Ogadai nearly tripped over his own feet as he took a hurried step back, grabbing the doorknob behind him. But before he attempted to open the door, he took a deep breath and stood firm. There's no need to be afraid of a mere ghost.

He stared intently, curiously at the specter, looking for some similarity or lack thereof to his own features. His stance and the calm, easy way he moved were unnervingly familiar. The ghost stared right back, but with a calculating, appraising look. "You needn't be afraid of your own father, Ogadai," it said.

Scowling, Ogadai replied, "I am the son of Chusai Ordana, no one else. How do you know my name, if you died before I was born?"

He saw the slightest flash in the ghost's eyes. "I have searched for many years to find you. Finally I spotted you, in some worthless thatch-hut village. It was I who cast the spell which sent you here."

Anger boiled within Ogadai. "So it was you who cursed my mother! You were that wild boar who exposed this thing!" He balled his fist and thrust the mark on his hand into the ghost's face. "Come to claim it, have you? Forget it! Once Link finds out you're here…"

The ghost raised his hand. "Let me speak. You owe that much to one of the two that brought you into this world."

Ogadai took his hand off the doorknob and folded his arms. "Hurry up." Link is on his way back here anyway…

"I apologize for the trouble I caused in the village. I needed to find some way to catch your attention." Ganonodorf looked his son in the eyes. "Your mother never told you of your heritage, did she?"

"Not hard to see why," Ogadai grumbled.

"I don't mean as the son of a man hated by your mother's people. I mean as a brother and nephew of a very proud, ancient people, who have just as much right to this land as the Hylians." He regarded Ogadai for a long moment. "You met your sisters, I take it?"

Ogadai looked at the floor and nodded.

"Your mother kept that information hidden from you, in hopes to keep you hidden from me. She lied about your heritage because she didn't want you to seek out your relatives."

"Yes, because one of them is dangerous!" Ogadai snapped. "Why should I want to meet the man who forced my mother to serve him?"

The ghost blinked. "I did not order your mother to serve me, when I first took over this castle. She was bodyguard to the Princess Zelda…who ordered her to continue her position once she stepped down. She remained loyal to the Princess despite this. You know your mother…she would have slit her own throat rather than submit to threats."

Ogadai's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. Namu says you killed Mother's family…and forced her to fight her comrades."

The warlord's face stayed impassive. "Do you have any proof of the first charge?"

"No…"

"You can't believe everything you hear without evidence, Ogadai. As for Chusai fighting her comrades…I won't deny that happened, but you should know it frequently happens during a civil war. You've seen it in Kando, brother pitted against brother." Ganondorf gave Ogadai a softened, almost pitying glance. "Do you know why Zelda ordered your mother to keep her role as bodyguard to the throne?"

After several moments, Ogadai shook his head. He had to admit it didn't make much sense.

"Zelda was weak and a coward, Ogadai. She could not handle the shift of power and the pressure put on her by her people. So she ordered Chusai to look after things while she shut herself away."

"That's ridiculous."

"You think so?" The ghost smiled slightly. "You came here to meet Zelda, didn't you? Ask her. She cannot lie to you. She feared me and set your mother up as a shield between us."

"For good reason! You ruined her kingdom and came after her to…to…"

"To break the Blood Curse," Ganondorf finished serenely. "You may not agree with my methods…Chusai certainly didn't. But what she – and most of this country – does not want to admit is that our two races have fought on and off for years."

His eyes brightened and he stepped closer to Ogadai, and would have placed his hand on the boy's shoulder if not for the fact that it would pass right through. "Your birth broke the curse on our people. It is your destiny to unite the two human races of Hyrule once more."

Ogadai bared his teeth in disgust. "Ludicrous. You are a crazy, power-mad…"

Ganondorf continued as if he didn't hear him. "You are half Gerudo and half Hylian. All these years you have been a prince in exile. Zelda abdicated her throne and left it to Chusai and myself. Then she changed her mind once a hero from a false prophecy arrived. Chusai also believed in the prophecy and helped him. But the kingdom of Hyrule belongs to you, by right of birth and by conquest."

Suspicious, Ogadai muttered, "You only went after my mother because you couldn't have Zelda."

Ganondorf shook his head. "I admit that was my plan in the beginning. But Zelda proved to be too spineless for the mother of the uniting force. Your mother was strong, intelligent, resourceful…everything I wanted in a son."

Ogadai looked at the specter out of the corner of his eye. "Did you love my mother?"

The ghost did not answer for several moments. Finally he said, "That is irrelevant. Matches made for the sake of nations usually do not have the luxury of heartfelt romance." Seeing Ogadai's scowl, he leaned closer. "But you, my son, are luckier than us. Once you take power, you can choose anyone you want to be by your side." His voice became softer, more conversational, as his eyes fell on the pendant Maline had given Ogadai as a parting gift. "Is there someone you know, that you would like to bring here? Your friends in your home village are so poor…"

Ogadai cast his eyes downward. "There's nothing wrong with my village…"

"Not with the people that live there, no. They're just unfortunates caught in unfavorable circumstances. But why should you stay that way if you can better your position? This is what I mean by your heritage, Ogadai. Surely you have felt the pull of your mother's homeland. Go to the window and look outside."

Ogadai stared blankly at him for a moment, then walked slowly over to the window. He made sure he did not show his back to the ghost, and kept glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. For his part, Ganondorf did not seem to care. Once Ogadai reached the window, he said, "Does the beauty of this kingdom not intoxicate you? Even my fabled adversary knows that its green fields, its prosperous people, drew me here. I wanted to abandon my dying land and claim this one for my people."

Here Ganondorf's expression switched from reverence to anger. "Now they are worse off than before, even though I dug up the tale of the Blood Curse and its injustice to the Gerudo. What of your poor starving sisters, whom the Hylians have forced to live on the edge of sustenance? Could they not benefit from your intervention? My blood runs through you and through them…we are your kin."

Ogadai stared out at the castle town, remembering the sorry state of the young women. There was no need for them to have to suffer from malnutrition and persistent sores. Not with the vast riches of this kingdom. Naomai's words rang in his ears. You are the sign that change will finally come, when we will be as rich as we were when she was a child. Our father will return soon, now that you have come back to us.

"I simply did what I had to do in order to bring about the union between our two races, broken long ago." Ganondorf turned and looked Ogadai in the eyes once more. "You, my son, with your mother's compassion, could rule much more fairly and well than either Zelda or I ever could. What say you?"

Ogadai turned away. "This all seems a bit far-fetched, if you ask me."

Ganondorf stood silent, then said, "Ogadai, do you know the meaning of the mark on your hand?"

Frowning at it, Ogadai said, "Not really…just that it's seen as belonging to the Royal Family here, and that our two races has fought over it, and it has some kind of magic power."

"That's a rather bland summary, Ogadai. You hold no less than the power of one of the Goddesses inside you." He nodded as Ogadai gave him a disbelieving stare. "Zelda has one, and she has contained within her the knowledge and history of the relic. Link has another, and it was the two of them combined that allowed them to defeat me."

Ogadai rubbed at the mark, as if to wipe it off. "I don't see what good it is. I haven't been able to make it do anything."

"Of course you have," Ganondorf snapped impatiently, but recovered quickly. "Did you think you alone could fight off a wild boar several times your size? Your determination to fight awakened the relic of Power and you channeled it as you fought." He leaned in close. "Now, Ogadai, do you think this cherished treasure of the Goddesses would be granted to just anyone? Who would make a better ruler than one who wields the power of the gods?"

His eyes narrowed, Ogadai spotted the weak point in this logic. "Both Zelda and Link were granted this same privilege. What makes me better suited?"

"I told you. You are the symbol of the unity of the two races. You are fated to unite the two nations. Zelda will not fight you over this. She knows who you are, what you symbolize for our peoples. She knows the power you keep, and is sworn to serve it. She knows she must step down in order to once again unite our nations, our races, and the Triforce."

Ogadai rubbed the back of his hand, two voices at war within him. One screamed in warning for him to abandon this evil man and his alluring words, to return to the life he always knew, to simply give up the thing and hand it off to Zelda. The other, a strange new voice angered by his mother's lies, urged him to heed his forgotten father and help his lost sisters.

He could feel the new voice digging into him, wrapping around his heart like a tentacled creature. It had always been there, locked away in a corner of his mind. In the past it had whispered discontent over his lowly position. It had urged him to explore the lands far beyond his home. It needled eagerly at his brain, reckless, hungry.

But his common sense still held control. "What do you want from me?" He demanded finally. "Do you think I would actually march up to the Princess of this kingdom and say, 'You can't have it, I'm keeping it?'"

"I only ask that you open your mind to me," Ganondorf said softly, calmly. "I only wish that you consider the possibilities. If you like, I can stay here and offer advice or insight while you speak with them."

"How would you do that?" Ogadai snorted. "They're going to notice you're here, and I doubt that they'll want me to hear any of your 'advice'".

"I am a mere ghost. The restrictions of a mortal body do not apply to me. I appeared this way to you, as I did in life, to give you an image of your father. But I can just as easily curl into a ball inside your ear, and give you a few whispers of advice that they cannot hear. You will need to do some bargaining, for your own sake and your sisters', regardless of whether you want the throne or not. And though your mother was highly skilled, I don't think she passed this down to you."

Ogadai shook his head. Having a second opinion does sound like a good idea…even if I never listen to it. "What do I need to you for you to…uh, hide?"

"Just relax, and open your mind to me. It won't hurt, I assure you."

Ogadai took a deep breath, and shut his eyes. "All right…I'm ready…"

The ghost shivered into a shapeless form, then disappeared. Suddenly Ogadai's eyes flew open in shock, and he trembled as if with a seizure. His head wobbled forward, eyes half shut, then jerked up. He blinked, then stood up straight and glanced around with a satisfied smile, which expanded across his face in an eager, malevolent grin as he looked upon the mark on his hand. A deep chuckle rumbled in his throat, and his voice took on a very different tone.

"Ah, Chusai…you managed to hide our son from me for a very long time. But in the end…you should have taught him to be less trusting."

"Relax, Chusai…there's no need to be afraid…"

Chusai's eyes snapped open as she awoke from her nightmare, one that had not visited her in many years. As the familiar warped oak ceiling above her bed came into focus, she sighed in relief and raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her face.

"Ow!" Her arm felt stiff and wooden, like a poorly carved marionette's. She peered at angry red marks where her wrist and elbow had been lying on the mattress. "What the…bedsores? How long was I out?"

Shouts of pain, confusion, and jubilation mixed in a strange cacophony just outside her bedroom door. Grunting, she managed to pull herself into a sitting position, just as Maline burst into her room. "Oh, Asana! You're awake too! Praise the gods!"

Chusai rubbed her head. "How long have I been asleep? What happened?"

Sitting down by her side, Maline took Chusai's hands in her own. "You've been under a curse for more than two weeks, you and five other people. We were afraid you would never wake up!"

"A curse?" An uneasy feeling tugged at Chusai from the pit of her stomach. She struggled to stand, but Maline pushed her back down.

"No, no, you're much too weak. You need to rest, Asana."

"Stop suffocating me." Chusai pushed Maline to the side. "Where's Ogadai? Was he cursed too?"

Maline blanched, her eyes wide. "No, no…he wasn't cursed…"

Chusai narrowed her eyes, then struggled to her feet, knocking back Maline's hands with her own. "Where is he, then?"

Trembling, Maline took several steps back. "He's…he's out on an errand…he'll be back soon…"

Quick as a flash Chusai's hand shot out and grabbed Maline's collar. "Did he go to Hyrule? Answer me!" she shouted and shook Maline as she stuttered, unable to speak.

"I…I…the village shaman told him to go…" Maline finally gasped.

"Idiots!" Chusai hurled Maline backwards and she crashed into the door, terrified by Chusai's sudden rage. Scrambling to her feet, she wrenched the door open and fled, Chusai's shouts ringing through the hallway. "You fools! You've doomed us all!"

Her friend Ota came running. "Maline, what's going on?"

She leaned against the wall, her legs shaking. "Asana…Asana's still cursed…she's gone insane…"

"What?" He heard thumps and bangs coming from the bedroom and called over his shoulder, "Junsun! Guys! Something's wrong with Asana!"

The little group of men burst in the door to see Chusai digging through a sea chest, most of its contents already scattered across the floor. She had tossed aside her clothes and now wore a guard's jacket of light mail, iron-tipped boots, and a shirt over the mail that bore the Hylian royal seal.

"What on earth?" Ota demanded. "Where did you get that?"

Chusai didn't answer, but pulled out a Hylian shield and slightly pitted sword from the bottom of the chest. Strapping the scabbard onto her belt, she pushed past the little group without a word, then suddenly turned to Junsun. "I'll need your horse, it's the fastest in the village. You can take my inn as collateral if you want. I have a feeling I won't be needing it anymore."

Junsun raised his hands. "Now hold on a minute, Asana. I don't know what's gotten into you, but we're going to help you through this, all right?" His hand flashed out to grab her arm.

Quicker than thinking, Chusai drew her sword and held it at Junsun's throat. He froze, and the others stepped back. Speaking with deadly calm, she said, "There is nothing you can do for me at this point. What I'm about to face is beyond all of your comprehension." She spun on her heel and stalked down the hall.

Junsun ran to the stairs as she headed for the outside door. "Asana! Where are you going?"

She turned, the door open, and shouted back, "To save my son!"