Chapter Text
Zelda didn’t want to give the weapons back.
The sword, especially, felt linked to her. She liked the way it made her feel brave, the way she could leap into battle without overthinking things. She liked the way it made her feel skilled. She’d never been proficient with a sword before this one. She liked the way it lent her strength. Strength enough to wade into battle beside her echoes like a force of nature rather than coordinating and waiting for them to battle at her direction while she stayed out of the fray.
But she had spent all that time searching Hyrule for any little thing that might make this fight easier. Every weird request, every last rupee the Great Fairy would take, every hidden cave and dungeon she could find. She wasn’t very well going to do all that and then just… decide not to give the weapons to her ally on this fight? Not with the world at stake.
She even tried to smile as she handed them over. See, she had courage of her own. Take that, sword.
***
At first, she didn’t even miss them. Working with Link was amazing. He was so much smarter and stronger than her echoes. (Well, he’d better be after all that time she spent searching for crystals and upgrading those weapons!) She felt in sync with him much the way she’d felt in sync with his sword. Maybe she’s still connected to the sword? Maybe it wasn’t the sword she was connected to? No time to think about that. She pulls, he slices, and Null could never stand against the two of them.
And then there was a chaos of telling everyone what had happened, after saying goodbye to Tri. Zelda felt like she was being pulled apart by the celebrating and grieving happening all at once in her head. She was so glad the threat of Null was, uh, nullified. But she kept turning to tell Tri something only to realize that they weren’t there, that they’d never be there again. She was happy Tri was with their friends, but Zelda was feeling pretty friendless herself in the immediate aftermath.
She wasn’t alone, though. Link had refused to take credit for rescuing her when her dad tried to thank him, and his first words with his restored voice were to tell the whole town how she’d rescued him and to give her credit for all their battle strategy. No one would have blamed him for saying little after so many years, and yet he’d immediately leapt to tell everyone about her bravery and wisdom. It left a glow in her chest even with all the other feelings she had going on.
Zelda thought about the other friends she’d made, trying to hold onto the glow instead of the sadness. But when she pictured Darston, she realized he was must be worrying after that giant rift had opened and then closed. He certainly was no stranger to mixed feelings himself. Even if he’d gotten the worrying under control, he must be wondering. It would be just polite to pop up to Goron City and make sure he knew what had happened and that everyone should be safe from rifts now. This wasn’t the sort of thing that should wait until a royal messenger could get there; it would be much better from her.
It wasn’t until she raised the Tri Rod that she realized that without Tri’s help, she had no idea how to teleport.
In fact, the rod didn’t feel like it was humming with energy any more. It felt still. She tried not to think “dead.” Maybe dormant? Inert? Oh, she hoped it wasn’t “empty” or “used up.”
She had been so busy grieving the loss of Tri that it hadn’t even occurred to her that she might also have lost her access to magic.