Chapter 3 – Ripples
After returning to the future, I immediately resume my original task of accessing and conquering the Shadow Temple. One unusual thing I notice, however, is the absence of that mysterious person, Sheik, who had always met me somewhere near the entrance to each temple before I ventured into them for the first time. His help had always been invaluable to me, for he somehow possessed advanced knowledge of the dangers I would find in the temples. Along with warning me of those perils, he taught me a variety of divine melodies which, when played on the Ocarina of Time, made the incredible feat of rapid travel around Hyrule possible. Although it's true that I've never actually needed his assistance in order to continue my journey, I've always felt so calmed by his presence, much the same way I felt around...—But no, it couldn't be...
Even so, something about his sudden disappearance just doesn't sit well with me.
It's only when I return to the ethereal chamber of sages after awakening Impa, the sage of the Shadow Temple, that I discover the truth about Sheik. Normally, the sages I awaken after conquering the temples are eager to see me in this holy chamber, but Impa is downcast from the moment she appears before me, with arms folded, avoiding all eye contact.
"What's the matter?" I question curiously.
"Link..." Impa bites her lip nervously. "You already know that there's no point in what you're doing..."
I'm completely puzzled by this statement. "What do you mean by that?"
She sighs loudly. "All of us sages have told you several times that there's no point in completing the temples anymore. You're wasting your time, Link. Just go home."
"Wasting my time?!" My tone of voice is noticeably rising as I struggle to control my anger from being fed such discouraging remarks. "I risk my tail over and over again to save this kingdom and this is what you have to say in thanks?!"
"We've already explained to you that without the seventh and final sage, there's no way you can defeat Ganondorf. This isn't necessarily the end of Hyrule...but it does mark the downfall of this kingdom as we know it." Impa is unmistakably distressed—her voice sounds at the point of cracking at any moment.
I rapidly scan her face in confusion, looking for an answer to the myriad questions that suddenly plague me. "What happened to the last sage? Who was he?" I ask frantically.
Impa looks directly at me for the first time since we started conversing. Is she...? Oh, goddesses, she really is... Struggling to hold back tears, Impa snaps at me. "You must be in one hell of a state of denial if you can ask me that with a straight face. Please don't ask me to dredge up the past again."
I stay in silence for several moments while a horrible feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. Something terrible has clearly happened. "I seriously don't know what's going on. Please...just tell me, Impa."
She sighs heavily, taking time to compose herself before speaking. "I guess I can humor you... Immediately after Zelda and I fled Castle Town after Ganondorf's siege, I disguised her in Sheikah garb and passed her off as my nephew since I knew this would allay any suspicion that she was, in fact, the princess."
I'm taken aback by this revelation. This explains the comforting sensation I always felt around Sheik, the very same one I experienced around Zelda and Impa. Yet the disguise was simply so convincing that I had never bothered to dwell on it long enough to make the connection.
Before I can contemplate the implications of this further, Impa interrupts my thoughts. "Zelda worried about you constantly ever since that day she met you. She badgered me over and over again to go back to Castle Town and verify your safety before you entered the Sacred Realm. I refused every time, explaining to her the obvious danger of it. Even so, she sneaked off one night we were staying in Kakariko Village. Apparently, she went to Castle Town on her own...but apparently, something happened..." Impa can't hold back the tears anymore. "That bastard, he..."
Although Impa doesn't finish explaining, further explanation would have been unnecessary anyway. All the information I need can easily be construed from her expression of pure anguish.
She's dead. Zelda, that kind-hearted soul who I had felt a special connection with from the very moment I met her, is dead! In that instant, it all made sense to me—why Sheik was suddenly nowhere to be seen after I returned from the past. What I did in the past must have somehow altered events so that...this had happened—something I never could have anticipated in a million years! How could something like this have happened from such an insignificant change to the past?! How?!
I blink my eyes over and over again in disbelief. An intense grief overcomes me, stronger than any emotion I've ever felt before. I feel the strength in my legs giving on me and I fall to the ground of this metaphysical, existential place, sobbing so hard that, before long, my sides begin to hurt. Zelda was more than just a simple friend or acquaintance of mine. Somehow, I simply know that we met each other long before that day in the castle—that we're irrevocably and eternally bonded to each other by some thread of fate, in some way that I can't comprehend. But all the same, I know it to be true, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yet now it's undeniable. She's dead...and I'm the reason why...
Navi flits around me, trying to console me and cheer me up, but it's useless. Once I calm down enough to speak again, I can only scream one thing. "Lies!" I shout incessantly, as if, through repetition, I can will it to become the truth. Although Hyrule is a land of magic, wishing for the dead to come back to life as anything but a horrifying Redead had to be nothing but pure fantasy.
I know I must look pathetic to Impa and any of the other sages who might be watching me, but this is far from my concern at the moment. Even though it's difficult for me to have any rational thoughts, I rack my brain for possible solutions—there has to be one! Couldn't I just return to the past and save her myself?
No, you cannot.
I flinch in response to a genderless, passive voice abruptly filling my head.
Your tampering with past events—the way things were meant to be—created a ripple in time.
A soundless mental image suddenly appears to me. It's nighttime in Castle Town. I see a guard sitting on the ground with his back against the fountain in the center of town and his head down low. It appears he's... Is he...sleeping? Suddenly, I observe a figure shrouded in darkness. Could it be...oh goddesses, it is. It's the one person who strikes terror in me more than any other—Ganondorf! I feel a sharp chill just from looking at him so up-close. It looks like he's...he's stopping to say something to the guard on his way to somewhere. Ganondorf looks extremely irate. He delivers a good kick to the sleeping man. I see the guard's face. It's unmistakably Darius. He startles awake, then quickly changes to a kneeling position and begins begging. Ganondorf is unmoved. He points in the direction of the castle that once belonged to the royal family, the very same one he stole by force. They begin walking toward the castle, Ganondorf's cape flapping in the wind behind him. Something about the expression on their faces tells me that Darius is about to receive punishment, probably for being caught sleeping on the job.
That is what was fated to happen on the day the dark lord followed you into the Sacred Realm. However, because of your altering of the past, something else happened instead.
Another vision comes to me. Once again, it's nighttime in Castle Town. Yet this time, Ganondorf walks right past the fountain, devoid of sleeping soldiers, and goes directly to the Temple of Time. A young boy wearing Sheikah garments, blonde hair spilling out from underneath the wraps covering his head, is seen walking into the Temple in full view of Ganondorf. He follows the boy into the temple and corners him inside. The boy has a look of sheer terror on his face. Ganondorf says something to him. His eyes are full of malice. Raising one hand, a burst of shadow magic shoots from his palm, tossing the Sheikah boy into a wall at an incredible velocity. He falls to the floor, crumpled into a lifeless pile of ragdoll-like limbs. There's no way he could have possibly survived. Then, the realization hits me. That boy...he was actually...? No!
You have guessed correctly. The dark lord was completely unaware that the seemingly insignificant youth he had murdered was actually the very princess of Hyrule he had been tirelessly seeking. Without her, the seventh and final sage, there is simply no possibility of triumph over the king of thieves. Thus, you have caused the downfall of Hyrule. Whether it was inadvertent or well-intentioned matters not. Ultimately, the princess Zelda is the one who made travel through time possible for you. The Ocarina of Time and Master Sword are simply instruments that channel her power. Now that she ceases to exist in a physical form in your current time, you can no longer return to the past.
The indifference of the voice to this horrific tragedy is enraging. No words of solace are offered. The news is simply broken to me as matter-of-factly as if it were a daily weather forecast. It mattered nothing to the owner of this voice that, other than Saria, Zelda was the only person I had ever known who had treated me kindly, like a friend. I grew up as an orphan and more or less an outcast, being ridiculed for being different even though I could do nothing about my differences. So I treasure those few people who treat me like I'm someone worthy of their time. Yet now, my thoughts are inundated by the haunting memory of Zelda's face frozen in terror just moments before she was murdered in cold blood, completely defenseless.
"How do I get her back?!" I demand angrily.
She is dead. She cannot come back. Death is irreversible.
"No! There must be a way!" I think hard for several moments. "You told me that she's ceased to exist in a physical form in my current time. Does that mean she still exists in another form or time?"
No response.
"I guessed right, didn't I?"
We have already shared too much information with you. It is only out of pity for you that we have told you as much as we have.
"'We'? How many of you are there?!" I ask suspiciously.
Silence again.
I won't let myself be discouraged by the lack of response, knowing that I'm on to something. I decide to move onto the next question that occurs to me. "What about the goddesses? They must have the power to bring her back!" I shout desperately.
No response yet again.
"That's who I'm speaking with, isn't it?!" On my knees, I begin praying to the three goddesses, convinced that they are the beings communicating with me. "Din, Farore, Nayru, I beg of you! I know I've made a mistake and that Zelda has paid for it with her life. Please give me some way of bringing her back! I would give my life in exchange for hers! She doesn't deserve this! It's all my fault!"
After a long pause, I finally receive a response.
Although admirable of you, we are unable to assist.
My tears of sorrow nearly drown out and make incomprehensible my next words. "'Not able to'? Or 'not willing to'?!" is my rude comeback. I would normally never be so disrespectful to anyone, much less the creators of all Hyrule, but I've never been so enraged and desperate in all my life—my better judgment has deserted me.
"I know you're able to bring someone back from the dead because I know about the legend—that you reincarnate the Goddess Hylia and her chosen hero every time a new evil threatens your land. Zelda told me about the legend and I'm sure every word of it is true! She's the goddess and I'm the hero, right?! And you expect us to save this land time and time again in your stead. We risk our lives over and over again, facing horrors far worse than anything we could conjure in our worst nightmares, yet this is how you repay me when I ask something, just this one thing, of you?!"
Even though I'm now seething with anger at how incomprehensibly stoic these deities are, I force myself to continue sitting with my hands clasped together and fingers interlaced in prayer, hoping for a miracle. What I hear next stuns me. Of all things, what sounds like whispered bickering enters my mind. That single nondescript voice has suddenly morphed into several. The goddesses are apparently arguing amongst themselves, although I can't discern what they're saying. Eventually, they speak directly to me again as one voice.
Normally, we do not...interfere in the affairs of mere mortals...but we are willing to make an exception for you in light of your impressive sacrifices throughout the ages. We know how deeply you care for the princess of Hyrule...that she is more than a sovereign to you, but also a friend. Therefore, we will offer you one, and only one, opportunity to revive her to your era. It involves undertaking several tests in which your worthiness as guardian of Hyrule and bearer of the Triforce of Courage will be tried. Should you fail even one of the tests, it will result in the end of your cycle of rebirth. In other words, your next death will be permanent. What say you?
Navi has apparently heard the same thing I have because she gives me an intensely worried look, especially after hearing the last bit. Even so, I don't hesitate in the slightest before issuing my solemn response. "I will take the test."
It is obvious that the Triforce of Courage chose its owner well. Your test shall begin now.
