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“Are you really so eager to die in battle that you’d rather resort to dark magic than give up and come home?!”
“At least I don’t drop everything and run at the first sign of trouble! Unlike you, I’d rather die than abandon someone who needs my help.”
“Then you’ll die a fool!”
“Better than a coward!”
Ravio lifted his hand, hesitating.
Sheerow made a confused chirping sound, fluttering over to pull on one of the long ears sewn onto his hood. It fell off, exposing his face to the open air. He tilted his head towards his little friend. Ravio let Sheerow nuzzle his cheek for a few seconds before leaning away. Hefting his bag up on his shoulder, he gathered all the courage in his heart and knocked on the door in front of him.
“Come in.”
Princess Zelda’s study was as clean and well organized as usual. Ravio still wasn’t quite used to seeing this room so well kept—Princess Hilda would only tidy it up if she was expecting guests. She saw no need to keep up a charade of nobility around him, and so he was among the few privy to the disastrous whirlwind of papers that accompanied a new research spiral.
“Oh, Ravio! What brings you here today? I had thought we weren’t scheduled to meet for lunch until a few days from now…”
“I…” Come on, Ravio. No running away from this. “I need to talk to you.”
Her smile dimmed. Eyes flicking from his face, to Sheerow, to his bag. She lowered her pen. “I see. Please close the door behind you and take a seat.”
He did as she requested, dread pooling in his stomach. Oh, how he wished he could have done this via letter. But no, that would be wrong. This wasn’t the sort of thing people talked about through mail carriers. Besides, she would probably track him down and strangle him with her own two hands if he did that.
(If there was one thing he regretted about how he handled things back then, it would be vanishing entirely on Princess Hilda. But there was no telling how a direct confrontation would have played out. And leaving a note just wasn’t safe with Yuga around to find it. No, what he did was the best option available to him. Even if Hilda would never completely trust him again. He had been fully aware of the risks.)
“Ravio,” the princess’ voice pulled him out of his head. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“...M—Link returned home from his travels.”
“As he said he would. He sent you a letter too, did he not?”
“Y—Yes! I knew he’d be back from Hytopia soon, that’s…that’s not…” His voice shook. Why was this so hard to talk about?
“Is he alright? Did something happen on his trip back? He traveled by land, I would have heard if something happened along the roads he was supposed to take.”
“No, no, he…uh…made it back. Sort…of?”
He flinched as Princess Zelda leveled an intense look at him. “Ravio. Dispense with the formalities. What happened to Link?”
“Link…okay, so for the record I didn’t know about this today or else I would’ve stopped him, I swear!! But he, uh…might’ve, um…DoneADarkMagicRitualUnderTheGuidanceOfACourtSorcererFromAForeignKingdomThatToreHisSoulFromHisBodyAndTetheredItToThatOfAWoodenVessel. Maybe?”
She narrowed her eyes. He could tell the exact moment that she puzzled out his mess of rambled words, leaning back in surprise. “A ritual? That can’t be right, Link wouldn’t…”
Ravio fidgeted, Sheerow landing on his shoulder. “If you’ll excuse me for saying so, your highness…he very much did. To his credit, though I am reluctant to admit it…he did get what he wanted. His new body is, well. More ‘functional’, in terms of mobility.”
“...hm…I suppose Link has always been the pragmatic type. I had known that he was experiencing difficulties, but not to a degree in which he would be willing to resort to such measures.”
He shivered. “What should we do?”
Princess Zelda paused, “What do you mean?”
“About Link. What should we do?”
“Ravio…I’m afraid there’s not much we can do,” she shook her head. “Link is his own person. A full fledged hero with the strength to back up his decisions. If this is what he truly wants, I know of nothing that could stand in his way. And besides—this is ultimately his choice to make.”
“But—but it’s not right! You’re his princess, surely you know something that would get through to him,” he pleaded.
She raised an eyebrow at his outburst. “Like how Princess Hilda would know the right words to say to get you to listen to her despite your better judgement?”
“What do you…this isn’t like that!”
“Is it not? Someone close to you has, in their desperation, put their trust into a mysterious sorcerer. They were willing to make a great sacrifice to see it through—resorting to questionable means suggested to them in a time of weakness. And, might I guess, neither were willing to hear your concerns on the matter.”
Ravio’s fingers dug into the fabric of his robe, clenched tight to disguise his trembling. He doubted that Zelda was fooled by it. “Then why aren’t you worried? You said it yourself: it’s too similar to what happened back then.”
“It would be a lie to say that I am not. But I have faith in Link. I owe him that much, if nothing else.”
She had faith in him?
Ha…what a joke.
He should've expected as much. At the end of the day, no matter their differences, they remained mirrored counterparts.
“...I just don’t get it. Why he saw the need to do this, when he could’ve just retired like he’s been wanting to do for the last few years. It’s not like nobody else was working on saving Hytopia or anything.”
“That’s a reasonable perspective. But, consider things his way. What if there was nobody else, should something happen to Hyrule in the future?”
“I don’t know, maybe some other hero can step up to save the country for a change!” He knew he was being unfair. After all, Ravio was one of the people responsible for the Hero of Legend being sent out on a treacherous journey across worlds. But…it just wasn’t right.
She softened, “Ravio…”
“Look, is it really so unreasonable to want him safe? I get it, that he’s your divine chosen hero who has been called to duty time and time again, but—but nobody else has needed to do half of what he’s done! How come all the other heroes he traveled with get to save the day and go home, but Link’s stuck scraping himself together just so that he can walk himself towards a fate that’ll eventually kill him?! It’s like he wants to—!”
He cut himself off, not wanting to speak those horrible fears into reality.
“I just…I just want him to be safe.”
Zelda looked away. Her hand strayed towards a side drawer that he knew to be locked—designed to hold important documents for reference at any time.
“...as Hyrule’s princess, I respect the lengths that our hero has gone to for the sake of this kingdom. As someone who cares for Link, however…I understand where you are coming from. My only consolation is that, hopefully, this new body of his can increase his odds of living to reach that happy ending he deserves.”
“I doubt it. This is already hurting him—he could hardly stomach food last night.”
“What?” There, he finally had her attention.
“He says he can’t taste anything. Absolutely refused to touch any dish with apples in it because he didn't want to ruin his memory of them. Tell me, your highness: does that sound like he’s happy? That this is worth it, so long as it means he can die standing? No, I refuse to go along with this and act like everything is okay.”
She heaved a great sigh. For a moment, he regretted being so harsh—she wasn’t the one he was really mad at.
Mr. Hero wasn’t, either. Setting aside how Ravio owed him for literally everything good in his life…he was his friend. Sure, Ravio was upset at him for doing something terrible and reckless that went against the very nature of life itself. But that only made him more invested in ensuring that this didn't end in disaster.
Ravio knew it was probably one of those cultural differences that thwacked him over the head every once in a while, but changing your face was a really big deal. Masks were a whole thing where he grew up. In the simplest terms, they were a way to leave your old self behind and become someone new.
There were old stories that Hilda found while she was originally researching the fabled land of Hyrule. A particularly nasty one (because most Lorulean tales were) involved finding someone with your face, and ‘taking their place’. It matched with similar stories he’d heard as a kid, of abandoning your old self to steal a better life. He'd never entertained the thought. Ravio would rise or fall on his own merits, though his younger self had hoped that (if the legends were accurate) his counterpart was having an easier time. Something proven to be entirely untrue upon first meeting Hyrule’s Hero.
(He was trying so very hard to not make this about him, but no small part of Ravio ached at how they no longer looked alike. As if they lost something important that connected them. He wondered if Link felt the same.)
Anyway, all that was to say that faces were considered to be a large part of your identity, and to change them was always a dangerous game. It wasn't uncommon for criminals to become two or three-faced as they burned through bridges and made enemies among Lorule's already dwindling population. Taking up his own hood was terrifying. He was all too aware of how much rode on the simple cloth (though in hindsight, Link might've helped him regardless. He was nice like that). He couldn't imagine how scary it would be to give up his whole body, as if it was a storybook deal with a wicked magician.
Was he the only one who cared about the consequences for messing with this sort of magic? Even assuming the Hytopian court sorcerer was completely genuine and there wasn't some nasty trick in store for them, this was clearly still hurting Link. Favorite foods aside, there were sure to be other drawbacks that came from being fundamentally disconnected from his own body.
Why did people act like his hero’s pain mattered less if it didn't get in the way of his job?
(Link had always been so achingly selfless. Willing to give up everything for the sake of others, who often couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge the guy who dedicated his whole life to helping them. He’d give, and give, and give, until he was desperately trying to pour potion from an empty bottle. Thieves Town would’ve eaten him alive if he grew up there. Lolia knows that the Kingdom of Hyrule had.)
Zelda frowned at him. He did his best to not glare back at her.
“Do you intend to return to Lorule?”
He jerked backwards, “What? No! I wouldn’t—I’m not going to ditch him just because he did something dumb!”
(He would’ve left years ago if that was the case. Experienced as he was, his friend could be a bit of an idiot at times. Hero of Wisdom, he was not.)
“Forgive me for the assumption, I meant no offense. If I may ask: what is all that, then?” She gestured towards his bag.
“Oh, I…thought I might travel, for a bit. Try to figure out why Link enjoys it so much. And besides—I gotta expand my brand name somehow, you know?”
She hummed, a small smirk forming on her lips. “Is there any location in particular that has earned your interest?”
Busted. “Ah, not really. But since Link has said so much about Hytopia, it would be wrong to not start with that.”
“I see. Do try not to get into trouble with any sorcerers while you’re away.”
Ravio stood, Sheerow taking flight as he bowed to Princess Zelda, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
He was even being sincere, this time. Mostly.
(It was quite funny, in a twisted way. Everyone looking at them thought that Ravio was the nicer of the two. But, just as Link’s grumpy exterior was a ruse, so too was Ravio’s friendliness. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to genuinely care about random strangers. There were only a handful of people that he held dear—the rest could go and rot, their only value being in their money or belongings. And though his feelings towards Link had changed during their time together, Mr. Hero was little more than a useful tool when they first met.
Ravio was a very greedy person at heart. He wasn’t particularly bothered by this truth. He would take whatever people were willing to give, and then a little more. And while he would’ve appreciated Link having a bit more self-preservation, Ravio knew what he was getting into when he realized that he was developing a soft spot for his hero.
It was alright. He could be selfish enough for both of them.)
Leaving the castle through the secret passage Mr. Hero once showed him, Ravio began his trek back home.
Just a quick stop, to check on Mr. Hero before he set off on his travels. He couldn’t afford to put this off too long—not with winter on the horizon. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with snowstorms on his way to Hytopia. Even if Ravio had items to deal with that sort of thing.
Now that he’d gotten the chance to calm down, Ravio regretted leaving the way that he did. Mr. Hero deserved better than to wake up and discover that Ravio had packed all his things and left in the early hours of the morning. It would be cruel, to just up and disappear like that. No matter how terribly awkward the conversation would be, how Link would try to stop him if he figured out what Ravio was planning to do, he would properly see it through. He wouldn't let himself hurt one of his dearest friends in that way ever again.
…Mr. Hero would have woken up by now.
Oh dear.
Ravio picked up the pace.
Link had been getting more careless, ever since he finished that one journey with those other heroes. Nothing too dramatic (besides this most recent development). Little things, like skipping meals and forgetting to tend the fire as the weather got colder. It wasn't difficult to see how much Link missed them—the heartache seemed to be draining away his very will to live. Ravio was doing all he could to help, he really was! But leaving like this would only make things worse.
Ravio made up his mind as he saw their house atop the hill in the distance, its chimney lacking any smoke to indicate that there was heat in the house. He would wait to leave until the spring. It wasn't ideal, no, but Link was almost definitely taking his absence poorly. Which would only encourage more reckless behavior…
Lolia, what he would do to be able to find those brothers of his and get them to shake some sense into him!
Just as he reached the bottom of the hill, light flared around him. Ravio yelped as he plummeted down through the portal that had formed at his feet. Sheerow shrieked and dove in after him, making it just before it closed.
Atop the hill, the front door of a little house was thrown open. A boy who held no resemblance to Ravio desperately scanned the field, looking for the source of that familiar cry. His expression fell as he found nothing. He must have imagined it. Slowly, he went back inside and returned to his bed.