The Splitting of Evil

Prologue

**NOTE: I do not own Legend of Zelda or Breath of the Wild or its characters. Please don't sue me Nintendo**

Prologue

"I've been keeping watch over you all this time. I've witnessed your struggles to return to us as well as your trials in battle. I always thought - no, I always believed - that you would find a way to defeat Ganon. I never lost faith in you all these many years. Thank you, Link...the Hero of Hyrule. May I ask...Do you really remember me?"

One hundred years. One hundred years she had pondered such a reunion. What does one say to the person that saved their entire kingdom? She had contemplated it, years of careful planning. Every scenario she could muster up, from Link returning with a missing earring to missing limbs.

So why, why were those the words that had slipped her lips first?

Oh, what a selfish fool she was. Here Link stood before her, battle wounds and exhaustion clearly on his face, and all she could do was think of her own selfish desires. Her own need to be remembered by him alone. Sometimes, lost in the abyss of fighting Calamity Ganon, she had begun to wonder, was she saving the people of her land, or was she saving Link and him alone?

Oh, goddess, was there any reincarnation as greedy as me?

And yet, he spoke not a word. He simply stood before her, silent as ever, with that damn hood covering his eyes. Are they still the same colour of the ocean waves, she wondered. Do they still carry the same need for duty, do they light up at the idea of food or widen into the cutest doe-like features when he's surprised?

How long has it been since she spoke? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? She cannot tell. Time has become a jumbled mess when all she had to pass time was wait. Wait for Ganon to make a move. Wait for Link to awaken. Wait for him to return to the castle, one hundred years after being on the brink of death, to save her.

Waiting.

She was sick of waiting.

Before she could stop herself, her legs had begun to move, her arms encircling the knight that had stood as her shadow for so long. The tears that spilled down her cheeks and fell upon the shoulder of Link's champions tunic were those of relief.

Relief that she was free. Relief that Ganon had been defeated. Relief that at least one person she had loved had survived and she could hold them once more.

She could feel his warmth, bask in his familiar scent of grass and horse and the remains of a smokey fire. She could feel the material of the tunic she had made, back when she couldn't stand his face. Oh, what a fool she had been.

One hundred years of feeling only suffocation, smelling only malice, thinking only of escape and hearing only the voice of the demon that smothered her.

And now? Now she was free, and every sense was engulfed with Link.

Link, whose arms now encircled her in return. Link, whose fingers were tangled in her matted hair. Link, whose eyes were still hidden by that damn hood.

Oh, how she didn't care. He was here. She was here. The calamity was gone and they were free.