Chapter 2
"The Chamber of Sages!" Malon repeated, suddenly pale. "Zelda, are you crazy? I can't go there!"
Zelda, privately amused by Malon's reaction, tipped her head, pretending not to understand. "Why can't you?"
"Because I'm no sage! I'm no Hero of Time like Link is. I'm not anyone important!"
"You are my best friend, Malon. Is that not important?"
"Don't be silly, Zelda!" Malon responded, pouting. "You know perfectly well that isn't what I mean."
Zelda chuckled, quickly embracing the rancher's daughter. "Calm yourself, my dear one. There is nothing for you to fear among the sages." She pulled back to grip Malon's shoulders, her expression turning grim. "Besides, you have come bearing vital information regarding the location of our beloved Hero of Time. I will need you to relay it to the sages."
Taking up her friend's hand, Zelda started towards the palace. Malon, though, kept her hand slack and dug her heels into the ground, refusing to be moved. "Zelda, what is going on here? There's something you aren't saying, isn't there? You couldn't just relay the information yourself?"
"Yes," Zelda admitted. "There is something I am not saying, but I promise I will explain everything when we get into the Chamber. For now, I am asking you as your friend if you would please come along?"
She tugged, but still Malon stood her ground, her mouth set into a stubborn line. "What about Epona?"
"The hostlers will care for her!" Zelda cried pettishly. "We must make haste! Do not make me remind you that I am the princess here, Malon."
"I am not going to like what I hear in the Chamber of Sages, am I?"
This stopped Zelda for a long moment, and she considered the question carefully. There were connections forming in her mind, vital clues hooking onto one another like chain links. She felt the Ocarina of Time, cold in her left hand, while Malon's limp fingers warmed her right. She saw in her mind the Goddess of Time, and the strange red and silver fire braiding a ring around Death Mountain. She heard the voices of Din and the Silver Goddess: Seek the Hero of Time…Complete the Triforce…Awaken the Soldier of Sanctity…
"Dear Malon," she said at last. "No. I would imagine what you hear today will not please you. But it must be heard. Link could be in very real danger. And if you do not hear what I must say to the Sages, then help may never come to him. I fear even, my friend, that if what I must say is not heard, a terror may befall Hyrule before which Ganondorf himself would tremble."
Malon locked eyes with the princess. Zelda held the peasant woman's gaze steadily. After a long moment, she felt her friend's fingers tighten around her hand. Slowly, Malon took a step forward.
Raru, Sage of Light, regarded Hyrule's princess with carefully veiled alarm. Zelda gazed unflinchingly back at him, her hands clasped tightly before her. Malon squirmed under the Sage's eyes, shrinking behind her friend.
"Termina…"
he repeated, sounding mystified.
"That is correct, Raru,"
Zelda confirmed. "Link rode off to Termina in search of the fairy,
Navi, who was his partner and guardian in the battle against
Ganondorf. I…I was the only one he told of his plans to journey. He
went armed with the Master Sword and the Ocarina of Time. But alas…"
She trailed off, holding out the Ocarina for all to see. "His mare,
Epona, returned and brought the Ocarina with her. But Link was
nowhere to be seen."
She looked around at the faces of the sages. Most were horror-stricken. A few appeared to take the news of the missing Hero in stride, but their eyes betrayed their true emotions. They were frightened—terrified—by the prospect of losing their Champion.
"He must be dead," Nabooroo, Sage of Spirit, said darkly.
"No!" The Sage of Forest, a Kokari girl called Saria, cried out in protest. "Don't say that, Nabooroo! He can't be dead!"
Zelda winced, feeling pity for the child sage. Saria had been Link's best friend during the days he lived with the Kokari. The news of the Hero's disappearance likely hit her harder than it did the rest of them.
"If he were dead," Zelda said coolly, "I think we would know without having to rely on such threadbare evidence as his mare and Ocarina appearing in our midst. Besides, I will admit that I have further evidence to the contrary."
"You mean that he lives?" Darunia exclaimed. The hope in the Fire Sage's voice could not be mistaken. "My sworn brother lives?"
"I am almost certain of it, Darunia," Zelda answered confidently, leveling her eyes on the Goron. She paused for a moment, drawing in a breath. "I have been having dreams as of late."
This admission sent a murmur of alarm through the Sages. Even Malon snapped her eyes towards her friend, fear plain on her haggard features. Only Impa kept her cool, and it was the Shadow Sage who barked out the order that calmed the others, that Zelda might continue.
"They do not lead me to believe that Hyrule is any direct danger. Rather, I believe we may have been spared trouble by Link's absence."
Before questions could be asked, Zelda relayed the contents of her dreams to the sages, from the goddesses in the shining silver palace to the fiery ring around Death Mountain to the Goddess of Time and Din's command. "I heard the Goddess of Power calling me, telling me to seek the Hero of Time and complete the Triforce. As you all know, Ganondorf held the Triforce of Power. With his death, the Triforce is technically incomplete…as it would be if Link or I were to die. But Din's words lead me to believe that there is only the Triforce of Power missing. She told me to seek the Hero of Time. There is but one Hero of Time. And why should I be asked to seek him if he is dead?"
"There are many reasons I could think of, your highness," Raru said with a sigh. "But there is no reason to lose hope yet. I take it you intend to do as Din asks you and journey to Termina."
"I do. And I intend to take Malon with me."
"What!" the rancher's daughter cried out in surprise. "Zelda, I can't! I—"
"Malon, stop this nonsense!" Zelda scolded. "You are the only one who knows Epona as well as Link does, and she will be key in finding him. You are going to be quite a necessary part of this mission, I believe."
Malon scowled, but said nothing. Zelda felt a pang of regret looking into her friend's eyes. Although Zelda had known from childhood that she herself would one day be at the center of something perilous, Malon had never believed herself destined for anything but the quiet life of a milkmaid, gently tending her beloved horses. It did not feel fair to drag her on this mission. But then, had it really been fair of the fates to lay the burden of being the Hero of Time on Link? Or the responsibility of being a Sage on any of those present here?
"I suppose it will be all we can do to supply you with rations and send you on your way then," Raru sighed. "Will you be departing immediately?"
"Not quite. I have some business at the Temple of Time first. Another part of my dream which I believe must be attended to before we go."
"I won't have you going alone, Zelda," Impa said sharply. "I have sworn to your father that I will protect you. Thus, I am duty-bound to come along."
In spite of herself, Zelda smiled. "You could just say that you'll miss me too much and avoid using so much breath," Zelda quipped, earning herself some swallowed laughter from the Sages. Impa flushed ever so slightly and pretended to be fascinated by some imagined speck on her shoulder.
"I'll come along, too," Saria announced.
"Don't be ridiculous, Saria," Raru snapped. "You know that you cannot safely go beyond the Kokari forest!"
"Of course, I can! I am the Sage of the Forest, aren't I?"
"You are still a Kokari, nourished by the Great Deku Tree. And as a Kokari, you will die if you attempt to leave your forest!"
"But I leave it to come to the Chamber of Sages, don't I?"
"The Chamber is part of the Sacred Realm. Ruto is the Sage of Water, and comes here to join us, but she is also a Zora, and do you think that she could hope to venture far from the river and survive? If anything, being the Sage of Forest makes it even more dangerous for you to leave!"
"But Link is my best friend!" Saria cried. "I can't leave him when he's in danger!"
"You'll do no one any good if you get yourself killed!" Ruto declared pettishly. "Now be reasonable. Impa, Zelda, and Malon will find Link and bring him home to us, you'll see."
Saria's mouth trembled with rage. Without another word, she stood and vanished from the Chamber, returning to her forest.
"You didn't have to be so patronizing, Ruto," Nabooroo sighed. "Saria may look like a child, but her spirit is older than all of us."
Ruto pouted slightly, her wing-like fins twitching in agitation. "She was acting enough like a child," she muttered.
"Never mind that," Darunia interrupted. "I imagine time is short and the women must be off."
"Indeed." Impa rose. "I shall be off to gather your things, Zelda, while you do what you must at the Temple of Time."
Zelda nodded.
"Will you need me at the Temple of Time, Zelda?" Malon asked. "Or can I go home and get my things, too?"
"Go ahead, friend. I believe that I am meant to conduct my business at the Temple of Time alone."
