Silence.
Is there anything else quite like true silence? Complete and unending, universal in its scope and utterly without feeling or care. I have grown used to this silence, over the years. Over the centuries. Wait. Centuries? What… Where am I…?
Thinking was growing difficult, and I recognized the feeling of my mind slipping away just as awareness began to flee. The silence blanketed me, almost gentle as it lulled me back to sleep. I struggled briefly to maintain consciousness, strained to bring together my frayed and scattered thoughts, dreading the nothingness, and…
And to my surprise, it worked. I managed one clear, uninterrupted thought before my surprise brought me crashing back down towards a silence like death. Not even a thought really; a fragment, a snippet of something terribly important. As I slipped away to sleep again, I treasured this wonder, this thought, this name. The name of a friend? Or perhaps a foe? I had no idea, apart from a feeling in my bones it was something deeply, deeply important.
But who, I wondered, as the silence claimed me again, who in the world is Gannondorf?
And then the silence came crashing down to embrace my scarred and scattered mind, and I could think no more.
Waking again was a slow process, not unlike a struggle against fate; slow and laborious, only possible with great strength of will. I heaved my consciousness up out of the dark abyss of my dreamless sleep, inch by inch, molecule by molecule. I wrenched my mind – carefully, forcefully – from its stillness into a parody of normalcy, wandering the line between silence and life, my thoughts meandering through my head but unable to come together long enough to form ideas.
After a moment – a year, a century – I began to take stock of my situation. I had to try to move; yes, that was it. I had to get up. I tried idly for a time, but I couldn't remember how. The silence began to press in again, and I ceased my attempts at movement. My mind was whirling faintly from the attempt and I welcomed the crushing embrace of the silence.
A part of my mind screamed into the silence, a declaration of intent and panic, staving off that crushing stillness. I watched it go, feeling vaguely regretful despite myself, before attempting to stir once more. Perhaps not movement, then – but sight? Can I see? How do I… ah, yes. I must open my eyes. I struggled for a minute before forcing my eyelids open a crack. Staring up into the darkness, I gained vague impressions of shapes swimming in and out of sight. There was some sort of surface, wavy and dark. I tilted my head, straining muscles that had not been used in an unknowable amount of time, and saw dark shapes lining the walls, heavy, boxy things that the lack of light turned an unrelieved shade of gray.
Of course, I thought, I'm in my bedroom. I just lay down to sleep for a moment. It has been a good day, I think. Content with this discovery - this rediscovery - I closed my eyes once again and drifted back off to sleep.
The third time I woke was as harsh and sudden as a lightning strike. My eyes burst open to the sudden realization that something was very, very wrong, and I glanced around with some alarm, trying to figure out what was going on. I quickly sat up – or tried to anyways, as my muscles cried out in protest. As it was, I only managed a bit of movement before collapsing back. That… wasn't a good sign.
Focusing, I managed to detect what I had ignored before: the swirling currents of magic all around me, pressing down on my body and my mind. The enchantment felt familiar; but, then, that wasn't exactly right. It wasn't so much a feeling as an imprint, or perhaps a sort of magical signature. All magic is different, after all, even when it comes from the same source. For example, I could tell that this spell, beyond any shadow of a doubt, belonged to an old friend of mine. Up to your old tricks again, eh, Daphnes?
I concentrated, gathering my all of the power, all of the Power, that I could and lifting up my hand. Golden light flared brightly, pushing the swirling eddies of magic in the air out and away from where they had taken residence in my mind. The mist that had laid over my eyes, making the whole world appear grey, sprang back and showed me my surroundings in full color. The shadows that had obscured my surroundings were swept away in the flood of light from my hand and the familiar deep reds and brilliant purples of my chamber showed themselves plainly.
As the world swam back into color around me, I gingerly tried sitting up. My muscles ached - a result of the spell, no doubt - but the energy flowing through me washed the soreness from my body and the cobwebs from my thoughts, allowing me a clear head for the first time in what felt like ages. I was in my bed; yes, of course. I looked around the chamber, dark stone walls covered with bright and vibrant wall hangings depicting the legends of my people, the Gerudo, and the windows obscured by dark drapes that shut out all but the faintest traces of light. The floor was covered with lush carpeting (in red, of course), and the furniture scattered sparsely around the room was dark and heavy without a trace of the gilt or fine carving that no doubt covered the furnishings of my counterpart in Hyrule Castle.
I carefully got to my feet and walked - well, staggered, really - over to the washstand. Leaning over the shallow stone basin placed on the stand, I filled it with some water from the stone pitcher beside it. Scrubbing my face wearily, I couldn't help but muse on the intent of such an attack on my person as this surprisingly persistent enchantment.
I must admit, I was somewhat surprised at Daphnes, that he would even imagine that a trick like this could work. The Royal Family was known for their binding spells, to be sure, and the spell that had been cast on me was not exactly novice-level work, but out of necessity I have made breaking out of binding magic something of a specialty. The thing that bothered me the most was the extra little kick to the enchantment. It had felt almost like… well, almost like my own magic - the magic of the Triforce. But even that wasn't it, not really. As I mentioned, magical signatures tend to be rather complicated, and even divine magic tends to warp a bit depending on who is channeling it - in my case, for example, it warps a very great deal.
Putting the problem out of my head for a moment, I took the time to collect my thoughts. My mind was still feeling hazy, and not as a result of any sort of magic. Truth be told, it reminded me of the feeling of returning to the world after my sojourn in the Goddess' prison - which, of course, did not make any sense. No enchantment that Daphnes could place on me would have knocked me out for too long, and this spell in particular did not seem to have any sort of power or proximity to it - I doubted that it had lasted any longer that a few minutes, an hour at most. Well, I certainly don't seem to have any problem wasting time on useless conjecture… Shaking aside my stray thoughts, I closed my eyes and concentrated.
Sure enough, the memories came flooding back in a desperate tide, and I wondered at how I could have forgotten so much in the first place, and today in particular. Today was a day of triumph, after all, the day that the wretched and corrupt kingdom had finally fallen in truth and its castle seized by my forces. Today, the decades-long war that had wracked the land was finally over, and my power had won out. There was fear among the people, of course, terror even, but they would soon learn to live happily under my rule. Surely they would be happier with my rule than under the reign of that font of injustice and evil that once called itself the Royal Family.
I felt a grin growing on my face as I contemplated my victory. At long last, I would reclaim my place as King of Hyrule. I would do better this time, surely - not like when I had conquered the kingdom all those years ago. I will be the first to admit that I had… erred, in my treatment of the kingdom. My own people, my most loyal lieutenants, had turned on me and became some of my bitterest enemies. And in my isolation, I came to realize that they were right - I had been prideful and arrogant, cruel and perhaps even mad.
But this time I planned to do better. The kingdom had suffered during the long war, but now it could be rebuilt in a better image. In my image.
I chuckled to myself, finally feeling rejuvenated. However powerful that cursed magical attack had been, no man was ever able to stop me for very long. I was a power unto myself, like a force of nature, even like a god. My mirth growing, I clenched my fist, enjoying the feeling of the power of the Triforce. I strode over to the nearest window, grinning, reveling in my victory. There would be no Hero of Time to stop me now, no child for the wretched Hylians to hide behind. They could not defeat me; after all, I had already won.
Laughing out loud now, I threw back the curtains on the window, looked down upon the land below… and stopped. My eyes widening, I took in the gray and lifeless landscape below me and felt the breath leave my lungs. I had time for one thought - impossible - before I was dashing up my tower, nearly flying in my desperation to get to the top. I burst onto the roof, robes flapping madly around me, and froze.
The world had simply… stopped. I could make out figures all around me, animals in the field, men traveling the roads, and even, at the far end of my vision, a glimpse of my forces around Hyrule Castle - all frozen in the midst of motion, as if I were not looking upon Hyrule at all but instead some bizarre painting. All life, as far as I could see, had paused, with no indication of ever resuming movement. And yet all this strangeness was overshadowed by something much stranger.
I had not seen it from my bedroom, but here, on top of the tower, I was able to see clearly. The sky was… closer, it seemed. Shimmering with light, almost dancing as it formed the surface of a vast dome covering a fair portion of Hyrule Field. I stared for a moment, unable to even begin to think about the implications of magic on such a scale as this, when an idle thought occurred to me that nearly brought me to my knees. That is not the sky… it's water. It's what an ocean would look like from the seafloor.
An ocean. I was standing at the bottom of the ocean, me along with the rest of Hyrule. But why? What reason could Daphnes possibly have… I cut off as another thought occurred to me, more urgent than the first.
The dome wasn't big enough.
It wasn't big enough. It covered maybe half of Hyrule Field, maybe a little bit more, but that was it. The world I knew was gone. The Gerudo Desert where I grew up must have been washed away, the Kokiri Forest drowned under all that water. The Gorons, in their caves under the earth, would have all perished in one terrible moment, and even the Zora could not have survived unscathed. All that was left of Hyrule I could see from the top of my tower.
A terrible rage filled me, like nothing I had ever felt before. Was I really so loathsome? Did Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule really hate me so much that he was willing to massacre his entire kingdom rather than see it fall into my hands? Did the Goddesses care so little about their subjects, their children, that they would condemn them to die rather than accept my rule? For now that tinge of power, that unmistakable feeling of the might of the Triforce floating on the air, made perfect sense. This was the work of the Goddesses who had forever shunned me and my people, working through my greatest enemy to deprive me of my destiny!
I let out a scream of rage at that vast and terrible wall of water that surrounded all I had left, before mastering myself and my anger. If the Goddesses were so determined that my destiny be one of failure and defeat, then so be it. I had never cared much for destiny anyways.
Looking down again, I raised my hands over my head and focused on collecting all of the energy at my disposal, drawing on the power of the Triforce, in order to drive away the enchantment that had imprisoned my kingdom. I waited for the massive flow of power, the thrum of energy coursing through my body - and felt nothing. I focused harder, grasping for the might of the Triforce of Power that was mine by right. And still, the most I could summon was a brief flash of energy that disrupted the swirling enchantment on the rooftop only briefly before the divine magic came rushing back in.
Slowly lowering my hands, I stared at the back of my palm. Sure enough, the symbol of the Triforce was etched onto my skin, but the triangle at the top of the symbol, usually lit by a reassuring glow, was as dim and lifeless as the other two. Fighting back a rising panic, I summoned all the power I could muster, mind straining with the effort. When I saw a flicker of light, I finally breathed a sigh of relief; the power of the Triforce had not been stolen from me. Yet oddly enough, that power seemed to have been sealed.
The power of the Master Sword, it must be. Nothing else was quite so effective at sealing the power of the Triforce, to that I could personally attest. Luckily, I had been the most powerful man in the world long before I had claimed the Power of Din, and I had other sorceries at my disposal. I sat down on the roof, feeling the dark tendrils of my power unfurling after long lying dormant - rather like myself, I suppose.
I sat there, collecting power, thinking. I would need an army, of course, whatever I could manage to wake or twist to my service - an unfortunate process, but necessary in the pursuit of the greater good. I imagined that I would have just enough power to free my tower from this curse, along with whatever inhabitants had remained, though on the day of my triumph that had been few enough. I would need a base of operations as well, on the surface of this strange new sea; I could not remain here. Even now, I could feel the Goddesses' power pressing down on me, lulling me back to sleep.
It would be a long journey to reclaim my lost kingdom. I would need to free the power of the Triforce, unite the three elements and regain my power. It would be a difficult and thankless task, but I would prevail. I had no choice but victory, not for my sake, but for the sake of all of Hyrule.