Also available here on A03! I'd written this a while ago but completely forgot to post it here...
A short Zelink story after the events of TotK in which Link and Zelda take a moment to re-evaluate their relationship. He had always been sworn to protect her, but now that she no longer needs to be protected, would he even want to stay?
[Spoilers for BotW and TotK]
He said nothing when he saw her, sitting there on the half-collapsed wall. Nothing needed to be said.
The night was still, and dawn had almost come- she had worked through the night again. New Castle Town was almost completed, and the last scars of the great calamity, as well as the upheaval that followed, were finally healing. Maybe she was too.
But he knew such work was no doubt difficult for Zelda, remaking the kingdom she’d lost, even though she would never allow herself to admit it out loud. Link still refused to rest until she had too, and that meant a lot of late nights. He’d kept his distance, but knew her habits well; she always went to the sacred grounds when there was something wrong.
It was quiet in such a ruinous place, and she found some solace amid the crumbled pillars of stone. Weathered by innumerable ages, yet still standing. Silent princesses blossoming in the untouched grass, a hundred years on from the day he had been knighted here. Link approached gently, but ensured he was just loud enough for Zelda to hear his footsteps, as to not sneak up on her.
He took his place at her side, balancing on the cracked stones. He dug his hands into the cracks. She said nothing.
“It’s late.” He signed.
“It is almost morning.”
“That doesn’t mean either of us don’t need sleep.”
“Then go to sleep without me.” Zelda said. He took note of her tone immediately. She sounded harsher than she intended. There was something unresolved in her voice- waiting to see his response. He remained where he was.
“I come here often.” She remarked, breaking the momentary silence. “You know that, of course. I think of the Champions a lot, especially here. I think that was the last time we ever got to people. Real people.”
Link took a moment to consider her words. “What do you mean?” He asked.
“I think a piece of them died the moment they agreed to pilot the Beasts, and I think they all knew what was going to happen, but never wanted to say it out loud. Not to me, at least. From that moment, they weren’t people anymore, they were symbols. I don’t think anybody but you or I remember them as who they were, rather than what they did.”
“I see them, sometimes.” Link admitted.
Zelda hesitated. “...I do too.” She looked around the places where they had each stood on that final day that they had laughed and fought as friends rather than soldiers.
“By the Goddess-” She sighed, her faltering. “What would they think of us now?”
Link was taken off guard, but such thoughts were quickly replaced with concern. He drew closer, one hand still against the wall, as if to stabilise it, whilst the other held her.
“It’s pathetic, isn’t it? She whispered, words trembling. “That we were the ones that lived. But I don’t think either of us have actually done any living. A hundred years for you, and I for thousands, but it’s only ever been war!”
“And it’s over.” Link signed, holding her tight, trying his best to reassure her. And maybe himself too. “We survived.”
Zelda paused for a moment. She took a singular, shaky breath. “I don’t think we did.”
“We lost a piece of ourselves too.” She said. “We couldn’t go back to who we were before. Even now, I don’t know if I can let myself relax.
There was a pause. She looked over at Link. “I want to be who I used to be, before Ganon or the Imprisoning War or this. I hope you can go back too.”
Link took her hand in his. “We can. It’s all over now, and nothing else can hurt us- we can do whatever we want.”
Zelda took a deep breath, steadying herself as she rose to stand.
“I know- that’s why I’m here.”
Link followed her lead, unsure. She stepped over the crumbling remains of the once-sacred grounds, beckoning him with her. The moon was descending beneath the horizon, and the only light in that starless place was the blue glow of the silent princess that lit up the grass beneath them. Creeping vines springing life up every stalwart column. The place where it had begun, the place where it would end, reclaimed at last by time.
“May you hand me the sword. Scabbard too.” She asked of him politely. A register unlike one he had heard from her in years, one with an emotion he could not decipher. Nervously, he obliged, sheathing the blade of the Goddess and handing it to the princess. Zelda admired the scabbard as she held it. “It is said whoever wields the sword that seals the darkness is sworn to protect the kingdom and is people. But even without it, you protected me, anyway.”
“I always have.” Link signed. “I always will.”
“I no longer need protection, though.” Zelda said, almost solemnly. Unconsciously, Link straightened his posture.
“You said it yourself, the war is over. And my time with Rauru and Sonia has awakened powers within me that I trust will restore Hyrule. I have tenfold your experience in years, and the wisdom of the Goddess. My faith is absolute- we are safe.”
“This is all a very long-winded way of saying: good job!” Link joked. She did not respond. Zelda always laughed at his jokes. That’s when he realized something was very wrong.
“In this place, one hundred years ago, you made an oath to me.” Zelda said, her tone unchanging. Link nodded, his face stoic but his mind racing.
“To serve and protect. Prepared to give your life for mine. You have fulfilled that duty in absolute, beyond any expectation or obligation. Indebted me to you eternally- and yet still you remained my knight. Bound by an oath you made to a kingdom now dead.”
He wanted to say something, her name perhaps, or to take her hand and ask her what this was all about.
“I do not deserve that which you have given. You do not deserve such pains.”
“That is my duty.” He signed.
“Your duty should not have entailed so much danger. Nor so many years of your life spent in my service, promising that you shall not rest until I am safe. But here I am- and I am safe, and you, finally, can rest. I will relieve you of that final burden.”
“Link- you have been my most loyal companion. I hold you to that, no longer. My final issue as your princess is that of a choice. To do as you please.”
“Are you asking me to leave?” Link said, trying to hide the emotion in his words- just as she was.
“I am telling you that you’re free. You can stay here should you want, you can go if you want. Return to your old self again, move on from this life-” she said, placing her hand to her chest. “And all the pain that it has brought you.”
Link stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
“Please, Link. I want you to be happy, with or without me. To be my knight was meant to be an honour, not a curse. And if you resent me for that, I would understand.”
He still didn’t respond. He didn’t know how.
“You have done so much for me, saved my life, it would be selfish to rob you of yours.” Zelda said. She tried to uphold a neutrality in her voice, knowing Link’s decision would no doubt be swayed if he knew of the turmoil within her. She wanted to take him in her arms, tell him she had waited ten-thousand years to see him again, adn wanted him to stay at her side for ten-thousand years more. But beyond that, she wanted him to be free to choose the life he wanted. And part of that meant she was prepared to let him go.
Link stood before her, his face disconcertingly blank. He looked at the scabbard in her arms. The blade he had wielded in her name. Fought with in her name. Killed with in her name. The question arose, though went unsaid- what had it all been for. It had always been for her.
Link kneeled, looked up at her, and smiled. “I live to serve.”
And there he was. A hundred years and nothing had changed, kneeling before her, ready to promise himself to her. It was just like before. That was the problem.
There was silence. “No…” Zelda said, quietly.
“No?”
“You don’t get it Link! It can’t be like this.” She exclaimed, her voice raised as every emotion she had buried rose to the surface. “I don't want another knight. I don’t want your service, or your protection, or anything else that you could give me that haven’t already.”
“Then what do you want?” He asked, earnestly.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s the point. But what I hope is that you will be happy- whatever that means. And if it means me, then let it be because you chose that.”
Link’s smile faltered, but he stayed steadfast. That was his answer.
“Get up.” She said. “Stand as my equal.”
He rose. Even then, she stood taller than him.
“I have loved every moment we spent together.” She conceded, at last. “But I need to know if you did too. If everything we felt was just part of that promise. If we go on, it can’t be because you were mine.
Link considered this for a moment, taking one of her hands, whilst the other clutched the scabbard to her chest. “Then maybe we could be each-other’s.”
The sun began to rise, turning the sky a brilliant pink hue, whilst the sacred grounds were bathed in golden light. Gently, Link took the sword from her arms, and held it beneath his arm as he went down on one knee.
“Princess, you asked me to stay with you. To care for you and keep you safe. But now, it’s my turn to ask the same of you.”
Zelda nodded, with no words to say. He unsheathed the sword that seals the darkness and rose it high into the morning air as he stood. The metal reflecting back the light of the sun tenfold, scattering it across the ruins of the square. Then, he gently passed it over her shoulder, then the other.
“Whether skyward bound.” He recited. “Adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight…”
“I will be your knight.” Zelda answered.
Link smiled. “We shall be each-other’s knight.”
The two stood, bound not by fate or chance or circumstance, but by a promise each of their own making. The sun had risen. Both knights figured they could probably use some sleep. But after that- well, that was for their own making too.
Link looked over to his princess, his protector.
“You know what- I think I just figured it out…” he signed.
“Go on?”
“I’ve always said I live to serve. But all this time, and the only person I ever truly served was you. I think maybe it would be better to just say:”
