The Silence Between Them | ✔

21) Confess

⚔ In which Zelda finds another way ⚔

Zelda

I can't believe there's still nothing. Everything I've done to prove my worth and dedication to the goddess, and all I get is hell to come to the kingdom's doorstep on my birthday. I don't want to sound like a snot-nosed brat, but this year was going to be special. It was a kingdom-wide event.

But I will admit the festival with Link was better than the stuffy balls and endless gifts without meaning I would have gotten otherwise.

I could have gone without the return to evil incarnate, though.

And now we race down the deserted roads on horseback, completely devastated by everything that has taken place. I don't think there are many tears left in me, after we stopped in the forest, wasting valuable time.

Link doesn't seem like himself. He's completely focused, stern, and determined. Almost scary. I've never seen him like this before.

And then, at the Blatchery Plain, he gets off the horse. The Plain is a mess, completely covered in Guardians and monsters. Teeming with every danger imaginable. Through the thick sheets of rain, I can only truly make out the outlines of monsters and the pink lights of the newly rough Guardians shining through the rain and mist.

Link pulled his sword and shield, staring danger – and quite possibly death – right in the face. Seemingly without fear.

"Stay behind me, and stay close," he says.

"Link, you're not going to do this!" I try and convince him. But he can't really hear me. Not in the way I intend. He doesn't know. Or maybe he does. Maybe he doesn't care. I'm not sure.

"What other choice to we have? What else do we have to lose?" he asks, turning around. Was that resentment in his tone? Regret, maybe? It could just be grief.

I want to grab his hand, but I don't. I give an honest response to his question. "Each other?" I say.

He breaks for a split second. I can see it in his eyes. He rethinks everything.

"Where you go, I'm coming, too. We live or we die. Together."

That doesn't leave much room for argument. He turns back to the Plain and takes a deep breath. He walks toward certain death completely unafraid. I have no choice but to follow.

I do as he told me, staying close behind him, but just out of the way of the quick way he moves. He kills entire hordes of monsters so quickly, blocking and shooting Guardian beams back at the machines, sending them up in smoke. He's amazing, a picture of death and hope, light and dark, good and evil. I watch in wonder.

We surge forward. I wish I could be of more help. I can't do anything except stay here, behind him. It pains me, he has to do this alone. I know we move across the Plain. We're no longer near the road, it's far behind us. But the Fort seems to be so far away, the faint lights seem to be moving away from us. It seems to get farther by the step instead of closer.

The sights and sounds of war are deafening and blinding. Screams – both friend and foe's - echo through the night stretching over the vast fields. The lights of the Guardian beams, their spiraling eyes, and the pink of their cores is the only thing I can make out through the heavy rain, making everything slick.

But one thing I see seems to play out in slow motion.

There's a flash. There's a deafening, gut-wrenching cry. There's a slice as the sword pierces through the mud.