Link hated to interrupt the touching scene, but he felt his point was valid. "We really should get out of here, Zelda. There may be more of these illusionist-creatures nearby." She wiped her eyes, nodding in agreement. She may have won the first round, but she didn't want to try her luck. She looked around the room one more time, spotting something in a dark corner. It was a tome, bound closed and inscribed with the symbol of water. Link marveled that he missed it the first time through here, hastily stuffing it into his pack. Zelda and Ruto helped Sando to his feet as Link played the Serenade of Water. In moments, they stood on the Royal crest atop the temple. Zelda breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be out of the confines of the watery dungeon.

Storm clouds gathered over Hyrule Castle town. The utter darkness permeated everything, shrouding even the innermost rooms of the castle in velvety black shadow. As the Hylians watched from Kakariko village, hundreds pondered as to why and how, but only one man- if he could still be called that, after all the evil he perpetrated- and his small but deadly army truly knew what was going on.

Ganondorf Dragmire sat on Hyrule's throne, but no one knew it. A least, no one he didn't want to know. All the pieces were in place, all the traps set, waiting for the Sages and Link to spring them... The Illusion beasts in the Water temple were but the first of many deadly surprises he left in his wake when he set out to claim the throne. Oh, he was sure someone would survive the gauntlet and come to try to stop him. How he hoped it would be Link! He wanted nothing more than to close his hands around his throat, strangling the life out of the meddlesome boy. Zelda would be a suitable alternative. He wondered how long it would take to break her, destroy her will to live... Perhaps... even this newcomer, Sando. When Ganon informed his ally of the new player in the game, he was taken aback. Not only had he heard of the Sheikan, but also he had dealt with him before!

Despite repeated assurance, Ganon was unconvinced the white-haired little rodent wasn't a problem. Still, if he did show up, there might still be fun to be had. Ganon smiled wickedly, wondering precisely how many times he could torture a Sheikah to the edge of death before his hand... slipped. Of course, even if all the sages survived, his victory was assured. He could claim to the Triforce, remove any significant threats to his throne, and exact vengeance on the people who sealed him away in the first place, in a single, fell swoop. All he had to do was one thing, one thing learned easily in eight years in the Evil realm... All he had to do was wait.

Rauru, Sage of Light, examined the tome, eyes sparkling with interest. "So, what is it, how did it get there, and what does it do?" Link had lost a lot of patience already, and the Light Sage was taking a long time. "Well, this artifact is something I haven't seen since I left the sacred realm. The symbols indicate that it is a seal of sorts, binding the energy of the area around it. This seal seems specifically directed at things related to water's energy. It suggests that it was this seal that weakened the energy of water to a point where Ganon would be able to break it's corresponding section of the Sages seal that kept him bound in the Evil realm these last eight years." "Hold on, breaking one of these seals wouldn't have been enough. He'd need to break-" "All of them save the temple of Light. He'd need to break all of them for the seal to degenerate to a level where he could do more than punch tiny holes in it." Link frowned. "So there's one of these tomes in four other temples? Great... scavenger hunt time."

Rauru frowned. "The temple of light is within the Evil Realm. He can't stand the place, so I doubt he'd put time and effort into weakening that seal, convenient as it may be. He'd just break the seal once the disharmony was great enough." "So, what do we need to do?" Rauru sighed. "Simple, really. Find the other four tomes. Get them out of the temples. Reseal Ganondorf. But... what puzzles me is that the only way anyone could have gotten the tomes into the temples is from outside the sacred realm. Because of the seal, no one is capable of going into or out of the sacred realm through any means but the Door of Time, which is locked." "Meaning?" a worried Link asked. "Ganon found a means to leave the sacred realm without breaking the seal. Such a feat would require exponentially more power than Ganon possesses. He only broke the seal to establish a degree of permanency to his arrival. Otherwise, resisting the sealing and simply walking out of the realm would drain so much power from him that he would eventually die of exhaustion. So, he found an outside source of additional energy. A powerful ally perhaps, or some sort of magical artifact, like an evil equivalent to the Master Sword. Whatever it is, it certainly wont be any easier to seal him this time around. It could only be harder."