"Focus, Princess."

Zelda relaxed herself, focusing as best she could on her slumbering power. She kept her eyes closed, her face clear, her back erect, legs crisscrossed, and breathing steady. In front of her sat Sheik, his scarf lowered to his neck, imitating the same position as her except for his opened eyes. He watched her silently, as his job would require in a different age, searching for any signs of struggle she might possess. Impa had trained her well to focus during meditation, as he could see her. No wonder she found the Triforce so quickly, despite never seeing it in person of feeling its presence before.

However, the blood of Hylia aided in that; the power within Zelda couldn't be found the same way.

Impa had proposed that Zelda's power had only shown itself when the girl was in emotional distress, but if the Princess had to use it, she needed to be able to summon it at any moment. Sadness and anger were great triggers, but to summon it at will is the trigger Zelda needs. That was three days ago.

So far, Zelda had indeed managed to bring the Light Force to her, but not without those triggering emotions. Even when she did manage, the power would never hold for long due to her lack of focus. Sheik, however, believed she was making progress. Each day, the power would hold for seconds longer, which meant it was awakened. Zelda's emotions were getting less and less in the way, her concentration becoming increasingly apparent. Now if he could get her to hold that power for a full minute. "Princess, do you feel it?"

"…Yes, I can feel it."

"Good. Now focus on it. Bring it forth. That power is a part of you, just like your other magical abilities. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not afraid."

"Good." Sheik watched for a few minutes, waiting for any hint of a glow of gold around the princess. However, nothing came of it, and the Princess was grunting and breathing erratically. His senses told him that Zelda was calm in her mind, so what was the problem? How did her mother draw that power?

The only two people who knew that were dead, unfortunately.

After another minute, Sheik sighed. "Princess stop." Zelda immediately stopped meditating, breathing deeply as she looked to Sheik, failure etched across her face.

"Why can't I do it? Why can't I summon the Light Force on my own?"

"It isn't you, Zelda. It is I and Impa. Your mother only summoned her power once, and that was on Death Mountain. That was after many months of torture, many months worrying for her kingdom, many months of hoping for salvation. We never learned how she did it, and I don't think she knew. But after your two accidental showcases, I believed that your emotions were in the way. However, you were calm today, and nothing happened. All the other times, you were angry or sad. Your power revealed itself."

Zelda dropped her head. "So… I might not be able to access it unless I am feeling those emotions?"

Sheik shook his head. "I had some time to ponder that too. If that was the case, well, you would have done it many times before. You didn't do it at Midoro, did you?"

"No. Not even when Vaati told me…how…he killed my mother."

Sheik nodded. "Right. Excuse my tongue, but you never had an emotional connection to Her Majesty, even if you were angry. But you didn't summon it when your boyfriend fell, so that connection isn't it either."

Underneath her golden hair, Zelda began to blush. "Link…isn't my boyfriend."

Sheik chuckled. Seeing his niece of sorts embarrassed by the fact she and Link had kissed in Rauru (Spryte talked) lightened the mood. "Yeah, okay. Whatever. The point is, there is an underlying trigger to your power. If it isn't the emotions or the connections, then it is something you're thinking about."

Zelda looked up, confused as to what Sheik was saying. "I don't understand."

"I'm sure Impa gave you the crash course when she started training you, but there are different types of magic, separated into two categories. There's the elementals. Fire, water, earth, forest. Then there are the spirituals, not to be confused with the Sage of Spirit's power. They are…the more powerful forms of magic, not in the sense that they're stronger than the elementals, but because their power doesn't come from an affinity to a certain element. The spirituals come from there." Sheik pointed to Zelda's heart, and to his. "Light. Shadow. Dark."

"Light, Shadow, and Dark."

"Mhm. I don't know how much detail my wife went into, but unlike the elementals, you cannot learn all three, rarely can you learn two. That reason is because the power comes from the heart. A selfless heart, one who desires peace, justice, freedom, and liberty, can practice the power of Light. A selfish molded by death, destruction, chaos, they are granted Dark."

"And Shadow?"

"Never mistaken Shadow for Dark. Similar, but very different. My people practice it, for it is neither selfless of selfish. It is a total absence of both. And like that, Shadow is the absence of Light, just as the shadows of ourselves on the walls are. However, you cannot see a shadow in the dark, because to make a shadow…"

Zelda answered, now understanding Sheik's lecture. "You need light."

Sheik smiled. "Exactly. However, the lines between selfish and selfless are blurry. You desire to take Hyrule from Vaati, don't you?"

Zelda nodded. "Of course. It is my birthright."

"True. You desire to kill him?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because… Because that's what he deserves. A trial is beyond him now."

"Hmm." Sheik cupped her hands, looking to the floor between him and Zelda. "You have a point. He has killed hundreds, thousands of people, including both your parents. He doesn't deserve a fair trial. His life for the families he's broken apart, for the blood he's spilled… A selfless cause, but a selfish desire."

Zelda narrowed her eyes. There was nothing selfish about what Vaati had coming for him. "How?"

"He is, by law, the King of Hyrule. The elected King, mind you? In a cursed way, we usurp democracy if we outright kill him, though I agree, he does deserve it. But, luckily for all of us, your power chooses whether you are selfish or not. Is your quest for the people who suffer with fear, tormented by unease, who outside this house live a lie to make themselves forget that the king they serve can wipe them out? Or, Zelda, is your quest on the selfish path of vengeance for Ordon and your parents. What is it that you thought of when you summoned your power each time? Was it them, or was it you?"

Zelda thought hard on it. The only time she maintained her power for more than an outburst was in Clock Town. She had just learned Impa (before it was proven false) died at the hands of Zant, and that was her first time triggering the power. She remembered the rage, the hate, the want to kill…but amid it, there was the goal of protecting the civilians of the city from Zant. The was also the duty to keep the Pendants of Wisdom and Power away from the Imperials.

Outside Rauru, the same emotions were back, and the desire for vengeance was heavy on her mind. But not just for her, but for Hyrule and the world in general. She swore he will die for everything he had done.

"Wow." Zelda gazed up to Sheik, who was mesmerized by her. However, it was the voice of the now present Impa that startled her.

"Seems that whatever you're doing it working, Sheik."

"Yeah. You're doing it, Princess."

"Doing what?" She looked at her hands, seeing a thin, golden aura around her. Oh, she was glowing…the Light Force was showing. Zelda gasped in surprise, but it was this moment of breaking her current thoughts of her people that severed the connection to the Light Force. The glow vanished, but the feeling she had stayed. She managed to bring it forth while she was calm. "I did it."

Sheik nodded, standing up with his wife. "But that's just a flicker of it. To defeat Vaati, we need what we saw in Rauru again. We need what you did in Clock Town. Focus on what triggered it and applying that focus in combat. Thankfully, you have the Triforce of Wisdom, so the drain on your natural stores of mana this power will have can be adverted until you use up the immense reserves Wisdom gives you."

Zelda nodded, rising to her feet. Feeling accomplished, she wished to attend to a different matter. "May I go?"

Sheik nodded. "You're the boss."

Zelda smiled, thanking Sheik, and leaving the room. She scoured the building until she found herself at her destination. Slowly, she opened the door, peeking inside. Seeing that nothing in the room changed before she left it, Zelda entered, closing the door, and walking to the lone bed in the room. She placed herself on one side of it, laying down and facing the medial aspect of the bed, her eyes upon the other occupant of the bed. She placed a hand on the green tunic that he wore, shuffling herself until she laid on his shoulder.

On top of the other's head, a small fairy sat, unnaturally silent. Zelda rose her head up to eye the being. "Spryte."

Spryte didn't eye Zelda, instead resting her head on her knees. "Hello Zelda."

"Don't worry. Link is alive. He'll be back soon."

"How soon? It's been a week. It isn't like he's been in and out of consciousness."

Zelda sighed, then lowered her head back on Link's shoulder. Spryte had a point. She quietly rested on Link, hearing his lungs inspire and expire, feeling his blood pulse, watching his chest rise and fall. If only there was a way to wake him.

Impa had never told her the plan once they got to New Kasuto, only that there's "a technique that could help Link in his slumbering state." Most of his wounds were healed of bleeding, though it will be a while before function will be completely restored. Whatever technique Impa implied might work, but Sheik did mention the risk of memory loss.

Speaking of memory, Zelda's mind brought forth her father's last instructions for her. "When you get a chance, tell her this phrase: Memento temporis." "Remember the times" was the translation. It made sense of why Spryte had previously felt a case of déjà vu across North and East Hyrule, and as she told Link and Zelda, of why she trusted Shade back at the fairy spring near Ordon. If what her father implied was true, Spryte was once his fairy, and if that was the case, she would know more about him and her mother more than any source she could find.

As a fairy, she might know something about beating the Imperials, but one step at a time.

"Spryte? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What…was life for you before you met Link?"

"Hmm… Wasn't much to it. I was a fairy, going around Hyrule. One day, I hurt my wing near Ordon, and Link found me. The rest is history. But if you're asking what I think you're asking, I don't ever remember the Triforce, Rauru Town, or your father before Ordon. As to why those are in my memory, I cannot tell you." Spryte fluttered down to Zelda's hand on Link, standing on the back of her palm. "What do you make of it?"

"We'll have to see."

"What…does that mean?"

"Memento temporis."


"Woah." Spryte laid on Zelda's bosom, breathing heavily as multiple years of memories immediately rushed through her head. She had blacked out after Zelda chanted the spell, and now woke with a headache and an archive of the mind to go through. "Woah. Okay. Okay. Wow."

"You okay, Spryte? Sorry for not warning you."

"No that's fine. It's just… When you combine my present memories, ever since I met this dummy beside us to the moment now, to the past, it's…hard. Like…I knew your father, Zelda. When I met Link, this one, I knew that name was familiar, and when I met you, I felt the same. Everyone else who your parents knew, I felt something, but ignored it. That's why I felt it. I knew them, and I didn't even know it." Spryte looked up to Zelda, tears blinding her. "My best friend in the world is gone. I didn't even get to say goodbye to Link, because I didn't even remember him."

Zelda brushed a finger along Spryte's back. "He remembered you. He did regret that he didn't get to me you, the one he knew, again, but nevertheless was happy to see you."

"Yeah, I know. He was never one for goodbyes anyway. Such an idiot, he was. Why are all heroes idiots?" Spryte wiped her face, sighing. "Thank you Zel. I know why you did it, but having my memories back, it feels good to know why you were remembering stuff you didn't know. It feels great to know that your life did not begin looking after you two."

Zelda chuckled. "I will try not to be offended by that, Spryte."

Spryte smiled, then launched off Zelda's breasts to hover above her body. She looked at the princess, moving her head back and forth. "Hmm, the only thing you got from your father was his nose, though it is girlier than his. Besides that, you're a mirror image of your mother, besides the blond hair. Mother was a red-head. As your dad would put it, and I'm choosing my vocabulary to not sully his memory, Queen Zelda was 'the sexiest ginger with a soul.'"

"That's tame compared to what he said?"

"Yeah. Your father was not the casanova he might have made himself to be. Ever since I met him when he saved me from that Agahnim, he made it his mission to get your mother to kiss him. Did she love him? Yes, she did. But seeing him struggle for that kiss was the highlight of their romance. Now that I remember it, I kind of wish you did the same to Link. Believe me, it works." Spryte looked down to Link, smiling wishfully. "Maybe I can tell Link stories of his parents. I really didn't know them as much as you, but to hear of his mother might ease some pains of his past."

"I think Link will love that."

'Me too." Spryte lowered her head, holding her hands together. "It… It was my idea to go with the memory wipe. My life was endangered as well. You ever notice the lack of fairies at your fairy spring?"

Zelda frowned. "Wait, there used to be fairies there?"

"Yeah. Vaati and his agents wiped the Great Fairies out, and with them, the lesser fairies fell. I only survived because I am not tied to the great ones anymore, due to me choosing a human to accompany. The only reason I'm not dead now is because you and Link are my humans, not your mother and father. The mind wipe would prevent me from death, in case Link was found, and allow me to attach myself to another human. It took a while, but my old Link lived long enough for me to find the new one. Also…your father wasn't a coward. He wanted to storm North Castle, but I told him that it was suicide. If Zelda had fallen, he had no better chance than she did. He tried to argue it, but I won. He returned to Calatia, or so he told me he would. We parted ways days later, moments after I loss my memory. Had I known that you were alive with Impa, we would have come to you. He could have raised you, but… I believe the way fate had you raised is much better. Farore knows he couldn't teach you magic. Magic is what we need from you now."

Zelda wiped her own eyes. "I did it today, Spryte. I figured out my power, to some extent. But, while I am grateful of Impa, it would have been nice to know my father all my life, not just in a month, and to know Link of Calatia, not Link the Hero." Zelda turned down to her Link, brushing his hair. "I am envious that he gets to sleep like a baby."

"That's a Link if I know one." Spryte flew to Link's ear, taking a deep breath before shouting "Wake up Link!"


?

"Open your eyes…"

"Wake up, Link…"

"Stop being doting mothers. Wake up, boy!"

A harsh impact was enough for the boy's consciousness to kick back on. He exhaled in pain as he was forcefully woken, clutching his stomach and rolling over, yelping as he fell off the soft bed on to the hard, white floor. His first instinct was to yell at the person who had struck him and, given the few people who would wake him rudely, he could only name one right now. "Damn you, Zelda!"

"Hylia? Never has my littlest sister been compared to me!"

The next voice, compared the raging first one, was calmer and motherly "You don't have to remind us who's the oldest. We get it."

"I think I do. I sculpted the damn world, laying the foundation for you two. I get the most ridicule between the three of us, but hey, at least my champion—"

"Hush, sisters." The last voice, Link recognized. It was childish, but held the tongue of an elder, or in this case, a deity. Link looked up over the bed, spotting the short girl in a variety of green features sit on the bed. She smiled brightly. "Hello again Link!"

Link, still nursing his stomach, stood up to his feet. "Farore?"

"In the flesh. Sorry about that rude awakening, but unfortunately it is necessary. Someone just couldn't be nice about it. Oh, let me introduce to my older sisters, not that they need one." Farore gestured to the women in red and blue, standing apart from each other. "The Goddess of Power, and the eldest, Din. The second eldest, and the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru. Welcome, Link, to our home."

Link acknowledged the other goddesses (Nayru smiling back while Din scowled) before turning his attention back to Farore. "Umm… Am I…dead?"

Din smirked. "Unfortunately, no."

Nayru faced her sister, her tone deep with warning. "Din."

"He faced my champion. I have a bone to pick."

Farore waved off her sisters. "Ignore them. They never get along. But she's right. You are alive, but unconscious. It has been a week since Vaati defeated you and claimed the Triforce of Courage and Power."

Just two? That meant… "Zelda still has Wisdom?"

"Yes. Your friends escape, but at the cost of the older Link sacrificing himself. In the meantime, they're held up in Darunia, watching over your body. Your consciousness is here."

Link sat down on the bed, watching the elder goddesses argue. "That explains it. However, if I'm here, is…Ganondorf here?"

Din took the time to turn to Link, and if Ganondorf was a fright, the goddess he represented most was that tenfold. "No," she said calmly, "just you. We're placing all our bets on you and your girlfriend, while my champion…drowns. Vaati has made enough mockery of the word 'power,' so Link Koroks, I ask you one thing." Din leaned over the bed, her face over Link as she growled. "Are you up to the tasks we have for you? Zelda is training for her power. Can you do the same, or should I eject you from my realm?"

Any task the vengeful Goddess of Power herself can set up scared Link to his core, but it wasn't like he had a choice. "I… I can do it."

Din smiled, and Link could only see his mental death in her ember eyes. "Great."