What was magnificent about the temple was not only the outside, but the inner chambers as well. The red carpet that stretched from the stairs to the altar, the one that would house the three spiritual stones when they were assembled, was kept as clean as possible by the caretaker. Great care was taken not to disturb the sanctity of the hall, for it was from here that the inner chamber could be accessed. Only by gathering the three spiritual stones could the Door of Time be opened and the Master Sword revealed. Only one person had yet succeeded in seeing the ancient blade after gathering the stones, and he was now back within the walls of the temple, searching for the cause of his nightmares. The scene inside the temple, however, only added to those nightmares.
The great altar was split, and the two halves lay on either side of the great hall. The stairs leading to the door of time were no more, a gap lay in their place and the wall was crumbling where the Door of Time had once lain dormant. The Door itself was not present, only a pile of small rocks at the far end of the gap. No other part of the temple had been defiled, only the most sacred locations.
"No, it cannot be…the Door has been destroyed and the altar itself is broken! There is no power familiar to me, not even Ganondorf, who could do such a thing. Some new force is present here, something that could easily destroy this world if it is not stopped." Zelda whispered, breathless at the scene of chaos that now filled her vision. Memories of an age gone by flooded her mind, and she envisioned herself here, older, handing over the light arrows to the boy beside her, only to have been trapped by the sorcerer they meant to confront.
Link looked around the floor, desperate for any sign of what had happened, any clue as to what had torn apart the beloved interior of the temple. As he searched, Navi relinquished her hiding place in his hat and made her own efforts to solve the mystery. Zelda only kneeled in place, frozen in horror of what had happened to her treasure. Navi rang out a cry of surprise and rushed to the far corner, near one half of the broken altar. A man lay there, covered in dust and nearly buried by debris, living the last moments of his life. It was none other than the caretaker of the old temple, caught up in the attack while he was cleaning.
"What happened?" Link hurried to ask before the man's life was spent. He was anxious to know why the foe he had vanquished after so much toil had escaped an impenetrable bond.
"A man…dressed in blue. He…barged in and demanded to let me see the altar. I could feel he was…evil so I denied him access to the chamber. He grew angry, and unleashed a power I've never felt." The man's voice was barely a whisper; it seemed he only had a few moments to live. "The next thing I knew…he was blasting the place apart, the altar destroyed, the sacred Door blown to bits…" He was pained to relive the moments when his beloved temple was desecrated.
"Who was the man, what did he look like?" Link pressed the question upon the poor man.
"He wore…blue clothes, with a strip of cloth over the bottom…half of his face. An unusual hat sat on his head. That was all I noticed…before he attacked." The caretaker breathed a deep breath, and almost seemed to die right then, but not before his last words were heard.
"He attacked, and I thought that I could hear the angels. I…heard a harp being played, and I thought I had already passed on…but it was only that fiend casting some spell…" This time the old man was really gone, lost to his injuries.
"A harp, who…?" Zelda began to ask, but was cut off as Link ran to the gap where the stairs had once been. He peered into the chamber which housed the Master Sword. As he failed to find what he sought, the look in his eyes grew more fearful then Zelda had ever seen in his expression before, more so than when he had faced down Ganon to save her.
"The Master Sword is gone, and the pedestal as well." He said shakily, not at all like himself.
"There's no way anyone could do anything like this, the power of the gods prevents anything of this sort to happen! No one could challenge their power and succeed…" Zelda stuttered, searching for an explanation. Link found it.
"Zelda, do you recall…before Ganondorf was defeated, the shape you took to hide yourself from him, the form of the Sheikah?" Link inquired of the young princess.
"Yes but what does that have to do with any…no…it can't be!" She exclaimed, her hands clasped to her mouth in terror.
"Blue clothes, a harp, an unusual hat, and a strip of cloth over the bottom half of his face. Somehow Sheik was stripped from you and now he has set Ganondorf free and nearly destroyed the Temple of Time." His tone was almost accusatory of Zelda, but she either did not notice or ignored it as she responded.
"That's impossible, I was Sheik! How can I be split from myself?"