"Ganon invaded," Zelda said when they had at last barricaded themselves inside the hollowed out tree stump that was Loranna's home, away from the prying and innocent eyes of Kokria invading the air with their curiosity. "Decades after your death, he returned with an army of abominations."

A fire had been lit to heat the rapidly cooling air. All savored it, but none crowded around.

"He failed. With that failure, he was convicted of high-treason and executed."

"But he didn't stay dead," said Link.

Zelda nodded. "As he was dying, the Triforce of Power manifested and gifted him with unstoppable magic." Zelda scoffed. "The Ancient Sages called it a divine prank. But before he could break free, he was sealed in the Twilight Realm, a prison where Hyrule confined its degenerates."

Loranna looked unkindly toward Zelda from her sitting position, but allowed the Mistress to continue.

"Needless to say, he broke free. A century later, he brought his army to Hyrule a second time. Initially, he acted through another—a usurper king of the Twilight Realm." She pointed halfheartedly to Link. "And then the boy in green came, wielding the blade of evil's bane."

"I never fought Ganondorf in this timeline."

"No, but the one who did was just like you. Something you did began a cycle of heroes. Ganondorf would return, but you would always be there to strike him down." Zelda looked to the floor. "And then you stopped coming. Ganondorf came back again—but you didn't. He's been biding his time in Hyrule for thirty years. The Legion controls everything."

There was a knock at the entrance. A girl with hair of green stepped into the stuffy darkness. When her eyes found the construct, she froze.

Loranna stood. "Yes, Saria?" she said, disrupting the silence.

Link looked to back to the girl who had been identified by a name he associated with another.

The girl stared for several moments before answering. "I…," she said, pausing to search for words, "…just wanted to see if it really worked."

Loranna motioned for the girl to leave, but Zelda did the opposite, standing and pulling the girl into a sitting position beside her.

Zelda and Loranna exchanged looks of contempt before Zelda continued with her tale. "As I was saying: everything's gone."

Link rested his chin on a fist and leaned on his right knee. "This is—a cycle?"

"Something of the sort. They're all like you: little boys with fairies and princesses in tow. But something happened and the hero hasn't reappeared—and considering the size of Ganon's army, I don't think it would make much of a difference if he did."

"So you brought me back."

"We need you to kill him."

Link twisted the blackened features of the construct into something thoughtful. He glanced to his shoulder, only for his gaze to fall back to his lap, as though seeking something that was no longer there. "I was happy," he whispered.

Loranna cast her gaze downward.

"I had the woman I loved and I had children, and—" He rested his head in his left hand. "Gods, I can't—if this is real, then everything I've done is—Gods…"

There was a long moment of silence where no one seemed sure what to say.

"Link." It was the guardian—suddenly standing—who spoke. "Would you come with me?"

The construct met her dark eyes with red. He pushed himself into a standing position, wordlessly excusing himself from the darkness of Loranna's home. Curious eyes met him, all belonging to children of familiar form. He recognized the lifestyle of the Kokiri, but he did not recognize their age.

It occurred to him only then that the world he stepped into was unfamiliar.

He had no idea where to go.

The guardian was beside him, uprooting herself with each step, beginning a journey wordless into the forest they'd only returned from.

Link watched as the plant-life that made up her body twisted and squirmed in response to her movements. That girl he considered his best friend seemed so distant from the one before him, who seemed without a soul. "Saria, what happened?" he said, coming to a stop when they had at last distanced themselves from the village.

The guardian came to a halt several steps ahead. She stared onward, as though seeing something that Link could not. Finally, she turned to him, meeting him with empty black eyes.

"Many things," she said at last, her voice echoed by another—something powerful.

"Why are you—" He gestured to her, as though he lacked the words to describe her appearance.

Even without the emotion of flesh, the guardian's features seemed saddened. She turned away once again and walked onward.

Link followed.

"I am the lifeblood that the Great Deku Tree left for our people. When the Great Deku Tree's magical wards failed, I was left as the protector." She spoke without emotion.

Link twisted his head slightly to the left. "'Our'," he repeated.

She turned to him, reaching forward to place a gnarled hand on his chest. "You always belonged to the forest, Link. The Hylians could not take your childhood from you."

Link wrapped his fingers around the guardian's wrists, feeling every piece of life that made up her being. He held it there, lowering his head in unconscious honor of something lost and raising it only when he had mustered the courage to ask the only question that truly needed answering.

"What happened to Elina?" he said, his voice aquiver.

The guardian again stared straight ahead for several moments without answering.

"What happened to my daughter?"

"She died."

"You brought me back, can't you bring her back!"

The guardian was silent, but Link did not pry. Something loomed between them; a barrier of emotion that Link could no longer deny existed. He released her hand, letting it fall as though he'd forgotten he'd held it.

"Why can't you bring her back?"

"Because there is always a cost."

"And what was the cost to bring me back?"

The guardian was silent.

"Saria!"

It jolted her, the name. She looked at him as she hadn't before, with some unseen emotion. Something changed in the way she stood, from god to girl.

She hugged him.

Link fumbled backwards a step, but returned it, all anger forgotten. He realized how small she still was, how her head barely came up to his chest. A small crept across his features—almost a laugh.

It was the guardian who pulled away first so that she could bring a hand up to her chest. Her body peeled apart, accommodating for a hand that reach into the niche where her heart had once rested. She extracted from it a brown instrument, larger than her hand, and held it out to Link.

An ocarina.

"Do you remember what you did before you died?" she said

Link stared at the instrument, his thoughts clouded.

"You said many things—" The guardian looked away. "—but you held me and told me to watch over everyone."

Even as the guardian pressed the instrument into Link's hands, his expression was unreadable, he stared down at the memory cradled in his palms, running his hands over the smoothly carved surface.

"It is still possible for us to speak through the song. I no longer require the ocarina."

Link finally lifted his gaze. "…Thank you."

He searched for somewhere to stuff the ocarina, only to find that his body was not one he recognized as his own.

Zelda Irashda paced.

The village was quiet despite its youthful population. They played, but they did not do so loudly. They spoke, but not boisterously. They lived, but did so warily.

As she paced about the outskirts of the Kokria's settlement, she contemplated all that had been accomplished—and all that had been learned.

A daughter—a long living daughter.

Zelda adjusted the collar of her purple over-shirt and the position of her brown vest.

There were no written records of descendants outside of the cycle, but it was not impossible. Those few heroes she had knowledge of did not complete their tasks alone. Life-threatening situations in particular would be quite likely to push people together as the world crumbled.

But a daughter?

A living daughter?

But Loranna—

Zelda's face contorted with anger even as she thought the name. Of all who could have been—why Loranna? A pessimistic dictator? A potential liability?

Zelda slowed her pace, bringing her hands together over her stomach as she took several deep breaths. Her eyes narrowed as she sank into thought, recalling with ease the information she had done away with. Dates. Events. People.

Objects.

She cleared her mind and searched for what was needed:

A blade of evil's bane.

There were many references to the Master Sword throughout history. Of those many, only two mattered—two that proved conflicting reports of its whereabouts. The first mentioned a temple dedicated to the flow of time—the very place from where the Hero of Time had drawn the blade. The second spoke of a deep forest grove, surrounded by riddles and hidden away deep within the trees.

Both records were centuries old, if not a millennia.

Zelda cursed.

Useless.

The Hero of Time could be probed for information, but such an endeavor would be inevitably fruitless. The sword's location had no doubt changed after his lifetime, only to change again.

She was face again with the prospect of relying upon Loranna, who was likely keeping such information to herself.

Zelda lifted the back of her hand to eye level.

Her flesh was blank.

She tugged her sleeve till it covered the back of her hand. Her gaze flickered about, scanning the trees. Only when she was again comfortable did she return to the previous matter: the Master Sword.

"Mistress Zelda."

She recognized the voice as Saria's. She recognized the tone as apprehensive. Curious, Zelda lifted her eyes and met those of the apprentice, whose own gaze lingered near the ground. "You're far from your shepherd," Zelda said, slipping her hands behind her back her back and interlocking her fingers. "You've been given over to Loranna for this ceremony of hers."

Saria lifted her head and crunched further across the forest floor towards Zelda.

Zelda belittled her pride and spoke again. "What is this ceremony?"

Saria looked uncomfortably to her left and hesitated. "It's… different for the women. We bear children."

Zelda did not mask surprise, for none existed. It was as she had expected. Instead, she continued to pace, remaining several steps away from Saria. "Loranna intends to separate you from me and assimilate you back into her cult," she said. "My presence has only been permitted thus far because I am of value to her."

Zelda looked to the Kokria village with bitter eyes.

"Did you know that you shared a name with your goddess?"

Saria's gaze remained downward. "I did not, Mistress Zelda."

Zelda was quiet for a moment. "The Sage of the Forest—alive." She lifted her chin. "I should have known. Magic never dies. It fades, only to return twice as strong."

She readjusted her left sleeve before reaching into her pocket and withdrawing her golden pocket-watch.

"We will leave tonight," Zelda said after a moment's consideration of the time. "I have no intention of handing you back to Loranna for reindoctrination."

Saria laid a hand across her stomach. "Mistress Zelda, you told her—"

"I lied. She intended to deceive me about the length of the ritual. It's obligatory that I shorten the length of your stay." Zelda drummed the tips of her fingers together. "She's full enough of herself that she underestimates me in even the smallest of matters."

She gestured for Saria to follow as they began towards the Kokria village.

"And besides," she said, "we have another task. The hero is powerful, but without the Master Sword, he's as useless as the rest of us. I have need of Hylium's grand library. There must have been someone sensible enough to scribble down its location."