Welcome to a new Legend of Zelda! This story falls into the same timeline as Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, but is otherwise an independent story. It takes place many, many, many years before OoT. Please no comments like "that's not how the history happened", just enjoy the story as it is, okay? :P Also, the Link in this story is rather different from others in the series (you'll see how...). Other Legend of Zelda characters will be appearing in this along with several OCs. Oh, and if you're wondering (when you read the story), the name I gave the Goddess of Time means "year". That's all for now. Read and enjoy!

Prologue

The Forgotten Tower

The sun blazed down upon the desert. Warm sands glowed golden in the light. An air of tranquility floated around her in the place where only a select few could reach. Fire, water, air and earth; all were in unison, being a part of her as much as she was of them. The place seemed frozen in time, cut-off from the rest of the world. Matter of fact, it was. No mortal could enter the place under normal conditions. She had made sure of that. Solitude was what she liked best. It gave her the peace she needed to see to her work.

Opening her eyes, the young-looking woman gazed heavenward, raising her hand to block the glare from the sun. White hair cascaded down her back, flowing in the air though no wind blew at the moment. Her hair might have been pure white, yet there were no lines of age on her face. On the contrary, she seemed as young as in her early twenties. But she had an ageless quality to her looks. To match her hair, her fine dress was also a pure shade of white; no signs of dirt or wear anywhere on it. As she moved, the trail of the dress and the ends of the sleeves seemed to fade away into wisps of clouds.

At first glance, she seemed relatively normal. But when one saw her eyes, all that was taken away. Her eyes, pupil-less and silver, glowed like distant stars. The woman was none other than Jera, the Goddess of Time.

Time was no mystery to her. Past, present, and future, each one her domain. And the sands of time continued to flow as long as she existed. Though she was the master of time, that which every existing thing lived by, Jera was not that well known. But her mark was always there.

"What do you want?" she asked the person who had come up behind her without a sound.

"Shouldn't you know what I'm going to ask?" responded another woman.

Jera could hear the grin in the new woman's voice as she turned around. "Please, let us not have this discussion again." Looking up, Jera gazed upon the woman, though she already knew who it was.

Clad in a forest-green dress, Farore stood before her. Hair and eyes a stunning jade green, she smiled at the Goddess of Time. Much like Jera, Farore, too, was a Goddess. The Goddess of Courage. As time was Jera's to protect, life was Farore's. The Goddess of Courage flicked her hair that seemed made of vines and leaves to the side and walked towards Jera.

"Very well. We are calling a gathering to discuss the recent events. We ask that you come. Having you attend would be very appreciated."

Jera sighed. "We shall see. There is still much to do." Making a sweeping motion with her arm, Jera gestured to what lay in the sands around them. Ruins from various eras and places were toppled about. Bones of creatures long extinct and even of newer species scattered the lands. "Everything comes here sooner or later. It piles up on top of everything that came before, and so it shall never end."

After giving a small, disapproving sniff, Farore looked back at Jera. "You always have to do this. Some of us are beginning to think that you spend too much time with the past, and not enough with the present or future."

"Do not dismiss the past so lightly. Perhaps if people knew their own history better, they would be able to make better decisions, and not fall into a never-ending loop of having history repeat itself." Jera began to move towards an artifact near them to catalog, Farore quick to follow.

"Please come. Your insight would be useful. But..." the Goddess of Courage sighed, "I will understand if you do not."

The comment broke the usual sombre expression Jera wore into a smile. "I guess knowing when to back off does show courage, my old friend."

"Yes," chuckled Farore. "And you will always be as mysterious as time to us."

"As it should be. Now off with you!" she shooed. "There's much for both of us to do."

With a shake of her green-tressed head, Farore moved back to teleport away, but stopped before she cast her spell. "Jera..." The Goddess of Time looked back at her friend, brow raised at her tone of voice. "Do you what is of Din? Both Nayru and I can barely feel her presence. It's probably not much...but do you have any idea?"

Jera's brow quickly furrowed in thought and confusion. It was not like her to miss something like this...and something seemed wrong about it all, too. Out of the four of them, Jera was the most secluded, but Din, the Goddess of Power, was a close second. Together, the four of them created the world that was under their protection. Jera started the flow of time for everything to be a part of. Din forged the earth, creating the world in which everyone now lived. Farore gave it life, allowing things to grow and thrive. And Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom, created the law which every living thing abode by.

Hanging her head for a moment, Jera responded, "I'm afraid I do not." She raised her head, silver eyes glinting brightly. "But I will look into the matter. I'll let you know as soon as I find anything of value."

A smile of relief crossed Farore's face. "Thank you. I hope that next time we speak, it will be under more relaxing terms." Waving farewell, she muttered a few choice words in the language of old and disappeared in a swirl of bright green light. A gust of wind blew by, removing any evidence that anyone else had been in the Desert of Ages.

Left puzzled by what Farore had said, Jera cupped her chin in her had. This was not meant to be, she knew that. Something had to be terribly wrong. Only very few beings could change fate; the Goddesses and Spirits of Light being a few of them. Jera assumed that Din had done such a thing...but one could never be too careful. If she had changed fate, Jera wanted to know why.

Arms falling to her side, the Goddess of time murmured a different phrase in the old language. It sounded almost like the common tongue said backwards and with the stresses on the wrong syllables. As the spell formed, she could feel her senses stretching across the vast lands of the world and beyond, reaching everything that followed the flow of time. Her breathing became shallow. Even for a Goddess, stretching herself this far was tiring since time was everywhere.

Nothing.

There was no sign of the Goddess of Power. If she had hid herself, she had done it quite well. Jera grunted in frustration. Even if Din had cut herself off from the rest of them, there should have been some remnants of her somewhere. Concerned that something terrible was amiss, Jera stretched her senses even further, into the past and future. She would find something out no matter what.

Then she found something. Barely detectable, even for Jera, the aura that belonged to Din was unmistakable. But it was where it was that surprised her. Honing her senses in on the place, it took Jera a moment to recall what the place was named. The Tower of Kharigzan. An ancient and now dark place that had once been the focal point of an old civilization. What was Din's presence doing in a place that now lay beneath the Great Ocean? Without hesitation, Jera allowed her senses to delve deeper. Soon, she hoped, she would have an answer to...

"Uunghh!" Jera cried out, clapping her hand to her forehead. In a second, she was on her hands and knees, panting hard and having a few beads of sweat drop down to the golden sands. As fast as the searing pain had come, it left, leaving Jera exhausted and greatly confused. What was going on there that was able to do such a thing to her? Whatever it was, it did not want Jera to find out what. Questions plagued Jera's mind; not something that usually happened.

Gathering herself, the Goddess of Time quickly said the same phrase Farore had said before she left and warped herself out of her desert. When she opened her eyes, she was far beneath the Great Ocean, in ruins that had long been forgotten. Even being under the ocean for around ten-thousand years, the Tower of Kharigzan was still in remarkable condition. Designs that had been carved into the stone walls still stood out, and even some old tapestries floated tattered and torn in the dark waters. Finished studying the place, Jera floated through the halls to reach the place of the anomaly.

Up and up she went, nearing the highest room in the large tower. As she got closer to the source of the oddity in the original flow of time, she could feel its power more and more. Such a dark power, it was. Jera knew she had felt that power somewhere before, but at the moment, could not place it. Soon, she stopped. Before her was an old door that had managed to withstand the test of time and the forces of nature. And on the other side of that...

Jera breathed out slowly, readying herself for whatever may be on the other side. Then she floated through the door, the physical world holding no boundaries over her, and stopped when she saw what was in the room.

The circular room was devoid of almost everything. There were places on the wall where she knew once great tapestries hung, and the murals on the walls were all but worn away. Large, open windows allowed Jera to see the vast ocean that had kept the tower hidden for all these years, and even the city that it was a part of. But there was one thing still in the room, something that time could not seem to destroy.

A giant, dark crystal hung in the water. Chains were latched onto it, keeping the large crystal in place. Several of the chains lay broken on the floor. Some, she knew, were from old age. But others...

Perplexed, the Goddess of Time floated towards the crystal, still keeping a fair distance between her and it. The dark power that she sensed was radiating from it, pulsating like a life force. Without warning, a loud crack filled the room, and one of the massive chains snapped in two. Jera gasped. Such a thing was not meant to have happened!

Before the white-tressed Goddess could even move, a thick tendril of dark magic shot out from the crystal and latched around her leg. She grunted, trying to free herself from the tight grip. Another tendril whipped out, coiling around her waist. Another...and another. Struggling, Jera cried out for aid.

The dark powers lashed about her in a macabre fashion. Fire, water, air and earth—what had once been in complete harmony around her—all raging with raw, uncontrolled magic tore at her like never before. Crying out in protest, Jera managed to free a few limbs. She had knowledge of everything; past, present and future. But she herself could not change anything directly like she sometimes wished she could. As such, she even knew her own fate, and this was not it!

Jera glared at the crystal...and to the ones responsible for this atrocity. Had they also done something like this with the Goddess of Power? She shook her head. Surely, it could not be.

Someone! she cried out, letting her words travel to anyone who could still hear, whether it be in the past, present, or future. Someone, help! This cannot happen! This must not happen! Jera struggled against the remaining tendril latched about her, trying to keep more from grabbing her at the same time. All about her, she could feel the effects this was already having. Tearing herself away, she tried to hold time together as best she could. The task of doing that was enough. She could do nothing more to help.

Someone, please, stop this!