Rune: Spirit Fusion

written by a friend.

--- Spirit Fusion Research notes ----

Author: Purah

It has been exactly 647 days since we discovered the Sheikah slate for the first time, and it seems like our questions regarding the slate have only gotten more numerous with time. Additionally, none of the research we’ve conducted on it has given us anything useful to push back Ganon with.

All of this changed, however, when we finally came across a new lead just one week ago. We found a cave, hidden deep underneath Hyrule, which seemed to contain an ancient terminal, completely covered in indistinguishable texts. Upon placing the slate into a small slot, the whole terminal beamed to life, and seemed to grant the slate a new rune.

All we’ve been able to translate from the text is that this rune is called “Spirit Fusion”. Upon hearing this, Princess Zelda seemed quite eager to help us out with our experiments regarding this new rune. She seems to think this rune could help her unlock her hidden spiritual powers to seal Ganon, an asset which will be incredibly useful for the coming calamity.

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Day 0:

-Before using the rune on Zelda, we decided to run a full body check of her highness for accurate calibration later on.

Outside of the nervousness, princess Zelda is in perfect health. She has no physical complaints to speak of whatsoever, and there’s no sign of any illnesses or diseases either. She’s a well suited test subject, and ready to begin experiments.

As a part of this experiment, she has been granted her own room and full access around the research lab, though she will be monitored throughout most parts of the day, as well as set periods of time where special tests will be conducted.

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Day 1:

-We activated the rune early in the morning. Initially, nothing of note happened.

We originally debated whether or not to try and use the rune again, however, we decided that we should wait until at least tomorrow to observe if any changes may have occurred.

-As the day went on though, we noticed that Zelda suddenly and very rapidly started developing some sort of skin rash on her face, thighs, and lower legs.

They were small and nearly unnoticeable at first, though by the end of the day, they seemed to take up a specific shape, somewhat resembling the pattern of a fish’s scales.

-We are currently theorizing that this may be an extreme allergic reaction to the rune’s effects, though there is nothing we can do to stop these effects at the present.

We will simply continue to monitor the effects of the rune as time goes on.

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Day 2:

-When the day began, we continued studying the rune’s effects with more attention to detail. We immediately noticed that Zelda’s ears had completely changed from the normal, pointy, Hylian ears, to a more thin, wing-like structure closely resembling the fins of various fish species, complete with internal muscles and tissues.

-Additionally, a webbing membrane has grown between her fingers and toes, which fully connected the hands and feet together by the end of the day. It stretched considerably across her hands and feet, being around as soft and malleable as a standard sheet of paper, though Zelda noted her fingers have started stiffening considerably as a result of this mutation.

-Further research of the cave where we found the rune reveals it was made by an ancient aquatic species, possibly predating the Zora as we know them today. That would explain the changes happening to Zelda’s body. Perhaps this rune was only meant to be applied to members of this ancient species?

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Day 3:

-Overnight, there were an alarming number of changes to Zelda’s body. We were all woken up as her highness exclaimed about the advancement of her symptoms. She frantically told us that she is no longer able to move her fingers, and that it is becoming hard for her to stand upright with the changes happening to her feet.

Her fingers have thinned and elongated considerably, as both her hands now stretch out to standard fish fins. She can still feel us touching them, but she no longer has any control of her muscles beyond her wrists. The same phenomena can be seen in her feet too, where they have grown into long, thin fins which Zelda says are difficult to stand on. Zelda is now only left to crawl on the floor, as her feet are no longer strong enough to support her full weight.

-Unbeknownst to Zelda, her eyes have also begun to change. Her pupils have dilated considerably, and her once green irises have now begun to blend in with the rest of her eyes. The result ends up making her eyes look a lot bigger and shinier than before, though the actual size hasn’t changed at all since her transformation.

While she couldn’t observe these changes herself, she did mention that her eyes felt fuzzier than before. Similarly, they produce a lot more mucus now than they did initially, and while she can still see out of her eyes, the effect of this transformation progressively worsened as the day went on

-Near the end of the day, we also clearly observed that gill slits started to form on Zelda’s side. This coincided with the growth of small pelvic protrusions, which later resembled a modern zora’s pelvic fins. Both the gill slits and pelvic fins serve no function as of yet, but we can only assume that they will grow to be much more important later on.

-The growth of her scales has fully stopped, as they now reach up to her pelvis, close to where her new fins are located, and all the way down her legs. Interestingly though, no scales were found on the inside of her legs, which does not fully mirror modern Zora anatomy. The yellow hue from the scales is incredibly obvious now, which perfectly matches the yellow from her hair.

-Final translations of the texts inside the ancient cave have found that the rune we used is meant to bind deceased spirits to living hosts. This will only change their appearance, though there seems to be no mention of what happens when the host is of another species as that of the spirit. The current working hypothesis is that the spirit of an ancient Zora was merged with Zelda’s body, though further research needs to be done to confirm this hypothesis.

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Day 4:

-All of the previously mentioned changes have only worsened. Zelda’s hands and feet have transformed further into fins, and it is hard to make out her original hands and feet. Her wrists and ankles have fully disappeared now, and Zelda claims to have no control of the muscles beneath her elbows and knees. She still demonstrates a physical response to stimuli in these body parts, however, the response is weak. Even crawling has become difficult, as her legs are starting to lose energy and shift closer together.

-The fins on her pelvis have grown considerably as well. They have grown to be even bigger than Zelda’s “hand” fins now, which are large in and of themselves. This marks the fourth set of fins that have grown onto her body, including the hands, feet, and ears. This matches the amount of fins seen on modern Zora, though the structure and placement of the fins are slightly different.

-The changes to her eyes have become even more prominent since yesterday. They have developed a layer of mucus on the cornea, just like any fish would.because of this, it has become nearly impossible for her to see anything that isn’t directly in front of her.

Additionally, we must now routinely supply her with water to keep her properly hydrated, as the mucus on her eyelids needs to be well maintained.

-The gill slits on her sides have widened considerably, and they seem to even be connected to her lungs now as well. Whenever she breathes, you can see the gills slightly open, even more so when she’s thirsty. Other than that, we discovered that no actual air was being absorbed into or excreted out of these gills, so they do not appear to be functional... yet.

-Due to the many changes in Zelda’s body, along with the increased thirst and difficulty of breathing noted by Zelda herself, we have ordered a small pool to be delivered to our research lab immediately. We specifically ordered it to house 7000 liters of river water from Zora’s domain.

I dearly hope we won’t have to use it, though at the rate Zelda is progressing now, I fear that it may be an inevitability.

-The rune has already transformed Zelda’s body so much that we fear she might soon lose all of the humanity she has left. We estimate that her body is around 35% Zora, 25% hylian, and around 40% standard river fish. Attempts at a cure or antidote or counter rune have been made, though no success has been recorded as of yet.

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Day 5:

-An alarming new change has been noted in Zelda, the largest thus far.

Zelda’s legs have begun to fuse together, with the inside skin of her legs sticking together to form one whole tail. This is most prominently seen on her foot fins, though the effect spreads all the way up to her crotch. An outline somewhat resembling human legs can still be observed, though it’s undeniable that they are now part of one whole “tail”.

Zelda reported that her legs still largely felt the same, and she could still move them somewhat freely, though it was physically impossible for her to separate them again. What’s left of her feet are nearly totally fused together, as they now resemble the Caudal fin of standard fish. Aside from this though, she is having trouble sensing her foot fins now as well, as they are now numb to the touch for her.

-The same observations can be seen on her hand fins as well, which have now grown all the way up to her elbows. It seems the rune is numbing her senses as the final changes are being brought to what little is left of her hands and feet.

-Despite earlier observations showing that the scales have stopped growing, more yellow-colored scales have started to appear even further past her legs. They now reach up all the way to her waist, as well as near the gap in between her now fused tail. As with the other scales, they have the exact same color as her hair, and the same texture as standard fish scales.

-An experiment later in the day was conducted to view the viability of Zelda’s new gills. The pool we requested arrived around noon, and it was just big enough to fully submerge Zelda’s body into when lying down. We left Zelda in the pool for around 5 minutes with strict supervision. When we eventually pulled her out of the pool though, she remarked that her thirst was not only cuenched, but that it also felt somewhat “natural” for her scales to be submerged like that. When asked about her gills, Zelda exclaimed that she actually managed to be able to breathe through them, as all the air inside this water was let through her gills naturally. This suggests that not only her exterior has changed, but her interior organ functions have altered quite a bit too. Despite being somewhat beneficial, as Zelda is essentially amphibious now, we fear that her old lung functions will soon be totally replaced by that of a normal fish. This also suggests that other internal organs may have mutated too, though further tests need to be conducted to confirm this hypothesis.

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Day: 6

-The fusion of Zelda’s legs seems to now be complete. All traces of her old legs have been entirely replaced with the large tail she now has. The scales on her tail have spread too, as they now fully cover the area in the middle where her legs fused together at first. Additionally, Zelda has regained muscle control of the lower half, though they now hardly resemble the legs she once had. The inhuman flexibility and lack of knees confirm that her skeletal structure too has fully changed. However, we are currently unable to test whether this would allow her to swim better in deep bodies of water, as the small pool we provided is not nearly large enough for full freedom of movement, though on land, her movement has only became far more restricted.

-Zelda noted that due to the severe changes happening to her lower body, it’s now nearly impossible for her to sit down comfortably on her buttocks, despite the outline of her butt still being visible after her transformation, the skeletal structure in her tail makes balancing on chairs or other sitting equipment very difficult, as her tail can no longer bend forward in relation to her hips. Upon much closer examination, the skeletal structure in Zelda’s tail has now fully transformed into an extended backbone, very closely matching those found on normal fish species, this would explain the difficulties she’s having in standing or sitting normally, as such a backbone is not designed to rest weight on. It’s also worth noting that Zelda’s tail felt incredibly foreign to her, as she was not used to the flexibility of movement it had further down from her hips, moving it around feels “strange” to her, and in many ways unnatural. It will be incredibly difficult for her to learn how to move around with this tail, as she has spent a whole lifetime getting used to the legs she’s had since birth.

-in addition to the changes observed in Zelda’s newly formed tail, one more change has been noted which may prove to be important later. When inspecting the location where Zelda’s buttocks used to be, we discovered some fin-like protrusions emerging from the back of her tail along her spine, reaching all the way down to where her knees used to be. They all had a very similar structure and design to the fin rays found throughout the rest of her body, wherever new fins have grown. For now, it’s recommended that Zelda simply lays down on her stomach for the majority of the day, while occasionally laying on her side if she’s comfortable with it.

-At the start of the day, Zelda also noted that her vagina, anus and breasts felt odd as well. Upon closer inspection of the former, we were able to clearly see that her internal organs and reproductive system have changed dramatically. The placement of her vagina has not moved much, though it now faces forward significantly more than it used to on her crotch. We were unable to ascertain whether her menstrual cycle and reproduction process has changed as well, though we believe that may be the case. 

Her Anus, however, has changed positions drastically. It has been relocated to the front of her tail, close to where her vagina now sits. They aren’t fully connected though, as closer inspection of Zelda’s new genital slit reveals that her rectal tract does not connect to her reproductive system. Besides their shared genital slit, which bears close resemblance to a similar slit found on most river dolphins, her internal organs seem to still be mostly the same. Though further research has to be done at a later date when Zelda has fully undergone her transformation to ascertain whether or not any internal changes have occurred.

Other than that, its functions remain the same, as the rectal tract seems to be completely unchanged. As for the complaints of her breasts, we discovered that her nipples, as well as mammary glands, have completely disappeared. Furthermore, it is unknown whether her breasts have the capability to produce milk anymore. But, even if that was the case, there would be no way to extract the milk anyway. Zelda resembles a fish much more than a mammal now, as even her ability to release milk has been removed entirely.

-The extreme dehydration issues and thirst have gotten far worse since yesterday. At first she would simply request to be placed inside her pool for only a couple of minutes once every few hours, though the stretches of time where she’d be in the pool lengthened as the day went on. Now, it’s become considerably more difficult for her to breathe normal air now, and her entire body seems to dry out completely after merely one or two hours out of water.

Dehydration effects include: loss of sight, considerable drying out of her scales, loss of muscle control, fainting, and asphyxiation. We discovered that the latter could be held back as long as we kept her gills wet, though it still wasn’t fully pleasant to her. At this rate, we decided to let her rest inside her pool for the night, as she expressed it was far easier for her to breathe in there.

-There has been some positive news, however, as we observed no changes in her arm fins whatsoever today. They are still numb to the touch for Zelda, and the numbness has spread up to her shoulders now too, but they haven’t drastically changed beyond what they were yesterday. All we can do now is hope that the numbness will pass, and that this is the final part of her transformation.

-Not only has this gamble to awaken Zelda’s hidden powers permanently altered her body, but there isn’t even a small sign that her powers have grown either.

Her physical form is estimated to be around 25% Zora, 15% hylian, and 60% standard river fish. All we can be grateful for now is that her mind has not been altered at all. Despite her clear distress and discomfort for the whole situation, her cognitive functions seem to not have changed. She is still our Zelda and our princess, though I don’t know what will become of her after our studies are complete. This experiment is unequivocally and totally, a colossal failure.

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Day: 7

-Despite everyone expecting it to be over, the rune had one final surprise left for us all today. This morning, Zelda woke up in a panicked scream, though none of us could hear it since her head was underwater at the time. When she regained her senses and stuck her head above water to yell for help, it didn’t take us long to see why she was screaming to begin with. What was left of her arms now transformed into something resembling the pectoral fins of river fish. This change suddenly happened overnight, as Zelda felt nothing peculiar happening in her body at the time. These pectoral fins were numb at first, though after a few hours, Zelda described that she could clearly feel them attached to her body. She has also shown the ability to move them slightly, though they are only able to rotate around a little on what’s left of her shoulder blades.

-Additionally, some small changes have been noted in Zelda’s tail. Firstly, the small dorsal fin Zelda grew yesterday is now fully formed. Its membrane has fully extended outwards now, as the fin rays protrude directly from her back, making one big, spiny dorsal fin, making it absolutely impossible for Zelda to lie down without hurting herself. These fins resemble those found on some fish species and, in theory, should help with steering herself when swimming in water. For her, however, it prevents her from ever sitting on a chair again, or even lying down on her back if she so pleases. Also, the tail has considerably grown in size, now stretching out to the edges of the pool. It’s grown to be much longer than normal human legs, with it currently being 1,2 meters in length when she’s lying down. if she could stand upright, her total height would have increased by 20cm. Unfortunately, the skeletal structure of her tail makes this impossible, as supporting the full weight of her body onto her tail could risk crushing it entirely.

-These changes have made it considerably harder for Zelda to rest comfortably, as she can now only rest on her stomach for the whole day. Additionally, the changes to her arms have made it impossible for her to move around when on dry land, as the only remaining muscle strong enough for her to move around with is her tail, which isn’t meant for movement outside of water. All she can do when laying down on land is flop around her tail a little, and hope to move forward ever so slightly when she does so, though before long, the aforementioned dehydration effects start to occur, and she will be required to be transported back to her pool before she asphyxiates. It was only two days ago that I noted how Zelda being an amphibian was a good thing, though now that entry is outdated, as Zelda has fully transformed into a new form of aquatic species.

-We strongly believe that with the completion of Zelda’s tail, as well as the replacement of Zelda’s arms, we may be finally reaching the end of her transformation.

So far, the only things left of Zelda’s old Hylain self are: her hair, many parts of her face, the overall shape of her torso, and her mind. There may be some more internal parts of her body which haven’t changed, though we aren’t able to confirm which parts, if any, those are. We have struck a deal with the royalty at Zora’s domain, and we are planning on transferring Zelda over to a private reservoir as soon as possible. Not only do we believe she’ll be much more free there, but this would obscure what happened to her to the general public.

So far, the only people who know about Zelda’s condition are the royal family of Hyrule, the small group of researchers from this lab, a small amount of Zora royalty, and a few other people who were close to Zelda in her old life. As far as everyone else knows, Zelda will be pronounced missing as of tomorrow.

It is with great shame that I admit my part in this, as it was my discovery of that cursed rune which destroyed our chances of stopping Ganon in time, along with permanently altering Zelda’s life for the worse.

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Post research addendum:

It has been about a week since Zelda’s transformation was fully completed, and she has been kept inside of our small pool the entire time now. We have officially asked the Zora royalty special permission to designate a small, remote reservoir with the specific purpose of keeping Zelda contained, yet comfortable. Nobody should ever discover that a transformed Zelda will be living inside, hence why a remote reservoir was chosen. That specific reservoir was picked because it has a very passive and friendly ecosystem, with there merely being some plants to supply oxygen, and some small fish for Zelda to swim with. Despite the many changes Zelda’s body went through across that one, fateful week, her digestive tract is mostly unchanged, so she should still be able to swim up for food any time it’s scheduled feeding time. The new genital slit is still uncomfortable for her however, as she expresses some discomfort when it’s handled for inspection. She cannot eat most things on her own, as she lacks fine control of her pectoral fins, so we often have to help her out with large meals. Her boyfriend, Link, often helps out with the feeding aspect specifically, hand making her her favorite meals. Despite Zelda’s drastic physical changes, her relationship with Link seems to have endured. This has considerably brightened Zelda’s mood as she realized she may not need to be alone for the rest of her life. As one would expect, she is still greatly distressed about what happened to her, and she is deeply saddened about being such a burden to everyone. However,  I feel that with Link perhaps a future is still possible. Ganon’s return is close at hand, and Zelda’s powers are in the same state they were before we began our experiments, though for now, at least, she is easing into her new life.

Further research into the cave where we found the cursed rune revealed that it was actually part of a full cave system, complete with many more ancient technologies we had never heard of. This all came to a head when we discovered a terminal similar to the one from which that rune was distilled. Upon placing the Sheikah Slate into the terminal, it gained another new ability. Attempts have been made to translate this rune to modern Hylian texts, though the translations follow no known words as far as we’ve been able to discover. Our current working theory is that this rune is damaged in some ways, and so experimentation with this rune has been strictly forbidden.

We have already achieved our result in finding ways to stop Ganon with Zelda’s radiant eggs, so undergoing more experiments would be unnecessary. Though I do confess that I’m curious as to what would have happened if we used this rune on Zelda instead. Perhaps if we had gone in through a different entrance, and found that cave instead, her life would be vastly different from what it is now.

Research addendum & notes author: Purah

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