Sheik tried to catch Dark before he ran away, but his hands caught only flickers of the torchlight. He kicked the wall.
"Damn your shadow!" he yelled.
Link did not move.
Sheik knelt down next to him and checked for a pulse immediately. He found a very faint one, and breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted to keep looking for Impa and Zelda, but he couldn't leave Link like that.
'Stay,' said a soft voice. Like a whisper that echoed through the empty hallway. Sheik looked around, listening for any movement.
"Mother?" he asked, despite knowing full well that it hadn't been his mother's voice.
Still, he wanted to hope.
'Stay. Mortals have so very little time, and he wants to spend it with you,' said the voice again, and Sheik realized that the sound seemed to arrive directly into his mind. The smell of the forest drifted through the hallway. The scent of fresh leaves under your feet and of the winds from mid spring.
"Who are you?" asked Sheik, his hand already carrying his knives.
The triforce on Link's left hand shone bright green. 'I'm sorry. For what I have done to him. But if you stay, he will not survive. He must be taken to the temple of Light. Do not stay here, or you both will meet only in heaven.'
The name Farore appeared in Sheik's mind, and he knelt down next to Link again, shaking his shoulder.
"Link, wake up," he said, but Link didn't react.
"Come on, wake up!" he tried again, shaking him harder.
It was no use. Link was completely out of it, and Sheik didn't have anything on him to bring him back to consciousness.
He didn't want to leave for the temple of Light when Zelda and Impa were still out there somewhere, probably in danger.
No, definitely in danger, if what the voice said was true.
'You will meet only in heaven'
Oh, but the crack between timelines was still there. Sheik had not forgotten about that. And there was no hope of heaven for him.
A tinkling sound made Sheik jump to his feet, ready to fight. Something hovered nearby, carrying a lamp. It approached them with short, tinkling steps, covered by a ragged white shroud.
"I've found you. I'm so happy," the being said with a soft female voice that Sheik did not recognize. He tried to get a look at her face, but the shroud casted shadows over it.
"Who are you?" asked Sheik.
The temple shook with more force, and dust fell on them. He looked down at Link, but he hadn't moved.
"Come, you need to come to the barrier," she said, motioning for Sheik to follow her with a pale, thin hand.
Another earthquake shook the temple, and a few rocks fell from the ceiling. Sheik pulled Link's body on his back and hurried to follow the woman.
"Are you a spirit from this temple?" asked Sheik, breathless despite the slow pace they kept. He had a vague awareness that he had lost a lot of blood, but wasn't sure what exactly had happened between being captured by Ganondorf and suddenly waking up here.
"I am a spirit, yes," said the woman, leading them to the statue of the Gerudo at the center of the temple, where Sheik had woken up.
No, where Link had rescued him.
Now he wished Link hadn't done anything. He wished he had been erased from existence cleanly and without pain. Not knowing that his mother was dead, not wondering exactly how he was Zelda's brother. (Oh, but he had a very good idea how that had happened, and he wished Impa had trusted him with that secret.)
"Hurry, my body is beneath the altar," said the spirit, running with tiny steps towards the altar where Sheik had been in. "That is why her spell was so perfect. She used us both and didn't know it. But one of us will do."
Sheik let Link down on the floor softly, making sure he wouldn't hurt his head.
"I see, your Highness," said Sheik, looking at the spirit.
She laughed. "That sounds so strange now," she said, holding her lamp as long strands of bright golden hair fell among the ragged funeral shroud that she wore.
Sheik knelt next to the altar, looking for something he could pull out. "This is…an awkward meeting. Please excuse my-"
"Oh, stop it Sheik. I know how awkward it is," the late queen said, and Sheik could almost hear her smile, despite the fact that her face was still covered in shadows. "Impa is too good at keeping secrets. She always was. But…I'm in debt to her. For caring for my family. For loving my husband as much as I did. For… everything."
Sheik found a handle on the altar, and pulled it with all his strength.
The queen's body was indeed there, covered by a pure white shroud just like her spirit wore.
"Place it on the altar," ordered the queen, and Sheik did as he was told. "Now, I need to cast the spell. But I need a body to do so. Would you be so kind?" she asked, giving Sheik her lamp.
It felt warm to the touch. Warm and comforting like a winter night at home, next to the heart.