Link took Zelda's hand where they sat in chairs before her father, who was dozing off on account of his fatigue and his weakness. He had talked about his deceased wife for longer than they expected.
"I think that went well," Link stated cautiously. "Don't you?"
Zelda nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "It did. I liked hearing about her."
"So did I," Link said with a smile of support.
Zelda leaned forward and kissed Link.
"Thank you," she said before standing up.
"We better get going," she continued. "If we're going to meet Orielle when we promised."
"Right," Link said, standing up as well. "Of course."
Their steps echoed about the Temple of Time, Link, Zelda, and Orielle pacing towards the long pedestal.
They stopped when Zelda did, Link and Orielle looking at her while she knelt down onto the red carpet.
Zelda placed down the beige fabric gently, uncovering the flaps to reveal three gems, the three sparkling gems left when the dragons ascended from Hyrule.
One by one, Zelda placed each on the pedestal. One of emerald, plated with a golden swirl. One of ruby, with a sharp edge at the top and a flat edge on the bottom, plated with gold. And one of sapphire, three circles of the stone conjoined with the same gold as the other three.
When placed on the pedestal, they floated, spinning in their own continuous circles. Zelda took a step back as she handled the blue ocarina.
"When I play this instrument," she said, her voice echoing in a way Link would describe as angelic. "These gems will serve as a lock to the door that will enclose the Master Sword. As we agreed, this will stay between the three of us. Each of us will hide a stone somewhere in Hyrule and never tell anyone where, not even those closest to us. The ocarina will be kept with me. All of this is so that no one person will ever have access to the Master Sword and the Sacred Realm and Triforce that lies within it. Is this understood?"
"Yes," Link and Orielle both said.
"You swear to uphold the secrecy of this task?"
"Yes," they both repeated.
"And in the company of your goddess Hylia, you promise your statements of prior rang true, with no lies nor deceit?"
"Yes," they both said.
Zelda brought the ocarina to her lips, notes produced from it that caused the swirling gems to producing ascending sparkles. A door in the distance started to slide downwards, slowly descending until, with a great thud, the back room was closed.
