Ganondorf sat at one of the long tables in the castle library, reading through the report an aid had handed him a few moments ago. It was a letter from Riju, detailing the relevant parts of the conversation between herself and the queen. In honesty, he was taken aback by the promises of extensive change for not just his people, but all the people of Hyrule. He had expected it to be a long and arduous road of argument, debate and demanding before he saw any real progress. However, while he could tell the other council members considered him an oddity, they treated his input with as much respect as anyone else. While he had been negotiating the Gerudo's place in the upcoming battle, Riju had been advocating for their people directly to the queen. What he had first dismissed as two friends reconnecting, he was now learning had been a long overdue and deeply significant exchange that would be resulting in an almost immediate improvement to the living conditions of his people. Young as she might be, she was a far more graceful and effective leader than he had over known, historically or otherwise.

For the Gerudo, Zelda had sworn to investigate the abuses of power taking place, making immediate moves to neutralise the canyon pass and allow for free movement between Gerudo and Central Hyrule. Recognising that discriminatory trade law had resulted in desperate conditions and a rise in crime, these laws were to be withdrawn. Any Gerudo who had been wrongfully arrested were to be released, and any offending Hylian officer who had taken advantage of his or her position where to be replaced. None of this was going to happen overnight, but the process had been started, and there was every sign that Zelda would follow through on her promises. In exchange, their friendship and alliance would be renewed. A treaty would be signed, pledging military support in the upcoming fight with the Yiga. All this, Riju had negotiated in an evening while he had been working with the other representatives.

In regards to the war, they had constructed a plan of action. Link had impressed them all with demonstrations of the new armour that Zelda had constructed, and it was agreed that the scientists of the Sheikah would replicate enough to outfit an army, aided by the master craftswomen and enchanters of the Gerudo. Zora armour that was resistant to boiling and freezing water, as well as plates laced with Sheikah magic designed to absorb energy blasts from canons and branching arrows that split mid-air to hit multiple targets, would put them on equal terms with the Yiga foot- and sky-soldiers. The Rito and the Gorons had chosen not to contribute with men, but with resources. While the crowns treasury had been pouring funds into the feeding and arming Hylian soldiers, money had been diverted from civilian towns and farms, leading the working people of Hyrule to shoulder the burden of the army. This was going to change. There was more than enough wealth to divide evenly and with the Gorons supplying ash from their mountain as fertilizer, as well as teaching the Hylians how to fortify their crops against almost anything, and the Rito acting as high-speed couriers to deliver aid to the furthest corners of the land in a matter of days, the food shortages that had now become commonplace would come to an end. The Gorons, in particular, had stumbled upon impressive agricultural technology, producing strong harvests and allowing more work to be done by less people.

After all this had been settled, the matter of invading the Plateau was considered. This was where he had shared his knowledge of the Yiga plot. According to the records and journals he had retrieved from their hideout, in the chaos directly following the defeat of Calamity Ganon, the Yiga had broken into the sanctum of Hyrule Castle and found, amid the twisted remains of the monster, Ganon's skull. They had taken this, and intended to use it as a kind of vessel to gather and hold the lingering power and Malice that had bled into the world after his defeat. All this he understood implicitly, though he struggled to express the mechanics of the magic in words. The journals had expressed a unanimous disappointment in Ganon as a physical sentient being, and instead spoke about harnessing the sheer force of the spirit to unleash terrible destruction.

"They truly believe that the only way to end the cycle is to bring about the destruction of the world, as was Ganon's ultimate goal," he explained to the grim-faced councillors. To his surprise, he was aided in this explanation by the Sheikah girl, Paya, who did a better job of laying out the history for Yunobo and Teba, who were not so well versed in ancient myths and legends.

However, he did have an answer. Link spread out an old, cracked map of Hyrule that looked as if it dated back to before the Calamity, and he used it as a reference as he relayed knowledge of the land that had come from his days of exploration and hiding. "There is a passage," he said, pointing at Hyrule Castle, "that leads from the dungeons of this castle to the Temple of Time on the Plateau. I have been unable to travel the whole length of the tunnel, but we need not move troops from beginning to end. There is an opening here." He pointed at the Forest of Time. "It opens out again via a staircase that leads to the back of the main hall of the temple, behind the statue of Hylia."

There was no way the Yiga would see them coming. As far as he knew, no one else knew about this secret passage, and it was something he had kept closely guarded until now. In reality, it was part of a network of tunnels that had led to secret Sheikah caches and libraries. Not even Paya knew about them, though her eyes lit up with wonder as he described the books he had found there.

All that was left to do was to rally the soldiers. This time, their numbers would be bolstered by Gerudo warriors under Ganondorf's command, and this emboldened Prince Sidon to once again pledge soldiers to the fight, despite their original defeat. The meeting ended well past midnight, but everyone had left it in high spirits.

He had been shown to his rooms by a servant, and was relieved to be sleeping indoors once again. Despite the necessity of rough living for most of his life, he looked forward to a time when he could finally leave that behind him for good. He was not entirely prepared for rich living, however, as he was woken in the morning by Hylian servants pottering about his fireplace. Alarmed that someone was in his room, he roared at them to get out and they scurried away, terrified. He felt rather stupid when he examined the fireplace and saw they were they only trying to light it. Grumbling, he lifted a fire from the coals on his own and dressed, before he received another visitor. This was a Hylian woman dressed in a uniform emblazoned with the Royal crest. She told him that she was very sorry that the servants had startled him, that they had only been there to warm the room, but in a firm, polite tone that implied that she was really there to warn him off terrorizing the staff.

Feeling thoroughly embarrassed, he had spent the rest of the morning in the library. It was now afternoon and he was exploring the castle. To his surprise, a servant had already offered to bring him lunch, which he accepted. He wondered if the other representatives were being treated with the same courtesy. From a balcony, he spotted the Sheikah girl picnicking in the inner gardens, admiring the butterflies while she ate what looked like sushi. When he was brought his lunch, it consisted of spiced bread and meats. It seemed that for lack of specific instructions, they had simply brought him food that wouldn't look out of place in his homeland. It had been in an effort to make him comfortable, but instead it made him uneasy. Would they have brought him anything he asked for? He supposed, given his position, that he should get used to having underlings, servants and footmen, and maybe he might have, in another life. As it was, he thought it was stuffy and strangely old fashioned.

Something else troubled him. It hovered over him like bad air, and he had a feeling in his gut that it wasn't going to dissipate unless he cleared it himself.

He found Link in the training courtyard. He was watching soldiers drill. As Ganondorf looked on, he stood and approached a pair who had been sparring, taking the shield from one of them and demonstrating the correct form, before returning it to the soldier, who appeared to thank him by making touching his chin. Smiling, Link signed something in response and the recruit nodded. He must be teaching all his soldiers his sign language, Ganondorf realised. Mute soldiers would be quite the battlefield advantage.

xxx

Link became aware that Ganondorf was watching him before he actually saw him and did his best not to let it distract him. He still felt oddly defensive when sharing a space with him, and without the Mastersword, he felt doubly exposed. When the Gerudo sat down on the same bench overlooking the courtyard, he could no longer ignore him. He gave him a sidelong glance and a thin smile that was little more than drawing his lips into a thin line.

After a while, Ganondorf cleared his throat. "You've done well, Champion," he said. "These are good soldiers. You should be proud... "

Link remained motionless. He had never really considered whether or not he was good or bad at anything. There was only what felt right. But looking at the sparring pairs through Ganondorf's eyes, he considered how far he had come. If he could go back to that resolute young man who had stood at the gates of this castle, trembling with fear and determination, would he have believed that in just a handful of years, he would be commanding an army, knocking shoulders with the rulers of the land, making peace with his ancestral enemy?

"I notice that you don't have your sword. I've never seen you without it."

He felt his throat tightening and his eyes stayed fixed straight ahead of him.

"Did you lose it? I'm sorry..." A pause. "You might be without it now, but I can sense that you are more... complete than the last time we met."

What a strange thing to say. Was he more "complete"? He felt stronger, certainly. Where he had been lost before, he felt purposeful. Perhaps he had been missing something. He looked at Ganondorf, peering at him. He sat, leaning forward, wrists resting on his knees, watching the sparring recruits. Now that he had the time to really examine him, he realised how unremarkable he was. There were a few unique qualities to him, most notably his eyes, but there was a lot that he recognised. He had the sloped forehead, prominent nose and dark skin typical of his race, though his hair was more the colour of rust than fire. He didn't have Urbosa's beauty, though there was something in his broad shoulders that reminded him of her. Nor did he have Sun's graceful, cat-like posture, but there was something of her pride in the way he held himself. He was both eerily familiar and shockingly normal.

Eventually, he touched his chin in an open-handed gesture.

Ganondorf caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. "This," he copied the movement, "means... thank you?"

Link nodded.

Ganondorf turned back to the courtyard. "I've been wanting to speak with you, to ask you something," he said.

Curiosity growing, he waited.

"You fought with Lady Urbosa?"

He nodded again.

"What was she like?"

Link stared at him. It was such an open-ended question, and he had no real way to communicate the answer to him. Thinking hard, he grimaced, before making a motion as if he were warming his hands by a fire.

"Warm?"

He shook his head, making a lifting motion.

"Hot? Fiery?"

He nodded, and Ganondorf chucked. He then held up a finger before placing his hand on his heart

"But she was kind, warm-hearted."

His smiled in confirmation, tracing an hourglass figure in the air with both hands and then holding his forearm in front of him, holding an invisible shield and scimitar.

"Beautiful. A fierce warrior," Ganondorf translated, an honest smile breaking across his face. The effect made him appear suddenly younger. "Thank you. I wish I could have met her..."

She wouldn't have liked you, he thought, though he kept that to himself.

A comfortable silence fell between them. Knowing he admired Urbosa added another layer of mundanity to him that made him feel more at ease. Here, in the bright sunlit courtyard, it was easy to see him as unthreatening, even personable.

"There is something else I wanted to ask you, something I wanted you to do for me."

This surprised him. He tilted his head, listening.

"A long time ago," he began, looking oddly anxious, shifty even, "I made a mistake. I... Well I took something from a powerful spirit that I had no right to. I have tried more than once to return it, but when I go to the home of this spirit, all I feel is emptiness and silence. My transgression was so great that I can never reverse it, or atone for it. I have heard stories of how the spirits speak to you and aid you, how you are welcome in their forests and homes. I am sure that if you were to return this thing, then it can be made right again."

He frowned. Whatever he had expected, it was not this. He made a movement as if to beckon, inviting him to elaborate.

Ganondorf sighed. "It is a mask of great magic and power..."

Link shivered. Masks were indeed powerful and sacred items, not things to be tampered with. But one did not simply pick up a spirit's mask and walk away with it. Masks of the kind that Ganondorf was talking about were usually created when a spirit was dying, as a last plea or promise to fulfil unfinished business in the physical realm. Suddenly the courtyard was not so warm, despite the sunlight. He hadn't made it sound as if he had merely stumbled upon a dying spirit.

"The mask of the Lord of the Mountain."

Link actually felt his mouth fall open. He leaned back, tilting his head up and covering his eyes with one hand as if he had a headache, feeling something cold and heavy sink into his stomach. He remembered hearing about the Lord of the Mountain from travellers who had passed by Satori Mountain. They had talked about a supernatural glow coming from the grove on the side of the mountain, about how it used to make them afraid, but whenever the subject was brought up, they all said the same thing. It hadn't been seen for years now, and for some strange reason, its absence made them feel sad and alone. He had even investigated the grove, searching for clues as to why the spirit had disappeared. And all this time, it had been...

He let his hand fall and gave Ganondorf a dark look.

"I know it was wrong," he said. "It's the worst... one of the worst things I've ever done."

Link exhaled in a low whistle. This was no small thing. What Ganondorf implied filled him with sadness. If he had asked him to help cover it up, or to keep it a secret, then he would have outright refused. As it was, he was asking for help in putting it right. Slowly, after a long time, he nodded.

"Thank you."

Link extended his hands towards him, palmed up, eyebrows raised in a question.

"I don't have it with me. It was lost. After all this is over, I can help you find it. But it can't be me who returns it."

That meant he could put it from his mind for now. Despite the gravity of the request, he couldn't bring himself to be too horrified. It was, after all, what he did. Put things back, make things right. He had no idea how he would go about summoning what was left of the spirit, but all he needed to do was ask for help. There was always help to be had. The sheikah elders, the great fairies, even the mysterious dragons would speak to him if he asked politely enough. He met Ganondorf's eyes and nodded his understanding, trying his best to smile reassuringly.

Ganondorf didn't smile, but he sighed and the lines left his face. "If there is anything I can do for you, please, don't hesitate to find me."

There was only one thing that he considered really important now. He pointed at Ganondrof's sword, giving him a solemn look that he hoped conveyed his meaning. Take up arms. Fight with us.

Seeming to understand, Ganondorf stood. "I'll be there," he vowed, and departed.

xxx

To his surprise, she found him.

The great hall and throne room of the castle was empty, and this is where his exploration took him. He had been wandering about the castle as if it were a museum, examining the paintings, the windows, the hallways, all the time feeling as if he were on the cusp of remembering something. The new masonry was built on top of the ruins, and every now and again he would see evidence of what it had been, cracked with decay and Malice and the sheer age of the place impressed itself on him. This castle wasn't one hundred or one thousand years old, but tens of thousands. This was only the latest iteration with the previous one only just painted over and beneath that the dust of a time before and a time before that.

The throne itself was modest, smaller than he had imagined. Running his fingers alone one arm, he circled it, standing behind it and facing out into the hall. That was when he saw her, watching him. He stepped back around, sweeping his cloak behind him and bowing.

"Your Majesty."

"Come to admire it, Ganondorf?"

"Only to admire."

She was gazing at him with a cold, impenetrable expression. If there had been accusation in those verdant eyes, it had been so fleeting that he was left with only the question that it had been there at all. She was dressed in simple white, though with the way she carried herself, the way the dress draped her slender shoulders, she looked just like the statues of the Goddesses he had seen in temples.

She walked towards him, stopping a few feet shy. He watched her silently as she continued to examine him, trying to ignore the sensation of being appraised. Finally, she spoke.

"What makes this time any different?"

For a moment, he couldn't quite grasp what she meant. It was as if she were speaking more to herself than to him. He considered the question, turned it over in his mind, compared it to the similar questions he had once asked himself.

"This time," he said, "I know that power is only self-consuming without the temperance of wisdom or the selflessness of courage."

"You mean Link and I."

"I do."

"I struggle to tolerate you in my castle. Your very presence, the way you stand between me and that throne makes my heart burn with rage. You symbolise the greatest threat to my family since the Goddesses themselves walked Hyrule."

He could see it in her eyes, the way they narrowed, the disgust in her voice, and he fought with himself for a moment, trying to stay calm, trying to see it through her eyes. This blame that she was laying at his feet did not belong to him, was not even really aimed at him. But it was his responsibility to be something other than what she expected. He took a step closer to her.

"Your Majesty. Zelda. I cannot undo what has been done to your family, to your mothers and grandmothers. The most I can do is honour them by recognising their pain and also their victories. You are the true Queen of Hyrule. That throne belongs to you. Every man or beast that has tried to take it from you has been vanquished, time and time again, right back to when the Demon King, Demise himself was defeated by the Goddess Hylia. This time, I do not seek this power, for I know it brings ruin, and not for you. Any suffering I could ever cause you would only be temporary, whereas my downfall would not only be inevitable but absolute. The power I do seek, the power to defend the freedom of my people, has been granted me. Now, I desire only to end the cycle, a desire that we share."

"Would I ever know peace while you live?" she asked.

"I am at peace," he said, and he meant it. "I do not crave what you have, nor do I fear your hero." He laughed dryly, and Zelda glared at him. "Forgive me, only there is a sword that was literally created to be my bane. Given the power I hold inside me, I don't doubt that its rightful owner might be the only one who could defeat me. But I am not afraid. I have hope that one day I might count him among my friends."

Zelda simply looked at him, fear and confusion melting through the cold exterior.

"What I am trying to say," he sighed. "Is that you need to find the peace within you. I cannot give it to you. No one can. I can only step aside." And he did this, moving away from the throne so that she had an uninterrupted path to it.

After a pause, she stepped past him, and he could see her hands were balled into fists. She only relaxed again once she stood beside the throne, her hand on the arm.

"I will not kneel before you," he said. "Enough usurpers, traitors and tyrants have knelt before the Kings and Queens of Hyrule for that gesture to be rendered meaningless. Only know that while this worlds triforce remains intact, I stand beside you in the fight against chaos."

When she spoke again, there was no longer any bitterness in her voice. "I am willing to stand with you," she said. "I am willing to let you stay here, to accept your right to freedom and to consider your value. But I cannot believe you won't betray that trust..."

His heart sank, and he felt his shoulders sag as if under a heavy weight.

She shook her head. "No. I misspoke. I cannot yet believe that you won't betray that trust."

His spirit leapt. "That's all I need."

"Now, I as much as I hate to be rude, I must ask you to leave me. I... I have a lot to think about."

"Of course," he said, his face splitting into a smile. "Thank you."

"Farewell, Ganondorf."

"Sav'orr, Zelda."

It wasn't much. To another man it would have been nothing, but to him, it was something. It was as if he had broken through a glass wall. The window had been shattered, and now it was possible to rearrange the pieces, put it back together to form a story where they were not enemies. He departed the great hall feeling more hopeful that he could ever remember feeling. He caught himself smiling. It was too early for him to return to his chamber, and the dusk air was warm and inviting. He had not yet explored the battlements, he reasoned. So, with a slight spring in his step, he found a door that led out into the open air and discovered a stretch that was away from any guards on duty, and admired the view of Castle Town, while a slight breeze tugged at his hair and cloak.

That was when he heard Sun's voice behind him.

"Been making friends, have we?"

6