Chapter X
Phoenix stumbled while he walked. His body was tiny now, and demanded food—but he had none to give.
He had tried becoming Gyrdian again, but it didn't work Probably it had something to do with dying.
The tiny phoenix body was desperate. Newborns needed food quickly.
Summoning up the last of his strength, Phoenix used a bit of magic he had never properly learned. It took a second, but a large—and flaming—worm appeared on the ground. Thankfully, Phoenix ate it quickly. The phoenix absorbed the energy pretty quickly. Phoenix set off walking. It was miles to the nearest town.
Rasoginim's airship flew forward, slowly but steadily. The Assassi had eliminated everything for a mile or so ahead of him. He was bringing up the rear.
The Darksphere and the Triforce floated side by side. The Triforce was no longer gold, but as midnight black as the Darksphere.
Tatl searched, but her friend was nowhere to be found. Tael and the Skull Kid were looking as well, but nothing showed up.
She rushed back to the portal. She could go through this one herself—there were no doors in this one, just a long underwater cave. She emerged in Great Bay, and rushed to the Great Fairy of Magic in Clock Town.
Tatl explained, quickly. The Great Fairy disappeared for a second. When she came back, she had a solution.
Nayru, the Oracle of Ages, was roused quickly. The boy who had rescued her, those years ago, had been killed and his homeland destroyed? Well, there surely had to be something she could do about that. Her friends Din and Farore should be able to help, too.
The Great Fairy of Power called Odolwa. The tune echoed over the swamp, and he came.
After being told quickly what had happened, he used a combination of the Great Fairy's magic and his own to make his way to Gyrdia. When he appeared, Goht, Gyorg, and Twinmold were beside him.
Phoenix, gratefully, gobbled up the worm. He was energized instantly.
The person who had fed him was a girl, a little younger than he had been. She had flaming red hair—not actually on fire, Phoenix thought regretfully. Well, I could fix that.
The girl then spoke. "Hi. I'm Din."
There they were. The nearly invisible mass of Assassi was very visible to the sight of a guardian.
Thirty seconds and some magic later, the Assassi invasion force was gone.
Farore searched frantically through her memory. She knew something that could help, she knew it, she knew it…
It had taken hours. But she knew it…
She knew it!
Din was explaining everything to Phoenix. He couldn't talk, but Din knew he could understand her.
Another person ran up. She talked frantically in some strange language for a minute. Din turned to him.
"There's a way you can help. We can bring back Link and Blade. The thing is, it needs a life. The life of a phoenix."
There was silence.
"You won't be reborn. Will you do it?"
Phoenix nodded.
The three Oracles made a triangle around Phoenix, the guardians a square around them. Farore was chanting.
A bolt of lightning shot from the clouds above. Phoenix felt nothing. His body was incinerated, and the ashes separated into two piles.
One pile of ashes slowly turned gold. They formed the shape of a body. A flash of lightning, and Blade appeared. He huddled up, hugging his legs. He had nothing with him—his sword, bow, clothes, they weren't there. Well, they could fix that.
The other pile of ashes slowly changed color, to a sort of greenish gold.
Suddenly, a bird swooped down. The ashes were spread. The wind picked up, and they blew away.
Link couldn't be revived.
After a second of curses, Nayru ran off. She returned in a few minutes with some clothes for Blade. She'd let him pick out his weapons.
Farore cursed continually, while Din tried to calm her. Nayru tried to explain what had happened to Blade.
Farore's head shot up, and she stopped cursing.
"It was someone very, very evil that did this. He controls the fabled Darksphere, and has corrupted the power of the Triforce."
Blade said, "Follow me. I have a friend we need to talk to."
After almost two hours of walking, Blade stopped. They were deep into a forest. He felt around on the trunk of a huge oak tree, and then pushed. A door opened in the trunk.
Blade walked in through it, and motioned for the Oracles to follow him. The guardians had left, saying that they would come when they were needed.
The four walked down a staircase, and went along a long tunnel. When it broke the surface, they appeared in a garden, surrounded by stone walls.
"Why the—"
"Hello, Blade. I didn't come when you needed me to because I can't without invitation. It is the law. You know that." A tall person answered Blade calmly. He had jade green skin and eyes, and jet-black hair.
"I don't give a—"
"Blade, if you invite me now, I can come."
"Okay. I want you to help," Blade replied.
"That's better. Who are those three?"
"These are the Oracles. That's Din, the Oracle of Seasons; Nayru, the Oracle of Ages; and Farore, the Oracle of Secrets."
"Pleased to meet you. My name is Hakiej."
"I need to get to your item stash," Blade said.
"Very well." Hakiej replied. He opened a door they hadn't noticed before, and Blade walked in.
The room was huge, and every inch of wall had a shelf on it. The shelves were covered in weapons, musical instruments, potions, and nearly everything else imaginable.
Blade walked down the room. He took a gleaming crystal sword and a scabbard. Farther along, he chose a beautiful bow, and a large golden quiver. A small but obviously magical horn came next. Finally, he took a small vial of potion off a shelf. He drank it, and replaced the vial. It was refilled instantly.
He walked towards the door, but something caught his eye. A scroll.
"Hakiej, I need to read this. Give the Oracles something, I'm going to the other end of the garden."
The Oracles looked around, but didn't find anything. After a few minutes, Blade returned and handed the scroll back to Hakiej.
"Ah, this one. I thought you would want it." Blade merely nodded.
"We should leave in the morning. Hakiej, I think Farore and I will be using the library this afternoon." Farore nodded.
"Very well then. Here is the key." Hakiej handed Blade a large, old-fashioned key.
Farore and Blade retreated into Hakiej's large library. When they returned, late at night, they had a rushed and excited conversation with the three others. They slept, but were gone before morning.
Rasoginim cursed, for the trillionth time. The Assassi were dead, except for his personal guards. Link was dead and permanently gone, but the Oracles had managed to get Blade back. And Blade…
Well, he might be able to fix that. But…
Farore, Din, and Nayru had gone back in time, about six thousand years. They were trying to stop Rasoginim from getting the Darksphere, or kill him if necessary. If they didn't do it, though, Blade and Hakiej were ready to kill Rasoginim in the future.
The Oracles appeared in a small town. They asked a man walking by where the man named Rasoginim lived.
"Oh, Rasoginim lives over there, in that house," the man told them, pointing.
"Thank you," Din said.
The Oracles went over there. If their information had been correct, this was the day Rasoginim would get the Darksphere.
They asked at his house for him, but his family said he had gone missing.
They thanked him, went out of sight, and traveled back in time.
The Oracles asked again where Rasoginim lived. Rasoginim had been named after his father.
They went to the house, and he answered the door. Quickly and silently, Farore stabbed the man with a magical dagger. The Oracles then left for the future.
Six thousand years before Link's birth, a man named Leifrad had led the colonization of Hyrule, Lybranna, Holodrum, Acimera, and the lands nearby. The descendants of the colonists had then settled Termina, Gyrdia, Zyriach, Brokodia, Fasnor, and the other nearby lands. Soon after Leifrad and his colonists had crossed the dimensional gate to Holodrum, the gate had closed.
Leifrad was Rasoginim's younger brother.
Their father had been killed early enough that Rasoginim was never born.
That meant Leifrad was never born.
Because Leifrad was never born, Hyrule, Gyrdia, Holodrum, and Lybranna had never been colonized.
Because they were never colonized, Link, Blade, Phoenix, and the Oracles were never born.
Because they were never born, they had never been able to stop Rasoginim from being born.
It was a paradox. The laws of the universe didn't allow the Oracles to go back in time. When Nayru tried to go back in time, she couldn't.
Rasoginim had been born, and they couldn't stop it.