MIRACLE.

Zelda spent the next three weeks in her cell, with no human contact other than the occasional visit from someone to bring her food. She heard something. She put an ear down on the cold stone floor and listened. People were talking below, although it sounded more like an argument than a conversation. She couldn't hear the words being said. Vaati and two Iron Knuckles walked past her cell up to the floor above, without a glance at her.

She remembered: she had magical powers as a Sage. But did she remember how to use them? The memory made Vaati's spell on her weaker, and she no longer thought of him as a hero, but as a monster. She felt nothing more than an urge to escape and her only hope was to try to use magic. No way was she rotting her life away in her own dungeons until Vaati allowed her to come back out! She pointed a finger at the shackles on the other hand and concentrated. A thin beam of white light burst out of her finger and went into the shackle lock. It fell off her wrist. She shook her right hand to get more blood inside them—the shackles cut off most circulation—and then unlocked her left shackle.

Quietly, she hurried up to the cell door and unlocked it. It opened with a creak and she closed it and locked it, then scanned herself with her hand and shot a clone of herself into the cell. The shackles immediately wrapped themselves around her clone's wrist. At first she turned to go up the stairs, but then she remembered the voices. Curiosity alone was enough to cover her fear and keep her feet moving.

The doors loomed in front of her with every one she went through. Were the voices only her imagination? She decided to open one more door and then leave, but when she closed her fist around the doorknob and turned it, the door didn't budge. It was locked.

Now why would this door be locked when all the others aren't? she wondered. She tried her magic. It took eight times to crack the lock. Her hand on the knob again, she thought of what could be on the other side. A monster? My life has no meaning anymore, anyway, so who cares if there's a monster on the other side? If it kills me, I'll be out of my misery. Slowly, she opened the door and walked inside.

There was no monster there, only a torch casting light onto cell bars. She saw no door in the room but the one she was standing in. She closed the door behind her and walked over to the cell. Caution was gone. She didn't care if she died or not, but she didn't remember why. A dark figure was inside the cell. She saw its silhouette in the torchlight: shackles bound around wrists and ankles and neck; head hung, hair hanging in its face; knees apart, hands loosely resting between them. The figure was sitting on a bench, leaned over, and she wanted to see its face. "Hello?" she said. The figure didn't stir. Was it dead? Or just asleep. She shrugged, turned away, and headed for the door, stopping when it said her name.

"Zelda?"

She turned. The figure came into view from the torchlight as it moved off the bench and near the cell bars. It was a young man her age, and he looked familiar, but she didn't know who it was. He had dark blue eyes that seemed to shine in happiness as they saw her face, and gold-blond hair hung in front of them as he grinned broadly. She approached him slowly.

"Um… do I… know you?" she asked.

"It's me, Zelda," he said. "Don't you recognize me?" She shook her head. His smile faded into a frown. "Did he do it?"

"Did who do what?"

"Vaati. Did he make you lose your memory of me?"

"Look, I don't know you, so whatever you want, just say so."

"Tell me my name."

"Excuse me?"

"Tell me my name," he repeated.

"I don't know your name. You tell me."

"Come here." He beckoned her to come closer to her, and she did, sitting by him on the other side of the bars. She saw a scar on his chin and a gash in his forehead that trailed onto his right eye to about half an inch off his eye toward his nose. She asked him what happened to his face. "I got it from my last battle," he said. "Now, don't fight me, but I want to get your memory back." His left hand reached through the cell bars and touched hers, then held it up. Her eyes went to their hands. His fingers locked with hers. She had felt this touch before. He put her hand to his cheek. The touch of her hand on his face shocked a lost memory into her and she said his name, knowing exactly who he was.

"LINK!"