"Take me across the desert. I want to see the ocean."
Ganon returned from washing himself to find Zelda standing between Acacia and Mallow, fully dressed and with sand goggles perched on her forehead.
Your horse is saddled and ready, Acacia informed him.
We've prepared a horse for Zelda as well, Mallow added.
The sun had only barely risen above the horizon, and already Zelda had marshalled his spearwomen into her service. Ganon's heart swelled with affection for her. He stepped forward and kissed her. She brought her hand to his face, drawing him closer while stroking his freshly trimmed beard.
Acacia coughed delicately, and Zelda released him.
"Before we deal with matters here," she said, "I'd like to ride to the Temple of Din and see your tunnels for myself."
Ganon considered this statement, which was most assuredly not a request. The day would bring with it all manner of demands on his time and his patience, and although he felt more energetic and refreshed than he had in years, he had no desire to attend to the business of state immediately. He had just escaped death – or something far worse – and the dawn was the best time to ride in the desert. He would give word from Orris time to arrive, and in the meantime his mothers could handle everything in his stead.
"Very well," he said. "We will leave at once."
Zelda took to her Gerudo mount immediately. She stood in her saddle and laughed as she raced him across the dunes to the temple. He took her hand and led her to the chambers cut into the foundation stone and down the twin passageways that stretched into the great cavernous space below. He could not stop himself from snatching glimpses of her face as she marveled over the incredible scale of the architecture.
Ganon touched the glyphs carved into the wall and called them to life. They appeared as broken and garbled as they had before, sending out runners of light that fizzled into the darkness.
"Let me try," Zelda said. She asked him to repeat the spell he used. He did, twice, and on the third time she joined him, harmonizing with his every note. Her clear and beautiful voice spun out into the inky stillness, and glowing glyphs began to spiral around them. Illumination slowly spread from where they stood.
Ganon was struck by a sudden inspiration to weave in the melody Zelda had sung at the altar of the temple within Hyrule Castle, and as he shifted the chords of his song Zelda bolstered it with a lilting countermelody.
He was amazed to see figures materialize in the vast underground space. There were only a few blurry shadows at first, but then more and more popped into existence. He saw hundreds, and then thousands, of people bustling about. They were from every tribe of Hyrule, and he even spotted a few from tribes of which he had never heard or read.
The dust of ages fell away from the enormous pillars supporting the ceiling, and the collapsed entrances to the doorways lining the walls opened. Glyphs floated freely in the air, forming signs and lanes for the foot traffic and even what appeared to be advertisements. The bridge over the far chasm grew several stories, each of which was filled with people.
As the light of their song continued to spread, Ganon realized that the grooves carved into certain sections of the floor were indeed rails when several trains materialized on top of them. They were nothing like anything Ganon had ever seen before, sleek marvels of design and engineering.
The entire scene before them was like something from a dream. Ganon glanced at Zelda and saw that her eyes were wide with wonder. She nodded at him, and together they brought their song to a close, allowing their voices to fade into echoes. The structured chaos around them vanished, the last lights winking out like stars before the sunrise.
"So that was the world before the first war of the gods," Zelda muttered.
"That world can be ours again, in time," Ganon responded.
"I can't do anything about time," Zelda smiled, "but for now, I think I've found a map."
She hummed a variation of the song Ganon had used earlier, and a set of luminous lines appeared in front of them, surrounded by text in Ancient Hylian. Zelda touched the pads of her fingers to the image, and it moved along with her hand. As she expanded the scale of the map, she was able to trace the route of the tunnels all the way to Castle City. She began to scroll east past Death Mountain, but Ganon stilled her hand with his.
"Go the other way. Go west."
With a decisive swipe, Zelda pushed the map all the way to its westernmost corner, where a single tunnel line stretched out into an aquamarine field.
"I guess that's as far as they ever went," she muttered.
Ganon touched the terminus point, and it pulsed under his finger. Marine Observatory, the label read.
"So this is the edge of Hyrule," he said. "With all of their magic and technology, they never ventured beyond it."
"You know," Zelda said, "I've always dreamed of the ocean."
"And now you want to see it for yourself."
"Oh, I want to do more than just see it."
Ganon thought of the salty breeze on his face, and how the water had stretched on forever, interrupted only by small islands. He imagined what it would be like to sail over the waves, navigating by the stars. He pictured the storms over the sea, the water above spilling luxuriously down into the water below.
He reflected on his home in the desert and the inner rooms of his palace, cool havens fragrant with the scent of spiced tea. He had been a king, and before that a prince, for almost as long as he could remember, and he found that he had no knowledge of what it might feel like to have the weight of responsibility lifted from his shoulders. He was proud of his sisters, and proud of his tribe, and he knew that their fate ultimately rested in their own hands, not his.
He considered the woman standing beside him, infinitely wise, infinitely courageous, and infinitely powerful. What could she do if she were not tied to her own monarchy – what might she be capable of, and what might he be able to achieve with her at his side? Hyrule was not ready to accept what he wished to ask of her, and what he wanted for himself, but perhaps if they left for a time and waited for tensions to settle both of their peoples might be willing to welcome them back on their own terms.
"If it is truly your wish to venture out to sea," he said, "then you won't go alone."
It was not easy to end the war. Many had lost their lives, and the blight on Lake Hylia had grown worse during the fighting. The foundations of the western railroad had been decimated, and the damage to Castle City was considerable.
Although the castle walls had come down, burying the Temple of Time underneath them, Hyrule Castle still stood, albeit much worse for wear. Assisted by the ever-capable Impa, Zelda's father had converted the building into a shelter, and the grounds of the castle were filled with people from all over Hyrule, in the process becoming much livelier than they had ever been.
Because of her newfound ability, Zelda was able to transport herself and those within the circle of her magic between Fort Lanayru and Castle City at will, and treaties were swiftly renegotiated. Impa still scowled at Ganon, unwilling to abide his closeness to the princess, but he found that King Gustaf had become surprisingly friendly, if only in private. Apparently Zelda wasn't the only member of the royal family to have experienced relief now that the gate to the Sacred Realm was sealed.
Orris stayed on in Castle City, but Amaranth returned to Fort Lanayru with Link and Nabooru in tow. Nabooru already had the makings of a fine Gerudo warrior, and Link insisted that he be trained as well. Ganon had stridently objected, but Zelda calmed him, assuring him that it was better for the child's energetic talent to be directed by skilled teachers. A Deku boy named Fado had tagged along with them, and Aveil's dapper Zora boyfriend had already taken him under his wing in the greenhouses.
Zelda had written to Romani Ranch on Link's behalf, and Ingo and Talon agreed to send Malon to Fort Lanayru along with several ponies and a small Gerudo escort. In response, Malon had sent a message to Ganon saying that she was interested in staying in the desert and learning metalwork. He had been surprised and strangely flattered as he wondered how so motley a collection of children had all decided to come together within his city.
Meanwhile, Ganon set Aveil and her crew loose under the Temple of Din. Within a matter of days she was able to figure out how the rails worked. To his surprise, their function had nothing to do with magic but rather with the same principle of directed magnetic lift that powered the spinner and the sand speeders. Before the ink had even dried on the renewed trade agreements with Hyrule, Aveil was running small carts up and down the tunnels. The Goron archaeologists in residence at Fort Lanayru helped her team open a tunnel directly from the city to the station under the Temple of Din, and they had already started clearing a passage leading to Castle City.
They were joined by former soldiers and refugees looking for work and adventure, and before long the rails to the ocean were fully operational. The Zora and Hylians displaced from the polluted lake made the journey to the sea as soon as they were able. Next to the water the sand was not so barren and harsh, and from thick mats of seagrass rose large palms whose wood was easy to carve and magnificently buoyant. More boats skimmed the waves with each cycle of the moon. Orchida, who made the trip along with Astera, was able to locate a number of freshwater springs, and the Gerudo lost no time in setting up the beginnings of a system of irrigation to service what had become a rapidly growing settlement.
Surprising changes had visited Hyrule as well, but Ganon could sense Zelda growing more distracted by the day. She often lost her train of thought, and she had begun to toy with her magic carelessly, twisting it through her fingers like a child might play with a stylus in a stuffy classroom. Her boredom mirrored his own impatience with the bureaucracy that piled around him, keeping him awake long into the night and away from Zelda's arms. When he came to her one evening in secret, brushing the papers from her desk and asking if she wanted to go away with him, her response had been immediate and as sweet as wine on his tongue.
So it was that they found themselves on the shore of the Great Sea. He had stolen a moment alone with her away from the celebration that marked the end of the preparations to send them out into the unknown on a ship salvaged from the ruins of a long-lost civilization. They would have nothing but their wits to aid them, but Ganon felt no sense of foreboding. No matter what the waves might throw at them, they had already survived far worse.
They stood facing the ocean, their backs to the boisterous uproar sent up by the voices of all the tribes of Hyrule. The wind ran through Zelda's hair, and for the first time in weeks her eyes were bright and full of life.
"Before we leave," she said, her voice as soft and lovely as the breeze, "there's something I wanted to ask you."
"My heart is open to you, Zelda."
"What was your name, before you were Ganondorf Dragmire?"
He smiled as he brought his lips to Zelda's ear and told her.