Chapter 2 - Remembrances
Link sat with melancholy at the small wooden table, only large enough for two, grown out from the living tree of his and Saria's treehouse. The sun had risen fully and was streaming bright sunlight through an open window nearby. A breakfast of cold pumpkin pastry which had sat wrapped in butcher's paper on a brown ceramic plate, made for him the previous evening by the swordmaster's wife, had all but been demolished by the boy. Crumbs and a few traces of crust were all that remained to convince anyone the pastry had ever existed. The core of an apple, and a small, empty bottle that had contained milk sat next to the plate on the table.
The wooden chair opposite his own across the table was empty, just as it had been for the past several days since Saria's passing. The emptiness of the chair in front of him seemed to reverberate around the treehouse in such a way as to make the home he grew up in almost strange and foreign to him, as though somehow it could no longer be his home anymore, but it was all he had left. And it was all he had left of her.
"Link!" A familiar man's voice called from outside the window nearby.
Link rose up from where he sat to confirm who the owner of the voice was who was calling him. Looking through the window, he saw Rusl, the village's swordmaster and blacksmith marching quickly and with purpose towards his house. He wore his usual forest green tunic over a white pair of calf length breeches and hobnail sandals. A white headband was tied around his forehead, keeping his graying dark blond hair out of his eyes. His own well used, and well honed sword lay in its scabbard on his back.
The swordmaster was a tall, muscular man with a slight mustache and thin beard. He walked with a short walking stick that served at times as a crutch for the limp in his left leg. Link had asked him once how his leg was hurt, and the swordmaster had replied only that it was a long time ago during the border wars with the all-women Gerudo clans of the Lanayru desert. He usually wore a cheerful smile on his face when he came to see Link.
Link liked Rusl, and always had. It was Rusl who had the responsibility of teaching all the boys in the village how to handle a sword, and he always encouraged Link to push himself harder in what the swordmaster called his "natural talent" with a blade. Even though Rusl and his family were Ordonian like the rest of the village, under Saria's watchful eye Rusl had taken Link under his wing as a father figure when Link was still very small, and he and Rusl's son Colin had grown up almost like brothers, though Link was several years older. Rusl's wife had been almost a second mother to him as well.
Link watched his surrogate father's face as he walked quickly up the hill to the tree house. His usually confident smile was gone, and a look of concern and haste had replaced it.
Something's not right, Link somehow knew instinctively as soon as he saw him.
"Link!" Rusl called out with both hands cupped around his mouth. "Link are you up yet!" He was insistent. "Link I need you to come down as soon as you can! Link!"
"I'm here, Rusl!" Link called down through the open window. "I just ate! I'm coming down!" He shouted back.
Link then came back from the window and hurried down the short stairs to the lower level of the house where his bed and clothes were kept. Going to his old, metal band and wood chest where he kept his few clothes, he rummaged through them and quickly drew out his forest green tunic, the one Saria preferred, and a pair of white woolen breeches. Throwing them on and tying a simple leather belt around his waste, he pulled on his calf high leather riding boots and rushed down one more level to the door of the tree house, and down the ladder to meet Rusl on the ground.
"Link," Rusl began, breathing somewhat heavily, "I need you to come with me now to the mayor's house."
"What's wrong?" Link asked. "Did I do something wrong?"
Link didn't know why he had asked that question, he couldn't think of what his offense might have been, but the mayor was the person who judged disputes in the village and meted out punishments. Usually when someone was called to the mayor's house, it meant they did something they weren't supposed to.
Rusl shook his head, "No, my boy. It's not that. Someone has come to the village, someone very important. A Sage. She's asked specifically for you, Link." Rusl told him.
Link expected his friend to break into his usual friendly smile, but Rusl's face and tone of voice remained serious and stern. Even if Link wasn't being summoned because he had done something wrong, Rusl's manner did nothing to dispel the feeling that he was.
"A Sage? Why is she asking for me?" Link asked.
"She didn't say. But the Sages don't leave their temples lightly, son." Rusl said, putting his free hand on Link's shoulder. He then added, "My boy, if a sage has left her temple to come and see you, you don't keep her waiting."
The swordmaster then put his whole arm around Link's shoulder and led him down the hill towards the rest of the village. Link looked reflexively back at his treehouse and had the sickly feeling that he would never see it again.
The walk back down the hill towards the village was quieter than the boy liked. Rusl would often speak with him, tell him of his own adventures when he was younger and a soldier in the Hylian army. He would talk of Castle Town, Eldin province, the Gorons and the Zora and all the wonders he had seen in his time away from Ordon. Link loved every minute of it. Rusl told no stories this time. No jokes or humor were to be found in his eyes. The look on his face remained grave and somber.
"What temple is this Sage from?" Link asked, not able to bear the silence anymore.
The Hylian boy knew of the Sages from the stories his mother had read to him. They were the mysterious spiritual guardians revered and respected by all of Hyrule. Each Sage was responsible for a certain individual aspect of the world like fire, or water, or the forest and could be called from any of Hyrule's many races. He knew they remained in their temples scattered throughout Hyrule to guard their world's Sacred Realm with their prayers and songs. Few living had ever seen a sage, even the Sage of Light who remained in the great Cathedral of Light in Castle Town had been seen only rarely outside of his temple. For that reason, many of the common people in the outlying provinces of Hyrule's dominion, even in their small village, believed them to be myths made up by the royal family of the Hylian people.
"She is the Sage from the oldest of the temples deep in the Faron woods to the north of us; the Temple of Time. She hasn't left her temple in living memory, son." Rusl responded gravely.
"But then how does she eat? Doesn't she get lonely?" Link asked those questions only a ten year old boy would dare to ask.
"The Sages aren't like you and I, Link. No one knows or understands the Sages but the Sages themselves." The sword master answered him mysteriously. A tinge of fear and reverence laced the old warrior's voice as he spoke briefly of them and quickly became silent again.
Then Rusl said nothing more as they entered the village.
Their village was a collection of red tiled roof, rounded wooden houses connected by dirt paths gathered together on the north side of a naturally walled valley. A large stream meandered its winding way around the houses and under small bridges to empty into a large pond glistening in the morning light on the south side of the valley. Rusl kept his arm around the boy's shoulders protectively as he guided him along those familiar, well trodden dirt paths.
After what felt like the longest walk Link had ever taken, the two came up to the wooden door of the Mayor's house. Rusl didn't bother knocking but opened the large round door and led Link inside to a dimly lit large sitting room. Well used cushioned couches and chairs, enough for ten or fifteen people were arranged around a short table, and here Link remembered again that much of the village's legal business, both internal and when dealing with other villages and royal representatives was done here in this room.
Sitting on two of those chairs in the main room were the Mayor's large, muscular wrestler's frame and the smaller, more bookish man, the healer Ilio who had tended to Link's mother. These two men sat with obvious, though respectful discomfort opposite an old woman that Link had never seen before. They had all been silent, their expressions grave when he and Rusl had entered. With the addition of Rusl, the swordmaster, they made up the three most important leaders in the village.
Adding to the boy's sense of foreboding, Link couldn't see any trace of Ilia, the mayor's daughter. She was the same age as Link, and they had been close friends since they were both very young. Her presence would have been at least some comfort to him as he was made to stand next to Rusl across from where the Mayor sat.
There was something vaguely familiar to him as he came to look at her. He couldn't explain quite why, but he felt as though he knew her as from a dream or… or… He couldn't place it. She was hunched over under a red cloak which covered most of her body and hid most of her deeply tanned, wizened face, creased with her extreme age, in it's folds. The distinct traces of the long tapered ears of the Hylian race could be seen against the material of her robe's cowl. A long silver-gray braid of hair spilled out from the cowl to flow down and end in a tightly wound spiral across the front of her crimson robes which were emblazoned with the violet insignia of an open eye shedding a single tear. Under the robes could be seen deep, midnight colored garments trimmed with golden runes and patterns.
She must be hundreds of years old. Link thought upon first seeing her. He had never seen anyone as ancient as she appeared.
And then from the recesses of his mind, a thought pushed its way to the surface of his conscious mind, Thousands, not hundreds.
The elder Sage before him sat unmoving like stone in the worn leather cushioned chair, her arms extended in a relaxed manner across its arms. For just a brief moment, Link imagined she might have expired in the time it took to fetch him.
The mayor and the healer looked as if they didn't know what to say or how to even speak in her presence. As Link stood next to Rusl, the mayor's eyes went to the boy as though pleading for help in how to proceed without offending the ancient one.
"Is this the boy, swordmaster?" She then broke the silence, her head moving under the crimson cowl to address Rusl, her voice heavy with age and gravelly. There were no courtesies, no pleasantries, and no smiles.
"Yes." Rusl answered stiffly, but respectfully. "This is Link." Rusl then added, "His mother just passed away, your grace." His tone of voice was hopeful that this might engender some compassion towards the boy to mitigate whatever designs the mysterious woman might have on him.
"Stand in front of me, boy." She told him. If Rusl had hoped for a trace of warmth or sympathy from her, he was disappointed, for there was none in her voice.
Link moved to stand directly in front of her without a will of his own, looking up at Rusl for help. But Rusl had no help to give him. No one except perhaps the royal family held any power over the Sages of Hyrule. He was made to stand opposite her, and his young eyes were able to see more of her face beyond the shadows of her cowl. Her eyes were a sharp golden color, intelligent, and keen. The cheekbones of her ancient face were high, just like his, and he knew then for certain that they were of the same race.
"Let me see your hand, boy." She told him brusquely.
He lifted his right hand and showed its palm to her in technical obedience. But from deep within, a voice told him, You know which hand she wants to see.
She batted the wrong hand away and said, "Don't try my patience. Show me your left hand, boy."
Link then brought up his left hand which still wore the glove his mother had insisted upon to hide his birthmark.
"Remove the glove." She said, neither impressed nor fooled by it.
He obeyed hesitantly, and gave her his hand again. She studied it carefully.
"How old are you, boy?" She asked him.
"Ten, ma'am." He responded.
Under her cowl, he saw her lift an eyebrow at him, "Ma'am?" She asked. "Are you still so impertinent, boy?"
"The proper address for a Sage is 'your grace,' Link." The mayor said.
"I'm sorry," Link said nervously. "Ten, your grace."
"Ten. So young. I had hoped he would be older by now. But the Princess is ten now too, isn't she? Yes, they're always the same age, but there's nothing to do about it this time." The sage spoke more to herself than to anyone else.
What does the princess have to do with me? Link asked himself, but something within him made him keep his question to himself.
"You will need your horse boy. We have a journey to make." The Sage told Link.
Link's eyes flew first to Rusl and then to the Mayor pleading for help, not knowing what to do.
Rusl then stepped forward, placing his hand once again protectively on Link's shoulder and asked, "Where are you taking him, your grace, and when will he return?"
The Sage raised both her eyebrows and looked up into his eyes, her cowl falling back from her head just a bit so that her eyes met Rusl's own, "I am not used to being questioned, swordmaster." She told him coldly, her face set like stone.
Rusl started to take a step back, an expression of fear flashing across his features, but then steadied himself and held his ground. His grip tightened on the Hylian boy's shoulder while his other hand balled tightly into a fist. The Ordonian man summoned up his courage, and stared her down.
"Link is like my own. I want to know where the boy is going, and when he will return, your grace." He demanded.
The Sage held his gaze like stone for several minutes as they challenged one another silently like two combatants on the field of battle.
Then, her own expression softened.
"I like you, swordmaster," she said, allowing a smile to cross her lips. "You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago."
Rusl softened his own gaze as well, and then said, "Please, your grace. This boy is from our village. We all feel responsible for him."
She looked from the sword master to the faces of the mayor and the healer and could read in their eyes the truth of what he said. She let out a long low sigh, and for a moment every year she had lived could be read in her face, and the count was considerable.
"I have no answers to your questions, I'm sorry." She told them. "And I can't give you what I do not myself possess. If I could say the boy would be safely returned to you I would do so. But his fate does not lie in my hands, but in the hands of those far more powerful and ancient than I."
She looked at Link tenderly now, almost grandmotherly. The change in her expression was so drastic that he wondered for just a brief moment if it was even the same woman. A recognition of her features struggled to break free within him, but he couldn't quite bring it to the surface.
"I had hoped you would be older by this point, but time is now against the both of us. Once, we would have had all the time we needed, but this… things are different. The cycle has been interrupted. Someone has interfered with the legend in a way that threatens everything and everyone." She looked straight into his eyes as she said this last part.
The legend? Link's mind then began to spin at high speed and react in ways that it never had before.
"What cycle, your grace? What legend?" The mayor asked.
"The boy knows," she said, "don't you boy?" She looked in his eyes.
He did know, from the stories his mother had read him, and… There was something else racing through his mind as though testing the walls of a prison, trying to break free.
The boy then nodded, but even that slight motion began to make his head throb, and his hands went to his head to try and cradle it and stop the pressure. "The legend of Zelda." The boy responded in a whisper. "Like from my mother's book."
"What's the legend of Zelda?" The Mayor responded in confusion. When the old woman wouldn't answer, he turned to Rusl with his question. "What does her highness, the Princess have to do with this?" Rusl shook his head in reply, not knowing the answer himseld.
"I don't understand what this is about." The big man continued in helpless frustration.
"You know now why I've come, don't you, boy?" She asked, ignoring the other men in the room now. "You're the Link."
Link stepped back from the Sage trying to take this in. His mind felt as though it were on fire as images and feelings just out of reach raced across it like… He knew the stories. He knew what the Link in those stories did. Terror and excitement seized him.
He touched his finger to the triangle on his hand to make himself feel better, braver. It always seemed to work before like that. He began to feel dizzy, and pain gripped the deep inside of his head.
As he did he mouthed silently a prayer, not to Farore to whom his mother had taught him to pray, but to his mother hoping that she could hear him somewhere, "Mother, help me."
The triangle on his hand then burst out with an energetic bright white golden light, and a new courage seized him and wouldn't let go. Within his mind it was like a dam had ruptured and memories flooded into his consciousness which he could never have lived in his ten few years. He had seen Castle Town. Not once, but many many times. He had ridden the wind on the back of a great bird, and run through the twilight on four paws. He knew the darkness of the shadow temple, and the wonders of Skyloft, the ancient city in the sky which now only existed in legends and whispers. He knew love, and loss. It all deluged him hard and fast in a blur of images and feelings that he tried to make sense of. There were hundreds of lifetimes of memories that tried to integrate into the person he believed himself to be, and all of them were from a person, a personality known only as "Link."
"Yes, boy. You do know." The Sage of Time said with a knowing look. "I can see it in your eyes. You remember."
Link nodded slowly as the pressure began to subside. He tried to sort out his memories, but they were all beginning to fuse together. He was all of those heroes who had come before him, and yet he was still just the boy from the village.
Nodding in satisfaction, the old woman then turned her attention back to the other men in the room.
"He will need a sword and a shield," the Sage said, looking at Rusl, "a real sword and shield. Not those wooden sticks you have the children practice with."
Rusl began to protest that he was too young, and then, reflexively, he looked at Link's face and into the boy's eyes. The swordmaster then stepped back from Link, loosing his grip on the boy's shoulder.
What he saw in the ten year old's eyes unnerved him. The boy he knew and loved was still in there, present somewhere, but now there was something, someone more.
The expression Link carried was no longer that of the scared ten year old boy he had led there. This person's eyes were hardened and haunted as though he had seen things that would give most men nightmares. There was something feral yet dutiful about it. It was the expression he saw on the faces of his fellow soldiers many years before during the border wars, veteran soldiers, when they came back from combat against bokoblin raiders or Gerudo thieves, if they came back at all.
Rusl wanted to weep for what he saw now in the eyes of this boy he had helped to raise. This boy that now stood in front of him could split a man in two without hesitation if the need arose, and looked like he knew how it felt to do so.
"Alright." Rusl said, chilled by the change he saw come over the boy.
"Fetch the boy's pony." The Sage then ordered.
"Epona doesn't belong to me," Link told her, his voice somewhat raspy. "She belongs to the goat-herd."
Without a word, the Sage drew a larch leather pouch out from the folds of her robe and tossed it to the mayor. When he opened it, he found it was filled with precisely cut white, orange, and violet gemstones. They were known as rupees, the common currency of the kingdom of Hyrule, and there was enough there to buy the entire village and still live comfortably for several years.
"Give this to the goat-herd as compensation for the horse. The boy must have her." The Sage said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
The mayor nodded quickly. He had never seen so much money in his life.
"Now, let go collect the boy's horse and anything else he might need," she said, eyeing Rusl, "we have a long journey ahead of us and I don't know how safe the woods are anymore."
Rusl nodded wordlessly as he came to accept the loss of any power he had in protecting and nurturing the boy. The boy's fate had been decided by the divine and now the divine had come to claim him for their own purposes. Within himself he submitted to their will, and let the boy go, grieving silently within himself.
She then stood up from her chair. Her frame was bent over, but Link could tell that at one time she had been a tall, powerfully built woman. When she moved, in spite of her age, her limbs moved with a fighter's grace and natural stance.
The recognition then came freely to his mind as he imagined the younger, tall and strong, deeply tanned warrior woman with silver hair and golden eyes his memories told him he had known. Fierce, mysterious, and absolutely dedicated to her Lady goddess, she had been one of the last of her tribe of shadow warriors once upon a time.
"I know you." Link told her as his memories began to settle down and congeal.
He was certain he recognized her now. The memory came back to him.
"Yes." She said as she took his arm and, ignoring the others in the room, they walked through the door of the Mayor's house to the outside. From their, Link was made to lead her up towards the ranch where the pony was kept. "That was many years, many lifetimes ago."
"Impa." He said.
She looked at him and nodded.
He tried to put the pieces together in his mind as many ancient memories fell into place. But there was one memory which was distinctly absent. He had no memory of Impa or any Sage ever coming to seek him out before. He was always raised as an unknown commoner far away from his people and the royal family that guarded the legend.
"How did you find me?" He asked Impa.
"I had help from an old friend." She replied, but did not elaborate.
"It's worse than before, isn't it?" He asked, realizing what it meant. "That's why you came to find me this time instead of letting things take their course.
He didn't know what could be worse than the things his mind told him he had experienced lifetimes ago, but he knew that had to be be. That was the only possible explanation for her to risk leaving the unique environment of her temple this far away from it; that is, at her extreme age, for her to risk her very life.
She didn't answer. She didn't need to. If Impa had left her place at the temple, then he had his answer.
"So, young lady, I understand you're feeling better." It wasn't a question that the balding man with spectacles uttered with a smile that though meant as friendly appeared forced, Zelda could tell.
Her father had ensured that her tutors were educating her in the arts of diplomacy and conversation for her future role as monarch of her people. Those lessons told her this man was highly skilled in those arts too.
She sat in a semi-comfortable black padded, wireframe metal chair in front of a large desk which appeared to have a polished wooden top laid over a metal frame. Behind the desk sat the man whom she had been brought to see in a high backed tan leather chair which somewhat resembled a kind of small, comfortable throne, if, that is, a throne could be on rollers and recline somewhat. Next to her sat Doctor Jennifer, the woman who had been kind to her, and who still hauntingly reminded her of her own mother.
They were all seated in an enclosed office at the apex of the tallest tower, the central tower of the city itself. To the right of her, several giant bay windows opened up to an even more expansive chamber that was nearly as large as the great hall of Hyrule Castle itself. What glances she caught of that chamber through the windows were of stained glass and a great metal ring which brought up even more feelings and random images in her mind, though she had little idea where they came from.
After being permitted to leave the place Jennifer called their medical center the day before, Zelda had been allowed over the last day or so to stretch her legs and be taken to a private apartment within the city close to the medical center. She had always remained the watchful eye of either Doctor Jennifer or one of the doctor's companions, but they had not been unkind or impolite.
In the apartment was a glass and metal door that opened up onto a small balcony or terrace. She had gone through the door and out on the terrace to see the ocean view. The ocean had always been something that she loved, even though her home in Castle Town was so far from it. But as she breathed in the salty air on that terrace, and felt the bright warm tropical sunlight on her skin, looking out over the towers and expanse of the floating city powerful emotions started to seize her.
That was when tears began to roll down her cheeks with a will of their own as feelings and images without context and without reason came unbidden to her conscious mind. They were feelings of home, of longing desperately for this place that she thought she had never seen before, and of loss that she couldn't explain.
She had quickly tried to contain them and regain her composure at her inexplicable reaction. Within herself she tried desperately to make sense of it, but couldn't. It felt like she knew this alien city from deep within her subconscious, but she couldn't bring those memories to bear.
Now, this man, a Mister Woolsey, whom Doctor Jennifer told her governed this city wanted to speak with her in his office. The kind woman stayed with her as she was led up the tower to this office.
Mister Woolsey didn't appear to be a particularly tall man. He had more the build of a scholar or a politician than a warrior. He wore the same grey uniform Doctor Jennifer did, though his appeared to have red highlights while hers had green. His face told her he could be cunning and devious when it suited his agenda. She had seen and known men like him in her father's court. She liked none of them.
But the difference between this man and those others as she quickly studied him, is that, unlike those courtiers, she also sensed he would try to do what he thought was the right thing, and not just what suited his own ambitions. That was good. That was useful. She might be able to trust that.
He was also trying to be polite and friendly when, as governor, he was under no obligation to appear so. She noted that he was also awkward in his attempt. It wasn't his strongest quality. This was a man more comfortable negotiating with no pretenses to courtesy; who could always find a way to strike a favorable deal. This would also be useful to her she decided as she continued her appraisal.
"Yes, thank you." She responded politely and with appropriate grace. "Doctor Jennifer's care of my person has been exceptional."
He paused for a moment at the courteous and somewhat overly mature answer, and then responded as he sat back in his chair, "Yes, I'm sure it has."
His own eyes suddenly sharpened as she saw he began to reappraise her as well. His expression then began to drop some of it's artificial nicety and took on a more businesslike appearance.
"I'd like to know more about where you are from and how you came to us. To say the least it was very unusual." Mr. Woolsey then told her, coming directly to the point. His tone remained both polite and non aggressive, but it told her he had quickly realized she was not his inferior in any way.
She considered his question carefully, and then decided it would only be an obstacle to keep things from him at this point. She needed information as much as he did, possibly more than he did.
"The last thing I remember was traveling with my retinue on an official visit to the Goron village in Eldin Province. We were still within Hyrule field. My retinue consisted of twenty knights and five courtiers. The Gorons are friendly to us, and there haven't been any bokoblin incursions for a hundred years. There was no reason to suspect we would be attacked. I grew drowsy in my carriage. The next thing I remember is waking up in your medical center with Doctor Jennifer." Zelda reported to him.
"I see." Mr. Woolsey said, a trace of skepticism edging his voice, but absorbing the information nonetheless. "Do you know what planet you are from, what your people call their world?"
"Our land has been called Hyrule since the beginning of our history. I don't know what you mean by 'planet'."
"So, you've never been anywhere else but Hyrule then? No other 'lands'?" He asked.
"Just a few of our outer provinces as my royal duties have demanded, and the coastline near Mido Town where my father would bring me on holiday. My father has restricted my official visits to regions where we maintain jurisdiction until I fully come of age." She answered.
Again, Mister Woolsey appeared to absorb this information in a calculating manner, his face becoming otherwise dispassionate.
He started another line of questioning, "Er, Doctor Jennifer tells me you say you are a Princess."
"I am." She replied with a seriousness. "I am the daughter of Gaepora the eighth, King of Red Lions, Sovereign of Hyrule and its provinces, and guardian of the Eight Temples."
She did not mention her father's and her most important function, guarding the secret of the Triforce. That was information to which only the royal family and its most trusted, loyal servants were privy.
The balding man leaned back in his chair pensive, calculating. "I see," was all he said.
The skeptical look in his eyes grew, telling her he couldn't believe what she was telling him. But it was in competition with the reality of her presence, and he couldn't reconcile the two.
"May I ask you a question, Mr. Woolsey?" She asked him.
"Of course." He responded smiling warily.
"Do you find what I'm saying difficult to believe?" She had considered keeping her observation to herself.
No, she decided. I need more information, and I need to know how much he knows if anything.
"Quite frankly, yes." He responded. "If you had come to me yesterday, this would have been simply one more first contact with an alien world. Well, perhaps not 'simple', but still."
"Why is that?" Doctor Jennifer spoke up, she had been quiet this entire time.
Mister Woolsey rubbed his face in his hands before he answered. "This morning, I happened to have breakfast in the mess hall with Dr. Lee. He recently transferred from Stargate Command to the Atlantis base about a week ago. It turns out in his spare time he has a passion for video games, especially one called 'World of Warcraft.' This morning however he was regaling me with details of a game he started playing a few days ago which he obviously enjoyed. As it turns out there's an entire series of these games stretching back to the mid-nineteen-eighties. He had a magazine with a number of pictures from the game which he was looking through and was only too happy to share whether I expressed interest or not."
He then leaned forward to look directly at Zelda. "The resemblance is uncanny." He declared.
"What resemblance?" Doctor Jennifer asked in confusion next to her.
Zelda looked as intently at him as he did at her, studying his face. He knows who I am. He's known since I walked through the door, and where I come from.
"Zelda, does the name 'Link' mean anything to you?" Mister Woolsey asked out of the blue.
Zelda nearly lost her composure at the mention of the name.
"How do you know that name?" She then demanded. No one knew that name outside of the royal family.
"So you do know the name?" He asked again, pressing his advantage.
"That name is a carefully guarded secret of the Hylian royal family." She replied, feeling more exposed than not. She was not used to another having the upper hand in these kinds of tests. "No one knows it outside of my father and I. Where did you hear it?"
"Link?" Jennifer asked, her face even more confused. "Who's Link?"
"Not as carefully guarded in my world as in yours apparently." Mister Woolsey told her, but his tone of voice softened. "Would you mind explaining it to the good doctor, or should I?"
She told this story to no one, having only read it herself in books and papers that had belonged to her mother and were left sealed for her eyes only when she was able to read them. It had been revealed to her by her father, who charged her strictly to keep it to herself. How did this alien Ordonian man learn of it?
She chose to break her silence and relate only as much as she needed in order to discover how much this man knew. "This name is given to only one boy born in a generation or over several generations, and always born as a commoner in obscurity. I have yet to meet one of these boys." Zelda responded carefully. "I have only heard it in the old stories of the Legend."
"The Legend of Zelda." Mr. Woolsey said.
"It was my mother's legend, yes. And like her, I became its guardian as well." She confirmed.
"The pattern on your dress and the back of your hand, it's the Triforce isn't it?"
"What do you know of the Triforce?" She then demanded, her ten year old control beginning to collapse under the strain. He had then just caught her completely off of her guard, and she understood that he was not her equal in this kind of game, but he had been playing it for much, much longer than she.
"Not as much as Doctor Lee," he responded, rubbing his temples as though gaining a headache. "Perhaps we should call him up here." He said wearily. "I'm sure he'd be thrilled to meet you."
He then pressed a button on his desk and spoke into the air, "Have Doctor Lee report to my office immediately." A disembodied voice spoke back, "yes, sir."
They waited for a few minutes until a shorter, overweight man with a genial look on his face appeared in the doorway huffing and puffing as though he'd run and his body didn't know what to do with itself. He also wore spectacles and a long white coat over a similar uniform to Doctor Jennifer.
"Yes, Mr. Woolsey? You wanted to see me?" He said, he then noticed Zelda sitting in the chair. "Oh, hey great cosplay! You look just like Princess Zelda! You know I just started playing the game myself and I've really started getting into it, although I've never really been into console systems like the Nintendo before. You know..." Mr. Woolsey cut him off.
"Doctor Lee. I would like you to meet Princess Zelda of the Kingdom of Hyrule." He said, his voice tired with grave seriousness.
"Wait, what?" Doctor Lee said.
"She came through the gate yesterday morning unconscious and woke up in our medical center yesterday afternoon not being able to speak to us at all. She then touched the mark on her right hand and was able to speak fluent English, although with a lovely exotic accent." He added folding his hands in his lap. He smiled politely when he remarked on her accent.
"That's impossible." Doctor Lee said in disbelief. "This has to be a joke. This is Doctor Keller's little sister, right?" He gestured towards Jennifer. "Dressed up for a costume party?"
Zelda stood up from her chair as gracefully as she could, and with a masterful voice that no one would expect from a ten year old girl she declared in her lovely accent, "I am Princess Zelda of the Sovereign Kingdom of Hyrule, daughter of the King of Red Lions, possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom and keeper of the Legend of Zelda. And I assure you, I am just as in the dark about this as you are." She then looked to Mr. Woolsey for a further explanation.
Mr. Woolsey massaged his temples again, his head was obviously hurting as it tried to process through everything.
"That's impossible." Doctor Lee said again. "Well, I mean I suppose it's not totally impossible given multiverse theory, and, let's face it, we've seen some pretty strange things that have been far stranger than this..." He started to ramble on.
"Are you saying that Zelda, this girl in front of us, is a character from a video game?" Doctor Jennifer asked.
"Well... yes. I mean I don't know about this girl, but Zelda's the princess who's been kidnapped by the Demon King who has to be rescued by the hero Link. It differs from game to game, but the hero always has to rescue her, and defeat the Demon King to keep him imprisoned so he doesn't ever get all pieces of the Triforce. In some games he already has the Triforce of Power, in others he doesn't. But the Princess always carries the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link always carries the Triforce of Courage." Doctor Lee rattled on, clearly unnerved and excited at the same time.
Zelda listened to Doctor Lee's ramblings with deepening concern as the details of this "game" he described matched the legend which had been passed into her keeping point for point. It was impossible for this Ordonian to know any of this, but he did, and with precise details.
"Remind me again, it's been a long time since we've had a visit from someone from another reality. What does the multiverse theory say again?" Mr. Woolsey asked, appearing as though he ether couldn't believe they were having this conversation, or couldn't believe he was encouraging the excitable doctor to expound on anything.
"Well, it says, essentially, that if a reality can exist then it does exist somewhere because the number of realities is infinite. As we know from experience, there are other Doctor Lees, other Doctor Kellers, and other Richard Woolseys. We've actually met some of our duplicates over the years. But this..." he gestured to Zelda. "We've never encountered this kind of thing before." He then added under his breath, "wow."
Zelda took all this in with silence, trying to process what she had just heard. Mr. Woolsey then looked at her again, and she found Doctor Jennifer's eyes on her too. Doctor Lee was obviously deep in excited thought.
"It's begun again." She then said quietly, coming to the only conclusion she knew of which might explain it.
"What's begun?" Doctor Jennifer said.
"The legend has begun again. The cycle of the Hero, the Princess, and the Demon King is starting once more. The Demon King must have been unsealed somehow. But… but this is different. The Triforce, the whole Triforce, must remain within Hyrule or else our world will be thrown out of balance. Our world depends on it." She knew this was true, deep within herself. Something was very wrong. "I don't think this has ever happened before." She finished.
"No. I'm sure not." Mr. Woolsey said. "It's a first for us as well." He then paused for a moment and said, "who is this Demon King?"
She responded, "He is an ancient evil god, whom the gods of light fought against and sealed away. He broke free of his prison and threatened to engulf all of Hyrule again. The very first hero, Link, fought him back and resealed him in his prison. The seal isn't perfect though. He is a powerful dark force, and he uses his power to possess people who crave power. And so every few hundred years, enough time for it to pass out of living memory, the seal weakens and he rises again. When the good gods foresee this happening they cause the Hero, Link, to be born as a mortal once more, hidden away from the rest of the world, and when it is time, the Hero rises up to undo the Demon King's designs and seal him away again."
"Until the next time." Mr. Woolsey said.
"Until the next time." Zelda confirmed quietly.
"Wow, he almost sounds like an Ori." Doctor Lee interrupted.
Mr. Woolsey looked at him in surprise, and then, "yes. Yes he does indeed." Pensive again.
"I must return to Hyrule, Mr. Woolsey. If the cycle is starting again, the Triforce of Wisdom must be returned to restore the balance."
"I agree." Mr. Woolsey said without hesitation. "We need to get you home. But in order to do that we need, at the least, a Stargate address to dial to. Without that, we, and you, are stuck."
"Mr. Woolsey, my land will destroy itself in foolishness without the Triforce of Wisdom." She protested. She then added, "Long ago, a tragedy occurred. My ancestors were tricked into allowing the Demon King's host to gain possession of the Triforce of Power. The Demon King will not stop until he has possession of all the parts of the Triforce. If he can, he will come looking for me here. As long as I remain here with you, you and your world are in terrible danger. I must return."
"As I said, we need an address." Mr. Woolsey said, clearly in agreement with her.
"What does this address look like? I have seen many books and works which no one else in Hyrule has access to. Perhaps I do know it, and did not know what it was." She said thinking through everything her tutors had instructed her with, trying to remember all the images and illustrations from her mother's notes and books.
"An address is usually seven symbols in a line or sequence, representing star constellations," Doctor Lee said. "Six symbols to identify the destination and then one symbol for the point of origin. Of course, we've known a couple of eight symbol addresses, and one nine symbol address because of how far away it is; but usually with another reality it's been a seven symbol address with some kind of extra tweak thrown in."
"Seven symbols." She repeated. "Show me what they look like," she said, regal authority dripping from her voice.