The Legend of Zelda

Chapter Twenty Nine: Reunion

It was a long walk back to Link's cave.

After he had claimed the legendary Master Sword from its resting place in the hidden arboretum of the southernmost part of the graveyard, the old man had revealed to them one last secret. This secret was another hidden exit that took them into the westernmost part of the Lost Woods, near the border of Arcadia, meaning that they were about as far away from Impa as they could get without leaving the province. The good news was that they were also a good distance away from where Darknut, the Wizzrobes, and the Lynels would be searching for them, but the bad news was that Prince Façade was without his horse.

True to his word, the old man's minions had somehow infiltrated the mausoleum and recovered their stolen property, and it was nice to have their weapons back, but now they had to get back to Impa and let her know that Ganondorf was now in possession of at least one of the chests that Zelda had hidden.

This meant an almost two day long journey across Hyrule's southern outskirts, but ever since Link had saved his life, the Prince had looked upon him in a whole different manner. No longer did he see an uncivilized rogue of the forest, but a cunning warrior who was willing to give up an incredible treasure in order to save him, and true to his word, Façade now treated him as a brother. The improvement in their relationship also made the long journey more bearable.

They talked often during this walk, with Link being surprisingly open about his life with the wizard Agahnim. He told Façade about how his parents had been thieves, leading to him being orphaned at a young age when a large heist went bad, and how he had teamed up with Agahnim, who had run away from the Wizzrobes, in order to survive. Together they combined Link's growing physical abilities with Agahnim's amazing magical talent, and came up with the perfect way to make an easy living.

"So you faked robberies?" The Prince laughed as they walked. "Let me see if I understand this; Agahnim pretended to rob them, then you pretended to defeat Agahnim, and the travelers just gave you their rupees? That's so stupid that it must've worked like a charm… brilliant."

"It certainly did." Link replied with his own chuckle. "Apparently Agahnim got the best part of it though, huh? So what about you, Façade?"

Well, he had told him his entire life story, and they were getting along now, so there was no reason that Façade shouldn't do the same. So he told about how he had met Princess Zelda when they were both very young, and how he had fallen in love with her almost immediately. His mother and Zelda's father detested each other, but that hadn't stopped the Prince from spending every moment that he could with her. Her cousin, Miranda was always around as well, and of course that led the conversation into how awkward it was that she was Blind the Thief.

"Well, Miranda was always adventurous." Façade explained. "Really strong and quick for a girl, too, but… no, I suppose that she always liked to take things that weren't hers. I thought she just liked shiny things, like all girls do, but looking back on everything now, I suppose she had a bit of a problem."

"Sounds like it." Link said. "But let me ask you this; after we defeat Ganondorf and save the Princess… what then?"

This was the part that the Prince really looked forward to; when the quest would be over, and his beloved Zelda would be safe in his arms at last. Once that was done, he intended to marry her, which would one day make him King of Hyrule… of course, he was also the only heir to the throne of Arcadia as well… so… maybe he and Zelda would just have to destroy the borders and make the two Kingdoms into one. Then again, his mother probably wouldn't be too happy about that, but at that point she would be dead and he would be King, so that didn't really matter, did it?

Façade had always hoped that he could get his mother and Zelda's father to somehow fall in love with each other, as he and Zelda had, but as the years had gone by, this had become less and less of an option. Oh well, regardless of what the elders thought, the Prince had his heart set on marrying Zelda, and that was that. This conversation and others like it almost made him forget that it had taken an entire day for them just to reach the bridge to Port Hylia, and that was only the halfway point, meaning that it would take another day as well.

And it did.

Resuming the journey at sunrise the next day, they passed by Port Hylia, crossed the plains, and were entering the Eastern Forest at some point in the late afternoon. Façade never in his life imagined that he would have been happy to see a cave, but in this instance, it meant that the journey was over. Impa was preparing supper when they walked in through the entrance, and his horse, Perfection was still there where he had left him, but there were two others there as well.

"Façade!" Miranda exclaimed in surprise.

She ran over and hugged him, and the Prince had the opportunity to finally meet the wizard, Agahnim as well. Impa was just glad that everyone was safe, and they all had a nice supper of vegetable soup together before the more serious conversations had to start, beginning with Façade's knowledge that Miranda was really Blind the Thief, who even he, himself had once tried to capture… unsuccessfully. Turns out that Zelda knew the whole time, and that Miranda had been sent a similar letter to the one he had received, meaning that she had been working toward rescuing Zelda the whole time.

And this brought them to the subject of the recovered chests, and although it was nice that six of them were now in their possession, Ganondorf still had two. Agahnim explained how the one from Lizard Mine had been taken from him during a fight with Ganondorf, and he looked like he felt horrible about it, until the Prince assured them that it was no fault of his own. After all, Darknut had taken a chest from them as well, so there was no point in casting blame. Still, there was a good chance that the Triforce of Wisdom had been hidden inside one of the chests that they had, and there just happened to be a female member of the royal family with them.

"This is the one!" Miranda exclaimed as green light came from the first one she opened. "I knew I had seen it in the one from the sewers… although it's, um… a little smaller than I remember it being when Zelda showed me… of course, I was only seven when I saw it."

Gathering around, they all saw that it was, in fact, a glowing green triangular object inside of the chest, but it did seem rather small. Not that Façade had ever seen the Triforce for himself, but Impa seemed to be disturbed by this as well.

"Lady Miranda, could you open the next chest?" The old woman asked nervously. "I have a bad feeling, but I need to be sure."

So she did; Miranda opened the next chest, and the next, and the next until all six of theirs were open. Inside were nearly identical glowing green pieces that varied a little in shape, but when the old woman moved two of them closer together for comparison, everyone jumped a little when they suddenly flew together, forming a much larger, but solid piece. The same thing happened with the other pieces, seeming to amaze most of the group, but leaving Impa looking a little paler than she usually did.

"Oh, no." The old woman whispered in horror. "Oh, no, no, no, no."

The six glowing green pieces had fused together to form a much larger pyramid shaped object, but there was obviously something missing. As everyone looked at it, they saw that there were two places along the sides where more pieces could be inserted, and this was very bad news. Until now they had been under the assumption that Zelda had hidden the Triforce of Wisdom inside one chest while using the others as a decoy, but this was just not true. The reality was that the Princess had somehow broken the Triforce up into eight pieces and scattered them… and now Ganondorf had two.

There was no reason to believe that the sorcerer even knew what he had, since the chests could only be opened by a willing female member of the royal family, but what Ganondorf did know that he had was the Triforce of Power. It was known that this was what made the sorcerer so powerful, and it was also known that the only way to disrupt its magic was to possess a completed Triforce of Wisdom.

"What do we do?" Impa asked, clearly frightened. "Zelda is still Ganondorf's prisoner in Spectacle Rock, but in order to defeat him, we need the rest of those pieces."

"Then let's go get them." Agahnim suddenly spoke up. "I've been thinking about this for a little while now, just in case we weren't able to find the Triforce before Ganondorf did, and I've come up with somewhat of a plan. Now, Miranda broke his recorder when she was there last time, meaning that he can't just go anywhere that he pleases. So the first part of my plan is for Link and Façade to create a distraction outside Spectacle Rock in order to lure Ganondorf outside."

The robed wizard then went on to explain that since Link and Façade were the strongest fighters, they would do best in holding off Ganondorf while Miranda infiltrated the fortress, since she was the only one who had ever been inside before. Then while she was stealthily searching for the missing pieces, Agahnim would find the Triforce of Power, and attempt to somehow distract it, keeping its attention away from the battle until Impa could bring in the completed Triforce of Wisdom.

It wasn't much of a plan, but when Agahnim asked if any of them had a better idea, no one was able to speak up. So the matter was settled, and once supper was finished, they all went to bed early. Not wanting to give Ganondorf any more time to prepare for them than he had already had, it was decided that this nearly suicidal plan would be put into place immediately, meaning that they all would need to get plenty of rest, since the journey to Spectacle Rock was going to begin… tomorrow.