Chapter 3

Link woke up sore and slightly disgruntled the next morning. Everything that had happened seemed so surreal as he suddenly became aware of it; his changed body, Midna, and the inability to let anyone else besides the ghost warrior see him. However, the flame-like sword at his side acted as a reminder to him that he truly was there. It was hard to believe that the master sword made the strange transformation, but sometimes the blade seemed to have its own consciousness: one made of purity and righteousness. It would not just let a dark entity, such as the twilight, into itself without good reason. And as far as he could tell, the sword knew that he would need the power that the mirror shard offered, even though it was of shadow and it's self of light.

Its bearer gave way to an amused smirk. Light and darkness had become one. Wasn't light supposed to be the symbol for peace and dark the symbol of destruction? He realized how cheesy he was beginning to sound and cast the thought aside as he picked up his sword and made his way for the ladder He stopped himself, however, when he heard someone singing above him. He recognized the voice well: it was Ilia's. He peeked out of the hole and saw her up on his bed, watching the sunrise and offering her sweet melody to it. He was able to catch the very end:

"The day will rise, the night will fall,And life is fleeting yet,And though the shadows all grow tallI have but only one regret.

Before he said that last goodbyeI'd something left to say,'I love you more than great blue skiesOr life to which I pray.

'I love you more than riding horses,I remember, you showed me how.I love you more than I can show,'But it's far too late now."

As he listened to that final stanza he could feel himself pale as though he were still in his normal color skin. It hurt him so much to hear what he had done to her, what he will do to her in not even two weeks. She would be crushed when she learned that he didn't love her. But it was just the way it was. And he was guilty for it. He felt like it was wrong to love someone other than Ilia after knowing that they were going to be together forever for so long, but here he was, doing that exact thing. Her misery was his fault, down to the last tear. But even if he went to her now, and if that strange force didn't attack, and if she didn't reject him because of what he had become, and if they were married and lived together for the rest of their lives, even then, it would all be a lie. Even if he tried to force himself to love her, he wouldn't be able to let go of Midna. And so it would be a curse on both of them. He couldn't keep a lie like that from Ilia, they knew each other too well for that.

And so he crept back into the shadows and waited for the sound of her leaving before climbing the ladder up into the light of day once again. He waited a few minutes before he opened the door to make sure she was gone and made his way back to the spring. As predicted, the warrior was waiting there for him. However, he had a different air around him this time. It wasn't melancholy or reminiscent, but rather conveyed sorrow. He slowly unhinged his jawbones to speak to Link.

"I know how you feel," he said. "The exact same thing happened to me long ago."

Link looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

However, instead of responding, the warrior stood up, removing the sadness from his expression and replacing it with the same stiff, emotionless body and mind set that he was always in. "It is not of consequence. The importance of my being here is to train you, not to tell stories of the past." Link wanted to protest and insist that he reveal his secret, but he had to admit that the warrior was right. Training was what they had to worry about now, but even so, the weight of guilt was pulling down on his shoulders. With every step he took, the song she sang played itself over and over again in his mind.

"Boy!" the ghost warrior yelled, shocking Link out of his trance, "You must concentrate on the task at hand! I need your full attention for this next part."

Link wanted to protest, but as he opened his mouth to speak, he stopped. He had to get a grip on himself. This was not the time for emotion to get in the way. Even so, he couldn't remove the feelings pressing on him. He did his best to conceal them, it was the best he could do for now.

"What we learn from now on will focus on honing your abilities with that blade," he explained, pointing at the transformed Master Sword. "That blade has potent power, but without the proper instruction, it is just a sharp hunk of metal, just as a sword is without training and courage. Now is when the real instruction begins."

The training he underwent for the next two weeks were not that of the body, but of emotion and thought, for this was the way the Sword of Twilight worked. He was taught a series of moves that would activate these powers, and they would practice the precision of these actions for days on end. It was like water flowing through a channel: thought was the water, and the movements were the channel. The more he worked on how he focused his thought, the more potential the attack had, and the more he worked on the action, the more power of thought could be allowed to flow through.

Once one attack was learned, usually after two or three days, they would move onto the next one and practice that action. This was incredibly taxing on Link, so they would take a several hour break after finishing a new skill, allowing Ordona's healing waters to work on them. During these training sessions, especially during the relaxing periods, many questions were asked, including the question of how he knew so much about the blade. He learned that the ghost, in his ethereal form, could not only see a magical item, but its powers as well. Link thought back to Shad and imagined that he would love that, especially with how much trouble he had put into discovering the mystery of the Dominion Rod and the statues.

At last the final day of training had come and there was only one week and one day until the mysterious dark force attacked the Twilight Realm. On this day the Ghost Warrior told him not to do any training, for he would have to prepare for the trip ahead of him. Not only for the actual using of the dark power, but mentally for having to leave the light world forever, as well as seeing Midna. If he was not prepared in these ways, he may as well be useless when he actually got there.

"Young boy," the Ghost Warrior said to Link on the final day as they were resting in the waters of the spring, "I may not be the one that should be telling you this, but I do believe that you are a man now."

Link sat up and looked at the warrior. "I never thought you were one for that kind of sappy father thing. Up until now you've been pretty hard to get through to. No pun intended."

For the first time, the old hero gave a laugh. "Well, anyways, I wasn't ever one for sappy discussions, so here." From his bony hand slid the small blue flute he had been playing on day two of training. "This, young man, is the Ocarina of Time. It was taken from me by my Zelda, but for some reason when I awoke in this form it was in my hand. It even has the little scratch I accidentally gave it a long time ago. See?" He pointed to a small spot beneath the mouth piece. The old Link could be likened to a child discovering an old toy that was buried beneath all of his other ones. Sure enough, the scratch was there.

"I don't understand," asked the young Link, "Why are you giving this to me?"

"Well, for a couple of reasons. I want you to have that to remember me by. When you lack courage, which I'm certain you will not, just hold onto the Ocarina and play a tune. You'll find it comes quite naturally. Plus," He gave a little giggle, which was totally out of character for him, "I always thought of it as my good luck charm wherever I went. Maybe a little bit of the luck will be passed on down to you." He attempted a wink at Link.

"Lucky?" Link laughed, "You're a ghost. What kind of luck is that?"

The old warrior put on a false voice of anger. "Hey, I was lucky enough to stick around and help save the two worlds. If that isn't good luck, I don't know what is."

Link gave a smile and looked down at the Ocarina. "Well, maybe I'll get lucky enough to keep you company as a ghost." They shared a hearty laugh, then lay back and stared up at the sky until the stars began to peek out from behind their black veil and the moon shone brightly as the treetops tickled its underbelly. "Before we parted ways for the last time," said the old ghost, his voice taking on a more serious tone, "I wanted to remind you of something. Your friends should know what happened to you at the very least."

It was dawn of the morning that he was to set off, but his mind was restless. What would he say to all of the Ordonians? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with a list of things to say. And so, he made the decision to just let it flow. Quickly. He couldn't do it any other way, he was just plain bad at long speeches. He marched into town with his sword in his hand, not even making an attempt at covering his face and hands. "Ilia," he whispered to himself, "I'm sorry."

At first nobody noticed him; everyone was either in bed or too concentrated on their work. So, he climbed the small pillar of stone that stood in the middle of the village on which grew the rare whistling grass that could call down birds. But instead of playing that, he took out the old warrior's Ocarina flute and began to play a slow, beautiful melody which was carried by the wind, its high notes, its low notes, seeping into every house, into every crevice, until all became aware of his presence. First was the shopkeeper's husband, who shouted "Link's home! Link's home!" when he saw him. This got the attention of everyone in earshot, and those that could not hear were fetched and brought over to see the young boy returning, but something about him seemed different; was his skin black? In several minutes the whole village had gathered around the pillar where the young hero stood, his Ocarina song finally finishing.

It was dead silent around him. Not a bird chirped, not a bug buzzed, not a person whispered. Not even Ilia was saying anything as he began.

"Everyone," he began, faltering a little, "I'm not really sure what to say. I've been everywhere, seen everything that Hyrule has to offer and a little bit more. It's fairly easy to tell that I've changed since I last saw you, and not just in my thoughts and actions and skin. My emotions have changed as well. But I still love you all as much as I did when I left." He lowered his voice so that Ilia was the only one that could hear him. "Well… almost as much." he said, his voice showing sorrow and regret. Her face turned to one of shock and sudden sadness.

It sounded like he was giving a farewell speech. He couldn't be… No! She began desperately climbing the vines, climbing up to him. She wanted to hold him, to love him, to kiss him as she would have before he left the first time. She didn't want to see him go. Not after she had just gotten him back.

"I only have one thing to say before I leave. I'm not coming back, and I will miss you all. Goodbye." He then held his sword up over his head and the black in his skin began to melt away like water, seeping out of him, and collected around the blade.

"Link! Wait!" Ilia called out. She began to climb faster and she was just about to reach him. Then, just like Midna had done a hundred times before, he was carried off into the sky in small black pieces. Ilia got to the top just in time to see the last bits of shadow disappear.

"Link," she whispered as a tear gently trickled down her face. "This isn't truly goodbye. I'll find you and bring you back home. I promise."