"Man overboard!" Captain Delmar shouted into the PA system, adding to the cacophony of yelling, alarms, and the roar of thunder. The engines ground to a halt as he ran down to the deck, doubtful he would be able to see anyone but unable to just leave the three to the mercy of the waves.
He stared out into the driving rain and angry wind, three sailors emerging from the ship's interiors carrying life preservers and an inflatable lifeboat. Holding tight to the rail, he scanned the gale-shredded water for any sign of life.
Nothing.
"Do you see them, Captain?" one of the sailors demanded, his voice nearly carried away in the wind.
Delmar scowled, the bottom dropping out of his stomach. "No," he said finally. "They're lost."
He didn't budge from the rail, even though the tossing waves threatened to throw him over as well. The men glanced at one another, waiting for orders.
Suddenly he pulled his head back and yelled, "Get back to your places, men! Start up the engines again, there's nothing more we can do here!"
They scattered. Delmar ran back to his chair as quickly as he could across the rolling, pitching deck.
"Captain, we can't get the engines restarted again," came a strained voice over the intercom.
A dazzling fork of lightning crackled overhead, the roar of thunder rolling over all like some heavenly boulder. The floor beneath Delmar heaved up, then slammed down again, knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor.
"Captain! We're taking on water!"
Delmar snatched up his radio. "Mayday-mayday-mayday, this is the Scarlet Dragon, Mayday. Location forty degrees twenty minutes north, sixteen degrees four minutes west. Caught in stormy seas and taking on water, over."
"Deploy the lifeboats!" He yelled into the intercom.
Sailors poured out of the doors, grabbing the winches that held the lifeboats. The Scarlet Dragon had lifeboats that could withstand the battering waves, built almost like cocoons, into which the sailors would strap themselves so they would not be hurt.
"Scarlet Dragon, this is Coast Guard Station." Delmar turned back to the radio. "Cannot send out aerial rescue crews in this weather, can you withstand a few hours, over."
"Coast Guard Station, this is the Scarlet Dragon. We're now deploying into A-grade lifeboats with homing transmitters, over."
"Roger. Sending out cutter rescue crew, over."
The first lifeboat hit the water. Donning a survival suit, the first sailor straddled the rail to jump over. Delmar pulled on his own survival suit.
Like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky, a ray of pure sunshine hit the water. It expanded quickly, pushing back the clouds, the wind, the rain. The waves settled as if some angry god, now placated, had returned to favor the sailors once more.
Delmar and the rest of the crew stared with expressions varying from puzzled to joyful, as they saw not the hurricane's eye but clear skies for miles around.
--
With a sensation like a snapped rubber band, the Nayru jerked backwards and took off like a loosed balloon, tumbling end over end. Both Link and Zelda instinctively wrapped their arms around themselves, gripping the sides of their seats hard. As the submersible spun like a gyroscope, Link could see a golden glow out of the corner of his eye, on the hand where the Triforce shone partially embedded in his flesh.
Despite the pressure on his body, Link strained to open his eyes and saw the entire craft surrounded by a halo of soft blue light. As the Nayru tumbled through the water, the blue shield cushioned blows against submerged stones and the ocean floor. He stared in fascination as the ship ricocheted off an undersea cliff without giving them so much as whiplash.
The spinning and tumbling began to slow, and he could see that they were slowly sinking toward the bottom of the ocean. "Link?" he heard Zelda ask, in little more than a whisper.
"Zelda, are you all right?"
"Considering the circumstances, yes. Are you?"
"Yes. This blue wall…is the Triforce doing it?"
"I think so."
They said nothing more until the Nayru settled at the sea floor, where the shield flickered and died. The golden glow faded from their hands, the pitch black of the depths surrounding them. Both waited in silence for something more to happen, and when it didn't, Link said, "Well, this is just great. We survive being pitched into a wall just to slowly suffocate at the bottom of the sea."
Zelda rubbed the back of her hand. "No…something will happen, I can feel it. Link, did you recognize this place before the light went out? It's where we first found the ruins of the castle."
He stared around in vain. "Yeah, I think you're right…not sure what good that does us, though."
They waited in the dark for several minutes, listening to the bubbling of the water and the slight shift of the craft. Then, in the everlasting dark, they spied a pinpoint of light.
"What do you suppose that is?" Zelda asked.
Link frowned, not encouraged. "Probably just bioluminescent fish…if this were any other time, I'd be interested, but now…"
The glow grew larger. As it neared, it seemed to take the shape of a human being. Someone large in body, with sweeping robes. "Is it Ganondorf?" Zelda asked.
"No idea," Link replied. "There's no way a person could survive down here. The pressure alone would kill them."
As the ghostly figure approached, they could discern more features. A bearded man, dressed in red robes with a blue shirt. On his head he wore a golden crown.
Zelda drew in her breath. "Is that…?
Link stared. Zelda's ancestor, Daphnes Nohasen. The one who had sunk the ancient kingdom.
You see this man, you kill him, Ganondorf had said. Link braced himself, wondering what warranted such a warning.
The semitransparent figure inclined its head toward Zelda. "Greetings, Princess. Forgive me for troubling you, but I had to speak with you."
"Princess?" Link demanded. The old man seemed to ignore him.
"You are both in grave danger," said Daphnes. He spread his arms to indicate the watery depths around him. "You are sitting in what was once my kingdom, at one time a beautiful land full of rich golden fields and happy people. But great darkness descended on the land, and in the bitter end I had to sacrifice it in order to keep the great evil from spreading to the rest of the world."
"Was it an epidemic?" Link asked, eager to see if his guess had been right. Daphnes shook his head.
"The Great Darkness that befell my kingdom was an evil sorcerer, who stole the most precious thing we had, the very magic and power that kept it whole." He motioned toward Zelda's marked hand. "The Triforce…he could not take it all, for the traits of Courage and Wisdom were repelled by his black heart. But he maintained his grip on Power, and used it to send my kingdom into an age of terror and despair."
"Courage and Wisdom?" Zelda glanced at her marked hand, then at Link.
Daphnes smiled sadly. "Your ancestors were the bearers of the other pieces, this role ordained to them by the Goddesses who wished to see the evil sorcerer defeated. But in the end, it was not enough. The sorcerer was too powerful, and managed to take by force the pieces your ancestors held. By this time he had such a hold on Power that he could make the other pieces obey his foul orders…so before he could cast the spell, I took it from him and wished for my own kingdom to be buried underwater along with him. Had I not done so, his evil would have spread even beyond Hyrule."
"Let me guess." Link studied Daphnes' face. "The evil sorcerer's name was…"
"Ganon. Or in his human form, Ganondorf, if you believed there was any human left in him." Daphnes nodded. "Your ancestor sealed him into stone with the help of a magic sword. Even with that, and the Triforce broken apart, and Hyrule destroyed, Ganon could not be completely eliminated from this world. So I stayed as sentinel down here among the ruins of my kingdom…until you brought that horrible curse back up to the light of day."
"Hang on a minute," Link demanded. "How the hell were we supposed to know that lump of rock was some kind of curse? This place has been underwater for centuries!"
Daphnes inclined his head ever so slightly. "I apologize, I can see that you come from a world where magic has little meaning. Indeed, you could not see me when you first came, for the very reason that you can see me now; you possessed only the tiniest shard of the Golden Power, that your ancestor had taken with her when she left to build a new kingdom. So I tried to warn you in other ways, both before you left and then again when you returned."
Zelda's face blanched with the sudden revelation. "You were the saboteur aboard the Scarlet Dragon."
Link scowled at him, reliving the burst pipes and oil spills all over again. "Couldn't you have gotten our attention in a less annoying way? Like leaving a note?"
"My abilities are limited as a ghost," Daphnes said. "Also, Ganondorf is and always has been a crafty manipulator. Doubtless he would twist my words into some other meaning. He played the King before me this way, making him believe he was an ally before he stole the Triforce under his nose…and then killed him."
"But still you persisted," Daphnes continued, "So I had to resort to the last bit of magic that my kingdom still possesses: an artifact known as the Wind Waker. It was a wand that could harness the powers of the gods, in the form of wind and storms. I absorbed it into my spirit, so its power is one with me."
"A wand that controls the wind?" Zelda's knuckles whitened as she clenched her hands. "Those storms…the hurricanes that drove us away and then separated us from the ship…that was your doing."
"Idiot. Are you trying to get us killed?" Link snarled.
Daphnes made a little bow of apology, but his eyes burned into theirs with a strange fire. "I am sorry, but it is my duty to ensure that the King of Evil never regains his hold on the Triforce. I will do anything necessary to fulfill that goal."
Link felt chills run down his spine. He heard Zelda speak in an unsteady voice. "So will you kill us, then?"
Shaking his head, Daphnes replied, "No, Princess, not unless that is my final resort, and there is much we can still do. All I ask for now is that you listen to me and do as I ask."
Link laughed softly. "Well, you've got a captive audience, so go ahead."
Daphnes pointed to his marked hand. "If you have noticed, Ganon has drawn the most pieces to himself, then to Zelda, and the fewest to you. Your ancestor was the great Hero who defeated him, who sealed him into stone with the Master Sword. You still have the sword that you pulled from his head, I trust?"
Link nodded. "Well, I did…it's on the Scarlet Dragon. You didn't sink it in the hurricane, did you?"
"No. But make sure you regain it quickly, for it is the only thing that can hurt Ganon. You will need to seal him away again."
Link remembered Ganondorf's fervent attempts to steal the sword or make Link throw it overboard. His actions made more sense now, though Link had figured that he might not have any affection toward something that had been stuck in his skull for several hundred years.
"Listen carefully, for this is the most important part," said Daphnes. "You must not seek the Triforce. He is still missing a shard, so his grip on Power is not complete. That alone would be bad enough, but you can be sure that he will continue to play the innocent fool until the entire artifact has been reformed. Then he will wrench it from you and a new Dark Age will visit the world, not only what's left of this one but yours as well." His eyes burned into them as he searched their faces. "Do you understand?"
Link and Zelda nodded.
"I can't emphasize Ganon's ability to hoodwink others enough. An entire kingdom has fallen to his wily deeds. You must not listen to anything he says, you must not let him know that you have spoken to me, that I am present at all. Do you understand?"
"Yes, we get it," Link said, annoyed. Daphnes spoke as if to a child, and Link had not heard that tone of voice in a long, long time.
Daphnes narrowed his eyes, and his voice lowered an octave. "I will do anything…anything possible to ensure the Dark King does not return. Remember that."
He raised his hand, and the Nayru rose from the ocean floor, dirt and grime dripping from the bottom. Both Link and Zelda kept their gaze fixed on the King, his words ringing in their ears even after he grew smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared from their sight.
--
The Nayru surfaced, and they could see the Scarlet Dragon just a mile or so off to their left. Zelda released a flare and another one aboard the ship fired in response. The ship slowly grew larger as it came to retrieve them.
"Link," Zelda said slowly, staring out over the sea as if deep in thought. "Do you trust Daphnes?"
He frowned. "No, but I don't trust Ganondorf either, that's for sure."
She stroked the back of her marked hand. "There's so much we don't know…I get the feeling they're both manipulating us for their own ends. Don't you?"
Link rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, Daphnes' kind of weirded me out, if that makes any sense. His all-or-nothing attitude bothers me a bit. Of course, Ganondorf might do the same thing if we don't do what he says. He might be exactly the same, he's just better at hiding it."
"Link." Zelda stared unseeing at the approaching ship. "Did Daphnes show any remorse for what he had done? To the people Ganondorf told us about?"
"He had to do it, Zelda. Otherwise Ganondorf would have moved on to conquer the rest of the world. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision."
She said nothing.
The Scarlet Dragon pulled up as close as it could to them, and one of the sailors lowered a line equipped with a clamp, affixing it to the submersible. The sailors brought it up via the hand crank until Link and Zelda were safely aboard the ship.
"It's a miracle!" The two were caught off guard as Captain Delmar embraced them both. "We thought for sure we'd lost you!"
"Good to see you too, Delmar," Link said as well as he could while the captain squeezed the air out of him.
"Captain, where is Ganondorf?" Zelda asked.
He shook his head sadly. "He went overboard in the storm. He was trying to save the Nayru. I'm sorry."
"He's not dead." They all stared at Zelda as she made her sudden pronouncement.
"I'm sorry, Miss Nohasen, but he is," Delmar insisted. "I guess you rode out the storm in the submersible, but there's no way he could have survived."
"Link." She turned to him. "You can feel it too, can't you?"
He opened his mouth to object, but said nothing. Somehow he knew she was right, and it had something to do with the marks on their hands. The golden shards pulled out to sea, as if calling to a lost sibling.
"Captain. He is alive, and we must find him. Please continue our expedition," said Zelda.
Delmar scratched his head. "Well, the ship wasn't too badly damaged, we can certainly go on…I think you're setting yourselves up for disappointment, though."
Zelda turned to Link. She said nothing, but he understood, and nodded.
Whether they were to assist him, or seal him again into stone, Ganondorf needed to be found.
