Well, this is a chapter that is much shorter than the previous one. It concludes the young Link storyline. If you have any thoughts, feelings or opinions about the last couple of chapters, it would be great to hear what you're thinking if you've made it this far in the story.

Chapter 18

The Final Key

Link struggled against a rising panic as he kicked hard through the water. He stayed in the moat until he came again to the lowered drawbridge. Hours had passed since he had swum here earlier, and the bodies of fallen gerudo, hylian and sheikah had sunk to the bottom. He still had to fight through blood and detritus from the fight, though.

The drawbridge was a great help to Link as he pulled himself from the water. Unable to get a firm hold on the slope of the bank, he was able to catch on to its wooden edge. It was still high above the water, though, and Link did not find it easy to haul himself out.

Once he was on firm ground, sodden and dripping, he paused for a moment to ensure he was alone before he moved on. The fighting was presumably still going on somewhere, but there were no soldiers in sight for either side, not was Ganondorf nearby.

Drenched and exhausted, Link set off down the hill at a run. The streets of the upper echelons of Hyrulian society were deserted but Link could hear screams and shouts close by. It did not sound like battle. Link quickly located the source of the unrest. The Market and the lower cobbled streets were a riot of panic and fear.

It seemed the battle was now wholly centred on the castle; there was no fighting here. Instead, people screamed and pushed against each other to try and escape unseen enemies, and tripped over the corpses that littered the floor.

Unnoticed in the throng, Link slipped between hylians, zoras and gorons and took the road he had walked after the last time he had left the castle. No one was coming this way, and he broke into a full run. His saturated boots slapped and squelched on the cobbles and he slipped constantly.

The Temple of Time loomed before him, a colossal apparition in the rain and dim morning light as he passed between the iron gates into its courtyard. He dashed across the little space and through the old doors. As he entered the sanctuary he again had the sensation of utter timelessness about the ancient edifice.

He slid to a halt, shivering. He could not help feeling disrespectful as he walked across the marble floor, dripping and with the sound of his wet boots echoing loudly around the chamber.

He came to the altar with its three indentations, running his hand over each of them. The first time he had entered this building, he had recognised the space reserved for the Kokiri's Emerald, but the other two had been alien. Now he could clearly see they were shaped for the Gorons' Ruby and the Zoras' Sapphire.

For a moment, he heard Zelda's voice through the rain again, now taking on a wholly new dimension than when he had heard them in his dreams. He would do as she had asked him.

From the pouch at his side, he withdrew the three Spiritual Stones. Besides his sword, they were the only things he still had; he had lost his pack long ago in the chaos of the night.

Carefully, he set each stone in its place and stepped back. Nothing happened. Link looked at the immovable stone wall beyond the altar. Before he could do anything else, something distracted him.

Moving away from the altar, he looked back towards the entrance. He could not quite say what he thought had happened, if he heard something or some other sense had made him wary, or if it was simply his uneasiness and tiredness. There was nothing there, though. He was still alone.

Looking again at the altar, he pulled out the Ocarina of Time and stared at it. Placing it gently to his lips, he began to play.

It was a beautiful instrument, of far better craftsmanship than the one Saria had given to him. The long notes it emitted were unearthly and moving. Link played the songs he had played a hundred times before, familiarising himself with the new instrument. Then he stopped and began to play the song Zelda had taught him during his first visit to the castle, the song she had told him was wrapped intricately with the flow of time and the enchantment of the Temple.

As he played, he could feel the notes adding to the agelessness of the sanctuary. It was as if he had always been playing, as if this music had always filled the space. He seemed to hear other music as well, voices joining his song. A chanting filled the air, the sound of sages hundreds and thousands of years ago moulding the enchantment of the Temple of Time, creating it inside and yet outside of the flow of time. As he played, he felt as if the previous night would not happen for centuries and had also passed out of memory long ago.

The only thing that remained constant was the solid rock of the building, the stones that would hold together until the very end of time, although all else would pass away. Though Hyrule became a barren wasteland, made of nothing but ash and dust, all its people long dead, this temple would remain, unshakeable.

A rumbling like a crescendo of thunder added to the song and filled the temple. Link could feel it in his very bones. The chanting increased and Link could almost see the original builders of the temple sealing away the Triforce to protect it from evil. Now he was unlocking those same barriers for the selfsame purpose. He watched as a great crack, from floor to ceiling, appeared in the wall before him.

It was impossible to say if it was truly happening or simply an effect of his song, the same as the sound of the mysterious singers. The crack widened and the two parts of the wall drew away from each other, a large doorway appearing, a great space that led into another chamber.

Link's song rose as he approached its end and he seemed to see things far beyond his understanding. He saw figures flickering backwards and forwards, warriors doing battle, spells reverberating through the air and ricocheting off the walls. The elements seemed to sweep around him and fall into nothing.

Ahead, through the aperture, Link saw a great blue light, a pillar of blinding brightness. He could not look away from it and as he watched he thought he could discern two figures, one slight and lithe, the other tall and bulky, battling furiously. Weapons flashed, too fast to follow. He saw two other figures who seemed to approach the pillar.

The light exploded, Link thought for a second he was being blinded, and he had the unerring sensation that the world was ending and this was the end of everything.

When the light faded, though, he remained stood before the altar. Dazed, he stumbled, the ocarina falling from his hand. It fell hollowly to the floor.

Everything had seemed so real, the timelessness of the Temple sweeping him up in a frenzy from beginning to end. The chanting had gone and he was still alone. Blinking to clear the spots from his eyes, he looked and saw that one thing had been real: the wall had split, a door had opened, and he could see into another chamber.

For a second, he felt his heart increase, as he looked for the people who had been fighting, but there was no one there.

Bending, he picked up the ocarina, before passing around the altar and through the door.

He entered a wide passage that opened out into the chamber. It was strange, for it felt as if it was too big to still be inside the temple. Link had walked around the temple courtyard, and it did not seem this large. High windows sat far above him in the walls, bright light reaching through from blue skies. Link frowned, remember the intensity of the storm outside.

It did not long occupy his attention, though. The floor in the centre was raised, and Link climbed the small steps to a central dais. In the very middle was a pedestal, and sunk in it was a sword.

It had a long blade, with a leather bound blue hilt and wing-shaped cross guard. The steel was clearly of high quality, shaped and folded with a long blood channel. At the top there were runes and the symbol of the Triforce was clear on both sides of the double edged blade.

"The Master Sword," breathed Navi. "The blade the ancient sages formed to prevent evil from ever ruining the land." She fluttered down to the pedestal and looked at the markings on it. "There are runes here. 'For the Triforce is a balance, and to be weighed you must be judged. For this we leave wisdom beyond our own, that you may be judged by a Master of all things.' The ancient sages left this sword here as a judge of all seeking to enter the Sacred Realm."

Link did not speak. Too small to easily pull at the sword, he stepped onto the pedestal and wrapped his hands around the hilt. Gently, he tried to pull it out. It was set firmly in the stone and did not budge. Tensing his muscles, he pulled again, exerting himself more, and as he did he felt it steadily slide from its place. A loud sound like rushing wind filled the chamber.

His heart began to race as he held onto the hilt, but it felt as if the entire temple was moving, spinning, and then the dais seemed to lift from the floor. Blue light enveloped the centre of the chamber, the whole of the dais and the pedestal and the world seemed to be emblazoned in white, just as he had seen when the door opened.

Scared, Link could think of only one explanation. He had left the ordinary world behind and was now entering the Sacred Realm of legend, the first to enter it from Hyrule in an untold span of years.

A hand reached through the white light. It gripped Link's shoulder and pulled him, twisting him round. Horror filled his entire being as he looked at the black armour and sickly green face.

Laughter filled the emptiness, the same laughter he had heard as he had been toyed with beside the stables.

"So, you have gathered all the Keys and brought them here for me. How very kind of you!" Ganondorf laughed again. Link could not comprehend what was happening. "Yes, I thought you might be helping the girl to stop me."

The world seemed to be taking form again. A great blue expanse seemed to stretch into infinity, but it was dotted with brightly shining stars.

"I knew she suspected me. So she enlisted your aid, then? Well, I'll be sure to thank her once I catch her. I will catch her, you know, and then I will kill her." Link wanted to be sick. Ganondorf was here, he could not stop him, and he could not protect Zelda.

"She gave you everything I needed, did all the work for me," continued Ganondorf. "You know the sweetest irony? Even if I had gathered all the Keys, I could never pass the final test. It has been the greatest obstacle in my quest: how to draw the Master Sword when I knew full well it would reject me? But then along you came, and did it all for me!" Ganondorf laughed again, and now if was a sickening sound that filled all of Link's mind, all of his soul.

Desperately, Link tried to lift the Master Sword, wanting to attack the gerudo, but it was too heavy. His small body was too weak to raise it. Ganondorf continued to laugh.

Aware dimly of his surroundings, he realised now that they were not stars in this strange expanse; some were close by, and they were strangely shaped platforms and pedestals, hanging weightless in the empty air.

Beneath his feet seemed to be water, but it was not wet. It ran and cascaded over the side of a wide platform. There were colours and steps that he could not make sense of. There was a man, but he could not see him clearly. This new world seemed to be falling out of focus. He heard a voice he did not recognise, the man's? There was another voice, a hated sound, Ganondorf. Link could not makes sense of their words.

The two were arguing, shouting at each other. Ganondorf was laughing again. The man rowed with him but seemed unable to stop Ganondorf. There was anger in his voice but only amusement and triumph in Ganondorf's. The noise made little sense, it buzzed in Link's ears. He fell to his knees and looked up. There was a golden light above him, and he could see something.

Suddenly it snapped into focus, the only clear thing in a world of confusion. He saw three golden triangles, hovering above him. In his hand he still held the hilt of the Master Sword as he stared up at the golden Triforce, and knew he had failed. Ganondorf had won.

He tried to stagger to his feet, wanting to use the sword against his enemy, no matter how futile it seemed. He could not, though; all his limbs were heavy, he could not move. He slipped and fell, sprawled on the strange floor. Despair flooded him. Link saw the Triforce gleaming above him, and then fell into darkness.