Original post date: May 20, 2012

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Link found himself being dragged through the underground corridors of the castle he knew now by heart. "Zelda," he whispered in the darkness, "we've been down here a million times. What's so important?"

"I told you: I found something. Something I think you should see." She held up the torch to light another in the room they found themselves in.

To his knowledge, this room was where the cluttered storage areas ended. "I don't see anything."

"Hold on a minute!" She ran her hand over the wall, tapping her nails along the stone before finally pushing against a section. It slid back easily and soon a secret door swung open. The Princess smiled at his surprised expression. "You see?"

"What is this?"

"You'll see." She led him inside, where she placed the torch against a groove in the wall. The flame traveled the groove, lighting the room around them brightly.

He stepped toward the middle of the strange new place. A glass case holding three stones—a ruby, sapphire, and en emerald, maybe?—lay to his right. He turned to the left to see Zelda taking a blue instrument of sorts from another case. "Zelda… What is all this stuff?"

She shook her head. "I'm not entirely sure. I was looking for an old book of mine I put down here for safekeeping when I tripped and happened to press that stone." She held up the object in her hand. "Link, I think… I think this may be the Ocarina of Time."

"The Oca—what?" He reached out to take it from her.

"Don't tell me you've never heard the story!" She refused to give it to him. "Come on, everyone knows at least a snippet of the old legend…"

"Well, I don't, apparently."

She sighed and sat down on the stone ground. "Come on, this might take a while…" She waited until he was seated before her to continue. "All right, as you know, this is technically 'new' Hyrule. But it hasn't been called that for over seventy-five years now, so people sort of forgot. It's been a little over a hundred years since my grandmother founded this country, but Link, do you know why they did?"

He shrugged.

"Because one hundred years before that, the world was flooded. Old Hyrule flooded because it was invaded by evil and the three goddesses wanted to protect the Hylians, but in order to do so, they had to first wipe out the evil."

Link stopped her. "You told me that Old Hyrule was at the bottom of the ocean. That's what Tetra's journals said, right?"

"Right. Because the goddesses drowned it. The only reason why it wasn't protected in the first place was because the princess, apparently also named Zelda—"

"I think it's a family name."

She stared at him for a single moment before continuing. "Anyway, she had sent the hero on a quest to save Hyrule, which he did, but when she sent him back in time to relive the childhood she took from him, he left. And when you rewind time, it tends to repeat itself."

"So because he wasn't there, Hyrule was invaded."

"Yep. The one flaw in her plan." Zelda stood up, gesturing to the stones. "Link, she sent him to get these stones, the Spiritual Stones, so she could prove to her father that the new delegate was an evil, terrible man. When he murdered the king, she grabbed this ocarina and managed to throw it to him as she fled the castle with her nanny. She left instructions for him to go into the Temple of Time, and open the Door of Time."

"Spiritual Stones, huh?" He picked up the emerald and turned it over in his hand. The gold glinted in the torchlight.

She nodded. "But when he opened the Door of Time, he found… Well, he found that, Link." She pointed to a pedestal at the far end of the room.

He walked over to it, mesmerized by the sheer majesty of the blade. It shone with a sort of magical energy that emanated from an unknown source. The purple hilt seemed to be calling him to take it. "It's… The Master Sword."

She nodded gravely. "The Blade of Evil's Bane. When the hero took it, he opened the door to the Sacred Realm, allowing the evil to penetrate it and transform Hyrule into a hellish nightmare. When he finally awoke as the Hero of Time, he had to gather five medallions from the Sages. Once that was done, he scaled the highest tower in the castle, killed the evil responsible, and saved the princess. She then sent him back in time, and… Well, you know the rest."

He looked at her intensely. "Zelda, who was the great evil? Who caused the downfall of Hyrule?" He felt himself dreading the answer for some inexplicable reason.

"Ganondorf."

A shiver ran down his spine and he unconsciously clutched the Master Sword's hilt. It faintly hummed with an age-old energy. Zelda took no notice. "I found a song written behind the Spiritual Stones on the wall. Listen." She put the ocarina to her lips and started to play.

The notes drifted hauntingly throughout the small space, filling them both with a longing they did not understand. Link closed his eyes, engulfed in the magic. In the deep recesses of his mind, he saw rolling hills and a deep lake, a craggy mountain encircled by clouds and finally a majestic castle with white stone walls. He could see a blonde princess squeal with happiness as he agreed to help her, but he also saw the horror on her face as she fled her home. He saw later the look of amazement on a red-haired woman as he leapt over a ranch wall, taking a horse with him he knew somehow to be named Epona.

Link knew his mind was stirring with the faded, checkered memories of a past life long and forever gone. As the song ended, he shivered again. "Zelda… What was that song?"

"The Song of Time, I think." She looked down at the ocarina. "What are we going to do about this stuff? Now that I know it's here, I feel like I can't just let it sit…"

"I don't think we have a choice. We don't want history to repeat itself, do we?"

"No, but… I know!" She grabbed the Stones after giving Link the ocarina. "We can put the emerald in the Forest tree-temple thingy, and we give the ruby to the Gorons to do something with, and we put the sapphire in the giant fish underwater! That way, nobody will either find them or steal them."

"And the Ocarina? And the sword?"

"We'll keep the Ocarina here, with me. It's a Royal Family heirloom anyway. As for the sword…" She looked at it warily. "I'll commission for a Temple to be built. We'll have our very own Temple of Time, Link, only it'll just be for keeping the Master Sword safe."

He smiled slightly. "You think that'll be safe?"

"Of course! It'll be fine, Link. Trust me." She jerked her head toward the glass case. "Put the Ocarina back so we can get these Stones where they belong."

He placed it on the red velvet cushion and slid the top on. As they walked through the door, it slid shut behind them. "Zelda, how did this stuff even get down here?"

"Not sure. Maybe Niko knows." She led him back through the storage to the main hallways.

Link thought again of the memories he apparently had that were from at least two hundred years ago. He, or at least he in a past life, saved Hyrule…just for it to be destroyed. "Zelda!" He called suddenly, feeling that perhaps their plan would only make things worse.

"Hm?" She turned to him, her blue eyes shining as brightly as the sapphire she held.

"N… Never mind."

She shrugged and kept walking. He followed slowly, wishing he held the Master Sword. Somehow it made him feel better, especially now that he couldn't quite get the name of Ganondorf from his head. He felt as if he could feel the cold gaze of an invisible man, this "Ganondorf", on him as he walked through the castle of New Hyrule. "Zelda."

She stopped and whirled around. "What is it, Link? And you'd better have an answer this time!"

"When you played that song, the Song of Time… Did you…see anything?"

"See anything? Like what? You standing in front of me? Then yes, I definitely saw something."

He blonde Hylian shook his head. "No, Zelda, I meant… Did you see a memory? Only it wasn't your memory; it was someone else's memory."

She suddenly grew very quiet. With a slow nod, she looked up at him. "I did. I saw myself, only… It wasn't me. But I saw me, her, whoever it was in this great big expanse of clouds or something with…you."

"With me?"

"Yes! She was playing the Ocarina… But anyway, we have to get going. I want to at least get to the Lost Woods by nightfall. Now that we've wasted enough time talking about strange daydreams… Let's go."

Link could tell she was frightened, perhaps, of the memory that didn't belong to her. He didn't blame her. It was very discomfiting to see something that apparently you experienced centuries ago. He wanted to ask her one last question before he would change the subject, hopefully forever, from their ancient selves. "Do you think Ganondorf will return?"

She nearly dropped a Spiritual Stone. "Link! What kind of question is that?"

"Answer it, Zelda; I know you know the answer." He gripped her upper arm tightly. "Answer it."

She bit her lip before taking a deep breath. "Yes, Link. He'll be back. Was it not just one hundred years ago that he made an attempt on my grandparents' lives? They didn't kill him; they encased him in stone at the bottom of the ocean. He may not come back for ten years, or fifty, or a hundred, or even a hundred thousand; but he'll be back." She held up the ruby. "And I feel that by hiding these stones we can stave him off for longer."

"Even though it was these exact stones he wanted in order to take over Hyrule?"

"Yes. He won't be expecting that we would do the same thing. Link, please… Believe me. You do believe me, don't you?"

A nagging image crept into his head. For a split second he saw a young girl, no older than ten, pleading him the same question. "You believe me, right?" She begged, looking at him with such large blue eyes that he felt himself giving in.

And in the present, he nodded. "Yes, Zelda. I believe you."

"Great!"

Link watched her skip ahead, humming the Song of Time to herself softly. He wished again for the Master Sword in his hand, because for once he didn't feel safe at all. Though he knew he could protect himself, and his princess, he wanted the extra assurance. He wanted to hear the eerily familiar shink as it slid from a sheath, the very sound he could hear if he thought hard enough. Some things transcend even time… He began to follow, his long strides making it easy to catch up with her. But where He is involved… Is what we're doing enough?