Shadowed Truth REWRITE: Prologue

Prologue


Six long months of monster cleanup and rebuilding after their adventure, the four Links have returned to the Four Sword Sanctuary to become one once more, accompanied by Princess Zelda. Before they do it, Vio exchanges a glance with his fellow Links and, after receiving a nod from Green, an encouraging little smile from Red, and a 'just do it already, sissy' huff from Blue, gently taps the Princess's shoulder to get her attention.

"What is it, Li- err, Vio?"

"Excuse me... Could I speak with you in private for a moment, Your Highness?" he asks politely, hanging back from the others.

"Of course. What would you like to speak about?"

The purple-clad youth looks down nervously, resisting the urge to fidget. Internally berating himself for being 'such a coward', the teen forces his gaze to meet the princess's and begins to speak, keeping his voice low so the others don't hear.

"Forgive me, Princess, for asking such a thing of you, but soon, I will no longer be able to watch over it myself... Please, all I ask is that you keep this safe."

Vio pulls a small bottle out of a pouch attached to his belt and holds it out for her to see.

She looks at it curiously before returning her clear blue gaze to him, perplexed.

'This side of Link seems a bit odd…' Hyrule's crown Princess thinks to herself.

"I do not mean to be rude, but… Why are you asking me to safeguard an empty bottle?"

'No turning back now,' Vio thinks, his calm façade wavering for just a moment in the form of a tiny frown and furrowed brows.

"It… isn't empty, your Highness," the purple-clothed young hero answers evenly, a shaking, nervous wreck behind his stiff, overly polite mask as he steps aside into a shadow cast by one of the four mysterious columns placed around the Four Sword's pedestal. "I must have forgotten; you were still imprisoned in that black cloud at the time…"

'When he sacrificed himself to save us…'

"Can you see more clearly now, Your Highness?"

She shakes her head with a sigh. "No, it still appears quite empty to me. Perhaps if I could look more closely…?"

"Y-yes, of course. Just… please take care not to drop it."

He holds it out again hesitantly, allowing Zelda to gently take the little glass container from his hands to better inspect its contents.

'Perhaps whatever is within it glows?' she guesses, cupping a hand around it.

Looking closely, the Princess's deep blue eyes manage to pick out a scattering of faint, barely visible motes of light drifting sluggishly behind the glass. The Triforce of Wisdom in her right hand sends out a barely noticeable pulse of warmth in response— she knows it quite well from the time she's spent with Link growing up, though it's very faint: the gentle warmth of two pieces of the Sacred Triangle greeting each other.

'The Triforce of Courage? But I'm not touching Vio's hand any longer—'

Vio doesn't notice Zelda's eyes widen, too lost in his own frantic thoughts.

'Shadow... I won't let you die. I just… I could never forgive myself. I wish I could have had more time to look for a way to bring you back, but… time's up. It's too late. In just a few minutes, I'll be gone; just a part of Link's personality and nothing more unless he ever needs the Four Sword again. At least you'll be safe with the Princess… I hope…'

The Princess descends into thought as well, thinking back to the one and only time she's ever felt that warmth in the presence of someone other than Link*.

'Before I was snatched away… In that moment, I saw him as he truly was. That gaze… Despite the color, those were LINK'S eyes. I felt it then, too. A faint echo of the Triforce of Courage's warmth… Are the contents of this bottle connected to him somehow?'

"Green told you about what happened during the final two battles, right?" Vio asks, his voice breaking her out of her thoughts. "About… what became of the Dark Mirror?"

He isn't looking at her, his gaze instead directed towards the tall, flat object placed against the back wall of the Sanctuary and covered by a tarp: the Dark Mirror, painstakingly repaired with all the pieces the four boys had been able to find, though there were still a few holes. It had taken quite a bit of effort, but the four Links had been adamant about it and wouldn't drop the issue until they'd won out. The story told to the public was that it was brought here so that the Four Sword's close proximity would drain whatever power it may still have left, but he knows the real reason.

After all, it's only fitting that all five heroes of this time should be honored here...

Zelda notices his gaze and her suspicion is confirmed. "This is about him."

"These sparks of light..." he begins, struggling to keep his voice neutral.

"They're… They're all that's left of him. I gathered as many of them as I could into this bottle for safekeeping. I know you must hate him for all he's done, Goddesses know everyone else seems to, but Your Highness, I—"

"Shh," she interrupts softly, soothing the nervous hero with a warm smile. "You were afraid I was going to say no, weren't you? Don't worry so much. You'll be pleasantly surprised to hear that I don't hate him at all, actually. I'll keep him safe. He's one of the Links too, after all, and he tried to save me from the cloud of darkness even though he was weakened and had only just reemerged from the Dark Mirror."

"He did…?" Vio mumbles, looking a bit dazed.

'On top of saving us, he tried to rescue the Princess, too? Then again, Green did mention that 'the fake Vio' had been in a panic about her being in danger…'

"Yes," Zelda answers.

Vio doesn't seem to hear, likely stunned by the mere fact that there is indeed someone else in Hyrule other than himself and his 'brothers' who doesn't feel hatred towards the fifth hero of their adventure, the one who will, he's sure, be recorded in Hyrule's legends as the opposite.

"Shadow Link is as much of a hero to me as you four are, even if he was a bit… uncouth at first," she continues with a smile.

This manages to startle a small, disbelieving laugh out of the stoic, usually calm Vio and he lets a smile slip onto his face. "Thank you, Your Highness. This means a lot to me…"

Blue yells something about how Vio's taking his sweet time and to hurry up already before Red starts crying again, so he runs off to rejoin the others so they can return the Four Sword to its resting place.

'Shadow... I wish we could meet just one more time. I never got a chance to apologize, to tell you that I wasn't lying when I 'pretended' to be your friend. We were, no, we are friends. We're friends and we always will be.'

Soon, only one Link stands in the Sanctuary and he and Zelda leave together, holding hands. The bottle is safely hidden in a concealed pocket sewn into the underside of the Princess's skirt, the tiny sparks within shimmering brightly for a moment.

Neither Princess nor Hero looks back, so only the six Maidens, having chosen to remain as fairies to guard the shrine, see the shadow of Link's hand slowly detach itself from the shadow of Zelda's and give a cheeky thumbs up.


~…~


"That child… What do you intend to do with him, dear Sister?"

"Ha, why are you even asking her that? Just go get your storybooks like you're so obviously itching to so you can start teaching him once he's ready. Even I can see the brat's adorable, and it's clear what we're gonna do... Keep him. Always did want a pet."

"Yes… I intend to raise the boy, and I hope you both will aid me in it. That time is coming soon, and so all must be ready… And he is not a pet."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I was just joking. Let's get to it, then, it's almost time for the fun to begin."

"I will never understand how you can possibly enjoy such a thing so much, Sister…"

"Please, you two, now is not the time to bicker. Let us begin…"


~…~


The Palace of Winds drifts quietly through the sky, restored to its former state as a shrine to the wind after Gufuu's destruction and Ganondorf's sealing. Over the months that have passed since while the Four Links cleaned up the last of the monsters plaguing the land, it slowly made its way to a small forest south of Lake Hylia and has remained here since, floating amongst the clouds. On days when no clouds drift above these woods, the Palace is clearly visible, most often drifting near the small, run-down ruins of a long-forgotten temple down in the woods below.

In the heart of the tallest spire, Sky-Tall Tower, lies Gufuu's former bedchamber. Within the large but lonely room lie only two things: a large nest in one corner taking up almost a fourth of the room where Gufuu would sleep and a statue of a short, effeminate creature. It's humanoid, but whatever it is, the statue clearly doesn't depict a Hylian...
*shfff…*

The soft sound drifts through the quiet Palace as if it were just another breeze as translucent, ephemeral black wings gently wrap themselves around it and disappear…