Chapter Text
Farore had a secret that only her sisters among the golden three knew about. She was in love. She had watched as the Shrine of Resurrection repaired not just the hero’s body, but their very soul as well. Soul decay was something all the gods and goddesses knew all too well. They often reincarnated their most faithful followers to ensure the continued survival of their faith. However, each time a soul would reincarnate, it would fall apart just a little more. This would lead to each incarnation to be more and more different and all the more susceptible to madness than the last. Until they would finally be reborn, broken beyond repair and insane, and while the hero’s soul was slightly more resilient to soul decay, it was nowhere near immune. Especially since the hero’s soul had already been reincarnated about six different times before even becoming the hero. It was decayed to start with, each incarnation more bitter, more broken by their duty, and now that is all gone.
What was once a battered old soul with the weight of Hylia’s endless requests on its back. Was now a fresh new soul with the essence of a hero. Farore decided to be kind to this soul and spare it Hylia’s expectations, at least until it was reincarnated once more, and guided them through this new world they found themselves in. She never did expect to fall in love. At first it was like a mother and child, but it quickly grew beyond that. This soul, reborn into a world filled to the brim with divine energy and shaped by the purest form of her creation, was actually making her consider reincarnating herself just to be with him. She fell in love with their boundless compassion and endless enthusiasm. Their overly curious nature combined with a level of ferocity and determination she had only seen once prior. Farore was actually about to go through with reincarnation when one of her sisters quickly reminded her just how powerful they were. That gave her a brand-new idea, one that was equally as unheard of as what the ancient Shiekah had managed to accomplish with their shrine. So, she began her little side project.
While her primary focus was still watching over the Hero of the Wilds. She also spent much of her time creating a body capable of containing her full power. A body capable of allowing her to retain being a goddess, while walking among the mortals. It was proving a difficult task, especially with Hylia getting pushy still thinking this was her hero, but she was making progress. Farore spent all the time she could either watching her love interest or making her body, occasionally flirting with them when they prayed, and it was during a time that she was watching that she saw Hylia finally realize what had happened. When the master sword burned the hero’s hands. Farore would have had half the mind to scold the spirit in the blade if Hylia hadn’t beat her to it. Although Farore did have to explain some things anyway, just to both the spirit and Hylia instead. The hero had thought that because of his failure, which was anything but in Farore’s book, he wasn’t strong enough. The damage to the hero’s resolve was nearly as great as the damage to their hands, and as far as that damage went. Let's just say Hylia and Fi were lucky Farore was the Goddess of Life as well as Goddess of Courage.
Farore's crush truly became out of control once the hero had finished all the shrines. Each spirit orb would return some of the strength he once had, and the hero had collected them all. Yet he still desired to grow stronger. The divine energy, as fickle as it is, responded to this request. He grew slightly bigger as a result, and a lot more powerful. Divine energy was practically magnetized towards him causing him to accumulate more and more until he hit the limit. A failsafe created when the world was to prevent mortals from using divine energy as a shortcut to strength. It could only be bypassed by accession, and it was only after hitting this peak along with the working out the hero did during the collection period did, he finally give the master sword another tries. Farore had been holding back her affection as much as she could until he had completed his quest, and it looked like that day was coming at last.
The day the calamity fell, the day the princess was freed, was also the day that marked the hero’s second year after rebirth. While fragments of the old hero had lingered in the body, this was almost entirely new, and Farore loved all of it. The princess made no attempt to return the former hero, so Farore inferred that she liked the new hero better as well. The hero and princess became like brother and sister. Farore was going to make sure the princess got all that she deserved when her mortal body was completed. Speaking of which, Farore was so close to completing it, so close to being able to be with her love, and then Hylia had to mess it all up. The princess had prayed in front of the hero, and Hylia responded, but when the hero prayed right after, Farore took it upon herself to respond. This was the catalyst that brought the hero and princess closer together. All the while tearing the two goddesses apart. So Farore was all the more enraged when Hylia sent eight other heroes to the Era of the Wilds. Her clear attempt to bring him back to her, but Farore was not about to lose her love. Not without a fight.
…
Link was relaxing in his home when his sister came through the door and immediately made a shushing motion. Quickly he got to his feet and closed the curtains as Zelda closed and locked the door behind her. They had gone through these motions before, three out of the four it turned out right and there were Yiga in town, so they both knew not to take this lightly. The townsfolk wouldn’t rat them out. “How many?” Link whispered to Zelda as they both went up to the loft. “I think there were eight, all of them armed. They felt strange though, almost like they didn’t belong.” Link scratched his chin, Zelda never found anything strange after living with him for six months. So, if she found these people strange, either the Yiga were getting worse, or this was something else entirely. Link dearly hoped it was the first option. He has had enough of foreigners after having to deal with just TWO of them. So, he could only imagine how eight would go.
“I’ll go out and pray for insight. Even the Yiga know better than to interrupt, and Farore may be able to give us some valuable information.” Zelda let out a small chuckle and Link already knew what she would say next. “She certainly would be more helpful than Hylia, that's for sure.” Link sighed, Zelda loved to insult Hylia and took Link being of a slightly different faith as permission to make her distaste known any chance she got, not that Link disapproved. This surprisingly made her much more welcome in Zora’s domain. If Link had to guess the Zora didn’t like Hylia all that much either. Putting that out of mind for the moment Link went up to the door and let himself out, locking it behind him. He crossed the bridge into town and began walking towards the goddess statue, noticing a few of the strangers along the way.
It was a little odd that there were no women in their ranks, but Link wasn’t one to judge. They’d probably be dead in twenty minutes anyway. Especially since one of them was following him, but Link pretended not to notice. Link had learned very early in his journey that Farore would lash out at anything that intended to harm Link while he was praying. Even what remains of the monsters in Hyrule know better than to attempt to interrupt. Farore was fiercely protective of him like that. Although, it probably helped that Link was her love interest, not that it was one-sided. As Link reached where the goddess statue resided, he sent a quick glance behind him and nearly stopped. Either the Yiga had hit a new all-time low and was sending children after him now, or they aren't Yiga at all. Believe it or not the first is just as likely as the second, perhaps even more likely. Regardless, Link stood before the statue and knelt down to offer his prayers.
Almost immediately Link felt the warm embrace of Farore’s divinity. “ So, they have already reached you, my love. How unfortunate. ” Link felt his cheeks warm slightly, even as often as he and Farore, mostly Farore, flirted with each other he still found it hard to believe he would receive such attention, and from a golden goddess no less. “ Who is them, my lady? ” He felt Farore sigh, and her agitation grow, “ servants of Hylia here to take you away from me. All with the excuse of a threat that hasn’t even reached this world. ” Link felt very confused. He knew from Zelda his former self had a connection with Hylia, same as Her’s. Why was Hylia trying to claim him now of all times? Why hadn’t she tried at the start of his journey, and what was this threat? “ What is this threat? ” Link decided just asking Farore would reveal more than waiting for Hylia to tell him. His love was way more reliable than his sister’s crummy goddess. “ I should have known you would respond to the call anyway. It is your nature. Very well, the threat is a servant of Demise that has been traveling across time to mix and empower monsters. Hylia is gathering some of her most powerful servants to combat it, and she seems dead set on you joining them. ”
Link glanced behind him to see eight men of varying age and stature. These must be the servants then, although he was still confused why there were kids in their ranks. “ My lady, I am sure by the time I return you will have completed your project, as you will no longer need to divide your attention. I will remain faithful to you, and then together we will combat this threat. ” He felt Farore’s presence hugging even closer to him, affection coming in waves. “ I have no doubt, my love. It would be good for you to get a head start of cleaning up this mess. Besides, knowing Hylia these heroes have probably been fumbling in the dark. They could use someone like you to guide them. ” Link smiled and glanced back again. All the men were staring at him or more specifically Farore’s presence around him with awe. That already proved one thing correct. “ Then guide them I shall. May we meet again, face to face. ” “ May we meet again face to face, ” Farore agreed as her presence faded. Link rose to his feet with a smile and turned to face Hylia’s servants. If Hylia thought he wouldn’t stay faithful to his love, then she had another thing coming.