I am dreaming of my father when Roselin shakes me awake. "Milady, you must get up. The king has summoned you."

I sit up immediately upon registering her words, feeling strangely alert. Save for me and my maidservant, the castle seems eerily still. Warily I look around; the bedchamber is pitch black, so dark that I wonder if the shadows have draped the castle in its funeral shroud in anticipation of our deaths. Could that be what Ganondorf wants, for me to save us from death now, as I supposedly did so long ago? "Is it dawn?" I have to ask.

"No, milady, but milord wants you all the same." Something in her tone urges me into action. I slide from bed and slip my nightgown over my head, done with false modesty for the moment. The thought nags at me that Ganondorf won't wait much longer.

I concentrate on the alien sensation coursing through me as my maidservant lays out a change of clothes. Quickly Roselin lights a candle, spicing the air with the scent of peony, but its flame is feeble. I can barely see myself as she helps me dress in the simple garb, saying nothing all the while. It's not the almost sexual allure of hunger I feel, as I always do when Ganondorf summons me in the night, but rather a panicky sort of anxiety – the sense that something must be done now. The feeling makes my skin crawl with unease.

By the time I am dressed, I feel more anxious than ever. As Roselin leads me without my chambers and towards Ganondorf's apartments, I have to swallow the urge to tell her to hasten her steps. I would leave her behind, but… Somehow, I find myself reluctant to leave the circle of light our lone candle provides as we make our way through the hallways. The light is sullen and weak, and all around us waits the dark. There's no protection from my thoughts here. In the dark, fears are born. In the dark, the monsters win.

"Here we are," Roselin announces uselessly as we come to a stop at the door before Ganondorf's apartments. It's a simple enough door, thick and oaken, yet nothing has ever seemed as imposing to me as it does in this moment. I consider it as Roselin considers me, and in the consideration time ticks away ceaselessly. Finally, I steel myself against whatever it is that my husband would have of me. I haul in a deep breath and open the door.

I enter to see Link unconscious at Ganondorf's feet, with my husband's sword pointed level with his throat. "Let her go and leave us," he commands Roselin, never moving. The girl lets me loose without as much as a word. I want to hate her…

All the while I stand still watching the frightening tableau before me, feeling ever sicker when I hear Roselin pull the door closed. Looking upon Link's prone form and the sinister gleam of Ganondorf's dark blade, my mind races with manic thoughts, and each one is more absurd than the last. I try to muster the courage to go to Link's side, try to master my racing heartbeat, but I cannot so much as bring myself to speak. Finally I manage to ask, "Did you kill him?"

Ganondorf gives me a cool look and never speaks. My eyes find his free hand, and I watch detachedly as he closes it to form a fist. Thick blood seeps between his fingers; I barely have time to realize the magnitude of that before phantom fingers close around my throat, and then my mind goes blank.

When I come to, I find myself collapsed on the stones. My throat hurts fiercely, I realize…and I'm greedily sucking in air, as if I've been deprived of it. He must have choked me through our blood link, I know now. The thought disquiets me more than words can express. I haul air into my aching lungs and rub my watery eyes, trembling all the while. "Did you think I wouldn't find out, Zelda?" Ganondorf hisses. "What was it that I told you once? Ah, yes, now I remember. There are no secrets kept from the king."

I say nothing, still not trusting my voice and hoping against all hope that Ganondorf does not know the full truth of things. After a few moments to collect myself, I rise to my feet, still feeling weak and unsteady. Link stirs at that. "Zelda—" he calls out, his voice weak and papery.

"Do not presume to say my wife's name." His foot shoots out and connects sharply with Link's ribs, making him cry out in renewed agony.

"Don't!" My reservations can hold me back no longer. I run over to Link and throw myself over his body as a crude shield, my heart racing all the while. My heart…my heart feels torn as well, and not just because of this continuing duress: I am filled with matched loyalties to these two men, each desire battling to override the other. Their blood pulses through my veins now, inarguably linking their fates to mine. If only I can find some way to placate them both… Somehow I force myself to look up at Ganondorf above me. "Whatever it is you want, Ganondorf, you'll get it from me and not him."

Ganondorf freezes and looks down at me. His eyes…I will never forget how his eyes look in this moment: filled with equal parts of lust, sick fear, and an ancient anger. He doesn't move to strike me in Link's stead, not the merest inch, yet I can see the potential for violence resting just beneath the surface of his powerful frame. And beneath my frame I feel Link, a fine trembling running up and down his body from the abuse he's endured, contrasting sharply with the warmth of resolve radiating from him still…

Finally, after an eternity, Ganondorf breaks free of his inhuman stillness. "You're damn right I'll get what I want from you." His jaw clenches. "I will hear the truth now, all of it. Leave nothing out."

"I…" I want to cry. I try to keep myself from doing so, taking slow calming breaths in an attempt to steady myself. "I don't know where to begin…"

"Why don't you begin at the beginning? That's always a good place to start. Tell me, Zelda, why did you feel it necessary to lie to me? Haven't I told and told you what the consequences of keeping things from me were? Haven't I?"

"You have," I tell him meekly, unwilling to risk agitating him any more. I can't let him become angrier than he already is. "The beginning – I'm not sure there is a beginning, really. Link and I went out into the dark together, to see how things were really like afield. But something happened…"

"Go on," Ganondorf prompts. His hands clench and unclench, almost as if they long to wring my neck.

"I'll…I'll tell you the rest once you let Link go." I say the words almost as soon as I've thought them. Later, perhaps, I will regret the impulse. "Let him go. Let him go, and I'll tell you whatever it is you wish to know. Let him go," I breathe heavily, "and I'll take you to the temple."

"No," Link whispers, "Zelda, no…"

"Yes. Get up, Link!" I say much more harshly than I intend. "You must go now, if you want to leave this castle alive. It's not you that Ganondorf wants, don't you understand that? You have your men to think of. Your men… Get out of here!"

"And what makes you think I'll allow that?" Ganondorf asks me coldly. "You are a slip of a girl and cannot hope to comprehend the thing that I have been looking for all these years. I am no fool. I know what this gutter rat has been hiding from me."

"If you know what he's hiding from you, why must you make me say it?" My voice is pleading now, close to tears. "Please, Ganondorf, have mercy…"

"The time for mercy is past. I want to hear it from your own lips. Go on!"

"He has Courage," I finally say, hating myself for the admission. May Link forgive me. "We were attacked by the horde, and were only able to save ourselves with the joining of Wisdom and Courage. I forged the blood link between us after you threatened to exile him. I hoped that once you saw his life was tied to mine, you would see reason. He didn't want to join with you; he was afraid of what you might do if you found out. But…"

"But?"

"Ganondorf please…please leave us be!" I can hold back the tears no longer. I start to cry, looking up at my husband-now-enemy while tears stream down my face.

"But?"

"…But we found a temple, surrounded by darkness," I reluctantly continue. "You were right. It looks exactly as you described it to me. There is a door in the temple that can only be opened once we have the third, as you thought. But nothing good can come from opening that door. That is why I didn't tell you. I was afraid of what you might do to Link as well, should he have refused to join us."

To my surprise, Ganondorf merely smiles. "Excellent. It is as I thought. Dry your tears, Zelda. As it turns out, you are very wrong about one thing."

"About…about what?" I manage fearfully.

"The Door of Time should not be thought of as a harbinger of an apocalypse, but rather as a symbol of salvation. Darkness escaped from that door, and so it shall return."

Beneath me, Link stiffens with surprise. "What?" I blurt, before I can stop myself.

"You know little and less of the origins of the dark. No matter; that's enough talk for now." Ganondorf sheaths his sword. "You'll take me to this temple," he says. It's no question, but a blunt demand. I know better than to deny him. I hate that he's done this.

All my muscles seem to protest against the movement as I draw away from Link and get to my feet. Link does the same with more concerted effort, though I barely pay attention to him. All I can focus on is the self-loathing that has consumed me, more intense than it has ever been. This is not what I had pictured for myself, the way I imagined my life ending. The history books demand that I should be happy and beautiful and calm, yet instead I stand complicit before a murderer who has stolen from me all I knew and lost, paralyzed by the certain knowledge that I've helped him in his unhappy task in the past and will do so again now.

I hide my face in my hands and start to sob as Link removes his sword from its sheath and throws it at Ganondorf's feet.

Ganondorf looks down at the weapon with little and less interest. "No, keep your sword. I won't have it be said that I killed you while you were unarmed."

With that, he stalks towards the door, leaving the room smaller and more pathetic in his wake. I give a sigh of relief, temporarily removed from the brunt of his Power, while Link bends to retrieve his longsword. Now that the immediate terror is gone, it's plain to see he's just as winded from whatever Ganondorf did to him as I am. I extend an arm to him in silence and we follow behind Ganondorf, each of us supporting the weight of the other.

His Power is a beacon in the darkness, and we follow it along an unsurprising path. We pass by countless barred doors, narrow arrow-slits that display the screaming shadows, corridors filled with aged armor and weaponry, all these things I've accepted as part of my home over the years. I burn thinking that I'll never see them again, but beside me, Link seems to be suffering from quite a different distress. His eyes flit back and forth as we come upon branches in the path, as if seeking an alternative, though he never dares take a different path.

Finally we come to the now-familiar stables, where Ganondorf awaits us with three horses from Link's stock, healthy, spirited, and already tacked up. They are not so different from the horses Link and I stole on our ill-planned foray into the field; a lump forms in my throat at the thought.

My husband is looking at me dangerously, though, so I dare not express my thoughts. I accept the reins from his hand meekly and accept his boost onto the horse's back. After Link mounts with a fair amount of difficulty, Ganondorf opens the stable gate and leads us forth across the dusty yard, where the guards turn their eyes away from us.

We lead the horses along the outer wall for a time while Ganondorf contemplates the perfect place to make our exit. After a pause, he dismounts to unbar a postern, and then glances back at us.

Ganondorf seems to sense my unease, almost as if we are linked by telepathy, and gives me a smile that's more a nightmare grimace. "Don't worry, Zelda. We will be safe in the dark, all three of us…though I must relinquish my grip on the castle for the nonce. Bid farewell to your men, gutter rat."

"Never," Link shoots back, his voice dripping venom, yet he makes no move to go warn his men of the danger they face. He seems to have grasped the reality of the situation as readily as I have; neither of us are Powerful enough to protect the castle alone, but so long as we remain by Ganondorf's side, the hope that we might wrest control from him is still alive. Still, his hands are tangled so tightly around the reins that they start to tremble from the effort of it.

We pass under the gate, into that very different twilit world, and within me I feel something snap. I know it must be Ganondorf devoting the base of his Power to protecting us alone, but the rush of baleful energy that pounds against the back of my brain takes me by surprise. I never considered the strain he must have been under all this time. I muffle my cry of pain against my horse's mane, and while Link shoots me a quizzical glance, Ganondorf doesn't spare me as much as a look.

Urged by Ganondorf's insistent pace, we canter free of the castle, past the patchwork-quilt fields disallowed me, into the shadowy woods where the unlettered horde lurks, and even further, completely unmolested. All the while, I'm waging silent battle in my mind, trying to ward the castle on my own. I try to hold on for as long as I can, thinking of Link's men and mine, the words my father said to me in my dreams, but I can feel myself growing ever weaker. It's as if I'm hanging from a cliff by my fingertips, my grip gradually deteriorating, till finally I'm sucked down below.

Far behind us, the shadows are screaming.

The rest seems to pass as a dream. And why not? Perhaps this is all a dream after all. Of course, the reality of my surroundings and the pain I feel within give the lie to that theory, yet I hold onto that bit of hope. We slow our pace as we cross into the castle town, leading our horses carefully over the cobbles, turning into familiar alleyways so narrow two cannot pass abreast. It occurs to me that Ganondorf knows exactly where we're going, and is simply making a point with this farce.

Soon we reach the clearing, where the castle looks exactly the same as it did when we last left it. I feel my heart sink, watching Ganondorf dismount and not even bother to tether his horse. It does not bode well, that he should not take every precaution to ensure our safe return. I wonder what will become of us…

As we cross the threshold, despite the severity of the situation I can't help but feel a measure of peace. Ganondorf makes the sign of the Triforce over his chest and kneels to kiss the tiles, as I did the first time I entered. It sickens me to see piety in such a man.

We all come to a stop before the altar, and Ganondorf turns to face us. Training his eyes on me, he begins to speak, his voice low and seductive. "The three Virtues must resonate if the Door of Time is to open. You know what you must do, Zelda; it's what you've been preparing for your whole life. To channel Wisdom, Power, and Courage, all at once. You will be a woman renowned, for a time." He hasn't even touched me, but he doesn't need to; he never has. Phantom shadows of his Power crawl all over me, as alluring as a siren's song, and all he has to do is extend his hand...

I look to Link beside me, and I feel his Courage calling out as well. My promise. I remember the one I made to Link, when the shadows lay extinguished behind us, and the one I made to Ganondorf when he took me to wife. I remember holding my bleeding palm against Link's, the indescribable exultation: the first shudder of coming, the last shudder of a woman who's wept for a long time. I want to experience the feeling more than anything, but the whole world holds me back. I swallow the urge, letting it settle in a nauseous knot in my middle. "I can't, Ganondorf, I can't—"

He hits me so hard that my cheek goes numb for a moment. When I come to my senses I find myself on the tiles. The taste of blood is in my mouth and my ear is ringing, but worst of all is the fact that I can still hear Ganondorf raging above me. "I didn't risk death to break the wise men's seal only to be stopped by some mealy-mouthed bitch. You will do as I ask, and give me the boy's Courage. Do you hear me?"

Slowly, I raise myself to a sitting position, trying to control my shallow breathing as the tiles below my body slide in and out of focus. "I…I…"

"You'll pay for that," Link snarls, cutting me off. I look up in time to see him lunging at Ganondorf, attempting to grapple with him. Ganondorf gives him a bored look and makes a dismissive gesture, sending Link flying across the tiles with the mere force of his Power.

"Now…where were we?" He smiles. "Oh, yes. You'll need a knife."

I look to where Link has landed nervously. He's been knocked unconscious by the force of Ganondorf's Power, yet he seems to finally have attained a measure of peace. It was hard to hold true to my promise while he was cognizant, but I certainly can't steal his gift from him while he lies insensate. I have to delay Ganondorf, at least for a little while.

After a moment, I stand and slide my gaze back to my husband, gathering the tatters of my resolve. It's merely me and him, in the end, as it was at the beginning. "You said I knew little and less of what happened. Was it all lies, everything you've told me my whole life? Even…even that of my father?"

Ganondorf gives me a startled glance; he couldn't have expected me to speak. The resolve melts from his face, replaced by amusement as he laughs. "Oh, no. Not everything. Your father was a terrible king, if the truth is to be told, but my own father would have been an even worse one. Often I thank the goddesses for allowing him to be cut down in battle before he subjected the entire realm to his follies."

"Your father?" I repeat stupidly, and instantly chide myself. Ganondorf has told me little and less of himself, and I never thought to ask. It truly astounds me, how little I know, how much has passed beyond my notice.

"Yes, my father," he snarls nastily. "You are not the only one who was failed by your sire. Do you know what it's like to have hunger as your only thought? No; I have always provided for you, despite the dark. My father could not so much as read, yet held ambitions to the throne. When I realized I held Power, I never let myself forget it, and rose to rule the Gerudo in my own right. Your father attainted me as a wizard thief, and would not grant me an audience to so much as bend the knee.

"If I was shunned by my ruler, what allegiance did I owe him? What allegiance did I owe to anyone? I decided to disappear into quite a different world. Where the sky shines gold, not blue." He laughs. "I was foolish, I must admit it. I never considered the dangers. The Sacred Realm was meant only for a saint. The land turned itself against me, unleashing every horror in my heart. My demons overwhelmed me. The pain – you would not believe it, even if I told you. How long I spent under their thrall, I do not know, but eventually I was able to bring them under my control. At least the goddesses gave me that."

"The goddesses gave you the tool to destroy us all." I can't take my eyes off of him. Never have I been more horrified to be in his presence, and each sentence he utters cements the feeling further. All my life, and thousands of others', stolen in one man's search for something he'd never find. And from the way he looks at me, it's clear he thinks he's finally setting his wrongs aright. "And all these years, you pretended to want the best for the kingdom. How could you have done that? How could you have lived a lie?"

"By the time I returned to my proper form, the damage had been done. These years where I protected the 'kingdom' were no illusion. Is that what you think, you foolish bitch? It takes more Power than you'll ever know to control the shadows. I underestimated the will of the dark, I fear."

"You underestimated the goddesses," I tell him. I shout it, as if Nayru herself will hear me in her holy asylum. "Isn't that what you said? That the dark was their creation? You were a poor sort of king, bereft of my Wisdom; you had no consideration, no patience. And your arrogance is without bounds if you truly thought yourself capable of controlling the goddesses' weapon."

"The goddesses are poxy harridans," Ganondorf says, his voice thick with loathing. "The sages speak of the golden land they dwell in, and the powers that lay in wait for the mortals who can breach the holy protections, but it's all a lie. Nothing lies beyond the Door of Time but darkness, as I learned to my sorrow. Still, it is of little matter. The darkness can now be sealed away with no one being the wiser."

"We will know, Link and me," I shoot back. Fright has made me insolent. "If you were kinder or more patient, then perhaps you could have achieved your goal with no one else knowing. But we will never forget what has happened this day."

Ganondorf begins to smile as I speak. I mistrust the expression at once. "Zelda, you are quite mistaken. I'm kinder and more patient than you'll ever know. I could have let your ignorant sot of a father throw you to my horde. I could have fucked you bloody instead of treating you gently as my consort, and no one would have been the wiser. Many times, I was sorely tempted to do just that. Instead I gave you what you wanted: protection, companionship, and a lifetime to complete the task that I set to you. You should not curse me. You should be grateful."

"You used me. You lied to me. How can you expect me to be grateful?"

"And what would you have done if you had known the truth? Would you have even believed I killed your father for the good of the kingdom? No, it would only have caused you needless upset." He shrugs, almost languidly. "It's not as if you had the Power to oppose me, in any case. It was the Wiser course to conceal certain things from you."

"What do you know of Wisdom?" I all but explode, completely belligerent and wanting nothing more than to react with violence. "What do you know of anything beyond your own base needs? You are not just selfish. You're evil."

Faced with my judgment, Ganondorf gives nothing more than the same languid shrug. "If I must be declared the villain for you to feel better about your part in things, then so be it. Perhaps you should kill me and have done."

I think he's speaking in jest until he slips the blade from his sleeve. Even in the semidarkness of the chamber, the steel gleams with an ethereal quality. "I knew he was the one," he murmurs, more to himself than me. "The shadows originated in the forest. How else could they have survived so long, if not for the blessing of Courage? Both you and he are so young that there can be no doubt. The goddesses removed those who would not comply from my path, and presented me with those who will return the kingdom to its natural state."

A chill chases itself down my spine at his words. After a long time, he offers the knife to me, hilt-first. I accept it with shaking hands and stare at its surface, the ancient glyphs carved into its pommel. I have used this blade so many times, to condemn and to save, both with the same stroke. Yet now it feels foreign in my hand, if only because I cannot discern Ganondorf's true intentions.

I think of stabbing him, sliding this dagger between his ribs past all those layers of boiled leather, but my heart cringes at the thought.

And then Ganondorf delivers a stroke of his own. "Perhaps the goddesses have a plan for you as well. Perhaps ridding yourself of me is the key to unlocking your true destiny. Kill me, Zelda, if you can." He opens his arms, welcoming as a priest, but all he's displaying is his vulnerability.

Terror freezes my breath in my throat. Is he serious? And what's more, can I possibly do it despite everything? I feel like a little girl with no idea of what's about to happen.

"Kill me," he says.

I close the distance between us and wave the knife before him, ignoring the shudder that passes through my whole body. He has been more a father figure to me than a husband; not a day ago he would have had me attainted and executed for such insolence. Is this yet another game?

"Kill me. Kill me, and you shall not long outlive me." Ganondorf sneers – in pain or contempt I can't tell – as I press the dagger against the side of his throat. "Kill me, and all control over the shadows will be lost; I cannot promise you what will happen then. Kill me, and kill everything you've known. Do it."

I guide the metal across the smooth contour of skin, wanting to make him hurt for all he's done yet not knowing how to go about it. I concentrate on the dagger most of all, knowing that if I meet his gaze, I will be rendered powerless again. All my life, I have wielded this weapon only in his defense, only for his glory. All my life, I have given him unfettered access to my body, to the ability I've named both blessing and curse. How can I free myself of that?

Something makes me forget my caution and I look up at his face. He looks perfectly tranquil; either self-assured or accepting of his fate. It doesn't seem fair that he should be free of torment when I am wracked with it. He saved my life, once, and now I must take his. He has been the only constant in my life. Should I end it quickly, slashing his throat, or bury the dagger deep in his belly, leaving him to shiver on the tiles for a week? How can I leave him to die, either way? I can't.

I can't.

I look up at the face of the man who has shaped so much of my life, and I can't. "I can't," I cry, flinging the dagger away; I hear it clatter against the tiles. "Din help me, I can't. I can't." The tears burn as I cry, painful and embarrassing even now.

"Twilight king." Link has stirred. "Leave Queen Zelda be; she has a gentle heart, and I won't stand idly by while you take advantage of her with your manipulations. You might not be able to force your gentle queen to kill you, but you have quite convinced me. I am but a humble dancer, but if you give me the chance to partner you, I swear you won't find me a disappointment. Will you grant me the honor?"

Ganondorf stares at him in mute amazement for a moment before laughing, the sound echoing like the mockery of a malicious chorus as he rises from the altar. "You don't know what you're asking for, fool boy." He sneers. "You should try not to be so Courageous…without that piece of cheap steel you call a sword, you'd be the same as any other adolescent failure. But that matters not; it would please me to teach you humility before I take what's mine."

Link draws his sword. "Let's dance, then."

"No!" I scream in fright, but the clash of steel smothers my attempt at protest. An impulsive feeling rises in my chest and I edge towards them, intent on stopping this madness.

"Stop." Faster than I can follow, Ganondorf turns, parries Link's slash, and directs an invisible force my way so strong that I stumble back towards the altar, winded and aching. Unseen shackles snake up my form, chaining me to the stone and rendering me incapable of doing anything more than watching in fear. "This is not your affair."

My thoughts flow fractured as I watch them dance. The blows come fast and furious, almost too quickly to follow. I look at their faces, where they are not so terribly different: both already flushed, twisted with the effort of swordplay, and their eyes narrowed in bloodlust. Link presses the attack from his left side, Ganondorf from his right, but for both of them the only defense that remains is their blades.

I want to speak, want to move, but I don't know in whose behalf I would speak, or what I would do if I were free. For all of Ganondorf's bulk and reach, they seem evenly matched; while Ganondorf seeks to overwhelm Link with the sheer force of his blows, Link picks at his defenses, shifting weight from foot to foot as he tries experimental swipes. The fight's barely begun, and already so much hangs in the balance.

The shadows at the threshold are screaming, begging for an audience.

As they dance, their Virtues burn through my blood. They are holding nothing back, and their Virtuous auras are all but visible to my eye. Ganondorf's is impossibly massive, following behind him like a train, while Link's is more flighty, prone to disappearing with a lunge, chaotic and uncontrolled. They trade parries, and as Ganondorf catches the edge of Link's sword a third time, he presses close, whispers something so quietly I cannot hear.

The words send Link into a rage. Forgetting all his fighter's grace, he pushes the attack now, sending Ganondorf stumbling back towards the altar. I hear his breathless laughter, their grunts of effort growing ever more strained. Surely this madness cannot last much longer. Their swords flash, snagging against leather and skin, till finally they clash and hold the stance for a moment. Then, Ganondorf pushes off and regains control, catching Link off-balance. They parry and thrust and clash again, and no sooner than they've met that Ganondorf brings his sword down at an unexpected angle.

It bites deeply into Link's vulnerable right side, and he gives a long moan full of agony.

"No!" I scream furiously.

Giving Ganondorf a look of pure hatred, Link raises his sword once more and lets out a strangled battle cry.

Before I can see the sword fall, bright green light fills the chamber; it's so piercing that I close my eyes against it. In its wake, I feel a swell of Courage so strong that tears fill my eyes. It's almost as if I am holding his hand in mine again, for the first time; experiencing a lifetime of memories, along with all the powers the goddesses infused in him. I have never been Courageous…yet I feel as if I could be, now. The sensation is that immediate.

It's gone as quickly as it came, and I open my eyes tentatively. What I see makes me scream.

Link and Ganondorf are locked in battle still, but Link is the only one moving. Ganondorf's sword is on the ground, while Link's sword is stuck clean into my husband's chest, piercing his heart. His Power has no influence here now, but I can't bring myself to move. When he sees me watching, Link pulls the sword free.

I stare in wordless horror as my husband falls lifelessly to the tiles, rendered incapable of speech for that moment.

"You…you killed him, we're…we're going to die…" I sit down heavily on the edge of the altar while my head spins with both disbelief and fear.

Link kneels a fair distance from me, breathing heavily. Sweat and blood mingle on his forehead, matting his muted blonde hair, and despite the fact his side is stained black with blood he retains his grip on his soiled sword. He says nothing. There are words that could be said, apologies that could be made, but they would all fall flat in the face of impending death, we both seem to know. The temple walls ring with the wails of screaming shadows, and all around us the chamber grows darker, sending me to a heightened state of horror.

Any harsh words I might have said would simply fall on deaf ears, his and my own. I tear my gaze from him, looking at the horror that is Ganondorf. He seems smaller now, more pathetic than I have ever seen him. It seems patently absurd that I should ever have been afraid of him.

The shadows cannot turn us into such as they are, no, but they can kill us. Certainly they would have done the very same to Ganondorf, had they not been borne from his flesh. And his words eat away at me. He knew the shadows more intimately than any other, and even still was not able to bring them under his control for nearly a year. What chance do we stand, when all that protects us is our Virtue?

But our Virtue is all that saved us when we were face-to-face with the horde. It is all that saved Hyrule all those years ago, when the screaming shadows were on our crenels. If all three of us are here, if the essence of Power hasn't escaped Ganondorf's body just yet… An idea occurs to me, makes me tremble with hope. Perhaps the goddesses have a plan for you, I hear him say.

If I was able to save the kingdom, once, why should I not try again?

I look at Ganondorf, but fear to approach him. He was the only guide I had in life, the thing I lived in fear of, yet now he is less than a flea.

My father's words float above the flood of memory, A king must be a wolf, but wolves are cunning as well as fierce…

I kneel beside Ganondorf in his blood and take his hand. Though limp, it's still warm and tingling with the goddesses' blessing. I search for the Power within him before it can escape, remembering all the times I have done this over the years. I remember every sweet word he ever gave me, every barb, every curse. "Do you remember what I told you, the day we first came here?" I ask Link.

He is silent for so long that I fear he's fled. "I remember," he says finally, softly. "You said you'd never let the horde kill us. You never did, but you're right – I just as good as killed us myself. Our lives are over."

"Maybe," I whisper, "but not just yet." I find the warm core of Ganondorf's Power and curl my phantom fingers around it. My limbs tremble from the mingled pain and pleasure, from the force of Wisdom and Power mingling within my body. Tears burn at the corners of my eyes. This is a sweeter joining than any other, cherished, nurtured, praised…but only in the absence of the third. I hold out my other hand. "Come here. Give me your hand."

Link never speaks. The silence goes on and on until it's more than I can bear, but just when I'm about to give up hope I hear the scuff of his boots on the tiles as he nears me. "You swear he's dead," he says lowly, kneeling beside me before the altar. "You swear you know what you're doing. You swear – you swear you won't let the horde kill us. Swear it. Swear it by the goddesses."

"I promise." I fumble for his hand, find it, and close my eyes. "I won't let them kill us. I promise."