A Link to the Past
Chapter Twenty One: The Ritual
Link had never been inside the tallest tower of the castle before, its architecture and decor the same as the lower levels, but less worn as if the servants kept it clean at all times and yet nobody ever came up there. Plenty of light was coming in through the slit windows around the small entrance chamber, allowing the young man to see that there were more guards stationed around, these ones wearing heavier armor and carrying spears, but other than some simple wooden furniture there most likely for the armored men to sit on, there was nothing in the room except for an open entranceway leading to an upward staircase.
"You're never going to get away with this, Agahnim." Link said trying his best to sound confident while being urged up the stairs. "I'm going to find a way to stop you, and then no reward from that mirror monster will be worth the punishment for treason."
"Wrong on all accounts, boy." The wizard replied, his attention remaining on the shackled Princess as if she were all that mattered. "What would you give if it were possible to have your uncle back, hmm? What would you do if you could have everything and everyone you ever lost returned to you, and the price was a kingdom that you hadn't even seen in more than fifty years?"
Unlike the Temple of Hera, the castle's highest tower did not shrink down as it got taller, it was just an empty room with guards and chairs followed by a staircase and then another room with guards and chairs leading to the next staircase. The group had to move very slowly since Zelda's shackled feet could barely move far enough apart for the Princess to climb up onto each step. The young man was made to help her, even though Agahnim wouldn't let him simply carry her, so it actually took a good amount of time to get up each staircase, leaving Zelda a dripping sweaty mess from the effort. Finally there were no more staircases, with the guards having to unlock the heavy wooden door at the top of the last one, and now rain was pouring on the young man's head once again.
The final door had led onto the rooftop of Hyrule Castle's tallest tower, even though it was only three levels higher than the rest of the castle, and there were half a dozen of the heavily armored guards standing around the place's only feature, some kind of elaborately carved stone table that looked kind of like an altar. Zelda was completely worn out, exhausted and breathing heavily from the effort of climbing the stairs with her shackled feet, and therefore unable to resist when the wizard had her dragged over to the altar. Link tried to go after her, even though he was outnumbered by the guards and didn't really understand what was happening here, leaving him pushed down to his knees while the Princess's shackles were removed and she was forced to lie down on the stone table.
Her struggles were stopped when Agahnim said some strange word that couldn't really be heard over the rain and thunder, touching his finger to Zelda's forehead and causing her to simply lie down where she was, her eyes open and unblinking against the rain as if she were in some kind of a trance. Next one of the guards carried over a really old looking wooden box that honestly looked like it was about to fall apart, but inside the blue felt interior looked almost new, with the impressions where seven diamond shaped objects could be set. There was only a single one in the box, though, a very large transparent crystal of some kind with just the smallest hint of a blue color, which the wizard carefully removed from its place in the box, and then setting it down just as gently on the catatonic Princess's stomach.
"The ritual itself is actually very simple, boy." Agahnim explained as multicolored energies began to glow around his hands. "You take a pretty girl such as this one, but it has to be one descended from a very special bloodline, and that was the hard part, tracking all of them down."
As the multicolored energies glowed brighter around his hands, the crystal slowly began to fill with that same power until it glowed and pulsed. The wizard continued his explanation, saying that now it was all an issue of matter transference into a shape that wouldn't be affected by the Power of Gold, whatever that was… Agahnim had mentioned that before, but Link still had no idea what it was. On with the ritual's explanation as the glowing multicolored energies began to glow around Zelda's body, the seven girls had to be sent across the void without being altered, since they were the key to breaking the seal, themselves. The young man didn't understand much of this at all, only knowing as the Princess and crystal began to float up into the air that he needed to do something about it… something, anything.
"And with this, the Seven Wisemen's Seal will be broken." The wizard said as thunder crackled, moving his hands together to that the multicolored energies started to glow white all around. "It might take a awhile for the lingering power to fade away, but soon the Power of Gold will begin to seep into this world, slowly at first but what is a few more days after waiting for decades?"
Now the energies were glowing so brightly that the altar and even the rooftop of the tower were hard to see without shielding Link's eyes, but he could see that the Princess and crystal, which had separated upon floating, were now moving closer together. Regardless of what he did or didn't know, the young man had to do something, so using the bright light as cover, he used the power of the glove to free himself from his captors by shoving them backwards. Caught by surprise and unable to catch themselves, the armored men fell over, the noise barely heard over the ritual and rainstorm behind it, allowing Link to get up and rush forward while the wizard was distracted.
Once again having no idea what he was trying to do or if it would even do anything, he sprinted forward with the power of the glove, reaching the altar in seconds and using the stone table as a springboard to leap up toward the Princess. Glancing down at Agahnim, the wizard seemed to notice this at the last second, starting to shout what might have been no, but then something strange happened. Just when his hand was about to reach Zelda, everything went white, and now it felt like the young man was falling, well… maybe more like being whipped around and flipped around in all directions until he wasn't sure which way was up. The sound of the wind was unbearable like the worst storm to ever exist, but then just like that all of the light and noise was gone, with Link having crashed onto the stone floor for several seconds before he realized it.
Had that done it? Had he managed to stop Agahnim's ritual? His ears were still ringing a bit, and the young man was a bit dizzy as he got up to his knees, but something was wrong? Suddenly everything had gotten dark with only the flickering light of torches to illuminate the… wait a second, this wasn't the rooftop of Hyrule Castle… and it wasn't raining… probably because Link had somehow fallen down into someplace different. The flickering torches allowed him to see that this place was indoors, stone floor and roof with block walls, but that was really all that could be seen, at least until the young man stood up in this quiet place and felt his boot touch something with a soft tink-clink.
Just barely visible when one of its sides reflected some of the torch light from where it was resting on the floor, Link was able to reach down and pick up the crystal that he had seen during the ritual, but as he looked around again he found that there was no trace of Princess Zelda. Turning around the empty room a couple times to make sure he didn't miss her, the young man looked down at the crystal again, now having to bring it over to the nearest torch in order to take a closer look at something… something that was different about it. Once he got there, Link gasped when he saw that the crystal contained a small image of the Princess, multicolored like the energies Agahnim used, and with her eyes closed as if she were sleeping… but then this was forgotten when he noticed something else.
While looking at the crystal in his hands, the young man realized that his hands were… they were wrong. Instead of skin and fingers, he was looking down at the furry paws of a rabbit, but it was his own hands, and they were… they were pink? Startled so badly that he dropped the crystal, Link realized that this pink fur had spread to the visible parts of his arms as well, going underneath his clothes and up onto his neck… and… and his face… oh no, something was completely wrong with his face and his head and… and what were those things sticking was up into the air above his hat? Suddenly the loud bang of a door slamming reached his ears, and now the heavy sound of footsteps was coming from… somewhere.
There were no doors in this place, and yet there were approaching footsteps that were getting louder and closer as Link picked up the crystal with Princess Zelda… what was this, was she trapped inside? All of the young man's weapons were gone, and there was no visible way out, at least not until something went click loudly over by the far wall, followed by some more torchlight when part of that same wall began to open as if it were a secret doorway. Something big was entering the room a few seconds later, a tall, stocky creature who was flanked by several armored guards, snorting and grunting as he spoke into something that looked like Agahnim's magic mirror.
"You were supposed to know what you were doing, wizard." The grunting creature scolded in a deep voice as he walked further into the room. "I swear, if the crystal is lost you can… actually… never mind… monitor the crumbling seal, and I will contact you later. You… you over there in the shadows… I see you. Bring me that crystal before I have you skinned alive."
Not sure of much else besides that giving this creature the crystal was probably a bad idea, Link turned to run away in the hopes of finding another hidden door, but just like Agahnim had done to him in the temple, the large creature vanished and then instantly appeared in his path so that the monster was towering over him. Reaching down with large hands, the creature grabbed the crystal from him with one and grabbed the things sticking out of the top of Link's head with the other, lifting him off the floor as if he weighed nothing, and then bringing him up so that the two of them were at eye level.
"You don't look like it, boy, but I suppose that you're Link." The creature snorted, putting the crystal in one of his pockets. "My name is Ganondorf, and I've been waiting so long to meet you."