Termina Located

!Link Hyrule Castle

It feels weird to hear myself think.

The vibration of my thoughts and of my energy couldn't be heard with the deity so ruthless in drowning out my every conviction.

My very existence was being flushed out by his desire. The desire for him to go home.

Shame on him for not understanding that my desire to go home was stronger.

And my will was only fortified every time I heard Y/N say my name.

Because of Y/N, the deity could not contain my consciousness. Nor the consciousness of the Hero of Time. My time as a deity has brought me to a rude awakening about the hero's soul within me.

A truth that Y/N may not want to hear.

But I have found Termina.

It is a place that exists, but only behind the masks.

It only exists inside your head.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Link stood before you and Zelda; the scalding orange of the blood moon flooded through the window of the library, almost swallowing him whole, if not for the determination to return to you present in his blue irises.

"Y/N." Link gathered you into his arms, neither you nor Zelda making it past the threshold of the library door. His lips brushed the top of your head as he cradled you against his chest. "I am so, so sorry." Zelda sauntered into the library in an attempt to provide you both with much-needed privacy. But it was no secret to you; the display of affection hurt, and so she kept her back turned and her face positioned toward the blood moon, preferring to watch the earth be shattered rather than her own heart.

"You were trying to tell me. So many times, you tried to tell me, and I could not listen. No, I would not listen. Because of my own self-inflicted prejudice."

You looked at Link, whose thumb grazed the sneaky tears that had fallen from your eyes. "Link? What are you saying?"

"I heard him." Link enunciated 'him,' and it was as harsh to your ears as the sound of Zelda's sobs of heartache.

"Him?"

"The hero of time. On the top of Akkala's lab, before I wore the mask, he spoke to me. I could hear him, as clearly as I can hear you right now." He continued, "And every time you tried to tell me, I-"

You pressed your lips against his, wanting to swallow every ounce of apology from them. You were elated. At least if the world was going to end, Link now understood who you truly were and could also reiterate that you were indeed not crazy. That the hero of time really was a lost soul that seemed to somehow communicate with those of the souls in the present.

Remembering Zelda's presence, you pulled away abruptly. Link's eyes opened; he wore an expression like a needy infant who was torn away from their mother's teat when they were hungry. He clasped your face in between his palms, drawing close to you again, only to see the glum glare of your gaze that pointed in her direction. He released you and stood up. Tousling his bangs and looking away, he offered you his hand and pulled you to your feet. "I was never mad at you, Link. I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. How do you tell someone you're hearing voices?"

"Very easily." Zelda responded, still sucked in by the site of the blood moon's impending landing. The color of the blood moon's rays had dyed her cornflower gold hair into copper. And even with Mother Nature's cheap dye job, she still looked beautiful. "So, Link, what did you learn during your time as a deity?"

"Oh, we need to tell him about the books-" Zelda turned, holding a finger up to silence you.

"I can't really tell you what I was saying or doing outside of the world in the mask. The only thing I could recall is that I could hear your voice, Y/N. And I could feel—" Link stopped himself; a slight groan stuck in his throat as he looked in Zelda's direction. A red tint began to pelt his face from the apples of his cheeks to his ears, causing him to look like a ripened strawberry.

His face was hotter than Eldin, and the memory of Death Mountain and a certain deity saying something uncouth to you made you understand what Link wished to say.

"And for the record, this so-called horniness isn't coming from me; it's some of the remaining consciousness of your sissy boyfriend."

It was at that moment that you simply wished for the blood moon to come through the window and vaporize you. The realization that Link's primitive desire for you was so strong he could still feel it even beneath the fierce deity mask made you want to dissipate into thin air.

Link now kept his back toward you, but you could still see the remnants of crimson dotting the backs of his ears.

Zelda finally averted her eyes from the blood moon and raised her eyebrows at you both. "Well, out with it, Link."

His voice came out in a horse sputter. "Um, right, as I was, uh, saying, I couldn't tell you what went on in the world outside of the mask, but I could hear Y/N's voice." He then sternly added, "And nothing more."

You put your palm on your forehead. Way to make it less obvious, Link.

Link joined Zelda by the window where the blood moon filled its panes. After a moment of observation, he surmised, "We haven't much time left? Do we?"

Zelda looked your way in what you knew was her way of telling you to elaborate. You know, because it was your fault.

"After you put the mask on, Majora, well, I stopped you from attacking him."

Link looked at you, judgment absent from his gaze. "Because you didn't want Kilton to die."

You nodded solemnly. "Yes. Forgive me."

He chuckled softly at your admission. "Typical Y/N."

You stomped your foot. "Hey! Just because you're back and I missed you doesn't mean I won't come over there and slap you upside the head!"

Zelda bit her lip in an attempt to stifle a laugh. Her eyes were crinkling in that way, which made her so utterly breathtaking that it left you speechless. "How I wish I would have talked to Link like that when he was nothing more than the annoying knight who my father insisted follow me around."

You both began to laugh, if only for a moment, before Link growled. "Well, you two have grown close since I've been stuck behind this thing!" He threw the fierce deity mask to the ground in disgust.

You both collected yourselves, prompting Zelda to return to her normal shell of vexing formality.

"Now then, Link, you said you had a plan. Here is what we are facing. Hours, at most days, the circumference has measured more than half. The divine beasts are outside of the castle as we speak, warding off the guardian hordes-"

"Termina is real. I saw it." Link's expression softened toward Zelda. He went from never once being a knight that would even speak in her presence, and now he was interjecting in between her oration.

"But how? I was with you most of the time you had that mask on. You kidnapped me and insisted we were going to Termina together. Or at the very least, I would be the one to help you find it."

"I assume we were in Eldin. My body could feel the heat. Somewhere I had a thought that I would burn to death without Flamebreaker armor, and yet all I could see was miles of crystal snow."

"Snow?" You snapped your fingers, instantly remembering the deity divulging his little quips about how Termina was different. "The deity mentioned that the Goron inhabited a snowy mountain in Termina."

Zelda remained in comfortable silence, which only meant one thing when it came to the erudite queen, and that was that she was miles ahead of you.

Link walked toward you, and you could see it in his eyes: whatever was going to come out of his mouth was going to hurt. "Y/N... Termina is real. I saw the four giants, the frozen peak of Snowhead, and even the woods that lead to the clocktower."

"Link, I don't understand-"

"The Hero of Time did go to Termina. However, Termina is a place that exists when you wear the masks. It is a distorted parallel of Hyrule that can only be seen in the mind through the manipulation of the masks. Whatever magic these masks possess, as it eats away at your consciousness, the user is left to feel as if they are in a fever dream."

"No..."

Link held his arms out, ready to encompass you in them. You took a step away. "I know your dream was to bring justice to him." You noticed he still couldn't bring himself to acknowledge the hero of time as part of himself. "I know this makes the whole story harder to swallow. I know we didn't end up together that time... but Y/N, those books are true accounts, and it will be very challenging to untarnish his name when Termina really is just a magic-induced haze as a result of wearing the mask."

Zelda finally spoke up. "So, the physical body remains in Hyrule, the magic of the masks then transforms the body to match the mask, in which case the mental effect is that the mask ebbs away at your consciousness through essentially a phantasmagoria known as Termina, which is an inverted Hyrule." 

"Exactly."

"The maskman." Zelda turned to look at you. "The maskman I told you about centuries ago in the hero of time's timeline is the creator of these masks. These masks are imbued with magic and pray upon tragic individuals. In that time, there was no one more tragic than the Hero of Time. He was born to exist solely for misfortune."

She placed her hand on your shoulder in that big, sisterly manner that was providing no comfort at the present moment. "So, Y/N, the only way I could help him then was by taking the book and hiding it with Impa in Kakariko."

You looked at her, your eyes sore from how they were searing with tears that wouldn't flow. "Then does that mean the maskman wrote that second book that you hid?"

"Those masks and their magic of mayhem were experimental. And much like Kilton now, Link being sent back in that timeline lost his only friend, the recognition of the courage he displayed, but most importantly, the love of his life. There was no easier target to don the masks."

You slapped Zelda's hand away. "You make it sound like you did him a favor. What did saving that sick man's experiment log do for the hero of time! Nothing! That's what! All this time has passed, and he is still forgotten and viewed as mad!"

You turned toward Link. "And you! How can you say it's hopeless when you just witnessed Termina wearing the deity mask? Don't you think you owe it to yourself to put that part of your soul to rest? No wonder he lives on as a troubled spirit!"

You began to shake. The rage rolled from your tongue, and if you were all going to die, why hold back? "And none of it matters anyway because we are all going to die! But the worst thing is that I'm going to die and not accomplish any of the things I wanted to do with my life. And it's all my fault! Zelda will die as the queen who saved her kingdom and sealed off the calamity, and Link will die as the valiant knight. But I will perish, forgotten and tormented, just like the hero of time did!"

You began to stalk down the corridor, unsure of where you were even going, as Link's yells followed you. "Y/N! Stop!"

He lunged at you, tackling you against a wall. He pinned your wrists down, and you felt like a worm fighting against the grasp of a hungry bird's beak. As you began to wail, you realized Link was right and you needed to calm down. Your blood pressure rose so dangerously that you could feel your nerves rumble with the magnitude of a mighty earthquake.

It was only then that Zelda screamed, and you realized that it was not you and your burning fury but the castle itself, which had actually begun to quake.

Edited:4/8/24