Link and Zelda huddled against the rain barrel in the alley as the guards raced down the lane past them. As the clink of metal and the sound of footsteps dimmed, the two children stood and ran in the opposite direction, unwilling to stay in the same place for too long.

"Stay here," Link breathed, then shimmied up the side of a rain spout to catch a glimpse of the main square. He stared out for a few moments, then turned down to Zelda and shook his head. Picking his way down, he said, "Ganondorf is nowhere to be seen. Are you sure you can feel him nearby?"

Zelda rubbed her marked hand. "All I know is that the further we move away from the castle, the less I can sense his presence."

Link glanced over in the direction of the castle. "You don't think…they took him prisoner, do you?"

Zelda turned to him, shocked. "Ganondorf? Is that even possible?"

He nodded. "I met him in the dungeons. We were both there when we met you, remember?"

"I do…I had forgotten." She thought for a while, a little crease forming in the middle of her forehead. "He escaped once…I'm sure he can do it again. But…we can't just sit here and wait for him. What should we do?"

"We can't risk getting caught ourselves. Maybe…maybe we can try to sneak into the Temple of Time. Once we replace the Light Sigil, maybe the guardian there can help us."

"Good idea…but how do we get in? There are even more guards than before. And they know we're here, and what we look like."

Link turned to her with an appraising look. "Then we'll just have to change what we look like."

Before she could react, Link grabbed her long golden hair and drew his sword. With one swipe he cut it short. He tossed it aside, but she picked it up. "Look, I'm sorry, but if you don't want them to find us…"

"No, no, I'm not upset. I just thought of something else." She stuffed it into the pack. "What next?"

Link crept into a small courtyard behind one of the larger homes and swiftly collected an armful of walnuts. He cracked them open, and both he and Zelda rubbed the hulls into their hair until it turned from blonde to brunette. They purloined boys' clothes for the both of them and threw their own into a fetid rubbish pile at the far end of the town, save for a few scraps of Zelda's dress.

Zelda led him into the back of a butcher shop, where she soaked both the scraps of fabric and the hair in cucco blood. Then she tossed both to a pack of stray dogs that hung around the shop, their tongues lolling out their mouths. After washing her bloodied hands in a barrel of rainwater, she and Link headed back toward the main square.

"Should we run?" Link asked, eyeing the guards that stood at every corner.

"No! Walk," she whispered. "If we run, they'll get suspicious." She took Link's hand and they walked at a casual pace down the street. The first guard ignored them, the second nodded in greeting. The two children held their breath as the third stepped in front of them. "Hello, kids. The square's off limits for anyone who doesn't have business there. You'll have to turn around and go home."

"But we do have business there," Link insisted, thinking quickly. "Our mother asked us to go out and get some vegetables for dinner."

Zelda made a face for extra effect. "I hate vegetables! But we have to go."

"Yeah, mom'll give us both a whipping if we don't come back with some food!"

The guard watched them suspiciously, then asked, "Did she give you money?"

Link looked to Zelda, who reached into her pack for a blue rupee, the remainder of a handful she had taken with her when she left the tower. "See?"

The guard stepped to the side and waved them forward. "All right, go ahead. Don't dawdle."

Just then a dog ran past them, accompanied by the shrieks of shouts of the townspeople. "Stop that dog! Catch it!"

Both children could see the shine of golden hair in its mouth as it streaked by. As a crowd gathered around the dog, and guards gathered around the crowd, Link and Zelda sped off toward the Temple of Time.

Ganondorf groaned as he rolled over, raising one hand to his head as pain lanced through his skull. He opened his eyes and saw nothing but blurry darkness. As his vision began to clear, he caught sight of the light of a torch on a far wall. In between him and the torch were thick, solid iron bars.

He cursed, the past events tumbling back into his memory. He shouldn't have hesitated, he thought to himself. After the Princess had stared at him as if he were a demon, he had restrained himself from killing any more of her people. But he had been overpowered. He distinctly remembered the Shekiah turning on him in the last few moments.

Restraint didn't pay off, he decided. Standing up, he examined his small cell. He was not so worried about himself, but he wondered where the other two were, and if they had been captured as well. There was no breath of life from any body except his own, not even a guard or another prisoner. He was alone in that dark place.

First things first. Ganondorf balled his marked hand into a fist, enjoying the rush of power that flashed through him as he did. He reached out with both hands and grabbed the bars.

A terrible onslaught of pain ripped through his body like an electric current, and at first he could not even pull himself away from the bars, his hands involuntarily clenched around them. Finally wrenching himself free, he gasped for breath as he examined the anti-magic wards that had been woven there.

Strange, he thought. Didn't Zelda's uncle aim to purge magic from the world? Who could cast something so strong that even I cannot break it? He looked down at the mark on his hand. Ganondorf could feel that he was only using a tiny fraction of the Triforce of Power, yet he seemed to be having trouble harnessing more of the relic. Something in the back of his mind stopped him whenever he tried to gather more power to him.

Ganondorf ran his hands along the walls, searching for a weak spot in either the magic wards or the stone itself. As he did so, he heard the opening and closing of a door, and the sound of footsteps that ran loud in the dark gloom. He stood to face his visitor.

The same elegant robes, the same golden crown. But now that he was closer, Ganondorf could see more of the man's face. Thin, middle-aged, small brush-strokes of hair for a mustache. Almost painfully boring, it appeared to harbor no malice. Yet something odd in the blue-gray eyes sent shivers down his spine.

Ganondorf greeted his visitor with a wicked smile. "I didn't know the usurper king would raise his royal ass off his throne just to pay a visit to the dungeons."

The king's eyes narrowed, but betrayed no other sense of emotion. "I'm glad, for your sake, that you have a sense of humor. Your execution takes place in the next three hours."

Ganondorf brandished his Triforce piece with a snort. "Do you really think you can sever the soul of the Bearer of Power?"

"Ah, by all means, then, leave," said the king with a malicious smile. "I mustn't keep such an important person from his business."

Scowling, Ganondorf demanded, "Where did you manage to find a weaver of magic wards, if your rule involves purging it from the land?"

The king stared at him with an impassive face. "Just because no one sees them, does not mean they are not here. Like the Princess, for example."

Ganondorf snarled. "You filthy swine, how are you any better than my ancestors?"

"Idiot. All of the strife and hardship that Hyrule suffers, comes from that wretched triangle you hold in your hand. It is not just you, but the other two as well, that must die."

"The people of Hyrule will not consent to you killing their Princess."

"If she bears the unholy mark, they will." He smiled slightly. "The ancient lore of the Triforce is gone. As far as the people of Hyrule are concerned, she is marked with a curse that must be destroyed."

Clenching his fist, Ganondorf said, "I won't allow that to happen." He began to draw Power into himself, bypassing the old barrier and reaching for more.

"If you insist," the king said passively as magical might swirled around both of them. "If you wish to follow your ancestor's path, go right ahead."

"What are you talking about?"

The usurper king gave him a lopsided grin. "Power corrupts, my friend. Even the kind of Power granted by a Golden Goddess. You may be doing this to help your friends now, but it won't be long before you forget your original purpose." He stepped forward. "Your ancestor had the same goal," he shouted over the hissing rise of magic. "He wanted to save the Gerudo from extinction, to secure a place for them in Hyrule. So he attempted to steal our magic and then everything went wrong. Do you think you have the strength of mind required, King of Evil?"

Suddenly Ganondorf let go, the magic draining out of him. The king laughed. "See, you could feel yourself beginning to fail, couldn't you? At least this time you have the sense to stop before disaster strikes." He dropped his voice to a soothing tone. "Now, let us help you. We can make it all just go away."

"What do you intend to do?"

"Kill you and the other two, slice apart the corpses so that the spirits cannot return to their hosts, and wish for the Triforce to destroy itself."

Ganondorf's eyes widened. "You speak the impossible!"

The king shook his head. "Nothing is impossible, poor man. One of my ancestors attempted it, an age upon an age ago. A pretender to the throne, who married into the royal family. He manipulated your ancestor into kidnapping the Bearer of Wisdom and confronting the Bearer of Courage. When your ancestor freed the Triforce to claim as his own, my ancestor snatched it at the last minute."

The king's placid face suddenly shifted into a mask of rage. "The Bearer of Wisdom thwarted him, upon seeing that they had been deceived. We could have left this country for a new one, but no, the Princess is always tied to the curse. It's because of that damned Triforce that this country sees so many wars. We are never attacked from beyond, only from within! The cursed relic must be destroyed!"

Ganondorf stepped back, deep disgust in his face. "Old man, you blaspheme," he said. "As foolish or cruel as my ancestor may have been, it pales at the true Evil within you."

"Your words matter not," the king replied haughtily. "The three Bearers will die, and the Triforce will be wished out of existence. Enjoy these last breaths of life, for without your precious curse, you cannot be reborn to torment us any longer." With a swirl of robes, the king turned and stomped out the door.

Ignoring the pandemonium behind them, Link scowled at the guards that still stood between them and the Temple of Time. "I don't think those are going to move."

Zelda glanced around, then pointed to a girl who watched the drama unfold back toward the direction they had come. "Her hoop…let's take it, and send it through the guard line."

"Good idea!" Link snatched it without her even noticing and pushed it through the square, whooping and hollering as if nothing entertained him more. Zelda followed behind, adding nervous giggles to his shouts. One of the guards chased them, the others watching with amused expressions, not about to hurl their full force against innocent childrens' foolishness.

The hoop landed in a patch of manicured bushes near the temple. "Stay here," the guard ordered. "I'll get it for you."

The two children waited obediently until the guard turned his back, then scrambled into the undergrowth. The other guards had long since stopped paying attention.

Link and Zelda scurried on all fours like groundhogs, from one set of bushes to another. Finally, they got near the front door, but two guards stood in front of it. "Now what?" Zelda asked.

Link thought for a few moments, then crawled under some bushes at the side, motioning for her to follow. The bushes ran the length of the side of the temple, and there was just enough space for the two of them to squeeze in between. While Zelda waited, Link hunted for a small stone and hurled it into the intricate stained-glass window. He ducked into the bushes and the two of them raced for the door as the guards ran over to investigate.

As they pushed the door shut behind them, Zelda gave Link a reproachful look. "What was I supposed to do?" Link demanded. He pointed to the altar at the far side of the temple. "Do you suppose that's where we put the sigil?"

They walked up to it and placed the sigil, but nothing happened. Suddenly the door opened and they whirled round, the two guards entering. "…Don't know why anyone would throw a rock into…Hey, you!"

Zelda snatched up the sigil and both of them ran up to the far door, but it had no handles or any other way of opening it that they could see. "What do we do?" Zelda cried out as the guards ran toward them, weapons drawn.

Link ran his hands over the cold stone door, and suddenly the mark on his hand flared to life. "Zelda! Help me push!"

She threw her tiny weight against the door, the mark on her own hand burning as she did. They opened the doors enough for each of them to squeeze through, then slammed them shut just as the guards reached them.

"How long do you think we can stay in here?" Link asked no one in particular.

"None but the Goddesses' Chosen can enter the gateway to the Sacred Realm," a low voice boomed throughout the room. They whirled round in surprise to see an old man wearing a crimson-red robe. "I am Rauru, the Sage of Light." His eyes twinkled kindly as he held out his hands. "I believe you have something for me?"

Zelda handed over the Sigil of Light. "With this, we can draw the Triforce from you and replace it where it belongs, in the Sacred Realm." He looked down at them with a frown. "But where is the Bearer of Power?"

The two children looked at each other. "We're not sure," Link said at last.

Rauru frowned. "The task cannot be completed without all three Bearers present. You must find him and bring him here."

"How do we do that?" Link demanded. "There's guards waiting for us outside!"

Holding up the sigil, Rauru said, "I can use the little magic inside this to transport you to the gates of the castle. I sense he is near there. You will have to find him yourselves."

Within the blink of an eye, the two children found themselves on the far side of the castle, near the moat but far enough away from the guards not to be seen. Zelda clutched the hem of her shirt. "I was afraid he had been captured," she said in a small voice as she turned to Link. "What do we do now?"