A/N: Thanks to XandraFox for catching my dumb mistakes before you had to see them.
Chapter 10
It took both the old man and Zelda to help Link into the Temple. Each breath brought with it a flash of pain, and a blood had begun to soak through his shirt.
"No fear, no fear," Sahasrahla said. "I've treated worse, in my time. You don't get to live as old as I have without picking up a thing or two about medicine, heh."
Inside the temple rested a flat alter, the only object in the expansive room. Pale moonlight
illuminated it. With a grunt, the sage heaved him atop it.
"Now, where did I place that nightfeather root? Should be here somewhere…" He wandered away, picking through his over-sized red robes as he muttered to himself.
Zelda took Link's hand. "You okay?"
He shook his head. He hadn't thought it that bad at first, in the heat of the battle. Now the
wound in his chest burned through him, absorbing all his attention. He clamped his teeth hard to keep from crying out.
When Sahasrahla returned, he held a bottle of red liquid. A thin but firm hand took Link by the jaw, and he poured the liquid mercilessly down his throat. It was so viscous it seemed to crawl down, and stung the whole way. Link lurched forward, but the Sage held him down.
"Easy, boy," he said. "Healing's rough work, so it is."
Link thrashed, and screamed, and prayed for an end.
"Pull his shirt up, girl."
"Wha-"
"Quickly, now. Wouldn't want him to heal around the fabric. Nasty business, that."
Her hands were cold, and the stone surface colder. She gasped as the shirt cleared his upper chest to pool around his neck.
"It's… vanishing. Closing!."
Sahasrahla laughed. "What part of magic don't you understand, girl?"
Then all he felt was pain.
Some time later, a dim sensation of a wet rag on his chest pierced the haze. He muttered something unintelligible.
"Easy, boy. Poison's not easy to purge, especially that near the heart. Can you sit?"
Link blinked his eyes open and tried to prop himself up. It felt like taking a hammer to the ribs, but he managed.
"Normally this would go without saying, but if you're anything like your predecessors, at least try not to do anything stupid or active in the near future."
He exhaled slowly and slid to his feet. His legs trembled, but held.
"And with that unpleasantness behind us, let us head to the courtyard. We have much to discuss.
Though moonlight still shone upon the altar within the temple, the courtyard was bathed in sunlight warmer than Link had felt in weeks. Rather than squirm beneath the blood and sweat that drench his shirt, he removed it entirely and found himself quite comfortable. Zelda raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Sahasrahla sat them on cushy armchairs that did not, at least, appear ancient, then brought them out tea in porcelain cups, the sort you might find on display in ancient houses from before the Reunification. He accepted it gratefully. The tea did for his spirit what the vile potion had done for his body. He felt refreshed, as though he had just woken from a mid-afternoon nap. He smiled.
"Now," Sahasrahla said, settling himself into his chair. "I know why you're here, you know why you're here, but do you know why I'm here?"
"To guard the temple, surely," Zelda said, somehow managing to simultaneously cross her legs and appear to lean in toward the old Sage. She even made it look comfortable. With her tea cup artfully poised and a gentle, polite smile on her face, he began to see her as the princess she actually was.
Sahasrahla was a good deal less composed. He slouched, arms draped carelessly over the armrests, and slurped at his tea. Link found a happy medium between the two, behaving in a manner Miss Rebecca might have called 'civilized.' Or as civilized as he could be shirtless and plagued by an aching chest.
The sage snorted. "If I could do anything to guard this hunk of rock, do you think your boy would've had to fight off those Skulltullas?"
Link twitched, almost jumped in his chair. Since the attack, he had not had much time to think, had not even bothered to wonder where the spider-creatures had come from. Now they were safe, had ample time to ponder the mystery over tea, and Link did not like the implications.
Zelda's forehead creased, and her lips pursed, as though she were in careful thought.
"See, this?" Sahasrahla said. "This is exactly why I stopped dealing with princesses. Spit it out girl, what's on your mind?"
"What were they?" she said.
"Creatures of Ganondorf, sent to prey upon my power. Would have done a good job of it, too, if you lot hadn't shown up when you did.
"He's dead!" Link blurted. "He's been dead, for centuries!"
"There's a difference between all-dead and mostly-dead, boy. If he's all dead, there's just about one thing you can do with him." He shifted his gaze expectantly between the two children. Link sat quietly, hoping Zelda would know what he was looking for. When she didn't reply either, the sage's shoulders fell.
"If an old geezer who's been living alone in the forest for a thousand years knows more about movies than you do, that's just pathetic," he grumbled. "Have you really- never mind. Ganondorf. He ain't dead. Never was. Twisted soul like his, I reckon he can't die."
"So the legends are true," Zelda said. Her voice had the same somber coldness it had when she had first entered his room and begged his aid. Link could not understand her serenity. He had just learned that the most infamous part of Hyrule's history still lived, and had sent his minions into Hyrule already.
And Link was supposed to somehow fight him.
"These… Skulltulluas, you called them? They were… eating our magic?" Zelda said.
"A crude interpretation, but aye, you could say that. Due to your heritage, you may have experienced some mild discomfort from it." He smiled coldly, without humor. "They were on the verge of eradicating mine completely, and erasing this forest haven forever. With their death, I believe things will soon mend. Not, perhaps, to their full extent, but enough. Enough."
Zelda's smile seemed less cold, and even Link managed to relax some. How many other 15-year-old boys in Hyrule could say they'd thwarted an evil plan.
"Think, fools!" Sahasrahla snapped, glaring between both of them. "What happens now? What is inevitable? Actions have consequences, princess, and your forbears ignored this, to their doom. Think, by the Goddess, and earn that title you bear so carelessly."
The rapid change, the brute hostility startled Link. Suddenly the world felt so much more concrete. The fuzzy happiness from the tea vanished, and he was acutely aware of the cycle of his breath, the sweat beading on Sahasrahla's brow, the bitter breeze.
He forced himself to think, but as usual Zelda was one step ahead.
"If he has half the power as the stories say, he would be keeping track of his creatures."
The sage nodded.
"He knows they are dead."
Another nod.
"He knows no normal accident would have killed them."
Sahasrahla leaned forward, a dangerous glint in his eye. His lips curled back to reveal sharp teeth, barred in a feral smile.
"And then?"
"He knows we know of him. He will strike before we can prepare."
She sprung to her feet. "I must tell father."
"Sit down, girl," Sahasrahla barked. "This night, there is no safer place for you than here. If you seek to return before the initial assault has burned out, you will die, or worse. Link will die, or worse. And all of Hyrule will fall under the rule of the evil king.
"The first time this occurred, the Goddesses flooded the world in water. The second, they flooded it in sand. What do you imagine will happen this time?"
"This place would be destroyed if we hadn't killed the Skulltullas, you said it yourself. And you call this temple safe?"
"Why do you think he sent only two Skulltullas? Why do you think he did not eradicate this place the instant he learned of it? This is a temple of the Goddesses, and other powers, bound to this earth by ancient oath. It actively resists him, even now, even weakened. Do not let fear drive you to foolishness, girl. Even his power has limits, and it will be needed elsewhere if his strike is to work at all.
"You will remain here this night, as your country burns.
"You will wait, and you will hide, like a spineless coward aye, but also like a smart girl who enjoys living.
"We will speak of legends, of power, and of relics deemed lost.
"And when the storm passes, and the fury of Ganondorf's onslaught has dimmed, you two will be the only hope for Hyrule."
Princess and Sage glared at each other in a contest of wills. Link did not know where she got the strength. Too much was happening, and too fast. He could barely follow their dialogue, and only had the vaguest of notions as to why Ganondorf would choose now to attack. He'd thought he wouldn't have to fight until he was an adult! What could a kid do against… against that?
He suddenly felt so terribly small. He wanted to go hug Miss Rebecca and cry into her arms as he had so frequently his first years in the orphanage. He wanted to awake from the overwhelming nightmare and just go back to school, and fail math, and read books of little consequence.
But he couldn't. If he didn't fight Ganondorf, Hyrule would fall. Zelda would die. Aghreal would live under his harsh reign. Aghreal, and Fado, and Anju, and Miss Rebecca, and even Kafei.
Find the rock Aghreal had told him, just hours before. He closed his eyes. The whirlwind of fear that swirled about him faded. Slowly, ever so slowly, he captured the eye of that storm, and held it. His fears raged and pried at his defenses, and threatened to rend him apart, but deep within the eye, they were powerless against him. He sweated, and shivered. His heart pounded, his breath came tight. But his mind was clear.
The most important thing in the world, right now, was hearing what Sahasrahla had to say.
He commanded his body to rise, and to place a hand on Zelda's shoulder.
It obeyed.
"He's right." His voice trembled. Zelda shot him a dismal look, a look that said what do you know of these things, and that added to the whirlwind of fear, but he commanded his body to stand fast.
"You know he's right."
He had defeated two Skulltullas, had saved the Forest Temple from annihilation. He had learned algebra, and worked out with Nabooru. He could hold a damn conversation.
Zelda faltered and bit her lip. Her shoulders began to shake.
"Are you certain?" she choked.
Sahasrahla nodded.
"I have had long to study his ways and guess his mind. If I am wrong, there are none in this land who would be less wrong, save the Prince of Thieves himself."
She half-fell, half-lowered herself to her knees.
"I thought I was working ahead. I thought, for once in history, we had the advantage.
"Do not speak so harshly, girl. It is thanks to you the situation is not completely hopeless. You have had fifteen years to learn the lessons of the past, less if you don't count the years you were too stupid to guide food into your mouth. Ganondorf has had millennia.
"I will brew some more tea."
The three sat in a circle. Sahasrahla had resumed his carefree pretense, curling up in his chair like a schoolgirl reading a titillating book. Zelda slumped in her chair, sipping tea with a still-trembling hand. Link sat as close beside her as he could position the over-sized armchair, clasping her left hand in his right. He held his spine unnaturally straight, unwilling to waver lest he invite the fear back in.
"Ever hear why the Goddesses buried us in sand and dropped us smack in the middle of a desert?" Sahasrahla asked.
Zelda shook her head.
"It's cause we were killing the world already," he said. "Built too fast, you did, and the magical creatures, the non-Hylians, they paid for it. Almost died. So when Ganondorf took over, again, the Goddesses solved two problems at once.
"'Let 'em build,' they said, and carried all the magical beings away far out through inhospitable wastes, where no one would ever be crazy enough to go find 'em and mess 'em up again.
"But of course when you lot get in trouble, again, you'll have to have someone smart about magic a lot closer than that, yeah? So they plopped me here, and here I've been for the past several centuries. You know how many bricks are in this building? I do. Two million, five hundred and three thousand, and thirteen. I counted. Twice."
He sipped at his tea, scowling "So now your obvious next step is…?"
It was not hard to see.
"Get the Master Sword from you."
Sahasrahla sputtered. "Wha-? Have you been paying attention at all? Why would I go tell you about the this 'magic-place' if all you had to do was pick up a sword here and go lay the smack-down on the evil sorcerer? No, I don't have the Master Sword. I'm here for information. In-for-ma-tion," he repeated, drawing out each syllable. "Got it?"
Link nodded. "So I find a helicopter or something, and go- What's wrong with that?"
Sahasrahla was looking at him with narrowed eyes, the same look Aghreal would give him when he tried to make subtraction associative, or something similarly dumb.
"You, sir, are not planning any invasions in the near future. I hate to say it, but let's let your lady-friend do think thinking here, hm?"
Link idly noted that normally the jibe would have flustered him. Now he had more important things to worry about.
"Helicopters are obvious," Zelda said. "Even if you did somehow manage to get one, the best-case scenario is the Hylian military tracks you down to figure out what you're doing deep in the desert with a helicopter while Ganondorf's attacking. It's suspicious."
"And if the military's out there, no way is the Great Fairy letting you find her people," Sahasrahla finished.
"So I'm driving-"
"- in whose car?" Sahasrahla said.
"- walking through the desert until I somehow find the Master Sword. Couldn't we just shoot him or something?"
"He has layered on dark rituals so thick as to be impenetrable. Weapons may harm him still, but only the Master Sword can shatter the enchantments."
"How am I to find it?"
Sahasrahla shrugged.
"It's north-ish. And a little to the left. These things have a way of working out."
Link stared at him in disbelief.
Sahasrahla shrugged again. "Hey, this happened, right?"
Link had to concede the point.
"And my role in all this?" Zelda asked.
"Do… whatever it is you princesses do. Be safe. Don't do anything stupid. Don't let him do anything stupid. And for the love of all that is holy, don't do what I know you're already planning to do and follow the idiot into the desert. If you both get killed, we're all right screwed, and if he can't hack it on his own, we are in any case doomed.
She wrinkled her nose in annoyance, but said nothing.
"Damn princesses are all the same," Sahasrahla muttered. "Am I the only one who thinks any more?"
Louder, he said, "Get some sleep. Time runs a bit… slow here, but I reckon you'll still wish you'd slept more once you leave here and your caretaker can find you again."
He patted them each on the hand and rose.
"Wish I could say it was good to meet you, but damned if I won't be glad to have y'all out of my hair and this business over with. Have fun storming the castle and all that."
He left, and that was the last either saw of Sahasrahla, the one remaining Sage from the mists of history.
A/N: A universe without some version of The Princess Bride is a universe too dismal to play in.
