Disclaimers, of course, are in Ch. 1, for anybody who really cares. Anyways, thanks to all of you who have stuck with me so far. I believe the plot is finally picking up.

Ch. 12

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be

When there's no help in truth!

-Sophocles

"Who are you?" He pleaded, confused by his seeming recognition of her features, leaning forward to try and see her better. She lifted a gloved hand to pull the hood up again, casting a deeper shadow over her features.

"Just a moment, Link" She said in a hushed tone, "And I'll explain everything." Link turned slightly to watch her work at the lock with a small tool.

"Everything?" He echoed. She said nothing more, though, and he had to be content until the lock turned with a click, and she stepped back, turning to sprint down the way she had come. Link pulled his stiff body up and pushed the cell door outward, dashing after her. For a moment he thought he had lost her, but around a corner he saw a brief flicker of her long cloak and realized in a flash that she was the person who had been following him. Questions raced through his mind, but he forcefully suppressed them, and focused on keeping up with her. Towards the end of one tunnel, she had stopped at a heavy door to work at its lock, and Link caught up.

"Wait!" He called, "My horse-"

She held up a hand to stop him, and he ground his teeth, but nodded, and turned to look over his shoulder impatiently while she unlocked the door with the same tool. There was no time for him to think about it: he had to trust her for now. Finally, the door swung outward, and she raced out and ducked around the corner. Link followed as carefully as he could, and whipped around at a loud explosion in the distance. Beyond the fortress, in the valley, a cloud of dust had risen, and he wondered what was happening. He didn't have a moment more to think on it, though, as he turned back around and ran straight into a Gerudo guard. They both fell back, hitting the ground in surprise, and she recovered first, whipping around her spear to jab him with it. Link rolled to the side, and kicked out viciously to knock her off her feet. She fell with a faint 'oof'', and Link dived for the spear, grasping it just as she re-tightened her grip on the shaft. Now ensued a deadly tug-o-war game, but Link finally managed to twist it out of her grasp with his heavier upper body and whipped the spear butt around, cracking her in the forehead. She fell limply, and he staggered up, feeling light-headed. The cloaked woman turned the corner again, and motioned for him to follow. Link dropped the spear and continued after her.

Around the next turn, he spotted Epona, fully saddled and ready, his supplies already packed. He grabbed her reins in his hand and turned to see the young woman waiting a few feet away. Link hesitated for a split second, and then made a decision.

"Come on," He called back to her, and did not wait for her reply, but instead swung up into the saddle. She came forward a few feet almost hesitantly, and Link held out a hand, which she grasped with soft-skinned gloved hands, and he hoisted her up and behind him. He didn't have a moment to wonder what he was doing, for there was suddenly another explosion, closer by, and the cries of angry Gerudo.

"A distraction..." The quiet voice from behind him said. Link turned Epona briefly, and then spurred her on and down the natural stone steps, towards the valley which he'd entered from. Here, the passage was swamped with Gerudo, and Epona was hard-pressed to get around them. Most were not paying attention to them, though, and were running about recklessly, in a panicked state.

Link tried to turn this way and that to see what was bothering them, but felt a hand on his shoulder, and realized this was his- their-one safe bet of getting out. He kneed Epona sharply, and she sprang forward, pushing through the thieves as though they were high grasses to be sifted through. She carried them through the valley, and towards the area where the bridge was. On approach, Link was the first to notice the heavy smoke, and Epona started to reel at the sight of the burning bridge. Link reined her to a halt, and they watched as the bottom of the bridge seemed to give out, and then crumble.

Suddenly, a cry came up from behind them, and Link turned in the saddle to see the Arruba, the Queen, running towards them with a band of her guards close behind. Link whipped around, and leaned forward, bringing a hand out to calm Epona.

"It's all right now," He whispered. "Now come on... let's do this."

The horse's ears swiveled around in nervousness, but he swished the reins, and she began to gather speed. Link felt a strange calmness, as if watching everything from a distance, as they advanced towards the collapsed bridge. He faintly felt the pressure of arms around his waist tighten, and he leaned forward, twisting his hands in the reins. Like a flash of light, they were suddenly upon the drop, and, dropping the reins to grasp the saddlehorn, Link put his life into Epona's hands.

Epona seemed to coil with energy under them, and as her hooves overcame the last bit of earth, she plunged forward and into the air with a great rush of wind, whistling around their ears. Everything seemed to slow for Link, and he felt himself lift slightly from the horse's back. Below them, he could make out the fuzzy blue line of a waterfall and its course, and he felt a vague wonder at the awesome drop. Then he was being jarred as Epona hit the opposite side of the bridge, and they were off again.

Link was too stunned to speak or guide, and so he held onto the saddlehorn, and let Epona lead them out.

*************

Link pushed the dried brush around in the crackling fire with a twig, and looked across the flames to his guest. The hood still stayed up, though, and he sighed. Epona was somewhere out under the starry-night, glad to be free of the Gerudo's confining stables. A roasted bird of some sort turned on a make-shift spit over the fire, but Link had no appetite for it. His curiosity had been piqued, and he watched his guest for any sign that she would speak again. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

"Can I at least know your name?" He asked impatiently.

She said nothing, but reached out to turn the spit again. He sighed again, and leaned back. "You said you'd explain everything, but you now you won't even tell me your name." He accused. She was silent for a while more, but finally spoke.

"Wait until we finish eating," She half-whispered.

Link huffed, but said nothing more until after they had eaten the bird. When they had finished the meal, and the fire had been dimmed, Link took his seat across from her again, and this time waited. Finally, she slowly reached up, and grasped the side of her hood, and he felt as if he was seeing a transformation before his eyes. The hood fell to show her features, and he started in surprise.

"You're Kokiri!" He breathed, but immediately stopped himself in confusion. This was a young woman before him, not a Kokiri... She was obviously Hylian... yet... Her eyes were a deep blue-black that reminded him of a fair night sky, and her features were youthful and pale. It was like a Kokirian face, but it couldn't be. The most startling feature of all was her hair, though, which was a rich, florescent green, and framed her young face in closely. It was short, and curled under her chin, and he couldn't stop looking at it in wonder. His reverie was broken by her nod, though.

"I was a Kokiri," she said, "But things changed."

Link suddenly felt the odd, echoing feeling that usually accompanied a vision or dream, and shook himself.

"What do you mean, you were Kokiri?" He finally asked.

She sighed, and tipped her head to the side in an expression that made him feel sick, and he tried to focus on her words.

"You're about to learn the answers you have been questing for, Link," She said carefully. "Are you very, very sure that that's what you want?"

"Of course it's what I want!" Link cried, "It's what I've been looking for all along!" Her features seemed upset somehow, and he quieted down. "Please, if you know, tell me."

She was quiet for a while, and he wondered if he had offended the strange young woman, but abruptly, she began.

"In order to understand how I was once Kokiri, and how you've been having all of those dreams and visions, you have to understand the word 'paradox'." She halted, and looked at him. "Do you understand that word, Link?" When he replied that he did not, she continued. "I didn't know it either for a long time, and I never needed to know it, but that changed, too. A paradox is a contradictory conclusion, usually used in mathematics and logic by scholars and Wise Men, but it can be used in other places. Paradoxes are usually just riddles or puzzles that people can't solve, and so that's what they call them, but really, that's their exact meaning by nature."

Link shook his head in puzzlement, and she nodded with a smile. "That was my first response, too. Now, though, I'm going to tell you who I am, and that's going to make this all just a little more believable." She took a deep breath then, and Link realized she was just as nervous as he was. "My name is Saria, and I am the Sage of the Forest."

Silence echoed across the fire for several full minutes, before Link finally found his voice. "Then they're real."

Saria nodded. "The job of the Sages is to protect Hyrule with the blessing of the Goddesses, and to keep the sacred Triforce from falling into the wrong hands." She closed her eyes, and he was startled at the pain that twisted her youthful features. "Now please," She said faintly, "Bear with me Link, because I'm about to tell you everything, and I fear... No, I know... its going to be very brutal." She opened her eyes, and focused on his face.

"Link, those dreams and visions you're having are not truly yours to have. They are ideas, feelings, senses... memories, that belong to the Sages. They were taken from you when you were eighteen, and sealed away inside the Triforce of Courage." Link stared at her, blinking slowly.

"But... I'm only sixteen," He said weakly.

"You are now," She continued, "But you weren't. I wouldn't have told you this Link," She said fervently. "I swear I never would have, but you've fallen in too deep, and I'm afraid that if you don't know, then you could lose yourself for good." She ducked her head again, and the same painful expression rose, until he felt sick.

"What is it?" He finally asked. "Tell me, I've come this far... Tell me."

She took in a shuddering sigh. "Link, this was not your original your life. Your original life was taken from you, along with the memories, feelings, thoughts... It was all sealed away, and we, the Sages, along with the power of the Triforce, sent you back to your childhood, a changed childhood, where the life you would have led no longer existed."

Link stared at her. "My..."

"Link, you were the Hero of Time," She continued ruthlessly. "When you were eleven years old, you left us, the Kokiri, to save Hyrule from the evil that a Gerudo King had set loose upon it. I gave you an ocarina, Link, and I taught you a song I played, and you left... You went across Hyrule, and you saved it from the evil that was Ganandorf, but lost your childhood in the process. Rauru, the Sage of Light, took you into his realm, and held you in a sleep for seven years, until you awakened to go and free the land once again."

Link stood up and began to pace, trembling with some controlled emotion.

"So what are you saying..." He began, in a strained voice, as he paced. "I was some kind of hero who went around killing monsters and saving people... And now its gone? ... all of it... my life..."

"Yes," She forced herself to say. "Zelda gave you an ocarina also... it was called-"

"The Ocarina of Time," He hissed, remembering the inscription from the temple, only now realizing the poisonous words for what they were.

"I'm so sorry, Link," She whispered. "If we would have known... if we could have seen the effects-"

"You?" He stopped, whirling around.

"We. We sealed it away, Link, together, with all of our powers."

Link quaked with something deep inside, and he lowered his head for a moment, flexing and un-flexing his hands. He shook his head, as if to clear all of it, but it was there, mocking him. Saria rose and reached towards him, but he jerked away.

"No!" He snarled, turning away. He searched wildly around, and started to run for Epona.

"Link!" Saria shouted, chasing after him. Link swung onto Epona's back, and wheeled her around, pushing his heels sharply into her side to spur her forward. He tore across the fields on her back, pushing her on and on until they were only a blur on the flattened grasses, and Saria watched the hollow night with a bleak expression.

*************

They flew across the grass, and Link clung to Epona tightly, the only thing in a jaded, senseless world that he could believe in.

*************

Kafka took the stairs three at a time, and landed on the cold cell floor in a crouch. Juno took his time going down, and joined his brother on the bottom floor of their fortress home. Kafka, who wielded Command, waited for his brother in annoyance, and walked on. Juno put a casual hand over the hilt of Domination, and followed good-naturedly. The two rarely came down to the cells, but now they were in need of a guide, and this rotting jail was the best place to look.

"Don't touch anything," Kafka told his brother menacingly, as they walked. Juno nodded meekly, but thought to himself that he wasn't really keen on touching anything in a dungeon anyway. They walked down the line of cells until Kafka stopped at one, and paused. A pathetic, gaunt creature was sprawled out inside, and Kafka kicked out at it with his foot.

"Wake," He snapped. The creature lifted it's head slowly, and turned to him, blinked its dark, bleak eyes slowly. At one time, it had probably been more Hylian than beast, but now its sickly pale, wrinkled skin and skeletal frame gave off the effect of repulsiveness. It moved its thin frail wrists slowly, trembling under the effort to raise itself. Kafka began to grow impatient, and tapped the magic seal that opened the cell door. He swung it open, and stepped inside, standing threateningly over the sickly creature. Juno stepped in behind Kafka, and leaned against the door, swaying against it absent-mindedly. The creature slowly pushed its body up, and somehow managed to rise shakily to two feet. Kafka tipped his head back in well-concealed surprise to see the creature on two feet-and taller than him by a foot at least. Its jutting chin and sharp ears communicated that it was probably still Hylian, but he ignored that.

"I am your Master," He instructed it. "And you will obey my every whim as I speak it, is that understood?" The thing nodded its head weakly, and Kafka smirked. "Good, that's my brother over there, he is also your master. Now, you were collected from a foreign land, correct?" He didn't wait for an answer. "That land is called Hyrule, and my brother and I find it very interesting. You are going to take us there, and lead us through it to its stronghold, is that understood?" It watched him with sunken, empty eyes for a moment longer, before slowly, pathetically, nodding.

"Good," Kafka hissed, his eyes narrowing, giving off an even stronger impression of a serpent. Juno jumped off the door, and came up to study the creature.

"It's not much to look at," He finally said, his hand tapping out a favorite tune on the hilt of Domination. The creature slowly turned to him, and Juno had to turn away from the empty staring eyes. Kafka nodded in satisfaction, and turned to leave. When they were on the other side, he closed the door and sealed it, looking in at creature who had already hobbled down onto the ground again.

"That's right," Kafka said, "You had better get a good sleep. Tomorrow we leave early." He turned and followed Juno, who was eager to be away from the stench of rotting decay, back up the stairs.