The Adventure of Link

Chapter Thirty: The Curse is Broken

When Link and Sing appeared in the outside courtyard of the North Palace, everyone, servants, guards, even the horses stopped what they were doing to watch as they carried the reclaimed Triforce into the main hall, where they were met by the equally astonished Façade, Zelda, Miranda, and Agahnim. Everyone there had placed complete faith in the Lord Sheriff that if anyone had been capable of this historic feat, it was him, but still… to see it accomplished with their own eyes was unbelievable.

"Come on, all of you, to the altar!" The Queen said excitedly. "It's time to break the curse!"

With no objections to be heard, the small group headed into the unused north wing where the original Princess Zelda had been sleeping for so long, and even Impa caught up to them eventually, having finally learned how to control her new faerie wings. Once inside the chamber, however, something unexpected happened; the Triforce of Courage left Link's hands as it floated over toward the two others, while Wisdom and Power began to float as well, spinning slowly at the top of the altar above Zelda.

Slowly the three different color pyramids moved closer together, seeming to lock into an even large pyramid shape, and glowing with a soft yellow light while all of them assumed the same golden color that the Great Palace's walls had been. The whole thing now hovered above the sleeping Princess while the small group moved closer, and the Lord Sheriff's tattoo found itself glowing one last time… compelling him to come even closer.

"We are the Triforce." All three voices explained in unison. "Once separated for the sake of all creation, we are now again whole… whole and balanced in our wisdom, courage, and power… thanks to you, Link. In our gratitude, we will grant you a wish… anything your heart desires, Link."

For a moment the words of his Shadow filled the Lord Sheriff's mind, and he realized that with the power of any single wish, he could have had anything he wanted. He could have had the Kingdom, eternal life, wealth, women, anything he wanted… but after taking a quick look at his friends, Link realized how foolish and selfish such thoughts were… especially since he already had everything he wanted.

"I wish, more than anything." He began, looking up at the completed Triforce. "For Princess Zelda to awaken; break the curse and free all those affected by it. The trial masters, the trapped heroes under Midoro Swamp, everyone."

"Your wish will be granted." The Triforce replied, flashing yellow for a second. "It is done… those trapped by the curse are free, and Zelda will soon wake… while it is we who must rest. We return now to the Golden Land, where we will await the proper time to return… as we did when Hyrule was in its infancy… goodbye."

In another flash, the golden Triforce vanished into thin air, but then the attention of everyone in the room was shifted to the sleeping Princess… the Princess who moved. Shaking her head a little at first, and then taking a full breath with her opening mouth, the blonde haired original Princess Zelda opened her eyes. Everyone was speechless as she slowly sat up on the alter, but it was Sing who reacted first; throwing her arms around the Princess and starting to cry her eyes out.

"I'm sorry, Zelda, I'm so sorry!" The dark haired magician sobbed. "You treated me like a sister, and I put you to sleep… please forgive me, Zelda, I'm sorry!"

"Sing?" The blonde Zelda asked, suddenly smiling while hugging her back. "Sing, it's you, it's really you! Don't cry, silly, of course I forgive you… I forgave you so long ago… can we be sisters again?"

The dark haired magician hugged her tightly while nodding her head, and then after a final embrace, Sing stepped away so that the brown haired Zelda could help her revived ancestor stand up for the first time in hundreds of years. The mood across the whole room was complete happiness, with Miranda starting to cry while Agahnim held her, and Façade just kind of standing there stupidly while saying 'there's two of them… there's two Zeldas' with a kind of half smile on his face.

"Link?" The Princess said after noticing him. "Thank you for freeing me, and… I know that what I told you wasn't what you wanted to hear, but…

"Princess, I'm just glad to see you awake." The Lord Sheriff interrupted, giving her a quick hug. "But don't waste any more time with me, I'm sure the Queen wants to show everything in Hyrule that's changed since your time."

The revived Princess smiled at him while returning the hug, but then she put something into his hand, before the Queen started helping her down the altar's stairs. Agahnim and Miranda followed, as did the flying faerie Impa, with Façade bringing up the rear with an even bigger smile on his face while repeating 'I've got two Zeldas'. There was certainly going to be a lot of celebrating going on in Hyrule, once word of the revival spread, but right now the Lord Sheriff had something else on his mind.

"I can't believe the curse is just… over." Sing said, looking down at the altar. "It's been a part of my life for so long, and then suddenly I'm not even an enemy of Hyrule anymore, so what should I do? Travel? Become a Court Magician again?"

"Sing, will you marry me?" Link blurted out.

The dark haired magician was caught off guard by this, but seemed to realize what was happening when he got down on one knee, and held out the ring… that Princess Zelda had just given him from her finger. For a moment she just stood there with a dumbfounded look on her face, but then it slowly spread into a smile when she gave him her hand, and the ring was slid into place.

"Yes!" Sing exclaimed, leaping into his arms when he stood up. "Yes, oh, Link, I love you! Yes!"

They kissed for a while, holding each other on top of the now empty altar, until starting to hear the bells on the palace starting to ring. It looked like it was about to be announced that Princess Zelda had awoken, so Link and Sing hurried down the stairs and back into the occupied part of the palace, where they would be able to join in the celebration. The future of the Kingdom of Hyrule looked bright indeed, and the two of them wanted to be a part of it right from the start.

Meanwhile… somewhere… nowhere…

With a sharpened rock being used to scratch another tick mark for how many days had been spent in this… place, Ganondorf the sorcerer hung his head as he realized just how many marks had been made since his forced retreat from Link and his allies. In his haste to save his own life, the sorcerer had used a powerful traveling spell that had been supposed to take him far away… but things had not gone exactly as planned.

This place certainly looked like Hyrule; beautiful with a sunlit landscape made of dozens of different shades of gold colors, where forests and rivers were in the same place as they had been before… but the whole place was empty. Well, all right, there had been a few random encounters with people who were even more lost and confused as to their location than he was, so while these… stragglers ran around all frightened, the sorcerer had chosen to isolate himself… inside of an empty golden palace.

It was easy enough to keep others out of his new home, thanks to his great strength and magic, but no matter how long he had sat there pondering and investigating his situation, no solution came to mind. It was so frustrating to be standing inside the North Palace of Hyrule, but know that it was just some kind of golden mockery, but then there was an incredible golden light that made him jump as something appeared next to the throne. It was a golden triangular formation of three pyramids, and although glowing at first, the light faded as if going to sleep.

"And what do we have here?" Ganondorf asked, coming closer to take a better look.