Link and Zelda walked quickly down the corridors, back to the room where he had left Ogadai. Something about the encounter had bothered him, even though the Master Sword would have detected any ill will in the boy. Link kept instinctively reaching up for the weapon, but rubbed his neck at the last minute each time. He did not want Zelda to think he was paranoid, but she noticed anyway.

"Having second thoughts?" she asked softly.

He shook his head. "It's not Ogadai himself that's troubling me. It's…" He thought long and hard. "Well, it's hard to believe that he's the son of…that Chusai would actually…" He shivered. "Do you think…she was…taken by force?"

Zelda considered this. "No. Chusai would have disobeyed me and killed herself if it came to that. He must have tricked her somehow…"

"Must have been some trick…"

Zelda said nothing. She had told Chusai all those years ago that Ganondorf could turn black into white. Not a day had gone by that she didn't regret sending her bodyguard into the lion's den. It had been a cruel order, but Zelda could not think of any other way to preserve her sanity and block the oncoming tide that threatened to swallow Hyrule.

Such suffering poor Chusai has endured…but now I can finally make things right…once I lift her curse and reassemble the Triforce, I will invite both of them to stay here at the castle. No one need know who they really are.

She raised her head, her heart glad at the prospect of finally being able to repay her debt to her dedicated bodyguard. Link noticed her change in attitude and smiled slightly. He always felt better upon seeing her happy. It didn't happen very often. Both of them, like Chusai, knew their duty and stuck to it, no matter how painful it might be at times.

Startled, Ogadai shivered and opened his eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," said a voice inside his head. "I'm here, waiting in your ear, to help you if you need it."

Ogadai smiled nervously, hearing footsteps coming up to his room. The door opened, and two people stepped in – Link and a regally dressed blonde woman. Ogadai kneeled, recognizing that she must be Princess Zelda. He felt an odd tug at the back of his mind, like a fishhook in his brain.

"Rise," said Zelda, and smiled at him. "You must be Ogadai Ordana. Your mother was very close to me. I will do anything I can to help her."

Ogadai stood, trembling with relief. "Thank you, Your Highness." He felt the tugging again, this time a little stronger.

Link motioned for all of them to sit down. "Zelda thinks the curse can be lifted just by using the Master Sword. I can set out for the Refugee Village in a couple days."

"But first we will visit the Temple of Time, this evening," Zelda said, "and conduct a ceremony to make the Triforce whole again, now that we have all three pieces together."

Link stood, clapped a hand on Ogadai's shoulder, and asked, "Are you feeling up to it, or do you need to rest?"

The fishhook yanked hard at Link's touch, and Ogadai flinched. The slightest flash of malice crossed over his face. Link and Zelda exchanged glances. "Sorry," said Ogadai, putting his hand to his stomach. "Not feeling well."

With a concerned expression, Zelda rose and stood in front of Ogadai. She gently placed her hand against his face, and peered into his eyes. Ogadai saw a sudden flash, felt a strange wave of bloody glee, and a tiny snarl jumped out of his throat. He turned away and grimaced as the other two stepped back. What are you doing? He demanded of the ghost in his head.

"Stay on your guard, my son. I sense they do not have the best of intentions…"

Link suspected the truth behind Ogadai's behavior, and decided to merely test his theory. He unsheathed the Master Sword, intending to touch Ogadai lightly with it. But Ganondorf had already planted the seed of fear in Ogadai's mind, and the young man jumped out of the chair in panic.

"Ogadai!" Ganondorf's voice rang in his head as he stumbled back. "Lend me your body, and I will defend you!"

Help me, father! Ogadai handed over his mind and body, and fell into darkness.

"Ogadai, are you all right?" Zelda approached the young man cautiously, as he sank slowly to the ground on his knees, his head in his hands. She felt Link grasp her upper arm, holding her back. She looked at him and nodded in answer to the question on his face.

Link crept toward Ogadai, his sword held ready. "Are you feeling ill?" he asked, keeping his voice steady. "Would you like to lie down for a bit?" The young man did not move, even when Link stood just out of arm's reach. Link extended his hand toward Ogadai's shoulder.

With the speed of a striking snake, Ogadai sprang upward and swung his fist across Link's face, sending Link flying over the furniture and onto the floor. Before Zelda could react, Ogadai slammed into her, throwing her up against the wall and wrapping his hand around her neck. "Give it to me," he hissed, in a chillingly familiar voice that was not Ogadai's at all. "Give it to me, or I will take it from you!"

Link stumbled to his feet and ran toward them, sword upraised; but Ogadai simply flicked his wrist, casting an unspoken spell, and with another swipe of the hand, sent Link crashing into another wall. "Hah!" Ganondorf's voice rang throughout the room. "What's it like to be pummeled by a kid half your age, eh? Not very dignified, is it?"

Zelda clawed at the hand around her neck. "What have you done with Ogadai?" she gasped.

"Oh, he's still here," Ganondorf assured her. "He's sleeping at the moment."

Link picked himself up off the floor. "He was fine just a few minutes ago," he sputtered. "You corrupted him that quickly?"

"All human beings have a weak point…some more than one," Ganondorf told him conversationally. "Chusai kept Ogadai sheltered from the world, from his history, so he had no idea how to deal with what he would face here. Add to that his need for kinship – much like Chusai's – and it was easy."

Incensed, Zelda dug her nails into his wrists, and thin threads of blood trickled down his arms. Unfazed, he said to her, "You don't seem the type that would hurt an innocent person…remember, this is Ogadai's body…"

She jerked her hands away in frustration. Link slammed into Ganondorf's side, releasing Zelda. "Then maybe we'll just have to knock you unconscious!" Link shouted, and balled his hand into a fist.

Ganondorf caught it, and twisted his wrist. "Not so powerful without your sword, are you? Now you've aged, and I've commandeered the muscle and frame of one in the prime of life." He retaliated with a punch that sent Link spinning.

Zelda stood, her voice raspy. "You would do this to your own son? Steal his life so that you can live again?"

"I don't intend to stay in this body for very long." Ganondorf picked up the half-conscious Link by the back of his tunic. "With the full power of the Triforce, I can create a new one for myself and return from the dead."

Link drew his sword and slammed the flat end hard against the back of Ogadai's leg. Ganondorf stumbled and dropped Link, who ran to Zelda's side. The two of them ran as one to the window, and leaped out.

Ganondorf stared in consternation as they fell, and his face darkened as Zelda created a shield around them that shattered as they hit the ground. Unharmed, they sprinted away from the castle. Scowling, he muttered, "I suppose I acted too quickly. Well…even with a couple of loose ends, I still have an advantage by taking the castle."

"Ogadai…wake up…"

Ogadai slowly opened his eyes, feeling as if someone were pulling him up out of dark water. "What…what happened?"

"I'm sorry, Ogadai. The Princess did not respond well. We were attacked."

"What?" He glanced around and found himself in a gigantic, ornate room, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows and crystal chandeliers. He looked down in consternation to find himself sitting on a gold-leafed, carved wooden throne. Startled, he jumped to his feet.

"Relax, Ogadai. I won our battle with the Princess and her bodyguard. No one else contested your legitimacy to the throne."

Confused, Ogadai demanded, "How long was I asleep? What happened to Link and Zelda?"

"They chose exile. You have slept for a week. In that time I have prepared you for your new role."

Ogadai stepped uneasily down the dais, not sure he believed what he was told. "This doesn't seem right," he said to himself.

"All will be clear in time."

"Did they really fight us? I do remember Link drawing his sword…but he didn't seem like the type of person who would…"

"Appearances can be deceiving, Ogadai. His prejudices against your bloodline overcame him. As chivalrous as he seems, his attitude toward your mother prompted him to say things I will not repeat here…"

Ogadai flinched. "What did he say?"

"Nothing all that serious…but it seems cruel to compare a boy's mother to a woman of the night, simply because he doesn't like her choice of…"

"All right, I get it." Ogadai shuddered. "What about Zelda?"

"She refused to live here if she could not have a hand in the rule of this country. But she could not argue against destiny."

"That seems odd…I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to keep her as an advisor or something."

"No, Ogadai," Ganondorf snapped. "We cannot have any remnants of the old regime. Still, we must find both of them…they refused to hand over their pieces of the Triforce, and we cannot unite this fractured land if its source of power is also broken."

"How do we do that?" Ogadai heard a knock at the great double doors. "Come in!" he yelled without thinking.

The doors opened, and six young women entered. "Sisters!" he exclaimed, and ran toward them; but stopped short when all six kneeled in unison.

"Hail, Prince Ogadai," said Zuma, a contented smile on her face. She rose, and embraced him so hard he nearly lost his breath. "Our father summoned us." She stood back and looked him in the eyes. "At last, brother…your destiny has been fulfilled."

Lathered and sweating, Chusai's horse nearly fell over itself as she reined it in at the edge of a small town. Leaping off, she led the heaving mount to the house of a horse dealer. "I need a fresh mount," she said to him, skipping over the usual pleasantries. "What do you have that's fast, and that I can get if I trade you this one and a few more rupees?"

The dealer glanced at the horse, then at her. The animal looked about to collapse, and under normal conditions he would have taken advantage of this out-of-towner by passing off some old nag as a racehorse and taking her for all the money she had. But the Hylian guard's uniform told him that as far as home as she was, she often traveled far…and wouldn't hesitate to come back for him if she'd been cheated.

He sighed. "Take whatever you want," he told her. "Give me 50 rupees for yours, and we'll call it a deal."

She pushed the money in his hand and chose the strongest horse he had without even a thank-you for this generosity. As she rode off, the dealer wondered what had pushed her in such a hurry.

Chusai rode until the sun hung low in the sky. Over the past week she had only caught a few hours of sleep here and there; exhaustion began to wear her down. She stopped at another town with a small inn, and paid for a night's stay.

The next morning, after pounding on the inkeeper's door to demand breakfast, she saddled up her horse. A cloud of dust off in the distance caught her eye. She ran back into the inn and out onto the balcony, squinting hard at the horizon.

A convoy slowly snaked its way up the road. But it was not the orderly ranks of soldiers, or even the random chaos of a marauding army. The undulating ribbon consisted of wagons filled with people, makeshift carts piled high with family valuables, and stragglers of all shapes and sizes rounding out the edges. A wave of refugees.

Forgetting breakfast, Chusai ran down the stairs and jumped on her horse. Once she got to the head of the line, one of the men hailed her. "Hylian soldier!"

"What's happened?" Chusai demanded, noting with horror that the convoy consisted almost exclusively of Hylians. "I've been out on a mission."

The man shook his head, as if the news were too much to bear. His wife, her hair turned gray from the dust, spoke up. "The Usurper King…somehow, he found a Hylian to give him a son…the Prince of Darkness has driven Zelda from the throne!"

"What?" Chusai turned ghostly white, then green. "Are you sure…did you see this person claiming to be his son?"

"I did," another man, in tattered royal clothing, spoke up. "Came into the throne room, right after Zelda left to meet someone. Said both she and the Hero were gone. By the gods…he looked just like the Usurper King, but he had a Hylian's ears…told us to submit to him or leave. I got out of there as fast as I could. No sign of the Princess or the Hero."

"Is there somewhere near here, where we can stay?" the first man asked as Chusai sat motionless, in shock.

She jolted out of her reverie. "There are many inns on this road. Maybe ten days' journey from here you'll find a refugees' village."

"Thank you…come with us, soldier," said the woman. "We'll need protection."

Chusai shook her head. "I'm going back to Hyrule."

"What?" Several people took up this cry. "Are you insane?"

Chusai didn't answer, but merely spurred her horse forward, as the long line of refugees looked on.