Chapter 10
The castle gardens were cool, peaceful, and comforting. The perfumed scent of dozens of flowering plants in splashes of colors highlighted and accentuated the statuary and topiaries which filled it, giving it the resemblance of a living museum of art. A landscaped brook of water bubbled and gurgled lazily along a cobblestone path around the gardens.
Zelda and Link sat on a stone bench in the middle of the gardens. Zelda held Link's trembling hands in his own. They had only been able to flee to this place within the last hour and he was still shaking from the previous, traumatic experience. "I hated that." He said for the third time. "I don't recall any past life where I had to face... had to face... reporters."
Zelda continued to try and hide her smile out of compassion for the man she cared about sitting next to her. She had grown up in front of the cameras, and had been forced to learn, from a very early age, how to handle them. All in all, the day's press conference had been pretty relaxed in comparison to some she had had to field. But Link, no matter what age he had lived in, had always been more comfortable dealing with those horrors that had to be faced with a sword, not a diplomatic answer.
"Actually, you did quite well for your first time." She told him. "Father was impressed you handled it as well as you did." It was true. He had whispered to her as they walked back through the palace gates that he almost expected Link to run once he saw the cameras if the look on his face had been any indication. He was happy the young man had stuck it out.
"Am I going to have to do that again?" He asked, terrified at her answer.
She smiled, held his hands to her heart and said, "As little as possible, I promise you, Hero." She had intended her emphasis on the last word to be a tease. "As long as you handle the monsters and dragons, I'll deal with the press. Deal?" She asked, kissing his knuckles gently.
"Deal." Link responded. He then looked around at the gardens, and it stirred a memory in him. "I remember these gardens, long, long ago. You were looking in the window over there." He pointed. "We were just kids. We didn't even know each other at that time."
"I remember." She said. It was, literally, lifetimes ago. "So many bad memories." She said sadly.
"You were never a bad memory. Not to me." Link said.
"I'm surprised." She said. "I dragged you into this so many times."
"It was my choice. It was always my choice, as it is now." He told her.
"It didn't surprise me when you chose to be with someone else the last time. It hurt, but it didn't surprise me." She said, speaking of things that happened in their last mortal life.
"I let too many things get in the way of us the last time. We were both too young at first. You were the princess, I was just some orphan kid from some village in Ordon, and neither of us had our full memories. I didn't do anything to really save you that time, and to be honest I thought I was beneath you." He remembered. "We never got the chance to reconnect the way we should have. Our duties kept us apart." He then added, "You never told me it hurt you."
"You were happy with Malon, and I wanted you to have that happiness. You've had it so rarely because of me." Zelda said. "And then the twins were born. I couldn't, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you or your family. Malon was good to me too. She became my best friend even before I knew she was my sister in that life. I didn't want to hurt her either. It became so complicated."
"You could have taken a husband." He said. "Why didn't you?"
"Maybe it was for the same reason we could never be together then. I never really had the time for another relationship. I became married to Hyrule, and that was demanding enough." She said. "But that was a different time, a different government. I don't have all of the same responsibilities now, and father has made clear to us his approval if that is our choice." She said with hope in her voice.
"Is it our choice?" He asked.
"It is mine." She responded, moving closer to press her lips to his again. They remained that way for some time, savoring the feeling and emotion of their lips' embrace. As they slowly drew away again, he asked playfully, "Is it okay for a high school farm kid to ask for the hand of the crown princess in marriage?"
"If you don't mind putting up with a spoiled princess for a wife." She replied, teasing.
"I didn't the first time back on Atlantis, but now I'll have to check with Epona. She'll have to have the final say." He joked.
"Hey!" Zelda semi-playfully slapped his shoulder.
"Okay, so maybe she won't have the final say..." He conceded.
"Well, we'll just have to ask her when she arrives at the stables this evening." Zelda said. "Perhaps we can introduce her to my Starfire. He could use some companionship too."
"I think they'll probably get along just fine." Link told her. His face then grew dark and pensive.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"There's just so much going on right now. It almost doesn't seem right to be talking or thinking like this right now. We came back for a reason." He said.
"All the more reason to take these moments while we can." Zelda reassured him.
"Always my wise princess." He told her, looking into her eyes.
"Always my brave soldier." She responded, returning his gaze, love and affection filling her own blue eyes.
"Uh...hmmm," Someone nearby cleared there throat and the two separated and looked around to finally spot general John Shepherd. "I'm sorry to interrupt," he said, and he did genuinely seem to be sorry. "but I just wanted to let you know that the Guard and R.F.P. teams have reported in, and your foster family is safe and secure for the moment. A little bewildered at all the attention, but safe nonetheless."
"Thanks, John." Link said, using Shepherd's first name.
"You're welcome." He said in return. "That's the first time you've called me 'John' in a long time. You got your whole memory back I take it?"
"Yeah, we both did. Everything's back." Link said.
"Everything? As in everything everything, or just sort of everything?" Shepherd asked.
"I remember those fishing trips we would take, and the log I caught. I also remember you laughing so hard you fell out of the boat. You failed to mention that when you told it." Link said to him.
"Yes, well I was testing you." Shepherd recovered as Zelda chose not to repress a giggle.
"I also remember my childhood, my first childhood, in Atlantis, the city in D'ni, and the Atlantean colony here, and our marriage." He said, looking at Zelda. "She was my wife. She was the reason why I came to the colony. I was a soldier, a specialist in martial arts and hand weapons similar to your friend Ronan, part of the platoon sent to protect the scientists. It made sense for me to come because my mother and wife were among the researchers."
All of that was new information to Shepherd who had just realized he didn't know his friend as well as he thought he had, and his face showed it. "Wow. That was what, Ten..?"
"Ten thousand years ago, just before the wraith wars." Link finished for him. "Too long ago."
"It must be tough, having to grow up and be a teenager all over again." Shepherd said, not knowing what else to say. This conversation had taken a strange turn for him, and gone in a way he hadn't expected.
"It has its advantages." Zelda offered. "We weren't nearly this young when we first came here."
"Well, I just learned something new about you two today that I didn't know before." Shepherd replied. "Now that you have all of your memories back, you don't happen to remember anything about this Ansem Xehanort guy, do you?"
Zelda nodded. "He's one of us." She said, and then quickly clarified, "not one of us, not from Hyrule's Others, but he's ascended, at least partly."
"How does that work?" Shepherd asked, confused.
"It's complicated. Instead of taking a mortal form and losing part of his powers, he infests a mortal 'host' like a parasite. I don't think he can keep his existence intact without one. We could feel that his energy is very powerful and very dark. We saw him enter our reality using a lamna clavia doorway. We don't know where he's from, or what he wants, but with an energy that dark, there was no chance we could take that he wouldn't disrupt the delicate balance within this world. It is only our great fortune that he hasn't made any movements until now." Zelda tried to explain. "We couldn't take the chance of another Demon King being created."
"Well, I understand not wanting that to happen." Shepherd said, "Doctor Lee has some theories on what his background is and where he came from. As to why he's here, we think it might be because Maleficent was hunting him down trying to kill him. It sounds like she might have gotten pretty close to finishing him off too. We think he came here to hide from her on top of whatever other evil plan he might have had, but now that she's gone..."
"Now that she's gone, he's free to carry out that evil plan almost unchallenged." Link said. "The only thing keeping him restrained was the dark fairy finding him."
"Well, now it's our turn to step up to the plate. Rodney's still got the sangraal jewel. We need to find a way to deliver it and activate it without blowing up poor Fi like we did last time." Shepherd told them, crossing his arms. "Any thoughts on that subject?"
"No, not yet." Zelda said. "We don't even know what he really wants. Demise was relatively easy to bait."
"Speak for yourself, princess." Link quipped.
"You know what I mean." She returned. "We could use his hatred for Link and I, and his arrogance to trap him. Xehanort doesn't have the same history, and he's been patient for eighteen years. We need more information."
"Bill's working on getting it for us." Shepherd said. "He's brought... uh... journals with him that might shed some light on it, but it's going to take some time for him to go through them. There's a lot of information involved."
"Maybe we can help make the connections he needs." Zelda offered.
"I'm not so certain that's a good idea, there are some things about the relationship of your reality to ours that I'm not sure you really want to know. Certain things we haven't quite shared." Shepherd said, not sure how they would take the information that they were the main characters in a series of video games back home.
"I know more about this reality than you think I do, general." Zelda said, a knowing look in her eye. "I was one of the scientists researching it, remember? I know how it affects the other realities connected to it, and how others may be informed by it."
"Oh you do?" Shepherd said, never ceasing to be amazed by the young blond lady. "Okay, well then try this one. You know what video games are right?" He asked, hoping they weren't going to be too freaked out by the truth.
"Let me guess," Zelda offered, "Someone in your world is writing the stories of this one as a series of stories and characters for video games."
"Uh, yeah, actually, how did you...?" He was completely taken aback. He looked at Link who looked at Zelda in confusion, but not really with surprise. "Video games? Seriously?" Link asked her.
"It would be absurdly complicated for me to try and explain for you. No offense meant, general." Zelda said.
"Well, none taken then." He said, a little offended.
"It was something we predicted would happen. Do you remember the explanation of how the descriptive and linking books create links to any reality at any point in time or space that is possible which they might describe?" Zelda asked.
Shepherd's head wavered back and forth between a nod and a shake before he replied, "Sort of."
"Okay," she tried to explain patiently, "Well, it is a similar but inverse relationship. This point in time and space, this reality is writing the results of each choice, each belief, each idea formed within it within the minds and imaginations of people in other realities. It's a kind of nexus of reality and belief, where the quantum states of matter, where an electron might be and where it actually is, are far more dynamic and a thousand times more sensitive to the energies of a sentient, intelligent, self-aware mind capable of achieving ascension. A mind like yours, or mine, General."
"But I'm not evolved enough to ascend, not like you." Shepherd protested.
"But you can ascend with help, and your species will eventually evolve to where you won't need help any longer." She insisted.
"So you're saying yours and mine, and every person in Hyrule's thoughts are somehow shaping this world, and in turn this world is shaping the thoughts and imagination of people in my world?" Shepherd tried to understand. It was mind blowing, and his mind felt like a C-4 charge had just been detonated.
"In small ways, yes. Taken by themselves, they're small and barely noticeable, but taken together on a grand scale with so many people... It can completely unbalance this world and throw it into chaos." Zelda explained.
"So what's keeping it relatively stable?" He asked.
"We are. Well, the Others are right now. The ascended in this reality continue to make corrections and changes, constantly trying to keep the 'errors' if you will to a minimum." Zelda said with a certain inexplicable sadness.
"So this guy Xehanort, he could really screw things up then, and not just for Hyrule, couldn't he?" Shepherd reasoned out, trying to imagine the consequences in his world. Too many imaginations there were already dark enough.
"That is the reason why we chose rebirth." Link answered.
Doctor Lee was sitting at an expensive looking wooden desk, pouring over the game information database on the tablet computer he had brought with him from Atlantis. Daniel and Rodney were attempting to help him by scanning the same information on the tablets they had brought with themselves, but they just didn't have the natural interest in the subject that he did. Rodney had found a way to rig a power converter in order to charge their portable field computers with the Palace's electrical connections. They were working in the spacious palace apartment which had been granted to them for their use until a proper workspace could be set up.
"I can't believe you put together all this stuff in two days. It must have taken weeks to compile all this useless information." Rodney told him.
"Hey, well it's not useless right now, now is it?" Bill said in his own defense. "I'm just glad I had the foresight to include the wiki information on the Kingdom Hearts series. I mean what would have happened if we were dealing with bad guys like the Metroids, or like Mannaroth or Archimonde from World of Warcraft. We'd be up a creek if I didn't have all this, now wouldn't we?"
"Yes, Bill," Daniel chimed in, crossing his arms not believing what he was about to say, "For once in your life, your video game experience actually has the chance of saving the day."
"Hey, I didn't do too bad with Maleficent did I? Sheesh, you guys never appreciate me, even when I'm right." He said, his feelings slightly wounded. "Give a guy his due will you?"
"No, no you didn't." He conceded. "Now we need you to do something similar with this other, worse video game bad guy." Daniel returned.
"Right." Bill said, going back to his research. "Now I'm just sorry I didn't get more into the series. It just didn't hold as much interest for me, being more targeted towards younger kids. I could have been more useful more quickly."
"The whole thing is confusing as hell." Rodney said, trying to understand the material. "I mean, who comes up with this stuff?"
"I don't know, the stories and places of the Kingdom Hearts series read a lot like metaphors for some larger truth, almost like some ancient religious texts or poetry I've studied. The chi-blade being forged from the conflict between the light and darkness in a kid's heart, for example, or the 'Lingering Will' as a character which ultimately drives out the evil from his own soul." Daniel explained. "There's definitely some larger truth behind it, the question is what?"
"And what pray tell, professor, is Mickey Mouse a metaphor for?" Rodney snorted in derision. "The whole thing is ridiculous."
"I don't know, the ultimate triumph of innocence and goodness over darkness, maybe?" Daniel suggested. "Ridiculous or not, Rodney, it's here and it's real enough to pose a threat to this world and ours."
"I don't get paid enough for this." Rodney said under his breath, going back to scrolling through his tablet.
"Please, let's not start that argument again." Daniel said in exasperation.
"Okay, but if Mickey Mouse shows up on our doorstep, I quit. You guys can deal with this one without me. My tolerance for the absurd only goes so far." Rodney replied vehemently.
"Well, this guy Xehanort is a real piece of work." Bill said, his eyes on the tablet screen in front of him. "I don't know how we're even going to get close enough to use the sangraal jewel on him and his host if he's anything in reality like he is in the game stories. I mean, he's as bad or worse than Ganondorf."
"Okay, pretend I don't know who Ganondorf is." Daniel said. "And that I've never played any of these games."
"Oh, right. Ganondorf was a Gerudo king who took hold of the Triforce of Power and tried to take over Hyrule in most of the Legend of Zelda games." Bill explained. "He was this powerful evil sorcerer."
"Yeah, in reality he was one of Demise's mortal hosts." Rodney added. "Hyrule history one-oh-one. He was the reason why Link and Zelda had to keep coming back for thousands of years. It was the fight to keep him imprisoned in the Sacred Realm and to keep him defeated which kept Hyrule in the dark ages for all that time. Really bad guy. Think Anubis bad."
"And you're saying Xehanort could be worse?" Daniel asked. "Worse how?"
"Worse as in more powerful worse, and worse as in he might understand the nature of this world's reality a lot better than we do worse." Bill said. "But in all the games his one goal seems to be gaining access to the world called the true 'Kingdom Hearts' with the intention of spreading darkness throughout all worlds in order to counter what he calls the 'tyranny of light.'" Bill then set his tablet down and looked at his companions, rubbing his eyes and looking like he was trying to put the pieces of a jumbled puzzle together, "You know I've been thinking, and what this game calls Kingdom Hearts sounds an awful lot like the Triforce and the Sacred Realm here in Hyrule. Even the way to get into it. The Kingdom Hearts was protected by a kind of master keyblade called the 'chi-blade.'"
"That sounds a lot like the Master Sword, doesn't it?" Rodney said, seeing the logic of Bill's train of thought.
"Right!" Bill agreed. "But the only thing about it is, the story in the games goes that the original Kingdom Hearts and chi-blade were destroyed in the first keyblade war."
"So how could the Sacred Realm and the Master Sword be connected to it in any way?" Daniel asked. He then started trying to reason it out. "Okay, well if the Kingdom Hearts stories are poetic metaphors, then maybe the destruction of the true Kingdom Hearts and the chi-blade is a metaphor too. Maybe it wasn't their literal destruction. Maybe it was the destruction of the knowledge of them, or the way back to them from their own world or reality."
"Yeah, maybe. And this guy Xehanort, who's obviously obsessed with finding it, finally found a gateway here to the Sacred Realm's doorstep, but he didn't know precisely where in this world the entry point was." Rodney picked up on it.
"The Temple of Time." Bill said. "So that's got to be his objective then, doesn't it? Once he figures out where it is and how to gain access, he'll make his move, won't he?"
"Considering he just declared war on Western Hyrule, I think he's narrowed it down now." Daniel observed.
"Right." Bill said. "Right."
The short lone figure stepped off the train and onto the platform of Castleton's main transit station. He wore a black cloak with the hood drawn to hide his features from the surrounding fellow travelers. As he looked around at all the different kinds of people, he wondered if he really needed the secrecy, but the enchanted black cloak was necessary to keep unfriendly eyes, both physical and magical, from finding him before he was ready to be found.
None of the people around him noticed him either as he walked with purpose along the platform. His spell of concealment hiding him from all but the most observant of magic users, and then, only if they knew to look for him.
The train station was very modern and different from the train stations which were in the dark figure's own world as he strode calmly and cautiously through the crowd. Digital screens displayed train times and numbers over ticket counters enclosed in glass and staffed by the sharp eared, elf like people that seemed to predominate in this world.
He bypassed all of them to head out of the station and into the larger metropolis that was the capital of this country. It was a larger city than he had ever traveled to before. "My goodness." He exclaimed in a high pitched, almost adolescent voice. For a minute he almost began to despair of ever finding what he was seeking in the complex, organized chaos that was downtown Castleton.
But then he felt it. The thin calling of light that had drawn him here to this place. His search for the evil man that had brought him to this world would begin at the source of it.
He had wrestled with the question for years. Could Master Xehanort have actually survived their final battle with him? None of his friends seemed to believe so, and for his own reasons, he kept his suspicions from them. But there was this feeling that kept nagging at him, that still nagged at him as he walked along the cement sidewalk towards the heart of the city, the walls of Old Castle Town. It was a memory of his time studying in the library of Ansem the Wise, a library he knew Xehanort had also had access to. There was one book in particular that described a world in metaphor and rhyme. Now, the small figure knew that it spoke of this world that he now walked through. It was a world which had long remained disconnected and forgotten by the rest of his people in the other realms, but not completely impossible to reach. Could Xehanort have somehow fled here?
Xehanort. The man was responsible for hurting his friends in cruel and dark ways. If he had his way, he would bring the whole of his reality into darkness. He was also responsible for Pete's murder in cold blood. The stranger felt heartbroken upon hearing Maleficent's cries of outrage and pain when she found the oversized cat's body. He had known Pete too in another lifetime. He wouldn't have ever really considered him a friend, but he had known him and worked with him. He deserved better than what he got. It made the stranger angry, and want justice for his former acquaintance. He had to know for certain that the evil sorcerer was finally gone or not.
His suspicions were all the more confirmed when he learned of Maleficent's departure, and when he tracked where she went through the gateways. He had followed her alone this time. He wouldn't involve his friends with this. They had too much in the way of bad feelings towards the dark fairy, and she and he had a common enemy to fight this time. An agent of light and an agent of darkness to combat the destructive imbalance Xehanort would bring on them all. He just had to make contact with her. Then he arrived in this world and felt the power of the light with which it filled him. It was invigorating, like waking up from a dream into the reality, and he just knew this was where Xehanort had come. It had to be, he could feel the power of Kingdom Hearts flowing through it everywhere here.
Eventually his destination came within sight. It looked like a great cathedral with stained glass windows just outside of the old town walls. He had heard the locals refer to it as the "Temple of Light." His search would begin there. He pushed back one of the long black sleeves to reveal a white glove and a wristwatch on a thin arm with short black fur. It was close to three in the afternoon.
"We're going to need access to the Temple of Light, your majesty." Shepherd told the monarch once he arrived and had been announced. He had just come from one of the weirdest conversations he had ever had with a man he thought he had known fairly well. Shows how much I know about anyone, Shepherd thought to himself.
They were in a private study of the king's which overlooked the garden. His majesty had been watching the two teenagers next to a set of royal purple silk curtains through the expansive window which opened up onto the castle gardens. A short glass with a small amount of orange brown liquor and ice cubes was in his hand from which he sipped gingerly.
"Do you drink, General?" The king asked him in a friendly and familiar manner.
"On occasion, sir, when I'm off duty." Shepherd responded.
"Sir." The king repeated. "I'll have to get used to that. I haven't had someone call me 'sir' in a long time. It's always 'your majesty this' and 'your majesty that.'"
"I apologize, your majesty." Shepherd corrected himself.
"Oh don't." The king replied. "I kind of like it. It's so much more efficient and less pretentious. That's one thing I have never been able to stand is pretense, and yet in my position I must use it constantly to get anything done that needs to. Do you follow my meaning, General?"
"I'm not sure, sir." Shepherd responded honestly.
The king watched his daughter and her Hero unseen by either of them, sipping his drink. "Would you like some, General?" He offered, gesturing to a crystal flask filled with the liquid and an extra glass in the setting. "It's a sweet pumpkin liquor from Ordon. It's been aged very well, and I hate to drink it without sharing it with someone."
Not wanting to offend the man, Shepherd took his offer and, walking over to the table poured himself a small amount, taking a sip. The liquor was sweet, similar to a good pumpkin pie he once had, but it burned like mad going down. "It's good." Shepherd told him. "Better than some I've had."
"I'm glad someone else appreciates it here besides me. I import it from a micro-distillery in Ordon that makes this batch special just for myself. No one else here seems to be able to enjoy a fine Ordonian liquor quite like myself. And that should tell you something, General. I understand there's a guard captain in Lake Hylia who wouldn't enjoy it much either." The king said with a knowing look.
"No, I don't think he would, sir." Shepherd said.
"This is where the real fight is, General. It isn't a fight of swords, shields, bullets, or even fists. It's a fight of ideas. And the idea that someone Hylians are better than everyone else is like a cancer that is eating away at our society. It's already consumed the eastern half of our realm, and still it spreads. I have to use every weapon at my disposal to fight it, no matter how much I may not want to. Like those two down there," he motioned with his glass towards Zelda and Link down below, "keeping the people of Hyrule safe, all of her people, from all threats is my responsibility, and I take it very seriously. I refuse to leave anyone, any one of us be it Hylian, Zora, Ordonian, Goron, fairy, or even the odd educated Bulblin, and there are a few here and there; I refuse to leave any of my people behind. You can understand that, can't you General?"
"Absolutely, sir." Shepherd said, coming to like this man very quickly.
"I look at my daughter down there, and to see the joy and love in her eyes when she looks at that young man brings nothing but happiness to my heart. She's taken so little time for herself, you know. She's never seriously considered anything for herself, but from the time she was little has been working to make our kingdom better for everyone. If I could have shielded both of them from the press, if I could let them both just be young people in love like they should be able to be then nothing would please me more." The king took another sip of his drink, his eyes still on the gardens.
"But you can't, can you, sir?" Shepherd asked, picking up on what was bothering the man. It was the media this morning. It was having to order protection for the farming family and disrupting their lives. It was having to splash Link's face all over the airwaves even while seeing how uncomfortable the young man was.
"No. No I cannot." The king took a deep breath and sighed. "That's not how the game is played. How it has to be played whether I like it or not." He then turned away from the window and turned to face Shepherd. "Do you know what I now see when I look at those two, General?"
"A couple of teenagers that aren't?" Shepherd offered.
The king smirked, "You noticed that too, have you? I look at Link and I see an extraordinary young man who risked everything to save my daughter. I also see my ancestor from centuries ago and possibly farther back than that. I don't know for certain. And, I also see the Hero who inspired me as a boy, and to whom I have offered prayers for the courage to do what is right all of my life." He took another sip. "It is the same when I look at Zelda ever since she returned from the desert. I still see my little daughter whom I have loved and cared for since her mother died giving birth to her. She is the joy of my heart and always will be. But I now also see the ancestral matriarch of the royal family evident in her every step, and her every word and gesture. And," he took another sip and finished the glass, "I can't fail to see my goddess, Hylia, and eternity in her deep blue eyes. My goddess come back to us from heaven and reborn in flesh. How did I not see that before I ask you?"
"It must be weird for you too, then, sir." Shepherd empathized.
"You have no idea." The king replied. "I consider myself a devout man, General. I must be because it is my position as king to defend our faith, and keep the remembrance of the Legend of Zelda in the people's minds and hearts. And now I find myself in the position of having to use these young people to as weapons in a war of propaganda, a war of ideas, to convince the people that our way, the way of equality and the freedom to choose one's own path is the way the goddesses would have us go. And I find myself hating the... the blasphemy of it." He spat the word. "I meant what I said to Link. It is I who should be bowing to them, and not they to me. I only hope to find forgiveness from them after it is all over."
"I'm sure they will understand the necessity, sir." Shepherd said, trying to console him. He knew he was way out of his depth here in the conflict the man was feeling.
"Any amount of happiness I can give them before this is all over with, I will. I swear it to you, General. I will owe them that much and more by the time this is done." The king said.
"Of course, sir." Shepherd said.
"Now, to the business at hand." The king said. "You wanted access to the Temple of Light?"
"Yes, sir," Shepherd responded, remembering why they had come. "We need to find out why the Sages haven't responded to anyone, including Talon in the Temple of Time. You and Zelda are the only ones besides the Sages themselves who can enter the Temples without, uh, 'special invitation.' The closest one to investigate is the Temple of Light here in Castle Town, er, Castleton. The reasoning is that what's affecting the Sage here, might be the same thing that's affecting the Sages elsewhere. It'll just be Link and I going in as long as you give permission for Zelda to unseal and open the doors. We'll have a couple of units of guardsmen on the premises to try and prevent any other unauthorized entry."
"As long as it's discreet. I don't want to cause any commotion among the population with Hyrule Guardsmen locking down a Sacred Temple in such a public venue. Imagine the news broadcasts with that." The king said. "A war of ideas, General. That's what we're fighting."
"We'll keep the cameras outside of the temple compound walls, sir." Shepherd said, though he was grateful for the reminder. This wasn't like the Hyrule he had known. There were more factors to consider now. "We'll be in and out as quickly as we can. We're just going in to check on the Sage of Light."
"Permission granted, but wait until after dark when most of the people will be off the streets. The fewer eyes on the ground the better." The king said.
"Understood, sir." Shepherd said, setting his half finished glass of liquor on the table. "I'll go and set everything up. We should be ready to go in at nine o'clock."
"Midnight, General. Castleton doesn't sleep that early during the week, especially not that close to the Old Town." The King corrected, knowing his city better than the stranger from the past.
"Midnight it is, sir." Shepherd confirmed, as he began to leave.
"Oh, and General?" The king addressed him one more time. Shepherd turned to look at him. "Keep my daughter and my future son-in-law as safe as you can for me. For all of us. I don't know what we'd do if anything happened to them."
"You have my word, sir." Shepherd told him solemnly, and then walked out.