In the beginning there was the Egg, and out of the Egg came the Dream, and you know how these things go. Hero sticks his toothpick through the King of Darkness and speaks the Name into the void, awakens the sacred triangles, they grant him a wish - and then send him on his way. Maybe it's not fair to punt a farmer's homesick nephew across the ocean immediately after saving his homeland, but hey, someone's got to get the seasons back in order.
So how about this: three triangles, three puppets, three oracles, three flames. Destruction and sorrow are hard enough things to bear, but despair - the loss of hope - that's a real killer. Almost brings Ganon back from the dark. Link's stronger than his nightmares.
His troubles seemingly behind him, Link enjoys the festivities in a twice-healed world: dances with Din, makes music with Nayru, and now he's leaning on the counter in the Hall of Secrets, sharing a meal and company with Farore.
"You're wondering if something's going to happen to me," she says, between bites of something herbaceous and nutty. Link's a good cook - he's always had to feed himself. "You're used to bad things happening in threes."
Link's sensitive to things in threes and eights. Holodrum's a wild place full of dangerous things, rough and lovely; Labrynna's grand and stately, but neither of them is Hyrule.
She grins. "Well, I'm the Oracle of Secrets, so I can't tell you outright, can I?" She leans forward, onto the counter, close to him. "I like you, Link. We have more in common than you think. -You can stay here, you know." He shakes his head, vigorously. "But you won't, right? You want to go home more than anything. Back to Hyrule. Be with your princess." He nods, equally vigorously. "Show me your left hand?"
It's a mark Link recognizes, the treasure he'd found mouldering in the Pyramid of Power, the wish-granter, the thing that had sent him to Holodrum. Soft gold light and three women speaking in harmony. At some point between defeating Onox and waking up in Labrynna it had appeared there, the colour of a birthmark. She takes his hand gently, looks at it almost - reverently? possessively? before patting it and placing the hand on the counter.
"We have a saying, you know, things will turn out as things will turn out. But I've always believed that destiny needs a little shove every now and then. What do you say to that, Hero?"
Link shrugs. Nayru, earlier, had given him a gift for his service: a glimpse into the future. He'd seen someone running through a forest, pursued by monsters, and she was looking for him. Din had responded with a gift of her own, a reminder that all things have cycles of decline and prosperity, despair and great happiness, death and life.
Farore laughs. "Well, here's a riddle, then! If there's power and destruction in the change of seasons, and wisdom and sorrow to be found in the endless flow of time, where do we find courage, and secrets, and despair?"
"I'm tired," Link says. "I want to sleep."
She taps him on his forehead. "In your own head, of course. Imagine a nightmare from which you can't wake."
(In the beginning there was Levias, the Warden of the Skies, and the Keeper of the Song of the Hero.)
"I'll leave you a way out. I'll call it Dark Secrets and Mysteries. You'll have to figure out the rest for yourself."
(When Levias died his bones caught the wind, echoing with a breathy little tune.)
"Here, give me your shield." He hands it over; she takes her knife and carves his name into it. "Something to remember you by. Ha!"
(And from the Song of the Hero came the Wind's Requiem, the Song of Healing, and the Ballad of the Wind Fish, the song of Link's awakening.)