First-Person — Tone: Mysterious, dreamlike, emotional undertow with rising stakes
---
I didn't sleep that night.
Not because I couldn't.
Because I didn't dare.
The sky of this floating island never truly went dark. Stars glimmered above me like eyes that refused to blink, and the glow of Zonai energy hummed in the stones beneath me — always pulsing. Breathing.
Alive.
So I sat on the Temple steps with my knees drawn to my chest, watching the horizon. The wind carried a low tune, almost like a lullaby. A language long dead. I wondered if Mineru had ever sung it once.
The memory of her voice echoed in my head:
> "Zelda dreams of you."
It didn't make sense. How could someone like her — royalty, brilliant, brave — dream of someone like me?
Especially if… I wasn't even supposed to exist.
But maybe that was the point.
---
It happened around what I assumed was dawn.
I felt it before I saw it — a pressure shift in the air. Like the sky held its breath.
Then a light appeared at the corner of the platform — soft, silvery white. I stood up, ready to run, fight, or collapse. But I didn't move.
The light wasn't threatening.
It was… sad.
It gathered in the air like mist being pulled into shape. And as it thickened, something — no, someone — began to form.
A girl.
Not Mineru.
This one wore white.
Her hair was gold. Her eyes, soft blue, closed in sleep.
And her lips moved.
Not speaking.
Dreaming.
> "Where… are you…?"
I froze. Every instinct in my body screamed that I knew her — not as an icon, not as a character in a game — but as something more.
I'd seen this girl for decades.
On screens. Posters. Strategy guides.
But this? This wasn't pixel-perfect. This wasn't a princess.
This was Zelda.
And she looked like she was breaking.
Her hand trembled at her side. She reached out into the darkness, toward me, even though her eyes remained closed.
> "I saw you again… in the Temple… the wind was singing, and your eyes were full of stars—"
I didn't know what to say. I stepped closer.
She flinched — but didn't vanish.
I lowered my voice. "Zelda?"
She gasped. "You… again…"
Her image flickered, unstable — like a candle caught in a storm. She brought her hand to her chest, where a faint glow pulsed beneath her collarbone. I recognized it. A Tear. But not one of the seven.
This one shimmered silver.
It resonated with me.
> "I tried to find you in the library. The shrines. Even in dreams," she whispered. "But there are no records of you. No glyphs. No name."
I swallowed. "That's because I was erased."
She opened her eyes.
And time stopped.
They weren't soft anymore.
They were hungry.
> "No," she said. "You were stolen from me."
---
She took a step forward. Her projection — if that's what it was — passed straight through the air like mist, but the emotional weight hit me like a boulder.
> "I don't understand it," she said. "But I feel you. Like something missing just came back."
Another step. The wind picked up.
> "I've seen the others — the ones who want to hurt you. Demise. The King's ghosts. Even Hylia."
Her voice cracked.
> "None of them remember you."
> "But I do."
Something in her eyes twisted. Desire mixed with desperation. She looked like she was drowning — and I was the only hand reaching into the water.
> "I wake up crying your name, even though I don't know it."
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't speak.
> "Tell me who you are," she begged.
I took a shaky breath. "I don't… know anymore."
---
Then something strange happened.
The Tear at her chest flared.
And suddenly—
I wasn't on the sky island anymore.
I was inside her dream.
---
The world twisted.
I found myself in a field of golden light. Grass that shimmered like glass. A sky made of stars that bent and shifted in impossible constellations.
And she was there.
Zelda. Real. Solid.
She walked up to me, barefoot, eyes wide with awe and fear and something deeper.
"Please don't leave again," she said, voice shaking.
I shook my head. "This isn't real."
Her hand brushed mine.
It felt real.
> "It's real enough," she whispered. "Real enough to remember you again."
She looked up at me like I was her sun.
> "I've loved you for centuries, haven't I?"
I said nothing.
My heart screamed yes.
But my soul was too broken to say it.
---
The dream shattered like glass.
I woke on the stone.
The sky was bright now. The Temple of Time stood behind me, silent.
No trace of Zelda remained.
But on my hand, something had changed.
A symbol.
The eighth Tear.
Balance.
And beneath it, one truth burned in my mind like a brand:
> Zelda remembered me.
And now, she wanted me back.