heartache. And it's a future that you could so easily be part of, Link, if you simply decide to stand with me against all those who had persecuted us both."
All at once, the hero was reminded of the Queen of Shadow's malevolent intentions, despite her tragic past. Certainly, in her campaign against both the worlds of light and
shadow, she had plans on hurting, if not killing, countless innocents before it was all said and done. And though like Verona, Link had been ridiculed and nearly attacked by
his own people, he didn't really want to see any of them dead.
Did he?
"I… I don't know…" he said with uncertainty that the Queen of Shadows quickly picked up on. She knew well that he was not flat out rejecting her plans, but he wasn't
agreeing to them either. To get him to do so would require more than just mere persuasion. It would require a push over the edge.
"Come now, Link…" she said smoothly as she came to stand directly behind him, running her hand along the back of his chair. "Wouldn't you like to show all of those fools
who condemned you for your magic, who called you a monster despite the fact that you saved them all, just how wrong they were? Wouldn't you like to make Zelda feel
all of the suffering that she put you through and then some? I can feel that you're still hurting for all you've been through recently. But believe me when I tell you that the
sweetest remedy for any devastation… is revenge…"
Link was about to give a response, but before he even could, he inexplicitly froze up entirely, his eyes growing wide and his body going slack as his head was thrown back
by the force of the magic that was acting upon him. Verona grinned darkly to herself as she held the Spirit Shard in one hand, her other hand glowing with a dark aura as
she hovered it slightly above the hero's back, feeling the darkness she placed within his heart react to it. She knew that he could not physically feel what she was doing,
nor would he remember it as she began to slowly draw another piece of his spirit out of his body. She didn't have enough power to extract such a large, dense spirit away
from its bearer all at once, and so she would have to rip it from him in pieces at a time, but she knew she was making progress with each sliver she stole. Verona couldn't
help but let out a small laugh as looked into Link's face, noticing that his wide, unseeing eyes were bereft of pupils as they shined bright silver, the Twili markings on his face
expanding and growing more prominent as his mouth hung agape in a breath of air that he was not taking. But what fascinated the Queen of Shadows the most was the
small piece of the Spirit of the Hero left his body, gliding into the Spirit Shard in a wisp of green light, a single lock of the hero's dark blond hair suddenly turned snowy
white for some reason that she could not explain. It didn't really matter to Verona though; she had gotten what she wanted, and as Link remained frozen, his body still in
shock from what had just happened to him internally, the Queen of Shadows knew that he would be at his most susceptible to her persuasion and her magic.
Verona's grin deepened as she placed her hands on both of his shoulders, watching his Twili markings pulsate with each uneven breath he took as she clenched her fingers
into his shoulders tightly, letting her magic pour into him. "Link…" she whispered, her voice soft and cunning as she leaned forward to speak into his ear. "Think of how
they hurt you… Of how they all betrayed you…"
As the Queen of Shadows spoke her gentle, almost alluring words, her dark magic sparked within the hero, making him gasp in shock and pain as he began to see brief
snapshots and visions of the past several days. Amongst them, he saw Zelda rejecting him, her guards injuring him and chasing after him, the people of Castle Town
calling him a monster and casting him out. He saw himself killing the guards in Ordon, the look of fear on the face of every last citizen of the small village, him burning
Midna accidently. All of these memories came flooding back to him in heavy waves, all of them threatening to bury him in an ocean of grief. He felt all of the grief and
heartache of the last several days all at once; all of the shame, the humiliation, the anger, the sorrow, the pain, the devastation. It all came crashing down on him at once
to the point that he could barely take it. He still couldn't see anything in the present, but he let out a heavy cry of emotional anguish as tears began to stream down his
face, tears that Verona saw clearly and reveled in, knowing that her manipulation was working.
"You have suffered so much…" she said almost patronizingly, noticing the small tint of red flashing briefly in his shining silver eyes. "We both have. You and I are not so
different after all… But what happened to you… it just wasn't fair… You are pure of heart, kind, courageous. A perfect hero to your land and its people. You did not deserve
to be treated like this. Life dropped you from your place on high to the very bottom, and you have been abandoned there by all you thought once cared for you… But it
doesn't have to end like this…"
As the hero continued to sob in absolute agony, new visions began to appear before his blinded eyes, ones that were not of the past, but rather of what the future could
be. He saw himself in complete control of his powers, using them with absolute mastery and skill. He saw all of his enemies completely obliterated, destroyed and
defeated by his great power and strength. He saw all those who had feared him and hated him bowing before him in respect and reverence. He saw Zelda cowering before
him, her oppressive rule over Hyrule broken as she begged and pleaded with him for mercy. But it was too late for mercy. She had no mercy on him, and so he would
show no such mercy on her. She would break and bleed by his hands. He would make her feel pain unlike any she had ever known in her life of comfort and luxury. She
would watch helplessly as he took everything she cared about away from her, just as she had taken everything from him.
He would settle for nothing less.
"So, Link," Verona said with a sinister grin as she watched Link close his eyes and stiffen in his chair, his expression darkening as his Twili markings seemed to glow brighter
than ever before. "What is it that you want?"
The hero clenched his fists tightly to the point that they were almost shaking, both of them glowing bright red as fire began to form around them both. "I want revenge,"
he said, his tone rigid and dangerously quiet.
"What do you want?" the Queen of Shadows asked, urging him to go on for she knew that everything was going according to plan.
"I want them all to pay," Link continued, his eyes still shut as tranquil rage began to fill his tone more and more with each word. "I want every last one of them to suffer as
much as I have. I want them all to burn until they realize just how wrong they were about me."
"And Queen Zelda?" Verona asked, goading him along with each question she asked, knowing that he was just about on her side.
Upon hearing the queen's very name a fiery aura seemed to burst around the hero entirely, his fury and hatred towards the queen beyond obvious. The Queen of
Shadows backed away from him as he rose to stand, opening his silver eyes as he turned towards her with a murderous look in them. Such perverse, violent sentiments
were so unlike him and Link knew that, but at that moment, he didn't care anymore. He was done being rejected and abused and hated. He refused to ever be hurt in any
way ever again. He would make her feel the pain he had gone through. He would drag her down into the same kind of torment she had brought him into. He would ruin
her, just as she had ruined him.
"I want her to suffer most of all."
Verona watched Link intently as he tried and failed to execute one of
the exercises in reining his magic in that she had tried explaining to him. Not long after their meal, the
Queen of Shadows and the hero had taken to a large, rather empty room within the Palace of Twilight to train in, one in which there was relatively little that Link might
accidently destroy or harm while trying to gain better control of his powers. At first, Verona gave him relatively simple commands, such as creating a small burst of flame
or a light gust of wind. However, even beginner's tasks such as these proved to be difficult for the hero, who had no prior experience with magic whatsoever. Even despite
his best efforts at using focus and concentration, he found that he still couldn't get any of it right, for in each attempt he was either unable to conjure up anything at all, or
in the rare case that he did, it would quickly spiral out of his control. The Queen of Shadows took notice of this, though for the longest time she made no comment on it,
instead taking a more hands off approach as she allowed Link to try and figure it out on his own, largely so she could figure out how his unique powers worked herself.
They were quite different from the powers of Twilight and Shadows that Verona was used to, and though she had studied elemental magic in the past, the nature of the
powers of the Triforce of Courage was relatively unknown to her. And so, she decided to observe them in action first before giving the hero any proper advice on how to
use them, though considering the inconsistency of them, she was having a hard time getting a proper read on exactly how they worked.
At the same time, Link was becoming increasingly frustrated as time wore on into hours, and yet he still wasn't making any progress with honing his powers. Even though
he was in a controlled environment, with nothing or no one around to cause his emotions to erupt and cause his powers to go out of control, he found that he still
couldn't bend them to his will intentionally. The fact that Verona seemed to only be watching him from afar, only giving small commands or pieces of advice every now and
then, only aggravated the hero further. After all, her lack of helpfulness certainly seemed like she was breaking the deal that she had made with him to aid him with his
powers, something she had done relatively little of since they started. All of the seemingly good guidance she had given him back in the woods seemed to have vanished,
and in its place the only things Link found were irritation and failure once more.
The hero let out another shout of aggravation as he tried once more to conjure up a burst of ice, only to no avail once more. "That's it!" he proclaimed angrily, glaring at
Verona, who stood at the far end of the room, while he clenched his fists tightly at his sides, not noticing the soft red glow surrounding them. "I'm done! I can't do this
anymore! We've been at this for hours and still nothing's working!"
"Yes, I am aware of that," the Queen of Shadows said calmly, her expression reserved and easy. "I have been watching, contrary to what you might think."
"And that's all you've been doing!" Link exclaimed in annoyance, crossing his arms bitterly. "You haven't taught me anything at all since we got here! If you're not going to
help me, then you might as well just stop wasting my time and let me go back to Hyrule."
"So you can do what?" Verona asked, a frown crossing her features. "Try to figure them out on your own and fail? Continue to be pursued by Zelda's guards? Spend the
rest of your life alone and on the run, knowing that you'll never truly get your magic under control?"
The hero was silence upon hearing this, knowing that as much as he didn't want to admit it, the Queen of Shadows did have a point. If he were to return to Hyrule now,
he might never learn to control his powers and he certainly wouldn't be able to find relief from the suffering that Zelda had put him. If he was going to get even with the
queen, Link knew that the only way to do so was to not only control his powers, but master them. And the only way he could possibly even try to do that was with
Verona's assistance.
"Whether you like it or not, Link, you don't really have many other options left," the Queen of Shadows said, her tone firm, yet not condescending. "I genuinely do want to
help you. But in order for me to properly help you, you must be patient with me, as I have shown patience towards you. I understand that you're eager, but this is going
to a process that will take precious time. After all, no one masters something as complex as magic immediately."
"So why haven't we done anything yet?" Link asked, his tone still a little bitter as he crossed his arms.
"Ah, the answer to that is quite simple," Verona said with a smile. "I have simply been observing your powers, trying to come up with a conclusion as to what makes
them work."
"I know what makes them work," the hero said, as if it were obvious. "My emotions."
"Yes, I know," the Queen of Shadows said with a nod. "But I mean specifically. What emotion ignites fire? What feeling creates ice? What sensation stirs up wind? I've been
studying you these past several hours trying to answer these questions, and yet… I have to admit I'm still at a loss… I can see that you are trying, but it still seems as
though you aren't getting the desired results…"
"Well, it's not like I can really help it," Link said with a frustrated sigh as he glanced down at his hands, wishing that he could use his magic intentionally at least once. "I
don't understand any of this myself."
"And as I told you before, that's not your fault," Verona said with understanding in her tone. "But fret not. I have an idea."
"Oh, well it's about time," the hero said, not hiding the blatant sarcasm in his tone. The Queen of Shadows raised an unamused eyebrow upon hearing this, and though
she wanted to call him out for his snarky attitude, she restrained herself, knowing that showing cruelty and condescension towards him would prove nothing.
"I believe that there is only one factor holding your powers back," Verona said, not acknowledging Link's prior comment. "Yourself."
"What?" the hero asked in confusion.
"It's all conjecture, really," the Queen of Shadows began to explain eloquently. "You've had recent traumatic experiences because of your powers, such as what happened
in Castle Town or the guards that you killed. And because of those things, you're intentionally trying to suppress your emotions and your magic. You're holding everything
inside of you, concealing instead of feeling. Not only is it unhealthy, but it's also blocking your powers from flowing forth the way they should."
"So what do you suggest I do?" Link asked a bit doubtfully, knowing that he wasn't intentionally trying to hold himself back, even despite the previous disasters his powers
had caused.
"I suggest a release," Verona said with a mysterious, yet somehow encouraging smile as she began to saunter towards him. "Take all of the emotions that have built up
inside of you over these past several days; all of that pain, anger, grief, misery. Combine them all, and then simply… let it go."
The hero let out diffident sigh upon hearing this, not believing that this method would actually work, much less let him gain control of his powers. After all, him letting his
emotions run wild had gotten him in so much trouble in the first place. But even so, he didn't really have any other ideas, so he decided to give the Queen of Shadows'
suggestion a try, even if he wasn't sure it would work. Taking in a deep breath, Link closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to focus on his emotions above all else.
However, as he tried to think back to all of the hurt and frustration he had recently endured, he failed to see Verona finish her approach, slowly coming to stand behind him
with an ominous smirk crossing her features. Though she knew she had to reserve more
of her power before she could take another piece of the Spirit of the Hero, that
didn't mean that she couldn't reap the darkness that she had planted inside of the hero. The Queen of Shadows' grinned deepened as she lightly ran her hand long his
shoulder, already feeling the negative emotions that she was sparking within him flare up. Even without using her magic, Verona could feel the rage, hatred and grief
stirring within Link, though she could see that he was indeed holding all of them back out of fear of what could happen if he let them lose. And so, to further this process
along, the Queen of Shadows decided to remove the barrier that the hero had set in place herself.
As if from nowhere, a burst of sudden, almost unexplainable fury coursed through Link, one that made him clench his fists tightly at his sides. Anger filled his thoughts,
clouding them as he remembered how he had been cast out and called a monster by those who had once lauded him as a hero. Their betrayal, and especially Zelda's
betrayal, filled him with an unspeakable wrath. He could scarcely remember a time when he had been angrier, and he knew that he had every right to be. After all, he had
lost everything: his home, his friends, his reputation, and even whatever shred of love had once been in his heart. Now, the only thing that remained was a deep, burning
rage, replacing even the former grief and sorrow he had suffered before. Such mournful emotions were weak, after all; weeping over all he had lost would do nothing. His
anger, on the other hand, would make his strong. His fury could sustain him. His wrath could give him power.
Verona could see that her manipulation was working as she saw deadly flames surround Link entirely, none of them burning him as he was the one who had created them.
She returned to her place on the far side of the room as she watched the orange flames burn around the hero, seeming to grow stronger with each passing second as his
expression grew darker and more infuriated, giving the Queen of Shadows a pretty good idea as to what fueled fire.
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