Many years passed. Hyrule recovered from the devastation brought on by Sheik and his devious plans to attempt to destroy the land. Humans built settlements in areas once inhabited by the Gorons, Zoras, and Kokiris, and they prospered there and lived peacefully. The rain had eventually stopped, but it had continued for some time after Link's departure. The rain had threatened to drown Hyrule entirely, but at long last the downpour ended and sunshine at last flowed from behind the clouds. Zelda had not married but continued to dwell in the castle with her father and the rest of the court, and every day she remembered her friend.
It was twenty years to the day that Link had left Hyrule, vowing to return. Zelda did not doubt the word of her companion and she waited faithfully for her hero to come back to her. She sat outside in the courtyard every day, watching for him, and whenever footsteps were heard on the grass she would jump up in excitement, but it would only be a guard or her father coming to check up on her or to try to cheer her up. But Zelda had been inconsolable since Link's departure. She rarely ever smiled, save when she thought of him, and only laughed when she forced herself to. When she did, it sounded false and hollow, not at all like Zelda.
One day, about a year ago, she had been sitting in the courtyard when suddenly, the triforce upon her left hand glowed and illuminated the area around her. She hoped it meant that Link had returned, but the glow was soon followed by incredible pain. It circulated through her entire body like electricity and struck her every nerve. She cried out, which alerted every guard around her to her anguish. Her father rushed to her side as she fainted. She had been carried inside to her bedroom, examined by royal nurses…and reported to be completely healthy. No one could discover the source of the pain the princess had received.
Zelda tried not to be disturbed by the pain and the glow of the triforce, but she could not help but think it ominous. Had Link met with an ill fate? Had her hero finally met his match in battle and been conquered by it? Or had the triforce been pointing to another being bound by its magic? Zelda had not forgotten that Ganondorf was also connected to her through the mystical relic and she worried that the pain she suffered was somehow related to the evil king. Was he returning somehow from death? She had watched as Sheik threw the crystal containing Ganondorf into Death Mountain's crater twenty years ago. It wasn't possible that he could return from that. But still, the pain…
She could consult her father, but he would not understand about the triforce and its effect on those it chose to inhabit. He wouldn't understand it like Zelda did. She had only told one other person about every feeling the triforce gave her, and that was Impa. She remembered her attendant fondly. After Link left, it was Impa who had comforted Zelda and convinced her to leave her chambers after days of seclusion. She wished that she could still talk with Impa, but she had long since passed away. A year or two after Link's departure she had become deathly ill with a mysterious sickness after returning from the Lost Woods. Zelda had sent her to try to pick up Link's trail but to no avail. The fever could not be broken by anything the royal nurses could come up with, so the king sent for a potion from the witch in Kakariko Village, but too late. Before the potion could be retrieved, Impa passed away before Zelda's eyes. Her only connection to Link was gone.
Sadly, she looked up into the sky above where she knew the Kokiri's forest was and thought of her last talk with Link. He had not even really explained why he had to leave; only that it was nagging at him and he couldn't avoid it any longer. Was it something Zelda had done? Was it grief that he could not save Saria and everyone else who had died?
"Why did you have to leave me? Why did you not stay here? Why?!" She screamed to no one, and fell to the ground sobbing. After she continued in this way for some time, she collected herself and ventured inside. Before she had entered the castle, a voice hailed from the entrance to the courtyard.
"Hail, princess Zelda! I have come bearing news for your ears to receive," a woman's voice said from underneath a cloak. The voice sounded deeply aged. Zelda turned upon hearing the voice and, when she found its source, questioned it fiercely.
"How did you get past the guards? Who are you?" She asked, attempting to peer under the cloak. She didn't need to try for long however, because the figure dropped the hood to stare at her. The face of an extremely old woman greeted her. Her nose was wide and long, her white hair was bound by a decorative headband and her eyes were oddly large for her head.
"My name is Koume and as I said I have come to deliver a message for you, my dear," The woman continued with a hint of bitterness in her tone.
"I'm listening," Zelda responded.
The woman's cloak burst out from her figure and a broom appeared underneath her frame. She cackled and gave her message to the startled princess.
"The flame of sorrow burns brightly! That which you fear has come to pass and the evil king is revived! The Hero will not return to face his foe! Every being shall be destroyed under the evil king's gaze gaze! The flame of sorrow burns brightly!"
The witch cackled once more and disappeared in a flash of purple light and an eerie silence settled over the courtyard. Zelda stood stunned at her message, but fear quickly replaced her surprise.
"The evil king? But how?"