#this is an Adjuration

[sunny-porridge]

bro at this point @not-freyja could break into my house to eat all my cheese and I’d still leave a nice comment at the end

[gia-d]

"You have to remember the love, Link 

Here. 

Let me show you."

This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja

Chapter 84: Link

[needfantasticstories]

“Many places I have been

Many sorrows I have seen

But I don't regret

Nor will I forget

All who took that road with me”

-The Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd

This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja, after 86 chapters, 300k words, and 10 months of joy, laughter, tears, heartbreak and love, has finally reached its end. 

Adjuration is a tragedy that is nothing short of an act of love. That much is clear in the passion and dedication put towards the story, the characters, and the message Freyja is trying to convey. This fic will teach you about love. About death. About the inevitability of existence and why despite knowing it will all come to an end, there is still meaning in trying and hoping and loving each other. In loving yourself. You will laugh, you will cry, you will hope and you will despair as you read this story, but you will not be able to put it down.

It’s hard to say goodbye to something that has been so important to and loved by so many people. So we won’t. Instead, we will say thank you for this incredible journey and the community this fic has built. For the friendships that have been made and the endless inspiration you have given us. Thank you for wanting to tell a story, and for letting us join you around the campfire to listen.

Thank you.

(If you like Linked Universe and haven’t yet read Adjuration, see below for spoiler free reviews of this fic and artist credits.)

This is an Adjuration is the kind of story you fall in love with, the kind of story you think keep thinking about long after you put it down. The kind you keep finding hidden details in after you think you’ve got it figured out. 

The characters are distinct and people with their own voices, motivations, relationships and histories. You’ll have your favourites but love them all. They influence how you’ll see the characters in everything else. 

It’s full of moments where everything clicks and everything before is recontextualised in a way that’s so satisfying and make the whole story very re-readable. A time travel story where all loops are already closed, where you can know but not yet understand what will happen. It’s long, complex, and beautifully, meticulously planned and detailed. It’s clever and considered, funny and heartbreaking. 

A story that whispers ‘it matters’ over and over. It is worth it to love, it is worth it if it doesn’t last forever, it is worth it to give someone a little more time, it is worth it to fight. It’s about loving others and your world and finding grace for yourself. 

It’s loss and tragedy and the cruelness of fate. It is the sacrifice and the breaking. 

Full of heart to both fill yours and break it in the best possible way. 

It’s about love. Always.

By @toyouhellohowareyou

Sometimes, it’s hard to explain to others why art moves us.

I could tell you This is an Adjuration will make you cry, laugh, and sit at the edge of your seat in anticipation. And it’s probably true - I did all of that as I read, often with a coffee in one hand, early in the morning as I got ready for the day. 

But that’s not the reason why I’m writing this.

The real reason is how it followed me during the rest of the day.

You see, at a certain point I realized this isn’t a story about Links going on adventures. Well, it does feature Links, and they do go on adventures, so let’s talk about that for a minute.

The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the characters. Each individual is unique, interesting, and exciting to follow. Not only are the Links individually compelling, but one thing that stands out in Adjuration is how the relationship between each Hero and their own worlds matter, and these connections shift, evolve, break and grow as the plot progresses.

Freyja does an incredible job of bringing together impactful storytelling with humor and heart. This is an Adjuration starts with an interesting premise, and then twists and turns in directions you wouldn’t expect. It’s rich in thought-provoking moments, soft joy and intense action, blended in with carefully crafted time travel and magic.

Adjuration sucked me into the world it builds, combining believable characters with fascinating stories, an unnervingly devious antagonist, plot twists, and lovingly crafted details that slip unnoticed until you’re surrounded on all sides. It made me cheer for characters I feel as if I’ve known intimately for years, made me worry for their safety as I would for that of a loved one, kept me hunting for hints and hidden references, pulling on a thread to try to find the end only for it to twist and loop into itself and show me a completely new side to the story.

Yes, This is an Adjuration is a fanfiction piece that explores the winding river flow of the Legend of Zelda timeline and how the stories of each Hero merge into each other. It also stands out for its heavy emotional content, and it doesn’t shy away from angst and hurt.

But to me, Adjuration is an epic journey that taught me how the choices we make, make us in turn. It’s a tragedy that deals with pain and healing, and it bares naked the non-linear nature of grief. It’s a celebration of the things that make us unique, of our flaws, an essay of the impact of little acts of love. Indeed, it’s a story about love.

I can tell you now, This is an Adjuration moved me. It still does. It has a special way to surface in my mind in unexpected ways at seemingly random times, from something as simple as tossing an apple core, to watching a lightning storm in the distance, or finding a picture of an old friend.

And every time, without fail, it makes me think about love.

By @sunny-porridge

This is an Adjuration is a wonderfully and beautifully crafted story about love, loss, and choice as the various incarnations of Link come together and travel through time. Freyja seamlessly weaves a tapestry of setup and payoff across different timelines and loops, in the best-constructed time travel plot I’ve ever seen on page or screen. Even at its surface, Adjuration is an emotional rollercoaster involving tragedy and the soft moments that make that tragedy worth it. But the deeper you look, the more meaning you can pull from every chapter of this amazing work. This work has made me cry, squeal with delight, and think more deeply about its themes all while having an absolute blast reading it. So in summary: READ IT. READ IT. READ IT NOW. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.

By @life-in-winter

While I love that every chapter is emotionally enthralling, with carefully woven, visceral tension you crave in any good story, yet Adjuration is more than that, and you feel it in the careful weave of each character and plot point. Nothing is lost or unanswered. It's the kind of story that, by the end, makes you stop and take a hard look at your own life. Are you appreciating the now? Are you savoring joy? Are you so wrapped up in fear that you can hardly take care of yourself? Do you know who you are?

This story is more like an external experience. It's riding atop a tsunami. How do you handle that ride, Link?

There aren't enough words to describe how amazing this fic is.

@needfantasticstories

Artist credit

Legend: @gia-d

Hyrule: @bittirsweeteer

Time: @toonblade

Sky: @noorahqar

Warriors: @whitewinterstar

Wild: @weavingstarlight

Twilight: @bluury2

Wind: @thewitchdoctor39

Four: @lunaopus

Red: @peepthatbish

Blue: @glowingmin

Green: @winterfen

Vio: @waterfallstream

Shadow: @deleetrix

Wolfie: @linkiscool333

Fierce Deity: @awildsilver

Ravio: @lele5429

Malon: @tooner-tastic

Dink: @passerinesoncaffeine

[not-freyja]

Afterwards

Today, the 30th of May, 2025, marks exactly one year since I published the final chapter of This is an Adjuration. In recognition of this strange anniversary, I would, my dear, dear class, like to tell you another story.

Called many things—The Adjuration, "Freyja's fic," and The Damn Fic—This is an Adjuration is a 300k word beast of a story about grief and inevitably, yes, but mostly about love. About choosing to love, as a radical act of defiance, no matter the cost. I can, and will, talk about this book all day.

But I'm not here to do that. I'm not here to talk about the story.

Instead, today, one year since its completion, I have gotten out my keyboard to talk about writing it.

I have always been a story teller. A childhood spent inventing worlds and plots to pass the time in the woods. Scary stories around campfires. And when I was twelve, I took my first crack at writing a novel.

It wasn't very good.

But that feeling, that indescribable feeling of having written—it was the best feeling in the entire world.

So, I chased it.

I wrote everything, everything that I could. I wrote poetry, short stories, music. I attacked each piece of English homework with the tenacity of a rabid dog. I started writing fanfiction.

And then, one day, I got brave enough to start posting the fanfiction. To take the piece of my heart that I had carved out with a fountain pen and place it in the digital commons for others to read.

(It still wasn't very good.)

And I want you to know, I do not mean that as an insult to my younger self. They were doing the best that they could, and getting better at it day by day. But the work that I was writing as a middle schooler did, in fact, read like it was written by a middle schooler.

The comment section responded in kind. The internet can be a cruel place. But that didn't stop me.

Fast forwarding, I grow up. Life was what life is. Big and beautiful and painful and messy and—

For the sake of my dignity, I will skip the details; but by 2019, I was… not okay. More than not okay—I was bad. Very bad. In fact, I was actively suicidal.

I kept writing, though. Kept telling stories. Kept trying to make sense of the world through the eyes of people that don't quite exist. I don’t know why, not really. Maybe it was because reality was gentler, easier to swallow, through eyes other than my own. Regardless of why, I kept at it, a compulsion that seemed as inevitable as the dawn.

The world turns, and Freyja writes.

And I kept living.

More bad things happened. Some small, some life changing. And so much joy, and beauty, though it was difficult to see it at the time. But then the worst thing—out of all the terrible things I will keep to myself—happened:

I stopped writing.

I put the pen down. More than that, I wanted the pen gone. Broken. De-nibbed. I tore through my ao3, deleting work after work. I chucked notebooks in the fire. In hindsight, it was madness, but at the time the logic was painfully, brutally simple: my words were me, and I wanted me gone. I hated myself, and everything I touched. I bathed myself in shame, and rage, and I thought poison to be a shield against the weight of the world.

…It was a bad time.

Fast forwarding again. It's 2023, and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out. I play it, of course—LOZ has been a longtime love of mine. I could, and have, written entire essays on that game and its merits (and faults) but… what matters is that I felt it, that old love of storytelling, again. That feeling—it came back to me, playing that game. That old familiar feeling of a story welling itself up inside of my chest and begging to be let out.

I decided to be brave. I decided to pick the pen back up.

First, I wrote the ending, something sorrowful and tragic and final: the exact feeling inside of my own heart.

Then I wrote the prologue, that first step through a one way door for Link.

And I wrote, though I did not know it at the time, that first step for me as well.

See, what you have to understand about me, class, is that I get a bit too attached to fictional characters. I know that they aren't real, that they are constructed vessels for abstract ideas, but even so, I get attached. Very attached.

So with one hell of a story to tell about my dear friend Link, I had a goal. Simple, achievable, and brutal. I would tell his story, and then I would die.

Yeah… surprise, the damn fic started out as a very long-form suicide note. Started out, I say, because it didn't stay that way.

Link—Legend, rather—and I were bound together. He and I stumble into the narrative in the depths of depression and suicidal ideation, the only thing keeping him alive is the fact that he has too many responsibilities to die. The narrative (the act of writing it) gives both of us one more mark of accountability.

Legend is convinced that he will die on this quest. I am certain I will after it. Neither of us had any idea how wrong we were.

In the first chapter, the prologue, I sent us (Link and I) on a quest. His was to save himself. Mine was—I thought—to tell a story. There was a non zero chance that we both failed. The odds were stacked against poor Rulie, and the Chain entire. I hadn't written in years.

In the second chapter, I dragged Legend out of retirement. But more importantly, I dragged myself out of retirement. Adding a second chapter felt like a promise. A commitment. This wasn't just a few words slapped together anymore, this was a narrative.

And the narrative continued.

Chapter after chapter, I shouted into the void in a combined caterwaul of Link's struggle and my own. There were times it grew difficult to write. Arcs and scenes and deaths came that were a true struggle to write, technically, and emotionally. As I said, Link is, to me, a very dear friend. Hurting him so brought me no pleasure (though some of the class' reactions did spark joy—back to that later).

But the narrative continued.

There were days where I was the problem. Where the darkness in my own mind had claws. Where sharp objects and chemical induced oblivion sang like a siren. Life was too much, and too little, and I didn't want to be here anymore. On those days, I wrote twice as fast.

And the narrative continued.

Humans tell stories, you know? It's one of the things that makes us human in the first place: that driving need to weave tales, to search for metaphor and truth in fabricated reality. A tradition that stretches back to the first campfire, the first story.

The story teller talks, and the audience listens, huddled up together in the dark.

That was the image in my mind, as I posted chapter after chapter. I sat before a campfire, telling a story to myself, staring into the flame for fear of what could be waiting in the darkness.

And slowly, people came to sit next to me. They came in the form of a familiar username, leaving a comment after an update for the fifth chapter in a row. Questions. Debates between readers about theories. Drawn out conversation in the comments, breaks in the narration spent not with my own thoughts, but with the audience. You were there. Link and I were no longer alone.

Here, the pressure increased manifold. For adjuration is a word that means two things, and one of those things is a promise, solemn vow. The other is a plea, an earnest urging. I promised Link that I would finish his story, no matter what. I begged him not to leave me while I did. Link and I had a deal, an understanding even, writ large across the story in entire. That this—this work of fiction—is an adjuration.

And then there you were, class. And our adjuration expanded to hold you. "Don't abandon the story," you pleaded.

"I won't. I couldn't," I promised.

The adjuration went the other way, too. "Stay with me. Trust me. Come with Link and I to the end," I begged you.

"We're here. We're listening. Around the fire," you vowed.

And we all kept our promises, didn't we?

The narrative continued.

Somehow, readers became friends. Some of them became family. What was a collection of anonymous usernames are now—somehow—the people I love most.

I will not go on to highlight any specific person, any particular relationship. If I were to begin, I would not stop, and this would become a very long afterword. (Yeah, yeah "15 chapters," I know.) But if you are sitting here, wondering if I am talking about you when I speak of my friends that I made on ao-fucking-3… yes. Yes, I am.

I shouted into the void, and you called back.

Through over three hundred thousand words, eighty six chapters, and ten months, we saw the story through to the end. Link's journey was over. And as for me, well… I had finished telling the story. The metaphorical campfire banked low.

I looked up, at my audience, and I saw how many of you there really were. I tried to prepare myself for the dissolution of our fellowship. Our reason to be together was concluded. People that I had now come to know, to love, had no further use for me.

It was time for you all to leave.

But you didn't. You threw more logs into the fire. "Thank you for the story," you said. "Would you like to listen to mine?"

I would. I really, really would.

It's been a year, now. With no "use" to these relationships. You came for a story, I told it; when it was over, you stayed.

Writing that story was my purpose, for a while. My literal reason for living. Now, a year later— where am I? Who am I?

Well, if you read the Damn Fic, then you know. I am every version of myself that I have ever been. I am a kid who likes stories. I’m a student. I’m a teacher. I’m an addict. I’m staying up way too late writing. I’m in line for a ride with you at Disney World. I’m laughing at a stupid joke. I’m 16 and thinking I won’t live past 25. I’m on the phone with my friends, playing the dumbest game. I’m way past 25. I’m at yet another funeral. I’m at a wedding. I’m getting dumped. I’m falling in love. And I’m so much more, all at once.

And I'm still alive, here in the afterwards, one year past my expiration date.

I have so many more stories to tell you guys. I hope you like them. I hope I tell them well.

The narrative continues. I’m sticking around, and that is an adjuration.

[lele5429]

I cannot describe the kaleidoscope of emotions I got from reading @not-freyja ’s “References” before bed time after a long day of academic work.

So I’m going to process this with drawings. This is my first “large scale”-ish fan art project.

Again, if you’ve not read Freyja’s brilliant 19k chapter, go have a wild ride!

[toonblade]

So I love Linked Universe, and have been engrossed by the amazing fanfic This is an Adjuration by the extremely talented @not-freyja. Been reading it and following it for the last few months, and uh, got some inspiration for a concept for a future Wind, post-Adjuration.

Drew him, and the lovely folks in the Discord server that I like to call the Adjunation wanted me to post it, so... here! Future Wind! Carrying the memory of his brothers wherever he goes!

[bluury2]

follow up from the poll I did of legend vs four kinda

SPOLIERS FOR CHAPTER 61 OF THIS IS AN ADJURATION

If vio doesn’t looked shocked and doesn’t realise how much he missed him, then I don’t want him.

Based on this part of @not-freyja fic called This Is an Adjuration

“Magic thumbs higher, an unsettling ripple of power cutting through the air. It’s Dark and choking and so horribly familiar. Vio takes a step forward, and Legend draws his sword.

Between one blink and the next, he’s just there. Floating in a magically suspended lounging position, as if he were draped across some chair nobody else can see. He’s just as he was the last time Green saw him, messy bangs and cap and all.

The spitting image of Link’s younger self grins his typical taunting smile, lazily twirling a knife between his fingers.

“So…” Shadow’s smile flashes into something like a threat, baring his teeth. “Got room for another Link in this chain?”

[penguinly]

finished reading adjuration by @not-freyja. i am not okay. the ending will always be the same and i will always be here hoping that they’ll be happy. i’ve already done the adjuration tumblr tag and fic comment stalking. i know i’m not the first person to say that this fic is a fucking masterpiece. to freyja, i know i am just another reader with a bunch of pixels and vectors on the internet but i sincerely hope that you understand just how amazing you are. you’ve made thousands of people feel a feeling and that’s really fucking cool.

@i-love-zelda-16 thank you for giving me the final push to read adjuration. i’d been eyeing that word count for a while and every fucking word was fucking worth it.

[deleetrix]

In the This is an Adjuration discord @glowingmin said something funny about what the chain’s response would be to Shadow’s “Got room for another Link in this chain?” question. So, inspired, I VERY hastily sketched this addition to my art from the other day.

[libr-0-cubicularist]

So how y'all coping with chapter 59?

I am incredibly normal about This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja (lies)

[gia-d]

Back in October last year, I started reading This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja.

By the time I had made it to chapter 5, I had already started typesetting this story as I read because I knew this would be one of those stories that I needed to have on my shelf.

When I finally caught up to the story at chapter 31, I begged the author to let me bind this when it was finished.

Nearly a year later, and what is probably the most important bind of my life is finally finished. Check out these glamour shots, and if you want to hear more about the actual binding process and about how this fic actually changed my life, see below.

So funny story, before I get into the technical side of this bind, but this fic actually changed my life. Not as in I was greatly emotionally moved by the story, though don't get me wrong I absolutely was, but genuinely this fic introduced me to some of the best people I have ever had to privilege of knowing (Hello Class, you know who you are 🩷), and also, it introduced me to Freyja, the incredibly talented author, who, as I type this, is curled up in bed next to me fast asleep after flying half way around the world to go on a two week long date with me.

Moral of the story folks is comment on the fics you like. You might accidentally meet the love of your life on, and I can't believe I'm saying this, AO3.

Anyways, about the bind!

This bind was a challenge from day 1. I had to do the typeset for this 300k word fic 4 times, and had to split it across 2 volumes. This was the longest fic I have ever attempted to bind, and it was so thick I couldn't get it in the paper trimmer.

To make this book as durable as possible, I attempted a few techniques. I secured it with 3 tapes, I made an Oxford hollow, I rounded the spine, I made a slipcase and I used 2.3mm boards where normally I use 1.8mm.

The slipcase is covered with embossed faux leather, buckram and plain ribbon, and lined with gold satin fabric. I've never made a slipcase before so this was an experience.

The books are covered with an emerald green silk finish bookcloth which really gave the books the luxury they deserved. I foiled custom end papers as well as every chapter title page using heat reactive transfer foil on toner ink (never again I am never doing that again omg it took days). Huge thank you to @la-sera for letting me use her artwork which helped inspire this fic!

The grey flashback chapters I had to use HTV for the border decoration and I'm very happy with how that turned out because it was so easy and straight forward, unfortunately it just wasn't viable for the whole book.

It feels weird to finally have these books done. They have my blood, sweat, tears and my heart poured into them, and I've been working on them for so long that it's odd to actually have them finished. I'm so proud of this bind, and feel like I've grown so much as a fanbinder by making these.

Anyways, if anyone has any questions about the process, please don't hesitate to ask!

(and if you are an Linked Universe fan and haven't read Adjuration yet, this is your sign!)

[i-love-zelda-16]

HELP

I’M READING THIS IS AN ADJURATION FOR THE FIRST TIME (45% through)

I AM NOT OKAY—

(edit:

I AM EVEN MORE NOT OKAY RIGHT NOW, OH MY GOSH—)

[wildlysilver]

Warning!!

Spoilers for This Is An Adjuration by NotFreyja on Ao3 under the cut!

Blood, implied/referenced Character Death

This scene in chapter 60 of This Is An Adjuration by @not-freyja (apologies for the ping) on Ao3!

This scene made me so damn sad so I attempted to draw fanart of it. I'm not very good at this type of genre of art but I tried lmao. It's such a good fic, and if you get a chance to and haven't already, go read it!!!

Also a thank you to Ghoul--chan in the LU server for help with Sky's arm posing by supplying references of their figurine in a similar pose.

[lele5429]

Is this what Rulie has under this crop top up his sleeve?

Meme edit based on a brilliant idea by @not-freyja

[not-freyja]

No excerpt this time, just me politely informing you that this is, in fact, the last chapter.

I did it. We did it.

What a ride.

[weepingtalecowboy]

Linda be like …

Fanfic prompt: A thing I noticed about the timeline

Many theories have Been created that in link to the past the wish got out of hand

But I think it could go deeper

The wish was to undo the damage caused by ganon

Undo is a much different word to fix

And thinking about it when the hero of time traveled back in time he literally undid the damage caused by ganon

The hero of time’s existence is part of the wish and perhaps any other link afterwards would also work to undo the damage

But that opens up so much more room for problems

Beyond hylia dying and reincarnating to use the triforce we have no idea what part the first link played

We don’t truly know who the first link was or how skyloft was sent up into the sky

The time portals send link around between the future and the past

Time portals suspiciously similar to the time travel instrument like the harp of ages (a set destination and for all they say time stone ..time essence is like a powder version of it as it works the same way)

But by technicality link to the past is a prequel to adventure of link making that link the first one even if the timeline disagrees

The wish to undo the damage caused by ganon would literally explain the reason why a link keeps spawning to go mess ganon's life up

Perhaps another hero of legend before this one could have wished the same thing

It's nothing new that the Zelda timeline is very much time travel heavy

A paradox inside a paradox is not that special or new

Even funnier would be if we consider the theory that legend is related to fable

Then Linda would exist

And for all they say fun stuff cadence of Hyrule would let legend genuinely pull a hylia because he can’t truly die regardless

If gods cannot use the triforce what is more like a god than immortality and a bunch of powers

(Honestly thinking about it this explains why hylia and demise keep reincarnating and drag link along because if they ascend back to godhood then they can’t use the triforce and while hylia seems chill with it demise definitely has it out for the triforce so hylia keeps respawning drags link along and they go back to beating each other up)

The chain probably would freak out about it