"Now, now, boy, don't try to pull the clouds over our eyes," Zephos wags a finger at him. "We know these new monsters ain't his lackeys. They're yours."
"...What?" Link nearly forgets to breathe. The very thought, the mere idea sends a shiver shooting straight down his spine. Aryll refusing to let him so much as speak to their grandmother for some unknown reason was one thing. But this… the idea that he would ever work alongside, much less employ the very creatures he once risked his life to destroy? It's something even more unfathomable altogether.
"Hmph, I dunno why we're still floating around shooting the breeze with this punk," Cyclos turns his nose up, crossing his arms. "We're just giving him every opportunity to escape. Her highness ain't gonna be happy if she finds out we let him slip through our fingers again."
"Her highness?" Link questions quietly. It doesn't take him long to come up with a guess as to who they're talking about. And if his hunch is right, then maybe this chance encounter may not be as disconcerting as it started out as. If he's right, then the wind gods could very well lead him to the very person he wants to–needs to find most.
"Yeah, yeah, I was gettin' there," Zephos shrugs his brother off. "Sorry to rat you out like this, kid, really, we are!" He turns his attention back down to Link. "You weren't half bad when you were just a tyke, but now? Well, we got our orders straight from her highness and we got no choice but to follow 'em. Nothin' personal."
"No, it's ok, really," Link assures with a small, hopeful smile. "You guys are going to take me to Tetra, right? That's great, actually! I need to talk to-"
"Who in Nayru's name is Tetra?" Cyclos interrupts, scratching his head.
"Um… you know," Link bites his lip. He doesn't like referring to the captain by her more royal title; she'd grown to resent it very quickly after old Hyrule was lost to the sea, and after what happened down there, she had every reason to. But right now, Link doesn't have much of a choice–that name is likely to be the one these deities like these will actually recognize. "Princess Zelda?"
The brothers exchange a blank glance. His fledgling hope is already on shaky ground to begin with, but it quickly falls to pieces entirely when he hears what Zephos has to say next. "Boy, we aren't sendin' you off to no 'princess'. You've got a one-way ticket to the queen instead."
"The… queen?"
"Gah! Enough yappin'!" Cyclos cuts in before Link can even try to ask another question. The winds start to pick up again, forming a tight, intense twister around Link's boat. A twister he has little power to escape from, especially as it begins to lift his boat straight out of the water altogether. "No more running, and no more hiding. You're finally gettin' the punishment you deserve."
"Send our regards to the queen, will ya?" Zephos waves, still far more amiable than his brother. "And good luck, kid. You're gonna need it."
"Wait!" Link shouts, but there's no point. The wind gods clearly have no interest in listening to a word he says; if they had, then maybe they wouldn't have stripped him of something as essential as the Wind Waker. He quickly finds he has little other options as the cyclone begins to whisk him away; jumping off the boat now wouldn't save him from being teleported right along with it. He'd been knocked off the King of Red Lions one too many times right after playing the Ballad of Gales to know.
He has no other choice but to hang on tight to the boat as it rapidly twists through the open air, completely at the mercy of the spiraling winds carrying it away. In an instant, the night sky and dark sea are gone. When Link's stomach settles and his vision clears, he finds his boat is back upon water again, resting on the surface of a small pool instead of the open ocean. Ancient trees line the enclosure around him, lit only by the moon high above and the sparkling fireflies dancing through the thicket.
It's a serene, calming setting, a place Link has only visited once before, years ago. But the reason why the wind gods might have sent him here, of all places, lies with the mysterious being that calls the Mother and Child Isles home. A being that makes her presence known almost as soon as he arrives.
As she appears in a surge of soft light, Link finally understands exactly who the wind gods had meant by "her highness". He met the Fairy Queen, albeit briefly, when she'd granted him the gift of fire and ice arrows to aid in his first quest. The King later told him that, despite her childlike form and coy demeanor, she was far older than even the Great Sea, a benevolent, timeless guardian that had been charged with protecting Hyrule as far back as its founding.
He'd also mentioned an old legend tied to her, one that claims that her appearance often shifts to reflect the souls of those who stand in her presence. Link realizes just how true that legend really is when he takes in the sight of the Fairy Queen floating before him now. Instead of a small, spritely child, she's seemingly grown as much as he has, taking on the form of a wispy young woman. Despite her more mature statue, her skin is still pure, unearthly ivory, her eyes still blank, piercing voids, and hanging limply from her grip is still the same doll-like effigy of a Great Fairy. Like many other things Link has noticed about the Great Sea in the short time since his return, for as much as things have changed, plenty of other things have stayed the same. In that regard, the Fairy Queen is no different.
For a moment, silence reigns through the Mother Isle. Out of the reverence the King had drilled into him years ago, Link respectfully bows his head to the Queen, deciding to let her speak first. Considering how he ended up here in the first place, whether that's a smart idea or not remains to be seen. After what feels like ages of simply staring at him with those vacant, unreadable eyes, the Fairy Queen finally addresses him, her voice deeper, older, and angrier than he's ever heard from her before.
"You…" she begins, narrowing her eyes at him. The fireflies peel back into the trees at the sound of her voice, their glow flickering almost fearfully. Link starts to share some of that fear when he looks back up at her to meet the vicious glare she's sending his way.
Great, he thinks glumly, not daring to speak such thoughts aloud. Not in front of someone so profoundly powerful and potentially dangerous as her. Someone else who suddenly hates me for no reason… And all in one night too; must be a new record…
"At long last," the Fairy Queen hovers a bit higher. Her scowl deepens, and even as empty as it is, Link can practically feel it searing straight through his soul. "You stand before me, the former Waker of the Winds. The Great Sea's tainted, turncoat 'hero'."
Link draws in a deep breath, forcing himself to stand a bit straighter aboard his boat. His voice wavers ever so slightly when he speaks, as much as he wishes it wouldn't. "Y-your highness," he bows his head again. He figures it's best to be as respectful as possible; the deity is already upset enough with him as it is, for some reason. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm here. The wind gods-"
"The wind gods finally did as I instructed them by bringing you to me," the Fairy Queen practically sneers. "After so long slipping away from justice, on this night, you shall finally answer for your crimes against this ocean and its people."
"What crimes?" Link asks, desperate to know. To know why the wind gods had claimed he's been commanding monsters. To know why his own sister so coldly turned him away. To know why something that was supposed to be so wonderful has gone so wrong.
"There's far too many to count," the Fairy Queen says. "And even if there wasn't, you know well the atrocities you have committed, the discord your misdeeds have sown, the pain you have caused so many innocent people. A cloud of fear and dread now hovers over the Great Sea, a cloud brought upon it by the very hand that had once fought so valiantly to free it." She sighs, closing her eyes as she looks away from him. The anger melts from her tone, shifting into sorrow instead as her voice softens ever so slightly. "Your heart was once so noble, so full of light… What could have possibly led you to turn to such vile darkness…?"
Link shakes his head, beside himself with concerned confusion. Everything she's implying unnerves him to his core. That she would think that he's capable of, that he would want to hurt the very same people he'd worked so hard to save years ago. That she would think that he'd willingly go around undoing everything he'd done to keep the ocean safe and free from evil. None of it makes any sort of sense–nothing has, not since he first opened his eyes and found himself back upon the sea he thought he knew so well.
"I… haven't," he shrugs, unsure of how else to explain himself. "Whatever you're talking about, whatever you think I did… it wasn't me."
The Fairy Queen's ire is quick to sharpen again when she hears this. "Do not take me for a fool, child," she warns quietly, dangerously. "I know well of your transgressions. Word has traveled far and wide between the guardians of this vast ocean, from the skies above watched by Lord Valoo, to the fledgling trees fostered by the Great Deku Tree, to the depths of the sea patrolled by Lord Jabun. They all have carried the same message back to me. They have told me of their people's suffering under an entirely new scourge of monsters. They have told me of the frost and fire that devastate their islands, the violent storms that sweep over the sea. And each of them has made it more than clear exactly who has been behind all of it: none other than the Hero of Winds himself."
"But I didn't do any of that!" Link argues before he can think better of it. "I haven't even been here for the past five-"
"SILENCE," the Fairy Queen's voice erupts. The winds and water react to her fury, surging upon Link with enough force to knock him off his feet entirely. He lands hard on the bottom of his boat, shaken as the Queen continues pouring her fury out upon him. "Do you know how long I have guarded this domain, child? Can you possibly comprehend the burden of its protection? This mission was entrusted to me and my kind by the Great Golden Three eons before you were even a thought! And yet here you stand, claiming that I do not know all that happens within this realm and who is responsible for it!? Your sheer audacity alone is almost as appalling as your actions, and believe me, child, those speak for themselves."
Slowly, Link pulls himself back up to stand. His hands rest in tight, almost shaking fists at his sides as he struggles to think of a way out of this. A way to convince her, to convince everyone that he's innocent. Somehow, the five-year long task of finding a way back here seems like it had been leagues easier than that.
"Please, your highness," he says as calmly as he can manage. "I need you to listen to me. I don't know what's going on. I've been stuck in another world for the past five years and I only just got back tonight. I couldn't have done any of what you think I did; there has to be some kind of mistake!"
"I am not a mere mortal like you," the Fairy Queen hisses. "I do not make mistakes and I am not so easily deceived. The story you've just told is a mere fabrication, and a weak one at that. For if you truly have been in a world apart for as long as you claim, then how have so many seen your face upon this sea in that same span of time?"
"I don't know!" Link insists honestly. Not that his honesty even seems to matter to a deity convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's right and that he's in the wrong. "I swear, I'm not the one behind any of this!"
"Well, if it isn't you," the Fairy Queen begins, clearly doubting his every last word. "Then who is?"
Link shakes his head, his throat dry and his heart hammering with raising dread. He's all too aware of just how badly this could end if he fails to come up with a believable answer. And unfortunately for him, answers in general are in severely short supply tonight. "I… I don't know," he says again, sighing. "I really don't. I'm just… I-"
"There certainly is quite a bit you 'don't know', child," the Fairy Queen says crossly. She's taken to fidgeting with her doll, pulling on its limbs as she glares between it and Link. "One might call your alleged lack of knowledge 'innocence'. I, on the other hand, would call it lying."
"I'm not lying and I can prove it!" Link practically shouts as his fear shifts into frustration. After only a few hours back upon the Great Sea, not a single soul has bothered to listen to a word he's had to say. So if they won't listen, he'll just have to make them. If they won't believe him, he'll do whatever he has to until they finally do.
And if none of that works, if they still won't listen or believe, then he won't rest until he finds someone who will.
The Fairy Queen stays silent for a moment, pondering what he'd just said. Her empty eyes bear into his, but this time, he doesn't back down. He lets her search him for whatever she wants to find, for whatever she thinks she needs to see. He can only hope she'll see his sincerity, his honesty, his longing to simply just be heard.
But in the end, she doesn't seem to find any of that. Instead, she closes her eyes, nodding thoughtfully as she reaches some sort of conclusion. "Very well," she says. "I had intended to pass my judgment upon you here and now. But if you are so adamant about deluding even yourself with the claim that you are blameless, then I will allow you to do exactly that."
"Wait… really?" Link asks, caught off guard. She still doesn't believe him, clearly, but she's willing to give him a chance, however small, to show her the truth. After the night he's been having, it isn't a chance he's about to pass up, and yet… something is still… off about it all the same.
"Here is my proposal, child," the Fairy Queen hovers a bit lower, a bit closer. "You have three days' time to find one other soul upon this sea who can stand before me and testify beyond a shadow of a doubt in their heart that you are truly as innocent as you say you are. If they can convince me of your innocence, then I will believe your claims and absolve you of all crimes committed in your name."
Link nods, slowly, as he takes this challenge in. "That's… y-yes, I can do that. No–I will do it, I promise." In fact, he already has someone in mind, someone who was there the day he disappeared. Someone who has to know the truth just as much as he does after everything they've been through together. If no one else will vouch for him, then certainly, Tetra will.
Or at least, he desperately hopes she will.
"Your 'promise' is nowhere near enough," the Fairy Queen stares at him unblinking, unflinching. She's lowered herself to stand upon the surface of the water, bringing them face-to-face with each other. The fact that she's suddenly so close makes Link genuinely begin to fear for his life. That fear is only justified all the more after what she does next.
"If you fail to prove your innocence to me, child, know the consequences will be grave," she warns quietly, like an oncoming storm. "I must ensure that you will follow through on this final chance I have been so fair to give you. Thus… hear my words, former Hero of Winds…"
The Fairy Queen's eyes flash as the Great Fairy doll vanishes from her hand. Within the space between her outstretched palms, another doll entirely appears, only this time, it looks just like Link. He only has a moment to gawk at it before the Fairy Queen pulls its limbs back tight. Link chokes out a gasp as he follows the doll's moments against his will, any semblance of control over his own body ripped from him altogether. In an instant, he's as helpless as his doll duplicate, completely at the mercy of the Fairy Queen standing before him. And if everything he's heard so far tonight is any indication, she clearly doesn't have much left to spare.
The Fairy Queen lets the doll hover out of her hold, and Link inexplicably finds his own body rising along with it. He tries to protest, to even just cry out in alarm, but whatever the doll is doing to him has taken his voice along with it. For as silent and similar as they both are, they may as well be one and the same.
The Queen reaches out toward him, skimming the center of his chest with her fingertips. Her touch is like lightning, rippling sharply through his body as she slowly draws something out of it. As prone as he is, he's only barely able to glance down to see what that something is.
A bright, warm flame flickers over the Queen's outstretched hand, accompanied by a burst of shimmering ice. He recognizes it as the blessing she'd cast upon him years ago, empowering his arrows with such elemental magic. Only now… it's turning it into something else altogether. The Queen hovers her free hand over it and the fire burns brighter, crackling as it hungrily curls for something to burn, something to destroy. The ice does much of the same, splintering and cracking into sinister shapes as a frigid mist engulfs the air surrounding it. As the Fairy Queen finishes her corrupting work, she explains.
"What was once bestowed upon you as a gift, I revoke… and return in the form of a curse."
With but a graceful wave of her hand, the Queen sends her tainted magic back to him. Thanks to the doll, he still can't move a muscle. He can't even make an attempt at escaping, at even just pulling himself away as that magic, that curse is thrust upon him. It enters his chest in much of the same way she'd drawn it out of him, slowly and, at least at first, painlessly.
Until it isn't.
It explodes inside of him, a feverish sort of heat combined with a crippling kind of cold, both coursing through his entire body like a rapid flood. He'd scream if he were able, if his voice could break free from the binds the Fairy Queen has it under. He writhes against the power the doll holds over him, thrashing violently as the curse starts to take hold. His skin reflects its vicious, painful power, painting his very veins with the frost and fire now flowing through them. They glow dull shades of snowy blue and burning red, casting a frightening, almost inhuman pallor across his usually warm, sunkissed skin. As that glow begins to fade back under the surface, the Fairy Queen finally dismisses her doll, at long last allowing Link to fall back into his boat. Within seconds that felt like hours, the Queen's work is finished; her deadly curse has been cast.
Though his voice has returned to him, Link struggles to find it between the heavy breaths he's trying to catch up with. As shocked as he is by it all, he barely even notices that he's shaking and shivering all at once. What he does notice are his hands. Not only are they trembling, they're the only part of his body that still bears any sort of physical sign of his new curse. The veins on the back of his hands shift back and forth between red and blue, turning either cold and clammy or swelteringly hot each time and never settling on anywhere in between. It's disconcerting, but only dully painful, or at least it is for now. Link has a feeling it won't stay that way for long.
"W-what… What did you do to me?" His voice is strained and weak when he questions the Queen. Her curse flushes through his hands again, and within seconds, they go from frozen and numb to feeling as though he'd grabbed a handful of burning coals. It takes every ounce of self control he has to keep himself from crying out over just how surprisingly painful the shift between the two extremes actually is.
"I have passed a punishment upon you that befits the weight of your crimes," the Fairy Queen has returned to her lofty perch, her Great Fairy doll back in her hands. She still has nothing else to offer Link other than the same icy glare she's been fixing him with since he arrived here. Not that he cares when her curse is currently cutting him so much deeper than any cross look ever could.
"As you have wrought plagues of frost and fire upon the domains of my fellow guardians, so too have I cast the same such affliction upon you. Indeed, I have given you three days, from the emerging sunrise to the final stroke of midnight, to clear your name from the treachery leveled against you. During that time, my curse shall ravage your body, and if you fail to prove your innocence before that time runs out… then make no mistake, child: you will certainly die."
Link stiffens, stark fear overtaking any sensations of cold or heat still sweeping over him. Out of all of the things he thought would happen tonight, being essentially sentenced to death wasn't one of them. Then again, neither was being cursed or cast out of the first home he'd ever known.
He knows he shouldn't push his luck any further than he already has with her, especially not after what just happened. But with his life literally on the line now, he doesn't really have much of a choice. His hands, as bitter cold as they currently are, curl into tight fists at his side as a wave of raw fury washes over him. He's far too familiar with this kind of injustice; it rings alarmingly close to when another deity in a completely different world shattered the promise he'd been clinging onto to pieces. He can't help but wonder how guardians like the Ocean King or the Fairy Queen who are meant to protect and serve people like him can be so incredibly cruel.
"You can't do this!" he snaps, unable to contain his fearful frustration any longer. "This isn't right and it isn't fair! If you would just listen to me, if anyone would listen to me, then you'd know I didn't do anything wrong-"
"YOU DARE CHALLENGE MY DECISION, CHILD?!" the Fairy Queen sharply cuts him off. Her usually light voice booms through her home, echoing brutally between its bark walls. "Such impudence! Such insolence! You ought to be groveling at my feet, thanking me for being kind enough to let you live another day at all, much less three! I've heard quite enough of your disrespectful dishonesty for one night." She hovers high above him, spreading her arms out wide as rushing winds begin to coverage around his boat once again. "Leave this place, and do not return until you are able to clear your name. And if you cannot…" She fixes him with one final hateful glare as his boat begins to rise from the pool. He knows just how dire the consequences will be if he fails to meet her expectations. Still, she makes a point to remind him of it just the same. "Then may the Great Sea finally see relief from the devastation you have brought upon it, 'hero'..."
In much of the same way Link was brought to the Mother Isle, he's sent away from it. The winds he once controlled now work against him, casting him out somewhere back onto the open sea. By the time he's able to regather his bearings, he can spot the sun starting to rise over the distant horizon, making the dawn of a brand new day. His first back upon a sea he barely recognizes anymore; and quite possibly, one of his last.
He sinks to sit down on his boat, staring at his hands in stunned silence. The marks of the curse are still there, shining weakly in the light of the emerging sun, pulsing with the back and forth between cold and heat. The conflicting, agonizing sensations lance through his fingertips, making his movements clumsy and unsteady. Exactly how the Fairy Queen expects him to even sail in such a state, much less find anyone willing to testify for him, he has no idea.
"Goddesses…" he mutters, running a hand through his hair. At first, his touch is ice cold against his scalp, but it quickly turns so hot he can't stand to keep it there any longer. "What a mess…"
He closes his hands into tight fists, trying his best to block out the pain. With only two sunrises left, the Fairy Queen hadn't given him much time to stop this. But there's still some time, and as long as there is, there's still hope.
There's still a chance he can save himself, however small that chance might be.
Link stands, taking in a slow, calming breath. He's faced impossible odds far too many times now, against Ganondorf, against Bellum, against everything that had kept him away from his home. And now that he's finally back, here he is, facing impossible odds all over again. Now, he stands to lose far more than just his family or his home. Within three short days, he could lose his very life.
And the worst part of it all is that he has no idea why.
Everything he's been accused of, by Aryll, by the wind gods, by the Fairy Queen… none of it is adding up. Nevermind the fact that he hasn't even seen this ocean in years; even if he'd stayed upon the Great Sea, he would never even think of doing anything that they claim he's responsible for. Whoever is responsible is the one who should be on the receiving end of this death curse; but instead, he's been the one made to reap the consequences of someone else's actions. He's been made to suffer because of something that isn't even his fault.
Just like when Aryll was taken. Just like when the ghost ship stole him away. Just like always, he's cursed again. In far more ways than he can even begin to count.
He doesn't have much time to waste to bemoan his potential fate. Though the condition of his hands make the task much more difficult than it should be, Link manages to unfurl his makeshift sail. Without the Wind Waker, he's forced to follow the eastern morning breeze as it carries him across the sea. The Fairy Queen had tasked him with finding someone who will vouch for him, so that's exactly what he'll do. Even if his family is out of the question, he made plenty of friends during his quest across the Great Sea. Certainly at least one of them will be willing to hear him out and help him. And if none of them do, then there's one person he prays he can still rely on.
If no one else can see the truth, he knows Tetra will. She isn't like everyone else; she's far smarter, far more clever and cunning than anyone he's ever met. She'll believe him, she'll trust him, she'll save him. She has to.
Because if she doesn't… then who else will?
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