*taps microphone* Hello? Empty room? This is Alley Cat Sunflower, bringing you yet another attempt at a multi-chapter story, which—Hylia willing—I will NOT completely abandon this time. However, since I'm 0 for 5 with finishing multi-chapter stories and my inspiration is flighty to begin with, you should expect an irregular posting schedule and frequent hiatuses.

Also, a note about the genre: I put it in "Adventure" for the sake of convenience, since this is a story about an adventure, even though it probably won't be very action-y most of the time. However, this will realistically encompass a lot more than that—most notably Humor. However, I can't in good conscience put Humor as a primary category, because it mostly involves funny moments in a darker sort of plot.

Oh, I suppose I should also explain that I treat Lorule as alternate-universe Hyrule, meaning that every event that wasn't based on the Triforce's existence still occurred. For instance, since Vaati's rise to power ultimately had nothing to do with the Triforce, he is present in the timeline. However, the incarnations of the Goddess, the Hero, and Ganon never manifested, because they were all closely involved with the Triforce.

If any of you are still reading after that admittedly daunting set of warnings and explanations, I hope I don't let you down! So, without further ado, here's the first installment of a hopefully epic saga…

For her fifth birthday, Zelda got a mysterious door in the courtyard.

It was Link's birthday too, of course, but it was Zelda's door, and more importantly, it was Zelda's Minish. She had stumbled upon the door while they were playing hide-and-seek. She had chased and caught the tiny talking creature. She had been the one trying to figure out whether she should show it to her parents, at least before it spoke up and asked her a question.

"Do you know the tale of Vaati?"

Zelda shook her head along with Link, and the Minish looked relieved, from what little she could tell of its expression. "If you let me go, I'll tell you half the story, but the other half must wait for when you are older. It is a frightening tale."

"I'm not scared of anything," said Zelda, with conviction. Link nodded, but only after a hesitation. (Scaredy-cat.)

But the Minish shook its head. "I tell my stories to good children, and good children only. The only way to hear the true ending is to be on your best behavior, and when I think you're ready to hear it, I'll tell you." It seemed to smile. "If you'd rather not, I could always use a little of my magic and disappear right now. Then you'll never even hear the beginning."

"Fine," said Zelda, just like Mother said sometimes. "Tell us the story."

"Once upon a time, there lived a magician by the name of Ezlo," began the Minish with a flourish. "He worked his miracles within the Minish world and invented many wonderful things, such as an orb that could control the weather and a cloak that always stayed warm. But all these paled in comparison to the most incredible of all his inventions: a magical hat, called the Mage's Cap, that could make any wish come true."

"Any wish at all?" asked Zelda, awestruck. She didn't know what all those words meant, but making wishes come true was something she understood. In fact, she was fascinated by it.

"Any wish at all," repeated the Minish, firmly enough that Zelda couldn't help but believe it was true. "Ezlo intended the Mage's Cap to be a gift to the royal family, because Lorule had lost its Triforce recently, and Ezlo wished to help restore it. However…"

"The Triforce got lost?" asked Link, wide-eyed. "How?"

"That is a part of your own history, little prince, not mine," said the Minish, and said no more on the subject. "Amid all this, Ezlo had an envious apprentice by the name of Vaati. He became enchanted with the wickedness in the hearts of men and began to seek power. Longing to surpass his master, he took the hat for himself so that he could become the greatest sorcerer in both worlds and turned Ezlo into a cap, too." The Minish turned back to the door. "Then he fled through this very door."

"But that wasn't here before," said Link, and Zelda nodded as he took the words out of her mouth. "It just showed up today."

"It appears only once every hundred years," said the Minish, turning back to Link and Zelda. "But that is neither here nor there for now. You see, Vaati could not contain the power of the Mage's Cap, and it turned him into… a monster."

That was where the story had ended four years ago, because the Minish—whose name Zelda had eventually learned was Telari—had left the story on a frightening cliffhanger. He probably meant it as a warning not to meddle in affairs that weren't their own. Don't take that which isn't yours. Nothing good can come of greed.

Zelda had kept that firmly in mind for four years now, trying to behave herself enough that she would be allowed to hear the rest of the tale. Each time she asked how the story had really ended, she had been ignored, but today was her birthday again. Maybe Telari would take pity on her now that she was at least a little more grown-up. "Are you ever going to tell me how Vaati turned into a monster, Telari?"

Telari looked her up and down, inasmuch as a creature so small could do so. For a long time, Zelda thought he would ignore her as usual, but to her astonishment, he sighed. "If you insist, I'll tell you, though I don't know what you can get out of knowing now. I much prefer the abbreviated version of the story. I had hoped you'd forget about the rest of it entirely," he added, his voice such a tiny mutter that Zelda could hardly hear it.

"There doesn't have to be a moral, does there?" asked Zelda, a little impatient despite herself. She had learned by now that most Minish tales had very clear morals, and also that none of them had excited her half as much as the ambiguous tale of the villain Vaati—stuck as a monster forever in her mind. For whatever reason, it held no such fascination for Link, which was why she'd sneaked off by herself today. "Can't I just be curious?"

"I suppose you can," said Telari, though he did not look pleased. "I'll begin when Vaati came through the Minish Door, then. Although the Mage's Cap had granted him almost unlimited strength, he sought one kind of power in particular: the legendary Light Force."

"The Light Force?" asked Zelda, blinking as she recognized a term. Her lessons hardly ever coincided with the stories Telari told her. "Mother mentioned that once. Isn't that the power that was passed down through the Lorulean royal family?"

"It was," said Telari, his tone approving. "Supposedly, it was a remnant of the missing Triforce, and Vaati longed to use his powers to become something like a god. Using his newfound powers, he assumed the guise of a Lorulean and attended a celebration known as the Picori Festival, for that is your name for our kind. He won a fencing tournament and was permitted to touch the sacred Picori Blade, which we gave to your people in the days before your Triforce was destroyed."

"Wait, Vaati won a fencing tournament?" asked Zelda, marveling. She'd watched Link practice with a sword for years now and, upon trying it in secret herself, discovered that it was even more difficult than he made it seem. "You didn't tell me he knew how to fight!"

"All things are possible with the Mage's Cap," said Telari evasively, and Zelda pursed her lips thoughtfully. If the Mage's Cap could give someone skill in addition to strength, it was even more wonderful than she thought. "At any rate, the Picori Blade kept a great evil sealed within the Bound Chest. However, upon winning the contest, Vaati drew the sword and used it to break the chest, believing that it contained the Light Force. Instead, he brought a great darkness upon the land, and the blade shattered as well."

Zelda crossed her arms; she would have assumed that a villain would be pleased with that kind of darkness. Telari must have sensed her thoughts, because he continued, "Although Vaati turned the princess to stone and impersonated the king so that Lorule was under his command, his desire for the Light Force consumed him so that he was unsatisfied with all he had won, and for years he continued his search. Eventually, he discovered that it had been infused within the princesses of Lorule."

"He ruled the country?" This was far from the mindless monster Zelda had always imagined Vaati to have become. She'd have assumed a villain so evil would have taken the throne by force and slaughtered the entire royal family, especially after petrifying the princess like that.

Telari hesitated, but then nodded. "He did, yes, but his rule came to an end before long. Once Vaati discovered that the princess was the true vessel of the Light Force, he attempted to drain it from her, but he had spent too long immersed in darkness, and his body rejected the light. Rather than strengthening him as he imagined, it weakened him so severely that he became a shadow of himself. He was as good as destroyed that day, and the light returned to Lorule once more."

Zelda found herself impressed despite herself. She had assumed, over the years since she first heard half the story, that Vaati's greed had transformed him into a rampaging monster, and that some hero had put him down for good. No wonder Telari didn't enjoy telling the full story, if it meant that evil hadn't been punished with a permanent end. A part of her must have wanted Telari to acknowledge that, because she heard herself say, "But he still lived."

"Yes," admitted Telari, a certain tension in his voice. "But he did fall into a deep, deathlike slumber at a certain shrine."

"Which shrine?"

Telari had always told her it didn't matter what shrine, but some years later, Zelda—paying attention to her and Link's history lesson for the first time since they had begun—learned that it was called, unsurprisingly, the Shrine of the Picori Blade.

Zelda had been staring out the window, but her attention snapped back to her instructor the moment his name passed her lips. "Shortly after the conclusion of the Eldest War, the sorcerer Vaati appeared from parts unknown to terrorize Lorule, seeking the Light Force—the last remnants of the destroyed Triforce's power. After turning the princess to stone, he seized control of Lorule Castle by impersonating the king, and ruled the kingdom with an iron fist for many years. This was the First Reign of Vaati."

"The first?" asked Zelda, before she could stop herself. "You mean he ruled more than once?" This was news to her.

The instructor looked Zelda up and down with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion, and she remembered that she hardly ever asked questions during their lessons. More often, her time was spent doodling, waiting for them to be over. "Yes, Highness, but we will come to that in a short while. During Vaati's First Reign, he discovered that the power he sought resided in the princess. Upon attempting to drain it from her, he was severely weakened and sealed in the Shrine of the Picori Blade."

"But… didn't the Picori Blade break?"

Link tossed her a startled glance from the other desk, and Zelda realized too late that she wasn't supposed to know that. Their instructor, however, seemed guardedly pleased. "Have you done your own research on this era, Highness?"

"A little," said Zelda awkwardly, dropping her gaze. She didn't want to subject herself to a pop quiz, especially since she couldn't reveal her sources. After her first meeting with Telari, she had discovered the hard way that no adult could see the Minish.

Fortunately, her instructor did not appear to be in the mood to ask questions. "Yes, the blade had been broken, but it was reforged by one of the last heroes of Lorule. In fact, it has been suggested that it was because the blade was reforged that Vaati discovered the location of the Light Force, although it is unknown how the two might have been related."

Zelda nodded. "And Vaati was sealed using that sword." Just like the sword had once sealed the Bound Chest.

"Yes. However, some centuries later, Vaati regained enough of his powers to resurrect himself, and sought to retake the kingdom. This he did with an army of monsters summoned from the depths, and once more seized control of Lorule Castle to begin his Second Reign, this time under his own name and appearance. After taking the Seven Maidens of his shrine as his concubines, he married the princess to legitimize his regime, and ruled for another hundred years."

"So long?" asked Zelda, incredulous enough that she forgot to ask what a concubine was. "Didn't he have any children?"

The instructor shook her head. "He did not, but his powers are known to have been immense, and may have slowed or even halted his aging so that he did not feel the need to pass down his position. It is believed he married the princess with the intention of preventing her from having children as well. However, the Lorulean royal line continued in secret, originating with the princess's younger sister."

Link and Zelda exchanged a glance. They'd always assumed that their lineage was a direct path backward to the first monarch, and only now did Zelda realize how ridiculous that was after over a thousand years. Judging from Link's expression, he must have felt the same way.

The instructor remained oblivious to their surprise, continuing, "The people waited, but Vaati was the first threat since the Triforce had been destroyed, and no hero rose to save the land. Eventually, the newest generation of Maidens and the aged princess combined their powers to make some great sacrifice and seal him in the Shrine of the Picori Blade once more. Nothing of the ritual is known, and any artifacts involved have been destroyed by now."

Zelda shut her mouth at first, her question having been answered, but almost immediately thought of another. "So… Vaati's just been sealed again? He still isn't dead?"

"Unfortunately not," said the instructor, and Zelda blinked a few times. No wonder Telari hadn't wanted to tell her which shrine. "However, the Triforce has been recently restored, and with it the light that brings heroes. Should Vaati rise again, which is highly unlikely now that almost a thousand years have passed, he will undoubtedly be vanquished once more."

"But if he does come back," persisted Zelda, unable to resist bringing up her new favorite point of argument, "the Triforce is ripe for the taking. You'd just have to walk into the Sacred Realm and touch it to make a wish! That's what started the Eldest War in the first place!" Upon her thirteenth birthday, she and Link were at long last permitted to see the Triforce in person. Link had been appropriately awed, but Zelda had found herself appalled at how easy it might be for some villain to seize it.

The instructor frowned. "It is no simple matter to walk into the Sacred Realm."

"It's Vaati," pointed out Zelda, though her thoughts were of the Mage's Cap and the abilities it had given him. With his drive to obtain even the last fragments of the Triforce's power, there was no way he would pass up the Triforce itself. Even if it destroyed him, he could cause unthinkable damage. "He's really strong. So strong that he can walk between worlds and rule Lorule twice, and it takes some kind of sacrifice to seal him away!"

"Walk between worlds?" echoed the instructor disbelievingly, and Zelda realized with a jolt that the Minish and their world were widely regarded as folklore, if they were known at all. "This has gone far enough, Your Highness. Now please, settle down and focus on the rest of the lesson. We are about to discuss the repercussions of the missing Triforce during that age, and how this darkening environment contributed to Vaati's multiple rises to power."

Zelda shot a resentful glance at Link, who was staring fixedly at his paper. Even after seeing for himself how vulnerable the Triforce was, he'd always refused to back her up in that particular argument. She had never understood why not. Not everyone could be expected to understand that leaving it alone was the only thing healing their broken world, and once its positive effects were less visible, anyone with enough power and dedication could take advantage and seize the throne.

Just like Vaati had already done twice, even without a Triforce to help him along.

Zelda hung her head and tried to concentrate on the next part of the lesson, but instead, her mind fixed itself on the Mage's Cap—not as a threat, as usual, but rather as a solution. If it could grant any wish at all, then she could use it to seal away the Triforce like she'd heard they had done in Hyrule. That way, her country would stay safe forever, instead of just for now.

Of course, obtaining the Mage's Cap would be another story. Given that it had never been spoken of apart from its role in Vaati's story, and Zelda's people didn't appear to know of it at all, he must still have it in his possession. (Perhaps that was even the key to his survival.) And, given that Zelda now knew where exactly he had been sealed, the only real obstacle to getting what she wanted was Vaati's strength.

It would probably take years before she'd be ready to face such a powerful sorcerer, but she had already started showing an aptitude for light magic. And if Vaati was as weak to light as the Minish suggested… well, then perhaps this would be doable after all. Just as she had received the Minish Door for her fifth birthday, the Mage's Cap would make another such perfect gift. Not this year, but someday, hopefully soon.

Zelda smiled faintly. Time to start planning the party.