Chapter 19: The Master Sword
And so he handled the sword by the handles,
and lightly and fiercely pulled it out of the stone.
~Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
Link stood rooted to the ground, his lungs crying for air. He had been holding his breath for a minute or more, ever since the drawbridge had fallen. Zelda, though gone with Impa, had left him a secret that was now floating in the moat.
He had a feeling he knew what that secret was, but at the moment, a black horse blocked his way into town, leaving him with few options. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart.
"You there." Ganon's fury at the escape of his prey had faded to a subtler anger lurking under the surface. "Where did the horse go that just passed by here? You must have seen it. Answer me!"
Basic fear flooded Link's body. His will to act wavered. He wanted to fight, and he wanted to run. Then he thought of Zelda.
The will to fight won out.
A feral grin crossed Ganon's face when the ring of a steel blade sliding from its scabbard broke the silence. "I like your attitude, boy."
Link waved the Kokiri Sword back and forth. "You'll like this, too." He dove at the legs of the black horse.
Ganon never blinked. His arm shot out, and a stream of electric energy leapt from his fist to Link's body, knocking the boy over and driving him back several feet.
"Link!" Navi dropped to his side.
Ganon craned his head back and laughed, then kicked his horse with a shout. The stallion neighed and took off at a gallop, following the general direction Impa had taken.
Link groaned and sat up. Every nerve tingled with the shock of Ganon's attack. "Impa? Zelda…?" His memory had suddenly clouded.
"They're gone," said Navi. "So is Ganon."
Link sheathed his sword and stood awkwardly to his feet. "She left the Ocarina, didn't she?"
"You'd better get it before the guards come."
"Guards?" Link, in his shock, hadn't considered any guards that might have observed the altercation. He turned and scuttled for the moat, throwing himself in. He found the Ocarina of Time.
Then his world disappeared in a blaze of white light.
He had never been here before, but a silent voice inside him said that this was the Temple of Time. The ancient splendor in the air itself confirmed it, and the more he drank in the sights, the more he felt a part of the temple's hallowed legacy.
Majestic stained glass windowpanes lined the walls on either side. Black and white tiles alternated like a chessboard on the floor as if hinting at a profound reality: that all the moves of Hyrule's history, for good or for evil, were played out here, in this shrine to a bygone age.
Ahead, he saw the Triforce emblazoned on a pedestal identical to the one in the forest clearing where Saria had given him the Deku Shield. Beyond that lay an altar encased in marble, and in the marble were three depressions, each perfectly carved to the size and shape of one of the three Spiritual Stones.
Zelda stood at the altar, her back to him as she began to speak softly. Even at this distance, he could hear her words as if they were whispered in his ear.
"Link. I'm sorry I wasn't able to meet you personally."
Her voice lifted his spirits. He tried to approach the altar, but the floor stretched with every step, widening the distance between them.
"My time is short, so please listen. I must go into hiding. Since I can't help you now, you must believe in the stories I shared with you in the courtyard. I entrust the Ocarina of Time to you, in hopes that you will use it to protect the Sacred Realm from Ganon."
He tried to speak, but the words drowned in the gap that separated them. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes.
"I leave you with this melody," she continued, "the final key you'll need to open the Door of Time."
She turned to face him, her eyes closed, her lips pressed up against the Ocarina of Time. Air passed from her lungs to a hole in the instrument's shell, and a ghostly melody seeped out. The notes were slow and somewhat melancholy, yet mystical, like a choir of monks in lament.
She played the melody twice, and when she finished, she lowered the instrument and strode forward. The floor seemed to shift again, this time sliding him closer to the center of the temple, where she waited for him.
Their hands interlocked.
"Link," she whispered, boring into him with her words and her gaze. "I must leave you now, but I have faith that your courage will be enough to defeat Ganondorf's evil." She smiled a smile that warmed him inside and out. "Believe in yourself, but never forget what we owe to those who created us. They will be with you, even when I am not."
She gave him the Ocarina, and the temple began to fade.
"Goodbye," she said. "I'll be waiting for you when you return."
Instinct and Zelda's description of the city guided Link to the Temple of Time. He stopped in the courtyard leading to its doors just to breathe the air around it.
"I'm not ready for this," he said. "How will I know what to do when I open the Door of Time?"
"Maybe you won't have to know," Navi said.
Link craned his neck back for a better view. Above the door, a stone Triforce faced the courtyard as if guarding the temple from vandals. The east and west halves of the temple, so far as he could see, were symmetrical.
"Okay." He stepped up to the door, sure his strength would give out trying to pull it open. "What…?"
The door stood ajar, with just enough room for him to squeeze through.
"Be careful," said Navi.
He nodded and entered as quietly as possible. The interior of the temple matched what he had seen in his vision of Zelda almost perfectly: the black and white tiles, the altar, the stained glass windows, and the pedestal bearing the image of the Triforce.
Behind the altar, a short platform surrounded a square stone panel in the wall, with the image of a rising sun inscribed in the stone.
His breath caught. "The Door of Time…"
He plodded down the middle of the chessboard, drawn slowly but inexorably to the altar, Navi trailing at his shoulder.
"I leave you with this melody, the final key you'll need to open the Door of Time."
He reached for his soiled leather pouch and removed the first Spiritual Stone, the Kokiri Emerald or Stone of the Forest, his last gift from the Great Deku Tree. He placed it in the leftmost depression on the altar. Then he took the Spiritual Stone of Fire and placed it next to the Emerald, in the centermost depression.
His hand shook when he touched the third stone. Zora's Engagement Ring?
"Come on," said Navi. "Just put it in."
The Spiritual Stone of Water clinked in the rightmost depression. Link raised the Ocarina of Time to his mouth and played a faithful rendition of the song Zelda had taught him in his vision.
Stirred from eons of rest, the Temple of Time reacted. Bright rays of sunlight exploded from another stone Triforce tucked in the wall above the Door of Time. The Door itself shuddered, and a hairline fracture in the center that Link had failed to notice widened until the two parts of the Door had vanished in the wall to either side.
Ahead, something glinted in the light from an unseen window.
"Link." Navi's voice trailed off until she could bring herself to speak again. "Is that…can it be that legendary blade, the Master Sword?"
"I don't remember the Great Deku Tree ever talking about it." Link frowned, finally circling the altar and climbing the platform that faced the Door of Time. He peered at the inner chamber, squinting for a better look at the sword.
"Every fairy knows about the Master Sword," Navi said. "It was the last thing our goddess, Farore, created before she left Hyrule with her sisters."
"What's so special about it?"
"They say it's the last barrier between Hyrule and the Sacred Realm. Once it's taken from the stone, anyone can enter the Sacred Realm."
Link stepped through the Door of Time and wandered into the Master Sword's sanctum. "Good thing Ganon's chasing Impa, then, instead of us?"
Navi squeaked. "If he had known back there that you had the Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time, he could have forced you to open the Door of Time and draw out the Master Sword without bothering Zelda."
"Couldn't he draw it out himself?"
"Only someone with a good heart can move the sword."
"How do you know I've got a good heart?"
"The Great Deku Tree must have thought so, or he wouldn't have sent you."
By that time, they had a better view of the sanctum, a stone cavity with a fifty-foot ceiling and a single window that, at a certain time each day, allowed the sun to shine on the platform in the middle of the room, where the Master Sword waited in silence.
The sword stood perfectly straight, embedded in a block bearing yet another Triforce icon. Its blue hilt, set off by a crosspiece that curved to either side of the blade like a pair of wings, deftly balanced the weight of the blade itself.
Link reverently climbed the platform and extended his hands, holding them out until he had gathered the courage to touch the hilt. "Are you ready?"
"Are you?" said Navi.
"No."
"Great. Let's do it."
He closed his fists around the hilt and jerked upward. The blade slid out with little resistance, leaving its berth for the first time in untold centuries.
Blue fire engulfed the edge of the platform. Link stared at the reflections of the fire on the blade, then he turned his gaze on the ceiling as the fire rose up like a pillar and bled through the roof.
"That was a fine account, fairy," said a cold voice behind them. "If you're not smart enough to watch your back, at least you're well-versed in Hylian lore."
"Ganondorf!" Link spun around, struggling to raise the Master Sword.
Ganon's eyes danced with the eerie light of the flames as he drew his sword from the scabbard dangling at his waist. "Smart to lead me away from the city. Your princess almost kept me from my goal…but you needed the Ocarina of Time, didn't you? I knew she wouldn't have left without finding a way to get it to you."
Link's stomach turned at the thought of their horrible mistake. "I won't let you take it."
"You think that's what I was looking for?" Ganon smiled, looming over him like a god. "Thank you for clearing my path."
"No!" Navi placed herself between Link and Ganon, but the blade of Ganondorf Dragmire came down nonetheless.
Link tripped and fell back over the block that had once held the Master Sword, barely avoiding the lethal blow. "I can't lift it. I can't—"
A void of white light swallowed his protest, pulling the three of them into the flow of time, along the perilous path to the Sacred Realm.
And with that, we come to the end of Part One. Most of you reading this will probably have played the game many times over, so I don't have to tell you why this is a major turning point in the story.
Please look forward to Part Two, the first few chapters of which I'll probably release this Saturday night (8/27/12). Expect things to get darker from here on out.