The Legend of Zelda: Blood and Spirit

Chapter 21: Never Again

Chapter 21: Never Again

Zelda's grief-ridden and heartbroken scream tore throughout the skies the moment the words left the sword spirit's mouth. Link, her hero and husband, who mere moments ago had been standing strong, firm and full of life, was now dead. The girl was hardly able to process this news; she refused to believe it was true and as uncontrollable sobs started to overtake her, she told herself with every fiber of her being that it wasn't. But as she placed her head against his still chest, desperately searching for a heartbeat that never came, she came to the bitter realization that it was. And upon reaching this realization, the girl let out another tearful cry as she buried her face into his lifeless chest and let out her inconsolable sobs of sorrow. Never again would Link take her in his arms and kiss her. Never again would the two of them laugh and love together. Never again would she see his warm smile or hear his comforting voice. Her worst nightmares had come true: she had lost her hero, in a manner quite similar to how Hylia had lost hers. But for Zelda, the pain was so much worse. In a matter of seconds, her entire world had come crashing down around her and there was no chance that it could ever be rebuilt again.

As the girl poured out her immense grief with tears, the sword spirit simply took in an uneven sigh of great sadness over her fallen master, before returning to her vessel to grieve in her own private way. At the same time, the Sheikah leader simply sat on the other side of the hero, frozen with horror and misery as she stared into his paled face with disbelief. His eyes were shut but his mouth was slightly parted as if he was trying to breathe, though Sheik knew that he'd never take in another breath of air again. Somehow, he looked years younger, like a young, peacefully sleeping boy rather than a freshly murdered hero. She still grasped onto limp hand, which was as cold and unmoving as ice. She gave it a tight squeeze, wishing that she would somehow return the life that he had lost to him. But she knew that she couldn't; it was useless to even try. Sheik knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Link was dead, but instead of letting her pressing tears fall over his cold, still body as Zelda was, the Sheikah leader's thoughts turned from grief to anger. She let out several heavy, shaky breaths as she forced herself to look away from the hero and to the one who had mercilessly slaughtered him right before their very eyes.

"Veress…" Sheik muttered under her breath, sheer hatred coursing through her tone as she slowly rose to her feet and clenched her fists at her sides, giving the rebel leader a glare sharper than a thousand knives. Veress simply grinned triumphantly, reaping the rewards that the aftershock of the perfect execution of her perfect plan had to offer.

As soon as Sheik had moved to stand between the girl and the hero and the rebel leader, she could contain her burning fury no longer. "You killed him!" she shouted at Veress with so much contempt that it made Zelda look up and glance away from Link for a slight second to watch as Sheik started to make her way towards Veress, her face still soaked with abundant tears. "You murdered him without a second thought! You… you…" Unable to find any other words to say, Sheik let a scream of mangled frustration out through her teeth, wanting nothing more than to rip her former best friend to shreds for what she had done to the hero.

"Oh please," Veress said calmly, a cruel, sadistic grin still claiming her face. "I did him a favor, Sheik. Don't you see? From what I understood, he was going to die anyway, so I merely put him out of his misery early. If anything, you should both be thanking me for helping him find an escape from more pain."

Upon hearing these cold, evil words, Zelda broke down into another round of loud sobs, remembering that death, or something worse than it, would have been Link's ultimate fate no matter what. But she had not wanted him to be taken away from her so soon, and definitely not in such a devastating way as this.

"An escape?!" Sheik scoffed incredulously, holding back her own tears of sorrow. "You're a murderer, Veress! You killed him in cold blood! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't do the same thing to you right here!"