Nothing belongs to me, except the overly-long storyline.

This is a direct sequel to Destiny's Opus: Finale, but you can probably follow along if you pick up straight from the end of Ocarina of Time. I've applied my own interpretation to many things the game never gave us, but (hopefully) there will be little to no contradictions to canon. Update: as of Twilight Princess, this fic is no longer canon-compliant due to a few background details. Not going to stop my plans, though!

This story covers the span of seven years, and at my pace it'll probably take even longer to write. Don't wait up for me...

Destiny's Opus: Overture

-.-.-.-.-

"Melodies of life,
Come circle round and grow deep in our hearts,
As long as we remember."

- "Melodies of Life", Final Fantasy IX

-.-.-.-.-

Oh, you've come...

The words were in her mind, in her throat, but somehow they were lost to the whisper of the wind before she could voice them. Zelda stared at the Kokiri boy before her, her heart alight with a thousand emotions. Relief mixed with irrational anxiety. Joy amidst the taste of bittersweet. What had happened to her since this parting?

Had there been a parting? Had it been that long? Yet it felt like a lifetime had passed away since their last meeting, though it was only five, no, six days since she had last seen his face. She had counted while she waited and whiled away those days. Waited for the end of Evil's reign. Waited for his return. Simply waited.

Time was fleeting, and the world had been dark. Water had dripped onto her knees as she huddled beside Impa in a deep grotto beneath Kakariko's old graveyard, moisture and dirt soaking into the light silk dress she had not had time to change out of. Hidden away in the narrow tunnel with next to no knowledge of outside news, Zelda could only pray for her father, herself, and the future of her land, her mind conjuring horrible images fueled by memories of foreboding dreams.

And often, though she had known it was selfish, she prayed for the brave boy in green she last glimpsed at the city gates, his face tense with shock and resolve. Had he heard, by now, the message spell she had hurriedly woven into the Ocarina with all her heart? Or had Ganondorf's nightmare-black steed cruelly trampled him down? The latter thought was too horrible to bear, yet she could not help but morbidly wonder, for the possibility was all too real and she had no way of knowing. It was too dark beneath the earth, beneath the sky looming with smoke-gray clouds, and try as she might, Zelda heard nothing from the world above but the croaks of passing Guay.

It was dusk of the second day when the light came to her. At first it was merely a fluttering in the air, like an echo of wind from somewhere far away, but then it grew until the tension swirled all around her. Zelda had been frightened, alone as she was in the dark, wishing that Impa had not left her for something as trivial as scouting for news. But at length she felt something shifting inside her, building up a sort of ticklish feeling in her heart, and then her breath caught in her throat and light filled her vision until she could see nothing more.

She had awoken to Impa's anxious face, the dark-painted Sheikah mouth speaking to her many blurry things she had been too dazed to make sense of at the time. Some of it she still did not understand now, and she thought some perhaps eluded even her wise nursemaid's grasp. Still, Zelda managed to glean bits of perplexing news even in her confusion: Ganondorf had vanished from Hyrule without sight or sound, a part of the holy Triforce had somehow chosen her as its guardian, and most puzzling of all, the Master Sword stood firmly in its pedestal, with no sign of the boy who had loosened it from its slumber.

Though the land now seemed to settle back into normality, Zelda found it hard to settle her heart with the same ease. The looming threat had passed them by like a bad dream, and with it, a feeling that something enormous, that perhaps should-have would-have been, had been averted. The world seemed still unreal to her, as if some subtle detail was out of tune amidst the recovering kingdom.

Floundering for solidity, she looked now to Link, hoping there would be some sign, some hint from the heavens that this was not some trick of the light, or another one of her vivid dreams.

"I'm back," he said.

And suddenly, the spell was broken.

"Link!" She flew down the steps to meet him, flinging her arms around his shoulders and knocking him nearly off balance. "I was so worried... Ever since Ganondorf's defeat I've been waiting for news. We didn't know what had happened to you when you opened the portal to the Sacred Realm, and I was afraid I might never see you again..."

Link abruptly pushed away from her, faint alarm gleaming in his eyes. "You don't... remember?"

"What do you mean? Of course I remember - don't you?" Puzzlement brushed her mind as she tried to determine what he was supposed to remember and she was not. "Oh—I guess you might not, if you've been gone all this time... What happened to you, Link?"

He ignored her question, and gripped her by the arms. "Tell me what happened."

"With Ganondorf and the Triforce, you mean? Well, this is only what I've heard from Impa, but... After you pulled out the Master Sword in the Temple of Time, Ganondorf broke through the gateway you opened and entered the Sacred Realm. He got his hands on the Triforce... but somehow it sealed him into the Sacred Realm before he could escape." Her nerves faltered for a moment, but the words burst out regardless, "I was so scared that you had been sealed inside too, and nobody knew where you were..."

His eyes had grown oddly wide. "I was... I went back to the forest. To... see if everything was okay there." He swallowed. "It took a couple of days."

"So was everything okay?" Surely it was, or else why would he be standing here so quietly before her? She barely waited for his mute nod before picking up her thoughts, "I didn't think things would turn out like this... Do you think Ganondorf's really gone?"

"Yeah, he's—" Link struggled over his words for a moment. "I, uh, I'm pretty sure he won't be coming back anytime soon."

"How do you know?"

Link hesitated, as if weighing shadows in his mind. "I think I saw him, in the Sacred Realm," he said, very quietly. "He was angry."

"No wonder, since we thwarted his ambition so badly..." She frowned. "You met him in there? Wasn't it dangerous? Did he... did he do anything to you?"

"No, I think we just... passed by each other..." A lost expression crossed his face, but he shook it off quickly. "But the Triforce - it's safe, right?"

She nodded earnestly, glad for a topic she could actually explain. "Do you know, the ancient legends actually came true! The Triforce split up into three pieces, because the one who touched it was not pure of heart... Ganondorf claimed Power, but he couldn't reach the other two parts. Somehow the Triforce of Wisdom came to me, and there's still the third piece, Courage; we're not sure of its whereabouts..."

Wordlessly Link turned up his left hand to her. There, shining golden on the back of his hand, was the unmistakable emblem of the sacred triangle.

"So you are the third chosen bearer! That symbol appeared on my hand too. It's not as bright as yours now, but at first..." She laid her hands over his, noticing that her own mark grew more luminous in response. "What do you suppose are the chances, that we—"

(stones crumbling running through fire an enormous monster, wielding twin weapons as big as—)

She blinked in shock, and the image was gone. "Link, what...?"

He had abruptly turned quite pale. "Nothing... that was nothing. I don't know what..." But Zelda noticed he had hurriedly tucked his hands behind his back.

"Just then... I thought I saw..."

Link quickly shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's not... Everything's over now."

A strained silence dropped between them. Zelda wanted to ask further, but something in his tight voice made her pause. He seemed so brittle all of a sudden, all hard edges and unbudging glass and not at all like the eager forest child who surprised her in her courtyard months ago. In spite of herself, a bubble of concern grew in her heart - just what had he seen during his time in the Sacred Realm?

Gingerly she reached out to touch his arm. "Link, are you really okay...?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He slipped away from her hand, and gave her a brief smile that she tried to believe was heartfelt. "I'm glad to be back. It's nice to be able to see you again."

The tone of his voice still worried her, but before she could find the words to form a question, a thought seemed to strike him, and he pulled something from his pockets. "I came to return the Ocarina. I thought you might... want it back..."

She took the small instrument from him carefully, fearing as though she might, somehow, break something in this fragile moment. "Thank you," she whispered, wanting to say much more but not knowing the words. "Thank you for everything, Link."

Link took a deep breath and stepped back, a strange light in his eyes. "I guess... this is good-bye, then. Since the threat to Hyrule's over, I shouldn't be sneaking into the castle anymore..."

"Oh, no!" She clasped her hands to her breast in an earnest plea. "Please, I would like it very much if you could come visit again... It would be nice to have someone to talk to besides just Impa and the castle guards, and they're all so boring..."

A visible breath of relief seemed to melt over him. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not!" Had he been worried all this time over such a simple thing? Her heart leapt at the unspoken sentiment, but Zelda stifled it with a giggle and dropped into a practiced curtsy. "As Crown Princess of Hyrule, it would be my pleasure to extend to thee, Link of the Kokiri, a formal invitation to the castle grounds upon any occasion, by royal authority, and sanctioned decree, and such and such boring officialities. Now wouldst thou accept?"

His face warmed into a genuine grin, and at last her world grew a little bit brighter. He matched her with an equally mock-serious bow, "It would be my pleasure, Princess."

.

Continued...