The Legend of Zelda: The King Sword (Revising)

Part One: Adrift

{Link}

I never heard of Adrift before Zelda started correspondence with her old friend. She goes on about the people she used to know there and the sites she used to visit on her summer holidays to the city. It exists so far across the sky that no bird could fly far enough to make it without tiring, but the only difficulty in finding it comes in a secret entrance on an island that leaves with the seasons called the white door. It is customary in Adrift to wear white, green, and gold garments to emulate the majestic clothing said to be worn in the Sacred Realm. I've been to the spirit realm many times during my trials, and I can understand why the Zonai would observe such colors. Everything was a pale green there, at least when the most terrifying guardians were at rest.

"You must be so excited to go back for the first time in tw-"

"Twelve years!" Zelda climbs up to straddle her bird. "I know, it's been too long!" she bounces giddily.

"Let's get you there before you explode!" With a flap, my bird and I zoom into the sky, leaving my wife in the dust. "Oops."

We fly west into the sky, past our home, toward the black thunderhead. I know what I'm doing much better than I used to, but I'm still apprehensive of flying directly into a whirling black storm. But inside is the white door. I trust Zelda.

I hold on tightly to my bird's collar, bracing against the wind and rain for what feels like forever, like entering the white Thunderhead back home. If I squint, I can make out a cove of white stone pillars etched in glowing, swirling, electric blue words I cannot read. The nearer we fly, the whiter and hazier our surroundings grow. Zelda and I peer around as the mist devours us. White is all I see, then a vision of a cavernously tall, glossy chamber with walls lined with white pillars, much like those outside. The ceiling of the hall is vaulted, only lit by the white, glassy floor. There are no sconces here, but it's so bright.

"Link?" Zelda's voice echoes throughout the now cloudless hall, and I feel her nails poking my left arm. "where did that come from?"

I peek under my arm to find a new sheath hanging from the left of my belt, shining white like porcelain, covered in curled and jagged designs and a gold rim.

Zelda walks around me and takes my right hand. We walk down the bright hall to find something else shining at the top of some steps. I have been in this moment before, standing before a gleaming sword driven into a pedestal. The hilt is night black, cross-laced into diamonds with gold thread, and the crossguard bars are feathers coming into points at both ends, and the center of the guard bears the same glowing symbol on the back of my right hand:

the Triforce.

"It's calling you, isn't it?" Zelda murmurs, gently letting go.

I step up to the pedestal and stroke the handle that ignites as if detecting my touch and dulls when I pull away. 'Set me free,' pleads the sword when I grasp its hilt. It rises from the stone with a tug of only one hand, and I place my left palm under the golden pommel. A blue-green ring of light circles my feet and traps me motionless with the weapon in my hands, and it turns the rest of the room dark. I feel Zelda's arms hug my waist tightly from behind. Darkness devours us. I feel my consciousness leaving me again as we disappear...

{Zelda}

My eyes open, and I'm still clutching Link's waist as he stands up straight again, and he places a hand around the new hilt in its sheath. The cross guard is now decorated with the three golden symbols. I look up to find the sky white with clouds and the waterfalls singing, "We're here!" I relax my grip and step to Link's right side. "Link, welcome to the celestial city of Adrift."

The city blooms with towering birch trees, cradled by pure cascades flowing into crystalline ponds that meet flush with the pale green cobblestone streets. The distant residents in white clothes stroll along the winding lanes of the marketplace, fixing up their banners and flower bushes for the festival.