Italics are thoughts or strange speech. You know the routine. Enjoy.
Fons Et Origo.
(Source and Origin)
For a length of time that was both an instant and an eternity, there was chaos and agony.
Then the chaos receded, although the agony remained, skulking at the edge of perception.
As he recovered his wits, Rauru, the Great and Ancient Sage of Light, realized with disappointment, chagrin, and no small amount of annoyance that he was no longer in control of things.
Now that he thought about it, he supposed that he had never really been in control, not from those first days so many centuries ago when the Royal Archwizard Gethes had found him struggling on the streets of a city whose original name would be forgotten in less than a hundred years. Even when he had experimented the first few threads of magic Gethes had shown him, he had felt as if an invisible force was driving him forward, directing him towards a distant and glorious destination.
If he then had any idea what Fate and the Goddesses were planning for him, he would have gone back to his father's blacksmithy and stuck his head in the old coot's furnace.
He didn't regret anything – not a single thing– but after spending hundreds of years planning and preparing for a future confrontation, only to realize at the last moment that it was someone else's struggle entirely, Rauru was feeling a little bit cheated.
Enough self-pity. Time to see what the damage was.
Rauru stretched his mental muscles carefully. He then tested cautiously the folds of energy which, if he had been existing in a place with matter, he would have called walls. Through the waves of nausea and dizziness, he felt a bit of craftsman's pride: the tiny pseudo-chamber had withstood the end of the world rather nicely.
A long time ago he would not have doubted that the small not-a-room had held – the fact that he was still apparently living was testament to that – but he had seen too many soldiers with their bodies slit open staring at themselves without realizing they were dead, and too many wizards collapse with their life sucked out of them by their own shielding-spells. Caution paid.
When he concluded to his satisfaction that he was still alive, he pushed aside the hastily-erected barrier that protected his safe place and emerged into the Chamber of Sages in the Temple of Light.
…Or at least he tried to. The connection that only hours before had been active and open had shut down, blocking off the Chamber as completely as a collapsed hallway. He fumbled through the key-charm a couple times more to be certain there was no mistake, then swore as he concluded that he had no time right then to create a new way in. If the recent upheavals had been powerful enough to ruin that old gateway, many of the newer and less complex renovations to the Temple would be in ruins.
With a sigh, he moved to a different room instead – a place no less black and empty than the one he had just left – and enfleshed himself. The temptation to just stand and enjoy having his body again was strong, but his need to move quickly was stronger. As he felt himself materialize, he sent out his mind and dove deep into the webs of magic weaving through the Temple of Light.
It took longer than it had just hours earlier – the harm to the Temple was as extensive as he had feared it would be – but eventually he was able to reach into the secret chamber at the intangible structure's heart and feel what was within.
Aware that back in his body his heart was pounding with anticipation, Rauru touched the sleeping mind inside, its consciousness wrapped with the protective presence of the Master Sword. Even as a great weight fell from his shoulders, his heart redoubled its pace.
He had done it. Thousands of years of preparation and effort poured into machinations even his ancient master would have been hard-pressed to create had paid off. And it had worked perfectly.
Well, not quite perfectly. Rauru supposed one could count the darkness and taint irrevocably corrupting the once-holy land outside the Temple as being less then perfect; but of course, something always went wrong the first time anything was tried. It was only to be expected.
As his mind returned to his body, Rauru summoned a cushioned chair to sink into; he was an old man, after all. He spent a minute best considering how to proceed, and then sent his mind back out into the Temple.
The blow to his designs was long-expected, but no less devastating for it. The damage to the Temple's material structure was surprisingly minimal, and the protection it provided for the complex and often metaphysical inner workings was undiminished; it would require more reinforcement eventually if Rauru wanted the sanctum to survive, but that was a problem that could be safely left for a more convenient moment. The harm done to the magical aspects of the Temple had borne the brunt of the vicious changes to the Sacred Realm – tiny holes and blockages had appeared all over the webs of energy. Many were small, and most – like the obstructed gate to the Chamber – could be mended with time and effort. Some were irreparable; a whole wing at one end of the Temple had been obliterated, and Rauru was almost brought to tears by the thought of the collected works of science, art and magic that had been irretrievably lost.
There was no time for tears. The new King had made the first move in the game, and would be swift to make more. As his power grew, the Light Sage's ability to resist would wane; Rauru had to place his pieces on the board now. To keep a sliver of hope alive for the boy sleeping in the Temple to wield against the darkness.
Rauru had to prepare the defence while he could, or the waiting child would have nothing to return to.
Travelling through the void of the newly-minted Evil Realm was one of the bravest things Rauru had ever done.
He felt a little bit safer on the other side, and began searching for his allies.
The Zora deity, Jabu-Jabu, had always preferred it when visitors remained material. Rauru appeared on the stone platform in Zora's Fountain and looked up at the big fish resting there, still recovering from an attack of the same curse Ganondorf had used to kill the Great Deku Tree.
I can feel him. Even here, I can feel him. What is happening, Rauru?
"It is a worst-case scenario, old friend. The Triforce has been split."
A moan of distress and frustration rumbled deep inside the water guardian. I did not realize how strong he would be. The protections I created have been blown away, Rauru! I have no defence!
"Do what you can. I'll try to organize things elsewhere. Ganondorf won't be able to weed out our allies quickly, not if we can compose ourselves. The Hero of Time is in my Temple as we speak; we need only last until he is ready, and then we can fight back in earnest!"
Another deep moan. I doubt now I will live that long. I will try, but it is so hard. I can feel his presence in the Water Temple, Rauru! I am not like you – my power comes from my people. Through the temple he will destroy them, and with them, me.
"Fight as long as you can. Keep the Sage potentials alive. We will win, my friend. Just have hope."
I will fight. A shudder wracked the great frame. If nothing else, I will be sure the Sage can join you.
There was nothing else to be said. Rauru left.
It really need not be said that things were bad.
King Ganondorf knew the Sage of Light was at work. In the first few hours of his supremacy, a dozen of Rauru's most well-placed collaborators and spies were dead.
Rauru had hoped that Nabooru, an important person in the Gerudo hierarchy, might be the key to starting some sort of resistance. He had tried to find her, but had been barred from the desert as easily as if a stone wall had been erected in front of it.
His best friend and greatest supporter, Kaepora Gaebora the owl, remained floating in the air currents above the Temple of Time, waiting for the emergence of the child whom he had been sent to protect. Rauru hesitated, but passed him over. He felt guilty for leaving his friend pursuing a pointless mission, but his energy and time were now far to precious to waste. In time, Kaepora Gaebora would give up and look for his own ways to resist the darkness.
The Great Deku Tree was as dead as he had been the last time Rauru checked. That was not right; as a primordial forest spirit, the Tree should have been able to exit his body and resurrect himself as he chose. Rauru was not completely familiar with the forest guardian's history, but he was certain that the Deku Tree had been killed once before, and had regenerated his body from burnt wood and ashes. If Ganondorf's magic had been strong enough to suppress the mighty Tree's essence even before the theft of the Triforce…well, Rauru did not like the implications. In any case, the potential Forest Sages were out of his reach; weakened as he was, Rauru was not about to try something as stupid as entering the Lost Woods without permission.
The Sheikah were gone. Rauru knew that they must still be in Hyrule somewhere – they were there only a day ago – but now they had vanished, taking with them the most likely candidates to be Sage of Shadow. Princess Zelda was with them, her presence masked so completely Rauru could not have found her if he had been at the height of his power. That, at least, was something of a relief.
Among the Gorons there were shamans and magicians who felt a little uneasy, but for the most part they were currently unaware of Ganondorf's victory. Rauru wasted some time debating whether or not he should contact King Darunia and enlist his help; after agonizing for several precious minutes, he decided against it. Thinking back a few years, he could remember ordering his agents in Hyrule Castle Town to destroy all the literature they could find concerning the Ancient Sages. Jabu-Jabu had given a similar command to his priests, ordering the destruction of holy texts about him. When Ganondorf was learning about his potential opponents, he had been unable to uncover enough about them to create any truly dangerous offence, and they were still alive as a result. Rauru could not jeopardize himself now, no matter how much he thought it might help him in the long run.
Rauru's mind drifted throughout Hyrule, salvaging what he could.
Hours later, he forced his way back into the Sacred Realm, and into the Temple which, in spite of its damage, was still unstained by the encroaching darkness: it remained a lingering island of peace and security in an ocean of maliciousness. He returned to his dark chamber and chair, and sank into it with a deep groan of unhappiness.
He had planned so carefully. Long ago, under first Gethes' and then his own direction, the Sages had carefully sealed the Sacred Realm and created the Master Sword as a weapon to use against the dark forces which would inevitably seek the Triforce. Even when all the others were gone to their rest, Rauru worked on; he had woven webs of magic and trust throughout Hyrule, planted spies in the Castle and the cities, conversed and prepared with lesser deities, and made sure that when the King of Evil appeared there would be an underground network of allies working against him.
But Ganondorf had worked his way into the King's confidence so smoothly that not even Rauru had suspected him until it was too late.
The Great Deku Tree, the wisest and oldest of Hyrule's deities, had been playing a complex game of his own. Rauru had not even known there was a possible Hero of Time alive in the forest until Ganondorf's magic was already killing the old Tree.
The Temple of Light had been ravaged by the corruption of the Sacred Realm, and there was not enough time for him to repair it on his own.
The careful weavings of magic he had left throughout Hyrule, power flows intended to be used by his allies for communications and transport, were for the most part gone. He had tried to make use of one of the remaining flows and had nearly stumbled into a carefully-set trap that would have killed him if he had not noticed it in time. After that, he had destroyed the remaining channels himself.
The Sheikah were in seclusion, the Deku Tree was dead, and every single one of his Castle Town spies was captured or killed. He could not reach his agents and allies in the forest or the desert. He now suspected that Ganondorf was watching the Temple of Time, so he could not contact Kaepora even if he had the opportunity to do so. Jabu-Jabu was under spiritual assault again. What was intended to be a unified resistance was divided; each facet was to busy defending itself to come to the aid of any other.
Worst of all, there was no Hero. Rauru had always expected him to be an adult, and had prepared everything with that perception in mind; when the Master Sword had finally resolved that the little boy, Link, was in fact the Hero it had been created to assist, it responded by locking him in stasis until he was the right age. Rauru had thought it would only be the work of a moment to wake Link up again; he was only just realizing that the Sword was not listening to his commands anymore, and would not be swayed.
At the very least, he had once thought that if worse came to worse he would fight the Evil King himself, giving his life if necessary to buy time. He had underestimated the power of a Triforce user. Now, having seen what Ganondorf could do even without much concentration or effort, he knew he could not live more than a minute in such a skirmish; that kind of sacrifice would gain nothing.
He was not in control. All his plans had collapsed. Ganondorf's victory was complete.
Rauru sat in the darkness, cradling his head in his hands.
His eventual stimulus came from the most unlikely of sources: there was sound in this lifeless place.
Confused, he sent out his mind and made his way bodilessly through the halls of his Temple. More then once he swore as he reached a dead end where there should have been a passage, and once or twice he considered giving up, but slowly he made his way into the very heart of the sacred shrine.
There, in the most secure of the Temple's chambers, he came to the room set aside for the Master Sword and its owner. Neither currently had form; Rauru felt the boy as a tiny, shapeless mote of light, his presence paling in comparison to the Master Sword, which manifested in Rauru's thoughts as an encompassing, warm silver flame. In the grip of the Sword's power, the boy was wandering in dreams, locked in a sleep far to deep to be natural.
The boy was singing in his sleep. It was soft but lilting, some unusual lullaby or ballad, in a language which Rauru had never learned to his own satisfaction. The sibilant Kokirish syllables drifted one after another, forming the words to a song Rauru supposed Link had been taught in the forest…
"Pain lieth always in our hearts, and our breath,"
Hey, sing-hey, sing-hey, ho.
"For if hither cometh life, then cometh also death,"
Hey-sing, hey-sing, heya-ho...
For a moment Rauru felt a pang of sorrow for this innocent boy who had been dragged into a war that would reshape the world. And then the sympathy was replaced by something else: amazement, awe that such a tiny person could resist the Sword's magic enough to doze when he should have been comatose, to recall the words of a song.
If he could resist the iron-hard will of the Master Sword, than he had stronger mind than any person Rauru had met for the last dozen decades.
He was the Hero of Time. That thought lodged itself in the Sage's mind, and would not be shaken free. No matter what else happened, no matter how many of his plans had failed, in this he succeeded. The destined one, on whom the Goddesses' absolute favour rested, was alive and armed.
The fact that he was not aware enough to wield said arms was more then a bit of a problem…but then, it was only a matter of time before he awoke again, wasn't it? And if Ganondorf and his Triforce were powerful, Rauru could imagine what it would be like to have the Triforce of Courage fighting on his side…
Rauru was no longer in control, he knew that now. He could not tip the scales away from Ganondorf. But he could endure; he could hide and protect that which Ganondorf sought, keeping both ultimate power and victory out of his reach. He could make sure that when Link returned, there were pieces to pick up.
Yes, that was what he would do. The game was not over; he would just need to change his strategy. He did not need to win sweeping victories; all he needed to do was carry on.
And while he was doing that, there were allies to reunite, hidden places to make safe and a Temple to mend.
Rauru got to work.