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adrift-in-thyme · 1 year

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Day 6: Secrets Revealed (Time & Everyone)

Ao3 link

Quick disclaimer: I DO NOT subscribe to the headcanon that Legend and Fable are siblings. I don’t have a problem with the headcanon, I just like them better as a ship. So I don’t see them as related in ANY WAY.

Cw for description of past/canonical character death (spoiler alert: it’s young Time from the Downfall Timeline), blood and injury, and electrocution (yup, again)

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There’s nothing necessarily wrong with Legend’s Hyrule. In fact, as far as Time can tell, there’s really nothing wrong with it at all. It’s a beautiful land, still standing strong despite its adversities. No shortage of kind and hospitable people live within it, most notable of which is its ruler, Princess Zelda.

Fable is what Legend calls her with way too much affection (and blushing) to not ignite suspicion. And no sooner has she learned that they’ve arrived in Hyrule, than she invites them into the castle.

Between getting to witness the veteran’s face turn bright red every time someone brings up his and Fable’s close relationship; and having the cleanest, safest, most comfortable lodgings they’ve enjoyed in months, Time knows his spirits should be high. Yet ever since they stepped from the latest portal into Legend’s home time, a strange feeling of discomfort has plagued him. And being within the castle walls only makes it worse.

Every room holds some unimaginable threat, unseen yet still pricking at the corners of his awareness. Every hallway leads to secrets he cannot find. Though he is no stranger to the dark mysteries Hyrule has harbored throughout history, this is different. But for the life of him, Time can’t figure out why.

Then, a week into their stay, Fable takes them on a tour of the castle.

They’ve seen parts of it before when walking to their rooms or following Legend on his own “mini-tours.” But never to this extent.

They trail after her upstairs and down, into the vast library and kitchens, peeking through side rooms and past closed doors. She even shows them the dungeons, though she looks distinctly uncomfortable being there. It’s not long before Legend suggests they head back up, and Time doesn’t miss the look of relieved gratefulness she sends his way.

Finally, the only place left to see is the room at the very top of the castle.

“It’s truly magnificent,” she says with a smile. “Though it was damaged extensively during the legendary hero’s fight with Ganondorf, it has been many years since then. Many years in which it has been rebuilt into the beauty it is today.”

Time doesn’t doubt her words. If this room is anything at all like the one in his Hyrule it will be a thing of beauty. But as they climb the many stairs leading up to it, the feeling of dread increases. He finds himself slowing down, almost dragging his feet, as it grows stronger, and stronger, draining the air from his lungs, the energy from his movements. By the time they reach the destination, he has drifted to the very back of the group.

They pause for a moment while Fable opens the door, and Warriors casts a questioning glance at him over his shoulder. Time does his best to ignore it. There’s no reason to have the Captain worrying over him, after all. This is merely another instance of the paranoia that attacks sometimes. Like when he awakens in the night, certain that time has slipped through his fingers. Or when he pauses in the middle of a task to check for a sinister moon glowering down on him from above.

It’s a bit of meaningless fear, and nothing more.

When they enter the room, however, it becomes infinitely more difficult to convince himself of that.

It’s large and spacious, and the sun shines brightly through the stained glass windows. But it feels impossibly small, impossibly dark and Time struggles to breathe.

He walks to one of the windows and looks out. It’s difficult to see much through the panes. Still, it allows him some sense of freedom. If he squints, he can make out the castle gardens, if he closes his eye he can pretend he’s down there amongst the apple trees.

Anywhere except here where the world seems to press down on him mercilessly.

“You know,” Legend is saying, now, in the tone, he always uses when about to launch into an animated and likely controversial tale, “they say the hero who came before me died in this very spot.”

“Really?” Wind asks, sounding awed.

Warriors snickers. “I don’t believe it.”

“Well, believe it,” the veteran retorts. “He died here while defending Princess Zelda. Or trying to anyway. There was so much blood they had to replace the floors.”

Something cold and horribly unpleasant settles in Time’s gut, and he swallows hard.

“They would have had to do it anyway,” Fable points out. “They were damaged from the battle.”

“That hero,” Wind asks, brows pinched in a frown, “he was fighting Ganondorf, right?”

Legend smiles, bitterly. “Who else?”

“Sounds like he was as brave as the rest of us,” Twilight says. “Shame, he met with such a terrible fate.”

A terrible fate.

Time turns slowly, to stare at the spot in the center of the room. If breathing was difficult before, it’s impossible now.

He takes a step, then another and another, past Legend and Fable, past Wind and Twilight, until he’s standing in the middle of the room. They’re talking still, maybe even to him, but he can no longer hear them. Every word is drowned out by the rushing sound filling his ears, mingling with agonized screams.

His screams.

Time can see it all now, feel it too. He wonders how he didn’t before.

He sees himself, a boy fighting a battle for a man, sees the lightning crackling through the sky, feels himself try to lift his shield. But his limbs are heavy, his body exhausted from countless prior blows, and it’s already too late. Electricity collides with his body, and he falls back with a cry. It burns like nothing he has ever known, setting fire to his very veins, and forcing blood into his mouth. And when it’s over he is left empty and broken, a vessel of the gods no longer of use.

“Get up, Link!” Navi cries, buzzing over his head in nauseating circles. “It’s not over yet! You have to get up!”

But he can’t—not for her, not for Zelda who watches in horror yet can’t even cry out. He lacks the strength to do anything except lie there in his own blood as Ganondorf laughs and the walls crumble around him.

The end comes, heralded by the sounds of his own failure.

And then the memory breaks and reality comes crashing in once more. Time stumbles backward with a gasp, nearly tripping over Wind in the process.

Every eye in the room is on him as he stands there, his usually unbreakable composure long shattered. A long, tense moment passes. Then, Twilight steps toward him.

“You okay, Old Man? What happened?”

Time lets out a shuddering breath. He knows now why this place felt secretive and haunted; he knows now why entering this room felt like walking to his doom.

The words come out before he can stop them.

“I was the one who died here.”

#febuwhump2023 #febuwhumpday6 #canonical character death #blood and injury #electrocution #linkeduniverse #lu time #trin writes #ALSO #please forgive my horrible castle navigation skills #I’ve got not idea where anything is tbh #especially not in legend’s Hyrule cause I haven’t gotten to play his games yet #so yeah #please bear with me

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