Chapter 2
The small tablet-like scanning device passed over Zelda as she stood with her arms outstretched in their living room. It made passes two or three times as the healer, Kelli, studied its small screen. Her expression became more serious with each pass.
"You sure that little mobile phone thing can pick up everything it needs to? It looks pretty small." Link asked her. He couldn't see how any device, no matter how modern and advanced, could do what the healers claimed it could do.
The blond haired Hylian physician gave a smirk as she said, "I'm pretty sure, Link. It's never been wrong before." The smirk on her face turned serious again as it looked like she was contemplating the implications of that fact. It wasn't the first time he had made that comment, and it probably wouldn't be the last.
Zelda had called the royal physician soon after breakfast. Three hours later, before noon, Kelli had passed through their security agents and was knocking at the front door. She was a younger woman, but had been Zelda's and Link's personal healer for almost ten years now, having been the best and the brightest graduate of Castleton's medical school. Talon immediately had her assigned to their personal care after she had a distinguished internship year at the main hospital in the capital. He always wanted the best and the brightest looking after his "aunt" and "father."
Kelli scrutinized the little screen fiercely, tapping at it, swiping the screen with her finger, and tapping at it some more. She then pulled it away from the older woman in the red plaid flannel shirt still standing with her arms outstretched like a cross. "I'm done, Zelda. You can put your arms down now."
"Thank you, dear." Zelda responded sweetly as her arms came down to her sides. "So, am I fit as a fiddle?" She asked hopefully.
Kelli didn't answer her for several minutes as she continued to concentrate on her screen. It began to make Link nervous. "Kelli, is my wife okay?"
"Actually, with these readings, I'd like to take you back to the main hospital in Castleton to run some more tests." She said to Zelda, trying to keep her voice neutral but kind. "To be honest, some of what the scanner's telling me is worrying me a little, and I want to get you under a more powerful diagnostic scanner before I can tell you.
"Why? What's wrong?" Link asked her.
Kelli took a breath, looked at Link and said, "In layman's terms, it looks like her body's fighting an infection but I can't find it. Her body temperature's fluctuating as well. There's a few other abnormalities that are a little complicated for me to explain, but I need the full scanning device at the hospital to really investigate them." She then asked Zelda, "Have you taken any water of life recently?"
"No, I haven't needed any in a long time." The old woman responded. "We haven't lived that kind of life for years."
"I didn't bring any with me, but I want to get you started on a red water therapy as soon as possible just in case." Kelli told her.
Kelli now had Link's full attention. "Red water, Kelli? I didn't think you guys used the old potion much any more except for emergency cases."
"A lot of us don't. But in a case where I don't know exactly what's causing abnormal readings like these, it's going to be better than doing nothing for the moment. No one denies that the stuff works miracles." Kelli told him. "Especially when we don't know what the cause of the problem might be. Does your R.F.P. security detail keep any in their station house?"
Link became more concerned and it showed all over his face as he looked at his wife. "I don't know. I haven't asked." He told her. He then went to the front door and opened it to call out to the black suited man down at the bottom of his porch, "Hey, uh... Delo!"
The black suited Hylian man, turned around to face the older man, "Yes, sir?"
"You guys have any red water over in your station house? You know, for emergencies or something?" Link asked.
"Yeah, we keep a couple of bottles in the emergency kit." Delo answered, then concern crossed his face. "Why? What's wrong?"
"The healer wanted some for Zelda." Link responded, trying to keep a calm voice.
That was all Delo needed to hear. He pulled out a sleek black portable phone and keyed in a short number, putting the phone to his ear. He said something that included the words "red water of life for Zelda" into the device, and then put it away. "It's on its way, sir." He told Link.
Within minutes, another black suited man, a younger fellow, came running across the dirt paths from the station house at full speed, a clear, sealed bottle full of a shimmering red liquid held tightly in his hand. "Where is she?" He asked excitedly, his face full of concern. "I've brought it! Where's the princess? What happened? Am I too late?"
As concerned as Link was for his wife, he deeply appreciated the young man's concern for her as well. "Zelda's in the house, son." Link told him as he stepped out of the door and went down the steps to meet him. "The healer just wanted her to start taking it as soon as she could. I don't fully know why. I guess she's going to have us go to the hospital in Castleton for some more tests."
"Understood, sir." The R.F.P. officer told him, a little bit of relief crossing over his features. "I'll get the car ready." He said, then moving off quickly towards the station house's garage where a black road car with tinted windows was parked and kept ready on a regular basis for the unexpected trip into town or elsewhere.
"You do that." Link said under his breath as the man moved off. He took the bottle with him back into the house and into the living room, handing it to the healer who unscrewed the cap, breaking the seal on it. "Here," she said, handing the bottle to Zelda, "I want you to sip this until it's gone."
"Ugh," Zelda replied making a face, "do I have to? Red water tastes horrible."
"If the healer says to do it, dear..." Link told her gently but firmly.
"Fine." She said, and put the bottle to her lips, taking a good swig of it.
"I said sip it!" Kelli told her, reaching for the bottle in her hand to pull it back a little bit. "I want to spread out its effects until we can get you on an interveinous drip in Castleton."
"Oh. Well, fine." Zelda said with disgust.
"Please, your highness..." Kelli implored her.
"Don't call me that." Zelda told her sharply, her sweet voice suddenly taking on an irritated tone. "Do I look like a spoiled princess anymore?" She said, gesturing up and down to herself.
"I'm sorry. I really am, Zelda. I really need for you to sip the red water to get it into your system, but make it last until we get to Castleton, okay?" Kelli told her more gently. "It's a three hour trip as it is."
"Kelli, what aren't you telling us?" Link asked her. "Why the red water? Why does she need to be on it now? This isn't our first go around, you know. We do know why anyone would need to be on a red water drip." He wanted some better answers than the healer was giving them.
Kelli looked him in the eye, and then she looked into Zelda's eyes. There was a depth of history and understanding there that the healer hadn't seen in any other people. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget who and what you are, or have been." She said. "I thought you preferred it that way."
"Don't be sorry, just don't mistake us for your run of the mill doddering old folks." Link told her.
Kelli smiled at that. "Alright. I'm worried it could be some aggressive form of a white blood cell cancer, but there's something different about it that I can't quite understand. That's why I need to put her under the big scanner at the hospital. In a case like this, red water will kill the cancerous cells but it won't keep more from coming back if she doesn't stay on it. If that's what it is, then I want her on the red water drip as soon as she can get it until I figure out what's causing it."
"How aggressive?" Link asked.
"From what I saw on the scanner, if we don't get her on the drip by tonight, she may not see tomorrow." The healer told them both.
"And after that, then what?" Zelda asked calmly.
"Then we run more tests to find out what's causing it." Kelli told her.
"And if you can't find the cause of it?" She pressed.
"Red water can only do so much. It differs from person to person, but after so long, some kinds of cancers mutate and adapt to it so that it no longer has the same effectiveness." Kelli said. "I'm sorry, but we really don't have the time for a longer explanation."
"Delo's got the car ready, dear." Link addressed Zelda. "You going to follow us, or are we going to follow you?" He asked the healer.
"Follow me." She responded as she packed up her equipment quickly. "And I mean it, Zelda. Sip the red water. Please." She told the older woman.
Zelda just stared at the both of them. Within a few minutes it seemed everything had turned upside down in her life. "We'll have to call Malona and the boys, and let them know we'll be gone for a few days." She said.
"I'll call Malona now." Link said, his voice pensive and distracted, going to the telephone in the kitchen. "Someone's going to need to care for the livestock and the horses while we're gone. I'll let the boys know we're in Castleton when we get there."
"I don't think you understand what I'm..." Kelli began to try and explain it again to Zelda when Link held up his hand and made a gesture for her to stop speaking. He shook his head and she understood.
He went to the phone and picked it up, dialing the number for his daughter's property. He let it ring several times before he hung up. "Malona's not answering." He said.
"You can call her from the road, I'm sure." Kelli said. "We really need to go right now."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that." Link said as he went to get his and Zelda's coats.
Link sat by his wife's bed in a private room in a secure wing guarded by Royal Family Protection agents throughout the floor of the hospital in which it was. It was midafternoon, and Kelli, being the royal family's personal physician, had seen to it that they weren't bothered with any of the normal paperwork and questions that beset most patients being checked in for care as they were taken straight to the king's personal hospital quarters.
Zelda was dressed in a white hospital gown shortly after their arrival, and a shimmering red I.V. drip was inserted quickly into her slender, aging arm. Link held her hand gently but firmly. He hadn't let it go since they stuck the needle into her to start the drip. That had been an hour beforehand.
Their privacy had been assured by the hospital staff, and the R.F.P. agents, and Link was glad for that. He had finally been able to get a hold of his daughter just after they left their ranch and asked her to look after the animals for a few days. He didn't tell her everything, just that her mother had to have some tests done in the hospital in Castleton. It wasn't a lie, even though it wasn't the whole truth either. He didn't want his daughter to worry, or at least to not worry as much as he was.
"Well, at least I don't have to drink the stuff any more. That was revolting." Zelda told him, looking at the clear plastic bag that held the red fluid.
"I'll bet." Link returned. The goddesses knew how many times he had needed to drink the stuff, even in this life. You never really got used to the taste though. "I wouldn't want to sip it either."
"I wonder how long she's going to keep me here." Zelda said.
"I don't know." Link responded. "But don't get your hopes up."
"I suppose I could pull rank and just order them to let me go home if it takes too long." She told him in an ornery voice.
"Maybe," he smirked. "But I don't think that's really an option this time, do you?"
"No. I guess not." She conceded. "I gave that title up a long time ago. Maybe that was a mistake."
Link smiled at her in response.
"What do we do if they can't find what's causing this?" She asked him, her tone of voice changing. "Do we just wait and see if Nayru or Farore comes to get me when the red water doesn't work any more?" She squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes. "I'm scared, Link. I'm scared and I don't know what's going to happen this time. We've lived so many lifetimes that it never really occurred to me until now this one might be our last. If Nayru doesn't help us, I don't what will happen to me or you."
"That's not going to happen, Zelda." He said, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible. "I won't let it happen." He held her slender hand now in both of his own and drew it up to his lips and kissed it. "I promise."
"Some enemies you can't fight on your own, hero." She told him, taking back her hand and lovingly stroked his care lined, weathered face with her fingers. She noticed he had forgotten to shave that morning, and the whiskers were beginning to show. "You're fuzzy today, mister."
"I had more important things on my mind today, dear." He responded.
Then there was a knock at the door. "Come in." Link called out. The door opened and a man who looked like a slightly older version of the old rancher with silvered orange hair tied back in a neat braid, and an impeccable, expensive red business suit and gray tie against a white shirt entered the room. "Your majesty." Link addressed the newcomer, though he didn't move from his seat to stand or bow, or anything else that most people would do when uttering that form of address..
"Father." The king responded, approaching the bed. Link and Talon had buried their differences long before, and Link knew how important it still was for the man to be accepted by him. He finally stood and embraced him, man to man.
"My Lady." The king addressed the older woman lying in the hospital bed as he came out of the embrace.
"How many times..?" Zelda began to reproach him.
"To me, no matter how much you protest, you will always be 'my Lady,' Aunt Zelda." Talon told her... again with a lopsided smile that reminded her so much of his father. "Healer Kelli informed me of her preliminary findings. I came as soon as I heard. You will have the best treatment available, I promise you, my Lady. Anything you need, I am still ever at your service."
"I know, Talon." She told him wearily. "And I do appreciate it."
"Have Daphnes and Gaepora been told where their mother is yet?" Link asked.
"Not yet. I wanted to have a chance to speak with the both of you privately before we brought my younger brothers in, if that's permissible." Talon told him.
Link nodded in response. "You have my attention." He said.
"And mine, Talon." Zelda added.
"Kelli told me how serious this could be. Have either of you heard anything from Nayru or Farore?" He asked with a certain gravity in his voice.
"My mother hasn't spoken directly to me in decades." Zelda responded.
"Neither has your grandmother." Link added. "We were discussing it last night, in point of fact." He took a deep breath and sighed. "The truth is son, neither of us have been even able to remember how to ascend on our own."
"How is that possible that you could forget?" Talon asked.
"I don't know. Maybe the others took those memories from us when they rendered us completely mortal. Maybe they expected us to find it again on our own. Honestly, neither of us were really trying that hard over the last forty five years. Not as hard as we should have been. We were caught unprepared for this." Link said.
"How could you, of all people, be unprepared for this?" Talon asked, incredulously. "With as many times as you've gone through it."
"Life happened." Zelda responded to him. "Life happened, and Hyrule went on largely without us, Talon."
Talon spied a second chair across from where Link sat next to Zelda's bed. The king grabbed it and pulled it over next to Zelda's bed, opposite his younger father, and sat down contemplating what he had just heard. "I can help you through the meditations. You never took away my abilities as a Sage, just the responsibilities." He said thinking out loud. He then passed his right hand over Zelda's forehead and closed his eyes, concentrating as though he was looking for something. After about a minute, he frowned. "You're going to need more help than just meditation practice." He finally pronounced, withdrawing his hand. "Whatever the others did to you, my Lady, they blocked your ability to ascend on your own. There's nothing I can do about it, I'm sorry."
"Don't be." She said. "It was my choice to interfere in the way I did, exposing who I was in the way I did. I reaped the consequences of my own actions."
"Who among the others is going to help us if they're the ones who blocked us in the first place?" Link asked, his anger beginning to build.
"I don't know." Talon responded, putting his head in his hands, and rubbing his face in frustration and growing fear for the elderly woman lying in the bed. "Maybe they're just waiting for the final moment when you take your last breath to decide."
Link let go of his wife's hand and stood up, going to the curtained window of the room to try and clear his mind. He closed his eyes, but all he could see in his mind was the image of his wife as she lay in the bed. He tried to concentrate on the image of his mother, Farore, hoping that maybe she would respond to him, but he couldn't.
"It may not be what Kelli fears it is. You could be out of here tomorrow." Talon told Zelda behind where Link stood.
Link spoke up, the anger giving his voice a certain edge, "But we will still face this question again, no matter what. No mortal can run from death forever. We must all face it sooner or later."
"Truth." Talon responded.
Link tried to think again. In order for his wife to truly escape this, they needed another ascended being, one who would be willing to help them. But if their own mothers wouldn't respond to them now, who else in their world would?
A name came to his mind. He was a man Link had only occasionally thought about since the last time they had met. But he would be nearly two hundred and eighty years in the past, and mortal himself. He was also in a different reality, one that could be reached only with some difficulty. But it was within the scope of possibility, if not probability.
"What about Daniel Jackson?" Link said, turning to face the other two. "He was a good man. He might help us."
Talon and Zelda both looked at him with some surprise. "You can't be serious, Link." Zelda told him. "He would be almost three hundred years in the past."
"And he was mortal, I know, dear." Link finished for her. "But he told me he was ascended himself at one time. Maybe he could have found a way to rejoin the ascended in his own reality when his body finally gave out."
Talon was silent and thinking, his own mind, advanced by the process of having been transformed into a Sage, running through the possibilities and trying to extend itself through time and space as much as it could to find some answer. He still retained the ability as a Sage of Time to see into the past, and now he focused that ability on the man from Earth he had known and respected. He delved back through the history and events of Hyrule connected by the single thread of the man's presence there, and found himself in a shop in old Castle Town hundreds of years before where the man was having a unique conversation with a shopkeeper woman who was not a shopkeeper. He watched the scene in his mind and listened intently to the conversation. Finally he heard all he needed to hear and returned himself to the present hospital room.
"He did." Talon pronounced, looking up at Zelda and then Link with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"What do you mean?" Link asked.
"Nayru restored that ability to him as a reward for his help against the trouble..." He paused, "I caused." He finally finished with some effort. It was still a painful memory for him. "He had that ability to return to the higher plane."
"So he should still exist in Earth's present, right?" Link asked.
"Link, what are you thinking?" Zelda asked, beginning to worry more about her husband than her own condition.
"I won't lose you, Zelda. I can't. Not after this long. I won't let you go into oblivion." Link told her.
"Link, you old fool. You're just as old as I am, remember? You can't just go strap a sword and shield to your back and start charging headlong into dungeons and danger again." She admonished him as only a wife could. Then she looked into his eyes, and read the intent which was plain as the rising sun in a cloudless sky. "Link, I don't want to lose you either." She said, real fear, not for herself but for him, beginning to take hold of her. "You're just as mortal as I am now."
"I know that. I do." He said. "But if I do nothing, we may both be lost forever." He then took a step forward and held her hand again, smiled and said, "besides, this is why I was born, remember? To save the princess."