I stood outside of the Temple of Time waiting for Impa to finish lighting the torches inside. As the inside began to grow brighter and brighter, I finally took a hesitant step inside. The white marble floors clacked under my feet as I walked, the sound echoing throughout the building. The Temple of Time had always had a strange effect on me. When I wasn't busy running errands for Baron I would relax on the temple grounds, but I never dared to go inside. During the day the temple would be filled with visitors who were offering their prayers to the goddesses, many of them were not fond of my presence. But now in the midst of the night the temple was completely empty, faintly smelling of the incense that was burned from earlier in the day. I finally understood why people sought refuge in this temple; The atmosphere here felt safe and serene, as if the goddesses themselves were looking down on me.

"What are we doing here?" I asked when Impa made her reappearance.

"I needed to speak with you in a more - secluded setting. The streets of the Castletown are full of unwanted eyes and ears, as you may know. I would prefer to keep our conversation private." Impa took a step closer to me and brushed my hair out of my face, studying it carefully.

"Don't you think it odd that you have been able to recover from your injuries so quickly?" she asked, stepping away to give me my personal space. "You had a great number of injuries, including a particularly gruesome gash right here on your forehead."

"So? My mother used special medicinal herbs to heal me."

"Aren't you even curious as to how she obtained those herbs? Or that only 3 days have passed and you are left with no trace of your injuries? Not even a scar!"

"Why does it matter?" I sighed. "What is this, an interrogation? Did you bring me here just so you can try and intimidate me? I know you don't like me, you've been treating me like the enemy since you saw me this morning!"

"That isn't the point -"

"Then what is? What is the point of dragging me here in the dark just so we can talk about something so stupid and -"

"I dragged you here because you DIED 3 days ago!" Impa shouted, her frustration bouncing off the walls of the sacred temple. The instant the words left her lips her hand shot up to her mouth. She had a look of deep regret.

"Mother said that you thought I had perished, and that you had tried to convince her the same. But you are obviously mistaken." I replied cooly.

"Is that what she told you?" she asked sadly. "Let me guess; she said that I believed you to be dead, but she saw just an ounce of life left in you and nursed you back to health, right?"

I didn't respond.

"Kai, I'm not saying these things to try to scare you or turn you against your mother. I'm telling you this because you have the right to know what truly happened to you that night. And the truth is that you were dead when I brought you back to your mother."

I couldn't comprehend what I was hearing. What she was implying was impossible. I wanted to deny it. I wanted to scream that she was wrong and run home. But all I managed to do was mutter, "This - this is just a misunderstanding…"

"Child, you don't understand. That night you died in my arms. I felt the last breath leave your body and witnessed the cold kiss of death consume you."

"You're wrong" I spat stubbornly.

Impa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself while I frantically denied everything she threw at me. "I may not look it now, but I was a fierce warrior in my youth. I led the allied Sheikah tribes against the rebels in the Hyrulean Civil War and I have seen the what happens to those that are brought back from the dead."

I finally fell silent and listened to the Sheikah woman's tale;

"There were many healers in my tribe. Great healers, very skilled in the arts of magic. Yes, magic. They could heal broken bones in a week, a life threatening gash in mere days. But there was one family that was said to have healing powers so great, they could bring back the dead.

"One day a man was brought to the family. He had been a brave knight who died valiantly in battle. The knight's family was struck with so much grief that they sought out the help of the most powerful member of the family of healers. The woman had initially refused them. She claimed that the young knight had been gone for too long. But the knight's family begged and pleaded, they offered her all of their worldly possessions, anything to bring their beloved knight back, even if it was for just a day. She could see that their sorrow was great, so she finally agreed to help, but only on the condition that they would kill the knight after 24 hours. She warned them that it was likely that the knight's spirit had already passed on to the other world and that evil spirits would try and possess the body once he was resurrected.

"The knight's family agreed, of course, and left the body with the woman for a few days. When they returned, their knight had been resurrected. His wife wept with joy as she embraced her once dead husband and his family thanked the Sheikah woman profusely. 'Remember our agreement. He is a potential danger to your family.' she warned them as they prepared to depart. She knew that evil spirits were deceptive, and feared for the family's well being. However, the knight's wife refused to kill him. She claimed that he was the same man that had left her before going to war.

"She was found slaughtered in the family's home a few days later, along with all of their children. It was said that the knight disappeared into the Kokiri Forest, never to be seen again.That is why I was monitoring you so closely today. I feared that…that you might have been turned into a monster, just like the knight."

The story was chilling. More so than I expected it to be.

"But, that's just a story…right? That - that didn't really happen, did it?"

"Gods help me! How can I get you to understand?!" Impa cursed.

Whatever Impa had said next only registered to me as a series of murmurs. Maybe it was the stress caused by Impa's accusations or just fatigue, but my vision suddenly became hazy and tinted with red. Behind Impa, behind the pedestal where prayers were made, the back wall had vanished. Where the wall once stood was a short hallway. A beam of light illuminated where the hallway opened into a circular room, shining down on an object located at its center. I took one step closer, trying to make out what the object was. But as suddenly as it appeared, the hallway vanished, the wall reappeared and my vision returned to normal.

Ignoring whatever it was Impa was saying, I walked toward the back wall that had disappeared only moments ago. I traced my fingers along the engraved wall, just to make sure that it was truly there.

"Did I just imagine it?" I asked myself aloud.

"Imagine what?" Impa asked, her arms crossed over her chest in annoyance.

"This wall - it was gone. There was a hallway and at the end, a light." I spoke slowly, doubting myself more and more with every word.

She didn't speak for a while. She just looked at me, her stoic expression giving no hint to what she was thinking. Finally, after minutes of contemplation she said, "Could it be? Is it possible that you inherited it?"

"Inherited what?"

Instead of answering me, she went over to the trunk that she had placed at the temple's entrance and dug out a bottle filled with green liquid.

"Since you wont believe my words," she said "maybe you will believe my eyes."

"What are you talking about?" She was starting to sound mad.

"Please, just try this. If you still don't believe me when it is over, then I will never bring that night up again." she led me back to the center of the temple, placing the bottle in my hands.

"What is this?" I asked, examining the strange liquid.

"A potion. One that will enhance your magical powers." she said matter-of-factly.

'But magic doesn't exist' I had wanted to say. My conscious told me to smash the bottle and flee from this crazy woman. But instead, I uncorked the bottle and gulped down the potion. Even if what she claimed was a lie, perhaps I could understand why she was so frantic for me to believe her. When I was finished, she took my hands in hers and placed them on her temples.

"Now just keep your hands like this, and close your eyes."

I did as I was instructed and shut my eyes.

"All will be clear soon."

When I opened my eyes to tell Impa that it wasn't working, she was gone. I was outside, in Hyrule Field looking down at something, my vision tinted with red once again. As if they had a mind of their own, my legs walked me over to the lump on the ground and I realized that it was a body. MY body.

"Kai?" I heard Impa say. I tried to turn around to figure out where she was, but my head wouldn't move. Then I realized, I was Impa. Or rather, I was seeing with her eyes.

'What is this?!' I said. Or rather, I tried to say. I could not speak, I could not even move. It was as if I were trapped inside Impa's head, a prisoner merely observing from a window. Impa kneeled beside me, muttering, "Goddesses help us."

What I saw next was something that I wish I hadn't. One of my arms was twisted, the bone sticking out from my elbow. There was so much blood that my once grey dress was stained red. And my head, it was so battered and bloody that it made me sick. Just as Impa had said before, there was a gruesome cut that went across my forehead, a cut that went so deep that I could have sworn that I could see my skull.

Impa picked me up gingerly, whispering words of encouragement as she carried me.

"Just hang in there," her voice shook "I'll get you home. Lana will know what to do…"

My ragged breathing grew fainter with every step as Impa ran back towards her horse, where Malon sat with Epona's reigns in her hand. Malon began to sob at the sight of me, whimpering that it was all her fault as Impa tried to coax her on Epona's back. But her cool composure collapsed when my breathing turned into sickening gurgles.

"No, no no no. Stay with me Kai!" Impa pleaded desperately. "Damn it! Don't do this to us! You can't die on us!" She began to cry.

And just as she had said, the last struggled breath left my body as she held me. My body went limp, I could see my eyes roll to the back of my skull beneath my eyelids. I was dead.

Impa held me tightly against her chest, closing her eyes as she cried.

When I regained my vision, I was back at the Temple of Time. My stomach began to churn as I recalled what I had just seen.

"I'm going to be sick." I groaned as I ran outside. All of the snack, tea, and good feelings I had while I was at the castle was now splattered in a bush outside the temple.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my trembling hand. Impa knelt down beside me, gently rubbing my back as I cried.

"Come on," she said softly "I'll take you home now."