Chapter 4: The Temple of Time
"Ah, good morning," Rauru greeted as Link emerged from the shrine. "How are you feeling?"
"Entirely back to normal," Link answered with a grin, stretching lightly. The shrine had done wonders on his body, his strange dream aside – he felt fully rested and rejuvenated, as though he could take on a force of lynels single-handedly. His limbs moved smoothly and easily, without a single trace of the agony from the previous day. "I think this will work."
"I'm glad to hear it," Rauru said, smiling. "You'll need to sleep anyway, so I'm hoping it won't be too inconvenient to find time to spend in the shrines. And as I said yesterday, there are shrines throughout Hyrule. Look for the seed-shaped rocks, and I'll activate the beacons as well – the spiraling green light above them."
"Thank you," Link said. He felt great after the night in the shrine; it was so much easier to feel hopeful – about his situation with the corruption, about fixing whatever had happened to Hyrule, about Zelda…
He turned towards the Temple of Time at the thought, more than ready to see if he could gain entry now, but Rauru stopped him, clearing his throat. "One more thing, before you return to the door," he said, gesturing to a Zonai construct at his side, similar in appearance to the one Link had retrieved the Purah Pad from. In its claws it grasped a skewer heavily laden with chunks of meat and mushrooms. Link's eyes widened as his stomach growled insistently, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything but a few apples the day before.
"Thanks!" he exclaimed, taking the skewer as it was offered.
"Always start your day with breakfast," the construct said, lightly patting his cheek before wandering away.
"We originally created the constructs to assist in our endeavors," Rauru explained with a warm smile, watching as it departed. "All of us were fond of them. It has been some time since they have had a purpose, however."
Link nodded absently, tearing into his meat skewer and gazing up at the sky. The sunlight flashed off of a great shape high above, and he frowned, squinting, trying to study it closer.
A dragon, he realized with a thrill of excitement. He studied its head, eagerly trying to determine which of the three it was – certainly not Farosh or Dinraal; it didn't have the right horns. Naydra, perhaps? But… it wasn't blue. A… a new dragon? he thought in awe. Its head wasn't shaped like the others, either, he noted. It was more tapered, more graceful. Staring at it he felt a strange feeling, almost like a magnetic pull of some sort, take root in his chest.
"I see you've noticed the Light Dragon," Rauru said, a note of sadness in his voice.
"The Light Dragon? That's what it's called?" Link asked, tearing his gaze away from the magnificent creature. "I've seen the other dragons of Hyrule, but this one's new."
"Not 'new,' just hidden," Rauru corrected. "The Light Dragon has been watching over the Temple of Time for millennia – a guardian, of sorts. Until recently, all of these structures in the sky have been hidden away from Hyrule, and the Light Dragon with them."
Link nodded, looking back at the majestic being dancing through the sky in the distance. He recalled seeing the other dragons conjure whirling portals in the sky, through which they soared and then disappeared. Perhaps those portals led them here, to the sky islands. Such beautiful creatures… and yet, he thought, the beauty and grace of the Light Dragon put them all to shame.
Has Zelda seen it yet? It would be hard for her to miss, since she's in the Temple of Time.
His heart leapt with anticipation and no small amount of worry, and he quickly finished off his skewer and started heading back towards the grand structure. I'm coming, he vowed silently, Rauru trailing behind him.
His pulse raced as he placed his right hand once more against the seal of light. This time, as with the others he had encountered, it flashed brightly and then burst apart into swiftly-scattering strands of magic. With a deep grinding sound the doors pulled apart from each other, revealing the building's first chamber – a large room with a high ceiling, a set of large, ornate copper and green gears turning near the back, and an altar in the center. Upon the altar, at once drawing Link's eye, was a massive golden stone shaped vaguely like a teardrop or a sort of spiral, emanating a soft yellow glow. It was the same shape, he realized, as the stone that Zelda had picked up from Rauru's hand in the depths beneath Hyrule Castle. Although it's certainly not the same size.
"Zelda?" Link called hopefully, looking away from the stone and investigating the corners of the room. There was no response, but he continued his search, finding a pool of water behind the altar with stairs leading down into it. He could see another chamber beyond the gears, and although it didn't seem to have a direct path leading up to it, the gears were spinning in the right direction for him to climb up them. He winced slightly at the thought. But climbing things in a sacred temple… probably isn't the best course of action in general.
"Zelda?" he called out again, his voice echoing hollowly through the chamber. The empty ache he'd felt upon awakening yesterday was returning, spreading slowly from his stomach up to his heart.
She… she's not… here.
He pushed the thought away. She could be in that other room, past the gears. I just have to find a way –
"Try… try touching the stone," Rauru suggested, his brow furrowed as he studied the room, absently stroking his beard. "Perhaps that was her purpose in leading you here."
Link nodded, anxious to try something. He approached the altar, taking a moment to examine the curious stone. It was as smooth as polished glass, with a strange character engraved across its surface. Cautiously he reached out and touched two fingers to the stone, flinching in surprise as a high, clear ringing sound reverberated from the stone, and a flash of light engulfed him.
When he could see again, blinking spots from his eyes, he found himself in an entirely different place. The ground was formed of soft, smooth pebbles, some light and others dark, forming spiraling circular designs. There was heavy mist in every direction, thick clouds of green-hued light.
His heart skipped a beat. Before him was Zelda, oddly enough hovering at least a foot above the ground, her features smooth and eyes closed as if in sleep and her hands clasped in front of her chest. She wasn't wearing her usual, practical traveling clothes; instead, a white robe over a green dress, a Zonai chest and headpiece, leather sandals, and a necklace that bore a stone nearly identical to the one he'd touched to get to this strange place.
Link looked at her in concern. "Zelda?" he whispered, taking a step forward. "Are you alright? What… what's going on? Can you hear me?"
She didn't respond, and his pulse spiked in alarm. He rushed closer –
And at last she moved, stretching her hand downwards, reaching out to him with her right hand. Her face remained blank, peaceful, eyes closed in slumber.
Link glanced at her hand uncertainly. "Zelda, you're… you're frightening me," he murmured, looking desperately into her motionless face. He could hear the memory of her voice in his head – "Please, trust me."
Swallowing thickly, he reached out and took her outstretched hand, inhaling softly at the feel of her skin against the overly-sensitive flesh of his new right hand. Her touch felt exactly as the Shrine of Light did – comforting, soothing, clearing away the corruption in his blood. He could feel her pulse, see her chest rising with breath; whatever it was that had happened to her, she was undeniably alive.
"Zelda, I –" He stopped when the stone at her throat began to glow a bright, pure gold, a light that soon enveloped her entire body; it gathered at her shoulder and then passed through her arm into their joined hands. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed, looking at her in shock. "What – what did you give me?"
Her hand slipped free from his and fell slowly to her side. She seemed outwardly unchanged, but his right arm continued to glow with the golden light she had given him, and he grit his teeth as he felt it seeping through his very bloodstream, reversing some of the damage wrought upon him by the corruption. Then the light gathered up on the back of his hand, and he watched with wide eyes as a symbol appeared on the green and copper band on his middle finger, identical to the symbol on Zelda's stone.
He looked up at Zelda once more, only to feel as if the ground had disappeared beneath him as she vanished, fading away to nothing before his eyes. He reached out in horror but caught only empty air – she was gone.
The mist and the light and the pebbles on the floor all vanished, replaced at once by the Temple of Time's main chamber. The stone was gone now, too – gone just like Zelda. Link shook his head slowly, bewildered and hurt. He swallowed thickly, struggling to keep a clear head.
She's – she's alive. That remains the case. And she was here – she was acting weird, but she was undeniably here. I… I'll just have to find her again.
He turned to Rauru, fighting to manage rising frustration. "Did you know that was going to happen?"
Rauru hummed thoughtfully next to him, his eyes narrowed and a deep look of concern on his face. "What you just saw," he murmured. "…It's a mystery, even to me. Perhaps it was a sort of echo – one that reflects her sheer will."
Link felt his stomach drop down to his toes. "An – an echo? You never believed she was in here, did you?" he accused, unable to keep the bite from his voice. "You knew she wasn't here – not really. That – whatever I saw – that couldn't have been her! It was – it was cold, empty…"
An echo. Just like Rauru just said. He felt ice gather in his gut.
Rauru winced – an acknowledgement. "I knew that she was here at the point in time at which she handed over the Purah Pad to be passed on to you," he said gravely. "I did not believe that she was still here."
"And yet you let me think she was. You let me believe she was here." Link glared at the man, the sting of hurt and betrayal fierce in his heart. "If she's not here, then where? Where is she?"
Rauru's expression was impossible to read. He remained silent a moment too long. "When the time is right, all will be made clear to you." His voice softened. "She loves you just as much as you love her, Link. I promise you that she is alive, unharmed, and safe. As I asked of you before, trust her. Let this knowledge be enough for you for now."
Link's jaw tightened, his heart squeezed nearly to suffocation by some unseen invisible force. "It's not enough," he said, his voice a pained whisper. "It could never be enough." Because something is very clearly wrong with her. She's not unharmed, and she's not safe. Whatever that was that I saw wasn't Zelda. It had none of her spirit. Something is wrong.
Rauru sighed quietly. "There's still the inner chamber," he said, gesturing to the gears. "Perhaps there are answers there."
Link shot him a bitter look. "You don't truly believe that."
"We're in unknown waters now, Link," Rauru said wearily. "Please trust me when I say I have no idea what to expect from here onward. Much of what I had believed as fact has been upended in these past minutes."
Link shook his head, bewildered by the Zonai's strange comments. He walked around the side of the room to one of the gears and stepped onto it, letting it carry him onward and entering the room beyond.
He looked around, finding a narrow hall ending in a set of doors even larger than the first, with a massive dragon ring engraved on its surface. There were two marks like handprints at the base. Link eyed the stone doors uneasily. "Through the door, I'm guessing?" he muttered. "There doesn't seem to be anything in here."
"Through the door," Rauru confirmed. "It uses vitality as a key. This will be a good test of the shrines' effectiveness in purging the corruption."
Link nodded, rolling his shoulders back in preparation. The two handprints lit up as he lined up his own hands with them, and with a grunt he began to push, heaving against the doors with all his might, every muscle in his body straining – a task that, yesterday, would have been impossible. Green tendrils of light snaked through the stone from the handprints, illuminating the dragon ring, and then he felt something give way. The massive doors slid forward with a sound like thunder, revealing a straight, narrow path forward, dropping away into the sky on both sides.
"Good," Rauru nodded approvingly. "The shrines undeniably work as mitigation, then. When you feel the corruption's effects again, seek them out." He laid a hand on Link's shoulder, deep regret clear in his gaze. "I apologize that nothing more can be done. But… perhaps that is to be expected; you were almost beyond saving."
Link bit back a sigh, glancing at his arm and dreading the return of that unbearable pain. "Zelda's power helped, too," he murmured. "Perhaps between that and the shrines, it'll be enough."
"I certainly hope so," Rauru smiled. "I'm afraid I won't be able to follow you further, Link. But though our time together has been brief, I am so happy that we finally met. You are… exactly as Zelda said."
A gentle breeze drifted across the open path, and Link's heart clenched with frustration at all of the mysteries surrounding the spirit. What did Zelda say about me? How long ago did she leave you? Did she tell you where she was going? "You… won't tell me anything else about her?" he pressed again, his voice dull, already expecting the answer.
Rauru's gaze drifted to the end of the path, and a sort of altar beyond a stone archway. "I've done everything I can for her," he said, his tone melancholy, almost mournful. "This one last thing I can do for her sake – keeping her silence until the time is right."
Link nodded slowly, begrudgingly accepting the Zonai spirit's words. "Thank you, then," he said. "I don't know what all you've done for her, but… you saved me after… after that corpse attacked us. Thank you for that."
The Zonai's gaze was soft. "You're a good man," he murmured. "It shows even through the difficult circumstances of our meeting. Goddesses be with you, Link – it is up to you to continue the fight." As the light breeze grew in strength his transparent form drifted away into thousands of green sparks, carried off by the wind until he was no more, and Link felt once more entirely alone.
He exhaled softly, running a hand absently through his hair. He felt momentarily lost, adrift – he had followed Zelda to the Temple of Time, and now… she was gone again, and so was Rauru, and there weren't any constructs out here either. He squinted through the archway Rauru had been gazing past, left without any other lead.
Golden light shimmered through the arch. It was enough.
Link set out towards it, feeling a strange mixture of dread and hope as he approached. As much as he desperately wanted answers, about Zelda in particular, he felt a growing sense of certainty that such answers would hold no comfort in him.
She's alive, he repeated Rauru's assurance to himself. She's alive, unharmed, safe. There's just… something else going on. But I'll help her figure it out – I'll help her through it. I won't fail her again. His stomach twinged with guilt and pain.
Above the altar was a glowing orb of light – not another stone, not a spirit, not a ghost – just an orb of light. Of all the bizarre things I've been seeing over the past couple of days, he thought, wearily rubbing a hand over his face.
As if triggered by the motion the crest on his middle finger began to glow, and the larger orb of light pulsed as if reacting to it.
"Master," a familiar voice whispered in his mind, a voice he had heard only a few times in his life. A voice now painfully weak and exhausted. Link drew the Master Sword from his side, looking at the blackened, twisted remnants of its once-magnificent blade with a fresh surge of biting shame.
"Master… place me in the light. It is necessary for me to grow stronger before I return to your side."
"Grow stronger?" Link echoed. He remembered the Deku Tree's words – The sword will continue to gain strength if bathed in sacred power. "So this is some sort of sacred power?"
"Very," the spirit of the blade assured him.
Link drew in a deep breath, his heart tight. So much that I'm losing these past couple days… and really, it's all my fault. It all stemmed back to his own weakness, his own inability to stand against that wicked corpse.
"Master, do not place undue blame upon yourself," the sacred spirit told him, something almost like gentleness in her tone. "I feel no small measure of disappointment in myself – that I was not enough for the task at hand. But we will remedy this. Place me in this light."
Link swallowed. "And… you'll return?" he verified, his voice small.
"I will," the Master Sword's spirit promised. "We shall fight together once more, Master. And we will be unstoppable."
Link closed his eyes, letting out a heavy breath. "Very well," he murmured. "Until we meet again."
He held the blade up to the golden orb of magic and felt something take hold of it in his stead. He let go, and the sword and light vanished without a trace. Link grit his teeth, taking a step back, away from the altar. "Goodbye," he said quietly.
Wind drifted lazily across the altar and the circle of stone it perched upon, bathed now in the shadow of the Temple of Time. Sun and sky and sea of clouds, in every direction. Remnants of a lost, ancient civilization hung throughout the vast expanse, some miraculously preserved, so perfect that they could have been vacated a day ago – others crumbling, overtaken by amber lichen and vines and trees. And Link, the only living, sentient being throughout it all.
He sank slowly to his knees, resting his head in a hand. Quiet and peaceful it was, but he had never felt so isolated – not even awakening on the Great Plateau had filled him with such a sense of solitude.
Perhaps under other circumstances, I would find peace in a place like this. Now, after this baffling chase across the Great Sky Island, following Zelda's map only to find myself here, without her, without the Master Sword… there is no peace for me here. Just… regret, and confusion, and loneliness.
His eyes itched and he blinked several times to clear them, turning his gaze to the infinite blue around him. "Alright, Zelda," he whispered, holding his hand to his heart. "I've trusted you this far – I'll keep going. Give me a direction, and I'll go."
The soft rushing of wind against stone was his response. He scoffed inwardly at himself, bitter. What was I thinking? She's not here. That much has been made adamantly clear. I accomplish nothing by talking as if somehow she can hear me. Stupid!
Link closed his eyes for a moment, wavering under the weight of loneliness and pain in his heart.
There was a sudden deep sound like thunder from below, and a slight tremor went through the altar's platform. Link quickly pushed to his feet, looking around warily – Surely there can't be earthquakes up here! – and another sound split the skies. A great, deep-throated cry, a roar, from some colossal creature.
Link rushed to the edge of the platform, his heart surging in his chest as he saw the Light Dragon streaking upwards from below the clouds, and in its wake the great white sea parted, billowing clouds rolling back on themselves, clearing a path to the ground below. Link felt a chill, gazing off the edge and recognizing the black silhouette of Hyrule Castle far below and looking at the red and black plumes encircling it. He shivered. The castle itself is in the air, he thought, his pulse racing. The upside-down pyramid-thing that the corpse raised upwards – was that Hyrule Castle itself?
"Link…"
The voice he had been so desperate to hear – Zelda's voice. He sucked in a sharp gasp, looking wildly around the platform, but it was still just as depressingly empty as it had been since he relinquished the Master Sword. She was speaking in his mind, then, just as she had when he first awakened from the Shrine of Resurrection. His limbs felt suddenly weak, with a wave of exceeding relief and crushing disappointment.
"Link," she said again, her voice clear and firm, determined, nothing like the emptiness he'd felt from whatever he'd encountered in the Temple of Time. "You must find me."
Link released a shaking breath. "How?" he asked desperately. "Where are you? Zelda?"
The skies were silent once more. She didn't respond. Link pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, his heart racing, struggling to calm himself down, to ease the storm of desperation, grief, and guilt waging war within himself. She spoke to me the way she did when I woke up on the Great Plateau, he thought, trying to reason his way through it. So it must be something similar – she's stuck somewhere; she can't actually come to me. But – but it supports what Rauru said; she's alive, and unharmed, and… well, I guess she's probably not safe. His gut tightened with worry, and he forced himself to breathe deeply.
I'm no use to her in a panic, he told himself firmly. I must keep a level head. She's alive – she told me to find her. It… looks like I'll be on my own for that one.
The Light Dragon roared again. He looked up, watching it glide elegantly overhead, seemingly towards Hyrule Castle. Some of the tightness in his chest loosened.
Well… maybe I'm not on my own, after all, he thought, gazing up at the creature. It seemed to clear a path for me. I've never heard of the dragons being particularly… conscious… but maybe this one's different.
He turned his gaze to the surface far, far below. Indeed, the path cleared in the great dragon's wake seemed to lead to Hyrule Castle itself. Link nodded slowly, studying it through narrowed eyes. That place just keeps getting worse, doesn't it, he thought with a scowl. But I first lost Zelda in the tunnels below Hyrule Castle. Going back to where we started, trying to retrace my steps… that seems like it should work.
He stepped closer to the edge, feeling butterflies of anxiety and paralyzing terror grip his limbs. The question is, how to get down.
He couldn't even make out individual trees or buildings from this great a height. There seemed to be a lake – three lakes – directly below the platform, but surely he wouldn't actually be able to survive such a fall, would he?
He swallowed thickly, leaning over the edge and examining the distance. I… I guess… the first time I jumped off and landed in water, I ended up being fine, he considered. This… still seems like much farther to fall. There's no way that simply landing in water will be enough to save me from splattering on impact!
He leaned back, fighting sudden dizziness from looking out over the edge. Maybe I could look back over the island, see if I could make myself a paraglider… but I don't know how to make a paraglider; I only know how to use one…
The sudden deep ringing of a gong or a bell, from somewhere deep within the Temple of Time, startled him out of his thoughts with a jump. His feet slipped – a sudden sickening sensation of nothing at all beneath him as his arms and legs pinwheeled violently as he fought to catch himself on something, anything, managing only to scrape his left arm painfully against the stone and then he was falling yet again, his stomach doing backflips as adrenaline born of terror zapped his blood.
Panicked, Link fought with the winds around him, struggling to arrange himself into the spread-eagled skydiving position he'd discovered earlier, feeling as though the wind was trying to tear his arms and legs off as he struggled. He managed to level out his fall, and by then he was still far, far above the surface of the lakes; forcing his head up to look around, he realized with a jolt that he was above even the Gerudo Highlands and Mount Lanayru in the distance.
He felt a strange lifting sensation in his chest, gazing out across Hyrule spread out before him at a bird's-eye view, mountains and forests, lakes and streams and rivers reflecting the blue of the sky, from the wide plains of Hyrule Field to the snowdrifts of Hebra and the great mountains of Lanayru…
A chill passed through him. The fall was no less terrifying, but he could see now a certain appeal to it. Such a view had no equal. He wondered if this was what it felt like for the Rito, and felt an unexpected surge of jealously for their wings, their control of the sky.
The lake was coming up quickly beneath him now. Cringing in anticipation, Link pressed his legs together and angled his arms above his head. He barely had time to draw breath before he slammed into the surface of the water with enough force to jar every last one of his bones. His vision went black almost instantaneously. The cold of the water brought him back moments later, and with aching lungs and a stinging body, he struck out towards the surface of the water. He felt air on his face and gasped deeply, wincing at the ache in his lungs and chest.
He dragged himself out of the water on his hands and knees, every joint throbbing from the force of the impact. Sopping wet and shivering, he managed to crawl a few feet away from the water before going limp on his stomach on the soft sediment of the shore, breathing hard.
That… that was stupid, he thought dizzily, flopping onto his back and gazing up at the Great Sky Island now mostly obscured by distance and clouds. I need to get a paraglider if I ever go back up to one of those things.
He closed his eyes, basking in the warm sunlight on the shore as the stinging and aching across his body began slowly to fade. I'll rest here for a bit, he decided, flexing his stiff fingers. Recover from that fall. Then… I'll keep going.