Gathering Dust

by FlowerOwl

Left behind as the sole survivor after death descended on the world, Zelda cannot deny that she is fleeing from more than just the memories haunting her as each passing day adds to the weight of her despair, and when a chance meeting allows for her path to cross those of two strangers, it soon becomes clear that they all have more to make peace with than merely their own past.

13. Chapter 13

For a moment after waking up, the feeling of the rough blanket against her cheek and the immediate thought that she could not recognise the room she was in nor remember her reasons for being there left Zelda in a state of panic. Throwing the blanket aside, Zelda barely registered the thud of it hitting the floor before she had swung her legs over the side of the bed, the cold floor making her wobble slightly as she pushed herself to stand up rather than taking a moment to figure out what was going on. In the darkness that filled the room, it was impossible for her to make out more than the vague outlines of the furniture that had seemingly all been pushed up against the walls, the bed she had woken up in located towards one end of the room, Zelda recognising the sight of a table in the opposite corner before spotting the figure lying on the bed next to it.

Moving slowly, all too aware of the risk of one of the floorboards creaking under her weight, revealing to the person that she was awake, Zelda began to tiptoe through the room, the distance between her and the other person gradually growing shorter, allowing her to take in the sight of how their silver hair fanned out behind them as they lay on the side, facing the wall next to them rather than Zelda.

It happened like a lever switching in her brain, Zelda looking down at the sleeping figure and remembering both Paya as well as the way she had so suddenly moved away from her the night before, that she had been the one who had led her up to the room to show her her bed after she had first been brought to Kakariko Village.

Zelda had no idea how long she stood there for, looking out into the darkness as the memories came back, first of the moments after she had just arrived to the village and then everything that had preceded that. All she knew was that it was not until the sound of Paya murmuring in her sleep interrupted the silence in the room that she became aware of the fact that she was still standing out in the middle of the room.

Keeping her steps light, it took every last bit of self-control she possessed not to sprint right back to her bed, to instead move slowly so as to avoid alerting anyone around her to the fact that she was awake, lowering herself down onto the mattress once again while pausing every other second to listen for signs that Paya was about to wake up as well as the giveaway sound of the bed creaking before finally, with her heart feeling like it had moved from her chest to instead rest somewhere closer to her throat, reaching out to pick up the blanket again, barely managing to pull it up to her chin and close her eyes when the sound of murmuring was replaced with first the rustle of fabric and then a loud creak as Paya must have moved to stand up, the floorboards protesting the idea and reminding them all of just how old the village had to be to look the way it did.

However, any thoughts were soon brought to a sudden stop as the feeling of being watched followed a series of light footfalls. Focusing on nothing but keeping her eyes shut, her muscles relaxed, and her breathing even, Zelda tried her best to push the idea of her still being asleep into the air around her as she heard how Paya paused for a minute to look down at her before letting out a barely audible sigh and continuing towards the stairs leading down to the main room of the building. Waiting until she was fairly sure that Paya had turned around the corner and then forcing herself to count to a hundred to be certain, Zelda allowed herself to open her eyes again, taking a deep breath to make up for minutes of slowing her breathing.

Kakariko Village was real. Forcing herself to sit up in her bed as she tried to figure out if she should head downstairs along with Paya or remain where she was, that was what her thoughts continued to return to, the fact that she had gone to sleep in a village that should not have existed and had woken up in the same village, every last sense impression being real in a way that rendered the question of whether or not it was possible to wake up in a dream superfluous. It was real, and there was nothing that she could try to tell herself to convince herself that the opposite might be the case, nothing that would allow her to explain it away as another sign of malnutrition.

Thinking about food had been a mistake. That much was clear the moment the thought went through her mind, immediately accompanied by a grumble from her stomach that sounded like it would be loud enough to wake up every last person in the entire village as Zelda instinctively placed a hand on her stomach, the attempt at reducing both the sound and the pain that shot up from her stomach by leaning forwards revealing itself to be futile within seconds as the smell of something warm and sweet began to drift up from the room below, Zelda's mind conjuring up memories of a time where food had meant more than overcooked pasta and beans that had been heated up until they became somewhat edible if they were lucky before she was able to regain control, her senses immediately joining the rebellion by brushing aside every other thing in the room, every object she could use if the promise of help and being welcome in the village should turn out to have been a trap, to instead turn towards the smell and zero in on it until it might as well have been the only thing to exist in the world.

Bread, Zelda decided. That was what it smelt like, the warm aroma of bread just when it had been taken out of the oven.

Her stomach rumbled again, this time a bit louder, and Zelda could hear the scream for her to get up and go downstairs, the insistence that no danger could ever pose a greater threat to her than the option of not being able to eat the bread right in that moment. And yet, she stayed still, keeping her feet firmly planted on the floor as she crossed her arms in front of her stomach, feeling how the bottom of her ribcage jutted out as she tried her best to ignore the hunger pangs to instead focus on the fact that she had to appear at least somewhat determined and rested if she wanted to have any hope of being able to convince Impa to give her the answers she had promised her the day before.

Zelda wanted to say that she had been too lost in her thoughts and her attempts at figuring out how to approach the task that she had not heard the loud creaks of someone walking up the stairs, but she was not even able to convince herself of that. Instead, she sat there, already looking towards where the walls opened up towards the stairs as Paya stepped into the room, carrying a tray.

Standing there, with what little light was able to reach the second floor behind her, her white hair making it look like a nimbus around her head, Zelda would not have hesitated to point towards Paya if asked what she would expect one of the goddesses' mortal forms to look like. However, what really completed the impression of the girl she had met the day before perhaps being one of the Golden Goddesses in disguise was the sight of what was on the tray. A plate with golden bread, a mug of something that looked like milk, and a little glass jar of what Zelda decided was butter seemed to beckon her from across the room, Zelda only realising that she had unfolded her arms as she pressed her palms against the mattress below to force herself to stand up. It was a small breakfast, only a single slice of bread and a little cup of milk, but even then, it was more than she had thought she would ever get to see again.

Perhaps Paya could see some of that in her eyes, looking from Zelda towards the tray for a moment. Maybe she saw exactly how Zelda had to restrain herself to keep herself from running towards her as she placed the tray down on the table next to her bed, deciding not to mention it at all. Or maybe she did not notice it at all, merely looking at her for a moment before turning on her heel to walk back towards the stairs. It was not until she had reached the first step that she did anything to acknowledge the fact that Zelda was still in the room, sending the tray stolen glances, by pointing towards the table without even looking at Zelda. "Impa told me to tell you to come downstairs once you have eaten." with that, Paya disappeared down the stairs.

However, Zelda did not need for her to say another word after that. That short sentence had contained everything she needed to know, and so, almost sprinting through the room, she sat down by the table and began eating.

The bread was warm, almost burning her tongue as she began tearing off small chunks to dip on the milk. From somewhere deep down, most likely from some class she had attended, Zelda could recall how a teacher had once told them about refeeding syndrome and about how the stomach could shrink down after long periods of not eating, and if she stopped to think about what she was doing, Zelda was sure that she would have known that devouring her food at such a rate that it let her burn her tongue multiple times before she could bring herself to use the milk to cool the slice of bread was not a good idea. So she did not allow herself to stop and think, instead continuing to the butter the moment she reached the bottom of the mug of milk, using little chunks of bread to scoop it out of the jar. Only once the slice of bread was completely gone did she stop for a moment to try to plan out her next action.

So Impa had sent Paya to let her know to come downstairs immediately after finishing breakfast. Slowing down slightly, the food no longer as appetising to her as it had been moments before, Zelda went over her options. That she had to go downstairs eventually was a fact, both with how she was on the second floor of a building, in a room without any balconies or windows she could otherwise have used to escape, and the fact that, for as annoyed as she was that she still had yet to actually get any answers, Zelda knew that she could not get around Impa if she wished to learn more about what had happened during the past couple of days. But after the last day, after she had arrived in the village, exhausted and lacking the willpower to actually try to argue with Impa as she began to lead her out of the room, sending Paya along with her, it was clear that she would need a plan of action if she wanted to get answers. However, a plan required for her to have anything of importance to withhold until she would receive the answers she wanted, and as much as Zelda tried to think of something, she could not convince herself that any of what she was wearing, the shirt she had borrowed from Ganondorf already looking more and more like she had ran it over with a car to then leave it outside for a year, could fulfil that role. But perhaps if she broadened her perspective to not just consider herself, their little group would be able to find something of value to Impa.

Zelda could feel how the smile built up gradually as she lowered the last bite of bread back onto the plate, the idea appearing fully formed in her mind moments after she had first thought to pursue it. However, it all depended on her getting the chance to talk with Link before having to speak with Impa, and so, Zelda swallowed the last bite, having to cough twice is she felt the bread try to force its way up her throat again when she pushed back the chair, making it scrape against the floor in her hurry to get downstairs and out of the house to find Link before Impa would notice that she was there.

Moving across the room towards the staircase, Zelda made sure to stay near the walls, moving as slowly as she could convince herself to, careful to spread her weight out over her foot with each and every step. It worked somewhat, allowing her to turn around the corner without having anyone outright tell her that they noticed her presence. When she reached the landing, however, Zelda found herself coming to a sudden halt once more.

Both Ganondorf and Link were already there.

In the moment her mind caught up with her eyes, all the plans of going to ask Link about the Master Sword fell away to instead make room for the fact that Ganondorf was really there, less than five metres away from her. Sitting at a little table that Zelda was sure had not been there the day before, Ganondorf was still eating breakfast, grinning towards Link as he spread butter on the slice of bread on his plate, wearing a set of clothes that looked like it could have belonged to Dorian.

He looked healthy. Blinking twice, Zelda would almost have expected to see him turn pale, the greyish undertone creeping back over his face to reveal that the impression of him being fully healed had been nothing more than wishful thinking, but he continued to sit there, reaching out for the slice of bread only to then pause to laugh at something Link had said. Although she knew that she might come to regret it, Zelda glanced towards his sleeve, searching for the tell-tale sign of the wound that even the slightest trace of blood would be, seeing nothing but the creamy colour of the fabric of his shirt despite taking a step forward to bring herself closer to the scene in front of her.

Immediately, the floorboards creaked below her, the conversation coming to an end within a fraction of a second as both Ganondorf and Link turned to look at her. Noticing the way Link's hand instantly went to his side, making it appear like he had been reaching for a weapon and how Ganondorf had already jumped to his feet, his eyes wide and with his centre of gravity lowered slightly by the time he recognised her, Zelda knew for a fact that her memories had been true. Ganondorf really had been injured, just as Link had been impossible to awaken back when they had arrived in Kakariko Village.

There was a moment of silence, all three of them staring wordlessly at each other, before Link, slowly moving his hand from his side like that would have ever been enough to hide his reaction, sent her a strained smile. "Ah, Zelda. I am sorry about that—Paya had told us that it would probably be a while before you would be ready to come down to join us, so we had not expected to see you this soon, not even to mention the fact that you are scarily good at being quiet." the laugh he punctuated the sentence with, while by no means genuine, could have been a lot worse as Link gestured towards the empty spot next to Ganondorf. "It is good to see you down here already, though."

Moving over to sit down next to Ganondorf, Zelda looked towards him. If he was thinking that she had not noticed what he was doing, he must have assumed that she was more naïve than what she hoped to have given him reason to. Still, if Link wanted to pretend that there was nothing suspicious about the village, then Zelda could humour him until she would have enough evidence to prove it for good. So she sat down, accepting the plate Ganondorf pushed towards her, trying her best to pretend to at least look down at the slice of bread before repaying the gesture with a little smile, going through the motions of civility that felt like they were a skill far away from her life now that Zelda had nothing but the faint echo of her father to lean against as she forced herself to take a deep breath before being able to put up a façade similar to Link's.

"Thank you very much, Link. I could have said the same thing about you. I thought that you had been taken away to be treated for…" grasping for words, Zelda ended up pointing towards him, hoping that the flick of the wrist could encompass everything that had happened since they had walked into Clock Town and perhaps even before that as well, "to be able to rest for a moment. You too, Ganondorf." unlike the smiles she sent Link, Zelda knew better than to try to put on the same veneer of not finding every last thing about the village strange while facing Ganondorf, and so, she kept on looking right past him towards Link as she continued, the lie falling away around her. "I—it is really good to see that you are all right. We—there was a moment where it seemed almost like—like—" her voice broke, leaving Zelda unable to do much more than focus on keeping her breathing even, carefully keeping the sting in her eyes from being able to become tears that would roll down her cheeks. She had gone downstairs to get a chance to speak with Impa. Zelda did not have to think twice to know that allowing her to step into the room to see her in tears would not aid her in achieving that goal.

Still, despite her best efforts, as Ganondorf slung his arm around her shoulders, Zelda knew that he had guessed both what she had been about to say and the reason for why she had so suddenly fallen silent.

He kept his voice low, his tone of voice was one that should perhaps have made her feel like he was talking to some wounded animal, careful not to frighten or upset it even more, but as Zelda leant into the one-armed hug, there was only the warmth of knowing that he had survived to be found. "Yeah," Ganondorf chuckled, the feeling of the fabric of his tunic moving against her cheek letting Zelda know that he had turned his head to look over at Link, "I was told that when I woke up—not that there was a risk that I would have died, but that the two of you were probably worrying about me. I know that I would have worried about you as well, if you had been the one to get hurt, so I suppose that it is useless to tell you that I don't think there ever was a risk that I would die, but I am going to do so anyway. That reminds me; Zelda, once you have had a chance to grow used to all of this, you are going to want to look at the machine I woke up in. It was—what would you say, Link? It looked like some kind of bathtub, didn't it? Just far comfier to lie in than that description makes it sound."

"You certainly looked like you were comfortable when I woke up," Link remarked, the snicker that followed his words sounding far less forced than his smile from before had looked, "I mean, if I had not known what had happened, I would never have guessed that you had just taken a hit from the Yiga Clan's weapons for me."

"No, I suppose not—you are welcome, by the way. From the way I understood it, that is also the point of the machines—accelerated healing, I mean, or at least that was the part of Purah's rambling explanation that I actually managed to catch before she had moved on to something different."

"Wait, Purah?" Zelda frowned and moved out of the embrace, trying to fit in Purah going to take care of her friends with what she knew of her actions and the fact that she had been right there in the house just the day before.

Ganondorf looked down at her. From the way he tilted his head to the side, Zelda knew that he had misunderstood the reason for her confusion. "Yes," he said, exchanging a glance with Link that had perhaps been meant to be discreet but was really anything but that, "she told us that you were one of her students, so we were actually planning on asking you if you had any idea about what she had been talking about in regards to her—what did she call it, Link?"

"Dunno." Link shrugged, already tearing off a chunk of bread. "I barely even left it an hour before you did. I only managed to get her to repeat the name a couple of times and missed it both times. I think it was Resurrection-something."

Not looking entirely convinced, Ganondorf nodded. "Probably. Anyway, Zelda, is that something you have ever heard her talk about? This kind of—well, almost bathtub-like thing that we were both placed into. She talked a lot about accelerated healing and helping the body with speeding up the natural process, if that helps."

Accelerated healing? Zelda wanted to say that she had no idea what he was talking about, but as she tried to recall if that had ever been a concept Purah had brought up during some of her attempts at changing her plans for the lesson to allow her to talk about the last thing she had stumbled across and found interesting, though she could not remember any exact moment where she had mentioned something like what Ganondorf and Link were describing, there was something about it that did not allow her to reject the idea of it being the case.

Hoping that a shrug was enough to hide the rising feeling of there being something she had forgot about, something important she should have done a long time ago, Zelda ended up directing her answer more towards the slice of bread in front of her than towards Ganondorf and Link. "I don't know. She might have, but even if she has, I have no idea what you are talking about, much less how it would function. Besides," gesturing for Link and Ganondorf to lean in towards her, Zelda let her voice drop to a whisper, the fact that Link and Ganondorf both hesitated for a second before moving closer towards her not doing much to help chase off the feeling that she was the only one who was actually trying to look out for their wellbeing, "I don't think that we should be discussing the secrets of this village so loudly. It is clear that no one here actually wants us to learn anything about what is going on."

This time, Ganondorf did not even try to hide the worry in his eyes as he looked away from her, towards Link, and then back at her again. Clearing his throat and no doubt trying his best to appear understanding, Ganondorf put a hand on her shoulder, something about the way he leant forwards a little to bring his face to the same level as hers as he spoke making it feel like he was trying to explain something very simple to a little child as he spoke. "Zelda, we have already spoken with Purah. Surely, you know that it was practically impossible for her not to tell Link and me everything about how her invention worked. Had it not been for the fact that I think she found herself forced to realise that we did not understand a word of what she was saying, I think that she would have kept us there for far longer."

Trying her best to remind herself that he had not been there, that she was the only one among the three of them who had been awake and alert to experience how both Dorian and Impa had tried their best to keep them from being able to figure out what was going on or why they had been brought to Kakariko Village, Zelda shook her head. "No, no, I get that Purah tells you everything about her research the moment she happens to notice your presence. That was not what I was talking about."

"Then what is it?" Link dropped the whisper to instead send her a look full of concern. "Zelda, did you get enough sleep? Because I know that we have been through a lot and that you were the only one of us who was not placed in one of Purah's healing bathtubs, and with how Ganondorf and I also went straight to sleep after waking up there, it would be understandable if—"

"Link, please, listen to me right now." Zelda could hear the desperation in her voice, but there was nothing she could do to stop it from happening, not as it seemed like they were being wilfully ignorant of how nothing added up, not the fact that they had been saved from the Yiga Clan, not that there had to be some kind of advanced technology among the buildings that looked like something from several centuries ago for the kind of healing process that they seemed to have experienced to be possible, and certainly not the fact that there was an entire village full of people, even if Paya's mumbled confession would indicate that they might not all have lived there before the end of the world. "I am not talking about Purah. I was the only one who was awake when we arrived here, so you did not experience what it was like, Dorian having promised that we would receive answers, only to then meet Impa and have her refuse to tell me anything at all—"

"Impa?" Link said, cutting in. "The nice old lady who brought us breakfast? Zelda, what are you talking about—she answered every single one of our questions from the moment we woke up."

The world around her fell silent, Zelda having to fight to remain present as the fact that it was not a matter of every sound having fallen away, but rather her no longer hearing them, dawned on her. Impa had told them. Instantly, the question of just what Zelda could have done to make Impa decide to regard her as someone who could not be trusted with information appeared in her mind, loud and persistent in a way that was entirely impossible to ignore as Zelda opened her mouth, only to find herself forgetting every last word she had ever known for multiple seconds. "I—what? She did?"

Link nodded, but from his spot directly next to her, Ganondorf must have noticed her reaction, for he held up his hand to silence Link before he had got a chance to do more than breathe in before looking back down at her again. Zelda could have pinpointed the exact moment where he realised that she had been kept in the dark since she had first arrived from the way his eyes widened, which was the exact reason she chose not to say anything. The short glimpse of how the fragile smile faltered was enough for her to wish never to have to see it again, making her keep her gaze carefully directed towards her plate as Ganondorf spoke next to her.

"I… I am sure that she had her reasons for doing so," Ganondorf said, his voice revealing the fact that they all knew that that was a lie, "I mean, it is not like we were told a lot either—"

Zelda knew where the conversation was going. There would be an attempt at convincing her that she had done nothing wrong and then Impa would show up to confirm that she had indeed managed to turn people against her far quicker than she had thought herself capable of. Had it not been for the fact that she might just have robbed herself of important information, Zelda could have laughed at how the situation confirmed her father's words about her being unable to properly connect with the people around her. She had been so adamant that she was doing well in school and that that was enough, and now, the universe had proven her wrong.

As much as she wished to remain silent, to wait and see what would happen, she found that she could not stay quiet for long, and so, she found herself mumbling the question that kept on repeating in her mind to Ganondorf. "What did she tell you?"

"Just, you know…" Ganondorf looked towards Link, clearly searching for advice, Link sending him a panicked look, "she told us about the village and that it is has proven to be a safe hiding place from the Yiga Clan, that… uh… that they had waited for us to come for quite a while, but that they had not known that it would happen just yet. Actually," a tiny smile graced his face as Ganondorf turned towards Link, "that was the exact reason they gave us for the fact that we could not go see you immediately after waking up—that they had not known that we would come and had found themselves having to split us up to find a place for all of us to sleep. That, or perhaps Link had managed to talk in his sleep and insult this place, because for some reason, they ended up giving us two beds in the empty house up on the hill, far away from the rest of the village."

Maybe Ganondorf had meant for her to laugh alongside him and Link, finally calmed down by the suggestion that she might actually be the one who was favoured by their hosts, haven been given the bed in what appeared to be the main house of the village, but as Zelda sat there, taking in the fact that, for as confident as Link had sounded when declaring that they had received answers to their questions, that might simply have been due to them not asking the same questions as she had, all she could do was to let out a sigh of relief. "Maybe," she ended up agreeing, "but that was not what I was talking about when I said that I haven't been told anything. I—I tried to get Impa to tell me why they saved us and why we had been brought to this village just after I arrived. I mean," looking towards the two others, Zelda hoped that their raised eyebrows was a sign that they too had realised the gaping holes in the explanations they had been given so far, "you would think that the best way to keep a secret hidden village safe from attacks would be by keeping it secret from everyone. And that is not even to mention the fact that it seems like we mean something to them, that we are more than just a group of fellow survivors. I… I think that—" she could feel how the answer was lying right there, directly in front of her, simply waiting for her to come forwards and recognise it.

Of course, that was the moment where the doors were thrown open, Impa stepping into the room as they fell shut behind her once more. Letting her gaze move over then, Zelda trying to decide whether she was imagining things or if Impa really did pause at her for a moment longer than she did with Ganondorf and Link, Impa moved over to sit down across from them at the table. With calm movements that did not show them whether or not she was even aware of the fact that they were all staring at her, Impa pushed the plate aside, clearing the space in front of her, before looking directly over at Zelda. "I apologise for the delay. Dorian had to talk with me about some… issues that have arisen between the members of his team." from the way she said it, Zelda was willing to bet that the issue were two different issues, bearing the name Olkin and Steen respectively, as Impa turned to look at her. "I hope that you have slept well, dear." the ornaments hanging from her hat followed the motion of the rest of her head as Impa nodded towards her.

At once acutely aware of the fact that she was the only one to be addressed, Zelda made sure to keep her face a careful mask of politeness as she answered. "Yes," she said, stifling a yawn, "it has been… it has been great to get a chance to sleep in a real bed for once. Thank you so much for your hospitality."

"Don't thank me." Impa chuckled. "I am only doing what we have to do to be able to continue down this road that we are on." without giving Zelda a moment to ask for her to elaborate on that statement, she let her gaze move from Zelda and over towards Ganondorf and Link. "I heard from my sister that the two of you have had a stellar recovery, even finding the strength to listen to her ramble about her inventions."

"It really wasn't an issue—Purah certainly has a way of, uh… making it all sound very interesting when she tells you about all these things you barely understand." there was no way anyone, much less Ganondorf himself, was able to miss the laugh in his voice, and Zelda was almost entirely certain that was part of the reason for why he did not waste much time before abandoning the losing battle that was convincing the rest of the room that he did not think that Purah's overly technological rambles, while educational, where perhaps not the best way to be eased back into the world after recovering from a major injury. "But, yeah, no matter what, her invention is brilliant; I can't even feel the wound anymore." demonstrating his point, Ganondorf reached up to pat the point on his upper arm where Zelda could still see the bright red colour of blood if she focused, making Zelda clench her fists to keep herself from wincing. "Even if I have to admit that I have forgot what she called it."

The answer in his voice was clear, but Impa still looked down at the table, her hat shielding her face from their gazes, giving them no chance of trying to guess what she was thinking by looking at her facial expressions before she raised her head. For all she had been looking like a grandmother, as Zelda saw the glimpse in her eyes, a steely glint having come to replace the slight chuckle from before, she could recognise Paya in her. But where Paya had talked with her for only a few minutes before all but running out of the room, refusing to say more than a handful of words to her all day, there was no doubt about the fact that Impa was willing to sit right there in her seat and meet their gazes for as long as she would have to.

"That, my dear," Impa nodded towards Ganondorf, "is actually something I wished to talk with you about—or, rather, it is part of what I had summoned you here to discuss. As I am sure Zelda here has already informed you about, I was not exactly willing to tell you all that much about the reasons for you being here when you first arrived."

All eyes in the room suddenly on her, Zelda had to fend off the urge to squirm in her seat. She had been right, but that fact did not do anything to relieve the feeling of unease as Ganondorf slowly looked from her and over towards Link, Link, for his part, immediately looking towards Zelda, first with surprise and then with a silent apology in his eyes, before turning back towards Impa.

"She did say that." Ganondorf spoke slowly, sounding like he was carefully choosing each and every word. "She said that you had told her that it would have to wait for another day when she was actually well-rested."

"And that was partly true. However, the fact that I chose to delay this conversation was also due to how I wanted to see how your reactions to being brought here and given little explanation for it would differ from each other. I know that Zelda lay awake until the early hours of morning—"

"How—?" Zelda said, hearing the gasp that interrupted the question even before Impa was able to do the same.

"Paya is good at pretending to be asleep. It is something she used to do when she was a child and wanted to stay up for a little longer to listen to me discus the legends with her parents, pretending to have fallen asleep on the couch. Did you really think that I was just going to send you directly to bed without at least bothering to try to keep track of how you were doing only two days after the three of you had been attacked by the Yiga Clan? I might not have deemed it necessary for you to receive the same kind of help as your friends, but I was not going to leave you alone up there. However, speaking of your friends," Impa turned to face Ganondorf and Link, acting like she had not just punctured the impression Zelda had got of her and the village itself, "I take it that you have already tried to get Purah to tell you more about this village and our reasons for having brought you here, correct?"

"No," Link said, his voice trembling a bit, clearly caught between feeling like he had made a mistake and committing to being honest, "no, we were—we just—she only told us about her machines."

"There is no need to apologise for it. It was what I had expected from all of you. After all, the legends, though not exactly clear and precise by modern standards, contained description of the chosen ones."

Silence fell, the words echoing in Zelda's mind, spoken both by Impa and by the leader of the Yiga Clan as they had ordered their deaths.

The chosen ones.

The chosen ones and the Master Sword.

It seemed like something out of the myths and legends they had been told in school, something that made for a good story and a way of teaching children how to behave, but not something she would ever have believed could be true, and yet, Zelda would have been a fool to have forgot about Purah's words. As unlikely as it seemed, if she had already been able to rule out every other explanation, was the last explanation still left with just the slightest possibility of being true not the one she would have to believe in?

Link was the first of them to break through the silence. Clearing his throat, with an air of someone who tried their very best to keep their voice calm, he gestured towards Impa, almost placing his elbow on his abandoned plate. "Are you saying that…?" he made an odd gesture, and, at last, Zelda recognised it for what it was, the ingrained habit of someone who had reached for a sword hanging by their hip for ages, someone for whom that was second nature, the way Link raised his eyebrows as he followed his own hand with his eyes for half a second before tearing it away from his side to lay it on the table, fist clenched, ruling out the option of it having been a conscious decision.

Following the little incident in silence, Impa bowed her head. "I know that Zelda has already noticed this, but let me ask the two of you the same question nonetheless. Have you thought about the fact that, for such a small village, there are a lot of people living here, a lot of people in one place despite how almost every last person in the world have succumbed to the disease?"

Their reactions let them know immediately that the answer was no, Ganondorf merely confirming it a moment later as he looked down at his slice of bread. "No," he mumbled, "no, I hadn't really thought about it. I assume that the mountains around the village gave it a degree of isolation, allowing it to escape the disease?"

"Not at all. Before the disease hit and spread chaos throughout the world, no one had lived in this village for centuries."

"But then how…?" this time, it was Link who spoke up, the gesture he made seemingly directed towards everything and nothing in particular, the smoke they could see rise up above the houses out of the window and the fact that the sound of children yelling was carried through the air and into the room as they spoke all contained in the motion.

"Much like how you left your homes in response to the death around you, we also left our respective homes behind. You are from the Akkala Highlands, are you not, Link?" only barely giving Link enough time to nod, his expression letting them know that he would never have been able to produce a sound in response to that particular question, Impa continued. "I lived there as well, or at least I did until the disaster struck and I realised that I had another purpose. After that, I made sure to spread the word about this village here, travelling through Hyrule to find the family I had left. Because," Impa fixed them all with a look that felt like it would have been able to cut through steel, "even though those of us who had a part to play in what came next were able to survive, that was not enough to save the ones around us who did not have that destiny."

Looking first at Ganondorf and then at Link, Zelda saw her own question reflected in their eyes, Ganondorf nodding to her, the movement barely noticeable. That was the second time the idea of someone having a part to play had been brought up, and as much as Zelda wanted to brush it aside, she could not ignore it for any longer, not when she felt how the question bubbled up from deep within her to finally escape her mouth as the question they all wanted to ask.

"What do you mean that you have a part to play? And… and what does it mean for us? It involves us, does it not? This thing you are talking about, the Master Sword and the Yiga Clan—it is all connected in some way, is it not?"

Impa remained silent for another second before a smile formed on her face as she nodded at Zelda. "You are correct, not that I had expected any less from you. Tell me, how much do you know about the legends of the Golden Goddesses and the Triforce?"

"Well…" meeting only a panicked stare from Link and a frown from Ganondorf, Zelda knew that she would be the one to figure out just how to handle the sudden change of subject, "I mean, we learnt about it in school back when I was younger. So I know quite a bit I would say, especially with how my… well, with how my father insisted that it was important to know about those legends to understand how they influenced our culture, just as well as—" taking a deep breath, Zelda managed to interrupt herself in time before the truth, that she had fled to the library far more times than she wanted to admit, finding solace among the books and especially near the books on the old legends, would have echoed in the room around her.

"Good." Impa rose from the table, beginning to pace back and forth through the room, the ornaments hanging from her hat moving along with her. "I take it that you have also noticed the cyclical nature of the legends then?"

Zelda was about to open her mouth when Link beat her to it. Gesturing towards Impa with his fork, he spoke quickly, his voice dropping a bit, taking on an urgent tone. "Yeah, it was always something about how Ganondorf or some form of him would rise up, only to then be met by the princess and the chosen hero, the three of them ending up in a battle that would always end with Ganondorf either killed or sealed away, peace returning to the land for a while until the process would begin anew once again. Really, in a way, I have to admit that it must have felt a bit pointless for the hero and the princess. I mean, if you know that your foe is just going to return later on to cause trouble for your descendants, how long would you be able to maintain hope before you would just give up and not even bother to fight him at all?"

"It wasn't like they had much of a choice exactly." placing his arm on the table, Ganondorf joined the conversation. "They were attacked and the people around them were suffering. I don't see how they could have done anything but try their very best to try to defend their loved ones."

"I am not saying that I don't understand them at all; I am just saying that if I had been in their place, I am not sure I would have been able to maintain hope for so long. I know that they did what was right, or at least they did according to the legends, I am just saying that I, personally, would have found it quite difficult to continue to fight if I knew that it was all just part of some cycle that would return later on," Link argued.

Seeing how Ganondorf was about to argue his point again, Zelda hurried to cut in before he got the chance. Trying her best to ignore the argument next to her, she focused all her attention on Impa, on the way she was looking over at her, the intensity in her gaze making it difficult for Zelda to maintain eye contact, Zelda refusing to give up regardless of that as she spoke up. "We are missing the point, aren't we? The reason the princess and the hero, Zelda and Link—Ganondorf as well for that matter—were able to continue on for so long was that they did not know about what would follow after their own lifetimes. They honestly had no idea about the cycle that governed their existence. Instead, they thought that they were simply going through their life, something they had been given to handle. That way, they would never have to handle the fact that they might be fighting in vain, that, centuries after their deaths, all of their hard work would be rendered meaningless in a matter of moments."

Next to her, Zelda heard Link ask what she was talking about, but as she looked over at Impa, the old lady seeming less and less like someone's grandmother and instead looking almost like an entirely different person, the image of a tall woman with a long plait appearing in front of her like the afterimage that followed looking up towards the sun, all of them there at once while still not blocking out the fact that Impa was smiling at her.

"You are correct, dear." Impa said the words with so much warmth in her voice that had it not been for the breeze that filled the room with its chilling effect, Zelda might have cried. "You are correct about all of it, just as I know that you are correct about what you are thinking now."

That was the worst part. Zelda knew that already. She knew that there was only one explanation that would be able to make sense of all they had gone through, the deaths, the fact that she had met both Ganondorf and Link, meeting two other people when her chance of stumbling across them should have been minimal, their journey through Hyrule, the Yiga Clan, the Master Sword, and now this, Kakariko Village and Impa trying to get them to talk about the legends.

"It is real, isn't it?" Zelda whispered the question despite already knowing the answer. "The Golden Goddesses, the Triforce they entrusted Hylia with, the cycles, the princess, the hero, and—" the room around her felt like ice as Zelda finished the sentence, "and Ganondorf. All of it, it has really happened."

In the silence that followed, Zelda was sure that she could hear the heartbeats of everyone around her. It came to an end less than a second later, the sudden quiet instead replaced with questions asked all at once, Ganondorf and Link both leaning in over the table.

"Wait," Link said, "wait, stop. They are real? All of it? Even…" he hesitated, but the silence told them everything they could have wanted to know as his gaze flickered towards the door, "the Master Sword as well? The sword I took from the Yiga Clan, that was the real Master Sword from the legends?"

"You did not take anything. That sword belonged to you and not the Yiga Clan. You are, after all, the hero chosen by the goddesses, just as your friend," Impa pointed towards Zelda, "carries part of Hylia's magic inside of her."

In another world, Zelda might have expected to see Link's jaw drop, for him to jump up and protest the idea. Now, however, for as much as they should have questioned both Impa's sanity as well as their own for even entertaining the idea, deep down, below the layer of how everything she knew about the world told her that that could not be true, that they could not be part of some legend or cycle from the myths, it felt right. It was the only way Zelda knew how to put it, the idea that all of it may be real coming to form the last piece of her worldview, effortlessly fitting in between years of education and trying her best to analyse the world through the lens of what she knew to be true.

"And what about me?" Ganondorf spoke slowly, his voice calm as always, but it was not enough to hide the line of his shoulders as he tensed, how his hand clenched as the edge of his voice grew strained despite his clear attempts at maintaining careful control over his behaviour. "What does that mean for me? If Link is the hero who saves the world and Zelda is the princess, then that would mean that I—"

"You are indeed the reincarnation of the Ganondorf you know from the stories. But don't despair over that just yet—"

"Don't despair?" Ganondorf's voice rose to a disbelieving laugh, bitterness dripping from every word. "Don't despair. Don't despair over what? The fact that I have apparently always been supposed to kill people? That, if I remember those legends correctly, I am already behind on points when it comes to that? Twenty-one and I am already bad at killing people, wow, I really didn't know that that was something I needed to have prepared for. And here I went my entire life trying my best to learn as much as I could, spending hours in class taking notes about the principles of construction, trying my best to figure out how to avoid weak points in my designs so that anything I might one day design would be as safe as humanly possible, when, really, I should have done the exact opposite!" he breathed in heavily, Zelda seeing how his eyes had become shiny with tears halfway through his rant.

"You are underestimating your own importance and your own ability to control your life." Impa spoke slowly and clearly, acting as if she did not notice how Ganondorf huffed at her words. "You are the reincarnation of Ganondorf—not the same person. The two of you might have been given the same destiny, but those can be changed and altered if the person who has been given them only possesses the strength to face that fact."

"Oh, so now I have to face the fact that the universe is apparently telling me that I will have to kill people around me, that I will have to become their enemy!" Ganondorf spat the words, not looking at either Zelda or Link as he gestured towards them. "And for what reasons? Because it was just that way it was always meant to be? Why do those cycles even exist in the first place? Why did it have to be me? Why—" he interrupted himself, shaking his head with an expression that told them that he meant the action more for himself than for them. "No. You know what, I say no. I am not going to stand here and listen to you as you tell me that I am not in control of my own life, that my destiny is to—is to become some monster that children will then ask their parents to protect them from and check under the bed for. Screw all of that!" for a moment, it looked almost like Ganondorf was going to fling his plate onto the floor, but the last moment before he could have done that, Zelda seeing the way the muscles in his arms tensed, he leapt to his feet. Sending one last, caustic stare in the direction of where Impa had bowed her head in response to his words, the effect diminished by the tears already rolling down his cheeks, Ganondorf spun around and crossed the distance between the table and the doors in two steps, throwing them open to step out into the sunlight outside.

The doors fell shut, the loud thud echoing through the room. Almost like a spell had been broken, Zelda realised what had happened. Still seeing the shine of tears in Ganondorf's eyes as she blinked, she turned to look towards where the doors kept her from being able to tell where he was going.

It was not until she felt someone reach out to grab onto her wrist that Zelda registered that she had gone to stand up, already halfway about to follow Ganondorf's example and flee the house to follow him outside. Glancing down, however, she found herself looking at Impa, the old woman shaking her head at her.

"Don't go after him. I promise you that he will be able to get through it. He is strong like that. He always has been."

From the way she added that last sentence, there was no need to ask her if she was referring to the person who had just left the house or some past incarnation of him. But even though Zelda did not have to ask to know that the person who had just walked out of the door meant very little to Impa when compared to the person she thought he was, being confronted with that knowledge was another thing entirely.

She could not stay there for another moment. Hearing how Link mumbled something to her, no doubt telling her to please sit still for a moment or perhaps attempting to reach out towards her, Zelda stood up as well.

"We should go after him." when she did not receive any response, Zelda repeated herself. "We should go out and tell him that he is not the same person as the one he has read about in the myths. You—you don't understand it, but he is—"

"I understand what it means to find out that you have been given a destiny that feels too heavy for you to carry." Impa spoke calmly, but there was still an edge of steel to her voice that made Zelda sink down into her seat again. "Listen, I understand that I have not told you enough for you to have been able to guess this on your own, but just as you are now sitting here, doubting my words, I too had to come to terms with the fact that I did not only exist as the Impa of my time, that I had lived before and had now been given the task of looking out for you, waiting for you to arrive, and trying to help you on your journey." she could have looked at all of them, Link sitting right there with them, but Impa looked only at Zelda, staring at her with an intensity that felt like it would have been able to burn through anything. "Just like you and everyone else have, I too lost everyone around me back when the disease struck, but I remembered what had happened; I awoke and found meaning in preparing for you arrival. And just like I was able to come to terms with my fate, Ganondorf will soon enough realise that his destiny is something he will have to accept."

Impa said it like it was something inevitable, like it was a matter of time before Ganondorf would come back inside. If Zelda had not still been able to recall how he had had to blink to keep back the tears, the memory flashing in front of her eyes as she met Impa's gaze, she might have been furious about the fact that Impa spoke like she knew him better than the rest of them. They, she and Link, they had been the ones who had spent the last weeks with him, the ones who had talked with him about everything and nothing when they had found the energy to at least make an attempt at distracting themselves from what had happened and the ones who had walked in silence when they had not.

"If I may," Link said, making both Impa and Zelda direct their attention towards him, "I have to agree with Zelda. He… Ganondorf, he is not going to just accept what you have told him. Besides, what would it even mean for us? In the legends, they always fought over Hyrule and a way to access to the Triforce, and now—well, with everything else you have told us, I suppose that the Triforce is real as well, but Hyrule is in ruins. I doubt that it can even be called a country anymore, and if it can, it is at least is not the same as the country from the legends." with a light shrug that did not at all come close to hiding how he turned to try to catch a glimpse of the world outside through the windows, Link continued. "So I guess that the disease put a pretty effective end to the cycle in the end."

Zelda realised the truth from one moment to another, the horror that accompanied the realisation making her gasp for breath, suddenly overcome by the sensation of all oxygen having left her body. "No." rubbing her hands against her eyes, Zelda felt like a monster as they came away dry, revealing how she did not have any tears left for something as horrible as what she knew was to come, the fact that she would have to be the one to tell Link about his mistake dawning on her. Already, he had turned to look over at her, a slight crease forming between his brows as he tilted his head to the side, but Zelda could not bring herself to look at him, instead staring at Impa as she continued. "No, Impa, please, you can't mean that! It can't be that—that—" a sob swallowed the end of the sentence, leaving Zelda unable to do anything but search for even the slightest hint of her having misunderstood the expression on Impa's face, feeling the despair grow in her stomach as all she saw was a look of pity and a silent apology that would never have helped against the feeling of being unable to breathe.

"What?" looking back and forth between the two, the line between Link's brows grew deeper as he frowned. "What are you talking about?"

There was no use in waiting for Impa to tell him, not when there was nothing to say or do that would ever have softened the impact of the truth that Zelda had only just realised.

Unable to fight the feeling of being unable to breathe, barely keeping herself from hyperventilating in an attempt at combatting it, Zelda looked over at him, having to begin multiple times before she was able to force out the words. "Link, you know what has happened. The hero and the princess—they always fought Ganondorf. It always happened like that, over and over and over again. There was no way out of the cycle, and they had no way of outright bringing an end to it. But then why have we not seen anything like that happen for so long that the histories became myths and legends? How can it be that something that is inevitable and brings along the deaths of thousands of innocents could be avoided for years?" Zelda could see the dawning realisation in Link's eyes, see how the light disappeared from them as he too saw the connection between everything that had happened and the one way they had of explaining it, but she was not sure she would be able to continue if she allowed herself to pause for even a moment, and so, she continued. "I can see only one explanation: that they did not avoid the next cycle or bring an end to it entirely. Instead, they simply delayed it. That is what happened; the cycle was brought to a halt and now, we are paying the price for that."

"I…" as she looked at him, Link seemed to be at an utter loss for words, repeating something to himself over and over again before falling silent.

Zelda could not blame him. For her theory to be true, it would mean that they, or the parts of the legends they carried inside them, were, in a way, to blame for everything that had happened. Riju, Aryll, Zelda's father, every last person in the world who had succumbed to the disease, it was all their fault. Even the little pieces of hope that she might be wrong, the fact that Zelda had no way of explaining how a cycle of violence between three people chosen by the goddesses could result in the deaths of millions of people, that Impa had yet to outright confirm the theory, felt like feeble excuses, a way for her to deny the fact that she might very well have been the reason for the silence that had come to fill the entire world.

"It is not your fault." maybe Impa had meant it as a comfort, but as Zelda looked up from the table to see the old woman move towards her, it took everything in her not to flinch away as she reached out to take her hand in hers. "What has happened is not your fault, nor does the blame lie with any of your past lives. You see, you are right about most of your theory. All the signs of this being part of another cycle are here, the Master Sword your friend brought with him to the village, the fact that so many of us awakened, and finally the fact that the three of you were brought together by a single incident—all of it points towards the disease being yet another incarnation of the cycle. However, don't believe that your destinies were given to you by your ancestors. Most likely, they had no idea about the fact that their lives had a reach that extended beyond their own lifetimes in a way they could not imagine, so to believe that they were willingly delaying something they knew to be inevitable would be a mistake. They did not know."

She said it like it was meant to be a comforting idea, like the fact that their ancestors might not have meant to let the cycle gain momentum until it finally manifested as millions upon millions of corpses would do anything to take away the feelings of guilt that grew to fill every last cell of her body. Was that what the voices she had heard meant? Were they the voices of her past lives, whispering to her? Closing her eyes, Zelda tried to will them to appear in her mind, tried to force whatever princess had been responsible for the choice not to let the cycle repeat during her lifetime, to instead let it build and gain momentum until it was able to destroy the world around her, to appear, but nothing came, and Zelda opened her eyes to see that the world was still the same despite her attempts at changing what had happened. There was still the horrible and undeniable truth that, deep down, she could feel that Impa was right, that she, Link, and Ganondorf were all connected to the cycle.

"Nayru…" her voice sounded nothing like it had ever done before, and, try as she might, Zelda could not figure out if it was a fact that owed its existence to how she had just been forced to realise that she could not close her eyes to how she could feel the pull of the past in her mind, or if it had the same origin as the feeling of vertigo that made the room tilt around her as she tried her best not to fall. "I.. I can't—I can't—not right now, please."

Zelda was only faintly aware of the fact that Impa called out after her as she stood up to leave, but when she did not move to stop her, Zelda continued forwards. Not even the feeling of the wood of the door beneath her fingers felt tangible enough to ground her as Zelda sprinted out of the house, halfway falling, halfway running down the steps leading up to the house until she found herself standing in an open area, a fire in the distance sending a thin line of smoke up towards the sky.

Pivoting around herself, continuing the motion over and over again, bile rising in her throat as she forced herself not to stop, Zelda saw the other signs of civilisation around her, the way the sound of children screaming with joy rose up above the rooftops, how cuccos were walking along the roads, searching for scraps of food, how the line of smoke in front of her was mirrored by the smoke she could see rise above the houses only a few metres away from her. It was everywhere, something she could not escape from, a constant reminder that had it not been for her, had it not been for the cycle and all the things she did not understand and did not wish to understand, none of the people around her would ever have had to come to Kakariko Village. If it had not been for the cycle, then they would all have been at home with their families, just as Zelda would currently be sitting in a classroom, dreading the moment where the bell would ring to signify that they could leave to go to the canteen. What would she be doing after that? Zelda supposed that she would head home, kicking her shoes off in the hall as she tried to tell her father about the latest physics class only to be meet with disinterest and perhaps a reminder that she had to focus on politics. Politics. She could have laughed. Was that really the best method of leading the violence into a time where the Hyrulean monarchy no longer existed the goddesses or the cycle itself or whoever had been the ones to design a system of never-ending death and violence in the first place had been able to think of to? A politician?

She might have lost her mind in that moment, but then again, Zelda supposed that it could have happened a long time ago already. What other way was there to explain what had happened, that she had heard voices and was now willing to believe that the deaths of everyone around her might be the effect of some mythical cycle, how she was holding on to every last thing that would allow her to make sense of what had happened?

That way of thinking was able to get her through almost a minute of trying to convince herself that she could go on in a state of blissful ignorance to the fact that she was part of the reason for everything that had happened, part of the reason for why the world had stopped mattering a month ago. But a minute was not much when the alternative was to know that she could never forget about the conversation.

Kicking at the ground, her anger sending little stones flying up into the air, a nearby cucco looking indignantly at her before walking away, Zelda could hear Impa's attempt at convincing her that the princess and hero of old, the ones who should have experienced a cycle like the one she was trapped in, both to prevent disaster and to allow it to become history rather than legend, had not meant to allow the cycle to return echo in her ears. She pushed it away. There had been no one to blame for the disease at first. As much as she hated herself for being connected to the people responsible for it all, by picturing a faceless princess who had tried so hard to lead her kingdom away from disaster that she had burdened the future generations with that debt, at least it gave her someone to hold responsible.

The anger did not leave her. Instead it merely cooled down a little, still waiting right below the surface of pretence Zelda constructed around her as she forced herself to calm down, taking a calming breath, allowing her to begin her search for Ganondorf. He would understand, Zelda was sure of that. A person who had just been told that it would be his destiny to bring pain and destruction to the people around him—Zelda had to believe that he would understand her and believe her when she would tell him about the cycle and its connection to the disease.

Kakariko Village was nothing like Hyrule Castle Town, both when it came to population and size, but it still took her a while to notice the road that branched off to the side, leading her between two tall hills rising up next to her and over to where the mountains opened up to reveal how Hyrule lay in front of them.

That was where she found Ganondorf.

With how he was sitting next to a pile of rocks, with his back turned towards her, Zelda was not sure whether or not he had even noticed her presence, if she should cough or otherwise try to signal to him that she was there.

Before she got the chance to do any of that, however, Ganondorf had let out a harsh laugh. "Are you here? Didn't you hear what she told you—I am meant to fight against you and Link, meant to do everything in my power to kill you and everyone else."

That made the decision for her. Moving towards Ganondorf, Zelda made sure to let her steps be a bit heavier, taking away any risk that she might unwarily surprise him as she sat down next to him. The rocks in front of her were an odd combination, some of them marked by age, moss having almost pulled them completely into the ground, and others looking like they had been added to the pile mere moments ago.

They sat there in silence for a while, Zelda stealing glances at Ganondorf twice before she was able to find the courage to say anything, much less the words for it. But at last, she was able to look at him, halfway reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder before her courage failed her, leaving Zelda to let her hand fall back against her side as she spoke. "I know that you would never do that. That is not who you are."

"And I am sure that plenty of the Ganondorfs in the past thought the same thing as well." Ganondorf pulled a leg up to his chest, resting his chin on his knee as he continued to look down at a spot on the ground directly in front of him. "You know, I wanted argue against what she told me, to say that I am not some monster from the legends reborn. More than anything I wish that I had been able to tell her that she was wrong, that I am just me and no one else, but…" Ganondorf shook his head, "I have been out here for ages already, and I am not even close to being able to convince myself that that is the case. There is just this… voice inside of me that keeps on telling me that it is true. I guess that it has been there for a while as well—I wonder when it is going to begin to order me to try to kill you and Link, when it will tell me that I have to follow my destiny to become a monster that children fear. Though, I guess that that is if there will even be any part of this world left after that happens. It would not surprise me if fate would also have decided that I would be the one to bring an end to the entire world."

There was nothing for her to say in response to that, a fact that left Zelda standing there, searching for something to tell him as Ganondorf's shoulders began to shake lightly.

No matter what, standing there and watching him cry without uttering a word was not an option, and so, although she was not sure what to do or if there was any action for her to take that would not only serve to make everything worse, Zelda moved to sit down next to him. Ganondorf did not react, neither turning to acknowledge her presence nor flinching away from her, a fact that made Zelda find the courage to slowly put her arm around his shoulders, movements slow and soft to give him a chance to push her away. When he did not do that, Zelda took it as what little she could receive that carried the characteristics of a good sign.

For a moment, they both sat there in front of the stones. She could not know what Ganondorf was thinking, only that he too was keeping his eyes carefully trained on the stones, but she did know what thoughts went through her mind as she spotted the faded letters that had been carved into the rock directly in front of her, the lines of them so worn by age that Zelda could only barely make out a handful of them. Still, it was enough for her to realise that it was a name, that the pile of stones were really gravestones.

"You should not have come to find me." Ganondorf's voice was kept low, but Zelda still heard every word, every last tremble he tried to hide. "You—we all heard what Impa said; I really am the monster from the legends."

"No, you are not," Zelda began, but Ganondorf held up his hand, signalling for her to stop.

"Yes, I am. I… there is this voice in my mind, if that is even how I should it. It—I only began to notice it after everything happened, so I just assumed that it was a sign that the death of everyone around me was affecting my mental health more than I wanted to believe, but now…" Ganondorf grimaced, every line on his face full of a combination of regret and fear, "I know that it is really him. He is there, deep down. I try my best not to listen to him, and if I am honest, I don't think I would be able to fully understand what he was saying if I tried, but… but there is still the risk that he might one day raise his voice. And then what?" he finally looked over at her. The relief of the acknowledgement was short-lived as he seemed to look directly through her and out over Hyrule below them. "He is probably going to recognise you as the princess—Link as well. How can you sit there when that could happen at any moment?"

"Because you are my friend. I know that you would never try to harm me."

"Friend." there was an edge of something to his voice that Zelda could not quite identify. It sounded almost like he might have laughed if it had not been for the horror of everything around them making that impossible. "You know, Zelda, I tried to convince myself of that as well. And do you know what I realised?"

With the feeling that she was about to make a mistake by implicitly asking him to clarify sitting in her throat, making it difficult for her to get enough air into her lungs, Zelda shook her head. "No, I don't."

"I just thought about the legends for a bit, about how Ganondorf was usually portrayed as being the king of the Gerudo or in some other way possessing a high rank in a kingdom that neighboured Hyrule where Zelda would always be the future monarch, and I could not help but think that the chance of them never having met before their destinies collided in any of their lifetimes seemed unlikely." he did not exactly push away Zelda's arm, but as Ganondorf pulled his other knee up to his chest, curling in on himself, that was nevertheless the effect he achieved, Zelda allowing her hand to hit the soft dirt beneath them, unable to do anything other than to sit there as Ganondorf continued. "You try to convince me that everything will be fine because we are friends, and trust me, I would love to be able to believe that, but don't you see it? They—we—might have been friends in the past as well, and still, that was not enough to keep them from following their destinies. If this is a cycle that is bound to continue until the end of the world, then I don't see any way of stopping it, so perhaps it would be better if I left. That way, at least you and Link might have more of a chance to prepare for the day where I become… him."

Biting her lip, it took everything tough inside of Zelda to keep herself from losing her strength to the fact that the cycle and the fact that it could not be stopped was the exact reason they were now sitting here, having lost everything. She had gone to find Ganondorf, and as much as she wanted to share what Impa had told them with him to search for some kind of comfort and understanding, a single glimpse at the way Ganondorf sat with his arms wrapped around his legs was more than enough to let her know that he would not be able to bear any more talk of destiny and the fact that they, or rather some past incarnation of them, were responsible for everything that had happened.

He was holding back sobs. Zelda could feel it as she once again put her arms around him, this time making sure to hold onto him as the silent shaking became all-out sobs, Ganondorf either lacking the energy or the will to try to hide his tears, instead leaning towards her a little, moving further into the awkward embrace of Zelda trying her best to pretend that her presence would in any way be able to help take away just a little of the grief.

Zelda had no idea how long they sat there for, nor did it matter. All that held any importance right then was the fact that Ganondorf was at least not trying to push her away or escape her grasp, instead letting her reach out to pat his shoulder for a few minutes until she was able to speak again. "Ganondorf… I know that it won't help you—to be honest, I don't even know whether or not you will believe it, but, for what it is worth, I cannot imagine a world where you could ever become anything like the person from the legends. You are nothing like him. He desired power and was willing to sacrifice anything to get a chance to take the ultimate power for himself; he was selfish, and willing to betray anyone who thought that they could trust him. You are none of those things. I doubt you have even a shred of that kind of person inside you at all. You are the reason why I am still alive. You—I know that you must have realised it by now, but I was ready to give up when I first met you. But I didn't. I didn't because, suddenly, I was not alone anymore. I had you and you gave me something to believe in, a reason to keep going."

"And now that is gone." Ganondorf's voice was barely audible, the sobs interrupting him. "They are gone. There is no reason to go to Labrynna. I know that they are gone; I could feel it from the beginning. It was foolish to try to make myself believe otherwise, that the disease would have been stopped by the sea." he looked at her with red eyes. "It was convenient for me to believe that they might still be out there, that I might not have lost everything yet, especially after I met you and realised that the lie made you happy, so I refrained from telling you that, deep down, I could feel that they had died. I am sorry, Zelda. I am so sorry."

A day ago the confession would have left her empty, completely devoid of any feeling at all. Now, however, Zelda doubted that there was anything Ganondorf could have told her that would have taken away the guilt and dread that curled in the pit of her stomach at both the thought of everything that some part of her soul had been responsible for as well as the fact that she would have to share it with him sooner or later. In a way, when compared to that, the fact that Ganondorf had known that they had been chasing a hopeless dream was almost a relief, leaving Zelda able to let go of the mask of pretending that she had not had her doubts about whether or not they would have found Koume and Kotake alive if they had been able to cross Faron Sea.

"Don't apologise." tightening her hold on his shoulder, Zelda leant in closer towards him. "I did not go with you just because I wanted to believe that there might still be people alive across the sea, I did it because I would have been willing to follow you anywhere you might have gone in the world."

"You would?" he tried to hide it, Zelda could hear that, but it was still not enough to keep her from noting how a hopeful lilt to his voice shifted the pitch of the words upwards.

"Of course I would," Zelda said, "we all would."

Ganondorf huffed, the sound lacking the emotions it should have been associated with, sounding hopeless rather than offensive. "That is what he thinks, but sooner or later, he is bound to remember his past as the legendary hero, just as I will have to come face to face with the fact that the bullies were apparently right to tell me that I would be just as bad as Ganondorf since we shared the same name and you will realise that you share more than just your name with the princesses of the past and come to see me the same way as everyone else does when they learn about the legends."

"Or maybe he and I will look at you and see the person who was willing to jump between Link and the Yiga Clan, sustaining major injuries as he refused to let them touch Link." when Ganondorf did not answer her, neither giving any signs that he had heard her and decided that it was an idea undeserving of his recognition nor that he was thinking about the possibility of it being true, Zelda moved, shifting so that, rather than sitting next to him, talking to the side of his face as Ganondorf stared straight ahead, she was closer to the gravestones, sitting so that he would have to actively look away to keep himself from looking at her as she leant in, pulling him in for a proper embrace.

Reaching around him, aware of the odd smell of Kakariko Village that clung to his borrowed clothes, Zelda felt the sobs that made his body shake, felt how they slowly grew less and less intense as Ganondorf finally returned the embrace. Later, she would not be able to recall the exact moment where they rose from the ground, but it must have happened, for the next thing Zelda knew, they were standing there, looking out over Hyrule that lay as an expanse of green fields below the hill they were standing on, the castle that stood on the cliffs rising up above Hyrule Castle Town serving as a reminder of the past and how it had been the home of both the Hyrulean monarchy as well as the Hyrulean parliament, Ganondorf having an arm slung over her shoulders and Zelda barely managing to reach his waist to return the gesture.

They were silent, but unlike how it had been in the past, it was an easy silence, one Zelda did not feel any need to bring an end to as she stood there.

However, it would appear that Ganondorf did, for it was the sound of him clearing his throat that made Zelda tear her gaze away from the sight of Hyrule below them to instead direct her full attention towards him.

There was still pain in his eyes as he smiled down at her, the expression created by the pull of muscles around his mouth more than any kind of real joy or happiness, but it was more than what she had dared to hope for only a few minutes ago, especially as Ganondorf did not let go of her, did not begin to step away from her to put distance between them as he spoke. "I—thank you, Zelda. Truly. I… I should not have left, not the way I did at least." he wiped away the tears rolling down his cheeks with his sleeve, but more continued to come forwards to take their spot moments later as he turned to look over at her.

She had made the decision not to tell him about everything that had followed him letting the door slam behind him just yet, but as she sat there, Zelda could see how the gradual realisation that there was more to it than what she had told him yet appeared, first as a faint line between his brows, but soon making its way into his eyes, what little relief there had been there disappearing soon after to make way for horror.

"Zelda." Ganondorf pulled her closer towards him, wrapping both arms around her. It wasn't until then that she felt how she was shaking with sobs. "What is wrong? I—you said yourself that we are still ourselves even if—"

"It is not that." hearing him repeat her own words back at her, Ganondorf's voice shaking as it did not manage to stop her tears, was unbearable, Zelda decided. "It is not that at all."

"Then what is it?"

It felt like something broke down inside of her, what little bit of strength she had had left leaving her in a second, everything Impa had told them, the truth about the disease and the cycles coming along with it, filling the air between them. Trying her best to look at a point directly next to Ganondorf's face as she spoke, Zelda could still tell how Ganondorf connected the dots before she got to the end from how he went still as their knowledge of the cycle of diseases and the cycle of their lives connected to form a larger whole,.

"I—no," Ganondorf shook his head, the movement strangely jarring, making it seem like he had only just then remembered how to move his body, "no, that—no." he continued to shake his head as he spoke, but Zelda could see how he knew better than to believe what he was saying from the way his gaze became dark as he stepped away from her.

The air around them was not cold by any means, but Zelda still found herself shivering, her attempt at remaining warm by wrapping her arms around herself only serving to push a sensation of having done that before to the front of her mind. How many times had that happened already? How many times had her decisions and opinions of the world around her been affected by her past lives? Was it an anomaly to be able to hear a voice in the back of her head? Zelda had always assumed that it was her own thoughts, her own conscience, but as she stood there, trying her best to keep herself from thinking about the legends, from remembering how she had felt drawn to the book on mythology and history like it had called out for her, she was not so sure anymore.

Clutching his head in his hands, Ganondorf finally looked back up at her. His eyes were dry. Zelda could not blame him for that. If she were to try to comprehend the fact that some part of her might unwittingly have played a part in the death of the world around her, she knew that she would not be able to continue on. There was no need for her to recall her psychology classes to know that her way of handling the thought was not healthy, but if it was a matter of choosing between ignoring the full extent of the truth and losing what little bit of hope they still had left that they might figure something out, then she would cling on to that hope like her life depended on it, something that was probably also the case as she caught herself looking towards Hyrule Castle.

What had it been like to live there? Had the princess who had allowed the cycle to move past them only to deliver a devastating blow to their world enjoyed living there? Had she walked through the corridors and admired the paintings and tapestries or had it felt like a prison to her?

"Zelda?" Ganondorf's voice brought her back to the world around her. "I—what… what can we do? If the cycle has appeared now because we did not fulfil our roles in the past, then would that not mean…?"

She realised what he was trying to say a moment later, but it took her several seconds to regain the ability to speak, to do anything other than stare at him, halfway convinced that he was joking, that it was all just an extremely poor way of coping with what had happened. It became clear that it was not soon enough, but Zelda still had to try multiple times before she was able to utter even a single word. "We—we are not going to turn against one another. Never." making a sweeping gesture, Zelda reached out to take his hands in hers. He did not react, but at least it meant that he did not outright try to pull his hands out of her grasp as she took a step closer towards him. "Do you hear what I am saying? If that is what this cycle is trying to get us to do, then we are not going to comply. It—it has already been here once, spreading chaos and destruction, don't you think that that is enough, that that is all it is going to do?"

But already as she asked the question, Zelda knew that it was wishful thinking. The silent scream from the depth of her consciousness only served to further strengthen that fear, Zelda having to swallow thickly to keep herself from crying. She had cried enough already, now it was about how they had to put a stop to it, how they had to force the cycle to come to an end.

Sending her a glance that told her that he did not believe in her wishful thinking either, Ganondorf turned to look towards the horizon, the mountain range separating them from the Gerudo Desert rising up in the distance. "We should run away. You, me, and Link, we could leave all of this behind and try to find a place where fate and destiny and ancient cycles put in place by goddesses and demons cannot reach us."

It was a tempting idea, not as much as a way of being able to escape from the consequences but rather as an escape from the fact that Zelda could not figure out a way she would ever be able to quieten the voice in her head. However, following Ganondorf's line of sight, Zelda knew that it was impossible to achieve that just as much as she knew that Ganondorf did not actually mean what he was saying, that he was merely trying his best to find a way to flee from of the situation that had come to take away their lives.

"We can't do that." Ganondorf did not respond, so, taking a step towards him, Zelda repeated herself once again. "Ganondorf, you know that we cannot do that. I—the cycle, you and I both know that it will not work like this. If we want to stop this, we will have to stay with Impa. She has done this before and has more of her memories. If anyone is able to figure out a way to fully bring an end to the cycle, it is her. I… I think that she has done this before—or at least it feels like she has."

"So you are telling me to trust her because you have a vague memory of having known her in the past where she was on your side, while also telling me that it does not mean anything at all that I am apparently the reincarnation of the king of all evil who has always opposed you and Link in your past lives?" Ganondorf's voice broke, but he still continued. "You are really telling me that?"

"I am sorry—" Zelda began, but she did not get to finish the sentence.

"I don't want you to be sorry, Zelda! I want you to be angry at the goddesses or demons or whoever it is that was responsible for creating this unending cycle in the first place! I want you to stop acting like you are somehow personally responsible for the disease, like—like—" Ganondorf stopped for a moment, gesticulating wildly, seemingly directing the motions towards the entire world, "like you should have been aware of all of this before you had any chance to learn about our past, like anyone would not have tried their very best to save the world around them if they had sat there with no chance of knowing that they were part of some grand cosmic joke and that their attempt at saving the world would only result in the deaths of everyone in the future. I just want you to, for once, acknowledge the fact that it isn't your fault! You did the same thing with your father and I let it pass by unacknowledged, but I can't just look on now when you are trying to do the same thing once again."

"Those situations had nothing to do with one another," Zelda argued, and as much as she tried to remain calm, she could hear how her voice grew shrill at the accusation, "my father is not like this cycle at all!"

"No, he is not, but your way of handling that issue was!" interrupting himself by taking a deep breath, Ganondorf held up his hands in what appeared to be meant as a placating gesture but felt more like a way to escape from the situation as he began to make his way past her, not even bothering to turn around to look back at her as he spoke. "I can't—I can't deal with this right now. I swear that I will not leave this place without you and Link, but I can't go back to Impa just yet. Just… give me time."

With the feeling of someone yelling at her from the depths of her own mind, Zelda doubted that time was something they had an abundance of, but since she also did not know what she could say or do to make the situation any better, she let Ganondorf walk away from her. It only took a handful of seconds for him to make his way around the corner.

Perhaps she should have been stronger, but Zelda was barely able to remain standing until he was out of sight, her knees buckling below her to let her fall to the ground. She stayed there for longer than she wanted to admit to, torn between the need to go back to Impa and ask her what they would have to do to keep the cycle from returning with the same devastating blow in the future and the fact that she could not imagine having to face anyone just yet.