“I suppose you must have guessed by now, but…” Princess Zelda said, politely pulling Link’s shirt down over the unnatural blue splotch that covered the centre of his chest. “This is surely the work of Veran. Even if the symptoms weren’t visible, there’s a scent to this that goes beyond simple dark magic.”



“I figured.” Link said glumly, feeling unusually low on energy. He’d had this feeling for a while now since returning from his adventures across Holodrum and Labrynna, but had dismissed it as simple fatigue  “Who else could it be? I thought I’d completely avoided her attempt to possess me during our last battle, but…”

“It’s likely that you did, at least ” said Zelda. “But for a sorceress like her, it’s not out of the question for her to have inflicted a curse upon you before perishing. Perhaps some lingering malignance, or carving off a portion of her soul… whatever it is, it’s spreading quickly. You were right to come to me first before gallivanting off in search of a cure.”

“But now that we do know, there’s an easy solution. Hopefully, anyway.” Link said.

“Mystery seeds, I believe you called them?” Zelda asked, and Link nodded. The seeds had proven vital against Veran, containing the power to drive her out of her victim’s body. “They’re as good a start as any. I don’t suppose you have any leftover from your journey?”



Link shook his head. “I used the last of them up against her, and I’m not sure they’d have kept this long anyway. They seemed to go off pretty quickly, and stunk like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Then we’ll simply have to go fetch some more.” Zelda smiled. Link began to stand up, only for Zelda to put a firm hand on his shoulder. “I know I just said we, but in truth, I’ll be the one to seek them out this time.”

“Excuse me? I’m the one who knows where they are.” Link protested. “Besides, this is no job for a-”

“For a princess? Please, I’m not that delicate.” Zelda laughed, causing Link to blush slightly in embarrassment. “Consider this doctor’s orders. Turning blue and feeling fatigued isn’t the only thing that curse is doing to you. There’s already noticeable deterioration to your muscles, and who knows how you’ll be in a month’s time! It’s much too dangerous for you, Link.”

“So I’m useless then.” Link slumped back in his chair. He knew she was right, and had seen it first hand. His slim but hard muscles had faded, leaving him with smooth, almost dainty arms and abs that had turned soft to the touch. He’d never admit it out loud, but he seemed no more physically intimidating than Zelda herself, a beautiful young lady with silky smooth skin wrapped in royal purple silk. If anything, she seemed like she’d be the burlier one of the two at the rate he was going.

“Consider it my opportunity to pay you back. Now it’s my chance to rescue you.” Zelda seemed pleased with herself, giving him a quick wink. “And I’ll be taking a guard with me to be on the safe side, of course. I’m sure I won’t need them after you’ve cleared the monsters out of Labrynna, but just so you can sleep comfortably. The last thing you need in your condition is sleepless nights over little old me!”

Zelda seemed to be intent on keeping spirits high, particularly since Link seemed uncharacteristically out of it. The curse didn’t seem to be harming him, but it concerned her to see such a heroic figure in a state like this.

“Instead I’ll get to watch myself waste away night after night. I’ll be all skin and bones by the time you get back.” The downcast Link said, at which point Zelda carefully cleared her throat.

“Well, it’s just a theory of mine so far, but deterioration might not be the right word to describe it.” Zelda said awkwardly. “The type of magic I detect on you is closer to, shall we say, transformation. It’s possible, just theoretically mind you, that if it’s not a curse and is instead a remnant of Veran’s soul clinging to your body with the intent on eventually taking it over, that she’s instead reshaping you to be a, well, perhaps more fitting vessel for a lady. That’s just a theory, of course! A theory!”



The implications of this were enough to jolt some life back into Link. Slimmer muscles, smooth skin, rather puffy nipples now that he thought of it, and his pants had been a bit tight around the hips…

“You mean I’m turning into a-”



“Well, that’s enough of that! I sail in the morning.” Zelda laughed robotically to drown out further questions from Link’s uncharacteristically high-pitched voice as she gathered up her skirts and scurried out of the room. Then, she poked her head back in. “And no leaving the castle! I’ll have my retainers attend to your every need! Consider it a vacation! I’ll be back in no time, I promise!”

And then she was gone. Link looked down at his thighs, squinting at them and trying to tell if they were thicker than usual. He suddenly recalled how many times his tunic had insultingly been called a skirt before…

–

Sitting in a castle waiting to be rescued from a villain’s curse was, to put it lightly, not a very fun experience for Link. Zelda had bid a hasty farewell and offered the full range of her castle’s facilities to him, but no more than a week after she had sailed away Link ended up being something of a recluse. While he was relieved to find that his muscles had stopped shrinking and he didn’t seem to be suffering any adverse effects to his health, the reality that he was slowly but surely turning into a woman was embarrassing to say the least. Every day he woke up looking at a more feminine face in the mirror, with fuller lips, more delicate eyelashes, and cheeks growing thinner by the day. His tunic grew baggy as his shoulders shrank inwards and gained a visible slope at the chest, while his waist shrunk into a subtle but visible future hourglass.

Mortifyingly, Zelda seemed to have planned this far ahead. When his shirts started to chafe and become distractingly uncomfortable, he gave in to his weakness and poked his head into Zelda’s wardrobe only to find written instructions on how to put on a bra. Instructions that had become infuriatingly helpful. One day Link overheard one of Zelda’s maids whispering to another servant wondering who the cute girl who had moved into the castle was, and that was the breaking point that caused him to seal himself inside Zelda’s chambers and sulk for the rest of the day. The next day he woke up wondering if he had overreacted, only to find that he had lost the last of his manhood, and that he was now a she, which sealed the deal.

It wasn’t that Link resented Zelda’s help. In fairer circumstances he might have even been happy about it. But he wasn’t used to the feeling of helplessness, to simply sit back and hope that somebody more competent than him could solve the problem for him, or rather, her. She was now officially a bonafide damsel in distress, she sighed as she laid on Zelda’s bed, brushing her longer hair out of her eyes even as she felt it tickle her shoulders. She was reading a book to pass the time while snacking on cookies and cupcakes provided by the princess’s personal patisserie. Unsurprisingly Zelda had a sweet tooth, although one she likely hadn’t indulged in months as much as Link had in a week. Link thought nothing of it as she snacked around the clock, the sugar relieving her boredom and stress, and with each sugar rush she had another way to ignore the fact that she knew she wasn’t acting like herself…

–

“Your meal has arrived, my lady!” the maid called, wheeling a serving cart stacked high with fragrant foods over to the door. She hurried away as quickly as she had arrived without waiting for the occupant to receive it, having received strongly worded instructions to respect her privacy, the maid debating whether it was worth her job security to hide around a corner and sneak a peak at the room’s mysterious occupant. All she knew was that a personal friend of the princess was staying at the castle, in the princess’ room no less, and was suffering from some sort of condition that the princess had set out on a quest to help them with. Rumour had it that it was a beautiful lady with a feeble constitution, although the maid couldn’t help but feel that whatever she looked like now, she might be somewhat less fair given her around-the-clock eating habits…



“I told you not to call me that.” Link mumbled far too quietly for the retainer to hear as she shuffled over to the door in a borrowed nightgown. A few weeks earlier Link would have rather jumped out the window than wear Zelda’s clothes, but she had to admit that Zelda’s wardrobe looked good on her. Her old boys’ clothes were uncomfortable and felt wrong to wear somehow, and for lack of better things to do, curiosity had eventually gotten the better of her and resulted in playing dress-up with Zelda’s wardrobe. She had thought that she’d feel embarrassed by it, but the more beautiful dresses she wore, the more she started to think that she wore them better than Zelda did. Link knew that she shouldn’t feel that way, but having something to feel good about was a rare treat in her current condition.

However, she had quickly discovered that she had already grown beyond Zelda’s modest proportions. Learning how to wear a bra had proven to be invaluable, but now Zelda’s were uncomfortably tight, and Zelda’s panties rode up her increasingly round butt. She was reminded of the exaggerated hourglass figure Veran had possessed, now well on her way to matching it. It was hard not to think about Veran’s seductive blue figure when she looked at how her entire torso was now coloured blue, spreading to the shoulders and causing her to become even more reclusive.

Of course, it didn’t help that Link’s stress-eating was going right to Veran’s famous hips and bust. Link wolfed down a meal big enough for five of her in a matter of minutes, her belly bulging outwards as her stomach hit maximum capacity. While Veran had a flat, toned belly on display at all times, Link’s was either a bulging overstuffed pot belly or sagging from the fat her overeating gave her, although it was a rather pleasing softness. Despite Link being acutely aware of the changes to her body, for the time being she remained somewhat oblivious to how she was getting noticeably chubby, more distracted by the fact that she had big boobs in the first place than the fact that they were getting fatter. When Link looked in the mirror, she didn’t think to herself that her cheeks were looking slightly wider, her chin a little more rounded, but was instead more concerned by the fact that she hardly recognised herself, her face going from merely a feminine version of its original self to one that was easily recognisable as Veran’s own. It wasn’t quite all of the way there yet, but Link estimated that by the time the blue pallor spread to her face, she’d be impossible to tell apart from Veran save for her light brown hair in place of Veran’s stark orange.

Link dabbed her plump lips once she was done, shoving the platform back out into the hallway for the servants to deal with. It was the least they could do for her, after she’d saved multiple kingdoms and Zelda herself. And speaking of Zelda, Link reread the letter she had received from her for the fourth time today. The two had kept in correspondence via carrier pigeon, a far swifter method than Zelda’s practically plodding boat, allowing them to be only a few days apart from each other. Zelda’s fancy handwriting was a tale of apology, stating that she had finally arrived in Labrynna after three weeks of sailing, only to find her hunt for mystery seeds to be less than fruitful. The location Link had provided had proven barren, leading her to have to search the land from scratch. It didn’t help that the fairies of the forest were playing tricks on her and her guard, and it seemed that Zelda didn’t have quite the head for puzzles that Link did.

It was hardly the news Link wanted to hear, but the news her gloomy personality had expected. Zelda’s letter also included more advice for Link, such as to keep his, or her as Zelda had hastily scrawled over, spirits high and not give in to the changes to her personality that Veran’s curse had made. It was easier said than done, Link had written back, her own letters turning into something of a place to vent and feel sorry for herself, complaining that it was so hard for her to sit back and wait for Zelda to rescue her. Zelda was empathetic of course, feeling that it must have been terrible for somebody as active as Link to be stuck in a passive role, but her interpretation was perhaps too generous for Link’s own good.

Link knew that Veran’s curse had put her in this self-pitying state, but the problem with it was that it made it very hard to fight back. It was so much easier to continue to feel sorry for herself and feed her own paranoia, Link having developed a number of neuroses during her forced homestay. Fear that she wouldn’t be able to change back, fear that Zelda wouldn’t find the seeds or that they’d be useless, fear that she’d be spotted in her current state by the servants… Link was already regretting letting Zelda go instead of her. Surely she couldn’t have been so incapable that she couldn’t retrace her own steps!

Link sulked about it while helping herself to the dessert that arrived outside her door shortly after her dinner. She wondered if Veran had made her like this in order to make her suffer, or if this had been part of Veran’s personality all along, a surprising quality to the domineering, evil woman. It would make a certain amount of sense, given that she had become a powerful sorceress who possessed others for her own gain. A core weakness that drove a lust for power to satiate it, and perhaps this gluttony that had been afflicted on her was a part of Veran too. A part that she had better control over, given her slim figure.

Unfortunately, Link didn’t linger on this thought for nearly long enough before she let the sweet snacks distract her once again…

–

“Dear… Zelda… please hurry back… I don’t know how much more… mmph… of this… mmm, this is sho good… I can take…”

Link brushed the crumbs off of her parchment and shifted her plush butt in her seat as she wrote a letter with one hand and made her way through a plate full of cinnamon buns in the other. Her life waiting for Zelda was so hard, it was all she could do to make it clear to Zelda and make sure she was working hard. It wasn’t fair that she got to have all the fun, exploring and hunting through forests. Meanwhile Link was stuck here having a castle wait on her hand and foot. Life just wasn’t fair sometimes.



“Alright, this is good.” Link smiled to herself as she put the finishing touches on her letter with some cloying woe-is-me whining, absent mindedly leaning over her letter to reach the sugary drink she had placed at the back of the desk. “This should really motivate her to get a move on!”

“Ah!” Link exclaimed as she looked down at the now completely ruined letter, completely smooshed by her boobs with half the words smeared beyond comprehension and the other half imprinted on Zelda’s very expensive silk.  “This was my favourite dress, too!”

Her plump face almost completely transformed into Veran’s, it was only her look of hapless surprise and embarrassment that stopped her from looking the part of a villainess. That and how it was hard to pull off Veran’s menacing sneer sharpened to a razor’s edge by her thin features and narrow face, when she’d added a second chin to the mix.

“This is Zelda’s fault for not having a big enough bra for me.” Link reassigned the blame, having been forced to go without support for weeks now. Link might not have known that she was what was formally considered a G-cup, but she did know that Zelda’s B-cup bras were woefully inadequate for her heft and the gravity they commanded. Her boobs were practically bursting out of anything she could stuff them into in the first place and making her fear the day she’d have to bring in a tailor to make sure she wasn’t walking around half-naked, even in isolation.

Link stripped out of the dress, her curvy hourglass figure having transformed what was meant to be a loose-fitting dress into a hip-hugging piece that was borderline skin-tight in places. She crumpled it up and tossed it aside with little regard for how much money and work had gone into creating a dress fit for a princess. All she knew was that Zelda had lots of dresses, so who cared what happened to one or two of them? It wouldn’t be the first one she had ruined with her voluptuous figure, anyway.

Link sauntered over to Zelda’s collection, pulling out a pink dress she quite liked that she felt flattered her curves. Although they were a new concept to Link, the more she looked at herself the more she felt a sense of pride and superiority in her hips and bust, particularly in how much bigger they were than Zelda’s. Womanly pride wasn’t such a bad thing to have after all. What if the mystery seeds cured the curse, but didn’t revert her body? She’d need to be prepared for life as a beautiful woman from that point on, and that meant asserting dominance and being fashionable.

Of course, these were bold words from a woman who was too scared to show herself in public and preferred flattering herself in private. She tried to put the dress on, only to find it far too tight around the chest, even by her usual standards. With a lot of huffing and puffing and a lot of cleavage shown off, she was able to squeeze in, the dress drawn tight around her flabby belly and rocking hips. It was like a sexy parody of its original self, Link unaware that it wasn’t supposed to show off any cleavage at all in the first place. The only parts it did seem to fit were the skirt past her thighs and the long sleeves that concealed her blue skin, although it had spread to her hands and face by now. If only it wasn’t for that, she might have been able to work up the confidence to show herself off in public.

With her dress sorted, although she threatened to burst out of it at any moment in every direction, she wriggled her hips back over to the desk, but stopped short of sitting down. Her letter was ruined after all that effort, and she hardly had the energy to write it again. This proved to be a wise decision, as planting her fat ass down would have caused the seams to split under the pressure.

Instead, she became annoyed at Zelda for making her write the letter in the first place. How hard could it possibly be to find some stupid seeds? She knew it, she knew that she should have gone herself, she couldn’t trust anybody to get something so important done by herself, and she was certain she would have found them long ago. She could have gotten it in under a week, easily. No, before even the weekend. Perhaps she could have done it on her first day! She bet Zelda got her directions wrong, that those mystery seeds were exactly where she left them and that silly princess couldn’t tell right from left. She couldn’t believe she managed to run a kingdom with that kind of attitude.

Still, she was grateful for Zelda, primarily her castle. She might have been stuck in a gilded cage, but boy did that cage shine. Her servants were prompt, usually on time, and she had some excellent chefs, she thought to herself as her stomach was already rumbling and wondering when her next meal was arriving. Just then, Link heard a click, nearly jumping on the spot, her body jiggling to a halt as she froze up. The door swung slowly but smoothly open, a guard wheeling her meal in before similarly freezing at the sight of the bright blue rubenesque woman before his eyes, although not so blue that her cheeks couldn’t be seen flushing bright red.

The two stared at each other for an agonising few seconds. She could see him take her in from top to bottom, then go pale as he realised that he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to.

“M-m-my apologies, milady!” he stuttered out.



“How dare you!?” Link screeched at him, her body impulsively driving her forward rather than away to a hiding space as she had expected herself to. Her body wobbled and bounced with each advancing step, overwhelming the hapless guard with her strange but powerful presence. “I ordered you not to come in under any circumstances!”

“My deepest apologies milady!” He repeated helplessly. “I thought-”

“Silence!” She shouted in a domineering voice, every syllable quaking with indignation. Whether he was poorly informed, new to the job, or just stupid, the weight of his offence was the same. “I don’t care what you thought! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget everything you’ve just seen! Now get out!”

The furious Link let out her emotions like a flood, a combination of embarrassment, indignation, and entitlement that what little control she had over her situation had fallen from her grasp, whether it actually mattered or not. All she could think was to project everything she was feeling onto him, a weight greater than any words she could shout at him.

And then, to her surprise, he slowly nodded. His expression went blank, free of the surprise, confusion, and fear that had just painted it. He almost seemed to go slack, obediently turning and walking out of the room. Link was so taken aback by this that her fury quickly dissipated, replaced with curiosity as she watched him walk out, stand outside, then seemingly stir, looking around in confusion.

“Huh? What was I just doing?” She heard him mumble. He turned around to see Link staring at him, and froze, went pale, and slowly took her in from top to bottom. The exact same as when he had seen her for the first time.

“M-Milady!? I, um-” he began to splutter out, but this time Link didn’t mind. In fact, she had let him see her deliberately. She held out a finger, long and painted in a deep blue that she felt complimented her skin tone, having gotten into painting her nails ever since they grew out. Then, she spoke.

“Forget what you just saw.” She said in a calm but commanding voice, and watched him go slack again. This time she could see it, a certain string of dark magic emanating outwards from him and seizing his will. It was easy this time, as if a door had been unlocked. “Turn around. Now march yourself down those stairs. Then, return to your duties.”



Each step was carefully enunciated, and so she watched him march himself down those stairs. Easy. It had been so easy. That was all she could think as she realised that she had tapped into Veran’s dark powers, hypnotising the man and manipulating his will. Link had always thought of Veran’s powers as evil magic, but it seemed quite harmless to her. If anything, she thought with a menacing smile curling her lips, it seemed like it was just the thing she needed…

–

Link lounged back in her bathtub, sighing happily once again as she submerged herself down to the neck, her deep blue cleavage peeking out of the water she kept heated to the perfect temperature with her newly acquired control of magic. It was hard for her boobs not to, given that fat floated, and her breasts were engorged to be nearly the size of her head by now. Well, technically it was Zelda’s bathtub, and you could tell because her bloated hips rubbed against the sides and threatened to squeeze her in. Link had thought of Zelda’s property as her own, going by the princess’s own generous offer, but today she was starting to feel that her tastes didn’t align with Zelda’s. She’d need her own bathtub soon, one much larger and grander, fit for a real woman’s body, not that skinny, boyish twig of a frame Zelda possessed. Could you even call a lady without at least a D-cup a real woman? Link was beginning to think not.

Link let out a rather spoiled chortle as she reached for her wineglass, taking a sip before clearing her throat. Speaking of Zelda…

“My dearest Zelda, salutations from your most, mmm, struggling friend…” Link said out loud, brushing her wet hair out of her eye. “I must apologise for the haste I’ve encouraged in my previous letters. I see now the value of patience, and do believe that you should scour the entirety of Labrynna, and as always do take your time, as you have proven want to do since your departure…”

The expressionless maid standing over Link’s pen could be heard jotting down Link’s flowery dictation, Link continuing with further encouragement that Zelda didn’t need to return any time soon.

“In fact, you should take your time to do some sightseeing, as I’m sure you’ve been doing already in your thoroughness… perhaps you could even visit Holodrum on your way back! I hear Subrosia is lovely this time of year…” Link prattled on, the maid’s perfect handwriting managing to keep up with Link’s flourishes and occasional backhanded compliments. After receiving a letter from Zelda, who had excitedly declared that she had found a lead and was finally on the verge of discovering the location of some fresh mystery seeds, Link had suddenly realised that she didn’t mind if Zelda took a little longer, actually. She was just really starting to enjoy Zelda’s castle, after all. Why, she had barely gotten settled in!

“That should be enough.” She waved vaguely to the servant. “Now trot off and get that posted before that silly young girl actually finds the blasted things.”



“As you wish, milady.” The maid said in a monotone voice, curtseying quickly before marching out of the room. Link enjoyed her bath a little longer before she ran out of wine and decided it was time to get out before her beautiful blue skin got wrinkly, her cherubic body rising from the water to reveal its immensity. It was a testament to how huge her breasts were that they overshadowed her gut, which bulged out with a pleasing roundness that still showed that her hips and chest received the lion’s share of her daily gorging. She caught a glimpse of herself in her mirror and smiled at her own reflection, which had nothing of the original Link left in it, only Veran’s beautiful face crowned by fat. A marked improvement, if she should say so herself.



Link snapped her fingers, another blank-faced maid entering the bathroom with a towel, kneading her doughy body as she dried her off for her. Link was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but felt a certain thrill at the fact that she had overcome her weakness of being seen in this body. Now she could be completely naked and not fear a thing, knowing that this maid wouldn’t remember it whenever she eventually released her from her spell. She considered it doing her a favour, as there was no better way a servant could do her job than to follow her mistress’s will to the letter without any pointless thoughts of her own. In Link’s opinion, this was a far more efficient system than whatever Zelda had in place.

Once she was dry, she stepped out into her doom, where several more maids were waiting for her, standing motionless and waiting for her to return to trigger the instructions she had set them up with. The maids began to dress her, even though her outfit of choice was easier to wear than ever. Link had finally brought in a tailor, deciding she was long overdue to create her own fashion instead of relying on Zelda’s inadequate hand-me-downs, but it would take time for her ideal dress to be sewed, and in the meantime she had heavily modified one of Zelda’s dresses. It had turned into largely separate pieces, with a floor-reaching skirt, the abdomen sliced off entirely to expose her sagging belly, a comfortable bust that just barely contained her breasts and had removed everything from the neck to the shoulders to achieve this goal, and some tight gloves simply for style.

Link hadn’t realised it until after commanding its creation, but this modified dress took a lot of cues from Veran’s simply iconic outfit, Link supposing she had inherited her superior fashion sense along with her beautiful body.

Link was ready for another day of lounging about her room, but she was in a particularly good mood today, and decided that it would be a waste to hide herself away when she looked this good. The blue sorceress instead finally left her seclusion, figuring that if anybody saw her, she had the magic to make that little problem go away…

–

Link sauntered through the castle, her chest bouncing and her hips rocking as she walked freely through the ornate abode. Almost two months of overindulging herself had resulted in an easily obese body, her growth possibly accelerated by the rest of the transformation. There was simply no other way for her to have gained weight so quickly, even if she would have been visibly overweight either way. Link didn’t mind, enjoying the feeling of her heft wobble with each step, proudly shown off by her skimpy upper half. She wore it well, perhaps even better than the original Veran who had denied herself what must have been a voracious appetite. Link was sure Veran had felt the same, as she had surely taken after all of her best qualities as she had transformed.

And over that time, Link thought as sunlight streamed through the windows and bounced off her copious blue skin, Link felt that she must have had the wrong idea about Veran. Certainly she was an evil would-be conqueror who had caused untold suffering to the people of Labrynna before being thwarted, but if you could look past minor hang-ups like that that she must have been an absolutely fabulous woman. Link knew despite barely talking to the original Veran, because she herself was nothing short of fabulous herself. Just an absolute catch of a woman. Beautiful, powerful… Nothing like that scrawny damsel Zelda, who needed to be rescued by yours truly, something that seemed to run in the Hylian royal family. She could understand why Veran had felt it necessary to put herself in charge.

Link strutted past stock-still guards, who didn’t so much as let their eyes follow Link as she passed despite her striking appearance that surely would have had any normal person have their eyes bulge out of their heads for one reason or another. Link had been so impressed by Veran that she had decided to follow her famous fashion sense, creating a replica of Veran’s original costume. A skirt marked with a large eye, a purple bustier with a matching collar, and most boldly and menacingly of all, enormous spiked shoulders that she felt created a striking silhouette. Bold choices were required to push fashion forward, as always. The only part that Link didn’t include was the strange pointed hat Veran had worn. It did complete the wicked sorceress image Veran had been intending to project, but it was the one part of Veran’s fashion sense that Link disagreed with. Why would she want to hide any part of herself? Link let her hair fall down her back freely, the only part of herself hidden being the eye covered by the hair that fell down over it.

Link wore the ensemble intending to turn heads, but she didn’t blame the soldiers for their lack of a visible reaction. That was how she had commanded them to behave, after all. However, when Link turned another corner she got very much the desired reaction from one particular soldier patrolling the castle, whose jaw dropped open at the sight of her. Link smirked, enjoying how overwhelmed the man looked by her presence. However, that was something that needed correction.

“I see I missed a spot.” Link said, casually holding up a single taloned finger and sending out a jolt of dark magic so subtle even a trained magic-user might have missed it. The man’s face went blank, and he stiffened his back. Whatever thoughts had been in his head vanished, replaced only with Link’s will.

“Good boy. Now go about your day as usual, and don’t disturb me again.” She commanded, the man marching off. Much better. Link had thought she’d enchanted the entire garrison, but it seemed that even she overlooked one or two occasionally. Now that she had presumably hypnotised the entire castle, she had greatly improved the quality of its service. If you wanted a job done right you had to do it yourself, and Link considered the whole castle to be an extension of her will by now.  She meant no ill will of course, she was content to allow them to do her bidding then return home to do whatever it was commoners did in their spare time, just with a little extra brain fog to forget the finer details of what they did with their day. No extraneous motions, no idle gossip, it was an ideal castle: one that revolved purely around its ruler.

Well, that technically wasn’t true, Link frowned for the first time that day as she corrected herself. Technically this castle still belonged to Zelda, even if in reality she had personally secured the loyalty of all its denizens. And Zelda, despite Link’s best efforts, was finally on her way home, only a couple of weeks away according to her latest letter. Of course that little wench only got things done when you didn’t want her to. Link couldn’t believe her. She dilly-dallied when Link wanted her to be back as soon as possible, and she returned the moment Link had just gotten comfortable! She bet she was doing it on purpose.

For the hundredth, no, the thousandth time, Link regretted letting her go. If she had done it, she would have had more mystery seeds than she could carry practically by the time she walked off the boat! Not that she wanted to actually use them, of course. The whole voyage was a waste of time, really, she was quite clearly far, far better off the way she was now than before. She couldn’t even imagine herself as a man, the entire thought was unsightly and unsuited for a lady such as herself. In fact, she found herself offended at Zelda for calling what had happened to her a curse in the first place! Was she blind? How could you call all this a curse?

Link fondled her own breasts for emphasis, not that anybody with a clear head was looking. Wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom? Hah! She’d never seen anybody less wise in her life. Scrawny, boyish, foolish, couldn’t even find fruit hanging off a tree… It was a miracle Hyrule hadn’t gone to the dogs with Zelda in charge. Link knew for a fact that she could do a better job, she was doing it right now! The idea of handing back the reins to Zelda was downright mortifying.

Link stopped. Why did she have to hand back the reins to Zelda anyway? Things were clearly going well without her. And what would she do once Zelda came back anyway? Return to the life of a commoner, or worse, share? Unthinkable. Undeserved. Unjustifiable! Link wobbled with indignance. No, this would not do at all.

Slowly, with an evil gleam in her eyes, Link began to formulate a plan. If Zelda was so incompetent, nobody would miss her if she was replaced… No, Link paused for a second, that was too harsh. She wasn’t some evil sorceress like the original Veran. No, Zelda could still be useful despite being a terrible little girl who couldn’t do important jobs on time. Perhaps she could enchant Zelda like she had hypnotised the others, give her a little of her own wisdom. Or perhaps, if she could figure it out, even try possessing her…

Link began to cackle, a wicked laugh echoing down the halls of the completely entranced Hyrule Castle as for the first time she began to look forward to Zelda’s return…