The pair headed next for Hateno Town, with Kakariko to follow afterward. Link wanted to ask Purdah if there was any way to accelerate the return of his memory, and Zelda wanted to see Impa again.
"I have to warn you, both Impa and Purdah look nothing like how you remember them," Link told Zelda with a grin.
Zelda turned to him in surprise, causing her horse to nicker in puzzlement. She patted it absently. "Well, I suppose both of them are much older..."
"Just Impa. Purdah looks younger. Some experiment of hers went wrong..."
Zelda sighed, and Link could tell she was fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "Still performing unsanctioned experiments, I suppose that at least hasn't changed..."
"Not really anything right now to sanction it," Link pointed out. He was feeling good. Prince Sidon's assurances had gone a long way to help his mood. "Except maybe her 'little' sister. I suppose you could order her to stop though."
"I don't see a problem with her experiment, I just worry about her using herself as a test subject. And I..." Suddenly Zelda fell silent, and stopped her horse.
Link had been expecting this. He too reined in his horse, and looked out over the scarred plain in front of Fort Hateno. He had been back and forth down this road so many times, both before and after the last battle here, that the Guardians buried in the sandy ground no longer gave him the chills.
But Zelda looked pale, and he could tell she was reliving that day over again in her mind. "They can't hurt you any more," he offered softly.
Tears rolled openly down her face, and she struggled to get down from the saddle as her horse fidgeted nervously. He helped her down and she sat on the ground. "It's because of me that everyone suffered. If I hadn't taken so long..."
Link had been expecting her to react, but not like this. "There's nothing you could have done differently. I don't blame you for anything."
She wiped her eyes. "But you remember, don't you? You can't tell me it doesn't affect you."
Link thought for a while, reflecting. "I remember a lot of pain, yes," he said slowly, then shook his head as her lip began to tremble. "But I was never upset with you. Mostly..." Here he clenched his fists. "Mostly, I remember being angry at Ganon..."
It seemed like they had been running forever. The rain that soothed their wounds also made the grass slick and tripped them, reopening half-healed scabs. Link wanted to feel sad that they had lost the other Champions, that they had lost their home, and would soon lose everything.
But he didn't feel sad. He felt angry.
It wasn't a sullen anger. It was a righteous fury, and it fueled his flagging limbs and pressed him onward. He held his sword in a white-knuckled grip, and he could hear it sing in triumph when he brought it down on any foe that dared cross his path.
They broke into a clearing and he could see a pack of Guardians wandering mindlessly, scorching the earth for no other purpose than to let it burn. His heart blazed and his sword shone. He hacked off their legs and left them sitting there, trying to burn holes into the hills with their eyes.
More appeared in front of him, as if they could hear the cry of his soul and responded like wolves to a kill. He hacked his way through them, holding Zelda's hand as tightly as he held the sword. They targeted him, they always targeted him, as if they knew who he was and selected him specially for destruction.
He saw it before he felt it; the first chip in the sword. He stared stupidly at it for a split second, then went back to slicing his enemy. But now they were no longer being scratched. Link could feel his heart flutter in his chest, as he finally noticed the gouges in the blade and the blood streaming from his own.
He realized he could only see what was in front of him. And that he was very, very out of breath. He couldn't get more air in his lungs. Each breath left his body quicker than he could get a new one in. Dimly he could sense Zelda kneeling next to him. Why didn't she run? He could give her a little time, more if they could find some small space to barricade themselves in. It occurred to him that under the right circumstances, even his corpse could serve as an obstruction.
Then one loomed up over the broken forms of the others, scanning slowly, casually. Link stood and positioned himself firmly between the Guardian and Zelda. The Guardian's target fell on his chest and it occurred to him, with a kind of detached surprise, that he was about to die.
Before he could do anything, raise his sword, pray to the Goddesses, even move to the side, Zelda stepped in front of him. And before this act could even register in his mind, a bright light engulfed them all. The light washed over him like a hand caressing a feverish face, and somehow he knew – he didn't know how he knew, but he knew – that Zelda was safe.
He collapsed to the ground as relief swept through him. He felt himself being lifted up, was aware of a voice speaking to him, but slowly that all faded away...
"You're not to blame," Link said firmly. "Only Ganon is to blame."
Zelda nodded, but he could see her heart was not in it. He coaxed her back into the saddle and made their way through the valley as quickly as possible.
"Well, if it isn't Linky! And...oh!" Purdah dropped her childish manner as she and her assistant both kneeled before Zelda. "Your Highness...thank you for returning to us," she said so formally that Link felt taken aback.
"Purdah...I am pleased to see you looking...well..." Zelda said unsteadily, and Link could see that she was trying very hard not to laugh. He wondered what Purdah had looked like before her grand transformation.
Purdah leaped to her feet and winked, apparently deciding that the formalities were over. "Not bad, huh? A hundred years of research has to yield at least a few results. Well, what brings you here? Have you spoken to my sister yet?"
"We came on Link's behalf," Zelda said, nodding to him.
"Purdah...I want to know if there is any way to restore the rest of my memories," Link told her, getting straight to the point.
He had expected her to snap her fingers, and present some clever theory, or at least wheedle more rupees out of him. Instead, her face fell, and she glanced at her assistant in a kind of embarrassed agony. "Um...I...I don't think that's possible, Link."
"Why not?" both Link and Zelda asked at once.
Purdah picked at her fluffy girl's dress. "Your Highness, I wish I could be more helpful in this, but..." She turned from Zelda to Link. "You may never get all of your memories back, Link. You see...you were dead." She blinked and waited for this to sink in. "You died."
Confused, Link said, "But I'm fine now. The Shrine of Resurrection..."
"That's why it's called the Shrine of Resurrection," Purdah cut in. "That's it's purpose...to bring back those who died, but under only very special circumstances..." She gestured to her assistant, then pointed to a thick volume far out of her reach. "That one...yes, bring it here."
She spread the book out on the table and pointed to the Shekiah glyphs on one of the pages. "We all know the ancient knowledge of our ancestors goes far beyond what any of us could ever imagine. It strains even my intellect to comprehend how far they had come. Here they listed out the conditions required to use the Shrine of Resurrection, and with it some medical theory..."
She paused as she scanned the letters. "It's hard to explain...but the ancient Shekiah believed that death came in stages. Let's say a person's heart stops beating, as yours did, Link. Outside these pages, anyone would say that the person is dead, gone beyond reach. But here..." She squinted again, as if not completely sure herself what the book was telling her. "It says that the mind, the brain, is still alive even after the heart stops...and if the heart can be restarted, the person can live again...but depending on how long that takes, the lack of blood...blood to the brain...will make it die off in parts. Too much and the person can't function at all. It's really lucky that it's only your memory that's affected..."
Zelda looked at Link; she could tell from his face that he wasn't feeling lucky, though few others would have picked up his mood from his expression. "Is there no hope at all?"
"Oh, I'm sure you can regain more memories in time," Purdah assured them. "But you can't count on getting them all back..." She sighed as Link gave her a beseeching look. "I'm afraid many of them will be gone forever..." She patted his hand. "Please try not to be sad. It was a great effort on our part to make sure you got to the Shrine of Resurrection at all..."
Purdah lifted the limp soldier in her arms, Robbie standing guard beside her, as Impa received last-minute instructions from Zelda. "All right, let's go," Impa ordered, and the three Shekiah sprinted off together.
"What about Her Highness?" Purdah demanded, watching the Princess fade to a white dot behind her.
"Her Highness has her own destiny to meet," Impa said grimly. "What she faces now is beyond any of us."
Before either of them could reply, someone called out to them. "Oy! Turn away to the westward side! The traitors are here!" A Shekiah girl, barely into her teens, caught up to them and gesticulated wildly. "At least of dozen of them! They've taken out half of our...Goddesses, is that the Hylian Champion?!"
Without answering, Impa turned to Purdah. "How is he? Do we have any time to spare?"
Purdah shook her head. "He already had no pulse when I picked him up."
Impa turned to the girl. "We must get to the shrine of last resort." With the traitorous clan so near, Impa switched to the structure's code name. Not even all the Shekiah knew about it. "We're going through. Gather up any that are left and form an escort."
"Understood!" Wide-eyed, the girl doubled back.
A few moments later the first arrow whistled over their heads. "Robbie, return fire!" Impa called out.
"You don't need to tell me!" He shot back, an arrow already nocked to his bow.
More arrows whizzed past. "Damn those traitors!" Impa snapped in an uncharacteristic show of rage. "They must be behind Ganon's return...there's no way it could have seized control of the Guardians on its own!"
"No time for that now!" Robbie snapped. One of the Yiga had caught up; Robbie loosed his arrow into the traitor's chest before it could even raise its weapon.
More Shekiah appeared and closed the distance around them. "What orders, Lady Impa?" an older man with a scar on his right cheek demanded.
"We're bringing the Hero to the Shrine." Several gasps echoed through the group. "Keep in line, all of you! Purdah has the main assignment. The rest of us need to both escort her, and if possible, eliminate all of the Yiga after us. It's to our benefit if the enemy believes Link to be dead."
"Understood!" the Shekiah cried as one.
They fanned out behind Purdah, Impa, and Robbie, forming a half-circle. Purdah gripped the Hero's body tightly as she pushed herself even faster. Impa drew her short blade. "Ready, Robbie?"
He gave her a grim smile. "I've been waiting to test out some of my new weapons." He lifted an odd-looking arrow to his bow. "They were meant for Ganon, but I'll let his minions demonstrate for me how well they work."
Impa opened her mouth to reply, but it was too late. The enemy was already upon them.